Jimmy Adams, CWI Director of Cricket, said the duo’s involvement in the pre-Test series camp would help the younger batsmen in the side

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Aug-2019Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan will be part of West Indies’ pre-series camp in Antigua ahead of the first Test against India.Jimmy Adams, Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) Director of Cricket, said Lara and Sarwan’s involvement would help the younger batsmen in the side.The 13-men West Indies squad for the two-match Test series includes John Campbell who has played just three Tests, and the uncapped Shamarh Brooks and offspin-allrounder Rahkeem Cornwall. Shimron Hetmyer, who made his red-ball debut in 2017, has featured in 13 Tests.”We have some good young batsmen in the team who we believe will form the future of West Indies cricket,” Adams said. “We saw some very good signs of development earlier this year in the Test matches when we played so very well to beat England and we want to see them grow and become outstanding players for the West Indies.”We have taken the step to have Brian and Ronnie [Sarwan] work with these players, who have demonstrated a will to learn and succeed. We know they still have the passion and love for West Indies cricket and are eager to assist and share their information with the present generation.”The Test series, starting on August 22 in Antigua, will mark both India and West Indies’ debuts in the World Test Championship. So far, India have been undefeated on their tour to the Caribbean, winning the T20I series 3-0 and the ODI series 2-0.

Bhuvneshwar was the only player left out from the T20I squad that recently played against West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2019Hardik Pandya is back in India’s 15-man T20I squad, that will play three matches against South Africa starting September 15. His addition, in place of fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, is the only change India have made to the squad that recently beat West Indies 3-0 away.MS Dhoni missed a second successive T20I series, with reports suggesting he was unavailable for selection, and joining him on the sidelines was Jasprit Bumrah, who was rested from the white-ball leg of the Caribbean tour.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The absence of Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah means India will face South Africa with an inexperienced fast-bowling line-up – Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar and Khaleel Ahmed have played only 11 T20Is between them. Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, the frontline white-ball spinners, have been rested too, but the spin department remains well stocked, led by left-arm-spinning allrounders Ravindra Jadeja and Krunal Pandya. Offspinner Washington Sundar and legspinner Rahul Chahar are also in the mix.Hardik was rested from the tour of the Caribbean from all three formats after a long season that included tours of Australia and New Zealand followed by the Indian Premier League and the World Cup.Hardik’s workload had been a concern for the team ever since he picked up a stress-fracture injury at the Asia Cup last year and the lower-back stiffness that forced him to miss the ODIs against Australia at home in March.Among the batsmen, Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer keep their spots along with KL Rahul. Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and the captain Virat Kohli complete the squad.

The left-arm spinner shone in a low-scoring encounter as India defended 106 in a rain-interrupted encounter in Colombo

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Sep-2019Left-arm spinner Atharva Ankolekar broke Bangladesh’s spirited late resistance to help India defend 106, taking them to a seventh Under-19 Asia Cup title with a five-run win in a rain-interrupted, nerve-wracking encounter in Colombo. Needing 29 runs to win after being reduced to 78 for 8 in 21.1 overs, Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Rakibul Hasan put up a patient 23-run stand, taking Bangladesh close to their maiden title, before Ankolekar struck twice in the 33rd over to finish with figures of 5 for 28 in eight overs.India started poorly after they elected to bat, reduced to 8 for 3 by seamers Sakib and Mrittunjoy Chowdhury within the first six overs. A 45-run stand between Dhruv Jurel and Shashwat Rawat helped rebuild the innings, before offspinner Shamim Hossain broke through, picking Rawat and next batsman Varun Lavande in the same over.Karan Lal at No. 8 then shored up India after having walked in at 61 for 6 in the 20th over, hitting the day’s highest score of 37, which played a major part in getting India to a three-digit score. He was the last batsman to be dismissed, bringing the Indian innings to a close in 32.4 overs. Chowdhury and Shahin Alam cleaned up the tail to finish with three wickets each.Atharva Ankolekar in his delivery stride•Asian Cricket Council

