India fined for slow over rate during final ODI against South Africa

Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir tests positive for Covid

Gautam Gambhir has tested positive for Covid-19, he informed through a post on his official Twitter handle. The left-handed batter who played crucial knocks for India in two of its most recent World Cup-winning campaigns is also a Member of Parliament from East Delhi Constituency. Last year in November, the cricketer had to isolate himself after a family member of his tested positive for Covid-19. An active member of the Bhartiya Janta Party’s Delhi unit, Gambhir is one of the most popular faces in the country. Apart from his active politics, the batter who played 242 international matches across formats for India from 2003 to 2016, has also been roped in as mentor of the Lucknow Super Giants, the franchise which enters as one of the two new teams in the Indian Premier League from the 2022 edition onwards. In total, the 40-year-old scored 10324 international runs in his career with 20 centuries and 63 half-centuries to his name.

Warner, Marsh rested as McDermott gets slotted into Australia squad for Sri Lanka T20Is

Chairman of Selectors for Australia, George Bailey announced the national squad for the upcoming home series against Sri Lanka starting February 11 in Sydney. While big-hitting Ben McDermott has been rewarded for his brilliant showing in the Big Bash League 2021-22, Mitchell Marsh and David Warner have been rested for the match series to prepare for the Pakistan tour that follows. McDermott leads the BBL run list with 577 runs at a strike rate of 153.86 in only 13 innings. In fact, the 27-year-old also became the first player in the league’s history to hit back to back hundreds. Apart from McDermott, Jhye Richardson, Travis Head and Moises Henriques have also been rewarded for their good showing throughout the summer while Josh Hazlewood, who missed out on most of the Ashes action due to side strain has been selected to get match practise before the Pakistan tour. Head coach Justin Langer has also taken planned leave to refresh before the Pakistan tour and Assistant coach Andrew McDonald will act as interim head coach for this series. “This squad will begin preparation for the ICC T20 World Cup defence at home later this year, and includes several players who have an early chance to impress in these five matches against a quality opposition,” Bailey said in a press release. Australia Squad Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Josh Inglis, Ben McDermott, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa

People wouldn’t have been able to digest his success: Shastri on Kohli stepping down from Test captaincy

Former India coach Ravi Shastri, who is also considered very close to former all formats captain of India, Virat Kohli, has taken an indirect jibe at the BCCI management which includes President Sourav Ganguly by saying that people would have been jealous of Kohli’s success. Shastri reasoned that for the next two years India would have played a lot of Tests at home and Kohli, who already was the most successful Indian Test skipper at the time of his stepping down, would have had more wins under his belt. "For sure, he could have led India for at least 2 years because next two years India would be playing at home and who is coming over - 9 and 10 jacks, going by the rankings,” he said. “But he would have then made it to 50-60 wins under his captaincy and a lot of people will not be able to digest that fact,” added the 59-year-old in his chat with India Today. Saying that the kind of results Kohli has achieved would have been revered in any other country while he is being questioned in India just after a 1-2 loss to South Africa, Shastri explained that it was things of this sort that would have made the 33-year-old Kohli think about exploring his batting more and giving up on the pressure of captaincy. "He only knows how much is he enjoying captaincy. When Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni were not enjoying captaincy, they left. Similarly, when Virat thought that he had won 40 matches, six years he had been leading and now he wants to enjoy his cricket. He wants to focus on his batting and release a bit of pressure and it happens with a lot of individuals," said Shastri. Kohli had stepped down from the T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup 2021 and was unceremoniously sacked from the ODI captaincy by the Ganguly led BCCI, about which both Kohli and Ganguly made contrasting comments. And just days after all that, he stepped down from Test captaincy after the series loss against South Africa.

Shakib joins DJ Bravo in elite list of players with 400 wickets and 5000 runs in T20s

It wasn’t really a great game for one of the superstars and most sought after cricketers in the shortest format Shakib Al Hasan in the Bangladesh Premier League 2022. His side Fortune Barishal lost to Minister Group Dhaka by four wickets. He could also score only 23 runs and took only one wicket. But in this very inconsequential game with both ball and bat, the all-rounder reached a milestone that has been scaled by only one player prior to him in the entire world. Playing his 353rd T20 game in his 16-year long career in the shortest format, Shakib became only the second player after West Indies’ Dwayne Barvao to complete the double of 400 wickets and 5000 runs in the shortest format. However, this feat will not be remembered much by Shakib as it came almost at the end of the match when the opposition side needed only one run to win the match and the opposition skipper Mahmudullah Riyad, in an attempt to hit for four over covers was caught at short covers. Shakib also has 5610 runs to his kitty at an average of 20.25 and at a strike rate of 120. The only other player in contention to enter the list is another Caribbean in Andre Russell who has so far claimed 350 wickets and hit 6563 in 395 T20s.