Two England players may have tested COVID positive, reports suggest

BBL 2020 Team Preview: Rich in all-round strengths, can Sydney Sixers defend BBL title?

Can the Sydney Sixers who were the champions of the Big Bash League last year defend their title in the BBL 10? That is a pertinent question on everyone’s including the Sixers’ team management’s mind as the team prepares to fight the battle while facing the prospect of the star trio of Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon missing from the season. Still, the team stack up nicely for their title defense on the back of world-beating all-rounders who are rich in experience of international and franchise-based T20 cricket. Steve Smith had opted out of the league while Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon will be busy on national duties and but the head coach Greg Shipperd is not losing hope as of yet to have the duo at the fag end of the tournament if favourable circumatsnces prevail over time. Another setback for the Sixers, will be the absence of Sean Abbott who has been selected in the Australian team for all formats and the coach Shipperd believes that it will provide opportunities for other guys in the groups to chip in to fill the void left by Abbott. "Sean Abbott has earned an opportunity in all three Australian squads this summer and we're thrilled for that, and it creates opportunities for others to fill that hole. We think we've got capable options from a medium-pace bowling point of view, but also a spinning point of view with Lloyd Pope, Steve O'Keefe and Ben Manenti,” Shipperd said to cricket.com.au. However, Shipperd is not losing the hope of getting Abbott back for the BBL in case the first preferred XI of the senior team plays well against the touring Indian side. “It'd be pre-emptive of us to put any pressure whatsoever around Sean possibly being released back to us early (from Test duty). He may find himself in sides and playing, so if that's the case we definitely won't get him back. But if the Test team is playing particularly well and he's not part of it, we'll make some enquiries about whether he will be available to us. But we have to wait and see how that unfolds,” Shipperd added. The Sixers are playing a long game with English pacer Tom Curran and the coach Shipperd believes that he has it in him what it takes to be successful with the ball in T20 cricket. He was expected to be available for the full season but the development around the COVID-19 in the England’s camps in South Africa might jeopardise both Curran’s fortunes and with him another first choice player of the Sixers squad. He’s also been seen as a like-for-like player who can fill into Sean Abbott’s shoes in the BBL 10. "We identified early on that we wanted Tom Curran to be a long-term member of our franchise and he signed a three-year deal with us. For such a young player, he's brought such cricketing intelligence into our environment, he's thirsty for the big moments, he's always improving with the bat … he's popular with the boys and popular with our members and fans. He'll be a long-term BBL player and hopefully for our franchise exclusively,” Shipperd said of Curran’s importance in the Sxiers setup. The Sixers are also very much reliant on another international duo of James Vince and Carlos Braithwaite, who the coach Shiffert confirmed, will be available for the whole season. Vince has been here and there with his form for the England side but his numbers in league cricket are second to no many batsmen and the Sixers will be looking forwards for him to give them a rapid start consistently throughout the season. The Sixers will pick Vince as the first-choice opener to partner the ever so enterprising Josh Phillipe who had lit up the BBL final last year and never allowed the Melbourne Stars to come in the game with his onslaught that turned out to be the match-winning effort for the side. The Sixers will be hopeful of them forging a long and consistent partnership and set the tone in the first six overs before the opposition teams could think of making a mark on a match. Another overseas import available for full-time, Carlos Brathwaite has been added to the squad for his finishing skills that earned him the recognition on the world stage. He will be assigned the task of taking the team to big totals from modest positions in the last overs of the innings along with chipping in with two-three economical