In reply, Bangladesh too were dealt early blows with fast bowlers Akash Singh and Vidhyadhar Patel striking in succession to reduce them to 16 for 4 in 4.1 overs. India seized control when Bangladesh captain Akbar Ali and Chowdhury – who were the only ones to cross 20 in the innings – fell within a space of three balls. However, that led to the fight back by Sakib and Rakibul for the ninth wicket, with the duo batting for 11.2 overs.Ankolekar ended the stand by trapping Sakib in front, leaving Bangladesh needing just six runs with one wicket remaining, and the match still poised on knife’s edge. It ended two balls later, when Ankolekar bowled No. 11 Shahin Alam to wrap up a win for India. Ankolekar also finished as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker, with 12 wickets in three matches.

India’s Smriti Mandhana slipped to the second spot after missing the ODI series against South Africa

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Oct-2019If there isn’t a “World’s No. 1 Mom” mug at Amy Satterthwaite’s home, it’s time to get one. The New Zealand captain has been on maternity leave since August 2019 expecting her first child with wife and team-mate Lea Tahuhu but, due to a quirk of the ICC rankings system, she has become the world’s top-ranked batter in ODI cricket despite not playing a 50-over game in seven months.The 33-year-old had been in glorious form in 2019, scoring 346 runs in six innings, including a best of 92 against Australia.India opener Smriti Mandhana had held that position at the last update but she missed the recent three-match series against South Africa with a toe injury and has now dropped four points behind the new leader.South Africa’s young opener Laura Wolvaardt climbed six places to break into the top ten after her scores of 39, 69 and 23 against India this month. She is currently on the eighth position with 685 rating points. South Africa’s fast bowling duo of Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail also strengthened their position in the bowling chart. Kapp climbed two places and occupies the fifth spot while Ismail gained one place to move to seventh.India’s Jhulan Goswami, who failed to pick any wickets in the second ODI and didn’t play in the third, slipped four places and is currently at the sixth spot in the table headed by Australia’s left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen.Apart from picking up four wickets, Kapp also scored 94 runs in three innings that helped her jump six spots in the ODI allrounders’ rankings. She is in the second place with 370 points, but well behind Australia’s Ellyse Perry, who has 523 points.

Bangladesh got off to a bright start in the Powerplay, but India’s spinners pulled things back to restrict them to a below-par 153

