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Babar Azam appears set to fulfil his T20 Blast contract with Somerset after the end of Pakistan’s T20I series in England, pending a No Objection Certificate from the PCB. Azam, the leading run-scorer in the competition last season in his first year with the county, was due to spend five weeks at Taunton this summer before the Covid-19 pandemic altered the dates of both the county and international seasons.While Surrey and Northants cancelled contracts for Shadab Khan and Faheem Ashraf respectively, Somerset have kept Azam’s deal on the table throughout, and hope to confirm that he will be available next week. He would miss the first three or four fixtures due to his involvement in the T20Is, but looks set to play the bulk of the rest of the tournament.ESPNcricinfo understands that the remaining question mark over his availability is dependent on whether he will be exempted from the National T20 Cup, Pakistan’s domestic competition, which is set to be staged at the end of September.Hampshire have yet to confirm Shaheen Shah Afridi’s availability for the tournament, but at this stage he appears less likely to play in the Blast than Azam. They will announce the signing of Scotland international George Munsey for the tournament next week, while James Vince is set to miss the start of the competition for the birth of his second child.***Unusual problems may call for unusual solutions, but it would be quite something for a team to qualify for this year’s Bob Willis Trophy final by virtue of taking more wickets than another group winner.In this season’s abbreviated first-class competition, the two group winners with the most points will reach the five-day final at Lord’s on September 23. If the current standings were used, Essex (61 points) would progress, but Worcestershire and Derbyshire (57) would have to be split by a tie-breaker.Under the tournament’s playing conditions, they would be split first on most wins (two each), then fewest losses (both unbeaten), most points in contests between them (they won’t play each other), wickets taken, and runs scored. That means Worcestershire, with 57 wickets, would edge out Derbyshire on 46 to reach Lord’s; in case you were wondering, they’ve hit more boundaries, too.***The winner of the Central Group seems likely to be decided in the final round when Somerset head to New Road, but both teams will be acutely aware that their positions could be stronger if they had timed declarations better.Joe Leach may live to rue a late declaration against Glamorgan•Getty Images

Alex Gidman defended Joe Leach’s belated pulling of the plug in the second round, with Glamorgan escaping on 141 for 7 after being set 358 in 50.4 overs, while a miserable final day in Birmingham meant Somerset ended up with only 15.4 overs to take the last four Warwickshire wickets. While the welfare of bowlers is an important concern in an abbreviated season, whichever side fails to qualify will rue their caution come late September.***Players were told at the PCA’s rookie camp in February that there had never been a better time to be a professional cricketer, but inevitably the Covid-19 pandemic has put the brakes on that.This week, the players’ union signed off a deal intended to protect jobs for next season, including a reduction in the minimum wage, the option of a summer contract, and young players being able to extend their ‘rookie’ deals into next season even if they should be ineligible due to age limitations – as reported by ESPNcricinfo in June.***As Leicestershire and Durham decided to set their game up on the final morning this week, there seemed few better candidates for some declaration bowling than Hassan Azad, whose first-class career with the ball extended to a solitary over playing for Loughborough MCCU in 2016. But after Sam Evans had lobbed up some gentle pies from the far end, the second ball of Azad’s first over was a wicked googly, which skidded through low and onto the base of leg stump, possibly via Brydon Carse’s edge. Carse and non-striker Ned Eckersley were both nonplussed, while Azad’s celebration was muted; but it was Carse who had the last laugh in the run chase before the rain intervened, bowling Azad via the inside edge to get his revenge.Meanwhile, Essex’s highly-rated young batsman Rishi Patel will join Leicestershire on loan for the rest of the Bob Willis Trophy. He played six first-class games for Essex last season but has fallen behind Feroze Khushi in the pecking order this year.***Somerset have labelled their captain Tom Abell ‘the mop’ for his ability to clean up tailenders, and he gave a reminder of his knack by removing nine, ten and jack in the first innings of their draw with Warwickshire to finish with 3 for 4 from his 3.2 overs. But perhaps that moniker would be better suited to Mason Crane, the Hampshire legspinner. Crane ripped through the Surrey lower order this week to seal a thumping win, and has now dismissed a No. 9 batsman twice, a No. 10 batsman twice, and four No. 11s this season.All in all, he has taken 11 wickets at 8.72 in the BWT – some improvement after returns of five wickets at 107.80 in last year’s County Championship. Surrey, meanwhile, are rock bottom, with fewer points than anyone else in the competition. They will be boosted by Ben Foakes’ return from the England bubble on Saturday, while Ollie Robinson is set to play for Sussex.***Northants have left T20 captain Josh Cobb out of their side throughout the first-class season, but he seems to be finding his feet ahead of the Blast. In Northants’ first warm-up game against Leicestershire on Thursday, he hit nine sixes and a four in a 45-ball 80, before clubbing 33 off 14 in the second.Josh Cobb in action for Northants•Getty Images

Having missed out in last year’s Hundred draft, Cobb will feel he has a point to prove in the Blast, and will be hoping to remind teams of his ability, with some spots for 2021 likely to be up for grabs in a partial re-draft.No final decision has been made regarding whether picks from the draft will remain valid, but it is understood that there will be some kind of retention mechanism similar to that initially planned, which allowed teams to keep up to ten players from their squads for the following season at a mutually agreed salary band.The exact details will be ironed out between the PCA and the ECB next month, with an announcement to follow after England have announced their centrally contracted players for 2021.

