The pair are likely to be the first batsmen to attempt filling the gap left by Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan’s retirements in the upcoming Tests against Sr Lanka, even as Pakistan have bolstered their bowling with the inclusion of uncapped fast bowler Mir

Umar Farooq23-Sep-2017Haris Sohail, who last played first-class cricket in 2014, and Usman Salahuddin have inherited the hardest jobs in Test cricket – to follow in the footsteps of Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan. The pair are likely to be the first to attempt filling those giant shoes, as Pakistan named their first Test squad in the post-MisYou era, to take on Sri Lanka in the UAE.

Pakistan Test squad

Azhar Ali, Shan Masood, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Usman Salahuddin, Sarfraz Ahmed (capt), Yasir Shah, Mohammad Asghar, Bilal Asif, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Wahab Riaz

Pakistan, led by Sarfraz Ahmed now, have also picked uncapped fast bowler Mir Hamza and allrounder Bilal Asif in a 16-man squad for the Test series, which starts with the first Test in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Rizwan were the two exclusions from the list of probables that went through a five-day conditioning camp in Lahore recently.Much of the early focus will be on Sohail and Salahuddin, as Pakistan look to make up for losing over 15000 Test runs and nearly 200 Tests worth of experience in the middle order. Both are uncapped in Tests, but have represented Pakistan. Salahuddin played two ODIs for Pakistan in 2011, but Sohail was, for a while after his debut in July 2013, a near-fixture in the ODI side.Yasir Shah and Azhar Ali have both made it into the squad as well, and though both ordinarily would’ve been automatic selections, there was some doubt about their participation in the run-up to the announcement. Azhar, Pakistan’s most successful Test batsman over the last year or so, was in doubt with a knee problem and he sat out a two-day practice match at the camp. He has, however, been receiving treatment, according to chief selector Inzamam ul Haq, and a speedy recovery would enable him to be available for both of the Test matches. Pakistan will need, more than anything, his experience.Yasir, on the other hand, was on the verge of becoming the biggest victim of the new fitness drive coach Mickey Arthur and the management have implemented since their arrival. Already, the push to make Pakistan fitter has claimed victims in Sami Aslam and, most famously, Umar Akmal. Yasir’s fitness levels were said to have been a major concern over the last five days, but he has, apparently, pulled through and proved his fitness. Since 2014, he has been Pakistan’s most successful Test bowler.The squad was meant to be announced on Friday but was pushed until Saturday morning, allowing Yasir to undergo another fitness test to reach a value acceptable for a player to be selected. He was the Player of the Series in Pakistan’s last Test assignment in the West Indies earlier this year with 25 wickets in three Tests.”We want to maintain our standard on fitness and we told Yasir to make it or it would be impossible for us to select him,” said Inzamam. “Yasir’s success over the last three-four years has been great but we don’t want to create an exception on fitness. So we waited a day, and that is why we are announcing the team today, on the day of the team’s departure. Yasir is cleared now, having scored a value of 17.5. Azhar has a cyst in his knee and doctors have recommended he can play after taking injections to the knee. So he is fine now and available for selection, and hopefully he will remain fine all the way.”Aslam, the opener, has also been called back into the squad, suggesting the management is happier with his fitness.The two Tests will be the first time Pakistan step onto a field without both Misbah and Younis in seven years, the previous such instance coming at Lord’s in 2010. Both were the backbone of the Test squad that saw Pakistan reach the No.1 Test ranking last year. Inzamam picked Salahuddin and Sohail as prospective replacements.”I have been thinking of both Usman and Haris over the last few series, envisaging the situation after seniors [retired]. Both have done well. Usman has done well as a middle-order batsman while Harris could have made it into the side in 2015 but was injured. So the idea is to give our youngsters an opportunity in our own conditions rather than playing them in away series. This will increase their confidence and both have the potential to fill in for Younis and Misbah. But it does not mean the door is shut on other players making it into the side. Performances will obviously be considered and, if a player is good enough, he can definitely be selected.”Pakistan named five fast bowlers and three specialist spinners, a move Inzamam said was aimed at managing the workload of the bowlers who are better on flat tracks in the UAE.”We all understand that pitches in the UAE are a batting paradise, and there is a big opportunity for batsmen to score runs. It’s really a big challenge to get any team out twice so we have to strengthen our bowling. That’s why we have five fast bowlers with three spinners in our squad. Since the temperature will be around 40 degrees Celsius, we probably have to consider rotating our fast bowlers as well.”

