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Mumbai Indians captain says Trent Boult on the road to recovery; Hardik Pandya still not comfortable bowling

Nagraj Gollapudi09-Nov-2020Rohit Sharma is confident Mumbai Indians will have “the fifth one in the bag” if the defending champions continue doing the little things right in the IPL 2020 final. Sharma, who is the only captain to have won four IPL titles in the 13-year-old tournament, also felt that Mumbai hold a “little bit” of a “psychological advantage” over Delhi Capitals, who will play their maiden final on Tuesday and have lost three out of three games against Mumbai this season.Even without Sharma saying it, Mumbai remain favourites to retain the title. They were the first to make the playoffs and finished with the most wins in the league phase. In Qualifier 1 they brushed aside the Capitals, amassing a huge target after being put in to bat and then shutting down the Capitals with the ball, entering the final for the sixth time. Of the five previous times they have made the final, Mumbai lost to the Chennai Super Kings in 2010, but then won the title in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019.”There will be a psychological advantage a little bit, yes,” Sharma said on Monday, answering questions from the media. “But, again, what we have seen with the IPL is every day is a fresh day, every day is a new pressure, and every game is a new game. So you can’t think too much about what has happened in the past; of course, you can take a lot of confidence from the past. You just can’t dwell on it. You just need to move forward and think about what you want to do in that particular game.”The Capitals will also enter the final with fresh zest, having gone with a new tactical approach in their victory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2, where they pushed Marcus Stoinis up the order and brought back Shimron Hetmyer.”One guy having a good day can take the game away from you,” Sharma said. “It is that simple in this format. We just need to keep at it all the time, need to focus on the little, little things which we have done through the season really well. Again, nothing changes for us – treat this as a new game, fresh game, and a new opponent, to be honest.

On Jayant Yadav’s chances for the final given the left-handers in DC

“Yes, 100 percent. Why not? Considering the amount of lefties they have, Jayant is a great option for us. He played the league stage game against Delhi and bowled pretty well. They’ve got three left-handers in their middle order, so why not… He’s an experienced player, has played for that franchise (Capitals) before, so he understands what they do as a team as well.”

“We can’t think about ‘we have played these guys before and we’ve beaten them’. We just have to treat them as a new opponent and what will we do as a team against that opponent. It is that simple for us. We keep doing the right things on the field, I’m sure we will have the fifth [IPL title] one in the bag.”Sharma said winning the toss was “very important”, but in the end he would rely on what the team needed, and wouldn’t be “worried” about how the toss goes as long as his team continued to play good cricket.‘Confident of Boult recovery, but Hardik won’t bowl’Trent Boult bowled just two overs in Qualifier 1 against the Capitals before going off with a groin injury, but Sharma said the left-arm fast bowler had “pulled up” well and was on track to make the XI for the final.”Trent looks pretty good. He’s going to have a session today with all of us, and we’ll see how he goes,” Sharma said. “He pulled up pretty well in the last two days, so fingers crossed, hopefully he plays.”One bowling option Sharma will continue to not have is that of Hardik Pandya, who hasn’t bowled at all in IPL 2020, having recently returned from injury. The Mumbai captain held that as long as Hardik was batting the way he was, it was good enough.”He’s not comfortable at the moment to bowl,” Sharma said. “We’ve left that decision on him. If he’s comfortable, he’ll be happy to bowl, but at the moment he’s not feeling comfortable. He’s got some niggle going. It would have been great to have him bowl, but throughout the season we’ve given him that cushion of being in that comfort zone and making sure he takes care of his body – and he’s done that really well. So we don’t want to put that pressure on individuals where we’re expecting something from him and he’s not able to do it, and the team morale goes down. We don’t want that situation. Hardik to us is very important as a player, and his batting has been really, really key for us making it to the final. As long as he bats, I’m happy.”

