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Veteran seamer to be assessed ahead of Ireland Test after limping out of Lancashire fixture

ESPNcricinfo staff14-May-2023James Anderson is a doubt for England’s first Test of the summer, starting against Ireland on June 1, after confirmation that he had suffered a “minor strain to his right groin” while playing for Lancashire.Anderson did not participate any further in the County Championship game against Somerset at Old Trafford after returning figures of 14-7-16-2 on day one. His absence was met with no official update of an injury until the ECB belatedly released the news on Sunday evening, less than three weeks before the game at Lord’s.England are expected to announce their squad to face Ireland next week, with Anderson, who went for a scan on Saturday, set to be “assessed nearer the time”, according to an ECB statement.With the Ashes beginning in little over a month, and Lancashire playing no first-class cricket between now and June 11, Anderson could struggle to prove his fitness ahead of the first Test of the series at Edgbaston.The injury will spark memories of Australia’s visit in 2019, when Anderson played the opener but bowled just four overs before suffering a series-ending calf strain. The 40-year-old, who is the third-highest wicket-taker in Test history, has played four out of five matches for Lancashire so far this season, claiming 16 wickets at 20.30.England are already likely to be without Jofra Archer for the start of the Ashes, after the fast bowler returned early from the IPL to continue rehabilitation on a longstanding elbow problem, while Olly Stone is expected to be out for a number of weeks due to a hamstring strain sustained while playing for Nottinghamshire.

Retiring Jharkhand stalwart hopes to realise his dream of winning the Ranji Trophy by “helping the team from the outside”

Rajan Raj20-Feb-2024A day before the start of the Jharkhand vs Haryana Ranji Trophy fixture at Jamshedpur’s Keenan Stadium, while the local Jharkhand boys were training, a young boy strolled out to the turf. When a securityman stopped him, he teared up and said he only wanted a selfie with Saurabh . Saurabh Tiwary wasn’t around at the time, but the fans didn’t know that. After the boy, a few others attempted to get into the ground to try and meet him.Tiwary’s popularity in the Jharkhand cricket circles has to be seen to be believed. Plus, of course, a few days earlier, it had become known that Tiwary would retire at the end of Jharkhand’s run in the ongoing season, which came on February 19, also at the Keenan, as Jharkhand beat Rajasthan to finish their Ranji Trophy campaign. When Tiwary went out to bat a second time in that game, the opposition players lined up to give him a guard of honour.”Saying farewell to your favourite thing isn’t easy, my friend,” Tiwary, now 34, said afterwards. “When I left the dressing room and was entering the ground, it was very emotional. My whole journey, from the time I was a kid to now, flashed before my eyes. I started my career here [at Keenan Stadium] and am finishing here too. My favourite people, including my coach [Kajal Das] had come to be part of the occasion. Sometimes, it’s difficult to express the feeling.”Related

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Once the farewell match got over, Tiwary walked over the pitch, tears in his eyes, bent down and kissed the turf. Das, who has also coached the Jharkhand team in the past, was in attendance, and recalled an old story that gives you a glimpse into Tiwary the person.”He must have been 15 or 16, and a ball hit his head during training. He needed some stitches. He went to the hospital and came right back to me. I told him to pad up and go bat in the nets [and he did so] – I wanted to see if he was scared and wanted to test him,” Das said. “I have never had a student as dedicated as Saurabh. His keenness to be at the ground and his hunger for runs is unmatched.”Tiwary wore the India cap – in three ODIs, in late 2010 – and had a lengthy run in the IPL, playing 93 matches across 11 seasons between 2008 and 2021, missing out only in 2014, 2018 and 2019. The only time Jharkhand won a domestic tournament, the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2010-11, Tiwary was the captain. Add to that 8076 first-class runs, 4050 in List A cricket, 3454 in T20s… one dream, however, remained unfulfilled.”Cricket has taught me two things. One is that you have to fight for everything, and the second is that you need to understand you won’t get everything in life. Some things will remain out of reach,” Tiwary said. “I had a dream that we will win the Ranji Trophy but I couldn’t achieve it. That takes us back to the thing about fighting for everything. I will now try to play my part in helping the team win the Ranji Trophy, but from the outside. And I will do whatever I can to make it happen.”

