The India allrounder could feature in three County Championship games and the 50-overs Royal London Cup

Deivarayan Muthu and Matt Roller21-Jun-20223:29

Shastri: ‘Washington is going to be one of India’s premier all-format allrounders’

India allrounder Washington Sundar will turn out for Lancashire in county cricket this season, subject to fitness and visa clearance, ESPNcricinfo has learnt.Washington, 22, could be available for up to three County Championship games, from July, and the entire 50-overs Royal London Cup. He could become the second Indian to feature in English county cricket this season after Cheteshwar Pujara, who racked up 720 runs in eight innings at a stunning average of 120 for Sussex in division two. Shreyas Iyer had signed up as Lancashire’s overseas player for the Royal London Cup in 2021 but had to eventually pull out because of a shoulder injury.”I am extremely excited to play county cricket for the first time with Lancashire Cricket,” Washington Sundar said in a media statement from the county. “To play in English conditions will be a great experience for me and I can’t wait to play at Emirates Old Trafford.”I would like to thank both Lancashire Cricket and the BCCI for allowing this opportunity [to] happen and I’m looking forward to joining up with the squad next month.”Mark Chilton, Lancashire’s director of cricket performance, welcomed Washington into the set-up. “Washington is a multi-format all-rounder whose skills with both bat and ball will be a great addition for us in the Royal London Cup and County Championship this summer,” he said. “His international and IPL experiences will be invaluable in the development of our younger cricketers, many of whom he will be playing with during his stay. The addition of Washington is one that will excite our members and supporters, along with helping our continued push to bring silverware back to Emirates Old Trafford.”Lancashire are currently third on the County Championship division one points table, behind Surrey and Hampshire, with 108 points. They will resume red-ball cricket with a clash against Gloucestershire from June 26 after their Vitality Blast T20 games.Washington is currently working his way back from a hand injury at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. The red-ball games in England will be Washington’s first since he sustained a finger injury while playing a three-day tour game against a County Select XI in Chester-le-Street in July 2021. The injury had sidelined him from that England tour and the second leg of IPL 2021.Washington has suffered multiple setbacks because of injury and illness since last year. He was lined up to return to action for his state side Tamil Nadu in the 20-overs Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, but it is understood that the Indian team management had then warned Tamil Nadu against rushing him back into action.He then made a successful return in the 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy, taking 16 wickets in eight games at an economy rate of 4.77 in Tamil Nadu’s run to the final. It paved the way for his India white-ball return, for a three-match ODI series in South Africa, but he had to miss that after testing positive for Covid-19.Washington Sundar has suffered multiple injury setbacks in recent times•BCCI

Washington marked his comeback with all-round contributions at home in the ODI series against West Indies, but that was short-lived, too, as he sustained a hamstring injury ahead of the T20Is.More recently in IPL 2022, he hurt his webbing twice and played just nine games for Sunrisers Hyderabad, scoring 101 runs and claiming six wickets. The franchise’s head coach Tom Moody pointed out that the injuries to Washington and T Natarajan shook up the balance of the XI.Washington’s Lancashire gig will clash with the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), which kicks off on June 23 in Tirunelveli. Washington is with Salem Spartans in the TNPL, but it is understood that he did not take part in the side’s preparatory camp in Chennai.The red-ball games for Lancashire could be Washington’s opportunity to prove his form and fitness. While speaking on ESPNcricinfo’s analysis show T20 Time:Out during the IPL, Ravi Shastri, the former India coach, talked up Washington as a future all-format allrounder for India.”He is going to be one of India’s leading allrounders,” Shastri had said. “He is the future. You have [Ravindra] Jadeja today. Three years down the line, if Jadeja is still fit, he will play. There is Axar [Patel] around. But this guy is your premier allrounder across all three formats of the game. Hear what I am saying. Three formats of the game.”This guy is a serious cricketer. He is still very young, he has got to understand his own game, how good a player he is. Shot selection will come, especially for the white-ball format. [If he] works on his fitness so that he is not injury-prone, India have got a serious cricketer in him. Across all formats of the game. I think it is up to him really to do the hard yards on fitness. No excuse. He can’t depend on X, Y, Z. He has to look at himself in the mirror and say I want to work hard and I want to be the leading allrounder in Indian cricket over the next three years. And he can do it. Easy.”

