India

4:47 PM GMT Varun Shetty India will focus on starting their T20I series against New Zealand, which will kick off the month-long, all-format tour of the country, with “intensity”, Virat Kohli said on the eve of their departure to Auckland. In the short ODI series at home against Australia, India batted first with mixed results

1:23 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff An lbw appeal during a Ranji Trophy match could end up having an impact on India’s tour of New Zealand. Ishant Sharma will be hopeful the MRI scan he takes on Monday evening will not reveal a fracture or a tear, after he twisted his ankle and hobbled off the

5:37 AM GMT The “Dhoni, Dhoni” chants reverberated around the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday. The former India captain didn’t suddenly make an appearance. This was the crowd showing its displeasure towards KL Rahul‘s missed stumping to reprieve Steven Smith. Without the benefit of replays, it would have been hard to tell that the ball had

12:53 PM GMT India are yet to take a call on Shikhar Dhawan after he left the field clutching his left shoulder during the ODI series decider against Australia in Bengaluru on Sunday. Dhawan was immediately sent for an X-ray, with a BCCI spokesperson saying “a call on his availability for the game will be

5:51 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Whether MS Dhoni plays for India again or not, he will play the 2020 edition of the IPL for Chennai Super Kings and “will be retained” by the team when he goes into the mega auction prior to IPL 2021, according to N Srinivasan, the vice-chairman and managing director of

2:28 PM GMT Despite having not yet appointed a Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), the BCCI has put out an advertisement to fill positions in the national selection panels including the men’s committee where two members were on extension. On Sunday, the BCCI advertised to fill up the following positions: two slots on the senior men’s

2:17 AM GMT Vishal Dikshit in Rajkot When trying to finalise the best batting line-up in the ongoing series, India were wondering how to squeeze three openers in the XI and also fix a fragile-looking middle order with decent options but nobody really outshining the other. What do you do then? Simple, move an opener

6:20 PM GMT Nagraj Gollapudi Close News editor, ESPNcricinfo Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo Vishal Dikshit In a heartfelt tribute to Bapu Nadkarni, who died on Friday aged 86, Sunil Gavaskar has hailed the former India allrounder’s attitude and cricketing acumen. Gavaskar was in Rajkot, as part of the commentators’ panel for the

4:56 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Bapu Nadkarni, the former India allrounder known for his extreme economy with the ball, has died aged 86. Nadkarni, who made his India debut in December 1955, played 41 Test matches, scoring 1414 runs at an average of 25.70 and taking 88 wickets at 29.07. The statistic that defined him,

KS Bharat drives through the covers © Andhra Cricket Association India have called up Andhra wicketkeeper-batsman KS Bharat as cover for the injured Rishabh Pant, just before the second ODI in Rajkot on Friday. While KL Rahul is expected to keep wickets in Rajkot, Bharat has been added to the squad in case the Indian

8:56 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff MS Dhoni is missing from BCCI’s annual retainers’ list for 2019-20. Dhoni, who had been awarded a Grade A contract, the second-most lucrative retainer, in 2019, has not played a single professional game since the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand last year. India coach Ravi Shastri, though, stressed that

2:17 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Despite the discussion over reducing Test cricket from five days to four, Anil Kumble, former India captain and ICC cricket committee chairman, believes that the longest form of the game will continue to enjoy support in the playing community for lot longer than is being predicted. Kumble was talking about

1:38 PM GMT Sidharth Monga Sometimes you wonder if MS Dhoni just sits in his bat cave and lets out an evil smile watching fans discuss his future based on precious little information. If there is a cryptic throwaway line at a promotional event one day, there is the selectors writing him off on another

Jan 15, 2020 ESPNcricinfo staff R Ashwin will join Yorkshire for most of this year’s County Championship season. The club said 33-year-old Ashwin would become their “frontline overseas spinner” playing at least eight Championship matches once his IPL commitments with Delhi Capitals end and following a seven-day break immediately afterwards, requested by the BCCI. He

7:53 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff England allrounder Ben Stokes has won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC player of the year after playing starring roles in the side’s maiden 50-over World Cup triumph and one-wicket win in the Leeds Test during the Ashes in 2019. In a World Cup final for the ages,

