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Ganesh Sanap, the president of the Northern California Cricket Association, has thrown his hat into the ring to fill the vacant vice-president position for the USA Cricket Association

Peter Della Penna06-Jan-2011Ganesh Sanap, the president of the Northern California Cricket Association (NCCA), has thrown his hat into the ring to fill the vacant vice-president position for the USA Cricket Association (USACA). Sanap told ESPNcricinfo that he will run for the position against Hemant Buch. Both men are involved with cricket administration in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it now appears that a regional rivalry will be played out on the national stage.”I just want to bring new energy to the old guard,” Sanap said. Sanap traveled with USA’s U-19 squad to New Zealand for the 2010 ICC U-19 World Cup, where he served as team statistician. If elected, he says his focus will be on youth development, which he feels has been badly neglected by USACA.”As far as the national administration is concerned, all they care about is funding tournaments, which is basic duty of course. Other than that, there has been no plan shown by anyone on the national level that they care about the growth of the game or development of the sport.”Only a handful of committed people at the regional level, they’ve been doing it by themselves. Some have vested interests; some have real passion for the sport. There won’t be any vested interests from me.”Sanap served as secretary of the NCCA from 2006 to 2007 before taking over as president of the league in 2008. The league had 33 teams in 2010, and Sanap says his biggest accomplishment was the formation of the NCCA youth program and U-19 team.”It’s one of the best. My major focus on the league level as well as the national level will be getting more programs in place for youth cricket, identify coaches across the nation, across the various regions, and then if possible, have a few dollars earmarked for them to hold those regular coaching camps, at least a two-day session or a weekend every month to coach U-19 players or youth and then gather reports from them, maintain a database of how the players are progressing.”According to John Aaron, Secretary of USACA, the general elections for USA’s governing body will take place “sometime between March 8 and November 30” following guidelines from the USACA constitution. A USACA board meeting is scheduled for January 15-16 in New York in conjunction with the departure of the USA squad traveling to Hong Kong for the ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament. Aaron believes that the date of this year’s USACA elections will be finalized at the upcoming board meeting, but said that a full meeting agenda hadn’t been finalized.Depending on the date selected for the elections, Aaron also indicated that someone may be appointed to fill the USACA vice president position left vacant after the resignation of Nabeel Ahmed up until the elections are held.

The South African fast bowler has credited his seven-wicket haul in India’s first innings to a ball change just before tea. India lost six wickets for 12 runs after tea, Steyn taking five of them

Cricinfo staff08-Feb-2010Dale Steyn has credited his seven-wicket haul in India’s first innings to a ball change just before tea. India lost six wickets for 12 runs after tea, Steyn taking five of them.”There was a ball change around tea time [it was actually a couple of overs before tea], the seam had split open…we came back after tea and the ball looped around a bit. It [change of ball] was a good thing,” Steyn said after the day’s play.Asked what was different from conditions in the home series against England, Steyn said: “We have been speaking about these kind of wickets. We wanted to adapt as quickly as possible. We hit the right areas with the same intensity. On some days you can bowl the best of your life and not pick wickets and then you have some days.”The decision to follow on, he said, was taken by captain Graeme Smith after consultation with the bowlers. “There was a huddle after the Indian first innings. The batters came and told us that we were 300-odd runs ahead and asked if the bowlers had enough gas in the tank to go on and bowl another 26-27 overs.”We said we were not finished yet and it would be good to take a couple of wickets in the second innings. We told them we had enough fuel in the tank. We were looking to take a couple of wickets by stumps and then we would come back tomorrow and finish the job.”

