England are hungry to get out there: James Anderson

KL Rahul ruled out of ongoing Test series against Australia

India batsman KL Rahul has been ruled out of the remaining two matches of the ongoing Test series due to a sprain in his left wrist. He had injured his wrist in a training session on January 02 at the MCG. Rahul travelled with the team to Sydney but now the right-hander will fly back to India and head to the National Cricket Academy (NCA). “KL Rahul sprained his left wrist while batting in the nets at the MCG during Team India’s practice session on Saturday. The wicketkeeper-batsman will not be available for the remaining two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as he will need about three weeks time to recover completely and regain full strength,” BCCI said in its media release. Rahul last played for India in Tests in 2019 when he was dropped for a poor run of form batting at the top of the order. His inclusion in the Test squad raised many eyebrows and it was said that the Karnataka man was brought back to the team for his exploits in the white-ball formats.

Psychological warfare under the towering presence of Gabba

The clouds of uncertainty looming over the Gabba Test did scatter away but not before witnessing a wicked war of words

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021: Teams, Squads, Venues, Schedule and everything you need to know about the tournament

The domestic T20 tournament Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy will kickstart the Indian Cricket’s curtailed domestic season, which has been marred by the rise of covid-19 in the country. The tournament would be played in empty stadiums with all the precautions and protocols for bio-bubble in place. Groups The tournament has been divided into two stages i.e. the Group stage and the Knockout stage. While the group stage games would be played among the 38 teams divided into five elite and one plate groups, the knockout stage would involve the quarter and the semi-finals. Venues The group stages would be played across six venues with Bengaulkiuru hosting group A which involves home team Karnataka, while Kolkata will host Group B which has the home team Bengal in it. Similarly, Baroda will host Group C games while Indore would be hosting the Group D games with Madhya Pradesh as part of the group. Mumbai will host the Group E games and Chennai will be responsible for Plate Group matches. Format Each team in the elite and the plate groups plays the other in a round-robin format and the top teams from each group qualify to the Quarter Finals. However, even after each top team securing a Quarterfinal berth, two spaces would remain and that would go to the two best second position finishers in the elite groups. Schedule The group stage matches would be played from 10th to 19th January at various venues while the knockout stage at the Motera stadium in Ahmedabad would begin from 26th January onwards. Squads All the teams have named their squads for the tournament and citing the covid-19 situation, teh BCCI allowed teams to carry 20 players and then increased it further to 22 to make sure that in case of any emergency players are replaced without breaking the bubble. Following is the list of the teams in various groups and their SMA squads. Group A Punjab Mandeep Singh (Captain) Gurkeerat Singh Mann (Vice-Captain), Abhishek Sharma, Anmolpreet Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Harpreet Brar, Siddarth Kaul, Gitansh Khera, Krishan, Alang Anmol Malhotra, Mayank Markande, Rohan Marwaha, Prabhsimran Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Sanvir Singh, Barinder Sran Karnataka Karun Nair (C), Pavan Deshpande (VC), Devdutt Padikkal, Roham Kadam, KV Siddharth, KL Shrijith, BR Sharath, Anirudha Joshi, Shreyas Gopal, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jagadeesha Suchith, Pravin Dubey, Abhimanyu Mithun, Prasidh Krishna, Prateek Jain, V Koushik, Ronit More, Darshan MB, Manoj Bhandage, Shubhang Hegde. Jammu & Kashmir Parvez Rasool (C), Shubham Khajuria, Ahmed Omar Bandey, Qamran Iqbal, Suryansh Raina (WK), Abdul Samad, Puneet Kumar, Dorjey Kalyan, Abid Mushtaq, Shubhman Singh Pundir, Nawaz Ul Muneer (WK), Jiyaad Nazir Magrey, Henan Nazir Malik, Usman Pandit, Ram Dayal, Auqib Nabi, Aamir Aziz, Umran Malik, Mujtaba Yusuf and Umar Nazir and five stand bye players namely: Paras Sharma, Ankush Bandral, Vivrant Sharma, Yasir Ahmed and Adil Rashid. Uttar Pradesh Priyam Garg (captain), Karn Sharma (vice-captain), Suresh Raina, Rinku Singh, Madhav Kaushik, Samarth Singh, Shubham Choubey, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Aryan Juyal (wicketkeeper), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohsin Khan, Shivam Mavi, Shiva Singh, Shanu Saini Railways Mrunal Devdhar, Dinesh Mor, Harsh Tyagi, Amit Kuila, T Pradeep, Pratham Singh, Vikrant Rajput, Ananta Saha, Himanshu Sangwan, Saurabh Singh, Kanishk Seth, Karn Sharma, Shivendra Singh, Dhrushant Soni, Navneet Virk Tripura Manisankar Murasingh (Captain)Ajoy Sarkar (Vice-Captain), Kaushal Acharjee, Joydeep Banik, Udiyan Bose, Saurabh Das, Rajat Dey, Bishal Ghosh, Subham Ghosh, Milind Kumar, Pratyush Singh, Rana Dutta, Tushar Saha, Abhijit Sarkar, Samrat Singha, Arkaprabha Sinha Group B Jharkhand Ishan Kishan (c), Pankaj Kumar, Kumar Deobrat, Saurav Tiwari, Uttakarsh Singh, Anand Singh, Virat Singh (vc), Vikash Vishal, Anukul Roy, Shahbaaz Nadeem, Sonu Kumar Singh, Varun Aaron, Rahul Shukla, Monu Kumar Singh, Vivekanand Tiwari, Bala Krishna, Aashish Kumar, Satya Setu Bengal Anustup Majumdar (captain), Shreevats Goswami (vice-captain), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Manoj Tiwary, Sudi Chatterjee, Ishan Porel, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Vivek Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arnab Nandi, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Abhishek Das, Mohammed Kaif, Aritra Chatterjee, Suvankar Bal, Writtick Chatterjee, Prayas Ray Barman, Kaif Ahmed, Ravi Kant Singh. Odisha Subhranshu Senapati (Captain), Pratik Das, Rajesh Dhuper, Sarbeswar Mohanty, Pappu Ray, Govinda Poddar, Suryakant Pradhan, Rajesh Mohanty, Abhishek Raut, Biplab Samantray, Shantanu Mishra, Ankit Yadav, Gourav Chaudhary, Suekesh Heera, Walter Topo, Praveen Loha, Tarini Sa, Ankitkar Jaiswal, Sunil Roul, Ashish Rai Tamil Nadu Dinesh Karthik (c), Vijay Shankar (vc), B Aparajith, B Indrajith, M Shahrukh Khan, C Hari Nishaanth, KB Arun Karthik, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, N Jagadeesan, Aswin Crist, M Mohammed, G Periyasamy, Sandeep Warrier, J Kousik, R Sonu Yadav, M Ashwin, R Sai Kishore, M Siddharth, L Suryapprakash, R S Jaganath Srinivas Hyderabad Tanmay