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Hanuma Vihari had an eventful IPL debut. He dismissed Chris Gayle, held the Sunrisers Hyderabad chase together and was in the middle as the match was tied

Nagraj Gollapudi08-Apr-2013The plan Sunrisers Hyderabad team-mates Hanuma Vihari and Ashish Reddy discussed before Vinay Kumar started the final over of their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore was to play every ball and not panic. Sunrisers needed seven to register their second win in as many matches. “If we did not waste a single ball then seven runs were possible in the final over. But Ashish got out on the first ball,” Vihari said a day after Sunrisers won a thriller in the Super Over.When Dale Steyn walked in, the message was clear. “We discussed hitting bat on ball and running hard between the wickets and looking to take the match to the last ball,” Vihari said. He watched Steyn take two runs from the second delivery of the over and then play and miss the third. “I decided I’d finish the match if and when I get the strike,” Vihari said. He finally took strike with the Sunrisers needing four runs off the final two balls, which was reduced to two off the final delivery after he dug out a “good yorker” to get a double.For the final ball, Vihari stood deep in the crease. As soon as Vinay delivered the ball, Steyn charged blindly forward. But Vinay second-guessed his opponent with a smart slower delivery. “I expected a yorker, but he bowled a slower ball. I tried to hit it hard for two runs but could not connect.” Vihari ran a bye and could not believe it was a tie.It was a bittersweet moment for Vihari and Sunrisers. Having restricted Royal Challengers to a modest 130, the hosts faltered frequently in the chase. And when the Lankan pair of Kumar Sangakkara and Thisara Perera departed in quick succession, the onus was on Vihari. Despite his age – 19 – Vihari decided to play the guiding hand to his partner Reddy, an aggressive player. Their 23-run partnership for the seventh wicket snatched the momentum in Sunrisers’ favour. “A player like Ashish can strike at any given point. So I was telling him to pick the right ball and if it was not in his range to focus on taking singles and keep the dot balls count low,” Vihari says.It’s this sensible streak that prompted the team management to promote Vihari to No. 3. Sangakkara, Sunrisers’ captain, had decided to drop himself to No. 5 to counter the middle overs from the Muralis – Muttiah Muralitharan and Murali Kartik. “When early wickets fell, Tom [Moody] told me I would bat at No. 4. My plan was to take it as close as possible to the target,” Vihari said.Despite his batting prowess, Vihari’s most telling impact had come with the ball – in fact his very first ball of the match. Sangakkara had already told him that he would be bowling with the new ball against Chris Gayle since the Jamaican had got out a few times in the past to off spinners. Being the only off-break bowler in the team on Sunday, Vihari executed the plan nicely: pitching on the off he got a little bounce that surprised Gayle, who went for the cut and was caught behind.  “I have kept the picture of the Gayle wicket,” Vihari says of his best souvenir.A wristy player, Vihari is a good striker of the ball and plays shots on both sides of the wicket. His best innings to date has been against Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy this season when he scored a career-best 191 runs in a drawn match.John Manoj, Vihari’s coach at St. John’s Cricket Academy in Hyderabad, noticed that the youngster could hit the ball “very hard” when he picked him as a nine-year-old. Manoj’s best student has been VVS Laxman, who is the mentor at Sunrisers now. Manoj had helped Vihari join the St. Andrew School in Bowenpally in Secunderabad and observed a keen student in Vihari. “I observed him playing confidently against the ball on the rise against fast bowlers from a tender age,” Manoj said. Last year Laxman was impressed by Vihari’s strokeplay on wet practice pitches and enquired more about the youngster.At the beginning of the IPL, Laxman told Vihari to “express himself and play his natural game” without getting distracted at all about playing such a big tournament. The significance of those words has not been lost on Vihari.Vihari dedicated his Man-of-the-Match award to his mother, who was at the ground with his sister, and his late father, who’d died in 2005. At the time, the 11-year-old Vihari was playing in a school tournament. His mother asked him to play cricket since his father always wanted him to play cricket. “It was two days after his death but my mother asked me to go ahead and I decided to respect her word,” Vihari says.

