Pakistan skipper Babar Azam wins ICC Men’s Player of the Month award for April

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has won the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for April for his consistent and outstanding performances across all formats in the recently concluded series against South Africa. Babar was in superb form with the bat against the Proteas and scored a match-winning 82-ball 94 in the third ODI of the series followed by another match-winning innings of 122 runs from just 59 balls.

He defeated his fellow countryman Fakhar Zaman and Nepal’s Kushal Bhurtel to clinch the Player of the Month title for April.

The Player of the Month is chosen by fans and the ICC voting academy and former Pakistan batsman Ramiz Raja while representing the academy said that Babar Azam has a different flair of batting and dominating bowling attacks and he richly deserves the player of the month award.

“The world bats in two ways in white-ball cricket. One way is to destroy attacks with muscle and force and then there is the Babar Azam way, like conducting a batting symphony with punch, panache and flair, and he deserves to win this award,” Raja said.

In the calendar month of April, Babar Azam scored 228 runs across the three-match long ODI series with an astounding average of 76 runs per innings. He followed it with another dominating series with the bat in the T20Is and piled on 305 runs across four T20Is at an average of 43.57.

Discover more

Piyush Chawla's father passes away suffering from post-Covid complications

Former Indian spinner Piyush Chawla’s father died today after suffering from Covid-19 and post-covid complications. Piysuh Chawala took to his Instagram handle to share the tragic news to the world and his followers. "With deepest grief, we announce that my beloved father, Mr Pramod Kumar Chawla, left for the heavenly abode on 10th May 2021. He was suffering from covid and post covid complications. We invite your kind thoughts and prayers in this difficult times. May his noble soul rest in peace," Chawla wrote in his Instagram post. Former Indian players and his teammates such as Suresh Raina, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan expressed their grief and condolences. Piyush Chawla was bought by the Mumbai Indians in the auction earlier this year before th IPL 2021 but he could not find a place in the playing XI in the seven matches before the tournament was indefinitely postponed following Covid-19 outbreak in teams.

The Hundred Women | Shefali Verma signs up with Birmingham Phoenix

India Women’ young sensation Shefali Verma will feature in the inaugural edition of The Hundred, news agency ANI reported citing an unnamed source. She will play for the Birmingham Phoenix who will be led by New Zealand all-rounder Sophie Devine. Shefali has become the fifth Indian women player to sign up for The Hundred tournament and the BCCI has issued a no-objection certificate to her paving the way for her henry in the news form of the game launched by the England and Wales Cricket Board. "It is a delightful news not just for Shafali but for Indian women's cricket that there will be five Indian players in the inaugural edition of The Hundred. She will re-unite with her Sydney Sixers coach Ben Sawyer and the experience should help her grow further in what has already been a very positive road forward for the youngster," ANI quoted an unnamed source as saying. Shefali has established a reputation of being a swashbuckling batswoman for India at the top of the order. She has impressed one and all in her short career and both she and the Indian Women side and would be hopeful for a fruitful season with the Phoenix in The Hundred.

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly rebuffs criticism about ignoring women's cricket

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has downplayed the concerns surrounding the state of Women’s cricket in India and has said that there are a lot of series in the pipeline for women in the near future. In an interview with Sportstar, he was asked if the BCCI has left Women’s cricket behind in the list of priorities, Ganguly lamented the Covdi-19 pandemic as the reason behind Indian women not getting a lot of games in the past year and a half. "What to do? We have been living with this deadly virus. Other than the men’s cricket, we had the women’s IPL. South Africa women played here,” Ganguly said to Sportstar. Also, he pointed out that the BCCI has scheduled a Test match between India Women and England Women to be played in England later this year along with a six-match long ODI and T20I series. He also made mention of the West Indies Women tour of India while rebuffing the accusations against him for ignoring the Women’s game in the country. “Our women are going to play Test cricket after eight years. They play a Test in Bristol and six ODIs and T20Is. Would you still accuse me of not supporting women’s cricket? West Indies will come and play in India,” he added. Notably, Indian Women played a home series against the South Africa Women team earlier in March this year but that ended a one-year-long hiatus for them after the Covid-19 pandemic had hit the sporting world.

IPL 2021 | 'He made big impact in my confidence,' Harshal Patel opens up on Virat Kohli's captaincy

There have been a lot of talks about Virat Kohli’s style of captaincy and how he manages to get the best out of his players. Most of the time, critics have called his methods wrong or too pressurising, but Kohli has got direct support from one of his teammates at the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. In an interview with Hindustan Times, RCB’s Harshal Patel has explained Kohli’s ways of doing things and motivating people around him to do good. Taking his personal reference, Patel recalled how a text from Kohli after he was traded to the RCB made a huge boost to his confidence knowing that the team will be behind him in the 14th edition of the IPL. “The moment I was traded, Virat sent me a message, “welcome back, you are going to play here”. That made a big impact in my confidence and I realised this is a team where I can finally showcase all my skills,” Patel said to HT. Harshal Patel also said that Kohli gives space to his bowlers and don’t come hard at them knowing that there will be some days when batsmen will get at the top and dictate terms. He said that Kohli discusses just ways on how to stay on the plans and best possible mindset after a bad game and it gives huge confidence to bowler like him. “He gives you the space to do your thing. Even if you don’t execute at times he understands better than anybody that on a batter’s day, if they get hold of a bowler, you are going to go for runs. Whenever we are unable to execute, or we stray from our plans, when we sit for the review the only talk is about what do we do to stay on the path, how do we stay in the mindset to execute more often than not. We don’t let any other noise come into that environment,” Patel added. Notably, Harshal Patel was the leading wicket-taker in the IPL 2021 till the halfway stage before the Covid-19 outbreak in bubbles led to the postponement of the tournament. But, at the same time, he conceded runs with an economy rate of 9.17 runs per over and once he was plundered for 37 runs in an over by Ravindra Jadeja.