Holder, Bravo back as 10 players from Bangladesh tour retain their spots in Windies Test squad

IPL 2021: Australian Damien Wright joins Punjab Kings as bowling coach

Former Bangladesh U-19 and New Zealand bowling coach Damien Wright has been roped in as bowling coach of the rechristened Punjab Kings for the upcoming Indian Premier League season. Announcing the news, the franchise posted a tweet welcoming the Australian onboard. Wright, who has played 123 first-class and 106 List A games for various teams including Tasmania and Worcestershire will join the likes of head coach Anil Kumble, assistant coach Andy Flower, batting coach Wasim Jaffer and fielding coach Jonty Rhodes as Punjab’s brains in the dressing room. Prior to joining Punjab, Wright, 45 has also played a similar role for Big Bash sides Hobart Hurricanes and the Melbourne Stars. He takes over from South African Charl Langeveld. The Kings start their IPL campaign against Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai on April 12. They will play three more games at the Wankhede before moving to Ahmedabad for two games and then play four games in Chennai. Their league stage would conclude with a five-match run in Bengaluru.

IND vs ENG | 1st T20: High on rhetoric, low on performance India get brutal reality check

Establishing what their side is capable of pulling off in the white-ball format, Eoin Morgan’s trounced India in the opening game to start the series on a dominant note. There have been contrasting traits of both sides on their ‘approach’ towards the shortest format, and the stark contrast could not have been more visible on the night of March 12 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Whatever could have gone wrong for the hosts went terribly wrong for them, while the tourists were brilliant in all their moves and justified their dominant position on the ICC Rankings for T20Is. Chasing a below-par score of 126 runs, Jason Roy looked like a man on the mission who may have got offended for being unsold in the IPL auction that took place last month. He was preferred probably due to his perceived weakness against spin bowling, and hence the first victim of his onslaught was Yuzvendra Chahal who was to be the trump card for Kohli. The move to attack Chahal was calculated one by Roy as Kohli relied on the surface to be another turner and played three spinners to reap the best advantage. However, Roy took it upon himself to make a resounding statement that the trial by spin was over in the Test series, and the players who are here for the white-ball leg of the tour are a different kettle of fish. Kohli looked like a confused captain who was lost after suffering a collapse in the batting effort in the first innings. He played Washington Sundar along with Axar Patel as the two extra spinners other than Chahal, but Washington Sundar was kept away from bowling in a move that appeared as a hangover from the Test series where his skills were not considered worthy enough, while Axar bowled ahead of him. Ironically, Kohli has been Washington’s skipper in the IPL where he bowls the majority of his overs in powerplays and has an astounding economy rate. Bhuvneshwar Kumar looked rusty with the ball and lacked both swing and control with the new ball against the pair of Buttler and Roy who had the luxury of taking time in pursuit of a relatively lower score for their standards. The second pacer—Shardul Thakur started off his spell with good control over his line but lacked incisive edge over batsmen to trouble in such a small chase. Hardik Pandya, whose returning to bowling was widely anticipated showed signs of a bowler who is short of overs under his belt and India were left flummoxed and bamboozled against an all-strength England side. The struggles of Test matches were left far behind and it could not have been explained in any better ways than Jonny Bairstow coming in at number four position to tonk spinners Chahal and Washington over the ropes with such ease that would have left many fans bewildered if they were watching the same Bairstow in whites against Indian spinners. Earlier in the evening, Kohli’s tryst with the toss continued even with the white ball as Morgan won the toss to send them in. England opted for an all-pace attack with Adil Rashid as the lone spinner in the line-up, while India opted for a spin-heavy attack. The contrasting team selection was reminiscent of the final Test between the two sides, and the jury was out on who got it right in terms of selection in the final selection of the series. Fair to say, in the end, Morgan outclassed his counterpart in selecting only one spinner as his pacers bowled their heart out and rattled Indian batsmen with pace and bounce off the surface. Kohli had on the previous day publicly accepted that their batting approach in the shortest format has been found wanting in the shortest format and that they will look to revamp it starting with the series England. The sense of ambiguity around the decision-making process remained with Kohli’s method in the first T20 as well with Dhawan and Rahul selected to open the batting as the team decided to rest Rohit for a couple of games. Kohli had said that Dhawan was the third opener and was to get chances when either Rohit or Rahul was to miss out due to injury concerns or resting, but none would have expected that the rest for Rohit will come in the very first game of the series. Dhawan must have been under enormous pressure to remain in the reckoning of the team management knowing that Rohit would walk in the team whenever the team decides, and Rahul has been too consistent with the bat to be replaced. All the talk and rhetoric about fearless mindset and revamped approach in bating were not evident in the first over as both Dhawan and Rahul looked scratchy with the bat. To be fair to them, morgan stumped them with a brilliant tactic to introduce Adil Rashid in the powerplay and clearly, neither of them looked to be ready for a probable out of syllabus question from the opposition. Jofra Archer has been a phenomenal force with the new ball in IPL, but not for England in T20Is, but he had his eyes set on course correction. The pace was right up there and his signature steep bounce off the back of length areas was evident with the new ball as he dismissed KL Rahul and rattled Virat Kohli in his very first over that ended as a wicket-maiden over. Tight overs from Rashid and Archer mounted pressure on Kohli, who appeared not to be backing down from the aggressive mindset he had promised a day before and appeared attempting to walk his talk. Rashid was smart enough for him on the night and Kohli’s desperation for quick runs handed England another success fairly early in the innings. If Archer’s bounce was not challenging enough for the Indians, Morgan had a real thunderbolt in the form of Mark Wood in store for the hosts. Dhawan really looked all over the place against a really quick first spell from Wood and ended up walking back to the pavilion having played an ugly heave across the line of Wood. India were caught off guard even before they could start off with the bat, but Rishabh Pant who has earned a recall into the T20 team on the basis of his recent form in the Test format made sure to capitalise on the opportunities he got at the number four position. There is no limit to Pant’s insanity in terms of shot selection as he pulled out yet another jaw-dropping reverse scoop off Archer’s delivery bowled around 140 kmph which England batting legend Kevin Pietersen rated as the best shot played ever in the history of the game. However, he could not get going after a six and four off Archer and when he found the fielder at deep square leg after a sluggish innings, India’s hopes of a competitive total suffered a serious setback. The number four slot in the batting order where Shreyas Iyer used to bat in the last few series was a contentious issue among fans and commentariat as more than one contenders emerged fitting for the position. Mumbai’s Suryakumar Yadav finally hammered the door of selection down to get a call up while Ishan Kishan who promises a lot of fireworks with the bat also got a look in for the series in order to rejuvenate the middle order. For the first match though, Kohli went with the tried skills and offerings of Iyer who must have been under enormous pressure with the likes of Yadav and Kishan waiting for an opportunity to pounce on and also due to his own lack of runs in the previous series against Australia. The situation of India losing too many early wickets could not be bigger for Iyer to establish the solidity he offers to the batting order as he relied on his timing and immaculate placements to steer India towards some sort of respectable total in the opening game. His backdoor game was exposed in Australia, and Morgan too was eager to ask him tough questions with pacers measuring the length of his throat. However, he also got deliveries on his hips which he capitalised on to get going. He was the lone warrior with the bat for India as even the reliable Hardik Pandya who has been one of the main architects of India’s win in the recent past failed to rise to the occasion. India were left lacking clarity on the objectives they wanted to achieve in the first game. Openers did not show enough eagerness of proactive batting while Kohli lost his wicket in the desperation of quick runs. In the end, the game turned out to be a nightmare game for a side that has appeared lacking clarity of thoughts on the style of cricket they want to play in the shortest format, and the England side which is as clear-headed as side can be punished them for having cluttered head and ambiguity. For both sides, the outcome of the series does not hold that greater value contextually as they are using these games to reach their best as a squad, but needless to say, India were left with more questions than answers in their first journey on to the path leading up to the World T20.