Fast bowler Henry picked up a six-for in his most-recent first-class outing for New Zealand A

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jan-2021A year after he last represented New Zealand, Matt Henry could add to his 12 Test appearances after being called up for the second Test against Pakistan in Christchurch starting January 3. Henry replaces Neil Wagner, who is recovering from “undisplayed fractures in both the fourth and fifth toes of his right foot”.Wagner sustained the injury during New Zealand’s tense opening win in Mount Maunganui, where he bowled 49 overs across two innings and picked up four wickets in the match. His recovery is expected to take six weeks.”Matt has been in good form with the ball having recently taken 6 for 53 for New Zealand A against the Pakistan Shaheens (A side) in December,” said New Zealand head coach Gary Stead.”We’re still a couple of days out from the Test, so need to take a look at the surface while also assessing our options for best-possible team make-up.”Henry has been in good form in general. He’s so far picked up seven wickets in four games for Canterbury in the Ford Trophy. He has picked up four wickets in his lone Plunket Shield outing so far this season.”It’s good to be able to get some overs in the legs,” Henry said. “I’d been playing white-ball cricket with Canterbury, so to get into red-ball mode and have personal success [against Pakistan Shaheens] is great. I think just playing cricket after all that has happened [covid-19 pandemic] is great. [Hagley Oval] is a great venue and I’m lucky enough to call it home.”A series win over Pakistan will make New Zealand the No. 1 Test team for the very first time.Squad for second Test: Kane Williamson (capt), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, BJ Watling (wk), Will Young

The wicketkeeper is out of contract at the end of the 2021 season

George Dobell01-Feb-2021Ben Cox has turned down a new contract offer from Worcestershire.Cox, widely regarded as one of the best keepers in the English game, is out of contract at the end of the 2021 season. He was offered a two-year extension on improved terms but has decided to go into the final year of his contract, meaning he will be able to hear offers from other counties.Aged 28, Cox is at the stage of his career where he may feel time is running out on his ambition to play international cricket. While he has represented England Lions and secured a contract with Trent Rockets in the Hundred, he has limited franchise experience – he recently had to pull out of a stint in the Abu Dhabi T10 after a bout of Covid-19 – and was briefly left out of Worcestershire’s County Championship side in favour of Alex Milton.Cox’s relationship with Worcestershire has been long and, to this point, highly successful. Cox made his debut for the club as a 17-year-old schoolboy in 2009. After a tricky start, he has emerged into a top-class keeper who has played a significant role in Worcestershire’s white-ball success with his ability to stand up to the stumps to many of the side’s seamers. He has previously impressed with his keeping off the spin of Saeed Ajmal, who had a spell as overseas player at the club. Perhaps only Ben Foakes, among contemporary English keepers, is more highly regarded.While Cox is not quite in the same class with the bat as Foakes, he is still a useful middle-order batsman. He was player of the match in both the semi-final and the final of the T20 Blast when Worcestershire won the competition in 2018 – he made an unbeaten 46 in the final and finished the game off with a six and four off Jofra Archer – and has made four first-class centuries and one more in List A cricket.It may be, however, that Cox feels he needs to move to gain more appreciation for his skills or that he needs to focus minds at New Road as he negotiates the next phase of his career. A period in the shop window has worked wonders for other players.ECB regulations prohibit approaches on contracted players until a few weeks into their final season, so there has been no contact with other clubs at this stage. But it is likely that several – including, perhaps, Somerset and Warwickshire – could be interested in a player with Cox’s skills. Nottinghamshire could be another attractive destination, with their incumbent wicketkeeper Tom Moores out of contract at the end of the season and yet to sign a new deal.Worcestershire’s management revealed Cox’s status at an online forum with county members. They subsequently released minutes of the meeting saying they would be “disappointed” if he left but saying “that is up to the player.” They also revealed that former captain, Daryl Mitchell, former England Lions player Ross Whiteley, Riki Wessels, Josh Dell and Milton are out of contract at the end of the 2021 season.

Series a dry run for October’s T20 World Cup in India

Karthik Krishnaswamy11-Mar-20218:01

Are England favourites for the T20I series?

Big Picture

Is it the future, or is it, simply, the present, and the reality of a looming T20 World Cup? England rested and rotated all through the Test leg of this India tour, but now they’re at close to full strength for the T20I series.These five matches, therefore, come with a sense of urgency that a lot of bilateral T20I series lack. England, possibly the world’s best T20I side, are giving all their stars a run-out in Indian conditions before the big event in October. Along the way, they’ll subject India to the most rigorous litmus test for where they stand in this format.India, for their part, have only lost two of their last 15 completed T20Is. It’s a formidable record, indicative of a side that has most bases covered, but the big question for them to answer is how they’ll do when they meet a really good hitting team – such as this England line-up – in a knockout game on a flat pitch, particularly when asked to bat first.Related

