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I'm disappointed not surprised: Ajaz Patel after being left out from squad for Bangladesh Tests

New Zealand had left out spinner Ajaz Patel who had created history against India after becoming only the third bowler to bag all ten wickets in an innings in Test cricket for the upcoming series against Bangladesh at home. Talking about his omission, Ajaz admitted that he was disappointed but not surprised after being dropped. "It was more just expressing my disappointment, because I think you still have to express yourself, and still be able to show that you're passionate about playing Test cricket for New Zealand at home. There's a good relationship there with Gary, as well, we had some honest conversations, sometimes they're not the most pleasing, but at the same time, we can be up front with each other and know where we stand," said Patel. Regular skipper Kane Williamson was also ruled out of the series due to his elbow injury and the selectors had named Tom Latham as the skipper of the side in his absence. "It's obviously disappointing not to have Kane available for this series but, as we noted in India, he is undergoing a sustained period of rest followed by rehabilitation, strengthening and gradual batting loading,” coach Gary Stead had said earlier. New Zealand and Bangladesh are slated to play a two-match Test series scheduled to begin on January 1 in Mount Maunganui. The second clash will be played in Christchurch from January 9, 2022.

Sourav Ganguly had no business to speak on behalf of selection committee: Dilip Vengsarkar

Former India skipper and selector Dilip Vengsarkar has opened up about the captaincy saga that has been doing the rounds in Indian cricket after Virat Kohli was sacked from the ODI leadership as well. Vengsarkar has said that the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had “no business” of speaking on behalf of the selectors. “The thing is that Ganguly had no business to speak on behalf of the selection committee. Ganguly is the president of BCCI. Any issue about selection or captaincy, it’s the chairman of the selection committee who should speak,” he said while talking to Khaleej Times. “Ganguly spoke about the whole thing, obviously, Virat wanted to make his case clear. I believe it should have been between the chairman of the selection committee and the captain. A captain is selected or removed by the selection committee, that’s not Ganguly’s jurisdiction at all.” Ganguly had said that the selectors weren’t not really happy to have a split captaincy in limited-overs cricket as Kohli had decided to leave the post in T20Is post the World Cup. The former left-handed batsman had further added that he had asked Kohli not to leave the T20I captaincy. However, Kohli, before departing for South Africa had revealed that he was informed of ODI captaincy sacking 90 minutes before the Test squad for South Africa was announced.

India blow away UAE; begin U-19 Asia Cup with ruthless win

The Indian junior national team blew away the United Arab Emirates to get their campaign going in the U-19 Asia Cup in Dubai on Thursday, 23 December. Riding on Harnoor Singh’s 120 runs off 130 balls, India registered a 154-run win against the hosts. Chasing a target of 283 runs, UAE failed to put up resistance and were not able to score freely. They needed a quick start to the innings if they wanted to chase the target down, however, they were stuck despite not losing wickets in the first 10 overs, scored just 30 runs. Getting stuck meant that wickets were going to come sooner or later and they ended up losing three in the next 10 overs. Medium pacer Garv Sangwan provided the breakthrough, cleaning up Dhruv Parashar and captain Alishan Sharafu. Once UAE were 88/3 in 19.3 overs, it started a downfall and the chasing side were reduced to 122/9 in 30 overs. They batted five more overs and got bundled out at 128 runs in 34.3 overs. Rajvardhan Hangargekar cleaned up the lower order and was the best bowler on the scoresheet having picked up three wickets in his nine overs giving away just 24 runs. Sangwan, Vicky Ostwal and Kaushal Tambe picked up two wickets each. Earlier in the day, a big partnership between Singh and captain Yash Dhull secured India to a good position. While Harnoor scored a century, Dhull began his tournament with a brisk 63 off 68 balls. In the lower order bowling hero Hangargekar scored a quickfire 48 off 23 balls to take India to a huge total. Having started their tournament on a brilliant note, India will now face Pakistan U-19 on Christmas morning and then Afghanistan on 27 December.

BBL 2021-22: Brisbane Heat thump Adelaide Strikers after brilliant show from batting unit

Brisbane Heat thumped Adelaide Strikers by 39 runs in Adelaide on Thursday in a Big Bash League fixture. Batting first, the Heat rode on a brilliant partnership between Duckett and Heazlett of 114 runs to post a massive total of 208/7 in 20 overs. While Duckett struck a 47-ball 78, Heazlett fell short of a fifty by just one run during the course as he was out for 49 off 30 deliveries. For the Strikers, Rashid Khan scalped three wickets for 34 runs in 4 overs while Fawad Ahmed didn’t pick any wickets but returned with an impressive economy rate as he just gave 25 runs in 4 overs. Later, the Adelaide Strikers lost a couple of early wickets before Matt Renshaw and Jonathan Wells chipped in with a stand of 71 runs for the third wicket before Renshaw was sent back in the hut by Bazley for 22 off 23. Wells went on to score a fifty but his departure saw the Adelaide side losing wickets at regular intervals and the asking rate kept mounting as they were eventually restricted to 169/8 in 20 overs. Mark Steketee and Bazley were the pick of the bowlers for the team. While Steketee scalped a three-wicket haul for 27 runs in 4 overs, Bazley returned with two wickets for 27 runs in 4 overs. "Yeah very important win for us. A very proud win for us. Its quite fantastic to come here at the Adelaide Oval and get a win. I was actually quite happy with the tossing the balls. Yeah, Garton smacked a few but I enjoyed it after the wicket. It was beautiful to see Duckett and Heazlett get some runs, It gets really tough against them in the nets,” Matthew Kuhnemann said after the match.