The first match of the India vs Bangladesh Test series is being played at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Bangladeshi captain Najmul Hossain Shanto won the toss and decided to bowl first and he got the benefit of it. Visiting Bangladesh has taken the wickets of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli till lunch.
24-year-old pacer Hasan Mahmud gave Bangladesh all three wickets, dismissing skipper Rohit Sharma at slip for 6, then Shubman Gill for a duck and then Virat Kohli caught by wicketkeeper Litton Das on an outside delivery.
Yashasvi Jaiswal is playing on 37 runs with the help of six fours in 62 balls whereas Rishabh Pant is playing on 33 runs in 44 balls. Till lunch break, the score of the Indian team is 88 runs in 23 overs.
Cricket’s governing-body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) recently updated the men’s T20 International Player Rankings on Tuesday.
Some major changes have taken place in the rankings post the conclusion of the England vs Australia T20 International series and the most notable change is that of Liam Livingstone, who has become the new number one ranked T20i All-Rounder.
His recent heroics in the Australia Twenty-Twenty series have not only propelled him to the top of the rankings but have also made him earn the praise and administrations of Cricket fans.
The series versus Australia was a demonstration of Liam’s abilities as an All-Rounder. His contributions with both ball and bat played a crucial role in England’s success.
In the second T20 International of the series, a must-win encounter for the Three Lions, the 31 year old spin-bowling All-Rounder stepped up when his side needed his contributions.
He helped England get two important breakthroughs by getting two wickets and restricted the scoring rate of the Aussies. But, it was his contributions with the bat which caught the eye.
Liam Livingstone, the new number 1 ranked T20I All Rounder | Image: Threads (Cricketgyan)
With England chasing down a difficult target of 194 runs, Livingstone played a phenomenal knock of 87 runs in just 47 balls. His aggressive intent, along with his ability to clear the rope without any difficulties, turned the match in the favour of the Phil Salt-led team.
His knock was a complete T20 inning, show-casing his perfect timing, power & composure under challenging circumstances.
The 31-year-old overtook the likes of Sikandar Raza, Marcus Stoinis and Shakib Al Hasan to make the number one ranked position his own. This accomplishment is a demonstration of his ability to perform well consistently and execute match-winning displays.
Talking about the batting rankings, Australia’s hard-hitting opener Travis Head continues to reign supreme at the top. His teammate Josh Inglis, who performed really well with the bat versus England has made a jump of 13 spots and has entered the top 10 ranks.
Coming to the T20 International bowling player rankings, England leg-spinner Adil Rashid is sitting comfortably at the top of the rankings. His ability to get the better of opposition batters with his unexpected tricks and variations has helped him find success in the shortest format of the game.
Aussie leggie Adam Zampa has also benefited in the recently updated T20 rankings, surpassing South Africa’s Anrich Nortje to occupy the sixth position.
The Afghanistan Cricket Team, under the captaincy of Hashmatullah Shahidi, scripted history as they defeated the Aiden Markram-led South Africa by six wickets in the first One Day International of the three-match ODI series.
The duo of Fazalhaq Farooqi (4-35) and 18-year-old wonderkid Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar (3-20) were the heroes as the Afghans secured their first ever victory over the Proteas in any format of International Cricket.
The Aiden Markram-led team had a horrific day with the bat as the Afghan bowlers kept picking up wickets at regular intervals and eventually, the South Africans got all-out for a really shambolic score of 106 runs.
The Proteas managed to avoid their lowest-score in a One Day International game as their team’s batters were not able to find any answers to the bowling brilliance of the home side.
Markram had opted to bat first after winning the toss. The opening duo of Tony de Zorzi and Reeza Hendricks added 17 runs for the opening wicket before left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi clean bowled Hendricks for nine runs which started a really embarrassing and shocking batting collapse of the Proteas as they slumped to 36-7.
