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Mickey Arthur, who was sacked as Australia’s coach just a fortnight before the Ashes began, has spoken out on how he “lost” Watson and tried to mould the younger players who came with “big egos”

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Aug-2013Mickey Arthur, who was sacked as Australia’s coach just a fortnight before the Ashes began, has spoken out on how he “lost” Shane Watson and tried to mould the younger players who came with “big egos”.The cracks in his relationship with Watson, Arthur said in an interview with the , first appeared on Australia’s tour of India in February this year, which the visitors lost 0-4. The side’s on-field problems were exacerbated when Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja were suspended for the third Test of the series for not completing a team-building assignment.That incident, Arthur said, was a tipping point. “My relationships were outstanding, except with Watson. He was one of the guys I lost. India was where it started going wrong, when we suspended those players.”If I sit back and think, ‘Would I do it [suspend the players] again?’ … well, I probably would. Because I believed so much in what we were trying to do.”Arthur said he was disappointed how “people backtracked” after the players were suspended.”I met with all our staff before I did it and our staff were adamant that was the right way to go. I ended up making those decisions and then ended up bearing the brunt of them,” he said. “I just get annoyed because I put everything into it and I put my head on the line with a lot of big decisions and a lot of the people who were very keen for us to make those decisions then backtracked.”He was forced to take a tough stance, he said, because the team lacked direction and leadership. “I understood that I drive the ship, but the ship needed conscious changes – it needed value changes. We put together this whole values document for all the young players coming into the Australian side. They got a booklet and we told them exactly what the expectations were, because the young guys coming in didn’t know.”They’re good players, they’re not great players. They’re earning obscene amounts of money and they’ve got big egos, but they don’t know the best way to go about it. So we put in these definite guidelines because we had no leaders there.”Despite the sour note on which his tenure ended, and his subsequent severance battle with Cricket Australia – which finished in an out-of-court settlement – Arthur said he was disappointed to see the team being thumped in the Ashes. “I couldn’t imagine waking up and being 0-3 down in the Ashes now. But I don’t get any pleasure out of watching them struggle.”

A spell of 3 for 28 from Sunette Loubser, followed by a fifty from Lizelle Lee powered South Africa Women to an easy six-wicket win over Bangladesh Women in Benoni

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2013
ScorecardAn incisive spell of 3 for 28 from offspinner Sunette Loubser, followed by a patient fifty from opener Lizelle Lee powered South Africa Women to a six-wicket win over Bangladesh Women in Benoni.Loubser took the middle-order wickets of Salma Khatun, Nuzhat Tasnia and Shaila Sharmin during a five-over period that cost only eight runs, to restrict Bangladesh to 149 for 8 in 50 overs. Chasing a low score, Lee hit seven fours during her 130-ball 77, and added 80 for the opening wicket with Trisha Chetty, who made 39, to all but secure the win for the hosts.South Africa, after choosing to bowl, were comfortable throughout the game, and a 108-ball 63 from Fargana Hoque did little to change Bangladesh’s fortunes. They had been put on the back foot in the 11th over, when Ayasha Rahman was run out for 13.Hogue aside, none of the other Bangladesh batters could produce big scores, as tight bowling from South Africa kept the run-rate under three an over to set up an easy chase.Offspinner Khadija Tul Kubra took three wickets for Bangladesh, including that of Lee, but couldn’t prevent defeat, as Alexis le Breton and Dane van Niekerk took South Africa home with 12.1 overs remaining.South Africa captain Mignon du Preez praised the opening pair of Lee and Chetty, who had laid the platform for the victory. “I’m really proud of the way Lizelle batted today,” she said. “It was quite difficult batting upfront and she and Trisha set us up for the target with a good opening partnership. She structured her innings really well and adapted with ease to the conditions. The rest of the batters in the order also chipped in.”The teams will play the second ODI at the Wanderers on Sunday.

