Author: Shamik Chakrabarty

India’s visit to Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy next year is not going to be formally discussed at the world body’s Board meeting in Dubai on Friday. According to an ICC insider, the Champions Trophy that is scheduled to be played in Pakistan in February-March 2025, is not an item on the agenda. “The Champions Trophy is not on the agenda as far as I’m aware,” an ICC source told RevSportz. The Indian cricket team’s visit across the border for the tournament is subject to the Indian government’s clearance. There is, however, a chance that the Pakistan Cricket Board…

A good IPL with the bat can take Dhruv Jurel to the T20 World Cup, it is learnt. Over three Tests against England, the 23-year-old impressed the selectors and the Indian team management enough to become a serious contender for the wicketkeeper-batsman role at the T20 World Cup, notwithstanding that this is a different format. Before coming to the Test fold, Jurel, a Rajasthan Royals regular, was considered a T20 specialist. He has a strike rate of 137.07 in this format over 23 games. His seamless transition to Test cricket and especially his ability to handle pressure has been taken…

Rishabh Pant is fit to play the upcoming IPL as a wicketkeeper-batsman, the BCCI has confirmed. This will mark the return of the 26-year-old to competitive cricket after a gap of one-and-a-half years. Pant suffered an unfortunate car accident in December 2022. “After undergoing an extensive 14-month rehab and recovery process, following a life-threatening road mishap on December 30th, 2022, near Roorkee, Uttarakhand, Rishabh Pant has now been declared fit as a wicket-keeper batter for the upcoming TATA IPL 2024,” said a BCCI statement on Tuesday. This also makes the left-hand batter a strong contender to be in…

Ben Stokes made an honest confession after his team suffered an innings defeat in Dharamsala inside three days on Saturday. “Since the first Test match, we are man enough to say we have been outplayed,” said the England captain at the post-match presentation. The scoreline read 4-1 and it was a drubbing. The series provided a fascinating tale of an Indian comeback after losing the first Test in Hyderabad. The hosts missed some big players but their replacements stood up to be counted. In a series of fine margins until the fourth Test, India were resilient enough to win big…

On the other side of the phone, Saurav Ghosal sounded excited. At the RevSportz’s Trailblazers 2.0 Conclave, the two-time Asian Games gold medallist will be attending a session – Sourav Calling Saurav — with cricket icon Sourav Ganguly. The squash champion termed the concept as interesting. “It’s a cool concept. For any kid growing up in Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly is a huge icon. He took over India’s captaincy in a kind of turbulent period and he set the stage. He is one of the best captains India have ever had. So, I have some curiosity to know a few things;…

The dream started 24 years ago at the Sydney Olympics. Pullela Gopichand had lost his match and to find some solace, he hesitantly knocked on Karnam Malleswari’s door early in the morning. Malleswari had just become the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Olympics, a bronze in weightlifting. “I just wanted to see the medal, hold it. Even though I lost, she won it for the country, and it was a dream,” Gopichand recounted, as he kickstarted RevSportz’s Trailblazers 2.0 Conclave via a press conference at the Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club on Monday. As the national team’s…

As of now, the conditions in Dharamsala are very English. It’s rainy and chilly, with the maximum temperature around 10 degrees Celsius. Only a few days ago, pictures of the snow-covered ground at the foothills of the Himalayas went viral on social media. And, the weather is giving the curators at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium a hard time to prepare the pitch for the fifth Test starting on March 7. Extra moisture on the surface can give extra assistance to fast bowlers and therein lies the selection dilemma for the Indian team. India have seldom played with three…

The Shreyas Iyer apologists were out in full force on social media after the middle-order batsman was dropped from the list of centrally contracted players. The common refrain was that the BCCI has done ‘injustice’ to a player who scored in excess of 500 runs (530) at the 50-over World Cup, including a match-winning hundred in the semi-final against New Zealand, only a few months ago. The BCCI has dropped Iyer, along with wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, from the list of centrally contracted players for ostensibly not adhering to cricket board secretary, Jay Shah’s directive of playing red-ball domestic cricket. The…

This is a third-rate controversy that is not good for Indian cricket. Could the mudslinging between senior cricketer Hanuma Vihari and his state body, Andhra Cricket Association (ACA), been avoided? We don’t know. But better sense must prevail and the whole thing should be put to an end at the earliest. Vihari, who played 16 Tests between 2018 and 2022, has alleged that he was asked to step down as the Andhra cricket team captain for reprimanding a team-mate whose father is a politician. “I was the captain in the first game against Bengal, during that game I shouted on…

The BCCI has cracked the whip. The message is loud and clear: You can’t mess around with the national team and you can’t disrespect Ranji Trophy. The board has dropped Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from the list of centrally contracted players, as it announced annual retainership for the 2023-24 season (October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024) on Wednesday. “Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” said the BCCI media release. 🚨BCCI announces annual player retainership 2023-24 – Team India (Senior Men) #TeamIndia Grade A+…