Sri Lanka’s interim coach commended India’s collective effort and work ethic, comparing them to arguably the most successful rugby team in the world

Andrew Fidel Fernando07-Sep-20173:14

‘India very like the All Blacks’ – Pothas

India were so clinical in the cross-format trouncing of Sri Lanka, that Virat Kohli’s side has drawn comparisons with perhaps the most successful rugby team in the world: the All Blacks.Kohli and his team have largely been confident in public but have veered away from effusive self-praise, nor have they dwelt much on the paucity of Sri Lanka’s performance. Sri Lanka’s own interim head coach Nic Pothas, however, has showered compliments upon the opposition, after his team succumbed to their ninth consecutive defeat of the tour – this one in the sole T20.”You look at their team and they are very All Black-like,” Pothas said. “There’s a lot of respect for the facilities and there’s a lot of respect for the opposition. They are very ruthless in the way they go about their work. Their work ethic is immense. They are what a lot of teams aspire to be. The most important thing for us is learning from our mistakes, but most importantly: learning from them.”Chief among Sri Lanka’s tormentors, as ever, was Kohli, who has lavishly walloped Sri Lanka in almost every series he has played against them. Where once there was some animosity towards him on the island, that has now been replaced by substantial respect. Kohli himself had also spoken well of the Sri Lankan public on this tour – even though at one point, an angry crowd disrupted an ODI for over half-an-hour.He was again in stirring form in the tour-ending T20, initially defusing the tenseness of the early overs of the chase before going on to make 82 off 54 balls, all of which sent India pelting towards their seven-wicket victory. It was his fourth half-century in as many T20 innings against Sri Lanka. The performance was worth a few glowing words from Pothas.”You see how Virat runs between the wickets, and you see the respect he commands on the field as a leader – he’s a role model to people and he pulls people with him,” he said. “When you look at the way they go about their work and the culture that Virat has created within that team, it’s very, very impressive.”Though once a player who could was considered to be in Kohli’s league – at least in the longest format – Angelo Mathews has experienced a striking dip in results over the past 18 months, in which his batting average has retreated across formats. He could make only seven from five balls on Wednesday before being undone by a sharp MS Dhoni stumping. Mathews had hit two successive fifties in the last two ODIs, but this still only brought his tour tally up to three fifties out of 12 innings.”It’s a funny one because you need to look at the dynamic,” Pothas said of Mathews. “It’s very tough on Angie as well. When you’re a senior player, obviously the opposition targets you. Then you have that pressure of being a senior player to perform. It’s very, very tough. Angie is a world-class cricketer and I don’t think you can ever judge any person over a short spate of games. We’re all clichéd about it, but form is temporary and Angie is a class cricketer. Outside of being a class cricketer he’s a very, very intelligent man. So he’ll go back, work on it, we’ll have discussions – I have no issues with Angie.”On the T20 itself, Pothas said he felt Sri Lanka should have scored more than the 170 for 7 they mustered. Having been 99 for 3 in the 12th over, at one stage Sri Lanka seemed to be headed for a score in the range of 190, but, as has often been the case through the tour, a collapse broke their batting momentum. They lost four wickets for 35 runs through the middle overs – all to the spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.”If you looked at how we played, we were probably 15 short of what we could have got on that wicket,” Pothas said. “We probably had a few too many little cameos that we could have dragged on a little bit longer. What we got was probably competitive but when you play a team of such quality, you’re going to have to be very good in the field and with the ball to try and stop 170 being scored.”