Royal Challengers Bangalore are still looking for their first home win of the season against a confident Kolkata Knight Riders side, who toppled Chennai Super Kings in their last outing

The Preview by Nagraj Gollapudi01-May-2015

Match facts

Saturday, May 2, 2015
Start time 1600 local (1030 GMT)1:54

O’Brien: Toss in Bangalore crucial

Big picture

A power-hitting top order in one corner, and an aggressive fast-bowling pack at the other. It is no Floyd Mayweather Jr v Manny Pacquiao boxing fight, billed as the ‘Fight of the Century’, but Royal Challengers Bangalore versus Kolkata Knight Riders has the making of an action-packed afternoon on Saturday if it lives up to expectations.Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, the backbone of their team’s batting, have all been among the runs and have each played a match-winning innings in Royal Challengers’ resurgence that has seen them string together dominant performances in their last three matches, after three successive home defeats. Another important contributing factor has been the cutting edge to the attack provided by World Cup hero Mitchell Starc, who has effortlessly slipped into the role of the leader of the group.These factors make Royal Challengers a slight favourite against defending champions Knight Riders, who endured a painful defeat at home the last time these two teams met. Royal Challengers were staring at defeat at one stage in that match, after their top and middle order had failed, but ultimately finished winners due to Gayle’s patience and calculated assault in the second half of the chase.India fast bowler Umesh Yadav, who did not play that match, will be the key on Saturday along with South African quick Morne Morkel who sat out Knight Riders’ last two matches. The Bangalore pitch has been one of the most responsive wickets for fast bowlers but the Knight Riders would do well to combine aggression with good bowling strategy to stop the reinvigorated Royal Challengers.

Form guide

Royal Challengers Bangalore WWLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Kolkata Knight Riders WLLWW

Watch out for

Gautam Gambhir has hit three fifties this season and remains the lynchpin for Knight Riders. But in the last three matches, he has not had an impact with the bat. But if Gambhir can last beyond the Powerplay, he becomes a dangerous player, especially against the slow bowlers with his ability to pierce gaps and use his feet.Mandeep Singh, the Punjab batsman, has played just one innings of significance this season – the 27 against Rajasthan Royals. But it was a very important innings considering Mandeep’s 74-run partnership for the third wicket with de Villiers set up the platform through which the lower order encashed. But Mandeep has been a disappointment otherwise, scoring just six runs in the two other innings he has played. On Friday afternoon, he had an additional solo session after the team left, getting throwdowns from bowling coach Allan Donald. It will be a test of his character next time he walks in to bat.

Stats and trivia

• Gambhir has made five 50-plus scores against Royal Challengers in the IPL, more than any other player.
• Chinnaswamy stadium is the only venue where fast bowlers have taken two four-wicket hauls this IPL. The seamers have taken taken 29 wickets here, second-most for any venue, just one behind the Wankhede Stadium and Chepauk.

Usman Shuja, 36, who had set the record to become USA’s top wicket-taker in the 50-over format, has announced his retirement from international cricket

