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With several prominent India women players shifting allegiance from powerhouse Railways, the senior women’s domestic landscape in India is set to witness a change this upcoming season starting December 6.The Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) commitments of some key players is also likely to force teams to rethink their plans as the BCCI tries to incorporate structural changes in the domestic set-up four months after India finished runners-up at the World Cup.For decades, Railways have supported and fielded the best women’s players. But the exodus is bound to affect them this season. India’s T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur ended a three-year stint to move to Punjab after being offered the post of deputy superintendent by Punjab Police. Sushma Verma, the India and Railways first-choice wicketkeeper, is also in the process of tendering her resignation and will likely lead Himachal, who earned a promotion to the Elite category in the one-day tournament.Allrounders Sneh Rana, who last played an international fixture in the home series against Sri Lanka in 2016, and Paramita Roy have also been given the NOC to play for Punjab and Bengal respectively. Bengal will however lose the services of seamer Sukanya Parida, who will be debuting for Railways this season.

Even though Harmanpreet has been appointed Punjab’s captain, a likely renewal of contract with her WBBL side Sydney Thunder may lead to her missing a major part of the domestic season. One of Rana or Parveen Khan is likely to be given the captaincy.Diana Edulji, a former administrator in the Railways and a member of the Committee of Administrators, believes finding a replacement for someone of Harmanpreet’s caliber for Railways will be “impossible” to accomplish. What could further compound Railways’ selection concerns is the unavailability of Veda Krishnamurthy who will be departing for her maiden WBBL stint in the first week of December.The big vaccum left by Harmanpreet’s exit could be filled by 20-year old Deepti Sharma, who earned plaudits for her performances at the World Cup. Deepti has obtained an NoC from Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association and is currently in the midst of negotiations with three teams – Railways, Bengal and Baroda.ESPNcricinfo understands formalities relating to getting Deepti on board were initiated first by Baroda, which had incumbent national coach Tushar Arothe in the coaching role until signing a two-year deal as head coach of the national team. Bengal, led by Jhulan Goswami, too, have furthered talks in this regard, with a state selector confirming the move. “One of our senior players requested if we could have Deepti [in Bengal]; she would be a great addition the side.”Even though Railways have already shortlisted their 25-member squad and will be conducting a combined pre-season camp for the Under-23 and the senior sides from November 6, the secretary of the Railways Sports Promotion Board confirmed that Deepti’s application is still under consideration.

As for Verma, the 2017-18 domestic season could proffer Himachal room for improvement as much as to herself, having got “very less opportunities to bat in Railways” due to the likeness of its batting order with the Indian side. “Playing in the Elite and facing teams like Railways will give us a good exposure,” she said. “For most, domestic matches are the only platform to make an impression on the selectors. I desperately want to bat this season so I can carry that confidence into the international circuit.”Weighing in on the reconfiguration planned for the domestic structure, including the reintroduction of the Under-16 tournament – only at the zonal level- and the revamped Under-19 Women’s North-East Championship, Edulji said, “The BCCI is on the right track. I’m happy that BCCI is now taking women’s cricket seriously.”Given the kind of interest the World Cup generated, I hope some of the domestic matches are televised. It is also important that good publicity is given to these matches, just the way Ranji is given. So maybe regular media releases should be sent out – and that, of course, I will be looking into as a CoA member.”

Club cricket in the Western Cape could be cut by up to 50% as the Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) tries to heed the city’s call to reduce water consumption in the face of the region’s worst drought in over a century.In an urgent meeting on Wednesday, WPCA cricket and local league committees discussed ideas on how to save water, and discussed a reduction of club fixtures, but did not agree on a specific number. A final decision will be made in the coming weeks.Level 5 water restrictions are in place throughout the province and individuals have been instructed to use no more than 87 litres of water per person per day as the Cape battles lowering dam levels following a second winter with scant rainfall. Water rationing is on the horizon and all organisations have been asked to reduce water consumption as much as possible.”The WPCA has already implemented practical steps to save water. One example was the grey-water usage by curators and all the club players at Blue Downs every week to maintain the oval, a practical, proactive measure,” Nabeal Dien, WPCA CEO said. “Obviously we will consider reducing the club fixtures without knockout matches being impacted or players’ need for recreational activities being adversely affected significantly.”The club cricket season has already begun but a revision to the fixtures may yet take place.

