James Anderson is set to miss England’s first Test of the summer against Ireland at Lord’s as he looks to preserve himself for the Ashes series that follows. Anderson is currently recovering from a mild strain of his left groin picked up during Lancashire’s recent County Championship match against Somerset. The 40-year-old picked up the injury on day one, and took no further part in the match. A scan last…
Afghanistan will play all three formats in a bilateral tour of Bangladesh for the first time, when they arrive in Dhaka on June 10. They will play a one-off Test, three ODIs and two T20Is. Their previous visits usually involved playing either white-ball cricket, like last year, or red-ball cricket, like in 2019. The tour, however, will be split into two parts. Afghanistan will play the one-off Test in Dhaka…
Last week, Evans signed a professional contract with Cricket Scotland for the 2023-2024 season. Now he is in line to play his first ODI since October 2021. Related Doug Watson named Scotland’s interim head coach Paul, Motie named in West Indies squad for World Cup Qualifier According to a Cricket Scotland release, “a number of players with county contracts were considered for selection but were unavailable due to their commitments…
Big Picture On Sunday, Royal Challengers Bangalore shook up the standings by crushing Rajasthan Rajasthan Royals by 112 runs. The victory vaulted their net run rate from the depths of -0.344 to a much-safer 0.166. From hell to heaven. They are currently fifth with 12 points – best placed among three other teams with the same points, and hence with the best chance of making the playoffs. While Faf du…
Zak Crawley says he doesn’t care about criticism over his continued selection, after the opener was announced as one of 15 names for the first Test of the summer against Ireland, which takes place on June 1 ahead of the Ashes. While the major talking point was the axing of wicketkeeper Ben Foakes for the returning Jonny Bairstow, an offshoot was the presence of Crawley. Foakes’ omission came after the…
Lucknow Super Giants fast bowler Mohsin Khan dedicated his match-winning performance against Mumbai Indians to his father, who was in hospital until a day before the game on Tuesday. “Sadly, my father was in the hospital, in the ICU, he just got discharged yesterday so I was playing the match for him,” Mohsin said after successfully defending 11 in the final over of the chase. “He was probably watching the…
Lucknow Super Giants 177 for 3 (Stoinis 89*, Krunal 49*, Behrendorff 2-30) beat Mumbai Indians 172 for 5 (Kishan 59, Bishnoi 2-26) by 5 runs Mohsin Khan missed the first half of IPL 2023 with a shoulder injury. In fact, Lucknow Super Giants’ head coach Andy Flower had “written him off” for the season. Still, LSG didn’t release him and bring in a replacement player. On Tuesday night, Mohsin repaid…
The PCB has become the first board to publicly express unhappiness with the proposed ICC revenue distribution model, as revealed by ESPNcricinfo last week. The model is yet to be finalised but is close to what may be a final version. It is supposed to be approved by June, before being formally adopted at the ICC’s AGM in Durban in July. But Najam Sethi, the current PCB head, has said…
Trinbago Knight Riders have appointed former West Indies coach Phil Simmons as their new head coach. He replaces Abhishek Nayar, who is currently the assistant coach for Kolkata Knight Riders. Knight Riders, the most successful team in the history of the Caribbean Premier League with four titles, had finished bottom of the league stage last year and failed to make the playoffs for the first time. Simmons has previous coaching…
Big Picture: Punjab Kings in must-win territory The last time Punjab Kings made the playoffs was in 2014, when they were known as Kings XI Punjab. Since 2015, they have won seven group games out of 14 only twice. This season, the Kings are still in the race for the playoffs, but they have plenty to do to make the climb up from eighth place. They can get to 16…