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy07-Nov-20193:56

Rohit Sharma dazzles in Rajkot to help India level series 

A 43-ball 85 from Rohit Sharma, in his 100th T20I, helped India chase down 154 with 26 balls to spare and draw level in the T20I series against Bangladesh. It was Rohit’s third-quickest innings of 50 or more in T20Is, and it made a below-par Bangladesh total – at the presentation, their captain Mahmudullah reckoned they finished 25-30 runs short – look utterly inadequate in great batting conditions in Rajkot.India have been a bit of a Jekyll-and-Hyde T20I team of late. Since the start of 2018, they have a 7-7 record while batting first, but they have done much better while chasing: Thursday’s win was their 13th in 16 completed games.Rohit extends his sublime runRohit came into this series having just scored three hundreds, including a double, in three Tests against South Africa, and all that form was on display on a Rajkot pitch brimming with runs. Every shot he played along the ground seemed to find a gap, whether he was pulling or driving or cutting or even occasionally when he was simply defending with a slightly open face – one such shot, off Al-Amin Hossain in the fifth over of India’s innings, raced away unstoppably between backward point and short third man.The results were even more spectacular when he went aerial. There were six sixes in his innings – everyone else, on both sides, only managed two between them – including three in a row off Mosaddek Hossain’s offspin in the tenth over. The second of them, which brought up the century opening stand with Shikhar Dhawan, took Rohit to 70.Dhawan, at that point, was batting on 28 off 24 balls. Bangladesh managed to keep one opener quiet by denying him width, but none of their plans had any impact on the other.Bangladesh make bright startSent in to bat, Bangladesh enjoyed a productive Powerplay, getting to 54 for 0 courtesy a mixture of urgency from their openers and some erratic bowling and fielding from India.Khaleel Ahmed, the left-arm quick, had been hit for four successive fours off his last four balls in Delhi. He conceded three successive fours off his first three balls here, making it seven in a row. Khaleel was guilty of bowling a touch too short on a pitch where the ball sat up nicely, and Mohammad Naim put him away whenever there was a chance to play the pull or the straight-bat jab through midwicket.At the other end, Liton Das enjoyed a massive stroke of luck when he was stranded yards down the pitch by a Yuzvendra Chahal legbreak in the sixth over. Rishabh Pant gathered the ball without trouble and stumped him, but third umpire Anil Chaudhary ruled that he had collected the ball marginally in front of the stumps. Liton hit the next two balls – the first of them a free-hit – for fours, to add insult to injury.Spinners strike backThere would be a near-repeat in the 13th over when Chahal beat the advancing Soumya Sarkar with a wrong’un, but on that occasion Chaudhary ruled that Pant had gathered the ball behind the stumps – replays suggested it was another marginal decision.At that point, Bangladesh were 103 for 4. Their last seven overs had only brought them 49 runs for the cost of four wickets. India’s two main spinners, Chahal and Washington Sundar, were chiefly responsible for keeping them quiet. Chahal, getting the ball to grip, used his variations well, and picked up two wickets. He could have had a third if he had had an lbw appeal against Liton upheld in the eighth over after beating him with his googly, but Liton, unaware of where the ball ended up after hitting his pad, hared out of his crease and ran himself out anyway.Washington, varying his pace intelligently and bowling an irritating length – he later said he looks to get the ball to bounce up to hip height when it reaches the batsman – proved difficult to go after, and Bangladesh only managed 25 off his four overs.Bangladesh never really regained the lost momentum. There were a pair of bright knocks from Sarkar (30 off 20) and Mahmudullah (30 off 21), but the rest of the Bangladesh batsmen didn’t really get going. Khaleel continued to go for runs, conceding 22 off his two overs at the death, but the rest of the bowlers didn’t give the batsmen the pace or the lengths to work with. Chahal, dangling the ball wide of off stump and denying the right-hand batsmen easy access to the leg side, and Deepak Chahar, using the slower bouncer adroitly, gave away only eight runs between them in the 18th and 19th overs.

BP Sandeep will take over the captaincy in the former India batsman’s absence

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Nov-2019Ambati Rayudu has opted out of representing Hyderabad in the upcoming Ranji Trophy season. Rayudu had come out of retirement only in August, a few months after he had ‘retired from all formats’ following his non-selection in India’s squad at the 2019 World Cup. According to an interview with , Rayudu said “a lot of politics” in the team made it “uncomfortable” for him to represent Hyderabad.Rayudu, who was Hyderabad captain in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, said: “In all honesty, I was looking forward to play for Hyderabad in Ranji Trophy this season. But unfortunately, the script did not go on the expected lines. There is a lot of politics in the team and the atmosphere was not conducive for good cricket. I felt very uncomfortable.”Rayudu even tweeted to Telangana’s Municipal Administration and Urban Development minister KT Rama Rao on Saturday, asking him to look into the “rampant corruption prevailing at HCA.” In the interview, Rayudu said that he had informed Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) president Mohammad Azharuddin, who took over the role in September, about his decision, and felt “election promises” got in the way of the team’s progress. He even alleged that “rich, influential and politicians’ children” get preferential treatment for selection into the Hyderabad team.”I did have a talk with the president. He always said he was trying his best. But it never happened,” Rayudu said. “I feel he should have initiated stronger measures but he did not do that. I feel there were more election promises and as a result, the game suffered.”It hurt me a lot. A few players, who did not deserve to be in the team, were included in the team because of the election promises. If this happens, how can a team improve? My hands were tight (sic) for the playing eleven when it came to few players and they were untouchable during the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament.”If you look at the team, some of the players are selected because of the influence of some club secretaries. Sometimes, merit takes a back seat. This is unfortunate. Rich, influential and politicians’ children get preferences in Hyderabad teams. This is a true fact. We have to stop this buck. Since someone had to speak out, I thought I should do this. This is how bad the system has become in HCA.”Rayudu was also displeased at the choice of Arjun Yadav, the former Hyderabad allrounder, as coach. Rayudu claimed Arjun became coach due to the influence of his father, the former BCCI interim president Shivlal Yadav.This is not the first time Rayudu and Arjun have made news together. During the 2005-06 season, Arjun, who was then the Hyderabad captain, and Rayudu, then playing for Andhra, had been involved in a physical altercation during a Ranji Trophy match.”He is not a qualified coach and has conflict of interest which has not been addressed yet,” Rayudu said. “He is not fit to be the Ranji coach. It is because of his father’s influence he has been able to become the coach. I feel it was an election promise to make him (Arjun) as the coach.”In Rayudu’s absence, left-hand batsman BP Sandeep, who was Hyderabad’s highest run-scorer in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, will take over as captain.