Virat Kohli’s 183 off 148 balls led India to their highest-ever ODI run-chase, as they went past Pakistan’s 329 in Mirpur

The Report by Abhishek Purohit18-Mar-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSachin Tendulkar made an aggressive 52 to give India a brisk start•AFP

Their bowling might struggle to defend 289 against Bangladesh. Their batting might not be resilient enough to dominate in all conditions. But in the subcontinent, India are the masters of the chase. And after having knocked off 321 in 36.4 overs in Hobart barely three weeks ago, they completed their highest successful ODI chase, in Mirpur, against Pakistan, who are not exactly a weak bowling side. And leading the mammoth effort was that man Virat Kohli who scored a career-best 183. Forget the obscenities, forget the extreme emotions; with 11 hundreds, including three in his last four innings, Kohli is one of the most complete ODI batsmen in the world now.When a boundary is needed, Kohli is the man. When the singles are needed, Kohli is the man. When a gap is to be found, Kohli is the man. He kept doing all of that for 148 deliveries against Pakistan. By the time he was done, he had hit 23 boundaries and made 183. India had lost Gautam Gambhir off the second ball of the innings. They lost just one more wicket in the next 272. Kohli’s dominance was so complete, it left contrasting support performances from Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma in the shade. It certainly meant Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed’s centuries were in vain, as was their 224-run opening stand, Pakistan’s highest against India, and their second-highest ever.Not losing by a bonus point put Pakistan in the final of the Asia Cup; it kept India and Bangladesh dependent on the result of the last league game between the hosts and Sri Lanka, who have been knocked out. A win for Bangladesh will see them go through, as they lead the head-to-head against India in the tournament; any other result will see India qualify.It was Kohli who almost single-handedly kept India in the tournament with a performance so supreme it led Misbah-ul-Haq to call it one of the best ODI innings he had seen. Chasing 330 is tough. Chasing 330 against Pakistan should be as tough as it gets for an India batsman. Kohli could not bother about things such as pressure, even when Pakistan struck gold in the first over when Mohammad Hafeez trapped Gambhir in front.Pakistan were playing five bowlers but India worked around the threat of Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul initially by targeting the others. Tendulkar and Kohli outdid each other in strokemaking. Their second-wicket partnership was worth 133 in just 19.1 overs. While Gul and Ajmal were given the respect they deserved, the shorter lengths of Wahab Riaz and Aizaz Cheema were taken for runs, as was the quicker pace of Shahid Afridi.The 100th century finally done with, Tendulkar was totally unrestrained and went along at a faster clip than Kohli. India found momentum in the third over, Cheema’s first, which went for 12. Kohli began with a violent pull while Tendulkar’s back-foot punch past cover was vintage. Pakistan had just started to suffer for bowling the wrong lengths. Cheema continued to bowl short of a good length, and Tendulkar brought out another vintage shot – a sly guide over the wicketkeeper that flew away for six.Tendulkar and Kohli dealt with the spinners in their own ways when they needed the boundaries. Tendulkar carted Hafeez over midwicket with a slog sweep; Kohli whipped Afridi through the same region.Riaz’s three-over spell put Pakistan under even more pressure. Not only did he bowl short, he kept on targeting Kohli’s pads and the batsman helped himself to several fours on the on side. He ultimately disappeared for 50 in four overs. Hafeez, the lone part-timer used, went for only 42 in nine.Tendulkar, meanwhile, misread an Ajmal doosra after reaching his half-century and ended up edging it to slip, but Kohli was looking nearly unstoppable. What he needed was a sidekick and Rohit rose to the occasion. He took his time before showing his range against spin with a series of cuts, pulls and lofted drives over extra cover. Kohli and Rohit went one better than Kohli and Tendulkar had, as the third wicket realised 172 in 26.2 overs.Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed’s 224-run opening stand had put India under pressure•AFP

