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The first man to score 10,000 runs in the Plunket Shield has called time on his playing days

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Apr-2018Michael Papps, the first man to score 10,000 runs in the Plunket Shield, has called time on his playing days. The 38-year old retires having played 20 seasons of domestic cricket, representing Canterbury and later Wellington.Papps was part of eight Tests and six ODIs for New Zealand and is a much loved figure in the country and he saluted the people on his way out. “The personal and collective triumphs, the runs scored, the days in the dirt, and the games won and lost are all memories I will take away, but most of all it will be the people, the teams I’ve played for, both here and overseas, and the great friends I have made that I will cherish the most.”Papps’ crowning moment was in the season gone by, when he became the oldest triple-centurion since World War II, and the first ever for Wellington, when he made an unbeaten 316 against Auckland in October. Speaking about the effort to reporters, he said, “I was just hoping to get off the mark and anything else was a bonus.”Papps began his career with Canterbury in the 1998-99 season, scoring 6,663 runs for them, including 19 centuries. He moved to Wellington in 2011-12 and also captained them, adding a further 4837 runs to his tally and smashing 13 more centuries. In List A cricket, he played 166 matches and struck 5810 to go with 12 hundreds and 32 fifties.”I would like to thank the Canterbury Cricket Association for teaching me the game and giving me the best grounding a young cricketer could possibly receive, and to Cricket Wellington for enabling me to expand my horizons and providing me with a new challenge,” Papps said.New Zealand Cricket CEO David White praised Papps’ contribution to the game, saying, “to make over 12,000 first-class runs over 20 seasons, Michael’s contribution to cricket has been immense. I want to congratulate him for a brilliant career and on behalf of NZC wish him all the best for the future.”

After 12 months of poor ODI results, the Australia coach has conceded the team will need a fresh, more aggressive approach to be able to contend for World Cup 2019 in England

Daniel Brettig12-Feb-2018Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann has conceded the national team will need a fresh, more aggressive approach to be able to contend for next year’s 50-over World Cup in England, following 12 months of poor results for the ODI set-up.As the Twenty20 team shows the benefits of fresh bodies and minds in the current triangular series, Lehmann said discussions about the ODI squad were advancing quickly with little more than 20 games left between now and the global tournament in 2019. Australia’s next 50-over assignment will be in England in mid-year, and Lehmann indicated he wanted to see the national selection panel nail down a squad to keep together from that point until the global tournament begins.

Warner given brief respite from T20s

Two nights in your own bed may not sound like much, but Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann is hopeful a “mini-break” for David Warner will rouse the stand-in Twenty20 captain from a run of low scores for both the pointy end of the triangular series and the Test tour of South Africa to follow it.
“We’re going to let him go home after the Allan Border Medal for a couple of days and just arrive the day before the game,” Lehmann said of Warner, who will stay in Sydney for two days before flying to New Zealand on Thursday ahead of Friday’s next match. “Give him a couple days at home really. It’s always a challenge when you’ve got the schedule as it is, but David’s really keen to play as captain, so we’ll give him a couple days off and get him to New Zealand just before the game and he can play.
“You’ve got your leaders in Steven [Smith] and David and you need one of them to captain, so that’s the reason behind it from the selection panel, making sure we’ve got constant messaging through our leaders and David’s been great in this series. Steven’s had his break, David will get a little mini-break, and Steven’s got to do the tour game while we’re playing the [T20] final.
“You can only do so much work. He’s been working so hard it’s almost like give him a couple days away from the game. Ricky Ponting’s been doing some really good work with him. So we expect him to come out of that rut pretty quickly.”

