All posts by csb10.top

It’s hard for Pakistan to replace cricketers at the national level these days, because there are few top-class replacements coming through from domestic cricket – one of the fallouts of Pakistan’s international isolation, says Waqar Younis.4:37

‘We have forgotten first-class cricket’ – Waqar

‘Passion for cricket needs to be looked after’Cricket brings the nation together, but the lack of cricket in Pakistan means people will move away from the game if their passion is not nurtured.1:02

‘Passion for cricket needs to be looked after’ – Waqar

‘Was more upset with Butt than Amir’Waqar on how he, as Pakistan coach, reacted to the news of the spot-fixing in 2010, in what was a “sickening” time for all involved.4:39

‘Was more upset with Butt than Amir’ – Waqar

‘In our days there was no analytical information’Data analysis is now a part of Pakistan cricket, but one must be careful to not over-coach naturally skilled players, says Waqar Younis.1:36

‘In our days there was no analytical information’ – Waqar

Eleven uncapped players have been included in the 30-man shortlist for a USA selection camp announced by new selection panel chairman Ricardo Powell and ICC Americas consultant Tom Evans on Friday evening. The players will participate in the camp in Florida at the end of the month, and the camp will be used to help pick a 14-man squad for ICC WCL Division Four to be played in Los Angeles this October.”It doesn’t really matter to us who has played and who hasn’t before,” Evans told ESPNcricinfo after the squad was released. “It’s exciting when you find talent that you might not have known about previously.”The most notable omission was former USA captain Steve Massiah, the country’s all-time leading run-getter in 50-over cricket, who turned out at the ICC Combine in New York last month a few days short of his 37th birthday. Massiah scored few runs at the trial while his 2K run time of 11:30 – the ICC Combine target was under eight minutes – also hurt his chances. He last represented USA at the 2014 ICC WCL Division Three in Malaysia, when the team was relegated after a fifth-place finish. Three players who were part of USA’s 2015 ICC Americas Qualifier squad in Indianapolis- Barrington Bartley, Karan Ganesh and Mrunal Patel – were omitted from the 30-man short list. Also missing was Timothy Surujbally who, along with Ganesh and Mrunal, played the World T20 Qualifier in Ireland and Scotland.

The 30-member squad for the upcoming national camp

Capped players: Danial Ahmed, Timroy Allen, Alex Amsterdam, Fahad Babar, Adil Bhatti, Akeem Dodson, Muhammad Ghous, Elmore Hutchinson, Naseer Jamali, Japen Patel, Timil Patel, Saqib Saleem, Srini Santhanam, Hammad Shahid, Jasdeep Singh, Nicholas Standford, Steven Taylor, Ravi Timbawala, Shiva Vashishat.
Uncapped players: Davion Davidson, Nosthush Kenjige, Ali Khan, Keon Lake, Aman Lobana, Francis Mendonca, Prashanth Nair, Nisarg Patel, David Pieters, Usman Rafiq, Arjun Thyagarajan

