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Sydney Sixers

Captain: Moises HenriquesCoach: Greg ShipperdOverseas players: Tom Curran (England), James Vince (England)Full squad: Moises Henriques, Sean Abbott, Justin Avendano, Jackson Bird, Tom Curran, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Mickey Edwards, Dan Fallins, Josh Hazlewood, Daniel Hughes, Nathan Lyon, Steve O’Keefe, Josh Philippe, Lloyd Pope, Jordan Silk, Steven Smith, James Vince.Last season: Semi-finalsA solid league season helped them qualify in third place for the semi-finals, a run of four victories in a row in the latter part of the tournament building a good head of the steam. But that was halted in the final regular season game when they collapsed for 74 against the Stars. That blew the chance of a home semi-final, meaning they headed back to Melbourne to face the Renegades, where Dan Christian ripped the match from them.What’s changed for the season?It has been a reasonably quiet off-season for the Sixers, although there was the headline of them securing Steven Smith for a handful of matches at the back-end of the tournament, which could include the finals if the Sixers make it, while Josh Hazlewood has also returned after a gap of five years. They may need to look for overseas replacements at that stage, however, with Tom Curran and James Vince likely to be involved in England’s limited-overs matches in South Africa.Australia impactAlongside Smith not appearing until after the one-day tour of India, Nathan Lyon and Hazlewood won’t be available until the Test series against New Zealand ends, and Hazlewood could be delayed further if recalled to the ODI side. But apart from that only a potential call-up to the one-day side for Sean Abbott would disrupt their plans.Player to watchJosh Philippe passed 300 runs last season but that still felt a little underwhelming for the talent he possesses. At 22, he still has plenty of time on his side, but a strong campaign this year could propel him into the planning for next year’s T20 World Cup. After a promising start to the Marsh Cup for Western Australia, he was left out of the final, so the BBL will be crucial for keeping the season on track.Key stat (Gaurav Sundararaman)Daniel Hughes has been the most consistent batsmen for the Sixers in the last three seasons. He has scored more than 200 runs in each of the last three seasons averaging in excess of 30. His strike rate over the last three seasons (121), however, is the lowest for a top-order batsman to have played a minimum of 400 balls.Chris Green celebrates a Big Bash wicket for the Thunder•Getty Images

Sydney Thunder

Captain: Callum FergusonCoach: Shane BondOverseas players: Alex Hales (England), Chris Morris (South Africa)Full squad: Callum Ferguson, Jono Cook, Oliver Davies, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Alex Hales (overseas), Usman Khawaja, Jay Lenton, Nathan McAndrew, Chris Morris (overseas), Arjun Nair, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Gurinder Sandhu, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, Chris TremainLast season: 6thThey were in contention throughout the competition before falling just short of the knockouts. There was an element of controversy to that as they were well on top in the match against the Brisbane Heat at the Gabba when the lights went out. A brilliant century from Callum Ferguson secured a big chase against the Perth Scorchers but they were thrashed by the Sydney Sixers to all but end their hopes.What’s changed for the season?There have been two strong overseas signings in Hales and Morris, while Chris Tremain, after his move from the Melbourne Renegades, bolsters the pace attack, which had been a weakness. Alex Ross has also come in from the Brisbane Heat.Australia impactUsman Khawaja, who has committed his future to the Thunder, may be available for the whole campaign after losing his Test place, although he could still feature in the ODI squad to tour India in mid-January. Pat Cummins, who played once last season, will not feature this season.Player to watchMatthew Gilkes is a rising star, having given glimpses of his talent for New South Wales this season to follow his 51 off 38 balls on T20 debut for the Thunder last summer when the club went through a succession of wicketkeepers. With Jos Buttler not returning, there is a chance for someone to grab hold of the wicketkeeping spot, and Gilkes will compete with Jay Lenton although he could also play as a batsman.Key stat (Gaurav Sundararaman)Since the start of 2017, there have been 157 bowlers who have bowled more than 200 balls in the powerplay. Chris Green has the best economy rate (6.04) for a spinner and the second best among all bowlers, only behind India’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar (5.89). With the T20 World Cup in Australia next year, Green’s performance will hold the key towards Thunder’s hopes as well as his chances to make the Australia squad.