“The final is the biggest stage, that’s the game that matters,” Chinelle Henry says ahead of the WCPL final, where her team, Barbados Royals, will be looking for their third title

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Sep-2025The Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) is in its fourth season, with the final lined up on Wednesday morning in Providence, and we will have the familiar sight of Barbados Royals in the middle, gunning for their third successive title. It’s a competition with just three teams, but Royals have been the dominant power, making all four finals, so “there was a lot riding on it,” when the WCPL began and Royals had to cope with the loss of regular captain Hayley Matthews. A shoulder injury left her on the sidelines and Chinelle Henry in the hot seat.”When she [Matthews] called me and asked me to be captain [because] she wasn’t going to be available, it was quite like, ‘yeah, just give me a moment to think about that’,” Henry said before taking on Guyana Amazon Warriors, the only team not to have won the title. Trinbago Knight Riders were the inaugural champions in 2022.”But I guess when [Matthews] asked, she was like, ‘you probably could be that person, because you have been around the team all the seasons before, as a senior player in the squad’, [despite] all the overseas players that we’ve had and even the captain in her own right in Chamari Athapaththu, who’s been brilliant helping me in the field in terms of decision-making and stuff like that.”Hayley is a big character, both on and off the field, and she has done a lot for us as a franchise. I think the girls have really stepped up. We’re in our fourth final, so that’s really something to talk about.”So far, the way we have been in the group games, there’s still a few areas to tighten up, but I think we are ready to compete in that final.”Royals have made the final winning all their four games this year, including the two against their opponents in the final, giving them a clear upper hand in the title fight.”Over the years, we have had a majority of the same girls playing on the team, so when it comes to culture, we already know what that’s like in terms of the players that we already have and the overseas players that we try to get into the squad,” Henry said. “Once they come in and get a feel of what the girls are about, everybody just fits right in and that’s what’s been the core thing for us this season.”Yes, Hayley’s not here, but how we play, how we come together as a group… she was here a few days ago, she had a few words for us, she will talk to me to say what she thinks, give a bit of advice, but it’s never anything to question my ability to lead the team. And that’s where she is really that person that trusts and believes in players and believes that players can step up when they need to. And, having done that, leading the Royals this season, it was just stepping into that spotlight and still playing my game.”The big star for Royals has been Athapaththu, who is 15 runs clear at the top of the run-scorers’ list with 169 runs in four innings, to go with seven wickets (second only to Amazon Warriors’ Laura Harris who has eight). Henry and Qiana Joseph have done their bit with the bat, but it has, at times, been a one-woman show.Chinelle Henry has played her part with the bat in Royals’ winning streak•CPL T20/Getty Images

“We have a lot of big characters in this group, and she is very passionate, and she loves what she does,” Henry said of Athapaththu. “To be the opener for this team and constantly coming up with runs for us and in the middle, when we are bowling, you can call on her and be like, we need to break a partnership or something, which happens, you know.”She is that person, you know, whenever you call on her, she puts up her hand and is ready to perform and is ready to do her all for the team. With somebody like her, a lot of us, a lot of the younger ones that we have, we really look to her in terms of advice, how she plays, how she thinks when she goes out, and she keeps it simple.”Going by the form Royals have shown in the earlier games this season, they are runaway favourites for the final.”The final is the biggest stage, that’s the game that matters. If we go into that game with a calm and clear mind, things that we have to do as a team and, I have said in a previous interview, we still haven’t got all the areas that we want to tick, all three boxes, the final will be the game to do that,” Henry said. “We know that and we have that in the back of our minds, and we go into Wednesday’s game with everything that we have and the girls are ready to fight. We’ve been in the finals and we know what it feels like to win finals, and we want to make it another one for us, so we go into the final with no complacency, we’re just going out there to fight and bring that trophy back home.”

RCB batter says it hasn’t been a conscious decision to bat at a higher tempo this IPL season