In an admission that the Australian team had fallen behind in terms of batting tempo, Lehmann said that the likely flat pitches and small grounds for the World Cup in England would necessitate a greater level of aggression with the bat, not unlike that used by Eoin Morgan’s team over the past two years. This is a significant shift from Lehmann’s declaration, following Australia’s elimination from the Champions Trophy, also in England last year, that “when they win a World Cup, we can take the way they play”.”The results are more about execution for us. We had to chop and change a lot of the side depending on what’s happening with the Test arena and going from Test to non-Test and obviously Tests are a focus for us,” Lehmann said. “So we haven’t been able to have a settled one day side. I’d like to see us play with a settled side over six months and see what the result is then, see how we play.”[Team approach] will change in the fact you’ve got to be more aggressive in England because of the wickets, but then it can be overcast and swing, so you’ve got to have both ways covered for England as we’ve seen, you can play a certain way but you’ve got to be able to change, depending on what the pitch is and the conditions above.”He also indicated that the physical and mental toll of the preceding Ashes series had underlined how carefully Lehmann, the captain Steven Smith and the selectors would have to be about managing resources over the next 18 months, amid the competing priorities of Tests, the run-in to the 50-over World Cup and also efforts to raise Australia’s international Twenty20 standing ahead of hosting the World T20 in 2020 – after Lehmann’s tenure as coach is set to end in late 2019.”They were pretty tired by the end of it,” Lehmann said of the Test players who backed up the ODI matches. “We certainly didn’t win the crunch moments in that one-day series, we had opportunities in every game and in the past our one day format we’ve scored those extra 30-40 runs and taken earlier wickets. We didn’t do that, guys were a little bit tired and down I suppose, excited by the result of the Ashes, but didn’t perform as well as we’d like in the one-day format. So that’s another area we’ve got to look at and how we go about it.”[The improved T20 performance] gives you food for thought after a long, tough Test series… fresh guys coming in. That’s been exciting for us as a coaching group, the way they’ve gone about it has been pretty special so far. It gives you a lot of thought moving forward and that’s a great thing.”We’ll sit down at the end of the South African series [to review], but we’ve always got to look forward. World Cup’s coming along pretty quickly, I think there’s about 22 games to go before we play our first game. So we’ll have to settle on a group of players, we think we’ve got a really good group, it’s just where we fit in, how we look, the style of play. We know what England’s going to produce in terms of pitches, they’re going to be pretty good, so it’s going to be a pretty high-scoring World Cup, so we’ll have to look at that.”To that end, the power hitting of Chris Lynn looms as a key part of Australia’s plans, more than likely batting at No. 3. Lehmann said he wanted to see Lynn, who rejected a Queensland state contract last year to concentrate on T20 tournaments, play in all forms for his state, particularly once his lengthy rehabilitation from shoulder surgery returns the joint to full strength and health.”You’d love to, yeah,” Lehmann said when asked whether he wanted to see Lynn play the domestic 50-over tournament this year. “It just gets down to fitness with Chris at the moment. His shoulder is getting better, and we hope he plays as much cricket as he can in all formats. He’s exciting as we’ve seen, he missed out in the second game, but first game he came out and took the game on.”This game on Saturday, he took the game on and took it away from England, so he’s an exciting talent. He’s getting there, within three or four months I think he’ll be back with his shoulder and more confident with what he’s doing .It’s getting better each and every day, it’s just a time factor with this shoulder.”Another player who has resumed his central place in Australia’s limited-overs plans is Glenn Maxwell, after a summer in which he has been the centre of much discussion about his role and relationships with Lehmann and Smith in particular. “He’s finished games off for us and won us games, and that’s what we’ve been asking for and he’s delivered on the big stage for us, it’s been excellent the way he’s gone about it,” Lehmann said of Maxwell’s T20 displays.”His preparation has been excellent and the way he has actually played, put more responsibility [on him] batting at No. 4 in the T20s and he’s been exceptional. It seems like he’s taken the knocks really well and come back and proved his point. Now we just want him to continue that and be really consistent, and I’m sure he will be.”Lehmann also indicated that the move of Aaron Finch down the T20 batting order to leave D’Arcy Short as an opener would likely continue, given the older man’s strong recent IPL record in the middle order and the large number of opening batsmen in the team. “His record in the IPL batting Nos. 4 and 5 is unbelievable so we wanted to shape up and see how that looks like,” he said. “D’Arcy’s been very good for us at the top, so I think we’ll continue with that, in the short-term anyway.”Looking overall at the home summer, Lehmann said that the ODI series had been the only disappointment in between a comprehensive Ashes series win and positive steps forward for the T20 squad, which will depart Australia for New Zealand on Tuesday in the same week the bulk of the Test squad will travel to South Africa for next month’s four-Test assignment.”It was an unbelievable summer. Record crowds, record viewership,” Lehmann said. “You’ve got to win the Ashes at home, that’s the biggest thing for us. One-dayers were a little disappointing as we know, T20s have been exciting, but overall you’d be pretty happy with the summer I would’ve thought. I know the fans have enjoyed BBL, the one-dayers, the whole lot. From our point of view, it’s been exciting times and exciting cricket.”

