Shafali Verma faces short balls from Men’s U-25 players to prepare for ICC World Cup 2022

The Ashes | Day-Night Test, Day 2: Australia march ahead as stumbling England continue to suffer

There was no room left for too many surprises after an attritional first day of the Day-Night Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval and the second day produced a familiar set of events for both sides. Australia would be the happier side as has been the case in any Pink ball Test where they are involved while England will be continuing to look out for inspiration from someone in their playing XI. The second day produced no outrageous moments. Marnus Labuschagne did what he does and scored his sixth Test hundred, an England pacer dismissed an Australian batsman on a no-ball, Steve Smith evaporated the gas out of England attack and Australian lower-order demoralised Joe Root and company even before they could get their hands on the shining Kookaburra ball under lights. They did not relent there and struck twice to keep the flavour of the second day on the expected lines. Burns’ moving parts push him to the brink Rory Burns had a torrid start to the Ashes series and history suggests it doesn’t get easier to correct a downward curve in Australia for an English batsman. He has not done too many things different as well to resist the historical trends and rather has slipped into another failure on the second day of the second Test. He missed a leg sidish half volley on the very first ball of the high-octane series to get bowled behind his legs and experts argued that the dismissal was not necessarily a reflection of his technique and messed up trigger positions. They argued that there are various “moving parts” of his batting stance and it has produced runs for him, albeit a bit inconsistently. He was once again a victim of those moving parts and could handle a short of a length ball that bounced a bit more than his anticipation. To be fair to him, the ball was a good one from Starc, who found a bit of bounce from good length are and the line of the delivery at off stump did not allow the left-hander to leave the ball. But, could he not see how Labuschagne was leaving deliveries on length? However, even if he had to play at that considering it was on off stump, could not he stop himself from going towards the ball and defending with hard hands. If he could wait for the ball to come to him and play closer to his body, as Dawid Malan batted after his departure, it could not have taken the shoulder of his bat and gone comfortably to Steve Smith at second slip. Starc has ripped open the technical facilities of Burns so far in the three innings and the issues will become mental from now onwards and it could go beyond the point of no return for Burns very quickly. England have made a choice of not playing technical traditional-looking batsmen such as James Vince and Zak Crawley and prominently the former has been blamed for throwing away his starts and not scoring big when set. However, Burns is not fulfilling that role as well and the duck at the Gabba was his sixth duck in the year 2021 apart from many low scores he has had such as the one in the first innings in Adelaide. Burns was tipped to be the deputy of Root on the tour of South Africa in late 2019 before he suffered a free fall, both technically and statistically. He was to be one of the most prominent cogs of England’s success in Australia, but the trends so far suggest a rather abominable prospect for both him and England batting. England’s love affair with no-balls England bowlers were not troubling Australia throughout the entire first day of the Test but they were there and thereabouts to keep them aware and defensive. They adopted bowling short balls with a packed leg-side field to stop the duo of Labuschagne and David Warner from running away with a flurry of boundaries. Their tactic was to choke them for runs till they get the second new ball and use that to good effect under lights. They were successful fairly early with both approaches as Labuschagne mistimed an attempted pull shot and the ball carried comfortably to Jos Buttler taking his glove and handle of the bat. However, Buttler grassed the opportunity. Likewise, Anderson produced an outside edge when Labuschagne got eager to reach his first Ashes hundred after being tied down due to tight line and length bowling and Buttler left another chance to give Australia’s number three, who is yet to go through an average phase in his short career as many as two lives. England started their second day on a better note and they pitched the ball further up compared to their style of bowling on the first day. Ollie Robinson reaped the reward albeit after Labuschagne scored his century but he too suffered the same fate as many of his teammates and predecessors have endured in the recent past in the Ashes series. He trapped Labuschagne in front of the wicket with a fullish delivery but only to find his foot just on the line of the bowling crease and had to be left dejected after the no-ball call. Imagine, if Buttler could have held on the catch when Labuschagne was just on 21 or Ben Stokes had not overstepped when he had bowled Warner neck and crop in the first innings at the Gabba. Things could have been different and possibly much better for the tourists but they have no one else but themselves to blame for their downward spree in the series. Dream debut for Neser Michael Neser has been on the radar for forever but the perpetual quality of Australian frontline pacers such as Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and before them James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris meant he had to dig deep and wait for his opportunity. All those moments of waiting have produced a bundle of good fortunes for Neser as he made his Test debut in an all-important Ashes series at home. He would have to wait a little longer if Pat Cummins would not have been less lucky than him to have dinner sitting closer to one of the very few Covid-19 infected people in Adelaide. Then, what would one expect as the best and easiest time to enter the stage of Test cricket than having the entire opposition on the mat and looking towards your side to call the shots and end their misery by declaring the innings? He got the opportunity to play with the hearts of England pacers and he made the best use of it to pummel them to all parts of the ground. He took a special liking to Chris Woakes and slapped him over cover-point for a classical six that would make even as classy a batsman as KL Rahul proud of him. He hit a 24-ball 35 and deflated whatever spirit remained in the hearts of England players towards the end of the second day’s play. His main function was remaining though and once again, he waited for the duo of Starc and Richardson to bowl with the new ball before he could get his hands on the ball. However, just as he dominated the scene with the bat, he dismissed Haseeb Hameed on a rather innocuous inswinging delivery when the right-hander could not keep an instinctive on-drive down. He celebrated profusely and so did Australia as they got ahead in the game after bowling only 52 balls and have to deal with the only successful England pair from the last game in the form of skipper Joe Root and Dawid Malan to put their hands firmly on the Urn. The second day of the Adelaide Test was a quiet day of Test cricket with no untoward events whatsoever and they are positioned the same manner as has been the case for both sides in the Ashes series in Australia. England have to dig deep and the duo of Root and Malan along with their “superhero” Ben Stokes have to find their best performance to have a sigh of relief and give Australia some food for thought while they will be celebrating Christmas. One bad batting day tomorrow and England will be chasing the game and Root will be chasing his legacy which is under serious threat at this point.

