Watch 'Giorgio Armani of broadcasting’ Dinesh Karthik depart for IPL after fabulous show in England

Joe Root becomes most-successful England captain after Leeds Test win over India

With the win against India in the third Test of the series at his home ground Headingley, Joe Root has become the most successful England captain in terms of winning the longest format games. Before the Leeds Test, he had 26 Test wins from 54 games he had led England side in an with a big win over the Virat Kohli-led side he got past Michael Vaughan who had won 26 wins as England captain in 51 occurrences. Root has gone past Vaughan in 55 Test matches as captain of the side. Root took over the captaincy from Alastair Cook in 2017 who also has a decent winning record as an England captain. The Essex left-hander had led England to 24 wins out of 59 Test matches while his predecessor Andrew Strauss has a winning record of 24 wins out of 50 Test matches. Root has been in tremendous form in the recent past and is piling on the runs against an impressive Indian bowling attack. He has scored three centuries in the three Tests of the ongoing series at home after scoring a ton earlier this year in Chennai. Joe Root came under enormous pressure after Australia had retained the Urn after drawing the Ashes series at home in 2019, but no alternative option except Ben Stokes, who already had too many responsibilities for the side helped him continue with the role. He has turned his fortunes around massively this year and looks certain to go on for some time if his men can build on an impressive win against India in Leeds.

ENG vs IND | 3rd Test: Daniel Jarvis aka Jarvo 69 banned for life from Headingley

It might not be happy news for the fans of Jarvo 69, the overnight internet sensation who invaded on the Lord’s as well as Leeds pitch in continuous Test as he is now banned from entering Headingly for life. The decision was taken by the Yorkshire Cricket Club after Jarvo 69, or Daniel Jarvis (his real name) invaded the pitch on the third day of play during the third Test between England and India. Just after Rohit Sharma’s dismissal and just before Virat Kohli’s arrival to the crease, Jarvo 69 entered the pitch from the bowling from behind the sightscreen. He was haphazardly adjusting his pads and wore a blue helmet with the same jersey that he had worn at Lord’s with the name Jarvo inscribed on it above the number 69. An interesting change this time though was the surgical mask that he was wearing under the helmet and somebody from the crowd even threw a bat at him with which he proceeded to take guard before security guards intercepted him and dragged him off the ground. "Yes, Daniel Jarvis will be banned from Headingley for life. We will also be imposing a financial penalty," a Yorkshire CCC spokesperson was quoted as saying to PTI. "As on previous days, there will be stewards present around there to stop anyone that attempts to get on,” the spokesperson revealed about further plans to curb such invasions in future. Jarvis, who runs a Youtube channel and claims to be a popular prankster was well received by the audiences around the cricketing circle after he slicked into the Lord’s ground during the second test and started changing the field with his hand gestures, making Indian fiddlers spilt into laughter before being escorted back to the pavilion.

Labour MP Kevin Brennan comes to Azeem Rafiq’s aid, wants Yorkshire to publish the racism report

It has been almost a month that the enquiry committee set up to investigate the allegations of institutional racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club by ut’s former captain Azeem Rafiq submitted its report after one year of fact-finding. However, apart from apologising to Rafiq for ‘not appropriate’ behaviour at the Club during his time, the county club has not done anything, let alone making the report public. The matter has now reached to politicians and after Hilary Benn, the MP for Leeds Central asking for Yorkshire to publish the reports through her comments, "I trust Yorkshire CCC will now publish this report without delay in the interests of full transparency”, a Labour MP Kevin Brennan has also intervened in the matter. Brenan, a former minister during the time of the Labour government and currently a member of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS) in the House of Commons has warned Yorkshire that more harm will be done by them not publishing the report than by making it public. "The failure of Yorkshire Cricket club to make public the independent report into racism following complaints from former player Azeem Rafiq is unacceptable," Brennan was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. "Only through openness and transparency will racism in sport be eradicated and more harm will be done to the game of cricket and the club by suppressing this report's findings than by making them public and following through on the recommendations,” the MP from Cardiff West added. It would be interesting to see the response from Yorkshire as they have not even shared the report with either the England and Wales Cricket Board or the Players’ Association.

