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India Likely To Rest All Senior Players From Home Series Against New Zealand Scheduled Next Month

India likely to rest all senior players from home series against New Zealand scheduled next month

India are all set to rest all their star players for the home series against New Zealand that will start right after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman, PTI reported.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is of the view that all senior players such as the current skipper Virat Kohli, whose captaincy tenure will end in the World Cup, along with Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammed Shami would’ve spent more than four months in biosecure bubbles and hence they must get a break to refresh themselves.

Notably, there will not be too long a gap between the World T20 and India’s tour of South Africa scheduled to start mid-Deceber and the BCCI does not want to risk senior players for that series.

"Most of the Indian players, the senior ones have now been in three back to back bubbles for four months. Possibly after T20 World Cup, you would want them to take a break and rejuvenate before the South Africa tour starting December end, " PTI quoted an unnamed official as saying.

Notably, India could pick a second-string squad in the same way they did for the tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year in July under the leadership of Shikhar Dhawan. Dhawan was made captain of the side possible due to the absence of Shreyas Iyer and with him back from injury, it is all likely that he will lead the side against the Blackcaps.

Also, India are unlikely to have a full-time coach by the time the New Zealand series is scheduled to start and the BCCI is all likely to request Rahul Dravid to don the hat once more after his coaching stint on the tour of Sri Lanka.

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Cricket Australia opens its coffers for women's game, Meg Lanning points out benefits

Australian Women have been one of the best Women sides on the world stage and their skipper Meg Lanning doesn’t credit the success of her side and their predecessors to luck. Instead, she believes that the women’s game has received a fair share of investment for it to have developed to such an extent that they rule the world cricket, both on and off the field. She said that the game will benefit at large if there will be more and more investment on women’s sport as it will boost all the stakeholders involved such as the game itself, its fans, and obviously the players who are involved. Her comments came along with the new payment structure for the women players both at the international level and the Big Bash level. She said that the level of performances put up by the players have been ratified by the latest significant hike in payments. "The success and prominence of women's cricket in Australia have not happened by accident. Cricket has shown that when you properly invest in female sport, the results follow and everyone benefits -- the game, the fans, and the players," Australia women's captain Meg Lanning said in an official statement. "Because of the success of the game over the past few years, in which women's domestic cricket has played a crucial role, the ACA has worked with Cricket Australia to ensure this is reflected in an increase in player payments across both the WNCL and WBBL," she added. Cricket Australia has announced that a whopping USD $4 million will be spent on the overall support for women's players in the ongoing season.

Shafali Verma fails with bat, shines bright in the field on Women Big Bash League debut

One of the most explosive India Women batters Shafali Verman failed to light up the stage on her debut in the Women’s Big Bash League on Thursday, 14 October. Verma was signed by the Sydney Sixers Women and in the first game from the side against the Melbourne Stars Women, she could manage only eight runs, that too at an uncharacteristic strike rate of 80. However, she did not have only failures to show with as she was excellent in the field and effected a brilliant run out by hitting the stumps from the short midwicket region to send Annabel Sutherland. Later, Sutherland got her revenge from Verma by dismissing her after the right-hander reached eight runs. The Melbourne Stars Women posted 99 runs in the rain-curtailed 11-over game and the Sydney Sixers Women were on course to chase the score through an unbeaten partnership between Alyssa Healy and Ashleigh Gardner.

IPL 2021 | Morgan says Knight Riders will dissect batting collapse in final phase of qualifier

The Knight Riders needed just 13 runs of the last four overs with as many as eight wickets in their hands but rather than sailing through a comfortable victory, it neded Rahul Tripathi to hit a special six on the penultimate ball to win them the game. The Knight Riders lost their plot after the fall of Nitish Rana, and slid from 123/1 to to 130/7 before Rahul bailed them out of the trouble. Morgan conceded that they should have won the game very convincingly after a string start by Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill and assured that the management will dissect the proceedings of the last four overs where they saw their four batsmen registering ducks. However, Morgan was more delighted to see his side in the final for the first time since the 2014 edition. He lauded Rahul for keeping his calm under pressure and hitting the match-winning six. “Should’ve been a lot easier after the start we got. The openers gave us a great platform. We will dissect what happened in the last four overs,” Morgan said during the post-match presentation. “Dew came in and all, but hey, we have won and we are in the finals. We are delighted to get over the line. Would’ve loved to win convincingly but Capitals are a very good side. Six off two, the odds were probably in favour of the bowling side, but Rahul Tripathi has done superbly well for us.” The Knight Riders have never lost an IPL final and Morgan and company would hope the trend will continue on October 15 when they will go head to head against the Chennai Super Kings.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa thrash Central Punjab to win second consecutive National T20 championship

A phenomenal all-around performance by Iftikhar Ahmed helped the defending champions Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to crush Central Punjab by seven wickets in the final of the Pakistan National T20 tournament and defend their championship in Lahore. Iftikhar first took three wickets for just five runs in his two-over spell that included the big wicket of Ahmed Shehzad, who was looking set on a 36-ball 44. His other two scalps were Hussain Talat and Sai Badar. Chasing a middling total of 149 runs, the Khyber side was up and running with the top order batsmen contributing decently. However, they could not put the side in a commanding position and it need Iftikhar to rule the show once again and this time he dismantled Central Punjab with his bat and hit 19-ball 45 to help Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the second consecutive championship. From Central Punjab, the experienced duo of Shehzad and Kamran Akmal were the most successful batsmen against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bowling attack led by Imran Khan and Arsh Iqbal, and Mohammad Imran, who took three wickets. On the other hand, for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kamran Ghulam was the highest run score on the night of the final and laid the platform for their win along with Sahibzada Farhan and Kamran Ghulam. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa proved themselves as the team to beat in the tournament and fittingly, Iftikhar Ahmed was awarded the Man of the Match and tournament to establish his all-around dominance in the tournament.