Captain relishes opportunity to learn the hard way in lead-up to T20 World Cup

Matt Roller14-Mar-2021Eoin Morgan said that he was pleased to have had the opportunity to play on a pitch that took England “out of our comfort zone” with both bat and ball in the second T20I in Ahmedabad, and that he expects another unfamiliar surface in the third game of the series on Tuesday.England struggled with the ball in their attempts to defend 164 on a pitch that offered less for their fast bowlers that the one used in Friday’s series opener. Morgan said that the surface was a “typical Indian wicket” that “exposed our weakness” and reiterated his comments before the series, when he had expressed a desire to play in different conditions ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year.”It was quite slow, low, and didn’t really turn a great deal – [a pitch] that does expose our weakness,” Morgan said. “We don’t play a lot on slow, low wickets and the more that we can do that, the better. Posting a total on a wicket like that, I thought we were right in the game… we established partnerships, we got to the point where we tried to accelerate, but managed to lose wickets at different stages.”Taking an early wicket was brilliant but India managed to get away from us quite quickly. Ishan Kishan played pretty well and managed to take the game away from us, and everything that we tried didn’t seem to work.”I thought the other night, the pitch really suited us because it had more pace in it – similar to a wicket at home, a Cardiff wicket or somewhere like that, that was a little bit uneven and maybe stood up a little bit. But this took us out of our comfort zone and really was a typical Indian wicket that we would play on in an IPL game. Again, your accuracy has to be on, and you’re bowling to guys really on their home patch when you talk about a wicket like this.”To become better in these conditions, the only way you do that is by playing and making mistakes. You tend to learn quicker if you’re winning and confident and everything goes reasonably smoothly – you can integrate the learning quite quickly – but equally, if we have to learn the hard way, we’re still going through that process of trying to learn game-on-game so when it comes to the World Cup in seven months’ time, we can be as best prepared or know more about ourselves and where we need to get better before then.”Adil Rashid’s expression summed up England’s position in the chase•Getty Images

Morgan emphasised the importance of batsmen taking on the right match-ups on pitches that are harder to bat on, and stressed that he had no issues with any of his side getting out while taking an attacking option against a bowler-type that they are generally strong against – much as both Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow did in holing out to deep midwicket against the offspin of Washington Sundar.”Particularly when it comes to batting, the biggest sixes guys hit are when it looks like they’ve put no effort into it, so maintaining your shape when you’re hitting the ball [is important],” he said. “Attacking a bowler that you know you’ve got an advantage with, or you play that type of bowler really well – things like that, trying to improve positions that we get into, and when we do get into a position, taking advantage of it.”Most players should know their game inside-out – where they struggle and where they’re strong. It’s when they’re strong against whoever, it’s taking that option and not hesitating in doing it. If you get out doing it, you’re taking the right option.”Related

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The third T20I will be played on a red-soil pitch rather than a black-soil one, which is likely to bring spinners into the game much more than the surfaces for the first two matches of the series. As a result, England are likely to bring Moeen Ali into the side, with Tom Curran the most likely man to give way after an expensive showing on Sunday night.”The next game is on the red soil that looks like Ayers Rock so it’s probably going to turn,” Morgan said. “These are the challenges that we want to play against. Regardless of how we do in the series we want to learn as much as we can and get that experience under our belt for the World Cup.”Because we’re playing on a different type of soil, on the red soil not the black soil, there’s a chance that it might take more spin which probably lends itself to batting first if it doesn’t hold as well together as the black soil, which traditionally it doesn’t. It might lend itself to posting a total because the wicket might get worse.”The two wickets we’ve played on have not turned. We looked at them and didn’t expect them to turn, but potentially, the next game might offer a little bit for the spinners.”Mark Wood missed the second T20I with a bruised heel, but Morgan said the injury was “not a big worry”. “He felt better again today but not fit enough to play,” Morgan said. “Hopefully he’ll be available for the game in two days’ time, but if not, the fourth match.”