The left-arm quick recently opted out of an NZC central contract to pursue a career playing in T20 leagues around the world

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Oct-2017Mitchell McClenaghan has signed up with the Sydney Thunder ahead of the 2017-18 Big Bash League. The left-arm quick, who has played 48 ODIs and 28 T20Is for New Zealand, recently opted out of his NZC central contract in a bid to pursue a career playing in T20 leagues around the world.McClenaghan was part of Mumbai Indians’ title-winning squad in the 2017 season of the Indian Premier League, and followed that up by playing for St Lucia Stars in the Caribbean Premier League. He is also set to play for Durban Qalandars in the newly launched T20 Global League in South Africa shortly before he joins his Thunder team-mates in the BBL.It was while playing in the CPL that McClenaghan decided to sign for the Thunder, he told .”I spent some time at the St Lucia Stars with Shane Watson and got to know his outlook on the game and hear his passion for Sydney Thunder and the organisation,” McClenaghan said. “I’ve admired watching his career and seeing how it’s progressed. I enjoyed playing alongside him in St Lucia and I think I’ll learn a lot from him during my time with Thunder.”I grew up in Australia and watched a lot of Aussie cricket and to have the opportunity to play in the Big Bash is something I’m really looking forward to. The Big Bash is a fantastic spectacle, the atmosphere is amazing and skill levels are incredible.”McClenaghan joins a bowling group that includes quicks Pat Cummins, Clint McKay and Gurinder Sandhu as well as the legspinner Fawad Ahmed. Michael Hussey, the Thunder’s director of cricket, said signing another frontline bowler had been “top priority” ahead of the 2017-18 season.”I’m looking forward to seeing Mitch in action for Thunder, he’s a bowler with experience playing in high pressured games at both domestic and international level,” Hussey said. “We’ve been monitoring his situation with New Zealand Cricket and are pleased to be able to bring him to the Big Bash for the summer.”

Australia coach Darren Lehmann said that under lights the pitch at the Adelaide Oval quickens up, and this could fit in well with the team’s plans of using the short ball against England

Daniel Brettig in Adelaide28-Nov-2017Rollover Brisvegas, and tell the WACA the news. Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann has declared Adelaide Oval under lights to be the fastest pitch in the country, adding further ammunition for a pace attack intent on bouncing England’s middle order and tail into submission opposite the considerable wiles of Nathan Lyon.

No curfews for Australia Test team

No Australian team coached by Darren Lehmann has been handed a curfew, and he is not about to impose one now.
As England continued to squirm over Australia’s use of the Jonny Bairstow-Cameron Bancroft incident to discomfort the tourists, Lehmann responded to reports that Joe Root’s team may be asked to ensure they are back in their hotel by midnight by saying such restrictions would never be imposed on his watch.
“We wouldn’t have curfews but that’s our decision and that’s theirs,” Lehmann said. “We have faith in the blokes to do the right thing, but they’re grown men, they’re adults, and that’s just my personal opinion. You should enjoy your successes, there are no dramas with that. It’s just making sure you don’t cross the line. I’m happy with where our blokes sit with that.”
Lehmann became coach in 2013 immediately after David Warner’s suspension for punching Joe Root in a Birmingham bar, and has since allowed his players to use their commonsense in most situations, though levying the occasional fine – notably on Chris Rogers for turning up late to the team’s 2014 Ashes victory celebration at the Sydney Opera House.

