T20 World Cup | Shakib Al Hasan ruled out of remaining games due to hamstring injury

Ashes 2021-22 | Joe Root takes inspiration from India's Gabba heroics to turn the heat on Australia

As the days of the upcoming Ashes series in Australia draw closer, the England Test skipper is looking up to India’s superlative win at the Gabba to come with full force and a fearless approach to stand up to Australia. Before that Test loss to India, Australia had not lost the longest format of the game at the venue for decades and even the 2010-11 Ashes series, where the three lions emerged victoriously, they could come as far as drawing the Test. Root emphasized the need for his teammates to win crucial moments of the game and carry on with earned momentum for a long period of time to turn the tables on the hosts Australia. “Look at that India team that won at the Gabba. They were a long way from their first-choice XI but they had no fear, they stood up to Australia and won crucial parts of that Test. It will give every player in our squad a huge amount of confidence and just plant a little bit of doubt in Australia’s mind having to go back there and play again for the first time against us, what with it being such a stronghold for them for such a long period of time. We now know that it’s not,” Root said to The Guardian in an interview. Root was also delighted to see one of his biggest match-winner and deputy Ben Stokes regaining a frame of mind to come back to the Test squad or the big series. Root reiterated his already made public stand that Stokes was given full time and space to consider himself fit, both physically and mentally and that the decision to take that “indefinite break” and now the return was taken solely by him. “I’d got an inkling,” Root says. “I’d had some good conversations with Ben over the period while he’s not been playing. It was just such a joy to hear him speak, you could almost hear his smile, if that makes sense, down the phone. You could tell he was so much happier within himself. Just the fact he feels he’s in a place where he’s ready to play cricket again is the most exciting thing,” Root added. “We made it very clear to Ben, it’s got to be right for you. You have to be in the right space to go and play, physically and mentally. One thing about Ben, he’s very honest, he won’t shirk any difficult conversations and he’s been true to that through the whole thing. We have been through a lot on and off the field. To see him now back in a place where he is able to enjoy his cricket again and feel more himself, that’s the best part of the whole thing. It’s just really exciting.” Joe Root has not had a Test hundred in Australia but he is going there this time on the back of masterful centuries and plenty of runs under his belt and he will back himself to break that batting curse in Australia this time. The first Test of the Ashes series will start on December 09 at the Gabba.

Yorkshire concedes Azeem Rafiq was 'degraded' but downplay slurs as 'friendly, good-natured banter'

The Yorkshire County Cricket Club conceded that Azeem Rafiq was “ offended, degraded or humiliated and that this amounted to harassment” while his time with the county and said that he was subjected to situations "capable of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment” in the dressing room. However, they dismissed one player regularly calling Azeem Rafiq using the term 'P**i' as a “friendly, good-natured banter” between two players in its report of the investigation into racism allegations levied by the leg-spinner, ESPNcricinfo reported. The issue goes deeper though as ESPNcricinfo reports that player admitting to also saying stuff like "don't talk to him [Rafiq], he's a P**i", asking "is that your uncle?" when they saw bearded Asian men and saying "does your dad own those?" in reference to corner shops, to other teammates of him and Rafiq. The county also put the onus on Rafiq and said that he should have taken those words as banter and should not have gotten offended with those “friendly banter”. They said that he was “expected to take such comments in the spirit in which they were intended (i.e. good natured banter between friends)… [so] it was not reasonable for Azeem to have been offended by [the other player] directing equally offensive or derogatory comments back at him in the same spirit of friendly banter." The report did not divulge the identity of the person causing that offence to Rafiq and also suggested that the player was unaware of the impact those words had left on Rafiq, who reportedly broke down in tears while recalling those memories.

T20 World Cup | Virat Kohli rues playing with fearful approach after loss against New Zealand

India suffered another drubbing in the ongoingT20 World Cup and Virat Kohli has pinned the blame on lack of aggression and intensity from both the batsmen and bowlers. Calling the flow of the game against New Zealand “bizarre”, Kohli said that batsmen were fearful at the start and they could not brave putting their wickets at stake in the optimism of success. He said that Indian players were lacklustre in their body language and New Zealand came with the right attitude and intensive frame of mind to put pressure on them from the rod go. "Quite bizarre. To be very honest and brutal up front, I don't think we were brave enough with bat or ball," Kohli told the host broadcaster during the post-match presentation. "With the ball, I mean, obviously we didn't have much to play with, but we were just not brave enough with our body language when we entered the field, and New Zealand had better intensity, better body language, and they created pressure on us from the first over onwards, really, and continued that through the innings. "Every time we felt like we want to take a chance [while batting], we lost a wicket. That happens in T20 cricket, but that's most probably or most often the result of that little bit of hesitation with the bat when you feel like should you go for the shot or not." India are languishing at the brink of elimination from the tournament after losing heavily to both the Blackcaps and Pakistan. The game against New Zealand was a virtual quarter-final for the men in blue and it was telling on their faces that they feared losing the game. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma was defensive in their approach and allowed bowlers to continue bowling with their strengths. However, Kohli said that the fear of occasion can’t be an excuse to hide lack of execution on the field and outlined that every player who seeks success at the highest level must learn to live with the pressure that playing for India brings with it. "When you play for the Indian cricket team, you obviously have a lot of expectations, everyone knows that - not only from the fans but from the players themselves," he said. "Wherever we play, we are watched, people come to the stadiums to support us, so there's always going to be more with our games, that's always been the case, and we've embraced it over the years, and everyone who plays for the Indian team obviously has to embrace that as well, and learn how to cope with it. "And when you cope with that as a team, you tend to overcome that pressure and those tough situations. And we haven't, in these two games, and that's why we haven't won." He said that players need to disconnect from what is being talked about and what is at stake while on the field while weighing on that there is plenty of time left in the tournament and that Team India are yet not out of the tournament. "So I think you have to disconnect from that a little bit and just back ourselves out there and take pride in performing for the team. As long as individuals are looking to do that, I think we'll be fine. There's a lot of cricket to play in this tournament, something that we all must look forward to, and certainly, the team must look forward to, and go out with a positive frame of mind." India have their three Super 12 games remaining against Namibia, Afghanistan and Scotland and they have to win all of them with a handsome margin and while also hoping for an Afghanistan win over New Zealand to make it to the semi-finals.

