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BCCI President Sourav Ganguly rebuffs criticism about ignoring women's cricket

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has downplayed the concerns surrounding the state of Women’s cricket in India and has said that there are a lot of series in the pipeline for women in the near future. In an interview with Sportstar, he was asked if the BCCI has left Women’s cricket behind in the list of priorities, Ganguly lamented the Covdi-19 pandemic as the reason behind Indian women not getting a lot of games in the past year and a half. "What to do? We have been living with this deadly virus. Other than the men’s cricket, we had the women’s IPL. South Africa women played here,” Ganguly said to Sportstar. Also, he pointed out that the BCCI has scheduled a Test match between India Women and England Women to be played in England later this year along with a six-match long ODI and T20I series. He also made mention of the West Indies Women tour of India while rebuffing the accusations against him for ignoring the Women’s game in the country. “Our women are going to play Test cricket after eight years. They play a Test in Bristol and six ODIs and T20Is. Would you still accuse me of not supporting women’s cricket? West Indies will come and play in India,” he added. Notably, Indian Women played a home series against the South Africa Women team earlier in March this year but that ended a one-year-long hiatus for them after the Covid-19 pandemic had hit the sporting world.

IPL 2021 | 'He made big impact in my confidence,' Harshal Patel opens up on Virat Kohli's captaincy

There have been a lot of talks about Virat Kohli’s style of captaincy and how he manages to get the best out of his players. Most of the time, critics have called his methods wrong or too pressurising, but Kohli has got direct support from one of his teammates at the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. In an interview with Hindustan Times, RCB’s Harshal Patel has explained Kohli’s ways of doing things and motivating people around him to do good. Taking his personal reference, Patel recalled how a text from Kohli after he was traded to the RCB made a huge boost to his confidence knowing that the team will be behind him in the 14th edition of the IPL. “The moment I was traded, Virat sent me a message, “welcome back, you are going to play here”. That made a big impact in my confidence and I realised this is a team where I can finally showcase all my skills,” Patel said to HT. Harshal Patel also said that Kohli gives space to his bowlers and don’t come hard at them knowing that there will be some days when batsmen will get at the top and dictate terms. He said that Kohli discusses just ways on how to stay on the plans and best possible mindset after a bad game and it gives huge confidence to bowler like him. “He gives you the space to do your thing. Even if you don’t execute at times he understands better than anybody that on a batter’s day, if they get hold of a bowler, you are going to go for runs. Whenever we are unable to execute, or we stray from our plans, when we sit for the review the only talk is about what do we do to stay on the path, how do we stay in the mindset to execute more often than not. We don’t let any other noise come into that environment,” Patel added. Notably, Harshal Patel was the leading wicket-taker in the IPL 2021 till the halfway stage before the Covid-19 outbreak in bubbles led to the postponement of the tournament. But, at the same time, he conceded runs with an economy rate of 9.17 runs per over and once he was plundered for 37 runs in an over by Ravindra Jadeja.

ZIM vs PAK | 2nd Test: Pakistan one wicket away from clean sweep as Hasan and Nauman Ali pick fifers

The Pakistani team remains just one wicket away eve after grinding a whole day of play at the Harare Sports Club in Harare to get hosts Zimbabwe all out twice, to finish the second and last game of the series on day three of the Test match itself. Having enforced follow on after getting Brendan Taylor’s side out for 132 in the first innings, the Pakistani bowlers couldn’t run through the defences of the top order as easily as in the last innings. In fact, Regis Chakabva and skipper Taylor made a good case of themselves, going for the attack and scoring some important runs. However, they threw their wickets away to some unnecessary shots. While wicket-keeper batsman Chakabva is once again the top scorer with the bat, scoring his fifth Test half-century (80 off 137 balls), Taylor missed out on what could have been his 11th Test fifty by a solitary run. The 9 run partnership between the duo has so far been the highest in this innings for the Chevrons. For Pakistan, Nauman Ali and Shaheen Afridi were the picks of the bowlers in the second innings, sharing between them all the nine wickets that have fallen so far. While 34-year-old Nauman got rid of dangerman Chakabva and the rest of the middle order, Shaheen, having picked Taylor and Tisarai Musakanda early on, came back late in the day to pick two quick wickets to rattle the Zimbabwe lower order. He almost raised a glimmer of hope in the fielding unit that they might not have to come back another day and the game would be done and dusted today itself. However, it wasn’t to be as Zimbabwe remained 220-9 at the end of the day’s play. Luke Jongwe (31*), playing his maiden Test stood there for the last five overs of the day alongside number 11 Blessing Muzarabani, forcing Pakistan to come back tomorrow and have another go. Jongwe on the other hand would try and get as many runs as possible for himself and the team. Earlier in the day, Hasan Ali wreck havoc on the Zimbabwe lineup with his in swing and control over the ball. The 26-year-old picked four of the six Zimbabwean wickets to fall on the morning of May 9. Backed by the best bowling figure in his Test career, Pakistan bundled out Zimbabwe for 132. Debutant Sajid Khan picked was the second-highest wi ket taker in the innings with two scalps.

India to send white-ball team to Sri Lanka even as Kohli and Co. prepare for Test series in England

For the first time in Indian cricket history, two completely different teams would be playing two different formats almost at the same time as BCCI has decided to send a ‘white ball’ specialist team to Sri Lanka in July. This series [5 T20Is and maybe three ODIs] would be taking place at the same time when the Indian Test squad, having played the World Test Championship, would be playing Intra-squad and practice matches to prepare for a five-match Test series against England that begins in August. The WTC Final ends on June 22 while India's Test series vs England begins on August 4. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, while confirming the news said, "We have planned a white ball series for the senior men’s team during the month of July where they will play T20 Internationals and ODIs in Sri Lanka.” "Yes, it will be a team of white-ball specialists. It will be a different team," he added in a short byte to PTI. Sources close to the cricket governing body in the country have also confirmed the same, saying that it will give selectors a better opportunity to see the match awareness of some of the players in the loop for the World T20 which is scheduled to take place later this year. "The BCCI president is very keen that all our top players are match ready and since England doesn’t have a white ball leg the month of July can be utilized well," the BCCI source said. For the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Rahul Chahar and Bhuvnaeshwar Kumar, it would be an opportunity to showcase their talent and at least put a foot in the door of India’s T20 World Cup squad.