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Jackson Bird joined an elite group of bowlers to take 400 Sheffield Shield wickets as he propelled New South Wales to a victory that put them firmly in contention for a place in the final.Bird claimed 5 for 68 on the third day, making full use of a surface that was getting tougher to bat on, as Victoria were bowled out for 154 chasing 230, the margin only narrowed by a late dip from Todd Murphy who flayed 40 off 32 balls.Related

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Scott Boland had earlier finished with 6 for 46 and a match haul of 10 for 102 as NSW lost their last six wickets for 31 but a fourth-innings chase was always going to be a tall order for the visitors.Bird’s first wicket of the final innings, finding the edge of Marcus Harris, took him to his milestone as he joined Clarrie Grimmett, Michael Kasprowicz, Andy Bichel and Jo Angel as the only bowlers in the 400-club.”It probably means I’ve been around a long time,” Bird said. “It’s nice to tick off the milestones along the way, but when you have a good win like that with a team, it makes it more special. So it’s a great team effort.”It’s nice to be in that [400] group. But the goal of mine now is to win a Sheffield Shield. I’ve never won a Sheffield Shield, so that’s more important to me at the moment and it’s what’s driving me to keep playing at my age.”Bird, 38, indicated that any decision on whether he would continue his career would be made at the end of the season. “I’m just taking it game by game at the moment,” he said. “I didn’t have much left in the tank after this afternoon. I don’t want to hang on too long. Whether I can mentally do another pre-season. If I do play next year, it’ll probably look different in terms of my availability.”None of Victoria’s top five reached double figures as they slid to 31 for 5 which effectively decided the contest. Bird had Tom Rogers taken at first slip, Harry Dixon miscuing a pull and forced Peter Handscomb to fend a viciously rising delivery into the cordon. He later returned to remove Fergus O’Neill for his fifth wicket and finished the game with a season’s tally of 30 at 13.96.Captain Jack Edwards was again impressive with the ball while Liam Hatcher chipped in with a brace.The victory pushed NSW into second place in what looks like a race to play South Australia in the final. It was Victoria’s third consecutive loss leaving them a tough route to the final with games against the leaders, SA, and an away trip to Western Australia.”Dropping Ollie Davies in the first innings cost us quite a bit,” coach Chris Rogers said. “With our batting we lost a number of wickets in and around breaks and just probably not up to the standard we needed to be if we’re going to win games of cricket. We’ve got a lot of questions we need to answer.”Playing our last Shield game against Queensland before the BBL break I didn’t imagine us being in this position. We’ve only got ourselves to blame. It’s frustrating and shows how competitive this league is. We’ve let too many moments slip and we need to question why that’s happening.”