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Apr-20241:01

Kohli’s form ‘never in doubt’ – Wasim Jaffer

Virat Kohli is scoring at a strike rate of 146 in this year’s IPL. Only once has he ever scored quicker and that was in 2016 when he was the kind of form where he was threatening the 1000-run mark. Is this a conscious effort? Is he trying to bat differently, more aggressively?”Look I’m not coming with any premeditation,” Kohli said after making the first century of the 2024 season that took Royal Challengers Bangalore to a total of 183 on a Jaipur pitch that was on the slower side. “Whatever the surface allows me to do, I do that. Today I wasn’t 20 off 9. I was 12 off 10.”Kohli has seemed more willing to take risks, particularly looking to hit over the top to find boundaries. He is lofting more balls per innings this year than in any of the last 10. But he is putting that down to his usual process of assessing the game in front of him and knowing that if the need arises he can go big whenever he wants.”So I knew I can’t go over-aggressive. I don’t want to be predictable. I know I can step up at any point because I’m hitting the ball well. But I want to keep the bowler guessing as to what I’m going to do. They probably want me to come hard at them so they can get me out or have an early breakthrough. But I feel like if I’m set and if I bat beyond six overs, then our chance of getting good totals becomes that much better. So I guess it is just experience and maturity over the years and understanding the conditions that you’re playing. I basically play the conditions and I have the game ready to play in two or three different ways.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Kohli’s century on Saturday night was the eighth of his IPL career, two clear of any other batter in the history of the tournament. He needed 67 balls to get there though, which makes it the joint-slowest. Kohli explained that it was not easy to hit the shots that he wanted to hit because of the lack of pace and bounce, which the Rajasthan Royals spinners used to their advantage to finish with combined figures of 8-0-62-2.”Nothing really came onto the bat. Even a few shots that I tried to play against Yuzvendra Chahal, just trying to slog him, they kept going under the bat. Even R Ashwin, it just felt like you couldn’t get under the carrom ball to hit over midwicket. All you could target was straight if they missed their length. So if you’re consistent enough, the batters were finding it difficult out there.”The wicket feels like its flat but as soon as you see the ball holding up in the pitch, that’s when you realise the pace is changing pretty quickly and then the big dimensions of the ground come into play. Our target initially was 190, 195, to be honest. But then assessing the pitch and how it was slowing down, we decided if one of Faf [du Plessis] or me get out, then the other had to bat till the end so that we can get that boost closer to 180-185, which we did, which I feel is a very effective total on this pitch.”Kohli has contributed 38% of all of RCB’s runs this season. He holds the Orange Cap with a tally of 316 from five innings and has now crossed 7500 runs in the IPL,

Coach plays down own role in series marked by superb tactics and man-management

Andrew Miller20-Dec-2022Brendon McCullum, England’s Test coach, says it is “scary” to think how good a leader Ben Stokes could become after his transformative influence in the year just gone, having secured a historic 3-0 clean sweep in Pakistan with a ninth Test victory in the space of ten games.Speaking to Sky Sports in Karachi, in the aftermath of England’s eight-wicket win in the third and final Test, McCullum played down his own crucial role in the team’s rise from the ruin of last winter’s Ashes, stating bluntly that he does “bugger all” behind the scenes. Instead, he lavished praise on his captain, for his work both on and off the field.”The skipper was absolutely magnificent right throughout the series,” McCullum said. “Not just on the field, where everyone sees the decisions he makes and the strings he pulls, but it’s his man-management and his ability to get the very best out of each member of the side, off the field, which is the most impressive part from our point of view.”It’s the captain’s mantra, this side is very much in the image of the skipper,” McCullum added. “And Stokesy wants the guys to go out there and play with the most amount of freedom that they can.”He’s got the benefit of a long and distinguished career behind him, and he’s in that stage of his life where he wants to do something significant and make a real impact, not just on the game but on other people’s careers. He’s identified that taking away that pressure and that fear of failure allows the talent and the skill to come out.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Stokes himself was at the crease on the final day, finishing 35 not out in England’s pursuit of 167 for their clean sweep. But it was England’s efforts on the very first day of the tour, in Rawalpindi, that set the team on course for history, as they racked up a remarkable 506 for 4 in 75 overs, including four centuries from Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Harry Brook, the eventual Player of the Series.”That was more than I thought we were going to make, to be honest,” McCullum said. “The way that Crawley and Duckett started for us in that Test match, it really laid a marker out for where this team wants to be, and for how brave our cricket needs to be as well.”It was about playing the role that the team needs you to play, rather than getting too caught up in your own stuff, and it was a huge day that allowed us to try and force a result. Maybe the series would have been different if we hadn’t have gone down that route.”The defining aspect of England’s wins, however, was ultimately their ability to prise out 20 wickets in a Test, with a range of different tactics and personnel coming to the fore, from the part-time spin of Will Jacks and the skilful use of reverse swing in Rawalpindi, to Jack Leach’s first-innings four-for and the decisive pace onslaught of Mark Wood in Multan, and ultimately to the remarkable emergence of the legspinner Rehan Ahmed with his debut five-for in Karachi.”It’s a great achievement,” McCullum said. “If you look at the whole six or seven months, we’ve taken 20 wickets in a Test on nine out of 10 occasions. So it’s one thing scoring fast and putting teams under pressure with the bat, but you got to be able to bowl teams out as well.”And the mantra within the group is ‘how do we take wickets?’ Every time we’ve got the ball in our hand, ‘how are we going to try and get this guy out?’ If you go for runs, you go for runs, but we back ourselves that will chase those runs down later on. I think once you have that mindset, you free yourself up from having to worry about runs. It allows you to look at things with a positive mantra.”Related

