Gary Kirsten’s resignation as Pakistan’s white-ball coach means many things for Pakistan. Number one, they need to hire a new coach as early as the upcoming Zimbabwe tour later next month. Number two, international coaches and supporting staff might be more reluctant than usual to be a part of Pakistan cricket. Even before Kirsten’s resignation, Pakistan’s image as an employer was far from ideal. PCB had to introduce a new form of coaching altogether to get Mickey Arthur to coach the team just last year. Shane Watson and Darren Sammy have already turned down coaching offers from the board. From…
Border-Gavaskar Trophy is less than a month away but Australia’s opening debate is nowhere near settling. Following David Warner’s retirement, Steve Smith was promoted to the top position after his keenness to try his luck there. This reshuffle opened a spot at No. 4, which was quickly filled by Cameron Green who struck an unbeaten 174 first thing after his return to the side. However, Smith could not quite work his characteristic magic at the top spot. A paltry 28.5 batting average across four innings, saw many calling for restoring Smith to his original position. This shift became inevitable when…
Australia are scheduled to host Pakistan for a white-ball tour starting next week. The tour, which will see both teams playing three One-day internationals followed by as many T20I games, will culminate on November 18, just four days before Australia are set to play a five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India. Keeping that in view, Cricket Australia (CA) has decided to rest main players including Mitchell Marsh, Travis Head, and Pat Cummins among others for the T20I part of the tour. George Bailey, Australia’s chief selector, said that the players will meet for the first time in a while for training…
Just a day after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the squad for white-ball tours against Australia and Zimbabwe, Pakistan’s white-ball coach, Gary Kirsten, resigned from his role. Kirsten, who joined Pakistan Cricket on a contract of 24 months in April 2024, has stepped down merely 6 months after his appointment. Reportedly, his resignation came as a result of a dispute between him and PCB. Following the forgettable defeat against England in the first Test match, PCB formed a new selection committee consisting of recently retired ICC Elite umpire, Aleem Dar, and former cricketers Azhar Ali and Aaqib Javed. The…
Losing a series is one thing. Losing in a way that your team’s weakness gets exposed to the entire world is definitely another. Ben Stokes’ England were on the receiving end of Pakistan’s absurd revolution which brought a surprising series win with it. While Pakistan should be praised for the way they made a comeback from nowhere, the hindsight is shifting the fans and pundits’ focus on the points where England faltered. Ben Stokes, England’s red-ball captain, was not at his best and what is worse is that it was painfully evident. After he joined the team back in the…
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced central contracts on Sunday, awarding the contracts to 25 International cricketers. The announcement of the contracts comes four months after the expiry of the previous contracts on June 30. These contracts have been backdated to be effective from July 1. Retaining their category, Babar Azam and the newly-appointed white-ball captain Mohammad Rizwan are the only ones in Category A, which is also the top category of the contracts. Shaheen Shah Afridi, who was also a Category A player previously, has been demoted to the second category. Naseem Shah and Pakistan’s red-ball captain, Shan Masood, are…
Pakistan have decided to hand over the white-ball captaincy duties to Mohammad Rizwan, who will succeed Babar Azam as the leader after the latter stepped down from the position. The white-ball tours against Australia and Zimbabwe will be the wicket-keeper batter’s first assignments. He is not entirely new to the role as a captain, having already led the Pakistan side in a couple of Test matches against New Zealand in 2020-21. He also has been a long-standing captain of his team, Multan Sultans, in the Pakistan Super League. Recently, he captained Markhors during the Champions Cup. Rizwan was quoted as…
It seems too good to be true, yet it is also extremely cliche. Pakistan defeated England 2-1 in a home series by executing the most inscrutable stunts. It is sheerly characteristic of Pakistan cricket (only) to turn matches with a crazy build-up into moments of glory. Captain Shan Masood said after Pakistan’s victory in the third Test that the series opener, where the hosts endured an inning defeat, pushed the team to continue because they knew it couldn’t get worse. As much as it was disrespectful to undermine Pakistan’s ability to mess things up, this actually worked. Pakistan cricket, with…
Why does he need a chance in the Test side again? He turned 36 a little more than a week ago. He has made a name for himself in the white-ball cricket. Helped the team win three World Cups. Seen many highs in his career. Written a book to chronicle his journey. Is that not enough? Is it not time to start thinking of his farewell to this game? To the sane minds, it’s a yes for all the above questions. But Glenn Maxwell is anything but sane. He does not care if he has not played a Test match…
Barring the first T20I match wherein they won, West Indies have not had much to write home about during this tour of Sri Lanka. That is until Sherfane Rutherford and Gudakesh Motie sew a record 9th wicket partnership of 119, West Indies’ highest to date. West Indies found themselves hanging at 58 for the loss of eight wickets when these two decided to play for some face-saving. Though akin to all their efforts thus far in the series, this partnership, too, could not help the visitors get over the line. Taking nothing away from the magnificent partnership, Sri Lanka as…