Author: Mishaal Mubarak

It was a flighted Shoaib Bashir delivery thrown outside off on purpose. Bashir knew what he was doing. After the end of the day’s play, the 21-year-old spinner said he saw Kane Williamson gearing to get out of his crease. What would your thoughts, as a bowler, be if you had seen the opposition’s best batter leaving the crease defenseless? Hoodwink him to beat the edge and allow the keeper to do the rest of the job, right? Bashir thought the same but what he failed to account for was that the batter in question was Kane Williamson. He might…

It has all come down to the last game. Despite a comprehensive win over Zimbabwe in the last game, the ghosts of the first are far from exorcised. A moment’s falter can again descend Pakistan to rock bottom. But on the brighter side for Pakistan fans, the team, in the previous game, looked in such a good touch that it can not be so short-lived. It is fair to say that Pakistan have cracked the code to win in Bulawayo. In fact, it would be fairer to say that they have simply parroted what Zimbabwe did in the first game…

England left Pakistan with bags full of happy memories, the last time they played a Test tour there, in 2022. Bazball was new and fresh, back then. It was invincible. It was incomprehensible. It was a mystery. Coming here this time, they might have expected to be welcomed the same way and if anything an inning win in the first Test match further bolstered those expectations. But little did England know all hell was going to break loose and make the rest of their stay in Pakistan become a part of their ‘forgettables’. Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain and co-creator…

The day New Zealand won the Test series against India, not far away, England had just finished wrapping their head around their own series loss at the hands of Pakistan. Both nations departed the sub-continent in contrasting moods. New Zealand, beaming after a 3-0 series win in the most unprecedented of fashions. While somber England boarded the flight back home looking for answers to the questions thrown at them during this tour. What made it better for New Zealand and worse for England was that these results have come at a point where the World Test Championship (WTC) table is…

Sri Lanka have stepped out of their home after nearly three months. In these three months, they have seen success unlike any other. It came regardless of formats, opposition, and venues. The most important of these victories for Sri Lanka has been their clean sweep over New Zealand in a two-match Test series against the Kiwis. The win cemented them at the number three spot in the World Test Championship table on a you-cant-sit-with-us bench with bullies like India and Australia. While it sounds out-and-out pessimistic, the true Test of Sri Lanka’s new-found brilliance across departments can only be taken,…

International Cricket Council (ICC) as a custom announces the schedule of any ICC mega-event hundred days before the start of the tournament. However, Champions Trophy’s schedule has yet to see the light of the day. The schedule announcement was delayed when Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told the ICC that Indian government has denied Rohit Sharma’s team the permission to travel to Pakistan for the eight-nation tournament. BCCI are happy to play the tournament in a hybrid setting, but Pakistan as the host of the event have clearly refused to accept that suggestion. This has, as was…

Jacob Bethell is set to make his Test debut for England at the Hagley Oval which will host the first Test match of the Crowe-Thorpe Trophy, the new name for the red-ball series between New Zealand and England. Bethell will bat for the Three Lions at No. 3 despite having made his white ball debut a few months ago. His addition to the side has reshuffled the playing XI, shifting other batters down the order.  Ollie Pope, who has been given an additional duty to keep the wickets too, will come in at No. 6, abandoning his first-drop position to…

There is a golden mean for everything, or so Aristotle said. You can not be too much or too little generous. The same applies to bravery, you ought to gain a fine balance between recklessness and cowardice. Yet, for the longest time, Pakistan have shunned this golden mean. It is either a 2-0 defeat against Bangladesh at home one month or outclassing England convincingly the next. One day, they go on to defeat Australia in Australia, the next they accept a disgraceful drubbing by Zimbabwe. There is no middle part. Nothing grey. No gradient to their form. Just incessant oscillations…

New Zealand’s prolific batter, Kane Williamson, missed the entire red-ball tour against India due to a groin injury he picked earlier during the team’s tour of Sri Lanka. However, he is ready to get his spot back on the team as the injury becomes a matter of the past for him. He announced his comeback with a 122-ball-60 knock in New Zealand’s domestic red-ball competition, Plunket Shield.  With Williamson back all nice and new and the three-match Test series against England inching near, New Zealand face a crazy little problem. In Williamson’s absence, Will Young was phenomenal at keeping Indian…

It was not as if no one saw it coming. Going into the mega-auction with the highest purse, most RTM options, only two retained players, and their knack for making the auctions double in fun and suspense always meant that Punjab Kings (PBKS) would not think twice before splurging. They bagged Shreyas Iyer, the winning captain in the last edition, for a hefty price of INR 26.75 crore. Making him just the second most expensive player in IPL history after Rishabh Pant, who earned only INR 0.25 crore more than him just a few minutes later.  Punjab Kings needed a…