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“Rizwan, Haris, Irfan and Azam are part of the squad because we hope they will be fit for the Ireland series,” Wahab Riaz says

Danyal Rasool02-May-2024Usama Mir and Zaman Khan have missed out on selection for Pakistan’s upcoming T20I series against Ireland and England, while Hasan Ali, who had last played a T20I in 2022, has been called up to the squad. Haris Rauf, who was injured during the PSL, has also been included, even as Agha Salman also returns.The squad, which was announced in a press conference conducted by three members of the selection panel, also sees the return of Mohammad Rizwan, Azam Khan and Irfan Khan, who were ruled out of last month’s series against New Zealand with injuries. However, there is no guarantee yet that the trio – or even Rauf – has yet made a full recovery, with selector Wahab Riaz expressing cautious optimism over their involvement.”Rizwan, Haris, Irfan and Azam are being assessed,” he said. “There is a significant improvement in their fitness. They’re part of the squad because we hope they will be fit for the Ireland series.”Related

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Pakistan’s squad largely consolidates the group named for the home T20Is against New Zealand, with Usman Khan, Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim keeping their places. Despite late speculation around the potential return of Aamer Jamal, the allrounder does not make the cut, while the freezing out of hard-hitting top-order batter Mohammad Haris also continues.Hasan, who like Jamal is currently playing county cricket for Warwickshire, had his selection attributed by the PCB more to his experience and ICC tournament pedigree rather than current form. Hasan did enjoy a stellar PSL this year with Karachi Kings, for whom he took 14 wickets at an economy of 8.26, but was still not selected for the New Zealand series.His selection appears to be based around belief in his ability beyond just hard numbers, and an opportunity to assess him in Ireland and England before this 18-man squad is whittled down to 15 for the T20 World Cup.Pakistan play three T20Is against Ireland starting May 10, before playing four games against England. The deadline to announce the squad for the T20 World Cup (May 25) is after they play the first T20I against England (May 22).

Pakistan squad for Ireland and England T20Is

Babar Azam (capt), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan

Centurion Travis Head says he felt like the short-ball barrage got him into his innings

Alex Malcolm18-Jan-2024West Indies coach Andre Coley says it has been a pretty steep learning curve for some of his batters against Australia’s attack, but he believes they are still in the game despite staring down the barrel of a heavy defeat on a challenging pitch in Adelaide.A spectacular century from Travis Head looms as the difference between the two sides as Australia posted a first-innings lead of 95, which was set to be a lot less after Shamar Joseph took five wickets on debut to put the hosts under extreme pressure. But all that pressure evaporated when Josh Hazlewood ripped through West Indies’ top order again to claim 4 for 2 at one stage and have West Indies reeling at 19 for 4. They lost two more to be six down at stumps still 22 behind Australia.Despite 26 wickets falling in two days, Coley did not think the pitch was overly challenging for the batters and instead lamented his side’s decision-making despite showing good intent.Related

• Brathwaite: Shamar Joseph 'gave a lot of confidence to the team'

