Toss India opt to bat vs Afghanistan The series in the bag already, India decided to challenge themselves by batting first in Bengaluru, a venue notorious for helping out chasing sides in the night. India made three changes to their side, giving out opportunities to Sanju Samson and Avesh Khan, and also going an allrounder light and bringing in the more attacking spinner, Kuldeep Yadav. Jitesh Sharma, Axar Patel and…
Sikandar Raza, Zimbabwe’s captain and premier allrounder, has agreed to join Northamptonshire for the 2024 Vitality Blast. Raza, 37, is currently ranked as the fifth-best allrounder in T20I cricket, and recently became the first player in the format’s history to score five consecutive half-centuries. He has been nominated as the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year. Raza has made more than 200 T20 appearances in his professional career, including…
“I’ll remember this for the rest of my life” – Shamar Joseph said of the wicket • AFP/Getty Images There are dream debuts, and then there is Shamar Joseph‘s debut. To begin with, he became the first ever from his tiny village of Baracara in Guyana – the place has a measly population of 350 – to represent West Indies in a Test during the first Test against Australia in Adelaide. Then…
The 2022-23 season was not a great summer for Finn Allen. At the start of the season, he had a disappointing 2022 T20 World Cup by managing just 95 runs in five innings. He then lasted more than 20 balls only once in the remaining five T20Is that summer and his ODI form also lost sheen after a glittering start. A year later, he didn’t get a ticket for the…
Shamar Joseph, the West Indies fast bowler with just five first-class matches under his belt, made a remarkable start to his Test career when he removed Steven Smith with his first ball during West Indies’ first Test against Australia in Adelaide. Joseph, 24, had already made an impression on the opening day in Adelaide when he struck 36 in a last-wicket stand of 55 with Kemar Roach. But it was…
Australia’s reserve batter Matt Renshaw will be released to play in the BBL qualifier for Brisbane Heat against Sydney Sixers on Friday night on the Gold Coast, which leaves Australia’s Test team without a concussion replacement for 24 hours if a batter were to suffer a head knock against West Indies on day three of the Adelaide Test. Renshaw was selected as the only spare batter in Australia’s 13-man squad…
Laurie Evans is the fastest-scoring batter in the Big Bash League this season and blitzed 72 off 34 balls in Perth Scorchers’ final-ball defeat to Sydney Sixers on Tuesday, their final game of the regular home-and-away portion. But when Scorchers face Adelaide Strikers in Saturday’s Eliminator, he will be 9,000km away in Abu Dhabi. Evans is one of seven players who will miss the BBL’s knockout stages in order to…
Toss Pakistan chose to bowl vs New Zealand Pakistan captain Shaheen Shah Afridi won his third toss in a row in the T20I series and again opted to bowl, with hopes of keeping the series alive. Like they had announced on the eve of the game, they made three changes to their XI with Mohammad Wasim, Mohammad Nawaz and Zaman Khan coming in for Abbas Afridi, Usama Mir and Aamer…
Toss Australia chose to bowl against West Indies Pat Cummins has become just the second captain since 1992 to send a side in after winning the toss at Adelaide Oval as Australia hope to exploit cool, overcast conditions and a lively-looking surface. There was an audible gasp of surprise from the crowd after Cummins announced over the loudspeaker that he wanted to bowl first against a West Indies top six…
Zimbabwe allrounder Luke Jongwe had Angelo Mathews wallpaper when he was younger (whether this was a physical poster or the background screen on a device wasn’t clear). Mathews was also Jongwe’s social media profile picture for a while. So what did Jongwe do to thank Mathews for the years of inspiration? He smashed him for six, four, six in the deciding over of a T20I in Mathews’ comeback series, of…