Tom Curran reckons that the opening night of the IPL in Sharjah offered a sign of things to come for bowling attacks in this year’s competition, after the Rajasthan Royals out-muscled the Chennai Super Kings in a bat-dominated contest that featured a record-equalling 33 sixes across the two innings.Curran himself was subjected to six of those, including three in a row in the final over of the match, as MS Dhoni belatedly turned on the afterburners with the contest already out of his side’s reach.But, Curran said, given the combination of Sharjah’s short boundaries and the onset of dew in the latter stages of the CSK chase, he was happy to have taken his licks and emerged on the winning side – especially given that his brother Sam was in the opposition ranks.”It’s going to be tough work throughout the tournament, bowling at Sharjah,” Curran said. “It’s obviously small, but when the dew came in the second innings, it became really, really hard.”The ball got really, really wet and with the combination of the humidity and how much you end up sweating there, there’s going to be some entertaining high-scoring games. And the toss is going to be crucial as well.”Curran’s second foray in the IPL comes after an initial stint as a late replacement for KKR in 2018, in which he picked up six wickets in five matches, but at an economy rate of nearly two a ball.This time around, however, his burgeoning reputation as a death bowler – for Surrey and Sydney Sixers as well as England – persuaded the Royals to shell out INR 1 crore (USD140,000 approx) at last year’s auction. And while his skills weren’t exactly tested on Tuesday night, given that he was defending 38 in the final over of the match, the experience was valuable nonetheless, given that the Royals’ next match, against the King’s XI Punjab, takes place at the same venue on Sunday night.”It was frustrating to go for those sixes but, at the same time, with a wet ball like that, the main thing was to not bowl a no-ball and make sure we win the game,” Curran said. “If I start trying to nail my yorkers and the ball slips out, and I bowl a flat one that goes for six, it just brings them back into the game.”The pressure isn’t off but it kind of is, if you know what I mean,” he added. “It’s nice that we’d won the game but, as a bowler, to run up there at one of the most destructive batters in the world, it’s not the nicest situation. It’s one of those things really. It’s about adapting on the night really, and trying to get the job done for the team, which is what we did as an attack very nicely last night.”Tom Curran poses in his Rajasthan Royals colours•Getty Images

As a bowler who relies on sleight of hand more than outright pace, however, Curran recognises that he won’t be able to shelve his variations indefinitely in such conditions.”As the tournament goes on, it’ll be about practising with a wet ball and just trying to make the best out of a bad situation,” he said. “Concentrate on the next ball and try and limit those big, big overs because there’s going to be boundaries, there’s going to be a lot of sixes. It’s about limiting those, I guess.”If his evening’s work with the ball wasn’t quite as he might have planned, then Curran did at least enjoy a degree of one-upmanship against his brother, whom he withstood in an innings of 10 not out that, with Jofra Archer letting rip at the other end with four consecutive sixes, helped to lift the Royals to an insurmountable total of 216 for 7.Sam Curran did land some telling blows on the Royals, if not his brother, claiming 3 for 33 with the ball before cracking 17 from six balls after being promoted up the CSK order. “He came out with one intention. And one message, to swing pretty hard,” Tom said. “So unless he got 80-odd, I don’t think I would have bowled to him.”I wouldn’t say there was any chirping, but there was a bit of banter going into the game, so it was nice that we got a win there,” he added. “But it was a strange feeling, a different type of concentration really, seeing him running up, there were a lot more things on my mind than usual for those first couple, which was strange.”ALSO READ: ‘I worked on range hitting during the break – Sanju SamsonTom’s main scoring shot against Sam was an outside-edged yorker that flew through third man for four, but while he was happy not to have got out to his younger brother, he did rue a missed opportunity to put a more definitive stamp on their mini-battle.”I’d have liked to put him into the stands for a couple, to be honest! The last ball I faced, he tried to bounce me actually, which was surprising because he had square leg up. I wish I’d stood still because I reckon that was my chance to put him into the stands. But he was getting his yorkers in, so I tried to put him off and walk down the wicket.”It was good fun. We definitely had a laugh about it afterwards but, like I said, I’d have liked to have put him into the stands. He had a really good game, but we had a win. It’s nice to get a win and hopefully we get another little battle in a couple of weeks when we play them again.”Watch the Rajasthan Royals take on the King’s XI Punjab on Sky Sports, Sunday, September 27, at 3pm BST