“I might just announce my international retirement … then you can all go home!”We’re not even into April, and the line of questioning at Surrey’s pre-season media day is getting a touch samey, to say the least. But Dan Worrall is taking it all in his stride, much as he has done with every step of his remarkable second coming as a professional cricketer – a renaissance that could, with a fair crosswind and a bit of grass on the wicket, result in an England Test debut at the age of 33.That was certainly the impression that Rob Key, England’s director of cricket, gave in September last year, when he name-checked a bowler who had just claimed 52 wickets at 16.15 to help propel Surrey to a hat-trick of County Championship titles. “You can’t not notice Dan Worrall,” Key said. “He’s got brilliant attributes to be an international bowler.”Worrall, himself, however, could scarcely be less moved by the speculation. “There’s some things that take space in my head, but this is not one of them,” he said. “I’m just not interested about what anyone else is saying or thinking. I’m just trying to do my best for the team that I’m representing. And to be honest, with two kids under three, that keeps me busy most of the time anyway. So the other stuff doesn’t matter.”Almost nine years have now elapsed since Worrall’s first foray as an international cricketer: he played three ODIs for Australia, against Ireland and South Africa in September and October 2016. Those yielded one wicket and a sense of a box ticked in his career, as he turned his thoughts to a relocation to England and a chance to build a new life, with or without the sport at its centre.”I always thought I’d be getting the tube to work in London, but I never thought I’d be coming to a cricket ground,” Worrall said. A UK passport, courtesy of his Nottingham-born father, had encouraged him to take the plunge and uproot his young family but, after an initial haul of 43 wickets at 22.53 for Gloucestershire had confirmed the effectiveness of his fast-medium methods in English conditions, his switch to The Oval has since sent his career into overdrive.”We just thought it was a great challenge to take on, to have a bit of life experience, and challenge ourselves a little bit on the other side of the world with no family around. But, luckily, I’ve played at an amazing club, and we’ve won three championships, and the Hundred’s just come about. And being able to access leagues around the world is another benefit of moving over.”The bread-and-butter of Worrall’s new career, however, has been his red-ball form. In the space of those three triumphant seasons, he hoovered up 139 first-class wickets at 21.17, and with England having moved on last summer from James Anderson, a potential vacancy has opened up for, as he put it, “sweat-band seamer” in the Test attack – for the home series against India at the very least, if not for the tour of Australia that follows.”As a bowler, coming from Australia to England, there’s a lot more variables to play with,” he said. “You’ve got to swing it. Sometimes it bounces, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it’s raining … sunny, there’s grass on the pitch. There’s the Kookaburra [ball] now, so there’s a lot more variables that can make your worst day a lot worse than in Australia, I suppose.Related

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“As a professional, the feather in my cap would be getting to the point where I don’t really surprise anyone with how I perform … to get to the point where your worst day is not that much worse than your best day.”Can those attributes succeed on an Ashes tour, however? Despite the recent success of Scott Boland in Australia’s home summers, Worrall’s own assessment is candid.”You want my honest answer? Probably not!” he said. “There is a role – we saw Jimmy for 20 years go on numerous Ashes tours – but as a swing bowler, you’re not going to perform that role in every Test with the Kookaburra ball. There have been opportunities in the last couple of years in Test matches in Australia, [when it’s been] a bit more seamer friendly, but whether that happens again in an Ashes series, that’s yet to be seen. Maybe there’s a job to do as a sweat-band swinger, but we’ll wait and see.”In his former life, Worrall claimed 184 wickets at 29.03 for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield, so he clearly has the pedigree to do that job Down Under. But, whether or not he’s doing himself out of a job for the coming winter, he also has no doubts about which attributes England should be doubling down on as they seek to win a series in Australia for the first time in 15 years.”In Australia, there’s not a lot of variables to play with. It’s more about being tall or fast or accurate,” he said. “The way that England are setting up their fast-bowling cartel is the way forward to win in Australia.”We’ve seen success from Gus [Atkinson], Brydon Carse, Mark Wood, and I think they’re trying to get to Jofra [Archer] up and about for that Ashes series. There is the necessity for pace and bounce in Australia, and I don’t think that’s a secret for anyone.”The way the Australian team has taken wickets consistently for the last decade has been with the guys that are over 6 ft 2, bowl fast and don’t really miss the spot. Naturally, there’s a challenge for English bowlers going over to Australia because of that difference, but the way that the guys are setting up now, it gives them the best chance to perform.”None of that, however, means Worrall will be turning down the England call, should it end up coming at any stage this year.”Yeah, of course, I’ve said it before,” he said, when asked if he would like to play for his adopted country. “I haven’t thought about it. Everyone else keeps talking about it. I’m just going to go out and do my best for Surrey and hopefully enjoy another successful season at The Oval.”It doesn’t faze me too much. It’s just one of those things where, as a professional athlete, there’s always someone with an opinion and someone that wants to get the next headline, or they want to figure out the next thing that’s going to happen in their career.”But I think as a player, as soon as you start thinking about that and letting that enter your thinking, it just detracts from your potential as a player and a professional and as a person. So as far as I’m concerned, I’m not that bothered. Whatever happens will happen. I’ll try my best wherever I am.”

