Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma was born 30 April 1987 ,is an Indian international cricketer. He is right-handed opening batsman and occasional right-arm off break bowler, who plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket. He is the captain of Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. Having started international career at the age of 20, Sharma quickly came to be pegged by many analysts as a permanent fixture in the Indian cricket team in the next decade.

 In 2013, he started playing as an opening batsman for Indian ODI team, and performed well consistently. He is currently the second highest scorer in ODI scoring 209 in a recently concluded finals of a Bi-lateral series against Australia in India.

Rohit Sharma was born to Gurunath Sharma and Purnima Sharma in a Telugu-speaking family in Nagpur. His family originates from Andhra Pradesh. Rohit Sharma completed his primary education at Our Lady of Vailankanni High School Borivali, Mumbai. He was later enrolled in the Swami Vivekanand International School Borivali on a scholarship, after his talent was noticed by the school's cricket coach Dinesh Lad at a summer camp. He excelled in the Giles and Harris Shield school cricket tournaments, after which he was selected for the Mumbai Under-20

He was later chosen for India's Under-17 and Under-19 teams, and made his mark at the 2006 U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, finishing among the top run- takers in the tournament.Sharma was first selected for the limited-overs matches on India's tour to Ireland in 2007. He made his One Day International debut against Ireland at Belfast,although he did not bat in the match.

Sharma scored his maiden ODI half-century against Pakistan, at Jaipur on 18 November 2007 and was selected as part of India's 16-man squad for the CB series in Australia. Here, he scored 235 runs at an average of 33.57 with 2 fifties, including his score of 66 in the 1st final at Sydney partnering Sachin Tendulkar for most of India's successful run chase. Sharma eventually made his mark at the international stage on 20 September 2007, when he led India to victory by scoring an unbeaten 50 (which came off 40 deliveries) against South Africa in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. The win reserved India a berth in the semifinals of the tournament. At one stage India were 61–4, but his partnership of 85 runs with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni helped Indida to post a total of 153–5. He was eventually declared Man of the Match. Sharma then proceeded to score 30 runs off 16 balls in the final against Pakistan.

However, Sharma's ODI performances suffered a downturn after this and his middle-order position was taken over by Suresh Raina, and eventually, Virat Kohli took his position as the reserve batsman.In December 2009, Sharma scored a triple century in the Ranji Trophy and was recalled to the ODI team for the tri-nations tournament in Bangladesh as Tendulkar was being rested. However, Kohli and Raina were selected ahead of him in the playing eleven, and he did not play in any of India's five matches. In the meantime, he missed the Ranji Trophy final.He scored his maiden ODI century (114) against Zimbabwe on 28 May 2010. He followed it up with another century in the next match of the tri-series against Sri Lanka on 30 May 2010 by scoring 101 not out. 

He was dropped from the Indian squad for 2011 World Cup.He was selected for the West Indies tour of 2011 after the IPL in a squad where senior batsmen such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and skipper MS Dhoni were rested, and Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir were out to injuries. The side was captained by Suresh Raina with Harbhajan Singh as his deputy. He contributed 26 of 23 balls (2 sixes) in the only T20I at Queen's Park Oval and strung a 71-run partnership with Subramaniam Badrinath leading to an Indian victory.

In the ODI series that followed, he carried on with his form. The first ODI was also played at Queen's Park Oval. Rohit was elected man of the match for his 68 not out of 75 balls (3 fours, 1 six). In the third ODI played at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua; Sharma scored a matching-winning 86 of 91 balls. Rohit along with Harbhajan Singh got India out of trouble to win the match after they were reduced to 92 for 6. He was widely appraised for his calm and matured performance. Sharma won his first Man of the Series award for excellent batting performance throughout the ODI series. His good form continued as he bagged another Man of the series award against West Indies again but this time on Indian soil.

In 2013, he was selected as new opening batsman for India along with the Shikhar Dhawan for the Champions Trophy. The successful starts given by this opening pair helped India win the Champions Trophy and Tri-nation series in the West Indies. His good form continued in the home series against Australia when he scored an 141 not out in Nagpur and 209 runs off 158 balls, in Bangalore. With this innings, he became the third player to score a double hundred in an ODI and with 16 sixes, he broke the world record for most sixes hit in an ODI innings.

Jwala Gutta

Jwala Gutta

Jwala Gutta

Jwala Gutta is a left-handed Indian badminton player who has won the National Badminton Championships thirteen times till 2010. She is a doubles badminton player who has partnered with Shruti Kurien and later Ashwini Ponnappa. She was the wife of Chetan Anand, an Arjuna Awardee ; however, the two divorced in 2011.

Jwala was born on 7 September 1983 in  Wardha,  Maharashtra and brought up in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, to a Telugu Indian father and a Chinese mother. Jwala's father, Kranti Gutta, hailed from a family of freedom fighters and Leftists.Her mother, Yelan Gutta, was born in Tianjin, and is a grand daughter of a Gandhian named Tseng. Yelan first came to India in 1977 with her grandfather to visit the Sevagram ashram, where she translated Gandhi's autobiography and other works into Chinese language.

In the doubles event though, her performance has been better as entered the Semi Final round of her second International Doubles tournament, the India Asia Satellite tournament 2002. She also reached the Semi Final round of the Indian Asian Satellite tournament 2004, and finished Runner Up at the LE VOLANT D’OR Tournament, known as TOULOUSE Open in the year 2004. Further, she reached the Final Rounds of the Scottish International tournament 2004 and 40th Portuguese Badminton Championship 2004. In the year 2006 she won the Sri Lanka International Satellite tournament while in the year 2007 she won the Cyprus Badminton International tournament. The same year, she also won at the Pakistan International Challenge tournament and the Indian International Challenge tournament. Apart from these achievements, Jwala won the Nepal International Series tournament 2008 and Yonex Dutch Open Grand Prix 2008 in the Women’s Doubles category. She won a gold medal in the women's doubles at the Commonwealth Games 2010 making history of winning the first gold medal for India in the women's doubles. 

Later on this year they made again history by being the first Indian women's doubles pair to win a bronze medal in a badminton world championship. She played women's doubles as well as mixed doubles ath the 2012 London Olympics. Jwala pairing with Ashwini Ponappa lost there their opening women's double match against the Japanese duo of Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa on 28 July 2012.

In the Mixed Doubles category too, Jwala has shown her excellence as she has grabbed the titles in the Jakarta Satellite tournament and Welsh International tournament in the year 2005, Sri Lanka International Satellite tournament, Cyprus Badminton International tournament and Indian International Challenge tournament in the year 2007, and Nepal International Series tournament, Bitburger Open Grand Prix tournament and KLRC Bulgaria Open Grand Prix tournament in the year 2008. But the latest achievement in December 2009 where she and her mixed doubles partner Valiyaveetil Diju reached the World Super Series masters final in Malaysia, where they went down to world championship bronze medalists Christinna Pedersen and Joaquim Nielsen 21-14, 21-18. Pairing V. Diju, Jwala lost her opening match 16-21, 12-21 in just 25 minutes at the Wembley Arena in London Olympics.

During her Badminton career, Jwala Gutta began dating fellow badminton player Chetan Anand, who was the 1999 Junior National Badminton Champion and 2003, 2007, 2008, and 2010 Senior National Badminton Champion and has been honored with an Arjuna Award. The couple married on 17 July 2005 and got divorced on 29 June 2011.