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It’s evident, from the make-up of their squad for this series, that they’re looking to assemble the firepower for that sort of scenario. Suryakumar Yadav – an innovative, 360-degree player – Ishan Kishan – IPL 2020’s most prolific six-hitter – and the recalled Rishabh Pant bring extra muscle to a middle order that already includes Hardik Pandya, and the addition of Rahul Tewatia – whose fitness status is as yet unclear – gives them a third option for the spin-bowling allrounder’s role, more explosive with the bat than either Axar Patel or Washington Sundar. With Shardul Thakur potentially at No. 8, this is a team with a good amount of batting depth, so the biggest question for India, as always, is whether their top three can bat with a little more adventure and a little less fear of getting out.Can India, in short, be more like England?England, for their part, will need to find a way to be more like India – with the ball. Among all Full Member teams, England have the worst T20I economy rate since the start of 2018 (India are fourth-best). If they can’t find a way to rectify that issue on Indian pitches – particularly given the injury doubts surrounding Jofra Archer – other teams will ruthlessly target their bowlers come the T20 World Cup.

Form guide

India LWWWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
England WWWLW6:12

Rohit: Pant is starting to understand game-situations better now

In the spotlight

He’s put an indifferent IPL behind him, he’s “worked his backside off” – in the words of his coach Ravi Shastri – to bring his fitness up to speed, he’s improved his wicketkeeping beyond recognition, and he’s played four outstanding innings in the space of seven Tests to once again have the world at his feet. He’s earned a T20I recall too, and India will hope Rishabh Pant can do to England’s bowlers in white-ball cricket what he did to James Anderson when he bowled to him with a new red ball at the same venue last week.It’s mindboggling that no team went for Jason Roy at the IPL auction, but this may have had something to do with a perceived weakness against spin. In his limited time in the IPL – a combined seven innings in the 2017 and 2018 seasons – he struggled against spin, averaging 12.40 and striking at 110.71, while returning corresponding figures of 117.00 and 150.00 against pace. Through this series, Roy will hope to show the teams that rejected him that he has the game to succeed against spin in Indian conditions.

Team news

Varun Chakravarthy is set to miss the series after failing his mandatory fitness test, while there are doubts over the availability of Rahul Tewatia and T Natarajan. Given all this, the bowling attack is likely to include one of Axar Patel and Washington Sundar, and a possible three-way battle between Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for two spots. It also remains unclear where Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav will fit in the middle order, but the biggest selection headache for India will involve their openers: which two among Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul will fill the top two slots? Virat Kohli, without confirming the XI, said on match eve that Rohit and Rahul remained India’s first-choice T20I openers.India (possible): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Axar Patel/Washington Sundar, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Navdeep Saini.India will be hoping Rishabh Pant brings his form in from the Tests•Getty Images

Jofra Archer’s recurring elbow issue is the main concern England have going into the series-opener. They have a wealth of fast-bowling options to select from, though, with Mark Wood, Tom Curran and Reece Topley all in contention should the need arise.England (possible): 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Jonny Bairstow, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Eoin Morgan (capt), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Sam Curran, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Jofra Archer/Mark Wood, 11 Adil Rashid.

Pitch and conditions

A far more batting-friendly surface can be expected at Motera than the ones served up for the third and fourth Tests, though the pitches that hosted the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20s here in January did help the spinners. The slower bowlers in that tournament averaged 32.00 on this ground and had an overall economy rate of 6.67, with the quicks managing corresponding figures of 24.02 and 7.55. Of the seven matches played here, five were won by the chasing team, suggesting dew may have had an influence.

Stats and trivia

• India and England are dead even in terms of their T20I head-to-head: they’ve each won seven and lost seven. India, however, have come out on top in four of the last five meetings.
• Virat Kohli needs 72 runs to become the first batsman to score 3000 T20I runs.
• Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan have done extraordinarily well as a T20I partnership. They’ve put on two century stands and two half-century stands in eight innings, and average 66.37 as a pair while scoring at a whopping 11.46 per over. This makes them the fourth-quickest-scoring partnership among all pairs who’ve put on at least 200 runs together.
• K Ananthapadmanabhan will be making his debut as on-field umpire in this game. He was a legspinner who played over 100 first-class matches, the only player from Kerala to do so.

Quotes

“No, I don’t agree with that [India being the team to beat at the upcoming T20 World Cup]. They [England] are the No. 1 [T20I] team in the world and the prime focus will be on them. All the other teams will be wary of the strength that they bring onto the park and every other team will agree with what I say.”
“Wicket looks good, depends what the groundsman chooses to do between today and tomorrow.”

