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Daryl Mitchell and Mitchell Santner have been called into the Test squad while Santner has also been named captain for the third T20I

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Nov-2020Colin de Grandhomme has been ruled out of the Test series against West Indies due to bone bruising to his right foot and left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel will miss the opening match as he continues to recover from a calf injury.Allrounder Daryl Mitchell, who made his Test debut against England last year, has been called up as de Grandhomme’s replacement while Mitchell Santner will cover for Patel.Santner has also been named captain for the third T20I against West Indies when Tim Southee, who was standing in for Kane Williamson, will depart the squad to link up with the Test team in Hamilton. Santner and Mitchell will join the Test squad on December 1, two days ahead of the start of the opening match.”The unavailability of Colin and Ajaz has obviously had a flow on effect to our T20 squad who are providing the replacement players for the Test squad,” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said. “I highlighted last week how tight and complex the schedule was – so when you throw in some injuries, it really begins to challenge how you juggle your resources.”Mitch and Daryl will be available for the final T20 game, before linking up with the Test squad on Tuesday where we will monitor them closely to ensure they’re fit and fresh ahead of the first Test on Thursday.”I’d like to acknowledge Mitch Santner for taking on the responsibility to captain the T20 side. It’s a great honour to lead your country and I know his calm demeanour along with the sheer amount of international experience he’s amassed in the past five years will hold him in good stead.”It’s disappointing for Colin to be ruled out of the Tests completely and he’ll now target being fit and available for the Boxing Day Test at Bay Oval. Ajaz will join the team in Hamilton to have treatment and train. We will make a call on the second Test in Wellington closer to the time.”Meanwhile, all the New Zealand and West Indies players who arrived from the IPL have cleared their third and final Covid-19 tests meaning they are on track to leave managed isolation on Thursday, the day before the opening T20I at Eden Park.

“We were right on the money from ball one when we started; till today, we never looked back”

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Nov-20203:38

What makes the Mumbai Indians franchise so special?

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has praised his team for making “winning a habit” with their record fifth IPL title. Sharma said that had been the message for the squad at the beginning of the season and he was “pretty happy” to see how the players executed their plans with “excellent” performances. Mumbai defended their 2019 title with a clinical performance through the season, and in the final, with a five-wicket thrashing of the Delhi Capitals.”Pretty happy with how things went the entire season for us,” Sharma said at the post-match presentation. “We said at the start we want to make winning a habit, and the guys were excellent through the tournament and we couldn’t have asked anything more from each one of them. We were right on the money from ball one when we started; till today, we never looked back.”A lot of credit goes to people behind the scenes as well; they often don’t get noticed. Our work starts much, much earlier than the IPL starts. We try and analyse what went wrong the previous season, what we need to fill, which players can add value to the squad, things like that.”Sharma showered more praise on Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav – two of their three leading scorers this season along with Quinton de Kock – for being “absolutely brilliant”. Kishan scored 516 runs with 30 sixes, the most in the tournament, while opening in Sharma’s absence and at No. 4, whereas Suryakumar played a crucial role at No. 3 for his tally of 480 with four half-centuries with a strike rate of 145.Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan added 47 runs together•BCCI

“They’ve been absolutely brilliant,” Sharma said. “We make sure that we get the freedom because Ishan Kishan is somebody you can’t cloud his judgement about what he wants to do on the field, you just want to let him loose. Surya has matured as a player over the years. You’ve seen some shots he’s played through the tournament – unbelievable shots, he looked in good form and he continued. Unfortunately he got run-out today…The kind of form he was in, I should have sacrificed my wicket but he did it. I give him a lot of credit [for that], it’s not easy to do that. Through the season it was a pleasure to watch him bat. Some of the shots he played the entire season I don’t think anyone could play those shots. These two guys, you have to keep motivating them, give them confidence and they come out with performances like that.”Sharma also explained why they’d dropped their lead spinner Rahul Chahar for the final, after he had taken 15 wickets in as many games, for offspinner Jayant Yadav. Chahar had leaked 35 runs in two overs against the Capitals in the first Qualifier, and the move to replace him with Jayant worked – he removed the Capitals’ leading scorer Shikhar Dhawan for 15, to reduce them to 22 for 3 in the fourth over.Sharma said it was purely a tactical decision given the number of left-hand batsmen in the Capitals line-up, and as captain it was his responsibility to put his arm around Chahar to tell him as much.”You’ve got to find the right balance where you stay calm [as a leader],” Sharma said of his role as captain. “I’m not someone who’ll run with a stick behind someone. It’s important to get the best out of them [and] the only way you can do it is by giving them confidence, making sure that they understand their role because in our squad if you look at the batting order between Hardik [Pandya], Krunal [Pandya] and Polly (Kieron Pollard), we’ve been rotating them through the season. So it was important for them to know about this and they’ve been doing it for a while now so they do understand that.”In the bowling department as well we try and stick to what works for us. Today Rahul Chahar missed out, it was very unfortunate, but we tactically wanted Jayant to come in and give that extra cushion to us. Those are the things you’ve got to look at when you’re playing a big game like that.”