Yorkshire were left facing a battle to avoid defeat after three days at The Oval, with their Division One status becoming increasingly imperilled. They were made to follow on for the third time this season after being dismissed for 396 by Surrey, for whom Gareth Batty and Freddie van den Bergh shared six wickets, and reached the close still 139 in arrears.On a surface that has worn slowly but steadily, Surrey’s pair of spinners likely hold the key to victory. Batty soon brought himself on again and, although he could not add to Sam Curran’s initial breakthrough, Yorkshire have a job on their hands if they are to emulate their escape against Hampshire earlier this season, when Gary Ballance’s unbeaten double-hundred secured a draw after following on at the Ageas Bowl.They did at least begin steadily, losing just the wicket of Tom Kohler-Cadmore in the 23 overs remaining of the evening session, as Shaun Marsh and Alex Lees reached stumps unbeaten. With Somerset closing in on victory over Lancashire and Middlesex seeking bonus points from their severely rain-affected fixture at Uxbridge, defeat here would likely leave Yorkshire in the bottom two.Kohler-Cadmore had described the pitch as one he would “love to bat on every week” after play on the second evening and he was quickly given another chance as Yorkshire failed to reach the 443 they required to avert the follow-on. He could only manage 11 this time around before falling lbw and it remains to be seen whether he will keep his place in the side for the visit of bottom club Warwickshire to Headingley next week, with Adam Lyth likely to return and West Indies opener Kraigg Brathwaite set for a debut.For a Yorkshire side that claimed the Championship trophy in 2014 and 2015, before narrowly missing out on three in a row this time last year, this has been a difficult campaign – the first under Andrew Gale as coach. Depleted by England call-ups (they are currently missing Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett and David Willey due to the limited-overs series with West Indies), they must now summon some of the grit Gale was famous for as a player if they are to see out the final day.The morning began with van den Bergh, on his Championship debut, picking up where he left off – his spell from the Pavilion End eventually lasting 32 overs before the arrival of the second new ball allowed him a break. Aged 25, van den Burgh has played nine games of senior cricket going back to 2011, but a muscle injury for Amir Virdi meant he won a chance against Yorkshire. He should expect plenty more opportunities to impress on the final day.Van den Bergh certainly made an impact, as he had a hand in each of the first four wickets to fall. Kohler-Cadmore had spooned a catch to point in the final overs of the second day, after an opening stand of 162, and Marsh also failed to go on, stumped for an identical 78 after being lured forward by the slow left-armer.That was in the sixth over of the day, enough to send the first shiver through Yorkshire supporters. The captain, Ballance, then joined Lees, whose unproductive season has seen him drop down to No. 3, in a stand worth 53 but van den Bergh struck again an hour into the session. Lees had accumulated steadily but on 46 connected with a firm sweep that Ryan Patel, at square leg, dived to snatch up one-handed.The loss of Ballance, who had been averaging 91.89 in the Championship coming into this match, was a more debilitating blow. He set off for an ambitious single having pushed towards cover and then could not get back in time as the bowler hared after it and relayed the throw to Ben Foakes behind the stumps. At 243 for 4, the good ship Yorkshire had struck an ice (van den) Bergh.Although the rest of the innings fell away in slow motion, there was a sense of inevitability about it. Jack Leaning helped add another 59 with Andrew Hodd before edging a Curran delivery with the second new ball to Foakes; Hodd and Tim Bresnan then buckled down for 18 overs to put on 41. But with Yorkshire still 100 from the follow-on target, Batty crowbarred out two more: Bresnan taken at slip, then Azeem Rafiq lbw for a three-ball duck.Hodd went on to a fourth fifty of the season but he could not carry Yorkshire as far as they needed. Stuart Meaker made a mess of Steve Patterson’s stumps and Foakes claimed a fourth victim with an excellent diving grab as Curran found Jack Brooks’ outside edge, before Hodd was last out trying to swing Batty into the stands and only finding cover.

Fast bowlers Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Gamage have been added to Sri Lanka’s squad for the third Test, while batsman Danushka Gunathilaka – who played in Galle – has been omitted. Nuwan Pradeep, who is injured, and Rangana Herath, who is being rested on account of a stiff back, also exited the squad.