Madande and Myers script a fightback for Zimbabwe, but a top-order collapse had left them with too much to do

S Sudarshanan10-Jul-20243:44

India’s confusing selection: Gaikwad at No. 4?

Shubman Gill played the classic anchor. Ruturaj Gaikwad the disruptor at No. 4. And Washington Sundar proved simple offspin can be sexy.At the end of it all, India took a big step towards winning the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe with a 23-run win in the third match to take a 2-1 lead.Gill scored a 49-ball 66 opening the batting and Yashasvi Jaiswal, his partner, slammed 36 from 27, setting the platform for a 28-ball 49 from Gaikwad that helped India to 182 for 4. Washington then picked up three wickets, including two in his first over, for 15 runs to quell chances of a Zimbabwe fightback.Zimbabwe managed to delay the inevitable thanks to a fantastic half-century from Dion Myers, his first in T20Is, and his 77-run partnership with Clive Madande.Yashasvi Jaiswal got India off to a flying start•Associated Press

Gill and Jaiswal reunite at the top

The return of three players from the T20 World Cup-winning squad forced a change in India’s tactics. Jaiswal has been the incumbent opener – whenever India have played without Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli – and he slotted back at the top with Gill. As a result, Abhishek Sharma, fresh from his maiden international century in the second T20I, and Gaikwad had to play out of positions at Nos. 3 and 4.Jaiswal started with two fours and a six in the opening over. Gill did the same in the second over. India were 29 in two overs, and then 49 in four. Then Blessing Muzarabani found his length and the pace to bowl on a two-paced surface. Sikandar Raza’s spin was tough to put away. And from 54 for 0 in five overs, India crawled to 67 for 0 at the end of eight. Which brought about Jaiswal’s dismissal – miscuing the switch hit to backward point.

Gill anchors, Gaikwad bludgeons

Abhishek had a brief stay in the middle, which brought together Gill and Gaikwad in the 11th over. Wessly Madhevere’s only over – the 13th of the innings – allowed India to change gears. Gill first hit the legspinner for a six before Gaikwad hit him for a six and a four. Gaikwad regularly used his feet even against pace to put Tendai Chatara and later Richard Ngarava, who replaced Luke Jongwe in the Zimbabwe XI, off their lengths.Gill sped up to bring up a 36-ball fifty, his first as India’s T20I captain. However, despite a long batting order – Washington was carded in at No. 8 – India were in danger of finishing with a below-par score when they were 130 for 2 after 16. Which is when an 18-run over from Raza – featuring four byes and a six each from Gill and Gaikwad – lifted them. But the extra bounce on the surface consumed Gill in the 18th, when he looked to loft Muzarabani over the covers but miscued it to Raza tracking back. Gaikwad hit a few lusty blows but fell one short of fifty.Dion Myers hit an unbeaten 65 to lead Zimbabwe’s fight•AFP/Getty Images

India ended on 182, not below par at all. Two half-century partnerships – 67 off 50 between Gill and Jaiswal and 72 off 44 between Gill and Gaikwad – had taken India there, and Jaiswal, at the innings break, felt it was enough.What aided them were a few missed half-chances, two dropped catches – one each of Jaiswal and Gaikwad – and a plethora of misfields.

Fielding lets Zimbabwe down again

When Chatara failed to get a hand to Jaiswal’s pull in the opening over, little did Zimbabwe know it was a sign of things to come. In the next over, Myers was a bit late in reacting to a top edge from Gill and the ball landed short of him running in from midwicket. Jaiswal and Gaikwad received reprieves. A few half-chances were missed. The mishaps on the field were mostly regulation efforts, which meant India raced away to a fast start despite facing 22 dots in the powerplay. Overall, India were beneficiaries of 31 runs according to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data. The eventual win margin was just 23.Ravi Bishnoi is mobbed after pulling off a stunning catch at point•AFP/Getty Images

