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Icc Player Of The Month Nepals Kushal Bhurtel Competes With Babar Azam And Fakhar Zaman

ICC Player of the Month: Nepal’s Kushal Bhurtel competes with Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman

The International Cricket Council announced nominations of the Player of the Month Award and it surprised many as for the first time ever, a member of the associate nation, Kushal Bhurtel of Nepal was among the three nominees.

While Bhurtel was the star of the show in the tri-nation T20I series hosted by Nepal in April where they defeated the Netherlands in the final to lift the trophy, Babar and Fakhar hammered the South Africans in both the ODIs and T20Is to record historic series wins against South Africa in both the formats.

Bhurtel, 24, scored 278 runs including four fifties in the five games that he played against in the tri-nation series hosted at Kiritpur. The right-hander averaged a phenomenal 69.50 at a strike rate of 140 in the series. The third team in the tri-series was Malaysia.

Babar, 26, on the other hand, was brilliant with the bat as well, scoring 228 runs in three ODIs including a century at an average of 76 and 305 T20I runs in seven innings at an average of 43.57. His fellow compatriot Zaman, 30, played a historic knock of 193, the second-highest individual score in an ODI while chasing at Johannesburg. He followed that with another century in Centurion in the very next game helping Pakistan win the ODI series 2-1.

The previous three winners of the ICC Men’s Player of the Month have all been Indians and it includes the likes of Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.

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Somerset sign up New Zealand batsman Devon Conway for Vitality Blast, County Championship

Somerset have signed up New Zealand explosive batsman Devon Conway for nine matches of the Vitality T20 Blast and a couple of county championship fixtures scheduled between June 23rd to July 18. Excited at the prospect of playing in the England domestic circuit, Conway said that condition during the summer in England pose challenges to players and hoped that he could bring an impact for Somerset in the T20 Blast and County Championship. “Somerset has a very good reputation and I’m excited to be joining the team for a key part of the season. I’m really looking forward to the challenge. England is one of the places where everyone wants to test their skills during the summer and hopefully, I can positively contribute to success in the Vitality Blast and the County Championship,” Conway said in a statement. Notably, the left-hander has also found a place in the New Zealand squad for the tour of England where they will play two Test matches against the hosts and India in the World Test Championship final and Conway is likely to join Somerset post completion of his international commitments. Conway has earned the limelight for his hard-hitting abilities with the bat. He grew into prominence based on his batting in the T20Is at home and also capitalised on opportunities handed out to him in the 50-over format. Devon has played 14 T20Is for New Zealand, averaging 59.12 with a strike rate of 151 and including the highest score of 99 not out against Australia earlier this year. He has also featured in three One-Day Internationals and has amassed 225 runs with an astounding average of 75 and the highest score of 126 runs.

Problem of plenty: Kiwi all-rounder de Grandhomme points India's toughest challenge in WTC Final

Kiwi all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme has said that the immense strength of the Indian team will make the selection of playing XI the toughest task for the team management when they will play New Zealand in the finals of the World Test championship. "With the amount of players they've got they can cover all bases because they've got real good seam bowlers these days and gun spinner, so I think the toughest thing for them is going to be picking the XI," the ICC tweeted quoting Grandhomme. There is a fact in Grandhomme’s assertion as India have many formidable options for almost all roles in the team. If all were to be considered for selection, Indian have to choose two openers among Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal while for all-rounders, the competition will be between Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, and R Ashwin. The bowling department has been enriched with the success of newcomers such as Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur, who will be joining the settled trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has come back after a long injury lay off and has shown keenness to play the longest format and will pose challenges to other pacers for his skills that can be really handy in England. India and New Zealand will face off in the WTC Final scheduled to take place in Southampton from June 18.

Sri Lanka confirms Bangladesh tour, team to play three ODIs on the sojourn

The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Wednesday, May 5 confirmed that the national team would be touring Bangladesh for a three-match ODI series starting May 25. All the matches would be played at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka. The Lankan Tigers would depart on May 16 for the tour and after undergoing five days of quarantine, will play an intra-squad practice match on May 21 at Savar Cricket Ground in Dhaka. The three-match series would be part of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup Super League in which Bangladesh is currently positioned at number six, while Sri Lanka is at the bottom at 12 having lost all three ODIs against West Indies in March 2021. The series is important in the sense that among 13 teams (12 permanent members and the Netherlands), the top seven teams and hosts India would qualify for the 2023 World Cup directly while the bottom five teams would be involved in a qualifying tournament. The tournament would involve the lower rung associates who would be coming through various layers of qualification. Three remaining two matches of the series would be played on May 25th and 28th at the same venue. All the matches would be day and night and played in empty stands. The Sri Lankan team will depart back home on May 29th.

IPL 2021: Eight of 11 England players reach home, to undergo 10-day institutional quarantine

A group of eight English players barring Dawid Malan, white-ball skipper Eoin Morgan and Chris Jordan have reached back to England on a chartered flight from India. These players would now undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine in a government-approved hotel at Heathrow Airport. The mandatory quarantine is due to India’s presence on the “red list” in United Kingdom’s travel guidelines. It is believed that the remaining three English players will be boarding a flight back home in the next 48 hours. However, it is not clear how the other members from England, who were part of the IPL 2021, including KKR’s James Foster and Nathan Leamon, Rajasthan Royals CEO Mike Fordham and commentator Nick Knight, would get back home. The biggest contingent at the now postponed IPL was of the Australian players, which was 38 men strong. They are now being sent through Sri Lanka and Maldives’ route, where they will spend the necessary amount of time to qualify for a flight home. All travel from India to Australia is banned till May 15. The IPL Governing Council Chairman Brijesh Patel and acting CEO Heman Amin have confirmed that all the foreign players would be sent back to their countries in a safe passage.