News Analysis India

Tag: selectors

  • IPL to get two new teams from 2022, BCCI backs ICC’s bid for cricket in Olympics

    The 89th Annual General Meeting of the BCCI ended on Thursday without any “surprises”. The members gave the approval for the introduction of two new franchises to the Indian Premier League (IPL), agreed to reduce the budget for the new National Cricket Academy (NCA) infrastructure, gave the Madan Lal-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) the go-ahead to interview candidates for the role of selectors, decided to give the International Cricket Council (ICC) a positive feedback on cricket’s chances at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and allowed the new appointments to take place as expected.

    The BCCI has approved the sale of two new franchises to be introduced to the IPL. However, the 2021 edition of the IPL will be an eight-team affair. The new franchises will be introduced ahead of the 2022 edition and the IPL Governing Council will take a call on whether to introduce one franchise now and the second later or both together.

  • Pink-ball lessons for India bowlers in draw

    India couldn’t force a tour match victory at Sydney on Sunday, though that’s not what they were chasing. With the visitors as well as Australia having dumped the idea of playing their virtual Test elevens in the warm-up tie, it became all about maximising the takeaways.

    Although India’s struggle for wickets once the pink ball got soft during the day is something they may want to learn from, they did tick many boxes in their quest to be best prepared for the opening Test starting in Adelaide on Thursday.

    Australia A finally offered some batting resistance in the form of Ben McDermott (107*), Alex Carey (58) and Jack Wildermuth (111*) to reach 307/4 in their second innings. Having run through the batting in a single session under lights on Day 1, the Indian bowlers wouldn’t be too unhappy to be subjected to the kind of grind they should be prepared for come the real test.

    Before settling for a draw, Mohammed Shami delivered two powerful punches to Australia’s Test preparations. Joe Burns and Marcus Harris, picked by Australian selectors to open at Adelaide, fell in Shami’s opening burst.

  • Shreyas Iyer may be reserve batsman for Tests

     With the availability of Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma for the first Test in Australia becoming uncertain by the day, the Indian team management is contemplating retaining a player from the white-ball squads currently in Australia.
    TOI has learnt that Shreyas Iyer may be asked to stay back as reserve batsman for the Test series.
    The selectors, while announcing the squad, didn’t specifically mention a replacement for Virat Kohli, who will be back home on paternity leave after the first Test in Adelaide which starts on Dec 17. It was assumed that Rohit would be an automatic replacement for Kohli. But with uncertainty growing over Rohit’s recovery from a hamstring injury, there could be a case of having another player as a reserve.
    “There won’t be any fresh player coming in after Rohit and Ishant’s arrival. The selectors picked a jumbo squad for this reason. If the need arises, Shreyas could be asked to stay back,” a BCCI source said.

    “As of now, the white-ball players are supposed to fly back before the Test series but there’s one change in the plans,” the source added.
    The Test team currently has eight batsmen which includes Kohli. If Rohit fails to recover in time or a batsman gets injured in the middle of the tour, then the team management will have very few options. The fast-bowling department, on the other hand, has five pacers. It will be interesting to see if the team management opts to retain a pacer from the white-ball squad for the Tests as a cover for Ishant.

  • Rohit Sharma Begins Fitness Training for Australia Tour in NCA

    India batsman Rohit Sharma has begun his fitness training at the National Cricket Academy on Thursday, PTI reported. Other than Rohit, India’s Test squad will be eagerly waiting on the news of fast bowler Ishant Sharma’s fitness.

    On Wednesday, senior pacer Ishant Sharma, who is also doing his injury rehab at the NCA, bowled full tilt under the supervision of chief selector Sunil Joshi and NCA head Rahul Dravid.

    Rohit is not part of India’s limited overs squad for the Australia tour and selectors included him in the revised Test squad after he played two IPL games for Mumbai Indians besides the final. Though Rohit said he was absolutely fine, the BCCI felt he needed more time to recover from his hamstring injury he had suffered during the IPL, triggering a massive debate over his fitness status.

    Rohit had also scored a fluent 68 in the IPL final which his team won by a handsome margin.

    Rohit’s fitness has become even more crucial since regular skipper Virat Kohli won’t be available after the first Test in Australia as his wife Anushka Sharma is expecting.

    Both Ishant and Rohit will fly to Australia together and undergo a 14-day quarantine before joining the team.

     Virat Kohli (c) (first Test only), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed SirajRead Full Article