“It augurs well for the team and I would like this to continue, and hopefully continue that form through to the World Cup”

Saurabh Somani20-Mar-20212:41

Gambhir: A perfect T20 batting display from India

Before the deciding fifth T20I against England on Saturday, Virat Kohli had opened the innings in T20Is only seven times in 83 innings, and only once since 2018. However, the India captain is looking at a longer stay up the order, for both the national team as well as the Royal Challengers Bangalore, his IPL franchise, in the lead up to the T20 World Cup in October in India.Kohli’s partnership with Rohit Sharma at the top of the innings paid off spectacularly for India, with Sharma teeing off to smash 64 off 34, and Kohli playing anchor to bat through the innings and end up with 80* off 52 in a mammoth Indian total of 224 for 2. Kohli hopes to replicate that, while also revealing that India are likely to play a few more T20Is just before the World Cup.”Yes. I am going to open in the IPL as well,” Kohli told Star Sports at the presentation after India sealed a 36-run win to take the series 3-2. “Look, I’ve batted at different positions in the past, but I feel like we do have a very solid middle order now, and now it’s about your two best players getting the maximum number of balls in T20 cricket. So I would definitely like to partner Rohit at the top. As I rightly said, if we have a partnership and we both are set, then you know that one of us is going to cause some serious damage. That’s exactly what we want. And the other guys feel much more confident when one of us is still in and set, they know that they can play more freely. It augurs well for the team and I would like this to continue, and hopefully continue that form through to the World Cup.”In India’s original international schedule, these five T20Is against England were the last in the format for them before the T20 World Cup, but Kohli revealed there might now be more games added into the calendar after India’s Test series in England which is scheduled to end on September 14. That could give the pairing of Kohli and Sharma more time together at the top too.”I just found out that we might have some more [games before the T20 World Cup], after the Test series against England,” Kohli said. “Yeah, more or less sorted [in terms of who will make the squad]. We are very very confident. Very happy with how things have panned out. We just want to keep moving forward with more positivity and fearlessness.”Kohli’s opening partner and vice-captain Sharma, however, preferred to take a more pragmatic view of what the combination at the top would be, pointing out that the T20 World Cup was several months away, and things could change.Kohli had said before the series that India’s preferred opening combination would be KL Rahul and Sharma. However, Rahul was left out of the XI for the final T20I after meagre returns of 15 runs in four matches, at a strike rate of 48.38. Sharma, however, said leaving out Rahul was purely a tactical call made for one specific match, in which current form played a part.”It’s still a long time for the World Cup. Early days to talk about what the batting line up will be looking like,” Sharma said at the post-match press conference. “We’ll just have to analyse and think about what suits the team most. Today was, I guess, a tactical move because we wanted an extra bowler to play. We wanted to leave one batsman out, and unfortunately, it was KL, which was very tough.”KL, we know, he has been one of our key players in the limited-overs format, especially in this format. But looking at the current form, the team management decided to go with the best XI. Having said that, it doesn’t send any signal that KL will not be considered or anything like that. This was just for one particular game.”Things might change as and when we get closer to the World Cup. We do understand his ability, we do understand his contribution at the top, what he’s done for us. So I’m not going to rule out anything and neither am I going to say that this is the preferred batting line-up for the World Cup, because it’s still early days. We’ve got a good amount of time, there’s the IPL in between and I’m hearing there will be a few T20s as well before the World Cup.”Stressing the distance that remained, time-wise, between now and the T20 World Cup and that there was a lot of T20 cricket to be played with the IPL and the newly scheduled T20Is Kohli spoke of, Sharma said any calls could only be made closer to the event.”Sometimes you might feel that you need to have six bowlers in your playing XI, which means you might have to sacrifice a batsman,” he said. “As and when we get closer to the World Cup we need to see the opposition that we are playing, the grounds we are playing at. It plays a huge role depending on the opposition and the conditions out there.”I’m sure we need to sit and analyse and recollect our thoughts, think about what will be the right thing to do for the team. If it means he has to open with me, so be it. Whatever we as a team feel is right, we will go ahead with that no matter what is happening outside. But again like I said, the World Cup is too far ahead.”We just finished the T20I series so I don’t think Virat will open in the ODIs (laughs). So let’s talk about what is next for us and try and move from this wonderful series that we played as a team. Everyone contributed towards success, which was good to see. Complete team effort.”