New Zealand will arrive for their first T20 in Australia since 2009 looking to put one over on an inexperienced home line-up

The Preview by Alan Gardner02-Feb-2018

Big Picture

The first T20 tri-series between Full Members ought to be a significant moment, a possible sign of how to give greater relevance to the international format outside of World T20s. The fact that the first match during the Australia leg has to be shoehorned in between the semi-final and final of the Big Bash League shows just how unforgiving the schedules have become.David Warner knows that better than most, as he prepares to lead Australia in four T20s against New Zealand and England, with the possibility of a final in Auckland on February 21 – the day before Australia’s tour game begins in Benoni ahead of their four-Test series against South Africa. While Steven Smith has been given time off, Warner is charged with reinvigorating Australian fortunes in T20, where they currently find themselves ranked No. 7 in the world.To that end, the selectors have channelled the success of the BBL, plucking out some of the competition’s leading performers: D’Arcy Short is the most eye-catching, alongside IPL millionaire Andrew Tye, raw quick Billy Stanlake, up-and-coming wicketkeeper Alex Carey and uncapped Ben Dwarshuis. With experienced hitters such as Glenn Maxwell, Chris Lynn and Marcus Stoinis to pack the middle order, Australia will hope to settle on the nucleus of a side to build for the future, which includes a World T20 on home soil in two years’ time.Crossing the ditch for a rare visit (their first in T20 since 2009) is a New Zealand team in supreme form, ranked No. 2 in T20I. Until being beaten twice by Pakistan – to whom they lost their No. 1 ranking – New Zealand had sauntered through their home summer, winning every game bar a washed-out T20 against West Indies. In pursuit of a first win on Australian soil since the 2011 Hobart Test, Kane Williamson and his men won’t mind arriving under cover of the BBL before slipping back across the Tasman for the rest of the tournament.Colin Munro attempts a switch hit•Getty Images

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia WLWLL
New Zealand LLWWW

In the spotlight

D’Arcy Short lit up the BBL, his tournament-leading 504 runs at a strike rate of 147.80 helping Hobart Hurricanes into the knockout stages (and, perhaps, inspiring them to reach Sunday’s final in his absence). Paradoxically, his expected international debut is likely to be a more low-key event, but the presence of an indigenous player in Australia’s XI carries important symbolism. And he can hit it, too.January was a pretty good month for Mitchell Santner. Picked up at the IPL auction for the first time, he overtook his team-mate Ish Sodhi as the No. 1-ranked T20 bowler and also successfully unveiled his carrom ball – the “Santner Claw” – during the ODIs against Pakistan. One of the younger faces in a dynamic, experienced New Zealand side, his tidy left-arm spin should go well at the SCG.

Team news

Aaron Finch has been ruled out of the opening match, due to the hamstring strain he suffered in the ODI series against England; Warner suggested either Short or Lynn will open alongside him. Travis Head will dash to Sydney from Adelaide and then back for the BBL final, while an inexperienced pace attack is likely to be led by Andrew Tye.Australia (possible): 1 David Warner (capt), 2 D’Arcy Short, 3 Travis Head, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Chris Lynn, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Ashton Agar, 9 Andrew Tye, 10 Kane Richardson, 11 Adam Zampa/Billy StanlakeNew Zealand will hope to have Colin Munro fit, after a hamstring tweak kept him out of their defeat in the third T20 against Pakistan. Sydney’s friendliness to spin could see Anaru Kitchen included ahead of Seth Rance to back up Santner and Sodhi.New Zealand (possible): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Colin de Grandhomme, 6 Anaru Kitchen, 7 Tom Blundell (wk), 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Ish Sodhi

Pitch and conditions

The surface for the ODI last month was slightly two-paced, although that didn’t stop England from scoring 300 thanks to Jos Buttler’s late assault. The last T20 international played at the SCG was also run-filled, as India chased down 198 off the last ball. There is a forecast for rain on Saturday but it could well pass through before the evening start time.

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand have only beaten Australia once in six T20 encounters – although that was in their last meeting, during the 2016 World T20.
• Australia’s pace-bowling options of Tye, Kane Richardson, Billy Stanlake and Ben Dwarshuis have 11 T20 caps between them.
• Colin Munro is three runs short of becoming the fifth New Zealander to 1000 in T20s; last month, he became the only man to score three T20 international hundreds.