Players and their families will not be required to serve out a mandatory quarantine upon arrival in India

Shashank Kishore01-Jun-2022In a change from what has been the norm in the last couple of years, the BCCI has decided to do away with stringent biobubbles for India’s upcoming T20I series against South Africa starting June 9. ESPNcricinfo understands that players and their families will not be required to serve out a mandatory quarantine period upon arrival either.The Indian team is expected to link up in New Delhi, the venue for the series opener, on or before Saturday. The South African team, led by Temba Bavuma, is expected to arrive in the city on June 2. Their touring contingent includes as many as ten players who featured in IPL 2022.The change in regulations also means that player movement in and out of the hotels and stadia would not be restricted. However, everyone has been advised to remain cautious and avoid large gatherings, as far as possible. It is understood that Covid-19 tests will only be carried out if someone reports symptoms, as against the policy of regular testing earlier.Related

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The BCCI’s decision to open up multiple venues for the same series is encouraging. It’s a practice they have slowly embraced over time, since last November, when they hosted New Zealand and Sri Lanka at multiple venues.For a brief while in February, they reverted to hosting an entire leg in one city due to the omicron threat when West Indies toured. The ODI leg was played in Ahmedabad before Kolkata hosted the T20I leg. This time around, players will travel across five venues – New Delhi, Cuttack, Visakhapatnam, Rajkot and Bengaluru – across 12 days. There will also be no cap on crowd attendance at any of the five venues either.The decks have also been cleared for all state associations to begin the sale of tickets, allowing 100% attendance, across all venues. Sunday’s IPL final in Ahmedabad witnessed possibly the biggest crowd at a cricket match in India, with the official number pegged at 104,859.India’s declining number of active Covid-19 cases have led to the easing of restrictions. The country recorded 2745 active cases on May 31; the corresponding numbers for the same date in 2021 stood at a whopping 127,510 cases.Most cricket boards around the world have moved on from stringent biobubble measures to managed environments, with minimal restrictions. For example, Bangladesh’s recent home Test series against Sri Lanka was held without any bubble restrictions. The upcoming England vs New Zealand Test series, starting June 2 at Lord’s, will also be hosted on similar lines.However, New Zealand Cricket has asked its players to “avoid mass gatherings and events of high exposure”, while making masks mandatory when indoors with people from outside the environment and unable to socially distance. They will also carry out immediate testing in case of symptoms and five days of isolation if there is a positive case. The ECB has specified no such restrictions on their part.

Australia’s captain said their collapse from 298 for 5 on the second morning was “an opportunity missed”

Andrew Fidel Fernando11-Jul-2022They won an attritional series in Pakistan, and dominated Sri Lanka in what was essentially a two-day win last week. But this loss in Galle, by an innings and 39 runs, might be a “reality check” for an Australia team intent on improving their long-form cricket in Asia.So said captain Pat Cummins, after the second Test hurtled to a conclusion on the fourth evening – Australia collapsing to 151 against spin inside 41 overs.”Some batters went out with a really clear plan, and you just get a ball with your name on it earlier than you would’ve liked,” Cummins said. “It’s a good reality check for people touring over here that it’s really hard. So many positives out of last week, that we did find methods that work. One small hiccup doesn’t mean you have to change everything. And it makes for more learning than after a win.Related

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“I think half our batting line-up and half our bowling line-up hasn’t played a lot over here in the subcontinent. So the experience on these two vastly different wickets [in the two Tests], I think we got a lot of lessons out of it to take to India next year.”Cummins pointed to the second morning as a session in which Australia let the match slip. Although they had won the first day, ending at 298 for 5 at stumps, they then lost their last five first-innings wickets for 35 runs, finishing at 364 all out. This was after Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne had hit hundreds, and while Smith remained at the crease, the wickets fell at the other end.”That was probably an opportunity missed. The way we set up the game on day one, we were hoping to get 400-plus, which history suggests here puts you in a really good position,” Cummins said. “Unfortunately none of us hung around with Smith long enough to get up to the 400-plus, which meant even if we were out there for 180 overs you were kind of level at the turn.”Dimuth Karunaratne and Pat Cummins pose with the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy, which they shared•AFP/Getty Images

