Zaman got Khyber Pakhtunkhwa off to a flying start with 67 off 40 before Malik’s blistering half-century took them to a formidable total

Umar Farooq18-Oct-2020Khyber Pakhtunkhwa edged out Southern Punjab by ten runs in the final to lift the National T20 Cup. Put in to bat first, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s openers – Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan – put up a 76-run partnership, with Zaman’s 40-ball 67 leading the way. When Rizwan fell, Mohammad Hafeez (38 off 26) took over and helped set up an ideal platform for the death overs, where Shoaib Malik rolled back the years and the smashed the fastest fifty of his T20 career, off just 20 balls, to take the side past 200.In the end, it might have been a scoreline that read slightly harshly on Aamer Yamin, Zahid Mahmood, and Mohammad Imran, who took a wicket each and created plenty of chances, but sloppiness in the field cost Southern Punjab. Shan Masood’s side put down no fewer than five catches – three benefitted Mohammad Hafeez alone. It was generosity they could ill-afford to extend to a side as good as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and if they were to win the title, they’d have to chase 207.They didn’t get off to the best start, with Shaheen Afridi getting rid of Shan Masood early. It wasn’t the only damage the tournament’s leading wicket-taker inflicted; he removed Sohaib Maqsood off the next delivery to deal a huge blow to Southern Punjab’s chances. Zeeshan Ashraf’s 16 off 19 came to an end when he offered a regulation catch to extra cover off Wahab Riaz, who snared him off his second ball of the evening. With Southern Punjab 34 for 3 in 5.2 overs, Hussain Talat and Khushdil Shah were left with what seemed like an insurmountable task.Both shared a fighting stand to keep the case alive and put up 74 for the fourth wicket before Usman Shinwari removed Shah. A remarkable diving catch on the boundary by Malik sent Talat back. He had smashed a spirited 33-ball 63, but it wasn’t enough, with Southern Punjab needing a further 76 from 34 balls when he departed. That was never a realistic prospect, with the asking rate always just out of reach, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wrapped up a deserved win with relative ease by the end.

He returns to the Stars for the entire season after his surprising debut in last years BBL against the Brisbane Heat

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Dec-2020Pakistan quick Dilbar Hussain is returning to the Melbourne Stars for BBL 10 after his debut late last season.Hussain has been re-signed as the Stars’ third overseas player and is available for the entire tournament after Haris Rauf was ruled out due to international duty. He is currently completing the mandatory 14-day quarantine in Western Australia and will be available for the Stars’ first match on December 11 in Canberra.Hussain was a surprise inclusion in the Stars line-up late last season for a match against the Brisbane Heat. It was his first T20 at a professional level and he got a baptism of fire at the MCG finishing with figures of 1 for 56 from his four overs, with AB de Villiers taking hold of him although he did eventually claim de Villiers in the final over.But the 27-year-old continued his development in the PSL and was outstanding in the playoffs for Lahore Qalandars in November, taking seven wickets in three matches including 2 for 28 in the final.That continued development was enough for coach David Hussey to re-sign him.”I’m looking forward to working with Dilbar again this season and supporting his development together with our wider bowling group,” Hussey said. “His Stars debut was a whirlwind last year – it was his first senior T20 match and he effectively came down to Melbourne at very short notice and ended up bowling to AB de Villiers at the MCG.”He’s a genuine 140km/hr bowler with a good yorker and an incredible slower ball. With another year of experience and his time in the PSL, we’re keen to see what Dilbar brings to the table for us this year. The fact that not many players have faced him before can be a real advantage for us.””I’m very happy to be coming back to the Melbourne Stars for the Big Bash,” Hussain said. “In the short time I was with the club last season I learnt so much. I’d like to thank David Hussey who was incredibly supportive and encouraged me to keep working on my craft.”