Kohli was in the zone. He went without a boundary for 32 balls, but still scored 25. In this period, he got to his century, which came with the now-famous emphatic celebration. In this period, Rohit kept getting the boundaries. The asking-rate still crossed eight an over after the 40th over. Kohli went after Gul in the 41st in a flurry of whip, swat, loft and clip. Sixteen runs later, the rate was below seven-and-a-half. He wasn’t done yet. Riaz was greeted with a whip off a yorker, a flick and a drive in the 42nd. Thirteen runs later, the rate was below seven.Though Kohli and Rohit could not hit the winning runs, the game as a contest between India’s batsmen and Pakistan’s bowlers had ended during their partnership.Hafeez and Jamshed had ensured the pressure would be squarely on India going into the chase, with a 224-run opening partnership. After having failed to defend 289 against Bangladesh, India were once again let down by the inability of their bowlers to either strike or contain.India had the opportunity to make first use of the Mirpur pitch, which has been harsher for bowlers in the evening, but Hafeez and Jamshed stroked boundaries at will, against a listless unit, on their way to centuries. Younis Khan, usually not one to worry attacks at the death, smashed 52 off 34 deliveries to lift Pakistan to their second-highest total against India.India’s lack of penetration was evident when MS Dhoni threw the ball to Tendulkar in the 24th over, after having already tried seven bowlers. Five of them had already gone at more than run-a-ball by then, and none, barring Ashok Dinda, had come close to troubling the Pakistan openers.Pakistan had taken control long before that, though, with Hafeez and Jamshed, a burly left-hander in the Graeme Smith mould, playing with assurance and eschewing any desperation.The previous best opening stand for Pakistan against India was 144 between Aamer Sohail and Saeed Anwar in 1996; Hafeez and Jamshed had already rustled up 150 at the halfway mark. Both soon got to their centuries, Jamshed’s being his maiden one in ODIs.The batting Powerplay consumed both batsmen, as they searched for more runs, but Younis and Umar Akmal ensured that Pakistan came nowhere near enduring the kind of middle-order collapse they had had against Bangladesh.Younis has been criticised for being slow in this format, but today he was at ease as the innings neared its close. Orthodox punches and lofts raced for boundaries through the off side. To Pakistan’s misfortune, Kohli would hit them harder in the evening, and for longer.Edited by Dustin Silgardo

The PCB held the first meeting of its general gody in over a decade, on Friday, at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Feb-2011The PCB held the first meeting of its general body in over a decade, on Friday. The meeting was held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore as per clause 17 of the PCB Constitution.The board said it was the first time the PCB general body had met since 1998, but one was held in the administration of Tauqir Zia in early 2000. A total of 73 members, made up of 18 full members, 53 associate members and two honorary members – former board chairmen Khalid Mehmood and Zia – attended the meeting.The meeting discussed the PCB’s annual report, as well as the audited accounts and budget estimates, and recommended to the governing board various measures to improve the standard of the game. Ijaz Butt, the board chairman, also talked about the need to continue developing the women’s game in Pakistan, given the achievements of the Pakistan women’s team recently. Representatives of blind and deaf cricket were also involved in the meeting.The general body is a larger, more representative body of stakeholders from around the country designed to ensure development and representation in areas such as interior Sindh and Baluchistan, where the game is not as developed as in other provinces and regions. It is supposed to meet once or twice a year and acts as the board’s parliament, where the governing board is the senate.

Ryan Sidebottom is set to fly home from the England tour of Bangladesh, after failing to recover from a thigh injury

Andrew Miller in Chittagong04-Mar-2010Ryan Sidebottom is set to fly home from the England tour of Bangladesh, after failing to recover from a thigh injury, and he could yet be joined on the plane by Stuart Broad and Graham Onions, both of whom are being sent for MRI scans on their lower back, as the England camp was hit by a wave of injuries ahead of the third ODI in Chittagong.Sidebottom produced an off-colour performance in the first ODI in Dhaka, before being replaced by the spinner James Tredwell for the second, having aggravated a thigh injury he sustained after landing on the boundary rope during the opening Twenty20 in Dubai last month. He will be replaced in the Test squad by the Yorkshire paceman, Tim Bresnan, who took the new ball in Sidebottom’s absence on Tuesday.For Sidebottom this is the latest in a long line of injuries which have hampered him since his peak in early 2008 when he was England’s leading bowler. He was first struck down with an Achilles problem later that summer against South Africa before picking up a side strain in India. He then played against West Indies, in Barbados, when he was clearly unfit before recovering to be selected for the World Twenty20 last year. On England’s recent tour in South Africa he also picked up a side strain while with the performance squad, but was recalled for the final Test in Johannesburg.Arguably, though, it is Broad’s condition that is causing the management the greatest concern, given how integral he has become to England’s teams in all three forms of the game. He could barely walk when he arrived in the team hotel after a delayed flight from Dhaka on Wednesday evening, and England’s coach Andy Flower, confirmed he had injured the facet joint in his lower back.”There has been a lot happening at the moment, Flower said. “Sidebottom has pulled a side muscle and will be going home on Saturday after the one-dayers have finished. He won’t be fit for the Test matches so he has to go home.”We also have concerns over Broad and Onions. Broad injured something in his back in the last ODI and Onions is also struggling with something in his back. Both of them are having MRI scans tomorrow and we will know more about their results tomorrow afternoon.”Although neither Broad nor Onions has yet been ruled out of the forthcoming Test series, which gets underway on March 12, England have already taken precautions by calling the Middlesex and Lions seamer, Steven Finn, into the squad for the remainder of the tour. England were already without their leading quick, James Anderson, who was rested from this tour due to his ongoing knee problem.”I am delighted to be given such a fantastic opportunity,” Finn said. “To be called up to the full England side is a real honour for me, and I am really excited to be joining up with squad over in Bangladesh.”Whether I get to play any matches over there remains to be seen, however the opportunity alone to train with the squad and impress in front of the coaching team is a fantastic enough experience for me. Whilst I am coming in as cover for the bowling unit, I intend to work as hard as I can and enjoy the experience of being around the England squad and coaching staff.”Finn caught the eye of Flower during the same net session where Ajmal Shahzad was spotted when the performance squad trained with the full team in Pretoria before Christmas. Shahzad made his debut in the second Twenty20 against Pakistan, in Dubai, taking two wickets in his first over and will contest the vacant slot for the final ODI on Friday with Liam Plunkett.

