Team Indian reach Pune for ODI series against England

India fined for maintaining slow over-rate during fifth T20I against England

India have been fined 40% for maintaining a slow over-rate during the fifth T20I against England in Ahmedabad. The Virat Kohl-led side was two overs short of the target. The International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that The Men in Blue were fined in an official statement. “Javagal Srinath of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction after Virat Kohli’s side was ruled to be two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration,” the statement read. “In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20 per cent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time,” the statement further added. India captain Kohli pleaded guilty for the offence so there was no need of a formal hearing. The home side etched a 3-2 win in five-match series after beating the English team in the final match by 36 runs. India posted a mammoth 224/2 in 20 overs after riding on Kohli’s 80*, Rohit Sharma’s aggressive half-century and some brisk batting in the end by Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. The hosts then restricted England to 188/8 to win the match. The two teams will now face each other in a three-match ODI series scheduled to begin on Tuesday in Pune.

Asghar Afghan becomes most successful T20I skipper, overtakes MS Dhoni

Afghanistan T20I captain Asghar Afghan has become the most successful skipper in the shortest format of the game, winning 42 matches, the most by any skipper in the game’s history. With his latest win, the third T20I against Zimbabwe, he overtook arguably the greatest skipper in World cricket Mahendra Singh Dhoni of India in the category of ‘most wins as a T20I skipper’. Dhoni, 40, who retired from all forms of international cricket last year, had captained India in 72 matches and won 41 of them with a win percentage of 59.28. His last game as T20I skipper was the semi-final of the 2016 T20 World Cup, which took place in India. Afghan, on the other hand, has captained in 52 of the 72 T20Is that he has played for Afghanistan, winning 42 and losing just nine of them. The 33-year-old also has the highest win percentage among all captains from the Test-playing nations. His win percentage of 81.73 is second only to Spanish skipper Christian Munoz-Mills, among players who captained their national side more than or equal to 10 times. The Spaniard has a win percentage of 81.81, having lost just two of his 11 games as skipper. With the 47 runs win against Zimbabwe, Afghanistan also made a clean sweep of the three-match series, having won the previous two games comfortable as well.

As a Test team, we are on a great path: Kraigg Brathwaite

West Indies recently appointed Kraigg Brathwaite as the full-time skipper for the Test side after a 2-0 win over Bangladesh under his captaincy. The West Indies side will now be up against Sri Lanka in the two-match Test series Antigua. All-rounder Jason Holder and Darren Bravo are back in the side who had earlier opted out of the series against Bangladesh. Praising both the cricketers, Brathwaite said that both of them are quality players and have a lot to offer to the team. "The two of them are quality international cricketers and we know what they can give [to the side]," he said in a media interaction. Brathwaite further added that the side is pretty good and he wants the unit to play in the same way they did against Bangladesh. "We have a good group [of players] and as I said from [the] Bangladesh [squad], the team that went there was a good team," he said. "We have the same attitude [like what we had in Bangladesh], the same determination and the same fight, and we want to keep that discipline. As a Test team, we are on a great path with guys going and grabbing opportunities to score runs, and on a great path to play teams in the Test arena,” he added. The first Test between the two sides begins on Sunday. The home side tasted success in both the T20Is and the ODI series. West Indies defeated the Lankan Lions 2-1 in the T20Is while had clean sweep win the three-match ODI fixtures.

England announce ODI squad for India series; Jofra Archer to miss early part of IPL 2021

England have named a 14-men squad for the three-match ODI series against India starting March 23 in Pune. Three more players namely Jack Ball, Dawid Malan and Chris Jordan who were part of the squad for the T20 series concluded yesterday will also travel with the team. As the skipper Eoin Morgan had hinted yesterday that Jofra Archer’s injury has become too worse for him to be playing, the pacer has been excluded from the ODI series and will return to the UK for ‘investigation and management of his right elbow. “Archer's elbow issue has deteriorated over the course of the Twenty20 International series and made it increasingly challenging for him to maintain performance levels. He has been deemed unfit for selection for the ODI series that features matches on 23, 26 and 28 March.,” ECB said in its squad-announcing statement. The ECB gave a detailed explanation that Archer will return only after an assessment by the medical team and hence he will miss the initial stage of the Indian Premier League starting April 09. England Men’s ODI Squad Eoin Morgan(captain), Moeen Ali, Jonathan Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Livingstone, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, Mark Wood. Backups: Jake Ball, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan.