DC Co-owner Parth Jindal hopes for speedy recovery of skipper Iyer

IND vs ENG | 2nd ODI: Dominant hosts seek series win as Morgan's men eye rule of aggression

Finally, India broke the jinx of losing the first game of the series thanks to their never-ending spree of debutant making heroic arrival on the big stage. For once, when the opening pair of Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy were going great guns, the shoulders started to drop, but one of the debutants Prasidh Krishna brought them back in the game. The first game of the series once again highlighted a completely different style of playing ODI cricket by either side. India are still hesitant to give up on their style of starting slowly and building up for a late flourish after the 40-over mark. On the other hand, England are dominant in their batting and do not want to let go of that style of playing cricket having tasted a huge success in the form of an ODI world Cup two years back. Pundits in the UK and India highlighted the lack of flexibility in the England batting line up as they missed someone who could soak up the pressure and paced his innings while big shots would have kept on coming from the other end. However, skipper Eoin Morgan was not regretful about the batting approach of his team and reiterated that they will carry on playing in the same manner irrespective of the result. For India, the plan worked perfectly until wickets started falling off in cluster in the middle overs. But, just when things started to fall off the clip, another debutant, Krunal Pandya arrived on the scenes to rescue them with a magical knock. Going into the second ODI of the series, there will be a fierce contest between the team and the ODI series which was lagging behind in terms of context, has now got all in store for both the teams. India vs England: Match Details Match No.-02 Date and Time: March 26, 01:30 PM IST, 08:00 AM GMT Venue: Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune Pitch conditions The second ODI too will be played at the same Maharasthra Cricket Association ground in Pune although the pitch to be used for this game is likely to be a fresh one. The pitch in the first ODI offered pace and bounce as the likes of Mark Wood and Prasidh Krishna enjoyed testing the back foot game of the batsmen with short of a length deliveries. The trend is likely to continue in the second ODI as well but it will be interesting to see the makeup of the bowling attack of both teams. Team News India There will be a forced change in the playing XI from the last game with middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer getting ruled out of the series due to shoulder subluxation. Either Suryakumar Yadav or Rishabh Pant would gain from the pain of Iyer, but in all likelihood, Pant might get the nod ahead of Yadav. There may well be another change on cards if Rohit Sharma, who was hit on his elbow by a rapid Mark Wood delivery, reports some serious concerns. Kohli will be tempted to see what Mohammed Siraj brings to the table in ODI cricket especially having played Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the entire length of the T20 series. Strongest XI Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul (WK) Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna England Like Iyer, Sam Billing also had hurt his shoulder in the first game. Although he batted in the second innings, there will be a question mark over his fitness going into the second game of the series. Tom Curran has had a horror run with the ball on the tour and after the onslaughts in the T20I series, there were no signs of respite even in the ODI cricket. Mark Wood played four out of five T20 games of the series, and hence Morgan would have to make a decision on his workload. However, with the series on the line, Morgan is unlikely to change his bowling combination due to the workload factor. Strongest XI Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan (c), Jos Buttler(wk), Sam Billings, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid, Tom Curran/Reece Topley

ECB offers two lucrative options to BCCI for having India superstars playing in The Hundred: Report

To convince BCCI into sending Indian superstars to its flagship tournament— Hundred, the ECB has offered its Indian counterpart as many as two lucrative options. The ECB has offered IPL franchises a 25 per cent stake in each of the eight teams in the tournament while a fair share of the broadcasting revenue generated from the tournament’s coverage in Asia has been offered to the BCCI, as per a report by The Telegraph. The talks between the ECB and BCCI have reached an advanced level after the visit from ECB’s chairman Ian Watmore and CEO Tom Harrison arrived in Ahmedabad for the Day-Night Test between India and England, the report added. The report suggested that the ECB believes the broadcasting revenue can be valued as much as £20 million a year in Asia if the BCCI allow players such as Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya to play in the competition. Generally, the BCCI does not allow Indian players—contracted or out of it— to play in the overseas league, and hence the ECB would have come to the conclusion that the offer must be lucrative enough for the Indian board to send Indian superstars.

England reward West Indies for touring during pandemic with extended T20I, Test series

England have extended the schedule of their tour of West Indies scheduled for early next year. The England and Wales Cricket Board has added two more T20Is in the pre-scheduled three-match series while the two-match Test series has been extended to a three-match long series in the longest format. England’s tour of the West Indies will be spread across two different tours. On the first tour, the England white-ball team will play a five-match t20 series in January. Then, the England T20I side will return home and the Test side under the leadership of Joe Root will travel to West Indies for a three-match Test series. The test series will be the first series under the commissioned “Richards-Botham Trophy,” which both the boards have named as a tribute to their greats in Sir Vivian Richards and Sir Ian Botham. These extensions of both the T20I and ODI series comes as an acknowledgement of West Indies’ efforts in sending the team on the tour fo England last year during the height of the pandemic which helped the ECB in managing its finance amid losses incurred to the pandemic.

PCB asked to be prepared for India-Pakistan bilateral series: Report

The Pakistan Cricket Board has been reportedly indicated that a bilateral series with India is on the cards this year according to a report by Daily Jang. A member of the PCB initially denied being directly approached but later admitted that there have been hints of a bilateral ties between the two countries. "We've been told to be prepared," the official is quoted as saying by the Urdu daily. But Chairman Ehsan Mani said that the PCB is not in any talks with their Indian board. The reports further suggest that if the series goes ahead then the Indian team will visit Pakistan as Pakistan had visited India the last time two teams played against each other in a bilateral tie. The two teams last faced each other in a bilateral series back in 2012-13 when Pakistan visited India for a three-match ODI series. The home side lost the series 2-1. While there have been no bilateral series being held between the two countries, India and Pakistan have been facing each other in the ICC tournaments. India lost the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 to Pakistan, while The Men in Blue thumped Sarfaraz Ahmed’s team in the league stage of the World Cup 2019.