All posts by csb10.top

Travis Head is yet to speak to Justin Langer after his surprise omission from Australia’s central contracts list two weeks ago, but says that the channel of communication with selectors Trevor Hohns and George Bailey has been “ultra-clear” regarding his standing within the national squads.Head was dropped two Tests into Australia’s home series defeat to India, but finished the Sheffield Shield season as the competition’s second-highest run-scorer and had been named in the squad for the aborted tour to South Africa. With a respectable average of 39.75 after 19 Tests, he remains in contention for the 2021-22 Ashes series, and hopes to prove his worth during a season-long stint playing county cricket for Sussex, with his debut likely to arrive on Thursday against Northamptonshire.”It was disappointing not to be on there, but from the standpoint of where we need to be and what Australian cricket wants and expects, they want guys contributing in international cricket and winning games for Australia,” Head said. “When I had my opportunity, I wasn’t able to do that. It was great to go home and play really well in domestic cricket but at the end of the day, when I get my opportunity, I need to be able to take that in international cricket.Related

• Head, Wade lose Australia contracts, Green included

• Australia selector 'very concerned' about Ashes build-up

• Head among batters told to earn their spot

• Hampshire sign de Grandhomme for second half of Blast

• Head turns thoughts to England as Shield draws to close

“It would have been difficult to be at home, having two months off going into pre-season, and having that over my head, [but] I get a great opportunity to have an impact at Sussex and make as many runs as possible. That’s the currency. I’ve done it domestically in Australia, and hopefully that can hold me in good stead for the summer.”Head found out about his omission from the central contracts list while on a camping trip in rural South Australia with his fiancée’s family, with his lack of phone signal or internet access inadvertently forcing Cricket Australia to delay the announcement. He has not yet had the opportunity to speak to Langer, Australia’s head coach, but said that he expects to do so in the coming days.Travis Head lost his Australia central contract in April 2021•Getty Images

“It’s been a bit hectic over the last little bit but I’ve had so many conversations with JL, with George Bailey and with Trevor Hohns,” Head said. “I know the messaging, which is ultra-clear – there are no mixed messages whatsoever. I’m really comfortable with that, and know the expectation of what I need to do.”We’ll get the opportunity to chat but it won’t be about dwelling on it – it’ll be about moving forward and asking what needs to be done over the next six months to be ready to go [for the Ashes]. Those conversations have always been had and I’m pretty clear on that. It’d be great to have a chat at some point but at the end of the day, I’m here playing cricket, and I get the opportunity to score as many runs as possible.”This year is third time lucky for Head at Sussex: he had been lined up for a stint in 2019 but was unable to fulfil it after his inclusion in Australia’s Ashes squad, and his contract was deferred last summer due to the pandemic. Jason Gillespie, his South Australia and Adelaide Strikers coach who initially recruited him, is no longer at the county, but Head said that he intended to “settle down” and make Sussex a home away from home following previous stints with Worcestershire and Yorkshire.His contract covers all formats, and he stated his intentions to play “as much as I possibly can” in white-ball cricket despite the competition for places: counties are permitted to register three overseas players simultaneously but can only field two in a playing XI, and Sussex have signed both Rashid Khan and David Wiese specifically for the T20 Blast.Head had a prolific Sheffield Shield season for South Australia•Getty Images

“Keith [Greenfield, director of cricket] and I will sit down over the next couple of days,” he said. “We’ve spoken about looking at the schedule and when I would or wouldn’t play, but from my side, I’m here to play cricket, win games for Sussex and help create a culture of success. It’s always been a really strong [T20] team so I’m looking forward to getting in there and whacking it around.”Head’s arrival should bolster an inexperienced batting line-up that has missed the injured Phil Salt early in the season. Sussex are third in Group Three of the County Championship after four matches, but have let strong positions slip in their last two fixtures, at home to Yorkshire and Lancashire, resulting in a significant gap between the top two and the rest of the group.”I’ve kept a very close eye on it,” Head said. “[The Shield] was my best season, personally, and it was consistent – as a cricketer and as a batter, that’s what I want to be. I made a couple of changes to my technique and it’s always nice when that works. I’ve had a couple of weeks off but had a hit before I left and everything felt in good order.”