and at best wicket-taking overs. He will play around two other valuable all-rounders of the Sixers in the form of Dan Christian and the captain Moises Henriques and will form the core of the Sixers’ batting order if they have to have any chance of posting massive totals or chasing steep target in the season that is critical for their reputation in the league. “We've added the all-round skill and experience of Dan Christian, which we think is a huge plus for us, and otherwise we're a pretty solid group. Carlos Brathwaite is our third international who will be particularly important this year given we're losing some valuable players during the tournament due to Australian duties. So hopefully we can cover the obvious losses that we're going to experience," Greg Shipperd said of the hopes the Sixers are keeping on the all-rounders in the set up. Greg Shipperd believes that Brathwaite has fitted very well in the squad when he had first joined the setup a few seasons ago when the team was going through a tough patch and he helped them turn the situation around. Hence, when Sean Abbott’s unavailability looked a distant possibility, he changed the approach of the side and went for a batting all-rounder in the form of Brathwaite who can help the Moises Henriques and Dan Christain in the middle phase of the innings. “We cast our net far and wide and we were waiting to see how particular players were travelling regarding Australian duties. And clearly with Sean Abbott's sensational form, we predicted he would be in the national squad, so we flipped from going for a batting allrounder to a bowling allrounder. And having had experience with Carlos Brathwaite before a few seasons ago, he came in after we'd lost six in a row and helped us win four games in a row to finish the season off and fitted into our squad really well. So it's great that he's available and he's keen to press his place in the competition,” Shipperd spoke highly of Brathwaite and his run of form for the Sixers in the past seasons of the BBL. Shipperd said that Brathwaite is no different from other international stars who have gone out of favour from the national team and wants to play for the West Indies in the two T20 World Cups scheduled to take place in the next two years and he will be highly motivated to stake claim for a spot with powerful performances in the BBL. “There's two T20 World Cups coming up and, like all players, he wants to play for his country again so this could be a nice stepping stone to do that,” he added. The Sixers have also brought in the West Indies skipper Jason Holder under a three-game deal and the all-rounder will feature in the plans for the matches scheduled on December 20, 26 and 29. Holder was highly successful in the IPL 2020 when the Sunrisers Hyderaabd had called him to replace Mitchell Marsh. He was immaculate in lengths and went on to change the outlook of the Sunrisers bowling attack while also stepping with the bat in tough games. The Sixers would plan to extract the best out of Holder’s availability for three games this season. The skipper, Moises Henriuqes was in red-hot form with the bat and the ball in the first round of the Sheffield Shield and the injury to Mithcell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis brought him back into the Australian limited-overs squad for the series against India. The Sixers will need all of his good form to click for them in the BBL especially in the absence of other experienced pros such as Steve Smith and Mithcell Starc. He led the Sixers to the triumph in the last season but the upcoming one can be tricky as he would have to deal with younger and inconsistent players who are capable enough of putting match-winning performances but Henriques would do well to remind himself and his teammates that to win a trophy as elusive as the Big Bash, they will need more than the sparks of brilliance from individuals and a a clear-headed team effort to keep the trophy with themselves at the end of the tournament. Sydney Sixers Squad Sean Abbott, Justin Avendano, Nick Bertus, Jackson Bird, Carlos Brathwaite (WI), Dan Christian, Tom Curran (ENG), Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Mickey Edwards, Moises Henriques (c), Jason Holder (WI), Daniel Hughes, Hayden Kerr, Nathan Lyon, Ben Manenti, Lawrence Neil-Smith, Stephen O'Keefe, Josh Philippe, Lloyd Pope, Tom Rogers, Gurinder Sandhu, Jordan Silk, Mitchell Starc, James Vince (ENG)