Zimbabwe lose their way, and find it again too late

Tadiwanashe Marumani replaced Innocent Kaia, who had a split webbing, at the top of the order and started enterprisingly. He belted a couple of fours in the opening over bowled by Khaleel Ahmed – in for Mukesh Kumar – but fell trying to repeat the dose in his next over. From the other end, Avesh Khan first dismissed Madhevere, who patted one to short cover, and then Brian Bennett, thanks to a spectacular flying catch from Ravi Bishnoi at backward point.When Raza swung across the line to hole out to deep square-leg off Washington’s second ball, the writing seemed to be on the wall. It got better for India – and worse for Zimbabwe – when substitute fielder Riyan Parag took a sharp catch at slip to dismiss Johnathan Campbell four balls later off Washington.But Myers and Madande had other plans. India’s decision to accommodate all of their T20 World Cup returnees left them thin on bowling resources. As a result, Abhishek and Shivam Dube had to combine to bowl four overs. Myers and Madande didn’t let them settle and hit a combined six fours and two sixes off them. Those four overs cost India 50. Thanks to the early inroads, it did not cost them on the day.

Compared to last summer, the left-armer is in a far better place physically and he was impressive against Pakistan

Alex Malcolm04-Nov-2024There’s always whispers about Mitchell Starc. He is a lightning rod for opinion in Australian cricket. But the whispers going around at the start of this summer are generating some serious excitement.His off-Broadway seven-wicket Sheffield Shield haul at the MCG two weeks ago had set tongues wagging in both the New South Wales and Victoria dressing rooms.Sean Abbott said he was trying to avoid being stationed in the slips because of how quick Starc was bowling. Victoria coach Chris Rogers, with five Test hundreds to his name, briefly joked about joining David Warner in offering a Test comeback before noting that watching Starc bowl made him rethink even joking about it.Related

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Those whispers became roars on the first day of the home summer for Australia’s men. On another fast and bouncy MCG pitch, Starc had a field day. He took 3 for 33 from 10 against Pakistan, including three maidens. The last time he delivered three maidens in an ODI was on the same ground in 2016.He beat both openers for pace. He lit up the stumps of a tailender. It was Starc at his quintessential best.”It’s always nice to find that rhythm I guess at the front end of the summer,” Starc said after collecting player-of-the-match on Monday. “Probably didn’t have that rhythm in the UK tour, with a few moving parts and a bit of sickness getting around the group.”Twelve months ago, Starc was just limping to the start line of the home summer, having somehow played 10 of 11 games in the ODI World Cup and contributed in the semi-final and final, despite carrying a significant physical issue that he has never wanted to disclose.Saturday’s main training session at the MCG was instructive as to how much better he is feeling compared to this time last year where his preparation was severely limited due to the physical issue he was battling.On Saturday he was in full flow in the nets. There was no inhibition. His only pause was to have a lengthy conversation about his load up with head coach Andrew McDonald and bowling coach Daniel Vettori. There was no angst or concern. He was merely describing a feeling and an internal cue that he wanted.It is a sweet spot for a fast bowler to be. Fit, firing and pain free, with only a simple thought to worry about before letting another rocket fly.”I think more physically, coming off a few issues through the World Cup into last summer in comparison to this summer, I sort of feel like the body is in a good space, and felt like I had really good rhythm, and felt really good last week in the Shield game,” Starc said.”I’m not really tweaking anything, but just focusing on a few things technically. But I think the physical aspect of it, the body is in a much better place than last year.”Starc confirmed he will play the next ODI on Friday in Adelaide but was cagey about whether he would fly to Perth. Josh Hazlewood will join the squad in for the second match against Pakistan after playing a Shield game for New South Wales in Sydney that finished on Monday.It seems more than likely that both Starc and Cummins will avoid the trip to Perth before heading over there the following Sunday to prepare for the first Test against India. A decision on whether Hazlewood plays two games in three days in Adelaide and Perth will be made in due course.”I expect to play in Adelaide, and then we’ll go from there,” Starc said. “It’s a few days between this one and Adelaide, a chance to play the golf and get ready for Friday. Different story between Friday and Sunday in Perth.”

“We’d love to win tomorrow and silence the crowd,” Labuschagne further said about Afghanistan getting a de facto home crowd in Lahore

Danyal Rasool27-Feb-20252:05

Are Afghanistan the second best white-ball team in Asia?