History in Sharjah! 🚩#AfghanAtalan have delivered a stellar performance to defeat South Africa for the first time in international cricket and take the 1st match of the ongoing ODI series.
Farooqi took the scalps of De Zorzi (11 runs in 18 balls) and skipper Aiden Markram (2 runs in 5 balls) while Ghazanfar added the wickets of Jason Smith (0 runs in 5 balls) and Tristan Stubbs (0 runs in 5 balls) to his tally before dismissing Kyle Verreynne for 10 runs.
The problems for the visitors increased even more when Andile Phehlukwayo got run out off the bowling of Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar as Nabi’s quick reaction time was enough to send him back to the pavilion.
With just 10 overs bowled out of 50, it looked like the South Africans lowest-score record in One Day Internationals of 69 runs, scored versus Australia in 1993, would be in danger of getting broken.
However, much to the dismay of Afghanistan fans, the sinking ship of the Proteas was steadied by the duo of Bjorn Fortuin and Wiaan Mulder, as they stitched a partnership of 39 runs for the eighth wicket.
The partnership between the two was broken by Rashid Khan, who was playing his first One Day International match since the 2023 ODI World Cup, as he cleaned bowled Fortuin, but Wiaan helped his team go past the 100 runs mark and in the process, brought up his maiden half-century as well.
However, after bringing up his fifty, Mulder didn’t stay at the crease for a long time and he was sent packing by Farooqi. Wiann scored 52 runs in 84 deliveries which consisted of a maximum and five fours.
Rashid Khan took the final South African wicket as caught Lungi Ngidi plumb in front of the stumps in the 34th over and ended the game with figures of 2-30 next to his name.
The hosts were expected to cruise to an easy victory without facing any difficulties but that was not the case as both the openers fell early.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz got dismissed for a three ball duck off the bowling of Lungi Ngidi and Rahmat Shah followed suit as he was caught in front of the stumps by Bjorn Fortuin as the Hashmatullah Shahidi-led team were struggling at 15-2 after the end of eight overs.
Aiden Markram and his men tried their best to inflict a comeback as Fortuin registered his second wicket by getting rid of Riaz Hassan (16 runs in 35 balls) while stand in skipper Aiden Markram accounted for the wicket of Afghanistan captain Hasmatullah Shahidi (16 runs in 29 balls).
However, the duo of Gulbadin Naib (34* runs in 27 balls) and Azmatullah Omarzai (25* runs in 36 balls) helped their get over the line by six wickets.
Indian Cricket Team’s head-coach Gautam Gambhir has dropped a huge hint regarding the team’s starting 11 for the first test match versus Bangladesh at Chennai’s Chepauk Stadium on Thursday.
Interacting with the media at the M.A Chidambaram Stadium on the eve of the first-test, Gautam made the selection debate between Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel, and Sarfaraz Khan and Lokesh Rahul come to an end.
After performing consistently in First-class-Cricket over the years and constantly knocking on the doors of the selectors for a really long time with his impressive Ranji Trophy performances, Sarfaraz Khan finally got the opportunity to make his maiden test appearance for the Men in Blue in the home test series versus England earlier in the year.
The 26-year-old scored fifties continuously in his debut test in the city of Ranchi, and he scored yet another half-century in the city of Dharamsala as well, showcasing his batting-prowess against both the pacers and the spinners.
However, he got the opportunity to make his test-debut after KL Rahul was ruled out of the England series due to an injury he suffered in the Rajkot test match.
With KL Rahul returning to Team India’s Test set-up after his long injury layoff, Gambhir insisted that Khan will have to play the waiting game and wait for his chances, given the fact that the experience of Lokesh Rahul will play an important role in the Men in Blue’s build up towards the upcoming Border Gavaskar test-series versus Australia in December of this year.
