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The Ashes Day Night Test Day 3 England Surrender Once Again To Concede Big Lead

The Ashes | Day-Night Test, Day 3: England surrender once again to concede big lead

There was no respite for England as they slipped into another batting failure and were bundled out at a mere 236 on the third day of the Day-Night Ashes Test in Adelaide. Australia did not choose to call the tourists to follow on despite gaining a hefty lead of 237 runs.

The senior pros in Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon put their hands up in the absence of the other two frontline bowlers in Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood and picked four and three wickets respectively to break the backbone of England batting lineup.

For England, there could not be any other successful batsmen except the skipper Joe Root and Dawid Malan, who hit their respective half-centuries to keep them in the game through a wicketless first session on the third day. Ben Stokes put his head down and batted with remarkable concentration to stay at the pitch for a long period of time but there was no support for him as the middle order comprising of Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes squandered the opportunity in the post-dinner session.

Australia are already 1-0 up in the five-match long series and England are racing against time to stop them from gaining a 2-0 lead over them before reaching the MCG for the third Test.

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IPL 2022 | Gautam Gambhir appointed Lucknow franchise Mentor

Former India batter and captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders, Gautam Gambhir will be once again seen in a prominent role in the Indian Premier League as he has joined the newest entrant in the cash-rich league - the franchise from Lucknow as their mentor for the upcoming season. This is the second biggest signing made by the UP based franchise after having signed Andy Flower as head coach. Gambhir is an IPL veteran, having turned the fortunes around for the Kolkata based franchise. After finishing sixth twice and one eight in the first three seasons of the tournament, KKR brought in the expertise of the World Cup winner. The battle in the auction pool was intense which made Gambhir the most expensive buy of the 2011 season at Rs 11 crores. In the next three years, he delivered two titles in an ultra aggressive approach in the field. In the two winning seasons, Gambhir rakes up 590 runs in 2012 and 335 runs in 2014.

KL Rahul named Virat Kohli’s deputy for South Africa Test series

Karnataka batsman KL Rahul has been named as the vice-captain of the Indian Test team in the absence of Rohit Sharma for the South Africa series. Rahul, who made a stellar comeback to the long format against England, has been a regular fixture in the Test team. However, he did not play the two-match Test series against New Zealand due to a muscle strain on his left thigh. BCCI in a press release said, “The All-India Senior selection committee has named KL Rahul as vice-captain for the upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa. KL Rahul replaces Rohit Sharma as vice-captain, who was ruled out of the Test series owing to a hamstring injury.” In his last series, Rahul raked up 315 runs, scoring one century and one half-century. His and Rohit Sharma’s resistance against the new ball was seen as one of the most positive outcomes of the tour. KL is also the vice-captain of the Indian T20I team that is currently under the tutelage of Rohit Sharma and is preparing for the T20 World Cup in Australia scheduled later in 2022.

Joe Root surpasses Tendulkar, Gavaskar, Vaughan on list of batsmen with most runs in a year

Joe Root has surpassed former England skipper Michael Vaughan and Indian batting legends Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar on the list of batsmen with most runs in one year. The England skipper has now amassed 1,606 runs so far this year and stands behind only former South Africa captain Graeme Smith, who piled on 1656 runs in the year 2008. He has three more innings to go in this year and he could well go beyond Smith’s tally of runs considering his good form with the bat. Sachin Tendulkar had amassed 1,562 runs in 2010 while Sunil Gavaskar had scored 1,555 runs in 1979. Root missed out on another century in Australia when he was dismissed by Cameron Green on the third day of the ongoing second Ashes Test in Adelaide but his batting numbers are not dwindling even now.

Josh Little called up by Ireland after four players test positive ahead of US-Windies tour

Irish fast bowler Joshua Little who is currently plying his trade in the Lanka Premier League 2021, has been called up to bolster the squad that has left for the combined tour of the United States and West Indies which will begin December 22. According to a Cricket Ireland media release, four players i.e. Barry McCarthy, George Dockrell, Harry Tector and Gareth Delany have tested positive in the pres series testing and fast bowler Craig Young was identified as a close contact of Covid-19 positive persons and has therefore not been allowed to travel with the team. While McCarthy and Dockrell tested positive during pre-series testing, Tector and Delany, who have been in Florida playing the US T20 Open tournament-tested positive before linking up with the side which landed in Miami a few days ago. The pair have begun their 10-day in-room isolation already. McCarthy and Dockrell are also expected to link up with their teammates in the USA soon. Along with players, Assistant coach Gary Wilson has also not been able to travel with the team after he received a false positive report on his pre-series Covid test. The former Irish international is being re-tested, and if clear, will fly out on Sunday. "We are pleased to have our squad arrive in Miami and are all looking forward to the series ahead,” Richard Holdsworth, high-performance director for Cricket Ireland, said. "We have experienced a few last-minute complications related to COVID, but with the extended travelling squad that we have taken, and the recall of Josh Little from Sri Lanka, we don't foresee any issues with the series proceeding as scheduled,” he further added. After playing three ODIs and two T20Is in the US, the Irish team will travel to the Caribbean and play West Indies in three ODIs, between January 8 and 14, and a one-off T20I scheduled for January 17.