Rumours of Danushka Gunathilaka & Kusal Mendis joining USA cricket baseless, clarifies manager

New Zealand tour of Pakistan under threat with Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

The Taliban take over of Afghanistan seems to have an effect on neighbouring Pakistan, especially with foreign nationals visiting that country. In this regard, the New Zealand cricket team’s tour of Pakistan, a first in 18 years, looks under threat as New Zealand Cricket Players Association has expressed its reservations on several issues. “We’re very comfortable with the process we’ve got, but notwithstanding that, with events in Afghanistan in the last few days, it’s very sad what’s happening in that country and people are obviously asking questions of our security check processes,” NZPCA President Heath Mills was quoted as saying to Stuff, a New Zealand national news website. “That includes players, which is completely understandable. We just need to assure them of the process, and follow it, and reach a determination,” Mills added. According to the report, New Zealand Cricket’s independent security consultant Reg Dickason has taken it upon himself to visit Pakistan and make an independent analysis before the team invokes on the tour. “That will take him [Dickason] four or five days and then he’ll report back, and recommend whether the tour goes ahead, or it doesn’t for whatever reason... if there are changes to whatever the plan might be,” Mills said about the arrangements. New Zealand, who would be touring Subcontinent before and after the T20 World Cup in UAE and Oman, are scheduled to play three ODIs at the Pindi Stadium in Rawalpindi and five T20Is at the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore in September, after their Bangladesh tour.

Joe Root climbs to second spot in Latest ICC Test rankings, Kohli and Rohit hold onto their spots

England skipper Joe Root has climbed to the second spot in the latest ICC Test rankings for batsmen after playing a stellar role in the second Test in Lords. He smashed a sensational unbeaten 180 in the first innings to ensure England a 27 runs first-innings lead but his innings went in vain as England went down in the final day of the Test match to surrender a 0-1 lead to India. Root has been quite phenomenal in the season so far already scoring five centuries and is breathing down the neck of New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson who is currently the No 1 batsman in Tests. Root with 893 rating points is just eight behind Williamson. He has been head and shoulders above any other batsman in the English team having made another brilliant ton in the opening Test at Nottingham. Meanwhile, KL Rahul who was awarded the Player of the Match gained 19 spots to occupy the 37th spot after a sensational knock of 127 in the first innings. Rahul has grabbed his opportunity with both hands. Being tipped as a middle-order backup for the series, Rahul has made the opening spot his very own with a brilliant 80 odd in the first Test and a brilliant century in Lords. Among bowlers to make gains from this Test includes magic man James Anderson who climbed one spot to occupy the 6th position. Anderson continues to lead the English attack and bagged a fifer in the first innings of the Lord's Test while going wicketless in the second. Mohammed Siraj and Mark Wood also made significant gains and is currently occupying the 38th and 37th position respectively. While Wood gained five spots, Siraj took a leap of 18 places to occupy the 38th position. Siraj proved to be India's match-winner on the final day bagging four important wickets. He finished with a match haul of 8/128.

Feel proud of this bowling unit: Waqar Younis after Pakistan’s fight in one-wicket loss vs West Indies

Pakistan bowling coach Waqar Younis feels that his bowlers did extremely well to almost defend the total of 168 in the fourth innings against West Indies, during the first Test of the two-match series at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica. “The bowlers gave it their all, hats off to them. I feel proud of this bowling unit, the way they fought in this Test match,” Waqar was quoted as saying to ESPNCricinfo. However, in the same breath, he also criticised the fielding of the team which let go of many chances and that eventually led to the loss of the match. “It's the work of the bowlers to create opportunities,” he said, before going on to explain the mistakes that happened in the field. “Of course, mistakes happened, which is why we came second. We were poor with the catching - if you let go of catches in tense moments then they'll hurt you. They were 114 for 7 and there were three opportunities after that. If we cannot grab that as a unit then it will hurt us," said Waqar. The 49-year-old further called the thrilling game the perfect advertisement for Test cricket. "It was a very good Test match, couldn't have had a better advertisement for Test cricket. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of the result, but that's the way cricket goes,” he said. The two teams will now face each other in the second game which starts on August 20 at the same venue.

Smriti Mandhana bats for 6-team women's IPL as men's competition expands

Indian women’s team opener Smriti Mandhana is of the opinion that there is enough talent and depth in Indian women’s cricket for the introduction of a six-team IPL. She feels that like the IPL has helped in forming a huge pool of players in the Indian men’s circuit, it will also help the women’s national side to improve their bench strength. Mandhana who is one of the most stylish batswomen and a prolific run-scorer going around stated that the quality of domestic players has improved immensely after getting the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the best in the game in the IPL and that could also be the case for women’s cricket. "There are same number of states for men and women. So, when they started men's IPL, there were same number of states. But the quality went higher and higher as the years passed by," Mandhana said on Ravichandran Ashwin's YouTube channel. "What IPL is today, it wasn't the same 10 or 11 years back. I think it's the same for women's cricket. We have same amount of girls playing cricket. For now, I think we will have good five or six teams to start with and probably grow to eight teams in one or two years. But till the time we don't start, we don't know," she added. Unlike the men’s cricketers, the women’s cricketers are allowed to ply their trade across the globe. Five of the Indian women’s players including Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Harmanpreet Kaur recently plied their trade in the Hundred. Mandhana has also been part of the Women’s Big Bash and she hopes that unless the tournament starts, it won’t give enough exposure to the girls to turn their dreams of becoming a cricketer into a reality. "Five-six teams, we are good to go with. But eight teams, I am still not sure how it will look like. But I think we really need to start with five or six teams so that we can actually get to eight teams very soon. "I think till we don't start, we are not giving exposure to our girls to turn their cricket into a really different level," she said. Mandhana who has played in the Big Bash League feels that the tournament has helped Australia in churning out quality players and has helped their bench strength immensely. Mandhana feels that it can be actually replicated in the Indian circuit as well. "I played in Big Bash four years back and now the quality is very different. You can see that in Cricket Australia where they have 40-50 cricketers ready to play international cricket any day. "So, I really want that to happen in Indian cricket. I think IPL will play a huge role in that," Mandhana concluded.