In an open letter to the club, ten Doeschate says he ‘can’t wait to join the troops, focus on my batting’ this year

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jan-2020Ryan ten Doeschate has stepped down as captain of reigning county champions Essex after four seasons at the helm, with Tom Westley taking over the role.In an open letter to the club he led to three Championship titles in four campaigns – once in Division two and twice in the top flight – the 39-year-old ten Doeschate said the captaincy had been “the biggest privilege”.”Now is the right time for someone new to take charge,” ten Doeschate said in the letter, published on the club’s website on Tuesday. “I’d like to thank all our Members and supporters in general who have followed the team over the last four years. I hope we’ve provided much entertainment and that you’ve shared in our pride of representing the club.”Ten Doeschate, who continued to represent Netherlands at T20 level through last year, will continue to play for Essex after signing a one-year contract extension in October following his side’s tense draw in a rain-affected final match of the 2019 season against nearest rivals Somerset which sealed them the Division One title.Ten Doeschate thanked current Essex coach Anthony McGrath and England head coach Chris Silverwood, with whom he took Essex back into the top tier of the Championship by winning Division Two in their first season as skipper and coach respectively, in 2016. Ten doeschate and Silverwood also led Essex to the Division One title in 2017 before McGrath assumed the club’s head coaching role.”I would like to pay tribute to an incredible bunch of players who have given everything to the team over the last four years and to whom I will always be indebted for allowing me to live out my cricket dream,” ten Doeschate added. “I can’t wait to join the troops, focus on my batting, and to give the new captain all of my support in continuing to try to get the best out of our great club.”McGrath described ten Doeschate as “a phenomenal” club captain.”It’s important to remember that Ryan isn’t stepping away from Essex, he’s still very much part of this club and I’m sure he will continue to have a positive presence both on and off the field,” McGrath said.Ten Doeschate captained the side for 58 first-class matches, winning 33 and losing just eight. Having led the club across formats from 2016 to 2018, he relinquished the T20 captaincy to Simon Harmer last year. Ten doeschate has represented the club 477 times in all formats, scoring 27 hundreds and taking more than 300 wickets in the process.Harmer will remain as Eagles captain for the Vitality Blast, while the 30-year-old Westley steps up from the position of vice-captain for the Championship and Royal London Cup.”It’s a real honour for me to be named club captain and it’s a challenge that I’m really looking forward to,” said Westley, who joined the club at the age of 13 and has has made 152 first-class, 80 List A and 74 T20 appearances since making his debut in 2006. “I can’t really put into words how much this means to me. I’ve spent my whole career with Essex so it’s a really proud moment for me and my family.”Ryan has done an outstanding job and deserves every bit of praise he gets. He’s been a fantastic captain, a close friend and an excellent leader who I’ve learnt a lot from. We’ve been so successful as a club under his guidance, and my main goal as captain is to continue the great work he’s done, carry on winning games of cricket and ultimately bring more trophies to this great club.”

