Ashley Giles rules out schedule change, suggests absence of superstars from revamped IPL 2021

'Fearless' India appear favourites to win World T20: Wasim Akram

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram has picked his favourite side to lift the World T20 trophy which is scheduled to take place later this year in India. Akram has said that The Men in Blue appear to be the favourites to win the tournament but teams like England, New Zealand and West Indies are also in contention. “I suppose, between the main teams, India appear favourites. They play a fearless brand of T20 cricket. England is also at the top of the ladder. I think New Zealand too. And you never know about the West Indies. If their main players are in, they have a tendency to scare,” Akram said on ARY news. Talking about his own team Pakistan who won the tournament back in 2009, the former left-arm pacer said that there are areas that the Asian side needs to work on such as finding a proper balance and a stable XI. "Pakistan need to work on their team combination. Obviously, being a Pakistani, I would want Pakistan to win the World Cup. That will be a dream come true for all of us, especially the young captain, and if they need to improve their combination, find the best XI, they can fight. The problem of No. 5 and No. 6 needs to be solved," Akram pointed out. The World T20 will be back after a gap of five years after it was last held in 2016 in India where West Indies emerged as the winners defeating England in the title clash. The Caribbean side has won the cup twice (in 2012 and 2016). India were crowned champions in the inaugural edition in 2007 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni while ended as the runners-up in 2014 after suffering a defeat against Sri Lanka in the final.

Players' unhappiness in end-of-season review put Australia coach Justin Langer in a spot

An end-of-season review of the Australia team has found players unhappy over the methods and goal-setting processes of the coach Justin Langer, Sydney Morning Herald reported. The review was conducted by a leadership consultant Tim Ford, who interviewed as many as 40 members of the Australian cricket team including the support staffs at the end of the last season that did not go well for Australia. Players were asked about their welfare and state of mind after a tough summer and whether the team culture and values needed upgrades since the last review process conducted in 2019. The review will be handed out to ‘leaders’ of the team such as Tim Paine, Pat Cummins and Aaron Finch which will enable players to get more ownership of the side and their goals instead of the approach adopted by Langer after his appointment in 2018, the Herald added in its report. This was Ford’s second review of the team with the first review conducted before the ICC World Cup 2019 and The Ashes after Cricket Australia had hired him to facilitate the reintegration of Steve Smith, David Warner to the Australia side. The Executive General Manager of the Australian national teams, Ben Oliver, said that the end of the season review is a ‘thought-provoking’ and ‘energising’ process said that establishes Cricket Australia’s commitment towards improving the state of players and the team both on and off the field. “This is effectively identical to the process undertaken before the last World Cup and the 2019 Ashes where the team performed strongly,” Oliver was quoted as saying by the Herald. “It’s part of our ongoing commitment to on- and off-field improvement and we expect it will have a similar benefit in the team’s preparation for the upcoming T20 World Cup and home Ashes. Tim is again assisting us as he has in the past with gathering feedback and insights from players and staff. It’s always a thought-provoking and energising process which we get great value from.” Australia lost the Test and T20I series against India after convincingly winning the ODI series late last year. The Test series loss to India ignited the debate around the leadership group of the team but Tim Paine went unscathed after selectors decided to back him.

BAN vs SL: Shiran Fernando tests negative for Covid-19 ahead of 3rd ODI

Sri Lanka fast bowler Shiran Fernando has tested negative for COVID-19 in the third round of RT-PCR test. Fernando was one of the three members of the Sri Lankan contingent apart from Isuru Udana and Chaminda Vaas to have tested positive for the disease. Udana and Vaas had earlier returned negative in the second round of the tests. "Fernando tested Corona negative (in the last test)," Bangladesh's team official Rabeed Imam confirmed to Cricbuzz on Wednesday. The bowler didn’t take part in the net sessions on Wednesday. Sri Lanka presently trail the three-match ODI series 0-2 with the final encounter to take place on Friday in Dhaka. Bangladesh took an unassailable lead on Tuesday after beating the Lankan side by 103 runs (D/L method). Batting first, the hosts were in a spot of bother before wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim notched up a century and guided the team to 246 runs before the side was bowled out. Later, the Bangladesh bowlers restricted Sri Lanka to 141/9 in 40 overs in a rain-curtailed match. Mehidy Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman scalped three wickets apiece. The home side will be resting Mohammad Saifuddin who was on the helmet while batting in the second ODI and was replaced by Taskin Ahmed. "Our physio, Julian, said that Saifuddin should be rested for three days, so decided to rest him," Abedin told Cricbuzz after the practice session for the third and final ODI. Naim Sheikh was added to the Bangladesh squad for the third ODI.

Jofra Archer prepared to sit out of entire English summer, sets eyes on ICC World T20, Ashes series

Reiterating his commitment towards the England cricket team, pacer Jofra Archer has said that he has his eyes set on the ICC World T20 and The Ashes series scheduled towards the end of the year. However, he has ruled out any hurried return rushing to the cricket field and said that he has made peace with sitting out of the entire upcoming English summer where the hosts will play as many as five Tests against India. “One thing I am determined about post-elbow operation is not to rush my comeback because my primary focus is to be playing for England in the Twenty20 World Cup and Ashes later this year,” Archer wrote in his column for Daily Mail. “Those are my targets. If I come back before then and manage to play in the home Test series against India — then fine, so be it. If I don’t, I am quite prepared to sit out the summer.” He has said that the chance of adding few more years in his career is significantly higher if he reduces some months out of it due to a lack of surety over his fitness level. Having played with a recurrent injury over the last last couple of years, Archer asserted that if he does not time his return well, it could well mean the end of his cricketing career. “I just want to get this injury sorted once and for all and that’s why I’m not looking that far ahead or at dates for a return to action — because if I don’t get this right, I won’t play any cricket. Period. I am not going to do myself any good by coming back before I’m fully fit, so I will take my time and do what is best for me and my life,” Archer added. Detailing his elbow injury that went under the knife last Friday, Archer said the option of going through surgery was the last one on the table and he decided to go ahead with it only after all the other methods such as resting and injections failed to produce desirable results. He had gone through another surgery on his hand after injuring while cleaning a fish tank at his home. The finger surgery ruled him out of the ODI series against India and the IPL 2021. He made a high-profile return in the county championship for Sussex in the game against Kent but could not walk away unscathed. He could bowl only a few overs in the second innings and walked off the field holding his right elbow. “Surgery was always the last option and we wanted to exercise every possible strategy before we went down that route. It was the last thing on the list. It is not always a fix and in four weeks we will find out how things have gone,” Archer said. “But after playing for Sussex against Kent earlier this month, it wasn’t a difficult decision to go down the surgery route because trying to manage the injury with rest and pain-killing injections clearly wasn’t working.” The elbow injury first surfaced on England’s tour of South Africa in late 2019. Since then, Archer has been in and out of the England squads. He played only two out of four Test matches against India before travelling back to the UK after the T20I series.