Reports: Shardul Thakur and Stuart Broad set to miss second Test at Lords

Indian bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur is a doubtful starter for the second Test against England slated to be played at Lords in London from 12th August if reports in the Guardian are to be believed. If Shardul does miss out, India could go with a spinning option in the form of Ravichandran Ashwin.

India went with Ravindra Jadeja as the lone spinner in the opening Test in Nottingham in order to accommodate Shardul Thakur as the bowling all-rounder. The presence of Jadeja and Shardul meant that India had depth in their batting line-up. While Shardul didn’t prove his worth with the bat, his twin wickets in both innings changed the complexion of the game.

Ashwin despite being arguably the finest spinner in this format had to sit out due to the team combination. Many pundits were baffled at his exclusion from the team sheet despite consistent performances in Australia and against England at home.

Meanwhile, star English fast bowler Stuart Broad is likely to miss the second Test after tweaking his right calf during a training session ahead of the second Test. Broad looked off-colour in the first innings of the opening Test but came to his own in the second innings where he dismissed KL Rahul with an unplayable delivery. If Broad misses out, England could prefer to go with Mark Wood.

“England seamer Stuart Broad has tweaked his right calf in today’s warm-up at Lord’s," ECB said in a statement.

“He was unable to train this afternoon with the rest of the England squad. Broad will have a scan tomorrow to determine the extent of his injury,” the statement further added.

Discover more

Jasprit Bumrah has amazing skills in all three formats of the game says Jonny Bairstow

Swashbuckling English batsman Jonny Bairstow hailed Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah stating that he has all the traits and skills for all three formats of the game. Bumrah was under a bit of pressure after going wicketless in the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand. However, as they say, form is temporary and class is permanent, he showed the world again why he is one of the very best going around by roaring back to form with a nine-wicket match haul in the opening drawn Test against England. He bowled in the right channels and on occasions, he was simply unplayable. “Well, I can’t tell you all the discussions (about Bumrah), look we know that Bumrah has got amazing skills, doesn’t he?” Bairstow said in a conference call organised by the broadcaster Sony ahead of the second Test in Lords slated to kick off from 12th August (Thursday). “With his action, he (Bumrah) varies on the crease as to where his delivery points are, and we all know as well and he (is) slightly different in his action with his run-up and then just his action in general,” said Bairstow. “We also got to give him (Bumrah) credit, he is a world-class bowler, isn’t it, we have seen that in the IPL, we have seen that in white-ball cricket for India and also in red-ball cricket.”

Other batsmen need to chip in with Joe Root says England head coach Chris Silverwood

England head coach Chris Silverwood wants his other batsmen to step up to the task and start contributing and helping their captain Joe Root to ensure that he is not under pressure all the time when he comes out to bat. Joe Root scored one of his best Test centuries against India in the opening Test of the five-match series and made sure England took the game deep and managed to set India a target of 207 runs. England’s top three has been under immense pressure for not being able to contribute on a consistent basis. The likes of Rory Burns, Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley haven't been able to score consistently which has put England under a spot of bother on several occasions. "Yeah, I think we do," England coach Chris Silverwood said on Monday when he was asked whether his team was overly reliant on Joe Root. "I mean Joe's been phenomenal for the last six months really scoring runs for us. And what we need to do is make sure that the guys that are batting with him are coming to the party as well. So that's one thing which we're talking about in the dressing room constantly. And it's something that I've spoken to the batting coaches as well. "Encourage conversations between the players and the coaches to try and find a solution for this to try and help them get better. It's not through lack of effort. It's not a lack of hard work, it's just a case of we have to try and find a formula that works. That's a work in progress at the moment," he added. The first of the five-match series ended in a draw after rain played spoilsport throughout the Test match. Despite losing a day in the Test match, the match was going down to the wire and a classic final day was on our hands. However, persistent showers forced the umpires to abandon the match. Fringe opener Haseeb Hameed who made a comeback to the national squad will be in contention for a return in the playing XI after below-par outings from the openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley. Silverwood said that Hameed has made a strong case for himself and could be given an opportunity in some part of the series. I'm confident he's as ready as he could be," added Silverwood. He put his best foot forward in Durham when he scored that hundred and what he did an early season in the championship shows there's a lot of class there as well,” he added. "I think he is making a very strong case and at some point, we may make a decision and give him an opportunity.” Lord’s will host the second Test of the five-match series starting on 12th August (Thursday).

T20 Cup to kick off Pakistan’s domestic calendar for 2021-22

Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday, August 09 announced the schedule of 2021-22 domestic cricket season in which it will hold 10 tournaments, comprising 266 matches. The senior competitions will begin with the start of the National T20 Cup in which the six teams representing six regions of Pakistan will participate. The T20 Cup, starting September 25 would be held in Multan and Lahore. The next competition will be the First Class four day competition also called the Qaid-E-Azam Trophy which will begin from October 20 and while the first half of the competition will be held in Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore, the tournament will move to Karachi for the final leg. The five day final will be held from December 29 to January 02nd. After the First Class competition, there would be a break during which time the Pakistan Super League will take place. Post the completion of the PSL, the Pakistan Cup, domestic ODI competition would once again be played between the six teams. It would begin on February 25 and be played in a double league format in Faisalabad, Multan and Lahore with the final slated for March 30 at the iconic Gaddafi Stadium. “Domestic competitions in the 2021-22 season are separate to the home international matches against New Zealand, England, West Indies and Australia, and the HBL Pakistan Super League, which will be held between September 2021 and March 2022,” the PCB said in a press release.

Always motivating to play against teams which don’t visit our country that often: Shakib

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan who was named man of the series after the team’s thumping 4-1 series win over Australia in the five-match T20I series in Dhaka has said that facing “bigger teams” is always a motivation. “There is always a motivation when you play the bigger teams – normally those which don’t visit our country that often,” Shakib told reporters. The left-handed player further added that the side was riding high on the performance against Zimbabwe. “Also, we had a really good series in Zimbabwe and so everyone was pretty motivated to do well in this series as well. We had never won a series against Australia, and so this was our chance. Hence, we wanted to deliver well as a unit, which is what happened.” The hosts had taken an unassailable 3-0 lead earlier in the series after winning the first three T20Is but the Aussie did fight back in the fourth clash to clinch a win. Bangladesh then dominated the visitors in the fifth and final T20I after bundling them out for 62 while chasing a modest total of 123 in 20 overs. Only two Australia batsmen managed to get to the double-figure mark during the course. Shakib scalped a four-wicket haul while Saifuddin picked up three wickets.