India announce Test squad for New Zealand series, Rahane to lead in first Test

India have announced the 16-man squad for the upcoming two-match long Test series against New Zeland starting November 25.

As it has been reported, Virat Kohli will miss the first Test of the series and Ajinkya Rahane will lead the side for the first game before Kohli will come back for the second Test. Cheteshwar Pujara has been elevated as vice-captain in the absence of Virat Kohli.

India have rested Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant and Mohammed Shami from the entire series.

Shubman Gill, who was sent back from England after an injury has returned to the Test squad while Mayank Agarwal, who could not feature in any of the Tests against England has maintained his place in the squad.

The spin twins—Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin find a place in the squad and so does KL Rahul despite their prolonged stay in the biosecure bubble through the course of the last many months.

Off-spinner Jayant Yadav, who last played a Test for India in the year 2017 has made his return to the squad while Axar Patel, who announced his arrival at the Test level in a grand manner against England maintain his place in the side.

The quartet of Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Md. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna has been picked in the absence of both Bumrah and Shami.

KS Bharat and Wriddhiman Saha are the two wicketkeeper batsmen in the squad.

Hanuma Vihari, who last played a marathon rearguard innings in the Sydney Test against at the start of the year has been dropped from the squad. As per some media reports, he will head to South Africa with the India A side touring just before India senior’s tour in December.

In a rather surprise move, Shreyas Iyer has also made a comeback into the squad and it could well be that India are looking at him as a middle-order option in the long-term future.

India’s Test squad

Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Md. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

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T20 World Cup | Babar Azam pinpoints Hasan Ali's drop catch of Matthew Wade for semi-final loss

Pakistan captain Babar Azam has pinned the blame for losing the big semi-final contest against Australia on the dropped catch by Hasan Ali of Mathew Wade. The left-hander was taking the game away from the Pakistan side before he mistimed a lofted shot towards deep midwicket where Hasan was stationed. However, he could not latch on to it and Wade went on to produce three sixes on the next three deliveries to lead Australia to the final of the tournament. Babar said that the result of the game would have been in their favour had Wade not got that extra opportunity and rued giving a quality side like Australia one extra chance to win the game "When you give teams like Aus a chance they take the match away from you," Babar said after the game. "If that catch that Hasan Ali dropped had been taken, maybe the result would have been different. As a player, you have to be on your toes and avail any opportunity you get. We made a mistake and it cost us the match." Pakistan were undefeated throughout the tournament before the loss to Australia and Babar expressed his satisfaction for the consistency of his side. He assured the fans they will learn the lessons from their mistakes in this tournament and vowed to make a stronger comeback. "The way we played the tournament and gelled together as a team, I am very satisfied with my team's efforts as captain," Babar said. "We'll try and learn from our mistakes and come back stronger. When you play a big tournament so well, it's good but you have to perform on the day. You can't relax in any department,” Babar added.

Former all-rounder Mirwais Ashraf named acting chairman of Afghanistan Cricket Board

Former Afghanistan all-rounder Mirwais Ashraf has been appointed the new acting chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board. He replaces Azizullah Fazli, who had been appointed only four months ago replacing Farhan Yusufzai who fled the country after the regime change. Thus Ashraf has become the third acting chairman of the board in only four months. Hasan Akhund, patron-in-chief of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and the acting prime minister of the country appointed Ashraf at his post through a direct notice issued earlier this week Ashraf, who is considered one of the early players to popularise the game alongside Afghan cricket legends such as Mohammad Nabi and Asghar Afghan, made his international debut in 2009 and featured in 46 ODIs and 25 T20Is for the country which includes being a part of two T20 World Cup campaigns in 2010 and 2014 and an ODI World Cup campaign in 2015. The reason behind the new change is because the ruling regime wants someone capable of speaking out his mind at ICC meetings and also getting rid of the malfunctions in the system. "The government is trying to bring in more competent people with expertise in technical aspects of the game - commercial, business and marketing. If Afghanistan can produce world-class players with this broken system back home then imagine what they can do with a competent board.,” a director in the board was quoted as saying to ESPNCricinfo.

