Joe Root wants to be part of IPL

Debate around Virat Kohli's captaincy a distraction: Kevin Pietersen

Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen has said that he doesn’t really see any threat to Virat Kohli’s captaincy but admitted that it is impossible to avoid the debate over the topic. “I absolutely don’t expect things to change, but it is impossible to avoid the continuing debate around the Indian Test match captaincy,” Pietersen wrote in his blog post for ‘Betway’. Kohli has now lost four Test matches as the skipper while Rahane led India to a series win in Australia in his absence. “Virat Kohli has now lost four consecutive Test matches as skipper, and has Ajinkya Rahane, who just led India to a famous series win in Australia, in his side,” he added. The Indian team is presently playing a four-match Test series against England at home and trail 0-1 after losing the first match in Chennai. Chasing 420, India were bowled out for 192 to lose the match by 227 runs. But the former England skipper backed Kohli of leading the team to series win. “On social media, every radio station, every television channel and every news channel, there are very deep discussions around what should happen. Captaining your country is very difficult and unfortunately this is the nature of the beast,” he said. “It’s one more distraction that Kohli doesn’t need but he is, of course, capable of leading his side to a victory in the second Test to quieten things down a bit,” Pietersen said. The two sides will now lock horns against each other in the second in Chennai slated to begin on Saturday.

You will not get any 'masala' here: Rahane responds to a question on Kohli's captaincy

India’s Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane addressed a press conference ahead of the second Test against England in Chennai. Rahane was asked about skipper Virat Kohli’s post-match comment on body language of the players in the first encounter. "It is not always possible to have the same sort of energy on the field. The lack of energy sometimes on the field in the first Test was not due to Virat Kohli returning as skipper. Virat Kohli is and will continue to be my captain. Kuch masala nahi milega yahan (You won’t get any controversy here),” Rahane said during a virtual presser. The Indian team is presently trailing the four-match Test series 0-1 after suffering a defeat in the first match. England rode on captain Joe Root’s double ton to post 578 in the first innings. The English spinners then rattled Indian batting order as the travelling team took the first innings lead to eventually hand India a target of 420 runs. The hosts were bundled out for 192 in the second innings to lose the match by 227 runs. More to follow…

IPL Mini Auction: Price range and full list of players going under the hammer on 18th February

The auctions for the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League is just a week ahead and a total of 292 cricketers have been finally picked to go under the hammer. A total of 1097 cricketers had registered for the IPL but the franchise showed interest in only 292 of them. These 292 players would now fight for a total 0f 61 spots available if all teams choose to have 25 players on board. A total of 113 capped players have been named in the auction list, out of that, 10 have registered themselves in the price range of two crores and 12 are in the range of 1.5 crores. The highest number of players are registered in the price range of 50 lakhs. Here is the list of top reserve priced and prominent players Base Price- (2 Crore) Base Price- (1.5 Crore) Base Price- (1 Crore) Prominent Players in Base Price- (<1 Crore) Prominent Uncapped Players Harbhajan Singh Alex Hales Hanuma Vihari Carlos Brathwaite Tanveer Sangha Kedar Jadhav Alex Carey Umesh Yadav Liam Livingstone Arjun Tendulkar Steve Smith Dawid Malan Aaron Finch Shivam Dube Vishnu Solanki Glen Maxwell Morne Morkel Evin Lewis Karun Nair Mohammad Azharuddin Mark Wood Gregory Lewis Sheldon Cottrell Adam Milne Avi Barot Sam Billings David Willey Mustafizur Rahman Thisara Perera Hari Nishanth Shakib Al Hasan Tom Curran Moises Henriques Piyush Chawla Lukman Meriwala Moeen Ali Shaun Marsh Marnus Labuschagne Ish Sodhi Wes Agar Jason Roy Adil Rashid Jason Behrendorff Karn Sharma Shahrukh Khan Liam Plunkett Mujeeb Ur Rahman Billy Stanlake Sandeep Lamichhane Manimaran Siddharth Jhye Richardson Matthew Wade Chris Morris Riley Meredith Nathan Coulter-Nile Devon Conway Nathan Ellis Martin Guptill Mark Steketee Cheteshwar Pujara Ben Cutting Rassie Van Der Dussen Kyle Jamieson Dan Christian Ben McDermott Jimmy Neesham Scott Kuggeleijn Kyle Mayers

IPL 2021: S Sreesanth reacts to auction snub

Fast bowler S Sreesanth was omitted from the list of players who will go under the hammer in IPL 2021 auction. The auctions is scheduled to take place on February 18 in Chennai.   The right-arm fast bowler had made his return to competitive cricket with Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He was banned for being allegedly involved in a spot-fixing scandal during IPL 2013.   Sreesanth has now responded to his omission and said, “I am disappointed not to be part of the final list of players in IPL auction - will be keep fighting, if I can wait for 8 years then I can wait for some more time, I am not giving up", he said in the video.   Sreesanth registered himself for the base price of INR 75   “A total of 1114 players had registered for the auction, of which the franchises shortlisted the candidates and the list was pruned. Maybe, Sreesanth did not attract the franchises for some reason,” one of the franchise officials told Sportstar.   As many 292 players have been shortlisted for the auction. Harbhajan Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Steve Smith, Shakib Al Hasan, Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Liam Plunkett and Jason Roy have been bracketed in the Rs 2 crore base price category.   CSK have Rs. 22.9 Cr, DC have Rs. 12.8 Cr, KXIP have Rs. 53.2 Cr while KKR, MI, RR, RCB and SRH have Rs. 10.85 Cr, Rs. 15.35 Cr, Rs. 34.85 Cr, Rs. 35.7 Cr and Rs. 10.75 Cr respectively.