Kohli, Hardik, Ishant return to India's 18-member squad for first two England TestsBumrah, Ashwin cleared to play, Natarajan rested, while Axar earns call-up

Kohli, Hardik, Ishant return to India's 18-member squad for first two England Tests

Bumrah, Ashwin cleared to play, Natarajan rested, while Axar earns call-up

Hardki The squad was finalised by the newly assembled Indian selection committee headed by former India fast bowler Chetan Sharma. Attending the meeting virtually was India captain Virat Kohli, who had returned home in December from the Australia tour to attend the birth of his first child. Also present at the meeting, which took place hours after India's epic triumph in the Gabba Test, were the four other selectors: Sunil Joshi, Abey Kuruvilla, Debashish Mohanty and Harvinder Singh, who is in Brisbane.

Apart from Kohli, also making a return was Ishant Sharma.He was forced to miss the Test series in Australia as the selectors wanted him to regain complete match fitness despite him recovering completely by mid-November from the injury he picked up during the IPL. Ishant, who is three matches away from becoming only the second India fast bowler after Kapil Dev to play in 100 Tests, proved his match fitness while turning up for Delhi during the group stage of ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Along with Ishant, the Indian fast bowling attack will comprise Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur. Both Siraj and Thakur were part of India's historic series win against Australia.has.has been included in India's 18-man squad for the first two Tests of the home series against England, starting next month. ESPNcricinfo understands the national selectors, who met today, have also handed a call-up to left-arm spinner Axar Patel to strengthen the spin department.

Main squad:

Openers: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal

Middle-order: Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul (subject to fitness after first Test)

Fast bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur

Spinners: R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel

Standbyes: KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar, Priyank Panchal

Net bowlers: Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, K Gowtham, Saurabh Kumar

CBI books Hyderabad-based firm for Rs.4,736.57 crore fraud

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against the city-based Coastal Projects Limited, including against its chairman and others, for allegedly causing a loss of Rs.4736.57 crore to a consortium of banks.

The case was booked based on a complaint received from the State Bank of India on behalf of other member banks – IDBI, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India and Exim Bank, according to a CBI press release.

It was alleged that the accused in connivance with unknown public servants and others defrauded the consortium of banks. The account became Non-Performing Asset (NPA) on January 25, 2017 with retrospective effect from October 28, 2013 and reported as fraud on February, 20,2020.

It was also alleged that the borrower company based at Hyderabad during the period 2013-18 had indulged in fabrication of books of accounts, manipulations of t financials to show unrealizable invoked bank guarantee amounts as realizable investments, falsified details of promoters’ contribution, converted receivables from related parties to investments to siphon off banks funds, cheating the SBI and other consortium member banks.

Searches were conducted at the residential and official premises of the accused at Hyderabad and Vijayawada leading to recovery of several incriminating documents and other material evidence TToday