Agarwal Captain), Tilak Varma, Abhirath Reddy, Himalay Agarwal, B Sandeep (Vice-Captain), Buddhi Rahul, Sai Pragnay Reddy, Kolla Sumanth, CV Milind, T Ravi Teja, Ajay Dev Goud, Yudveer Singh, Tanay Tyagarajan, Mickil Jaiswal, Hitesh Yadav, Rakesh Yadav, Prateek Reddy Rakshann Reddi, Karthikeya Kak, MSR Charan Assam Rishav Das (Captain), Abhishek Thakuri (Wicket-keeper), Riyan Parag, Rajjakuddin Ahmed, Arup Das, Amlanjyoti Das, Pritam Das, Pallavkumar Das, Mrinmoy Dutta, Saahil Jain, Mukhtar Hussain, Rahul Singh, Amit Sinha Group C Gujarat Axar Patel (Captain), Priyank Panchal, Piyush Chawla, Chintan Gaja, Chirag Gandhi, Devang Gandhi, Devang Gandhi, Roosh Kalaria, Kshitij Patel, Arzan Nagwaswalla, Jayveer Parmar, Hardik Patel, Karan Patel, Ripal Patel, Tejas Patel, Umang Patel, Urvil Patel, Priyesh Patel, Dhruv Raval Maharashtra Rahul Tripathi (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Naushad Shaikh, Kedar Jadhav, Ranjeet Nikam, Azim Kazi, Nikhil Naik (wicketkeeper), Vishant More (wicketkeeper), Satyajeet Bachhav, Taranjeet Singh Dhillon, Shamshuzma Kazi, Pradeep Dadhe, Mukesh Choudhary, Manoj Ingle, Divyang Hingankar, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Jagdish Zope, Swapnil Gugale, Dhanraj Pardeshi, Sunny Pandit. Chattisgarh Ajay Mandal, Amandeep Khare, Anand Rao, Harpreet Singh Bhatia (Captain), Jeevanjot Singh, M. Binny Semual, M. Ravi Kiran, Mo. Shahbaz Hussain (wicket-keeper), Ambienthar, Rishab Tiwari, Sanidhya Hurkat, Shashank Chandrakar, Shashank Singh, Saurabh Kharwar, Subham Singh, Subham Aggarwal, Saurabh Majumdar, Sumit Ruikar, Vishal Singh Kushwaha, and Virpratap Singh. Uttarakhand Iqbal Abdulla (Captain), Ashish Chaudhary, Avneesh Sudha, Himanshu Bisht, Jay Bista, Kunal Chandela, Dhanraj Sharma, Samad Fallah, Gaurav Singh, Girish Rauturi, Karn Kaushal, Akash Madhwal, Mayank Mishra, Dikshanshu Negi, Piyush Joshi, Saurabh Rawat, Arya Sethi, Vijay Sharma, Agrim Tiwari Himachal Pradesh RI Thakur, Kanwar Abhinay, Amit Kumar, Vaibhav Arora, Ankush Bedi, Prashant Chopra, Mayank Dagar, Rishi Dhawan, Arpit Guleria, Pankaj Jaiswal, Ayush Jamwal, Nitin Sharma, Abhimanyu Rana, Ekant Sen, Akash Vasisht Baroda Krunal Pandya, Deepak Hooda, Kedar Devdhar, Ninad Rathwa, Smit Patel, Vishnu Solanki, Abhimanyu Rajput, Dhruv Patel, Atit Sheth, Babasafi Pathan, L Meriwala, Mohit Mongia, Bhanu Pania, Kartik Kakade, Chintal Gandhi, Pradeep Yadav, Soyeb Sopariya, Ansh Patel, Parth Kohli, Bhargav Bhatt, Pratik Ghodadra, Pratyush Kumar. Group D Goa Amit Verma (Captain) Amogh Desai, Vishambar Kahlon, Maliksab Shirur, Vaibhav Govekar, Ishaan Gadekar, Heramb Parab, Darshan Misal, Deepraj Gaonkar, Snehal Kauthankar, Shubham Desai, Vijesh Prabhudesai, Ashoke Dinda, Felix Antonio Alemao, Nihal Surlaker, Eknath Dinesh Kerkar, Suyash Prabhudesai, Lakshay Arunkumar Garg, Amulya G Pandrekar and Aditya Kaushik. Madhya Pradesh Parth Sahani (Capt), Rajat Patidar (Vice Capt.), Arpit Gaud Himanshu Mantri, Rishabh Chouhan, Abhishek Bhandari, Venkatesh Iyer, Rakesh Thakur, Saransh Jain, Ankit Sharma, Mihir HIrwani, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Sen, Surendra Malviya, Ishwar Pandey, Shantanu Raghuwanshi, Arshad Khan, Puneet Datey, Ashutosh Sharma, Kumar Kartikey Rajasthan Ashok Menaria (captain) Khaleel Ahmed, Akash Singh, Rajesh Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar, Rahul