After tearing through West Indies with the pink ball under lights, cementing his reputation as a fan favourite, Scott Boland has been assured of a spot in Australia’s star-studded attack for the first Test against South Africa as captain Pat Cummins prepares to return from a quad injury. Playing his first Test match since a starring role in last summer’s Ashes, Boland set the Adelaide Oval alight late on day…
New Zealand have included three players with senior caps – Fran Jonas, Georgia Plimmer and Isabella Gaze – in their squad for the inaugural Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup, which is set to be played in South Africa in January 2023. All three were part of New Zealand’s squad at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year, while Jonas and Plimmer also played in the 2022 ODI World Cup. Left-arm spinner…
South Africa have identified making Steven Smith play at the ball early as the key to keeping Australia’s most prolific batsman quiet in their three-Test series this summer. They are one of the few countries in the world who can claim to have found an answer for Smith through his career ahead of Saturday’s first Test at the Gabba. Smith has made changes in his technique since he last faced…
Ashley Noffke, the former Australia allrounder, has won the race to become women’s head coach at London Spirit in the Hundred for the 2023 season. He was among the contenders to replace Lisa Keightley as England women’s coach and is understood to have been interviewed for that position, but was beaten to it by Jon Lewis, the former Gloucestershire fast bowler. “I am delighted to be appointed as head coach…
Mayank Agarwal isn’t focusing as much on a Test comeback as he is on emulating the kind of Ranji Trophy season he had in 2017-18, when he topped the charts with 1160 runs in 13 innings. Agarwal isn’t part of India’s Test tour of Bangladesh, having endured a slump in form over the past six months. This has coincided with Shubman Gill and Abhimanyu Easwaran doing everything they can to…
Kane Richardson will play county cricket for the first time in 2023 after signing a contract with Kent for the duration of the T20 Blast. Richardson, the death-overs specialist who has been a regular feature of Australia’s white-ball squads, played English domestic cricket for the first time last summer, taking 13 wickets for Birmingham Phoenix in the Hundred. He has not registered for the upcoming IPL auction, having been part…
Harry Brook‘s abundant talent and simple technique mean he could be on track to replicate the worldwide, all-format success enjoyed by Virat Kohli. That is the “massive shout” that Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, made after Brook’s second-innings hundred set up a 26-run win over Pakistan to seal the series with a game to spare in Multan. Brook is only 23 but has been discussed as one of England’s leading…
Ben Stokes said he felt “very honoured and very privileged” to be leading England’s revival, after a 26-run win over Pakistan in Multan gave them the three-match series with a game to spare, and gave his side their first away Test series win under his captaincy. England arrived in Pakistan at the end of last month for their first tour of the country in 17 years having won only two…
Ollie Pope’s diving catch down the leg-side to dismiss Pakistan batter Saud Shakeel cost Pakistan and shouldn’t have been given out, according to Pakistan captain Babar Azam. Speaking after Pakistan succumbed to a 26-run defeat in Multan that confirmed a series loss to England, Babar said it appeared as if the ball had touched the ground “The Shakeel dismissal cost us,” he said. “It looked to us as if the…
Taskin Ahmed reckons the Bangladesh bowlers will have to show patience on what is expected to be a flat batting surface at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, in Chittagong – the venue for the first Test against India. The pitch curator, Praveen Hinganikar, has left a bit of grass on all of the centre surfaces two days out from the Test, but as it was quite evident in the third ODI…