England announce ODI squad for India series; Jofra Archer to miss early part of IPL 2021

Shakib Al Hasan speaks up on IPL vs Tests controversy; rues misinterpretation of letter

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has lambasted the operational chairman of the Bangladesh Cricket Board Akram Khan for not reading his letter ‘properly’ and misinterpreting his decision to play the next edition of the IPL instead of a Test series against Sri Lanka. Shakib said that people talking about his decision to play the IPL have not read his letter properly and hence coming to a conclusion that he is not interested in playing the Test format for the country. "Continuously people are talking about this Test. The people who are saying that I will no longer play the Test or don't want to play the Test haven't read my letter properly and that is it," Shakib said in a live chat to Cricfrenzy. Shakib said that he had clearly mentioned that the move to prefer IPL was a one-time call to prepare for the World T20 while the Test series against Sri Lanka would not make any difference to Bangladesh’s rankings on the World Test Championship table. He added that he did not mention anything about his interest or lack of it towards Test cricket in his letter. "I did not mention anywhere in my letter that I do not want to play Tests. I mentioned in my letter that I want to play in the IPL to prepare myself properly for World Cup but despite that Akram Bhai (Akram Khan, BCB cricket operation chairman) has repeatedly said that I do not want to play Tests," he said. Shakib said that he would have walked away from any format other than the T20s as being with his IPL teams will allow him extra time on pitches where the World T20 matches have been scheduled to be played. He said that early exposure and being in rhythm before the big tournaments will start will be huge for the team and younger players. "Even if there were an ODI series at this time, I would have done the same. During the IPL season, I wanted time so that I can prepare myself better. The ground where I will play IPL now will be the ground where I will play the World Cup match after four months. The players with whom I will play the IPL will be the players against whom I will play in the World Cup. For this reason, I will get more advantages than anyone else from Bangladesh, and it will also help me to share my experiences with the team that I will gain by playing in the IPL," he said. At the same time, Shakib thanked BCB President Nazmul Hussian for coming to his rescue and allowing him to play in the IPL. Shakib said that when the administrators like Nazmul Hussain supports players it increases players’ confidence. "I want to thank Papon Bhai (Nazmul Hasan) as I believe he has made the right decision, and I think that a player should have the liberty. I believe the cricketer's confidence increases if the board or BCB president backs up a player like this. And when a player represents the national team, the responsibility to do something good for the team also increases. We have to thank Papon Bhai for making the right decision from his place. However, Akram Bhai repeatedly said that I do not want to play Tests, which I have not mentioned anywhere in my letter," he added. Shakib Al Hasan will go back to the Kolkata Knight Riders camp after missing the last campaign for the Sunrisers Hyderabad when he was serving a ban by the ICC for not reporting an approach made by bookies.

Eoin Morgan not lost on positives after series loss; underlines IPL as huge opportunity for players

