He was seen facing throwdowns as he resumed training after hurting both his hamstrings in the IPL

PTI18-Nov-2020India’s Test wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha was back at the team’s nets in Sydney on Wednesday. Saha showed signs of recovery from his hamstring injury with four weeks still left for the much-anticipated December 17-21 Test series opener against Australia in Adelaide.Saha had injured both his hamstrings during a short but successful IPL campaign for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, in which he scored two match-winning half-centuries that took them to the playoffs.ALSO READ: Ishant Sharma ‘looking good’ after long spells in front of Rahul Dravid, Sunil JoshiBecause of the injury, the 36-year-old wicketkeeper missed the eliminator as well as the second qualifier of the IPL.On Wednesday, Saha was seen facing throwdowns at the nets from the Sri Lankan left-arm specialist Nuwan Seneviratne and Indian right-arm bowler Dayananda Garani for a considerable period of time. He didn’t keep wickets though and the extent of recovery couldn’t be ascertained from the video uploaded by the BCCI media.There wasn’t any pronounced forward press or footwork involved while driving the half-volleys. However, Saha, who has so far played 37 Tests and scored 1238 runs, didn’t look uncomfortable during his time at the nets. From the video it seemed that both the throwdown specialists didn’t go full tilt at the batsman, who is trying to gradually get into the groove after the injury.BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had recently expressed confidence that Saha would be fully fit before the first Test with physio Nitin Patel and strength and conditioning coach Nick Webb working on his injury management.During the last Test series in New Zealand, Saha was confined to the sidelines with Rishabh Pant getting an opportunity for his superior batting skills. However, this time Pant’s patchy batting form in the IPL has not helped his cause. Pant was left out of the ODI and T20I squads – with Sanju Samson preferred over him – but was picked in the Test squad along with Saha.

Moeen Ali returns to team hotel after aborted attempt to relocate him to Galle after Covid result

George Dobell06-Jan-2021England’s tour of Sri Lanka will continue – for now, at least – after the latest round of Covid-19 tests showed no new positive results.The squad will hold their first training session of the tour in Hambantota on Wednesday afternoon, where Moeen Ali has now returned to stay in separate accommodation, after an aborted plan to relocate him to Galle following his positive Covid test.There had been anxiety over the future of the tour after Ali’s test result upon arrival in Sri Lanka. Chris Woakes, who travelled from Birmingham to Heathrow airport in the same car as Ali, was also put in quarantine as he was considered a close contact and there were concerns that the virus may have spread through more of the tour party.News that the rest of the squad – including Woakes – tested negative after a new round of testing on Tuesday will be a significant relief both to the England camp and Sri Lankan authorities nervous over the prevalence of the virus in the UK.While it would be wrong to think the threat to the tour has passed completely – the entire tour party will be tested again on Thursday in the understanding that the virus sometimes takes several days to manifest itself – the news revives the prospect of the series getting underway as scheduled in Galle on January 14.Not all has gone smoothly, however. Although Ali was on Tuesday transferred to a hotel in Galle booked for just such an eventuality, upon arrival it was concluded by the ECB’s chief medical officer, Nick Peirce, that building work rendered it unsuitable.Related

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As a result, he was transferred back to Hambantota – a round trip of over 250 kilometres – and, after an alternative option in the town was also rejected as “not up to standard as per the protocols” in the words of a team spokesperson, is now isolating in a separate wing of the team hotel. Woakes, too, remains in isolation but should be able to join the tour party next week if he continues to return negative tests.To round off a tough day for Ali, he is now experiencing mild symptoms of Covid-19. While nothing is confirmed at this stage, it is increasingly hard to see him playing in either of the Tests on the Sri Lankan leg of this tour, with some doubt as to his availability for the start of the series in India.

