Missing Ben Stokes to injury, England name Stuart Broad as vice-captain of Test squad

Mumbai Cricket Association appoints Amol Muzumdar as coach for 2021-22 season

The Mumbai Cricket Association has appointed Amol Muzumdar as the coach of the side for the 2021-22 domestic season. Muzumdar’s appointment was based on the recommendations made by MCA's Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) comprising Jatin Paranjpe (chairman), Nilesh Kulkarni and Vinod Kambli. The MCA had interviewed nine candidates including former India opener Wasim Jaffer, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Sairaj Bahutule, Sulakshan Kulkarni, Pradeep Sunderram, Nandan Phadnis, Umesh Patwal and Vinod Raghvan apart from Muzumdar. The former cricketer had come close to getting appointed last year but a dispute with the CIC headed by Lalchand Rajput saw Ramesh Powar being selected for the job. But Powar’s appointment as the head coach of the Indian women’s team left the place vacant and was taken up by Muzumdar. Muzumdar has led Mumbai in the past and was capped 171 times at the First-Class level and accumulated over 11000 runs in a career that spanned between 1993 and 2013 while playing 113 List A matches notching up over 3000 runs. He has had coaching experience in the past as he has coached Rajasthan Royals in previous editions of the IPL, has been a batting coach with the NCA and the South African team.

Shafali Verma continues to be at helm in ICC Rankings for women's in T20Is

India women’s team batter Shafali Verma has held the number one spot in the ICC T20I rankings for women while Scotland’s Kathryn Bryce has made it into the top 10 for the first time. Verma has 776 points to her name while Australia’s Beth Mooney and Meg Lanning are at number two and third spot respectively. The right-handed batter has been capped 22 times in T20Is for India scoring 617 runs at an average of 29.4 and a strike-rate of over 148. Apart from Verma, there are a couple of more Indian players in the top 10 list. Opener Smriti Mandhana is at number four position with 693 points while Jemimah Rodriques is at nine with 640 points. Sophie Eccelstone is at the top of the table in the bowling rankings while India’s Deepti Sharma is at number 6 and Radha Yadav at number 7 respectively. In the rankings for all-rounders, India have Deepti Sharma in the list who is at number five with 343 points. The Indian women’s team will fly to the UK on June 2 to play the one-off Test against England in Bristol which will be followed by three ODIs and as many T20Is. The Indian team will be playing their first-ever Test in nearly eight years time.

Ross Taylor banks on county experience, backs Kane Williamson to thwart England's plans

A lot of New Zealand’s fate is riding on the shoulders of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor’s shoulder in the series against England starting tomorrow at Lord’s. England, too, realise that and hence the newbie Ollie Robinson getting excited and making the plan of setting up Williamson when he will come out to bat public before the series. But Taylor has said that many teams and bowlers have devised tactics to induce errors from Williamson but the Blackcaps skipper has always found a way around it to score a truckload of runs. He said if England will have plan A, B, and C to stop Williamson, then the right-hander will have plans D, E, F up his arsenal as well. "Swinging it away from him, setting him up, pulling him across the crease and then using the crease with the nipbacker to get him lbw looks like a solid option," Robinson had said. "That will be Plan A, but if he gets a few more we have got a few Plans Bs and Cs in the background." "D, E, F… there's always going to be a few plans for everybody. Some work, some haven't. Kane's got a fantastic record all over the world,” Taylor responded to the excitement of Robbinson before the Test series. Taylor himself has some plans in place to counter English bowlers, particularly Stuart Broad, who has dismissed him on numerous occasions and was also his teammate in the county championship. He lamented not knowing about Broad’s bowling tactics well in time to bring it to his own and New Zealand’s use but knows few tricks about Broad after sharing the dressing room with Broad "I'll keep those to myself. I'm fortunate to play with him (Broad) at Middlesex and Notts. Saw the way he went about things and heard him talking to bowlers, and asked him a few questions. I wish I had that knowledge up my sleeve before a few more of those series. He's got me out a few times as most bowlers have. He's a very good bowler, with the rest of them. With the Dukes (ball) in hand, they're world-class bowlers… I guess under any conditions. However, he is not sure of the composition of England bowling attack in the first Test at Lord’s considering the rotation policy adopted by the hosts over the last year due to a busy schedule. "Not sure what England's plans are in terms of rest and rotation, they've got a big summer ahead, so there's been a bit of talk about rest and rotation. We'll just have to wait and see who is playing on Wednesday morning." Taylor has been a long-standing member of the Blackcaps side and was the leading member of the ODI team that lost a heart-breaking World Cup final against England at Lord’s and just like his teammates the memory has not faded one bit for Taylor as well. However, he rated the ICC World Cup 2019 final as the ‘best world cup final’ albeit with fair shade of disappointment. "I was sitting in the chair watching the Super Over, it brought back a few memories. But first and foremost, it was the best game of a World Cup final. Obviously, it was disappointing to be on the wrong end of that, (but) it was good to be a part of it. Different format now, a couple of new stands to add to it." New Zealand may very well hand out a debut to the left-handed Devon Conway who has grown in stature with games he has played for New Zealand in the white-ball formats. Taylor too has been impressed by Conway’s batting abilities and former Blackcaps captain has said that the newcomer will only get better with experience at the top level and will replicate his white-ball performances against the red-ball as well. "He's had a fantastic start to his career in T20s and one-dayers. Couldn't think of a better place to make a debut than at Lord's. He's just going to get better and better with experience. I watched him in a first-class game from the first slip against Wellington, the last time I played for CD (Central Districts). He hits balls in different areas and plays it very late. One of his strengths is he's very strong and he trusts his game-plan. If he does make his debut, I'm sure that how he's taken to international cricket in the other two forms, he'll do that again,” Taylor backed Conway. The Test series will start at Lord’s tomorrow followed by another Test at Edgbaston following before the Blackcaps will travel to Southampton for the World Test Championship final against India.

Will focus on bowling dots against Kane Williamson: Mohammed Siraj

India pacer Mohammed Siraj has said that he will try to “frustrate” New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson with dot balls and force him to play some shots during the final of the inaugural World Test Championship slated to take place in Southampton from June 18. "I will try to bowl in a particular spot tirelessly. I will focus on bowling dots against Kane Williamson, the best batsman in the New Zealand line-up, to create pressure on him. It will provoke him to go for shots and there will be a high chance of getting him out," said Siraj. The right-arm fast bowler who was one of the key members of the Indian team that defended the Border-Gavaskar trophy earlier this year suggested that the tracks in Australia offer much more pace and bounce while the pitches in England are favourable for swing bowling. Siraj further stated that he would try to make the batsmen play on the front foot. "Australian pitches offer more bounce and pace. I used to bowl back of good length there. But in England, there will be more swing. So I will try to make the batsmen play on front-foot," Siraj told ABP News. The quick bowler admitted that the New Zealand side who have already reached the UK and will play a two-match Test series against the English team ahead of the WTC final will get more time to adjust to the conditions. “New Zealand will play a Test series against England and they have reached there much before us. So they will not only be among matches, they will also get more time to adjust to English conditions,” Siraj said. The Indian team will play a five-match series against England after the completion of the WTC final.