Maiden List A fifties for Joe Pocklington, Rob Lord put Notts in contention after centuries for Jake Libby, Kashif Ali

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay 07-Aug-2025Notts Outlaws conjured up an astonishing comeback to grab a share of the points in a tie with Worcestershire Rapids in a dramatic Metro Bank One-Day Cup encounter at Welbeck Cricket Club.Chasing a target of 327 from 47 overs after centuries from Jake Libby and Kashif Ali, who shared a 180-run fourth-wicket partnership, had put Worcestershire Rapids in the ascendancy, the Outlaws looked out of contention as they slipped to 145 for 7 in reply.But then Joe Pocklington (54) and Rob Lord, who hit four sixes in a brilliant 83, responded with maiden List A half-centuries, Lord putting on 71 with the former for the eighth wicket and 92 with Brett Hutton for the ninth, taking the home side within sight of an unlikely win.Lord was out with 19 needed from 20 balls, which came down to four off the final six deliveries. But Worcestershire’s Pakistan international Khurram Shahzad kept his nerve and with Hutton on strike and two required off the last ball, the Outlaws man could only scramble a bye, leaving the scores level. Ethan Brookes finished with 3 for 51.Rapids had totalled an impressive 312 for 7 before rain curtailed their innings after 47.1 overs, skipper Libby finishing on 112 not out after Kashif had made 101 after being dropped on 51, James Hayes taking a career-best four for 63 for the Outlaws.The Rapids slipped to 44 for 3 after being asked to bat first at the John Fretwell Sporting Complex at Sookholme, near Mansfield.But Kashif and Libby turned the innings on its head, the former hitting eight fours and a six, his escape on 51 coming when Haseeb Hameed, battling a swirling wind, failed to make a catch at long-on. The 27-year-old batter, registering his second List A hundred in only his 14th match, was eventually caught behind down the leg side off Daniel Sams.Libby, who began his career at Trent Bridge before moving to New Road in 2020, reached his hundred from 86 deliveries in an innings that contained nine fours and a couple of wind-assisted sixes off Sams and Lord.Hayes had been instrumental in giving Notts the start they wanted with the ball. He had Isaac Mohammed, the 17-year-old opener making his List A debut, caught behind down the leg side before holding on to a leading edge to remove Brett D’Oliveira. Hutton had Rob Jones leg before.After Kashif and Libby were parted, Lyndon James produced a fine delivery to remove the dangerous Brookes, who edged behind for just a single. Wicketkeeper Henry Cullen (27 from 20 balls) looked sharp but he and Matthew Waite were both caught at midwicket off Hayes.In reply, Outlaws lost skipper Hameed cheaply when he was bowled swinging vigorously at Waite. Ben Slater (41) and Haynes put on 45 before Slater’s mistimed pull saw him caught at midwicket.Haynes completed a 49-ball half-century but, from 121 for 2, Notts lost three wickets for eight runs in the space of six balls. Haynes cut straight to backward point, before Brookes took two in two, bowling 18-year-old Sam Seecharan and then Tom Moores, who followed his 148 in the win over Essex here on Tuesday with a first-ball duck.James survived the hat-trick ball but was caught behind by Cullen, standing up, as Brookes claimed his third wicket, by which time Sams was also back in the pavilion, holing out to wide long off, leaving the Outlaws 145 for seven.The impressive Pocklington, a 24-year-old all-rounder who joined Notts last week after playing for National Counties side Lincolnshire and took three wickets with his left-arm spin on his debut against Essex responded by making 54 from 41 balls, hitting four fours and two sixes, before finding long-on off former Notts spinner Fateh Singh.He added 71 with Lord, who completed his maiden List A fifty from 44 balls, also with two sixes as he led Hutton in a 92-run ninth-wicket stand, but Lord dragged on to Waite with 19 still needed and Hutton and Hayes couldn’t quite do enough to clinch the win.