Allrounder’s batting performances have been more prominent lately, but bowling remains the priority

Danyal Rasool02-Feb-2021Faheem Ashraf has had a strange Test career. When he was first included in the side in 2018, he promptly scored 83 against Ireland, and a productive series against England with the bat raised hopes Pakistan finally possessed that most valuable of players – a seam bowling allrounder. Six months on from that series, however, then-head coach Mickey Arthur publicly told reporters in Cape Town, after a miserable day of Test cricket against South Africa, that he did not consider Faheem to be an allrounder: just a bowler. He would play the following Test in Johannesburg and take six wickets, though he only scored 15 runs. Perhaps Arthur had a point after all.But after that, he wouldn’t play red-ball international cricket for nearly two years, included almost as an afterthought for Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand, apparently only getting a shot in the playing XI because of Shadab Khan’s injury. And while he didn’t carry the sort of threat with the ball Pakistan might have hoped, he struck a delightful counter-attacking 91 in the first Test that saved the follow-on, followed by 76 runs in Christchurch. Against South Africa in Karachi last week, his 64 was equally priceless in getting Pakistan a big lead, even though he has managed just three wickets since his return.Faheem, however insists he hasn’t shifted focus away from bowling. “I have always viewed myself as a bowling allrounder. I try and give my all with the ball, and help the specialist bowlers,” he said, talking to the media over video conference. “I’m having a good run with the bat but when I have the ball in hand, I want to play like a bowler, not an allrounder. I’m focusing on bowling just as much as I did before, even if my performances are more apparent with the bat. But that shouldn’t mean I’m focusing on my bowling any less.”Work off the field is a theme he often returned to. “My improvement hasn’t happened overnight, there’s a lot of hard work behind it that nobody sees,” he said. “I had been working hard on my batting ever since I broke into the side. County cricket teaches you a lot, but coaches in Pakistan help you, too, and if you take their advice on board in the right spirit, you are bound to learn a lot.”Since I came into the white-ball team, people believed I was a white-ball player. But if you look at my career in domestic cricket, I was performing better in red-ball cricket than white-ball cricket before being called up.”The surface at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium might afford him a better chance of embellishing his bowling numbers. Over the past five years, pacers have had much more joy in the city, picking up 498 wickets at 21.40 in first-class cricket, while spinners have accounted for just 72 wickets at 34 in the same time. That means Faheem may have a bigger role to play with the ball in the second Test against South Africa than he did in Karachi, though he did say the wicket in Rawalpindi was different to what it had been a few years ago.”The pitches that are being made at home in international and domestic cricket are much different to what they used to be a couple of years prior. I played a first-class match here four years ago, and you wouldn’t see a pitch like this then. At the time, it was full of grass. The Rawalpindi wicket is usually quite good for fast bowlers because it’s hard and the weather is mild. We practiced much better today and I felt a lot better batting and bowling today compared to yesterday because the weather was a little warmer, and I’m looking forward to the Test.”It already feels like a long and winding career Faheem has had in Test cricket, but the second Test will just be Faheem’s eighth overall. In each of the previous seven, he has found a way of contributing with either bat or ball, but wound up facing scrutiny for the discipline he hadn’t performed in. He’s been dismissed as both bowler and batsman at various stages in the short while he’s been with the Test side, and yet Pakistan continue to turn to him. The second Test in Rawalpindi is yet another chance to show why.

Briggs, whose last T20I came in 2014, joins Will Jacks and Tom Helm as non-travelling reserves

George Dobell17-Feb-2021Danny Briggs has moved a step closer to an international recall more than seven years after he last represented England.Briggs, the left-arm spinner, is the highest wicket-taker in the history of English domestic T20 cricket but played the last of his seven T20I in Australia in January 2014. He also played one ODI against Pakistan in the UAE in 2012.But on the back of a decent BBL season – he was part of the Adelaide Strikers side which made it to the Eliminator phase – he has been named as a non-travelling reserve for the limited-overs section of England’s tour of India. He was part of the England Lions tours to the UAE and India in the 2018-19 winter, and has recently signed a three-year contract with Warwickshire after leaving Sussex.Related

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With Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid the two frontline spinners in the T20I squad and Matt Parkinson the only one among the travelling reserves, the naming of Briggs as a standby player suggests he is not far from a return.It currently appears England will include only two spinners in their T20I side but, if pitches prove helpful to that style of bowling, they may well be inclined to include an extra spinner or two when they return to India for the T20 World Cup later in the year.ESPNcricinfo understands that Tom Helm, the Middlesex seamer, and Will Jacks, the Surrey batsman, have also been put on standby as non-travelling reserves.Helm was also a reserve for the limited-overs series in South Africa, while Jacks, although aged only 22, has long been seen as one of the most exciting young batsmen in the English game. Both players are uncapped.Although encouraging news for the trio, it appears that the ECB have attempted not to name reserves who might have otherwise been in action in the PSL, which starts this weekend.