England lost the T20I series 2-3 to India after dominating the proceedings of the five-match series till the third game. The tourists had the series in their grapes at 2-1 at the end of the third game, but their challenges got tougher with every game from thereon as Indian dig deep to bring their best with both the bat and ball in their hands. However, for skipper Morgan, who had compared the decider of the series to something as big as a world cup final, the lessons were many for the team to take with them, along with few boxes that were ticked. England were in the game chasing a mammoth score in the series decider before the middle order crumbled just at the wrong time to hand India the advantage. England failed to chase in two consecutive matches, as wickets falling in clusters and subsequently stalled momentum proved to be detrimental for them. At the same time, brave moves such as bowling Rashid Khan in the powerplays and playing Mark Wood as an out and out pacer really paid dividends for the hosts. Neither aspect of their strategy against India in the T20I series was lost on Morgan. "I think some big lessons, huge amount positives, certainly in the four out of the five matches, we have produced some of the best powerplay bowling that we have in the last couple of years. Learnings from the backend of the games that we have lost and our middle order was not as sharp as we normally are. One of our strengths is how quickly guys get in and adapt to surfaces (but that) did not necessarily happen," Morgan said in the post-match conference. Morgan had relished the prospects of pitches that were to turn across the five-match series following Test series dominated by spinners. He had pointed out that playing a long series on turning pitches will help the England players assess where they stand currently and where they want eventually to be at come the T20 World Cup. However, the pitches produced in the series were flat and spinners could not extract much spin and bounce off it "Coming here and wanted to be challenged for us means playing on turning pitches that are completely alien to us because we do not have the opportunity to play on them pretty often. So, that was the challenge I was hinting at before the series. The ball has barely turned. Given the pitches that we have played on, probably bar two, they have been really good to play on," Morgan added. Now, having seen his teammates floundering with their game plans at wrong times in the series and not too many games in the same conditions as of the World T20, Morgan is putting all his weight behind the Indian Premier League to help England players getting more and more accustomed to the playing conditions in India. He suggested his players to make the most of the opportunity they will be presented in the upcoming edition of the league to take their game forward using all their learnings earned from the series against India. His emphasis on IPL and pointing out lack of matches in these conditions may well mean that players excelling in spinning conditions during the IPL will be considered when England will be mulling their squad for the World T20. "Taking advantage of the upcoming IPL is going to be huge. As a team and as individuals, we don't want to stand still, we want to continue to move forward. Any opportunity guys get at the IPL, you want to try and make the most of it, because we're going to be playing at home for our summer and then we go to Bangladesh and Pakistan but there is limited opportunity to get our best XI in those games. The experience over the next couple of months is the most valuable,” Morgan added. His comments about IPL being such a big opportunity can also be underlined as he openly defied the talks around some England players nailing down their place in the team. He said that the game is progressing at a rapid rate and that players too will have to evolve with each passing game to remain in contention going ahead towards the World T20. “If any player, including myself, looks that far ahead and thinks 'my position is nailed down' then they're mistaken because we want to improve and continue to get better as the rest of the world progresses. T20 as a game progresses faster than any other format. So, we need to be quite flexible on how we want to improve, and we cannot be rigid," he said. Morgan got a full-strength T20 squad with all regular members such as Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Mark Wood being available for the complete white-ball leg of the tour of India. Add to that Jofra Archer’s presence in the T20 team despite the concerns around his elbow injury. English commentariat had lashed out at the ECB for prioritising ODIs and T20Is over Test matches against India and had gone on to say that Morgan is the real big boss in England cricket and hence he gets all the players he wishes to choose from, while Root has to manage the team around ‘rest and rotation.’ However, Morgan said that he is realistic about players who represent England in all formats of the game will be missing some part of their next few T20 series as England are trying their best to be flexible amid the uncertain time of Covid-19. “I would imagine all of the multi-format guys. It's just too much to ask, given the winter guys have had as well, around being in a bubble. A lot of it will be dependent on how flexible it is to come in and out of the biosecure environment that we'll have during our summer and whether they can see their families or not,” Morgan said. But, he also suggested that the absence of the likes of Buttler, and Stokes will open windows of opportunity for the promising bench strengths of England cricket. He commended Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Moeen Ali and Phil Salt for putting their hands up when the team required in the last summer and said that the expectation will be nothing different the next summer when the senior players will be away from the game. "We looked at it last summer with guys like Tom Banton, Sam Billings, and Moeen Ali taken on a great responsibility when he's had the opportunity. We've had Phil Salt in, we've had a number of players that have come in and definitely impressed. The talent is there and there will be more opportunity throughout our summer to see players that have real international ability to stake their claim,” Morgan concluded. After a four-match Test and a five-match T20I series, England are left to play only a three-match ODI series starting March 23 in Pune.

Early days to talk about batting line up for World T20: Rohit Sharma

India had a perfect end to the five-match T20I series against England in Ahmedabad. The hosts defeated Eoin Morgan’s side by 36 runs in the final clash to win the series 3-2. The team management tweaked the batting combination in this fifth encounter as skipper Virat Kohli opened the innings alongside his deputy Rohit Sharma and the two batsmen dominated the English bowling with authority. Kohli and Sharma notched up a 94-stand for the first wicket before Rohit departed for 64. But the openers laid the foundation for a big total for India and the Kohl-led side eventually posted 224/2, courtesy an unbeaten 80 from the captain and some fine power-hitting from Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. While India finally tasted success with the opening combination in this game, vice-captain Rohit is of the opinion that these are still early days to talk about a batting line up for the World T20. "It's still a long time for the World Cup, so (it's) early days to talk about what the batting line up would be looking like. We just have to analyse and think about what suits the team the most,” Rohit Said during the online media conference following the fifth T20I.. KL Rahul who wasn’t a part of the XI for the final match has had a lean patch in this series. But Sharma emphasised that KL is one of the key players for India and can’t be written off. "KL, we know he's been one of our key players in the limited-overs format. Looking at the current form the team management decided to go with the best eleven. But having said that it doesn't send any signal, that KL would not be considered or anything like that. It was just for one particular game," the vice-captain said. India successfully defended the total after restricting England to 188/8 in 20 overs. The two teams will now face each other in the ODI fixtures slated to begin on Tuesday in Pune.

Eoin Morgan outlines Jofra Archer's 'worsening' injury that needs attention

England skipper Eoin Morgan has confirmed the concerns surrounding the fitness of pacer Jofra Archer. Morgan has said that Archer’s pain has gotten worse and that it definitely needs attention from the medical team. Morgan outlined the long-term outlook of Archer’s pain due to a stress fracture in his elbow which has only progressed over the past few months. He did not confirm or rule out the pacer’s presence in the ODI series that will follow the T20I series against India. "We're not quite sure yet. We're going to wait until tonight and tomorrow to see how Jofra has pulled up. He's clearly had a progressive injury that has become worse and does need attention, so it'll be over to our medical team to make a decision and hopefully, the decision that Jofra comes to will be the best for us in the long term,” Morgan said after the final T20I of the series against India. "I think it's rare when a bowler isn't managing pain - what they do is a tough job and if you ask any of them, are they ever pain-free, it's a pretty rare instance if they say yes. Most of our bowlers are normally carrying niggles but certainly, Jofra's situation has definitely got worse, so it does need attention." Earlier, media reports including from the UK-based The Telegraph claimed that Archer will pull out of the next edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) where he makes an important part of the plans for the Rajasthan Royals.