Australia’s second-innings collapse took less than two sessions, after they started 190 runs behind. Usman Khawaja and David Warner put on 49 to begin, suggesting the surface remained decent for batting. But then they lost 10 wickets for 101.”Certainly as the game went on the footmarks started to react a bit more,” Cummins said. “A fresh bowling side always makes a bit of a difference as well. So it all happened pretty quickly, and unfortunately we were on the wrong side.”The plan had been to just bat. It was still close to five sessions left in the game. I think if we were behind by just over 100 we were still in the game, but 200 probably put it beyond us. We were trying to bat for the rest of the day then come up with a plan for tomorrow.”Australia’s tour has come in the backdrop of a crippling economic crisis and a major political crisis in Sri Lanka. Cummins and the Australia team have made efforts to reach out and understand the situation better, even making appeals for fundraisers. On day two of this Test, large protests were seen on the fort overlooking the ground, and at the central intersection at Galle, which is right outside the stadium.”We’ve got protests round the ground, it really hits home how lucky we are to be travelling the world but also in some ways it’s more than just being here to play cricket, you can see the impact it can have. It hasn’t been lost on our group, something we speak about quite a bit.”You couldn’t escape the protests on Saturday. We got lots of messages from back home, just saying ‘How is it? Hope you’re ok.’ And we felt totally fine.”

Zimbabwe could not come back after losing five wickets in the first seven overs in Harare

Mohammad Isam31-Jul-2022Mosaddek Hossain’s stunning opening spell set up Bangladesh’s series-levelling win against Zimbabwe in Harare. The part-time offspinner completed his maiden five-wicket haul in just the seventh over of the innings, and became only the fourth Bangladesh bowler to take a five-for in T20Is, after Elias Sunny, Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib Al HasanWith Zimbabwe in tatters, Sikandar Raza scored a fighting half-century – his second of the series – but a total of 135 proved inadequate. Opener Litton Das spearheaded Bangladesh’s chase with a half-century and the target was achieved with seven wickets in hand and 15 balls to spare.Five wickets in seven overs
Opening the bowling for the first time in T20Is, Mosaddek struck with the first ball of the match – Regis Chakabva edging the wide, innocuous delivery to the wicket-keeper. Wessly Madhevere, who had struck a fifty in the first T20I, slammed one straight to cover-point where Mahedi Hasan took an easy catch off the last ball of the over.In his second over, Mosaddek had captain Craig Ervine caught at slip while attempting a reverse sweep, reducing Zimbabwe to 6 for 3. Sean Williams was next to go, chipping one back at Mosaddek in the fifth over, with the bowler having to jump to complete the return catch.Mosaddek completed his five-for when Milton Shumba dragged one towards deep midwicket, only to see Hasan Mahmud run hard and complete a diving catch. Mosaddek became the first Bangladesh bowler to take the first five wickets to fall in an innings, and 31 was the lowest score for which Zimbabwe had lost their first five wickets in a T20I.Sikandar Raza struck 62 off 53 balls and added 80 for the sixth wicket with Ryan Burl•AFP/Getty Images

Raza leads the recovery
Raza and Ryan Burl stopped the slide with an 80-run stand for the sixth wicket. Raza scored his second half-century of the series, hitting fours through cover and deep third, and also sixes over the leg-side boundary. He struck 62 off 53 balls before falling to Mustafizur in the 19th over.Burl had fallen in the 18th, when Hasan Mahmud bowled him for 32. Towards the end of the innings, Luke Jongwe struck a late six, as Zimbabwe tried to capitalise on the recovery that Raza had led.Litton starts quickly
Litton got Bangladesh’s chase off to a quick start when he struck Tanaka Chivanga for two sixes and a four in the third over. But he lost his opening partner Munim Shahriar cheaply for the second game in a row when Richard Ngarava bowled him through the gate.Litton added 41 for the second wicket with Anamul Haque but got out shortly after reaching his half-century – his 56 off 33 balls included six fours and two sixes. Anamul struck two fours in his 16, but once again got out soon after getting set.The final act
Afif Hossain was unbeaten on 30 off 28 balls and Najmul Hossain Shanto made 19 off 21 balls to take Bangladesh to the target. Their unbroken 55-run stand for the fourth wicket ensured there were no more hiccups for Bangladesh, who had lost their previous two wickets in the space of four balls.The seven-wicket victory brought Bangladesh level at 1-1 in the series, with the decider on Tuesday in Harare.

