Author: Kashish Chadha

Australia piled on the misery for England and asserted their dominance on Day 4 of the second Ashes Test in Adelaide, inching closer to another victory that would help them gain a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. The hosts stretched their lead to a mammoth 468 in the penultimate afternoon before building inroads into the England batting unit, with four wickets, including the opposition’s best batter Joe Root, sent back to the pavilion by the close of play. England, who were dismissed for 236 on Day 3 in response to Australia’s 473/9 in the first-innings, lost their opener Haseeb…

Cheteshwar Pujara believes India’s fast bowling strength will continue to be the point of difference and deliver the country’s maiden Test series win in South Africa this winter. The veteran No.3 batter is taking confidence from Indian quicks’ performances in Australia and England earlier this year and said this is their “best opportunity” to win a Test series in South Africa. India have been on seven previous Test tours to South Africa but have never managed to clinch a series win. Their best result in the country being the 1-1 draw against a strong South African side back in 2010-11.…

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has been appointed team mentor by the Lucknow-based franchise for the next year’s edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Gambhir’s appointment on Saturday (December 18) made him the second big-name signing by the Lucknow side in their support staff after roping in Andy Flower as the head coach. Gambhir’s cricketing credentials aren’t up for doubt or debate. The left-hand batter played 58 Tests, 147 ODIs and 37 T20Is for India. He was part of India’s No.1 ranked Test side back in 2009-11 and was one of the heroes of the 2007 T20 World Cup…

South African cricket board, in cohesion with the BCCI, has announced a revised set of Covid-19 protocols and bio-bubble norms for India’s three-Test and three-ODI tour of the rainbow nation amid the Omicron threat. As per the revised health regulations of CSA, ESPNcricinfo reported, “immediate contacts” of individuals testing Covid-19 positive will “not need to isolate” and those testing positive will not need to leave the bubble created for both the teams and can quarantine in their hotel room as long they are “clinically stable”. With the Indian contingent reaching South Africa on December 17, CSA, in “coordination with the BCCI”, has announced these new bubble norms…

The Lucknow-based franchise set to kick-off its journey from the next year’s edition of the Indian Premier League has made its first major signing. The franchise has appointed Zimbabwe batting great Andy Flower as their head coach for the IPL 2022, to be held in April-May in an expanded 10-team format with a team based in Ahmedabad also joining the league. Flower’s high-profile appointment is the first big name roped in by the Lucknow franchise in their camp for the 2022 campaign after buying the team for a whopping INR 7,090 crores from the BCCI earlier this year. Flower has been brought on board…

Instead of December 2021, the three-match ODI series between Pakistan and West Indies will take place in early June 2022 by the two countries’ respective cricket boards following a Covid-19 outbreak in the tourists’ camp. This was a major bone of contention and a big trigger behind the mutual call taken by the Pakistan and West Indies boards on December 16. The Windies were severely affected by multiple coronavirus positive cases. On the very first day they arrived in Karachi, three of their players and one support staff member tested positive. The tour still went ahead and we had the…

Pakistan managed to continue their domination over West Indies in the T20I series, ending the three-match contest with an impressive 3-0 whitewash in Karachi on December 16. The hosts came out triumphant despite being set a gigantic target of 208 to chase in the second half. Pakistan failed to come up with their best with the ball but had enough gas in the tank with the bat to take the game back to the opposition and eventually win. Once again, wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan was the stand-out batter for Pakistan, blazing his willow for an aggressive 87 off 45 balls. He shared another century plus stand with…

David Warner was surprised by England’s bowling plans for Day 1 of the second Test of the Ashes 2021-22. Having toiled hard to break the resilient Warner-Labuschagne stand, England asked their premier allrounder Ben Stokes to bowl a barrage of bouncers to the two batters with the pink ball under lights. It took Warner, who made his second successive score of 90 odd in the series, by surprise as he wondered why England pulled their lengths back so much when everyone, including the Australians, expected them to pitch the pink Kookaburra up and look to extract movement. Presumably, reverting to the bouncer…

The BCCI Sourav Ganguly president has called for time for his apex council to “deal with” the issue that has led to a massive controversy in Indian cricket. He also confirmed that the board will not be doing any follow press conference or leave any statement in this regard. “No statement, no press conference. We will deal with it. Leave it to BCCI,” Ganguly told reporters after Kohli’s comments that he had no “prior communication” with Ganguly or BCCI regarding his ODI captaincy removal led to a massive uproar and raised a question mark on the level of transparency with which the former India captain’s…

Former Indian skipper Virat Kohli is reportedly not going to skip the three-match series of the forthcoming tour of South Africa scheduled to be held in mid-January. Speculations have been rife on the matter since some reports emerged from December 13 that the 33-year-old could give the ODI series a miss as to spend some time with his family near the first birthday of his daughter. Cricbuzz dispelled those rumours with confirmation from multiple sources within the BCCI, including some office-bearers. The report states there has been no formal request from Kohli’s end to be given a break for the ODIs…