Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill to join Ahmedabad franchise: Reports

Cannot lose Virat, the batsman: Kapil Dev advises Kohli to give up his ego

World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev has advised Kohli that he should give up his ego for Indian cricket to sustain their domination in the world. Dev, who played under the likes of K Srikanth and Mohammad Azharuddin himself said that there is no way that India can afford to lose a batsman like Virat Kohli. "Virat will have to give up his ego and play under a young cricketer. This will help him and Indian cricket. Virat should guide the new captain, new players. We cannot lose Virat, the batsman... no way." NDTV quoted Kapil Dev saying that Kohli appeared to be under a lot of pressure, an idea that seems to be floating around the Indian cricketing circles. Kohli, who was the captain of all the teams that he was playing for till the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League, first left the IPL captaincy position and then in a rapid turnaround vacated the white-ball and Test captaincy as well. With the first ODI between South Africa and India scheduled to be hosted on 19 January, India would have to shake everything off and prepare under captain KL Rahul, who will be taking over the reins in the absence of Rohit Sharma.

Women’s Ashes | Beth Mooney ruled out after fracturing jaw in the nets

Australia opener Beth Mooney has suffered a fractured jaw, effectively ruling her out for the most part of the multi-format Ashes series. Scheduled to begin on January 20, Thursday, Mooney has little or no chance to make a comeback in the later stages of the tournament, but the Australian camp is hopeful that she can, given the advancements in medical sciences. Mooney is scheduled to have surgery on Tuesday, 18 January. An integral part of the Australian line-up, Mooney will leave a huge hole in the batting order and will be leaving the think tank scratching their heads as to who will replace her. Mooney’s injury occurred in the nets during throwdowns after a ‘rouge’ ball shot up. According to head coach Matthew mott, who was on the other end of the drill, Mooney tried to avoid the ball the best she could, but ended up damaging her jaw. The multiformat series starts from 20th with three T20Is, before moving to a solitary Test match and then three ODIs.

After U-13 player clears stadium, PCB suspends tournament for age-fraud

Pakistan Cricket Board suspended its U13 and U16 amid age fraud concerns. Tensions had been looming for a while now with several associations believed to have fielded overage players. ESPNcricinfo reported an incident where a U13 player had hit 11 sixes in a game, with one ball clearing the stadium. With the situation getting out of hands, PCB decided to take over and cancel the tournaments, a major part of their Pathways Programme and impose strict regulations. PCB’s high performance director Nadeem Khan in a statement said that fresh bone tests will be conducted as overage cricketers cannot be allowed to take advantage of flaws in the system. "After visual assessment confirmed that some over-age cricketers were participating in the U-13 and U-16 tournaments, suspending the events and conducting fresh bone age tests was absolutely the right thing to do," Nadeem said. "The PCB, as the sole governing body of cricket in Pakistan, cannot allow over-age cricketers to take advantage of the flaws in the system and cause demotivation and mental stress to deserving under-age cricketers as well as their parents.” Controversy related to age fraud had risen its head recently in India as well, with BCCI’s chief medical officer resigning right ahead of the scheduled age-group tournaments. Later, BCCI had allowed overage players to participate in the tournaments but the competition had to be cancelled due to the rising numbers in third wave triggered by the Omicron variant. Speaking about the situation Nadeem said that the age fraud issue had been plaguing Pakistan for quite a while now and it needs to be corrected right away. "Falsifying age to become eligible to participate in age-group cricket is not only an offence but a menace that has been plaguing our system. This now needs to be corrected to protect the integrity of the tournaments as well as to stop the exodus of young talented cricketers."

PSL | After tremendous BBL start, Ian Cockbain gets picked up by Karachi Kings

Ian Cockbain, who scored a fiery 71 off just 42 balls to take Adelaide Strikers through to Big Bash League playoffs, has been snatched by Karachi Kings for the upcoming Pakistan Super League season. Cockbain, 34, has played three crucial knocks in the middle order for Strikers this season in his first week for the club. While in his first game, he played a grafters role to take his team over the line, his latest innings for the Strikers was a severely attacking one where he scored at a rapid rate against the likes of Dan Christian and Sean Abbott. Cockbain was signed as a replacement for countryman Tom Abell, who sustained a knee injury during the current Big Bash League season. The Pakistan Super League will start on 27 January in Karachi and will shift to Lahore for the second phase of the tournament after February 7.