A decade on from his success in the role for South Australia, Rashid has emerged as an option in the powerplay

Matt Roller13-Mar-2021Ten years have passed since Adil Rashid’s first incarnation as an opening bowler in T20 cricket. As a fresh-faced 22-year-old, he formed part of a three-pronged South Australia attack in the final season of the state-based Big Bash alongside Aaron O’Brien and Nathan Lyon and was thrown the new ball in the last few games of the tournament.”I’m going to go back to Yorkshire and tell them all about this,” Rashid told the at the time. “We’re encouraged to take the pace off the ball and to mix up our deliveries, so I bowl legbreaks, googlies, sliders, the lot – anything to avoid being predictable.”True to his word, Rashid spilled the beans on his return to county cricket and was entrusted with bowling the first over for the majority of the Friends Life T20 in 2011. But after some initial success – he took 13 wickets in Yorkshire’s first five games – the wickets dried up, and he was taken to pieces by Andrew McDonald towards the end of the group stage. One last try in the role followed for South Australia in the 2011-12 Champions League, but as he developed into a canny middle-overs operator over the next few years, it seemed like that would be the final time in his career that he would be seen bowling the first over.Rashid (right) celebrates a Nathan Lyon wicket during South Australia’s title-winning Big Bash season in 2010-11•Getty Images

That was, at least, until Friday night. With England struggling for powerplay wickets in their recent T20I outings and India’s middle order particularly strong against spin, Eoin Morgan threw Rashid the new ball under the Ahmedabad floodlights. Perhaps the move had been pre-planned in the expectation that India would field an exclusively right-handed top four, but with Shikhar Dhawan picked ahead of the rested Rohit Sharma, Rashid managed to cramp the left-hander for room as he went through his repertoire of variations and landed the ball on a good length in a first over which cost only two runs.In his second, Rashid delivered the key wicket. As Virat Kohli backed away to the leg side, Rashid followed him with a flat length ball, pushed through a fraction quicker than usual at 55.7mph/89.7kph towards the top of leg stump. Kohli’s bat turned in his hand, and he failed to clear Chris Jordan at mid-off. Rashid returned to bowl the 11th, finishing with impressive figures of 1 for 14 from his three overs.Ball-tracking data suggests that Rashid extracted only limited turn off the pitch, but his subtle changes of pace and the two-paced nature of the surface meant that India were unable to go after him. While Rashid generally spins the ball sharply, his method on Friday night evoked that of Samuel Badree, the only legspinner to have made a success of bowling the first over of T20 internationals on a consistent basis and a two-time World T20 winner with West Indies.Related

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“It’s completely different bowling with the new ball, [with only] two fielders out,” Rashid said on Saturday. “You’ve got to be clever in that sense. It’s been 10 years and I’ve not actually opened the bowling for anybody [in that time]. It’s a different experience now but it’s something I’ll definitely cherish and I’ll keep in my armoury as well.”You’ve got to be a bit more focused in that sense because you know you’ve only got two fielders out, and the batsmen will be coming a lot harder as well when they know there’s a lot more scoring options. But in terms of my game plan, it’s very similar whether it’s first six or middle.”England will hope that the move allows them to be increasingly specific with their bowling plans ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year, looking to exploit the weaknesses of opposition batting line-ups. The experience of bowling with the new ball for the first time in a decade should mean Rashid is comfortable providing an option against teams with openers perceived to be vulnerable against spin, allowing Morgan to use his quicks – and Mark Wood in particular – as shock bowlers in the middle overs. Against teams with several left-handers in the top order, Moeen Ali may be brought in to bowl his offspin with Rashid reverting to his standard middle-overs role.Rashid removed Virat Kohli in his second over•Getty Images