Without Kohli, an unsettled opening pair, and a stand-in captain, India are now comparable to the 2018-19 Australian team

Varun Shetty25-Dec-202012:31

‘Australia have obvious holes that India can still exploit’

Big picture

When India last played a Test series in Australia and sealed a historic win, an inevitable caveat was attached – Australia were without their key players Steven Smith and David Warner, and a team with a new captain and a shaky batting line-up.Without Virat Kohli in the middle, an unsettled opening pair, and a stand-in captain with some existential questions of his own, India are now comparable to that Australian team on the follow-up tour.It is one thing that India knew of Kohli’s exit and had planned for it, quite another that it followed a historic low. Not much was needed for a smooth handover to Ajinkya Rahane: a closer contest in Adelaide, a game that lasted deeper than two nights and half a day, might have done it, even if India had lost. A few tweaks in the batting order, a little oiling of the machine, and there would still be enough time to force a series result.Yet here Rahane is – the last match of a year that’s been relentless in many other ways – tasked with trying to keep the series alive with the ghosts of 36 all out and, without one half of the fast-bowling duo that was going to anchor this tour, potentially having to try and plug the gaps with a couple of debutants.In the other camp, Tim Paine is a much more relaxed man, and Australia a much different team. There is still no Warner, and it’s far from a solid batting line-up. But they hung on, in a match of two Steven Smith runs, long enough for their bowling attack to work its magic. Both openers found runs by the end of the last match, the wunderkind debutant looked like he belongs, and they know a softened Indian team cannot win the series if it becomes 2-0 at Melbourne. You won’t catch them worrying about caveats.

Form guide

(Last five completed matches, most recent first)

Australia: WWWWW
India: LLLWW

In the spotlight

Steven Smith is always in the spotlight against India. Before the first Test, he had a fifty-plus score every alternate innings on average against India. After scores of 1 and 1*, he still averages 79.5 against them. Australia will be itching to have Smith in the middle with a decent score on the board, on a drop-in pitch, against a line-up with some scars. There is only one way this tour can get worse for India, and that is if Smith finds his hands again.He is perhaps the most skilled bowler in the Indian line-up, but Jasprit Bumrah has never been the singular senior fast bowler before. Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami have both been around for the entirety of Bumrah’s Test career so far, sharing responsibilities in a strong bowling attack. Umesh Yadav is experienced but not a regular, and there a debutant in Mohammed Siraj. Bumrah is regarded for having a steady head, and for becoming progressively better within matches and series. Can he continue to do that as the de facto leader of the bowling?Australia are not thinking about how to fit Warner in until they absolutely have to•Getty Images

Team news

Paine has backed both Matthew Wade and Cameron Green ahead of this match, and said Australia are not thinking about how to fit Warner in until they absolutely have to. There are no indications of any changes in the line-up.Australia (probable): 1 Joe Burns, 2 Matthew Wade, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Tim Paine (capt & wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Nathan LyonIndia have dropped Prithvi Shaw and handed debuts to Shubman Gill and Siraj, who both had decent outings in the practice games before the series. Rishabh Pant got a hundred in the second of those games, and he is in the side to replace Wriddhiman Saha as the wicketkeeper. Those are the like-for-like changes. Ravindra Jadeja who missed the first Test with concussion and hamstring issues will be the fifth bowling option.India: 1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 5 Hanuma Vihari, 6 Rishabh Pant (wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Pitch and conditions

Melbourne’s forecast suggests some major fluctuations through the Test. Pleasant weather on the first day is expected to be followed by a 33-degree-celsius high on the second, which is also the only day with a rain forecast. The last three days are expected to be drastically cooler than that.

Stats and trivia

• Australia have won all six Tests they’ve played since the end of last year’s Ashes. This is Paine’s best streak since taking over as captain.
• Since 2001, India have played two debutants overseas only on two occasions before – Virender Sehwag and Deep Dasgupta in 2001 against South Africa, and Kohli, Abhinav Mukund and Praveen Kumar in 2011 against West Indies.
• This will be the 100th Test between Australia and India – Australia have won 43 and lost 28 of those, and there has been one tie.