Big picture

In some ways, the shellacking they received at Chester-le-Street was an improvement for Sri Lanka. No one got injured, no one broke curfew (that we know of), and at 80 for 4 in England’s chase, it was possible to discern the first tremors of a full-blown wobble. Had Kusal Perera held onto a fairly straightforward catch when Moeen Ali edged his first ball behind, the result may have been in question; instead, Joe Root put his 150 ODIs of experience to good use in overseeing a 91-run stand that pretty much settled the matter.Sometimes you’ve got to take the positives where you find them. A young seam attack with a combined 33 caps bowled with vim to check England’s aggressive early advances, Dushmantha Chameera again impressing; Wanindu Hasaranga gave further notice of his qualities, batting above No. 7 for the first time in ODIs and recording a sparky half-century; and Perera improved his average as captain to 59.25. Crumbs of comfort, then, if not exactly a bread trail towards guaranteed success.Following a sixth defeat from seven, Sri Lanka are rooted to the bottom of the World Cup Super League and already looked destined to having to scrap it out at the 2022 qualifier against a clutch of highly motivated Associate nations. In that sense, while losing the services of three senior players for an unsanctioned trip into Durham certainly won’t help their chances in England, it might help Perera and Mickey Arthur forge a spirit of common purpose that will benefit the team in the long run.England, by contrast, are top of the table – despite having won only half their games – and will be aiming to ensure they take a full 20 points from the remaining matches at The Oval and Bristol. As in the T20I series, their bowling options were more than enough to keep Sri Lanka in check, even with Hasaranga landing a few blows on Adil Rashid. Chris Woakes confirmed his status as one of England’s best bowlers of all time in the 50-over format, while David Willey refuses to be easily discounted, marking his 50th cap with a three-wicket haul.The batting was scratchier, with Root’s cool head required to see England home – and even he gave a half-chance to long leg, which Chameera couldn’t cling on to, when the game was in the balance. Eoin Morgan is rarely one to fret about his own form, but extending a run of England white-ball innings without a significant score to 15 counts as a minor headache for the captain.The bigger picture for England’s limited-overs cricket looks impressive, as it has for a while – even if they will currently struggle to knock the footballers off the back pages. But work remains to be done on improving the game’s reach, and this Oval match is being branded as the ACE ODI, in recognition of the Afro-Caribbean Engagement Programme, which began at Surrey, opening a third centre in Bristol.

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)England WLWLLSri Lanka LWLLL

In the spotlight

It is a mere five innings since Sam Billings recorded his maiden ODI hundred, against Australia at Old Trafford last summer, and coming into this series he said he would be “pretty disappointed” not to be in the side. He also played a mature hand in helping England to win the second T20I in Cardiff last week. But such is the level of competition for white-ball batting spots, with players such as Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler bound to return, he will quickly want to move on from back-to-back single-figures scores.Sam Billings returns to the pavilion after his cheap dismissal•AFP/Getty Images

Pathum Nissanka has been thrown in at the deep end in international cricket this year, making appearances across all three formats with varying success. He became only the fourth Sri Lankan to score a Test century on debut in the Caribbean in March, but the 23-year-old is clearly still finding his way in limited-overs cricket. A watertight first-class technique (he averages 64.45) isn’t necessarily a good guide, but might be of help in opening the batting – as he was asked to do in only his seventh ODI at Chester-le-Street.

Pitch and conditions

The Oval tends to serve up excellent (read: batting-friendly) ODI surfaces, with only Trent Bridge producing a higher average and scoring rate among English grounds over the last five years. The forecast is set fair for this day-night game, and the ball is only likely to travel further under lights – all four completed Blast matches at the ground this season being won by the chasing side.

