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George Dobell11-May-2018The founder of the Professional Cricketers’ Association has urged the organisation to “remember what they are there to do”.Fred Rumsey, who set up the PCA (the players’ union) in 1967, has reminded the current management that their only concern should be “representing the interests of players”.He is particularly disappointed at the prospect of an eight-team competition, which will exclude the involvement of more than half of current PCA members, and is concerned the association may be powerless to prevent the new, 100-ball-a-side competition, which he dismisses as such a “ludicrous” idea it “should be played in clowns’ clothing”.”They’ll probably dismiss my views as those of an old fogey,” Rumsey, the former England seamer, told ESPNcricinfo. “But the PCA was founded to represent players. Not to devise new formats or even to look at the overall health of the game. Other bodies do those things. The PCA was founded to represent players.”Yet now we’re going to have an eight-team competition that will mean most current PCA members won’t have any involvement. How can that be in their interests?”And then we learn there is to be a ludicrous new competition – this 100-ball nonsense that sounds as if was the idea of Fred Karno [credited as the inventor of slapstick comedy] – and the PCA were hardly even consulted before it was unveiled. Well, that doesn’t sound to me as if they are taken very seriously by the ECB. It doesn’t sound as if they have much of a voice. There is no reason at all the players couldn’t have been consulted months ago.”Rumsey, now aged 82 but as sharp as ever mentally (he is currently putting the finishing touches to an autobiography), concedes he is not party to the what happens behind the scenes at the PCA these days and says he was “encouraged” by Daryl Mitchell’s veiled warning to the ECB that they had “no competition without players”.But he urged the PCA management to stick to their guns and ensure they continue to “look after the interests of players”.”Mitchell was quite right to remind the ECB that they don’t have a competition without players,” Rumsey said. “But I wonder if a split has emerged in the PCA? Are the players, represented by Daryl, supported as much as they should be by the commercial side of the organisation? I’m not at all convinced they are.”I know the PCA still do much good work but my concern, on this issue, is whether they are doing enough to look after the interests of players. I wonder if former players – who are not under contract and do not fear the consequences of their words – should now get together and form an association to ensure the players have a powerful voice once more?”The PCA declined to comment but pointed out they continue to work hard, sometimes in private, in the best interests of their members.

Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni turned the clocks back, adding 256 runs for the fourth wicket to pull India from 25 for 3 to 381, a score which helped them seal the three-match series against England

The Report by Alagappan Muthu19-Jan-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:54

Agarkar: Something has to be done for the bowlers

Remember the time chasing was hard in ODIs? A second match of this series assumed heart-stopping proportions as a flat track, a fast outfield, short boundaries and batsmen with self-belief the size of a small planet came together. India put up 381, fuelled by a career-best 150 from Yuvraj Singh and a 10th hundred from MS Dhoni. But they only just came away the victors of the match, and the series, as Eoin Morgan responded with one of the great innings by a batsman in England colours.

England fined for slow over rate

Having fallen one over short of their target, England’s players were fined 10% of their match fees and their captain Eoin Morgan twice that amount.
Match referee Andy Pycroft handed out the punishment after the concern was raised by the four umpires in the match. Morgan pleaded guilty but, should his team commit another minor over rate offence in ODIs within a 12-month period from now, he could end up facing suspension.

