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IPL 2022 | Fans speculate captaincy options as RCB put up Kohli teaser

Ahead of India’s pink ball Test match that sees Virat Kohli’s return to Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy stadium, Royal Challengers Bangalore have put up a teaser stating that they have a few updates up their sleeves.

The 29 second teaser has Virat Kohli starting to talk about big updates for the Bangalore franchise before it is cut short for the big reveal on 12 March - the day India begin their Pink Ball encounter. The Bangalore based team is currently without a captain and fans have been speculating for months about who could succeed Virat Kohli. It was reported that RCB would be looking at Shreyas Iyer in the 2022 meg-auctions as a possible replacement, but the player was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders for an exorbitant price of Rs 12.25 crore.


The franchise has attained the services of Faf du Plessis and Dinesh Karthik, players who have captained their respective teams in international cricket and Indian Premier League in the past, but the management has quite clarified or even hinted at who could potentially take over.

The teaser had RCB fans speculating over a potential candidate with many predicting that Australian Glenn Maxwell could be handed over the baton considering his close proximity with Virat Kohli. Others suggested that Mohammad Siraj could emerge as an unlikely candidate due to the faith that RCB have shown in him and how he has turned that into credible performances for both his franchise and India in the international circuit.

Barring Maxwell and Siraj, only du Plessis and Virat Kohli himself remain to be legitimate options for RCB who will be looking to turn around their fortunes and get hands on the elusive IPL trophy going into the permanent 10-team season.

RCB play their first match against Punjab Kings on Sunday, March 27 at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

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ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 | India surrender without a fight against hosts New Zealand

Hapless India were handed a loss by 62 runs by a spirited New Zealand side on 10 March, Thursday in a crucial clash in the ICC Women’s World Cup. The loss saw India slipping down to fifth position in the league table with one win and a loss from their two games. A big loss in terms of NRR, India undid the good work they put up against Pakistan in their opening encounter of the World Cup and now have put themselves in a precarious position heading into tough games against West Indies, England and Australia. The Women in Blue will need to show up with strong performances in the next games if they wish to make it to the knockout stages of the tournament. Now, coming to the game. India had come into this clash with all the experience of playing against the very same White Ferns team minus Lauren Down - their lower order batter, who had turned out to be a force to reckon with in the recent past. Aiming to acclimatise to the conditions, India had experimented in their 5-match series, losing out on four straight games, before winning the final encounter. But, it did not seem on the day that they had learnt their lessons as tactical failures, combined with poor mentality lost them the game. Here’s how it happened. After winning the toss, India were put on the back foot for most part of the game with dominating performances in the middle order from Amelia Kerr and the ever-dependable Amy Satterthwaite. The duo added a run a ball 67 together before Kerr got out Rajeshwari Gayakwad in the 22nd over. But by then, the White Ferns had complete domination over the game scoring at a rate of 5.5 runs per over and set to close in on a big target. After Kerr got out on 50, Satterthwaite went on to score 75 off 84 balls before getting out to Pooja Vastrakar by chipping the ball in the 43rd over. While NZ were doing fairly well at 224/5 at that point, a spirited spell of bowling from Vastrakar and Jhulan Goswami turned the tide, and India were able to restrict NZ from scoring at the excess of 280. The pacers were particularly impressive with their yorkers, that sneaked through the defences of the NZ batters forcing out 4 single-digit scores out of their last 5 batters. The Slump Returning to bat, India definitely had the moment with them having rocked the hosts in the final 10 overs. But then started the struggle. India chose to go with three left handers at the top and not a single one could get the ball rolling in the first 20 overs. Scoring at a rate of two runs per over, India struggled to show any sort of dominance over the pacers and NZ’s off spinner, Frances Mackay. Yastika Bhatiya, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma chose to block most of the balls aimed at them and departed scoring 28, 6 and 5 respectively. Bhatiya, who had replaced Shafali Verma in the game, probably had the worst outing of the three, scoring runs at a SR of 47.46, hitting only two boundaries in her 59-ball stay. On the day, she could not find the gaps in the off side trap set for her and left the crease with a leading edge to cover off Lea Tahuhu. India’s tactical decisions were surprising on the day as they sent three lefties against an off spinner which resulted in negotiating leggie Amelia Kerr in the middle overs. Captain Mithali Raj had yet another horrendous outing and chose to defend balls while the required run-rate was soaring past 7. Her innings of 31 off 56 ended in a bizarre fashion when she stepped down half heartedly against a leg spinner and tried to fetch it from outside off stump. It resulted in her getting beaten by the littlest amount of turn on the ball and getting stumped by keeper Katey Martin. Kerr wasn’t done after removing Raj and in the very next ball cleaned up Richa Ghosh with a googly by uprooting her off stump. Reeling at 97/5 in the 30th over, India had very little chance to get back in the game. What they could essentially do was salvage the NRR by staying as long as they could and getting some runs under their belt. Harmanpreet Kaur seemed to understand the same and dug in through the tough phases of play. She launched a counterattack late in the day and scored her individual 50, possibly the only highlight of the Indian innings. The Women’s Big Bash League star, showed signs of getting back into form hitting six boundaries and two sixes alone. At the time of getting out, she had made 71 off 63 balls and stitched a 35-run partnership with veteran Jhulan Goswami off just 20 balls. With Harman getting out in the 44th over, there was nothing much left in the game and India were skittled out for 198 runs in 46.4 overs. Speaking after the game, captain Mithali Raj did not take any time to point out the failings of the top order before amending herself and sharing the blame with the middle order as well. She stated that India need one set batter throughout the innings to see through the game, essentially meaning that she herself would like to anchor the game. India take on steep competition in the next three games and have very little time to bounce back from the New Zealand defeat. The team and its management need to sit and work through their tactical misgivings from the game, else it could be early curtains for Team India from the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022.