The Ashes | England decide to rest 'fit' James Anderson from Gabba Test

Continuing the trend of rest and rotation to manage his workload, England have taken a big call to omit James Anderson from the playing XI for the first Test at Gabba starting tomorrow, December 08. However, the tourists confirmed he is fit to play at Gabba and not carrying any injury.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said that the pacer has not had a great preparation leading up to the first Test and they are not willing to risk him for the entire series by rushing him to a Test match. England reflected on the proceedings of the last Ashes series at home where Anderson had broken down on the very first morning of the first Test to make up their mind over the big call.

“Jimmy is fit to play, and is not carrying an injury. With five Tests in six weeks the plan was to get him ready for the second Test in Adelaide,” the ECB said.

"With the limited build-up we have had so far on the tour, both him and the management didn't want to take the risk of him playing after what had happened in 2019 at Edgbaston when he broke down on the first morning.”

"He bowled at full capacity yesterday for just short of an hour and was in a good place physically. He will do the same again today at practice. He will stay with the Test group this week and work with the coaches at the Gabba rather than playing for the Lions."

In Anderson’s absence, Stuart Broad will lead the England bowling attack that may include the likes of Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood at the Gabba.

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LPL 2021 | Dambulla, Colombo get off to winning starts as Ramesh Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva shine

Ramesh Mendis continued his form from the Test series against West Indies as the off-spinner picked three crucial wickets against Kandy Warriors to restrict them to 170 and win the first match for his team Dambulla Giants by 20 runs. Apart from Menids, Phil Salt was as yet another hero for the Giants as he hit quickfire 64 off just 27 balls, striking at more than 200 to power his team to 190 while batting first in Colombo. The Warriors didn’t get off to a good start anyways as they lost their first three wickets at the score of only 28 and that too in the first four overs itself. Kamindu Mendis and Angelo Perera then tried to establish some semblance in the chase, but both were cleaned up by Ramesh Mendis in quick successions to leave Kandy reeling at 71-5 in the 10th over. Some late blows from Rovman Powell Ishan Jayaratne and Sachindu Colombage took the Warriors past the 150 mark and eventually to 170, but they never looked in the hunt after the fall of the first six wickets at 88. West Indian Powell top-scored with 42 off 21 balls. Colombo Stars get through tricky run chase In another game in the league, the Colombo Stars were up against Galle Gladiators, the winner from the inaugural LPL 2021 encounter. However, the Gladiators didn’t even look like a shadow of what they were yesterday as they were restricted to only 116-8 in their 20 overs having won the toss and decided to bat first. Ben Dunk was the only batter that could stay at the crease for a long period of time as all big guns in Mohammad Hafeez, Samit Patel and Danushka Gunathilaka and skipper Bhanuka Rajapaksa failed big time. The two spinners from the Colombo side, Dhananjaya de Silva and Akila Dhananjaya were the trump cards as they picked among themselves four wickets and gave away only 37 runs in eight overs. As they say, chasing a small total can be a tough proposition and it turned out to be the same as Stars got stuck in the middle having lost their four out of the top five wickets for only 45 runs chasing 117. It was then that the experience of Dinesh Chandimal and de Silva counted as the two senior men in the team piled up a 27 runs partnership. Even as de Silva got out, David Weise’ quickfire 22 off 16 balls in a 31 runs stand with Chandimal made sure that the Stars were headed in the right direction for the win. The 32-year-old Chandimal stayed through to take his team home even as Weise got out with the team score at 103.

BCB extends isolation for Bangladesh Women’s team as two players test Covid positive

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has announced that the isolation period of the national women’s team would be extended as two women players have tested positive for the Covid-19. The women team returned from Zimbabwe having taken part in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 global qualifiers. The tournament was terminated in the middle after cases of Omicron, a new variant of the Covid-19 increased in neighbouring South Africa and the dread of its expansion in Zimbabwe increased. "The team members, who were sharing the same room, had returned negative results in the two tests conducted in Dhaka on December 1 and 3. However, the report from a third PCR test on December 6 has shown both to be Covid-19 positive," BCB said in a press release. "As such, the mandatory isolation of the team, which was due to end today (Monday, December 6, 2021), has been extended as per the Covid-19 Management Protocol of the BCB. The team members will undergo further tests and evaluation during the extended isolation," it added. Though the tournament ended midway and teams flew back home, Pakistan, West Indies and Bangladesh qualified for the World Cup on the back of better ICC rankings.

CSA announce revised schedule for India’s tour to South Africa

Cricket South Africa have announced the revised schedule for India’s visit to the rainbow nation. Originally slated to start from December 8, the tour has been pushed back to December 26, and has been tweaked to cut short the length of the tour. According to the new itinerary, India will be taking on the Proteas for three Tests and three One Day Internationals. There will be no T20I matches played in this tour. CSA, via a press release, informed that the decision on the T20I games will be taken during the new year. Schedule 26-30 December 21 - 1st Test 3-7 January 22 - 2nd Test 11-15 January 22 - 3rd Test 19 January 22 - 1st ODI 21 January 22 - 2nd ODI 23 January 22 - 3rd ODI All Test matches will be part of the World Test Championship Calendar. Notably, the Indian A team has been in South Africa despite the outbreak of the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19. They are currently playing their third and final 4-day game.

BBL 11 | Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Sandhu shine in Thunder's win over Heat

Alex Ross was at his very best with the bat as he guided Sydney Thunder to an easy seven-wicket win over Brisbane Heat in their opening clash of the Big Bahs League 2021. Ross’ unbeaten 61 off 46 balls combined with Sam Billings’ 45 not out and their 109 run partnership meant that Thunder chased down the total in the 18th over itself. This win with 17 balls remaining will give a boost to the net run rate of the Thunder which becomes crucial at later stages of the league. The chase of 141 did not start well for the Thunder who were playing at their home ground of Manuka oval. Alex Hales, the controversial import from England was removed on the second ball of the innings by Xavier Bartlett. Soon, Liam Guthrie, who was playing his first game for Heat, struck twice in one over to remove Matthew Gilkes and Sam Whiteman and force Thunder into a rebuilding phase. It was then that Billings combined with Ross and the duo finished the job at hand with much ease. Earlier in the evening, after winning the toss and deciding to field first, Nathan McAndrew gave a great start to the Thunder as he removed Max Bryant in the third over. Daniel Sams then removed Chris Lynn. Englishman Ben Duckett and Sam Heazlett then built a partnership of 83 runs in 66 balls and just when it seemed that they would tee off and get Heat to a respectable total past 160, Sams struck again and removed Heazlett. It was then the turn of Gurinder Sandhu as he removed two dangermen Duckett and Jack Wildermuth to push Heat into all sorts of trouble. If it weren’t for Bartlett’s late order hitting, where he made unbeaten 26 off 18 balls, getting to even 140 would have been mighty difficult.