Joe Root gone!!!! Shardul Thakur bowls the ball of the series and castles the England captain. Now I feel that it's just a matter of time before India takes the three remaining wickets. And they will go up by 2-1 in this series. It will be huge relief for Kohli, who was facing criticism from all quarters for including Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, as well as for his decision to keep Ravichandran Ashwin out of the playing XI. All that is going to vanish after this win, and Kohli's position as the captain is guaranteed for another 2-3 years at least.

This is an argument that I have heard a million times ever since I made my first investment with cryptocurrency in 2012. Yes. Bitcoin is more volatile when compared to other currencies. But you need to look at the bigger picture. For the fiat currencies, the purchasing power has been going down with each passing year. And the COVID pandemic and all the stimulus measures have made things worse. The M1 monetary supply for most of the fiat currencies have grown by 100% to 200% during the last 18 months. Compared to that, Bitcoin looks far better.

Elderly people just want status quo in their life. So they are not in favor of new innovations, unless they are backed up by the government. In case of pension funds and all, the government gives the guarantee. But in case of cryptocurrency that is not the case. If the exchange rates go down and the user needs to sell the coins, then there is no option other than booking losses. For the pensioners, this is not something they are used to. Most of their funds are in the form of bank deposits and treasury notes, which provide regular monthly payments.

I would prefer either Ron DeSantis (governor of Florida) or Mike Pence (former vice-president) instead of Haley. DeSantis is more palatable to the suburban GOP supporters and at the same time, Haley has to deal with a lot of baggage from her personal life. Now comes the catch. Haley had stated previously that she would support Trump's nomination as the GOP candidate for the 2024 POTUS elections. The same is the case with Pence as well. So these scenarios will arise only if Trump rules out his candidature for 2024.

Germany was in a spot of bother, after their defeat to North Macedonia a few months back. Even a draw would have made sure that they remain at the no.2 position in the group. It is a very tough group, with teams such as Romania, North Macedonia and Iceland also fancying their chances of qualifying to the world cup. Nothing is guaranteed for now. Germany has 12 points from 5 matches, and Armenia (despite the recent defeat) is close behind with 10 points from their five. And for Germany, the next two matches are against quality opposition (Iceland and Romania).

World Cup matches are going to take place in the UAE and Oman, and the pitches are supposed to be either flat or spin-friendly (although up to a certain limit). It would be good, if they prepare surfaces that are more conductive to batting for the remaining matches. This time Bangladesh  have to play in the qualifier stage (among the full member nations, only Bangladesh and Sri Lanka need to do that). So they need to play matches against Oman, Papua New Guinea and Scotland. Those matches will provide them with good practise.

Joe Root is yet to bat, and he may play a crucial role later in the innings. But for now, it is going to be Dawid Malan and Haseeb Hameed. Burns and Hameed surprised everyone with their 100 run stand. The absence of a full time spinner is being felt by India, as Jadeja have been bowling without any venom. If the second wicket stand adds another 70-80 runs, then the match will suddenly become interesting. But for now, England is on the backfoot and they trail by 256 runs (with 74 overs remaining).

For England, it is an impossible target. The Indian bowlers are in splendid form, and apart from Joe Root none of the England batsmen have been scoring consistently. 16 overs remain for today and England still tails by 317 runs. Can they finish today's play without the loss of any wickets? I would say that the chances are extremely low, although Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed seems to be enjoying their stay at the crease. One thing that could work to England's advantage is that India is without a full-time spinner.

They still lost the second match, and trail 1-2 so far in the series. I would say they have made a comeback if they manage to win the 4th match. The second match was close, but eventually New Zealand went down by 4 runs (and that was despite the half century from Tom Latham). And in today's match also, the Kiwi batsmen struggled against spin and made only 128 in total from their allotted 20 overs. For Bangladesh it was an achievable target. NZ won only because the spinners performed exceptionally.

I am a strong supporter of the move from El Salvador. But I am just saying that it takes some time to educate the ordinary people about using Bitcoin. Everyone is having a smartphone nowadays, but using it safely is  going to be a challenge. I am talking about the middle-aged and elderly people. Most of them use smartphones just to make calls. They may not be aware of various complexities associated with transacting Bitcoins using mobile wallets. Anyway, only two days remain. Let's see how it goes.