Sussex Sharks rope in Rashid Khan for T20 Blast 2022

In recent developments, it has been revealed that Afghanistan spin bowler Rashid Khan will be seen donning the Sussex Sharks' jersey in T20 Blast 2022. Rashid was part of the team in 2018, 2019, and 2021 and the coming edition of the tournament will be his fourth season for Sussex. T20 Blast 2022 will start on 25th May and the final is scheduled on July 16. As England's domestic T20 competition will clash with the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rashid is expected to miss a few matches. Boasting a brilliant record in T20 cricket, Rashid is currently the fourth-highest wicket-taker in the shortest format of the game, inflicting 403 wickets in 292 matches. Praising Rashid for his tremendous skills, the Head Coach of Sussex Sharks, James Kirtley mentioned how his positive energy rubbed off on the team last season. The 23-year-old spinner mentored one of his teammates, named Archie Lenham last year. "Rash is an outstanding person and his positive effect on our environment was so obvious last summer. The immediate care and mentoring he showed Archie showed the real class of the person," Kirtley was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. The no.5 ranked T20I bowler has played quite a few cameos with the bat. Kirtley talked about Rashid's dynamic batting skills, which he displayed in last year's quarter-final. "He’s the best in the business and we are truly lucky to have him. It is great to know we have developed a long-standing relationship with the best T20 spinner in the world – not to forget his dynamic batting which we witnessed against Yorkshire in last year’s quarter-final," Kirtley added.

IPL 2022 | Lucknow franchise ropes in Andy Flower as head coach

Former Zimbabwe cricketer Andy Flower is set to be the head coach of the Lucknow IPL franchise. Flower had resigned from his post of assistant coach of the Punjab Kings franchise. Flower expressed delight at being associated with the franchise and said that he was excited about beginning the new journey. "I am incredibly excited to be joining the new Lucknow franchise and I am very grateful for the opportunity. Since my very first tour to India in 1993, I have always loved touring, playing and coaching in India," said Flower in a statement. "I will relish the challenge to build something meaningful and successful with the Lucknow franchise, I am looking forward to meeting the management and staff when I visit Uttar Pradesh in the new year,” he added. Sanjiv Goenka said that Flower has left an indelible mark in the history of cricket both as a player and a coach. “As a player and a coach, Andy has left an indelible mark in the history of cricket. We respect his professionalism and hope he will work with our vision and add value to our team."

The Ashes | Michael Nesser's dream run on debut continues as he scalps first Test wicket

Australia seamer Michael Nesser who made his debut in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide scalped his first wicket in the format as he sent England opener Haseeb Hameed packing for 6 off 21 in the first innings. Hameed was caught by Mitchell Starc stationed at mid-on. The visitors had already lost both the openers, Hameed and Rory Burns and were struggling at 12/2 at the time of writing. Earlier, the hosts rode on an emphatic batting from David Warner, stand-in captain Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey and a late surge from the tailenders to post 473/9 (D) in the first innings. While Warner and Smith missed out on individual tons by small margins, Labuschagne went on to notch up 103. Warner struck 95 while Smith was out for 93. The wicket-keeper batsman Carey who replaced Tim Paine in the squad also scored a fifty during the course. While Nesser picked his first Test wicket after getting the Baggy green cap, he also chipped in with some valuable runs earlier in the day. Australia were 390/7 when Starc was joined by Nesser in the middle and the two batters put on a partnership of 58 for the 8th wicket. Starc remained unbeaten at run-a-ball 39 but Nesser eventually departed for a 24-ball 35.