Sri Lanka squad

Dinesh Chandimal (capt), Upul Tharanga, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Dilruwan Perera, Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando, Dushmantha Chameera, Lahiru Gamage, Lakshan Sandakan, Malinda Pushpakumara

Chameera’s inclusion was somewhat expected following the injury to Pradeep. Though he has not played a Test since December last year, he has had success in the format, most notably in New Zealand, where he claimed career-best figures of 5 for 47 on a fast, bouncy track in Hamilton. Chameera nursed a stress fracture through much of 2016, and has had only sporadic opportunities with the national team since then. At his quickest, he exceeds 145kph, but is yet to deliver a standout bowling performance since returning from that major injury.The addition of Gamage, however, was a little more of a surprise. Reputed as a good mover of the ball, he has often played for Sri Lanka’s A team, including against England Lions earlier in the year, but has not been in wicket-taking form recently. He did not take a wicket in the 17 overs he bowled in last month’s practice match against India in Colombo. With Lahiru Kumara and Vishwa Fernando already in the squad, Sri Lanka now have four quicks to choose from for the Pallekele Test.Gunathilaka’s omission, meanwhile, is perhaps owed to little other than circumstance. With Dinesh Chandimal now back in the side after missing the first match due to pneumonia, there are no more spots open in the top four. He had not put pressure on the selectors to remain in the squad either. Though he had come into the series in excellent limited-overs form, Gunathilaka made only 16 and 2 on Test debut.The third Test begins on Saturday.

Ahead of Guyana Amazon Warriors’ first training session in Florida prior to their season-opening match against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, a reunion of sorts took place in front of the pavilion. Star legspinner Rashid Khan was in the middle or being interviewed when his Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody appeared behind the camera.The two embraced and spent a few minutes catching up before Amazon Warriors captain Martin Guptill appeared. As Guptill entered the conversation, Moody jokingly offered a piece of friendly advice. “When the s*** hits the fan, just give this guy the ball and he’ll sort everything out.”As Rashid chuckled, Guptill replied, “Mate, I can’t wait to give him the ball as early I can every game.”Such is the excitement with the arrival of Rashid, one of the CPL’s first two Afghanistan players along with Patriots allrounder Mohammad Nabi, Guptill is one of many with high expectations from Rashid to help them not only reach the CPL final for a fourth time, but actually win it in 2017.”Everyone talks about how we’ve been in three finals and lost three finals but at the end of the day that’s cricket,” Guptill told ESPNcricinfo in Lauderhill. “You’re not gonna win every game you play. We played some pretty incredible cricket up to that and unfortunately we played our worst game in the final.”Along with Guptill, the highly anticipated arrival of Rashid is expected to play a major role in the team’s fortunes. Aside from his exploits with Sunrisers in the spring, he began his summer with a sensational tour of the West Indies, which included 7 for 18 in the opening ODI win in St Lucia.”The squad looks a little different to last year but we’ve got some pretty exciting young cricketers coming,” Guptill said. “Rashid Khan, you know what he did in the IPL this year and what he’s done for Afghanistan. It’s extremely exciting and I can’t wait to watch the likes of him get the ball in hand and see what he can do in a couple of days’ time.”Aside from Rashid, who replaces Guyana’s leading wicket-taker from 2016 in Adam Zampa, several other changes have happened on the batting side. The biggest is the injury blow to Chris Lynn, the CPL’s leading scorer from last year who was ruled out due to upcoming shoulder surgery. Chadwick Walton is expected to take over in the opening slot alongside Guptill while Babar Azam has arrived as Lynn’s replacement. Another who may be a big-hitting X-factor is the American Steven Taylor, who has come over after two years with Barbados Tridents.”I opened the batting a couple of times with Chadwick [in Guyana]. He didn’t score too many runs but we started to get a little bit of an understanding of how each other bats, the running between the wickets and the communication and things. That’s going to come pretty quickly in a couple of days time, I’m hoping anyway. Chaddy’s got a great cricket brain on him, the way he thinks about the game and the way he communicates with other players is exciting for us.”Steven Taylor I think got 60-odd in one game down there and batted extremely well on a tough wicket. I was impressed with watching him play and I think it was the first time I’d seen him bat so it was pretty exciting and you know he’s going to get some decent opportunities in this tournament I think. The way he strikes the ball is pretty incredible. To do all the training he needs to with probably less facilities than other countries around the world is pretty awesome and I’m excited to see how he goes in this tournament.”Guptill also picked out Jason Mohammed as a key middle-order contributor and said that if the new arrivals can find chemistry and gel with the established core, which includes opening bowler Sohail Tanvir, he was positive about the team’s chances.”If we get the chance again to play in the final, it’s just about seizing the moment and seizing the opportunity and just enjoying it,” Guptill said. “It was hard to watch the final last year from afar but it’s a completely different year this year and I’m sure we can go all the way.”

