Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins kinda sorta sparkled in their freshly pressed Test whites on Thursday morning. Swap the green grass for a catwalk and Perth for Paris – the picture would’ve been complete. A photo op with the Border-Gavaskar trophy brought two of the world’s leading fast bowlers together and over the next few days they will determine the course of the cricket. Captaincy has usually been the domain…
On the eve of the first Test, as he went about various media duties, Australia captain Pat Cummins appeared extremely relaxed and seemingly sported a permanent smile. He seems to have good reason to feel at ease. While much of the focus ahead of the series has been on the uncertainty over India’s line-up, Australia’s XI has been settled ever since uncapped Nathan McSweeney won the race to partner Usman…
Richard Thompson, the ECB’s chair, has revealed a target to raise at least £350 million in the Hundred’s sales process – a target that he believes the board will surpass “comfortably” when deals are signed off early next year. The private equity group Bridgepoint made a lucrative offer to buy a majority stake in the whole competition two years ago, which was turned down due to the ECB’s desire to…
Newly-appointed Pakistan white-ball coach Aaqib Javed‘ primary focus during his interim stint will be ODI cricket and the Champions Trophy, and he wants to test the bench strength in the shortest format. Aaqib, who will serve in the role until the end of the Champions Trophy next year, will fly out to Zimbabwe for his first assignment later this week – three ODIs and three T20Is starring November 24. “Our…
Speaking in the lead-up to Sunday’s first T20I against World Cup runners-up South Africa in East London, Wyatt-Hodge insisted that England had not “become a bad side in eight overs”, after an error-strewn performance in the field had allowed West Indies’ Hayley Matthews and Qiana Joseph to romp to fast-paced fifties, en route to a place in the semi-finals at England’s expense. England’s poor performance drew an unprecedented reaction in…
A total of 37 teams have learned their paths in the new Vitality T20 Women’s County Cup competition starting in England and Wales next year. The knockout competition will take place across May, involving sides from all three tiers of domestic women’s cricket and using the Bank Holidays at the beginning and end of the month to decide the first domestic silverware of 2025. In the first year of a…
India allrounder Hardik Pandya is back on top of the T20I allrounders list in the ICC rankings, while Tilak Varma has broken into the top 10 among batters for the first time. Hardik displaced England’s Liam Livingstone at the top and also overtook Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee after he picked up two wickets and scored 18, 39 not out and 2 in the T20Is against South Africa. His top performance…
Sydney Thunder 112 for 6 (Wilson 33, Learoyd 31*, Kapp 3-20) beat Melbourne Stars 108 for 9 (Darlington 3-26) by four wickets Sydney Thunder are one win away from their third WBBL grand final, after scratching home to a tense final-over victory against Melbourne Stars. After Hannah Darlington starred with the ball to keep the last-placed Stars to 108 for 9, she was forced to hit the winning runs late…
Paige Scholfield will leave England’s tour of South Africa before it’s begun after she was injured in training. Scholfield hurt her ankle during training on Tuesday and, following further assessment on Wednesday morning, withdrew from the T20I squad to return to the UK and begin her rehabilitation. She was one of two changes made to England’s T20I squad which exited last month’s World Cup in the group stages, brought in…
Keep an eye out on Nitish Kumar Reddy this series, says Morne Morkel. India’s bowling coach is hopeful that the bowling attack they have brought over can cause problems with conditions in Perth. Morkel has had his work cut out over the recent few days, overseeing a set of bowlers who haven’t had a lot of experience playing Test cricket. India’s stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah and his usual new-ball companion…