Drew Ginn, Cricket Australia’s high-performance chief, concedes that not all states are mindful enough of nurturing spin bowling in domestic cricket, and has empowered the pathways manager Graham Manou to take a more focused approach to developing Australian spin bowlers as one of the key blind spots of the national team’s armoury for overseas tours in particular.Speaking ahead of the start of the Sheffield Shield in Adelaide from Saturday, Ginn acknowledged that some states were more amenable to developing spin bowlers than others, in concert with the types of pitch conditions prepared at their home venues. As a consequence, he said that CA needed to be doing all it could to prepare players for coping with challenges they were likely to face overseas, particularly in terms of bowling spin and batting effectively against it.Australia have won just one series in Asia since 2006, on the 2011 tour of Sri Lanka, losing or drawing eight others in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the UAE in that time. While the Test match exploits of Nathan Lyon have been triumphs of persistence and faith, the retirement of Steve O’Keefe earlier this year again left the reserve cupboard nearly bare, save for the encouraging progress of the Queensland wrist spinner Mitchell Swepson, who told ESPNcricinfo he had needed to learn to play “second fiddle” to the pacemen in Brisbane.ALSO READ: Sheffield Shield preview: Squads, players to watch, new signings and fixturesCA is yet to re-hire the noted spin-bowling coach Craig Howard, a mentor to Swepson and others such as Ashton Agar, but Ginn said that the governing body needed to provide opportunities for spin bowlers to develop outside the state system when Shield pitches and match scenarios did not afford them enough of a chance to grow. Manou, as manager of the talent ID path from junior ranks through club and representative games up to national selection, is pivotal in this area.”Spin bowling’s something we need to keep fostering and driving forward,” Ginn said. “If the states, the environments they’re playing in, aren’t really catering to that, certainly one of the aspects of what we can do in the national system is making sure that centrally, we’re providing opportunities to ensure that players are international ready.”We’re always discussing about the next wave of young kids that are coming through and the skill sets we need for the national team. We’ve got a model called series planning, where we’re looking 18 months to two or three years down the track to major events and we’re looking at where our gaps and opportunities are.Getty Images

“One of the skill sets is spin bowling, playing spin and delivering spin. The view for us is let’s not try to get everyone in the system doing the same thing all at the same time. Let’s make sure we understand what’s happening in the different state environments [and] internationally let’s look at what we’ve got to get ready for, and then make sure we’re really providing the opportunities for players that are coming through.”Howard has noted that while Lyon has proven to be extremely durable, the next rank needed to be encouraged and placed under the pressure of match scenarios in which they were required to bowl sides out in the fourth innings on deteriorating surfaces: a set of circumstances that has grown increasingly rare in the Shield and has advocated changes to pitch preparation to rebalance things. Pre-coronavirus, conversations had turned to whether spin bowlers might be granted chances to play in overseas first-class tournaments in addition to Australia A tours, though this option now looks far less viable.ALSO READ: Cricket Australia spin chief: Sheffield Shield pitches, not the ball, need to change “This year’s going to be difficult from that point of view, but maybe when things do open up a little bit, getting our spinners to work in other first-class systems around the world so they can have that feeling of having to be the man and having to be the person to bowl that team out on the last day,” Howard said. “Or looking at options within our first-class system as far as scarification of wickets in their areas.”Gaz obviously isn’t getting any younger, although he’s incredibly fit and he’s not going anywhere any time soon, if something was to happen to him, we want to make sure there’s plenty of back-up options, not just the one or two that are playing Shield cricket. Ideally it’d be great to have six or eight options to pick the best one available at the time. Also when we head outside of Australia, there’s going to be a real need for two, sometimes three spin options in some of these areas so we want to make sure we’ve got six or eight to pick the best three.”Getty Images

Ginn, who works in a parallel role with CA’s head of national teams, Ben Oliver, said that it was important for venues to accurately reflect their characteristics in Test matches, rather than providing grassier or more “sporting” pitches for Shield games.”There’s been some good conversations during the winter months,” he said. “We’ve got to keep making sure that every part of the game is fostered and developed, and the spin bowling stats are something that people do cite. I know there’s discussions always among curators as to how they make their venues play so that’s really critical to us.”But also how do you make sure that the venue characteristics that do allow for spin bowling are really utilised. So there’s good changes that have been occurring the last few years to make sure every major venue plays as the major venue characteristics are, and I think for spin bowling, hopefully in the next one to two seasons we start to see a change there.”