Beyond the runs Morgan made [102 off 81], beyond his ball-striking and the weird areas he exploited with those whiplash wrists – his composure under pressure was unreal. There were over 40, 000 people in Cuttack bellowing against him. The Indian spinners had done well despite the dew to complicate matters. The required run-rate had nudged over 10 at the end of the 36th over but, since England had lost half their side by then, Morgan had to wait. He was the set batsman – 46 off 48 balls – and his team needed him to last till the end. To that effect, he would defend his way through an R Ashwin over because after that it would be him against the Indian quicks. Morgan was gambling, and it was even paying off for a while.In the end, a match that featured 747 runs, 19 sixes and 81 fours went down to the penultimate over when Jasprit Bumrah held his nerve to run Morgan out while he was backing up to get back on strike.To get to that stage took a huge effort from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, playing his first ODI in a year. He began his second spell in the 42nd over, conceding just eight runs. He could have had a wicket, too, had Ravindra Jadeja been able to take a skier from Moeen Ali at long-on. In his next over, he gave away only three singles and bowled Moeen, who had hammered back-to-back fours to reach a half-century mere minutes ago. The wicket was the result of a little sleight of hand. With the required rate – two runs a ball – suffocating him, the batsman never saw the offcutter coming. As a result, instead of two well-set hitters at the crease, India had the comfort of aiming at England’s lower order.The other big play came in the middle overs, when Jadeja bowled the dangerous Jason Roy for 82 and Ashwin took care of Joe Root for 54. The offspinner then befuddled both Ben Stokes for 1 and Jos Buttler for 10 to rob England of a majority of their firepower, with the side 176 runs adrift of the target and nearly 20 overs left in the chase. Jadeja was remarkable. In a game where runs were scored at more than seven runs an over, he kept an economy rate of 4.5 by bowling wicket-to-wicket. And Ashwin went back to his old ways of deceiving batsmen in flight – Root top-edged a sweep, probably thinking the trajectory was flatter than it was. That broke a partnership of 100 between him and Roy at over run-a-ball. The crowd at Barabati stadium breathed easier.They had spent the first innings in pure nostalgia with each ball that Yuvraj and Dhoni sent their way during a partnership of 256 in 230 balls. At one end, there were flowing drives with scintillating timing and from the other came brutal swats. No one was safe. Not Stokes, who was winded when Dhoni whacked a ball back at his chest. Not Alex Hales, who was wringing his fingers after trying to get under a pull from Dhoni. Not even the Spidercam was spared damage.Yuvraj wasn’t quite as murderous, or maybe he was and was just a little bit kinder to things both living and non-living on the ground. He came in at the end of the third over, enjoyed England trying to bounce him out on a pitch that barely had any in the first place, and bedded in to make his first hundred since the 2011 World Cup. It came off his 98th delivery and the celebrations made it clear how much the innings meant to him. He looked skyward, with his hands aloft. Then the bat handle thumped into his chest and he may even have become misty-eyed. At 35 years, having spent three years nowhere near the ODI team, wondering what would become of his career, coming back with his highest score had to be sweet.There was no place for such emotion with Dhoni. He was what the situation made him. When he came in at the fall of Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket in the fifth over, he blocked 14 straight deliveries from Chris Woakes, who was the sole reason India were 25 for 3. The next time those two faced each other, the ball was muscled over the midwicket boundary. Dhoni finished on 134 off 122 balls – having been 6 off 22 once – and became the first Indian to hit 200 sixes in ODIs. The shot that took him there – eerily similar to the one that won India the World Cup in 2011 – hit the top tier behind long-on. There was another reminder of that night in Mumbai; the final was the last time Yuvraj and Dhoni had put on 50 runs or more together.But the clear-headed England that made all the early breakthroughs happen by bowling full and keeping a tight line on off stump fell into a trap. They bowled too short at Yuvraj, who eventually realised there was nothing in the pitch to make him fear such a line of attack. It is true that extreme pace has unsettled him regardless of conditions but he didn’t have to face any on Thursday. A one-bounce pull for four got him going, drives through mid-off and cover showcased his timing and a pristine punch down the ground told the crowd they were in for something special. With Dhoni concentrating on staying at the crease to such a point that he barely even thought about runs early in his innings, and a severe lack of wickets, the middle overs became party time.India hammered 94 runs in the 10 overs between the 30th and the 40th and finished with 73 off the last five. Also responsible for the late flourish were Kedar Jadhav, who belted three fours and a six in 10 balls, Hardik Pandya ,who began his innings with a four and six, and Jadeja, who helped take 14 runs off the final over.