Gujarat Titans (GT) bowler Ishant Sharma has been fined 25% of his match fees and handed one demerit point for breaching the IPL’s code of conduct during the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Sunday.A statement from the IPL said that Ishant breached Article 2.2, which relates to “abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings during a match”. It was a Level 1 offence, for which Ishant admitted to and accepted match referee Javagal Srinath’s sanction.Ishant was taken for 53 runs in four wicketless overs against SRH in Hyderabad. He was subbed out 13 overs into GT’s innings and was replaced by Sherfane Rutherford.Ishant has had an expensive IPL so far. He has conceded 107 runs across eight overs in three games, and has taken just one wicket.GT’s win against SRH was their third in four games, taking them to No. 2 on the points table. It was their third victory in a row after they started the season with a defeat against Punjab Kings.

At 14, Vaibhav Suryavanshi could become the youngest to make his IPL debut. Rajasthan Royals’ stand-in captain Riyan Parag said that Suryavanshi is slated to replace the injured Sanju Samson in Rajasthan Royals’ XI against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). However, with LSG captain Rishabh Pant winning the toss instead and opting to bat in Jaipur, Suryavanshi’s official debut would have to wait, as he finds himself on the bench in RR’s bowl-first XI.Pant said he opted to bat since he felt the pitch was “on the drier side”. He also felt dew was unlikely to be a factor. LSG are looking to bounce back from a defeat to Chennai Super Kings in their previous game. They brought in fast bowler Prince Yadav for Akash Deep in a like-for-like change in their bat-first XI.LSG could also unleash Mayank Yadav, among the fastest bowlers in India, after he made it to their impact player list for the first time this season. Mayank was recovering at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru till recently owing to a lumbar stress injury.Royals are currently eighth and are looking to bounce back from three successive losses. LSG are fifth with four wins in seven matches, and can jump into the top three with a win tonight.Playing XIs:RR bowl-first XI: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Shubham Dubey, 3 Riyan Parag (capt), 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Dhruv Jurel (wk), 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Tushar DeshpandeImpact players: Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yudhvir Singh, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kunal Singh RathoreLSG bat-first XI: 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Mitchell Marsh, 3 Nicholas Pooran, 4 Rishabh Pant (wk, capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Ravi Bishnoi, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Prince Yadav, 10 Digvesh Rathi, 11 Avesh KhanImpact players: Mayank Yadav, Ayush Badoni, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Matthew Breetzke