“Everything that we’re doing in the T20 space ties back into the World Cup,” says Finch

Alex Malcolm19-Sep-2022With Mitchell Marsh absent with an injury, Steven Smith will bat at No. 3 against India. His role in Australia’s first-choice XI in the lead-up to the men’s T20 World Cup, however, will remain fluid.Australia are missing three of their first-choice players in the top six for the three-match series against India starting in Mohali on Tuesday, with Marsh, David Warner and Marcus Stoinis all back at home. Mitchell Starc is also resting because of a niggle. It means Australia will structure their side differently out of necessity, with just nine matches to go before starting their title defence at home against New Zealand.Related

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Smith has batted at No. 3 in T20Is only once in the last 12 matches he has played across a two-year period. That was also out of necessity, against England in the 2021 T20 World Cup, when Marsh was left out for structural balance as Australia chose a fifth specialist bowler.Since then, Smith has batted no higher than No. 4 regardless of Marsh’s availability or not, with his long-time role as a floating “Mr Fix it”, who would enter early at the loss of wickets in the powerplay, abandoned for a more permanent place in the middle order.But his lack of strike power in the middle order has created questions around his place in Australia’s first-choice XI for the World Cup, particularly after Tim David was added to the squad. In his last 12 games, Smith has only batted eight times, with a strike rate of 107.20, down from his already middling career T20 strike rate of 125.27.Aaron Finch confirmed on Monday that Smith would likely bat at No. 3 in the series against India, and he reiterated Australia’s faith in Smith’s capabilities as a versatile cog in the line-up.”Most likely he’ll bat at three in this series with Mitch Marsh being out,” Finch said. “We know the quality that Steve’s got. He’s one of the best players that has ever played the game over all formats of the game. So we know the skill that he’s got and the game sense and the tactical nous that he’s got.”So we’re really confident that regardless of what role he has to play within the structure of the squad, that he can do that very, very well.”Finch confirmed that Australia would experiment with the structure of their side and their personnel in various positions, with an eye on both the upcoming World Cup in Australia as well as the different conditions that will be presented in the three matches in India.”Every decision that we make, I think, has one eye towards the World Cup and seeing the wicket yesterday [in Mohali], it looked like there was quite a bit of grass on it,” Finch said. “And we know in Mohali, the ball can swing around and it can carry through quite a bit, so I think we will be mindful of not being too narrow-minded in terms of our focus.”What we’ve tried to do over the last sort of six-eight-ten months is make sure that everything that we’re doing in the T20 space ties back into the World Cup and, for us, it’s about making sure that once we get there that we’ve had plenty of different combinations of teams that we can play. Because the last thing you want to do is have an injury derail your whole campaign because you’re pigeon-holed into playing one style of cricket or one structure of team. So there’ll be a little bit of mixing and matching, but still with that one eye towards the World Cup, to make sure that we’re still as rounded as we can be as a squad.”The loss of two allrounders in Marsh and Stoinis, and a left-arm quick in Starc, will force Australia to structure the bowling differently, which in turn has a direct influence on the top seven they can select.Cameron Green could make his T20I return against India•Getty Images

David looks set to make his Australia debut in the middle order as a direct replacement for Stoinis, after having played 14 T20Is for Singapore. But he only bowls very part-time offspin. Cameron Green, who is not in Australia’s World Cup squad but is on this tour of India, is another who could play if Australia want a pace-bowling allrounder. Green made his T20I debut for Australia on the tour of Pakistan earlier this year, but has only played 14 professional T20s in his career.However, Finch felt Green was capable of being a three-format player after his recent performances in the ODI series’ against Zimbabwe and New Zealand in Australia.”I think his ability to bat at five, six, seven in the one-day team has been really impressive,” Finch said. “The fact that such a young guy was able to guide us home in a really tricky run chase, in a great partnership with Alex Carey in the recent series against New Zealand, shows that he’s got all the tricks and the game sense for such a young guy to be super successful in all three formats for Australia.”He’s just such a great kid, someone who continues to impress with everything that he does.”