Dan Christian, the hard-hitting Australia batsman, has agreed terms to play for Nottinghamshire again in this summer’s NatWest T20 Blast

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jan-2016Dan Christian, the hard-hitting Australia batsman whose exploits have been a talking point of the Big Bash, has agreed terms to play for Nottinghamshire again in this summer’s NatWest T20 Blast.Christian featured in the final seven T20 matches of the 2015 before helping the Outlaws reach the semi-finals of the 50-over Royal London Cup, where they lost to Surrey by four runs in a thrilling run-chase.His seam bowling claimed 13 wickets across the two competitions, including a five-wicket haul to help secure victory over the Birmingham Bears at Welbeck.”He got better and better over the course of his time with us last season which made him a player we were very keen to bring back,” said Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell.”We’ll use him in a different role in Twenty20 cricket, higher up the order where he can make more of a batting impact.”Christian’s impressive form has since continued back home in Australia. He helped Victoria to the Elimination Final of the 50-over Matador Cup with 60 not out against Western Australia and 38 not out off 14 balls against Tasmania and then, having joined the Hobart Hurricanes for the Big Bash, he hit the headlines by striking a 117-metre six over the roof of the Gabba, en route to 56 not out off 24 balls against his former franchise, Brisbane Heat.”He is performing really well in the Big Bash and I’m sure other clubs showed some interest,” said Newell, “but he enjoyed his time here and that’s the kind of relationship we want to build with our overseas players.”Christian’s contribution extended to captaining Nottinghamshire’s second XI in between his weekly stints in the T20 Blast, an experience that Newell is keen for him to repeat.”Twenty20 overseas can be a bit of a lonely lifestyle because you are only required once a week,” added Newell. “But he wanted to play in the second team games in-between to keep ticking over, something I’m sure he’ll do again.”It was great that he wanted to play, he captained the second team on some occasions and great that the other players could have that quality around them.”

On the opening day of the Ashes, it was Middlesex’s Australian import Adam Voges who stood firm to deny Warwickshire a three-day win after the hosts were forced to follow-on in Uxbridge.

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jul-2013
ScorecardAdam Voges is putting Australia’s poor showing in the Champions Trophy behind with•AFP

On the opening day of the Ashes, it was Middlesex’s Australian import Adam Voges who stood firm to deny Warwickshire a three-day win after the hosts were forced to follow-on in Uxbridge.Voges, a 33-year-old right-hander from Perth, followed his sublime first innings 150 with a stoic, unbeaten 15 in 83 minutes as Middlesex limped to 147 for 5 in their second innings and still trail by 30 going into the final day.Having conceded a first innings deficit of 177, Middlesex were batting again just after lunch on the third day after being dismissed for 309 – just 28 short of surviving the follow-on – and were soon on the slide once more.Only 16 deliveries into their second innings left-hander Dawid Malan attempted to cut against Chris Woakes only to chop the ball onto his middle stump.Then, just before tea, Sam Robson fenced a Boyd Rankin lifter to Rikki Clarke at second slip to bring together former Kent team-mates Neil Dexter and Joe Denly.After a sticky start the pair added 68 inside 15 overs before Dexter (36) aimed to drive at Barker and only feathered it through to the keeper.Voges, batting again before 5pm and with his side still 72 runs in arrears, then watched as Denly edged onto middle stump, while John Simpson fenced at a Rankin lifter to be caught behind just before stumps .Resuming on their overnight first innings score of 177 for 4 and requiring a further 160 to avoid the follow-on, Middlesex made a steady start through Voges and John Simpson.They posted a record fifth-wicket partnership for Middlesex against Warwickshire eclipsing the county’s previous best of 175 set by Paul Weekes and Jamie Dalrymple set at Edgbaston in 2004.Then, with their stand worth 180, Simpson, shuffling forward to Jeetan Patel’s skidding arm-ball, went leg before for 63 to make it 208 for 5.In the next over, Voges moved to a 151-ball hundred with 13 fours with a single against left-arm seamer Keith Barker.He became only the seventh Middlesex batsman since to score a first-class hundred on debut since Edward Lyttelton took a hundred off the Australians at Lord’s in 1878.Voges was the first to achieve the feat for the county since his fellow countryman Phil Hughes achieved the feat against Glamorgan at Lord’s in 2009.However, it was Warwickshire who were soon celebrating when Gareth Berg followed the next ball from Barker outside off and edged through to keeper Tim Ambrose to go without scoring.
Barker was soon in the action again, taking a sharp low catch at short square leg to send back Ollie Rayner off the bowling of Patel. Tthen in the next over, Barker had Toby Roland-Jones (nought) caught at first slip off an airy drive.With Chris Wright out of the Warwickshire attack with a back strain, Voges reached his 150 after lunch from 215 balls but, having helped add 72 in tandem with Ravi Patel, he danced down the pitch to clip a return catch to Jeetan Patel off a full-toss.The hosts posted a third batting bonus point before their last man Corey Collymore drove a catch to mid-off, leaving Ravi Patel unbeaten on a career-best 26 as Warwickshire enforced the follow-on.