The uncapped players include fast bowler Ali Khan, who secured a CPL contract with Guyana Amazon Warriors this season after being included in an ICC Americas combined team this past January, as well as former USA Under-19 players Prashanth Nair and Nisarg Patel. Nisarg was included in the squad for the ICC Americas Division One T20 championship last year in Indianapolis but was ruled ineligible after it was determined he failed to meet residency criteria.Usman Rafiq and David Pieters participated in last year’s ICC Americas trial in Indianapolis, with the latter making it to the final 26 out of nearly 100 players. Pieters narrowly missed the 15-man squad after finishing as the leading wicket-taker over the course of the trial. Rafiq also served as a substitute fielder during the Cricket All-Stars match in Houston last November.Davion Davidson, Keon Lake and Francis Mendonca have all been representatives in the past at USACA national tournaments for their respective regions. Mendonca also competed at the Indianapolis trial last September, but was squeezed out from making the first weekend of cuts by fellow wicketkeeper Srimantha Wijeratne of Canada, who was the leading scorer for the ICC Americas squad at the Nagico Super50 in Trinidad & Tobago.However, two other uncapped players were plucked from relative obscurity. Los Angeles area medium-pacer Aman Lobana gained some notoriety when he knocked back Sachin Tendulkar’s stumps in a nets session ahead of the Cricket All-Stars match in Los Angeles last November. At the ICC Combine in March, multiple sources said Lobana outbowled USA players Hammad Shahid and Elmore Hutchinson, who also feature in the 30-man list.”Aman was really impressive to bowl the way he did in LA,” Evans said. “He swung the ball, bowled full and was consistent. So I think everyone that was at that combine thought that he stood out and that’s great. You always want depth in your fast-bowling brigade which, I think, within that squad we’ve certainly got.”Left-arm spinner Nosthush Kenjige has never represented a regional side at a national tournament. A member of Columbia CC in the NY Commonwealth League, Kenjige wowed evaluators in the last trial match at the ICC Combine in New York last month with an excellent demonstration of flight, turn, bounce and accuracy to claim three wickets in three overs.One player who was included, despite having never played for USA nor attending the most recent round of eight regional ICC trials, is Arjun Thyagarajan. The 33-year-old left-handed opener – younger brother of former USA national stalwart Aditya Thyagarajan – attended last year’s Indianapolis trial and turned in an underwhelming performance. He scored 8 off 13 balls in the opening T20 trial match on the main turf pitch before being shuffled down to a second-tier trial game played on an artificial strip for the final day of the trial’s first phase.Evans defended Thyagarajan’s selection on the basis of prolific scoring at league level and in various local T20 tournaments seen by selectors. Among Thyagarajan’s more impressive feats in recent years were his three centuries in the 2013 SCCA Division One competition played at Woodley Park, the venue for WCL Division Four. One of the knocks was 126 off 50 balls for Hollywood CC against a Vijayta CC bowling attack that featured four national bowlers: Shahid, Japen Patel, Timil Patel and Mrunal.”The Combine process was fantastic in terms of identifying talent and having a level playing field but ultimately the selection panel want to pick the best squad in US cricket that’s available to them and some guys couldn’t make it to the combine and that’s that,” Evans said. “But you still want to pick what the selection panel thinks is the best squad and you’ve got to take everything into account.”Arjun is well known to a few of the guys on the selection panel and they believe he’s a pretty talented player. He’s obviously been pretty dominant in terms of club cricket across the US and has topped a lot of the leagues and has made big hundreds. I think that was one of the things that appealed was the fact that looking towards a 50-over tournament, you want someone who makes big hundreds, not good-looking 30s and 40s and he’s certainly got runs on his side over a fairly long period of time so that’s what helped him out.”Steven Taylor, Muhammad Ghous, Nicholas Standford and Naseer Jamali also did not attend the recent ICC trials, but were all chosen for their solid records for the national side at recent tournaments, according to Evans. Taylor has a CPL contract with Barbados Tridents, while both he and Ghous were part of the 15-man ICC Americas team in Trinidad last January. Standford was twice Man of the Match with back-to-back 40 not outs in USA’s wins over ODI nations Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea at the World T20 Qualifier last year. Left-arm seamer Jamali’s economy rate of 3.90 was second-best for all bowlers at the same event.With the exception of Khan, Taylor and Timroy Allen, who are taking part in the CPL, the rest of the USA 30-man group will fly to Florida on July 27 for the camp. A T20 trial match against a combined Caribbean Premier League XI will take place on July 29 at Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida as a curtain raiser for that night’s CPL game between the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and Trinbago Knight Riders. The players will be allowed to train with each of the CPL squads over the following two days before being reassembled to compete in three 50-over intra-squad matches from August 1-3 in Lauderhill.

Match facts

June 26, 2016
Start time 1030 local (0930 GMT)

Big Picture

Eoin Morgan demanded improvement from his England side after they escaped with a last-ball tie in the opening ODI of the series. He got it in no uncertain terms at Edgbaston. Accurate bowling, and a lively fielding display, was followed by a dominant, free-wheeling opening stand as Alex Hales and Jason Roy plundered the record books in a 10-wicket victory.The turnaround is now swift to the third match; a chance for England to carry their surge forward in Bristol, and an opportunity for Sri Lanka to quickly dust themselves off. But things are threatening to unravel for Angelo Mathews’ side after seeing a victory slip away and then his team dominated in all three departments.Too much in Sri Lanka’s batting is currently resting on the shoulders of Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal – to add to the problems that pair are also under an injury cloud having both suffered hamstring problems. Upul Tharanga’s breezy fifty at No. 7 at Edgbaston suggested he may be wasted down in the middle order.England, having shaken off the rust from the opening match, will be aiming to ram home their advantage and take an unbeatable lead in the series, although, let it not be forgotten, that the Super Series has already been secured.At the beginning of the series, the question of balance, in the absence of Ben Stokes, was a significant talking point, and at Trent Bridge, there were times when the lack of another main bowling option looked a problem. However, at Edgbaston, Joe Root’s three overs escaped with little punishment, while Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid conceded just 75 in 19 overs between them.

