England have included off-spinner Dom Bess to their squad for the second and final Test against New Zealand in Edgbaston, starting Thursday (June 10). The 23-year-old offie has been recalled to provide cover for left-arm spinner Jack Leach who is fit and looks ready to roll his arms over against the Black Caps later this week. Bess has played 14 Tests for England with 36 wickets at 33.97 runs per piece and has been an understudy to first-choice tweaker Leach for a while. He joined the England camp in Birmingham on Sunday after taking four wickets earlier in the day for Yorkshire in their win against Sussex in…
Author: Kashish Chadha
Windies will be hosting SA for the opening Test of their much-anticipated two-match series, starting Thursday at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St Lucia. Proteas have arrived for their first bilateral series on Caribbean shores since 2010, with the two games scheduled in Gros Islet part of the two team’s final series in the inaugural World Test Championship cycle. Originally included in the itinerary last year, the Test series had to be postponed and rescheduled due to hurdles posed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Neither West Indies nor South Africa could make the WTC final after securing insufficient points in the nine-team…
Former New Zealand head coach Mike Hesson reckons the upcoming World Test Championship final (June 18-22) will test the captaincy mettle of both Kane Williamson and Indian skipper Virat Kohli. In an interview with Times of India, Hesson stressed how Williamson and Kohli are polar opposite personalities, with unique styles of approaching the game. But both have one thing in common, in that they are strong leaders. “Both are very good leaders and yes, both are different in styles of captaincy. The players want to follow which is a great sign for any leader. Kane is more of a slow-burn…
No change will be made to the follow-on rule if the first day’s play is washed out completely in the India-New Zealand World Test Championship final, the ICC clarified on Sunday. Less than two weeks before the highly-anticipated encounter, the governing body confirmed that the play lost on Day 1 will have no bearing on the follow-on rule. The follow-on margin is reduced to 150 runs if a normal five-day Test is reduced to four days right at the beginning, according to clause 14.1.1 of the ICC playing conditions. Clause 14.3 pertinent to the same, states: “If no play takes place…
England and Wales Cricket Board on Monday suspended pacer Ollie Robinson from all international cricket. The ECB took its course of action, “pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation following historic tweets he posted in 2012 and 2013.” Robinson has been asked to leave the England camp and return to his county club, Sussex, and is therefore unavailable to play the second Test against New Zealand, starting Thursday. On the day of his Test debut at Lord’s last Wednesday, Robinson had to issue a public apology after his “racist and sexist” comments made on Twitter as a teenager came to light. Since those…
Having overcome a two-year ban imposed on him by the ICC, former Sri Lanka opening batsman is all set to take over the Australian side Mulgrave. Jayasuriya will be involved as Mulgrave’s coach next season after signing a one-year deal with the club to mark his return to the game. Jayasuriya was handed a backdated two-year ban for breaching the ICC anti-corruption code. The ICC announced the ban in February 2019. Jayasuriya played 110 Tests and 445 ODIs in international cricket for Sri Lanka during a career spanning over two decades. The 51-year-old will be joining his former teammates Upul Tharanga and Tilakaratne…
A dark cloud of uncertainty is hovering around Sri Lanka’s white-ball tour to the UK against England later this month, with players from the Island nation refusing to sign the tour contracts offered by Sri Lanka Cricket. Declining the tour contracts is part of the men’s team cricketers’ larger resistance to the SLC’s newly adopted annual contracts’ programme. The players don’t think there is enough transparency in how the new scheme works and it wouldn’t be giving the players their just rewards. Tour contracts have been used to pay the players for a succession of series since last October when…
Seales has made the 17-man provisional Test squad, which is expected to be reduced to a 13-member contingent on Monday, despite very little senior domestic level experience. The 19-year-old right-arm quick has played only one first-class match to go with just three List A games and six T20s. However, he is seen as one for the future, having shown all the promise through his exploits at last year’s U-19 World Cup in South Africa. Seales had begun with a spell of 4/49 in West Indies U-19’s victory over Australia and ended with 10 scalps to his name in the tournament. The provisional Test…
On Friday, Pakistan selectors rewarded the Quetta Gladiators’ right-hander for being one of the shining lights of his team in the Pakistan Super League. Azam Khan is a hard-hitting batsman, with a career T20 strike-rate above 157, whose inclusion adds more depth to Pakistan’s T20I squad as they build towards the T20 World Cup later in the year. Pakistan have also recalled Mohammad Abbas and Naseem Shah to the Test squad for the series in the Caribbean and brought back Imad Wasim and Haris Sohail for T20Is and ODIs, respectively. “We have remained consistent in our selection and kept the same core of cricketers who have been in…
Kolkata Knight Riders wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik heaped praise on the 23-year-old Rishabh Pant, hailing his value and impact on the Indian Test and limited-overs teams. Despite Pant posing a major hurdle to his own comeback in the national side, Karthik showered selfless praise on the youngster, recognising his unquestionable ability and promise across all forms of the game in an interview with Times of India. “He (Rishabh Pant) lends flexibility to the team and the management has the opportunity to play the extra batsman or the bowler as per requirement. And what is most important is the way he instils…