Author: Shamik Chakrabarty

Tilak Varma is likely to be available for the fifth T20I of the ongoing series against New Zealand, it is learnt. The Hyderabad batsman, who has been ruled out of the first three matches of the series after undergoing a surgery, has started strength drills at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. He is expected to join the squad before the final T20I on January 31. The selection committee has added Shreyas Iyer to the squad for the first three T20Is but the Indian team management already decided to play Ishan Kishan at No. 3 in Tilak’s absence.…

The ubiquity of Abhishek Sharma’s merry hitting has now become a part of India’s batting fabric in T20Is. By his gung-ho standards, the southpaw was a bit subdued to start with on Wednesday. The first ball he faced from Jacob Duffy was a wide. A couple of dots followed. Enough was enough. Abhishek sent the final ball of the over out of the ground. It felt like a mishit, but he went with a full follow-through. Have India ever had an opener like Abhishek in T20 cricket? At times, he offers a throwback to Sanath Jayasuriya. The Sri Lankan had…

Bangladesh risk being thrown out of the upcoming T20 World Cup, starting on February 7, after the ICC Board overwhelmingly decided not to change the schedule of the tournament. It is learnt that if the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) still stick to its stand of not sending the team to India, Bangladesh would be replaced by another team, likely Scotland, in Group C. The BCB have 24 hours to decide. At the ICC Board meeting on Wednesday, attended by the directors of all Full Member countries, along with the ICC chair Jay Shah and CEO Sanjog Gupta, the matter…

Almost everyone else took his turn to bat at the nets. Harshit Rana was constant, going hammer and tongs, and having conversations with Gautam Gambhir, his mentor. The team management is going through the process of grooming the youngster as an all-rounder and Rana’s steady progress is good news for Indian cricket. On the eve of the T20I series opener, the Indian team had a full training session at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur on Tuesday, and the focus was on Ishan Kishan, who would bat at No. 3 in Tilak Varma’s absence. Suryakumar Yadav explained the decision. “Ishan will…

Nagpur. Does it strike a chord, especially with Mitchell Santner? A decade ago, this venue was the theatre of his merry dance — a four-for that decimated India in a T20 World Cup game. The hosts were 79 all out chasing 127 for victory on a tough pitch. They recovered to reach the semi-finals of the 2016 World Cup where the West Indies ended their march. Another T20 World Cup is starting on February 7 and India’s preparations are entering home stretch with a five-match series against the Kiwis, commencing here in Nagpur on Wednesday. India can’t afford to lose…

Pakistan will not boycott the T20 World Cup to show solidarity with Bangladesh if the ICC rejects the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) plea to move their matches out of India. Asked if Pakistan, too, would pull out of the ICC event, starting on February 7, if Bangladesh’s matches aren’t shifted out of India, a source close to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) told RevSportz: “Nope, this is not the PCB’s stand.” He added: “Pakistan don’t have any ground to do so, for the ICC would tell the PCB that they are already playing their matches in Sri Lanka. People just…

At the meeting with the ICC representatives in Dhaka on Saturday, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) officials asked the world body to put them in a different group in the T20 World Cup. The proposal is for a swap that would allow Bangladesh to play their matches in Sri Lanka. Grapevine has it that the BCB has asked the ICC to place Bangladesh in Group B and Ireland in Group C. The Group B matches will be played in Sri Lanka. However, it is learnt Ireland have received assurances from the ICC that they won’t be forced to change the…

Shamik Chakrabarty, Mumbai Prasidh Krishna’s economy rate in 23 ODIs is 6.02. He has taken 40 wickets since making his debut in this format in 2021. Arshdeep Singh’s economy rate over 14 ODIs is 5.29. He has taken 22 wickets since making his debut in 50-over internationals in 2022. Prasidh can extract extra bounce off the deck because of his height. In his case, though, negatives far offset the positives. Even after so many years — he made his debut in first-class cricket in 2015 and List A debut two years later — Prasidh remains a prisoner of his…

Shreyas Iyer is back in India’s T20I fold, as is Ravi Bishnoi. As reported earlier, Washington Sundar has been ruled out of the upcoming five-match T20I series against New Zealand that starts in Nagpur on January 21. Bishnoi, the leg-spinner, has replaced the off-spin-bowling all-rounder who suffered a rib injury during the first ODI of the ongoing series against the Kiwis in Vadodara. Shreyas has been added to the squad for the first three matches in place of the injured Tilak Varma. “Washington Sundar underwent scans after reporting an acute onset discomfort in his lower rib area while bowling during…

Between 2007, when he made his debut, and 2023, Rohit Sharma had played 235 ODIs, scoring 9,454 runs at 48.73, including 29 hundreds (three double centuries). He used to bat in a certain way, a slow burn with the aim to bat through and explode at the death. His range allowed him, it still does, to make up for a cautious start and in the end, a healthy strike-rate was guaranteed. Then came the 2023 World Cup where the opener decided to lead by example, presenting himself in a new avatar. Rewind to the 2023 showpiece, Rohit started with a…