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The Ashes | Chris Silverwood to miss fourth Test due to Covid cases in England camp

England head coach Chris Silverwood will not be travelling to Sydney after the tourist camp returned their seventh positive Test on Wednesday, 29 December. It is being reported in the Australian media that an unnamed family member of the England camp returned a positive RT-PCR.

Silverwood, after being deemed as a close contact, would now have to isolate for 10 days and will not be at the helm of the team that has already yielded the series and is staring at a 5-0 whitewash by the end of the tour.

Earlier in the run up to the series, England had tough negotiations with Cricket Australia over the precautionary measures of Covid-19. There were speculations that if families are not allowed to travel with the team, the tourists would have backed out of the series entirely.

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Joe Root to retain his Test captaincy after Ashes horror show: Reports

Despite a horrendous display by England in the first three Test matches of Ashes 2021-22, Joe Root is expected to retain his captaincy in the longest format of the game. Meeting the skipper on Wednesday, Tom Harrison, the Chief Executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), is said to have understood the issues behind the team's poor performance against Australia. In a bid to prepare for the Ashes, England followed the 'rotation policy', giving rest to their key players in the home series against India and New Zealand. Proving to be an utter failure, the 'rotation policy' played a significant role in nine Test defeats for England in 2021, the joint-highest by a team in a calendar year. Apart from Root, dark clouds loom over Chris Silverwood's future as the head coach and selector of England. With a meeting supposedly scheduled between Root and the Director of Men’s Cricket Ashley Giles next week, a lot will depend on the feedback the former gives to the latter. More than backing Root, it is about the lack of alternatives. Current vice-captain and deputy to Root, Ben Stokes, has lately been struggling with injury and mental health issues. The marquee all-rounder is still trying to find his form so how fair would it be to hand him the Test captaincy of a unit that is completely broken at the moment? Chris Woakes, who was dropped in the third Test, talked about uncertainty regarding the Test captaincy of English cricket. Having a clear view, Woakes backed Root to continue as the leader, citing the reason that the captaincy is not affecting his batting. "Absolutely. It’s clear that the captaincy isn’t having an effect on his batting, which a lot of the time with captains can be the case. The fact that he’s scoring the runs he is is great for the team. It would be great if we could help him out with that and build some partnerships with him, and score a few more runs around him. But Joe is a great cricketer, he’s got a great cricket brain," Woakes said during a recent press conference. "I think his record as England captain [59 Tests, 27 wins, 24 defeats, eight draws] is pretty good, as far as I’m aware. I definitely feel like Joe will continue," he added. Woakes brushed off the question when asked if the sword is hanging over Sliverwood's head or not. "Who am I to talk about people’s futures other than my own, to be brutally honest? We have two more games and we want to show a lot of character, a lot of fight," Woakes replied. "We want to put some pride back into wearing that badge, which we certainly have tried in this series, but we need to try even harder and put that right. The group of players, the management and the staff we have out here have the backing of the players to hopefully put things right, over the next two games in particular," the all-rounder said. As England can only now wait for the tour to end, few big calls are expected to be taken. Their Ashes obsession may finally come to an end. The excessive focus on white-ball cricket can also be cited as the reason for their red-ball cricket downfall. With still two matches left on the tour, England would be hoping for an improved show from their players but that seems highly improbable as of now.

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BBL 2021-22: McDermott's carnage, bowlers hand Hobart Hurricanes comprehensive win over Renegades

Hobart Hurricanes thumped Melbourne Renegades by 85 runs on Wednesday in Melbourne after defending a target of 207 runs. Batting first, the Hurricanes rode on an emphatic ton from Ben McDermott and a late surge from Tim David to post 206/5 in 20 overs on the board. While Dermott struck a 65-ball 127, David remained unbeaten at 30 off 9 during the course. Topley was the pick of the bowlers for his side after he returned with figures of 2/17 in 4 overs while Maddinson picked up one wicket at the cost of 13 runs in 2 overs. Later, Melbourne Renegades didn’t really have a great start to the proceedings and they lost wickets at regular intervals to be left tottering at 102/6 before getting bundled out for 121 in 15.5 overs. Thomas Rogers and Sandeep Lamichhane bagged three wickets each for their side. McDermott, who etched his name in the record book after scoring his second ton on the trot said that he wants to make most of his form right now. “I am not quite sure, can't put my finger on it but will make the most of it (the form). It was a little tricky to start with the new ball as it was not coming onto the bat. Be it smashing it into the stands or taking risky twos, it was my night and little bit of luck involved, that's T20 cricket. That's three on the trot for us and it is building up nicely. We are bowling well and scoring 180+, hope to carry forward the momentum,” he said after the match.