Chahar, Aniket Choudhary, Rajat Choudhary, Chandrapal Singh, Aditya Garhwal, Arjit Gupta, Salman Khan, Yash Kothari, Ankit Lamba, Mahipal Lomror, Manender Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Tanveer Ul-Haq Saurashtra Jaydev Unadkat (c), Chirag Jani, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Vishwarajsinh Jadeja, Chetan Sakariya, Prerak Mankad, Divyarajsinh Chauhan, Vandit Jivrajani, Parth Bhut, Agnivesh Ayachi, Himalay Barad, Kushang Patel, Parth Chauhan, Devang Karamta, Kunal Karamchandani, Avi Barot, Harvik Desai, Arpit Vasavada, Samarth Vyas, Yuvraj Chudasama Services Arun Bamal, Varun Choudhary, Anshul Gupta, Vikas Hathwala, Lakhan Singh, Mohit Kumar, Nakul Sharma, Pulkit Narang, Navneet Singh, Nitin Yadav, Rajat Paliwal, Diwesh Pathania, Rahul Singh, Raushan Raj, Ravi Chauhan, Hardik Sethi, Sumit Singh, Nitin Tanwar, Nakul Verma, Vikas Yadav Vidarbha Ganesh Satish (captain), Jitesh Sharma, Atharva Taide, Akshay Wadkar, Siddhesh Wath, Rishabh Rathod, Yash Rathod, Apoorv Wankhede, Akshay Karnewar, Akshay Wakhare, Nachiket Bhute, Darshan Nalkande, Mohit Raut, Yash Thakur, Aditya Thakare, Mohit Kale, Lalit Yadav, Raj Chaudhari. Coach: Trevor Gonsalves. Group E Andhra Pradesh Ambati Rayudu (Captain), Srikar Bharat (Wicket-Keeper/Vice-Captain), Siraparapu Ashish, Ashwin Hebbar, Ricky Bui, Dhruva Kumar Reddy, Girinath Reddy, CR Gnaneshwa, SK Ismail, Karthik Rama, Kranthi Kumar, Lalith Mohan, Manish Golamaru, Naren Reddy, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasanth Kumar, Harishankar Reddy, KV Sasikanth, Shoaib Md Khan, Cheepurapalli Stephen Delhi Shikhar Dhawan (c), Ishant Sharma, Nitish Rana, Himmat Singh, Kshitiz Sharma, Jonty Sidhu, Hiten Dalal, Lalit Yadav, Shivank Vashishth, Manjot Kalra, Siddhant Sharma, Anuj Rawat (wk), Pradeep Sangwan, Simarjeet Singh, Pawan Negi, Ayush Badoni, Vaibhav Kandpal, Lakshay Thareja (wk), Pawan Suyal, Karan Dagar Haryana Ankit Kumar (c), Chaitanya Bishnoi, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ajit Chahal, Pramod Chandila, Arun Chaprana, Ashish Hooda, Kapil Hooda, Tinu Kundu, Aman Kumar, Sanjay Pahal, Harshal Patel, Himanshu Rana, Shubham Rohilla, Nitin Saini, Mohit Sharma, Rohit Parmod Sharma, Shivam Chauhan, Guntashveer Singh, Rahul Tewatia, Jayant Yadav, Yashu Sharma, Sumit Kumar Kerala Sanju Samson (c), Robin Uthappa, Sachin Baby (vc), Sreesanth, Basil Thampi, Jalaj Saxena, Vishnu Vinod, Mohammed Azharuddin, Rahul P, Rohan Kunnumel, Salman Nizar, Nideesh MD, Asif KM, Akshay Chandran, Sijo Mon Joseph, Mithun S, Abhishek Mohan, Vatsal Govind, Anand Joseph, Vinoop Manohar, Mithun PK, Akshay KC, Sreeroop Mumbai Suryakumar Yadav (c), Aditya Tare (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aakarshit Gomel, Sarfaraz Khan, Siddhesh Lad, Shivam Dube, Shubham Ranjane, Sujit Nayak, Sairaj Patil, Tushar Deshpande, Dhawal Kulkarni, Minad Manjrekar, Prathamesh Dake, Atharva Ankolekar, Shashank Attarde, Shams Mulani, Hardik Tamore, Akash Parkar, Sufiyan Shaikh Puducherry Damodaren Rohit (Captain), Subramanian Anand, Paras Dogra, Vikneshwaran Marimuthu, Thamaraikannan Parandaman, Sheldon Jackson, S Karthik, A Aravindaraj, Fabid Ahmed, Iqlas Naha, Pankaj Singh, Sagar Trivedi, Sagar Udeshi, Ragupathy Plate Group Arunachal Pradesh Neelam Obi (c), Rahul Dalal, Techi Doria, Karkir Taye, Rakesh Kumar, Nabam Tempol, Akhilesh