MUMBAI, India (AP) — Shreyas Iyer was provisionally named in India’s squad on Saturday for the home one-day international series against New Zealand starting Jan. 11.
India will host the Black Caps in a white-ball engagement — three ODIs and five T20s — in the build-up to the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Iyer returns to the international fold after sustaining a spleen injury during an ODI against Australia in Sydney last October.
His selection is subject to fitness clearance from BCCI’s medical team and he will return as India’s vice-captain for the three-match series.
Skipper Shubman Gill also returns, after he missed the ODI series against South Africa in December. He had a neck spasm in the test series earlier, and subsequently played in the T20s against the Proteas.
Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tilak Verma missed out. Gaikwad had scored a maiden ODI hundred against South Africa in Visakhapatnam.
Rishabh Pant is retained as second keeper-batter behind Lokesh Rahul, who had stood in as captain against the Proteas.
Star batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had both participated in the domestic List A tournament — Vijay Hazare Trophy — and return to the international stage for the ODIs.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya is fit, but not sufficiently enough to bowl 10 overs in an ODI. Thus, he has been rested further ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup (in India and Sri Lanka) starting Feb. 7. Nitish Kumar Reddy is included in the squad.
Pacer Mohammed Siraj returns to lead the bowling lineup with Jasprit Bumrah rested again. Siraj had missed the South Africa series because of workload management.
The three ODIs will be played in Vadodara (Jan. 11), Rajkot (Jan. 14) and Indore (Jan. 18), with the five-match T20 series starting Jan. 21.
Squad: Shubman Gill (captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal.
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
FILE - Captain of Punjab Kings Shreyas Iyer addresses a news conference on the eve of the final match of Indian Premier League at Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the United States would not take a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country, a turnaround after President Donald Trump announced a day earlier that the U.S. would be running Venezuela following its ouster of leader Nicolás Maduro.
Rubio's statements on TV talk shows seemed designed to temper concerns about whether the assertive American action to achieve regime change might again produce a prolonged foreign intervention or failed attempt at nation-building. They stood in contrast to Trump’s broad but vague claims that the U.S. would at least temporarily “run” the oil-rich nation, comments that suggested some sort of governing structure under which Caracas would be controlled by Washington.
Rubio offered a more nuanced take, saying the U.S. would continue to enforce an oil quarantine that was already in place on sanctioned tankers before Maduro was removed from power early Saturday and use that leverage as a means to press policy changes in Venezuela.
“And so that’s the sort of control the president is pointing to when he says that," Rubio said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” "We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes, not just in the way the oil industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the drug trafficking.”
The blockade on sanctioned oil tankers — some of which have been seized by the U.S. — “remains in place, and that’s a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela,” he added.
Even before the operation that nabbed Maduro, experts were already questioning the legality of aspects of the administration's pressure campaign on Venezuela, including the deadly bombing of boats accused of trafficking drugs that some scholars said stretched the boundaries of international law.
Trump's vow to “run” Venezuela, repeated more than half a dozen times at a news conference in Florida on Saturday, sparked concerns among some Democrats. It also drew unease from parts of his own Republican coalition, including an “America First” base that is opposed to foreign interventions, and also from observers who recalled past nation-building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rubio dismissed such criticism, saying that Trump’s intent had been misunderstood by a “foreign policy establishment” that was fixated on the Middle East.
“The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan,” Rubio said. "This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere.”
Rubio also suggested that the U.S. would give Maduro’s subordinates who are now in charge time to govern, saying, “We’re going to judge everything by what they do, and we’re going to see what they do.” And though he did not rule out a U.S. military presence in Venezuela, Rubio said the current U.S. “force posture” was capable of stopping drug boats and sanctioned tankers.
A day earlier, Trump told reporters, “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” He later pointed to his national security team with him, including Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and said it would be done for a period of time by “the people that are standing right behind me. We’re gonna be running it we’re gonna be bringing it back."
The White House declined to comment beyond what Trump said Saturday.
Maduro landed late Saturday afternoon at a small airport in New York City's northern suburbs following the middle-of-the-night operation that extracted him and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home in a military base in the capital city of Caracas — an act that Maduro’s government called “imperialist.” The couple faces U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
The dramatic seizure of the Maduros capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on Venezuela’s autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Legal experts raised questions about the lawfulness of the operation, which was done without congressional approval.
Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, demanded that the U.S. free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader as her nation’s high court named her interim president.
After arriving at the airport, Maduro was flown by helicopter to Manhattan, where a convoy of law enforcement vehicles, including an armored car, was waiting to whisk him to a nearby U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office. A video posted on social media by a White House account showed Maduro, smiling, as he was escorted through that office by two DEA agents grasping his arms.
He is due to make his first appearance Monday in Manhattan's federal court.
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges, and the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife that painted his administration as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by a drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as the country’s leader.
The Trump administration spent months building up American forces in the region and carrying out attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean for allegedly ferrying drugs. Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels — the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. campaign began in September.
Venezuela’s capital remained unusually quiet Sunday with few vehicles moving around and convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses closed. A road typically filled with runners, cyclists and other fitness enthusiasts on Sundays only had a handful of people working out the day after Maduro was deposed.
The presidential palace was guarded by armed civilians and members of the military. At a nearby plaza, only a street sweeper and a soldier stood, and across the street, a church remained close for a second day in a row.
Caracas resident David Leal arrived to the lot where he parks vehicles for a living only to quickly realize that he would likely not see any clients for a second day.
“People are still shaken,” said Leal, 77.
Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela. Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela; Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price, Seung Min Kim and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington; Farnoush Amiri in New York; Larry Neumeister in South Amboy, New Jersey, and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
Protestors hold a banner stating "Trump Must Go Now" as they gather outside the UN Plaza during a demonstration against the U.S. bombing of Venezuela and seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in San Francisco on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Government supporters burn a U.S. flag in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
National Guard armored vehicles block an avenue leading to Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Destroyed containers lay at La Guaira port after explosions were heard in Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Smoke rises from Fort Tiuna, the main military garrison in Caracas, Venezuela, after multiple explosions were heard and aircraft swept through the area, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro embrace in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