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“The learning curve has been pretty steep for some of them,” Coley said after play on day two. “But if they were to sit back and some of the feedback has been, it hasn’t been tremendously difficult. It has been testing.”I think the challenge has pretty much been the consistency of the bowlers, obviously a wealth of experience in that Australian bowling attack, so their ability to stay patient, and there were times our batters played quite well.”Our intent to score has always been evident but that has to be matched with decision-making here and with a lot more bounce potentially, the ability to leave the ball more consistently has to be part of your repertoire and your approach. Generally, I thought that our intent was pretty good. Our decision-making was questionable on occasions.”Coley was not critical of his bowler’s decision-making to bowl short to Head earlier in the day despite five of Australia’s top seven being dismissed nicking fuller lengths.”Originally, the plan to Head was pretty much go short at him upfront, and then plan B was pretty much a comeback into him, shut him down, which we did most of the time,” Coley said. “But by the time he was set, the bowlers jaded. But I thought we stuck to the plans as best as we could, and generally, that worked well.”Travis Head hit 119 off just 134 ballshere”•CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Head said he felt like the short-ball barrage got him into his innings having not received much of it during the Pakistan series, where they instead tested his patience on the front foot and wide of off stump with good success.”I felt like I started well,” Head said. “Obviously, the short pitch stuff, which is what I faced in England, first look at it in Australia where the ball is more consistent, bounces a bit quicker.”I felt I made really good decisions around that. Swayed out of the way of a few and played a few.”It sort of got me in the innings a little bit.”Head was very impressed by the performance of Shamar Joseph who finished with 5 for 94.”Very good,” Head said. “I think you’ve seen with the quality of our three fast bowlers when they come in, they’re aggressive, they’ve got a fast bouncer, they’re aggressive on the stumps. And he’s got all of that. And he’s young. I thought he was very good. We’ll play him a lot over the next period.”Coley said Shamar Joseph had delivered exactly what they expected after he had performed so well on the West Indies A tour of South Africa.”What you see is what you get,” Coley said. “We took him to South Africa earlier. We knew he was inexperienced, but he had pace. He had a natural ability to work to a plan and be consistent with discipline around it. And he’s done that. On the back of that A tour he was fantastic. He got the most wickets on that tour and he showed what he’s capable of in his first Test match.”Coley said his young players can only get better at Test level with more Test cricket and exposure to high-quality teams like Australia. But he said the lack of fixtures coming up is concerning and will make it harder to keep players committed to red-ball cricket given the amount of franchise opportunities on offer.”The challenge really is the number of Tests that we do play,” Coley said. “Generally, outside of a Test series against England, we generally play two-Test match series. And then if you look at how our schedule is set up over the next two years, in some instances Test series is six months apart. There’s not a lot in between. So it’s really about us trying to fill the gap in some instances where we can, maybe with other bilateral tours or potentially looking to fit in A team tours that could help to improve that exposure or increase the exposure that the players have.”Our situation is that financially we aren’t secure enough to be able to offer substantial central contracts and that is always going to be a challenge for us. And what we have tried to do in the last maybe six or 12 months is really have more conversations with the players to be able to work out windows where we can have our best players available. But I believe this is something that is widespread already and will become more of a challenge. But more so for countries who potentially aren’t financially viable and don’t play a lot of Test cricket.”

Nuwanidu Fernando and Jeffrey Vandersay have also been left out

Madushka Balasuriya08-Feb-2024Former captain Dasun Shanaka has been left out of Sri Lanka’s 16-member ODI squad to face Afghanistan. Shanaka’s is one of three omissions from the squad that was named for the series against Zimbabwe last month.Attacking middle-order batter Nuwanidu Fernando and legpsinner Jeffrey Vandersay are the other two to miss out, with allrounder Chamika Karunaratne and opening batter Shevon Daniel coming in.Shanaka’s removal from the one-day side does not come as a surprise, given his poor form in the format – his last 21 innings, stretching back to January 2023, have brought him just one half-century and an average of 12.25.He had been removed as white-ball captain ahead of the Zimbabwe series but had retained a place in the playing XI – he was dropped for the third ODI following scores of 8 and 7 in the first two games.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Karunaratne, who will likely be his direct replacement, last played for Sri Lanka at the World Cup in October-November. While he doesn’t possess Shanaka’s ceiling as a power-hitter – attested to by strike rates of 78.43 and 106.20 in ODIs and T20Is respectively – his bowling has proved effective in both white-ball formats.Both Fernando and Vandersay, however, might have legitimate grievances after being left out. Fernando did not play a single game against Zimbabwe, while Vandersay picked up respectable figures of 2 for 47 in the only game he got to bowl in during that series.The rest of the squad fills out as expected. Kusal Mendis heads a strong batting unit that includes Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Janith Liyanage – Player of the Series against Zimbabwe – opener Daniel and allrounder Sahan Arachchige.On the bowling front, Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana head a spin department that also includes Akila Dananjaya and allrounders Dunith Wellalage and Arachchige. Dushmantha Chameera, Dilshan Madushanka, Pramod Madushan and Karunaratne round out the seam-bowling unit.