South Africa-England ODI abandoned after two members of hotel staff get COVID

The first ODI in a scheduled three-match ODI series between South Africa and England has been abandoned due to the dreaded COVID-19. This time, the reason for the match to be given the red signal were the positive results of COVID tests done on two members of the hotel staff where the English team stayed in Cape Town. The shocking discovery forced the match to be first delayed and then, eventually, getting called off. The series is already running behind schedule as the first match was first scheduled to be played on the 4th of this month. But it had to be postponed due to one of the players in the South African camp testing positive. Now, the English team is undergoing tests to see if any one of them has caught the virus. If they have, the entire tour may come to an early and abrupt end. An initial statement from the two countries explained the situation thus: "The England players and management underwent an additional round of PCR tests on Saturday evening, after two members of the hotel staff testing positive for Covid-19," it said. "Whilst the ECB awaits ratification of those test results the decision has been taken to delay the start of today's ODI match." Since this statement, the match has been abandoned. The second ODI is scheduled to take place tomorrow at Paarl, the same venue, but it too comes under doubt now.

NZ vs WI | 1st Test: Kane Williamson, bowlers power Kiwis to crushing win over Windies

A swashbuckling century from Jermaine Blackwood and a valiant effort by the bowler Alzzari Joseph with the bat could help the West Indies a little but to delay an inevitable loss as the hosts New Zealand trounced them by an innings and 134 runs. The tourists had an uphill task in the first Test of the two-match series from the outset on a pitch that was tough to differentiate with the outfield and was headed to only one direction when the Blackcaps skipper Kane Williamson put on a show and produced a Man of the Match performance with a double century to flatten the voting bowling lineup and dismal batting performances by the Windies on Day 3 when they were bundled out for a mere 138 runs in their first innings. West Indies started the match on a perfect note, winning the all-important toss and decided to bowl first on the pitch that promised a lot of bounce and seam movement from the word go. Jason Holder could not have asked for a better start than the one his bowler had given him with Shannon Gabriel finding the debutant Will Young rooted to his crease, against one of his very full and fast deliveries. Holder and Windies would have thought of building on from that good start with the ball, but what followed next was just a masterclass on how to bat on those sort of pitches. Another Kiwi opener Tom Latham and Kane Williamson put on a near-perfect partnership as the tourists had to wait for another 50 overs and 154 runs to separate them. Williamson was unfazed and he kept on piling the runs and agonies on the visitors as batsmen on the other end kept wasting their starts. By the second day, when the hosts declared after a mammoth total of 519, Windies openers had their tasks cut out in defending the hungry bunch of New Zealand bowlers and they fought admirably to go back to the pavilion at the end of day 2 without losing any wickets. Kiwi bowlers are a force to reckon and they go on a rampage on home pitches and the wave of wickets for them had to arrive at some stage of the match and it started with the morning session of the day three of this Test. First to go was John Campbell, who was sucked into playing a drive-by Tim Southee, who slanted a ball across him after setting him up with inswingers one after another. Campbell was caught by Williamson when he had a miss-hit from a full ball and fell embarrassingly caught hitting the ball in the air. Southee was into a nice rhythm and Shamarh Brooks was not good enough to handle a jaffa from him that moved in the air from the line of the stump and mayhem that everyone was expecting to happen sooner or later, had arrived in the first Test as the tourists could never come back to their own and were bundled out for a mere 138 runs. Southee was the pick of the Kiwi bowlers, picking four wickets while Boult had one to his tally, while both Wagner and Jamieson had two each to his name in the first innings. West Indies were routed in 62 overs and Kane Willimaons sniffed an opportunity of crushing any chance of a West Indies comeback and called them to follow on when the home bowlers were in a good rhythm. New Zealand opening pair with the new ball vindicated the follow-on call taken by Williamson by bettering their performance with the new ball compared to the first innings and dismissed all batsmen in the top four of the West Indies line up such as John Campbell, Shamarh Brooks, Darren Bravo and a reliably solid Kraig Braithwaite inside 10 overs. Two more wickets of the vice-captain Roston Chase and captain Jason Holder followed as the hosts closed in on a three-day win but Jermaine Blackwood showed character and started taking the game to the opposition in his usual style. The game got extended to the fourth day on the back of valiant efforts from Blackwood and Joseph. The duo forged a strong and attacking partnership of 155 runs from only 36 overs, establishing the kind of batting tactics they adopted in the middle. Blackwood went on to score a century(104) from 141 balls while Joseph missed out on a heroic ton and was dismissed on 89 by Kyle Jamieson. Joseph was dismissed on 244 and the hosts made sure the Windies did not extend the game any far and dismissed the next two wickets in a span of one over to go 1-0 up in the two-match Test series. The sides will now travel to Wellington to play the second and the final Test of the series to conclude the tour that has been dominated by the Blackcaps. Windies will have to pull up their socks if they have to stand any chance to stand against the dominating team of New Zealand.

Mitchell Starc opts out of ongoing T20 series against India due to personal reasons

Australian pacer Mitchell Starc has opted out of the ongoing T20 series against India due to health concerns in the family. There is lack of clarity on the exact issue that made him leave the team to join the family, but his exclusion from the team will dent the hosts’ bowling line up with Pat Cummins already eng rested for the Test series. "There is nothing in the world more important than family and in this case, Mitch is no exception. We will give Mitch all the time he needs and welcome him back into the squad with open arms whenever he feels the time is right for him and his family," said Justin Langer, the Australian men’s team Head Coach. Starc will join the long list of players in the Australian camp to miss out from the T20 series due to injuries or personal reasons. David Warner, Ashton Agar, Marcus Stoinis, all have been knocked out of the squad due to injury. Starcs unavailability will allow Daniel Sams to have a perfect opportunity to make his debut in the Australian colours, especially as he can be a like-for-like replacement to Starc being a left-arm [pacer. However, Daniel Sams is a different bowler than Starc and India will love the prospect of no Starc in the opposition lineup as they are chasing a series win in Sydney.