Centuries from Emilio Gay, Ollie Robinson and Graham Clark put Durham in a strong position on a record-breaking day in their Rothesay County Championship clash with Nottinghamshire.Gay and Robinson dominated the morning session as they pushed Durham beyond Nottinghamshire’s total, with Gay notching up a second consecutive home century. Robinson was then joined by Clark in the afternoon and the pair took the game to the Nottinghamshire bowling attack, with Clark picking up a second consecutive century and Robinson looked back to his best as he got his first hundred of the season.The hosts kept on going into the evening and broke the county’s record for the highest first-class total, but there was a bright spot for Nottinghamshire as Liam Patterson-White picked up his fifth first-class five-wicket haul and they eventually bowled Durham out for 664. Nottinghamshire reached close on 67 for 1, 190 runs behind the hosts.Clark has been a consistent performer for Durham this season, impressing with the bat on several occasions already. On the other hand, Gay and Robinson both had tricky starts, but their class showed to give their side a chance of a vital win on day four.Meanwhile, Nottinghamshire will be thinking about what could have been as Joe Clarke dropped both Gay and Robinson in the slip cordon in the early stages of their knocks.Resuming on 320 for 4, Gay and Robinson were the unbeaten pair in place and they were looking to get Durham into a lead as soon as possible. Robinson picked up where he left off as he played a lovely punch for four early on, but he was dropped by Clarke on 35 as the Durham man edged a Mohammad Abbas delivery but the slip fielder dropped one for the second time in the innings.Gay played a beautiful shot through midwicket for four, while Robinson reached his half-century from 75 balls.Gay brought up his second century of the season in style as he cut a Rob Lord delivery to the boundary, while Robinson smashed a Patterson-White delivery down the ground for six.Gay’s excellent innings came to an end as Patterson-White bowled him for 104 while attempting a reverse sweep, but that brought the in-form Clark to the crease and he smashed Lyndon James for two boundaries in an over to take his side into the lead. Clark passed fifty in quick time, with it coming from 56 deliveries, and another milestone came soon after as Robinson got his century from 141 balls with a lovely boundary through third.Robinson then made the most of a short ball from Patterson-White as he heaved one over the leg-side boundary for six, but the Durham keeper’s fabulous innings came to an end at 141 when a leading edge from a James delivery was caught by Freddie McCann at backward point.Wickets came like buses for the visitors as England’s Brydon Carse was bowled by the resilient Patterson-White without troubling the scorers.Clark was agonisingly left on 99 not out at tea, but he reached his second century of the season in the first over after tea and he took his side over the 600 mark. The runs continued to flow for Clark and George Drissell, but Clark handed Patterson-White a fourth wicket of the day as he chopped on for 121.But they kept on going, with Ben Raine getting the single that gave Durham their record first-class total, but he became Patterson-White’s fifth victim when he departed for 10. Drissell smashed one down the ground for six as the lead stretched past 250, but the Durham innings came to an end when Codi Yusuf was run out, with the lead at 257.First innings double centurion Haseeb Hameed picked up an early boundary as the league leaders kicked off their second innings, while Ben Slater got off the mark with a nice shot through the covers. Just before close, Carse got the vital wicket of Hameed for 13 with a beauty which dismantled the Nottinghamshire captain’s off stump, but Slater, who has looked in good touch, and nightwatcher Rob Lord saw Nottinghamshire to close without further loss.

Kent Spitfires have handed the Hampshire Hawks their first defeat of the Vitality Blast season, pummelling them by eight wickets at Canterbury.The Hawks had the misfortune to run into a fully armed and operational Zak Crawley: the England man hit 75 off 43 balls, including three sixes and he enjoyed a stand of 110 with Daniel Bell-Drummond, who made 61 from 40.Earlier Joe Weatherley hit an unbeaten 63 as Hampshire recovered from 63 for 4 to post 177 for 7, with Tom Rogers posting Kent’s best figures with 3 for 33, but as soon as Kent took 22 from the 11th over they looked favourites and they coasted home with an over to spare.Hampshire chose to bat but lost James Vince in the second over, caught by Wes Agar off Rogers for 6 after a miscue.Fred Klaassen then got Tom Prest for a four-ball duck, Crawley taking a dolly at midwicket and Toby Albert then pulled Rogers straight to Tawanda Muyeye at square leg for 18.Dewald Brevis hit the first six when he drove Grant Stewart back over his head and he hit two more before holing out to Matt Parkinson and getting caught by Rogers on the long-on boundary for 24.Weatherley and James Fuller shifted the momentum by putting on 49 for the next wicket and although the latter was lbw to Joe Denly at the end of the 13th, Benny Howell kept up the pressure.Kent could have run out either batter in the 16th but somehow got neither and Weatherley pulled Stewart for four to pass fifty, before a couple of late wickets slowed the scoring rate: Agar got Howell for 23 at the end of the 19th, caught on the boundary by Jack Leaning, and Rogers had Chris Wood caught and bowled for nought in the final over.Kent’s reply started relatively slowly and they lost Tawanda Muyeye for 20 in the fifth over, when he skied Wood to Vince. It was 45 for 1 after the powerplay and 75 for 1 at halfway, but at this point Crawley decided to accelerate, hitting Turner for a six into the Nackington Road hedge, then another onto a top floor balcony on the Old Dover Road. He followed that with two fours and creamed Scott Currie through backward point to reach his half-century.Bell-Drummond passed the same milestone with a towering six over cow corner over Wood, but he finally went in the same over, the 15th, to a stunning catch by Bjorn Fortuin, who cover 25 yards before somehow clinging on.The Spitfires still needed 16 from the last two, but Crawley dropped to one knee and swept Currie’s first two balls for six and four, leaving Denly to seal the win with a violent six over cow corner off the final ball of the over.