The Ashes series leaders will wait until later in the week to decide whether any of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood or Pat Cummins are in need of rest after the Gabba Test – in which case the post will be filled by Chadd Sayers. Either way, Lehmann said that the uncertainty created by a moving pink ball, ostensibly suited to James Anderson and Stuart Broad, will be counterbalanced by extra zip off the surface that can aid the short-pitched attack telegraphed in Brisbane.Starc had noted during the first Test that he wanted to bowl at England on a faster surface than the uncharacteristically docile Gabba had been. Lehmann, present in Adelaide for both the South Australia versus New South Wales match, in which Sayers sorely tested Steven Smith and David Warner, and the tour match in which England got acquainted with the Oval’s nocturnal conditions, said that when the sun went down and the floodlights were turned on that is exactly what Adelaide would become.”It’s a fascinating Test match, there’s a lot of talk about it’ll seam and it’ll swing,” Lehmann said on Tuesday as the teams traveled from Brisbane to Adelaide. “The ball stays pretty good, but you can make runs if you play well as per normal. And it does quicken up at night – probably the fastest wicket around Australia at night, so that’s going to be interesting, how it plays.”[Bowling short] certainly hasn’t changed from four years ago. It’s a bit different in Australia than England where grounds are smaller and you can’t really get away with it, on bigger grounds you can. So that’s one for us that we see as an advantage. They did it quite a lot to us as well, it’s a ploy a lot of people do now. At the back end when the wicket quickened up and we could go after them a bit harder was helpful. That’s the blueprint, it’s no secret we’re going to attack their middle and lower order like that.”You’re more comfortable in your preparation [having played day-night Tests before], you know what you have to do to get ready. So the lead-in is a lot more normal for us than other teams having done it twice. This is the third time so we’re pretty comfortable where it sits. In terms of preparation and all that we’ll be fine, it’s just which team adapts the best I suppose.”Most conspicuously through the stratagems of the touring captain Joe Root, England showed their plans to the Australians at the Gabba, something Lehmann said would be useful for the remainder of the series. “We back-ended the first Test really well, but they played really well in the first innings and we learned a lot about them as a side. Nothing we didn’t already know but it just confirmed a lot of things along the way,” he said. “[We saw] more of their plans, how they want to tackle our group, which was good for us.”In weighing up whether or not the selectors would rest one of the three Brisbane pacemen, Lehmann pointed out that while their first-innings exertions had been considerable, the swift end of England’s second innings and a day five where they were not needed had already helped in terms of recovery.”First innings yeah [they bowled a lot of overs] but you cut it back in the second innings, only 70 [overall] and Lyon bowled 20 of those so it wasn’t too bad in terms of where they would be in a normal Test match,” Lehmann said. “We’ll just wait and see how we go at training over the next couple of days, if they get through then I think we’d be very similar, but we’ll have to wait and see the wicket. It’s just how they’ve recovered, as long as they get through main day [Thursday] they’re all good.”Equally valuable was how effectively Lyon was able to not only restrict the England run rate but also threaten consistently for wickets, to the extent that Lehmann even offered a conditional comparison to the role once played by the usually incomparable Shane Warne. At the same time he noted how much Lyon had grown since this time last year, when he came close to being dropped from the team at the end of five consecutive losses.Getty Images

“He kept us in the game day one, he was fantastic. He’s just grown with confidence and success breeds that,” Lehman said. “For him he’s actually come out of his shell a lot as well, he wants the ball day in, day out, a bit like Warney did when he played. He’s not as confident as Warney was, but he’s just really starting to lead and help the bowlers out, which is great.”We talked [last year] about how he needed to perform but that was like everyone. When you get to that stage everyone needed to perform, everyone was put on notice. The pleasing thing is that he’s bounced back from that, and from that moment on he’s really led the attack. That was a low part, we changed the side around and made it a youth policy if you like from a [Board] directive, so for us he’s done really well.”He obviously had to change a few things when he two’d and fro’d, but he didn’t need to change much in Australia, because you need to the bounce. It was more when he went away from Australia to the subcontinent he changed a few things, he did that and had success. So he started to believe he could change when he needs to, which is important.”Nevertheless, Lehmann said the Australian selectors were still on the lookout for an allrounder of quality to ease the load on the rest of the attack while also making substantial middle order runs. He was happy to hear that Mitchell Marsh is soon to resume competitive bowling after shoulder surgery, while Marcus Stoinis is also thought to be in calculations.”You’d always like one,” Lehmann said. “At the moment some of the allrounders aren’t knocking down the door like they should be. If you look at the past, when we had Shane Warne bowling at one end, you didn’t have an allrounder but you had Steve and Mark Waugh who took [150] Test wickets, so there’s an allrounder in itself. They’re just handy when you have that long second innings more so than not, and if you get an injury during the game. At the moment it’s ok, but you certainly look at it.”

