Jasprit Bumrah has amazing skills in all three formats of the game says Jonny Bairstow

Other batsmen need to chip in with Joe Root says England head coach Chris Silverwood

England head coach Chris Silverwood wants his other batsmen to step up to the task and start contributing and helping their captain Joe Root to ensure that he is not under pressure all the time when he comes out to bat. Joe Root scored one of his best Test centuries against India in the opening Test of the five-match series and made sure England took the game deep and managed to set India a target of 207 runs. England’s top three has been under immense pressure for not being able to contribute on a consistent basis. The likes of Rory Burns, Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley haven't been able to score consistently which has put England under a spot of bother on several occasions. "Yeah, I think we do," England coach Chris Silverwood said on Monday when he was asked whether his team was overly reliant on Joe Root. "I mean Joe's been phenomenal for the last six months really scoring runs for us. And what we need to do is make sure that the guys that are batting with him are coming to the party as well. So that's one thing which we're talking about in the dressing room constantly. And it's something that I've spoken to the batting coaches as well. "Encourage conversations between the players and the coaches to try and find a solution for this to try and help them get better. It's not through lack of effort. It's not a lack of hard work, it's just a case of we have to try and find a formula that works. That's a work in progress at the moment," he added. The first of the five-match series ended in a draw after rain played spoilsport throughout the Test match. Despite losing a day in the Test match, the match was going down to the wire and a classic final day was on our hands. However, persistent showers forced the umpires to abandon the match. Fringe opener Haseeb Hameed who made a comeback to the national squad will be in contention for a return in the playing XI after below-par outings from the openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley. Silverwood said that Hameed has made a strong case for himself and could be given an opportunity in some part of the series. I'm confident he's as ready as he could be," added Silverwood. He put his best foot forward in Durham when he scored that hundred and what he did an early season in the championship shows there's a lot of class there as well,” he added. "I think he is making a very strong case and at some point, we may make a decision and give him an opportunity.” Lord’s will host the second Test of the five-match series starting on 12th August (Thursday).

T20 Cup to kick off Pakistan’s domestic calendar for 2021-22

Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday, August 09 announced the schedule of 2021-22 domestic cricket season in which it will hold 10 tournaments, comprising 266 matches. The senior competitions will begin with the start of the National T20 Cup in which the six teams representing six regions of Pakistan will participate. The T20 Cup, starting September 25 would be held in Multan and Lahore. The next competition will be the First Class four day competition also called the Qaid-E-Azam Trophy which will begin from October 20 and while the first half of the competition will be held in Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore, the tournament will move to Karachi for the final leg. The five day final will be held from December 29 to January 02nd. After the First Class competition, there would be a break during which time the Pakistan Super League will take place. Post the completion of the PSL, the Pakistan Cup, domestic ODI competition would once again be played between the six teams. It would begin on February 25 and be played in a double league format in Faisalabad, Multan and Lahore with the final slated for March 30 at the iconic Gaddafi Stadium. “Domestic competitions in the 2021-22 season are separate to the home international matches against New Zealand, England, West Indies and Australia, and the HBL Pakistan Super League, which will be held between September 2021 and March 2022,” the PCB said in a press release.

Always motivating to play against teams which don’t visit our country that often: Shakib

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan who was named man of the series after the team’s thumping 4-1 series win over Australia in the five-match T20I series in Dhaka has said that facing “bigger teams” is always a motivation. “There is always a motivation when you play the bigger teams – normally those which don’t visit our country that often,” Shakib told reporters. The left-handed player further added that the side was riding high on the performance against Zimbabwe. “Also, we had a really good series in Zimbabwe and so everyone was pretty motivated to do well in this series as well. We had never won a series against Australia, and so this was our chance. Hence, we wanted to deliver well as a unit, which is what happened.” The hosts had taken an unassailable 3-0 lead earlier in the series after winning the first three T20Is but the Aussie did fight back in the fourth clash to clinch a win. Bangladesh then dominated the visitors in the fifth and final T20I after bundling them out for 62 while chasing a modest total of 123 in 20 overs. Only two Australia batsmen managed to get to the double-figure mark during the course. Shakib scalped a four-wicket haul while Saifuddin picked up three wickets.

I may have played my last game for NZ: Munro after being ignored from World T20 squad

New Zealand opener and one of the most sought after T20 players across leagues in the world, Colin Munro was fitted to have missed out on a place on the Kiwi squad for the T20 World Cup 2021. The squad was announced late night Monday, 09 August. "Extremely gutted to miss out on this, was definitely a goal of mine that I wanted to tick off," Munro wrote in an Instagram story. "Looks like I may [sic] have played my last game for [the Blackcaps] not by choice,” he added. Since debuting for Blackcaps in 2012, the South Africa born has so far played 65 T20Is scoring 1724 runs at an average of 31.34 and with a strike rate of 156.44. His last match for New Zealand came way back in February 2020 against India. Since then he also lost his central contract and with the emergence of players like Devon Conway, Tim Siefert and Genn Philipps, his place in the squad looked in jeopardy. However, in the period that he could not represent New Zealand the 34-year old averaged 37.94 with a strike rate of 140.21 in various T20 leagues. Coach Gary Stead confirmed that Munro made himself unavailable for Bangladesh and Pakistan tours for which squads were also announced. "He wasn't available for any other tours, and we talked through that decision. In the end, we've had a lot of success with guys in our squad in the last six months. We know Colin is a fine player - and still is - but unfortunately, we [would be] taking the 15 selected plus Adam Milne,” Stead, who would not be coaching the teams touring Bangladesh and Pakistan, but would only be available for T20 World Cup, said. "I'm pleased he's frustrated. When you have a lot of quality players around, you can't fit everyone into 15 players. It's a call we've had to make. I've spoken to Colin about a week ago and he's clear on where he sits,” Stead added further.