Team news

Jason Roy was able to take part in pre-match warm-ups as well as bat in the nets at Chester-le-Street, and could be in contention to return on his home ground; Dawid Malan has left the squad for personal reasons, and Liam Livingstone’s first outing as an opener in ODIs did not last too long. Mark Wood only bowled seven overs, so Chris Woakes might be the most likely candidate for workload management among the seamers – despite him clarifying Eoin Morgan’s comments during the T20Is that he couldn’t play back-to-back games.England: (possible) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Sam Billings, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Woakes/Tom Curran, 9 David Willey, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark WoodSri Lanka fielded three debutants at Chester-le-Street, who collectively made six runs and bowled three overs – but they may have to rely on the likes of Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya Lakshan and Praveen Jayawickrama again, with Oshada Fernando still unwell and Dhananjaya de Silva facing a late fitness test after a back spasm. Dhananjaya’s availability would at least add some experience to the line-up, and allow allrounders Dasun Shanaka and Hasaranga to step down a run after being (over)promoted to the heady heights of Nos. 4 and 5.Sri Lanka: (possible) 1 Kusal Perera (capt, wk), 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Charith Asalanka, 4 Dhananjaya de Silva, 5 Dasun Shanaka, 6 Wanindu Hasaranga, 7 Dhananjaya Lakshan, 8 Ramesh Mendis, 9 Chamika Karunaratne, 10 Binura Fernando, 11 Dushmantha Chameera

Stats and trivia

• England have not lost an ODI at The Oval since 2015, when they made 365 for 9 batting second against New Zealand but were still narrowly edged out on DLS.
• Sri Lanka have been beaten on four of their last five visits to the ground, including bilateral engagements against England in 2014 and 2016 – but they did chase down 322 against India in the 2017 Champions Trophy.
• Root reached 6000 runs during the first ODI, in his 141st innings – putting him joint-fourth fastest alongside Viv Richards.

  Quotes

  “Obviously we should always go on and chase that score, but if you keep losing wickets it becomes difficult. Joe’s innings was a very calming influence as usual, to go on and knock that total off as easily as he did.”
  Chris Woakes presented Root with his 150th ODI cap and was also handing out praise afterwards

South East Stars 108 for 4 (Smith 30) beat Lightning 107 (Smith 4-15) by six wicketsCaptain Bryony Smith shone with bat and ball as South East Stars began their Charlotte Edwards Cup season with a comfortable six-wicket win over Lightning at Trent Bridge.The 23-year-old, eager to add to her four England caps, took four for 15 with her off-breaks as Lightning were bowled out for 107 in 19.1 overs before launching the run chase with 30 off 14 balls as the Stars cruised home with 41 balls to spareLightning struggled against the Stars’ spinners, who claimed seven wickets between them, Smith’s fellow off-spinner Kalea Moore taking 2 for 20 and leg spinner Dani Gregory 1 for 22, with only Beth Harmer (34) and Abbey Freeborn (30) making any impression with the bat.Opting to bat first, Lightning lost Sarah Bryce second ball when she hit Alexa Stonehouse straight to backward point but Beth Harmer, fortunate to survive a fumbled run-out chance on three, gave the Powerplay momentum with back-to-back boundaries off Stonehouse’s left-arm medium pace before pulling right-armer Grace Gibbs for six and four, but Sonia Odedra chopped on to Emma Jones, leaving Lightning 34 for two after six.But Moore and Gregory reduced them from 43 for 2 to 54 for 5 with three wickets in as many overs, Harmer, Kathryn Bryce and Michaela Kirk all beaten by flight and turn.Freeborn injected some pace with successive fours off Moore and another off Smith but the Stars skipper had her revenge, switching to round the wicket to bowl the Lightning batter.Smith then held a return catch to remove Kirstie Gordon and had Teresa Graves caught at wide mid-on in the 18th over, Sophie Munro was run out by Aylish Cranstone’s throw from point in the next before Nancy Harman also hit Smith to wide mid-on as Lightning’s last four wickets fell for 11 in 12 balls.Smith raced to 30 off 13 balls to give the Stars’ chase a flying start, hitting four fours and two big leg-side sixes but was out attempting a third as Kirk leapt to hold a superb catch on the boundary at wide long-on. But the Stars had 64 of the 108 needed by the end of the Powerplay.Alice Capsey picked up three nice-looking boundaries but mistimed one from Sophie Munro (1-25) to be caught at mid-off, Cranstone skied one to mid-on and Gibbs miscued to point to give Kathryn Bryce a second wicket but Phoebe Franklin’s 24 off 29 balls finished the job.