Cheteshwar Pujara says India have “every chance of winning” the Test series again in Australia, if they can repeat what they did in 2018-19. While he agrees David Warner and Steven Smith’s presence – after they missed the 2018-19 series due to the ball-tampering ban – adds more heft to Australia, Pujara has linked India’s potential success to their bowlers who, he believes, can work up the magic again.Jasprit Bumrah’s 21 wickets were the joint-best tally with Nathan Lyon in their previous series down under, while Mohammed Shami’s 16 was a close second.”It (the Australian batting line-up) will be a little stronger than what it was in 2018-19, but then victories don’t come easy. If you want to win away from home, you need to work hard,” Pujara told PTI. “No doubt Smith, Warner and Marnus Labuschagne are great players. But the good part about our current crop of bowlers is that most of them play in the same series, and our bowling unit will also not be very different to what it was in 2018-19.”They know how to be successful in Australia as they have enjoyed success there in the past. They have their game-plans in place and if we can execute them well, they are capable of getting Smith, Warner and Labuschagne out quickly. If we can do what we have done in the past, I am sure we have every chance of winning the series again.”Bumrah and Shami had set up the series by picking up six wickets between them in a tight second innings to open the series with a 31-run win in Adelaide. Although Australia hit back in the second Test in Perth with a 146-run win, India’s fast bowlers proved to be relentless in the third Test at the MCG, where Australia conceded 443.Bumrah was particularly sensational, picking nine wickets in the game – including 6 for 33 in the first innings – to ensure a massive first-innings lead for the visitors. As a result, India won by 137 runs to take an unassailable lead in the series. Following that win, Virat Kohli had paid the biggest compliment a captain can to his bowlers when he said he only sat and listened in bowlers’ meetings.Pujara’s contribution itself wasn’t any less significant. He struck three centuries in a series tally of 521 runs across seven innings – his 123 and 71 in Adelaide had earned him the Man-of-the-Match award – while Rishabh Pant’s 350 runs were a distant second. Contrarily, no Australia batsman had made more than Marcus Harris’ 258 runs in the series, mirroring the kind of dominance India’s bowlers enjoyed.This time, India open with a day-night Test in Adelaide, their first on foreign soil. India’s lone pink-ball Test had ended in a little over two days last year, with the visiting Bangladesh team offering little fight on the face of some dominating Indian bowling, especially from Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav, in Kolkata.Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah share a laugh•Getty Images

But Pujara believes Adelaide will be a “different challenge” because the surface will be different. “It will be a different challenge altogether playing with the pink ball as the pace and bounce also change,” he said. “We will be playing with the pink Kookaburra in Australia (against Bangladesh, India played with the pink SG ball). It will be slightly different.”As a team and as individuals, one has to understand and accept and get used to it (pink ball and lights) as early [as] possible. There will be a bit of difference with the pink ball. The twilight period is more challenging than other periods, but as you play more and practice more, you get used to it. It does take a little while.”Pujara is one of only two members of the Test squad who hasn’t had any match time for over ten months. He last featured for Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy final against Bengal in March, straight out of a long flight from New Zealand. With him and Hanuma Vihari not part of the IPL, the pair arrived in Dubai early and trained for a week before departing for Australia with the rest of the squad.For a better part of the last five months since lockdown restrictions were slightly eased in India, Pujara has trained at his academy in the outskirts of Rajkot, along with a few members of Saurashtra’s Ranji Trophy-winning squad. With domestic cricket in India yet to resume, he hasn’t had any match time – but that isn’t something he is worried about.”Even during the last tour, my preparation was good. I am confident that I will be able to repeat the same preparation before this series also,” Pujara said. With 5840 runs at present, he will also be hoping to go well beyond 6000 Test runs while in Australia. “I always try and add a few more things in my game, which will help me get better.”Does the lack of match time in India bother him? “Look, this is a situation that has impacted millions of lives and people have lost lives. In normal circumstances, we would have played domestic cricket and gone to Australia, but everyone needs to think about safety and security. As far as I am concerned, I am happy if I am able to practice, do my fitness, running sessions and move my body well, which I did.”

“It feels strange,” Kieron Pollard said at the toss as West Indies played New Zealand in the first T20I and he stood in the middle of Eden Park surrounded by a crowd. Covid-19 had changed cricket, but the first signs of the game starting to heal and move on were evident in Auckland as the people in the ground reveled in some sensational – and at times unbelievable – cricket.

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There was Lockie Ferguson, insisting that he won’t bowl a click slower than 150. He picked up his first five-wicket haul in T20Is and while that is memorable on its own, the spell that he bowled – the way he had the world champions ducking and weaving and wearing the ball because they were too slow to react – was the more riveting spectacle. Ferguson finished with figures of 4-0-21-5, with West Indies not in control of 18 of the 24 balls he delivered on Friday evening.Pollard vs Ferguson was only a two-ball event – “Didn’t face him. Smart boy.”, the West Indies captain said with a chuckle at the post-match press conference – but the rest of the New Zealand bowlers took a pasting. From 59 for 5 in the sixth over, Pollard took his team to 180 for 7 in a rain-reduced 16-overs-a-side game.”For me, when the bowlers have their tails up, you have to try something as a batter,” he said. “Sometimes you just have to make one mistake. The rain and the nature of the pitch sort of helped us, with the ball coming through. The opening bowlers were a bit short. But he (Ferguson) changed his length and bowled a bit fuller, and that’s why he was successful. Again, daunting task, but these are the situations you train for as individuals, when you’re team is in trouble you try to get them out.”