Quotes

“We’ve probably said it for the last 12-24 months about improving our overall assessment of how we play this format, sometimes we either fall in a heap with our batting or we don’t start well with the ball.”
“We can’t take anyone lightly because anyone can have their day and rip through a batting line-up.”

The legspinner ran through the Sri Lanka A line-up to help West Indies wrap up a victory by an innings and 13 runs

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Oct-2017Damion Jacobs bagged a six-for•Getty Images

A six-for from legspinner Damion Jacobs knocked Sri Lanka A out for 139 following on; the visitors lost all ten wickets for 57 after a solid start in their second-innings collapse, and just like that West Indies A had wrapped up victory by an innings and 13 runs in the first unofficial Test in Jamaica.Having skittled the opposition for 212 runs in the first innings early on the fourth day, West Indies A enforced follow-on with a 152-run lead. Sandun Weerakkody, the Sri Lanka keeper and opener, struck a brisk half-century – 56 off 58 – in an 82-run first-wicket stand with Ron Chandraguptha, but the latter’s dismissal in the 16th over triggered a dramatic slide. Only two other batsmen got into double digits as Jacobs kept dealing out blows. Offspin-bowling allrounder Rahkeem Cornwall abetted his cause with returns of 3 for 53. Jacobs finished with 6 for 27 off his 15 overs and a match haul of eight to claim the Man of the Match award.

The series, which was earlier postponed following the Covid-19 pandemic, will be part of the ODI World Cup Super League

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Apr-2022Netherlands are set to host Pakistan for three ODIs in August in Rotterdam. The series, which was supposed to be held in June 2020 and was postponed indefinitely following the Covid-19 pandemic, will be part of the ODI World Cup Super League.The series will also be the inaugural bilateral ODI series between the sides, with the three matches set to be played on August 16, 18 and 21 at the VOC Cricket Ground. The two sides have previously met in the World Cup in 1996 and 2003, and the Champions Trophy in 2002 with Pakistan winning the three encounters.

Netherlands vs Pakistan in Rotterdam

• 1st ODI – August 16, 2022

• 2nd ODI – August 18, 2022

• 3rd ODI – August 21, 2022

Zakir Khan, PCB director, said: “We are pleased that with the support of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond (KNCB), we have been able to reschedule the series, which is important to the growth and development of cricket in Netherlands as well as to the two teams’ chances of progressing directly to the 2023 World Cup.”Our men’s national cricket team had an excellent 2021-22 season and I am confident they will build on the momentum to entertain expat Pakistanis and the Dutch spectators with good cricket. This series will also help KNCB attract new and young audiences towards the game.”Netherlands are currently at the bottom of the Super League table in the 13th place with two wins in 10 matches while Pakistan have won six out of 12 matches and are in the ninth place. The top seven sides plus hosts India will qualify directly for the 2023 Men’s World Cup.

Sean Dickson hit an excellent 142 to ensure West Indies endured three sessions of leather chasing on the second day against Kent at Canterbury

ECB Reporters Network07-Aug-2017
Sean Dickson dominated the West Indian attack•Sarah Ansell / Stringer

