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Bbl Carlos Brathwaite Inks Deal With Defending Champs Sydney Sixers

BBL: Carlos Brathwaite inks deal with defending champs Sydney Sixers

West Indian star all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite has signed a deal with Big Bash League’s defending and two-time champions Sydney Sixers for this season. Brathwaite had earlier represented Sixers in the 2017-18 season when the Sixers could not make it to the Playoffs.

In the four games that he played, Brathwaite picked six wickets. The Sixers coach also remembers the West Indian’s contribution with fondness.

"We were struggling three seasons ago and Carlos joined as a replacement player and we finished four from four, and he contributed greatly to our rebalance," Shipperd said.

The Barbadian who picked 10 wickets for Jamaica Tallawahs in the recently completed Caribbean Premier League will join the likes of Tom Curran, Dan Christian, and Sean Abbot to form a deadly trio of all-rounders and late order hitters.

The Sydney team has also signed England batsman James Vince and along with Curran and Brathwaite make the three foreign signings complete for the Sixers. Apart from these foreign signings, the inclusion of Mitchell Starc would also boost the team’s chances.

With 1614 runs and 154 wickets in T20s, the West Indian comes with a lot of experience behind and seemed happy to have joined the Sixers.

"I have very fond memories of Sydney and have good memories of playing at the SCG in my second Test match and even better memories of playing BBL for Sixers. I remember great times dancing at the games and the times in the dressing rooms with our team," said Brathwaite.

Brathwaite, 32 is remembered for his six-hitting heroics against England in the 2016 T20 finals in Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

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Mitchell Swepson biding his time, raring to bowl against Virat Kohli

Although he has been selected in the Test team to take on Indian team in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar series, leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson is not counting on selectors to pick him in playing XI for the first two Tests of the series. Swepson has said that Nathan Lyon has been the premier spinner or the Australian side for some time now and that his chances can come only in the third Test scheduled to take place on the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). “Gaz is obviously the premier spinner and has been for a while. He's proven himself time and time again in Test matches. I'm not counting my chickens too much there with getting a go above him. But if conditions suit, there may be a chance they play two spinners,” Swepson told Cricket Australia. However, Swepson is not leaving himself ill-prepared in case the chances come his way in the series against India. He is readying himself to take whatever chances he will be presented with both hands. “Given the current times with COVID being around, and illness and things like that, you have to be ready to go no matter what. I'll be preparing to play all four games. If the chance comes, I'll hopefully take it with two hands. And if not, so be it. I'm sure there'll be more chances in the future,” Swepson added. Relishing the prospect of bowling against Indian batting line which he says is filled with ‘world-class batsmen, Swepson said that he can’t wait to challenge himself by bowling to great batsmen. He was more excited for bowling against Virat Kohli in the warm-up games for Australia A against the Indian team. He said that Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s greatness is no secret for anyone. He is relishing the opportunity to test himself against a ‘great cricketer’ that Virat Kohli is. Swepson has been sitting on the sidelines of the Australian squad since the time he was drafted into the squad against Australia in the 2019-20 season and the following scheduled tour of Bangladesh which was later called off due to COVID-19 pandemic.

BCCI paid Emirates Cricket Board $14 million to host IPL 2020 in UAE: Report

The Board of Control for Cricket in India reportedly paid a whopping USD 14 million (approximately Rs 100 crore) to the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) for hosting the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League that ended on November 10, as per a report by Mumbai Mirror. The tournament was spread across three venues-- Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah and the decision by the BCCI to increase to charge franchises more for hosting games from pre-existing Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh may have provided a financial cushion to the board amid the pandemic-hit downturn. This year’s edition of the league was postponed for an indefinite period of time from the first scheduled period of start in the last week of March before the board stepped into finalising UAE as the country to host the league behind closed doors. The 13th edition began with the match between the defending champions Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings in Abu Dhabi on September 19. Over the course for almost two months in the Emirates, probably the best players in the current cricket world provided fans across the world a chance to get a sense back to the normalcy in cricket albeit no fans were allowed into stadiums. The IPL this year also notched unprecedented TV viewership by registering a 29 per cent growth in audience viewership compared to the last edition and it establishes the popularity of the league among cricket fans across the globe.

Steve Smith issues warning to Indian pacers: 'Bring on the short balls'

Former Australian captain and the star batsman of the team, Steve Smith has issued a warning to Indian pace bowlers that testing him with a barrage of short balls won’t disturb his batting tempo and concentration. Smith has stated that targeting him with the short stuff will rather put bowlers’ bodies under too much pressure. He added that he has played a lot of short balls in his career and it did not perturb him too much. "If teams are trying to get me out like that it's probably a big benefit for the team because it takes a lot out of people's bodies if you continually bowl short. "I've faced a lot of short bowling in my life and I haven't had too many stresses with it. I suppose we'll just wait and see," Smith was quoted as saying by News Corp. However, Smith acknowledged the skills of New Zealand's pacer Neil Wagner who masterfully executed the short ball plan against him and got him out on four occasions in the last series between Australia and New Zealand in 2019-20. "I mean, a few different oppositions have tried it and they've certainly found it more difficult to (execute it) the way Wagner did. He's got an amazing skill set where his speeds go up and down... everything is between your ribs and your head," Smith added. Smith’s statement should come as no surprise to the Indian team which takes pride in hostile bowling and it’s unlikely that Smith’s words would discourage Virat Kohli’s men from targeting him with the short balls, if at all that is part of some specific tactics for Steve Smith. Steve Smith did not feature in the last Border-Gavaskar trophy which India won 2-1 in Australia but Kohli and his men would be wary of Smith's prowess in the longest format and necessarily the record he has against the Indian team. In the 20 innings of 10 Test matches he has played against India, he has piled on 1429 runs with a Bradmanesque average of 84.06 with the help of seven centuries and three half-centuries.

Indian team clears first COVID-19 testing; begins outdoor training

Indian teams have tested negative for the coronavirus in the first round of testing after their arrival in Australia and subsequently have been allowed to start their outdoor training. Players such as Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur and Cheteshwar Pujara were seen preparing for the much-anticipated series against Australia in pictures posted by the BCCI on Twitter. Pacers who have been assigned the task of winning the team T20 series such as Deepak Chahar and T Natarajan were also seen honing their fitness skills in pictures. The Indian teams under the leadership of Virat Kohli are under a 14-day quarantine period after their arrival in the country, as per health advisories of the Australian government. Meanwhile, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has hinted that the wicketkeeper batsman Wriddhiamn Saha will be fit before the Test series scheduled to start on December 17 in Adelaide while the opening batsman Rohit Sharma has some time to completely recover before he can make a comeback. Ganguly said that Sharma is only 70 per cent fit as of now and his addition to the Test squad while complete omission from the limited overs series established the status of his injury.