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If you are thinking of going by the results of the Test series to judge West Indies’ ability to dominate in T20Is, you’re taking the wrong path. Australia learned it the hard way on their last tour here in 2021. It took a 4-1 chastening to remind them that the format is somewhat tailor-made for a side like the Windies. But for how long that can be said for them is up for debate, especially now, when the cohort of players that led them in their golden period is slowly dispersing away from the game. Andre Russell is the latest…

A World Championship of Legends game between India and Pakistan was called off earlier today, after five veteran Indian players, including Shikhar Dhawan, boycotted the game. The game was supposed to be played in Birmingham on Sunday, as part of the tournament involving former players from six countries, including South Africa, England, Australia, and West Indies, besides Pakistan and India. The decision, they said, stemmed from the “current geopolitical situation and prevailing tensions” between the two nations. Dhawan took to his X account and posted a screenshot, confirming his withdrawal from the game, which was supposed to be India’s opening…

These are changing times for both sides, and from what it seems, for once, it’s in a good way. Bangladesh, particularly so. The sword of transition had been dangling over them for quite some time. The transition in question took a long time to begin, and even longer to feel like it was finally happening. Whether they have fully evolved with the younger lot is still a matter of debate. However, it’s safe to say Bangladesh might have found some ground, one that isn’t rock bottom, beneath them, finally. The series win against Sri Lanka is evidence in favour of…

Devon Conway had a ‘great’ time returning to the team after sitting out for nearly a year. Before the match against Zimbabwe, where he scored an unbeaten 59, nearly half of the target, and a game before that, where he managed only 9 against South Africa, he had last played the format for the Kiwis in the 2024 T20 World Cup. These two wildly opposite innings happened during the borrowed time Conway got in Finn Allen’s absence, whose foot injury ruled him out of the tri-series. While Conway feels for Allen, he is happy he got a chance to share…

Glenn Phillips is set to miss out on New Zealand’s ongoing tour of Zimbabwe for the tri-nation series. The allrounder picked up a right groin injury during the Major League Cricket (MLC) Final on July 13 in Dallas. This means he will not be available to feature in any of the series’ T20Is as well as Test games following it. Phillips returned to the league to represent Washington Freedom, whom he had played for in 2023. He reached Zimbabwe after the final, where he was assessed and consequently ruled out of the series. This is the second time this year…

Fresh off a T20 series win against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh have decided not to tinker with the squad for T20I games against Pakistan, starting July 20. The three-game series will run under the lights from July 20 to 24 at Dhaka’s Shere Bangla National Stadium. While Pakistan’s squad arrived early in Dhaka, the Bangladesh side reached the city soon after securing a 2-1 defeat against Sri Lanka, who were on the receiving end of Bangladesh’s onslaught in Colombo in the series decider. BCB’s CEO, Najmul Abedeen Fahim, said the board wants to prioritise consistency before the T20 World Cup in…

If Mitchell Starc had a Pinterest mood board, his would, most certainly, include an aesthetic shot of a pink ball, a picture of a baggy green, rattled stumps, and an Aussie white uniform with five days’ worth of dirt. Before the final Test at Sabina Park started, Starc was already part of the headlines, nearing his 400 wickets milestone, and ready to play his 100th Test in the subtext. He says he doesn’t like this kind of attention. But if he was looking to avoid that, bowling a searing spell, taking three wickets in his opening over, grabbing the quickest…

Losing down-the-wire games isn’t the same as losing when you aren’t toe-to-toe. The abrupt snuffing out of nervous excitement from a moment ago is ruthless, more so when it ends in a way as cruelly anti-climactic as it did for India at Lord’s. Mohammad Siraj’s bails were uprooted by the slightest of nudges from the ball. After the game, it was hard to tell what Shubman Gill was exhausting himself to do: hide the disappointment that he couldn’t land on the better end of a fantastic game or express the triumph that his team stretched the impossible until it became…

Devon Conway, who was earlier left out of New Zealand’s squad for the Tri-series against Zimbabwe and South Africa starting July 14, has received a late recall in place of injured Finn Allen. Allen picked up an injury while playing for San Francisco Unicorns in the Major League Cricket (MLC) and was ruled out of both the Tri-series and the playoff stages of the game. Conway has been a regular in franchise cricket lately, though his last international appearance in the format came in the 2024 T20 World Cup. He had a fairly off-season for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in…

Nathan Lyon isn’t a part of Australia’s XI facing West Indies in the last Test at Sabina Park. This is the first time in 12 years that he has been left out of the side’s Test bowling attack without any injury. Australia selector Tony Dodemaide said the decision was made on the basis of ‘exceptional circumstances’ that arose in the light of Australia’s first pink-ball Test with a Dukes ball. In his last day-night Test game, Lyon only bowled one over across both innings. Spinners, typically, aren’t much of help when bowling under lights. The pink ball generally swings more,…