Month: November 2020

No idea why Rohit wasn’t on the flight to Australia – Kohli (2:15) The India captain on the lack of clarity regarding Rohit Sharma’s fitness and availability (2:15) 7:24 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Hours after India captain Virat Kohli revealed the team management was confounded by the absence of both Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma in Australia, the BCCI sent out a media release Thursday midnight, stating that the batsman…

T Natarajan’s long journey to IPL stardom (4:37) How the Sunrisers quick became an overnight sensation, got released, and plotted a steady path back (4:37) 6:51 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff T Natarajan, the Tamil Nadu and Sunrisers Hyderabad left-arm seamer, has been added to India’s ODI squad, just hours before the series opener, as cover for Navdeep Saini. According to a BCCI media release, Saini had complained of “back spasm.”…

5:28 PM GMT Results Summary The defending champions, the Lions, registered their first win of this season’s competition by chasing down a record total against the Knights at the Wanderers. Their 336 for 6 beats the previous best, 310 for 8 by Australia in the 2011/12 season, and finished off a remarkable comeback for the hosts, who were behind by 98 runs in the first innings. The Knights were kept…

4:17 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff India captain Virat Kohli has questioned the ICC for altering the points system of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC), saying the change is “confusing” and the governing body has a lot to explain. India slipped to the second in the WTC standings after the ICC decided last week to rank teams “in order of percentage of points earned” from the contested matches. Australia (296…

No idea why Rohit wasn’t on the flight to Australia – Kohli (2:15) The India captain on the lack of clarity regarding Rohit Sharma’s fitness and availability (2:15) 3:11 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff India will look to play the younger members of their squad throughout the Australia tour, their captain, Virat Kohli, said on the eve of the first ODI. India will be playing three ODIs, three T20Is and four…

3:09 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Pakistan Cricket Board CEO Wasim Khan was told by the New Zealand government that one more breach of New Zealand’s Covid-19 protocols by the Pakistan squad would result in the entire travelling party being deported. In a WhatsApp voice message to the travelling players which ESPNcricinfo has obtained, the PCB CEO addressed his players candidly, telling them being sent back home would be “hugely embarrassing”….

1:43 PM GMT Indian captain Virat Kohli has admitted that the entire episode surrounding Rohit Sharma‘s injury has been “very confusing”, exacerbated by a “lot of uncertainty and lack of clarity”. Speaking on the eve of India’s ODI series opener against Australia, Kohli said that ideally both Rohit and fast bowler Ishant Sharma should have been in Australia to complete recovery from their respective injuries which would have allowed them…

1:18 PM GMT The risk of matches being cancelled if a squad returns too many cases of Covid-19 remains real as the South African summer gets underway on Friday. The hosts have already been hit with two positive tests and have since been tested twice more, including a final round on Thursday morning. Their third test run revealed no new cases. Asked what would happen if the pre-match tests showed…

1:04 PM GMT Eoin Morgan has welcomed the prospect of picking from a full complement of England T20I players for arguably the first time in more than a year, but admitted he is no closer to knowing what his best XI should be, given the extraordinary wealth of options at the squad’s disposal. Speaking on the eve of the first T20I in Cape Town, Morgan said he was anticipating an…