Marnus Labuschagne has “no issues” playing against Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy on Friday. The two sides take each other on in their final group game in Lahore with plenty on the line for both; victory for either side guarantees qualification to the semi-finals.However, invariably, there is attention around Australia’s decision to boycott any bilateral cricket against Afghanistan in protest at the Taliban’s policy to ban women and girls in the country from playing cricket, and their broader social exclusion. Australia have continued to play afghanistan in ICC events since the Taliban took over in 2021, with the two sides playing at each of the 2022 T20 World Cup, the 2023 ODI World Cup, and the 2024 T20 World Cup.”It’s an ICC tournament,” Labuschagne said. “And our game, as the schedule came out, we’re playing Afghanistan. Personally, for me, which I can speak of, I’ve got no issues about playing tomorrow. But obviously there has been some stances from us at Cricket Australia in the past. But we’re just focusing on tomorrow where we are playing Afghanistan.”Related

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Australia are not the only side to opt for different approaches to bilateral and ICC events when playing Afghanistan. On Wednesday, England’s game against Afghanistan went ahead after the ECB rejected calls by dozens of UK politicians to boycott the game. Afghanistan’s English coach, Jonathan Trott, told the BBC earlier this week the men’s team knew the situation in Afghanistan was “not right”, and a number of Afghanistan players over the last year have put out public statements of protest against the increasing restrictions on Afghan women in public life. Afghanistan eventually won a close contest by eight runs to eliminate England from the tournament.It leaves them within touching distance of making the semi-finals of their second successive ICC event in front of what is likely to be a de facto home crowd in Lahore. It is something Australia have plenty of experience dealing with.”We’d love to win tomorrow and silence the crowd,” Labuschagne said. “But for us it’s all about making sure we stick to our process and really engage in the game. We must be ready to play and whatever gets thrown at us – doesn’t matter what the situation is – that we come out and perform at our best.”However, they may not even get that chance. Australia’s training was forced indoors due to rain in Lahore on Thursday, while Afghanistan cancelled an optional training session. There is further heavy rain forecast overnight, as well as for the earlier part of Friday. Eight years after multiple rain-affected games saw Australia eliminated from the 2017 Champions Trophy in the group stages, a rained-out game here would have the opposite result; it guarantees Australian progression to the semi-finals.”I think as players you always want to play,” Labuschagne said. “Obviously, if the whole match rains out, I think that means that we go through to the to the semi-finals – but obviously we’d love to be able to win the game tomorrow and finish top in the pool. I think that’s something that we want to aim to do and make sure we’ve won all our matches leading up to the semi-finals. But those things are out of our control, so I will have to make sure we’re ready to go tomorrow if it is a shortened fixture.”

Gill went past 50 for the fourth time in the series as he and Rahul helped India recover from two early wickets

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jul-2025

KL Rahul and Shubman Gill had a good partnership after two early wickets•Associated Press

Tea Shubman Gill and KL Rahul weathered a testing spell from England’s bowlers to produce a wicketless middle session on day four in Manchester, but it was perhaps the only thing that went India’s way after Ben Stokes’ century carried his team to a total of 669 and a lead of 311. Then Chris Woakes struck twice in the first over before India could score any runs to create incredible drama.India went to tea at 86 for 2, still 225 runs behind. They could easily have lost their captain for 46 had Liam Dawson been able to hold on to a tough catch at gully but Gill made the most of that generosity to continue his run-spree. He went past Virat Kohli’s 655 runs against England in 2016 and is chasing down Sunil Gavaskar’s record of most runs as an Indian captain in a Test series (732).Stokes did not bring himself to bowl any of the 29 overs so far, a sign of perhaps the workload he has already taken on. He is playing back to back Tests. He picked up a five-for in the first innings and backed it up with a century – a rare feat among players and even rarer among captains. In scoring 141, he broke a spell of 35 innings without a hundred and earned himself a spot among the best allrounders in the history of cricket. There were, prior to his efforts at Old Trafford, only two with 7000 runs and 200 wickets – Garry Sobers and Jacques Kallis.England’s innings reached incredible heights – 669 was their fifth-highest total in Tests – and it ended with 15 minutes for their bowlers to target India before lunch. Woakes produced a beauty from around the wicket to trap Yashasvi Jaiswal for a duck – angled in, seaming away, taking the leading edge to first slip. Then Sai Sudharsan made a mistake born out of spending 157 overs in the field, fatigue resulting in him misjudging a ball that was short and wide. In the end, he ended up getting caught at second slip trying to play the leave.

