BREAKING | Suryakumar Yadav unlikely to be available for MI opener

‘ECB to launch high-performance review body to make its team the best in the world’ says Andrew Strauss

The interim Managing Director of the England Cricket Board (ECB), Sir Andrew Strauss, has said that the board will introduce a high-performance review into English cricket to fulfil its objective of making the England men’s cricket team the best in the world cricket across all formats. If we look at the recent performance of the English side in Tests, it’s nothing short of abysmal. Statistically, England has lost ten games and won just once in the last 15 Tests played. Moreover, they still haven’t found their best possible opening pair for all conditions and the successors of their two legendary seamers, Stuart Broad and James Anderson. This sort of continuous mediocrity in the longest format of the game has strongly called for some actions from ECB to revive their test cricket. Introducing a high-performance review, which aims to restructure the English season from 2023, is nothing but a significant first step to achieving this goal. In fact, Strauss has said that this review, for which recommendations are due to be published in September, has a broader aim to make English cricket great in tests and the other two formats. “The perception so far is that it’s all about red-ball cricket and that it’s all about the domestic game. But the way we’re approaching it, and I believe the only way you can approach these things is to start at the beginning, which is what is the scale of our ambition for the game in this country?” Strauss told Espncricinfo. “And I believe we’re looking very strongly at being the best in the world in all formats. I think the knock-on effects are enormous right the way through the game if the shop window is functioning well. Hence, as a game, we need to get alignment behind that ambition”, he further added. As per the latest reports, this review will be led by an independent body which is yet to be decided. This review is only one of the numerous developments expected to be introduced by the ECB in the upcoming days. In another development, the governing body is set to fill the vacancies of a head coach and some full-time senior management positions including that of a managing director which Strauss currently performs in an interim capacity.

PAK vs AUS | Visitors set up 506 as target; hosts need to survive 2 days

Australia declared their innings just six overs into the first session of Day 4. Australia captain Pat Cummins called his batters back right after the dismissal of Marnus Labuschange chopped on a delivery from Shaheen Shah Afridi into the stumps. Declaring at 97/2, Australia set Pakistan up with a mammoth target of 506 runs, with close to 180 overs to be played. Pakistan would now look to survive for two days against an attack that wiped them off in just 53 overs in the first innings of the game. It would surely be difficult for Pakistan considering the way Australian pacers bowled in the first innings, and the fact that the pitch has several rough spots and cracks emerging at the moment threatening the off stump of the left handers. At the time of writing, Pakistan had not scored a single run from four overs of play, with Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc maintaining relentless lines and lengths against openers Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq. Earlier in the Test match, Australia were able to pile on 556 runs, courtesy, a stunning 160 runs from Usman Khawaja, who also stayed not out in the second innings of the game, scoring 44 runs off 70 balls. Alongside Khawaja, keeper Alex Carey had a fantastic outing, hitting a brilliant 93 runs before falling victim to a Babar Azam delivery. Coming to bat after a big toil of two days, Pakistan were found wanting against the reverse swing of the Australian pacers and fell like a pack of cards.

ICC Women's World Cup 2022 | Haynes, bowlers anchor Australia to comprehensive win

Australia completed a comprehensive 7-wicket win against West Indies in the on-going ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 after chasing down a small target of 132 runs in the 31st over. The Australian side didn’t really have a great start to the chase as they were reduced to 7/2 but Rachael Haynes held the fort at one end and chipped in with a partnership of 51 runs for the third wicket with Ellyse Perry before the latter departed for 10 off 31. Haynes was then joined by Beth Mooney and the two batters made sure that there were no further fall of wickets as they took the team over the line. While Haynes remained unbeaten at 83 off 95, Mooney returned 28* off 42. Earlier, in the day, the Australian bowling unit rattled the West Indies batting line up after picking up wickets at regular intervals to leave them struggling at 85/6 before eventually getting bowled out for 131. Taylor top-scored with a 91-ball 50. Perry and Gardner scalped three wickets each for their side while Jonassen bagged two. “It is about adjusting to the conditions and the breeze. We have got such depth. Anyone who comes in wants to contribute. Early wickets today helped. They have some clear plans with the ball. Rach and Moons did extremely well with the bat. Ideally, don't want us to lose early wickets. A 7 out of 10 for the batting display today,” Lanning said after the match.

Work on my instincts but inputs from other players are welcome: Rohit Sharma on captaincy

Rohit Sharma had a terrific start to his captaincy career after taking up the full time role as the team unleashed thorough dominance at home in the recent fixtures. Sharma led India for the first time in Tests and his side completed a whitewash 2-0 win against Sri Lanka. Talking about his captaincy, the right-handed batter insisted that he works on his own instincts but inputs from other senior lads in the side are always welcome. "There are a few senior members in the team who understand the game well and had their inputs as well. I have my reading of the game as well. But eventually you work on instinct and my captaincy philosophy is to take a call on that point which seems right to you, keeping in mind of where the game is going. I try to analyse these things on the ground," he said in the post-match conference. Rohit lavished praise on fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and lauded the way the right-arm pacer performed against Sri Lanka. "To come out and bowl like that in these kind of conditions shows how much skill and ability he has. Someone like Bumrah, he's never out of the game whatever the conditions are," he said. "To bowl on certain pitches, you need certain skill-sets. And he seems to bringing those skill-sets into the game depending on what sort of assistance he has from the pitch.” "In Mohali we saw a different sort of pitch and he was still effective. This was a different kind of pitch. it was turning and bouncing and everything was happening for spinners,” he added. India wrapped up the second encounter against Sri Lanka within three days after bundling them out for 208 while chasing 447 in the second innings in Bengaluru to win the match by 238 runs.