If Afghanistan got to play more Test cricket, you’d see them rise as quickly in that format as they have in the others. This was the line of thinking their coach Jonathan Trott presented after their first Test against Sri Lanka, which Afghanistan lost by ten wickets but dominated portions of. In any case, Afghanistan have won three of their first eight Tests, which, going by how other sides have…
India rode on individual brilliance to level the series against England in Visakhapatnam. Yashasvi Jaiswal made a double-century in the first innings, but the next highest score was only 34. Jasprit Bumrah blew England away with reverse swing even as the spinners were struggling to make headway. Then Shubman Gill broke out of a poor run of form to score a century in the third innings, but once again the…
Essex have re-signed Daniel Sams, the Australia allrounder, for this year’s Vitality T20 Blast. He is expected to be available for the first block of eight games between May and June. Sams, 31, will be returning to Chelmsford for the third summer in a row, having won the Blast MVP award while helping Essex to finish as runners-up last season. “We’re obviously delighted to have re-signed Daniel for the Blast…
Kishan was with India’s T20I squad in South Africa in December 2023 but did not play any of the three games. He was India’s Test wicketkeeper on their tour of the Caribbean in July, but was not considered for this series, or the previous one in South Africa, because he had requested the BCCI for some time off. His last competitive game was in the T20I series against Australia at…
Stumps New South Wales 251 and 77 for 1 (Nikitaras 39*, Hughes 27*, Rocchiccioli 1-39) trail Western Australia 256 and 176 (Bancroft 36, Green 6-83, Hatcher 2-26, Tremain 2-28) by 105 runs Offspinner Chris Green starred on the pace-friendly WACA ground with a six-wicket haul on day three as New South Wales closed in on a pivotal Sheffield Shield victory over defending champions Western Australia. Chasing 182, after bowling out…
It proved to be the case, but Ben Stokes says at no point did his side believe their lofty fourth-innings target in the second Test against India was too many. Still needing 332 of the 399 set by the hosts, captain Stokes and his team began the fourth day in Visakhapatnam with the trademark self-belief that is a lynchpin of their Bazball ethos. “Coming into this last innings we had…
Again fit and firing, and coming off an eye-catching year where he enjoyed a breakout IPL season, left-arm quick Jason Behrendorff hopes his success on slower surfaces will prove alluring as the national hierarchy contemplate Australia’s squad for the T20 World Cup. Behrendorff will be pushing his selection case in the upcoming three-match T20I series against West Indies starting on Friday in Hobart. He is one of four quicks in…
Shubman Gill has admitted to feeling nervous and under pressure going into the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam where he scored 34 in the first innings – India’s second-highest score – and, more crucially, 104 in the second innings to help set a match-winning target of 398. “I’ll sum it up in one line. My heartbeat playing the first ball and the last ball was the same throughout the…
India drew level in the five-match series with a 107-run win over England in Visakhapatnam, but the batting performance remains an area of concern. Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a double-century in the first innings and Shubman Gill hit a hundred under pressure in the second, but no other batter could get a big score. Captain Rohit Sharma said that is something the team needs to look at, while also pointing out…
Jasprit Bumrah finished the Visakhapatnam Test against England with nine wickets – 6 for 45 and 3 for 46 – to help India draw level at 1-1 in the series. The highlight of his performance was the yorker that swung into Ollie Pope and uprooted his middle and leg stumps in the first innings. “As a youngster that [the yorker] is probably the first delivery I had learned because I…