India

5:29 PM GMT Osman Samiuddin Close Senior editor, ESPNcricinfo Osman spent the first half of his life pretending he discovered reverse swing with a tennis ball half-covered with electrical tape. The second half of his life was spent trying, and failing, to find spiritual fulfillment in the world of Pakistani advertising and marketing. The third

9:09 AM GMT Big picture It is said often that cricket is an individual pursuit masquerading as a team sport. On April 22, Sachin Tendulkar proved and disproved it at the same time. Having fielded and bowled in the crazy heat of a Sharjah April afternoon, Tendulkar dipped his feet in ice to manage the

8:05 AM GMT Shashank Kishore Dav Whatmore, the 1996 World Cup winning coach with Sri Lanka, is set to continue working with less-fancied teams on the Indian domestic circuit. He was at the helm when Kerala entered their first-ever Ranji Trophy semi-finals in 2018-19, and now, after a three-year stint with them, he takes charge

2:35 PM GMT For our next #RetroLive match, we rewind to April 18, 2008, when Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore kicked off the IPL Big Picture After months of hype, excitement, controversy and speculation the high-profile Indian Premier League kicks off in Bangalore with the Royal Challengers hosting the Kolkata Knight Riders. “Eight

3:36 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff India have qualified for the 2021 Women’s World Cup following a decision by the ICC’s technical committee to split points for an ICC Women’s Championship series against Pakistan that went unplayed. That series was originally scheduled to take place between July and November 2019, but it did not go ahead,

5:15 PM GMT IPL 2020 is likely to be postponed indefinitely owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is understood that the BCCI has not set a new window yet for the tournament which was to be held between March 29 and May 24. The decision to postpone the IPL was discussed by the BCCI’s top

11:57 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Michael Hussey thinks MS Dhoni is the greatest finisher of all time. Having shared a dressing room with the former India captain for seven years across two IPL stints, Hussey also believed Dhoni’s instincts and mental toughness at his peak made opposition captains blink first under pressure. “In my mind,

7:29 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Gautam Gambhir has liked what he has seen of KL Rahul as a wicketkeeper-batsman in white-ball cricket. The former India opener reckons Rahul is the “apt replacement” for MS Dhoni in the shorter formats, particularly in T20 cricket, going forward. Dhoni, 38, hasn’t played any serious cricket since India’s semi-final

9:51 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Gloucestershire have confirmed that Cheteshwar Pujara will not play for the club this year. Pujara signed a deal to play the first six games of the County Championship season in February, and was set to become Gloucestershire’s first Indian player since Javagal Srinath in 1995. But with the first seven

11:21 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Yuvraj Singh believes the big difference between players of his generation and the ones today is how they dealt with seniors in the team, specifically in the “sense of respect towards seniors” and appreciating their work. “The youngsters say anything to anyone now,” Singh told Rohit Sharma during an Instagram

5:52 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Robin Uthappa, who last played for India in July 2015 on a tour of Zimbabwe, believes he “still has a World Cup” left in him, and is targeting a comeback to the Indian team in the T20 format. Uthappa, 34, has played 46 ODIs and 13 T20Is, and was part

1:35 PM GMT Big picture It has become a bit of a trend to have one of the showpieces matches of the World Cup around one month into the tournament. From a logistics and broadcasting point of view it makes sense: either India v Pakistan injects new life into a tournament that might be flagging

1:09 PM GMT India 287 for 8 (Sidhu 93, Jadeja 45, Mushtaq 2-56) beat Pakistan 248 for 9 (Sohail 55, Prasad 3-45, Kumble 3-48) by 39 runs Pakistan’s reign as World Champions has come to an end at the hands of their bitterest rivals, after the most richly anticipated clash of the 1996 World Cup

3:55 PM GMT It’s nearly a month since this World Cup began, and the actual action might only just be getting started. After 28 matches – 29, if you count the Kenya-Zimbabwe game that had to be replayed owing to a bad pitch in Patna – and two walkovers, the eight teams everyone expected to

10:50 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff With the COVID-19 pandemic locking the world down, cricket around the globe has been indefinitely stalled. Among the high-profile ones to be affected is the 13th season of the IPL. Though the chances of the tournament taking place this year is increasingly looking bleak, Kevin Pietersen is hoping for it