A flare-up in the dressing room immediately after the Champions Trophy final may have been the last act of Anil Kumble’s tumultuous final weeks as India coach. According to insiders, Kumble, who stepped down as coach on Tuesday, gave a “dressing-down” to one of his players at The Oval on Sunday, moments after Pakistan had completed a 180-run win to seal the title.Debriefings are part of the coach’s job and it was natural for Kumble to have been disappointed after the crushing defeat. But a BCCI official said his timing was not right.”After the final he gave a big dressing-down to the player,” the official said. “There is a time for everything. Team has just lost. They are down. You come and [give the dressing down].”Kumble was unavailable to comment on developments since Tuesday.The morning after the final, when Kumble met the BCCI top brass, he was told of the reservations the players, including captain Virat Kohli, had with regards to his approach. In his parting note, which he released on Twitter on Tuesday, Kumble said it was the first time he had been told of these differences. Yet, others in the know insist that the relationship between Kohli and Kumble had become dysfunctional over the last few months.On Tuesday, when the India squad left for the Caribbean to play a limited-overs series against West Indies, Kumble stayed back in London to participate in the ICC’s chief executives committee meeting, where he sat as chairman of the cricket committee. Although Kumble’s year-long contract ended with the Champions Trophy, the BCCI had given him an extension until the end of the West Indies series.”Kumble had accepted to travel to the West Indies, but that was subject to resolving the differences,” the BCCI official said. The BCCI had even booked a room in his name in the team hotel in Trinidad, where India start the five-match ODI series on June 23. Kumble was meant to land on Thursday.Kumble had been recommended by the BCCI’s three-man cricket advisory panel comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. Despite not having any formal coaching experience, the CAC felt Kumble had the right credentials for the job, and offered it to him ahead of candidates such as Ravi Shastri, who had been the India team director for two years.Before the Champions Trophy, the BCCI decided to invite fresh applications instead of extending Kumble’s contract. The job was advertised the day India landed in England (May 25) to start their Champions Trophy campaign. Asked if he agreed with the BCCI’s decision, Kohli simply said the BCCI was following its usual processes. Later on, during the tournament, he denied any rift within the team, saying there were “no issues whatsoever”. BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary, meanwhile, said the friction between coach and players was solely in the “realms of imagination” of the media.According to one of its officials, the BCCI had booked a room in the team hotel for Anil Kumble in Trinidad, where India start their five-match ODI series against West Indies•Getty Images

Only six applicants put forward their resume, one of them being Kumble himself. The CAC informed the BCCI that Kumble remained the frontrunner as his track record as coach had no blemish. The CAC was then asked to patch up the differences between Kumble and Kohli. Although the CAC met Kohli, it did not meet with Kumble.In his meeting with the BCCI on Tuesday, Kumble said that since the CAC did not want to meet him he could not have been doing anything wrong. “Anil just did not budge,” the BCCI official said. “He said the CAC met Virat and did not meet me [Kumble], so I am the guy who is right.”Kumble has never been shy of expressing his opinion, but the official said the last word in the dressing room has always belonged to the captain. Kumble, according to the official, was trying to “overstep” and that caused problems. “In the cricket construct it is the captain who takes the credit and the flak. Everybody else plays the supporting role. But Kumble wanted due credit.”It is understood “multiple meetings” took place during the Champions Trophy to attempt to repair the relationship, but Kohli’s opinion had not changed when he met the BCCI separately on Monday. “There is no cricketing difference between the two. It has been a personality clash.”Kumble and Kohli not wanting to reach out to each other to mend their differences may have widened the chasm between the pair over the past few months, culminating in the former opting to leave the job. The board official felt Kumble, being the senior, could have tried a little harder to reach out to Kohli. The official said being a prominent personality himself and having been in cricket for a long time, Kumble could have drawn on that experience to “handle personalities” in the dressing room.In his statement, Kumble said he had made clear the distinction between the roles of coach and captain. “I was informed for the first time yesterday by the BCCI that the captain had reservations with my ‘style’ and about my continuing as the head coach,” he said. “I was surprised since I had always respected the role boundaries between captain and coach.”