Seamer has recovered from groin strain that ruled him out of Boxing Day Test

Firdose Moonda28-Dec-2020Kagiso Rabada has been added to South Africa’s squad after recovering from a groin strain that saw him miss the Boxing Day Test. Rabada was set to enter the biosecure environment before the start of the second session on Monday after clearing all Covid-19 protocols.Rabada’s inclusion means that South Africa have a handy stock of seamers ahead of the New Year’s Test which includes the four currently playing in this match – Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje and Lutho Sipamla and allrounder Wiaan Mulder – as well as three reserves, Glenton Stuurnman, Migael Pretorius and allrounder Dwaine Pretorius.Stuurman was expected to debut at SuperSport Park but is carrying a niggle and has been seen doing shuttles at the ground post-play.Dwaine Pretorius came into this series having recovered from a hamstring injury that kept him out of the white-ball series against England, which started in November, but has been bowling during this Test while Pretorius was added as cover.Adding Rabada to an already pace-packed squad may be an indication that South Africa are considering going into the second Test without a spinner, which is a possibility given that conditions are expected to be spicy and Sri Lanka are without one of the frontline batsmen, Dhananjaya de Silva, who was ruled out of the series with a quad muscle tear.Rabada has not played a red-ball match since January, when he featured in the third Test against England in Port Elizabeth. He was banned from the final match at the Wanderers after an accumulation of demerit points which makes the last time he played a Test at his home ground in January 2019, against Pakistan.

The allrounder had suffered a groin injury during the third ODI on January 25

Mohammad Isam30-Jan-2021Shakib Al Hasan has been named in Bangladesh’s 18-man Test squad for the two-match series against West Indies. Shakib had suffered a groin injury during the third ODI on January 25, and walked off the field without completing his fifth over. He returned to training on Saturday after a scan last week revealed no major damage.Shakib had already made a successful return to international cricket following his one-year ban, completing a player-of-the-series performance against West Indies in the ODIs. This will be his first Test since the one-off Test against Afghanistan in September 2019.Apart from Shakib, the national selectors have added Shadman Islam to the squad that was chosen for Bangladesh’s last Test match, the one-off game against Zimbabwe last February.Among the uncapped players are Yasir Ali, the middle-order batsman who was picked against Zimbabwe last year for the first time, and pace bowler Hasan Mahmud who recently made his ODI debut against West Indies. Yasir averages 51.33 in 51 first-class matches, and has scored eight centuries. Mahmud has taken 37 wickets in 14 first-class matches thus far.The first begins on February 3 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram, while the second Test is from February 11 in Dhaka.Bangladesh squad: Mominul Haque (capt), Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Liton Das, Yasir Ali, Saif Hassan, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Shadman Islam, Nayeem Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Abu Jayed, Ebadot Hossain, Hasan Mahmud.

‘He’s our number one batsman, he’s done it before, he’s paid for his mistakes’

Reuters and ESPNcricinfo staff06-Mar-2021Usman Khawaja has called for Steven Smith to be given the captaincy of Australia’s Test side once Tim Paine’s tenure is over if he covets the role.Smith, who led the team for nearly three years, was stripped of the captaincy and banned from leadership roles for two years in the wake of the Newlands ball-tampering scandal in 2018.Smith’s leadership ban expired last March but he has since been overlooked for roles in the Test and white-ball teams.”If Steve Smith wants to captain Australia, I think he should captain Australia,” Queensland captain Khawaja told reporters in Brisbane on Friday.”He’s our number one batsman, he’s done it before, he’s paid for his mistakes, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be in line for the captaincy if wants to do it.”Paine succeeded Smith as captain and led Australia to their Ashes triumph in England in 2019 and briefly the top of the Test rankingsBut his leadership was criticised at times during the series against India and Australia’s 2-1 loss on home soil against the injury-ravaged tourists turned the spotlight on him although national selector Trevor Hohns said his position was “never in question.”Fast bowler Pat Cummins is vice-captain of the Test team and Marnus Labuschagne is regarded by some as a candidate for the captaincy despite no experience at professional level. Cummins has recently been made captain of the New South Wales one-day side.Smith, who won a third Allan Border Medal as the country’s top male cricketer, said last month the captaincy was “not on [his] radar” and the decision was out of his hands.Various people have talked of a “process” that needs to be gone through before Smith can be considered for the role again.Paine recently said he was sure Smith would like another crack at the job. “There’s no doubt he would like to do it, I think, but we’ll just wait and see what happens in the next six to 12 months,” he told SEN radio. “One of the things we’re trying to do is develop more leaders in our team and Steve Smith is certainly one of those.”Unless England win the final Test against India to level the series, which would allow Australia to sneak into the World Test Championship final, they will not play Test cricket again until the end of the year following the postponement of the South Africa tour.