Sarfaraz Khan leaves the field after being runout by Mark Wood of England during day one of the 3rd Test Match between India and England at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium on February 15, 2024 in Rajkot, India. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
The world Cup winning head coach said the same thing about Dhruv Jurel as well, who made an excellent start to his test-career versus England earlier in the year, executing a man-of-the-match display in the Ranchi test-match.
Dhruv Jurel during day four of the 4th Test Match between India and England at JSCA International Stadium Complex on February 26, 2024 in Ranchi, India. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
GG backed Rishabh Pant to make his long awaited test comeback after getting side lined due to a horrific car-accident. The wicketkeeper batsman’s last match in the longest format of the game was way back in 2022 versus Bangladesh in Mirpur.
“We are not going to drop any player from the starting 11. We are just going to select the players who are best suited to fit in the playing XI. He (Dhruv Jurel) is a fantastic player and had a good test debut versus England but when Pant is available for selection, then you have to play the waiting game. Same goes with Sarfaraz (Khan) as well. Opportunities will arrive at the right time and you just have to wait patiently,” Gambhir said.
With the Rohit Sharma-led team participating in a really long Test-season, the young players will definitely get chances to impress with the team-management expected to rotate all the players and manage their workload accordingly.
Australian legend and two-times World Cup as well as Champions Trophy-winning skipper Ricky Ponting has been appointed in the role of PBKS head coach.
Ricky Ponting has had an exemplary record in the Indian Premier League, as he was first seen starring for the Kolkata Knight Riders as a player back in the inaugural season of 2008, then he returned to the Mumbai Indians in 2013. Ponting started his days as a coach in the IPL when he turned Mumbai Indians batting consultant before parting ways with the team in order to turn head coach and mentor for the Delhi Capitals.
Ricky Ponting coached the Delhi Capitals for 7 editions (Image credit: The Hindu)
Ponting has had quite a large success with the Capitals, as he took them to multiple playoffs and, on one of those occasions, to a final. It would not be more than 2 months since the legend parted ways with his former franchise, the Delhi Capitals; he is back in the IPL with a new role for a new franchise.
After ending his stint with the Capitals, Ponting was seen in the role of Washington Freedom’s head coach in the MLC 2024. Under Australian head coach and Aussie skipper Steven Smith, Freedom went on to claim the MLC 2024 title.
Ricky Ponting went on to coach Washington Freedom in their title triumph in MLC 2024 (Image: Cricbuzz.com)
Ricky Ponting, as reported by ESPNcricinfo, has entered a multi-year contract with the Punjab Kings and has also received the liberty to decide on the remaining of the coaching staff. The roles of previous coaches, Trevor Bayliss, Sanjay Bangar, Charl Langeveldt, and Sunil Joshi, remain unclear as to who would reprise their roles under the new mentor.
The Punjab Kings have been the most disappointing among IPL franchises since they could not make it to the playoffs for 10 seasons since 2014. Ponting is their third man in the role of head coach over the last 4 editions of the IPL.
🚨 NEW HEAD COACH OF PBKS…!!! 🚨
– Ricky Ponting has been appointed as PBKS' Head Coach for IPL 2025. (Espncricinfo). pic.twitter.com/tKhDEVDlbX
Appointed just before the retention season, Ponting would have a key role to play as only the likes of players like Kagiso Rabada, Harshal Patel, the purple cap winner, Shashank Singh, Ashutosh Singh, and Arshdeep Singh seem to be the handy players in the lineup.
Also, Ponting would decide the future of overhyped all-rounder Sam Curran and currently placed England’s No. 1 ICC T20I all-rounder, Liam Livingstone. After Shikhar Dhawan’s retirement, they are also in the quest for a new skipper in the upcoming season.
AUS vs ENG: The Aussies are on their European tour, as after the initial series with Scotland, they moved to the Isles to play a three-match T20I series against the English. The T20 I series played at Southampton, Cardiff, and Manchester has been tied under rain, affecting the course of play for the final game at Manchester.