Lizelle Lee takes South Africa past Indian eves in rain-marred game

South Africa veteran Lizelle Lee turned on her A-game as she scored only her third hundred in ODI cricket to take South Africa home through a Duckworth-Lewis and Stern method. Lee carried her bat, scoring a brilliant 132 off 131 ball in a chase of 249. Along with Lee, another experienced campaigner Mignon du Preez also played an important cameo, scoring a quickfire 37 to give the team the desired pull during the chase. The chase started in a positive manner for the rainbow nation’s eves as Laura Wolvaardt, making her captaincy debut, added 41 runs with Lee. However, once she was removed for 12, Lara Goodall couldn’t make much of an impact either, getting out for 16, after a 49 that she had scored in the previous game. Lee though remained unperturbed by these dismissals and continued building upon her momentum. Joined by du Preez, she started taking on the Indian bowlers as the two added 97 in 90 balls. However, just after du Preez’s dismissal of Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami removed Marizanne Kapp to put South African women in a spot of bother, as they could only get 10 runs in the next three overs. But just when the required rate started climbing, Lee pulled up her socks and started scoring briskly, even as her partner Anne Bosch found it difficult to even rotate the strike. Lee’s last 23 runs came in just 15 balls. Just before the start of the rain came in, South Africa women hit 10 runs in the previous over to get ahead of the par score of 217 by six runs. Earlier in the day, Wolvaardt won the toss and put India to bat first. It was a third failure in the row for Jemimah Rodriguez as she was removed by Shambnim Ismail for nought. Smriti Mandhana too couldn’t get a big score in this game and India were 64-2 when skipper Mithali Raj joined Punam Raut in the middle. Mithali, after getting to the milestone 10,000 international runs got out, but Raut continued scoring 77 off 108 balls. With Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma’s 36 each, India was able to make it to 248 in their 50 overs. With this win at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Lucknow, South Africa w lead the five-match series 2-1. Lee was awarded Man of the Match for her brilliant innings.

IND vs ENG 1st T20: Rishabh Pant does it again; now reverse scoops Archer for six

Rishabh Pant pulled yet another outrageous shot against pacer in the first T20I of the series against Engkand when he reverse scopped Jofra Archer over the wicketkeeepr and slip’s head for a six. India were rattled early when KL Rahul and Virat Kohli dismissed early by Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid before Pant started his onslaught against Archer.