No access to water for spectators at the MCA Stadium on a hot and humid day in Pune led to chaos and complaints of sickness among the fans who came to watch the first day of the second Test between India and New Zealand. During the lunch break, hundreds of spectators queued up near the

Tea New Zealand 201 for 5 (Mitchell 16*, Ashwin 3-48, Washington 2-34) vs India India called up a second offspinner from outside the squad ostensibly to lengthen their batting without compromising on taking the ball away from left-hand batters; the said offspinner combined with the existing offspinner to drag New Zealand back even though two

Big picture India have been here before. It hasn’t happened all that often in the recent past, but they’ve been 1-0 down in a home Test series. It happened against Australia in 2017, and then against England in 2021 and 2024. All three times, they came back to win the series. Both those series, however,

India coach Gautam Gambhir has vehemently backed KL Rahul to come good amid mounting scrutiny on his recent form in Test cricket. After making a duck in India’s 46 all out in the first innings of the Bengaluru Test, Rahul was dismissed for 12 in the second as India lost to New Zealand by eight

India are also hopeful of Pant returning to action as a wicketkeeper as they aim to bounce back from the defeat in the series opener in Bengaluru. Pant hurt his knee on the second day of the Test when he was attempting to stump Devon Conway in the 37th over of New Zealand’s innings. He

India fast bowler Mohammed Shami is now “100%” pain-free and wants to play one or two Ranji Trophy games to try and be fit for the tour of Australia that will start at the end of November. Shami is on the road to recovery after sustaining an ankle injury that has kept him out of

But like in Bengaluru, in Pune, too, India will look to field at least three spinners, though the combination could be altered keeping in mind the amount of spin that can be extracted from the slow surface. On Sunday, in a curious move, the Indian selectors decided to add Washington Sundar as the 16th member

Rohit Sharma has said that “three hours of bad cricket” do not define this Indian team and it would be unfair to judge his players on the basis of that. “I am not going to look too much into this Test match honestly because those three hours [when India were bowled out for 46] are

The BCCI’s selectors have added Washington to India’s Test squad as its 16th member, without making any other changes. On Sunday, New Zealand completed an eight-wicket win in the first Test in Bengaluru, their first Test win in India since 1988. The second Test is scheduled to start in Pune on October 24, and the

Mohammed Shami bowled for more than an hour on one of the main pitches at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium after the conclusion of the first Test between India and New Zealand in Bengaluru on Sunday. He also took part in fielding drills as he works towards a comeback from an ankle injury that has sidelined

India were bundled out for 46 on the second day – their lowest Test score at home – and eventually lost the game by eight wickets. But because of Sarfaraz’s 150 and Pant’s 99, they were able to overturn the deficit of 356. “When those two are batting, everyone’s on the edge of the seat

Washington Sundar began his first-class career for Tamil Nadu as an opener – that was the position he batted at in all five matches in his first Ranji Trophy season in 2016-17. Since then, though, he has largely batted in the lower middle order, sometimes as low as No. 8. But after scoring 152 from

The promised rain has stayed away from Bengaluru long enough for the first India vs New Zealand Test to get into a position from where all results are possible – with New Zealand certainly better placed – but the weather could have the final say after all. The Indian met department’s forecast, not long after

India 46 and 344 for 3 (Sarfaraz 125*, Pant 53*) trail New Zealand 402 by 12 runs India’s march back from 46 all out continued at a startling rate as Sarfaraz Khan and Rishabh Pant added 113 unbeaten runs in the 22 overs possible before lunch. India were now just 12 runs behind New Zealand

Apart from Gaikwad, the 15-man squad is set to include other opening batters like Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan, as India will likely need to name a reserve opener in their Test squad for the tour of Australia, with Rohit Sharma set to miss one of the first two matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for

The BCCI said that legspinner Asha Sobhana was unavailable for selection because of injury, while allrounder Pooja Vastrakar was rested. India’s squad for series against New Zealand Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vice-capt), Shafali Verma, D Hemalatha, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Uma Chetry (wk), Sayali Satghare, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, Tejal Hasabnis,