Peter Della Penna18-May-2015Usman Shuja, who set the USA record for career wickets in 50-over cricket in October, has announced his retirement from international cricket at age 36. The fast bowler was USA’s leading wicket-taker at ICC WCL Division Three in Malaysia last year, but was not included in USA’s T20 squad for the ICC Americas Division One tournament earlier this month and cited a desire to formally step aside in order to allow younger players to develop.”The team as a whole with the next generation is ready to take over,” Shuja told ESPNcricinfo on Sunday night. “I think I can still help out, but I feel I’ll be more of a hurdle for them to express themselves than to help them. There have also been some huge personal life changes with having a baby last year, a start-up job and having achieved the record, the whole personal element has dropped my motivation quite a bit.”Though Shuja played a series of unofficial games for USA against Cayman Islands in 2003, he made his official USA debut in 2006 against the same team at the ICC Americas Division One tournament, taking 1 for 21. With his 3 for 12 against Bermuda on the first day of play at 2013 WCL Division Three, Shuja surpassed former USA captain Zamin Amin’s mark of 47 wickets that had stood since 2004. He added five more at 2013 WCL Division Three to set the new USA mark of 53 in 35 games at an average of 15.49, comfortably better than Amin’s 22.09 and a better average than anyone else in USA’s top 10.Shuja also took nine wickets in 15 T20 matches for USA with his 4.56 economy rate standing at number one. He credits his father, a former first-class wicketkeeper-batsman for Lahore and PIA in the 1960s, with instilling in him a competitive drive from an early age.”He was very tough,” Shuja said. “If I got one or two wickets he would just shrug it off. He pushed me and helped with the skills. When I was in college at Texas and I was going back to Pakistan every year, he hooked me up with Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis and got me coaching from Waqar and the entire Pakistan team so they could analyse my skill-set. He’s always been supportive because he had played first-class professional cricket in Pakistan. The point is that he was always engaged. Even till now he always knew how many runs I had scored and wickets I had taken every week.”Shuja was controversially dropped ahead of USA’s tour of Bermuda in 2013 for ICC WCL Division Three and said the main reason he didn’t retire then was that he felt strongly that he had more left to contribute to the national team.”I think I was still at the top of my game at that time,” Shuja said. “I felt the drive to play and I also didn’t want to leave when I was dropped. I felt I was dropped unfairly so there was a little bit of unfinished business. Today, I think a few things have changed for me personally and my motivation has gone down quite a bit. The moment I made that decision it was a relief. I’m not willing to put the hard work in to deserve a spot to be able to step on the field now but the feeling of being on the field and the whole preparation to get there, that I’ll still miss.”I will definitely miss just being able to represent the country and playing at the highest level. I’ve always been driven by the competitiveness of the games and also to be able to say I play for the country. Those two things are softer elements but those were the driving factors and I’ll miss that quite a bit. But most importantly is the friendships. I made some really good friends. To be able to go on tours and talk cricket is the thing I’ll miss the most.”The fast bowler says his proudest moment as a member of the USA team was their victory over Nepal in front of a hostile Kathmandu crowd on the final day of round-robin play at 2010 ICC WCL Division Five, a win which secured USA’s promotion to Division Four in Italy. However, Shuja says he laments the fact that USA wasn’t able to produce more meaningful results during a two-year stretch when the core group of players was perhaps more talented than the USA team that reached the Champions Trophy in 2004.”I think it’s a story of missed opportunities,” Shuja said. “The 12 years associated with US cricket, I think we have touched a lot of interesting opportunities where we were under prepared. We had really good teams, really good coaches. Everything just didn’t fit together but there were pieces of it that were there and I genuinely feel that we could have been something like Canada, if not better. It was always an honour to play but there were just a lot of missed opportunities. If we had prepared better, we could have done better especially in the 2010-11 time frame.”I think 2010 was the time when most of the guys were if not at their peak, they were still in their prime or at the tail end of it. They were still pretty good and the team that went to Italy, Nepal, the first UAE trip and even Hong Kong, I think that was a pretty solid team. We just never prepared. We had some missed planning. There was no strategy and things like that. I think we could have done a lot better if there was a little bit of planning and help from the administration.”

Bangladesh, having been comprehensively beaten in all the matches this series, will be desperate to conjure some of the fight they showed against Pakistan and India

The Preview by Mohammad Isam in Mirpur11-Jul-2015

Match facts

Sunday, July 12
Start time 3.00pm local (0900 GMT)1:31

Isam: Bangladesh need senior batsmen to step up

Big picture

Kagiso Rabada lit up a gloomy evening in Mirpur on Friday with a hat-trick in his six-wicket haul on debut. He now holds the record for best bowling figures on ODI debut, and the best ODI bowling figures for a South African. The visiting captain Hashim Amla, while not expecting Rabada to strike another six-for, will want the bowler as well as the rest of the young players to do enough to complete a series win on Sunday.South Africa completed their eight-wicket win through a strong, unbroken 99-run third wicket stand between Rilee Rossouw and Faf du Plessis. Amla later said the pair made a tough situation look easy. South Africa are brutal opponents for lower-ranked sides and Bangladesh are finding that out despite their own recent form.But the home side’s troubles seem more tactical in nature, although captain Mashrafe Mortaza has said that their strategy of using eight batsmen was a confidence issue. For the first time since December 2011, Bangladesh were bowled out for less than 200 when batting first in an ODI. Their batting form was not all that good even in the India series, but they managed to get the job done.South Africa did not give Bangladesh much of a chance to fight back after Rabada’s hat-trick and that is where the home side are behind. South Africa never give up, and in the second ODI, Bangladesh should be be prepared to put up a fight, something they have failed to do in the series so far.

Form guide

Bangladesh: LLWWWSouth Africa: WLWWL

Players to watch

With his team not doing well, much of the focus will be how Mashrafe Mortaza marshals his resources and inspires the group. He also has to bowl well and ensure South Africa do not get away to a quick start.A hat-trick and six-for on ODI debut has made Kagiso Rabada into an overnight sensation. He will be exciting to watch in the second ODI, particularly with the pace he generates off the slow pitches in Mirpur.

