BCCI AGM: 2 more franchises in IPL 2021, Cricket in Olympics and other agendas

Australia vs India | 1st T20I: Match Preview, Predicted XI & Dream11 Fantasy Picks

Having finally tasted victory on the Australian tour team India and its captain Virat Kohli would like to continue the same momentum going into the T20I series which begins with the first game at Manuka Oval, Canberra, the same ground where India defeated Australia on Wednesday. The Australians though missed out on an opportunity to whitewash the Men in Blue and almost managed it with Glenn Maxwell and his brilliance. If it wasn’t for Jasprit Bumrah’s inch-perfect yorker, It could have been an easy victory for Australia. Having said that, India would be hoping to came a comeback into the Australian summer with the T20 series and the format could not have been more suitable considering the form the contingent has shown for their respective teams in the recently concluded Indian Premier League. What do the records say? The Australian team in the year 2020 played six games winning three and losing three. The team in opposition, India has an impressive 5-0 score in their favour when it comes to wins and losses. On head to head as well, India fares better than the Kangaroos with 11 victories in 21 games, while their opponents have only 8. When it comes to matches in Australia, even then the Indian team is ahead with 5 games to 3 in the 9 matches played between the two Down Under. There, however, is one thing that the Indian teams have to be mindful of, and that is the record of the last five games played between the two nations. Australia have won 4 of them while Virat Kohli and his men could muster just one win among the five. In their last and only game at Manuka oval, Australia beat Pakistan quite comprehensively and Steve Smith was the Man of the Match. Aus vs Ind: Match Details Match No. - 1st T20I Venue: Manuka Oval, Canberra Broadcast: SonyLIV, Sony Ten Network, DD Sports Date and Timing: 2nd December, 01:40 pm IST, 08:10 GMT Pitch Report If the last game was to give any indication, the pitch has something in it for both the batsmen and the bowlers if they hit the right areas. Since it would be a full night affair, the pitch would also remain the same for both sides, with a slight advantage to the team bowling second as indicated from the game yesterday. Weather and Toss The weather at Manuka Oval is predicted to be cricket friendly as the city would have clear skies on Friday. As far as the toss is concerned, it wouldn’t be a bad option to chase considering how close Australia came while chasing that total in the last ODI. In a total 10 T20Is have been played at the venue, five times team batting first have won while 4 times it has been the other way around. So there isn’t much to choose from empirical evidence as well. Team News Australia The Australian team would have obvious changes in the sense that D’Arcy Short and Mitchell Starc would come into the teams in places of Marnus Labuschagne and Sean Abbot while the rest of the team would most likely remain the same. Moises Henriques and Cameroon Green along with Maxwell would be the three all-rounders for Australia. If Stoinis attains full fitness, which can only be clarified on the match day, he might replace Henriques. Strongest XI Aaron Finch(c), D’Arcy Short, Steve Smith, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa India The Indian team would also likely remain the same barring the obvious two changes of Shubamn Gill and Kuldeep Yadav, both of whom are not part of the T20I setup. In their places, Sanju Samson and Yuzvendra Chahal would be the likely entrants, while the rest of the team would remain constant. The only surprise that India might throw, would be the inclusion of Manish Pandey, at Shreyas Iyer’s place as he has failed thrice on the tour so far. Strongest XI Sanju Samson, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul (wk), Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, T. Natarajan Australia vs India: Dream11 and fantasy team suggestions Sanju Samson(wk), Aaron Finch (C), Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Lokesh Rahul (VC), Glenn Maxwell, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa, Jasprit Bumrah Captain: Aaron Finch Vice-Captain: Lokesh Rahul India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan Australia T20 Squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey , Pat Cummins (vc), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Daniel Sams, D'Arcy Short, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa

England use coded signals from dressing room; players, ECB defend move

Modern-day cricket needs more than players’ and captain’s game-awareness on the field and keeping that in mind the England cricket team has adopted a single-sending measure that is based on the use of coded signals from the team’s balcony on the ground. The tactics were evident at the Newlands where the team was facing the host South Africa in the third and final T20 of the series and the team analyst Nathan Leamon was seen placing the cards with some numbers that sent signals to the English players and captain in particular. England vice-captain Jos Buttler likened the move as one of the modes for value addition and compared it to the two strategic timeouts in the Indian Premier League where the players and captains on the field get the opportunity to collect feedback and inputs from the analysis team. However, in the English team setup, it has been left for the players and captain to decide if they want to adopt the signal and tactical suggestions that it brings or wishes to ignore them and go ahead with their own tactics based on match situations. "The lads were checking their Euromillions numbers. Eoin works closely with Nathan to work on the match-ups. In the IPL, you have two tactical time-outs for suggestions from analysts, but you have to be careful how you use it, there has to be an instinctive, intuitive side to the game," Buttler told Sky Sports suggesting the idea behind this development in the England team setup. On the other hand, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has said that the signalling system was under trial for along time and the process is just another value addition as a ‘live informational resource’ which by no means are ‘commands or instructions’ to players and the captain on the field and that all the decisions are taken on the field only and not inside the dressing room. England have swept the three-match T20 series against South Africa and are the contenders to win the ODI series starting December 04 as well. The hosts have a lot of questions to answer and they will find it really tough to turn things around against this England white-ball side which does not allow slip-ups.

LPL 2020: Shahid Afridi leaves tournament to attend family emergency

Former Pakistan all-rounder and the captain of the Galle Gladiators in the ongoing Lanka Premier League, Shahid Afridi has decided to leave the tournament midway in order to attend a personal emergency at home. However, he said that he will return to lead the Galle-based franchise once the situation becomes under control. Shahid Afridi had taken the LPL by storm with on-field spats and signature swashbuckling innings of 58 runs from 23 balls. He was involved in an on-field altercation with an Afghan all-rounder Naveen-ul Haq who was playing for the Kandy Tuskers. Shahid Afridi had taken to Twitter to react to the on-field heated interaction and suggested that young players should refrain from using abusive languages while playing the game of cricket. Afridi’s departure would be a massive blow to the Gladiator who are already languishing at the bottom of the points table by losing all the three matches that they have played in the inaugural edition of the league.

After Mohammad Amir, Shoaib Malik attacks Pakistan selectors over 'communication gap'

Pakistan All-rounder Shoaib Malik is searching for answers on why he was excluded from the squad for the tour of New Zealand. Malik, who has also captained Pakistan, said that he has ‘no idea’ on the reasoning behind the selectors’ decision to drop him for the tour of New Zealand. "If I am not part of the national team, only the chief selector can answer this. I have no idea. There wasn't any communication from them but of course, I don't want to go into the negative side and just stay positive," Malik was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. Reportedly, chief selector Misbah ul-Haq had last month said that the selectors are looking to build the team for the future and hence players such as Malik doesn’t feature in the scheme of things looking at the two upcoming T20 World Cups. Malik’s apprehension about the lack of communication from the selectors comes on the back of observation made by pacer Mohammad Amir who had lamented the selection committee for not allowing space to players where they could ask for a break or workload management. He had said that there is a severe communication gap between selectors and players and the situation is leading the players to be insecure while remaining in the setup.