Ben Stokes takes field despite suffering from stomach bug

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Mar-2021Jofra Archer was not considered for selection in England’s fourth Test in India due to his ongoing right-elbow issue, the ECB have confirmed.Archer bowled only five overs in the third Test, taking 1 for 24, after he had missed the second Test in Chennai following an injection to his elbow. He was rested during England’s tour of Sri Lanka in January, and has bowled only 35.1 competitive overs in 2021.His availability for the limited-overs leg of the tour, which starts on March 12 with the first T20I in Ahmedabad, is unclear at this stage. Archer’s IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals, will also be waiting anxiously for further updates.An ECB spokesperson said: “Jofra Archer is not playing in this Test match due to his ongoing right elbow issue. The ECB medical team will provide an update in due course.”Archer suffered a stress fracture in his right elbow in South Africa in January 2020, which ruled him out of the limited-overs series, as well as the tour of Sri Lanka and the IPL, both of which were postponed.Archer has worn a compression sleeve on his right arm throughout the 2020-21 winter, and while the ECB insisted that the injury which forced him to miss the second Test was unrelated to any previous injuries, his fitness seems to be an ongoing concern.Meanwhile, it has also been confirmed that Ben Stokes is suffering from an upset stomach, after Paul Collingwood, England’s assistant coach, and Daz Veness, the strength and conditioning coach were affected earlier this week.Ben Stokes top-scored for England, despite feeling unwell•BCCI

Stokes top-scored with 55 in England’s first-innings total of 205 all out on Thursday, and opened the bowling alongside James Anderson in India’s reply. “Ben Stokes has had an upset stomach, the same issue that has affected other members the touring party,” a statement said. “It is not expected to keep him off the field.”Collingwood played down the bug on Wednesday, describing it as “nothing you don’t expect in these parts of the world”.”I certainly wouldn’t want to divulge what it was like over a couple of days and I don’t think that should make headlines at all,” he said. “It is what it is and I feel much better.”

Criticism centers around the board saying he ‘doesn’t want to play Tests’

Mohammad Isam21-Mar-2021Shakib Al Hasan has said that he was misrepresented by the BCB about his decision to skip the Test series against Sri Lanka.Shakib said that the two matches, which are part of the World Test Championship, aren’t of much value as Bangladesh are at the bottom of the competition’s points table. He said that playing in the IPL would rather help him prepare better for the T20 World Cup, to be held in India in October.”These two Tests are our last matches in the World Test Championship so it is not as if we are going to play the final,” Shakib told . “We are at the very bottom of the points table. I don’t think it makes much of a difference. The other major reason is that the World Cup T20 is in India later this year. It is a very important tournament where we have much to achieve. There isn’t much to achieve in these two Tests. I think it is a better option that I prepare myself for something bigger.”Related

• Shakib, Mustafizur picked in Bangladesh's preliminary ODI squad

• Shakib Al Hasan really, really wants to play Test cricket

• BCB allows Shakib Al Hasan to miss Sri Lanka Tests for IPL

• BCB to add clauses in central contracts after Shakib's IPL request

Shakib said that his letter to the BCB was focused on his plan to prepare for the T20 World Cup, but Akram Khan, the BCB’s cricket operations chairman, said that Shakib doesn’t want to play the two Tests against Sri Lanka, to be held from April 21 to May 3.”Those who keep saying that I don’t want to play Tests, I am sure they didn’t read my letter. I didn’t mention anywhere in my letter to the BCB that I don’t want to play Tests. I wrote that I want to play the IPL to prepare myself for the World Cup,” Shakib said.”Akram especially has repeatedly said that I don’t want to play Tests. I think he said it again in an interview yesterday. I guess he never read the letter. People should have a clear idea that I wanted to play the IPL even if ODIs were scheduled during this time.”I want to take advantage of playing in the same grounds and against the same players who I will face in the World Cup T20 four months later. I can share the same experience with my Bangladesh team-mates.”He said that the BCB president Nazmul Hassan’s decision to allow him to play in the IPL is laudable. “I want to thank (Nazmul Hassan) Papon bhai for taking the right decision. A player must have the freedom, and his confidence goes up when the board president backs him in this manner. The player becomes more responsible when playing for the national team,” he said.’I will let you in on a brutal truth. When overseas players come to Bangladesh, we call most of them ‘sir’ or ‘hujur’, but we do not see our experienced cricketers the same way’ – Shakib Al Hasan•Raton Gomes/BCB