• Ben Stokes' England captaincy: what went into it before he took charge

• 'I certainly feel ready now' – Duckett hungry for more, in all conditions, after impressive Test return

• Rehan Ahmed, putting the game in super fast forward

• 'Nighthawk' cameo caps Rehan Ahmed's match-seizing day

• Babar Azam offers delusion over solution as Pakistan's shortcomings are exposed

Stokes’ field placings were eye-catching throughout the tour, but they had to be too, with not a single traditional slip catch off the seamers all series long. Instead, he backed his bowlers with leg slips for the short ball into the ribs, and close catchers in the eyeline to capitalise on mistimed drives, a process that Stokes himself admitted had been entirely down to instinct, rather than pre-set plans.”A lot of my decisions were based on what I thought was the best option at any given time,” Stokes told Sky Sports. “I feel as if out here is probably the easiest conditions to mess around with a few different things. You don’t have to have a slip because it’s not going to go to slip in three games for us. So you use that slip somewhere else, maybe to visually upset the batsman.”Watching on from the dressing-room, McCullum was impressed. “The skipper never lets the game drift,” he said. “He’s always got something happening. He’s always pulling a string somewhere and the guys follow him. It’s a great combination to have, and it makes it pretty easy when you’re watching from up in the coach’s box.”There’s maverick in it and genius in a lot of it,” he added. “He’s just got an insatiable appetite to keep moving the game forward, which is super-impressive. But for me, it’s the man management, it’s the consistency of message, it’s the pure passion and drive that he’s got to make a significant difference in Test cricket, and English cricket, which is most impressive.”So I feel incredibly lucky that I’ve taken over this job when Stokesy has got the reins, and I think he’s only going to get better and better and better, which is quite scary. Because if he continues to improve and drive this team forward then, with the talent that sits within the dressing room, they will give it a good shake anyway.”I don’t do bugger all, to be honest,” McCullum joked. “I just make sure that the guys remain consistent with their own beliefs, and that they all want to be the best version of themselves. To be honest, it’s a really easy job … don’t tell my bosses. But I’m really enjoying myself, and I couldn’t I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity.”Looking on from the Sky Sports studio, however, Stuart Broad gave a more nuanced assessment of McCullum’s under-stated influence in the dressing-room.”I’ve not seen him throw many balls, I’ve not seen him talk technically to anybody, but you watch every training session, he walks around and speaks to every single player,” Broad said. “Just checking in and seeing how they are, seeing what their mindset’s like, making sure they are taking the options that are right for the mantra of the team. He’s an incredible man-manager.”