Quotes

“The moment we take out foot off the pedal and think we are going all right, we saw in England in that fifth Test, that we can come unstuck pretty quickly. So, a huge focus of ours since that fifth Test in the Ashes has been winning after winning and our attitude towards the next game. The last week we have been fantastic in the way we have prepared for this game. We know that some of the players they are talking about coming into their side, like a KL Rahul or a Rishabh Pant, are dangerous players who like to take the game on and will play positively. If we give guys like that an inch, they will take a mile.”

India’s batting coach says the team management wants to give as much time to the players to prove their fitness as they can

Sidharth Monga14-Jan-2021In the last three Tests of the series, India named their XI before Australia, a day before the match. Going into Brisbane, they don’t even know if they will have 11 able bodies. Addressing the pre-match press conference, India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour said, though, that the team was not going to make the selection thinking of rain or preserving someone for the England Test series at home, which starts in the first week of February.”The injuries are still being monitored,” Rathour said. “Our medical staff is looking into them, they are working with the players. I won’t be in a position to comment exactly how it stands at the moment, we would like to give them as much time as we can. It is only in the morning that you will know which XI will take field.”As it stands now, from the XI that took field in the last Test, Ravindra Jadeja is definitely ruled out. Hanuma Vihari is highly unlikely to be available. Rishabh Pant showed enough signs of recovery with his second innings in Sydney. Jasprit Bumrah and R Ashwin are doubtful with an abdominal strain and a tweaked back respectively.Related

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If any or more of these players miss out on this Test, India have in the reserves Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Wriddhiman Saha, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur and T Natarajan. They could also dip into the net bowlers if needed: Washington Sundar and Kartik Tyagi. Whatever be the composition, Rathour said he still expected the team to do well.”I don’t believe in momentum,” Rathour said when asked if his team took the momentum with the win-like draw despite all the injuries. “After 36 all out, to come back to win the Melbourne Test, that tells you all about momentum. With or without injuries, the XI that we put on the field will be the best XI. All of them deserve to be there. They all deserve to have that opportunity to play Test cricket. And if they play to their potential, I don’t see any reason why they won’t do well. Whoever plays, all of us believe we can do well.”There is a forecast of some rain on days two, four and five, but according to Rathour, that will not have any impact on the composition of the side. Nor will the imminent England tour where India will likely be starting without Jadeja.”You don’t play cricket looking at the weather,” Rathour said. “As far as we are concerned, we are looking for a complete game. And we are going to give our best playing XI this game. We are going to put up our best available team on the park. If boys play to the potential, again we are looking to win this one.”Added to injuries, India have been stretched further by increased Covid-19 restrictions in their hotel in Brisbane, but Rathour said that shouldn’t come in the way of their performance. “We are playing Australia in Australia against one of the better attacks in the world,” Rathour said. “You don’t need housekeeping or room service to motivate yourself. Of course, these were the concerns, which were passed on to the BCCI, and the BCCI is in touch with Cricket Australia and is trying to deal with all these things. As far as the team is concerned, as far as the team management is concerned, we are focused on the game. All the boys are looking forward to this game.”