She has just under a week to be fit for the Test against Australia

S Sudarshanan16-Dec-20231:15

Satheesh Shubha: ‘Getting India call-up was like living a dream’

Shubha Satheesh has fractured and dislocated her left ring finger, which forced her to miss the second and third days of the one-off women’s Test against England in Navi Mumbai, Harmanpreet Kaur confirmed after India wrapped up a massive 347-run win.Harmanpreet also said that Shubha had picked up the injury while warming up prior to the start of play on Friday’s second day. She was seen with the ring finger of her left hand in a splint in the dugout when India bowled on Friday.She now faces a race to be fit for the Australia Test match starting at the Wankhede Stadium next Thursday.Related

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Shubha scored 69 in India’s first innings – the top score in India’s 428 all out – in what was her international debut, but didn’t bat in India’s 186 for 6 declared in the second innings or field in either of England’s innings.”Shubha gave us a very good start. [Sending her at No. 3] was our coach’s decision. He saw how she was batting and how she was taking the game ahead,” Harmanpreet said. “So he said if we can send her one down, she can give us a solid start, the way we expected.”It has been an eventful few weeks for 24-year-old Shubha. Days after receiving her maiden India call-up for the Tests against England and Australia, she was picked by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the auction for WPL 2024.”I can call it as just my time,” she said on Thursday. “I see only good side of it right now and it feels amazing – one after another good news coming up. Feels amazing to be part of.”

“Why do the other countries allow that to happen,” the former Sri Lanka captain says, suggesting that other boards are intimidated by the BCCI

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Sep-2023Criticising the decision to add a reserve day for the Asia Cup Super Four match between Pakistan and India – the only game in the tournament apart from the final to get the advantage – the tournament had started, Arjuna Ranatunga has warned that favouring one team (read India) over others will put international cricket in peril.”You take the Asia Cup. You have rules before the tournament, but before that one game, they changed the rules,” Ranatunga was quoted by PTI as saying at an interaction with members of the media. “Where is ACC? Where is ICC? I am not very comfortable when you have a tournament where you change rules for one team. You are looking at a disaster in the future.”I feel very sad for ICC and ACC because they just want to hold the positions. Former cricketers too don’t open, simply because they need the bucks.”The Asia Cup had started on August 30, and the marquee Pakistan vs India contest on September 2 produced no result after rain forced the match to be abandoned after one innings. That match was hosted in Pallekele. The playing conditions were then changed on September 8, two days before the Pakistan vs India Super Four game in Colombo, giving that game a reserve day.At the time, Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and Sri Lanka coach Chris Silverwood had expressed their surprise at the update. “I haven’t seen this kind of thing in another tournament, this changing rules in the middle of the tournament,” Hathurusinghe had said at a press conference, while Silverwood had said, “It was a little surprise when I first heard [that].””I won’t be surprised if they change the rule before the India-Pakistan game [at the upcoming ODI World Cup],” Ranatunga went on. “ICC will keep their mouth shut and say ‘okay, do it’. ICC just talks rubbish, nothing happens.”Ranatunga said world cricket should not be governed by one board or individual, and that other boards should stand up for their rights.”Why do the other countries allow that to happen,” Ranatunga said. “Because the BCCI is powerful, or one particular person is powerful. No, it can’t happen like that. They should have given an extra day for all the games if that was the case.”

Healy does not believe it’s the end of an era for Australia’s previously all-conquering team but admits they need to adapt and improve

Valkerie Baynes19-Jul-2023Stand-in captain Alyssa Healy believes Australia’s hard-fought retention of the Ashes could be their “reset moment”.After drawing the multi-format series with England on eight points each, the Australians kept the trophy they have held since 2015. But their grip is tenuous with Healy describing the result as feeling “a bit dirty” in the immediate aftermath of the final match in Taunton, with Australia losing both the T20I and ODI legs 2-1.Addressing a press conference once the dust had settled on their 69-run defeat in the rain-affected third ODI on Tuesday, Healy’s comments were more circumspect in light of suggestions Australia had lost their trademark fighting spirit and ruthlessness.Related

