India’s home season announced, Men in Blue to play South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies and Sri Lanka

The Indian Men’s cricket team would be welcoming New Zealand, West Indies, South Africa and Sri Lanka in what is going to be a heavy home season of 2021-22.

The Board of control for Cricket India took the decision in the Apex Council meet on Monday, September 20 and announced the home season would begin with a tour of New Zealand to India where they will be playing three T20Is and two Tests starting November 17.

The T20Is will be played in Jaipur, Ranchi and Kolkata respectively, Kanpur and Mumbai would host India’s Tests against New Zealand.

Right after the concussion of the New Zealand series, men in maroon from the West Indies will travel to India and play three ODIs and three T20Is in February, starting from 06th Feb. Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Kolkata have been chosen for the three ODIs respectively while Cuttack, Vizag and Trivandrum will host the three T20Is respectively.

Soon after the island neighbours from down South will be touring the country and they will be playing two Tests and three T20Is from February 25th to March 22 before the Proteas come over. While Bengaluru host the first Test, Mohali would host the second Test as well as the first T20I against Sri Lanka with the rest of the two T20Is going to Dharmashala and Lucknow.

The South African team will play five T20Is, starting with the first one on June 9 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The rest of the four games will be played in Bengaluru, Nagpur, Rajkot and Delhi.

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BCCI to approve Team India's schedule for busy 2021-22 season today

Team India will embark on a busy 2021-22 season after the conclusion of the upcoming ICC World T20 in UAE as they are all set to host New Zealand, West Indies and Sri Lanka while touring South Africa from November 17 to June 19 next year. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in its next AGM scheduled for today is set to approve a gruelling season of cricket in the months after a big global event. They are set to play four Tests against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, along with three ODIs and as many as 11 T20Is in the season. Mumbai and Kanpur have been proposed as venues for the Tests against New Zealand while Bengaluru and Mohali have emerged as strong favourites to host the two Test matches against neighbouring Sri Lanka. The BCCI may also decide to organise the Test in Lucknow instead of the proposed venue in Kanpur. India have not had an extended home season since the outbreak of Covid-19 util England came on a full-fledged tour comprising of four Tests, three ODIs and five T20Is. The next season after T20 World Cup will also mark a new beginning for India in T20Is as Virat Kohli has announced his resignation from the post of captain after the marquee event.

India Women vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur ruled out of 1st ODI against Australia Women

India Women have suffered a huge setback as their vice-captain and one of the star batters Harmanpreet Kaur has been ruled of the first ODI of the series against Australia Women scheduled to start on September 21. India Women’s coach Ramesh Powar confirmed the news and said that Harmanpreet has hurt her thumb and hence will be unavailable for selection in the pre-series press conference. He refused to give details and the extent of her injury and said that the team management will take a call on her availability in due course of time. "Harmanpreet Kaur got hit on the thumb and is not available for the first ODI. We'll take a call on her availability on the second match later,” Powar said. India Women have travelled to Australia in the leadership of Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet along with the skipper and batters such as Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Varma form the core strength of the side. Harmanpreet is an experienced campaigner with 107 ODI appearances to her name and her best of 171 came against Australia in the ICC WODI World Cup in 2017 in England. She has had three hundred and 12 fifties in the format so far and India Women will certainly miss her flamboyant appearance against Australia Women in the first ODI of the series.

IPL 2021 | Coach Fleming points brilliant end of IPL 2020 behind Gaikwad's success this season

The Chennai Super Kings found themselves in big trouble in the opening game of the second part of the Indian Premier League, but the opener Ruturaj Gaikwad held the innings together with Ravindra Jadeja. Later on, he accelerated with incredible shots off Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult to take the Super Kings to a defendable total. The head coach of the Super Kings, Stephen Fleming has commended Gaikwad for his match-winning innings against the Mumbai Indians. He outlined his brilliant finish to the last season in UAE where the Super Kings had struggled as a team behind his rapid rise to success. He said that Gaikwad got into the groove only in the ending phase of the tournament last year when all was over the side in IPL 2020 and also admitted mistake on the part of the team management for “rushing him after recovery from Covid-19”. "We had big tabs on him since last season and I think we rushed him a bit too early after recovering from COVID. I think the way he finished in Dubai last year in the IPL set him up for the start of this season. In a big match, it’s quite special for him to play such a big innings," Fleming said in a virtual press conference. He also addressed the injury concerns to Ambati Rayudu, who was hit on the hand by express delivery from Adam Millen early on in the innings and Deepak Chahar, who was struggling to bowl his final over of the game. Rayudu could not bat after taking that blow and was retired hurt. Fleming confirmed that the right-hander did not suffer a fracture and instead started recovery from a “bad bruise”. On Chahar, Fleming said that the pacer went through cramps and not any serious injury concerns. "It’s a bad bruise and he lost a little bit of power on the grip. Thankfully, nothing's broken. With Chahar he had cramps, but we will check that out tomorrow," he said. The Super Kings restarted their IPL 2021 campaign with a big win over the Mumbai Indians and went past the Delhi Capitals to the top of the points table with six wins out of the eight games played this season.

SCO vs ZIM| Milton Shumba's career-best helps Zimbabwe chase down 178, win series

It was a blinder of an innings by 20-year-old Zimbabwean Milton Shumba, who redeemed himself from not being able to chase down 142 in the first match of the match T20I series against Scotland, by casing down 178 in the last match and thereby winning the match by five wickets and the series 2-1. Shumba scored 66 of just 29 balls in a knock that consisted of only two fours and six humungous sixes to help his team chase down a tough total at the Grange in Edinburgh. His 99 runs partnership with fellow young all-rounder Wesley Madhevere for the fourth wicket was the key to the Zimbabwean run chase. After the team lost three experienced batters in skipper Sean Ervine, wicket-keeper batter Regis Chakabva and senior all-rounder Sean Williams at the score of 63, chasing down a stiff total of 178, the two young men aged 20 and 21 respectively, showed composure and strength beyond imagination in the eye of the storm and 99 runs in just 53 balls to get to the target. While Madhevere got out for 43 off 31 balls with still 15 needed from 11 balls, Shumba and Ryan Burl made sure that there were no hiccups in a Chevron win. Earlier in the day, after winning the toss, Scotland decided to bat first and courtesy of a brilliant innings from George Munsey at the top (54 off 30 balls), followed by some crucial runs down the order by Calum McLeod (39 off 29 balls) and Richie Berrington (44 off 39 balls), Scotland for the first time ever, crossed the 150 run mark in the series. This was a series decider game with both the teams winning one match each before. Left-handed batter Shumba, who scored his very first career fifty in international cricket, was awarded Man of the Match as well as Man of the series for scoring 112 runs at an average of 56.