Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra faced mounting calls to resign on Thursday after a leaked phone call she had with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen provoked widespread anger and a key coalition partner to quit.The coalition government led by Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai party is on the brink of collapsing and throwing the kingdom into a fresh round of political instability as it seeks to boost its spluttering economy and avoid US President Donald Trump’s swingeing trade tariffs.The conservative Bhumjaithai party, Pheu Thai’s biggest partner, pulled out on Wednesday saying Paetongtarn’s conduct in the leaked call had wounded the country and the army’s dignity.Losing Bhumjaithai’s 69 MPs leaves Paetongtarn with barely enough votes to scrape a majority in parliament, and a snap election looks a clear possibility — barely two years after the last one in May 2023.Two coalition parties, the United Thai Nation and Democrat Party, will hold urgent meetings to discuss the situation later on Thursday.Losing either would likely mean the end of Paetongtarn’s government and either an election or a bid by other parties to stitch together a new coalition.- Resignation calls -The main opposition People’s Party, which won most seats in 2023 but was blocked by conservative senators from forming a government, called on Paetongtarn to call an election.”What happened yesterday was a leadership crisis that destroyed people’s trust,” People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said in a statement.”People want a government that can solve problems and only way to do that is to have a legitimate government.”The Palang Pracharath party, which led the government up to 2023 and is headed by General Prawit Wongsuwan — who supported a 2014 coup against Paetongtarn’s aunt Yingluck — called for the premier to resign.A statement from the party said the leaked recording showed Paetongtarn was weak and inexperienced, and incapable of managing the country’s security.Hundreds of anti-government protesters, some of them veterans of the royalist, anti-Thaksin “Yellow Shirt” movement of the late 2000s, demonstrated outside Government House demanding Paetongtarn quit.In the leaked phone call, Paetongtarn is heard discussing an ongoing border dispute with Hun Sen — who stepped down as Cambodian prime minister in 2023 after four decades but still wields considerable influence.She addresses the veteran leader as “uncle” and refers to the Thai army commander in the country’s northeast as her opponent, a remark that sparked fierce criticism on social media, particularly on Pheu Thai page and Royal Thai Army page.Thailand’s armed forces have a long played a powerful role in the kingdom’s politics, and politicians are usually careful not to antagonise them.The kingdom has had a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and the current crisis has inevitably triggered rumours that another may be in the offing.If she is ousted she would be the third member of her family, after her aunt Yingluck and father Thaksin Shinawatra, to be kicked out of office by the army.- Awkward coalition -Paetongtarn, 38, came to power in August 2024 at the head of an uneasy coalition between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, pro-military parties whose members have spent much of the last 20 years battling against her father.Growing tensions within the coalition erupted into open warfare in the past week as Pheu Thai tried to take the interior minister job away from Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul.The loss of Bhumjaithai leaves Pheu Thai’s coalition with just a handful more votes than the 248 needed for a majority.The battle between the conservative pro-royal establishment and Thaksin’s political movement has dominated Thai politics for more than 20 years.Former Manchester City owner Thaksin, 75, still enjoys huge support from the rural base whose lives he transformed with populist policies in the early 2000s.But he is despised by Thailand’s powerful elites, who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and socially destabilising.Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2023 as Pheu Thai took power after 15 years in self-exile overseas.The current Pheu Thai-led government has already lost one prime minister, former businessman Srettha Thavisin, who was kicked out by a court order last year, bringing Paetongtarn to office.

Shubman Gill will be in the spotlight as a new-look India, without star batsmen Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, bid to end their 18-year wait for a Test series win in England.Gill succeeded Rohit as captain after the latter announced his retirement from Test cricket last month.Just days later, Kohli said he was bowing out of red-ball internationals as well.Gill also has the additional responsibility of filling Kohli’s shoes at number four in the batting order.India vice-captain Rishabh Pant on Wednesday revealed that was where his new skipper would bat in the first of a five-Test series against England starting at Headingley on Friday.The 25-year-old Gill has a modest Test batting average of 35 in 32 matches, a figure that drops to 29 in away games and declines even further to under 15 in three matches in England.India’s number four position has been dominated during the past three decades by all-time batting great Sachin Tendulkar and Kohli, who in that specific position scored 21,056 runs between them in 278 Tests.Gill’s first challenge will be ensuring the demands of captaincy don’t detract from his batting in England, where India have won just three Test series — in 1971, 1986 and 2007.Thus far Gill has made all the right noises, saying last month: “I believe in leading by example — not just by performance, but, I think, off the field by discipline and hard work.”He will have the ebullient Pant to lean on after the wicketkeeper-batsman’s return from a life-threatening car crash in 2022, while opener Yashavsi Jaiswal is one of the game’s rising stars.But it is not just in batting where India — who have had limited warm-up time in England — must cope without stalwart performers.Jasprit Bumrah is arguably the best all-format bowler in world cricket at present but, following a back injury lay-off, the quick may only play in three of the five Tests given the tight schedule.Veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has retired from Test cricket, while experienced Mohammed Shami, not fully fit following ankle surgery last year, has been omitted.- ‘They have enough ammunition’ -If there are concerns about India’s ability to take the 20 wickets they need to win a match, those doubts apply to England as well.Beaten 4-1 in India last year, Ben Stokes’ men are tipped to turn the tables on home soil in a series that launches the new cycle of the World Test Championship following South Africa’s dramatic defeat of Australia in last week’s final at Lord’s.England, however, are without the retired duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, their two most successful Test bowlers of all time with a combined 1,308 wickets between them.”It feels so good when both of them are not there,” said Pant, adding: “But at the same time, they have enough ammunition in the England bowling line-up.”We don’t want to take anyone lightly because our team is also young and still looking to develop themselves.”England’s desire to field an attack including both Jofra Archer and Mark Wood has been hampered by repeated injuries to the fast bowlers.Both Archer and Wood will be missing at Headingley, where Durham paceman Brydon Carse is set to make his home debut in an attack where Chris Woakes, who missed most of the start of the season with an ankle injury, is the senior seamer.”There’s no hiding away from the fact that, over a number of years, England have had Broad and Anderson as the main two bowlers, so it is slightly more inexperienced,” said Carse.The 29-year-old added: “I think it’s a good chance for a couple of younger players, with slightly less experience, to stamp down some authority throughout the series.”Broad, however, told The Times: “Looking at England, with all the injuries they’ve got — where are they getting 20 wickets?”