Form guide

England WTLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LTWWL

In the spotlight

20-0-70-2: those are handy figures for Adil Rashid over the first two matches of the series. The legspinner has shown outstanding control when thrown the ball, bowling both his spells straight through to ensure Sri Lanka struggled to build much of a tempo to their innings. In both games, he has been helped by the early wickets nicked out by the pacemen, but the impressive factor in Rashid’s performances has been the lack of the really loose deliveries. There will still be days when it does not go so well for him, but he is a bowler increasingly capable of responding to the pressure.Upul Tharanga has played 156 of his 176 ODI innings as an opening batsman. He has 13 hundreds to his name – putting him fifth on Sri Lanka’s all-time list – albeit just one of them has come since a stellar 2011 in which he scored four. Sri Lanka have lost early wickets in both matches so far, and it would surely be worthwhile considering using Tharanga in the position he has forged for the majority of his career.

Teams news

There would appear to be little need for England to change anything after such a resounding victory, unless there is a desire to rotate anyone.England (probable) 1 Alex Hales, 2 Jason Roy, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 David Willey, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 Adil RashidChandimal followed Mathews in picking up a hamstring problem at Edgbaston and did not keep wicket in the second half of the match. Both players will undergo fitness tests on Sunday morning. Keeping options is one thing Sri Lanka are not short of, but they can ill-afford to lose Chandimal’s batting. Mathews did not move freely when batting and was unable to bowl.Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Kusal Perera, 2 Danushka Gunathilaka, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Upul Tharanga, 7 Seekkuge Prasanna, 7 Suraj Randiv, 9 Farveez Maharoof, 10 Nuwan Pradeep, 11 Suranga Lakmal

Pitch and conditions

The most recent Royal London Cup match at this ground produced 694 runs in 100 overs. The forecast is not entirely promising, with rain due to move in during the afternoon after a bright start.

Stats and trivia

• England have played in Bristol nine times. The most recent match, against India in 2014, was abandoned without a ball bowled. Overall, they have won three and lost five.
• Since the second ODI against Pakistan, in Abu Dhabi in November, 2015, Alex Hales has scored 681 runs at 75.67 in 10 innings.
• Liam Plunkett needs one wicket to reach 50 in ODIs

Quotes

“A lot of hard work goes into batting, and a lot of emotions. So once those runs came to me, it all came out. It will be interesting to see my celebration – because I don’t really know what happened.”
“We have to try to flush it out of the system and forget about this game as quickly as possible – because we’ve got only one day to come back and play pretty well.”