After passing 140 thrice this season, Labuschagne finally went on to get his maiden double ton

Andrew McGlashan in Sydney04-Jan-2020Memories of missed opportunities spurred on Marnus Labuschagne to his career-best 215 during the second day at the SCG.Three times in 2019 he had passed 140 (185, 162, 143) before falling short of the double-century, but this time there was no mistake although the tension grew – in the crowd at least – as Tim Paine kept stealing the strike before Labuschagne brought up the landmark with one of his least convincing shots, edging Colin de Grandhomme to third man, cheered on by his parents in the crowd.Marnus Labuschagne punches the air as he reaches his double century•Getty Images

In this Test season – which has seen Labuschagne set a new record for the most runs by an Australian batsman in a five-match summer – he made 185 and 162 in the two Tests against Pakistan, caught in the gully in the first of those, then cleaned up by an excellent delivery from Shaheen Afridi in the other.He recalled the view of Matthew Maynard, the coach at Glamorgan where he spent the pre-Ashes spell last year, when he had previously fallen in sight of a double.”He has sent me a few messages when I threw away a couple of my opportunities to get a double,” he said. “One day he said ‘there’s only five times in your life that you can make a triple and you threw it away today, well done’. I was like, ‘that’s a bit stiff’, but he’s been great. Even those small things, as a player sometimes you don’t realise that in the moment. Especially on a high score you are playing with a bit more freedom instead of realising the opportunity you do have.”Labuschagne started the second day at the SCG on 130 and said that during the last six months, when his form has hit career-best level, he has found it easier to resume an innings after success the previous day.”At times it has affected me especially when I was a bit younger it definitely did. I probably didn’t go on and make big scores enough. But over the last year, being able to really come back and it doesn’t matter what the situation of the game is, it’s just about making sure of my process and back to each ball and not getting too far ahead of yourself.”Labuschagne was in action again at the end of the day when he was given the penultimate over which started with a drag down that Tom Latham pulled powerfully into Matthew Wade’s helmet at short leg. Wade remained on the field and then passed a concussion test after play, with the protocols meaning he will have another in the morning.”I’ve been hit there plenty of times so I know the feeling, and it’s never nice when you’re the bowler – drag one down first ball right in the slot,” Labuschagne said. “Luckily he’s alright and everything is all good. It is never good to be the bowler in that circumstance.”

He won’t play for CA XI against England Lions after being dropped from the Queensland Sheffield Shield team

Alex Malcolm12-Feb-2020Queensland and Australia’s out-of-favour Test opener Matt Renshaw will take a short break from cricket in order to freshen up after being dropped from Queensland’s Sheffield Shield team for the upcoming clash against Tasmania in Brisbane.Renshaw, 23, missed out on Queensland’s 12-man squad after scoring just 182 runs at 20.22 with a highest score of just 36 in 10 Sheffield Shield innings prior to the BBL. He had come out of the BBL as Brisbane Heat’s second-highest run-scorer, which included three half-centuries, but made just 26 off 117 balls in Queensland’s 2nd XI clash with Western Australia in Perth last week.The return of Joe Burns and Marnus Labuschagne saw him squeezed out of Queensland’s Shield top order with Bryce Street’s form in his debut season entrenching him at the top, while Sam Heazlett made 125 for the Queensland’s 2nd XI in their innings victory over WA.Renshaw didn’t play club cricket last Saturday for family reasons but was set to be selected in the Cricket Australia XI to face England Lions in a four-day game in Hobart starting this Saturday. It is understood he was initially keen to play but following a lengthy and arduous BBL and a 2nd XI trip to Perth last week it was decided, in conjunction with the Queensland management, that Renshaw should rest for a couple of weeks to freshen up.He won’t play club cricket for Toombul this weekend although rain is likely to wash out a majority of Queensland premier cricket games in Brisbane.He will instead prepare for Queensland’s next 2nd XI fixture which begins on February 24 against ACT/NSW Country although he may well come into consideration for Queensland’s Sheffield Shield match against Victoria starting on the same date, with skipper Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne likely to be missing.Khawaja will play in the Australia A clash with England Lions at the MCG starting on February 22 while Labuschagne will head to South Africa to join Australia’s ODI squad ahead of the first ODI of a three-match series starting on February 29.Renshaw has not been in Test calculations since the tour of the UAE in October 2018. After suffering a concussion whilst fielding at short leg in the warm-up game he was not selected for the two Tests against Pakistan despite being passed fit.Since then he has averaged just 21.68 in 34 first-class games for Queensland and Kent with just two half-centuries. Australia have used six different Test openers in that period including Burns, Khawaja, David Warner, Marcus Harris, Aaron Finch, and Cameron Bancroft.

