Elton Chigumbura and Kyle Jarvis to scout young Zimbabwean talent

Bangladesh batting coach Prince expects Liton Das to open in T20Is against New Zealand

Litton Das, who has made a comeback in the Bangladesh T20I squad, could well be in contention for one of the opening slots in the upcoming series against New Zealand, batting coach Ashwell Prince has said. However, he also highlighted “strong competition” for the opening slots in the series against the Blackcaps. Litton missed the last series against Australia due to an injury and after Cricket Australia and BCB denied him entry into the biosecure bubble. Bangladesh employed the pair of Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Naim in his absence, but their partnership did not flourish at the top of the order. They failed to provide either a solid or rapid start to the hosts and their highest partnership stood at 42 which came in the last game of the series. They also struggled to hit boundaries against the new ball, but Prince did not raise it as a point of concern due to “tough conditions” against Australia. He pointed out that the balls were not coming onto bats and hence it was tough to score quickly as it would have been on better pitches. "Personally I am not really concerned about the opening batsmen. I think we had one or two good partnerships in Zimbabwe but conditions were tough against Australia. It is not easy to score boundaries frequently as you would in pitches where the ball is coming on. Adapting to the conditions is important. Partnership would be important. I think we have a strong competition in the opening position. I am sure Liton Das will get an opportunity in this position, as well,” Prince said. Prince said that the conditions are unlikely to change but chose to bank on the “experience” of senior players to overcome those hurdles in the upcoming series against New Zealand. "I am expecting similar conditions against New Zealand. The batsmen from Australia series had a nice discussion yesterday, sharing with guys like Liton Das and Mushfiqur (Rahim) who didn't play in that series. These are experienced guys but they shared what worked and what we like to improve on from the Australia series, taking it into the New Zealand series coming up," he said. The series between Bangladesh and New Zealand is scheduled to start on September 1 in Dhaka and the hosts have all the reasons to start favourites in the series after their first series win over Australia earlier this month.

AUS W vs IND W series delayed due to Covid-19, relocated to Carrara Oval, Ken Mackay in Queensland

The Covid-19 has forced the rescheduling of another series albeit without much of a dealy as the entire India women’s tour of Australia has been now had a venues change with the ODI series being rescheduled as well. Reports by major media houses suggest that the entire tour, previously slated to be played in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth at North Sydne Oval, Junction Oval and WACA respectively, has now been shifted to Queensland because of Covid-19-enforced restrictions. Consequently, the first ODI, which was to be played on September 19 at North Sydney Oval would now be played at Ken Mackay Oval in Brisbane, this same venue will also host the remaining two ODIs before the teams travel to Gold Coast for the one-off day/night Test to be hosted at the Carrara Oval which has hosted Big Bash League homes games for the Brisbane Heat over the years. The dates for the Test remain the same and it is scheduled to be played from September 30 to October 3. Following the Test, the T20Is will also be played at this venue only. While the Indian departed for Brisbane in the afternoon of August 29 and will remain in at least seven days of quarantine, the Australian players from New South Wales and Victoria would also have to undergo quarantine measures on reaching Queensland. There has been no official confirmation of the change in events either by Cricket Australia or the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

County Championship 2021 | Surrey vs Durham calsh to be called off

Covid-19 has forced England and Wales Cricket Board to call off the County Championship Division-2 game between Surrey and Durham at Emirates Riverside in Chester-Lee Street. The decision was taken after an unnamed member of the Surrey playing squad tested positive for Covid-19. The ECB in a press release said, “The player has begun to self-isolate along with a significant number of the Surrey squad who have been identified as close contacts.” “Due to the required isolation protocols and the extensive impact on Surrey’s available playing squad, reluctantly the decision has been made that the match will not go ahead on Monday 30 August,” it added. The board further informed that the confirmation on the awarding of points for the match will be announced in due course. After the end of the Group stage of the County Championship in June, the T20 Blast and Royal London One Day cup carried on in the English Summer. The Royal London Cup has been finished with Glamorgan being crowned as champions and T20 Blast awaits a Finals Day conclusion where Kent, Somerset, Hampshire and Sussex have made it to the Semi-Finals. And thus the County Championship once again begins with the first of the four rounds in all three divisions on Monday, August 30. It is important to note that only teams in Division-1 will be contesting for the Championship. The teams in Division Two and Three play among themselves to decide the four best teams if the County Championship goes back to its 2019 pattern of having two divisions with 10 teams in Division 1 and eight in Division 2 with Division 1 contesting for the Championship and Division two teams battling for promotion to Division 1.

