IPL 2022: 'Excited' Shane Watson joins Delhi Capitals as assistant coach

"That is my worry"- Mark Taylor questions Pakistan's defensive mindset

Former Australian captain Mark Taylor has opined that the nature of pitches that Pakistan have dished out in the ongoing series against Australia is a reflection of their mindset at the moment.

Hanuma Vihari, Abhimanyu Easwaran to feature in Dhaka Premier League

Hanuma Vihari and Abhimanyu Easwaran are among the list of Indian players who have signed up for ongoing Dhaka Premier League (DPL), according to a report in ESPNCricinfo. Apart from these two, Parvez Rasool, Baba Aparajith, Ashok Menaria, Chirag Jani and Gurinder Singh are the other players in the list. All these cricketers had gone unsold in the IPL 2022 mega auction earlier. Vihari will be playing for Abahani Limited in the tournament. The right-hander will travel to Hyderabad and will then leave for Dhaka after a small break. He is set to miss the first three matches for the side and Afghanistan middle-order batter Najibullah Zadran has been roped in for the fixtures. Easwaran who has received his India call-up but is yet to make a debut for the side will be a part of Prime Bank while Rasool will play for Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi, Aparajith for Rupganj Tigers, Menaria for Khelaghar, Jani for Legends of Rupganj, and Gurinder for Gazi Group Cricketers. Vihari, Easwaran, Aparajith, Menaria and Rasool have also taken part in the competition earlier in 2019-2020. The other prominent faces in Indian cricket who have featured in DPL are Dinesh Karthik, Manoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan. Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez will play for Mohammedan Sporting and Zimbabwe allrounder Sikandar Raza don Shinepukur’s jersey. The 11 teams will play each other once in a round-robin format during the tournament and the top 6 sides will then play each other in Super League once. The two teams that would be bottom placed will face the relegation to Dhaka's first division league.

BREAKING | Suryakumar Yadav unlikely to be available for MI opener

Indian middle order batsman and one of the most important players in the Mumbai Indians line-up, Suryakumar Yadav is likely to miss MI’s first game in the Indian Premier League. News agency PTI reported on Tuesday, 15 March morning that the batsman is unlikely to make full recovery from his hairline fracture and would have to wait longer to play his first game in the cash-rich league’s 2022 season. The five-time IPL champions play Delhi Capitals on March 27, Sunday, and Yadav is one of their most important batters in that line-up alongside their retentions Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard and their big money buy-back Ishan Kishan. Yadav injured his right hand while fielding in the third and the final T20I against West Indies and was ruled out of the subsequent Sri Lanka series. PTI quoted a BCCI official who confirmed that the batsman is on his way to full recovery at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and should be back to full fitness for Mumbai's second outing in the tournament against Rajasthan Royals on 2 April. The right hander has been in stunning touch off late. He won the man of the series award against West Indies with his two scintillating outings in the first and the third T20I scoring a 34* and 65 in respective games. The batter is touted to be one of the most important cogs in the wheel of Indian cricket who are aiming to win the T20 World Cup in Australia this year and the win the ODI World Cup in India which is scheduled to be hosted in 2023.

‘ECB to launch high-performance review body to make its team the best in the world’ says Andrew Strauss

The interim Managing Director of the England Cricket Board (ECB), Sir Andrew Strauss, has said that the board will introduce a high-performance review into English cricket to fulfil its objective of making the England men’s cricket team the best in the world cricket across all formats. If we look at the recent performance of the English side in Tests, it’s nothing short of abysmal. Statistically, England has lost ten games and won just once in the last 15 Tests played. Moreover, they still haven’t found their best possible opening pair for all conditions and the successors of their two legendary seamers, Stuart Broad and James Anderson. This sort of continuous mediocrity in the longest format of the game has strongly called for some actions from ECB to revive their test cricket. Introducing a high-performance review, which aims to restructure the English season from 2023, is nothing but a significant first step to achieving this goal. In fact, Strauss has said that this review, for which recommendations are due to be published in September, has a broader aim to make English cricket great in tests and the other two formats. “The perception so far is that it’s all about red-ball cricket and that it’s all about the domestic game. But the way we’re approaching it, and I believe the only way you can approach these things is to start at the beginning, which is what is the scale of our ambition for the game in this country?” Strauss told Espncricinfo. “And I believe we’re looking very strongly at being the best in the world in all formats. I think the knock-on effects are enormous right the way through the game if the shop window is functioning well. Hence, as a game, we need to get alignment behind that ambition”, he further added. As per the latest reports, this review will be led by an independent body which is yet to be decided. This review is only one of the numerous developments expected to be introduced by the ECB in the upcoming days. In another development, the governing body is set to fill the vacancies of a head coach and some full-time senior management positions including that of a managing director which Strauss currently performs in an interim capacity.