Team news

If Bangladesh stick to their eight-batsmen strategy, then there isn’t much need of a change. If they do revert back to five bowlers, either of Arafat Sunny or Rubel Hossain will likely be picked in the XI.Bangladesh (possible) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Litton Das, 4 Mahmudullah, 5 Mushfiqur Rahim, 6 Shakib Al Hasan, 7 Sabbir Rahman, 8 Nasir Hossain, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza 10 Jubair Hossain, 11 Mustafizur RahmanAfter their eight-wicket win, South Africa will look to continue in the same vein, which means changes in the XI are unlikely.South Africa (possible): 1 Hashim Amla (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 Rilee Rossouw, 5 David Miller, 6 JP Duminy 7 Farhaan Behardien, 8 Chris Morris, 9 Kyle Abbott, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Imran Tahir

Pitch and conditions

Rabada said the first ODI wicket looked to have a bit more grass than the T20s. The second ODI wicket too is unlikely have turn and will continue to be a dull surface. Rain has again been forecast, but not in the evening.

Stats and trivia

• Kagiso Rabada became the second bowler after Taijul Islam to take a hat-trick on debut. They both did it at the Shere Bangla National Stadium and both from the same end.
• Shakib Al Hasan is the first batsman to score more than 2,000 runs at the Shere Bangla National Stadium. He reached the mark when he was on 14 in the first ODI.

Quotes

“Against India and Pakistan we played unbelievably well. If we can play like that we can win against South Africa as well. But we haven’t even been within touching distance of those performances or of South Africa. We hope to do much better in the second game.””They are not going to go down without a fight. We know they are going to be up for a good scrap tomorrow [Sunday].”

The BCCI is unlikely to appoint a full-time head coach till the 2016 World Twenty20 in India, though the team director Ravi Shastri and three other members of the coaching staff are all set to receive a two-year contract extension

Amol Karhadkar and Arun Venugopal27-Jun-2015The BCCI is unlikely to appoint a full-time head coach till the 2016 World Twenty20 in India, though the team director Ravi Shastri and three other members of the coaching staff are all set to receive a two-year contract extension.Shastri and the three assistant coaches – Sanjay Bangar (batting), B Arun (bowling) and R Sridhar (fielding) – had already been assured of renewal of their contracts, but the tenure was not agreed upon. After consulting both the India captains -Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni – the BCCI hierarchy is understood to have informed all four members that they will be appointed for a two-year period. The contracts are likely to be handed before India’s expected departure for Zimbabwe on July 6.A BCCI insider revealed the board was satisfied with the current arrangement, as all three assistant coaches have gelled well. While some players had expressed apprehension over some of Bangar’s methods, those issues were sorted out in Bangladesh. The insider added that Shastri “would be the boss”, and said he enjoyed the support of Dhoni and Kohli.Shastri is known to be sharp and direct in his assessment of players’ performances. While he tried to keep the morale high during the defeats against Bangladesh, it is understood he did not hold back whenever he felt a player was not doing well.Dhoni himself had suggested during the Bangladesh series that the team was comfortable with the existing support staff. “If you are indirectly hinting that we need a coach and all that, we have enough people in the support staff to take care of us,” Dhoni said after the second ODI in Bangladesh.”Even if the position of the coach is vacant for some time, it is okay. Don’t put just anybody there just because the post is vacant. Then it will have a bad impact in the long run. It takes time to make these decisions, and our team generally doesn’t have that time because we keep playing non-stop.”

Four wickets from Yasir Arafat helped Hampshire as good as clinch a NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final place with victory over Somerset

ECB/PA23-Jul-2015
ScorecardMichael Carberry was the one batsman to come to terms with conditions•Getty Images

