The Hundred becomes the most attended Women’s cricket event in history

ENG vs IND | Mark Wood ruled out of Headingley Test

The England and Wales cricket board in a press release confirmed that England seamer Mark Wood has been ruled out of the third Test against between the home side and India which is due to take place in Headlinlgy, Leeds from August 25. It was told that the pacer is suffering from a jarred right shoulder. The 31-year-old sustained the injury during the Lord’s Test on the fourth day while fielding at the third man. While attempting to save a boundary, he rammed into the advertisement board shoulders first and hence was taken off the field immediately. However, he later came on day five with heavy taping and bowled again. Early in the day, he slipped in the process of completing his action and fell on his injured shoulder, and had to be taken off the field. Visuals from the ground suggested that his bowling arm was heavily strapped with ice. The release said that Wood ‘will remain with the squad in Leeds and will continue his rehab with the England medical team.’ Earlier England Head coach Chris Silverwood had said that the management wouldn’t be rushing wood to play the third Test if he isn’t fit enough. This would mean that post-Archer, Wood would be the second out and out quick for England to have been injured right ahead of the T20 World Cup. Wood's exclusion from the third Test match would allow either Saqib Mahmood or Craig Overton to come into the English team, depending on the kind of combination they prefer. After a victory at Lord’s India lead the five-match series 1-0 heading into the third Test.

WI vs PAK | Day 3 - Fawad Alam’s calm, Shaheen Afridi’s aggression puts Pakistan in commanding position

The day might have taken a lot of time to get going with wet outfield playing party pooper at Sabina Park in Jamaica on Day three of the second Test between West Indies and Pakistan. But once it did get going, Pakistan over all over it. Thanks to an unbeaten 124 from Fawad Alam, who came to bat once again after being retired hurt for on Day one and Shaheen Afridi’s ferocious spell in West Indies’ first innings, Babar Azam’s men ended the third day in a commanding position, leading by 263 runs with West Indies reeling at 39-3 in reply Pakistan’s 302-9 declared. Starting their innings, the Windies were cautious, but against a deadly speel of Shaheen where he was able to bring the ball back and take it away from the batter from the same length, it didn’t really take much time before the openers folded. Both Kraigg Brathwaite and Kieran Powell were dismissed by Shaheen. Roston Chase played few beautiful dhows before he was cleaned up by an inswinger from Faheem Ashraf when the team score had reached 34 for the West Indies Nkruma Bonner and Alzarri Joseph, who walked in as nightwatchman made sure that no more wickets and fell and the Men in Maroon would come back on Day four at 38-3. Earlier in the day, Pakistan didn’t have a good start either as it lost three crucial wickets in a span of span 13 runs from the day’s start. But then Fawad, who reached his fifth Test hundred, fourth in a span of just 10 months and eight Tests, got together, first with Hasan Ali and then with Shaheen Afridi to guide Pakistan past 300. Both Kemar roach and Jayden Seales picked three wickets each while Jason holder got the wickets of Mohammad Rizwan and Nauman Ali and Hasan Ali got run out.

There is a leak somewhere: Usman Khawaja on Justin Langer controversy

Usman Khawaja, the stylish Australian left hander, who currently does not find a spot in the Australian national team has backed under-fire coach Justin Langer. Langer has found himself in hot water after several media reports alleged that the head coach has strained relationships with multiple stars of the Aussie cricket team. Interestingly, Khawaja, was dropped by Langer back in 2019 midway through the Ashes series, a saga that has been well documented by the Amazon documentary 'The Tests'. Back then, Khawaja had voiced similar concerns with the head coach and had told that players were "walking on eggshells" around him. Khawaja has said that the responsibility of losses can not be alone pinned on the coach, and feels that players are actually backstabbing Justin Langer by not backing him. "How do you think JL feels? He probably feels like the guys in the team are stabbing him in the back and that's what it looks like and that's why it's so disappointing,” said the Queensland captain. "It's not always the coaches. The guys aren't performing, the players need to take ownership at some stage. It's not one person so there needs to be some sort of perspective put around this,” he further added while speaking on his YouTube channel. Khawaja, who has played 44 Tests for Australia after making his debut from 2011 to 2019, said that Langer is passionate about everything and rides on emotions, which is probably his weakest point. "He [Langer] is a very passionate person. Loves Australian cricket, wants the best for everyone, wants to only succeed. He's driven by winning, driven by winning the right way and all the things he brought after sandpaper gate were focused on those things,” said the 34-year-old. "One thing that keeps coming up is his emotions. Yes, the man wears his heart on his sleeve. He can be very emotional. It's probably his one downside, his greatest weakness is his emotion,” Khawaja further added, saying that the players and the management need to sort the issue out as soon as possible for the betterment of Australian cricket. The Pakistan-born went on to reveal that he wasn’t dropped because of Langer and that he actually has a great relationship with the coach to date. "People thought I got dropped because I stood up to him, it's actually the opposite, I actually got closer - he gained my respect and I gained his, because we had some really honest and open conversations. I still talk to him, still, text him till this day because we have a lot of respect for each other,” he said. Earlier last week, Cricket Australia and Test skipper Tim Paine had to put out a statement backing Langer after it was made evidently clear in the Australian media that the players were losing confidence in the 50-year-old coach especially after the 4-1 drubbing each by Bangladesh and West Indies in the five-match T20I series that Australia played against both teams.