ScorecardJames Tredwell wrecked Derbyshire’s top order•Getty Images

Derbyshire folded dramatically to a combination of spin and seam as Kent cruised to a seven wicket victory in the Division Two match at Derby.James Tredwell and Calum Haggett took four wickets each, the latter a career-best 4 for 15, as Derbyshire lost seven for 45 in 93 balls to be skittled for 94 leaving Kent with a target of 175.Daniel Bell-Drummond made a composed unbeaten 80 from 99 balls before Alex Blake sealed Kent’s second win of the season in style with three consecutive sixes off leg-spinner Matt Critchley.There had been no sign that Kent would win so convincingly as Wayne Madsen and Neil Broom cruised along at five an over but the wheels came flying off once Tredwell had broken through.Broom edged a quicker ball to first slip where Adam Ball took a sharp one-handed catch and the decision to bring on Haggett was rewarded immediately as Wayne Madsen misread the length and was lbw for 37.Billy Godleman had recovered from the blow on his left forearm which forced him to retire hurt the previous evening but made only three before he was lbw pushing at Tredwell who ended Derbyshire’s hopes of setting a more demanding target when he bowled Shiv Thakor for 10.The end came five overs later as both Critchley and Ben Cotton played back instead of forward to Haggett and were lbw leaving Kent with 71 overs to win the game.On an overcast, drizzly day with the floodlights on, it was never going to be entirely straightforward, particularly as Joe Denly was back in Kent with his wife and new-born baby, but Derbyshire needed early wickets to have any chance.Bell-Drummond and Sean Dickson denied them until the 12th over when Dickson tried to run Tom Taylor to third man and edged into his stumps but Derbyshire could not build up any pressure.A wet ball did not help and Bell-Drummond cut and drove Taylor for three consecutive fours on his way to a 68 ball 50 and Ball helped him take Kent to 100 before he was caught on the crease by Tony Palladino.Bell-Drummond paced his innings expertly, setting the platform for the violent assault that carried Kent to victory on a tide of sixes, first from skipper Sam Northeast and then by Blake who dispatched the only three balls he faced from Critchley over the ropes to take his side home with a minimum of 38.3 overs to spare.It was an impressive performance and Haggett thought the seeds of victory were sown on the third evening. “To get three wickets last night was a big factor, it put us in a good place and we managed to keep things going.”We bowled pretty well as a group and we got the rewards and I thought we bowled a bit straighter than in the first inninngs.”It started to keep a bit low and the odd one popped and thankfully it was my day. Treddy was getting some spin as well and we hit our areas better.”It’s a good confidence-booster and we are in a good place at the moment but we know we need to keep putting in the work.”Madsen said: “James Tredwell mixed his pace up well and bowled well into the rough and when Haggett came on he bowled at the stumps and was getting it to jag back and made it difficult.”Possibly we were caught on the back foot and maybe have to get out of our crease a bit more but to be fair he bowled really well and unfortunately we weren’t up to it.”We thought 200 was going to be a good score and we would be able to bowl them out but they came out and played positively. We weren’t helped that we had to change the ball a few times with the wet outfield but it was disappointing not to get enough in the right areas to trouble them.”I think we have to be better than that, especially on a wicket which has deteriorated, but I do think for us a team there are positives to take from this. Shiv [Thakor] with his hundred and five-for, he’s really played well for us this year.”I look back at the way we bowled for the first 100 overs, our disciplines and plans were spot on , but the game got away from us at the crucial times on day three and going into day four.”

Tayla Vlaeminck has suffered a setback in her bid to return to international cricket from injury.Vlaeminck, the 24-year-old right-arm quick from Australia, suffered instability in her left shoulder while bowling for Australia A in a 50-over match against England A on Sunday, the final game of their tour which ran alongside the early stages of the Women’s Ashes.She will be assessed further upon returning to Australia in a few weeks’ time and it is hoped the problem is just a minor blip on what has otherwise been an encouraging return to action after a lengthy battle with a foot injury.Vlaeminck was one of the fastest bowlers in the women’s game before suffering a recurrence of a stress fracture in the navicular bone of her right foot, which kept her out of two T20 World Cups either side of the ODI edition in 2022. She made the last of her 24 appearances for Australia during the 2012-22 Women’s Ashes.Related

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Some 18 months on, she played for Australia A in a T20 at Loughborough on June 21, picking up a wicket. She claimed three more wickets, one in each of her next three games for Australia A – a T20 followed by two 50-over fixtures – but was injured during the last of those at Guildford, where she bowled just 2.4 overs for figures of 1 for 23.Vlaeminck has worked closely with Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria, remodelling her action to try and prevent a recurrence of her foot injury, as well as working with the Australian Ballet to develop strength in the area. Previously she had endured two knee reconstructions, a dislocated shoulder and a partial anterior cruciate ligament strain.Speaking after Vlaeminck’s comeback match in June, Shawn Flegler, Cricket Australia’s Female High Performance and Talent Manager, said that while it was tempting to hope she could play a part in either of two upcoming Tests for Australia, in India towards the end of the year and against South Africa in Perth in February, that was not a priority.”We will just focus on white-ball stuff for the time being,” Flegler said. “That’s all I have said to her. Let’s get through that. She has to build confidence again that she can get through two games, and get her through a tour, and keep reassessing as time goes on.”Australia A swept the three-match 50-over series, while England A won the T20s 3-0.

For many overseas cricketers, India is becoming something of a second home these days but despite the increasing familiarity with the country, Australia are preparing to embrace the unknowns at the upcoming women’s ODI World Cup.It’s a situation that will confront all the teams in the competition – even to a degree joint-hosts India – given the mix of venues. The Holkar Stadium in Indore has never hosted women’s internationals, Guwahati’s Barsapara Stadium hasn’t staged women’s ODIs and its last women’s T20Is were in 2019, and Visakhapatnam’s previous ODIs were in 2014. Navi Mumbai, the late replacement for Bengaluru, while having staged Tests and T20Is, hasn’t yet been used for the 50-over format in women’s cricket.Then there’s the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo to throw in the mix. The venue has hosted seven women’s ODIs this year featuring Sri Lanka, India and South Africa but Australia, who will face Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the ground, last played there in 2016 when only five of the current squad were on the tour.Related

