British High Commissioner to Pakistan expresses 'deep sadness' over England calling off tour

With youth and ample experience, Western Australia look determined to end Sheffield Shield drought

Western Australia are giving themselves a great chance to win their first Sheffield Shield title in more than two decades and Marsh Cup after finishing as runners up in the last season with the availability of their superstar players at the start of the Sheffield Shield and the Marsh ODI cup. While Marsh and Agar will play only the Marsh Cup opener, Inglis is all set to play the first game of the Shield against South Australia. After his departure to UAE for the T20 World Cup, Josh Phillipe will take over the wicketkeeping duty for the first time after 18 months. However, they will miss the firepower of Marcus Stoinis, who is there in the UAE to play in the Indian Premier League. They will also be blessed with the all-around ability of Cameron Green, who rose to prominence with a fairly good performance against India the last summer. "Cameron Green has had a bit of a stop-start pre-season, he copped two weeks home quarantine post the CA camp in Brisbane, he also got sick and spent a week and a half at home. But around those things, he's trained really strongly, scored a hundred in a practice game and has done some really good work with his bowling. I imagine that we'll still have some guidelines around what he does with the ball,” Western Australia coach Adam Voges said of the all-rounder. “As an allrounder, you don't expect them to have the same workload as your out-and-out bowlers anyway. But I think what we'll see is some more flexibility and potentially higher numbers in what Cam can do in-game.” Western Australia will stack their batting lineup with Cameron Bancroft and Sam Whiteman as openers with an experienced Shaun Marsh to follow at the number three slot. The trio of Hilton Cartwright, Ashton Turner, D'Arcy Short will compete for slots in the middle order and give Western Australia a great chance with the bat. Jhye Richardson, who pulled out of the IPL will be available to play his first Shield game since November 2019 and he will spearhead the bowling attack that may comprise Joel Paris, Cameron Gannon, Matt Kelly, Liam Guthrie and Lance Morris. Western Australia Squad Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Hilton Cartwright, Cooper Connolly, Sam Fanning, Cameron Gannon, Jayden Goodwin, Cameron Green, Liam Guthrie, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Bryce Jackson, Matthew Kelly, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, David Moody, Lance Morris, Joel Paris, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Corey Rocchiccioli, D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Sam Whiteman.

IPL 2021 | PBKS vs RR: Evin Lewis makes debut, Liam Livingstone returns for Royals

Left-handed Evin Lewis is set to make his debut for the Rajasthan Royals in tonight’s game against the Punjab Kings in IPL 2021. He was roped in as a replacement for Jos Buttler, who pulled out of the tournament citing workload and extended stay in the biosecure bubble. Lewis has been in a tremendous six-hitting form as he hit a record 38 sixes for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the just-concluded Caribbean Premier League. The Royals would bank on him to carry his form to IPL 2021 and replace Buttler with ease. Also, Liam Livingstone, who had pulled out of the first phase of the tournament for the same reason Buttler has pulled out of the second phase, is back to lift the Royals batting line up against the Punjab Kings. He has gone from strength to strength in the recent past for his explosive batting and will give hope to the Royals. Apart from Lewis and Livingstone, the all-rounder Chris Morris and Mustafizur Rahman will be the other two foreign players for the Royals against the Kings tonight. The Royals and the Kings are placed sixth and seventh respectively on the points table and both KL Rahul and Samson would look to restart their campaign on a blistering note.

IPL 2021 | PBKS vs RR: Ishan Porel, Adil Rashid, Aiden Markram to make IPL debut against Royals

As many as three players such as Aiden Markram, Adil Rashid and Ishan Porel are set to make their debuts in the Indian Premier League in tonight’s game between the Punjab Kings and the Rajasthan Royals in Dubai. Markram was selected as a replacement for Dawid Malan, who pulled out of the tournament citing workload with the T20 World Cup and Ashes series to follow later this year. Adil Rashid was signed up as a replacement for Australian Jhye Richardson pulled out of the second phase of the tournament that started on September 19. Ishan Porel is a young talent who plays for Bengal in the Indian domestic circuit and he was picked by the Punjab Kings for the first time to play in the cash-rich league. The Kings roped him at the base price of Rs 20 lakh and the team management has high hopes of him as the coach Anil Kumble had suggested that he will be used as a replacement for Mohammed Shami. The Kings are relaunching their IPL 2021 campaign against the Royals and both sides have had a middling first half of the tournament. The men under the leadership of KL Rahul and Sanju Samson would be itching to get back on the field and restart their journey on a winning note.

ENG-W vs NZ-W | 3rd ODI: Lea Tahuhu strikes early in do or die match

New Zealand bowler Lea Tahuhu produced a brilliant bowling performance against England in the third ODI of the five-match series after she picked up four early wickets to push the hosts on back foot in Leicester. Batting first, England lost the openers Lauren Winfield Hill and Tammy Beaumont early in the innings after both of them were trapped in front of the stumps by Tahuhu. While Beaumont could only manage to score 1 off 10 deliveries, Winfield was undone for a 13-ball 4. The right-arm bowler’s third scalp in the form of captain Heather Knight who had to depart for 6 off 5 after being caught by Katey Martin. The English team was then left tottering at 27/4 after Sophia Dunkley was cleaned up by Tahuhu for 6 off 16 at the end of 9th over. England earlier won the T20I series 2-1 and lead the ODI series 2-0 and a victory in this particular encounter will help them take an unassailable lead. The hosts won the first match by 30 runs and then clinched a victory by 13 runs (DLS Method) in the second clash.