ENG vs SL 2021: Eoin Morgan refuses to acknowledge discriminatory undertone of his controversial tweet

Tim Southee picks 600 international wickets, stands behind only Daniel Vettori among New Zealanders

With the opening wicket of Shubman Gill in India’s second innings of the World Test Championship final, Tim Southee has reached a special milestone of becoming the only second New Zealand cricketer to have taken 600 wickets at the international level. Southee has taken 311 wickets in Test, 190 in the ODI ricket and 90 wickets in the T20Is so far in his career. He is behind only left-arm spinner and former captain Daneil Vettori, who has had 696 wickets at the international stage and the third man behind him is Sir Richard Hadlee, who had taken 589 wickets. Southee also made significant progress in his batting achievements as he surpassed former Australian captain Ricky Ponting on the list of leading six-hitter in the Test cricket. Southee has featured in 79 Test matches including the World Test Championship final since making his debut in 2008 against England. He has gone on to become the spearhead of the New Zealand pace attack over the last many years. He has taken 311 Test wickets at an average of 28.39 rusn per wicket and strike rate of 57.28 balls per wicket, while his 190 wickets in ODIs have come at an average of 34.51 and strike rate 37.87. He has not been able to crack the T20 code and has a career economy rate of 8.39 runs per over, but has taken 99 wickets at average of 24.82.

Eoin Morgan softens stance on Alex Hales, says 'conversation' will take place at some stage

England white-ball skipper Eoin Morgan has said that the door of England cricket team hasn’t been permanently closed for Alex Hales, who has been out of favour for more than two years after ‘breakdown of trust’ between him and the team management including the skipper Morgn himself. Addressing the pre-match conference before the home series against Sri Lanka, Morgan said that Hales has proved his quality by scoring ample amount of runs around the world. However, he pointed out that England white-ball squads are spoilt for choices as there are number of players for each slot which makes the case tougher for Hales to comeback in the side. "I think he does,” Morgan said in a reply to question if Hales stands a chance to comeback into the England side. “I think when you look at the player that he is and the performances that he puts in around the world, he's a very fine player. But when you look at the players that we have available to us at the moment were spoiled, and I think the longer you spend out of the side the further away you get from the position you once had.” "I think looking at our top order at the moment in particular, even behind our top 3 or 4 we have guys sitting behind there that have drastically improved their performance in the international shirt that are taking up a position." Morgan suggested that way forward for Hales and the team management would be a trilaterla between among him, Hales and the coach Chris Silverwood but lamented the Covid-19 related challenges behind the delay. However, he said that the ‘conversation’ will take place at some stage. "I think there are conversations to be had between Alex, myself and the coach, and potentially a few of the players, but trying to get those happening in Covid times has been an issue. But they could happen at some stage," he said. He did not duck the questions around the tough call on omission of Joe Root from the T20 squad and said that the Test skipper has shown enough keenness to make a comeback. However, like in the case of Hales, Morgan said that players such as Dawid Malan has taken their opportunity to shine at the big stage in absence of Root. "There's no definitive answer on anybody at the moment. Obviously Joe is keen to get back involved when he can. We know the demands on his schedule which have probably led to him not having as many opportunities. But equally with him missing games other guys have come in and done well - Dawid (Malan) I think is a good example of that - but there's no way we're ruling Joe out,” Morgan added. Morgan led the England ODI side to a triumphant campaign in the ICC ODI World Cup 2019 two years back and he is eyeing another feather in his cap with two T20 world cups scheduled at the end of this year and the next year.

Tim Southee overtakes Ricky Ponting, narrows gaps with MS Dhoni on six-hitters' list in Tests

New Zealand pacer Tim Southee strengthened his reputation as the big-hitter of the cricket ball by overtaking former Australia captain Ricky Ponting on the list of batsmen with most sixes in the Test format. Ricky Ponting had hit 73 sixes in a 168-match long Test career while Southee has trumped him in just his 79th Test match. He smashed Ishant Sharma over long on boundary to reach the feat, and hit another big one against Ravindra Jadeja to go to 75 sixes. There are only 14 batsmen on the list above him in terms of hitting most number of sixes and the man just above him is former India skipper MS Dhoni, who has had 78 sixes in his Test career. Southee’s innings of 30 runs helped New Zealand get a vital lead of 32 runs over India in the first ICC World Test Championship final in Southampton. New Zealand were guided by a fighting 49 by Kane Williamson while Mohammed Shami was the pick of the Indian bowlers on the fifth day of the final.

Bangladesh suffer setback as Mushfiqur Rahim fractures finger ahead of Zimbabwe tour

Bangladesh wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim has fractured his index finger during the last game of the Bangabandhu Dhaka Premier League T20 ahead of the side’s tour to Zimbabwe. Captain of the Abahani Limited side in the DPL, Mushfiqur has been ruled out of the tournament as the scans showed that the right-handed batsman has suffered a hairline fracture during the match against Gazi Tank Cricketers on June 21. "Today we have taken a scan and found a hairline fracture in the index finger of his left hand," BCB chief physician Debashish Chowdhury told Cricbuzz. "We have advised him one week rest. Since it is a hairline fracture we are hoping that it won't take time for him to recover. After one week we will review the injury and later take a decision in this regard,” he added. Apart from Rahim, Liton Das missed out the tournament in the initial phase due to a wrist injury while Mushfiqur Rahim had complained of back but his scans didn’t really show anything serious. The Test match between the two sides will be played from July 7 while the ODI series will be played between July 16-20 which would be followed by a three-match T20I series that will be played on July 23, 25 and 27.