India-Pakistan tussle: Lalchand Rajput to miss Zimbabwe's tour of Pakistan

IPL 2020: Rishabh Pant recovers from hamstring injury

The Delhi Capitals are on a rampage in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League and the ammunition for the Shreyas Iyer-led team is set to be bolstered with the return of wicketkeeper-batsman Risabh Pant who has recovered from a grade 1 hamstring strain. Pant missed out on the last three games Capitals played and Alex Carrey was brought in to do the glove work for the team. News Agency ANI quoted a source from the Delhi Capitals camp saying that Rishabh Pant is fit and raring to go. However, the team management will take a final call before the toss in the match against the Kings XI Punjab tonight. Rishabh Pant is a sort of character who is always in the news as the video of him pranking Ricky Ponting while the Delhi Capitals’ coach was giving an interview to the commentators went viral. The video was hailed as the one depicting the healthy and relaxed team environment prevalent in the Delhi Capitals’ squad and the kind of mood the players and support staff are in during the IPL 2020. The Delhi Capitals have won seven games out of nine they have played in IPL 2020 so far and are sitting comfortably at the top of the points table.

COVID-19: England tour to South Africa likely to go ahead as planned

The proposed England men's senior cricket team’s tour to South Africa is set to go as planned as the Cricket South Africa and the England and Wales Cricket Board have reached a consensus on allowing English players to train in the quarantine period after their arrival in the country. As per various media reports, the South African government had allowed an exception to the touring English cricket team from the regulation put in place for people coming into the country from places of ‘high risk’ of covid-19 infection. After the agreement, the ECB is all set to send English players via a charter flight to South Africa on November 10 for a series that will see the Proteas back in action after a long hiatus enforced by the coronavirus pandemic. The Sith African white-ball teams will walk onto the field in national jerseys after March 2020 when the white-ball side had to return from Indian after the pandemic had hit India. The ECB and the CSA were at loggerheads over the issue of provision for training in the quarantine period of English players and the English cricket board had made its intention clear to the embattled South African cricket board of not touring in case the training provisions were not made. England and South Africa will lock horns for a three-match ODI and a T-20 series of an equal number of matches that will split between Newlands, Cape Town and Boland Park, Paarl. Both these series, like the cricketing event of the near past, will be played behind closed doors. The proposed England men's senior cricket team’s tour to South Africa is set to go as planned as the Cricket South Africa and the England and Wales Cricket Board have reached a consensus on allowing English players to train in the quarantine period after their arrival in the country. As per various media reports, the South African government had allowed an exception to the touring English cricket team from the regulation put in place for people coming into the country from places of ‘high risk’ of covid-19 infection. After the agreement, the ECB is all set to send English players via a charter flight to South Africa on November 10 for a series that will see the Proteas back in action after a long hiatus enforced by the coronavirus pandemic. The Sith African white-ball teams will walk onto the field in national jerseys after March 2020 when the white-ball side had to return from Indian after the pandemic had hit India. The ECB and the CSA were at loggerheads over the issue of provision for training in the quarantine period of English players and the English cricket board had made its intention clear to the embattled South African cricket board of not touring in case the training provisions were not made. England and South Africa will lock horns for a three-match ODI and a T-20 series of an equal number of matches that will split between Newlands, Cape Town and Boland Park, Paarl. Both these series, like the cricketing event of the near past, will be played behind closed doors.

CSK in turmoil: Kris Srikkanth tears into MS Dhoni

One of the most vocal supporters of MS Dhoni’s captaincy over the year, former Indian opener Kris Srikanth has criticised the Chennai Super Kings’ captain for his remark on youngsters lacking the spark to push older players out of the playing XI. Discussing the game between the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals which the men in yellow lost after an abject surrender with the bat while batting first, Srikant tore into the process of MS Dhoni’s captaincy and said that he respects Dhoni being a great cricketer but he does not accept the views Dhoni has of the team at the moment. Srikanth said that all the talks of process, process does not bode well if he gets the selection process wrong and misread the team's need and requirement based on condition. Srikanth who is fondly called as ‘Cheeka’ was dishing the comments of MS Dhoni about the lack of youngsters in the playing XI when he said: “It's fair enough this season we weren't there. Maybe we didn't see as much spark from some of our youngsters. Maybe going forward we bring them in and they play without pressure," after the loss against the Rajasthan Royals. Srikanth specifically pointed out the selection of Kedar Jadhav and Piyush Chawala after repeated failures in the season so far and the outlook they presented in the team. Srikant went a step further and asked if Dhoni had seen some spark in Kedar Jadhav which he found missing in youngsters he pointed out. The Chennai Super Kings have been going through a turmoil in the ongoing season of the IPL and have lost seven out of the 10 games played so far in the season. MS Dhoni has irked many fans and experts by his questionable moves in team selection and captaincy while fielding and batting without intent in the IPL 2020.