Zimbabwe coach confirms Sean Williams will return for second ODI, but Blessing Muzarabani remains unlikely to feature in the series

Andrew McGlashan30-Aug-2022Zimbabwe coach Dave Houghton is seeing encouraging signs that his players are learning how not to “freeze” against the strongest opposition, and hopes that the batters can put together a complete performance during the remainder of the ODI series against Australia.Having been put into bat, the top order – led by a career-best 72 from Wessly Madhevere after the openers had negotiated the first ten overs – built a solid if an unspectacular platform during the opening game on Sunday, as Zimbabwe reached 185 for 4 in the 43rd over before losing their last six wickets for 15.However, Houghton was buoyed by the performance after their recent displays at home had relied on runs from the middle and lower order, led by the prolific Sikandar Raza.Related

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“I’ve been quoted about fearless cricket,” Houghton said, Yes, we want to play fearless cricket; we want to see guys expressing themselves. I’ve seen these guys play franchise cricket, and I’ve seen what they can do; and [then] see them play international cricket, especially against these strong sides, and freeze a little bit. Somehow, I’m trying to take away that freezing.”For me, to see our two youngsters go out there against [Mitchell] Starc and [Josh] Hazlewood and get us 40 off the first ten without losing a wicket – that was a big plus for us. Now you can sit down in a team meeting and say, ‘Yes, it was a little different and a little scary going out first against these guys but look what you achieved. What can you do the next game and the game after?’.”It’s building blocks all the time. Tours like this don’t happen very often for us, so when you get the opportunity it’s a real learning for us.”Houghton was open in admitting that the skill gap between Zimbabwe and teams such as India and Australia is “huge”, but is focusing on ensuring the team move back up the rankings and compete with sides around them.He hoped that some of what the players learn in Townsville can be put to use in the T20 World Cup next month when they will return to Australia for the Group B qualifiers in Hobart with the aim of reaching the main draw.”The skill gap is huge between us, India, Australia and England – there’s no hiding from that,” Dave Houghton•AFP/Getty Images

In the more immediate term, Houghton wanted to see an improvement in the team’s fielding for the second ODI on Wednesday, recalling previous landmark victories and how it is an area Zimbabwe can compete in regardless of batting and bowling skill.”The skill gap is huge between us, India, Australia, [and] England – there’s no hiding from that,” he said. “Your batters are better than us, they’re more experienced, your bowlers are taller and faster than us. What we can do is field competitively, which I wasn’t happy about the other day; [I] thought we were lethargic and looked very jetlagged.”For us to compete with these sides and try to get a win against them – which we’ve done over the years with our giant-killing sides – every part of your game has to be right on song from the beginning. If we put a score on the board, [and] then bowl and field incredibly well, we can put enough pressure on sides [so] that if they aren’t quite on their game we can beat them.”Houghton suggested the batters may take a different approach to trying to finish the innings, having had trouble combatting the short deliveries in the first match, where Cameron Green bagged a maiden five-wicket haul.”What we talked about at the end of the game is how we get that last bit of our innings organised a bit better,” he said. “They were all trying to take it on but weren’t quite good enough at it, so is there another way? Can we ramp it a bit? Maybe, if we don’t hook, can we back away and cut?”These are all things for them to solve themselves, but we need to play the backend better which, for us, [is] a new situation. The games we won against Bangladesh – and when we did compete well with India – we got all the runs at the middle and back, and nothing at the front. So hopefully we’ll put both ends together at one stage on this tour.”Houghton confirmed that experienced allrounder Sean Williams would return after an elbow injury ruled him out of the opening match, and would likely replace a fast bowler. However, Blessing Muzarabani is unlikely to feature on this tour as he continues his recovery from a thigh injury with the focus on getting him ready for the T20 World Cup.

They will earn INR 15 lakh per Test, six lakh for each ODI and three lakh for a T20I