It remains just about possible – if Jofra Archer makes a late bid for selection on Wednesday – that England could go into the third Test in Port Elizabeth with six players under the age of 25. They have only done that once before*.It is a statistic that underlines the period of transition in which this England side find itself. Whether by design or not – in a perfect world, the side might well contain James Anderson, Rory Burns and Moeen Ali or Jack Leach – England are in a rebuilding phase. An investment has been made into young players. They are likely to be given time to develop.At the heart of this young side is Ollie Pope. While some of the other young players – Zak Crawley and Dom Bess, for example – are taking advantage of the misfortunate of first-choice players, Pope is a first-choice pick. In the eyes of most of the England management, he is the most promising specialist batsman to come into the Test team since Joe Root in 2012. There are whispered hopes he will develop into a 100-Test player.ALSO READ: Botham, Flintoff, Stokes – who is England’s greatest?</aSuch was Pope’s promise that he was first selected for the Test side when just 20. By then he had played 15 first-class games and scored four first-class centuries. That is, in context, only two fewer than Jos Buttler in his 104 match first-class career.But England, bursting with men who could bat in the middle-order, asked Pope to fulfil a role that was unfamiliar to him. Despite batting at No. 6 for Surrey, despite never having come in before the 20th over of a first-class innings, he was required to bat at No. 4 on Test debut. In his first three innings he came into bat in the ninth, 13th and 12th overs. Unsurprisingly, he struggled. Perhaps more surprisingly in these days of continuity of selection, he was dropped after those three innings despite the fact one of his dismissals was down the leg side.But if the use of Pope was wrong, the identification of his talent was surely correct. He has, at the time of writing, an average of 71.31 in first-class cricket for Surrey and 58.06 in all first-class cricket. After 30 games, he had a higher first-class average than any English player in history.But for a dislocated shoulder, sustained while fielding for Surrey last April, his recall would have come earlier than November. But as it is, he has been assured of a run at No. 6 – the position Root started out in Test cricket – and, over his last few innings, started to provide returns on that investment. Two of his three most recent innings have been half-centuries, with the first, in Hamilton, showcasing an improved tightness in his game and the second, in Cape Town, providing something of a masterclass in batting with the tail. He scored 29 of the 35 posted for England’s tenth-wicket and later took the catch that sealed the win.After the Cape Town victory, a small group of the younger players – Pope, Bess, Dom Sibley and Matt Parkinson – hired an apartment in Camps Bay and enjoyed a few days’ beach holiday. But now, back in training with the rest of the squad, it is clear Pope is relishing being part of a young team who are enjoying the new experiences and each other’s successes.”Winning this series would be an amazing achievement for us, especially where we’re at as a side at the moment,” Pope said. “We’re quite young side with a lot of players just coming through.”The Cape Town result says a lot about what we have within the camp, but we also realise that it’s not something that happens overnight. Putting this side together will take time, but if we can win this series will be a great achievement.”The first time I was picked I felt like it was almost a bit of a lottery. I was thinking ‘hopefully I’ll get a score but if I miss out then so be it.'”At the moment I feel like I’m in a good place with my game. I know I’ve got the technique and mindset to do it. To have those scores under my belt is a real positive for me.”Perhaps it says something for Pope’s ambitions that he was inspired by Steven Smith and Virat Kohli when batting with the tail in Cape Town.”The way I went about my innings was just remembering how some of the best players in the world have done it,” he said. “I remember watching Smith and Kohli from when they played against England and how, even when they were nine down, they were trying to face almost every ball. It was pretty new for me.”The way Stokesy did it at Headingley was slightly different because he can just whack every ball out of the park and clear the men on the rope. Us smaller lads have to go about it in a bit more of a smart way and try and find a way of facing as many balls as you can. If you get a boundary option, then great, if not then try and face five balls and get a quick single at the end and get a boundary next over.”If you ask any young batsman coming into the game, Smith, Kohli and Joe Root are the guys you want to be like. They have been the main run-scorers in international cricket over the last however many years and hopefully I’ve got a game where I can follow in their footsteps.”I wouldn’t say I tried to copy their techniques, but the one thing they have in common is having solid foundations. They can build their game around that and that’s what I’m trying to do.”Ollie Pope looks on•Getty Images