Four wickets from Yasir Arafat helped Hampshire as good as clinch a NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final place with victory over Somerset.Hampshire looked out of the match after posting a well below par 143 for 7 but excellent death bowling from Arafat and spin duo Will Smith and Danny Briggs eased fears of a rare early exit.Barring a truly remarkable win for Glamorgan over Gloucestershire on Friday, and wins for Essex and Sussex, the south coast side will be in the last eight for the seventh year in a row.After electing to bat, Hampshire set off at breakneck speed, with a sumptuous straight drive four from James Vince to get the ball rolling.Michael Carberry continued the onslaught from the other end, pulling six to the short square leg boundary before ferociously landing one into hot water – as he struck the coffee stand.Opener Carberry continued his thumping with a six over the covers as he peppered the minuscule perimeter – reaching his fourth format fifty of the season off 29 balls.It all seemed to be going swimmingly for the hosts before Jamie Overton wonderfully ran out James Vince off his own bowling to end an opening stand of 80.Adam Wheater was out reverse sweeping to short third-man first ball and then Carberry holed out to long-on for 57.Owais Shah and Smith were both bowled by the impressive Max Waller who ended with figures of 3 for 17 from his four overs.And the Hampshire collapse continued with a calamity run out as Joe Gatting took on a Jim Allenby misfield with Hampshire going from 80 without loss to 112 for 6.Chris Wood gave a temporary respite with a six down the ground but was bowled five balls later by Lewis Gregory.Gareth Berg prodded the last ball over point for four to end on a positive as Hampshire posted 143.After a sprightly start to the chase by the visitors, Arafat found a leading edge from Allenby and Briggs took the catch in the covers. Two balls later captain Vince plucked a catch on the edge of the circle to see off Isle of Wight-born debutant Adam Hose for 20.Hampshire’s nemesis Peter Trego – who has smacked them for 317 in 10 T20 innings – departed cheaply, chipping Smith to Arafat at short fine leg. Tom Cooper made 27 but played on off Smith before Briggs bowled Hildreth.Arafat bowled Gregory with the final ball of the 18th over and Jamie Overton departed for a duck in the next to end the contest.The other Overton brother, Craig, was cleaned up by Arafat – who ended with 4 for 37 – in the final over as Hampshire won by six runs.

Sri Lanka choked the life out of India’s chase of 176, with Rangana Herath taking 7 for 48 to condemn the visitors to a 63-run defeat

The Report by Sidharth Monga15-Aug-2015Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Rangana Herath’s seven-for took him past Bishan Bedi’s tally of 266 wickets•AFP

After having made 377 look like 150 against Pakistan recently, Sri Lanka were back to their old ways of making sub-200 targets appear 350-plus by choking the life out of India’s chase. Their bowlers had failed to build any pressure in the first innings, but they hardly released it on the fourth day. India needed 153 to win with nine wickets in hand at the start of the day, but Rangana Herath and Tharindu Kaushal bowled them out to complete a sensational win. Not counting the forfeiture of The Oval Test in 2006, this 192 was the eighth highest first-innings deficit turned around into a Test win.Dropped in the last match and lacking the bite in the first innings, Herath put more body into the ball, bowled hardly a bad ball in 21 overs, went past Bishan Bedi to become the third-most successful left-arm spinner in Test history, and registered the second-best figures in Galle. This was a return to what Sri Lanka do really well: runs to play with, in-and-out fields so they are both attacking and defending at the same time, and their spinners landing everything on a penny.The Galle International Stadium is an open venue with few stands in a sparsely populated city, but India would have felt there was no air to breathe on the fourth day. A day earlier they were almost certain of a win, but a turnaround began their inexplicable resistance to DRS and an excellent counterattack by Dinesh Chandimal. If that turnaround was unexpected, on the final day it was predictable that Sri Lanka would make India work hard for every run on a turning pitch. Eventually India did not work hard enough, in terms of applying themselves technically, folding for their lowest total against Sri Lanka.Working extremely hard was a 37-year-old portly spinner, fighting sore knees and a dodgy back, realising he needed to spin the ball harder to make a helpful pitch respond to him. And he did so emphatically. Having taken out KL Rahul on day three, Herath removed nightwatchman Ishant Sharma with the first ball he bowled in the morning. In an 18-over spell that followed, either side of lunch, he bowled just two half-volleys, one short ball and taking six wickets for just 35 runs. In the face of Herath’s unerring accuracy, the India batsmen seemed to overplay the threat of the arm ball, either staying leg side of the ball or pushing out in front of the pad.Herath still managed to produce a wicket each of four kinds: Ishant Sharma was out lbw although he might have been hit outside the line, Rohit Sharma was bowled staying beside the line of the ball, Wriddhiman Saha was stumped when beaten by one that dipped on him and ripped past him, Harbhajan Singh sensationally caught pad-bat, R Ashwin caught at mid-on in a desperate attempt to break the shackles, and finally Ajinkya Rahane through an edge to slip to end India’s final resistance.Credit was also due to Dhammika Prasad and Nuwan Pradeep, who tested the overnight batsmen thoroughly. Ishant, the nightwatchman, was dropped at second slip in Pradeep’s first over, but Pradeep’s bigger impact was in beating the first-innings centurion Shikhar Dhawan outside off on three occasions with balls that held their line.Dhawan, batting with a bruised hand, went to discipline over bravado. With Ishant as the other batsman, runs hardly came. Dhawan was exemplary in avoiding temptation, taking 36 balls to add to his overnight score of 13. Anything wide outside off Dhawan didn’t go after, and the quicks didn’t offer him anything on the pads. Dhawan was in a way the rock of the collapsing innings, but there could be a counter argument to playing yourself into a shell.After Herath got rid of Ishant with his first ball of the day, Rohit didn’t get to face a bowler other than Herath. It can be argued that had Dhawan been more urgent he could have possibly opened up the easier end for Rohit. That, though, is no excuse for having your front foot outside leg when playing a forward-defensive to a ball pitching on middle and turning to off. Nor does it absolve Virat Kohli, still looking for a win as a captain, of a rookie mistake of playing an offbreak well in front of his body with hard hands. When he did that to the last ball of the first over bowled by Tharindu Kaushal, he offered Kaushal Silva a sharp catch at short leg, and gave the error-prone Kaushal just the start he needed.At 45 for 4, the pressure became unbearable for India. Even though Ajinkya Rahane looked solid and India still needed only 122, Dhawan became edgy after all the hard work in the first hour. In the 20th over the day, he shaped up to reverse-sweep Kaushal, saw the ball was not there, looked for a regulation sweep, and in the end patted it back. The next ball he managed a leading edge on a leg-side half-volley to give Kaushal a sharp return catch. That is the risk you always run when you defend for so long without scoring many runs.India’s last recognised pair was in with 116 still required. And Herath was in no mood to offer easy runs. Even when Rahane got shots away, the trademark Sri Lankan in-and-out field meant he didn’t get boundaries. And then Herath produced a gem for Saha, dragging him out with a flighted delivery, and getting it to turn and bounce alarmingly. Dinesh Chandimal, the man responsible for making India bat again, made a good rib-high collection and stumped Saha.The best piece of fielding, though, was reserved for the last wicket of the first session, a wicket that betrayed India’s muddled thinking. When Harbhajan was promoted ahead of Ashwin, you would have thought he would have been asked to pinch-hit and see if India could knock Sri Lanka off their rhythm. Harbhajan, though, failed to play a shot in anger and was caught superbly diving forward by Silva off a tame forward-defensive stroke.After lunch Ashwin tried to do what Harbhajan should have done, but fell to an unusually wide mid-on, another example of how it seems there are more than 11 fielders on the field when you are struggling. Rahane and Amit Mishra then added 21 in what was not only the highest but the most assured partnership of the innings. Herath finally got one on target to turn and take Rahane’s edge, and with 74 runs still required it was only going to be a matter of time.