T20 World Cup | New Zealand hand India another hammering, leave Kohli's army on brink of early exit

Just two games into the tournament and the Team India have become a jaded and inept cricket team from a formidable one and one of the hottest favourites to lift the ICC T20 World Cup trophy for the second time. After all, what they didn’t have? They came with a start-studded batting lineup with equally good players sitting on the bench, they had the best bowler in the format in Jasprit Bumrah, they had a well-rounded spin bowling attack to play all sorts of matchups with oppositions. Yet, as the game has been serving on numerous occasions and on a time to time basis, it served them a harsh reminded that it is played on a particular day and that the winner is decided not based on merit and promise on paper, but on performances and execution on the field. The problem of plenty—plenty of problems for Kohli The men in blue had to make a forced change in their playing XI from the last game as Suryakumar Yadav missed the last game due to injury and it opened the door for Ishan Kishan. The left-hander had said before the world cup that Virat Kohli has said to him that he is an opener in India’s scheme of things and the words were kept by the skipper. Earlier this year, against England, Kohli had talked about opening the innings with Rohit Sharma as KL Rahul was horribly out of form. Months later, as Rahul regained his form, it was tough for him to overlook Rahul and there went the move to bat at the top. However, with Suryakumar’s injury, the revolving door got opened once again as he prepared Kishan over Rohit and basically India tried their fourth opening combination of Kishan and Rahul. Not quite “brave” enough The move can’t be called out as India would have banked on Kishan to provide a berserk start, something that has become a signature for him in the IPL, and then for the likes of Rahul, Rohit and Kohli to cash in on it. It wasn’t to be though as Trent Boult kept him guessing throughout the first over with subtle variations in seam position and lengths and India could not go big straight away. His partner Tim Southee bowled hard length from the other end and as Kohli described in the post-match presentation, India, especially, KL Rahul wasn’t brave enough to hit him off his length. The duo allowed New Zealanders to settle their nerves before the left-hander tried to break free. Neither he nor Rahul looked in good touch and unlikely for the left-hander, a well-timed pickup shot off Boult found Daryl Mitchell perfectly at long leg and the experiment failed. Kohli had more surprise up his sleeves as he sent Rohit at number three ahead of him and the phenomenon of not being “brave” carried on with them. The duo allowed Mitchell Santer to bowl an over for just two runs in powerplay while not attempting to go down the track or put pressure on him. The effect of that inept approach was telling but Adam Milnes released a lot of those pressure. However, the honeymoon was short-lived and as Southee ended Rahul’s misery, India were back to square one having not scored runs in fear of losing wickets and then actually losing both their openers Apart from that Milne’s over, Rohit appeared to be a pale shadow of himself and Kane Williamson played the matchup game brilliantly to end any chance of magic from both Rohit and Kohli. New Zealand’s spin twins Indian batsmen are deemed to be the master of spin bowlers but that has been limited only in the narrative as there is significant evidence to prove otherwise. In their last encounter against New Zealand in T20 World Cup in 2016, India were deflated by a New Zealand bowling lineup comprising Ish Sodhi, Nathan McCullum and Mitchell Santner. Two of them are still there and wreaking havoc among Indians for reasons known only to the Indian batsmen. Santner used the nature of the pitch brilliantly and did not bowl a single ball in batsmen’s arc to allow the opportunity to get under deliveries while Sodhi used the game situations in his favour. Rohit was done in by a short ball that hurried onto him while Kohli was dismissed while attempting to play a highly unusual shot for him in a clear sign of desperation. Sodhi and Santner just choked the Indian batting unit for runs and provided a mere 32 runs from their eight overs while picking the big wickets of Kohli and Rohit. Trent Boult was the most successful bowler in terms of the number of wickets but the impact Santner left on the game can be downplayed by any scorecard. Blackcaps batsmen show India’s stars damning mirror When the New Zealand opening pair of Martin Guptill and Daryl Mitchell walked out to bat, they looked settled with their nerves. To be fair to Indian bowlers though, they never had enough and only the sheer quality of Jasprit Bumrah could pose some sort of challenge for them. Guptill was making room and carting Bumrah over the infield and the Indian top order, especially, KL Rahul would have had a really damning reflection of his batting against their bowlers. Mitchell was more attacking and he was not in the mood to have any mercy on the Indian bowling attack and calmness on the field. Both on paper and in terms of what qualities they bring to the table, Ravindra Jadeja would be far head of Santer in terms of being a left-arm spinner, but the way he was treated by Mitchell and the way Rohit and Rahul respected Santner clearly drew a line on which side played the game with full of intent and aggression and which played the game with quite a timid mind.