While Pope acknowledged the comparisons with Ian Bell – it was Andrew Strauss who first mentioned it to him – he insisted they are accidental. But since his first spell in the side, when his expansive off-side play could leave him looking loose at times, he looks even more like Bell now: more compact; more disciplined outside off stump; more prepared to be patient and make the bowlers come to him. In short, a player who has learned to harness his talent.”I think Bell is an amazing player and I used to love watching him bat but it’s not been anything that I’ve tried to emulate,” Pope said. “But it’s a big compliment because he is a pretty class player to watch. I’ve seen that a lot on social media. He was an amazing player and I loved watching him play.”His favourite players were, instead, keeper-batsmen such as MS Dhoni and Adam Gilchrist and he has not given up hopes of fulfilling a role as keeper in the years ahead.”I still want to keep that going in my game,” he said. “I definitely will be practising my keeping. I’m still the second keeper at Surrey. It’s only going to be a positive if I can keep nailing that side of my game, but I’m also more than happy playing as a batter as well.”With a youthful look to the side, it is probably even more important that the more experienced players provide leadership. And Pope said Ben Stokes had taken him under his wing and demonstrated the fitness levels required to excel at this level.”In New Zealand I realised what was needed,” he said. “I’d go under Stokes’ wing a little bit and, after the warm-up games, we’d run back to the hotel and do a running session the day before the games.”If you can get into those good habits, if you control everything in your power to make sure you are as fit as you can be and you’re training as well as you can, then hopefully good things will happen. It’s good to see the way these guys go about it. Hopefully I can learn from that and keep following in their footsteps.”England’s players were given a day off on Tuesday. While some, including Pope, went on safari, others played golf. Only Root, accompanied by batting coach Graham Thorpe, took to the nets where he had a long session.

A stunning display of strokeplay from wicketkeeper-batsman Josh Philippe and an impressive fightback from the Sydney Sixers bowlers, led by the returning Josh Hazlewood, earned them their fifth win of the season. Chasing 177 against the Adelaide Strikers at the sell-out Coffs Harbour ground with nearly 10,000 spectators, the Sixers openers Philippe and Justin Avendano put on 72 in under nine overs to set the platform. Avendano fell for a 33-ball 47 but the Strikers’ total wasn’t steep enough on a batsman-friendly pitch as Philippe saw them through for a seven-wicket win.Avendano fires the engine, Philippe puts out Rashid KhanThe 22-year-old Philippe had been called an “excitement machine” by Mike Hesson, who secured him at base price for Royal Challengers Bangalore at the IPL auction last month, and he showed exactly why. While Avendano took on the quicks early on, Philippe proved his worth when Rashid Khan bowled the last over of the powerplay. Off his first ball against Khan, Philippe swept the spinner fine for four and two balls later, he picked the quicker delivery and hammered it for six to make it a 12-run over.Josh Hazlewood was in fine form on his BBL comeback•Getty Images

Avendano showed his intent early against the fast bowlers. The first balls he faced from Michael Neser, Billy Stanlake, Harry Conway and Peter Siddle all went for boundaries; including a six against Siddle. It showed Avendano, who joined the squad on Saturday and came in for regular captain Moises Henriques (missing out to attend the birth of his first child), wasn’t going to let the experienced names dominate in only his fourth T20. He pulled and drove fearlessly, struck the ball cleanly, and took the pressure off Philippe before a leading edge ended his innings in the ninth over.Philippe, on 25 then, steered the Sixers’ chase as the Strikers kept Rashid’s last three overs for later. He returned in the 12th over with the Sixers still needing 86 from 54 and Philippe used the crease well to sweep again and seemed to pick the wrong’uns from the hand by going deep in his crease to collect runs, using the tactic to bring up his 36-ball fifty in the 15th over. Rashid accounted for Daniel Hughes in that over but Philippe and James Vince didn’t allow the legspinner any more success and the England batsman smoked him for a six in his last over as Rashid ended with 1 for 34. Philippe scored 23 of those runs while facing only 12 balls from Rashid.Despite the Sixers being mostly in control of the chase, things got tense towards the end when they needed 32 from 18, and Siddle only conceded seven in his third over to bring the equation to 25 from 12. But Philippe rose to the occasion again and virtually ended the chase with the first three balls of the 19th over against Neser. Expecting yorkers, he stayed deep in the crease and drilled the first two full deliveries for fours before dispatching a short ball over midwicket for his fourth six. The Sixers only needed four off the last over, and Tom Curran sealed victory with a straight six off Siddle.Jonathan Wells fought well for the Strikers•Getty Images