This is one of Australia’s major outings with a 5-match ODI series against a major team like England, as they would be in the quest to affix a team for the upcoming Champions Trophy as they remain favorites being the World Champions with the CWC title from 2023.
England faced many major blows, the biggest of them being Jos Buttler’s unavailability for the ODIs as well, since he is struggling with a calf injury. They have, however, picked 5 uncapped debutants for the Aussie series and have called back the likes of Jofra Archer and Liam Livingstone into the side.
Australian greats like Steven Smith and Glenn Maxwell also make a comeback to the ODI team, as Mitchell Starc will also be seen in action though their skipper Pat Cummins has been left out, which in turn would see Mitchell Marsh in the role of Australia’s ODI skipper.
Squads of England vs Australia ODIs
Big 3 return for Aussies in ODIs (Image Credit: Crictoday)
England Squad: Harry Brook [C], Liam Livingstone, Jordan Cox, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jamie Smith, Olly Stone, Reece Topley, and John Turner.
Australia Squad: Mitchell Marsh [C], Alex Carey, Sean Abbott, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Short, Steven Smith, Josh Hazelwood, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc, and Mahli Beardman.
Predicted Best Playing 11:
England Probable Playing 11: Phil Salt, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Liam Livingstone, Jamie Smith, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Brydon Carse, and Olly Stone.
Australia Playing 11: Mitchell Marsh, Travis Head, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood, and Adam Zampa.
Winner Prediction
Australia, though the visitors remain to be the favourites considering the depth of their side. England is much loaded with youngsters, with most of their senior campaigners either retired or dropped from the side.
The most experienced in the English den, Adil Rashid would have a titular role to play for his side. However, if Smith, Labuschagne, and Maxwell can add to their form and score alongside the in-form Head, Australia would seem invincible with their brilliant bowling deck. With the fast and swinging English tracks, Archer and Starc would be loved by the audience, as Australia still remain favourites as winners for the opening ODI game.
IND vs BAN: India is now on the verge of entering their hectic red-ball schedule, with the first test against Bangladesh about to begin in less than 24 hours at the iconic venue of the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Indian greats Rohit Sharma and veteran Virat Kohli will be back on the cricket field with their experience and all their brilliance with the red ball. India is toiling themselves with intense practice sessions ahead of the 1st Test at Chepauk.
The test schedule will also await witnessing several records being made as well as broken, as India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ravi Ashwin will be seen in action. The young opener is just 132 runs behind, breaking an all-time record for India, while also only 9 sixes away from setting a world record, which he might achieve in the very first test only if Jaiswal continues his touch.
Ravi Ashwin also has the chance to inch closer to Lyon as the highest wicket-taker in WTC history. Amid all these records seemed to be threatened, the Bangladesh coach, as well as the skipper, showed intent as well as belief to be a firm opposition after their recent domination over arch-rivals Pakistan in the longer format.
Let’s take a look at the best possible playing 11:
India playing 11: Rohit Sharma [C], Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, and Yash Dayal.
Bangladesh Playing 11: Shadman Islam, Zakir Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto [C], Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton Das, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Nahid Rana, and Hasan Mahmud.
Both the teams will largely look to dominate with ace spinners they have like Mehidy Hasan Miraz and the Indian spin wizard Ashwin.
Ravi Ashwin and Mehidy Miraz will be looked at in the red ball tour (Image Credit: X.com)
Who can win the 1st Test at Chennai?
Team India will be the favourites to win the First Test (Image Credit: The Economic Times)
The Chennai test is to be played on a unique red soil track, which is very different from the usual black soil track Bangladesh is adapted to play on when at home. Also, the Indian team has remained invincible when playing on home soil, as they have been unbeaten since 2013 against any side in India.
With Rohit and Jaiswal at the top being a vital asset for the Indian team, and their ace spinners alongside the new pace attack led by Jasprit Bumrah, India stand as the favorites to win the opening test.