Sri Lanka squad for ODI series against Afghanistan

Kusal Mendis (capt), Charith Asalanka, Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Sahan Arachchige, Shevon Daniel, Janith Liyanage, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushmantha Chameera, Dunith Wellalage, Pramod Madushan, Akila Dananjaya, Wanindu Hasaranga

SLC comes to an understanding with the country’s sports ministry over a dispute surrounding the restructuring of the domestic tournaments

Madushka Balasuriya21-Sep-2023Sri Lanka Cricket has resumed its domestic cricket season, which was halted nearly three weeks ago, after coming to an understanding with the country’s sports ministry over a dispute surrounding the restructuring of the domestic tournaments. As such the Major Club three-day tournament and the Tier B Club three-day tournament will resume on Friday, September 22.”Consent was given by the Ministry of Sports and Youth, subsequent to a meeting held between Sri Lanka Cricket and the Ministry of Sports,” an SLC media release stated. “Following the meeting, in a letter addressed to Sri Lanka Cricket, the Ministry of Sports and Youth further clarified the direction given by the Director General of Sports pertaining to the ratification of an appeal advisory committee decision by the Hon. Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, which resulted in domestic cricket tournaments being halted, until further clarification was sought on the matter.”While the exact contents of the meeting haven’t been disclosed, ESPNcricinfo understands that the ministry had agreed to abide by the Court of Appeal’s decision to allow the tournament to continue uninterrupted until a decision is taken in the case of Gesto Cricket Club (GCC) versus SLC.The case, which had seen GCC argue against a decision taken at an SLC Emergency General Meeting to change the tournament structure, is due to be taken up again on September 26.Sri Lanka’s sports ministry had become involved in the matter after GCC, unhappy with the court’s decision to allow the tournament to continue while the case was being heard, had appealed to the sports ministry directly.This led to a dispute between SLC and the sports ministry, in which the latter claimed that any change to the structure of a tournament would need to be done via a change to the SLC constitution, itself something that could only be made through with the approval of the sports ministry.SLC however argued that, after it had written to and not received a response from the sports minister regarding the proposed changes, it had gone ahead with it regardless as it had been voted for by the SLC membership. This view was bolstered by the fact that change in structure itself was to one that had been in place for several years prior – as such SLC believed it was reasonable to assume that this would not be an issue. Aside from that, there is also disagreement in some quarters over whether in fact a change to tournament structure requires the explicit approval of the sports ministry.

Given MI Cape Town’s strong bowling attack, Potgieter was not expecting to get a bowl

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jan-2025Allrounder Delano Potgieter did not think he would be part of MI Cape Town’s (MICT) bowling attack on the opening day of SA20 2025. Yet, he was at the front and centre with his seam bowling, helping his team hand two-time defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape a 97-run drubbing in Gqeberha. That was in part because his “phenomenal captain” Rashid Khan backed him with the ball, a trust he repaid with a five-for.”Everyone’s got different plans, for different venues and all of that,” Potgieter said. “We have an amazing bowling line-up: KG [Rabada], Trent [Boult], Boschy [Corbin Bosch], with the spinners George [Linde] and Rash [Rashid]. They bowl the bulk of the overs. So there was no need for me to bowl. And, yeah, the captain threw me the ball tonight and I was extremely happy about it, and it turned out perfectly.”Earlier in the day, Potgieter had scored an unbeaten 25 off 12 balls to lift MICT to 174 for 7. In the second half of the game, coming in as the sixth bowler, he took 5 for 10 from three overs to give MICT their first win against Sunrisers in five outings.”I also looked at that stat this morning,” Potgieter said. “It’s only the first game of the tournament but it’s nice to start off with the win.”Before Thursday, Potgieter had 34 wickets in 64 T20 games. But this was the first time he was bowling for MICT across 12 matches in three seasons of the SA20.”I couldn’t ask for a better day for it,” he said. “It happened so quickly. I was standing at the top of my mark, and I just said, ‘I’m just going to try to hit the top of the stumps,’ and fortunate enough for me, it worked out perfectly.”

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.