‘Special having a good day with nan watching over us’ – Ferguson

Lockie Ferguson’s best performance in a T20I came on the back of a personal tragedy.
“My nan, who I was pretty close with, passed away about a month ago which was a shame. I couldn’t be back for her funeral which was a shame. So pretty special having a good day out with her watching over us.”

Ferguson knew – even though he was ripping them apart – that West Indies would be able to recover if their captain stayed at the crease long enough.”When you face these guys – especially Kieron, who has been very successful – over the last few months, winning every competition there is, you’re under the pump [as] Eden Park gets even smaller,” Ferguson said.ALSO READ – Ferguson, Neesham, Conway star in topsy-turvy win“I thought we bowled a couple of yorkers that only missed by a little bit and they went a long way into the boundary. Once again, we have to look at our plans and execute them better going forward. That’s pretty cliché in T20 cricket. You have good days and you have bad [days]. If we continue to improve, we’ll be better for it. But you’ve got to tip your hat when a guy plays an innings like that, especially after we got quick wickets but he settled himself and had a quick burst in the end.”Pollard made 75 off only 37 balls, and if that sounds like he walked in and went berserk, think again. He took care to get himself in. He respected New Zealand’s momentum when they took five wickets for one run. He fought against it, bit by bit, until the umpire mistakenly ruled him out lbw in the ninth over. The review was emphatic. The next ball went for six. The sleeping giant had awakened.When asked about the official’s decision and his animated response to it, Pollard said, “You take it in whatever perception you want. I’m not gonna say anything. Just wanted it to be consistent. Asking for consistency. Being a visiting team, there are some things you expect but we’ll continue to fight.”Lockie Ferguson celebrates the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer•Getty Images

A grand spell of fast bowling. A back-to-the-wall batting masterclass from a T20 legend. A hint of controversy. This riveting game turned in the end due to some rusty cricket from West Indies, who had only come out of quarantine yesterday.Keemo Paul then bowled four no-balls in the 14th over of the chase – one overstep and three high full-tosses. New Zealand had slowly been whittling down a frightful asking rate. From 115 required off 60, to 82 off 42 and then to 39 off 24, but at the end of that ten-ball over, they needed only 15 off 12.”In terms of our disciplines, in the bowling aspect, I thought we were a bit erratic,” Pollard summed up. “And in international cricket, if you bowl so many no-balls and if you’re so inconsistent, you are definitely going to end up on the losing side. But it was an entertaining game of cricket for the fans and the general public, something they haven’t got to see in a very long time.”West Indies’ waywardness was the result of their search for yorkers and they were forced into a place with so little margin of error by Jimmy Neesham. He came in after a run-out sent Ross Taylor back for a duck in the seventh over, but instead of that breakthrough proving a turning point for West Indies, it ended up one for New Zealand, as the left-hander carved up 48 match-winning runs in only 24 balls.”Jimmy was a bit of a big brother to me in high school and we played a lot of age groups together,” Ferguson said. “But to be fair, the Black Caps are a pretty tight bunch of mates and when anyone does well and wins the game for us, then of course we get around them.””I think that’s a big part of our culture. We try to drive that. Obviously pumped that Sants (Mitchell Santner) and Neesh could get some runs and bat well at the end there. Certainly, we’ll celebrate tonight. It was one of the craziest games I’ve ever been part of. I was in the changing room for our whole batting innings not sure what to do!”

Hardik Pandya will have to resume bowling before India consider him as a Test option again. This much was made clear when Virat Kohli was asked if the management would be tempted to retain the allrounder for the Test series, after a string of important performances in the limited-overs leg of the tour, where he played as a specialist batsman and ended up Man of the Series in the T20s.Apart from bowling an impromptu spell during the second ODI against Australia, Pandya has gone all season – including the IPL – playing only as a batsman, as he continues to build up to full fitness following a back surgery last year. The messaging around his non-bowling, from voices like Mumbai Indians’ Mahela Jayawardene and Zaheer Khan, had been one of caution – of not rushing him back into a bowling workload, and that seems to be the picture in the national team as well.ALSO WATCH: Match highlights: Wade and Maxwell set up win for Australia (Indian subcontinent only) “He’s been outstanding,” Kohli said in a press conference after the T20I series concluded. “He couldn’t bowl and we knew he’s not going to bowl. But what we saw of him in the IPL, and the headspace that he’s in, you know – you can just see in his game – that he’s wanting to make the team win. But Test cricket is a very different challenge altogether and we need him to bowl. We’ve spoken to him about it.”We need him to bowl. That’s when he becomes that one guy who brings a lot of balance for us. If you’ve seen our cricket overseas as well, in South Africa and England, we were able to compete for longer periods through Test matches because of the fact that he brought a lot of balance in terms of his bowling. We’ve communicated that to him.”After the second T20I, Pandya had been asked on air if he would like to stay back for the Tests, and showed brief interest in the idea. “It’s a different ball game I think I need to be…I mean, I don’t mind. But at the end of the day it is the call for the management and everyone (to make),” he had said. By the end of the third T20I on Tuesday, though, he said he was keen on spending time with his family and not thinking of a Test comeback at the moment.Hardik Pandya produced a stunning innings to win India the series•Getty Images