Having largely bowled in outside of the powerplay in his T20I career, Rashid stressed that he was keen to contribute in all three phases of the game – “first six overs, middle, or death” – and said that he had been practising with Jason Roy in the build-up to the first match of the series to prepare for his new role. Morgan has shown his willingness to using him at the death in 50-over cricket – gambling on him in the 50th over of an ODI against Australia last year, for example – and Rashid said that the backing of his captain was particularly important in his success.”It was good practice for both of us: him [Roy] batting up top, me bowling with the new ball,” Rashid said. “[We were] communicating and helping one another – what pace I’m bowling, and what areas he’s looking to hit. For myself, it was more of me bowling with the new ball, and giving him confidence facing a spinner with the new ball.”[Morgan’s] biggest strength is his emotion, [in that] he doesn’t really show emotion. If things are not going well for the team or a bowler or a batsman, you will never see him down, waving his hands around, or if they’re going really well, you won’t see him really excited. Being level-headed is a big factor, and stands out with him as a leader.”But if he can pull off his plan to remodel Rashid as a viable new-ball option, it may be hard for Morgan to contain his excitement.

West Indies’ newly appointed Test captain has hailed his predecessor for doing a “superb job”

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Mar-2021Kraigg Brathwaite has taken over from Jason Holder, who led West Indies in 37 Test matches•Getty Images

Kraigg Brathwaite, West Indies’ newly appointed full-time Test captain, has said it’s a “privilege” to take over from Jason Holder.Holder, who became captain in 2015, led West Indies in 37 Tests before opting out of the recent tour of Bangladesh amid concerns over Covid-19. Brathwaite led a depleted West Indies side to an unexpected 2-0 Test series win, following which CWI gave him the captaincy full-time, with lead selector Roger Harper contending that he “was able to motivate his players to play to a very high level and create the culture we are looking to establish where the team showed a collective determination to fight and a real hunger for success.”Related

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Ahead of the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, which begins on March 21 in Antigua, Brathwaite hailed his predecessor, who remains a key member of the West Indies side as one of the world’s premier allrounders.”I just want to thank god for giving me this opportunity, and also want to say I thought Jason Holder did a superb job leading the Test team for the last five years, so obviously taking over from him is a privilege,” Brathwaite said. “I was very happy [to be made captain], obviously very proud, and I look forward to the challenge.”Speaking about the Bangladesh tour, Brathwaite said he had tried to help the young players in the West Indies team back their own ability.”Well, I really enjoyed that tour,” he said. “For me, I just made sure I let the guys know, to believe in themselves and believe in their ability. I’ve played youth cricket with most of those guys, and if not, first-class cricket for a number of years, so I know the ability they have. Just assured them that they can do it.”Just trust in your plans and believe in them, and prepare well. The word attitude is always key, and I thought we did that well, and it’s important for us as a team to continue that same attitude.”On his own batting, Brathwaite said he had been working on his balance against fast bowling in the lead-up to the Sri Lanka series.”The more you’re balanced, the better your shots, and that was something important for me,” he said. “I also went about planning even better, in terms of how I want to go about my innings, and topping up on power. But mainly getting my balance in order, and backing yourself. You always have plans, and it’s to really trust them, that was the key for me. Planning was very very important.”

Pakistan allrounder is set to become first beneficiary of the board’s maternity leave plans

Umar Farooq16-Apr-2021Pakistan batting allrounder Bismah Maroof is taking an indefinite break from cricket as she prepares to embrace motherhood. And the PCB is likely to use the opportunity to introduce pregnancy provisions in its central contracts system for the first time.The PCB’s central contracts for its women cricketers doesn’t have any specific clauses covering maternity leaves, but the board is now likely to amend the contracts to offer relevant support to female cricketers in the country. Maroof would, therefore, continue to earn her monthly retainer as per the PCB’s ‘A’ category contracts system and, at the time of absence, be eligible for all medical perks, becoming the first player to benefit from the new pregnancy provision. The designated Pakistan captain, Maroof, 29, last played an international match in February last year, during the T20 World Cup in Australia. She had pulled out of the tours of South Africa and Zimbabwe earlier this year owing to “family reasons”, with Javeria Khan stepping in as captain.Maroof is Pakistan’s second-most-capped women’s player in ODIs, with 108 appearances against her name, with Sana Mir leading the list with 120. In the ODI run chart, too, Maroof is second with her tally of 2602 runs, after Khan’s 2693. In T20Is, Maroof 108 appearances is most by a Pakistani woman and she is the top run-scorer among them with a tally of 2225.The tour of Africa remains Pakistan’s only assignment since the Covid-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic in early March last year. The PCB recently called up a group of 26 national women cricketers for a skills and fitness camp in Karachi as a part of their preparation for a proposed tour of Sri Lanka next month. The probables are due to assemble in the city on Saturday for a seven days of quarantine before the 15-day camp will formally begins on April 24.