ENG vs IND | 3rd Test, Day 4: Robinson's fifer help hosts level series against brittle India batting

The fourth day of the Leeds was nicely poised to have a cracking contest between Indian batsmen, who were working hard to make up for the disaster in the first innings and England bowlers, who were putting their all to square the series. England had abandoned the plan of bowling with the older ball to Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli late on the third day and decided to wait for the new ball at the start of the fourth day. Joe Root in his mind would have hoped for a similar bowling performance to that of the first-morning session of the game with the fresh duke ball in the hands of James Anderson and Ollie Robinson in the morning session of the fourth day. His bowlers heard his call and unleashed a relentless spell of swing and seam bowling to dismantle India for 278 runs after they started the day on 215/2. Never-ending streak of Indian collapses When India were bundled out for 78 runs in the first innings, it was rated as an aberration and it was hoped that the batting group will rise to the occasion in the second innings. There was some welcome signs as first the partnership between Pujara and Rohit and then Kohli’s partnership with Pujara provided the glimpse of what an Indian batting unit batting at their best look like on the third day. There was sense of urgency to score on loose balls while tough balls were negotiated with good leaves and nudge with soft hands. Skipper Kohli appeared to be coming close ot his best and there were some high hopes of them to replicate all the same on the fourth day. However, even before the team could add one run to the total, Pujara misjudged one delivery from Robinson and offered his pad. He was set up beautifully by the pacer and Pujara left the ball thinking it was going to swing away from him. As soon as he went back to the pavilion, the floodgates were open for England. Kohli hit one crisp on the drive between midwicket and mid-on to bring up his first fifty of the series, but continuous examination from Anderson at one end paralysed his decision making. In the end, he was again caught in the slips while defending a ball he could have easily let it go. The story was not any different for Ajinkya Rahane, who once again poked at a ball that straightened from the line of the fifth stump and Rishabh Pant, who offered catching practice to Craig Overton at third slip to leave India in tatters inside the first hour itself. Robinson’s masterclass When the conditions offer a lot of assistance, the best bowler is the one who is disciplined and bowls good length (specific to pitch and conditions) and let the ball decide how it behaves in order to get the best and maximum results. Ollie Robinson seems to be a perfect student of that school of thought. When the partnership between Pujara and Rohit was flourishing in the afternoon session of the third day, he was the best England bowler who kept on asking the batsmen to play at deliveries around off stump. He was rewarded with the big wicket of Rohit when the right-hander saw an opportunity to score runs against a ball that was coming into him. Kohli and Pujara batted with discipline to save the final session for India and England needed big efforts from him. He had to put his hands up as Anderson has not been having the best of performances in the second innings of Test matches of late. Both he and Anderson was not straighter to either Kohli or Pujara in the first few overs, but he corrected his line of attack quickly in his second over of the day. He got Pujara in front of the stump and then earned the big valued edge of Virat Kohli’s bat to leave India gasping for air in the first half an hour. There was no looking back for either him or India as Pant, who has turned out to be his bunny in the series offered him another easy wicket. He picked up his second five-wicket haul of the series and dismantled India’s resistance albeit Anderson could scalp out just one wicket in the second innings. England were desperate after Stuart Broad missed the last two Tests due to injury and Joe Root will be delighted to see his youngest pacer in terms of experience at the highest level putting on match-winning performances one after another. He was adjudged Man of the Match for his brilliant bowling figure of 81/7 in the Leeds Test. If India would be honest to themselves, they would be eager to have a conversation about the frequent batting collapses they have had in the recent past. If they will choose to see the collapses in both innings of the Leeds Test, the issue will not be buried under the carpet and now, England will be emboldened to play on livelier pitches to ask more questions of this brittle batting lineup.