Pandya has played 11 Tests for India since debuting in 2017, the last one in England in 2018. Recurring lower back niggles have since kept him away. He averages 31.29 with the bat, with five fifty-plus scores, and 31.05 with the ball with one five-for. The management’s requirement for him to be firing as a complete allrounder to be considered for Tests is something he is clear about.ALSO WATCH: Video highlights: Virat Kohli’s 85 (Indian subcontinent only)“He’s definitely in a zone where he wants to get stronger, figure out and iron out all these niggles, and he wants to be able to provide for India with all three disciplines – and that’s always been his X-factor and it will continue to be,” Kohli said. “In white-ball cricket, we’ve found someone who can finish games and consistently. But he himself wants to get back into the bowling space and be available as a pure allrounder in Tests, which becomes way more important. Over five days, you need a little extra from a player in that role. So he understands that and is working really hard to come back.”Shami, Bumrah were being kept fresh for first TestIndia were slated to play two multi-day tour games, one of which concluded on Tuesday without the involvement of senior fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, who were with the T20I team. Bumrah, however, didn’t participate in any of the three T20s and Shami only played in the first one at Canberra. Kohli said this was an attempt to beware the packed schedule and what it could do to fitness levels.”It’s very important to understand that you need guys fresh for the first Test,” Kohli said. “You need to take some calls along with playing so many games. The fact that we’ve played six games in absolutely no time is something that we all need to address and be wary of.”You don’t want guys starting the Test match feeling sore or feeling like their legs have had too many miles in them. So we keep constantly communicating with the bowlers, asking them how their bodies are feeling, and they’ve been pretty professional and pretty good in communicating back what they need. We need to show absolute trust and faith in their processes and make sure they’re in the right headspace heading into the first Test.”ALSO WATCH: Video highlights: Zampa gets rid of Pandya (Indian subcontinent only) In all, India have played six limited-overs matches since the tour began on November 27, and the constraints in the schedule meant one of their practice games overlapped with the last two T20 matches. The time available before the Test series begins is a useful pause, Kohli said, but the overall schedule meant workload management was inevitable for those involved in all formats.”I think before we go into the first Test, the feeling that we’ll want to have is that our games are at an acceptable level,” Kohli said. “But more important than that is that you’re physically fresh. We can’t afford the slightest of niggles or muscle strains. That is the biggest priority for us – to keep our main players physically fit. To start the Test series well, we will need our fittest eleven players on the field.”India’s final tour game starts on Friday, before the first Test in Adelaide from December 17. It will be the only Test Kohli plays before departing on paternity leave. Kohli said he was personally in a good headspace heading into the longer format, after what he called a scratchy start to the tour.”Tonight I felt particularly good. I think I’m in the right headspace now. I think it was a bit scratchy in the first ODI to begin with, but then I addressed a few things and worked on a few aspects of my game that I wanted to. Purely to get into the best headspace that I possibly can, not thinking too much technique. Because when I get into a good headspace is when I feel like I can play and switch between all formats, and adjust according to the conditions as well,” he said.

Melbourne Stars fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile was expecting to get released from his IPL franchise Mumbai Indians but the news could not have come at a worse moment.Coulter-Nile, 33, was on his return to the BBL on Thursday night after missing the last three weeks with a calf injury. He took 3 for 12 from his first 15 balls to put the Stars in a commanding position with the Renegades needing 62 to win from 27 balls.But he gave up three sixes and two fours in his last eight balls of the game, including 19 runs from the 19th over the match, as the Renegades won with two balls to spare.Adding salt to the wound, Coulter-Nile found out he had been released from the IPL champions the moment he turned his phone on.”Yep, that was good,” Coulter-Nile said. “Just got smacked in the 19th [over], get off the field and get told I’m being flicked, get the email.”Despite the timing, he was not surprised even after he had played in Mumbai’s title, taking 2 for 29 in the IPL final win over Delhi Capitals including the wickets of Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel.Related

