Mustafizur Rahman down with ankle injury, could be doubtful for ODI series against Zimbabwe

ENGW vs INDW | 3rd T20I: Wyatt's aggressive knock helps England thump India in decider

England women’s team defeated India comprehensively by 8 wickets in the deciding T20I of the three-match series in Chelmsford on Wednesday. Chasing 154 in 20 overs, the hosts rode on an emphatic 112-run partnership for the second wicket between Danielle Wyatt and Natalie Sciver to clinch victory. The hosts lost an early wicket after opener Tammy Beaumont was trapped in front of the stumps by Deepti Sharma for 11 but the stand between Wyatt and Sciver steadied the ship for the side. While Wyatt remained unbeaten at 89, Sciver was eventually cleaned up by Sneh Rana for 42. England didn’t see any further fall of wickets as Wyatt and captain Heather Knight took them over the line in the 19th over. Earlier, India who batted first started the proceedings in a disappointing manner after losing Shafali Verma and Harleen Deol early in the innings. But Smriti Mandhana and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur showed some resistance and the two batters put 68 runs for the third wicket before Kaur departed for 36 off 26. Mandhana continued her form and notched up a fifty before getting out to Brunt for 70 off 50. Wicket-keeper batter was the only third batter to have crossed the double-figure mark apart from Mandhana and Kaur after she chipped in with a 13-ball 20 that included four boundaries. India eventually managed to score 153/6 in 20 overs. For England, it was Ecclestone who returned with a three-for while Brunt scalped a couple of wickets. India captain Kaur expressed disappointment at losing the series. “Firstly, we're thankful to the support we've got in all the games from the crowd. But yes, it was disappointing to not finish with a win. We could have scored a bit more runs with the bat and then dew made it tough in the second innings. Someone had to bat till the very end, it was something we had talked about but didn't happen today. Hopefully it will come off soon,” she said. England skipper Knight was ‘pleased’ with the way her team performed in this bilateral tie. “Really pleased with the girls. After the game at Hove, we wanted to take more responsibility. Happy for Danny, she had worked really hard and it's paid off today. We all know how good she is, probably hasn't scored as many runs as she could in the last 18 months. She put her head down and did what she does well - she loves being aggressive and scoring boundaries,” she said. India had suffered a 2-1 defeat in the ODI series as well earlier and lost the T20Is by the same margin.

Rishabh Pant tests positive for COVID-19, undergoing home quarantine

An unnamed player from the UK bound Indian cricket squad has tested positive for COVID-19 and has been put under home isolation. As per reports in the Indian Express, the player is self-isolating himself at a relative's place and is expected to join the rest of the team members after serving his mandatory quarantine. The whole Indian squad barring that particular player will join the bio-bubble back on Thursday in Durham. As per sources close to Indian Express, the player experienced a sore throat which led to a PCR test and it returned positive. The members of the Indian contingent who were deemed close contact of the affected individual were already kept in isolation for three days and have completed their quarantine without showing any symptoms. It has been testing times for England and the Wales Cricket Board (ECB) after they were forced to name a whole new squad against the touring Pakistan side after three players and four support staff who played in the series against Sri Lanka tested positive for the deadly virus. While the second-string new-look England team blanked Pakistan 3-0 but the situation in England is getting trickier with each day and there hasn’t been any answer as to how the virus breached through the bubble. Even the remaining T20 Blast matches involving Derbyshire have also been called off after the ECB understood that it was impossible for them to field an XI with so many players injured and forced into self-isolation. “We have been mindful that the emergence of the Delta variant, along with our move away from the stringent enforcement of biosecure environments, could increase the chances of an outbreak. We made a strategic choice to try to adapt protocols, in order to support the overall wellbeing of our players and management staff who have spent much of the last 14 months living in very restricted conditions,” ECB chief executive Tom Harrison had said in his statement. It must be noted that Sri Lanka was in England for an ODI and a T20I series very recently. Upon arrival in Sri Lanka, batting coach Grant Flower and data analyst GT Niroshan tested positive for the virus forcing Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and BCCI to postpone the series by 5 days. The series will now start from 18th July instead of 13th July. Meanwhile, the Indian bound squad who is currently in England is enjoying their time out of the bio-bubble. They were allowed by the BCCI to leave the bubble following the ICC World Test Championship final against England. They are supposed to join the bubble back in mid-July with the first Test of the five-match Test series slated to kick off on 4th August.

India to play three-day warm-up match against select County XI in Durham

The Indian Test unit has been given an opportunity to finally play some red-ball cricket prior to the Test series against hosts England. The Virat Kohli led side will be using the riverside ground in Durham as their home ground base and would play a three-day first-class game against a select County XI starting July 20. "The three-day game will see a number of players from the county circuit feature as they go up against the Indian national side," Durham cricket said in a press release. It also confirmed that the match would be streamed Live on Durham Cricket's YouTube channel. The match would be played behind closed doors. Earlier, post the WTC Final loss, Indian skipper Kohli had said that they would have dearly liked a First-Class game as preparation before the Test series against England. "We obviously wanted first-class games, which I believe have not been given to us. I don't know what the reasons for that are. But yeah, other than that, I think our preparation time will be ample for us to be ready for the first Test,” Kohli had said. Right now, the Indian team is on a break in England and while some players enjoyed Wimbledon and Euro Cup Final, Ravichandran Ashwin played a County game for Surrey and also picked a six-wicket haul in the second innings.

How can one defend such a performance: Head coach Misbah perturbed by off-colour Pakistan

Pakistan head coach Misbah-Ul-Haq has been in the firing line of the critics after his team was whitewashed by a second-string England side in the three-match ODI series. The coach in a recent press conference confirmed that he was in no mood to defend himself or the team after such a poor run of form with both bat and ball. "I don't know why the team was totally off-colour in this series and lost its momentum but it is a very worrying sign for me as head coach,” Misbah said during a virtual press conference. "How can one defend such a performance. No one can defend our performance and I think as a team we are all responsible be it the players, coaches or support staff,” he added. The 47-year-old former captain, who has had quite a reputation for playing in England, said that the team couldn’t react to the conditions in the first two games. In the third game, it was fielding and poor bowling that cost the game, according to the coach. "We just couldn't handle the conditions in the first two matches and in the third match, we had a total we should have defended but overall it is very disappointing from a bowling point of view and especially our fielding standards. We dropped simple chances," lamented Misbah. Another thing that Misbah was not happy about was not being able to afford the luxury of a great pool of players as a bench strength. He said this even as Pakistan didn’t opt for even a single change in the three matches that they played even after losing the series. "First of all England has a great backup and the luxury of a strong pool of players we don't have. England had choices for this series and we have limitations at certain positions especially in the middle order spaces where no one has settled down for a while,” he said. The Pakistan team would now move to the T20I series with the first string side back after having contracted Covid and being asked to self isolate a week ago. The first match takes place on July 16 at Trentbridge in Nottingham.