Australia’s sport minister, Greg Hunt, has revealed the Federal Government would be prepared to step in and provide “good officers” for mediation between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association should the current pay dispute continue to spiral.Following the refusal of CA’s chairman David Peever to grant the ACA’s request for independent mediation, and further attempts by the team performance manager Pat Howard to deal directly with the players, Hunt said that the government was hesitant about being too interventionist about contract disputes in professional sport. However, he indicated there was scope to act as a mediator if the dispute looked likely to threaten the home Ashes summer.”If it got to a last-minute situation, I suspect that we would offer to provide good officers brokering between the parties, but there’s six months between now and the Ashes,” Hunt told ABC’s . “It would be unthinkable that in the end we wouldn’t have a full team.”I do not see either the players or the administration returning to the late ’70s where we had a second rate team. The players love playing for Australia, Cricket Australia knows this is not just fundamental to sport, it is part of our national identity. I’m very confident they will reach an agreement.”What I don’t want to do across all sports is try to step in and be a mediator in a contract dispute. If there were a fundamental threat at an appropriate time we would offer to work with them, but all the advice I have is that with six months to travel, the Ashes will be proceeding with a full Australian team and on Boxing Day you’ll have Steve Smith, David Warner and the rest of the team out there.””This is a pay dispute between a very well-resourced organisation and very highly paid players. They’ll work it out” – Greg Hunt, Australia’s minister for sport•AFP

Among other areas of expansion, CA has recently grown its government relations division drastically, from a single staffer based in Melbourne to one in each state, all reporting in to the head office at Jolimont. The ACA, too, have enlisted the help of political experience in the pay dispute, retaining the services of the former Labor government minister and longtime union leader Greg Combet.Asked whether he was comfortable with Combet’s involvement, Hunt spoke warmly of his former political opponent. “I’m completely relaxed about it,” Hunt said. “I actually know Greg Combet well, whilst we’ve disagreed on different things in the past, I think he’s fundamentally a person of good sense and integrity.”In assessing how he thought the dispute would play out, Hunt pointed out that CA was “very well-resourced” and the players “very highly paid”. The board has been citing the need to better fund grassroots facilities around the country as a reason for breaking up the players’ fixed revenue percentage model that has existed as the basis for pay agreements for the past 20 years.”This is a pay dispute between a very well-resourced organisation and very highly paid players,” Hunt said. “They’ll work it out.”The current MOU between the players and CA expires at the end of June, with an Australia A tour of South Africa, a Test tour of Bangladesh and an ODI tour of India all scheduled to take place between that date and the start of the Ashes series. CA has stressed that players will be unemployed should no agreement be reached by June 30.

Former Hyderabad wicketkeeper Ibrahim Khaleel and former Windward Islands legspinning allrounder Camilus Alexander are in line to make their debuts for USA next month after being included in a 14-man squad for ICC WCL Division Three in Uganda.Khaleel, 34, and Alexander, 35, are two of three uncapped players in the squad with left-arm spinner Nosthush Kenjige also coming into the squad. One other change was made from the squad that won WCL Division Four in November as left-arm spinning allrounder Mrunal Patel, who last played for USA at the 2015 World T20 Qualifier in Ireland, has been recalled. Batsmen Abdullah Syed and Ravi Timbawala and left-arm spinners Danial Ahmed and Prashanth Nair are the four players dropped.