Board braced for postponement and cancellations of marquee events as implications for summer gather

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Mar-2020The ECB are preparing themselves for the possibility that portions of the English domestic season could be played behind closed doors, postponed or cancelled outright, as the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to sweep the game.In the wake of this morning’s postponement of the Test tour of Sri Lanka, and in light of the UK government’s estimate that the peak of the virus is still 10-14 weeks away, the ECB is now making contingency plans with its financial, logistical and scheduling implications to the fore.England are scheduled to play three Tests against West Indies, with the series starting at The Oval on June 4. That date is currently 12 weeks away, in the middle of the expected peak period. The T20 Blast is scheduled to start on May 28, with the group stage running until July 12.The greatest concern for the ECB, however, would be any disruption to their new flagship tournament, the Hundred, which is set to run from July 22 to August 14, and marks the much-anticipated return of English cricket to domestic television, with the BBC having secured rights to a portion of the tournament.”We are undertaking a number of steps to prepare for potential outcomes that an ongoing situation with COVID-19 might bring for the cricket community here in England and Wales,” said Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive.”In conjunction with our partners across the network, we are building contingency plans across a number of possible eventualities. Our main priorities are to ensure we scope out the landscape for financial, logistical and scheduling implications.”A raft of UK sporting events have fallen victim to the virus in the past 24 hours, including the suspension of all domestic football leagues in England and Scotland, as well as Scotland v Wales in the latest round of Six Nations rugby fixtures.And while Prime Minister Boris Johnson stopped short of issuing an outright ban on sporting events at a press conference on Thursday, he admitted that such a move is under consideration, which could wreak havoc with the English cricketing summer.ALSO READ: Counties’ pre-season plans in the spotlightThe cancellation of the West Indies Test series would be a significant financial blow for the ECB, who are also scheduled to play three Tests against Pakistan and limited-overs series against Australia and Ireland.The T20 Blast, meanwhile, generates a major proportion of most counties’ income. And while it is possible that the tournament could be pushed back further in the summer – possibly at the expense of the final rounds of County Championship fixtures – there is precious little room in the schedule for change.More immediately, the County Championship is scheduled to start on April 12. While crowds are typically relatively low, they regularly exceed 2000 at certain grounds, and the main demographic of match-going fans is elderly, increasing their vulnerability to the virus.It is possible that games – almost all of which are streamed for free online – could be played behind closed doors, and the ECB is in close contact with government to discuss its options.”It is difficult for us to be sure of what outcomes the game might be expected to deal with,” Harrison added. “Therefore, we will continue to plan for the expectation that the season proceeds as normal, but in parallel prepare for a range of scenarios. These could include the possibility of playing matches behind closed doors, or potentially postponing or cancelling elements of the season.”We continue to enjoy constructive dialogue with DCMS [Department of Culture, Media and Sport], and also our commercial and broadcast partners – who match our ambitions to see the game of cricket thrive in 2020 and beyond. We are certain that jointly, we will all come to solutions that best protect those who love cricket, and the game itself.”