Hazlewood puts the brakes on in BBL returnHazlewood last played in the BBL in 2014 and his last ODI appearance was in November 2018 but it didn’t show at all. He stuck to his Test lines and lengths, didn’t use any slower deliveries or yorkers, and stifled the Strikers with his accuracy. The Strikers had raced to 1 for 67 in seven overs, cashing in on the diet of short balls they were being served, before Hazlewood came back for his second spell. A scratchy-looking Alex Carey’s problems were compounded when Hazlewood kept angling the ball away from him from off stump; the pressure mounted and Carey made room to heave but he missed a straight delivery and lost his leg stump, for 29 off 31.Hazlewood’s heat fired up the other quicks as they collectively brought down the run rate from 9.57 to 7.23 by the end of the 13th over, Hazlewood finishing with 1 for 18. At 5 for 120 after 15 overs, the Strikers were lifted by Jonathan Wells’ timing and clever placement which earned him a useful unbeaten 40 off 28 along with the lower-middle order. The Strikers collected 56 from the last five as Neser and Rashid also chipped in with cameos.Sixers’ fielding helps Strikers but not muchIf the Strikers didn’t help themselves by not promoting Rashid up the order as they have recently done, they were at least aided by the Sixers’ fielding errors. Ben Dwarshuis put down two consecutive chances, despite getting his hands to both, at deep backward square leg in the last over, Rashid the beneficiary both times. Earlier too, there were several misfields: once in the powerplay, then in the 14th and 15th overs, and Lloyd Pope and Daniel Hughes also put down catches in the circle. One misfield also led to Matthew Short’s run-out for a diamond duck but the Sixers can’t take credit for that.Currently placed second on the table, the Sixers will have to up their fielding game to stay near the top.

Stumps Bangladesh had their best day of the Test, and were close to being the team that made most progress on the day, before a late hat-trick from 16-year-old Naseem Shah triggered a collapse where they lost four wickets for two runs. They were left reeling at stumps, 86 behind with only four wickets in hand. Naseem became the youngest man to take a Test hat-trick.All three of Naseem’s hat-trick wickets were built around his express pace. He burst one through Najmul Hossain Shanto’s defences from around the wicket, and had some assistance from captain Azhar Ali who successfully reviewed a not-out decision on the lbw. Next ball, he caught nightwatchman Taijul Islam in front with a yorker, before firing a full straight delivery outside off that was met with an ungainly chop from Mahmudullah which ended up at first slip.Naseem walked off the pitch two balls after that over with a niggle, but he had significantly dented Bangladesh. As if the score of 126 for 5 didn’t make that evident, Mohammad Mithun, the highest-scorer in the first innings, managed to confirm it entirely: he was out bowled, trying to slog a Yasir Shah googly one ball before stumps.It was a sour end for Bangladesh, who were on course for finishing a good day with wickets in hand and more than half the deficit erased as Shanto and Mominul Haque looked solid through a 71-run stand for the third wicket. Earlier in the day, they had allowed Pakistan to add only 103 to their overnight score of 342 for 3.The last session began with Tamim Iqbal showing glimpses of the form that helped him make a triple-century in first-class cricket at the start of the month. But Yasir’s introduction straight after tea proved pivotal in dismissing him, as the the legspinner’s around the wicket, jumpy deliveries had Tamim in two minds throughout the short period during which he faced Yasir. Having just survived a top-edge trying to slog sweep him, Tamim ended up playing the wrong line on the back foot and was trapped in front soon after.Yasir, who has notoriously been off-colour in recent Tests, as well as in the first innings of this one, looked to have found some of his old verve back during that spell. But Shanto and Mominul – both – were resolute in defence against his around-the-wicket line, and confident in attack. Mominul took the more orthodox scoring options, prefering to hit straight, including a clean lofted-drive over mid-on. Shanto, on the other hand, was more keen on the sweep, including a perfectly nailed reverse-sweep from the rough outside off. But only Mominul made it to stumps.Naseem had earlier got one ball to stay low in the corridor at the start of his spell, and then bowled debutant Saif Hassan for 16, having pinned him to the crease. But, barring that ball, the surface continued to look batting friendly as Pakistan’s fast bowlers found nowhere near the same assistance that Bangladesh’s seamers had found in the morning.In the first session, Bangladesh’s seamers led the delayed resistance from the visitors, picking up three wickets as the four-over old ball hooped around in the first hour. Abu Jayed, who took two of the three wickets that had fallen on Saturday, caught overnight centurion Babar Azam halfway between a cut and a leave off the second ball of the day to have him caught at first slip.Ebadot Hossain’s struggles from day two seemed to have vanished and for the first time in the match, Mominul was able to apply sustained pressure on Pakistan. Ebadot bowled nine overs in his first spell, seven of those in tandem with Jayed, and by the end of the period, Asad Shafiq, the other overnight batsman, had fallen for 65.Rubel Hossain, who took three wickets, had Mohammad Rizwan top-edging to fine leg off his first ball of the day and Pakistan were reduced to 374 for 6. Haris Sohail then made a counterattacking 75 off 103 and made the bulk of the 71 runs added by the last four wickets as the lower order crumbled around him.After some general watchfulness at the start, Sohail opened up following Rizwan’s wicket. From 12 off 39 at the drinks break in the first session, Sohail raced to his fifty off 71 balls, helped along by a non-appeal when he had edged a delivery at the start of this innings.He extended his first two-digit score since the recently-concluded Australia series into a brisk, positive knock at a strike rate just shy of 73. Sohail’s innings was characterised by handsome driving through the covers, and most of his rare runs through the leg side came off two sixes against the left-arm spinner Taijul Islam, with quick feet to get to the pitch of tossed up deliveries. He hit seven fours and two sixes before holing out at deep midwicket to Taijul.