Sean Dickson hit an excellent 142 to ensure West Indies endured three sessions of leather chasing on the second day against Kent at Canterbury.Kent declared in the final over of the day on 331 for 9 to secure a first innings lead over the West Indies of 66 runs going into the third and final day of the tourists penultimate warm-up game before the first Test with England starting on August 17 at Edgbaston.Dickson, who amassed a career-best 318 against Kent’s County Championship rivals Northamptonshire last month, cracked 29 fours and three sixes in his four-and-a-half hour stay that left the tourists wondering when their next wicket would come.Dickson and first-class debutant Zak Crawley combined to post a record 182 for Kent’s second wicket – beating the county’s previous best against the tourists of 79 set by Brian Luckhurst and Alan Knott in 1969 – as the West Indies toiled all day for eight wickets.Roddy Estwick, the West Indies bowling coach, was happy in the way his attack bounced back late on “A lot of our guys haven’t really played in English conditions so they’re still learning, trying to get their lengths right.”If you look at Azzari Joseph, he got better as the day went along. He didn’t start as well as we’d have liked, but we made one or two technical adjustments with his run up and we spoke about his lines, and he was able to look a lot better.”I felt the figures of Miguel Cummins didn’t do justice to the effort he put in and Bishoo didn’t get any help of the wicket. But you have to credit Kent also, they batted nicely, they were patient and when the bad balls came along they put them away.”While Dickson, 25, took the plaudits, Crawley cut an impressive figure reaching a 94-ball 50 as Kent moved past the tourists’ modest total of 265 all out soon after tea.Crawley, 19 years-old and six feet six inches tall, played a mature and responsible knock full of well-timed drives and pulls as Kent, resuming on their overnight score of 1 for 1, dominated.The pair set out to punish anything loose or wide as Crawley, a product of Tonbridge School, got off the mark on his first-class debut with a rasping pull for four through mid-wicket against Alzarri Joseph.Dickson, making his first appearance for the county since the start of the NatWest T20 Blast, looked in good fettle from the off. His sweetly-timed punch drive flew past Joseph for four and he almost repeated the dose only to see the non-striker’s stumps act as an inadvertent barrier.The pair posted their half-century partnership inside 20 overs then Dickson upped the tempo by hitting the first six of Kent’s reply just before lunch pulling a short one from leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo over the ropes adjacent to the St Lawrence lime tree.Dickson twice edged balls from Joseph just short of the keeper, then nicked one through the slip cordon for four but the delivery from Raymon Reifer was called a no-ball.Dickson went on to post the 12th first-class 50 of his career from 105 balls with seven fours to go with his maximum, but might have gone for 51 when Bishoo downed a stinging caught and bowled chance.The pair ploughed on during the mid-session with Crawley cracking seven fours before he departed to a stunning diving slip catch by Kieran Powell.Acting Kent skipper Sam Billings scored a typically impish 25 before being run out by Shai Hope’s throw from the deep then Dickson’s stay ended when he holed out to long off. In a wonderfully old-school display of sportsmanship, the West Indies’ side lined up to shake Dickson’s hand as he trudged off.In the quest for quicker runs Adam Ball danced past one from Kraigg Brathwaite to be stumped and Will Gidman was bowled by Reifer.Against the second new ball Adam Rouse missed an attempted sweep to be skittled by Brathwaite, Charlie Hartley fenced to second slip and Adam Riley had his off pole plucked out to give Joseph hard-earned figures of 4 for 72.In the final over of the day Calum Haggett took a blow on the hand from Miguel Cummins sparking Kent’s declaration.

Head coach believes team had been “really good over a period of time'” before Shanaka changed the course of the game

Andrew McGlashan12-Jun-2022Not much has gone wrong for Australia’s T20I side since the start of last year’s World Cup, but Saturday night’s heady scenes in Pallekele – as Sri Lanka pummelled a record-breaking 59 from the last three overs – put the spotlight on an area of their game that will need some refinement ahead of their title defence later this year.For the third time this year Sri Lanka put Australia’s death bowling under severe pressure defending a target – the stunning chase followed a victory in Melbourne in February and a tie in Sydney which Australia ultimately won in a Super Over.Related

• Mitchell Marsh in doubt for ODI series

• Shanaka's 25-ball 54* scripts stunning victory for Sri Lanka

• Cricket cannot solve Sri Lanka's massive problems but at least it can be a distraction

• Injured Starc in doubt for ODIs

The Melbourne chase was never in the realms of what Dasun Shanaka achieved in Pallekele – Sri Lanka needed 28 off the last three overs and nine off the last – but Sydney had provided a warning when they ransacked 45 off the last three before Josh Hazlewood’s five-run Super Over decided the contest.The latest contest, with the series decided after Australia went 2-0 up in Colombo, again saw Aaron Finch give his team the chance to defend as he had done in Melbourne instead of continuing with the successful bowl-first model. There was little broader consequence in the outcome of the game for Australia, but that would not be the case in a World Cup knockout where the decision to defend could be taken out of their hands.”The small reviews we had last night with individuals was that if you had the time again you’d have taken some different options,” head coach Andrew McDonald said. “We felt we got a little one-dimensional at certain periods, a little too predictable and probably went away from what made us really good in the first two games, albeit we weren’t defending a total.”As in Melbourne, it was Jhye and Kane Richardson who were given the 19th and 20th overs of the innings, but it also went wrong for the previously outstanding Hazlewood who missed his length and went for 22 in the 18th over having started with remarkable figures of 3-1-3-2.”We feel that pressure probably took us away at times from what made us really good,” McDonald said. “We’ve been really good over a period of time and even last night you could argue that for 34 overs that we playing really good cricket. We’ve got some personnel who are getting exposed to situations which is always a positive.Dasun Shanaka blazed his bat around to give his team an unlikely win.•Getty Images