West Indies A redressed a disappointing second-innings collapse during a spirited last hour with the new ball on the third day

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jun-2012
ScorecardJonathan Carter held a catch that consigned Abhinav Mukund to a pair in the match•WICB

West Indies A redressed a disappointing second-innings collapse during a spirited last hour with the new ball on the third day, nipping out three India A batsmen to leave the chase of a middling target in the balance. The hosts had failed to consolidate two positions of advantage during their innings and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rohit Sharma made India A favourites, until the twist late in the day.Defending 186, Jason Holder and Delorn Johnson, two six-foot fast bowlers, struck three times in ten overs. Holder had Abhinav Mukund caught at third slip with an outswinger, handing the India A opener his second duck of the game, and hit Ajinkya Rahane’s off stump after the batsman offered no shot. Johnson got rid of the nightwatchman, inducing an edge to slip from Rahul Sharma, which meant Cheteshwar Pujara had to survive 21 scoreless minutes before stumps. Shikhar Dhawan remained not out on 13; India were 22 for 3 and needed 165 on the final day.West Indies A could have been in a stronger position had their middle and lower order shown more mettle earlier in the day – they lost eight wickets for 76 runs and were dismissed for 210. No one was caught; six batsmen were leg before and the other four were bowled. They had made a sound start, with Lendl Simmons scoring 53 off 77 balls in an opening stand of 68, before two wickets fell in quick succession. Simmons and Donovan Pagon were lbw to Shami Ahmed and Rahul Sharma; West Indies A were 69 for 2.The second-wicket partnership between Kraigg Brathwaite and Nkrumah Bonner produced 65. Brathwaite was slow and steady at his end, but once Bonner was lbw to Kumar for 36, the collapse began at the other. West Indies A lost two wickets with the score on 134. Kumar also dismissed Brathwaite for 50 during a six-over spell of reverse swing that produced 3 for 9, after which part-time offspinner Rohit began to spin through the lower order to pick up career-best figures of 4 for 41.

Eoin Morgan has been unexpectedly named in England’s squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka at Cardiff