Bopara’s half-century, Mahmood’s double-strike in vain for Peshawar Zalmi

Saurabh Somani21-Feb-2021Shaheen Afridi started it, Rashid Khan did his thing in the middle with the ball, and then came back with the bat as Lahore Qalandars sealed a four-wicket win against Peshawar Zalmi that was nervy in parts, but impressive nonetheless.Afridi had begun by nailing his yorkers, mixing them up with some well-directed short ones, and not giving batsmen room to work with. Some of them might have felt like space to breathe was at a premium too, with having to negotiate the left-arm quick’s accurate hostility. Khan, playing his first Pakistan Super League match, then dived into the game with the ease of the veteran that he is in T20 cricket, giving up only 14 runs in four overs before starring with the bat too. The Afridi-Khan duo had played the lead role in keeping Zalmi to 140 for 6, but Qalandars were wobbly in their chase. When Khan walked in, he was facing a hat-trick ball with his team 109 for 6, needing 32 from 26 balls. He coolly hit 27 not out off 15 balls to turn a skittish chase into a canter.Qalandars, the finalists in the last edition, began on a terrific note, with Afridi getting Imam-ul-Haq caught behind first ball. That set the tone for a rickety powerplay, which yielded 36 for 3 for Zalmi.While Afridi had only a two-over burst at the top of the innings, the Zalmi batsmen had to deal with Khan after the powerplay. Their only substantial partnership was for the fifth wicket between Ravi Bopara and Sherfane Rutherford, but the 64-run stand took 56 balls, partly due to the rush of early wickets. The stabilising did give a platform for a late launch, but against Afridi at the death, that wasn’t going to be easy. A 16-run final over meant they touched 140, but they would need exceptional bowling more or less through their defence to achieve victory.They did have their moments, Saqib Mahmood, in particular, was devastating in his second spell while Wahab Riaz reverse-swung out Ben Dunk, but in between the brilliance there were enough pressure-releasing deliveries too. Mahmood had sent back Samit Patel and David Wiese in his final over, leaving a tricky 32 to get with Mohammad Hafeez the only recognised batsman for the Qalandars. However, an over later, Riaz began with a no-ball for height that was hit to the boundary and sprayed the ball around in a 14-run over that meant Zalmi’s final comeback in the match was done.Star of the day
Khan didn’t concede more than a single in his entire quota of four overs, and though he didn’t pick up a wicket, giving up only 14 runs in four overs was as valuable as his batting cameo.Khan was into his bowling rhythm from the first ball. The Zalmi batsmen were intent on playing him with more caution due to the wickets already lost, true, but he still gave them nothing. Rutherford often had to read him off the pitch, while Bopara was also very watchful.The bowling performance was stellar, but Khan’s batting came to the fore too, and at a moment where his team particularly needed it to. There was no hint of nerves when facing Mahmood, who was reversing the ball, and clinical execution when Wahab erred in length.Miss of the day
There wasn’t too much the Zalmi batsmen could have done with two top T20 bowlers bringing their A games and conceding 28 runs off their combined eight overs, so they needed to make that up with a similar bowling show. The chase was delicately poised with Khan yet to hit a boundary and the equation reading 26 off 19, when the bowling lost its discipline. Mohammad Imran, who had an otherwise impressive debut, bowled a half-tracker off his final ball that Hafeez dispatched for four. Then came the Riaz over that swung the game decisively away from Zalmi, a full-toss above waist height first ball followed by lengths going all over the place for the rest of the over.Honourable mention
Afridi was irresistible whenever he came on to bowl. He was given only a two-over opening spell, but he took 1 for 4 in that, with half the runs coming via a couple of wides.He returned to bowl the 17th and 19th overs, and took out both men who had spent time at the crease in Rutherford and Bopara. The best ball he bowled didn’t even get a wicket, a searing toe-crusher that swung in viciously to Rutherford and had him overbalancing without connecting with the ball. The keeper couldn’t hold on either and it went for four byes. Afridi got Rutherford with the very next ball.

Several performers against Bangladesh, including Kyle Mayers, retain their place in the side

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Mar-2021West Indies have named their first Test squad since their captaincy swap, with outgoing leader Jason Holder and Darren Bravo both featuring in the Kraigg Brathwaite-led side.Though they return, the squad announced by Cricket West Indies for the first Test against Sri Lanka also retains several “second-string” players who starred in West Indies’ series win in Bangladesh, including the hero of the first Test, Kyle Mayers. Ten players had pulled out of that tour due to concerns over travelling during the pandemic.Jermaine Blackwood is the vice-captain. The first Test will be played at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium from March 21 to 25.Speaking on the squad, chief selector Roger Harper said: “It is good to be able to put together a Test squad with a number of players coming off very good performances in their last series in Bangladesh. It is a fantastic opportunity to build on the good work that was done in Bangladesh. It is very important to continue the process of working hard, playing with great passion, playing with determination and a great desire to succeed. Doing that consistently will bring us the right results.””A number of players seized the opportunity that the tour of Bangladesh presented and booked a place for themselves in the Test team for this series. This now means that there is keen competition for places which should drive better individual performances and that of the team. I also think that these players are looking forward to displaying their skills on home soil.”Sri Lanka play two Tests in Antigua, with the second Test starting from March 29.West Indies squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (captain), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Darren Bravo, John Campbell, Rahkeem Cornwall, Joshua Da Silva (wk), Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Kemar Roach, Jomel Warrican