The team begins it’s World Cup campaign on January 13, with a game against Afghanistan

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Dec-2017Pakistan have selected a 15-member squad for the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand which begins in January 2018. The squad, which also includes five reserve players, will be captained by Hasan Khan. A left-arm spin bowler, Hasan was one of Pakistan’s brightest young prospects in last year’s Pakistan Super League, playing for Quetta Gladiators.Before the World Cup, the team will play a three-match ODI series against Australia, with the games to be played on December 27, 29, and 31. After that, they will also play two ODIs against New Zealand in January – on the 3rd and 5th. The squad was selected by the PCB’s junior selection committee, headed by Basit Ali, and will depart for Australia on December 21. Their World Cup campaign begins on January 13 with a game against Afghanistan.Squad: Mohsin Khan, Imran Shah, Zaid Alam, Rohail Nazir (wk), Muhammad Taha, Emmad Alam, Ali Zaryab, Saad Khan, Hassan Khan (capt), Musa Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Munir Riaz, Arshad Iqbal, Muhammad Ali, Suleiman Shafqat
Reserve players: Muhammad Junaid, Haider Ali, Muhammad Ilyas, Azam Khan, Mukhtar Ahmed

A victory in Sydney will give England the one-day series with two matches to spare as the home side face growing questions over selection and tactics

The Preview by Alan Gardner20-Jan-2018

Big Picture

Rinse, repeat. As in Melbourne, so it was in Brisbane: Australia batted first, found themselves well placed after an Aaron Finch hundred, failed to kick on sufficiently, then watched as England overhauled their target with wickets and overs to spare. After almost single-handedly confounding England during the Test series, now it is Steven Smith’s turn to be frustrated.In truth, things look pretty grim. Australia’s canaries are deep in the coalmine and seemingly struggling for air. They have lost nine of their last 10 completed ODIs and face being beaten by England on home soil for the first time in a decade; 2-0 down with three to play does not leave much room for error and they are set to throw everything at England with their first-choice pace attack.While Finch has been a model of consistency at the top of the order, his team-mates have been unable to carry on the good work. With Smith and Travis Head both apparently out of touch, too much has been asked of Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis, while the decision to bring back Cameron White as a specialist No. 7 also backfired. Chris Lynn’s injury has deprived Australia of a middle-order hitter but the discarded Glenn Maxwell must be looking on with eyebrows raised.For England, the contrast with the Ashes is stark. Imbued with a sense of freedom and certainty in their roles, the limited-overs personnel continue to thrive under Eoin Morgan – whose only (slight) concern is a personal lack of runs. The bowlers were even sharper in executing Morgan’s plans at the Gabba and Chris Woakes then demonstrated England’s depth with the bat to stave off a mini-wobble. The ultra-aggressive approach will come unstuck from time to time but they look in serene form.Joe Root guided the chase as wickets fell•Getty Images

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia LLLWL
England WWWWW

In the spotlight

Finch, David Warner and Smith represents a world-class top three, but Australia’s middle order is looking pretty muddled 18 months out from a World Cup defence. Since the last tournament, their two most productive batsmen at Nos. 4-7 have been George Bailey and Matthew Wade: both of whom appear to be men of the past. Head’s one ODI hundred, meanwhile, came at opener. This much is certain: Australia need a higher output from their engine room.Having seemingly put the trials of the Ashes behind him, Joe Root has once again demonstrated why he is such a highly rated multi-format player (even if his run without a century on tour continues). Innings of 91 not out and 46 not out have calmly steered England in two successful chases, while figures of 2 for 31 with the ball in Brisbane were a reminder that Morgan has a pretty handy sixth bowling option even without Ben Stokes in the side. He will be playing his 100th ODI in Sydney and even with a duck his average will remain over 50 so he will become just the sixth player to have 100 matches and a 50+ average in ODIs.