However, with the Bangladeshi middle order comprising of veterans Mushfiqur and Shakib and their youngsters Litton and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, with both bat and ball, they too would stand as a firm opposition to the hosts, yet India remains to be the favorites to win the match.
The Indian Cricket Team are set to begin their long Test Cricket season and they will kick things off with a two-match Test Series versus Bangladesh. The first match will be played at the M.A Chidambaram Stadium of Chennai on 19th September and the game will commence at 9:30 AM IST.
Ahead of the Bangladesh test series, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has given a confirmation that they will be rotating their seamers in the really long Test-Season.
Rohit stated that the Men in Blue will follow a similar strategy to the test series versus England, where the duo of Mohammad Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah got rested for a test match each.
The Men in Blue have announced their squad for just the first test versus Bangladesh. It’s anticipated that one of Siraj or Bumrah will be given a break ahead of the three-match Test-Series versus New Zealand.
Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj leave the field for rain during the second day of the fifth Test between England and India at Edgbaston on July 02, 2022 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Philip Brown/Popperfoto/Popperfoto via Getty Images)
The Rohit Sharma-led team are going to participate in 10 Test matches ahead of the WTC Final next year. They will be locking horns against Australia in December of this year. This year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy series will consist of five Test-Matches.
“I really want our team’s best-players to take part in all of the games our team plays in but unfortunately for us, it’s not going to happen. You have to take a look at what’s best for the side and manage the workload of the best bowlers accordingly. It all depends on the workload-management of the players,” Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said ahead of the first test versus Bangladesh.
“We will be evaluating the workload of the guys in a proper-manner and we have found success in implementing it in the past as well. In the England test-series, we gave much needed breaks to (Mohammad) Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah. So we will keep monitoring their workload. You want each and every player to take part in all of the matches, we are blessed to have some of the best fast bowlers in our squad. We witnessed many youngsters shine in this year’s Duleep Trophy. I am not at all concerned about the type of bowlers waiting in the dugout,” Rohit added.
The Men in Blue are blessed to have a lot of talented pacers in their squad. The likes of Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh and Yash Dayal have performed exceptionally well in first-class Cricket and are expected to do the same for the National team as well.
The quality of the Indian Cricket Team’s backup seam bowlers was visible during the 2020-2021 tour of Australia, where the Ajinkya Rahane-led team secured a historic test-series win despite fielding a really inexperienced fast-bowling unit. The trio of Navdeep Saini, Mohammad Siraj and T Natarajan emerged as the stars in that series.
Three years ago in 2021, Shreyas Iyer got his Test career off to a promising start as he scored a century in his very first game versus New Zealand in the city of Kanpur.
Many Cricketing experts destined the Mumbai batter for greatness but the longest format of the game has not been kind to him ever since his debut in 2021.
With his weakness against short-pitched balls getting exposed to all the Cricket Playing Nations early on in his career, bowlers took full advantage of this and as a result, the right handed batter struggled to perform well in overseas conditions.
What proved to be even more worrying is that Iyer’s Test Cricket numbers as a batter started to decline even in India.
Shreyas managed to score just 146 runs with his bat in eight innings in the last two years in home conditions, which is not a good performance at all when you consider how well he has performed in other formats.
After a string of poor performances, the Indian Cricket Team’s selectors eventually ran out of patience with Shreyas Iyer and he got dropped from the team after the end of the second test match versus England earlier this year.
Shreyas Iyer leaves the field after being dismissed during day one of the 2nd Test Match between India and England at ACA-VDCA Stadium on February 02, 2024 in Visakhapatnam, India. (Photo by Philip Brown/Popperfoto/Popperfoto via Getty Images)
Iyer’s negligence of not playing Domestic Cricket made matters even more worse for him as the BCCI stripped him off of his central contract.
Things were not looking good and the Mumbai born batter desperately wanted to make things right and make a strong comeback to the Indian Cricket Team.