Fast bowler hits back at Michael Vaughan following criticism of attitude to longest format

Andrew Miller11-Mar-2021Eoin Morgan has insisted he has no concerns about Jofra Archer’s enduring motivation to play for England in all three formats, after the bowler himself used his newspaper column to hit back at suggestions – most notably from the former England captain, Michael Vaughan – that he “does not love Test cricket”.Archer played in the first and third Tests of England’s 3-1 series defeat to India, claiming four wickets at 30.50, a return that was consistent with his current Test average of 31.04. However, having bowled just five overs in the latter match, doubts about his appetite for the longest format resurfaced after he missed the series finale with an elbow injury.A similar affliction – later diagnosed as a stress fracture – had ruled him out of the back end of England’s tour of South Africa last winter. However, writing in the Daily Mail, Archer stated that the two issues were unrelated, and expressed his annoyance that he seems to be judged more harshly than his team-mates whenever he has a quiet game.”A lot of people are saying a lot of things about my right elbow, and so as the person the elbow belongs to, I would like to say something in response,” Archer wrote. “Let me be clear about something: I’ve never changed my attitude towards playing for England. I’ve always wanted to play all three formats. That hasn’t changed, and never will as far as I’m concerned.”I always dreamed of playing Test cricket and don’t feel I’ve had a bad game so far — yet unless I am taking four or five wickets in an innings, I am placed under scrutiny and some people start trying to decipher what’s going on.”Comments like ‘he’s not committed’ or ‘he’s not good enough’ appear as soon as you are not 110 percent. I find it quite annoying how people read into stuff and form their own opinions.”I saw one article from Michael Vaughan in which he said: ‘If Jofra doesn’t love Test cricket, England need to find out why.’ We’ve never had a conversation about cricket, so I found it a bit odd. He doesn’t know what makes me tick. He doesn’t know what’s driving me.”Archer bowled well in the first Test in Chennai but bowled just five overs in the rest of the Test series•BCCI

Speaking on the eve of the T20I series, Morgan confirmed that his strike bowler was fit and ready to take part in the opening fixture at Ahmedabad, and gave his own perspective on the insinuations that Archer is a difficult player for England captains to manage.”He’s a huge asset,” Morgan said. “He’s a guy that bowl in three parts of the game and can be threatening whenever he comes on. He obviously has express pace, can bowl cutters, variations, and has a very good yorker. He’s a huge asset in any format.”I do [find him easy to manage]. He’s always been engaging,” Morgan added. “He is a younger member of our squad that has different interests to the majority of our squad, because the majority of our squad is in their late 20s, early 30s.”He loves enjoying what he does, in travelling, playing Xbox, playing cricket, playing in front of big, big crowds and he is a huge family man. The more I have got to know him: one, the better our relationship is but two, the more I have grown to enjoy his company away from the game because I have got to know him more. He’s a funny guy.”Related

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Archer, who turns 26 next month, also pointed out that James Anderson and Stuart Broad, the “two great bowlers in this England set-up”, needed time and patience to develop their own games at Test level – after 13 Tests, the same number that Archer himself has now played, the pair averaged 33.00 and 38.68 respectively.”Everyone must start somewhere, and I am still relatively new to Test cricket,” Archer wrote. “I am making my way, much the same as … Anderson and Broad, once did. And I am happy with a bowling average of 31 so far because I can get better.”The beauty of where those two are in their careers, with so many wickets to their names, is that they get the benefit of the doubt if they have a quiet match of only one or two wickets.”People will argue, quite rightly, that they have got to where they are for a reason and will come back strongly, whereas I don’t feel there is the same understanding given or faith placed in others.”Part of being a bowler is accepting there will be games when you don’t enjoy as much success as you would like but you must tick them off, and when the conditions are right for you to take your big haul, use them.”Asked whether he believed that Archer’s elbow could stand up to the rigours of international cricket across three formats, Morgan reiterated the ECB’s desire to manage his workload across a hectic schedule that includes 17 Tests and a T20 World Cup in the space of 12 months.”From a medical perspective, I can’t give you an accurate answer but I know Jofra’s ambition has always been to play Test cricket for as long as he can,” he said.”If you’d look back at the back end of the summer, and most of January, Jofra had [time] off. And there will be different pockets throughout the year – after the IPL, into our summer, and before the World Cup – when Jofra will be rested and really well looked after, both physically and mentally.”