“There were a couple of areas we could tidy up, no doubt about that. When you get put under that type of pressure…we didn’t execute as well as we may have hoped to in that situation but full credit to an innings of that quality, it deserves the result it got and it was a great game. Unfortunately we were on the wrong side of that but plenty of opportunities to learn from those types of situations.”Starc, who was injured in the first game of the series, and the rested Pat Cummins were missing from Australia’s side although Cummins was also among those taken to in the Sydney chase when he conceded 17 off the 18th over.The next opportunity Australia will have to fine-tune their T20 game is a three-match series in India in mid-September before the final lead-in to the World Cup with matches against West Indies and England at home.On this tour, the focus now switches to the five-match ODI series which begins on Tuesday and marks a starting point of sorts for the 2023 World Cup build-up. Although missing Adam Zampa, who is on paternity leave, and having Starc and Mitchell Marsh carrying injuries, it is the closest Australia have come to having a full-strength ODI side together since the start of the series against India in November 2020 – albeit this is only their third series since then.A patched-up side won 2-1 in West Indies last year and another started well in Pakistan in late March before losing the series. Australia have a lot of ODI cricket on their calendar due to Covid catch-up series, although some may not feature a full-strength team and the three matches against South Africa next January remain in doubt with CSA wanting them moved due to their new T20 league.The five games in Sri Lanka will likely see most of Australia’s squad get some match time fitness permitting, particularly among the quick bowlers who will be rotated amid a tight schedule. Allrounder Cameron Green, who made a century for Australia A last week, will not be available to bowl for the first two matches as a cautious approach is taken with his workload.”He’s just a fraction behind where we’d like him to be so we’ll go on the conservative side there,” McDonald said. “But the three games back in Colombo we feel he’ll be well positioned to fill his full capabilities in being an allrounder.”With Marsh also unavailable at least for the start of the series Australia may need to find 10 overs between Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Marnus Labuschagne depending on the final balance of their side.

Bangladesh batter to miss T20Is in Zimbabwe as well as home fixtures against Australia and New Zealand

Mohammad Isam20-Jul-2021Tamim Iqbal will miss competitive cricket for at least two months because of a knee injury. He will return home from Harare after the ongoing ODI series against Zimbabwe – the third game is taking place today – and miss the entire three-match T20I series as well as the upcoming T20I series against Australia and New Zealand at home.”Tamim will return home alongside Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam from the ODI side,” Minhajul Abedin, Bangladesh’s chief selector, said. “Tamim has been advised to rest for six to eight weeks. He won’t be able to play against Australia [in August] and New Zealand [in September] at home, but he might play against England [in October]. We have asked Rubel (Hossain), (Mohammad) Mithun and Mosaddek (Hossan) to stay back with the T20I side as part of our contingency plan for the Australia series.Related

• Bangladesh look to maintain their dominance over Zimbabwe despite Tamim Iqbal's absence

• Change in schedule: Zim vs Ban T20Is brought forward

• Saifuddin: 'It was a childhood dream to bat with Shakib'

“We have to keep players in quarantine for ten days ahead of the Australia series bio-bubble. We want to have as many options as possible as we won’t be able to call up players from outside the bio-bubble.”Iqbal reportedly sustained the injury in Sri Lanka in April, but recovered enough to play the ODI series against them in May. He also played 11 matches in the T20 Dhaka Premier League, but the injury forced him to miss the Super League phase of the competition.He went on to miss the one-off Test against Zimbabwe earlier this month, before saying that he would “manage” the injury and play the ODI series, chiefly because it is part of the World Cup Super League.The decision to take time off came following a recommendation from Dr David Young, the Melbourne-based orthopedic surgeon, who many Bangladesh cricketers, including Iqbal and Mashrafe Mortaza, have consulted over the years.Australia are expected to arrive in Dhaka next week to play five T20Is, scheduled from August 2 to 8. New Zealand are likely to play three or five T20Is in Dhaka starting early September, before England arrive in October to play three ODIs and three T20Is.