This year’s Duleep Trophy offered the 29-year-old a chance to make a strong statement and get picked in India’s squad for the Bangladesh series. However, the right handed batter failed to make use of his opportunities, scoring just 104 runs in four innings for India D, which consisted of a four ball duck and one fifty.
Following Shreyas Iyer’s Duleep Trophy fiasco, a BCCI official gave a tough and scathing statement in an interview with the Telegraph, crushing all of Iyer’s aspirations of returning to the test-team of Indian Cricket.
“Currently, our batting unit is currently highly stable, and there are no open spaces for him to join the test squad. Whose place will he take in the team? His shot-selection has been a concerning point in this year’s Duleep Trophy, especially on Sunday. He (Iyer) was settled at the crease and then all of a sudden he played a really poor shot off the bowling of slow left-arm orthodox bowler Shams Mulani. When you are set at the crease and you’re batting on a flat surface as well, you have to utilise such chances,” the official said.
Shreyas still has a chance to get some runs under his belt in the upcoming third and final phase of the 2024 Duleep Trophy later in the current week and then he will also get an opportunity to play in the Irani Cup, where he is guaranteed to be a part of the Mumbai squad.
He is also very likely to get picked in India’s Twenty-Twenty squad for the T20 International series versus Bangladesh, followed by the next season of Ranji Trophy.
However, another official of the BCCI told National-Daily that even if Iyer manages to find his lost form, he still won’t be considered for the tour of Australia.
“He (Shreyas Iyer) could play for Mumbai in the upcoming Irani Cup which commences from the first of October in the city of Lucknow. Even if he’s picked for the Bangladesh Twenty-Twenty International series, which begins from the 6th of October, he can still play in the Irani Cup and then make himself available for selection from the second T20 International onwards.
“With one round of Duleep Trophy still left to be played, he might end up scoring a century there. He mainly needs to get some runs under his belt. He will surely not play in this year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to his weakness against the short-pitched balls, but you still can’t ignore his runs in home conditions.” the other BCCI-Official added.
The Sri Lankan Cricket Team have announced their official starting 11 for the first test of the two-match test series versus New Zealand. The first game will be played on September 18th at Galle’s Galle International Cricket Stadium.
After performing exceptionally well with the bat in the England series, Kamindu Mendis has been given a promotion in the batting-order and the 25 year old will now be seen batting at number five.
The Southpaw has featured in six Test-encounters for Sri Lanka and he has scored 695 runs at a mind-blowing average of 77.22. In the England series, Kamindu scored 267 runs in five innings, which includes a hundred in the Manchester test match.
Following the fifty he scored in the third and final test match against England, Sanath Jayasuriya, the interim-head-coach of the Island Nation, confirmed that the Sri Lankan management is thinking of sending Kamindu to bat higher up in the batting-order and the test series versus New Zealand rectifies that statement.
Mendis has never come out to bat above the number six position in the longest format of the game. Batting at the fifth position will be an advantage for the 25-year-old and playing in favourable conditions will be an icing on the cake for him but it’s surely going to be a difficult task.
In terms of other batting order changes, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Chandimal has been given a promotion as a reward for his impressive performances with the bat.
He hit two fifties in the recently conducted test-series versus England and he will now be seen batting at number three against New Zealand.
All-Rounder Angelo Mathews has also been promoted to number four, followed by Kamindu Mendis at number five. Skipper Dhananjaya De Silva will be see batting at the sixth position.
Prabath Jayasuriya, Ramesh Mendis, Asitha Fernando and Lahiru Kumara form the bowling unit of the Dhananjaya De Silva-led team for the first test match.
Prabath, who was dropped from the starting 11 in the Oval test match versus England, makes his return to the side and he will be getting assistance from off-spinner Ramesh Mendis, who last played a test match in 2023 versus Pakistan.
Sri Lanka’s playing XI for the first-test versus New Zealand
