CA announces full schedule for Women's series between India & Australia

Rahul Dravid confirmed to coach India on tour of Sri Lanka: Report

Rahul Dravid is most likely to travel as the coach of the Indian team on the tour of Sri Lanka scheduled for July this year, ANI reported citing an unnamed BCCI official. The coaching staff of the Indian team will be in the UK for a long period of time and Dravid will be tasked to fill in for Ravi Shastri in the island nation. Dravid is currently heading the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and this will be his first stint as a coach for the Indian senior team after coaching India Under 19 and A teams for some time. “The Team India coaching staff will be in the UK and it is best that the young team is guided by Dravid as he has already worked with almost all of the India A boys. The comfort the youngsters share with him will be an added advantage,” ANI quoted an official as saying. India are likely to travel for a three-match long ODI and an equally long T20I series against Sri Lanka. As per an ESPNcrcinfo report, India’s movement in the country will be limited to Colombo and they will play all their games at the R Premadasa Stadium.

Difficult to play World T20 in India: Michael Hussey

Former Australia player Mike Hussey has said that the World T20 which is slated to take place in India later this year should be shifted elsewhere citing the rise in Covid-19 cases in the country. Hussey who is Chennai Super Kings batting coach has opined that it would be difficult to hold the tournament in India. “I think it’s going to be very difficult in my view to play that tournament in India,” Hussey told ‘Fox Cricket’. The former left-handed batsman further added that the cricket boards would be ‘nervous’ about going back to India for the tournament. “I think they’ll have to look some pretty big contingency plans, perhaps looking at the UAE or somewhere like that that could host the World T20. I think there will be a lot of cricket boards around the world that’d be pretty nervous about going back to India for a cricket tournament,” said Hussey. The International Cricket Council is likely to take a call on the event on June 1. Hussey was one of the members of the CSK contingent to have tested positive fo Covid-19 earlier. Talking about the same, Hussey explained that he had started to feeling some of the symptoms. “My initial test came up as a weak positive, and we were sort of hoping the next would be negative and it’d be alright, but unfortunately I got retested the next day and that came back positive,” he said. “To be honest, I had already started feeling some of the symptoms and so I was thinking, ‘I’m pretty sure I’ve got it’,” he added. The IPL 2021 was also suspended on May 4 with immediate effect after there was a rise in Covid-19 cases within the franchise teams. Apart from Hussey, KKR’s Sandeep Warrior and Varun Chakravarthy, SRH’s Wriddhiman Saha, DC’s Amit Mishra and CSK’s bowling coach L.Balaji had tested positive for Covid-19.

WTC final: Cheteshwar Pujara confident of India's chances at neutral venue against New Zealand

As India and New Zealand are gearing up for the big World Test Championship final, there have been numerous references made with the last series between the sides played last year. In that series played in New Zealand, Virat Kohli’s men were thrashed left, right and centre by a dominating team led by Kane Williamson in their own backyard. India’s number three Tests, Cheteshwar Pujara has a different take on this as he believes the factors that helped the Blackcaps in the home series would be limited as the WTC final will be played at a neutral venue—Southampton, England. “When we played the Kiwis in 2020, it was in their backyard. That won’t be the case in the WTC final ... it’s a neutral venue for both the teams. None of the teams will have a home advantage,” Pujara said TOI in an interview. Pujara, however, said that the Indian batsmen have learnt hard lessons from that series in New Zealand and other encounters of the past which will help them be better prepared for the varieties in line and angle of attack of Kiwi bowling line up. “Their bowling attack is very well-balanced. We have faced their bowlers before and have a fair idea of how they operate, the angles they use, and we will be prepared,” Pujara added. Pujara commended the amount of talent in the Indian team and cited the big series win in Australia where they won even in the absence of star players such as Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma. “The amount of talent in the Indian circuit is humongous. The Australia series earlier this year was an example. We had so many injuries, but the backup options did well for us to win the series. Everyone in this Indian team is hungry to do well and that’s the sign of a good side,” Pujara concluded. Indian players are quarantining in Mumbai before they will take off on a chartered flight to the United Kingdom in the first week of June. The World Test Championship final will be played in Southampton from June 18.

Southampton to have crowd for the WTC Final between India and New Zealand

After the County Championship was allowed to facilitate a limited crowd for the matches of this round, most of them starting on May 20, the expectations of seeing crowds in an international cricket match in England has heightened with World Test Championship closing in. With crowds attending the Hampshire and Leicestershire Championship game at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, the same ground which is scheduled to host the WTC Final from June 18, the Hampshire County Club head Rod Bransgrove is hopeful of seeing at least 4000 people in the India- New Zealand game. "I understand 50 per cent of the permitted crowds will be taken by the ICC for its sponsors and other stakeholders and we will be selling the rest 2000 tickets. We have already received more than double applications from the fans," Bransgrove was quoted as saying to Cricbuzz about the crowd arrangements for the inaugural edition of the Test Championship. "It is a high-interest game and there is a good demand for it," he added. Although the ICC, ECB and BCCI have booked all corporate boxes, Bansgrove still feels that with travel restrictions in place, the county can manage to sell those tickets if the dignitaries from India are unable to make it for the Final. "Given the travel restrictions and quarantine protocols, I am not sure how many of ICC and the Board of Control for Cricket in India members will come for the game. We will be happy to sell those tickets too,” he said. The veteran administrator also awaited the welcome of the Indian team to the town. "We are waiting for the Indian team to complete their quarantine in India and arrive here. We are ready to host them," he added. This will be the first time since September 2019 that England will have crowds in the stadium during an international cricket match.