Nottinghamshire opener ends day not-out in follow-on as Worcestershire keep pressing

Paul Edwards24-Apr-2021
Haseeb Hameed is long past the time in his life when he accepts cricket’s assurances at face value. While the rest of us are free to view the perfectly timed push through the off side that brought him to his first hundred in over two years as marking a further confirmation of his return to form after haunted late seasons at Lancashire, the batter himself will now want more, for both himself and for Nottinghamshire. He was plainly irritated to be caught behind by Ben Cox off Joe Leach for 111 when trying to angle the ball to third man. In the manner of all professional batters his attention will have shifted to the next innings.That opportunity was not long in arriving. Hameed had been one of the last five Nottinghamshire batters dismissed in little more than ten overs and his side’s concession of a 160-run first-innings lead was followed quickly afterwards by Leach exercising his option of enforcing the follow-on. This was a surprise in itself: unless time is clearly pressing, asking a side to bat again sometimes seems to belong to the same era as pressing button B, buying a postal order or listening to the Third Programme on a wireless receiving set.Nevertheless, barely 40 minutes after he trooped off New Road, slapping his pad in annoyance, Hameed was walking out again to face an attack clearly set on keeping the pressure on Nottinghamshire’s cricketers. Like the April sunshine on this chilly afternoon at Worcester, his century was to be enjoyed but not yet unconditionally trusted. There was more work to be done. And despite the fact that he had already batted 400 minutes, Hameed will have relished this fresh responsibility just as he welcomed being appointed Nottinghamshire’s vice-captain at the start of this season. For one thing, fresh labours will replace some painful memories…In 2016 watching Hameed bat might have been prescribed for people needing to find calm in their lives; three years later, a disordered relic of that gorgeous technique had itself become enough to cause anxiety among spectators. A player who had once invested the act of leaving the ball with natural grace suddenly found he was incapable of performing the act with even functional efficiency. Hameed was lbw or bowled letting deliveries go; he nicked catches off balls he should have left. A barely launched career that had been a statistical wonder became a repository of oddities. Lovers of the game who had derived deep joy from Hameed’s batting sat in the stands like John Steinbeck’s farmers: thinking, figuring, but never quite losing hope. After all, this was ‘Has’ and they had been through a lot together.Early in 2019 there had been a quite lovely hundred against Middlesex at Lord’s but that summer brought him only 341 first-class runs and in late August the player seen two years previously as the future of English top-order batting was released by Lancashire. The news broke during an Ashes Test in which, so it had once been blithely assumed, Hameed was likely to be playing. Some thought Old Trafford’s decision premature but it was actually helpful. In order to revive the gift he valued most of all, Hameed needed to free himself from connections that had outlived their usefulness. Trent Bridge and the coaching of Peter Moores seemed the place to go. It still does.In such a broad context it is easy to imagine the quiet pleasure Hameed might have derived from helping his fellow opener, Ben Slater, bat out the remaining 35 overs of this day. Nottinghamshire reached the close on 87 without loss after the third evening’s cricket at New Road bore a remarkable resemblance to the second. But Nottinghamshire’s coaches will hope that is where the comparisons end.Related

