6:32 PM IST Matt Roller Close Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98 Joe Root has told Ben Stokes to “do it your way” as he captains England for the first time against West Indies on Wednesday. Root will miss a Test match this week for the first time since 2014 to attend the birth of his second child, with Stokes taking the reins instead….
Fantasy Picks: Bank on Stokes and Holder to deliver (6:54) Daren Ganga joins Nikhil Naz to pick a fantasy team for the first England-West Indies Test in Southampton (6:54) 5:38 PM IST England v West Indies, First Test in Southampton Our XI: Kraigg Braithwaite, Rory Burns, Shai Hope, Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Jason Holder, Dom Bess, Kemar Roach, Alzarri Joseph, James Anderson NOTE: We might not always…
5:08 PM IST ESPNcricinfo staff Chris Green, the offspinning allrounder from Australia, has been withdrawn from the Birmingham Bears squad for this year’s T20 Blast due to the coronavirus pandemic, further reducing overseas participation in the competition. Green was set to captain the Bears, but in his absence, Will Rhodes, already captain of Warwickshire County Club’s first-class and List-A teams, will take up the mantle. Green, the most economical T20…
1:17 PM IST Press Trust of India Punjab Police arrested alleged bookmaker Ravinder Dandiwal on Monday in connection with a recent T20 match played in Mohali but streamed online as a game hosted in Sri Lanka. The game, held in June, had caught the attention of BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), the police and Sri Lanka Cricket. “Ravinder Dandiwal, who has emerged kingpin in the entire racket, was arrested on Monday,”…
9:32 AM IST Australia’s leading spin bowling mentor, Craig Howard, has argued that the exit of the Dukes ball from Sheffield Shield matches cannot be the only fix if the game’s decision makers are serious about encouraging the use and development of spin bowlers in domestic ranks. Rather than focusing on the type of ball, as was the case with Cricket Australia’s announcement last week that the Kookaburra ball would…
Phil Simmons, West Indies’ head coach © PA Images via Getty Images Phil Simmons, West Indies’ head coach, has said that his players will decide by Monday night whether to take a knee in support of Black Lives Matter before the start of the first Test against England, but stressed that the issues that have been brought to prominence by the global movement were ones that “motivate us all the…
10:47 PM IST The outline for the county season will be decided on Tuesday following a vote by the chairs of the first-class counties. With all clubs agreed that the T20 Blast should feature, the choice facing the counties is whether to start the season with a first-class or List A competition. As things stand, it seems the first-class competition will narrowly win the vote. That will mean the counties…
Sibley explains his ‘wake-up call’ to improve fitness (1:06) England’s Dom Sibley recalls the moment he realised it was time to improve his fitness (1:06) 10:29 PM IST Dom Sibley has admitted he became “self-conscious” about his weight and fitness after seeing more experienced members of the England squad training. Sibley, the England opening batsman, has emerged from lockdown having shed around 12kg – more than 26lbs – through improved…
Mohammad Nabi’s presence at Zouks will help fill the void created by Chris Gayle pulling out 8:59 PM IST Deivarayan Muthu Afghanistan allrounder Mohammad Nabi, Nepal legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane, and Australian batsman Ben Dunk headlined the CPL 2020 draft that was held virtually on June 24. All three players fetched deals worth USD 130,000 each, with Nabi being the first pick in the draft. The CPL is scheduled to be…
9:00 PM IST ESPNcricinfo staff England have confirmed Emirates Old Trafford and the Ageas Bowl as the venues for fixtures against Ireland and Pakistan this summer. Ireland will visit later this month for three ODIs, while Pakistan have already arrived in the country ahead of Test and T20I series. The ECB has been working to salvage as much of its home international programme as possible after the Covid-19 shutdown, and…