The series isn’t without context, as there are World Cup Super League points up for grabs

Deivarayan Muthu22-Mar-20217:01

Will the toss be decisive in the ODIs? And, Rahul or Pant? Or both?

Big picture

In the year of the T20 World Cup and the inaugural World Test Championship final, most bilateral ODI series are expected to fly under the radar and this India-England series is no different. After being close to their full-strength in the T20I leg of the India tour, England will be without three of their 2019 World Cup heroes – Joe Root (rested), Jofra Archer (injured) and Chris Woakes (rested) – for the three-ODI series. It’s not an entirely context-free series, though, with World Cup Super League points up for grabs.This is a chance for England to take their first steps towards prepping for their 50-over World Cup defence in 2023 in India and test out the likes of Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Liam Livingstone and Reece Topley, who didn’t feature in the T20I series at all. In the absence of Root, their second-highest scorer behind Eoin Morgan in ODIs, England need to choose between Ali, Billings, Livingstone and Ben Stokes for the No. 3 spot.Livingstone, who is uncapped in ODI cricket, looks a decent bet, having opened for Lancashire and more recently for the Perth Scorchers in their run to the Big Bash League final. But then again, England could bump Stokes up to No. 3 and slip in Billings as a finisher, something that Dinesh Karthik suggested on during the T20I series.Related

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Matt Parkinson, Livingston’s Lancashire team-mate, has been in England’s bubble since January for the subcontinent tour of Sri Lanka and India, but hasn’t got a game yet. Sure, Parkinson is a legspinner who doesn’t have too many attacking variations like Adil Rashid, but is he good enough to be England’s second spinner?Likewise, Kuldeep Yadav has got very limited game-time since the last IPL in the UAE – eight matches to be precise, including a tour game in Sydney. Yadav hasn’t played together with fellow wristspinner Yuzvendra Chahal since Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow picked them apart when England and India last met in this format, in World Cup match at Edgbaston.Since then, MS Dhoni has retired from international cricket and Kedar Jadhav has been axed from the set-up. The absence of a Jadhav-like player – a batsman who can pitch in with the ball – proved a thorny issue for India in Australia. The selectors and the team management have addressed it by bringing Washington Sundar and Krunal Pandya into the mix. Hardik Pandya bowled short, sharp spells in the T20Is, but India may manage him more carefully as far as the longer formats are concerned in a T20 World Cup year.Suryakumar Yadav, who made stellar contributions with the bat in the T20Is and impressed Virat Kohli with his “X-factor”, could be the latest entrant in India’s middle-order roulette in ODI cricket.

Form guide

India: WLLLL
England: LWLLWAfter a quiet T20I series, Sam Curran will look to hit form in the ODIs•Surjeet Yadav/Getty

In the spotlight

T Natarajan‘s ability to nail yorkers, often on demand, makes him a compelling white-ball prospect, but this ODI series and the following IPL will be a test of his fitness more than anything else. Having emerged from a tennis-ball background, Natarajan hadn’t played as much with the cricket ball on the bounce as he did in 2020-21. R Ashwin revealed on his YouTube channel that the left-arm seamer had a tibia issue on his knee during the Australia tour and has since returned to the side after undergoing rehab at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.Sam Curran batted as low as No. 9 in the T20I series decider, with Morgan putting it down to a tactical move to perhaps break up the bevy of left-handers in the England line-up. On the whole, Sam Curran was under-utilised by Morgan – both with ball and ball. He got to bat in two other innings, scoring 3 and 6* from No. 7, and got to bowl just ten overs in five outings. In the absence of Archer and Woakes, Sam – or his elder brother Tom Curran – could potentially be given greater responsibility in the ODIs.