The new system will have the TV umpire and Hawk-Eye operators in the same room, with more split screens, better frame rates and a less rigid process

Nagraj Gollapudi19-Mar-2024To increase the accuracy and speed of decision-making, IPL 2024 will have the Smart Replay System.ESPNcricinfo has learned that under the Smart Replay System, the TV umpire will receive inputs directly from two Hawk-Eye operators who will be sitting in the same room as the umpire and provide him with images captured by Hawk-Eye’s eight hi-speed cameras across the ground. The TV broadcast director, who used to be a conduit between the third umpire and the Hawk-Eye operators until now, will no longer be involved under the new system.It is understood that the Smart Replay System will allow the TV umpire to refer to more visuals than they previously had access to, including split-screen images. Take the example of a relay catch taken mid-air by the first fielder on the boundary rope. In the past, the broadcaster was unable to provide a split screen of the fielder’s feet and hands at the precise moment when the ball was caught. Under the new system, a split screen can show the umpire when the ball was caught, or released, alongside synchronised footage of the feet.Related

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Similarly, a split screen can now show, in case of an overthrow that goes for four, whether the batters had crossed or not when the fielder released the ball (think 2019 World Cup final for an example of a specific use case). Previously the TV umpire did not get such clear visuals, primarily because the broadcaster couldn’t marry the two images.There are eight Hawk-Eye cameras at any match: two on each side of the ground on the straight boundaries and two on each side square of the wicket. Until IPL 2023, Hawk-Eye cameras were mainly used for ball tracking and UltraEdge. So, outside of checks for lbws and edges, the broadcaster largely used footage from their own cameras for any on-field referral. That included referrals for stumpings, run-outs, catches and overthrows.In the case of a stumping referral, under the Smart Review System, the TV umpire can ask the Hawk-Eye operators to show him the split screen. In case there is a visible gap when the ball passed bat, he will not ask for the UltraEdge (to see if it was a caught behind) and instead directly proceed to check the side-on replay for the stumping. If the TV umpire doesn’t see a clear gap between bat and ball, only then he will refer to UltraEdge.For stumpings, the new system will show the TV umpire tri-vision – essentially footage from side-on cameras as well as from front-on in a single frame. The front-on camera angle is important because it gives an accurate picture of bails being removed. Previously the broadcaster would show the side-on angle from each side along with footage from Stump Cam. But Stump Cam records the action at a low speed of approximately 50 frames per second, as opposed to the Hawk-Eye cameras which record at approximately 300 frames per second, meaning there will now be more accurate footage for the umpires to base their decision on.The Smart Review System is also likely to provide more clarity in the case of a catch taken inches off the turf. Such referrals have in the past sparked debate over the TV umpire’s decision, with the video evidence upon which that decision was based seemingly not conclusive. Under the old system, the TV umpire would ask the TV director to provide him with the best angle available to provide clarity on whether the ball bounced before the fielder pouched it or if the fingers were under the ball. Even the zoomed-in visuals did not always provide conclusive evidence.Now, under the Smart Review System, Hawk-Eye will show a single frame straightaway with images from front-on and side-on angles. The TV umpire can then choose to zoom in from a particular angle.It is understood that the conversations between the TV umpire and the Hawk-Eye operator are likely to be aired live, allowing the viewer to understand the thought process behind decisions better.Speed of play is critical in T20 cricket, and the Smart Review System aims to hop over unnecessary steps to arrive at the right decision in the smallest amount of time. One good example is lbw reviews. The protocol so far involves the TV umpire being provided initially with Spin Vision, which comes from a camera that is positioned in front of the wickets outside the boundary on each side of the pitch. If the ball is close to the bat, the TV umpire would then ask to check UltraEdge. Once satisfied there was no bat involved, he would then proceed to check ball tracking. Under the Smart Review System, if the Hawk-Eye operator spots that the ball had pitched outside leg, he will tell the TV umpire immediately and they will then prioritise ball tracking.The ECB has previously trialled a similar referral system in the Hundred.The BCCI conducted a two-day workshop on the new system in Mumbai on Sunday and Monday for select umpires. It is learned that about 15 umpires, comprising both Indian and overseas umpires, will work with the Smart Replay System during IPL 2024 which starts on March 22.