India and Pakistan will meet in the Super 12s stage of the 2021 men’s T20 World Cup, to be co-hosted by the UAE and Oman between October 17 and November 14. This will make it the first face-off between the two teams in more than two years, their last fixture having come in the 2019 50-over World Cup.On Friday, the ICC announced the make-up of the groups – both for the first round and for the Super 12s stage – for the big-ticket tournament, which will be the first multi-team, global event organised by the ICC since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic early last year. The final of the World Test Championship, featuring India and New Zealand, was hosted in Southampton last month.Related

• Adam Milne eyes T20 World Cup spot as he 'keeps his rhythm going' in the Hundred

• Afghanistan selector steps down citing 'interruption' from 'non-cricketers' in the board

• T20 World Cup set to begin on Oct 17 in UAE; final on Nov 14

• India retains T20 World Cup in 2021, Australia to host in 2022

The ICC did not unveil the schedule for the 16-team tournament, which is expected to be finalised shortly.The first-round matches will be split between two groups, with the games to be played in the UAE and Oman. Group A has Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia, while Group B has Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and Oman. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super 12s, which will be played in the three UAE centres – Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.Teams in the Super 12s have been pooled into two groups as well. India and Pakistan are in Group 2 alongside New Zealand, Afghanistan and two qualifiers – B1 and A2. Group 1 comprises defending champions West Indies along with England, Australia and South Africa and the other two qualifers – A1 and B2. The groups, the ICC confirmed, were selected on the basis of the team rankings as of March 20, 2021.In the 2020 edition of the tournament, which was originally scheduled for Australia and was later postponed by the ICC because of the Covid-19 pandemic, India and Pakistan were in different groups because they were No. 1 and No. 2 in the ICC T20I rankings at the time of the deadline. That would have been the first time the two teams would not have contested in the group stage of a global tournament since the 2011 50-over World Cup.This time, India are second behind England, and ahead of New Zealand, followed by Pakistan, Australia, South Africa, Afghanistan and West Indies.The last time India and Pakistan faced off was in Manchester in the 2019 50-over World Cup•PA Images via Getty Images

“There are some great match ups offered by the groups and it starts to bring the event to life for our fans as our first multi-team event since the onset of the global pandemic draws closer,” Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s acting chief executive, said in a statement on Friday. “Given the disruption caused by COVID-19, we selected the cutoff date as close as possible to the event to ensure we were able to include the maximum amount of cricket in the rankings which determine the groups.”There is no doubt we will witness some highly competitive cricket when the event gets underway in just three months.”The tournament was earlier scheduled to be played in India, but owing to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic in the country, the BCCI decided to move it overseas, even though the Indian board continues to be official hosts for the event.‘Good to get Oman in the frame of world cricket’ – Ganguly
The ICC had named the UAE as the back-up venue for the tournament in 2020 itself. Recently, it decided to add Oman as a venue keeping in mind the volume of cricket that the UAE – especially Abu Dhabi – has hosted since the pandemic began. The UAE will also host the remainder of the 2021 IPL from September 19 until mid-October.The ICC felt having Oman as an additional venue would help keep the main grounds in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah fresh for the Super 12s stage. An ICC team is in Oman this week to inspect the two ovals at the Oman Cricket Academy.”It is good to get Oman in the frame of world cricket with the hosting of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup,” Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI president, said. “It will help a lot of young players take an interest in the game. We know it will be a world class event in this part of the world.”Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary who is also the current president of the Asian Cricket Council, said Oman, who are one of the teams participating in Round 1, deserved to be on the global map: “Co-hosting the World Cup will put Oman Cricket on the global stage. They are also playing the Qualifiers and it will be an icing on the cake if they make it to the Super 12s.”

