West Indies recall Chemar Holder, Shamarh Brooks for Pakistan Tests

Moeen Ali added to England squad for second Test against India

England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed that the Birmingham Phoenix captain in The Hundred, Moeen Ali would be joining the England Men's squad for the second Test against India at Lord's. “Worcestershire spinning all-rounder Moeen Ali has been added to the England Men’s Test squad for the LV= Insurance second Test against India at Lord’s starting on Thursday (12-16 August),” the ECB said in a press release. “He will join the Test party later today (August 10) and will train this afternoon with the England squad,” it added. Earlier England coach Chris Silverwood had said that the all-rounder was under consideration for the second Test against India slated to begin on Thursday, August 12. "Moeen is certainly under consideration. He's always been part of our consideration. So that's something that Joe and I are going to chat about at Lord's," ESPNcricinfo quoted Silverwood as saying. "We know he is a fine cricketer and we know he is showing fine form in the Hundred at the moment, though I appreciate it's a different format," he added. The right-handed spinner played his last Test against India in Chennai earlier this year and scalped a total of eight wickets during the match. Moeen has been capped 61 times in Tests for England where he has scored over 2800 runs including five centuries and has 189 wickets to his name which includes a ten-fer in a match. "Could Mo play at Lord's? All I'll say is my mind's not closed to anything. If it fits and works for the team then it's something we have to consider," Silver further added. The first match between India and England ended in a draw after rain played spoilsport on the last day of the encounter.

Experienced players needed to perform better: Wade after series loss against Bangladesh

Australia suffered a thumping defeat against Bangladesh by 1-4 in the five-match T20I series away from home. Stand-in skipper Matthew Wade has expressed his disappointment on the series loss and said that the performance from the side wasn’t up to the mark. “There’s not a lot of positives to take out of it, to get beaten in the fashion we did … was not good enough from an Australian cricket team regardless of the personnel we’ve got here,” Wade told reporters. Wade further added that the senior and experienced players should have performed in a better way. ”Myself, Moises (Henriques), Dan Christian, we are all experienced players and we needed to do better,” he said. The visitors were bundled out for 62 in the final T20I in Dhaka while chasing a low total of 122. Only two batsmen, Wade and Ben McDermott manage to get to the two-figure mark. The Aussie side had a disappointing start to the chase after losing an early wicket and never really made a return back in the match as they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals to be left tottering at 54/7 and eventually get bowled out. Shakib Al Hasan scalped a four-wicket haul for Bangladesh while Mohammad Saifuddin picked up three wickets. The hosts had earlier taken an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series after winning the first three matches while Australia clinched a win in the penultimate clash before losing the final encounter.

On This Day: Anil Kumble produces magic with the bat; scores maiden Test ton

The Dream Team - Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Greatest team of all times. But what would a team composed of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble, and Sourav Ganguly be called? Cricket's Dream Team? This tale is about the cricketing version of Magic Johnson, Anil Kumble. Just like Johnson, Kumble was the sharpest player, the greatest match winner and most importantly, a student of the game. No player has won games like Johnson and Kumble did. The only difference between these two match-winners is, the former won five NBA titles but the latter could never even play a World Cup Final. This is about the happiest moment of Kumble's superlative career. Not the 10 for 74 at Kotla in Delhi. But his maiden and the only Test century that came up at the Oval on August 10, 2007. In 2007, India toured the United Kingdom to play a three-match series against Michael Vaughan’s side. Rahul Dravid led the Indian team to a famous series win against England, which came after 21 years. The Oval Test was the third match and Kumble starred both with bat and ball in this fixture. The leg-spinner went past Glenn McGrath's 563 wickets, but the happiest moment came earlier in the game. Kumble always had the batting caliber, and his seven first-class tons were an instance of the same. His batting had it all, from those front-foot drives to square cuts to backward blocks, but somehow he could never convert his fifties into a three-figure mark. However, at the age of 36 years and 297 days, the legendary leg-spinner became the oldest Indian to score a maiden hundred in his 118th Test match. Coming into this game, India had a 1-0 lead which already made the series historic and Kumble’s ton was cherry on top. He came out to bat before Lunch on Day 2 when India were at 417-6. The number 417 itself tells how every batter would have piled up runs. Dinesh Karthik, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni had notched up individual fifties but Kumble’s knock was something special. He started his show by square cutting Chris Tremlett and playing an inside out to Monty Panesar. However, the number eight had to let his chips down for a while, as Dhoni was going berserk at the other end. When the latter was dismissed, after playing one of too many shots, Kumble took over. The senior pro was then accompanied by Zaheer Khan, RP Singh and S Sreesanth, and they all played a healthy hand. To reach the feat, Kumble kept rushing down to the spinner, while playing some scintillating shots through covers, point and gully off fast bowlers. When Zaheer was dismissed, the spinner was at 67 and Singh left him strangled on 76. Sreesanth came into the game on the back of batting heroics as he saved the Lord's match alongside MSD. He played some lusty blows, but when the senior pro was nearing his milestone, the seamer just put his head down. English players had already thrown their caps in disgust and Vaughan was tearing his hair out. Seeing their desperation, Kumble didn't take too long to make history. He played an inside-out to Panesar to get to 91 and then two overs later, he cut one for a boundary off KP to get to 97. The moment of glory arrived after two balls as the Indian under-edged KP to get to the hallmark. As the 36-year-old got to the three-figure mark, he just took off his helmet and raised his bat and both arms with the widest smile on his face and let his emotions pour out in front of the full-packed Oval house. Emotions got the better of Kumble for a minute or so. But the professional spinner became a thorough competitor when he got the ball in hand. The leggie took three wickets in the first innings and two more in the second as bowled his heart out. The centurion of the game was getting all fumed as the game was rushing towards a draw. But the gentleman in Kumble shook hands with the opposition in swank, after bowling the last ball of the match.

ICC pushing for cricket's inclusion in Olympic Games

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that it is pushing for cricket's inclusion in the Olympic Games. A Working Group would be leading the bid on behalf of the game to be included in Los Angeles 2028. Cricket has featured in the Olympic Games only once back in 1900 where only Great Britain and hosts France locked horns with each other during the competition. It will be a part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games next year. “Firstly on behalf of everyone at the ICC, I would like to congratulate the IOC, Tokyo 2020, and the people of Japan for staging such an incredible Games in such difficult circumstances. It truly was fantastic to watch and captured the imagination of the world and we would love for cricket to be a part of future Games,” ICC Chair Greg Barclay said. Barclay further added that cricket has a strong fanbase especially in the South Asia. “Clearly cricket has a strong and passionate fanbase, particularly in South Asia where 92% of our fans come from whilst there are also 30 million cricket fans in the USA,” he added. England and Wales Cricket Board Chair Ian Watmore will chair the ICC Olympic Working Group and will be joined by ICC Independent Director Indra Nooyi, Chair of Zimbabwe Cricket Tavengwa Mukuhlani, ICC Associate Member Director and Vice President of the Asian Cricket Council Mahinda Vallipuram and Chair of USA Cricket Parag Marathe.