Kumble picks Pakistan as the team with the best pace-bowling attack at the T20 World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Oct-20222:52

Open Mic: What are the realistic expectations from Arshdeep?

Anil Kumble is so impressed with Arshdeep Singh that he expects the left-arm quick to follow in the footsteps of Zaheer Khan and “do some wonderful things for India”.After having excelled in the IPL for Punjab Kings, while Kumble was the coach there, Arshdeep seamlessly transitioned into India’s T20I side, and in their T20 World Cup opener against Pakistan at the MCG on Sunday, he took 3 for 32. That included the wicket of Babar Azam with his first ball. Arshdeep’s spell helped India keep Pakistan to 159 for 8, which they chased down off the last ball.”I was really impressed with Arshdeep, how he’s come through,” Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo’s Open Mic programme. “I worked with him for three years and I could see the kind of development that he has had in the T20 format, and last year’s IPL was a classic example of how he handled the pressure.”He perhaps bowled the tough overs for the team and yeah, you don’t always look at the wickets column in the T20 game, you look at what moments the bowler comes up with. And the temperament that he’s shown, it’s wonderful. We saw that again in the India-Pakistan game. When you have 90,000 people at the MCG, it’s always challenging.”So yes, Arshdeep has certainly matured and I’d like to see him carry on. Probably what Zak [Zaheer Khan] did for India, I expect Arshdeep to go on to do some wonderful things for India.”2:48

Kumble: Arshdeep has transformed as a very mature bowler in their last three years

Jitesh Sharma, another Punjab Kings player, has the game to slot in as India’s finisher in T20Is once Dinesh Karthik is done, according to Kumble, who also worked with Jitesh when they were part of the Mumbai Indians set-up. In IPL 2022, Jitesh struck at 163.63 and, more recently in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Vidarbha, he has lifted that strike rate up to 188.60.”Jitesh is someone I rate really, really highly,” Kumble said. “He’s a wonderful cricketer. He’s very mature. He has done all the hard yards in domestic cricket. He can hit the ball, not just off the spinners but off the fast bowlers as well. He is someone who can hit off the back foot and he is someone who I think can do that finisher’s role for India. If not now, he should be looked at post this World Cup when the selectors sit down to look at the next lot of cricketers, I’m sure Jitesh’s name will already be there.”He does a finisher’s role. My take on T20 cricket is about specific roles that they play for their teams. And Jitesh, I know he started off as an opener, but he’s currently in a finisher’s role. He bats at No. 5-No. 6. And that’s the kind of thing you need to do. If you look at stats, then you’ll pick up the top two batters which are generally the openers or No. 3. They end up getting all the numbers in T20 cricket, but Jitesh, in his role has done exceptionally well.”When asked which team had the best bowling attack in the ongoing men’s T20 World Cup, Kumble picked Pakistan, who have Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah as the frontline quicks.”Pakistan certainly have the best pace-bowling attack, for sure,” Kumble said. “They lacked the allrounder that Australia have. Australia have, overall, a good attack, in terms of having options. India certainly has good spinners. If you ask me, I think Pakistan have the best fast-bowling attack.”

