Rohit Sharma asked me to back my instincts: Shardul Thakur on last over exploits

England welcome pressure of must-win games in preparation for World T20

Although England would have loved winning the series against India in the fourth T20I itself, they are not too disappointed at the prospect of playing an all-stake decider to win the series. The series has been used as a building block for the T20 World Cup by both sides, with England skipper Eoin Morgan stating that playing high-stakes games will do the team a lot good leading into the big tournament. "We really want to play in must-win games like this. They're the closest thing that we get to playing in a World Cup or a Champions Trophy and against a fantastic side like India, it should bode to be a great game,” Morgan said in the post-match presentation. All-rounder Ben Stokes echoed the skipper's viewpoint when he said that there will be pressure on both the tourists and the hosts as let-ups in the final game will see them losing the series. He said that England are desperate to win this series in order to keep the winning habit going, however, winning from crunch situations will make England a richer side in terms of experience going through such circumstances before the T20 World Cup. "In an ideal world, we would have loved to have gone into the next game already won the series. We go into the next game with a huge amount of pressure on our shoulders as a team, because whoever wins that game wins the series. That's great for us as a team, especially with a T20 World Cup coming up because the more pressure situations we get put into as a team the more, I think we'll benefit from it." Stokes said. "It is a final because if we don't win then we lose a series and we don't want to lose series, we want to win and we want to make a habit of winning them. The more situations we get put into where we've got pressure on us and we keep prevailing, that's just going to do us the world of good," he added. England could not chase down the target of 186 set by India in the fourth T20I to face a loss for the first time as the team batting second and the all-important decider will be played at the same venue Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

India hand maiden call ups to Prasidh Krishna, Krunal Pandya for England ODI series

Getting on the act of trying various new names before the two T20 World Cup in two years, India have handed maiden call ups to Prasidh Krishna, Suryakumar Yadav, and Krunal Pandya for the ODI series against England. Prasidh made his first-class debut in 2015 but rose to prominence on the back of his raw pace and movement off the pitch in the IPL where he debuted in the 2018 edition with the Kolkata Knight Riders. On the other hand, Suryakumar Yadav has been piling on the runs in the white-ball formats in the domestic arena and the IPL. His inclusion was always on the cards given he has already made his debut in the shortest format against England and produced a match-winning batting performance in his very first opportunity with the bat. From the last series against Australia, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant have made a return to the Indian ODI side. Rohit had missed the series in Australia due to injury while Pant’s number in the format could not find him a place in the Indian white-ball set up. The selection committee has outlined wicket-keeping duties against the names of both KL Rahul and Pant for the series against England. Rohit has returned as the vice-captain of the side and most likely will resume his partnership with Shikhar Dhawan in the fifty over format. Hence, Mayank Agarwal who played two ODIs in Australia and could not make big runs has been dropped from the squad, while Shubman Gill, who played in the last ODI of the series against Australia has been retained as the third opener in the squad. As it was made out in media reports, Jasprit Bumrah will continue to be out of the Indian team for the ODI series as well after seeking time off the team for a personal reason. The pace department will still miss Mohammed Shami who broke his hand in Australia, but it has opened up an opportunity for Mohammed Siraj and Krishna. The pace attack will be led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar who is showing signs of coming back to his best with the red ball in the ongoing T20I series against England. T Natarajan has also retained his place in the ODI squad after an impressive debut in Australia and passing the latest round of fitness test. In the spin bowling department, Kuldeep Yadav has retained his place in the squad along with Yuzvendra Chahal while Krunal Pandya has earned maiden call ups as someone to replace Ravindra Jadeja, who is yet to fully recover from the finger injury he suffered in Australia. India’s ODI squad Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), KL Rahul (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Md. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur.

4th T20I Report: Clinical India defy toss, England's dominance to set up grand finale

