Author: Mishaal Mubarak

It has been a little less than 17 years since the last time England won a Test series in New Zealand. Following that series triumph in 2008, the English have played as many as five Test tours versus the Kiwis at their home turf and failed to win the entire thing on each occasion. However, none of those defeats was quite as agonizing as their most recent in Wellington in 2023. Having won the first game of the series and declared the first innings total at 435/8 in the second, the victory seemed tantalizingly close. But that’s where it stayed…

Coming to Australia earlier than the rest of the senior men, to join the A-team, KL Rahul remained in the news only for the fact that he was the best contender to replace Rohit Sharma, who was supposed to sit the first Test out on paternity leave for the birth of his second child.  Fast forward to the first game, he filled in for Sharma and was one of the only three who crossed 20 runs in the first inning for India as the side was bundled for a dismal 150 runs. He departed for 26 after a Mitchell Starc…

It has been more than ten months or five Test games since the last time South Africa lost a Test match. This pretty much explains why they are in the second position, slightly below India in terms of points, and convincingly ahead of Australia and Sri Lanka, who had occupied the top positions for the larger part of the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. While they would hope to continue this winning streak to keep their WTC final hopes breathing, Sri Lanka are looking for ways to stifle them because the berth on the train bound to the Lord’s…

South Africa will have to do without two of their pacers from the first Test against Sri Lanka, including Gerald Coetzee and Wiaan Mulder after the scans declared the pair unfit to bowl. Although Wiaan’s absence will be limited to the rest of the Sri Lanka series, Coetzee will have to skip at least six weeks. This means he will not only sit out the ongoing tour against the Islanders but also the entire all-format Pakistan tour in December.  The fast-bowling all-rounder bowled a handful of overs on the last day of the opening Test. He started the day bowling…

Problems don’t seem to be ending for England’s Test captain, Ben Stokes. Mind you, these are absolutely not related to how his team is playing. They just won the Christchurch Test, and though the 2-1 defeat in Pakistan was just a few weeks ago, the fast-bowling all-rounder has bigger problems than to keep dwelling in the past. During the opening Test versus New Zealand in Christchurch, Stokes bowled a total of 19.3 overs, his highest number of overs since 2022. His twentieth over was when he finally had to pull out of his unusually long bowling stint.  While it did…

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has adopted a new No Objection Certificate (NOC) policy to halt players from featuring in overseas franchise leagues that clash with the country’s domestic competitions including the T20 Blast, the Hundred and the County Championship. The policy applies to all players, be it male or female, with any form of contract with England Cricket either central, development, skill contract, or other agreements with the board. The ECB Chief Executive, Richard Gould, said that the policy has been approved to ‘protect the integrity of the sport’ “There’s never been a better time to be a…

The International Cricket Council (ICC) board meeting will live to see another day as the talks between all the sides as to where the Champions Trophy 2025 will be held could not break the impasse on Friday. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chair and other members flew to Dubai for the meeting, which was joined virtually be most members, on Friday. The meeting lasted for only 15 minutes where the PCB presented their long-held stance of not accepting a hybrid model, or at least not without putting forward a few conditions of their own, one of which is to implement a…

Ever since their clean sweep over Pakistan, Bangladesh have been on a downward spiral. Should they lose the upcoming Test versus West Indies, it will be their third Test series defeat in a row. Surely, these defeats can not be random, especially when they have come in clumps as big as this. But what has been the common factor between all these defeats? Mind you, these were not close losses either. From an innings defeat to losing by seven wickets or more than 200 runs, the Asian team has been on the receiving end of morale-shattering, heavy drubbings of late. …

It is not exactly a very big day tomorrow. There have been more important days, but dare I say that this day would hold answers to several unasked questions. International Cricket Council (ICC) will meet its board of directors virtually to decide how the BCCI will be granted their wish. So far, there are three propositions for Pakistan to choose from, but each has its own way of harming the country and ICC’s credibility as an organization (if that matters anymore). The first, obviously, is one final attempt to bring the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) around for the hybrid model…

The clock’s ticking and we are almost in the final hours to get to what will (should) be the game-changer in the Champions Trophy rollercoaster. It has been going on for months, years if you count the reasons behind it. India have refused to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. Pakistan have declined all suggestions that do not mention the entire tournament taking place in their country. This leaves the ICC with nothing but to look towards the board members. And so, all eighteen of the members will meet and try to get to the end of this badly…