It is not clear what impact this will have on Sri Lanka’s ODI series against India starting Tuesday

Andrew Fidel Fernando08-Jul-2021Sri Lanka batting coach Grant Flower tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, three days after the squad returned from their tour of England. For now, it is not clear what impact this news will have on the home series against India, which is due to start on Tuesday.With Flower being the only member of the squad testing positive so far, Sri Lanka’s medical staff are hopeful the assignment against India will not be impacted, particularly as Flower is not believed to have been in especially close contact with other squad members over the last few days. Since arriving in Sri Lanka on Monday, the team and support staff have been in isolation in separate rooms, though they did travel together and had been mixing in their bubble before that. Provided Flower’s test was not a false positive, medical staff believe he likely contracted the disease in England.”We have to find out how Flower got infected, and also which variant of the virus he has been infected with,” a member of Sri Lanka’s medical staff told ESPNcricinfo. The original schedule had had the team coming out of isolation and going into into a team bubble on Friday, but those plans may be put on hold depending on the results of the next round of PCR results, conducted on Thursday evening. Further information about Flower’s own infection may also affect other members of the squad. If it turns out he has the more infectious Delta variant, for example, there may be consequences for others in the squad.Related

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This news comes in the wake of seven members of England’s squad and support staff having tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday. Those Test results forced England’s entire squad into isolation, while the board naming an entirely new squad for the series against Pakistan.The news of Flower’s positive test is the latest of a string of disruptions within the Sri Lanka team over the past two weeks. They’ve had players being suspended after breaking the bio-bubble in England, a messy end to a contracts standoff with the board, and a change of limited-overs captains that is understood to have created ill-feeling within the playing group.

Men’s T20 World Cup remains on course for now, but ICC members agree to review situation regularly

Nagraj Gollapudi and Osman Samiuddin23-Apr-2020The BCCI has suggested the World Test Championship (WTC) be postponed as the cricket world grapples with a calendar vastly disrupted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. India sits atop the WTC points table currently, in prime position to qualify for the final, but the suggestion was made by the BCCI as members agreed that the entire FTP through to 2023 would need to be collectively reviewed “with a view to rescheduling as much of the cricket that has been postponed due to COVID-19 as possible.”As expected, no big decisions were taken at the ICC convened Chief Executives’ Committee meeting via conference call, but the CEC did agree that both the T20 World Cup (scheduled to be played in Australia in October-November) and the 2021 Women’s ODI World Cup (to be played in New Zealand next February-March) for now remain on course. What has been agreed upon is that there will be regular updates, possibly once a month, to discuss the status of the T20 World Cup – an acknowledgement that the situation remains a fast-evolving one. According to one official, greater clarity on whether or not the tournament goes ahead may not come at the next call – in four weeks’ time – but could come in the one after that, in June.The importance of the T20 World Cup, in particular, is clear. Most of the boards in attendance rely heavily on revenue distributions from ICC tournaments and a disruption to that equation, as Ehsan Mani has warned, could have a massive financial impact on boards. But in a sign of how unusual the current situation is and the problems in hosting a global tournament within that, the meeting was given a presentation by Peter Harcourt, the ICC’s medical committee head, who said the pandemic was “full of significant risk” and that the decision-making would be that much more difficult as a result.Harcourt struck a note of caution. “Our next step is to create a roadmap for the resumption of international cricket which will include a criteria for decision-making and a checklist for what needs to happen.”This will consider everything from player preparation to government restrictions and advisories and bio-bubbles. The scale and complexity of getting cricket started again cannot be underestimated particularly with respect to a global event. The more teams, venues and cities involved in an event, the greater the risk which has to be assessed and managed.”And though it is drawn out over a two-year period and essentially played bilaterally, as opposed to a one-off event, a decision on the WTC will also not be easy or be made quickly. ESPNcricinfo understands the BCCI was the only board of the view that the WTC should be put off for the time being until some sense of normalcy returns.It is not clear why Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary on the call, made the suggestion, midway into a league where each team plays six series in a two-year cycle with a maximum of 120 points per series at stake. Not all teams have played the same number of series and some, like West Indies and Bangladesh, have only played one series so far.Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s general manager cricket, is understood to have noted that it would be better to wait for later in the year, once there is a better understanding of how much international cricket has been disrupted, before reviewing and rescheduling both the WTC as well as ODI Super League, which is the pathway to qualify for the 10-team 2023 men’s ODI World Cup.It could be, in fact, that the ICC wait until October, by when the fate of the T20 World Cup will be clear, before taking a final call on both the WTC and the ODI League, both of which were started by the global body to provide context to bilateral five-day and ODI cricket respectively.”There was agreement that the disrupted FTP programme would need to be collectively reviewed through to 2023 with a view to rescheduling as much of the cricket that has been postponed due to COVID-19 as possible,” the ICC said. “Discussions and decisions on this and the future of both the World Test Championship and the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League will be held at a later date when there is a greater understanding of the impact of the cricket that has been lost on the competitions.”The meeting was attended by the chief executives of the 12 Full Member countries and three Associates, as well as Manu Sawhney, the ICC CEO, Allardice and Chris Tetley, the ICC’s head of global events.

