LONDON (AP) — As his India teammates closed in on dismissing England in the third test at Lord's on Friday, Rishabh Pant gave himself one last personal fitness test.
When England was nine men down, Pant left the dressing room with bat in hand and walked the boundary for an impromptu net session.
He just wanted to be sure the left index finger he damaged while wicketkeeping on Thursday could handle his eccentric batting style.
The finger seemingly did.
He walked in as arranged at No. 5 in the order and was still there at stumps after scoring 19 off 33 balls.
But though Pant was in visible pain after some shots, England didn't really test him. He mainly faced tired medium-pacer Chris Woakes and spinner Shoaib Bashir, off whom he hit his three boundaries. He faced only one delivery from the faster Brydon Carse and got a leg bye.
The real test for Pant's finger and tolerance for pain will surely come on Saturday when India resumes on 145-3, trailing England by 242 runs, and he will have to face 90 mph (145 kph) zingers from Jofra Archer and Carse.
Pant was hurt after lunch on Thursday and never returned to keep for India. England wasn't dismissed until after lunch on Friday but Pant's replacement behind the stumps, Dhruv Jurel, shone by taking three catches.
Pant, India’s vice captain, made back-to-back centuries in the first test and a 65 in the second test.
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
India's Rishabh Pant, left, congratulates India's KL Rahul as he celebrates after scoring fifty runs during the third cricket test match between England and India at Lord's cricket ground in London, Friday, July 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Pelham)
India's Rishabh Pant celebrates after scoring fifty runs day four of the second cricket test match between England and India at Edgbaston in Birmingham, England, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Israel’s air force struck areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday and early Tuesday, including in the country's third-largest city.
A strike around 1 a.m. Tuesday leveled a three-story commercial building in the southern coastal city of Sidon, a few days before Lebanon’s army commander is scheduled to brief the government on its mission of disarming militant group Hezbollah in areas along the border with Israel.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in a statement Tuesday condemned the attacks as counter to both international efforts to deescalate hostilities and Lebanon’s efforts to extend the government's authority into areas long dominated by Hezbollah and to disarm militants.
An Associated Press photographer at the scene in Sidon said the area was in a commercial district containing workshops and mechanic shops and the building was uninhabited.
At least one person was transported by ambulance and rescue teams were searching the site for others, but no deaths have been reported.
Israel's military said Tuesday they targeted weapons storage sites and infrastructure belonging to the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas. They acknowledged the sites were located in civilian areas but blamed the groups for operating there.
The strikes were the latest in near-daily Israeli military action since a ceasefire signed more than a year ago that included a Lebanese pledge to disarm militant groups, which Israel says has not been fulfilled.
They took place nearly two hours after Israel’s military Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted warnings on X that the military would strike targets in two villages in the eastern Bekaa Valley and two others in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said a home struck in the village of Manara in the Bekaa Valley belonged to Sharhabil al-Sayed, a Hamas military commander who was killed in an Israeli drone strike in May 2024.
The areas were evacuated after Israel's warning. There were no reports of casualties in those strikes. Earlier Monday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said a drone strike on a car in the southern village of Braikeh earlier Monday wounded two people. The Israeli military said the strike targeted two Hezbollah members.
The Lebanese army last year began the disarmament process of Palestinian groups while the government has said that by the end of 2025 all the areas close to the border with Israel — known as the south Litani area — will be clear of Hezbollah’s armed presence.
The Lebanese government is scheduled to discuss Hezbollah’s disarmament during a meeting Thursday that will be attended by army commander Gen. Rudolph Haikal.
Monday’s airstrikes were in villages north of the Litani river and far from the border with Israel.
The disarmament of Hezbollah and other Palestinian groups by the Lebanese government came after a 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah in which much of the political and military leadership of the Iran-backed group was killed.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel launched a widespread bombardment of Lebanon in September 2024 that severely weakened Hezbollah, followed by a ground invasion.
The war ended in November 2024 with a ceasefire brokered by the U.S.
Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes since then, mainly targeting Hezbollah members but also killing at least 127 civilians, according to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
People check a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike at a commercial district, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
People check a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike at a commercial district in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
People check the site where an Israeli strike destroyed a building at a commercial district in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
People look through the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike at a commercial district in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Lebanese fire fighter extinguish a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, early Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Rescue workers search for possible victims in a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, early Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Lebanese Red Cross volunteers search for possible victims in a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, early Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