Teams news

Australia look set to throw everything at England in an attempt to keep the series alive, reuniting the big three fast bowlers for the first time since the Sydney Test. Josh Hazlewood was due to play in Brisbane but was hit by the illness running through the Australia camp, while Pat Cummins was rested. Legspinner Adam Zampa will have to come back into the mix as well, logically as a swap for the failed recall of Cameron White. Tim Paine is set to return in place of Alex Carey, although the debutant keeper was a rare bright spot in Brisbane.
.Australia (probable) 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Travis Head, 5 Mitchell Marsh, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Tim Paine (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh HazlewoodThere is no need for England to change unless injuries spring up. That’s tough on the squad players, but victory in Sydney would open up the chance to try a few different things with the series wrapped up. Conditions in Sydney could see the spin trio come to the fore again.
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England (probable) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Alex Hales, 4 Joe Root, 5 Eoin Morgan (capt), 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 Mark Wood

Pitch and conditions

The last four ODIs on this ground have seen scores in excess of 300. There was turn on offer during the Test, but over the course of a 100-over day it should remain good for batting. The forecast is for a warm, sunny day.

Stats and trivia

• Eoin Morgan needs 14 runs to overtake Paul Collingwood as England’s second-highest run-scorer.
• Travis Head is 54 runs short of 1000 in one-day internationals.
• Chris Woakes is three wickets away from the 100 mark.

Quotes

“It was frustrating… we got ourselves into a reasonable position with 11 overs to go and everything fell to pieces again. Getting to 270 isn’t good enough against a quality batting line-up like England.”
Steven Smith on Australia’s below-par effort at the Gabba“That’s quite smart captaincy from him, to be able to juggle things round and make sure he had plenty of options at the death was crucial.”

As Australia arrived in Adelaide for the ODI on Friday, fast bowler Josh Hazlewood said that more attention needed to be paid to the way bowlers transitioned between formats

Daniel Brettig24-Jan-2018It is often said by retired players that perspective can be easier to find from outside a cricket team than within it. From his out-of-favour vantage point as surplus to Australia’s ODI team, Glenn Maxwell has a simple answer to questions about what Steven Smith’s team are doing wrong with the bat – they are batting at a tempo the world’s more confident teams have long since deemed too slow.While Maxwell feels he has made the very evolution as a batsman that Smith, the coach Darren Lehmann and the national selectors seem to be asking for, he believes that the team he was once a part of has fallen behind England and others in terms of the cruising speed they employ with the bat.Where Australia had been happy to score around six an over for the first 10 overs and then throttle back to four or five until the closing overs, Maxwell said that England had shown it was better to be more aggressive and then “chill” at a run a ball. “They’re obviously playing the new brand of one-day cricket,” Maxwell said, “which is go as hard as you can for 15 or 16 overs, chill out at 10 but still go at six an over.”I think the Australian one-day team for a while our chill-out time has been four and a half to five an over of just making sure we conserve wickets. I think these days you just can’t afford to do that. You’ve got to be a little tougher and got to be a little more boundary-conscious.”Maxwell’s words provide further impetus to the search for a refreshed approach from the Australian ODI set-up, after the selection chairman Trevor Hohns conceded that a full review of the team’s personnel and tactical approach was required in order to be competitive at next year’s World Cup. In assessing his own development, Maxwell said he was disappointed he had not been given the chance to show his evolution after being shunted up and down the batting order prior to being dropped in India last year.”I feel like I’ve changed a little bit over the last period of time where I’m able to work my way through situations instead of just going ahead and blasting it,” he said. “Looking back at the Indian ODIs, I probably didn’t have the chance to show that. The first game turned into a T20 and I came out and we needed 13 an over, and I think the game before I got dropped I was sent in with six overs to go. So there wasn’t exactly time to rebuild and work through an innings.”As the Australian team, sans Maxwell, arrived in Adelaide ahead of the dead rubber Australia Day ODI on Friday, fast bowler Josh Hazlewood said that more attention needed to be paid to the way bowlers transitioned between formats. While much work has been done around their physical preparation and workload management, Hazlewood said the different skill sets required in the shorter forms needed to be better addressed in the future.Getty Images