USA squad

Steven Taylor (capt), Camilus Alexander, Timroy Allen, Alex Amsterdam, Fahad Babar, Akeem Dodson (wk), Elmore Hutchinson, Nosthush Kenjige, Ibrahim Khaleel (wk), Ali Khan, Mrunal Patel, Timil Patel, Jessy Singh, Nicholas Standford

Khaleel’s eligibility for Division Three was touch and go because he did not meet the ICC’s four-year residency requirement for non-citizen players classified as nationals, despite officially having “green card” permanent resident status in the USA, because he had spent too much time out of the country during his final season with Hyderabad in 2014-15. However, he obtained his USA citizenship and passport on April 14, removing him from the four-year category and making him fully eligible.Alexander moved to Atlanta from Grenada in 2012 and qualifies as a four-year resident. Alexander earned his spot after he excelled with the bat at a pair of USA national team camps in Houston in March and April when he was in a head-to-head competition with former Sri Lanka first-class batsman Roy Silva. Both Khaleel and Alexander are expected to fill key middle-order batting positions, something coach Pubudu Dassanayake had identified as a problem area that needed to be addressed when selecting a squad for Division Three.”We feel these players will boost the squad’s batting depth and also its flexibility, with additional spin bowling options,” said Ricardo Powell, USA national selection chairman. “We wish the selected players and coaching staff all the best for their preparation and a successful event.”Ibrahim Khaleel will add first-class experience to USA’s squad•Peter Della Penna

While Khaleel and Alexander have lengthy resumes in first-class cricket prior to being picked for this tour, Kenjige’s expected debut provides a bit of intrigue. The 26-year-old took eight wickets in three trial games during the first Houston squad camp in March. That included a five-wicket haul in which he claimed the wickets of USA captain Steven Taylor as well as fellow squad members Nicholas Standford, Akeem Dodson and Khaleel.Though he was born in Alabama, Kenjige played most of his developmental cricket in Karnataka before resettling in New York in 2016, where he first caught the attention of selectors at an ICC Americas regional combine last June. He is expected to be a significant upgrade over Ahmed, who took 1 for 135 in 32 overs across five games at WCL Division Four in November, and is also a superb fielder.One other player whose availability had been in question was batsman Alex Amsterdam, who led USA’s scoring at Division Four with 213 runs at 53.25. According to several team sources, the middle-order batsman was struggling to get time off work for Division Three after spending a month in Barbados earlier this year playing for the ICC Americas squad at the WICB Regional Super50. Amsterdam did not come to the initial USA camp in March and was not among the original 18 names invited to a further selection camp in Houston in April, owing to time off work, but was a late addition to the April camp and will be touring Uganda.USA will have a weeklong camp in Los Angeles beginning on May 6 to kick off their final preparations for Division Three. They are then scheduled to land in South Africa on May 16 for a pre-tournament camp and warm-up matches at North West University in Potchefstroom before arriving in Uganda on May 21. Their first match at WCL Division Three is against Oman on May 23. USA will also be competing with Canada, Malaysia, Singapore and the hosts for a top-two finish to secure promotion to WCL Division Two.