Shakib Al Hasan’s five-for against Zimbabwe, meanwhile, moved him to eighth in the ODI bowling rankings

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jul-2021Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan and England’s Liam Livingstone have made the most significant gains in ICC’s latest rankings update for T20I batters. Rizwan, who was the top scorer during the T20I series between the two sides with 176 runs in three innings attained a career-best seventh position while Livingstone’s 147 runs in three innings – including a maiden T20I ton – propelled him up 144 places to 27th, having played only eight matches in his career so far.The latest rankings update, which includes the final two T20Is between Australia and West Indies and the series-opener between Ireland and South Africa, also sees Evin Lewis move from tenth to eighth on the batting charts after scores of 31 and 79. Dawid Malan, Babar Azam and Aaron Finch maintained their rankings as the world’s top three T20I batters.

Full rankings tables

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In the T20I bowlers’ rankings, four wickets each for Shadab Khan and Mohammad Hasnain have moved them to 36th and 41st, while Sheldon Cottrell’s three-for in the final match against Australia helped him gain six positions to reach 16th. Wristspinners Tabraiz Shamsi, Rashid Khan and Wanindu Hasaranga remain the top three T20I bowlers.In ODIs, South Africa’s Quinton de Kock moved into 10th among batters after smashing a 91-ball 120 against Ireland in the final ODI in Malahide. Shikhar Dhawan’s 86 in his first ODI as India’s stand-in captain against Sri Lanka lifted him to 16th. Azam, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma continue to hold the top three batting positions in ODIs.Shakib Al Hasan was the most significant gainer among ODI bowlers on the back of his five-wicket haul against Zimbabwe in Harare. He moved up nine places to break into the top 10 once again, and into eighth position. He remains first on the ODI allrounders’ list.

Qais Ahmad of BBL fame and Azmatullah Omarzai, who was part of the U-19 squad which made the 2018 semi-final, are also in

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Feb-2020Shapoor Zadran’s time away from the game comes to an end having been named in the Afghanistan squad for the upcoming T20I tri-series against Ireland. The 32-year-old left-arm fast bowler is one of the most recognisable faces in Afghanistan cricket, gaining cult-hero status when he starred in their first-ever World Cup win back in 2015. But he hasn’t played for them since March 2019.That too was a game against Ireland – an ODI, though Zadran’s career, over the last five years has largely been limited to T20I appearances. He sticks to the shortest format in domestic cricket as well and was a notable performer in the final of Shpageeza Cricket League in October 2019. He picked up 4 for 31 for Amo Sharks but ended up on the losing side. Zadran then played T10 cricket in Abu Dhabi in November, picking up three wickets in six matches for Karnataka Tuskers. That was his last piece of top-flight action.Afghanistan will face Ireland over three T20Is to be played in Delhi on March 6, 8 and 10 with Asghar Afghan back as full-time captain across formats.The Afghanistan captaincy hot potato•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

There are a couple of new faces in the squad as well. Qais Ahmad, the 19-year-old legspinner who shocked Andre Russell with a bouncer and subsequently took the Big Bash League by storm, gets a chance to play T20 internationals. So does Azmatullah Omarzai, who was part of the Under-19 team that made the semi-finals a couple of years ago. The 19-year-old seam-bowling allrounder has not played any T20 cricket since October 2018, but he has been moving up the ranks in regional 50-over cricket. In the September tournament, he emerged as Speen Ghar’s leading wicket-taker with eight strikes at an average of 17.50.Afghanistan T20I squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Hazratullah Zazai, Karim Janat, Najib Zadran, Asghar Afghan (capt), Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Naveen ul Haq, Shapoor Zadran, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Qais Ahmad, Azmatullah Omarzai, Samiullah Shinwari, Usman Ghani.

An unbeaten 61 from Australia’s No. 8 left India two wickets from going 2-1 up in the series

The Report by Varun Shetty28-Dec-2018For the fourth day in a row, Pat Cummins stood as the only considerable obstacle in India’s push for a 2-1 lead before the Sydney Test. Australia showed more fight in their second innings, but India’s bowling was too much to handle. No team has chased more than 332 at the MCG, and in the absence of any of the forecast rain, the 399 India set was too steep for Australia to do more than delay what still looks a grim defeat. They need 141 to win as India look to take an unassailable lead and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.Australia’s middle order resisted longer than they had in the first innings, but it was yet another day of getting in only to get out. It was symptomatic of a year in which Australia have made only four individual hundreds, three of which came in the first match of the year. On Saturday, they needed hundreds – from batsmen and from partnerships – but they only managed one half-century stand.Getty Images

