Author: Mishaal Mubarak

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…

Ravichandran Ashwin spent seven seasons from 2009 to 2015 with Chennai Super Kings. In a way, the franchise was more of a home for him. This can be further supported by the fact that the experienced spinner hails from Chennai too. However, following the eighth edition of the league, the finger spinner was released from CSK and was roped in by the now-dissolved team Rising Pune Giants. But as fate would have it, Ashwin changed four teams since his snub from CSK. Having spent the last three seasons with Rajasthan Royals, the off-spinner was not part of their retention plans…

The highest sold on the first day of the IPL mega-auction was none other than Rishabh Pant. Lucknow Super Giants broke the bank to get their man for INR 27 crore, which made the stumper the most expensive player in IPL history. If you have seen Pant play the way he does, this amount should not surprise you. He is a complete package: batter, wicket-keeper, even a captain. He easily checks every box.  Next on the list is Shreyas Iyer, who was bought for INR 26.75 crore just a few minutes before Pant’s record-breaking trade. Punjab Kings splurged to get…

Jamie Smith’s understudy, Jordan Cox, who was in line to keep the wickets for the entire red-ball tour against New Zealand, might not take the gloves after taking a blow to his hands. Cox was hit on his right hand on Sunday in the nets, a few hours before the final day of the warm-up game versus New Zealand’s Prime Minister XI. The young stumper was immediately taken for scans but things look far from promising. With Jamie Smith also out of the team on paternity leave and the first game only four days away, England might have to conscript…

Pakistan ended their tour down under on November 18 and almost instantly boarded the flight to Zimbabwe to squeeze in a 10-day tour before crossing the border to South Africa for a full tour starting on December 10. It really is uncharacteristic of Pakistan to play back-to-back cricket this way. As a result, they have done another uncharacteristic thing to tackle it too: rested main players.  Pakistan’s newly hired interim white ball coach, Aaqib Javed, said that they aim to make as many trial-and-error practices with the T20I as possible, but the ODI side will largely remain the same. What…

Bangladesh have only beaten the West Indies twice in a Test series: once at their own home and once in the West Indies. Just a couple of years ago, both teams met and the Windies handed Bangladesh an emphatic whitewash. That does not seem too unlikely this time around, especially with Bangladesh’s regular captain Najmul Hossain Shanto out injured along with Mushfiqur Rahim. On the positive side, both teams can fight it out with everything they have, keeping the bigger picture out of their peripheral vision as both sides make for the bottom of the WTC table. With practically no…