Shiv Sunder Das appointed India Women’s batting coach

Explosive opener Shefali Verma working on leaving the ball for debut Test against England Women

Rising in stature for her explosive batting style with every game she plays, India women teen sensation is working to perfect another aspect of her game as she is preparing for a Test match against England Women later this year. She is working on developing her batting style and stance to suit in the longest format and improve in the most critical element of batting in Tests— the ability to leave the ball. In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Verma said that all formats offer valuable lessons and given she will be debuting in two of those formats (ODIs, and Tests), she would be looking forward to grasping as much learning as possible. "Women are getting to play their first Test in seven years. I have been given the chance, so my aim would be to learn from that Test match as much as I can about choosing the right balls to play, staying on in the middle as long as possible. All formats - ODIs, T20Is, and Tests - have different experiences and lessons to offer, so I would be looking forward to learning from both the ODI and Test formats,” Verma said to ESPNcricinfo. Expressing her feelings after getting a maiden call ups for both the ODIs and Tests, Verma said that she too like others felt good about the opportunities coming her way. She is eager to prove her worth in the longer formats by scoring runs for India Women over the tour of England. "Whenever I get a chance like this, I look out for opportunities to play matches so that I am able to prove myself and my style of play and go on to build a good career for myself. Everyone feels good after getting their maiden call-ups, and I felt good, too. My goal would be to make sure I score well for my team,” Verma added. Shefali Verma burst onto the scenes after her aggressive batting at the top of the order for India Women in the ICC Women T20 World Cup played last year in Australia.

New Zealand workhorse Neil Wagner stays aware to opportunities against England before WTC final

There is a lot of hype building up for the inaugural World Test Championship final to be played between India and New Zealand and it has somewhat engulfed the upcoming Test series between New Zealand and England which otherwise would have attracted a lot of hype and anticipation. However, the fact that there are two Test matches and a series to be won against England at their home is not lost on any of the Blackcaps squad member heading to England. Before leaving for England, one of the chief architects of New Zealand’s journey into the WTC final—Neil Wagner, outlined that the Blackcaps will not be taking the series against the hosts as just a build-up series leading up to the WTC final and instead the series holds a separate special place for the side. "We're not going to treat these two Test matches against England just as warm-ups (before the WTC final). I know for a fact we're going to get out there and pride ourselves the way we've been playing Test cricket and we want to win Test matches for New Zealand,” Wagner said to reporters at the Auckland airport while leaving for England. Wagner also pointed out that the early arrival in England due to Covid-19 measures and pre-series preparation camp in Lincoln would serve them well going into the first Test starting June 02. Wagner said that on earlier tours Blackcaps did not use to get ample opportunity to train with the duke ball before facing the stiff task of adapting to it which is not the case this time as they have been practising with the duke ball for some time in a camp in Lincoln. "It's been quite nice, it's obviously got different characteristics to the Kookaburra. The way we've been training for the last while is something we didn't always have in the past, having the facilities and having a marquee up and getting a number of trainings in before going to England. On tours in the past you rock up there and you've only got a couple of trainings and maybe one head out with the Dukes ball before the first Test and with that you can find yourself a little bit behind,” Wagner added. Neil Wagner makes a formidable quartet of bowlers for New Zealand along with Tim Southee, Trent Boult, and Kyle Jamieson. Wagner holds the number tree rank on the ICC Rankings for bowlers and has scalped 32 wickets from seven Test matches that were played under the umbrella of the World Test Championship at a phenomenal average of 22.5 runs per wicket.

Cricket Australia reaches out to Cameron Bancroft, seeks 'new information' on Cape Town Test

Comments made by Cameron Bancroft about having wider knowledge pertaining to the ball-tampering affair in the Cape Town Test of 2018 has created quite a bit of buzz in the Australian cricket ranks. And now, Cricket Australia's head of national teams, Ben Oliver, has confirmed that the integrity unit headed by Rebecca Murray has reached out to Bancroft to ask if he knows something more than he told at the time of investigation and that if he has something more to add. Oliver said that as it has been said often that Cricket Australia is willing to listen to more and more ‘new information’ and hence Cameron Bancroft has been contacted by the integrity unit. HE said that the unit will wait for his response before coming to any conclusion. "I think we've maintained all the way through that if, if anyone had any new information relating to that incident that we've encouraged people to come forward and discuss that with our integrity unit. In this particular case, our integrity team have reached out to Cam again extending that invitation to him if he does have any, any new information. We'll wait to see his response on that, we haven't had had a response. But in saying that we're operating on different time zones," Oliver said on Monday, May 17. Oliver also dismissed allegations that Cricket Australia tried to sweep sandpaper gate under the carpet and did not launch a comprehensive investigation for an issue that many former cricketers say has embarrassed the culture and legacy of the country. He said there was a "There was obviously a thorough investigation into that, to that incident. There were actions taken on the back of that and then since that time, everyone who's been involved in the team has worked incredibly hard to rebuild confidence and to ultimately sort of aspiring to make Australians proud of the Australian cricket team. So from that point of view that processes have taken place,” Olliver added. Former players such as Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist have voiced their opinions on reopening the sandpaper gate following Bancroft’s assertion that bowlers must have been aware of the ball conditions in the Cape Town Test.

Unfair on WV Raman to get sacked, feels ex coach Tushar Arothe

Former India women’s head coach Tushar Arothe has come in support of WV Raman whose contract as the head coach of the national women’s team was not extended in favour of Ramesh Powar. Arothe felt that it was very hard on Raman as it was under his tutelage that India reached the final pof the T20 World Cup last year in Australia. “Well, I believe there were over 35 applications for the post. Then, they shortlisted it to eight. I don’t really know what the criteria was or how did they scrutinise the applications. I personally think it is a little unfair on Raman,” Arothe was quotes as saying by News 18. Raman took on the mantle in December 2018 after Powar was shown the door after a fall-out with then ODI skipper Mithali Raj. Powar’s return to the fold might go onto benefit India in the long run but the trend of the management not sticking with a particular coach has been quite prevalent in the last few years. “Well, we had all heard about the problem between Powar and Mithali Raj during the World Cup in West Indies, 2018. But now it’s a fresh start and now someone who has a stronghold in the team, should intervene and take a stock of the whole situation and make sure that both the parties are on the same page this time around,” Arothe said. In 2017 Purnima Rau was ousted just before the 50 overs World Cup where India lost in the final against England. Arothe who succeeded Rau resigned from the position in July 2018 handing over the reign to Powar. The Indian women’s team didn’t play any professional cricket for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and which resulted in their rusty performance against South Africa at home. They lost both the ODI and the T20I series but Arothe feels that it was mainly due to the lack of practice. “If you look at his tenure, he took the girls to the final of the T20 World Cup, and most of the other period under him, went in lockdown due to Covid-19. So once can’t really judge his tenure,” quipped Arothe. Also, if you’re looking at the South Africa series, these girls were playing a lot of cricket already, but the Indians girls were playing after a year and were rusty. So he had no chance to work with the girls, and there was no camp. So they could have given one more year to WV,” the former coach added.