“We haven’t quite transitioned from Test cricket to one-day cricket as well as we could have,” Hazlewood said. “England have two sets of bowlers in some regard, with only [Chris] Woakes and [Moeen] Ali backing up so they’re really one-day specialists, I guess you could say and they’ve showed us how to play. I think you still want your best bowlers playing…but you do need to work on skills from time to time. Maybe it’s a session here or there around Test cricket, you work on those skills with the white ball.”We can probably learn and do things a bit differently. I guess you have to outline some training sessions for the white-ball stuff and work on your variations even while you’re playing on a Test tour. My role in one-day cricket is a little bit similar to Test cricket, I bowl at the start a lot and a little bit through the middle. But for some guys like [Mitchell] Starc and [Pat] Cummins, their one-day game is probably closer to a Twenty20 game where they bowl a lot of overs at the end when the [opposing] batters are going.”By contrast, England have been refreshed by the changeover, something Woakes said was as much a matter of mindset as of tactics. “It’s just a different game…different format, different ball,” he said. “It’s more of a mindset thing because you’re constantly trying to hit the ball in one-day cricket whereas, in Test cricket, you’re more wary. People who don’t know the game that well would probably think it’s a red, it’s a white ball – what changes? But it’s amazing how much it does change.”Winning is a habit so we’ll be trying to do that in the last two games to secure a 5-0 whitewash. It is a huge motivation. We’re obviously delighted to win the series…but we won’t be letting up. We’ll still be trying to go out there on a big day for them, Australia Day, and turn them over. You don’t come out to Australia and win too often so, once you’ve got your foot on the throat, you want to keep it down. If the roles were reversed, then Australia would be doing exactly the same thing to us.”

The Australia opener is not only keen on taking up captaincy at every opportunity, but has also flagged the possibility of a career in politics once he retires

Daniel Brettig in Durban27-Feb-2018Not only is David Warner intent on captaining Australia at every opportunity, the opening batsman has also flagged the possibility of a career in politics once he retires.Warner has been known to interact a little more often with political leaders than most members of the Australian side, famously fronting then Prime Minister Tony Abbott to commit federal government funding for the redevelopment of Heffron Park, near his childhood home in public housing in Matraville.Now, following his influential public role in the 2017 pay dispute between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association, Warner has said he is interested in looking towards making a difference in politics following his playing days.”After cricket, I wouldn’t mind doing something,” Warner told . “One thing that has been embedded in me since a young age is that I grew up in a housing commission. As a kid, I had to do everything at home with my brother just because my parents worked all the time. So whether it was dishes, ironing – all the normal things you do at home. Once I was able to go and work, I went and worked because we needed that money coming in to pay the bills. Me and my brother both paid a bit of rent when we were younger and I just liked looking out for anyone who was close to me.”During the dispute, it was a tough situation, you had your employers who were going up against our union and the players. So, I thought I needed to have a stance somewhere because at the end of the day, I want to play cricket for my country but for us to get a result or something in the middle – a happy medium – we had to fight for that. I am a believer in what I believe in. So, that was our belief, to get what we wanted. I sit back now and go, ‘I probably regret how the situation was played out in the media.’ And we do as players.”But, if you believe in something you are going to have to fight for it and I wasn’t going to stand down because we needed someone out there to speak about it. You can sit back and do what you like but you don’t get anywhere unless someone speaks up and does something.”Warner’s brand of cricketing leadership was on display during the recent T20 triangular series won by Australia over New Zealand and England. He said that his desire to lead the national team wherever possible would fuel him to take part in every T20 series when the full-time captain, Steven Smith, is rested.”I just like having responsibility and if there is anything that I can do to help anyone, whether it is here at the cricket or even if it is down at the beach or something,” Warner said. “If it is something that I can help with and someone needs help, then it is something I’ll be hand up for. That’s just the person that I am. And obviously standing in for Steve there are big shoes to fill. He needs his rest.”Playing all three forms for Steve is like playing six or seven different forms with having the responsibility of being captain of all three forms. So, he definitely needs his break from time to time and I am obviously going to put my hand up as a senior player to do that role.”I feel it is important we do have a senior player playing in all three formats, or one of us staying back and playing the T20 format, because you need to keep your core team values and how we are as an Australian unit. You need to have that experience there too for the guys who are coming through.”