Andrew McGlashan22-May-2011Eoin Morgan has been unexpectedly named in England’s squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka at Cardiff. The strong tip had been for Ravi Bopara to earn a recall to fill the No. 6 spot vacated by Paul Collingwood but Morgan, who hit 193 for the Lions this week, has stepped up after being the spare batsman in Australia. Steven Finn has also pipped Ajmal Shahzad to the reserve pace-bowler’s slot, but is unlikely to play with Stuart Broad fit again after missing three Ashes Tests and part of the World Cup.For the last few weeks the momentum has grown behind Bopara’s potential recall, so Morgan’s selection is a surprise. It had been thought that Bopara’s decision to opt for Championship cricket ahead of the IPL – while Morgan played for Kolkata Knight Riders – earned him plenty of credit and coupled with two first-class hundreds for Essex would see him add to his 10 Test caps.However, in terms of consistency the selectors have followed the next-cab-off-the-rank policy they favour and Morgan was one injury away from playing at any stage during the Ashes. The fact that the 10 balls he faced against Victoria on that tour made up his only first-class innings for nine months made his 193 against the Sri Lankans on Thursday and Friday even more impressive.He had only flown back from the IPL last Saturday and had three days preparation with Middlesex and England Lions before walking to the middle with the score 162 for 4 on a green pitch at Derby. He responded with a superb innings and looked set for the second double ton of his first-class career until falling lbw. Bopara, meanwhile, had struggled to 17 while the ball was nipping around in helpful conditions.”Ravi has been getting a lot of runs for Essex, but the controlled innings that Eoin played just gave him the nod,” Geoff Miller, the national selector, said. “That innings really just showed us what he is capable of doing. It shows his strength of character.”Morgan has six Test caps under his belt having played throughout last summer, firstly as a replacement for the resting Collingwood against Bangladesh then for the injured Ian Bell against Pakistan. At Trent Bridge, against Pakistan, he struck his maiden Test hundred having come to the crease with England wobbling on 118 for 4.His century came up with a straight six and he looked right at home. However, as the ball moved away during the rest of the series he didn’t make another significant contribution and questions were asked as to whether his technique – drilled heavily in the one-day game – could stand up Test cricket. Now he’s got an extended chance to silence any doubters because the place is his to lose.With the big decision made there will be some small alterations to England’s batting order. Bell, who enjoyed a superb Ashes series and crowned it with a hundred at Sydney, is expected to move up to No. 5 to take Collingwood’s spot while Morgan will slot in at No. 6 where he has played all his Test matches. The preference of Morgan over Bopara means that Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen can expect to do some bowling.The other significant decision in the squad was who replaced the injured Tim Bresnan. Given Bresnan’s role of providing a pitch-up, swing option Shahzad had been favoured but the selectors have returned to Steven Finn who played the first three Ashes Tests.”He was in the Ashes and again it’s consistent,” Miller said. “He’s bowled well this year, he bowled well here against the Sri Lankans, and he’s part of our squad. We are in a very nice position where we have a lot of quality seamers and it’s hard to make that choice.Finn hasn’t taken huge hauls of wickets, but after the third day of the Lions game said he was feeling as good as ever about his game. “The figures don’t suggest that I bowled particularly well, but this is probably the best I’ve felt this season,” Finn said. “This season I’ve felt a lot better than before, and a marked improvement on where I was in Australia.”Finn is unlikely to make the starting eleven, however, with Broad set to resume his position having been injured in the second Ashes Test at Adelaide. Broad is a favourite of the England set-up – although his Test bowling average of 35 needs to start coming down – and it would be harsh to drop Chris Tremlett after his performances in Australia. And as the selectors have shown by naming Morgan, once someone in this England set-up they don’t cast them aside quickly.England squad Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior (wk), Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett, James Anderson, Steven Finn.

Haroon Lorgat has backed the United States as a prime venue for international cricket and added it is very much in the ICC’s interests to have more locals picking up the sport by taking cricket to the schools

Cricinfo staff01-Jun-2010Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, has backed the United States as a prime venue for international cricket and added it is very much in the ICC’s interests to have more locals picking up the sport by taking cricket to the schools. The US, in terms of its massive fan base of immigrants from the subcontinent and West Indies, Lorgat said, had an advantage over other Associate nations as a staging venue. Lorgat also acknowledged it was not possible to get the American audience “excited” through the game’s longer formats, and that Twenty20 was the best medium to draw their attention.”Sometime back there was recognition that the United States was a significant market and a big opportunity to spread the game,” Lorgat said on Cricinfo’s audio show . “There are a lot of people who have got cricket heritage living out in the US. It is a big market. So it is important that we play cricket in the US. I think the size of the market is surely an advantage. The expats who follow the game so richly; it’s an advantage.”Lorgat, however, emphasised the US would not merely be a staging centre. “In the last couple of years in particular, we have been very conscious to get cricket played in the schools,” he said. “We were quite excited when we learnt that the New York police department was playing cricket with people of Indian and Pakistani origin. So it’s very much in our sights to make sure that people within the United States play cricket, and not just [see it as] a staging centre.”The US national team, though, has struggled when taking on the Test teams and Lorgat admitted it could be better. However, he disagreed over complaints that the globalisation of cricket had an adverse effect on the game’s quality at the international level. “Established nations continue to compete against each other. If anything, some of our established nations should be picking up their level of performance,” Lorgat said. “So it’s less about the developing world and their competitiveness. I think it’s about our established nations being competitive themselves.”I think introducing cricket to any nation presupposes that ultimately they would be competitive. It’s fair to say that by now they [USA] should have been a lot more competitive than they presently are. But we have said that they should be making a lot more progress. They have appointed a chief executive, if you recall, just about a year ago. The signs are quite positive, and I am quite optimistic.”Don Lockerbie, the chief executive of the USA Cricket Association, had admitted Twenty20 remained the preferred format for increasing the following for cricket in the country but also believed there lay a potential for the longer formats, too, to take off. Lorgat, though, was skeptical of the prospects for Tests and ODIs in the US. “For the people in the US who are accustomed to fast and short time spans, introducing Test or one-day cricket would simply be not possible to get them excited,” he said. “Twenty20 is a format, that without doubt in my mind, you would get people in the United States excited with.”