Every crisis will present itself with new opportunities. For example, we have seen a huge growth in eCommerce business over the last 2 years. And not all the businesses have closed down as a result of COVID. Many of them have adapted to the situation and are now in a good position compared to the pre-pandemic period. The problem is in informal sector. For example, we have been paying regular salary to our housemaid, although it was not possible for her to work during the lockdown period. But many of our neighbors refused to do so, saying that they will not pay the salary if the domestic workers are absent.

Sinovac is my least preferred vaccine, because almost all the countries that have used this vaccine have witnessed spikes in the infection levels (Chile, Indonesia, Cambodia, Turkey, Morocco.etc). Even one Chinese scientist came out in the open and claimed that they need to increase the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine. And then the price is also very unaffordable. One dose of Sinovac costs around $40, while Pfizer comes at almost half of that cost. AstraZeneca costs just $3 per dose and Sputnik V is priced at $10. Why someone should pay so much extra for a vaccine, when it's efficacy is very low?

I am not surprised by these figures. The Russian Ruble has lost 60% of its value in the last 7 years and a lot of the investors don't want to pour their money in to mainstream assets. Those who are able to do so are moving their assets to offshore havens such as Cyprus and London. For those who doesn't have the means to do so, Bitcoin represents an attractive option. The central bank has maintained a tough stance on Bitcoin for sometime. But recently the Duma introduced a law, which made life a little bit easier for the cryptocurrency users.

I have a feeling that the implementation was done in a haste. El Salvador could have waited for 5-6 months so that all the necessary infrastructure is in place. But they are going ahead with the plans just a few weeks after the initial announcement. All that said, I don't expect any major hiccups in the implementation. There will be some minor issues once in a while, but majority of the population will get used to it in the initial 1-2 months. And once people get to know about the benefits, they will start supporting Bitcoin.

LOL.. that is the point. I know countries where computers were banned in the 90s, because the government thought that it will result in joblessness. And I do share your concern about speculation. But is it possible for Bitcoin to drop by 80% from the current levels? Prices are getting stabilized after a sharp correction and now everyone is waiting for the next bull run. Even if a correction occurs, I don't expect it to be as bad as it was in 2014/15 and 2018/19. Everyone will be happy when the prices are going up. But Bukele will be in trouble when the prices go down (even by 20% or 30%).

LOL.. 7th wicket gone. Nurul Hasan nabbed by Cole McConchie. One thing I noticed is that all the 7 wickets to fall so far in the Bangladesh innings have been taken by spinners (Patel - 4, McConchie -2 and Ravindra -1). The required run rate has now climbed to 11 runs per over. However, this was a great series for Bangladesh. They managed to win the first two matches by a good margin. Now they need just one more for the series win. New Zealand players don't need to get disheartened. Despite their inexperience, they performed well.

The selectors don't want to get blame later. So they are giving him (Rahane) maximum number of chances. I won't be surprised if he is included in the playing XI for the final test match as well. That is going to be his final chance. If he performs poorly, then his test career is over. But I agree that this is not fair. There are so many talented youngsters out there playing domestic cricket, who deserves a chance. Rahane can go back to playing Ranji Trophy for a couple of years and can announce his retirement in case his form doesn't improve.

South Africa has some of the best batsmen in top order (Janneman Malan, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Heinrich Klaasen.etc). Their lower order is very weak though. In order to strengthen their middle order, they need to kick out useless guys such as Andile Phehlukwayo and promote Wiaan Mulder and George Linde higher up the order. The same can't be said about Sri Lanka. Apart from a few individual performances every now and then, the Lankan batsmen doesn't seems to be in good form.

He is not being blamed for "pulling out". He is getting blamed because he pulled out without any concrete plan. He was sleeping until the last minute and when Taliban conquered Kabul, hundreds of thousands of people who had to be evacuated (including US citizens) were stuck there. Once Kabul came under their control, the Taliban conducted house-to-house raids and executed many of these people. And the US armed forces left all of their valuable equipment such as military helicopters and humvees at the hands of the terrorists. 

France may be having the best football players, but it is of no use if there is no bonding between the players. Everyone wants to score on their own, and don't want to pass the ball. Sometimes it work, and sometimes it doesn't. Spain and Italy on the other hand are teams with perfect coordination between the players. The same can be said about Belgium as well. Lukaku may be the best player in Europe, but it is of no use when he fails to pass the ball. Even in the Euro Cup, he wasted some good chances because he wouldn't pass the ball.