He came in at 162 for 5 and ensured a first-innings lead despite Delhi having piled on 452

Deivarayan Muthu19-Feb-20223:27

Shahrukh Khan: ‘The four-year wait to make it to the Ranji team really made me mentally strong’

After causing a stir at the IPL mega auction last weekend on the back of his white-ball heroics, Tamil Nadu’s M Shahrukh Khan made another splash this weekend, clattering an 89-ball century in the Ranji Trophy game against Delhi. The 26-year-old nearly converted his maiden first-class hundred into a double-century as Tamil Nadu overhauled Delhi’s 452 in Guwahati.By the time Shahrukh was trapped lbw by Nitish Rana’s part-time offspin in the post-tea session on day three, Tamil Nadu were into the lead. Left-arm fingerspinner Vikas Mishra, however, cleaned up the tail swiftly and bowled out Tamil Nadu for 494 at the stroke of stumps, limiting their lead to 42.That Tamil Nadu would snatch the first-innings advantage appeared unlikely when Shahrukh joined former captain B Indrajith at 162 for 5. The current captain Vijay Shankar had just offered a bat-pad catch to silly-point for five. R Sai Kishore, the nightwatchman, and M Kaushik Gandhi, the opener, had already fallen in the morning as Delhi dominated the early exchanges.Sai Kishore (11) had been caught short by a direct hit from Lalit Yadav while Gandhi (55) nicked off a quick dart from Mishra. Shahrukh then immediately changed the mood and tempo of the game with a barrage of boundaries.He had started off in a skittish fashion, flapping a weak pull in front of mid-on, but stayed true to his usual attacking instincts and went about bending the Delhi attack out of shape. Shahrukh was particularly brutal on left-arm seamer Kuldip Yadav, taking him for 50 off a mere 20 balls. All up, he walloped 20 fours and 10 sixes.That Sharukh is particularly strong against pace is fairly well-established in Indian domestic circles. Recently in the 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy, Prasidh Krishna, too, felt the power of Shahrukh. On Saturday, while his big-hitting against pace would have been the more headline-grabbing passage of play, it was his patience and technique against spin that highlighted his growth as an all-format domestic batter.He was either forward to smother Mishra’s turning balls or right back – when the bowler dragged the length back – to cut him or pull him away. In all, he made 29 off 48 balls against Mishra. Over the last two years, Tamil Nadu’s assistant coach R Prasanna has had a variety of local spinners bowling at Shahrukh at the nets and all that training was put to good use against Delhi.On his Ranji debut in 2018, Shahrukh had set up Tamil Nadu’s victory with a first-innings 92 not out on an atypical Chepauk track that aided seamers. He has played just four-class matches since, before this Ranji season, but there are already signs that Shahrukh could be a match-winner in red-ball cricket as well.Related

• Shahrukh Khan: 'Even if I only play five balls, there's a process to it'

• Yash Dhull hits 113 on first-class debut to lead Delhi charge

• Bihar's Sakibul Gani enters record books after hitting triple ton on debut

“Touch wood, things are going well for me in white-ball cricket for Tamil Nadu. I feel that people brand quickly that he is a white-ball player only, but I want to do well and hit the next level in all formats,” Shahrukh had told ESPNcricinfo in the lead-up to this Ranji season.”I want to get big runs in Ranji Trophy. I might also bat down the order in red-ball cricket and I want to handle those situations better, with Prasanna as the example. He has bailed out Tamil Nadu from so many situations in swinging conditions. The margin for error in red-ball cricket is a lot lesser and I enjoy that challenge.”Shahrukh walked the talk, striking up rapid century stands with Indrajith and then N Jagadeesan. Shahrukh had brought up the century stand with Indrajith in grand style with a rasping cut over backward point off Kuldip – a genuine candidate for the shot of the day. Indrajith was more aggressive and proactive against spin, often disrupting lengths and lines by jumping out of the crease.Indrajith reached his hundred off 126 balls when he glided Kuldip to the third-man boundary in the 71st over, which yielded 22 runs. Seven overs later, though, Rana pinned him lbw with an offbreak that shot low. There would be no stopping Shahrukh however, as he zipped into the nineties with a brace of sixes.After getting to a century of his own, with a single to long leg, he seemingly pointed to his white jersey and soaked in the applause from the Tamil Nadu camp. Shahrukh then needed just 24 balls to go from 100 to 150.After a slow start, Jagadeesan, too, hit a higher gear, launching Mishra for sixes over long-off and long-on in the 92nd over. At one point, Delhi spread out the field, deploying fielders at deep midwicket, deep backward square leg and long-on, but Shahrukh kept peppering that arc or clearing those outfielders.Rana and Mishra made some late strikes for Delhi, but this was Shahrukh’s weekend once again.