“The day I feel comfortable about bowling 20-30 overs and I get the nod from the doctors, I’ll run to play a match”

Daya Sagar21-Oct-2024India fast bowler Mohammed Shami is now “100%” pain-free and wants to play one or two Ranji Trophy games to try and be fit for the tour of Australia that will start at the end of November. Shami is on the road to recovery after sustaining an ankle injury that has kept him out of action since the ODI World Cup final last year, and was seen bowling full tilt at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday after the first Test between India and New Zealand.Shami said that was the first time he had bowled with a full run-up since his recovery.”It felt great yesterday because I had been bowling with half a run-up on and off since I can’t put too much stress on my body,” he said during an event organised by Eugenix Hair Sciences in Gurugram. “Yesterday, we decided that I would bowl properly, and I gave my 100%. It felt great, [and] the results are good. Hopefully, I’ll be back on track soon.”Related

• Rohit: Don't want Shami 'undercooked' in Australia

• Shami bowls at full tilt on the sidelines in Bengaluru

When asked if he was pain-free now, having undergone surgery in February, Shami said, “100%”. Shami has exactly a month to try and be fit for the first Test against Australia beginning on November 22.”The Australia series is still far away,” he said. “The only thing I want to focus on is how to keep myself fit, and how strong I can be before going there. I know what kind of an attack we want for that Test series, so it’s better I spend some more time on the ground before going. If I get fit and I get a gap of eight to ten days, then it’s better I play one or two domestic matches before going to Australia.”I don’t know when I can play next, but the day I feel comfortable about bowling 20-30 overs and I get the nod from the doctors, I’ll run to play a match. I want to spend as much time as I can on the ground before going for the Australia series.”I don’t want such a thing that I clear my fitness here and something happens to me there. That’s not what I want. I want to be strong while leaving from here so that there are no issues there.”Shami represents Bengal in domestic cricket and their next Ranji Trophy fixture might be too soon for him to play, beginning October 26 at home. Their two subsequent games after that are from November 6 against Karnataka in Bengaluru and from November 13 in Indore against Madhya Pradesh, which will mark the end of the first leg of the red-ball tournament. If Shami does regain match fitness next month, he could also aim to play the three-day warm-up game slotted between India and India A in Perth before the first Test starts in the same city.Shami had similarly spent months off the field immediately after the 2015 World Cup when an ankle injury troubled him and he had missed the IPL that year too, like in 2024. Having not played a single game in nearly a year, Shami said the one thing such injuries had taught him was patience.”Don’t get frustrated and focus as much as you can on fitness and game,” he said about spending months off the field. “It’s very difficult to come back on track after an injury so patience is the biggest thing. Injuries teach you patience and that makes your skill purer.”Fitness is the main thing [you have to focus on in recovery]. You shouldn’t doubt your skill and talent when you’re away because certain things are built in you. I agree you need something like rhythm but your skill will never leave you. It’s your fitness you have to fight for.”Shami had played a crucial role in India’s first-ever Test series win in Australia in 2018-19, when he bagged 16 wickets in four matches at 26.18, finishing behind only Jasprit Bumrah’s tally of 21 wickets among fast bowlers in that series. He played just the first Test, in Adelaide, when India toured next in 2020-21 before he returned home with an injury. India went on to win that series with several other players also injured, and fielded a nearly second-string side in Brisbane to take home the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.Shami said India’s pace attack, which also features Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, instils fear in the opposition because of the pace and variety the three bowlers offer.”We have worked as a unit since 2014,” Shami said. “India never had three bowlers at a time who could bowl over 140kph. Maybe two at max. Now we even have some on the bench who can bowl 145kph. Every opponent waits for one easy kind of bowler, but that’s how you create fear that all our bowlers are 145kph and have different kind of skills. And we showed how to fight when we toured overseas. Earlier we used to be on the safe side or our pace attack wasn’t that aggressive. This generation knows how to pay it back.”To pick India’s pace attack for the five Tests, India could also choose from the pool of Mukesh Kumar, Yash Dayal, Navdeep Saini and Khaleel Ahmed who have all been picked for an India A side that will play two four-day games starting October 31 (Mackay) and November 7 (Melbourne) before the three-day game against India in Perth.Whether he is able to make it to Australia or not, Shami said if there is “bounce on some wickets, there’s nothing better for our pace attack. We just need some runs on the board which our bowlers can defend.”