James Pattinson was a notable omission from Australia’s Test squad for next month’s tour of Bangladesh, but captain Steven Smith hopes he will be back in the mix once he has become more accustomed to his new bowling action

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Sep-2015James Pattinson was a notable omission from Australia’s Test squad for next month’s tour of Bangladesh, but captain Steven Smith hopes he will be back in the mix once he has become more accustomed to his new bowling action. Pattinson played two ODIs on the recent tour of England but failed to claim a wicket, and he is expected to turn out for Victoria in next month’s Matador Cup.Two severe back injuries over the past two years contributed to Pattinson reworking his bowling action to be more side-on, and it remains a work in progress. He showed some encouraging signs on this year’s Australia A tour of India, but national selector Rod Marsh said when announcing the squad for the Bangladesh tour that Pattinson was down on confidence.”According to the reports I’ve got from [selectors] Trevor Hohns and Darren Lehmann in England is that he’s lacking a bit of confidence,” Marsh said on Monday. “It won’t hurt him to go back to Matador Cup and Shield cricket and find that form that made him a very, very hot prospect a few years ago.”Smith captained Pattinson in the one-day series in England and agreed that he would benefit from some more time refining his action with Victoria.”I think for Jimmy it’s just about playing a bit more cricket first,” Smith told reporters in Sydney after arriving home from the England tour on Tuesday night. “Hopefully he can get back and play in the Matador Cup and the first couple of Shield games.”He’s got a different action at the moment and he’s got to get himself comfortable with that, keep looking to get better with that and more consistent. I’m sure we’ll see him in the future.”Smith has a week and a half at home before flying out to Bangladesh for his first tour as Test captain, and he will be in charge of a squad with a vastly different look to the one that lost the Ashes in England. One of the most surprising inclusions was the Tasmania fast bowler Andrew Fekete, who has played only 18 first-class matches and is a mystery not only to the public, but to his captain as well.”I haven’t seen a lot of him bowl, to be perfectly honest with you,” Smith said. “I heard he bowled really well last year in the Shield season, and in India for the A stuff as well. I think the conditions are likely to be quite similar to what the A team faced in India, and he got the ball to reverse over there and bowled really well. I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes.”One man who Smith is pleased to see back in the Test squad is his New South Wales team-mate, the left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe, who made his Test debut against Pakistan in the UAE last year. O’Keefe was overlooked for the Ashes tour but impressed on the A tour of India, where he claimed 14 wickets in the two first-class matches in Chennai.”Stephen O’Keefe has been the stand-out performer with the ball as a spinner in the first-class system for quite some time now,” Smith said. “He had a very good tour in India with the A squad, he bowled really well over there. It’s nice to have him back in the squad.”Australia will have a new opening combination in Bangladesh due to the retirement of Chris Rogers and the thumb injury suffered by David Warner, with the uncapped Cameron Bancroft in the running along with Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh. Bancroft and Burns are the least experienced of the quartet but Smith believes they could both turn out in the same XI.”I think it’s a good opportunity for both of them to come in and potentially play in the same line-up,” Smith said. “There’s going to be spots up for grabs. It’s a new team. But I think that’s really exciting for us going forward.”