Sahani, Takam Tallam, Yab Niya, Kamsha Yangfo, Song Tacho, Kengo Goken Bam, Techi Neri, Samarth Seth, Shashwat Kohli Bihar Ashutosh Aman (c), Mohit Kumar, MD Rahmatullah, Shasheem Rathour, Sachin Kumar, Amod Yadav, Babul Kumar, Mangal Mahrour, Samar Quadri, Vikash Ranjan, Yashasvi Rishav, Vikash Yadav, S Gani Chandigarh Manan Vohra (c), Gaurav Gambhir, Arslan Khan, Shivam Bhambri, Bipul Sharma, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Gaurav Puri, Gurinder Singh, Jagjit Singh, Jaskaran Singh, Anirudh Kanwar, Sarul Kanwar, Uday Kaul, Ankit Kaushik, Kunal Mahajan, Jaskaranvir Singh Manipur Ahmed Shah (wk), Langlonyamba Keishangbam, Bishwash Singh, Kshetrimayum Narisingh (wk), Nitesh Sedai, Gemson Singh, Lamabam Singh, Prafullomani Singh, Rex Singh, Sagatpam Jayanta, Thokchom Kishan, Sheiteendra Singh, Karnajit Yumnam Meghalaya Abhay Negi, Aditya Singhania, Chengkham Sangma, Larry Sangma, Akask Kumar Choudhary, Dippu Sangma, Yogesh Tiwari, Rohit Shah, Anish Charak, Wanlambok Nongkhlaw, Kilco Sangma, Shellingstar Thabah, Punit Bisht, Sanjay Yadav, Ravi Teja, Shiva Sangma, Wellmanson Passah, Shaisngi Lyngdoh Mizoram Pratik Desai (c), Taruwar Kohli, G Lalbiakvela, Lalhmangaiha, K Lalhmingmawia, Lalhruaizela, Khawlhring Lalremruata, KB Pawan, Parvez Ahmed, Andrew Vanlalhruaia, K Vanlalruata, Hmar Zothanchhunga, Bobby Zothansanga, Lalnunkima Varte, Lalhruai Ralte, Darremsanga, Lalfakzuala Renthlei, Sumit Lama Nagaland Rongsen Jonathan (c), Hokaito Zhimomi, Stuart Binny, Chetan Bist, Chopise Hopongkyu, Jala uddin, Imliwati Lemtur, Shrikant Mundhe, Nagaho Chishi, Sedezhalie Rupero, Joshua Ozukum, Tahmeed Rahman, Mughavi Wotsa Sikkim Ajay Kumar Pradhan, Anureet Singh, Ashish Thapa, Bhusan Subba, Bibek Diyali, Dinesh Kumar Rai, James Lepcha, Lee Yong Lepcha, (V. Captain), Mandup Bhutia, Md Ronak, Md Saptulla, Nilesh Lamichaney, Nitesh Kumar Gupta, Padam Bdr Limboo, Palzor Tamang, Pritam Nirala, Rajiv Malay Darjee, Robin Bist (Captain), Tashi Bhalla, Varun Sood

Moeen Ali tests positive for Covid-19, quarantined; Woakes isolated

England spin bowling all-rounder Moeen Ali has tested positive for covid-19 putting the team’s Sri Lanka tour in a bit of a jiff. Although teh England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that no other player tested positive in teh first RTPCR tests conducted at teh Hambantota Airport on teh team’s arrival. “Following PCR tests administered on arrival at the airport in Hambantota on Sunday 3 January, The England and Wales Cricket Board can confirm that Moeen Ali has tested positive for Covid-19,” an official statement from teh ECB read. The board also advised mandatory isolation for Chris Woakes as he has been found to be a close contact of Moeen. “[Moeen] will now observe a period of 10-days self-isolation, in accordance with the Sri Lanka Government’s protocol on quarantine. Chris Woakes has been deemed as a possible close contact, and he will observe a period of self-isolation and further testing,” teh statement added. Although Moeen is now certain to miss the first Test due to his 10-day quarantine, other members of the contingent would be tested again on Tuesday, 5th January. “The touring party will be PCR tested for a second time on Tuesday morning. At this stage, the team will train for the first time on Wednesday.” The first Test begins on 14th January at Galle.