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“I was expecting that was going to happen,” Coulter-Nile said. “They paid overs for me so I thought that was going to happen. Hopefully, I can get picked up again this year. I’ve got nothing else on so hopefully I can get to the IPL.”Coulter-Nile was bought by Mumbai for AUD$1.63 million (8 crore) at the last IPL auction but was released after one season. He was one of nine Australians who were released by their IPL franchises, including international stars Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, and Aaron Finch.Coulter-Nile was also pragmatic about his prospects of returning to Australia’s limited-overs sides. He last played a T20I on Australia’s triumphant tour of India in 2019 and played five matches in the World Cup before missing out on selection at the business end of the tournament.Despite an expensive over against the Renegades, Nathan Coulter-Nile has had a good BBL either side of injury•Getty Images

He has bowled well in the four matches he’s played in the BBL, either side of his calf injury, claiming nine wickets at an economy rate of 6.36 and a strike-rate of 9.20.But even with Australia’s selectors likely to need up to 36 players to go on two different tours at the same time in February, Coulter-Nile does not believe he will be called upon for Australia’s five-match T20I tour of the New Zealand that follows the BBL.”I’ve not even thought about,” Coulter-Nile said. “I don’t think I’m in the mix at all. It’s just reading between the lines I think. I haven’t played for Australia in two years or something. So, I think I can just work it out myself.”Coulter-Nile is fully invested in trying to win the Stars an elusive BBL title after joining the club last year on a four-year deal.He blamed his performance on Wednesday night on some rust but was confident he could bounce back against Perth Scorchers on Saturday.”The first 18 balls were good,” he said. “My plan B, which were yorkers and fuller slower balls just weren’t coming out. I haven’t played that much in a few weeks which is what I’ll put it down to, but I’ll move on. I’ve played enough cricket to hopefully come back on Saturday and bowl well.”The Stars let an opportunity slip against the Renegades to all-but sew up a finals spot. They now face the Scorchers and the ladder-leading Sydney Sixers in their last two games.”Obviously that one hurts because that really could have put us in the mix for finals and now we’ve got to play the best two teams and win and hopefully that will put us in a good position,” Coulter-Nile said.”You’d rather be in a position where we’re flying on top of the ladder like the Sixers are but I guess if we do win these two games and get in the finals we’ll obviously gain some momentum, the boys will be playing some good cricket and we’ll have probably beaten the teams that we’re going to play in the finals.”

England’s seamers have been “licking their lips” at the thought of using a pink ball under floodlights in Ahmedabad, according to Ben Stokes.While England succumbed to a defeat by 317 runs in a second Test dominated by the spinning ball, Stokes believes the third could be “a completely different game” with the seamers expected to play a larger role.Indeed, Stokes claims the seamers’ net session under lights on Sunday had to be abandoned after conditions became “really dangerous” and “a few guys actually got hit”. Partially as a consequence, he feels England have a “great chance” to fulfil one of his career ambitions and establish a series-defining position in the coming days.”Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson and Jofra Archer have been licking their lips, I can tell you,” Stokes told talkSPORT. “It’s a completely different game.”It was funny in training yesterday, when the lights came on, the nets actually got really dangerous. The bowlers had to stop bowling in the nets because we were actually worried that some of the batters were going to get injured because the ball started jumping off a length and a few guys actually got hit.”We had to take the bowlers out into the middle to finish their spells. Whether that’s going to be similar in the middle we’re not sure. But you can tell the difference when bowling with a red ball in the normal times you see Tests played to bowling with a pink ball when the lights are on.”While England’s experience may turn out to reveal more about the quality of pitches in the nets rather than anything about the pink ball, it does strengthen the suspicion that England may revert to an attack including only one spinner in this Test. If that were the case, it would probably mean Joe Root operating as a second spinner to Jack Leach with no recall for Dom Bess.Anderson looks certain to return with the new ball, with Archer also likely to be recalled having overcome a minor elbow injury. That means Chris Woakes, whose batting could be crucial as England seek to avoid a long tail, could be vying with Broad for the final spot in the side.Archer, who missed the second Test through injury, revealed in a separate interview that he had had a cortisone injection to help settle an elbow complaint, adding that he had been expecting to sit out that contest anyway on account of England’s rest and rotation policy.James Anderson will be ‘licking his lips’ to use the pink ball, says Stokes•BCCI

