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England’s white-ball captain, Jos Buttler, is set to miss out on the ODI home series against Australia owing to the calf injury he picked during the training for the Hundred a few weeks ago. Buttler was added to the squad, keeping the prospects of his participation in grey. However, with the ODI series starting in a few days, England have announced the young batter Harry Brook as his stand-in captain. Brook, who debuted in the ODI format in January last year, will be captaining the senior team for the first time.  Having captained the Under-19 team during the 2018 Under-19…

The recent game between Australia and England seemed as if its script was written and approved by a compulsive gambler, who likes to bet on every player getting something to reduce the risk of losing. Matthew Short would get a five-wicket haul, Jake Fraser-McGurk would play a firing inning, Liam Livingston would forget that he is not playing a video game, and Jacob Bethell would wield the willow like a seasoned player. He might be a compulsive gambler but his bets show that he is not a realistic one. Because what transpired in Cardiff that night was nowhere near realistic.…

Nation-wide protests followed by an internet blackout and the killing of hundreds of Bangladesh citizens led to the dissolution of Parliament after Sheikh Hasina Wajid’s government fell. Hasina fled the country, prompting an interim government to be formed and arrange the general elections for the new government. It would be far from the truth to say that the developments in the political landscape of a country have little to no effect on sports in the country. Whoever disagrees has Bangladesh’s example to refer to.  The political crisis led the Women’s T20 World Cup to be shifted from Bangladesh, despite the…

There is a lot going on, like always, in Pakistan cricket. In one place, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is racing against time to upgrade the stadiums before the Champions Trophy begins. The other part of the board is busy ensuring the new-born domestic tournament, the Champions Cup, goes smoothly. Amidst all this fuss, the scheduling issues for the upcoming Test series against England remain a potential head-scratcher for the team.  The construction work in the National Bank Cricket Arena, Karachi, renders the venue unable to host any match. Recently, the second Test match against Bangladesh was shifted to Rawalpindi…

David Warner’s retirement from cricket has toiled hard on Australia at least in Test cricket. Australia have moved probably their best batter, Steve Smith, to the opening position but this has only increased the worries for them. Not only has Smith, so far, failed to play as impactfully as he does often, but the lack of runs up top has been causing trouble for the team as a whole. Australia are a couple of months away from facing the team that is likely to be their toughest opponent in this World Test Championship cycle, India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Before…

After Australia triumphed over England in Southampton, England have this one opportunity to save the series from going into their rivals’ kitty. It would take quite a lot to stop the Australian batters, especially the top order, from firing the way they have been ever since they landed on the continent. But the defeat in the first T20I would definitely have taught the hosts a few things, one of which would be that the batters need to stick longer. While the bowlers, barring Sam Curran, did a pretty impressive job in stopping Australia from breaching the 200-run mark, without substantial…

Bangladesh cricket team is on a roll with the amount of Test cricket it is playing. After sealing an epoch-making 2-0 win against Pakistan in a two-match Test series at the former’s home turf, Bangladesh are gearing up to take on the Indian team in a two-match Test series starting from 19th September. The Test series will be followed by three T20Is which will be Bangladesh’s first white-ball fixtures after the T20 World Cup.  To play against India, the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led team has decided to stay unchanged to keep up with the morale impetus after the series win. However,…

With the fourth consecutive day of the Test match also getting called off without so much as a toss between the two teams, this Test match has turned out to be nothing short of a fiasco. Afghanistan do not have much experience playing in whites. This Test match would have been the 10th long-format game they played but it was not to be. The first day featured no play thanks to relentless rainfall in the Indian city. On the second day, although there was not any rain during the game hours, heavy rain the previous night flooded the ground enough…

New captain, a new coach, and almost a new-looking team but the results were the same for England at the Rose Bowl tonight. England made it to the semi-final of the T20 World Cup this year, but those without a memory loss know that their journey during the mega-event was not devoid of life-threatening bumps. At one point, the team was even threatened by being outdone by their Northern neighbor, Scotland. Months after they crashed out of the semi-final against India, the team finds itself in almost the same predicament; their white-ball form is dwindling and something needs to be…

There has been no respite for England, both on and off the field. Ever since the conclusion of the T20 World Cup, the English players have played the Hundred, and two three-match Test series against West Indies as well as Sri Lanka. But this will be the first time the Three Lions will play an international T20 match after their defeat in the semi-final at the hands of the eventual champions, India. Off the field, too, a lot has happened. From talks of sacking both the white-ball captain and coach, to eventually getting rid of the coach and keeping the…