The Ashes | Adelaide Test: Jhye Richardson replaces Hazlewood, Warner fit to play in Day Night Test

Jhye Richardson has beaten Michael Neser in the race to replace Josh Hazlewood from Australia playing XI for the day-night Test starting December 16. Skipper Pat Cummins announced the playing XI for the second Test of the series and announced that the pacer will return to the Australia Test side after a big gap of three years.

Also, in a welcome relief for the hosts, Cummins announced that David Warner, who hurt his ribs while batting in the first innings of the Gabba Test, has been selected to play the second Test of the series. However, he conceded that the opener is not 100 per cent fit to get going but nevertheless backed him to bank on adrenaline after walking out to the field and play through some discomfort.

"He’ll be right. He had a bat yesterday, batted with a bit of discomfort but knowing Davey, he’s not going to miss this one. Once adrenaline and everything kicks in, (he’ll be) a little bit sore but he’ll be fine,” Cummins said of Warner’s fitness to reporters in Adelaide.

"It’s one thing batting in the nets but another thing when you walk out and it’s a packed crowd. I don’t think he had any kind of painkillers or anything yesterday. He’s played close to 90 Tests, I’m sure a lot of them have been played in discomfort or with (niggles) going into the game. He’ll be fine tomorrow."

Australia were dealing with two serious injury concerns of Hazlewood and Warner and would be satisfied with Warner holding his fitness just good enough to feature in the game.

Hazlewood suffered a side strain in the first Test and while he is expected to return in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, the nature of the injury could also rule him out of the game for an extended period of time and hence Australia will be eager to not let the winning momentum go at the Adelaide Oval.

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Virat Kohli to clarify his stand on playing SA ODIs in press conference on Wednesday: Reports

After being removed as the ODI skipper of the Indian cricket team, Test captain Virat Kohli will address the media for the first time tomorrow i.e. on December 15 and it is expected that he will be speaking on matters related to his removal as India captain. With rumours buzzing about a rift between him and Rohit Sharma, Kohli is also expected to put an end to the same and clarify his position on playing the ODI leg of the South Africa series. BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal along with Hyderabad Cricket Association's president Mohammad Azharuddin made things extremely murky in the last couple of days stating that Kohli had asked for leave during the ODI leg of the tour. Since then several unnamed BCCI officials have come forward refuting the same to add to the ongoing confusion. Time of India journalist K Srinivas Rao tweeted about the development Kohli will be addressing a press briefing on Wednesday and potentially could speak about the ongoing issues to put a stop to the rumour mongering. It is worth noting that ever since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the removal of the 33-year-old Kohli as skipper of the One-Day side and appointed 34-year-old Rohit as his successor in the 50-over format on December 08, Kohli had not said a word either on his social media or in the press. Therefore this media briefing becomes extremely important given that the reason for his removal as given by BCCI head Sourav Ganguly was that the board wanted uniformity in red and white ball leadership. Ganguly had also said that the board never wanted Kohli to quit T20I captaincy but since he did that, the board had no other choice but to make Rohit the full white-ball captain and appointed him as blithe T20I and ODI captain. Virat Kohli had announced before the start of the second leg of the Indian Premier League in the UAE that the T20 World Cup 2021, which was held in UAE and Oman would be his last as captain of the Indian team in the shortest format. He had also announced the IPL 2021 to be his last IPL as leader of the RCB franchise.

CSA tweaks bio-bubble norms for India tour

Cricket South Africa has made some tweaks to the bio-bubble norms as the Indian team is slated to tour the African nation later this month. Anyone testing positive for Covid-19 will be isolated within the hotel room if clinically stable. "Considering that all those within the ecosystem will be vaccinated, the positive case will isolate within the hotel room if clinically stable," CSA's chief medical officer Shuaib Manjra told ESPNcricinfo. "Contacts will continue playing and training with non-medical interventions strictly observed, and tested daily." "Whilst at the end of the third wave we considered moving from a strict BSE to a managed environment, the Omicron variant and high levels of community transmission have forced a strict BSE," Manjra stated. The fixtures had come under dark clouds after the detection of Omicron variant in the country but the two boards decided to rejig the schedule and the T20I series was scrapped. India are scheduled to play three Tests and as many ODIs during the tour of South Africa. The Test series will begin on December 26 in Centurion while the ODIs commence on January 19, 2022 in Paarl.