Two nights after conceding 255 in a massive season-opening defeat, St Lucia Kings bounced back to put it past defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders on a tricky two-paced surface.The game was alive until the final over of the second innings. First, it was the Kieron Pollard threat they had to see off, which they did when he holed out to Alzarri Joseph at wide long-on after the pair had been involved in banter that occasionally got heated.Then, they had to overcome Tim Seifert’s late onslaught that turned around the requirement of 56 in 21 balls to 14 off the final over. The New Zealand wicketkeeper got stuck in to Keemo Paul, hitting him for two fours and two sixes in a penultimate over that went for 19 to entertain hopes of a coup.Wahab Riaz, who conceded 61 off three wicketless overs two nights ago, then held his nerve after being hit for a boundary off the very first ball; the Kings winning by five runs after Seifert failed to hit a six he needed off the final delivery. The loss will particularly hurt because the Knight Riders only lost three wickets.It was only their third win in 17 meetings against the Knight Riders, one they’ll have to thank Tim David and Roston Chase for.David, the Singaporean batter who impressed with a CPL debut half-century two nights ago, once again came into his own. He turned around a floundering innings with a quick fire 32-ball 43. His 68-run stand with Chase, who held the innings together to make 30 not out at No. 4, provided the Kings some middle-overs cushion that set up their finish.It was a key moment because the Kings looked like they would get much below the 157 they finished with, after Ravi Rampaul and left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein used the slowness of the surface to weave a web around the batters.Rampaul thrived with his cutters, split-finger slower ones and cross-seam deliveries that brought him figures of 3 for 29. This applied the brakes on the Kings innings after Rahkeem Cornwall and Andre Fletcher put together a half-century stand at the top.The Knight Riders started slowly on the face of a slow surface, looking to set themselves up for a big second half as Colin Munro and Lendl Simmons struggled. Chase followed Akeal Hosein’s template from earlier in the day by slowing it down and extracting sharp turn and bounce off a length to keep things right, conceding only 17 off his four overs to escalate the asking rate.Yet, the Knight Riders may have given themselves a chance going into the last five off which they needed 62. But Pollard’s wicket and Munro’s struggle – he finished unbeaten on 40 off 47 balls – turned the tide as the Kings held their nerve to pull off a stunning win.

Glenn Pocknall is used to winning T20s. His side, the Wellington Firebirds, has won the Super Smash the last two seasons. But in his first two games as New Zealand coach, he oversaw two contrasting defeats. Then, in the third T20I, a second-string New Zealand stunned a full-strength Bangladesh in tricky conditions in Dhaka. And Pocknall couldn’t be happier.”Oh! It’s amazing,” he said. “It was a pretty special feeling just because the guys have been working so hard and having such good conversations around the way we want to play the game. So to execute all the things that we’ve spoken about was so pleasing, and [I am] so proud of the guys to do what they did the other night because it [Bangladesh] is a challenging place to play. These guys have shown that if you put everything together, then anything is possible. That’s exciting, moving forward.”A lot has been made of the conditions favouring the home team at the Shere Bangla National stadium, but the top-three wicket-takers in the series so far have been the spinners from the opposition camp. Ajaz Patel leads the way with six strikes, while Cole McConchie and Rachin Ravindra have five each.Related

• Bangladesh batting coach says they were 'too aggressive early on' in their chase of 129

• Rachin Ravindra learning on the job in Bangladesh

• For Ajaz, plan is to 'bowl into the wicket and spin the ball hard'

• Inexperienced players 'learning on job' the biggest plus – Nicholls

“They’ve had a fantastic record not just against us, but also against every other team in the world [at home],” Pocknall said. “So for them to lose, they’ll come back pretty strong and they’ll be hurting from that [loss]. We’re certainly prepared for a backlash from them, but we’re going to fight fire with fire, so to speak, and we’re certainly up for it as well.”Pocknall equated the T20 middle overs on these tracks to the fairly quiet ODI middle overs in general, calling for application over aggression. Henry Nicholls and Tom Blundell showed plenty of that during their 66-run stand, which boosted New Zealand to 128 for 5 in the third match.Tom Latham and Rachin Ravindra at the Dhaka nets•AFP/Getty Images

“It’s almost like the middle overs of a 50-over game if you are picking up three-four an over with minimal risk and creating a partnership, which is giving you a little bit of time at the end,” Pocknall said. “They executed that perfectly. So two inexperienced guys at this level in this format, but they’ve played a lot of cricket in other formats both for New Zealand and domestically, so that experience shone through.”That partnership and Latham’s maiden T20I half-century aside, New Zealand’s batting line-up is yet to deliver. But Pocknall isn’t too perturbed by that, and his message to the out-of-form players is to back their game despite failures.”It’s a fine line but it’s about having belief in their method,” Pocknall said. “You are going to fail a lot more than you succeed in Twenty20, so having belief and trust in your method… just trying to instill in them as often as we can. They’ll all have their day and a lot of them have had their days so far in the first three matches. I thought that’s what we are looking to do moving forward, if we are going to have more of our players having their day then we will be in a good position tomorrow night.”Despite playing three matches in five days, New Zealand have no fitness concerns and Pocknall credited NZC’s preparatory camps in Lincoln and Mount Maunganui for tuning them up to face the hot and humid conditions in Dhaka.”Everyone is raring to go and 100% fit,” Pocknall said. “[During] a tour of the subcontinent, you can expect the guys to drop sometimes, but the guys have put a huge amount of effort in terms of S&C [Strength and Conditioning] before they left and training-wise at the marquee. We’re seeing the benefits of that now, with a fit squad to select from.”

Bhuvneshwar Kumar might have endured a rough time at IPL 2021 – his economy rate of 7.97 was his worst in a season – but India captain Virat Kohli has brushed off concerns around his form in the lead-up to the Men’s T20 World Cup.In the UAE leg of the IPL, Bhuvneshwar managed just three wickets in six games at an average of 54 and economy rate of 7.04. In isolation, however, Bhuvneshwar had denied Royal Challengers Bangalore’s AB de Villiers at the death, defending 12 off the last over in Abu Dhabi on October 6. The seamer then missed Sunrisers Hyderabad’s final league fixture with a niggle. Kohli added that Bhuvneshwar was back to his “full fitness” and backed him to come good at the World Cup.Related

• Can MS Dhoni help Virat Kohli clinch elusive global title in T20I captaincy swansong?