New Zealand have conceded that they will not be able to exploit any home advantage in the ongoing Test series against South Africa, because that would be playing into the opposition’s hands. As a result, the green, grassy surfaces that become New Zealand’s preference over the last few summers – particularly against subcontinent sides – have been tamed and slower surfaces are being prepared instead, much to South Africa’s surprise.”We haven’t played on wickets like this in New Zealand before. I don’t know if it’s a genuine tactic from New Zealand or if it’s just how the wickets have changed,” Faf du Plessis said. “All the times we’ve been playing here, wickets have been green and over the last two years, New Zealand wickets have been pretty similar to the look of our wickets with seam and swing and then when the sun comes out you can score some nice runs. Conditions have surprised us.”In particular, the amount of turn has caught South Africa, who packed their squad with six seam options for the trip, off guard. “Coming to New Zealand our plan was normally we don’t need two spinners in these conditions but obviously conditions have changed a lot and now we think New Zealand will prepare conditions for spin,” du Plessis said.For that reason, South Africa are contemplating adding to their spin contingent, which only includes one specialist, Keshav Maharaj, for the third Test at Seddon Park. One of Tabraiz Shamsi, Dane Piedt or even Imran Tahir, who has not played a Test since the tour of India in 2015, may be called up to join the group, depending on how things go at the Basin Reserve this week. Wellington is likely to be the place with the most bounce and carry, but that’s not saying much because locals still predict it will be relatively flat by South African standards.New Zealand may also specifically ask for less grass, as New Zealand coach Mike Hesson confirmed they did for the fourth one-dayer in Hamilton. Apart from that, he maintained they are not making any special requests and leaving it up to the weather to dictate conditions. “You don’t get quick pitches in New Zealand generally at this time of year. Our one-day pitches normally have a bit more pace and I think that’s just due to the amount of rain we have had,” Hesson said. “But I don’t think ideally we want to play South Africa on a seamer-friendly surface and it’s also not like we want to play on surfaces that are barren, because there is reverse swing and that’s something South Africa are exceptionally good at. The first innings here [in Dunedin] when we were going quite nicely, reverse swing definitely played a role.”Despite scoring rates being slow in the first Test, Kane Williamson gave the Dunedin pitch and it’s new groundsman, Mike Davies, a pass mark. “I thought he did a very good job. It was on the slower side, which is to be expected. We all saw it shaping up to have an exciting finish so looking at those things, it was a good cricket wicket,” Williamson had said.Like Hesson, Williamson is also not putting too fine a point on conditions, and is concentrating on the quality of the contest instead. “In some countries it’s [home advantage] probably more relevant than others. A number of the South African players are very experienced and have played here before and the characteristics of the ground in this part of the world don’t change too drastically,” he said. “But playing at home, you play here more than anyone else. There’s a natural thing where you are a little bit more comfortable but we have pretty fair playing fields and I think it’s a good recipe for good cricket.”So how then, do New Zealand plan on making the fact that they are at home work for them? “I don’t think you do. You just try and play better cricket,” Hesson said.

Match facts

March 16-20, 2017
Start time 0930 local (0400 GMT)3:50

Chappell: Will be quite a turnaround if Australia pick Maxwell

Big Picture

Is a week a long time in cricket? Not really. Not unless the match is being played on Venus, where a day lasts for nearly eight Earth months and a week would thus drag on for almost five of our years. Probably explains why day-night cricket has never taken off there. Nevertheless, so much has happened since the Bengaluru Test that if it has not been an abnormally long week, it has certainly felt like one.First, there was the fallout from the DRS drama, where in a self-described “brain fade”, Steven Smith looked to Australia’s dressing room for advice on whether to ask for a review while batting. Virat Kohli claimed it was not the first time in the match the Australians had done so. Game on. Well, not literally, because by then the game was over. But you get the idea.If Smith’s actions and Kohli’s comments had fanned the flames of an international incident, the ICC tried its best to douse them the next day by declaring that it would lay no charges against either man. The ICC’s extinguisher was broken. A day later, the BCCI made a complaint to the ICC about Smith’s actions. But within hours, that complaint had been withdrawn, and the BCCI and Cricket Australia had released a joint statement to the effect that all parties would move on. Case closed. Or was it? Yes, it was. Really? Yes, probably. For now, at least.Meanwhile, Australia sent allrounder Mitchell Marsh home. Not because his contributions of 4, 31, 0 and 13, and five overs of medium-pace had been of little consequence, though they had. Marsh was despatched back to Australia due to a shoulder injury that he had been carrying all summer and which affected his bowling. In the words of team physio David Beakley, Marsh “couldn’t function at the level required”. Physically, that is.Mitchell Starc was on a plane home shortly afterwards due to a stress fracture in his right foot. Australia had lost the man who scythed through Sri Lanka in a losing squad last year, and who had made key breakthroughs in both Pune and Bengaluru. It also makes this the first Test since Chester-le-Street on the 2013 Ashes tour that Australia will enter without a single Mitchell – unless legspinner Mitch Swepson is called on to fill the quota.And so Australia’s squad gained Marcus Stoinis, an allrounder averaging 17 with the bat this Sheffield Shield season, and Pat Cummins, a fast bowler of immense talent who has just completed his first Sheffield Shield game for nearly six years. They are gut picks from Australia’s selectors, who are hoping for no indigestion.While all this was happening, India had cause to celebrate when Ravindra Jadeja moved up the Test bowling rankings to join his spinning team-mate R Ashwin – the two men now share the title of No.1 bowler in the world. India have also lost a player from their squad, though it is the injured allrounder Hardik Pandya, who has not played in this series in any case. And they are likely to regain opener M Vijay, who missed the Bengaluru Test due to a shoulder injury.And all of this is without even mentioning the usual speculation over the pitch for the next Test. The Pune pitch was rated “poor” by the ICC, and Bengaluru was “below average”. There were claims that Kohli would be allowed to choose which Ranchi surface would be used, though the curator SB Singh later rubbished those suggestions. Photographs of the pitch circulated on Twitter with various disparaging comments from Australian observers, and a report in the claimed that one Australian called it the most “ridiculous” looking pitch he had seen. Perhaps they thought they were on Venus after all, though they won’t expect this match to drag on.Whatever the case, the week of waiting is over, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is potentially up for grabs in Ranchi. Should Australia win the Test, they retain the trophy; if India win, it will be decided in Dharamsala. So, finally, can we have some cricket please?