3:08 PM GMT India 277 for 4 (Gambhir 97, Dhoni 91*) beat Sri Lanka 274 for 6 (Jayawardene 103*, Sangakkara 48) by six wickets Twenty-eight years on from the match that transformed the history of world cricket, India recaptured the crown that Kapil Dev and his men first lifted at Lord’s in 1983, and this

11:36 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Fitness, fielding and finding two or three good fast bowlers are India’s focus areas looking ahead to next year’s 50-over Women’s World Cup in New Zealand. This is the assessment of Harmanpreet Kaur, who also insists T20I captaincy isn’t a burden despite her lean returns with the bat recently. “Now

2:15 PM GMT With number of infected cases due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the rise in India, Manoj Badale, majority owner at Rajasthan Royals, feels the prospect of a “shortened” tournament is increasing, but even that would be subject to collaboration between the BCCI and other cricket boards. Badale also said that he would

6:38 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff The cricket world has come to a standstill with all international and domestic fixtures being called off due to the outbreak of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) across the globe, but according to India coach Ravi Shastri this break is a “welcome rest” as far as India players are concerned. Talking to

4:46 AM GMT Annesha Ghosh Mithali Raj, Indian Women’s ODI captain, believes the BCCI should not “wait forever” to organise the women’s IPL, and wants the inaugural tournament to be held in 2021. Raj, currently the most experienced player in women’s cricket, said that the women’s IPL could initially be on a “smaller scale”. “I

2:07 PM GMT Saurabh Somani Close Saurabh Somani is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo Chandrakant Pandit, the former India player and one of the most successful coaches in Indian domestic cricket, has decided to move from Vidarbha to Madhya Pradesh for the 2020-21 season. Pandit had coached Vidarbha to back-to-back triumphs in the Ranji Trophy

4:48 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Baroda has indefinitely suspended Atul Bedade, the head coach of the state’s women’s team, pending an inquiry into allegations including those of sexual harassment. A letter from the Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) to Bedade, which has been viewed by ESPNcricinfo, didn’t list specific allegations against him, but noted their nature:

3:09 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Indian umpires Janani Narayanan and Vrinda Rathi were inducted into the International Panel of ICC Development Umpires on Tuesday, taking the count of women match officials across different ICC panels up to 12. Narayanan, 34, and Rathi, 31, who hail from Chennai and Mumbai respectively, have officiated in domestic matches

5:36 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Virat Kohli‘s demeanour on the field has pleased and upset people equally, with some welcoming his in-your-face pumped-up aggression, and others calling for a more restrained approach. As far as Madan Lal, the new head of the BCCI’s cricket advisory committee, is concerned, asking Kohli to “mellow down” makes no

9:50 AM GMT Vishal Dikshit in Mumbai The BCCI and the IPL franchise owners have decided to adopt a wait-and-watch approach over when and how to hold the IPL. They want to give health and safety of the players and people involved in holding the IPL priority and are likely to discuss its schedule again

3:15 PM GMT Despite having deferred the IPL until April 15, the tournament’s governing council will meet on Saturday in Mumbai to review the precautionary steps needed to be put in place for the marquee event to start in April. The IPL top brass will also be meeting the owners/top executives of all franchises to

9:07 AM GMT The start of IPL 2020 has been pushed back to April 15 following the global concern over the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak. The decision to postpone the tournament, which was scheduled to start on March 29, was taken by the BCCI top brass lead by its president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay

3:58 PM GMT The remaining two ODIs of the ongoing series between India and South Africa will be played to empty stadiums. The development comes in the wake of the Indian government directing the BCCI and other national sporting federations including the Indian Olympics Committee on Thursday to “avoid” mass gatherings at sporting events as

9:56 AM GMT It is now a strong possibility that IPL 2020 will take place behind closed doors, in light of the coronavirus threat, with the Indian government indicating it will not stop sporting events from taking place as long as they adhere strictly to health-ministry guidelines discouraging mass gatherings. On Wednesday, the World Health

7:55 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Ajinkya Rahane feels that India’s issues against the short ball are being spoken about “too much”, adding that their 2-0 Test series defeat in New Zealand came about mainly due to their opposition’s skilful use of home conditions. New Zealand’s bowlers have used the short ball liberally in recent years,