The trend of low-scoring games in Lauderhill continued but this one – between table-toppers San Francisco Unicorns and Texas Super Kings – turned out to be a bit of a thriller.Chasing 149 for victory, TSK started the last over looking for 13 for victory with Calvin Savage still in the middle. Savage, however, got to face only one ball from Xavier Bartlett. And though his partner Mohammad Mohsin slammed two fours, it came down to three from one, Bartlett sent in a low full-toss, and the two batters could only scramble one, Savage run out as he ran desperately back for a second to tie the game.The result consolidated Unicorns’ position at the top of the MLC 2025 points table, with 14 points from nine games, and TSK slipped to third with 12 points from nine.Marcus Stoinis sent back the openers quickly•Sportzpics for MLC

Unicorns’ win was set up by captain Matthew Short, who continued his fine run-scoring form to get back to the top of the run-scoring charts. He batted from the first ball to the last after he had been asked to bat by Faf du Plessis, scoring 80 from 63 balls with five fours and four sixes. But it took him till Hassan Khan’s entry in the sixth over to find someone to bat with, Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Sanjay Krishnamurthi having fallen cheaply by then, Marcus Stoinis getting two of this three wickets for the match in that period.Stoinis got the next one, of Hassan, too, but that was only in the 13th over, and after Hassan had scored 40 in 25 balls in a 69-run stand with Short.Short carried on, with Romario Shepherd and Hammad Azam for company, to take Unicorns to 148, which might have looked just below par at the halfway stage, but turned out to be just about enough.And that’s because Brody Couch set the ball rolling in the defence with the wickets of the openers – du Plessis and Smit Patel – by the fourth over, and despite contributions from Stoinis (34 in 29 balls) and Donovan Ferreira (39 in 20), TSK were always slightly behind the eight ball. Then it came down to the last over, and Bartlett held his nerve to win it for his team.

Alana King hit the last ball of the match for six as Lancashire Thunder and Somerset signed off their Vitality Blast campaign with a thrilling tie at Blackpool CC.Mahika Gaur produced a T20 career-best of 3 for 15 to spearhead a destructive start by the Thunder that reduced Somerset to 43 for 5 in a 17-overs-per-side game that started an hour late after some Thunder players became caught up in severe traffic congestion on the north-west motorways. Sophie Luff and Alex Griffiths mounted a rescue act with a 56-run partnership that took the visitors to a more prosperous 114 for 7 with Somerset skipper Luff making 36 and Griffiths finishing 29 not out.Lancashire looked to be in good shape at 57 for 1 in the tenth over of their reply but Griffiths snared Seren Smale for 25 before two wickets in two balls by Amanda-Jade Wellington in the 13th over pegged back the Thunder to 78 for 4. Wellington struck a third time to remove Ailsa Lister for 17 at the start of the 16th over and with 13 needed off the last and seven from the final ball Somerset looked set to win a second Blast game of the season. King swung the final ball from Mollie Robbins over the backward square leg ropes to produce a most unlikely tie.Eve Jones and Smale had made a positive start to the Lancashire Thunder run chase taking 34 from 28 balls, Jones twice driving Robbins for four but then skying a catch off Ellie Anderson to wicketkeeper Bex Odgers for 18.Smale reverse pulled and then swept Wellington for four in the ninth over to break the shackles exerted by some tight bowling, but hit the third ball from Griffiths to Wellington at mid-off for 25 in the next to have Lancashire 57 for 2 needing 58 more from 43 balls.Wellington built on that breakthrough with two wickets in two balls having Tilly Kesteven, who earlier had driven the first two balls she faced for four, stumped for 19 and Fi Morris bowled by a ball that spun and kept low. That left Lancashire needing 37 off 28 balls with 20 runs chipped away by Ellie Threlkeld and Lister before the latter edged Wellington to Olivia Barnes at short third for 17.With 13 runs needed off the last over, Robbins bowled Threlkeld for 11 with the first ball and had Tara Norris caught by Luff from the second. Two dropped catches followed with King and Darcey Carter scampering six runs to leave seven required from the last ball before King’s astonishing six squared up the game.After the delayed start to the match, Thunder captain Threlkeld opted to bowl first and the first over proved eventful with Odgers hitting Tara Norris for six over square leg, then dropped at gully off the next ball, but caught by Carter at extra cover two balls later.Gaur then struck twice in three balls immediately after the 5.1 over powerplay ended, bowling Niamh Holland for 8 with an inswinger while Fran Wilson was caught in spectacular fashion by Eve Jones at cover. When Ruby Davis chipped King to a diving Lister at short extra cover for 12, Somerset were in early difficulties and their situation worsened when Wellington, having driven her first ball for four, tamely chipped the next one from Gaur to Grace Potts at mid-on to leave Somerset 43 for 5 after 8 overs.Luff and Griffiths stemmed the clatter of wickets with a vital 56-run partnership, although Griffiths was fortunate to escape when dropped on 4 off Carter.Luff was the chief instigator, easing Carter for four over extra cover and bringing up the fifty partnership from 39 balls with a fierce drive for four off Potts before she was well caught next ball by Norris diving forward at mid-off having made 36 off 30 balls.Griffiths struck some late runs to finish unbeaten on a run-a-ball 29 with 11 runs coming from the final over to give Somerset a total of 114-6 that had looked unlikely earlier in the afternoon. The tied result was an even more unlikely outcome in a thrilling finale.

