Arjun Tendulkar selected in Mumbai Ranji Trophy squad

Sourav Ganguly stable after testing positive for Covid-19

Board of Control for Cricket in India President Sourav Ganguly is stable and recovering his Covid-19 infection. The former Indian captain was rushed to hospital on Monday, 27 December, night. The Woodlands Hospital in a statement stated that Ganguly was stable and was maintaining a blood saturation level of 99 per cent on room air. Ganguly has been admitted to the hospital twice earlier this year and had undergone emergency heart surgeries.

Ross Taylor set to retire from international cricket

New Zealand modern-day great and one of the most influential players in recent times, Ross Taylor is scheduled to retire from international cricket. Announcing the development on Thursday, December 30, Taylor said that he will hang up the whites after playing Bangladesh at home. "It's been an amazing journey and I feel incredibly fortunate to have represented my country for as long as I have," Taylor said. "It's been such a privilege to play with and against some of the greats of the game and to have created so many memories and friendships along the way.” A veteran of 15 years in international cricket, Taylor, earlier this year won the World Test Championship. Along with his captain Kane Williamson, Taylor saw NZ through a tricky Test match and scored the winning runs of that game. Taylor has also been a part of two ODI World Cup Finals, losing both of them, once against Australia and the other against England. The right hander has been integral in NZ's domination of world cricket in recent years, and has been a part of three captaincy changes that shaped the Kiwi brand of cricket. Taylor was made captain of the team in 2011 but was removed soon after with Brendon McCullum being put on charge. McCullum, a long time friend and acquaintance of Taylor brought in a complete rehaul in the Kiwi approach with Taylor keeping his place in the team. Post McCullum's era, Taylor became an unbelievable asset to the NZ team becoming the second best ODI batter in the world after Virat Kohli, raking up runs at an average of 70 in the run up to the 2019 WC. "But all good things must come to an end and the timing feels right for me. I want to thank my family, friends and all those who have helped me get to this point. There'll be plenty of time for more thank-yous and reflections later in the season - but for now I want all my energy and focus to be on preparing and performing for the Black Caps this summer," Taylor said in his statement.

The Ashes | Chris Silverwood to miss fourth Test due to Covid cases in England camp

England head coach Chris Silverwood will not be travelling to Sydney after the tourist camp returned their seventh positive Test on Wednesday, 29 December. It is being reported in the Australian media that an unnamed family member of the England camp returned a positive RT-PCR. Silverwood,, after being deemed as a close contact, would now have to isolate for 10 days and will not be at the helm of the team that has already yielded the series and is staring at a 5-0 whitewash by the end of the tour. Earlier in the run up to the series, England had tough negotiations with Cricket Australia over the precautionary measures of Covid-19. There were speculations that if families are not allowed to travel with the team, the tourists would have backed out of the series entirely.

SA vs IND | 1st Test, Day 4: Elgar stands up tall to India's pace trio to set up cracking final day

On-demand service is not a common phenomenon in Cricket but there are certain cricketers who bring that quality to the table. On the day when India needed to lift their game in the fading hours of the fourth day of the first Test against South Africa, their talisman- Jasprit Bumrah, who has been offering on-demand delivery of brilliance put his hands up once again. Having set a stiff target of 305 runs on a surface that appeared to be tough one to bat for a longer period of time, the tourists were thwarted and denied for most parts of the final session by Proteas skipper Dean Elgar, who once again established his mental toughness and resilience to fight out the tough conditions. South Africa opted for a heavy roller and their hope of stabilising some of the opened cracks of the surface was fulfilled when Indian pacers could not extract the tennis ball bounce that their pacers Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen extracted. The Indian bowling attack has always been a battle-hardened unit and their quality was on display once again as they did not let the pressure go away from Proteas batsmen. Virat Kohli rewarded Mohammad Shami with a spell with the new ball for his accurate bowling in the first innings and he carried on with the same rhythm to claim a big wicket of Aiden Markram, who could not make up his mind quickly enough to leave an away-going delivery. Keegan Petersen has looked like a solid batsman for the hosts and he joined his skipper to steady the ship. The duo kept on denying India until Mohammad Siraj found an unplayable delivery that forced him rooted in the crease and found him wanting. The things appeared to be going in a similar manner as of the first innings as Rassie van der Dussen played a rash shot on the first ball to almost gift his wicket like the first innings. However, he settled quickly to ratify the high praise he gets from the people who follow South Africa cricket. He was extra vigilant around off stump and batted solidly while Elgar was both cautious against wicket-taking deliveries while also being aware of scoring opportunities. The duo batted with supreme command and carried the side within 30 minutes of the stumps. However, as has been the case for India in all the formats, Kohli brought back Bumrah to produce magic and the final counterpunch of the day. On cue, he delivered with a delivery that jagged back staggeringly towards van der Dussen off stump and the right-hander could not believe the magnitude of the movement and was left bewildered after hearing the disturbance of his stumps. Bumrah also found his line perfectly well in the last over of the day and castled Keshav Maharaj with a searing yorker that many promising batsmen of the world have not found answers to. Now, India need six wickets on the final day while the hosts need 211 runs. Elgar is still there to keep Proteas’ hopes alive but what will be tricky for the sides is the weather conditions with 67 per cent of precipitation predicted for the final day of the game. Earlier on the day, India lost the advantage once again through a batting collapse as none of their batsmen could convert their starts. All of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara spent significant time at the crease but none could press on for a big score that could have batted South Africa out of the game. However, their twin collapses in the game have been blessings in disguise for the overall state of the game as more batting from them could have denied the tourists some number of overs to bowl the hosts out. Virat Kohli was once again guilty of throwing his hands out on a very wide delivery while Pujara could not breach the spell of misfortunes and glanced a leg-stump half volley straight to Quinton de Kock. Rahane batted with tremendous fluency and looked in great touch as he pulled out some of his vintage shots. However, quickly after those sumptuous shots, he also pulled a short and climbing delivery from Rabada to be dismissed in a manner that has also become a typical aspect of his batting. The game is well poised for a cracking final day provided the weather god will have other ideas than the ones being predicted by the meteorologists.