“I tried to use the best of the two-week window,” Archer said. “I could have played the second Test if needed but I was going to be rested anyway so I just tried to get the cortisone injection then so I would have enough time to rebuild for the third Test”It’s always nice to be in competition for a spot,” he added. “If I don’t get it that’s fine. I would much rather win the Test series than try to play lots of games.”Stokes also admitted he had been inspired to make improvements in his own game by his captain. Such was Root’s hunger for self-improvement that Stokes said he had rethought his own game-plans and become a more consistent player as a result.”I look at Rooty,” Stokes said. “He’s one of the best players in the world. I’m going to say it now: he is England’s greatest batsman to play the game.”But he’s still looking at ways to improve as a player and a captain. It’s amazing to watch someone with his skill doing that. Even as a senior player, I look up to how he’s always trying to improve. That’s what I do: I always try and evolve and try to work things out to become a better player. No one is ever the finished article. There’s always room for improvement with every player.”I got rid of the ‘this is how I play’ excuse massively – in terms of always looking to be aggressive or attacking – when I realised that was just an excuse for when failures happen.”Every now and then the ‘that’s how I play’ mind-set would work and pay off ,and I’d do some decent things. But not as consistently as I can now. I expect a lot more of myself these days compared to back then.Related

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“Once I got rid of that mind-set, I had more understanding of the game situation. I understood when I needed to change the way I play in terms of being a little bit more defensive because, in the long term, that could be better for the team.”So, [I understood that], if I stay in longer and survive the tough bits, then I can go up into fourth or fifth gear.”While winning the Ashes in Australia remains one of Stokes’ key ambitions, he feels winning in India would represent just as big an achievement. And, with the series poised at 1-1 and the prospect of a match in which seamers could play a prominent role ahead, he feels the next couple of weeks presents “a great chance” for England to secure a rare series victory in India.”As a cricketer, if you can retire having won an ICC event, the Ashes at home, the Ashes away and this tour, for me, is one of those: beating India in India, it would be amazing,” he said. “It would be amazing to stay I’ve been able to accomplish all those things.”I still need to tick off another two: Australia in Australia and India here. But we’ve a great chance to do that over the next couple of weeks.”To follow the action from India, download the talkSPORT app, re-tune your DAB radio, listen at talkSPORT.com or tell your smart speaker to ‘play talkSPORT 2’. Coverage starts at 8am with live play from 9am.

Jofra Archer will miss England’s ODI series in India and the early stages of the IPL season, the ECB have confirmed.As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Archer’s elbow injury has become a growing concern for the England management over the course of the tour to India, and will be investigated further by the ECB’s medical team when he returns to the UK.It is understood that Archer’s IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals, remain optimistic about the possibility of him featuring for them this season but have accounted for him missing at least the first few matches of the league phase. The tournament starts on April 9.”Jofra’s elbow issue has deteriorated over the course of the T20I series and made it increasingly difficult for him to maintain performance levels,” an ECB statement said. “He has been deemed unfit for selection for the ODI series that features matches on 23, 26 and 28 March.”The ECB medical team will assess the player and, together with Jofra, develop a treatment plan and a return-to-play schedule in due course. As a consequence, Jofra will miss the start of this year’s Indian Premier League.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

England have named a 14-man squad for the ODI series, featuring nine of the squad that won the World Cup in 2019. Joe Root and Chris Woakes both flew home after the Test series and have not returned to India.Chris Silverwood, England’s head coach, said: “Joe’s not with us – he’s obviously a fine one-day player as we all know but it was a good opportunity to give him a break having been in the bubble for so long through the Test series.”Woakesy isn’t here because he’s having a break. He’s spending some time with his family. He’s an outstanding contributor in ODI cricket and we know that. It’s just with the schedule as it is, we have to find holes for people somewhere.”Matt Parkinson, the 24-year-old legspinner who won two caps in South Africa in February 2020, may be given an opportunity as the only player to have been with the England camp throughout their winter schedule in Sri Lanka and India, while his Lancashire team-mate Liam Livingstone is in line to make his ODI debut.”I’ve got nothing but praise for Matt, the way that he’s conducted himself, the way that’s he’s trained, and the way that he’s got stuck in helping the lads as well,” Silverwood said. “He’s been an absolute delight to have on tour. He’s been fantastic while he’s been here.”Related

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Eoin Morgan hinted ahead of the T20I series that he would use the 50-over leg of the tour to look at fringe players, and Reece Topley, the tall left-arm seamer, is also among those likely to be handed a chance at some stage.Root’s absence leaves England needing to reshuffle their batting order, while Sam Billings will be given further opportunities to impress after making his maiden international hundred in their most recent ODI series, against Australia in September. Silverwood was due to meet Morgan on Sunday night to discuss plans for the series, but did not rule out the possibility that Ben Stokes would be promoted to bat at No. 3 in what will be his first ODI since the 2019 World Cup final.Jake Ball, Chris Jordan and Dawid Malan will remain with the squad as reserves in case of injury or illness. England travelled to Pune from Ahmedabad on Sunday, ahead of the first ODI on Tuesday.”We’re defending world champions so we want to go and there and put a good show on,” Silverwood said. “The World Cup is here again in 2023 so it’s a great opportunity for us to see conditions and to play out here, and for players to get experience under their belt. “