South Africa seamer was traced by UK authorities as a possible contact of someone with the virus

Alan Gardner05-Apr-2021Wayne Parnell, Northamptonshire’s South African overseas signing, will miss the start of the County Championship season after being forced to quarantine for an additional five days by the NHS Covid-19 track-and-trace system.Parnell was signed by Northants ahead of the start of the season and arrived in the UK last week. He was due to spend five days in his accommodation in town before being allowed out under test-and-release guidelines – which cut the isolation period in half if two negative Covid-19 tests are returned – with the intention of joining up with the team during a two-day home friendly with Leicestershire that started on Sunday.However, having received his second negative at the weekend, Parnell was traced by the authorities as a possible contact of someone with the virus and his period in quarantine extended to 10 days.Related

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He will now certainly miss Northamptonshire’s opening game, against Kent at Wantage Road starting on Thursday, and is unlikely to feature the following week, having not had an opportunity to prepare for the workload of bowling in a first-class match.”Unfortunately Wayne was contacted by track-and-trace,” Northamptonshire’s head coach, David Ripley, said. “He was supposed to come to the ground to take part in training on Sunday, but got told he has to stay in quarantine. He won’t be available for the opening round and it might take a while to get him fully up to speed.”Parnell’s route to the UK had involved travelling to Kenya and training there for 10 days, rather than arrive directly from South Africa, which is on the government’s red list.”The first game was always touch and go, but it’s looking more likely for the third game,” Ripley added. “He won’t have bowled for 20 days, so we’ll have to see how he is. But we’ve signed him for the whole season across formats, so we don’t feel we need to rush him.”Parnell, 31, has previously played county cricket for Glamorgan, Kent, Sussex and Worcestershire. He signed for Worcestershire under the Kolpak ruling in 2018, but lost his status after the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.Northants have had a number of injury concerns among their bowlers coming into the new season, with Jack White, Brandon Glover and Luke Procter nursing problems – although White was fit enough to play in the Leicestershire friendly. Paul van Meekeren, the Netherlands seamer who was released by Somerset in 2019, has been training with the club as potential cover.

Replaced in the XI by Saim Ayub; second concussion in two days for Gladiators

Karthik Krishnaswamy12-Jun-2021A concussion has ruled Faf du Plessis out of the Quetta Gladiators’ ongoing match against the Peshawar Zalmi in Abu Dhabi. du Plessis suffered a blow to the head when he collided with his team-mate Mohammad Hasnain during the seventh over of the Zalmi innings. He was replaced in the XI by Saim Ayub.The collision took place when David Miller drove Mohammad Nawaz down the ground, between du Plessis at long-on and Hasnain at long-off. Both fielders converged at speed, with Hasnain making a late attempt to evade a collision as du Plessis dived to his right to stop the ball. Hasnain couldn’t quite pull away, however, and du Plessis’ head crashed into his knee.Related

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du Plessis lay prone on the ground for a few minutes while the Gladiators physio attended to him, but eventually got on his feet to walk back into his team’s dugout. The Gladiators’ management said soon after that he was being taken to hospital.Ayub, the 19-year-old left-hand batter, played five T20 games, all of them during the early stages of PSL 2021, before the tournament was suspended due to a growing number of Covid-19 cases among its participants.The Gladiators are using a concussion substitute for the second successive match. During their last match against the Islamabad United, allrounder Andre Russell took a blow to his helmet from a Mohammad Musa bouncer. He was replaced by the fast bowler Naseem Shah. Russell was not available for selection for Saturday’s match against Zalmi.

The squad was split into two teams of 10 for a 22-over-a-side match in the first proper hit-out of the tour

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jul-2021Australia I 195 for 6 (Marsh 56, Turner 45) beat Australia II 193 for 5 (Christian 47, Henriques 36) by four wicketsDan Christian, Mitchell Marsh and Ashton Turner made an impression with the bat during Australia’s first intra-squad warm-up match in St Lucia ahead of the T20I series against West Indies.In another example of making the best of what is available in the current environment, the Australia squad was split into two teams of 10 – Australia I led by Aaron Finch and Australia II captained by Matthew Wade – to play a 22-over-per side match.It was the performances of Marsh, who hit four sixes in his 28-ball 56, and Ashton Turner, who cleared the ropes in the final over to help secure victory, that edged the contest in the end after the asking rate had passed 12 an over.However, the innings of Christian – 47 off 31 balls – was also significant as he resumes his Australia career after a gap of four years and has been billed as one of the options to fill the troublesome middle-order positions.Related