Joe Root proud on captaincy achievement, rejoices 'perfect storm' to come back in Leeds

England were rattled and shaken on the final day of the Lord’s Test against a hostile Indian team led by Virat Kohli and four pacers. From the first session, England lost their way and India were rescued from a precarious situation by Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, with whom the hosts attempted to settle ego battles. Later, they could not manage to hold the Indian bowling attack off for a little more than 50 overs and conceded a 1-0 lead from a position of relative strength. Skipper Joe Root was gutted to see his team falling off the clip after reaching a point from where they should have had the game in their pocket. They had to dig deep as Kohli had promised to get bogged down irrespective of the situations and needed to start the third Test on a perfect note. On cue, the bowling attack led by James Anderson ran riots on the Indian batting lineup and routed them for 78 inside the first two sessions. Later on the same day, England also thwarted the same quartet of pacers and ended the day at 120/0 that more or less put India on the brink right on the first day. India were always playing a catchup game and in the end, fell short by an innings and 76 runs. Having won the third Test at his home ground Headingley, Root hailed the performances on the first day of the third Test as a “perfect storm” that allowed them to blow India away. He commended bowlers for exploiting the excellent conditions for bowling but called the hundred run partnership a near “turning point” for their series-levelling win. He said that the openers Haseeb Hameed and Rory Burns fulfilled a long-standing demand of big first innings score and laid down a perfect platform for the middle order to take the game away from India’s grasp. "It was almost the perfect storm, everything seemed to fall our way. Perfect little nicks to the keeper got us off to a great start, it was a brilliant bowling performance. We found our lengths, exploited the wicket really well. And that opening partnership to set things up was almost a turning point in the game for me,” Root said in the post-match press conference. “A substantial first-wicket partnership was exceptional and credit to those two lads. Under the pump off the back of last week, to come out and perform like that and get us 135-0 was brilliant. Really set the game up and gave the rest of us the opportunity to go and make that big first innings score that me and Silvers harp on to you guys about all the time." While James Anderson was his tormentor-in-chief in the first innings as he eliminated the first three big wickets of India such as the man in form KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli, it was Ollie Robinson, who kept the hosts in the game bowling in the channel around off stump throughout the third day. India were brilliant with the bat but could not get away as Robinson was on the money albeit Anderson was offline for the most part of the day. The pacer earned rewards for his accuracy and consistency on the fourth morning as he wiped out the Indian middle order to hand India a humiliating defeat. Root spoke very highly of the tall seamers and said that he does not remember a lot of names who got settled so quickly at the international level the way he has so far now. He has played four Tests so far and already has two five-wicket hauls to name. Root said that the England team management was never unsure of his credentials with the ball and it was just a matter of whether he would be able to extract as much off the pitch with the older ball as he gets with the newer one. "Not off the top of my head. It's been phenomenal to watch him perform as he has. The Test matches he's played, he's had big influences on all of them. He's been around the squad for a little while and we've known how skilful he is. It was almost a question of whether he'd be able to back it up in his third spell with the ball a little older. And he's shown huge skill in being able to do that time and time again with big workloads under his belt. He's shown what he is capable of doing and long may that continue,” Root spoke of Robinson, who was adjudged Man of the Match at Headingley. Root has been in red-hot form in the series with three centuries from as many games and with the win in Leeds, he has gone on to become the most successful England captain in terms of wins. He was ecstatic to beat Michael Vaughan as the captain of England with the most number of wins and said that all these successes are the stuff of his “boyhood dreams”. He also extended gratitude to all the players who have put their hands up with performances and coaching staffs for finding perfect ways of preparation behind the scenes to enable him in the journey to the top. "I'm living my boyhood dream, captaining England. Something I dreamed of doing from being really small. Great group of players, who are very talented and dedicated to becoming better all the time. Couldn't be more proud, proud to have gone past Michael. But you don't do that on your own as a captain, it's down to the group of players and the coaching staff as well. It's all one big thing. You're the one making the decisions but they are the ones going out and time and time again putting in performances. And really proud of the way they have done that this week,” a proud England skipper added. Although it was the bowling that won England the third Test, Root would be more delighted that other batsmen stepped up with valuable contributions to bat India out of the game. The opening pair of Burns and Hameed, and followed by the returning Dawid Malan at number three provided England a bullish start to boss the flows of the game while India kept on chasing the curve with indifferent bowling performances.