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And, of course, one sees their point. Resuming on 99 without loss this morning, the visitors progressed carefully to 115 before Slater attempted to drive a ball from Brett D’Oliveira and was well caught by Daryl Mitchell at slip. After a similarly fine snare by Ed Barnard at point off Alzarri Joseph had ended Ben Duckett’s brief innings on 5, the rest of the session was dominated by a high-quality six-over spell by Charlie Morris that removed Joe Clarke, Lyndon James and Steven Mullaney.Morris bowled beautifully this morning: compelling the shot, nipping it around and nagging like the taxman. He fully deserved to take three wickets in 14 balls. Clarke was bowled by one that squirmed between bat and pad; James was leg before to one that came back; Mullaney was castled when he opted to not even hoist the drawbridge. (Incidentally this has so far been a lousy match for middle-order batters. Clarke’s 27 is the best any of them have managed and he was badly dropped by Leach at mid-on off D’Oliveira when he had made only 8.)Recovery of a sort was mounted by Tom Moores who scored 62 of the 89 runs in his sixth-wicket partnership with Hameed. However, after pulling two sixes and taking 24 runs off the first five balls of a D’Oliveira over, Moores tried to smack the sixth ball into New Road but only skied it to Leach at long-on. It was an extraordinarily ill-conceived shot, especially given that patting the ball down the pitch would have been equally wounding, albeit in a different way. That began the late collapse that brought Hameed back to the middle rather sooner than he or probably his colleagues had envisaged.Given that they were perhaps expecting to be asked to save the game on Sunday, the composure displayed by the Nottinghamshire openers bodes well for their side’s hopes in the final sessions of this game. The pitch is not yet helping the bowlers to an extent that will cause alarm and the odds are surely on a draw. Only a repeat of the general frailty displayed on this third day will lead to this game ending with the unexpected denouement of a home win.However, another mystery has already been solved in a most heart-warming fashion with the note from cathedral authorities informing local media that the flag of St George was not flying atop the tower on April 23 because two peregrine falcons were nesting there and no one was allowed near them. Quite right, too. Falcons are rare birds. Batters of Hameed’s ability and composure are pretty scarce as well and the strange arc of his career has not yet reached his apogee.

Worcestershire in trouble on 53 for 6 after home side race to 400 for 5 dec

ECB Reporters' Network22-May-2021An unbeaten 177 from Ben Duckett and five wickets for Luke Fletcher at last gave spectators something to cheer on day three of Nottinghamshire’s weather-hit LV= Insurance County Championship match against Worcestershire.Duckett, who earned four Test caps in 2016, shared partnerships of 205 with allrounder Lyndon James, who made 78, and 142 with skipper Steven Mullaney, who smashed four sixes in a 73-ball 88 as Nottinghamshire racked up maximum batting bonus points.They then added two bowling points, reducing their opponents to 46 for 6 in a frenzied 85 minutes before the close, Fletcher taking 5 for 20 including three in the same over.Duckett’s hundred was his fifth for Nottinghamshire, his first of the season and his biggest for the county in the Championship, an innings that mixed some impressive conventional strokeplay from the punchy left-hander with some characteristic improvisation.Nottinghamshire declared on 400 for 5, after which Worcestershire lost former Notts opener Jake Libby to a brilliant one-handed catch by Ben Slater at short square leg off Fletcher, Tom Fell gloved one off Stuart Broad and Fletcher, bowling full and straight, dismissed Daryl Mitchell, Brett D’Oliveira and Riki Wessels in the space of five balls, all leg before, Mitchell offering no stroke.Related

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He completed his third five-wicket haul in consecutive matches when Jack Haynes went the same way.Only 95 balls could be bowled in the opening two days, and showers cost another 16 overs on Saturday, yet a positive result remains possible, if unlikely.It was hard to recall that Worcestershire, still without a Group One win, had reduced their opponents to 51 for 3 by taking three wickets in 28 balls in tricky conditions on a fragmented first day. By contrast, after Friday’s complete washout, Nottinghamshire enjoyed chanceless progress through the first two sessions, adding 99 before lunch and 105 in the afternoon, with Worcestershire’s bowlers unable to create meaningful pressure.James and Duckett overtook the 157 set by James Taylor and Riki Wessels at New Road in 2015 as the highest fourth-wicket stand for Nottinghamshire against Worcestershire but the 21-year-old, whose 10 boundaries brought him the third half-century of his fledgling career, fell soon after tea when he miscued a pull off Mitchell’s medium pace and was caught at extra cover.Duckett, whose first fifty came at a run a ball, posted his 19th career hundred off 126 balls as he swept D’Oliveira’s legspin for his 11th four, celebrating with two more boundaries in the over from reverse sweeps. He reached 150 off 175 balls, the innings containing 19 fours all told.