The opening stand didn’t last beyond the second over. Aaron Finch survived an lbw shout off Jasprit Bumrah’s first ball, only to waft at the next incoming delivery and edge it to Virat Kohli at second slip. Marcus Harris was gutsy without being so for long yet again, having survived a menacing spell against pace only to offer hard hands to be caught at short leg off Ravindra Jadeja.Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh had ideas to counter Jadeja, using their feet often to hit him into the leg side, with the occasional reverse sweep from Khawaja to trim the deficit before lunch. But India found a way. The plan after lunch had been to attack the stumps with Jadeja and the outside edge with Mohammed Shami bowling around the wicket. Khawaja, in particular, had settled in and was largely staying leg side of the ball and defending close to his body, if he had to play at all. That was until Kohli moved from slip into leg gully at the start of a Shami over, allowing him to bowl straighter. He was rewarded instantly, getting one to straighten from middle to catch Khawaja’s back leg in front of off stump.A similar change in line from Bumrah accounted for Shaun Marsh, his lbw decision much closer than Khawaja’s. But ball-tracking indicated the ball would have clipped leg stump and the on-field decision stood. Batting became progressively easier from there in the middle session, with the conditions not aiding reverse-swing as much as they had in the first innings, and so the wickets of Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head would have particularly stung Australia. The former, having biffed Jadeja over long-on, found Kohli at extra cover with an aerial drive. Head – impressive with his feet once again, particularly while hitting through the off side – played another one onto his stumps when he swished away from the body against Ishant Sharma.Tim Paine and Cummins have both shown the ability to stay organised under pressure, and they did so for a bit, before Jadeja changed his angle to left-arm over and had Paine attempt a cut to be caught behind. Cummins, in contrast, was stubborn throughout his innings in offering the straight bat, barely chasing at deliveries outside off. He waited 41 balls before his first boundary stroke, a sweetly-timed loft over long-off against Jadeja that had most on-air broadcasters convinced he should be in Australia’s top six in the fourth Test. He delivered further on those exaltations with more picturesque drives through the off side against the seamers, saving his best until the new ball was taken late in the day. The first, an expansive crash through extra-cover against Bumrah, brought him his fifty. Then, a classy, high-elbow punch wide of mid-off against Ishant.But neither of those quite drew applause from the MCG crowd like his straight drive against Ishant two balls later. An imperious shot on the up past the bowler, the kind neither team has played since this pitch began opening up on the third day. It was the final stamp of his dominance, and a mild jibe at his mates in the top order, as he took Australia to stumps with Nathan Lyon, who currently has the highest average – 41 – for an Australian batsman in this series.Earlier, India had begun the day on 5 for 54. Overnight batsmen Mayank Agarwal and Rishabh Pant came out to attack the bowling, but strokemaking wasn’t any easier against pace than it had been on Friday. So Agarwal went after Lyon, stepping out and lofting him over his head for two sixes in the same over. But Cummins was on call once again for Australia, pegging him back into the crease until he got one to keep low and had him playing on to off stump. That gave Cummins his fifth, and soon he had Jadeja fending at a bouncer to give him career-best figures. All six of his wickets came with the batsmen on the back foot. Josh Hazlewood, the only other bowler with wickets in the innings, got Pant with a short one in the next over, which prompted India to declare.The wicket had come after Pant had drilled him over long-on off the previous delivery. It was one of the wicketkeeper’s few highlights, as he put down Head twice off consecutive deliveries from Jadeja later in the day. He went on to make amends later, by holding onto Paine, after adding a comedic episode to their banter series.

Addressing the speculation around India captain Virat Kohli’s availability for the series, MSK Prasad said the India captain’s workload would also be looked at after the Tests

Vishal Dikshit in Mumbai23-Oct-20174:46

Chopra: Dhawan should be Vijay’s opening partner

Opening batsman M Vijay has returned to India’s Test side for the first two Tests against Sri Lanka. Vijay had missed the Tests on the Sri Lanka tour due to a wrist injury. The three-Test series against Sri Lanka will begin from November 16 in Kolkata.