Shashank Kishore27-Oct-2022India’s centrally-contracted women cricketers are set to earn the same match fees as their male counterparts for appearances in international matches, according to BCCI secretary Jay Shah, in accordance with the board’s new pay equity policy.Under this policy, the women – like the men – will earn INR 15 lakh for a Test, 6 lakh for an ODI and 3 lakh for a T20I. These amounts are significantly higher than the flat INR 1 lakh that India women players currently earn for an ODI or T20I appearance, and 2.5 lakh for a Test match.While describing the move as “the first step towards tackling discrimination”, Shah thanked the BCCI’s Apex Council for its support in implementing the move, which he said was a “commitment to our women cricketers.”As things stand, there are no changes to the BCCI’s annual retainers for women players. Currently, those in the highest retainer bracket take home INR 50 lakh, while Grade B and Grade C are valued at INR 30 lakh and INR 10 lakh respectively. In comparison, the male cricketers are divided into four categories with Grade A+ players taking home INR 7 crore, and those in Grades A, B and C collecting INR 5 crore, 3 crore and 1 crore respectively. ESPNcricinfo understands the BCCI has been engaging with the country’s top women cricketers to work out changes to the annual retainers. Harmanpreet Kaur, the captain, is believed to have attended a meeting held at the board’s Mumbai headquarters.Contracts and match fees aside, the inaugural women’s IPL, which the BCCI formally announced at the Annual General Meeting earlier this month, is also understood to have been on the agenda with the board putting together a process for TV rights and franchise ownership. There are also discussions ongoing over whether the league will follow a draft process or an auction for the players.India women have had significant success in recent months. They followed their silver-medal finish at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in August with a record 3-0 ODI series sweep of England in England in September. Earlier this month, India beat Sri Lanka to clinch a record seventh Asia Cup crown in Bangladesh. They are set to host Australia next for five T20Is in November and December.

Captain keen to make up for lost time as tour to West Indies looms in December

Valkerie Baynes16-Nov-2022England Women are set to be bolstered by the return of Heather Knight for next month’s tour of West Indies, after England’s captain declared herself fit again following hip surgery.Knight was sidelined for a large chunk of the home summer after injuring her hip during the first of three T20Is against South Africa in July. She missed the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham – where England finished a disappointing fourth – after a flare-up ruined her bid to play some part in the event and left her on crutches in constant pain.It was at that time she decided to have an operation to repair torn tissue and damaged cartilage, and remove a piece of bone in her right hip joint which meant she missed India’s subsequent visit to England, the Hundred and the current WBBL. But Knight has come through a tough rehabilitation process to be ready to fly to the Caribbean for three ODIs, starting on December 4, followed by five T20Is.”It feels like it’s been a long old rehab but I’ve just come good the last couple of weeks and am getting back to pretty much full training now,” Knight told ESPNcricinfo. “Fielding has probably been the one thing that’s been a little bit niggly and a little bit of pain, but I’ve had a really good couple of days so I’m fit to go to the West Indies, which is great.”It’s just the last couple of weeks, certain positions that the hip didn’t really like, but the last few days it’s been good as gold so I’m ready to get back and play.”Related