Ben Stokes sustained a shoulder injury diving for a catch on the opening day of the third Test. He will go for a scan on Monday morning to determine the extent of the damage, but his chances of playing any further part in the match appear slim

Andrew McGlashan in Sharjah01-Nov-20151:37

Stokes injury mars good day for England

England are likely to have to try and push for a series-levelling victory in Sharjah with 10 players, and just two front-line seam bowlers, after Ben Stokes sustained a shoulder injury diving for a catch on the opening day of the third Test. He will go for a scan on Monday morning to determine the extent of the damage, but his chances of playing any further part in the match appear slim.Stokes, fielding at short fine leg, dived full-length to his left in a bid to intercept a sweep by Sarfraz Ahmed off Samit Patel. As he thudded to the ground he jarred the point of his right shoulder and his pain was immediately clear.He was attended to for a few minutes in the middle by the England physio and doctor before walking off using his shirt as a temporary sling. He then received further ice treatment in the dressing room. There was no confirmation of whether the shoulder had popped out of its joint; a dislocation for a fast bowler can have significant long-term consequences given the strain they put on their bowling arms.Stuart Broad, speaking about the incident at the close of play, said that Stokes is not the sort of character to show much pain unless he is really hurting.”We all walked in straightaway to try to find him,” said Broad. “He’s a tough guy. So generally when he shows pain, he’s going to be sore. It was an amazing effort to try to take the catch. The outfield is very soft, so he landed a bit awkwardly on it.Ben Stokes needed treatment after landing on the point of his right shoulder•Getty Images

“I don’t know whether it popped out … but he’s having a scan tomorrow, so it’s hard to speculate what it is. But he’s obviously a bit down. We hope he can play a bit more of a part in this Test match, because he’s obviously a vital cog in our machine. But we also do have cover with bat and ball, a lot of options, if he can’t.”After this series, Stokes is not due to play cricket again until the tour of South Africa in mid-December although if the injury is found to be serious his participation at the start of that trip could be in doubt. In a six-month period since returning to the team after the World Cup, he has played for England in all three formats and had been due a rest during the one-day and T20 legs of the UAE tour.He was singled out last week by the coach, Trevor Bayliss, as one of the young England players who has made strides on this tour, even though his numbers do not reflect it. He has scored 76 runs at 19.00 – with 57 of those coming in the first innings in Abu Dhabi – and taken five wickets at 39.60, with four of those in Pakistan’s first innings of the first Test.”He is a guy who likes to play positive, aggressive cricket,” Bayliss said. “On this tour, as a bowler, he has had to bowl a boring line and length and his batting, he has had to get himself in and try to graft out an innings, and to me it looks like he is trying to do that and he has been quite successful in it. I think the experience of playing this opposition on these pitches will be beneficial for him.”Samit Patel also needed treatment on the opening day, his first in Test cricket since England’s victory at Kolkata on the 2012-13 of India. While diving in his followthrough to field the second delivery of his spell, he briefly dislocated the little finger on his left hand. However, the finger had gone back into place before the physio made it to the middle and he was able to resume with some strapping in place.