Team news

In the deciding T20I on Sunday, India left KL Rahul out to “bring in a good balance with bat and ball”. He could miss out again if they lean towards a sixth-bowling option for the ODI series opener. Kohli has also confirmed that Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan would start the ODI series as openers. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is set to lead the seam attack in what will be his fourth ODI since the 2019 World Cup.India (possible): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 KL Rahul/Krunal Pandya/Washington Sundar, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal/Kuldeep Yadav, 11 T NatarajanMorgan hasn’t guaranteed a return for Ali and if he doesn’t make the cut, Livingstone may make his ODI debut on Tuesday. Billings, who has excelled as a finisher since his return to the ODI team in 2020, is likely to play his first match of the tour.England (possible): 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Ben Stokes, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Sam Billings, 7 Moeen Ali/Liam Livingstone, 8 Sam Curran/Tom Curran, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Reece Topley, 11 Mark WoodT Natarajan, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav tune up for the ODI series opener•PTI

Pitch and conditions

The MCA Stadium in Pune has traditionally rolled out pitches that favour batsmen. The venue has hosted only four ODIs so far, with 300 having been breached thrice. The last time England faced India in Pune, Jadhav and Kohli cracked centuries to hunt down 351 in January 2017. The weather is expected to be fine for the duration of the match. All three ODIs will be played behind closed doors.

Stats and trivia

• Stokes is set to play his first ODI since his starring role in the 2019 World Cup final at Lord’s.
• Both India and England come into this series on the back of 2-1 ODI series defeats at the hands of Australia.
• Among teams that have played at least ten ODIs since the last World Cup, India have the poorest record in the powerplay with the ball: six wickets at an average of an average of 144.16 and economy rate of 5.76. During this period, England’s bowlers have taken 17 wickets in the powerplay at an average of just under 23 in nine games.
• Since 2010, India have lost only three bilateral ODI series at home. They had suffered defeats to Pakistan in 2012, South Africa in 2015 and more recently to Australia in 2019.

Quotes

“Even though we didn’t pick up the trophy, we learned a huge amount. It has been an extremely productive tour so far in white-ball cricket. The biggest picture always being the World Cup in both white-ball formats. You don’t always have to win every series in order to win a World Cup. You continuously need to get better, need to be tested as a side, need to fail in order to learn. That involves losing, which isn’t fun, but it is part of the journey.”
“Along the way, scheduling and workload is something everyone will have to be very aware of and keep an eye out for, especially in today’s day and age where you just don’t know where restrictions might come in.”

Sri Lanka will arrive in Dhaka on May 16, shortly after the Eid ul Fitr weekend, and complete a three-day quarantine

Mohammad Isam05-May-2021The upcoming three-match ODI series between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be held at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, the BCB has announced.The matches, part of the ICC’s ODI Super League, will be held on May 23, 25 and 28, within a bio-bubble stretching between the team hotel and the ground.Sri Lanka will arrive in Dhaka on May 16, shortly after the Eid ul Fitr weekend, and complete a three-day quarantine. Their first practice session will be on May 19 at the National Cricket Academy ground, adjacent to the stadium. The visitors will then play a practice match at the BKSP on May 21. At the conclusion of the ODI series on May 28, the Sri Lankan team will depart on the following day.This will be Bangladesh’s third ODI series within the ICC’s World Cup qualifying campaign. They are currently in sixth place, having beaten the West Indies 3-0 at home in January, but lost to New Zealand 3-0 in in March. Sri Lanka lost to West Indies 3-0 last month, are now in 12th place.The two teams only last week played out their final World Test Championship series, which Sri Lanka won 1-0 after a 209-run win over Bangladesh in Pallekele.Sri Lanka will become the second international team to arrive in Bangladesh since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The BCB successfully hosted West Indies in January-February this year, in a three-ODI and two-Test series in Dhaka and Chattogram.This will however be a different situation, since Bangladesh are in the middle of a strong second wave of Covid-19 cases. The country has been under a lockdown since April 5. The international flight suspension ended on May 1, but the country’s lockdown has been extended till May 16.Bangladesh will be without their fast-bowling coach Ottis Gibson, with the team opting to use a local coach instead.