IPL 2020 | CSK vs RR: What Experts said as CSK bows out of IPL with yet another boring defeat

With Chennai a constant of ‘boring’ seems to have been attached this season as the team has lost most of its game one-sided, leaving no scope for the audience to enjoy the game. This match against Rajasthan Royals, another bottom half team alongside the Super Kings was on the same lines as they lost it by a huge margin of seven wickets with 15 balls remaining. Having scored a dismal 125 in the first innings at Abu Dhabi, there seemed ‘no’ to ‘very little’ chance for the men in Yellow to come back into this game. They had a mini-comeback into the game as well when they got Rajasthan down to 28/3 in the first four and a half overs. But from there on, skipper Steve Smith and ‘rightly due for big innings’, Jos Buttler took the mantle in control and sailed the ship to the shore with much ease. Captains’ Viewpoint Winning a game after two close losses, (losing from winning positions) Rajasthan skipper was relieved, to say the least. Reacting to the win, Smith compared the pitches in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah saying, “Sharjah is a little different from here. The wicket was stopping, not the best for batting, and good to be on the winning side,” he said. Praising the bowlers, Smith further said, “I thought we bowled well in the powerplay. The spinners bowled good lengths, with the googlies and leggies, building a lot of pressure. Tewatia and Shreyas have been sensational for us.” Not being able to perform well in this year’s league, Smith was waiting for an opportunity to bat through and Buttler with his brilliant knock of 70 off 48 deliveries provided him the platform. “Buttler took the pressure off me. I just knocked it around, and he just batted the way he usually does. He always maintains a good strike-rate,” said Smith. Talking about the crucial moment in the game when a strong appeal for LBW was made against him, and RR were all already three down, Smith said, “I didn't know I'd nicked the ball, but I was relieved to see the green light,” he said. CSK captain MS Dhoni, who played his 200th IPL match today, looked gloomy at the post-match presentation ceremony as there was no bright to match like this. Reacting to the loss he said, “It's not always supposed to go your way. That's why what we try is going back to the process and see if the process is wrong or maybe we weren't able to execute. The result is always a by-product of the process. What it does is it helps you think in a positive way.” The philosophical mode of the MSD continued as he said, “We play in front of millions of people so there is nothing to hide. The fact remains that if you're busy with the process then the undue pressure of results doesn't get into the dressing room.” Admitting the fact that the pitch got better with time, the 39-year-old said, “There was a bit for the fast bowlers. The reason I brought on Jadeja was to see how much it's stopping. But it didn't stop much like in the first innings. In the second innings I think it got better because our spinners didn't get the same bite.” Always known to play a settled team, Dhoni was unhappy with the chopping and changing he had to do this season because of the lack of firm. “You don't want to chop and change a lot. Because what happens is after three-four-five games you're not sure of anything. You want to give guys a fair go then if they're not performing then you switch and go to someone else and give them a run. Insecurity is something you don't want to prevail in the dressing room,” said Dhoni. Accepting that his team lagged behind a lot this season, the Ranchi born said, “Fair enough, this season we weren't really there. Also, there were few chances to the youngsters. Maybe we didn't see the kind of spark that they could've given us to say okay you know push the experienced guys and make space for them.” Saying that now the youngsters will get the chance to showcase their talent in the upcoming games, he said quickly. “But what this result has done is to give those youngsters whatever is left in our league stages. They will get a chance and have no real pressure on them so they can go out and express themselves,” concluded the skipper. Expert Opinion Experts too were of the opinion that the Chennai team of this year lacked intent. Talking about that Aakash Chopra, the cricketer turned commentator said that CSK seemed to be running without any plan and without any direction. he pointed out as to how the team was not able to accelerate even after promoting Ravindra Jadeja to counter the leggies. Along with Chopra, a veteran journalist Joy Bhattacharya took a sly dig at the team and its fans saying that with the kind of losses that CSK has had to go through, their fans are now experiencing what the fans of all other franchises have had in some season or the other. Senior cricket analyst Boria Majumdar went on to question the intent of the team saying the losses don't hurt the fans, it is rather the manner in which the team is losing that hurt them the most. Sambit Bal, a senior cricket journalist spoke about how the Chennai team is now out of the context and how even Dhoni seems to have agreed to it. Harsha Bhogle, also known as the voice of cricketer got sarcastic in his approach saying that the game in Abu Dhabi was much like Monday Blues after the thrillers that the audiences were subjected to on Sunday. With Chennai out of the tournament, chances are that from now onwards, they are going to be the party poopers for others. Rajasthan still has an outside chance if they go on to win rest of their matches.