Form guide

India: WLWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia: LWWWW
Pat Cummins, tearaway quick: remember him?•AFP

In the spotlight

Virat Kohli has led his team with gusto in this series and their fightback in Bengaluru was admirable. But the one thing Kohli has failed to do so far is make a decent score himself. His batting contributions in this series read: 0, 13, 12 and 15. But this is, after all, a man who has scored four Test double-centuries in the past year alone, so the worrying thing for Australia is that this means there is only room for improvement – and a lot of it.More than five years after he debuted as a fresh-faced 18-year-old in Johannesburg and won Man-of-the-Match honours, Pat Cummins appears almost certain to add a second Test to his record. Cummins has still only played nine first-class matches in his entire injury-ravaged career, but has been rushed to India after getting through a Sheffield Shield match last week in which he took eight wickets. He is viewed as a potential match-winner and thus seems set to play ahead of Jackson Bird in what could be a trophy-deciding game. It is a gamble, but one whose pay-off could be significant.

Team news

India have said M Vijay is fit to play, having missed the second Test with a shoulder injury.* He did not bat for as long as his top-order colleagues in the nets in the two days leading up to the match, but if he does play will become the 29th Indian to feature in 50 Tests. If the pitch looks likely to assist spin in an exaggerated manner, India could bring in Jayant Yadav as a third spinner, possibly at the expense of Karun Nair.India (possible) 1 KL Rahul, 2 M Vijay, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Karun Nair/Jayant Yadav, 7 Wriddiman Saha (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Ravindra Jadeja, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Umesh Yadav.Cummins for Starc looks likely, but it remains a mystery who Australia’s selectors will tap to take Mitchell Marsh’s place at No.6. Stoinis? Glenn Maxwell? Usman Khawaja? Ashton Agar? They are all feasible options, and the answer might not be known until the morning of the match.Australia (probable) 1 David Warner, 2 Matt Renshaw, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Shaun Marsh, 5 Peter Handscomb, 6 Glenn Maxwell/Marcus Stoinis/Usman Khawaja/Ashton Agar, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Steve O’Keefe, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood.

Pitch and conditions

The Ranchi pitch has been the subject of much debate over the past few days. The unusually dark colour of the pitch has puzzled the players, with Smith saying it looked like “rolled mud”. He expected it to hold up through the course of the first day and break up thereafter, and did not think it would offer a great deal of bounce.The weather is expected to be warm and dry through the Test match, with afternoon temperatures in the 28-31C range.

Stats and trivia

• This will be Australia’s 800th Test
• Ranchi will become the 26th Test venue in India
• Steven Smith needs 76 more runs to reach 5000 in Tests
• Such has been the turnover in players since Cummins’ Test debut in 2011 that it is likely Nathan Lyon will be his only remaining team-mate from that match – unless Khawaja is also brought in

Quotes

“I think so far, throughout this series, our batters have played their spinners better than their batters have played our spinners. So if it’s a game of spin versus batters, and the quicks aren’t in there quite as much, I certainly think it brings us to an even playing field.”
“It has been a very long season for us. Last two games to go, which we want to finish on a positive note. The break [after the Bengaluru Test] was timely for us as a side because we played for so long. We played non-stop. I’m sure everyone enjoyed the break and I’m sure the focus is back on this match and the next match.”
*10.30GMT, March 15: The preview was updated after the teams’ pressers on the match eve