Big picture

As the action moves from the leafy surrounds of the SSC to the jungles of the southeast, both teams may ponder their shortcomings from the first game. Neither middle-order quite fired. West Indies lost five wickets for 68 runs while Sri Lanka might reflect they could have done better than lose their first four wickets within 57 runs after a century opening stand, then their next four for 61. Sri Lanka’s spinners failed to produce wickets through the middle overs and West Indies’ quicks were modest under the pressure of a tight finish.But although these are clearly flawed teams, they also appeared to be evenly matched. Aside, perhaps, from Sri Lanka’s 111-run opening stand, there was no sustained period of dominance from either side. A wicket would fall to clip a burgeoning stand short or a spate of boundaries would frequently break the shackles. Each side has promising young players – most notably Keemo Paul and Wanindu Hasaranga from the first match – and captains who took over in moments of crisis last year. Both sides have relatively settled XIs for now, but several players are only a few bad performances away from having their places questioned.Given the similarities, it may be the side that best adapts to the Sooriyawewa ground’s particular challenges that wins. There can sometimes be a fierce crosswind at the venue. Sri Lanka have occasionally used the wind to the advantage of their swing bowlers, but have more often found that it messes with bowlers’ accuracy and flight. Batsmen, meanwhile, have had success largely targeting the downwind side of the ground, and hit aerially into the wind at their peril.

Form guide

West Indies LWWWL
Sri Lanka WLLWWShai Hope follows the ball off his bat•AFP via Getty Images

In the spotlight

Sri Lanka’s fielding has happily lent itself to comic comparisons in the past few years, but an outstanding all-round effort on Saturday has hinted that the age of slow-motion dives and slapstick fumbles may be over. It wasn’t quite a flawless effort, but almost – no catches were dropped, two run outs were clinically affected and the ground fielding was reliable. Coach Mickey Arthur has spoken glowingly about the improvements in Sri Lanka’s fielding standards over the last few months, and so far, his team seems to be proving him right.Shai Hope, Saturday’s only centurion, has been putting together quite a record in recent years. His overall ODI average is impressive enough at 51.90, but his average as an opener is 91.88 after 21 innings, and seven of his nine centuries have come from the top of the order. Perhaps even more consequential to this series is his average in Asia, which after 15 innings, is a whopping 123.66. With so many of his team-mates capable of making rapid runs, Hope is increasingly the trunk around which West Indies build their innings.

Team news

Kieron Pollard seemed averse to the idea of making many changes to the XI. They may toy with the idea of bringing in left-arm spinner Fabian Allen for Hayden Walsh Jr, who took two wickets, but conceded 38 runs from five overs.West Indies (possible): 1 Sunil Ambris, 2 Shai Hope (wk), 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Roston Chase, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Kieron Pollard (capt), 7 Jason Holder, 8 Fabian Allen, 9 Keemo Paul, 10 Alzarri Joseph, 11 Sheldon CottrellWith Thisara Perera’s bowling in the Powerplay having proved successful in the first ODI, Sri Lanka may stick with the same XI.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), 2 Avishka Fernando, 3 Kusal Perera (wk), 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Isuru Udana, 10 Lakshan Sandakan, 11 Nuwan Pradeep

Pitch and conditions

Generally, the Sooriyawewa pitch is one of the quicker tracks in the country though that is not to say it doesn’t also take turn. It is also one of the hottest venues in the country, but if the wind is around, the players may get some relief.