R Ashwin consolidates top spot in bowling rankings, while Ravindra Jadeja moves up to No. 7 on that list

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jul-2023Following a century in the Dominica Test, India captain Rohit Sharma is back in the top ten of the ICC’s Test batting rankings. Rohit, who made 103 in India’s massive innings win over West Indies, is now the the highest ranked Indian on the table, having pushed his team-mate Rishabh Pant down a place into 11th. Pant has not played any cricket in 2023, as he is still recovering from the injuries sustained in a serious car accident on December 30.Virat Kohli remained static at No. 14 in the latest update to the rankings. Kane Williamson, himself recovering from knee surgery after rupturing his ACL ligament during the IPL in March, remains at the top of the Test batters’ list.Rohit’s Dominica century had come in an opening stand of 229 with debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made 171 to be named Player of the Match. That performance saw Jaiswal enter the rankings at 73rd spot.On the bowling front, Ravindra Jadeja, who took five in the match, moved up three places to No. 7. He remains No. 1 in the allrounders’ rankings, while his spin partner R Ashwin firmed up his spot at No. 1 in the bowling list with a match haul of 12 for 131 (his fourth-best match figures overall).

South African batter available for both Championship and Royal London Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff24-May-2022Middlesex have signed Pieter Malan, the South African top-order batter, as a replacement for Peter Handscomb, who left the club after their win against Durham.Malan, 32, played three Tests against England in 2019-20 and was part of Warwickshire’s County Championship-winning side last summer, averaging 37.66 across his six appearances for them.He will be available to play in the Championship and the Royal London Cup, with Jason Behrendroff, Chris Green and Mujeeb Ur Rahman splitting the club’s two overseas slots for the T20 Blast.”I’m very excited to be joining Middlesex,” Malan said. “They are without a doubt one of the most prestigious counties and being based at Lord’s makes this an incredible opportunity that I’m hoping to grab with both hands.”Related

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• Handscomb to leave Middlesex with immediate effect

• Behrendorff, Green join Middlesex as Shaheen, Mujeeb bow out

“We are thrilled to have secured Pieter’s signature for the rest of this season,” Alan Coleman, Middlesex’s head of performance, said. “He will add a huge amount of experience and quality to our batting ranks. As a batter he is vastly experienced, will be a real asset to the dressing room, and we can’t wait to welcome him into the club.”Handscomb left the club early in order to join up with the Australia A squad in Sri Lanka and will return home after on parental leave for the birth of his first child. Tim Murtagh will take over as captain in 50-over and four-day cricket.”I’m a little bit disappointed with how I’ve gone over here with the bat,” he told Middlesex’s YouTube channel. “I set high standards and it’s quite obvious that I didn’t quite make the runs that I wanted to make over here but it’s great to see the way they’re going about it.”