Adam Rossington’s 59* steers Northamptonshire to safety after hosts declare 62 runs adrift

ECB Reporters Network06-Jun-2021Kent have drawn their LV= Insurance County Championship match with Northamptonshire, despite an engrossing final day at Canterbury.An obdurate Adam Rossington eventually steered the visitors to safety with an unbeaten 59, but only after a brave declaration by the home side on their overnight score of 330 for 5, when they were still 62 runs behind.Nathan Gilchrist took 3 for 57 and Darren Stevens 2 for 42 as Kent scented an unlikely Group Three victory, only for the game to drift away in the final session, Northamptonshire finishing on 184 for 8 dec.With Northants reluctant to risk the eight points for the draw by contriving a finish, Kent gambled on declaring early in the hope of recording their first win of the season and they were rewarded with four wickets in the morning session.Stevens struck in the second over, removing Emilio Gay lbw for eight and he then had Ricardo Vasconcelos caught behind for nine. After three matches without a wicket, Miguel Cummins, on the last day of his stint with Kent, finally looked like the bowler they thought they were getting when they signed him, and a spell of serious menace saw him get Rob Keogh caught behind for 12.Jordan Cox then took a sharp catch at first slip off Gilchrist to remove Gareth Berg for 21, leaving Northants on 70 for 4 at lunch.Related

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The afternoon session was fascinatingly balanced: every time Northants seemed to be heading for safety, Kent took a wicket. Gilchrist struck again in his first over, getting Saif Zaib caught behind for six, but Cummings was denied a second wicket when Luke Procter, batting despite an injury, edged him to third slip, where he was put down by Marcus O’Riordan.After putting on 50 with Rossington, Procter was brilliantly run out for 17 by Daniel Bell-Drummond, after being sent back by his captain while attempting a single.Cox took another excellent slip catch off Gilchrist to dismiss Tom Taylor for 12 and when Nathan Buck was lbw for 6 to Joe Denly the lead was a gettable 212, with 45 overs remaining.However, the visitors had pushed on to 156 for 8 at tea and the only chance of a tepid evening session came when Simon Kerrigan was dropped at short leg by Tawanda Muyeye off Denly. The captains shook hands on the draw at 4.50pm, Kent taking 14 points and Northamptonshire 13.

“I have never experienced 139 runs taking so long and there was a lot of nervous energy in the change room” – Southee

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jun-2021Meet “Michael Mason”. Not him, actually, but the mace that has gone to the New Zealand team after they became the inaugural Test world champions. They also took home a prize money of US$ 1.6 million, but it’s the mace, nicknamed after the former fast bowler by the current players, that is all the talk.But impressive as it looks, you still can’t drink out of it. You can instead give it a special nickname. Or, as a wise man agreed to a suggestion on Twitter, it can be used to stir drinks in the Bledisloe Cup.The party’s just started
The mace – or the Mason – was also given a seat on the flight the players are taking back home. The team – minus the players who are staying back for The Hundred and county stints – is expected to land in Auckland on Saturday morning, and Trent Boult is hoping the celebrations continue at home after they get through their quarantine.”Waggy [Neil Wagner] probably hasn’t let the mace go since last night,” Boult was quoted as saying by . “The boys are ecstatic. There’s been a mixture of emotion and jubilation. Once we get home and through quarantine, we’ll hopefully continue the celebrations.