Skipper reveals in-form batter has beaten Blundell, Young for opening spot alongside Latham

George Dobell01-Jun-2021Kane Williamson has confirmed that Devon Conway, the top-order batter, will make his Test debut in the first match of the LV=Insurance Test series against England at Lord’s.Conway, the 29-year-old South African-born player, has been preferred to Tom Blundell or Will Young and will open the batting alongside Tom Latham.Conway has made an outstanding start to his international career. After three ODIs, he is averaging 75 and made a maiden international century in his most recent game, while in T20Is, he is averaging 59.12 with an impressive strike-rate of 151.11 having twice been left undefeated in the 90s, including an unbeaten 99 against Australia in Christchurch.Related

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“It’s a really exciting opportunity for Devon,” Williamson, the New Zealand captain, said. “He’s been involved with the team over the last year in the white-ball formats and done extremely well.”He’s an experienced player. He’s played a lot of first-class cricket and he gets his opportunity to make his debut at the home of cricket.”New Zealand have narrowed their options down to a 12-man squad ahead of the game. The final selection will come down to a choice between the spin of Mitchell Santner and the extra seamer in Matt Henry or Colin de Grandhomme, though the warm weather in London in recent days would appear to have improved Santner’s chances.”There’s a lot of hot weather around and the pitch seems to be changing fairly quickly,” Williamson said. “We’ll leave the final XI until tomorrow.”

Narine hasn’t played for the West Indies since August 2019

Firdose Moonda26-Jun-2021West Indies captain Kieron Pollard has said that Sunil Narine could return to the T20 side after he regains confidence in his bowling action. Narine, who was warned for a suspect action at last year’s IPL, has not been named in the squad to play South Africa in the five-match T20I series starting from Saturday. Earlier this year, following his absence from the T20I squad to play Sri Lanka, Narine had told the selectors that he was “not ready” to return to international cricket.”He (Narine) had indicated to the selectors that he might have been available after the IPL,” Pollard said. “Then, the IPL was cut short halfway through so he might not have got the necessary preparation or confidence in his action, so he indicated that he is still not ready. We’ll play it by ear as we go along.”Related

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Narine last played for West Indies in August 2019, in a series against India, but there have been complaints over his bowling action since 2014. He was part of the first half of this year’s IPL and has played for Trinidad and Tobago in the Super50 Cup before that, where he performed well with the ball. Given that spinners are likely to play a significant role in the next T20 World Cup, whether it is held in India or the UAE, Narine could be an important player for the West Indies; but for now, they have to plan without him.That’s no different to the way West Indies are usually forced to prepare for major tournaments – without big-name players – and Pollard explained it’s one of the reasons their bilateral record has suffered. West Indies have only won two of their last eight T20I series but are the current T20 World Cup holders and have won the title once before, in 2012.”Our results in ICC tournaments are good and I wouldn’t want to change that,” Pollard said. “It’s just that when it comes to these kinds of series, it’s about having the guys available or not. In World Cups, we tend to get the guys we want to have playing, playing.”But West Indies do have several superstars available for the South Africa series – with Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo in the squad. But that has come with criticisms of its own that Pollard is well aware of. “We hear the noise, sometimes loud and clear. When you look at it from a logical perspective if you go with only youngsters, there will still be noise. Whatever you do, there will be noise.”Gayle is 41, Fidel Edwards is 39, Bravo is 37, Lendl Simmons is 36 and Pollard is 34. The average age of the 13-man group is 31 years and nine months, and an obvious concern is whether West Indies are doing enough to ensure there is a smooth transition from one generation to the next or if they will be left with a vacuum when the senior players retire.For now, Pollard is not thinking about that but rather how to get the best of the players he has, while he has them.”If these guys are assets to us, why not use the little bit of cricket they have left in them?” he asked. “Some of these guys play around the world and then when we see them around the world, we ask why they are not playing for us, and now they are.”

Mithali Raj back at No. 1 in ODIs after Stafanie Taylor slips to fifith

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jul-2021Smriti Mandhana has reached a career-best third spot among women T20I batters on the back of her 51-ball 70 in the third and final match away against England. Danni Wyatt, too, moved up four places to 17th after hitting a match-winning 89* as England won the series 2-1.Among the other England players to play key roles in the series win, Katherine Brunt broke into the top ten among bowlers, jumping four places to seventh, after picking up 2 for 27 in the final T20I, while Nat Sciver has moved up five places to be joint No. 17 in the same list.