Stats and trivia

• West Indies have never won an ODI series in Sri Lanka. Their best result came in December 1993, when they drew 1-1.
• Shai Hope averages over 60 in each of the last two calendar years, which is largely when he has opened the innings. Outside opening the innings, his best record is at No. 5, where he has batted three times and averages 42.5.
• Lakshan Sandakan has gone wicketless in seven of his last eight ODIs. Though he also has not been granted a consistent place in the XI through that period.

Given that the charge against Umar Akmal dealt with a failure to report corrupt approaches, it was expected that his decision to not challenge it would lead to a relatively light sanction. Akmal, however, was banned for three years for this breach of PCB’s anti-corruption code.This is unprecedented. In similar cases in the past, Mohammad Irfan sat out for six months, while in 2017, Mohammad Nawaz was given a two-month ban. In recent examples outside Pakistan, Shakib Al Hasan – among the senior-most players in the game – was banned for two years with one year of that sentence suspended.Akmal had been charged by the PCB on two counts of breaching their anti-corruption code ahead of this year’s PSL. ESPNcricinfo understands that in his reply, Akmal did admit the violation, saying that he was approached by two men on separate occasions. He did not inform the authorities of these meetings, which went against protocol and led to his suspension.Akmal, then, chose to forego the right to a hearing before the anti-corruption tribunal, where he could have pleaded innocence or contested the charges. So his case went directly to the PCB disciplinary panel.In this hearing, however, he did plead not guilty. Appearing without a lawyer, Akmal tried to wriggle out of a tricky situation by justifying his failure to report the approaches. His lack of remorse, despite accepting the charges, resulted in the severe punishment. His justification was understood to be unconvincing and was cited as a “farce”.”He was repeatedly attempting to justify his folly,” Taffazul Rizvi, the PCB counsel, told the media after the hearing. “His reply was confused, he neither accepted his position nor denied it. He did admit the questionable incidents yet was offering frivolous justifications for non-reporting. When you admit violation, you leave yourself to the mercy of the tribunal. There is no general exception in the anti-corruption code that you report on your wish or convenience. You either report or do not report.”Rizvi gave the example of left-arm quick Irfan, who had been slapped with a 12-month ban (with six months suspended) after unconditionally pleading guilty over his failure to report two corrupt approaches. Rizvi also felt that the duration of bans for such failures should be increased.”Even today, the honourable judge asked him [Akmal] on a clear note if he accepts his indiscretions, but he insisted on justifying his failures,” Rizvi said. “He was charged on two counts, for two different unrelated incidents while Mohammad Irfan and others had completely different cases. Irfan got lesser ban because he had accepted his mistake and agreed to the imposed sanctioned. But Umar Akmal didn’t accept his omission and tried to justify why he didn’t report.”This three-year ban on the basis of non-reporting is considered appropriate. The PCB was asking for a stiffer sentence. It’s high time that duration of the ban should be increased because it’s very clear that players are not learning the lessons as much as they should have. So as far as the legal side is concerned, I am very satisfied as the duration of the ban is reasonable, justified and proportionate.”

Mohammad Amir has left for England to join Pakistan’s advance training group in Derbyshire, after testing negative for Covid-19 for the second time. He is, however, expected to remain in self-isolation for five days after reaching, and will only be released to join the team after he returns two more negative tests.Amir made himself available for the tour after having initially pulled out as the dates clashed with the birth of his second child. Pakistan had already made arrangements for replacements, but after the birth of his daughter last week, he confirmed his availability for Pakistan’s T20Is against England. Amir was recalled in place of Haris Rauf, who had undergone six Covid-19 tests the last month, out of which five were positive.ALSO READ: Amir not indispensable, will pick him if he’s ‘up to the mark’ – WaqarAlong with Amir, masseur Mohammad Imran, who tested negative after having tested positive last month, would also be flying to England. As per the revised Covid-19 regulations, Imran is categorised as low risk after having recovered from the virus and, as such, would be integrated with the national side after another negative test.The larger group of Pakistan players and support staff arrived in England on June 28, several weeks before the start of the first match, to be able to train in the country as well as complete the mandatory quarantine for all foreigners travelling to the UK. The touring party is living in a bio-secure bubble where they will not interact with anyone outside of the group, and regular tests for Covid-19 will be conducted on the tour. The three Tests and three T20Is are all going to be played behind closed doors.