Fast bowler also “mindful” of not wanting “to go searching too much” with the Dukes ball

ESPNcricinfo staff26-May-2021New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson will have “conversations” with his fellow quicks about the Duke ball and be “mindful” of how it behaves during the upcoming tour of England.One big reason for New Zealand’s consistency in Test cricket over the last few years has been the battery of pacers they have built, including their latest recruit Jamieson. On his first England tour, Jamieson has for company the experience of Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Doug Bracewell and Matt Henry, who have combined to play 14 Tests in the country.”Their experience [will be really helpful] – from the guys like Tim, Wags, Doug and even Henry as well, who’s played a lot over here,” Jamieson said. “There’s so much experience around English conditions and what the Dukes ball can do. So I’ll try and look [and] lean on for the next few weeks.”Related

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Like most sides that tour England, the talk among the visiting bowlers is expected to be around the Dukes ball, which tends to aid a lot more swing than both the Kookaburra – used in New Zealand – as well as the SG ball. But Jamieson first wants to get used to the Dukes ball and its challenges, already wary of expecting it to do a lot.”It’s is certainly a bit different – it’s a bit darker and harder as well, [and] the seam is a little bit more narrow. So it’s just [about] trying to get used to that and the hands,” he said. “There have been conversations around what the Dukes ball can do, but whilst being mindful of the fact that you don’t want to go searching too much and try to move the ball too much, and then getting caught on the bounce a little bit. So I’m sure over the next few days we’ll have a few more conversations on what it looks like and then go from there.”New Zealand’s scheduled warm-up fixture was replaced with a two-day intra-squad practice game instead to begin on Thursday. This will now facilitate an extra day of training outdoors, with the first Test against England set to start next Wednesday at Lord’s before the second Test at Edgbaston from June 10. The World Test Championship final against India will be starting on June 18 in Southampton.

Middlesex batter to move on season loan ahead of permanent deal

Matt Roller02-Jul-2021Nick Gubbins, the Middlesex top-order batter, is close to completing a move to Hampshire which will see him join the club on loan for the rest of the season as a precursor to a permanent deal.Gubbins, 27, was Middlesex’s leading scorer in their County Championship-winning season in 2016 with 1,409 first-division runs at 61.26 including four hundreds. He has been part of several England Lions squads across formats in the years since, but struggled to score consistently in red-ball cricket, averaging 24.15, 34.41 and 22.08 in the three Championship seasons between 2017 and 2019.His form has improved in the last two years, with a first-class average of 37.56 since the start of last summer’s Bob Willis Trophy, and he made a brilliant fourth-innings 124 against Surrey at The Oval in May from No. 3. But with his contract up at the end of the season, he has decided to turn down an extension at Middlesex and join Hampshire instead.Gubbins has made three appearances in the T20 Blast this season but dropped out of the squad for Friday night’s game against Somerset, and it is anticipated that his move will be confirmed in the coming days, with a loan for the rest of the season preceding a multi-year contract. Middlesex are also expected to confirm extensions for a handful of out-of-contract players in the next few weeks.Gubbins will be Hampshire’s replacement for Sam Northeast, who, as revealed by the on Friday, is set to leave the club despite signing a contract at the start of this season that was due to run until the end of 2022. Northeast will initially move to Yorkshire, who are missing several senior batters on England duty or to injury, on a short-term loan deal.Northeast, considered by some to be the best uncapped batter in the country, joined Hampshire from Kent ahead of the 2018 season and has performed solidly, averaging 36.92 in first-class cricket and 51.62 in List A cricket. But his T20 returns have tailed off significantly, and he was dropped after the first game of this season’s Blast. He has been left out of their matchday squads for the past two weeks while weighing up his options, and his departure is expected to be confirmed by the club shortly.