Month: December 2018

12:33 AM ET Sunil Gavaskar versus Dennis Lillee. Venkatesh Prasad versus Michael Slater. Andrew Symonds versus Harbhajan Singh. Ricky Ponting versus Zaheer Khan. Gautam Gambhir versus Shane Watson. David Warner versus Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli versus Steven Smith. Australia versus India has become synonymous with individual encounters, many of them ugly ones. The Harbhajan v Symonds narrative overshadowed an entire summer, while Kohli’s verbal and mental duels with Smith in…

11:53 PM ET Australia’s attempt to emulate their Ashes bowling formula from last summer, combined with question marks over a batting line-up shorn of Steven Smith and David Warner, has forced the omission of the vice-captain Mitchell Marsh from the team to face India in the first Test of the summer at a draining Adelaide Oval. Twelve months ago the selectors chose Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan…

3:00 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Mitchell Marsh has been dropped for the first Test against India with Peter Handscomb taking the final batting spot while Marcus Harris has been confirmed for a debut opening the innings. Harris will take his place alongside Aaron Finch with Usman Khawaja batting at No. 3. Australia XI 1 Marcus Harris, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Shaun Marsh, 5 Peter Handscomb, 6 Travis…

3:00 AM ET Jozi Stars 196 for 4 (Hendricks 79, Burger 2-32) beat Cape Town Blitz 146 (J Malan 43, Christian 4-22, Olivier 3-38) by 50 runs Chris Gayle had warned before this game that it was Reeza Hendricks, rather than Gayle himself, who posed the most formidable threat to Cape Town Blitz, and Hendricks proved him right with his fourth successive score of fifty or more in the Mzansi…

1:09 PM ET ESPNcricinfo staff In the absence of the injured Jason Holder, allrounder Rovman Powell will lead West Indies in their ODI leg of the ongoing Bangladesh tour. Batsman Darren Bravo, who had last played an ODI two years ago, T20I captain Carlos Brathwaite and offspin-bowling allrounder Roston Chase all returned to the squad. Squad: Rovman Powell (capt.), Marlon Samuels, Roston Chase, Devendra Bishoo, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Darren…

12:23 PM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Availability of players, and not the venue, will be the key factor ahead of the forthcoming IPL auction, scheduled on December 18. That is is the opinion of Parth Jindal, co-owner of the Daredevils franchise which was renamed Delhi Capitals on Tuesday. IPL 2019 is likely to be advanced, keeping in mind that most international players will have to attend preparatory camps for the World…

10:46 AM ET Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur, the two cricketers at the centre of a raging selection controversy, met in Delhi on Sunday, less than a week after their public feud began. The meeting – in the presence of Vinod Rai, the head of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) – does not, however, appear to have ended the issue: a day after the meeting Harmanpreet sent an e-mail to…

9:59 AM ET Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza has said that he will not be distracted by his election campaign in the lead up to, and during the upcoming ODI series against West Indies. After the three ODI series ends on December 14, Mashrafe is scheduled to contest in the Narail-2 constituency elections in his home district, with the polls scheduled to be held on December 30 Mashrafe said that he…

9:32 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has retired from all cricket, calling time on a career that began in 1999-2000, and has lasted almost two decades. Gambhir’s last appearance for India came in the first Test of the home series against England in late 2016. Overall, he played 58 Tests, scoring 4154 runs, at an average of 41.95, including nine centuries and 22 fifties. He played…

8:16 AM ET Umar FarooqPakistan correspondent, ESPNcricinfo Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print Pakistan allrounder Mohammad Hafeez, 38, will retire from Test cricket after the ongoing third Test against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi, having informed the selectors that he wants to focus on his limited-overs career. More to follow Source: ESPN Crickinfo