Keith Rowley, prime minister of Trinidad & Tobago, believes hosting the CPL will not be a risk with regards to the spread of of Covid-19 as the tournament will be played in a biosecure environment.The entire tournament, from August 18 to September 10, is scheduled to take place in T&T across two stadiums and behind closed doors to ensure proper protection against the pandemic.”The CPL games are quite different, that’s a bubble,” Rowley said. “Everything that will go on around the CPL will go on in a bubble that does not interact with the local population.”They will come into the country under the protocols of entry, all having tested negative before. When they come here they are confined to the Hilton Hotel and that becomes a bubble for them. Then they will go to a venue to play the game where they will not interact with the population and so the CPL is a bubble that has nothing to do with what goes on in the country.”T&T has recorded a total of 169 cases and eight deaths until July 31st, and there are 29 current active cases, according to government data.As per the agreement between the CPL and the T&T government, all the participants – squads and team management of the six franchises, the organisers and the rest of the crews – will need to self-isolate for two weeks before they board their flights, and for two weeks upon arrival in T&T.All the overseas participants will be tested for Covid-19 before departure and then upon arrival followed by two more tests – seven days and 14 days after their arrival.Rowley also said that breaching of biosecurity protocols by players and staff will strictly not be tolerated. “Don’t play you can come out from that protocol and decide to take a drink down the road or whatever, we’re not tolerating that,” he said.”The same way we opened factories and keep them open, we opened the stores selling cloth…the CPL is just another business aspect in the country, in this case it’s cricket, it’s televised, the benefit we get from it is that we promote the country. We’ve established very strict protocols.”

India will fulfill its Future Tours Programme (FTP) commitments and host England in February, before the 2021 IPL season, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has said. In a letter to the board’s state associations with the subject line “Updates from BCCI”, Ganguly said the planning for the senior men’s team, including their tour to Australia in December, was in line with FTP commitments, while plans for the women’s team and domestic cricket were still under consideration.”The senior Indian men’s team will travel to Australia for its series starting in December this year and will come back to the country for a series against England starting from February next year,” Ganguly said in the letter dated August 20, accessed by ESPNcricinfo. “This will be followed by IPL 2021 in April. The tours of the senior Indian women’s teams are also under discussion and more details will be shared shortly.”Apart from a confirmation that India will be hosting the T20 World Cup next year and the 50-overs 2023 World Cup, this was the only definitive statement in the letter regarding India’s schedules. According to the FTP, India were already scheduled to play Australia in December, and host England for their last five World Test Championship matches in February 2021. While Ganguly said these long-term plans remain as they are, there was no mention of the three-match ODI series against Afghanistan in March that is part of their FTP cycle.Earlier this month, the BCCI had drawn up a tentative schedule for the domestic season that is yet to be ratified by the senior officers. In that plan was a truncated domestic season consisting only of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament and the Ranji Trophy for men, starting from November 19, and a Women’s T20 League to begin from November 1. But in the letter, there is no indication of whether those dates have been finalised.”In the domestic cricket context, we are currently in the off season and the BCCI is making all efforts to ensure that domestic cricket resumes as and when the conditions permit,” Ganguly said. “The health and safety of players and all other involved in domestic cricket is of utmost importance to BCCI and we are constantly monitoring all aspects.”ALSO READ – India could begin Australia tour with white-ball cricket, not TestsThe last bit of senior domestic cricket that happened this year was on March 13, the last day of the Ranji Trophy final between Saurashtra and Bengal. Since then, the Covid-19 pandemic has put most cricket – even training – on hold in the country.It was understood that the BCCI was making a “priority list” of domestic tournaments, and this was reflected in the tentative schedule, which had no provisions for any 50-overs cricket for men, and a cancellation of all Challenger Trophies, across age groups, for both men and women.As for IPL 2021, it will be the first instance of two versions of the tournament being played less than six months apart, should it happen in April. That could challenge the scheduled IPL mega auction that was supposed to be held before the 2021 season.As things stand, the only confirmed women’s cricket at the start of the new season is the Women’s T20 Challenge that will be played between November 1 and 10, alongside the IPL. However, that would be in conflict with the tentative schedule, which has the Women’s T20 League running from November 1 to 19. There is no clarity yet on that front.”All Members will be duly informed about the future course of action and suggestions will be taken before we resume domestic cricket,” Ganguly wrote in the letter. “We are hopeful that the Covid-19 situation will improve over the next few months and we will be able to start domestic cricket in a safe and healthy environment.”

