We would be the first to launch women’s T20 league in Asia: PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja

Babar Azam reiterates Ravi Shastri’s stand on bio-bubble and mental health

Pakistan captain Babar Azam has reiterated the thoughts of former India coach Ravi Shastri who said in the last game that bio-bubbles have been extremely difficult for Indian players. He had stated at the pre-match interview with Ian Bishop yesterday that the Indian players have been mentally and physically drained, shifting bubbles constantly since the last six months. Shastri, who has a stellar record as a coach in international cricket said that it was high time that the players went on the break. "Look they are always ups and downs in professional cricket but yes players do get disturbed and uncomfortable by remaining constantly in a bio-secure bubble environment," Babar Azam spoke ahead of Pakistan’s clash against Australia in the semi finals of the T20 World Cup. "As a player, you need to relax and be ready to absorb the pressure. But at times when things are not going well, you need space and you need to refresh, go out,” he further added. Pakistan have been one of the most travelled teams after the onset of COVID-19 and have toured all across the globe including the countries with strict regulations such as in England and New Zealand. Azam spoke about the mental health side of things while living in a bio-bubble for an extended period of time and said that it is a spiral once negative thoughts enter your mind. "If you can't get out of the bubble, negative thoughts do enter your mind and affect your performances," he explained. He stated that Pakistan try to counter the same working as a unit and talk to each other through the hardships. His statement comes right after the decision that the Pakistan team will be travelling directly to Bangladesh to play an international tour after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup.

SMAT: Knockout berths decided, big guns Mumbai, Punjab, Baroda out of the race

It was the final day of the group stage in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021-22 (SMAT). The final day ushered many surprises as hot favourites and big guns of domestic cricket, Mumbai, Baroda, Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were unable to get past the group stage. On the other hand, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Bengal, Maharashtra and Saurashtra came from behind and took upon the hot favourites to march into the last 11 which will be distributed into pre-quarterfinals and quarterfinals. Captain Samson anchors Kerala to pre-quarters In what was an amazing counter-attacking partnership between skipper Sanju Samson and Sachin Baby, the duo led Kerala to a win over Madhya Pradesh and then cross their opposition in a head to head tie at the points table to book their place for the pre-quarter-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Both the players remained unbeaten after completing their respective fifties. They added 110 off just 58 balls and made the chase of 172 look like a cakewalk. Skipper Vijay Shankar, Jagadeesan drag TN to quarters In another virtual qualifier, Tamil Nadu were up against Punjab with both the teams stuck at 12 points each and the winner going to the quarterfinal as their net run rate was higher than Maharashtra which had already finished at 16 points from its five games. First Tamil Nadu restricted the explosive Punjab batting unit combining IPL regulars such as Shubman Gill, Prabhsimran Singh, Abhishek Sharma and Mandeep Singh to only 145 in their 20 overs and then skipper Vijay Shankar played the captain’s knock to secure the win. Along with Shankar’s unbeaten 59 off 40 balls, Narayan Jagadeesan’s 67 off 47 balls was also crucial in the chase. Easwaran, Mukesh shine in Bengal's win over Karnataka In another elite group clash, Bengal overtook mighty Karnataka as the group leaders which also had heavyweights such as Mumbai and Baroda to top the table and qualify directly for the quarterfinals. Courtesy of very disciplined bowling from Bengal bowlers, especially Mukesh Kumar, who took three wickets, the Karnataka batting - studded with stars such as Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal and Manish Pandey was restricted to 134. In reply, Abhimanyu Easwaran played a persuasive knock of unbeaten 51 off 49 balls to guide his team to victory. Pankaj Jaswal's five wicket haul takes Himachal past Andhra Till the very last game, Himachal Pradesh were not even in the reckoning of qualifying to the quarters or pre-quarters as better teams such as Haryana and Andhra Pradesh had better balance and form supporting them. However, on the day that mattered the most, Pankaj Jaswal picked a great five-wicket haul to reduce Andhra to 118 all out, chasing a comfortable target of 149. Courtesy of this win and Haryana’s loss against Rajasthan, which finished as the only unbeaten side along with Hyderabad among the Elite group teams at the group stage, Himachal finished at number two in their group. Knockout Games In the knockout matches, the top five teams from each elite group have already marched to the quarter-finals. Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Hyderabad are those sides. Among them, Gujarat and Hyderabad will face each other in the quarterfinals while the rest will await the results of the pre-quarter-finals. In the pre-quarterfinals, second-ranked teams of the five Elite groups, combined with Plate group topper Vidarbha will face each other in three matches to determine the three quarter-finalists who will face Bengal, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. In the first pre-quarterfinal, Vidarbha will face Maharashtra while Himachal would be up against Kerala in the second one. In the last match of the pre-quarter-final, two domestic against in Karnataka and Saurashtra will clash with each other. All the pre-quarterfinals will take place on November 16 while the quarterfinals will be held on November 20, with the semi-finals taking place on November 20 and the final on 22nd.

Rohit Sharma takes over Virat Kohli as India announce squad for New Zealand T20I series

Board of Control for Cricket in India announced India’s squad for the three T20Is against New Zealand starting November 17 onwards in Jaipur. As expected, Rohit Sharma has been named captain and KL Rahul has been appointed his deputy. The squad sees fresh faces that have not been in the current bio-bubble in Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has had an exceptional Indian Premier League season. Venkatesh Iyer has also broken through his exploits in the second half of the IPL as well as due to his consistent showing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy this year. Iyer recently bowled a stunning spell of 4-2-2-2 in the SMAT group stages. Usual exploits like Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal make it back in the squad along with Harshal Patel who was the purple cap holder in this year’s cash-rich league. India’s T20I squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar

Azeem hasn’t done anything for personal gain: Moeen Ali expects thorough changes after Yorkshire incident

The Yorkshire County Cricket Club revelations shook the cricket world earlier this week. The ongoing saga about the systematic racism across all levels of the club made headlines for all the wrong reasons, with the entire cricketing community calling out the club for its botched handling of the investigation. A movement started by former club captain Azeem Rafiq in 2020, Yorkshire have been criticised time and again for their way of dealing with things. For example, in the investigation report, the club claimed that racial slurs from a Yorkshire player was ‘friendly banter’ and should have been taken in the same spirit. Speaking from the UAE to ESPNcricinfo, England international Moeen Ali extended his support to Rafiq and stated that his actions would encourage a lot of players to speak out against racism. "I wouldn't say I'm surprised but there's probably more stories out there that people haven't heard of," Moeen said. "The fact it's come out is great because, going forward, people [will] have to think about what they can or can't say in terms of discriminating against people and knowing what people feel and go through." The left handed batsman said that destigmatising mental health was the need of the hour and said that Rafiq’s persistence would be aiding that conversation. "What Azeem has done, he is not doing it for any personal gain, I think he wants change and that's what he's pushing for.” Ali said that the unfolding of the saga had become a part of “open discussion” in the English dressing room and that the team is taking learnings from these conversations. Everybody has a story in our changing room about their own background and it helps with people coming from all different parts of the world as well," he added. "Massive credit goes to the coaches and Eoin Morgan for really pushing it so that everybody's just normal with each other. It just feels like home to be honest with you."