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Not only was the operation a success, Knight explained that it had slightly changed the shape of her hip joint to give her more freedom of movement.”It’s actually a much healthier, better hip joint than it was,” she said. “It hadn’t been an issue that was on the radar, but I played in one of those T20s against South Africa and it flared up really badly and I knew it was something new that was not good.”As the Commonwealths got closer I had a bit of a flare-up. Basically that got worse and worse and I was in pretty much constant pain which obviously wasn’t very pleasant and was quite wearing. I was still hopeful that I was going to play because these things can clear up pretty quickly but, as I got worse and worse and ended up on crutches, I pretty much knew that Commonwealths were a no-go.”Knight is thrilled that she can return to action against West Indies, with the ODIs forming part of the ICC Women’s Championship, in which England are yet to get off the mark following their 3-0 defeat by India in September. The five T20Is to follow will play a key part in England’s preparation for the T20 World Cup in South Africa in February.Despite being “gutted” at spending so much time out of the game, Knight made good on her aim to make the most of it, enjoying seeing family and loved ones, travelling and moving house.”Sometimes when you’re a cricketer you forget the other side of your life and here you are, outside of cricket,” she said. “It was slightly strange watching but I just tried to make the most of it and knuckle down with the rehab and work on a few other things that could hopefully prolong my career a little bit more. “It’s certainly been a tough grind, particularly the last month trying to get back into it and all the rehab you have to do. I don’t think you realise until you’ve gone through a serious injury the sort of hard work you have to do on a day-to-day basis to try and get back.”I’m really grateful for the support I’ve had from the medical team. They’ve been outstanding and got me in a position that, obviously, I had to work very hard to get to, but a position where I could get back playing for England. I feel like I’ve lost a bit of time and I’m ready to get out there and get back playing cricket.”For Knight, the hardest part was not being able to contribute for her team, particularly at a home Commonwealth Games.”I felt like I could have played a really big role and helped us be successful,” she said. “It’s always tough missing out but those were the unfortunate cards that I was dealt.”During Knight’s absence, England gave opportunities to a clutch of emerging players, including teenagers Alice Capsey and Freya Kemp, who thrived alongside fellow youngsters Issy Wong and Lauren Bell, debutantes earlier in the summer.The youth policy is the legacy of Lisa Keightley, England Women’s head coach who left the post at the end of her tenure in September with the naming of her successor imminent. It also has Knight facing the prospect of returning to a side containing a number of players that she has yet to captain.Nat Sciver skippered England through the Commonwealth Games before spending time out of cricket herself for mental-health reasons. Amy Jones led the side through the three ODIs and a 2-1 T20I series victory against India, a role Jones freely admitted took her out of her comfort zone.Sciver is back training with England and “going good”, according to Knight, who acknowledged that Sciver stepping back from the game had been a courageous move, even though players are increasingly doing so to look after their mental wellbeing.”It’s a really good decision and brave decision by her,” Knight said. “I still think it’s a tough decision but people like Nat taking time out and being very open with reasons, it’s only a good thing.”It’s also a bit of an eye-opener to try and not let it get to that stage for a lot of players and making sure that we’re doing everything we can and managing ourselves better to try and not get to that stage. We have a lot of support medically to try and do that as well, but certainly it’s a topic that people are more comfortable talking about, in my experience, and being a bit more willing to be vulnerable when things are tough and you need to take that time.”As franchise cricket increases and the amount of international cricket that we have increases, as players we have to find a way to find little pockets to get fresh and I think we’re all learning that. I think the place Nat got to, where she felt she had to take a break, it’s trying to learn and find ways to manage players and support them as best I can as captain, but also decisions above me in terms of workload management and trying to get players that are at their best for England at the right time.”As draining as a failed Commonwealth Games campaign clearly was on many players who had hoped – and expected – to be among the medals, Knight is backing her side to enter the T20 World Cup without any scars.”The Commonwealths certainly were a disappointment but you’ve got to remember you lost a T20 semi-final by four runs, one that could have easily gone our way, and then you’re in a gold-medal match,” Knight said. “There’s a lot of things we could have done better, but it’s also remembering the good things we’ve done and it’s not the end of the world. We’ve had a lot of success in T20s.”We lost to India by four runs and T20 can sometimes swing like that. But I think we’ll take a lot of learnings from it, particularly the young girls playing in their first global competition. That experience will be great for them, they know what it’s about, they know the different pressures of tournament cricket and how it can affect you and how you can deal with that and hopefully take it forward into the World Cup.”The girls winning that T20 series against India was brilliant, with the side we had. I think we had an average age of maybe 23 or 24, so a really good achievement to beat India 2-1 in that series after the Commonwealths.”

PSL 2023 will be played between February 9 and March 19

Umar Farooq14-Dec-2022Babar Azam will replace Wahab Riaz as Peshawar Zalmi’s captain for the upcoming season of the Pakistan Super League. After trading in Babar from Karachi Kings in exchange for Shoaib Malik and Haider Ali, the franchise continues a transformation that started in 2021 in the hope to form a new core.No team in the league’s history has had as loyal a core as Zalmi’s since its inception in 2016. Daren Sammy, Hasan Ali, Kamran Akmal and Wahab Riaz had worn no other colours until Hasan decided to leave last year. There have been some hiccups though, like the misunderstanding with Akmal and the mid-season benching of their captain Sammy to appoint him as the coach.Related