There is often a perception that Mitchell Marsh is forever fighting to keep his spot in any Australia side he plays for. In his fluctuating Test career that is perhaps fair, except for the fine run he enjoyed in 2017-18, and his T20I career has been stop-start. However, in ODI cricket he has shown much more consistency than he is often credited for.Aaron Finch made specific mention of his numbers – which now stand at 35.82 with the bat and 36.02 with the ball – ahead of the series against England. For a direct comparison, albeit this allrounder is absent from the series, Ben Stokes’ numbers are 40.63 and 41.71 and he is considered among the very best. With the bat, which can be viewed as the primary role for both in one-day cricket, Marsh does not lose much.”This format has certainly been the one I’ve been most consistent in,” he said. “I take great confidence in that. I don’t look up my stats too much, but certainly love this format.”ALSO READ: Australia’s reminder to world champions – we’ll always be the benchmarkIn many ways, it was a combination of strange and unfortunate events that led to Marsh not being at the 2019 World Cup. At the start of 2018 he was in possession of a middle-order slot and had a consistent series against England with two half-centuries. They would be his last ODIs for two years.He missed the 2018 tour of England (shortly after sandpaper-gate) due to ankle surgery; he was left out of the South Africa series later that year to be “managed”, in the words of national selector Trevor Hohns; he came down will illness one the eve of the one-day series against India in early 2019, which was followed by a nasty blow in the box that required surgery. Then he was left out of the tours to India and the UAE (to play Pakistan) that preceded and ultimately shaped the World Cup.In the end he was called up as a standby when Marcus Stoinis suffered a side strain, but a few months later – after taking a five-wicket haul on his return to the Test side – had the bad idea of punching the dressing room wall early last summer, which disrupted the first half of his season until the Big Bash. He had to wait until February’s tour of South Africa for his ODI comeback, and was then named Man of the Match against New Zealand at the SCG in March, days before the sporting world stopped due to Covid-19.In the last few days he has not looked like a cricketer who hasn’t played for six months. He was Man of the Match again on his T20I return and was central to Australia’s victory in the first ODI at Old Trafford, along with Glenn Maxwell’s lively 77 and a world-class spell by Josh Hazlewood. There seems little reason, given a fair wind and no more punching of walls, that Marsh will not be in the middle order for a long run now as Australia build towards 2023.Mitchell Marsh dug deep for Australia•Getty Images

“I certainly know I’m being given this opportunity again, batting at No. 5 is a role I’ve done for most of my career in one-day cricket and I certainly feel really confident I can play my role for the team there,” he said. “It’s certainly great to have public confidence from Finchy. I’ve got a great relationship with him and someone I’ve played a lot of cricket with.”It’s not about me going out there and playing every game to try and cement my spot. It’s about playing to the best of my ability to make sure I’m contributing to wins for Australia. If you do that, your position in the team takes care of itself.”Marsh came to the crease on Friday with Australia 80 for 3 in the 16th over, which would become 123 for 5 in the 24th with Adil Rashid threatening to cause havoc again. It was not a dissimilar position to the last time the teams played an ODI: in the World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston, Australia were 118 for 5 in the 28th. On that day it became 223 all out and game over, but this time a 126-run stand with Maxwell built a matchwinning total.”Yesterday I tried to take the situation out of it, the fact we’d lost a couple of wickets, and just try to take it as deep as possible,” he said. “Glenn’s innings was amazing and really took the pressure off at times, allowed me to just keep batting. It would have been nice to capitalise at the end and get a few more but was rapt with the partnership I had with Maxi to get us into a really good position.”In the opening match he was only required to send down five overs of his brisk medium pace, but it was with the ball that he earned the match award against New Zealand in March. On his day Marsh could deliver a full quota of 10 overs and is probably a notch up from direct competitor Stoinis. It means Australia have depth to both their batting and bowling.A lot can happen in three years, as Marsh knows only too well, but at 28 he should be coming into his peak to make him one of the key building blocks to Australia’s one-day side.