SLC makes it mandatory for LPL franchises to have two extra local players over and above drafted picks

In a bizarre announcement Sri Lanka Cricket, the Governing Council of the Lankan Premier League 2021, has decided to forward 10 names each to the five franchises of the league and make it mandatory for them to pick at least two players from the 10 choices. Reasoning this move, the SLC in a press release said, “Despite the overall success, Sri Lanka Cricket has observed that franchise owners have opted not to select certain national players and some young players who play excellent domestic cricket and are considered potential future stars.” “Considering the above deficiency and in the interest of the game of Cricket in Sri Lanka, the Governing Council of the Lanka Premier League 2021 decided to forward the names of 10 deserving players, who missed out during the Player draft, to all the franchise owners, and make it ‘mandatory’ for each franchise to select two players out of the given 10 into their squad, thus expanding the squad strength from 20 to 22,” the statement added. It would be interesting to see how all the office franchises, who initially did not pick the players would react to this move and an extra burden from an authoritative notice. In this year’s edition, the Lanka Premier League 2021 received 673 applications from foreign players and a total of 1031 players (local and overseas) went into the draft. The five franchises, namely Galle Gladiators, Jaffna Kings, Colombo Stars, Kandy Warriors and Dambulla Giants have picked 20 players each in the draft which include six overseas players in each team. The LPL 2021 is scheduled to begin on December 05th and would be played till the 23rd of the same month with all league games scheduled to be played at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo with the qualifiers and final to be played at Hambantota.

T20 World Cup | Semi-Final: Hasan Ali lets Pakistan down as Matthew wades the way for Australia

Shaheen Afridi, the most lethal weapon for Pakistan was handed the ball by skipper Babar Azam when Pakistan needed to defend 22 off the last two overs and Afridi almost delivered as after giving only two singles on his first two balls, he got Matthew Wade to commit a mistake and a mistimed hit was flying straight to Hasan Ali at deep mid-wicket, all the Pakistani hopes were riding in that catch as the wicket would have meant a new batter and anew batter facing Shaheen Afridi is never a pretty sight for the batting team. But Hasan, who had just conceded 15 off his last over and finished his spell at 0-44 in the four overs dropped the sitter. That might be the biggest drop of his career so far as it meant that not only did Australia get two easy runs, but the morale of the entire Pakistani unit was gone although Shoaib Malik tried his efforts best to console Hasan Ali. What happened in the next three balls was pure carnage by Wade. On the fourth ball, he got down on one knee and played a scoop over fine leg for a six. The next ball was at length and slower as well, it sat up nicely and was dispatched over Hasan Ali at mid-wicket for a six. Needing six from seven, Wade once again chose to play the scoop, going down on his haunches, he hit it over Mohammad Rizwan’s head for a six to finish the game in style. Wades’ knock of 41 off just 17 balls was the deciding factor as Australia won the game by five wickets and marched into only their second ever T20 World Cup final where they will face their trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand on November 14 in Dubai itself. The 33-year-old wicket-keeper batsman sporting a handsome moustache proudly received the Player of the Match award. The Aussie chase hadn’t started in an ideal way whatsoever, rather it was the worst possible start with skipper Aaron Finch getting out on a golden duck and Mitchell Marsh surviving a close LBW call. David Warner on the other hand kept bowlers at bay and remained busy throughout his knock of 49 off 30 balls. He added 51 with Marsh before the latter was caught by Asif Ali off Shadab Kahan’s bowling. Shadab would go on to then get the wickets of Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Warner as well, all in a span of 19 runs to push Australia from 77-2 to 96-5. It was then that Marcus Stoinis and Wade got into a partnership. They kept hitting a boundary in an over and didn’t let the run rate get above 13 at any point. It was their unbeaten partnership of 81 off just 40 balls that got the Aussies through. Earlier in the evening, after winning the toss Australia put Pakistan to bat first. As always, Babar and Rizwan gave a steady start and added 77 for the first wicket before Babar got out trying to accelerate. Rizwan completes his fifty and scored a 52 ball 67. But it was the innings of Fakhar Zaman in which he hit 55 off just 32 balls, smashing Micthell Starc for three sixes that got Pakistan to a comfortable 176 in 20 overs. Adam Zampa was the best Aussie bowler with figures of 1-22 in his four overs. Even Pat Cummins bowled a beauty of a 19th over, giving away just three runs and stopping the Pakistani side from getting past 180.