India squad for first two Tests

Virat Kohli (capt), M Vijay, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Vijay’s return was the only change to India’s squad which had toured Sri Lanka earlier this year, with Abhinav Mukund making way. Axar Patel, who had come as Ravindra Jadeja’s replacement following the latter’s suspension for the Pallekele Test, was left out.In the lead-up to the selection committee meeting in Mumbai, there was some speculation that Virat Kohli would be rested. The had reported that Kohli had asked for personal time off in December, when India and Sri Lanka are slated to play the third Test and the six limited-overs matches. Since the Test squad has been announced only for the first two games, which will be played in November, there is still a possibility of Kohli getting time off.”With regard to Virat Kohli there has been some speculation that he’s going to be rested for the whole of Sri Lanka series,” India’s chairman of selectors, MSK Prasad, said. “It’s not right. Yes, as far as Test series is concerned, he’s going to play and at some point of time, the rotation policy that we’re following will also apply to the captain. We’re also monitoring his workload – he’s been playing continuously right from the IPL. We need to give him a break and we will consider after the Test series.”

India Board President’s XI for tour match v SL

Naman Ojha (capt, wk), Sanju Samson, Jiwanjot Singh, B Sandeep, Tanmay Agarwal, Abhishek Gupta, Rohan Prem, Akash Bhandari, Jalaj Saxena, CV Milind, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, Ravi Kiran.

Kohli had recently spoken about India’s “hectic” schedule, before the start of the ODI series against New Zealand and had hinted that some “key batsmen” would also be rested before the upcoming away tours in 2018. Prasad did not identify which players would be rested and only said the workload of all players was being monitored.”Considering the workload and considering the international schedule we have right now, we are definitely rotating the players,” he said. “And it is too premature to say right now [who will be rested]. If you see the pattern with which we are selecting and we will let you know at an appropriate time. One thing is for sure that we are definitely going to rotate and monitor the workload of the players.”The selectors also announced the Board President’s XI for a two-day practice match against Sri Lanka, scheduled for November 11 and 12 in Kolkata. Led by wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha, the squad features players whose teams will not play the Ranji Trophy round that is scheduled to begin on November 12. The team includes Sanju Samson, Jalaj Saxena and 20-year-old Madhya Pradesh seamer Avesh Khan.

Lindsay Tuckett, the former South Africa fast bowler who was the world’s oldest surviving Test cricketer, has died aged 97 in Bloemfontein

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2016Lindsay Tuckett, the former South Africa fast bowler who was the world’s oldest surviving Test cricketer, has died aged 97 in Bloemfontein. Tuckett played nine Tests for South Africa between June 1947 and March 1949.Tuckett made his first-class debut for Orange Free State in March 1935, shortly after his 16th birthday. When cricket resumed after the Second World War, Tuckett became one of South Africa’s leading bowlers and was picked for the tour of England in 1947, where he made his debut in the first Test at Trent Bridge.Tuckett began his Test career with a five-for, but was hampered by a groin injury on the tour and finished with 15 wickets in five matches at an average of 44.26. His next international appearance came during England’s [Marylebone Cricket Club] tour of South Africa in 1948-49. Tuckett bowled the last over of the dramatic Durban Test, which ended with a two-wicket victory for England, secured off the final ball. Tuckett’s returns in the series were four wickets for 316 runs, and he played his last Test match in that series. His tally of 19 international wickets included two five-fors.Tuckett took 225 wickets from 61 matches in a first-class between 1934-35 and 1954-55. This included a haul of 32 wickets in the 1951-52 season at an average of 17.59.Tuckett’s father was former South Africa Test cricketer Len, and his uncle, medium-pacer Joe Cox, was also a former Test cricketer.Former South Africa allrounder John Watkins is now the oldest living Test cricketer in the world, aged 93.