India established early dominance in the weightlifting competition by grabbing two gold medals on the first day of competitions in the 12th South Asian Games here today.

Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, silver medalist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, opened the medal account for India in weightlifting in women’s 48kg weight category.

She lifted a total of 169kg (79kg in snatch + 90kg in clean and jerk). All her efforts in snatch, clean and jerk and total are South Asian Games records as women’s weightlifting has been included for the first time in the SAG.

Dinusha Hansani Bomiriyaga Gomas of Sri Lanka won the silver with a total lift of 145kg (65kg+80kg), while Molla Shabira of Bangladesh bagged the bronze medal with an effort of 143kg (63kg+80kg).

Gururaja bagged the second gold for India by winning the men’s 56kg event with a total lift of 241kg (104kg + 137kg) on the opening day of the competitions today.

Chathuranga Lakmal of Sri Lanka won the silver with a total lift of 239kg (111kg + 128kg) while Abdullah Ghafoor of Pakistan bagged the bronze with an effort of 227kg (102kg +125kg).

India had won three gold and a silver in men’s weightlifting in the last edition in Dhaka in 2010.
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India today became the number one side in the ICC T20 rankings after whitewashing Australia in the three-match series here today.

India, who are also the number one in Tests, overtook the West Indies to reach the top sport in the shortest format. India have 120 rating points, two more than the Caribbean unit. Sri Lanka also have 118 rating points like the West Indies but they are third in the charts.

India have hit top form in the T20 format ahead of the World T20 to be held at home in March-April. They had famously won the inaugural World T20 in South Africa in 2007.

England (117 rating points) are fourth in the rankings ahead of New Zealand (116), South Africa (115), Pakistan (113) and Australia (110). Afghanistan (80) and Scotland (66) round up the top-10.

Outplayed in the ODIs, a faltering India will look to get the balance right as they eye redemption in a three-match Twenty20 series against Australia starting here tomorrow which also kicks off their build-up for the World T20 Championships in March-April.

The Indian team was comprehensively beaten in the ODIs, losing the series 1-4 and the T20Is would be an opportunity for the side to pick some positivity from the so far disappointing tour.

Both teams will also begin their run-in for the ICC tournament, particularly the Men in Blue who only have T20Is lined up before the big tournament begins.

The Indian team doesn’t really play too many T20I matches. Since the addition of the format to the international schedule in 2006, they have only played 57 games, with 28 of them across five World T20 events in 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014.

As such, since December 2006, when the Men in Blue first played a T20I against South Africa, they have only featured in 29 bilateral matches. And their record outside the World T20 isn’t particularly impressive, with 15 losses and 14 wins.

These records won’t really play heavily on the Indian team management as they prepare for this T20I series, but the conditions here definitely will.

The just-concluded Big Bash League has been a high scoring encounter, much like the ODI series in the first leg of this trip, and the pitches are expected to be flat and have ample bounce for the batsmen to make merry.

The difference in conditions from the World T20 in India won’t really allow either side to judge their spin options, but they will be busy evaluating different permutations and combinations.

For India, it will be about getting their team balance right, in particular their strength, batting. Ajinkya Rahane has been ruled out of this first T20I, as he hasn’t sufficiently recovered from the split-webbing injury suffered in Canberra.

Even in his absence though, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be keen to get the batting line-up optimised from the word go.

The Indian skipper had lined up Rahane to open in the third T20I against South Africa that was washed out in Kolkata in October.
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But back then, Shikhar Dhawan’s form was also under a cloud. The former’s absence and the latter’s runs in the ODI series mean that he will continue to open with Rohit Sharma in this series.

Virat Kohli obviously picks himself at number three, and thereafter, Yuvraj Singh is primed to make his international return for the first time since the 2014 World T20 final in Bangladesh.

Sydney’s centurion Manish Pandey isn’t part of the T20I squad here, and as such Yuvraj, Suresh Raina and Dhoni are expected to form up nos. 4, 5 and 6, perhaps alternating as per the match situation.

The Indian skipper had hinted as much in the post-match press conference at the SCG, and the return of the two middle order batsmen is more than a certainty. Even so, picking the optimal bowling combination will be a challenge.

There are five slots available to Dhoni and he has to pick from R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Umesh Yadav, Rishi Dhawan, Gurkeerat Mann, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya.

Fitting in a couple all-rounders into this mix will also be on the skipper’s mind, and it will be interesting to see how he goes about doing so.

Trying out youngsters is the flavour of the month in the Indian dressing room currently, and there will be a temptation to throw the hard-hitting, in-form Pandya into the mix. But all indications are that he might have to wait for his chance.

Dhoni was mighty impressed with Bumrah’s debut, in particular his death bowling in Sydney, and will look to give him another go, given that Umesh Yadav has been bleeding runs at every possible opportunity.

Rishi Dhawan was held back as Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s replacement and it speaks volumes about how the team management looks at his bowling performances in the ODI series.

Nehra had a fair go in the net sessions on Monday morning and if he is the other certainty among the returning senior players, then this combination of medium pace leaves two spots open for the spinners.

Two days after one of the missing youths from Malwani was traced by the Anti Terrorism Squad, one more youth returned home on his own on Thursday. The ATS is now quizzing him about his whereabouts and movements during the time that he was missing.

According to ATS officials, the youth, Noor Mohammad, who had been missing since December 15, reached his Malwani residence on Thursday afternoon.

His family then informed the police about his return, who in turn informed the ATS.

“We are making inquiries with Mohammad about where he was and what he did during the time that he was missing. So far, there has not been any indication of him having established contact with any terrorist outfit, but it is still too early to reach a conclusion,” said an ATS officer.

The ATS had picked up the first missing young man, Wajid Sheikh, from Pune on Tuesday and had allowed him to go after questoning him in detail.

Meanwhile, officials confirmed that one of the two remaining missing men, Ayaz Sultan, had left the country last month.

Sultan had gone missing in October, and on November 1, he boarded a flight to Kabul after which he has been untraceable.

“We do not have any information about him having reached Syria but there has been no other information about his whereabouts either,” said an officer.