Defying the precedent of the team winning the toss winning in the first three matches of this series, India defended a par total to win the fourth T20I and levelled the series 2-2 and set up a highly-anticipated decider on Saturday night. Chasing the target of 186 runs could not have been an impossible one for the tourists having seen batting getting easier in the second half of the game. But, the Indian bowling line up had learned their lessons and executed their tactics well enough to hold them back and win the contest by 8 runs. England openers Jason Roy and Jos Buttler decided to give them a longer rope before starting to go for glory shots. After eating away the first over from Bhuvnehswar Kumar for no runs, Buttler attempted to tee off against the pacer’s second over. However, he ended up attempting one big shot too many and handed India an early advantage with his wicket and the trend of only one England opener surviving long enough at the crease continued for the fourth time in the series. Jason Roy made sure he was not overcommitting to aggressive shots and was able to mix big shots with the sensible display of batsmanship along with Dawid Malan. Malan has not a great time in the T20 series until the fourth game as he has struggled to rotate the strike, and finding big shots against spinners. He was helped by Shardul Thakur when he spilt a chance off the bowling of Hardik Pandya, who ratified the call made bu the team management of banking on him as the fifth bowler. The Bhuvneshwar-Pandya dup managed to keep the Roy-Malan duo quite for a longish period of time before all the pressures were let off by Washington Sundar who went on to face severe punishment on one of the rare nights he has had with the ball. His first over in the sixth over of England’s chase where Roy took him off for 17 runs turned out to be an inflexion point for the tourists in terms of shifting of the momentum. Having seen Roy shifting gears to accelerate, Malan attempted one of an expansive shot as well against Shardul Thakur in the next over to just clear the long-off. Malana and Roy started looking like developing a partnership when Kohli introduced the debutant—Rahul Chahar, who was preferred over Yuzvendra Chahal maybe for trying out new options or even due to poor outing the leg-spinner from Haryana has had in the last few games. Right from the start, the leg spinner was all over Malan, who was not able to pick his googly. After surviving a stumping appeal and realising he can’t get at the top of Chahar, he attempted the go-to shot England batsmen have been trying and failing with—reverse sweep, but the leg-spinner was too full and tasted first success in his international career bowling the England’s number three in T20Is. Pandya returned in the next over with his third over of the night and bounced out Roy and the delight on the face of Indians told a story about their desperation to send both Malan and Roy back to England dugout. Eoin Morgan sent Ben Stokes back to his position of number five and the all-rounder was looking hungry to stamp his authority on the series after not contributing to England’s cause in the series until that point. Both he and Jonny Bairstow started batting with a calculative approach of targeting specific bowlers as per their match ups. Overs from 10th to 14th yielded 47 runs as Chahar was attacked by Stokes, while Washington Sundar was put to the sword by Bairstow in a proper showdown of right-hander against off-spinner and te left-hander against the leg spinner. The plan was going perfectly into the 15th over as well with Stokes continuing his onslaught against the leg spinner in the first half. But, Bairstow decided to ditch the match up the game and attempted an ambitious shot off Chahar and the leg spinner was alert to the batsman coming down the track and altered his length and England were left disappointed with a set man giving it away against the run of play. Bairstow’s departure was a sigh of relief for Indians but an equally, if not more devastating pair of Stokes and Morgan could have snatched the game away from them. Virat Kohli went off the filed for an injury concern related to the quad muscle which he revealed during the post-match presentation and handed over the baton to Rohit Sharma. Sharma stitched an instant tactic with Shardul Thakur of asking both Stokes and Morgan to hit over the longer part of the ground towards the off side against off-paced balls. The move paid dividend as Stokes and Morgan failed to pick the slower balls and could not muscle full-length deliveries over the boundary line to shift the equilibrium significantly in India’s favour. England’s hopes were shattered but they could still rely on the shoulders of Sam Curran and Chris Jordan. But, it was not to be their day and Pandya made sure India were to live another day in the series dismissing Curran in the next over to put the tourists on the brink. Pandya bowled his quota of four overs for only 16 runs and picked up big wickets of Roy and Curran to announce his return from a long hiatus of not bowling due to his bad and unreliable back. Needing 33 runs from the last two overs from the bats of Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan was going to be difficult for England, but Jofra Archer kept them in the hunt as late as the penultimate ball of their chasing effort. He was clean in his striking against Shardul and for once sent panic into the mind of pacer who was emerging as the star with wickets fo Morgana and Stokes on consecutive deliveries. India would be pleased to get to the decider of this series with a clinical performance as both the batting and bowling department stuck to the plans and the captaincy from both Kohli and Rohit were proactive. After losing the toss and facing another shattering start with the bat, middle-order comprising of the newest sensation Suryakumar Yadav, and Shreyas Iyer guided them to a defendable total before bowlers defied the dew factor and the narrative around easier batting conditions during the second innings to help the side clinch an all-important do-or-die contest. Suryakumar Yadav showed from the word go why a delay in giving him a chance in the shortest format has not been taken easily by the fans and experts. He announced his arrival in the grandest fashion as he pulled Jofra Archer over the fine leg with such swagger and unseen flair. He never looked out of depth against the pace of Mark Wood and Jofra Archrm while the leg-spin of Adil Rashid was toyed around for fun. More to follow

Babar Azam to face FIA investigation in harassment case

Pakistan Cricket team captain Babar Azam would face an investigation from the top investigating agency of Pakistan, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The FIA have been directed by a session court in Lahore to investigate the alleged charges of blackmail and harassment by a woman. Hamza Mukhtar had filed the charges against the 26-year-old Pak skipper last year ahead of Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand. In a press conference held in Lahore, Mukhtar alleged that Azam and his two other accomplices harassed and exploited her and the matter went to court. The court directed the police to investigate the case. The case though was never registered by the court as Babar Azam obtained a stay order from the Lahore High court which allowed him to not appear before the court till March 22 as he was on National duties playing against South Africa at home turf and then once again playing in PSL thereafter. However, when Mukhtar approached the federal agency, they observed that the threatening calls that Mukhtar received came from a number registered in Babar's name and hence concluded that it, "shows guilty form [sic] Babar’s part." Soon after this, Judge Hamid Hussain on Thursday directed the FIA "to proceed further with respect to registration of the FIR against the culprits within the stipulated time following legal formalities". Azam's family though have denied receiving any summons from FIA and his lawyer has termed the order as unfair. "The instant order has been passed without issuing a notice to Babar in violation of his fundamental rights of a fair trial as guaranteed in the constitution. The order is prima facie against the law and will be assailed soon," Azam's legal counsel Barrister Haris Azmat said.