Innings New Zealand 402 (Ravindra 134, Conway 91, Southee 65, Jadeja 3-72) lead India 46 by 356 runs The frustration continued for India continued for an hour after lunch as New Zealand added 57 to their already imposing lead of 299 at the break. This deficit was well clear of any that India have overturned

Former India batter Hemang Badani will take over as the new head coach at Delhi Capitals (DC) for IPL 2025. Along with Badani, DC have also appointed former India batter Venugopal Rao as the director of cricket. While Badani replaces Ricky Ponting, who amicably parted ways recently after seven seasons as head coach, Rao takes

The injury happened in the 37th over of New Zealand’s innings, when Pant missed a stumping chance against Devon Conway off the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja and got hit on the knee after he failed to collect the ball. He went off the field immediately and was replaced by Dhruv Jurel. “Unfortunately, the ball hit

India 34 for 6 (Pant 15*, O’Rourke 3-13, Henry 2-12) vs New Zealand It was well worth the wait. On their seventh day of Test cricket in India this year, New Zealand finally got on the field on day two in Bengaluru and lost a good toss. Once they were denied their wish to bat

Former India seamer Paras Mhambrey has been appointed Mumbai Indians’ bowling coach ahead of IPL 2025. Mhambrey, who had served as MI’s assistant coach previously, will work alongside current bowling coach Lasith Malinga under newly appointed head coach Mahela Jayawardene. Mhambrey served as India’s bowling coach from 2021 till August this year under Rahul Dravid

The ECB’s senior leadership have conceded that cricket’s need to “protect broadcast rights” will see no changes to participating teams at next year’s Champions Trophy regardless of whether India decide to travel to Pakistan. The tournament is due to be staged in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi but India have not played an international match in

If India are looking at moving on from Harmanpreet Kaur as their captain, the time is now. That’s the opinion of Mithali Raj, following India’s group-stage exit from the women’s T20 World Cup. Harmanpreet has been in charge since replacing Raj in 2016 and has led the team at four T20 World Cups, but the

Rohit Sharma wants to injury-proof the Indian cricket team, and has called for expanding their bench strength, particularly the fast-bowling department so that they have eight or nine players ready to step into the first XI at any given moment. “We want to create a bench strength where tomorrow if anything happens to anyone, we

Yashasvi Jaiswal has received a ringing endorsement from his captain and opening partner Rohit Sharma who is not one bit surprised by the youngster’s meteoric rise and expects him “to do wonders for the team” across formats. Jaiswal made his international debut in a Test match last year against West Indies where he smashed 171

The weather had taken away roughly half the playing time of India’s last home Test, in Kanpur against Bangladesh just over two weeks ago, but India still managed to win the game with some quick run-scoring and fantastic bowling. New Zealand’s tour of the subcontinent has also had its share of weather woes – their

The BCCI’s decision to do away with the Impact Player comes shortly after they decided to retain it in the IPL for the next three seasons, up to 2027. Since its introduction in the 2023 season, the rule has stirred debate over whether it is indeed beneficial to Indian cricket, which was the original motive,

Test cricket isn’t what it used to be, and India have kept pace with the times – think of the Kanpur Test against Bangladesh just recently. But while run rates have soared and batters are looking for more boundary-scoring opportunities, India head coach Gautam Gambhir believes adaptability is still the most crucial element. “We want

Amol Muzumdar, the India head coach, was disconsolate after their semi-final hopes nosedived following their nine-run loss to Australia, but he wasn’t going to throw his team under the bus. He only hoped they can “learn from the experience and disappointment.” India were shoddy on the field and conceded “10-15 more” and tangled themselves into

Toss Australia chose to bat vs India Alyssa Healy arrived on crutches. Pooja Vastrakar, with a heavily strapped right thigh, underwent a fitness test and passed. Memories of India’s 17-run win over Australia in the opening game of the 2020 T20 World Cup and the 48-run triumph at the 2018 tournament were conjured up alongside