With Ed Smith and the selectors currently pondering England’s squad to play India in the first Test, we take a look at who could be in contention

Alan Gardner25-Jul-20180:33

Gale plays down chance of red-ball return for Rashid

Top order
Alastair Cook confirmed his readiness for consecutive Test No. 155 by scoring 180 for the Lions against India A last week, and he is likely to be joined at the top of the order by Jennings, who batted once for 29 on his return at Headingley, but has been in productive form this season for Lancashire, with three Championship hundreds. That would mean no room for Surrey’s Rory Burns, currently the leading run-scorer in the country, unless the selectors wanted to shuffle Joe Root back down to No. 4. What seems more likely is Dawid Malan retaining his place at four, having scored twin fifties for the Lions – Burns, who captained the team, made 5 and 38 – above England’s multi-faceted lower-middle order engine room. Malan’s Middlesex team-mate Nick Gubbins, who made 73 against India A, might be a contender as the summer wears on.Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings run between the wickets•AFP

Allrounders
Injury kept Ben Stokes out of England’s last Test, and he will miss the second match of the India series due to his impending court appearance, but he is a default pick at No. 6 and proved his bowling is in good order by taking 8 for 118 in Durham’s Championship match this week. If England stick with the blueprint used against Pakistan, Stokes will have Jonny Bairstow above him and Jos Buttler below. While it might make sense to give the gloves to the man lower down, Bairstow has been bullish about his ability to keep and bat at No. 5, while Buttler seemed to thrive on the freedom of coming in lower down, and has so far managed to maintain the purple patch of form that caught Smith’s eye during the IPL. Sam Curran, the debutant who came in for Stokes against Pakistan, could also be included with an eye towards Lord’s.Seam
Although the senior new-ball pair of James Anderson and Stuart Broad have been managing injuries over the last few weeks, both seemed to come through Championship games – for Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, respectively – without any issues. The same can’t be said for Mark Wood, who bowled only six overs at Cheltenham before complaining of pain in his heel; he went for a scan on Tuesday, with Durham coach Jon Lewis saying “it could be something and nothing”, but England may not want to risk him. Chris Woakes, the third seamer at Headingley, subsequently missed six weeks with a thigh problem and only managed match figures of 2 for 139 for Warwickshire over the past few days at Lord’s, but a record of 46 wickets at 23.76 in home Tests stands in his favour. Other candidates might include Jake Ball, who played his last Test during the winter’s Ashes; Essex’s Jamie Porter, the leading wicket-taker in the Championship last season; Somerset’s Overton twins, with the oft-injured Jamie showcasing some impressive pace in their ongoing match at New Road; and even Matt Fisher, Yorkshire’s former England U-19 who was part of the Lions team that thrashed India A by 253 runs.Positive spin: Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid impressed in the opening match against Australia•Getty Images

Spin
If Smith wants to roll the dice, then this is perhaps the most likely department for a gamble. Talk swirled last week about a possible recall for Adil Rashid – after he left Virat Kohli goggling at a sharp-turning legbreak during the third ODI – but he has not played a first-class game since September, and Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale said on Tuesday there had been no signs of Rashid pushing for a comeback. Bess impressed with his all-round ability against Pakistan, but was left out this week by Somerset in favour of Jack Leach, whose broken thumb initially gave Bess a shot with England. Left-armer Leach might offer a more probing line of attack against India’s battery of right-hand batsmen, and if England want an offspin option as well, that could open up a way back for Moeen Ali. Dropped for Leach in New Zealand, Moeen seems to have rediscovered his bowling confidence with England’s white-ball teams, and this week claimed 8 for 170 against Somerset – including his first Championship five-for since 2013. India, against whom he took 19 wickets at 23.00 in 2014, would surely be wary of a repeat.