Month: November 2024

The return of Xavier Bartlett will be a welcome sight for the national hierarchy hoping to shore up fast bowling depth with a gruelling Border-Gavaskar Trophy set to test the fitness of Australia’s frontline quicks. Bartlett has not been sighted in domestic cricket so far this season after a side strain cut short his white-ball tour of the UK in September. He has recently returned to local cricket in Brisbane…

It remains to be seen whether Australia will play any bilateral cricket against Afghanistan in the future after signing a partnership agreement with global children’s charity UNICEF Australia to promote the foundation’s ‘Until Every Girl Can Play’ campaign aimed at gender equality. CA will hold fundraisers for UNICEF Australia at the upcoming Perth Test and the women’s Ashes Test at the MCG in January having been particularly vocal on not…

Wanindu Hasaranga has been ruled out of the ODI series against New Zealand, having sustained an injury to his left hamstring while bowling, in the second T20I, on Sunday. Hasaranga was seen hobbling through his later overs, and was also limping between the wickets while running. He has been replaced in the ODI squad by Dushan Hemantha, another legspin-bowling allrounder. Hemantha has played five ODIs and has recently been among…

India fast bowler Mohammed Shami is set to return to action after nearly a year after being named in Bengal’s squad for their next Ranji Trophy fixture starting November 13. Bengal will take on Madhya Pradesh in Indore, where Shami will play his first game since the ODI World Cup final against Australia in Ahmedabad last year. Shami’s fitness was being closely watched in the lead up to the Border-Gavaskar…

Cricket Australia’s CEO Nick Hockley has defended the selectors’ decision to rest Australia’s Test players from the series-deciding ODI loss to Pakistan in Perth, but has revealed that CA is looking closely at the travel schedule for next summer’s white-ball series against India prior to Ashes to try and ensure Australia can field its best XI more often. CA and Australia’s selectors have faced some public criticism in the aftermath…

A series of broken fingers meant he had been short of cricket, so a 20-year-old Mousley approached a coach at the Warwickshire Academy with connections to Sri Lanka and asked if he could get a game. A few weeks later he was off to Colombo. Mousley has never been one to do things the usual way. A point he is now proving with his one-of-a-kind “offspin”. Related Jafer Chohan leaves…

Lockie Ferguson will be flying back to New Zealand after picking up a calf injury in their series-levelling T20I victory over Sri Lanka on Sunday. The 33-year-old fast bowler has been ruled out of the ODI leg of the tour which begins with the first of three matches on November 13. Ferguson was only just returning from injury – a different one, right hamstring – and was heavily involved in…

Jafer Chohan, the Yorkshire legspinner, is to return home from England’s white-ball tour of the Caribbean before he has had a chance to make his international debut, with the team management choosing instead to manage his workload ahead of the forthcoming Lions tour of South Africa. Chohan, 22, made history last month when he became the first graduate of the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA) to be named in an…

Danni Wyatt-Hodge will play for Surrey in the new Women’s Tier 1 county competition next season, after transferring her allegiance from Hampshire-based Southern Vipers. Wyatt-Hodge, 33, is currently in action for Hobart Hurricanes in the Women’s Big Bash League, having recently featured in England’s T20 World Cup campaign in the UAE. Last summer, she represented Southern Vipers in the Charlotte Edwards Cup and Rachel Heyhoe-Flint Trophy, as well as Southern…

Marizanne Kapp and Ayabonga Khaka will be rested for the home T20I series against England as South Africa look to expand their short-format player pool. They have recalled medium-pacer Eliz-Mari Marx, who was the joint-leading wicket-taker in the CSA Women’s Pro20 series, and allrounder Nondumiso Shangase. Kapp and Khaka will return for the three-match ODI series which follows. South Africa’s T20 squad will also be without wicketkeeper-batter Mieke de Ridder…