9:40 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Opener Prithvi Shaw, who was in doubt for the New Zealand tour after hurting his shoulder in the Ranji Trophy, has now recovered and is set to join the India A squad there. The 20-year old underwent rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, after injuring his shoulder

1:18 AM GMT Australia are primed for the threat posed by India at the start of their T20 World Cup campaign next month with head coach Matthew Mott going as far as saying they are the most feared T20 batting line-up in the world. The Australia-India match at the Sydney Showgrounds Stadium on February 21

5:46 PM GMT The BCCI has been asked to convene a meeting of its Apex Council at the earliest by Alka Rehani Bharadwaj, the nominee of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG), to look into the conflict of interest complaints filed by Sanjeev Gupta, a life member at the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA). The

12:47 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Rishabh Pant has been diagnosed with concussion, resulting in his not being able to take the field for the second half of the first ODI against Australia in Mumbai. The 22-year old wicketkeeper was struck on the head by a bouncer from Mitchell Starc in the 44th over, a ricochet

Play 00:38 Star Sports Game Plan: Gambhir and Dean Jones predict series outcome Big Picture For the first time since being pumped by England in the World Cup semi-finals, Australia return to ODI cricket as they begin plotting their path for the next three-and-a-half years. India are both the hosts in 2023 and where Australia’s

9:32 AM GMT Vishal Dikshit in Mumbai KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan are both in form in the lead-up to India’s ODI series against Australia starting Tuesday, and India captain Virat Kohli revealed that playing both of them, along with Rohit Sharma, in the XI could be a possibility. Rahul and Dhawan opened together and

5:52 PM GMT Three former India cricketers – Gautam Gambhir, Madan Lal and Sulakshana Naik are in the running to be part of the next cricket advisory committee (CAC). The CAC has been dormant since the previous panel, led by former India captain Kapil Dev, resigned last October. ESPNcricinfo understands Gambhir has given his consent

7:24 PM GMT The intrigue surrounding Hardik Pandya‘s return following back surgery had a new twist as the allrounder did not feature in the 16-member Indian squad for the T20 series in New Zealand. Although the squad was picked mid-afternoon on Sunday by the five-member selection panel lead by MSK Prasad, the BCCI released the

6:47 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff India have named a 16-member squad for the five-match T20I series against New Zealand, which will kick off their tour from January 24. Rohit Sharma, who was rested for the recently concluded three-match series against Sri Lanka, is back in the squad as vice-captain. His direct replacement for the series,

7:03 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Harmanpreet Kaul will have a full-strength squad at her disposal when India play the Women’s T20 World Cup in February. Plenty of them are young players too. Shafali Verma is 15 and she is the team’s first-choice opener alongside vice-captain Smriti Mandhana. Jemimah Rodrigues, another key player in the top

5:47 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Jasprit Bumrah‘s trophy cabinet is set to include the BCCI’s Polly Umrigar award, recognising him as the best male cricketer for India in 2018-19. The 26-year-old fast bowler will be felicitated on Sunday in Mumbai alongside Poonam Yadav, who will go home with the title best women’s player of the

11:12 AM GMT Cheteshwar Pujara has started the year by joining a select band of cricketing greats. On Saturday, he scored his 50th first-class century, in the Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka at his home ground in Rajkot, thereby joining an elite list of nine Indians led by Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

8:00 AM GMT Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bowl first in the third T20I at Pune, as the hosts made three changes to the XI that won comfortably on Tuesday. Batsman Manish Pandey comes into the middle order, replacing Shivam Dube. Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant exits the XI to make way for Sanju

3:00 AM GMT Saurabh Somani Close Saurabh Somani is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo January 10: India v Sri Lanka – 3rd T20I in Pune Our XI: Kusal Perera, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Avishka Fernando, Angelo Mathews, Wanindu Hasaranga, Lahiru Kumara, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini NOTE: We might not always be

1:13 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Experience, consistency, adapting to Australian conditions, explosive power, flamboyance. These are the criteria India head coach Ravi Shastri feels MS Dhoni can convert into currency to buy himself a ticket to the T20 World Cup, which will be held in October in Australia. Even as the MSK Prasad-led selection panel