Kane Williamson opts out T20I series against India to focus on Test series

Rahul relishes 'added responsibility', says Dravid brings 'team ahead of personal goals' culture

India were knocked out of the T20 World Cup played in the UAE under the leadership of Virat Kohli and as his tenure as the captain of the Indian T20I side has ended, a new era of India’s T20I cricket is set to emerge with the leadership group of Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. Both Rahul and Rohit were part of India’s T20I side in the just-concluded world cup and their failure too contributed to the team’s downward curve in the tournament. Hence the next edition of the T20 World Cup due to be played next year in Australia is the topmost agenda in the mind of Rahul. He called the 2022 T20 World Cup India’s “long term goal” but maintained that they won’t be too far ahead of themselves and instead will focus on “process” in each series and game to come to a conclusion on what sort of “template” they want to follow in the shortest format of the game. "The long term goal is to focus on the World Cup (in 2022), but we will focus on the process. We will look at one series at a time and one game at a time. For a template, I think we all need to sit and decide on what brand of cricket team India wants to play to get the best performances," Rahul said in the pre-series press conference. Rohit Sharma has taken over the captaincy from Virat Kohli in the T20I format and albeit he has led Team India on numerous occasions in the past, the series against New Zealand will be his first stint as full-time captain. For Rahul though, Rohit’s leadership is not a new phenomenon and he is eagerly looking forward to “exciting” few weeks alongside him in the upcoming series. "There is nothing new with Rohit being the captain and the stats are there for everyone to see with Mumbai Indians. He has a great understanding of the game and is tactically very good. The next couple of weeks will be exciting for us to understand what kind of cricket we are going to play," he said. Rahul has been elevated to vice-captaincy and he is not shy of accepting the responsibility and said that he has always enjoyed having “added responsibilities” on his shoulders. He underlined the importance of making a pleasant atmosphere in the dressing room that gives space to every player coming into the side as his pertinent goal as the vice-captain. He also expressed his reliance on the incoming coach Rahul Dravid for bringing a “culture” of putting the team’s needs over personal goals in place. He recalled his good experience with Dravid while playing for Karnataka and expressed confidence of being certain about the qualities Drvaid would bring to the Indian dressing room. "It will be an added responsibility but I have always enjoyed that. The most important thing is to make sure everyone who is coming into the dressing room is happy and feeling welcome. With Rahul Dravid coming in, I'm sure he'll make that happen." "As a youngster, I tried pick his brain and he was always kind to share his knowledge with us back in Karnataka. We are very excited to have him as we could hope to learn from him and understand the game better. He has always been a team man and that is the culture he wants to bring in here as well," Rahul concluded.

Australia One Day Cup | Cameron Bancroft century lifts Western Australia to win over Queensland

In a run-fest at The Gabba, Western Australia managed to stay on top of the home side Queensland Bulls, defeating them by 70 runs to win their third match of the Australian domestic One Day Cup. The 70 run victory margin may look very large, but not if it is revealed that the chasing team made 291 as well. Chasing a target of 362, set up by the WA, Queensland didn’t have a great start as they lost their skipper Usman Khawaja at the team score of only 13. From there onwards, wickets fell at regular intervals before Joe Burns ( 73) and Jimmy Peirson (62), two of the most experienced Queenslander got together and stitched a 124 run partnership off just 104 balls. The duo threatened to complete what would have been the second-best chase in Australian domestic ODI. When they were at the crease, the Bulls needed only 125 runs in 75 balls with six wickets in hand. However, Andrew Tye came back with a vicious spell and got both wickets one over apart. This broke the Bulls’ resistance and the entire team could only get up to 291 in 48.5 overs. Tye picked three wickets in total for the WA side. Earlier in the day, after winning the toss and deciding to bat first, Western Australia rode on a magnificent hundred from Cameron Bancroft along with some stupendous hitting at the backend by Cameron Green and skipper Ashton Turner to get to 361-3 in their 50 overs. While Bancroft remained unbeaten on 124 off 105 balls, Green was removed on 70 off 55 balls by James Bazley. Turner also remained unbeaten on 70 off only 41 balls. Courtesy of this win, WA now have three wins in four games and are at the top of the six-team points table.

Pakistan announce 20-man squad for Bangladesh Tests

The Pakistan Cricket Board announced a 20 man squad for the two-match Test series against Bangladesh. The series starts on November 26 with the first Test in Chattogram. Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali and Mohammad Rizwan are the only players part of the T20 World Cup playing XI who have been named in the Test squad as well. As far as the T20 World Cup squad is concerned, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz have been able to make the 20 member team. Among the others are familiar faces in Imam-ul-Haq, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali and Fawad Alam with the bat. With the ball too, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah and Nauman Ali have been able to retain the place while Yasir shah has been ignored once again. Some fresh faces in Kamran Ghulam, Abdullah Shafique and Saud Shakeel have been named in the side while two spinners in Zahid Mahmood and Sajid Khan, who went on the Zimbabwe tour have also been retained. The exclusion of Shahnawaz Dahani from the squad is a worrying sign given that he is one of the promising fast bowlers in the Pakistan line-up who hasn’t yet been tested at the world stage. The two Tests would be part of the World Test Championship 2021-23 cycle. Pakistan Test squad Babar Azam (Captain), Abdullah Shafique, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam, Imam-Ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Bilal Asif, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Zahid Mahmood

T20 World Cup | After final loss, heartbroken Jimmy Nessham tweets ‘335 days’

If there was one player who would have wanted nothing but the T20 World Cup, it was the New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham. Having been robbed of a title in the ODI World Cup in 2019 on boundary count, Neesham had tweeted that instead of becoming a cricketer, one should try and become a baker and die fat at sixty. He was so distraught at the loss that he almost lost belief in the game. He was also unable to get some sort of calm as other players did by winning the World Test Championship. But then the all-rounder came back two years later and exacted revenge in a telling fashion, single-handedly throwing out England from the T20 World Cup by hitting a 13 ball 27 when his team needed to chase 57 off the last four overs. However, as his entire team celebrated in joy the semi-final win, Neesham tweeted the famous lines of Kobe Bryant, “What’s there to be happy about, is the job finished, I don’t think so.” All this showed that he badly wanted to win the title and the loss has not really gone down well. In yet another fresh tweet, the 31-year-old wrote, ‘335 days.’ indicating the number of days left for the T20 World cup in 2022, which would be held in Australia in October-November 2022. It is proof of the fact that he is not over this loss either and would leave no stone unturned to win the Cup in 2022.