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“I think what this fighting spirit and what this ruthlessness of this team is going to look like moving forward might be slightly different to what we’ve seen in the past,” Healy said. “For us, it’s a great opportunity to sort of reflect and almost have a little mini reset moment of what this group is and what we look like now and what we want to achieve over the next four or five years in particular. I think it’s a really cool moment to do that.”Australia went ahead in the multi-format Ashes with an 89-run victory in the one-off Test at Trent Bridge which was worth four points, double that of each limited-overs fixture. They extended their lead to 6-0 by winning the first T20I at Edgbaston by four wickets with just one ball to spare. In both matches, the Australians were less clinical than they had been in recent years, which ultimately left them exposed as they lost the next three games.And despite Australia’s much-vaunted depth, Healy pointed out that the loss of Rachael Haynes to retirement and long-time captain Meg Lanning, a late withdrawal from the tour for undisclosed medical reasons, had left a big hole in her side, which still managed to muster enough of their trademark mettle to clinch the second ODI in Southampton by three runs on the final ball, thus ensuring they retained the Ashes.”You look at some of the changes that this group has seen over the last 12 months in particular, we’ve lost two of our most senior players, top-order batters in particular, in the space of 12 months,” Healy said. “We’re not sure if or when one of those might be coming back so we’ve had a little bit of chopping and changing. I guess the positive side is that we’re giving some experience to some young players that we’ve always seen the opportunity to play for Australia at some point, but they’re getting the opportunity probably a little sooner than they’d anticipated, so that’s a great thing.”There’s a few different feelings for me at the moment. Pride… we came here to do a job and we didn’t quite do it but we’ve got the trophy back within our grasp, which is obviously job number one done. We couldn’t quite get ourselves over the line in the white-ball stuff but overall I’m really proud of the way that the series unfolded. It’s been an amazing spectacle for cricket in general and it’s been really cool to be a part of. I sit here slightly excited and then slightly disappointed at the same time.”The difference has been that Australia came up against an England side who believed they could beat their all-conquering opponents and played accordingly, holding their nerve in some clutch moments more consistently than they had managed in the past. Having stripped Australia of their aura, or dented it at the very least, England went some way – how far depends on who you talk to – towards closing the gap between the sidesBut Healy, captain on this tour in Lanning’s absence, revealed the Australians felt they were more vulnerable in the T20s. They had been pushed by India in the semi-finals of the World Cup in February and the final of last year’s Commonwealth Games, and to them in a Super Over in December, which was their only defeat in their last 24 completed T20Is before they were beaten by England at The Oval and Lord’s. Their loss in the first ODI in Bristol ended a 15-game winning streak in the format and the Taunton result arrested a run of 21 victories while chasing in ODIs dating back to the 2017 Ashes when they also lost a rain-affected clash with England.England players celebrate after the final wicket fell•Getty Images

“I wouldn’t say an end of an era,” Healy said. “I think it’s probably maybe a little bit of a moment that we potentially needed.”We looked back on the T20 series and we felt like that might have been coming for a little while… I think we were going to need to look at how to adapt and continue to grow as a T20 side. But the one-day format probably hurt us a little bit because I think we’re still a really strong outfit and to play the way we did was obviously disappointing.”I think it’s a start of an era of English cricket. Definitely what they’re producing at the moment and the way they’re enjoying their cricket is great to watch and you can see other people turning up to come and see their team play, so that’s really exciting and for us, we’ll just learn from it and continue on hopefully being great.”Opposite number Heather Knight took no issue with the extra points weighting for the Test, saying it was the rules both sides played under, but she did believe that by winning both white-ball series, England had only confirmed her belief that there was no “gap” between the teams.”We’ve experienced quite a lot of hurt against Australia,” Knight said. “Obviously we haven’t got the Ashes but to play like we have done this summer has been hugely pleasing and the most exciting thing is we haven’t played our best cricket. Today was probably the closest but I think we’ve got a huge ceiling for this team to keep moving forward and keep improving.”The mindset we’ve got onto that works really well for us is definitely right but I still think we can learn how to do it slightly better in different situations at different points. But the way we’ve won really important key moments in games has been the biggest thing. That’s probably been the biggest gap between the two sides previously. We’ve worked a hell of a lot on that as a group and to see us really thrive in those moments and win them and be really calm and clear on what we need to do for the team in that moment has been hugely pleasing.”