Shakib criticised the BCB’s decision to hold the Test series during the IPL. They will also be playing an ODI series against Sri Lanka, possibly from May 20, which will also clash with Shakib’s IPL commitment. Shakib said that by doing so, BCB had again given less value to its own cricketers.”No other cricket board holds international matches during the IPL,” he said. “Only we are playing against Sri Lanka. Do you ever see any Afghanistan cricketer playing for their country during the IPL? Their board makes sure the players are free to play in the IPL. If we don’t value our own players, how can you expect us to perform well when playing for Bangladesh?”I will let you in on a brutal truth. When overseas players come to Bangladesh, we call most of them ‘sir’ or ”, but we do not see our experienced cricketers the same way. If the people, board and players do not respect you, you can’t expect them to respect you.”Shakib also criticised the BCB’s long-term planning, questioning the role of the High Performance unit, and suggested that some of the BCB directors who have played for Bangladesh in the past haven’t done much to progress the game.”Not having back-up players is really disappointing. I don’t know how many players have come from the High Performance squad. We have a number of people in the cricket board who have played for Bangladesh, but apart from (Khaled Mahmud) Sujon bhai, they are not too involved. Sujon and Papon must be credited for the 2020 Under-19 World Cup win.”But I can’t find any more people from the board to give credit. I don’t think they think much about cricket (laughs). We hardly talk about these things. Even our journalists are focused on small things. They don’t look at the big picture, like how many players we produced in the last five years.”

Players in quarantine after IPL postponement unlikely to be rushed back

George Dobell10-May-2021Ashley Giles, the managing director of England men’s cricket, has hinted that the upcoming Test series against New Zealand will be used to look at “some new faces”.While England have the unexpected availability of some players they had anticipated would be at the IPL to consider, Giles suggested there will be no hurry to rush such players back into action.The England management are also mindful that, with a busy schedule of cricket ahead of them and a working assumption that players will have to remain in bio-bubbles for long periods of time, they may require a larger squad than normal to ensure they can rest and rotate as required. To that end, they want to ensure fringe players who could well have a role to play later in the year have an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the environment.That means England are likely to use the two New Zealand Tests to provide opportunities for Ollie Robinson and James Bracey, who are both uncapped at international level, and recall Craig Overton, who has played four Tests and an ODI. All three have impressed in county cricket over a sustained period. Ben Foakes could also win a first Test cap in England.”What we do know and what’s not going to change is that given the weight of cricket, given the Ashes series, and we don’t know what conditions that’s going to be played in with regard to a Covid environment, we are going to need a bigger group of players,” Giles said. “We may also choose against New Zealand to look at some new faces.”Related

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• Robinson presses England claims with nine-wicket haul

• Ryan Higgins: The Stokes injury replacement hiding in plain sight

• Boult returns to New Zealand and could miss both England Tests

• Bracey shows he's real deal as Middlesex are muscled to margins

Several of England’s Test prospects, notably Chris Woakes, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali, are currently serving a quarantine period which ends at the weekend, while a few more – Ben Stokes, who is definitely out of the series, Dom Sibley, Olly Stone and Jofra Archer – are injury doubts.Sibley has just about recovered from the broken finger that he sustained in mid-April (he was considered fit to bat but not field in Warwickshire’s recently concluded match against Worcestershire), but will have been unable to play a first-team game before the squad for the Test series is picked.Stone, meanwhile, has an infection in his big toe for which he is taking antibiotics, while Archer made a cautious return from minor hand surgery and a long-standing elbow problem in second XI cricket recent days. Given his importance to England in all formats and the fact that the New Zealand series does not form part of the World Test Championship, it seems unlikely he will be rushed back into service. Stone is expected to be fully fit within days and has a good chance of inclusion within the Test squad.Jofra Archer made his comeback from injury for Sussex’s 2nd XI last week•Getty Images

