It's a dream to go to the IPL & I'm no different: Romario Shepherd

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

The Indian team has been fined 40% of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate during the third and final ODI against South Africa in Cape Town. The sanction was imposed by match referee Andy Pycroft on the basis of the charges leveled by on-field umpires Marais Erasmus and Bongani Jele, third umpire Allauhudien Palekar and fourth umpire Adrien Holdstock. There was no requirement of a formal hearing as the stand-in Indian skipper KL Rahul had pleaded guilty to the offence. Talking about the match, India suffered another defeat in the third ODI after they lost the match by 4 runs. The visitors were handed a target of 288 in 50 overs and were looking good at one stage with Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli providing the much-needed resistance to the side. But India lost wickets in middle-overs and were pushed on the back foot before Deepak Chahar produced a masterclass with the bat to score a 34-ball 54 during the course. His efforts though went in vain as India fell short of the target and were bundled out for 283 in the final over. Lungi Ngidi and Andile Phehlukwayo scalped three wickets each for the side. The visitors had already lost the first two ODI in the series.

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.