Jason Holder was bang in the middle of all good things St Kitts and Nevis Patriots did as they ended a three-match losing streak in CPL 2025 to beat Barbados Royals by 12 runs in Basseterre on Thursday night.Holder first hit a 21-ball 38 to lift an up-and-down Patriots innings that needed a bit of impetus, and then picked up four wickets, including three key strikes at the death when the match got a bit tense.Batting first after Royals opted to field, Patriots were three down quickly, losing Evin Lewis, Rilee Rossouw and Mohammad Rizwan inside the powerplay with just 45 runs on the board. Ramon Simmonds, the left-arm quick did most of the damage, removing Lewis and Rossouw, while Rizwan, in his first match for the franchise, fell to Jomel Warrican.Andre Fletcher had been holding one end up, but he didn’t last too long after the powerplay, falling to Daniel Sams for a 16-ball 25 in the ninth over.Kyle Mayers top-scored for Patriots•CPL T20 via Getty Images

It was then that Kyle Mayers and Holder got together and put up a 49-run stand to bring Patriots back in the game. The two contributed more or less equally to the 30-ball partnership, with Mayers contributing 26 in 16 and Holder 22 in 14. Mayers and Holder fell in the 14th and 16th overs respectively, but quick runs from the Pakistan duo of Abbas Afridi (16 in ten) and Naseem Shah (19 not out in 11) took Patriots to a strong total.It might not have proved enough on another night, though. But Royals, who have now lost both their games this season so far, just couldn’t get a chase going, even though they ended up getting close enough to the target.Unlike Patriots, they got runs from their top order, but the speed of progress wasn’t good enough. Brandon King scored 22 in 17. Quinton de Kock 15 in ten. Kadeem Alleyne, the highest scorer of the innings, hit 42 in 28. Sherfane Rutherford and Kofi James had poor outings, but Rovman Powell, batting at No. 6, chipped in with a 15-ball 21.But there just wasn’t the one big effort that would have made the match close. Wickets fell at regular intervals, Naseem and Navin Bidaisee, the legspinner, picking up two wickets apiece to complement Holder, whose four wickets in 3.2 overs cost him just 14 runs. All of that combined to finish the Royals innings off with ten balls left – enough time to score 12 runs, you’d think, except that they had lost too many wickets too quickly to get to that position.The win, their second in five games, took Patriots to second place on the table behind Antigua and Barbuda Falcons, while Royals are right at the bottom.