Hasin Jahan, the fast bowler’s wife, is understood to have backtracked on her original allegation about her husband accepting money during a recent stopover in Dubai

Nagraj Gollapudi22-Mar-2018Hasin Jahan, Mohammed Shami’s wife, is understood to have backtracked on her original allegation about her husband accepting money during a recent stopover in Dubai. That allegation was the basis for the BCCI anti-corruption unit’s (ACU) investigation into the matter while the board withheld Shami’s central contract.On March 13, the BCCI had asked the ACU, headed by former Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar, to complete a limited-mandate probe, “preferably” within a week, to verify if Shami had breached its code of conduct. Kumar submitted his report on Wednesday, absolving Shami of any corrupt practice, following which the BCCI handed the fast bowler a Category B contract.One of the primary leads for the ACU to verify was whether Shami had indeed accepted any money, as alleged by Jahan, from a woman named Alisba, a Pakistan national, in Dubai, on his way back from India’s tour of South Africa. Jahan had said in her statement to the Kolkata Police that money had been sent by a certain Mohammad Bhai, who is based in the UK. Shami had vehemently denied the allegations, and is understood to have done the same to the ACU during his interrogation.The ACU team travelled to Kolkata and met Jahan in person. According to a BCCI official familiar with the investigation, Jahan is believed to have told the ACU that she never meant to say what she had. “During the ACU inquiry she [Jahan] herself said, “I never meant to make this allegation that he took money for match-fixing”,” the official said.The ACU then spoke to both Mohammad Bhai and Alisba by phone. The ACU found that the two did not know each other. The ACU also ran both names through their internal database and that of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit. “Their names were run through the databases and there was no match found for either Alisba or Mohammad Bhai. Nothing came up which showed their antecedents could be shady. They are not elusive, underground, unknown people. Both have proper identification and documentation.”According to the BCCI official Mohammad Bhai is “known to several other” Indian team players and is a British passport holder who hails originally from Gujarat. Alisba, too, was “up front” and clear about events during her chat with the ACU.

Other major stars in the Supernovas and Trailblazers XIs include Ellyse Perry, Suzie Bates, Alyssa Healy, Danielle Wyatt and Megan Schutt

ESPNcricinfo staff17-May-2018Australia captain Meg Lanning, superstar allrounder Ellyse Perry and India ODI captain Mithali Raj are set to be part of the IPL Supernovas team in the Women’s T20 exhibition match in Mumbai. They will face an IPL Trailblazers side that includes Jhulan Goswami, the highest wicket-taker in women’s ODIs, the prolific New Zealand opener Suzie Bates and the England offspinner Danielle Hazell among other big names.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

In all, the two squads of 13 announced by the BCCI on Thursday include five Australia players, three from New Zealand and two from England, apart from 16 major Indian stars including Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana, who will captain the Supernovas and Trailblazers respectively.The match will be played ahead of the first IPL Qualifier on May 22 at the Wankhede Stadium. The match will begin at 2pm IST and will be telecast across the world, unlike India women’s most-recent assignment – the ODI series against England – which was limited to a livestream on the BCCI website.