Asghar Afghan removed as Afghanistan captain

1st Test Preview: Joe Root seeks steps forward, Kane Williamson's Blackcaps battle history at Lord's

The cricket is back. More specifically, Test cricket is back and what place could be better than the Home of Cricket—Lord’s to kick off a fascinating season of sport that all its fans dearly waited for weeks and months. When Joe Root and Kane Williamson will walk down to the middle past the Long room donning their nation’s blazer, deep down they would realise how badly they must have missed the game. The context of the series is damp as it is taking place after the announcement of the World Test Championship final but the precedence it will set for coming months where superstars of the game will fight out with all their grit and determination is something that needs to be looked at. For Kane Williamson, the leader of an always promising Blackcaps, it will be the first return after a heartbreaking loss at the hands of England in the final of ICC World Cup 2019. Two years can be a lot of time in the modern-day game but not necessarily in the world ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic and New Zealand players have all those memories fresh in their hearts and minds. Players have talked about their memories from the game while they were under quarantine in Southampton and it also highlights the culture of the Blackcaps, who have not shrugged their shoulders away from a problem. On the contrary, Joe Root will have a lot lesser monumental occasion during the first Test against New Zealand. However, there will be no shortage of desperation and desire to conquer the Blackcaps in order to redeem themselves after a tough tour of India and missing out on a berth in the WTC final. From the outset, this series should be just another bilateral series between two top teams but the long hiatus of the longest format and being the stepping stone of a long English summer that is certain to witness some marquee clashes gives it a riveting context. Pitch and weather Pitches and the weather conditions during the Test matches in the early season in England gather a lot of attraction and it should be no different this time around. Blackcaps coach Gary Stead has said that the pitch has 6mm of grass on it but also exulted confidence that the tourists are used to far greener surfaces than that. The pitch, in all likelihood, should be slower in pace and also flatter in nature if the layer of grass will be lifted before the toss. The weather in London during the Test match is likely to be on the hotter side and hence offering a flat pitch with no or less rain around the corner could produce a dull game which is the last thing both the sides and fans would be hoping for. Team News England England will be without a lot of their superstars such as Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler but now an all-powerful coach Chris Silverwood has already indicated that England will be trying ‘new faces’ in the series in order to bolster the strength of the squad. Ben Foakes who was certain to play his first game at home suffered a freakish injury in the Surrey dressing room which has all but opened the door of selection for an impressive James Bracey, who has been touted as a top-order batsman who can also keep wickets in the absence of all of Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Foakes. Foakes’ injury also allowed Haseeb Hameed a way back into the team after a gap of nearly five years albeit he is unlikely to make it into the playing XI. England had to drop Rory Burns in the last Test of the series against India for a poor run of form and asked Zak Crawley to open the batting with Dom Sibley. However, the Surrey opener has regained form in the county championship and should get his place back at the top of the order with Crawley slotting back to his number three position. Joe Root at the number four position will be followed by one among Ollie Pope, and Dan Lawrence with Bracey all set to debut at Lord’s because he also brings his wicketkeeping to the table. The England team management will have their task cut out on selecting the bowling attack as their riddle will start with a perpetual question that should the iconic pair of James Anderson and Stuart Broad play together in a Test match? The selection headache will not end then and there as they will also have to assess if they need a spinner in the form of Jack Leach or they will unleash an all-pace bowling attack with the skipper Joe Root taking upon himself to roll his arm over whenever required. Best XI Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Root(C), Ollie Pope, James Bracey(WK), Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Jack Leach, Mark Wood New Zealand New Zealand, too, have many issues to resolve on their way to the first Test. Trent Boult did not arrive in the UK with the squad and is out of the whole series leaving the Blackcaps searching for Tim Southee’s new-ball partner. The squad is rich with the likes of Kyle Jamieson and Neil Wagner but the Blackcaps management is aware of their limitations with the new ball and coach Stead has confirmed assessing the trio of Matt Henry, newcomer Jacob Tuffy and Doug Bracewell for the role with the new duke ball. In the batting department, the tourists will have to take a call on who will be the batting partner of Tom Latham at the top of the order. Tom Blundell has not failed miserably for them in the longest format but the emergence of an x-factor in Devon Conway has provided them with an option to field an aggressive batting order led by Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor. Best XI Devon Conway, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson(C), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling(WK), Colin De Grandhomme, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner.

Indian players to have families on England tour

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has granted permission to the players of both men’s and women’s teams to accompany their families on the England tour. “Yes, it’s good news that players will have their families during the tour of the UK. Ditto for the women’s team who can also have their families around,” the BCCI source told PTI. “The BCCI understands that we need our players and support staff to be in a good head space.” The source further added that BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah won’t be travelling to the UK during the WTC final. “As far as I know, the ECB didn’t grant permission to them (Ganguly and Shah),” he said. “Normally, administrators go before the Test match but as per quarantine rules, since they are not playing members, they would have had to undergo a hard quarantine of 10 days.” The Indian team is slated to play the WTC final against New Zealand in Southampton from June 18 which will be followed by a five-match Test series against England. The women’s team will begin the England tour with a one-off Test against the home side in Bristol from June 16-19. Both the men’s and women’s teams have served a quarantine of 14 days in India and have also returned with six negative RT-PCR tests. This would allow the sides to board the charter flight on Wednesday to London.

Watch: Team India hits the gym in hard quarantine in Mumbai

The Indian cricket team is observing hard quarantine in Mumbai before they eventually fly out to England on June 3 for the World Test Championship Final against New Zealand. But while in quarantine the players are sweating it all out, spending a lot of time in the gym. India’s strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai is of the view that the rest that players got due to suspension of the IPL has really worked in favour of them as they are fresher than ever after having spent a lot of time with their families and having got rejuvenated. “Looking at our team, Nick [Compton] and I both feel that we are benefited by the rest that the boys have had after along year, right from the last IPL to this,” said Soham in a video uploaded by the BCCI on their official website, a shorter version of which has been shared by their official Twitter handle as well. “We are utilising these three weeks to train them in a way which they are unable to undergo during an ongoing season due to constant matches and focus on their skill set rather than their body,” he added. In the video, key Indian players like skipper Virat Kohli, vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah can be seen undergoing tough physical training. Other players in Mayank Agarwal, Shardul Thakur and Srikar Bharat also featured in it. The Indian team apart from playing the WTC Final in Southampton would also play a five-match Test series against hosts England starting August 4.

Shakib Al Hasan & Mustafizur Rahman to not participate in remainder of IPL 2021

The Bangladesh Cricket Board are in no mood to give the No Objection Certificates (NOC) to Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman for the remainder of the Indian Premier League. Scheduled to be held between September 19-October 15 the second leg of the IPL will clash directly with Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup preparations. The current president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Nazmul Hassan Papon in an interview with a Bangladeshi news channel said that with the T20 World Cup incoming, he does not see the players going to the Indian Premier League. "It is almost impossible to provide NOC (for IPL) considering our international commitments. I don't see any chance of giving it (NOC) to them. We have the (T20) World Cup coming up and now every match is important,'' Nazmul was quoted as saying via Cricbuzz. Bangladesh back-to-back host Australia, England, and New Zealand after completing a busy season with the Dhaka Premier League and the tour to Zimbabwe. The BCB is already not happy with Shakib skipping the Sri Lanka Test series during the first half of the IPL. The left-handed all-rounder had earlier come hard at the board for organising the Sri Lanka Test series during the IPL window. Back then in a public spat with the cricketer, the BCB president Nazmul had said that they would be adding a clause in the next central contract to know about the where beings of the players. He had stated that the BCB did not want the players to feel that they were being forced to play for the national side.