But it is, perhaps, those players currently in quarantine who require the more careful management. Some of them spent more than four months in various bubbles over the winter and are expected to be given time to see their families before they return to cricket.”All these guys are currently in quarantine and have had a number of spells in quarantine and bubbles in this last period,” Giles said. “Some of it’s their choice, I get that. We need to look after them, with the amount of cricket they’ve got coming up. We’re not going to rush or force them back into cricket.”Chris Silverwood will work with each and every one of them, as will our medical teams on what’s best for their progress. On the matter of playing cricket, they are all different. We know historically that Chris Woakes, for example, likes to get more overs under his belt with the red ball before he’s up to speed. Others react differently to that, so it’s a case by case basis. We have got an awful lot of cricket coming up.”Even without the IPL players or injuries, the competition for places is tough. Stuart Broad and James Anderson are both expected to be fully fit for the series but the absence of Stokes may make balancing the side problematic. Woakes or Curran could, therefore, come into the equation. The Test squad is likely to be announced on May 17 or 18 with the players entering a bubble about 10 days later.

He will join former team-mates Dilshan and Tharanga at the Eastern Cricket Association competition

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jun-2021A Melbourne club team will have the services of former Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya as coach next season after he signed a one-year deal with Mulgrave in the city’s east. That will mark Jayasuriya’s return to the game after a two-year ban for breaching the ICC anti-corruption code, announced in February 2019.Jayasuriya, who played 110 Tests and 445 ODIs in his 22-year-long career at the highest level, will join former team-mates Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga, who are part of the Eastern Cricket Association competition. The reported that it was Dilshan who encouraged Jayasuriya to make the move.”Dilshan opened the door for us there, and it was a fantastic opportunity that was presented to us,” Mulgrave president Malin Pullenayegam said. “We just had to work on it and come to an agreement, and we have.”I think it’s a great opportunity for our young guys to know what international cricket standards are. That kind of exposure from a young age just elevates the standard of cricket they’ll be playing.”Pullenayegam added that the deal only included a coaching role, but if Jayasuriya felt like strapping on the pads, he would be welcome.Jayasuriya’s ban took effect from October 15, 2018, after he was charged with refusal to co-operate with investigators concerning corruption in Sri Lanka. The charges also included obstructing or delaying the investigation, including concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information which may have been relevant. The investigation was related to Zimbabwe’s ODI series win in Sri Lanka in 2017, specifically the fourth match in Hambantota, which took place when Jayasuriya was serving as Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors.

Derbyshire lose five wickets in 47 overs’ of play, but arguably fared well in tough conditions

ECB Reporters' Network04-Jul-2021Derbyshire have work to do to post a competitive first-innings total after a rain-affected opening day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.Propping up the Group One table after failing to win any of their first eight matches, Derbyshire made 91 for 5 from the 47 overs that were possible, Matt Critchley making 23 and Luke Fletcher taking two wickets to draw level with Durham’s Chris Rushworth as the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 40 scalps.On a strip so green it needed three stumps at each end to identify it as the one in use, a Derbyshire side badly hit by injuries and failing form would have anticipated a difficult day after Nottinghamshire won the toss and chose to bowl first. In the circumstances, a scoreboard showing 44 for 3 at lunch felt like one that could have been worse.Fletcher soon had Luis Reece pushing at one that found a thin edge, and Brett Hutton trapped Tom Wood in the 12th overs with a full delivery but the home attack bowled too many balls that could be safely left alone in a twice-interrupted opening session and had to wait until the over before lunch to claim another breakthrough.This time Brooke Guest chased a widish ball from Lyndon James, giving a second catch to Ben Duckett, deputising with the gloves for Tom Moores who, in common with Joe Clarke, is self-isolating under Covid protocols.Critchley and Leus du Plooy began to rebuild after lunch before the next band of showers arrived, keeping the players off the field for two hours and 40 minutes. Derbyshire may have wished it had been longer as two more wickets fell in the first 17 balls after the resumption.Captaining in a first-class match for the first time in the absence of Billy Godleman, Critchley had taken three boundaries off Hutton before the stoppage and and was looking to continue in similar positive vein but perished via a sharp low catch at third slip off 19-year-old Joey Evison, in for the rested Jake Ball, whose first spell of the season comprised four maidens.Fletcher then picked up his 40th wicket of the season as Harvey Hosein was leg before to his second ball, leaving Derbyshire 76 for 5, but only 38 more minutes’ play was possible. The visitors will resume with Du Plooy, who was dropped by Duckett on 14, having faced 108 balls for his 21 not out.