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Head coach Shelley Nitschke said last week that she had reached out to the men’s set-up for help gathering data, specifically referencing Colombo where Australia played two spin-dominated ODIs earlier this year, and the players are aware they will need to be adaptable throughout the tournament.”We have been quite lucky, we feel like we’re travelling to India every second month almost,” vice-captain Tahlia McGrath said ahead of Australia’s three-match ODI series against India which starts on Sunday in New Chandigarh. “Spent a lot of time over here, played in these conditions a lot, but we’re playing in some parts that we’re not very familiar with.”[We are] in New Chandigarh at the moment, never been here before, [and] lots of the World Cup venues never been to before. So it’s about learning the conditions, adapting to the conditions, being flexible and communicating really well as a group because it is a little bit foreign to us.”No matter where you are in India, you can get thrown up very different conditions from day to day, so excited about the challenge, [we have] a little bit of experience, but a little bit of unknowns.”The series against India will be Australia’s first internationals since the Ashes finished in early February but McGrath was confident the stability of the squad will serve them well.”We’ve been pretty settled with our squad for quite a while now, so we’ve been pretty lucky with that,” she said. “The only thing is, though, we’re over here for a very long time and I think we’ve got 15 in the World Cup squad and 17 over here at the moment, so it’s a really good opportunity to play a few players, play some different roles.”Not sure what Shell’s got in mind, but we’ve got so much talent, so much depth over here that it doesn’t really matter what team we throw out or what batting order, all that sort of thing, we’re in pretty good hands.”Left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux is not expected to feature in the India series as she completes the final stages of recovery from knee surgery but is expected to be ready for the World Cup. The uncapped pair of wicketkeeper Nicole Faltum and allrounder Charli Knott have been included for the bilateral series although, barring injuries, may not feature in what is a chance to gain further experience around the squad.Once the World Cup begins, Australia will be aiming to become the first side since 1988 to defend the ODI title while the memories of their semi-final defeat in last year’s T20 World Cup still linger.”An ODI World Cup is special, they’re probably the pinnacle,” McGrath said. “For the players that were in Dubai it adds that bit of motivation, not a nice feeling the way we exited. And then the extra little bit of motivation as well that we want to be the first team in a while to go back-to-back [in the] ODI World Cup.”

An England XI will face the Prime Minister’s XI in a two-day pink-ball match in Canberra in late November ahead of the day-night Ashes Test at the Gabba.The match at Manuka Oval will take place on November 29 and 30, starting four days after the opening Test in Perth and finishing three days before the pink-ball Test in Brisbane, which this season is the venue for the day-night encounter instead of the traditional Adelaide Oval.It will provide England’s players a chance to acclimatise to the pink ball in match conditions in what was traditionally a one-day fixture before becoming a multi-day game in 2022-23 when West Indies were the opposition.Last season the game was reduced to a two-dayer against India but became a one-day contest due to rain. However, it still had a major bearing on the Test series with Sam Konstas flaying a century which played a significant part in him earning a call-up for the MCG.The PM’s XI match will be England’s only fixture outside of the five Tests once the Ashes begins. They will prepare for the series with a three-day game against England Lions at Lilac Hill in Perth, although that is expected to consist more of centre-wicket practice scenarios rather than being a fully-fledged match. However, tickets for the opening day have already sold out.Unlike the two matches England Lions will play – against a CA XI and Australia A – that run concurrently with the first two Ashes Tests, the PM’s XI contest does not clash with the Sheffield Shield.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “An Ashes series is something every cricket fan looks forward to. Like many Australians I grew up admiring, and begrudging, the brilliance of players like Ian Botham, David Gower, and Graham Gooch.”I look forward to meeting with the selectors to finalise a PM’s XI squad that showcases the best available talent from across Australia to take on the strong English team.”