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Elsewhere, though she wasn’t in action this past week, Mithali Raj has climbed back to the top of the ODI batters’ table after Stafanie Taylor had a bad run. Taylor, who had reclaimed the top position among batters as well allrounders in ODIs last week, slipped to the fifth spot in the batting list after losing 30 points following scores of 49 and 21 in the last two matches against Pakistan.Raj has reached the perch among ODI batters for the ninth time in her long and celebrated career. The first time she was No. 1 was way back in April 2005 after she had scored 91* against New Zealand in the 50-over World Cup that year.In the allrounders’ list, Taylor lost her top spot to Ellyse Perry and moved down three spots among the bowlers too after going wicketless in the last three of the five ODIs against Pakistan.Among the West Indies players to have gained following the 3-2 series win were batters Deandra Dottin and Britney Cooper and offspinner Anisa Mohammed among bowlers.Pakistan’s Omaima Sohail, meanwhile, has reached a career-best 36th position following her 195 runs in five matches against West Indies.

Bangladesh only managed 44 for in their last 10 overs, and this ultimately left them with too small a total to defend

Mohammad Isam20-Nov-2021Pakistan sauntered to an unassailable 2-0 lead in the T20I series with an eight-wicket win over Bangladesh in the second game in Dhaka. Their bowlers did the bulk of the work, restricting the home side to 108 for 7 with an effective display in the second half of the innings.Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shadab Khan took two wickets each, with excellent support from Mohammad Wasim Jr and Haris Rauf, who didn’t let Bangladesh get away in the death overs.Pakistan then took 18.1 overs to reach the total. Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman added 85 runs for the second wicket, their partnership ending when Pakistan only needed 12 to win. Fakhar remained unbeaten on 57 off 51 balls, while Rizwan made 39 off 45.

Afridi fined 15% of match fee, handed one demerit point

Shaheen Shah Afridi was fined 15% of his match fee and handed one demerit point for breaching Level 1 of Article 2.9 of the ICC Code of Conduct.

The incident took place in the third over of Bangladesh’s innings when Afridi fielded the ball in his follow-through and threw it at the stump, hitting batter Afif Hossain on the foot in the process. Afif was inside his crease and wasn’t looking for a run.

After the game, Afridi went up to Afif and apologised. This was Afridi’s first offence in a 24-month period.

Pakistan had a straightforward chase mainly because of how their bowlers shut down the home side. Bangladesh were 64 for 3 at the halfway stage of their innings, and only managed 44 in their last 10 overs for the loss of four wickets. That, ultimately, made all the difference.Bangladesh go into reverse
Bangladesh endured their lowest-scoring last ten overs in a T20I (when they have faced all 60 deliveries). They only hit two fours in that time, as the Pakistan bowlers bowled full and used their variations superbly. It was the opposite of how Bangladesh had batted in the first game. They had scored 87 in the last ten overs on Friday, hitting seven sixes and a four.From a fairly promising 78 for 3 after 12 overs, Bangladesh slowed down following the dismissals of Mahmudullah and Najmul Hossain Shanto. From thereon, the lower middle order couldn’t even move the needle, and the last five overs only brought 23 runs.Afridi hits Afif
Shaheen Shah Afridi may have felt he had a bit of a fan following going in Dhaka, but all of that went for a toss in the third over of the day when he struck Afif Hossain’s foot with a throw towards the batter’s end after picking up the ball in his follow-through. It was quite unnecessary as Afif was right back in his crease after tapping the ball towards the fast bowler. The throw was Afridi’s way of showing his displeasure after Afif had flicked him for a six off the previous delivery.Afridi immediately said sorry to Afif, and stood around to show his concern while the physio tended to him, but the crowd would have none of it. They booed Afridi, and some even called out “Matthew Wade” from the stands to remind him of Pakistan’s T20 World Cup semi-final defeat. Afridi, however, waved back, and that seemed to appease that section of the crowd quite quickly.Shaheen Afridi picked up the wickets of Saif Hassan and Nurul Hasan•AFP/Getty Images