CPL 2021 | Team Preview: Will change in captaincy and name push St Lucia to the title this time?

The St. Lucia franchise changed its name from St. Lucia Zouks to St. Lucia Kings in June this year, to be more in line with its sister IPL franchise Punjab Kings. The Punjab franchise had to change its name prior to the 2021 season of the Indian Premier League. And how incidental or weird it would be that even before Punjab Kings could have their outcome of a name change in terms of change in fortune, St. Lucia Kings would have already had theirs, thanks to the rescheduling of the IPL. This year, it would be the first time in the team’s history that DarenSmmy wouldn’t be leading them and South Africa’s Faf du Plessis has been named skipper. du Plessis was also named skipper of The Hundred franchise Northern Superchargers, but couldn’t recover in time from the concussion that he encountered during PSL 2021, to play for the Superchargers. It would be interesting to see if he plays in the CPL and how. St. Lucia Kings Squad Rahkeem Cornwall, Keemo Paul, Andre Fletcher, Kesrick Williams, Obed McCoy, Mark Deyal, Roston Chase, Javelle Glen, Keron Cottoy, Jeavor Royal, Kadeem Alleyne, Alzarri Joseph Overseas: Faf du Plessis (c), Samit Patel, Wahab Riaz, Usman Qadir, Tim David Head Coach: Andy Flower, Team Mentor: Daren Sammy Bowling the best bet for Kings to go all the way The Kings in the display have the likes of Wahab Riaz, Obed McCoy and Kesrick Williams as three of the suited t20 bowlers in the ranks who with their pace and the change of it can work any batting line-up up. Wahab has tons of experience in T20 cricket, so much so that he has played for 45 different clubs in his 16 years and 281 matches old career where he has picked up 338 wickets. Williams on the other end has been part of the CPL for a long time has played 100 T20s, giving a glance as to what can be expected from him. Along with his signature celebration, he has 129 wickets which means he is mostly trusted with the ball in the teams that he plays. McCoy is young but highly impactful with the change of pace and he has shown that in the series against South Africa and Australia that West Indies played recently. In fact, he picked 14 wickets in his last matches. Others in the pace battery include two more West Indian quicks who can bat as well in the form of Keemo Paul, Alzarri Joseph. They are such players who can win games at least once in the season with sheer ability on their day. Along with pace, the spin department is bustling with talent as well. While Samit Patel and Sman Qadir are established T20 names, it is the local talent in the form of Rahkeem Cornwall, Javelle Glen and Roston Chase along with newbie Jeavor Royal that makes it a hell of an attack. With so many options to choose from, it is really going to be a hard time for skipper du Plessis to chose his bowling attack. Batting is a weak link While there is no dearth of options in terms of bowling, the batting unit of the Kings looks comparatively weaker. They have the experience of du Plessis and all-rounder, Patel and also the good form of Tim David. But apart from that, there is not a single player who could be trusted to play according to the situation. Andre Fletcher, the Spiceman can no doubt kick some storm on his day, but he has his days in one out of six-seven games and this tournament isn’t that long that Kings could afford for him to keep on misfiring. Will Roston Chase be able to score quickly is another question because it takes time for both Samit Patel and Faf to settle down as well and a team can’t afford to have three similar batters in the XI. Others who can bat include Keron Cottoy, Mark Deyal and Kadeem Alleyne. There isn’t much evidence to prove that these batters could bat the team out in crucial situations. Mark Deyal at the top could be handy no doubt. The magic combination that could win them the title The team finished second last season and what worked the most in their favour was their bowling and the captaincy of Daren Sammy. The main bowler, Scott Kugglein is no more part of the Kings and Daren Sammy is not the captain either, although he would still remain in the dugout. But as they say, every season can’t be the same. Hence, the cocktail that could work for Kings this season is Tim David and Samit Patel’s big-hitting combined with the anchor batting of skipper Faf du Plessis at the top and Fletcher being given free hand to play as he wishes. If this is done in batting and Usman Qadir and Cornwall are able to weave their magic with the ball, then the pace trio of McCoy, Williams and Joseph could be risked in all games. Can they win it? With the side that they have got, the best finish for them could be nothing less than the title. They have an anchor in the batting in form of du Plessis, an aggressor in Fletcher, a middle-order stabiliser in Patel and a finisher in David. In bowling, they have more than a decent off-spinner in Cornwall and a supremely talented leg spinner in the form of Usman Qadir to go with a master of change of pace in McCoy. If you can’t win with a team as good as this, it would be hard to win with any other as well. Probable Playing XI Faf du Plessis (c), Andre Fletcher (wk), Mark Deyal, Roston Chase, Samit Patel, Tim David, Alzarri Joseph, Rahkeem Cornwall, Usman Qadir, Kesrick Williams, Obed McCoy