Big picture: A new twist on an old tale

A new generation of India and Pakistan players comes together at a time the contest has taken on enormous consequence.The greats are gone. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have to settle for a place on the couch. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan will need to produce tickets to get into the game. A page has inevitably turned – just as it did to bring those four into centre stage – and now it is the time of Abhishek Sharma and Saim Ayub and Salman Agha and Shubman Gill.In different circumstances, this might have been a salivating prospect. Intriguing at the very least. But Sunday will mark the first time India and Pakistan play against each other in this changed climate after Pahalgam. And maybe as the game goes on and there is a pretty shot or a perfect ball, we’ll feel that old flutter. Someone new to root for (or against, because that is fun too). There are plenty of contenders.

Form guide

India: WWWLW (last five T20Is, most recent first)
Pakistan: WWWLW2:02

Chopra: Shutting out the noise is not possible

In the spotlight: Suryakumar Yadav and Salman Agha

In five T20Is against Pakistan, Suryakumar Yadav has never been able to cross the score of 20. Batters who have such an intimate relationship with risk do go through lulls. The thing is, though, breaking out of them might be as easy as connecting one shot in exactly the way they want.Related

• India vs Pakistan, minus the fervour

• Gill vs Afridi, Haris vs Bumrah and other contests within India-Pakistan contest

• Ten Doeschate: India will be 'as professional and focused' as they can against Pakistan

Salman Agha set Pakistan on their path to catch up with the rest of the world, demanding his batters to err on the side of glorious abandon. He isn’t exactly a natural when it comes to that either, but over time, the allrounder learnt to tailor his strengths to keep up with the pace of T20 cricket. Four of his eight fifties in the format have come this year.

Team news: India likely to stick with Samson and Kuldeep

With pitches in the UAE tending to play slow, India seem comfortable playing just the one specialist fast bowler in Jasprit Bumrah, with Hardik Pandya and, if needed, Shivam Dube offering seam-bowling cover. That leaves ample room for a left-arm wristspinner (Kuldeep Yadav), a mystery spinner (Varun Chakravarthy) and a containment specialist (Axar Patel).India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Sanju Samson (wk), 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy8:26

Wahab: Haris Rauf has to come back against India

Pakistan also have seam-bowling allrounders in their ranks capable of allowing the team to invest heavily in spin, which is what happened in their Asia Cup opener. They may however want to bring Haris Rauf back.Pakistan (probable): 1 Sahibzada Farhan, 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Fakhar Zaman, 4 Salman Agha (capt), 5 Hasan Nawaz, 6 Mohammad Haris (wk), 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 10 Sufiyan Muqeem, 11 Abrar Ahmed

Pitch and conditions: Big match on a hot night

Dubai is not a high-scoring venue. The average run rate in the first innings over the last two years – that’s 36 T20s – is 7.7. Fast bowlers have picked up more wickets in this period (277 out of 441) but spinners have been more economical (7.03 vs 8.36). There is no rain expected, but the heat is likely to be stifling.

Stats and trivia

• The team chasing has won seven of the eight T20Is between India and Pakistan since the start of 2014, including the three that have taken place in Dubai
• Hardik Pandya is the leading wicket-taker in the men’s T20Is between India and Pakistan, with 13 strikes from six innings. He took three three-fors in those six innings and averages only 12 runs per wicket with the ball.
• Since their previous meeting in T20Is at the T20 World Cup, India have recorded a run rate of 9.66 (third best among Full Members) in men’s T20Is, while Pakistan are 8.12 (seventh best among Full Members).

Quotes

“We’re very lucky with Sanju, Axar and Hardik – guys who can bat anywhere from up the order to 7-8. So it’ll be part of our strategy to use our versatility when conditions are a little bit tough, like we expect them to be.”
“It’s a big game, and fans from both countries care deeply about it. But it’s important for us to follow our processes in the same way, and work on improving our execution.”