Shadab upends match-up
At 82 for 4 in the 14th over, Bangladesh were quite well-placed when Shadab Khan made a crucial breakthrough, taking a superb tumbling return catch to his left off the leading edge of Najmul Hossain Shanto, to send him back for 40 off 34 balls. This was his second wicket of a left-hand batter, having earlier removed Afif Hossain, whose attempted reverse-paddle in the ninth over ended up as a simple catch for wicketkeeper Rizwan.Shadab has bowled better against left-handers in this T20I series so far. He has conceded just 18 runs off 25 balls, picking up three wickets. In the first game, Bangladesh’s left-handers found him too hard to pick, taking only three runs off his 11 balls. Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah, in stark contrast, showed little trust in his legspinner Aminul Islam when Pakistan’s left-handers were at the crease.Too easy for Pakistan
There was hardly any challenge for Pakistan when they chased 108 runs. After Babar Azam inside-edged Mustafizur Rahman on to his stumps, Rizwan and Fakhar steadied the innings during an initial passage of caution. But they were never in doubt while putting away bad balls, and struck six fours and three sixes between them.Bangladesh didn’t help their own cause when Saif Hassan and Taskin Ahmed dropped sitters at deep midwicket and short fine-leg respectively, reminding everyone that nothing has really changed since the T20 World Cup.

The Victoria pace bowler has a fine record at the MCG and has been in superb form this season

Andrew McGlashan24-Dec-2021Victoria pace bowler Scott Boland has been handed a surprise debut in the Boxing Day Test against England with Australia taking a cautious approach over a minor leg injury to Jhye Richardson.Boland, 32, becomes the fourth Indigenous Test cricketer after Faith Thomas, Jason Gillespie and Ashleigh Gardner. He is one of two changes with Pat Cummins returning in place of Michael Neser.”It’s huge,” Cummins said. “Australia, we have a rich history and it’s great that it’s starting to be reflected.”Boland, who previously played 14 ODIs and three T20Is in 2016, has been selected as something of a home-ground specialist having taken 96 wickets at 25.56 in 27 first-class games at the MCG. This season in the Sheffield Shield he has taken 15 wickets at 10.80 which propelled him into the Australia A squad ahead of the Ashes, before he was hastily flown into Adelaide last week after Cummins’ Covid close contact drama.Related

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• Pitch (hopefully) perfect: MCG's 'massive journey' from Ashes nadir

• Joe Root might need to set new record to make sure England don't

“The first thing you’ve got to wrap your head around playing at the MCG is you’ll have to bowl a lot of overs more often than not and he does that really well,” Cummins said. “The Shield game they won against New South Wales, think he bowled 50 overs.”His pace stays up, he’s always at you, bowls really well to left handers. Asks a lot of questions around that fourth stump, knee roll, a bit of nibble each way. He’s just really well suited here.””We earmarked him as a chance for SCG and here, we feel he’s really well suited. His record speaks for itself here in domestic cricket.”He gets his chance after Richardson pulled up sore after his efforts in Adelaide, where he took a maiden five-wicket haul in the second innings, with Cummins saying there was “small” leg injury which they did not want to risk.”He’s pretty sore,” Cummins said. “We thought seven days off, give him enough rest…so rather than risking him give him a week off.”Boland’s debut is a further sign of the depth of Australia’s fast-bowling stocks and means that six will now have been used across the first three Ashes Tests. Last summer Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc played unchanged against India while in the previous season the now-retired James Pattinson came in for two Tests.”The biggest factor has been the fitness of the bowlers,” Cummins said. “The fact that Joshy, Starcy and I haven’t missed many games in the last few years has probably been the biggest factor in us not rotating through quick bowlers. Inevitable in a five-Test series that things were going to pop up. It’s probably been a few years in the making where we have six or seven and need to use them.”Scott Boland will be the latest quick used by Australia•Getty Images

Reflecting on his own absence from the second Test after being deemed a close contact for having dined in an Adelaide restaurant next to a positive case, Cummins admitted his frustration at the situation but added that watching from afar gave him a difference perspective.”I said to JL [Justin Langer], I’m really angry but don’t know who at. There was no one to blame. When I left the restaurant I thought, that’s fine, I didn’t get near him and I’ll test negative. Then it became the state rules and you’ve got to follow them.”When I knew I wasn’t playing I thought this would be a good chance to sit back and enjoy it as a fan then after about an hour I was quite angry, wishing I was back out there. It was interesting to listen to some of the commentary, see what the rest of Australia is seeing outside of our little bubble.”