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Zalmi won the title in 2017 and have had a consistent run since, making the finals in 2018, 2019, and 2021 and the eliminator in 2020 and 2022. Wahab has been a stalwart for the team. He is the league’s leading wicket-taker and was retained by the franchise. But at 37 years old, his impact on the field isn’t what it used to be. Earlier this year, he was demoted from the platinum to diamond category of PSL players. Akmal, 40, has been released.Zalmi are in the market for 11 players in the PSL draft on December 15 in Karachi. They have already brought in hard-hitting batter Mohammad Haris along with Babar, and retained Sherfane Rutherford, Aamir Jamal (Brand Ambassador), Salman Irshad and Tom-Kohler Cadmore.For Babar, the PSL journey started with Islamabad United in the inaugural edition in 2016 but he was ignored after two games. Since the following year, he represented Karachi Kings and bossed the charts with an average 43.60 and a strike rate of 121.97 on his way to become the tournament’s highest scorer, racking up 2413 runs in 68 matches. However, his relationship with the franchise started to sour and the team slumped to the bottom under his captaincy, losing nine out of ten games. Kings will be led by Imad Wasim now.PSL 2023 will be played between February 9 and March 19. Four venues – Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Multan – will host the matches, going up from two – Lahore and Karachi – in the previous two seasons, due to Covid-19.

Pakistan opener scored 102 before Ireland were bundled out for 95 in their 166-run chase

S Sudarshanan15-Feb-2023Bespectacled players have taken quite the centre stage in the last few months. After memorable Test debuts in the men’s arena for Pakistan’s Abrar Ahmed and Australia’s Todd Murphy, Pakistan’s Muneeba Ali made a splash at the Women’s T20 World Cup in Cape Town.Muneeba became the first woman to score a T20I hundred for Pakistan and only the sixth to score one in a T20 World Cup as Pakistan crushed Ireland in their Group 2 clash. She added 101 for the third wicket with allrounder Nida Dar as Pakistan posted 165 for 5, their highest at the T20 World Cup. That proved 70 too many for Ireland, who were stymied by spin to be bowled out for 95.

Fluent Muneeba puts on a show

Muneeba was hailed as a prodigy ever since her T20I bow in 2016 but for a long time she only showed glimpses of her talent. Ireland, and many of those who watched her on Wednesday, saw the best of the Pakistan opener as she pummelled the bowlers around. Her intent – be it in finding boundaries or even in running between the wickets – was there for everyone to see.Muneeba got off the blocks quickly, hitting a four in each of the first five overs. Pakistan had raced to 41 for none at that point with the southpaw on 30 off 19. A brilliant direct hit from Ireland wicketkeeper Mary Waldron saw Javeria Khan run out in the last over of the powerplay. Soon Bismah Maroof was ruled out caught tamely at mid-on, even though replays were not fully conclusive that the ball had carried.Those dismissals had scant effect on Muneeba, who took particular liking to Leah Paul’s left-arm spin. In all, she scored 23 off the 15 balls she faced from Paul, using her feet to make room and go over the off side when four fielders were stationed deep on the on side. She brought up her fifty off 40 balls and took a further 26 balls only to bring up triple figures. She fell in the last ball of the penultimate over but not before making 102 off 68 balls.

Dar makes her presence felt

For a change, Dar had a different role to play with the bat. Often walking out as Pakistan’s rescuer, she found herself in the middle in the eighth over when Pakistan were 55 for 2. But an on-song Muneeba made her task easy and, for a change, she could take a back seat.Muneeba Ali and Nida Dar added 101 for the third wicket•ICC/Getty Images

Dar got off the mark with a sweep through backward square leg and hit one more through cow corner off her 12th ball. But largely, she rotated the strike, ran well between the wicket and fed the strike back to Muneeba. In the interim she danced down the track to legspinner Cara Murray to hit a six over wide long-on. In her 28-ball 33, she struck just the three boundaries but helped add Pakistan’s first hundred-run partnership in a T20 World Cup and only the fourth overall.

Ireland stifled with turn

Ireland’s hopes of an unlikely chase hinged on at least two of the top three. Gaby Lewis struck left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal for a crisp drive over mid-off but was undone by Dar’s smarts with the ball. After firing four deliveries through, Dar slowed one and dragged her length slightly back, and Lewis reached out for the drive and inside-edged it to the wicketkeeper.Orla Prendergast then struck some crisp boundaries, including one off Fatima Sana where she danced down the track to smoke it over wide long-on for a six. She scored 31 off just 21 balls hitting four fours and a six but became the first of left-arm spinner Nashra Sandhu’s four wickets.Sandhu then ran through the middle order, staving off and dismissing Eimear Richardson who had raced to 28 off 17, to finish with her career-best 4 for 18. In all, Pakistan’s spinners claimed nine of the ten wickets to open their tournament account in style.