Ben Stokes, England’s new Test captain, has confirmed that Joe Root will move back to No. 4 in the order when the team returns to action against New Zealand next month. Root, Stokes’ predecessor who stood down after five years in the role, had moved up to No. 3 for England’s most-recent series, a 1-0
Cricket
Bairstow, Rajapaksa keep the attack goingR Ashwin sent back Shikhar in the final over of the powerplay, with Buttler back-pedalling at mid-on, leaping high, and plucking the ball out of the air with his right hand. But Bairstow and Bhanuka Rajapaksa kept the attack on. Facing only his third ball, Rajapaksa smashed Yuzvendra Chahal for
Redemption is sweet. Exactly a month ago, Daniel Sams was crestfallen as Pat Cummins walloped him for 35 runs in an over enroute the joint-fastest IPL fifty (off 14 balls) to snatch a win away from the Mumbai Indians. The onslaught would consign Sams to the bench for the next two weeks. Now, in a
A belligerent century from Darren Stevens propelled Kent from 95 for 4 to 418 for 6 at stumps on the opening day of their four-day match against Sri Lanka’s Development XI in Canterbury. Stevens, the veteran allrounder who turned 46 on April 30, thumped 168 off just 142 balls – including 24 fours and five
Ben Stokes marked his first first-class innings since being appointed England captain with a breathtaking innings of 161 from 126 balls for Durham against Worcestershire at New Road, including five sixes in an over, and 17 all told – a new record for county cricket. Here’s how ESPNcricinfo recorded his return to action. 98.6Gibbon to
Mohammad Amir is back playing first-class cricket again. Two-and-a-half years after announcing the end of his Test career, the left-arm fast bowler is back in whites. Amir signed up with Gloucestershire county cricket club in England as a replacement for Naseem Shah and picked up his first wickets of the season on Thursday. Still only
Given the kind of IPL season Rovman Powell was having, Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant went to his room after their previous game and asked him where he wanted to bat. Powell, who had scored just 135 runs in eight innings at 19.28, told his captain: “Just trust me and let me bat at No.
It’s a game between two streak-broken sides. While much of the spotlight has been on Mumbai’s batting failures, here’s the thing: in six of their games, Mumbai have had at least one over where they conceded 20 or more runs – the joint-most such games along with Chennai Super Kings and Royals. They have had
Inaugural women’s Hundred-winning coach Jonathan Batty has been appointed as the new coach of the Melbourne Stars for the upcoming WBBL season. Batty, who played county cricket for Surrey, Gloucestershire, and Northamptonshire over a nearly two-decade career, coached Oval Invincibles to the Hundred title last season. The former wicketkeeper-batter becomes Stars’ third WBBL coach in
Ian Bishop is “concerned” at Virat Kohli‘s repeated struggles against spin, especially offspin, as he tries to get out of a form slump. In IPL 2022, where he has managed just one fifty-plus score and a strike rate of just 111.09, which is the third lowest among batters with at least 150 runs this season.
Adam Wheater, Essex’s wicketkeeper, is set to retire from professional cricket at the end of the 2022 season. Wheater, 32, made his first-class debut for Essex in 2008, and spent four seasons with Hampshire from 2013 to 2016, before returning to Chelmsford to play a pivotal role in the club’s run of red-ball success in
New Zealand coach Gary Stead is confident that Kane Williamson will be able to withstand the rigours of Test cricket when he returns from a long-standing elbow problem against England next month. “Absolutely, yep,” Stead said when asked if Williamson would be ready for the start of the series. “He’s going really well. Been talking
When Mayank Agarwal lost the toss – the eighth Punjab Kings had lost in 10, making them the second-unluckiest team in the tournament – he must have felt distraught because they are pretty close to getting into must-win territory. However, seconds later, he was handed what he wanted: an opportunity to chase a total. After
Ben Stokes, England’s new Test captain, says he expects a team of “selfless” cricketers to take the field alongside him, starting with next month’s first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s, as the squad begins the process of turning around a run of form in which they have achieved one victory in their past 17
Kolkata Knight Riders 158 for 3 (Rana 48*, Rinku 42*, Shreyas 34) beat Rajasthan Royals 152 for 5 (Samson 54, Hetmyer 27*, Southee 2-46) by seven wickets Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh offset an early wobble and ensured Kolkata Knight Riders chased down 153 to snap their five-match losing streak, on a slow, grippy Wankhede
ESPNcricinfo experts Daniel Vettori and Imran Tahir have called for wides and height no-balls to be available for reviews even if they haven’t resulted in a dismissal. Vettori originally made the statement on the show Mute Me last week, and repeated it on the T20 Time:Out post-game show on Monday night, after the 19th over
Chris Lynn will play county cricket for the first time this summer after agreeing a deal to play for Northamptonshire in the T20 Blast. ESPNcricinfo revealed on Friday that Lynn’s name topped Northants’ shortlist for a second overseas player to appear alongside James Neesham in this year’s competition, and the club confirmed his signing on
It wasn’t a great week for the Australians at the IPL with very few outstanding performances. Mitchell Marsh produced his best score of the tournament to-date after an interrupted start due to injury and Covid-19. He looked in superb touch as he smashed 37 off 20 balls on Sunday for Delhi Capitals against Lucknow Super