• FAQ: All you wanted to know about the T20 World Cup 2021

• Shardul Thakur replaces Axar Patel in India's T20 World Cup squad

• Kohli to step down as India's T20I captain after T20 World Cup

• Dravid in line to become India's head coach

“No, not at all [concerned],” Kohli said on Saturday. “His economy rates still continue to be top notch, something that he’s always been known for and his experience comes to the fore under pressure. If you see the game that we [Royal Challengers] played against Sunrisers, the last game, where he had to close out the game against AB de Villiers, probably one of the two or three most destructive lower-order finishers in the T20 game…”It explained or spoke volumes of what experience Bhuvi brings on the field, whenever we play – just the understanding of hitting the areas, according to the dimensions of the field, and what balls to bowl at what time. Even the fact that he bowls lengths so well and so consistently, which is not an easy thing to get away in T20 cricket, especially with the new ball. It’s quite an underrated thing and I think his experience and accuracy has always been priceless for the team.”He’s back to being at full fitness, which augurs really well for our team. I’m sure with the new ball, he’ll definitely get some kind of assistance through the tournament and, whatever little there’s on offer [for the pacers], Bhuvi knows how to make the maximum use out of that. So, his experience, as I said, is going to be priceless for us.”Ashwin now bowls ‘with a lot of courage in white-ball cricket’, says KohliKohli also explained why the team management went back to R Ashwin for this tournament. Ashwin hasn’t played white-ball cricket for India in more than four years. He had previously been left out to accommodate wristspinners in Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. However, neither of them is now part of India’s World Cup squad, with the team management falling back on the fingerspinners. Ashwin was back in the mix after Washington Sundar was sidelined from the England tour and the second chunk of the IPL in the UAE with a finger injury.Ashwin’s IPL economy rate of 6.91 is the best among all fingerspinners in the league who have played at least 75 games.”That one thing that Ashwin has really improved on is bowling with a lot of courage in white-ball cricket,” Kohli said. “If you see the IPL in the last couple of years, he’s bowled difficult overs, he’s bowled against the top players in the IPL – you know the likes of Polly [Kieron Pollard] and power-hitters – not being shy to put the ball in the right areas where spinners can kind of get intimidated by the way Polly hits the ball and the power-hitters in the IPL.”But Ashwin believed in his skill sets and we’ve felt like the way he was bowling, his variations now, and the control over pace, is something which [gives us] a lot of experience. A guy who has played so much international cricket and now when’s at his confident best, these guys can go in there and change the game with their spells. So, hence I think Ashwin has been rewarded for reviving his white-ball skills altogether.”He was a regular feature for us back in the day and then fell off a little bit because the wristspinners were the ones in demand mostly through the middle period, but now the fingerspinners with accuracy have come back into the game again. I think we also have to evolve as a team with the evolving side of the game and Ash and the likes of Jadeja as well [are performing beautifully]. The way he has gone about in the IPL as well – just being a fingerspinner and bowling with a lot of courage just augurs really well for the team.”Why Rahul Chahar was picked ahead of ChahalIn IPL 2021, though, Chahal was the most successful spinner, collecting 18 wickets in 15 games, but there’s no place for him in India’s squad, with the side preferring Rahul Chahar’s quickish, into-the-pitch legspin in the UAE. Kohli admitted that leaving Chahal out was a difficult call.”It was a challenging call, but we decided to back Rahul Chahar for a reason,” Kohli said. He’s bowled amazingly well in the last couple of years in the IPL and a guy who bowls with pace. He did really well in Sri Lanka when he played recently as well and against England at home, he was someone who bowled those difficult overs. We believed that heading into this tournament, the wickets are going to get slower and slower and guys who are probably going to bowl with a lot more pace as you saw in the later stages of the tournament [IPL] were the ones who were able to trouble the batsmen, those who didn’t give the ball too much air.Virat Kohli was all praise for Rahul Chahar•Ishara S.Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

“Rahul is someone who has those strengths naturally with him as a legspinner and he’s always someone who attacks the stumps and bowls in areas that can potentially get you wickets at any stage. That is the factor that tipped that balance over to Rahul little bit, not taking anything away from Chahal who has been brilliant when he has played for India. This was a tough call – that’s what picking a World Cup squad is always like. You have a limited number of spots and you can’t potentially have everyone fit into that squad.”Dravid the next India coach? ‘No idea what’s happening on that front,’ says KohliKohli has decided to step down from T20 captaincy after this World Cup and there will be another change at the top, with 59-year-old Ravi Shastri’s term as head coach set to come to an end due to age restrictions. Rahul Dravid is likely to replace Shastri after the tournament, but Kohli deflected questions on the matter.”Our ultimate goal is to win the World Cup,” Kohli said. “I honestly have no idea about what’s exactly happening on that front yet. We haven’t had any detailed discussions with anyone, but winning the World Cup is definitely our goal like any other team. But, I think, what we’ve been able to create in the last five-six years is beyond titles and tournaments to be honest. We’ve been able to create a culture which I think is going to be lasting a long time where people want to be the best they can be when they enter the Indian cricket team, the fittest they can be, and that culture we’ve driven with utmost passion and utmost honesty, which we hope will continue to be the case in years to come.”But, yes winning an ICC tournament will definitely be a wonderful moment for all of us, for him as coach and me as captain. It’ll be an amazing achievement and something that we’re absolutely motivated to do so and we’ll give everything that we have.”

