Author: Mishaal Mubarak

Pakistan finisher Asif Ali has announced his retirement from international cricket at 33 years of age. Asif, who last played for the senior side in the 2022 T20 World Cup, wraps up his career after featuring in just 21 ODIs and 58 T20Is. In his short career, he built a reputation for himself as the country’s first proper finisher in many years, especially in T20Is. His 7-ball 25-run knock against Afghanistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup, laced with four gigantic sixes, was the kind of innings that truly captured who he was as a batter. Announcing his retirement, Asif…

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma has attributed David Miller’s exclusion from the ODI leg of the England tour to the series’ clash with the Hundred, which the middle-order batter was part of. Miller, who accepted a hybrid contract with Cricket South Africa (CSA) earlier this year, has not played any international game for South Africa since featuring in the semi-final of the Champions Trophy. Bavuma confirmed Miller is still ‘within the mix’ for selection in the upcoming ODI series as well as the 2027 ODI World Cup, which South Africa will co-host with Namibia and Zimbabwe. The 36-year-old batter has…

English pacer Jamie Overton has announced an ‘indefinite break’ from red-ball cricket, which essentially rules him out of Ashes selection. Overton, who was added to the fifth Test squad against India for the first time since his debut in 2022, was almost a certain starter for the Ashes this year. The decision, he said, was taken to ensure he is ‘mentally and physically’ focused on white-ball cricket. Besides his appearance in the fifth Test at the Oval, Overton has only one other Test to his name, which came against New Zealand in 2022. He took two wickets across both innings…

If the last game is anything to go by, Pakistan might be on the right path to rebuilding, at least in the T20I format. There was something that had long remained elusive for the side, and that was playing the format as it should be played. That they were three down within eight overs suggests that Pakistan finally got rid of the notorious caution that kept dragging them backwards for years. Sure, the new strategy has yet to be tested by time, but failing with a plan is always better than doing so without knowing what’s happening. Afghanistan might have…

They say change is the only constant, and for England, that rings more true than any other side. The majority of the players who will take the field in the first ODI against South Africa had been playing in the Hundred at least until last week, with players like Joe Root and Harry Brook featuring in games just two days out from the start of this series. And it’s hardly a rarity in England’s schedule. The side had just finished playing a two-month-long Test series against India on the eve of the opening Hundred game. What is more, once the…

Harry Brook has laid out the roadmap for every player who wants to break into England’s white-ball teams, and that is to do well consistently. Questions were raised after England dropped Jordan Cox and Zak Crawley, the highest and the third-highest run-getters in the Hundred so far, from the upcoming white-ball series against South Africa and Ireland. But Brook said Cox and Crawley, as well as other players who are eyeing a spot in the team, have to truly earn the opportunity to get into the team. Crawley has not played a white-ball game for England since December 2023, an…

Left-handed opener Imam-ul-Haq will leave Yorkshire after the semi-final of the ongoing Metro Bank One-day Cup against Hampshire in Scarborough on Sunday. The in-form batter, who joined the club in July as a partial replacement after Ruturaj Gaikwad pulled out of his contract for personal reasons, was central to Yorkshire’s top finish in the group stages. He scored 583 runs at an incredible average of 97.16. The opening batter’s eight-game stay with the county includes two centuries, in addition to his career-best 159 off 130 balls against Northamptonshire Steelbacks, as well as three half-centuries, making him the tournament’s second-highest run-scorer.…

Arshdeep Singh wasn’t aware he’d get a chance to roll his arm over with a red ball before India’s Test series against the West Indies in October. He was gearing up for the Asia Cup and had started doing so as soon as India wrapped up the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, which he missed out on playing because of an injured hand. But an opportunity to play in a Duleep Trophy game sprang up, which meant he was reunited with a red ball sooner than he had expected. “In Test cricket or red-ball cricket, there is a time when the day gets…

The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) has announced revised timings for the Asia Cup matches, starting September 9 across Abu Dhabi and Dubai. To counter the intense heat, 18 out of 19 games will begin half an hour earlier than originally planned, pushing play closer to sunset. This means the matches, which were initially slated for a 6 PM start, will now begin at 6:30 PM local time. The only exception is the day game between UAE and Oman on September 15 at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, which will start at 4 PM. “The start time for 18 out of the 19…

The Hundred squads are in frame for a revamp before the next edition in 2026, in a bid to maintain the competitive balance of the league. This ‘reset’, confirmed by the tournament’s managing director Vikram Banerjee on Friday, will overlap with the takeover of new investors for eight franchises. The idea for the squad overhaul would likely mirror the IPL’s mega-auction practice, under which teams retain fewer players than usual to rebuild the core. While Banerjee expects the decision to be unpopular among the coaches, he deems it pertinent to the tournament’s growth. Squads in the women’s Hundred underwent a…