The first ever Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand ended on a sad but predictable note as the game was called off without a ball being bowled. It was only the eighth such instance in the Test history and the first since 1998.There was an air of inevitability around the call after there was no play in the first four days and heavy rains ended the last two as early as 9.15am. The rain returned on the fifth morning, prompting the umpires to pull the plug at 8.45am.The clouds hung low and the covers were drenched yet again at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground. A pool of water had formed near one of the boundaries and a few puddles were scattered across the uncovered grass in the outfield.Related

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The match was subject to weather concerns even before the opening day. When there was no play on the first two days despite the weather being sunny during playing hours, the outfield and the preparedness of the venue came under the scanner.Apart from the New Zealand players getting a couple of hours of net practice next to the pitch on the second afternoon, there was no cricketing action in any form across five days. The ACB blamed the unseasonal rain for it.Afghanistan’s next assignment is the three-match ODI series against South Africa in Sharjah. New Zealand will now travel to Sri Lanka for two Tests, which are part of the World Test Championship. After that, they will face India in India in a three-Test series. The Greater Noida Test, which was not part of the WTC, was supposed to help them acclimatise to the subcontinent conditions but it was not to be.

Ishan Kishan will lead Jharkhand in the upcoming Buchi Babu tournament, a pre-season red-ball competition in Tamil Nadu starting August 15. Kishan, who was not part of Jharkhand’s original long list, will link up with the squad in Chennai on Wednesday.The move is seen as the first step towards the wicketkeeper-batter’s full-fledged return to first-class cricket. ESPNcricinfo understands Kishan took the decision to participate, and he was drafted in when he communicated this to the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA).A return to the Ranji Trophy fold is also expected during the 2024-25 season, after Kishan informed the state selectors of his desire to return. His last domestic first-class game was in December 2022. He stayed away from the Ranji Trophy towards the end of the 2023-24 domestic season, and this proved costly for him, with the BCCI removing him from the central contracts list for not prioritising domestic cricket.”With Ishan, it was never about ability,” a JSCA functionary said. “It was only about whether he was ready to return. The decision was with him. When he was not included in the initial list, it was only because we hadn’t heard from him. The moment he expressed his keenness to return, he was drafted in.”Kishan’s return to red-ball cricket comes at a time when India are heading into a long Test season, comprising 10 games over the next five months, but a comeback won’t be easy. Kishan made his Test debut during India’s tour of the West Indies last year, when Rishabh Pant was recovering from injuries sustained during a car accident in December 2022.The second Test of that Caribbean tour, in July 2023, remains Kishan’s last first-class game. He was picked in the Test squad for the 2023-24 South Africa tour too, but he asked to be released citing mental fatigue.Kishan now finds himself behind Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel in India’s Test-match queue•Associated Press

He may have been in line for a Test return during the five-Test home series against England earlier this year, but lost out to KS Bharat and Dhruv Jurel after he informed the selectors that he wasn’t ready. He did not take part in the Ranji Trophy either, and the selectors, whose inputs are taken on board by the BCCI when it draws up the central contracts list, were not pleased that Kishan used his time away from the game to train privately with his IPL captain Hardik Pandya in Baroda, instead of playing for Jharkhand.Pant is now back in action, and Jurel, who impressed with both his batting and glovework against England, particularly during a Player-of-the-Match display in Ranchi, has moved ahead of Kishan in India’s red-ball queue.Kishan, who had a Grade C contract until losing it this year, featured in two Tests, 17 ODIs and 11 T20Is in 2023. He was also part of India’s squad during their run to the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup, and featured in two matches at the top of the order when Shubman Gill was out ill.”When you take a break, people gossip about it a lot, they say a lot of things on social media,” Kishan had said in April, referring to his time away from the game. “But I feel it’s important to understand not everything is in players’ hands. We can only make the best use of the break.”This is what adopting a good mindset is. There is nothing like I want to prove to someone. I just have to go there and enjoy. I have learned that you do not have to add pressure on yourself about these things, which are not in your hand.”

Legspinner Jafer Chohan claimed a maiden five-wicket haul to help set Yorkshire up for a crucial win by seven wickets over fellow contenders Durham at Headingley, chasing only 108 to boost their Vitality Blast quarter-final hopes.Chohan, who turned 22 today, finished with a superb 5 for 14 from 3.4 overs as Durham were bowled out for 107 inside 17. He struck three times in the 15th over as Durham crumbled from 96 for 5 to 97 for 9 on a used pitch having elected to bat. They crept to three figures, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a fifth defeat in 11 – this one coming with 3.2 overs remaining as Adam Lyth top-scored with two sixes in 30.Durham, for whom Ben Raine top-scored with 33, started an overcast night fourth in the North Group but slipped out of quarter-final places as the Vikings chased with comfort to end a run of three straight losses and win for the fifth time in 11. A win at Lancashire tomorrow could put them in the top four qualification places.