While previous Ashes squads were named well in advance, the A-team tour of England that runs alongside the World Cup is likely to offer final auditions this year

Andrew McGlashan27-Jan-2019Australia are set to leave it late before naming their Ashes squad with the A-team tour of England shaping as a trial for those vying for places. The latter half of the Sheffield Shield season, which will be played using Dukes balls, also shapes a vital part of Australia’s planning as they aim for a first away Ashes victory since 2001.Though the series is still six months away, Australia have just one more Test – next week in Canberra – before facing England from the start of August. Following the Sri Lanka series, attention will be firmly on the white-ball with the World Cup on the horizon, but such has been Australia’s problems in England over the last 18 years that they want to give players as much chance as possible to be ready.The squads for 2013 and 2015 Ashes series were named well in advance – four years ago there were joint squads announced at the end of March for the West Indies and England tours – but, despite the comprehensive victory in Brisbane against Sri Lanka, there remains uncertainty around the Test side while there is also the challenge of reintegrating Steven Smith and David Warner.If all goes to plan, the banned pair will have made their comebacks for the World Cup despite their recent injuries but the Ashes will be the first Test series they would be involved in since the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. Smith and Warner would move into red-ball mode when Australia’s World Cup campaign ends, but for a significant collection of fringe players the A-tour, which will run concurrently with the tournament, will be a chance to earn selection.”We probably won’t pick the final Ashes squad until quite late,” coach Justin Langer said. “I hope I’m not talking out of school with the other selectors, but I can’t see us picking it before the Australian A tour for example. Maybe halfway through or three quarters of the way through. It will be a really good opportunity for the guys who are picked for Australia A while the World Cup is on, to put their hand up.”Kurtis Patterson was called up just three days before the Test•Getty Images

Kurtis Patterson, who made his debut in Brisbane, and Will Pucovski, who narrowly missed out, could well feature on the A tour to gain experience in English conditions as could the likes of Marcus Harris and Marnus Labuschagne, who won’t be part of the World Cup squad. There will also be players featuring in county cricket; Cameron Bancroft (Durham), Glenn Maxwell and Joe Burns (both Lancashire) already have deals with the potential for more to look for pre-Ashes stints.However, away from the batting, which remains Australia’s obvious weakness, there are also questions to be answered over the make-up of the bowling attack with previous Ashes tours showing that it isn’t always the tallest, fastest bowlers which are best suited in England. Outside of the main three who are certain to tour, Jhye Richardson has booked his ticket while Peter Siddle has been around the Test squad all season.Other names in the frame are Chris Tremain, Dan Worrall and James Pattinson with that trio – fitness permitting – having the end-of-season Sheffield Shield season matches to impress with the Dukes ball that will be used in England, which also shapes as a chance for batsmen to shine against the brand of ball that has caused Australians so many problems.”We’ve got a really good opportunity through Australia A and the last four Shield games with the Dukes ball and a Shield final,” Langer said. “So we’ll get a pretty good indication of who is up and running. And then they’ve all got to stay fit and healthy as well. That’s another big part of our fast-bowling stocks, keeping them fit and healthy. I tend to think that if we keep looking after these Test matches [against Sri Lanka] and we keep an eye on what we do in Shield cricket in Australia, the Ashes will look after itself.”ALSO READ: Present tense but future can be perfect for Paine’s young AustraliaAnother part of the squad that will challenge the selectors will be whether to include an allrounder. Marcus Stoinis’ call-up for the second Test against Sri Lanka suggests he is now in pole position, although his role in the one-day side means he is unlikely to play any more red-ball cricket between now and the end of the World Cup.”In a perfect world you’ve got someone who can bowl medium pace,” Langer said. “Marnus can bowl some legspin. There’s people who can do it. But to be honest there aren’t too many teams around the world that have that luxury. You’ve got to be able to be picked on one of the disciplines alone and that’s a great challenge for all of the allrounders in the country.”