Queenslanders Bryce Street and Jimmy Peirson struck centuries before a bullish declaration sought to breathe life into their Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania.Street’s 143 and Peirson’s unbeaten 106 highlighted Queensland’s 5 for 355 dec in reply to Tasmania’s first innings of 6 for 500. The Bulls declared 145 runs behind an hour after tea on Saturday’s third day of play, with the Tigers moving to 1 for 59 at stumps, a lead of 204.”For the declaration that we gave them, I would hope that they give us a chance to have a result,” Street said. “It would have been easy for us to keep batting and get a lead…but this is probably the best way that a result is going to happen. The ball is in their court.”Queensland’s declaration on a placid pitch at Karen Rolton Oval came after Street compiled his fourth first-class century – and highest score at the level – featuring 14 fours and three sixes from 334 balls. And Peirson added some timely acceleration, hitting 13 fours in his unbeaten 168-ball knock.The pair combined for a 162-run partnership, steadying Queensland after they slipped to 4 for 172. Street lost two partners in the opening session – captain Usman Khawaja and Matt Renshaw.”You lose another one or two wickets there, you’re really starting to look at a monstrous deficit and following on,” Street said. “To be able to score somewhat quickish, to keep pushing the game forward and try to keep getting a result…it worked in our benefit.”Khawaja made 20 before edging a wide leg-side ball from Sam Rainbird and being superbly caught by wicketkeeper Ben McDermott, diving low to his right to complete a one-hander. Renshaw hit 11 and was trapped leg before to spinner Jarrod Freeman after the left-hander tried to turn a fullish ball to the leg-side but missed.

Alan Coleman has stepped up from his role as Middlesex’s interim head coach to become the club’s new head of Men’s Performance Cricket.Coleman, 38, took the reins at Middlesex following Stuart Law’s departure last month, amid a restructuring of the club’s coaching structure. His new role will oversee the professional men’s game, alongside both a First XI coach and a club coach – two roles that Middlesex hope to fill in the “very near future”.”I am honoured to be offered this opportunity with a Club that is so close to my heart,” Coleman said. “We have a lot of work to do to reverse the team’s fortunes over the last few years, but I am confident that if we create the right environment for our players, and support them with the appointment of an excellent First Team Coach and Club Coach, that we will be able to make significant progress in the near future.”I truly believe in the ability of the playing group that we have here at the Club, and I can speak personally and on behalf of the entire dressing room when saying that collectively we are all looking forward to repaying the faith that our members and supporters have shown in us.”Coleman made a handful of List-A appearances for Middlesex as a player in 2001 and 2002, before rising through the club’s coaching ranks, from Age Group sides, to Head of the Club’s Academy, second XI Coach and assistant coach.”We are thrilled to have agreed this new role with Alan, who is a Middlesex man through and through, who belongs here at the Club,” Andrew Cornish, Middlesex’s chief executive, said. “He is the perfect fit for what we are looking to achieve and I’ve no doubt that he will excel in this latest challenge, as he has done time and time again in every previous coaching role in our structure.”A review of our current set-up has led to a focus on us putting in place a coaching structure that helps support our strategy of developing our own young cricketers and building a plan for success on the pitch moving forward.”We are blessed to have such a young and talented group of home-grown players in the Middlesex dressing room, with seventy percent of the current playing squad being products of our own Youth Academy – they are undoubtedly the future of Middlesex Cricket. With those youngsters complemented by a senior group of experienced cricketers, we firmly believe, that with the right coaching structure in place, we can develop this playing group into a side that achieves success for many years to come.”We’re looking for continuity, stability, an environment where the players can learn, grow, develop and thrive, and it is our responsibility to put that in place. We are confident that with Alan overseeing this structure, having worked so closely with the majority of our playing squad throughout their careers, and working closely with two new coaches we will be appointing, we have the recipe for success.”

The final round of matches in the CSA four-day franchise series, South Africa’s premier domestic competition, have been postponed and will be rescheduled in 2022.Pholetsi Moseki, CSA’s acting CEO, confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that Sunday’s four fixtures had been postponed as a safeguarding measure in light of rising Covid-19 cases in the country over the past few weeks. “Ultimately these games being played outside a bio-secure environment made it difficult for us to continue with them,” he said.This is the third group of matches that have been pushed back after Division 2 fixtures between December 2 and 5, and between December 16 and 19 were also postponed.So far this season, domestic cricket has not been played in a bio-secure bubble environment but ESPNcricinfo understands this will change for the one-day and T20 competitions. Last summer, both white-ball tournaments took place under bio-secure conditions.South Africa is currently in a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, which accompanied the discovery of the Omicron variant last month. Cases peaked at over 26000 earlier in the week but are now on the decline. The country remains at alert Level 1 of 5, with the least stringent restrictions since the start of the pandemic.