Ford Trophy 2021-22 | Matthew Bacon, Josh Finnie star in Otago win over defending champions Canterbury

It has been a nice week for the Otago side as after registering a victory in the Super Smash 2021-22 against Northern Knights on Sunday, December 12, they defeated defending champions Canterbury in the Ford Trophy 2021-22 to register their first win in the tournament. Otago rode on the bowling performance from Matthew Bacon who picked a four-wicket haul and then backed it up from an unbeaten fifty from Josh Finny to finish the 50 over match in only the 43rd over. Along with Finnie, skipper Neil Broom and Dale Phillips also played good hands with the bat to help in the chase. The chase of 223 started cautiously for the hosts at the University Oval in Dunedin as openers Hamish Rutherford and Phillips added 48 for the first wicket and made sure that early overs of swing was negotiated. Phillips continued t hang around with skipper Broom who joined him after Rutherford was caught by Cam Fletcher off the bowling of Will Williams. The duo had added 36 before Phillips was removed by Henry Shipley. Soon Nick Kelly followed and Otago were suddenly 87-3. It was then that Finney arrived and partnered his captain to a 95 run stand. During this partnership, Broom reached his fifty. But as he got out, Anaru Kitchen followed him as well, once again two wickets fell in a bunch. But Finnie, who was well settled at the crease at 60 off 53 balls, made sure that there were no more casualties and an unbeaten 38 run stand with Michael Rippon saw his team through. Earlier in the day, after winning the toss and deciding to field first, Otago broke early and got the wicket of Jock Boyle, who was removed by Matthew Bacon. Instead of getting back in grooves and playing cautiously, the Canterbury batters kept trying to play wayward shots and kept getting out, ultimately getting reduced to 90-6, before Henry Shipley paired up with Theo van Woerkom and the two added 96 for the seventh wicket to add some respectability to the Canterbury innings. However, that stand was eventually broken by Bacon who then went on to pick four wickets in the entire game. Post the van Woerkom wicket, Shipley too departed after completing his fifty (55 off 67). Shipley was also the highest scorer in the Canterbury innings. In the end, the team got all out on 222 in the 50th over. Apart from Bacon’s four wickets, Kitchen picked three and Jacob Duffy two for Otago.

LPL 2021: Seekkuge Prasanna's heroics hand Colombo Stars 5-wicket win over Kandy Warriors

Colombo Stars defeated Kandy Warriors by 5 wickets in Colombo after chasing down a target of 147 runs in the Lanka Premier league fixture in Colombo. The Colombo team didn’t really have a great start to the chase Pathum Nissanka departed in the very first over for a duck and the side lost wickets at regular intervals to get reduced to 61/4 in the 13th over. But it was Seekkuge Prasanna brilliance with the bat as he anchored the side to a win eventually. Prasanna struck an unbeaten 32 off 6 deliveries which included five maximums during the course. Apart from him, Dinesh Chandimal also played a major role in providing the side with resistance and chipped in with a 27-ball 44. Earlier, in the day the warriors started off the proceedings pretty well as openers Kennar Lewis and Asalanka stitched a partnership of 77 runs. But the latter’s departure broke the shackles and the Kandy side saw a middle order collapse. While Lewis struck 62 off 44, he didn’t really find support from the other end. The Kandy Warriors were eventually restricted to 146/9 in 20 overs. Chameera scalped a four-wicket haul for 35 runs in 4 overs. Mathews talked about the track and the turn that it had an offer. “Probably yes, to be very honest. We thought the wicket might play better. But we understand because we are playing so many matches here and it is difficult to maintain. We knew it was going to turn, all in all a great game. I could run those ones and twos, just that had to manage a bit. We call him (Prasanna) rocky. He was fantastic. We have the firepower,” he said after the match.