Fast bowler ruled out of remainder of winter itinerary after procedure in London

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Dec-2021Jofra Archer will play no part in England’s tours to the Caribbean in January and March after undergoing a second operation on his injured right elbow.Archer has not played international cricket since March due to a stress fracture in that elbow and underwent surgery in May after an attempted comeback for Sussex.Further scans revealed he had suffered a recurrence of the injury, with the ECB confirming in August that it would rule him out of the T20 World Cup and the Ashes.He underwent a second operation in London on December 11 to “address the long-standing stress fracture of his right elbow,” the ECB said on Tuesday.”A return to cricket will be determined in time,” the statement added, “but Jofra will not be available for any of England’s remaining winter series.”Archer was not retained by his IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals, ahead of the upcoming mega-auction and it remains to be seen if he will be fit enough to play any part in the 2022 edition.Archer had previously written in his newspaper column that he was hoping to be fit in time to play in the three-Test series against West Indies in March and his latest setback means he will not play international cricket between March 2021 and June 2022.While his latest procedure may cast doubt on his future as an all-format fast bowler, Archer himself stressed he needed to be “patient” when speaking to Australia’s Channel 7 during the first Ashes Test, days before his latest surgery.”Everything is moving forward quite nicely,” he had said. “It’s just a matter of waiting a little bit more and being a little bit more patient because I’m almost at the end of the road.”Either way, his absence has already been keenly felt by England across formats, following their elimination at the semi-final stage of last month’s T20 World Cup, and their struggles in the opening two Tests of the ongoing Ashes series.England’s initial strategy for winning the Ashes in Australia for the first time in 2010-11 had centred around a battery of 90mph bowlers, Archer foremost among them, alongside Mark Wood and Warwickshire’s Olly Stone, who was ruled out before the series began with a stress fracture of the back.With only Wood still available, and rested for this week’s second Test in Adelaide, England are already 2-0 down with three Tests to play, and could be on course to suffer their third whitewash in Australia in four tours of the country.Archer exploded onto the international stage from the moment he qualified to represent England in the spring of 2019, playing a pivotal role in the World Cup triumph with 20 wickets in 23.05 across the 11 matches before holding his nerve in the decisive Super Over in the final against New Zealand at Lord’s.He then announced his arrival in Test cricket in unforgettable style a month later, also at Lord’s, where he touched speeds of 96mph in an explosive performance that included a blow to Steve Smith’s helmet that caused Australia’s star batter to retire hurt in the format’s first concussion substitution, with Marnus Labuschagne taking his place.However, Archer bowled 44 overs in that fixture, and concerns about his workload in Test cricket were exacerbated three months later on England’s tour of New Zealand, where he sent down a further 42 overs in an innings defeat at Mount Maunganui.He then broke down on the morning of England’s New Year Test against South Africa in Cape Town later that same winter, with the first flaring-up of his elbow problem.He recovered to feature in four of England’s six Tests against West Indies and Pakistan in the bio-secure home summer of 2020 – missing the second match against West Indies after a breach of the teams’ strict bio-secure Covid protocols – and appeared to be back to his best by the winter, when he was named MVP at the 2020 IPL in the United Arab Emirates, with 20 wickets for Rajasthan at 18.25, conceding 6.55 runs per over.However, his problems resurfaced on England’s tour of India the following spring, in which he played two of the four Tests and required a cortisone injection to make it through the subsequent five-match T20I campaign.”I just want to get this injury sorted once and for all and that’s why I’m not looking that far ahead or at dates for a return to action,” he wrote at the time of his first elbow operation in May. “Because if I don’t get this right, I won’t play any cricket. Period.”