Watch: India Men’s, Women’s teams assemble in Mumbai for hard quarantine before England tour

Mohammed Shami opens up on leadership style of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli

Mohammed Shami has a fair bit of international cricket and although his days for India at the international level has been more under Virat Kohli, the pacer has also been able to read the mind of Rohit Sharma—the leader. In an interview with India TV news, Shami has talked about different character among the senior member of the Indian team and highlighted the difference in approach of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Shami has said that Rohit is a cool and calm advisor who shows faith in bowlers’ own mindset and backs them to execute according to their own tactics. “As a bowler, when I go to him for advice, he always gives positive answers. Rohit always pushes the bowlers to do what their mind tells them to, irrespective of how the batsman is playing or his strong points,” Mohammed Shami said on Wednesday. Rohit is a different character. He is a cool person, except when he comes to bat!” said Mohammed Shami On the other hand, he said that the skipper Virat Kohli is as aggressive as it gets and his aggressiveness can well be compared to that of pacers. Sportingly, Shami said that whenever big screens show Kohli’s animated celebration after fall of a wicket, he walks up to him and ask if he was the one who took the wicket or was it the bowler. Fast bowlers are very aggressive, both old and new. But the one player who could probably emulate their aggression is our own captain! Sometimes, when a picture of Virat’s celebration of a wicket goes viral on social media, I funnily ask him, “Was it my wicket or yours?” He celebrates more than the bowlers! Sometimes he points out that you don’t look too happy with the wicket, so I simply tell him, ‘You did all the celebration for me!’,” Shami added. Mohammed Shami has returned to the Test squad for the tour of England where India will first play New Zealand in the World Test Championship final and then will challenge England over a five-match series.

BCCI, ECB discuss 'tweaking' of 5-match England-India Test series to accommodate IPL 2021

BCCI marks England as most-preferred destination for IPL 2021, overlooks Sri Lanka, UAE as options

The Board of Control for Cricket in India is considering relocating the remaining portion of the 14th edition of IPL which was postponed indefinitely due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases to the United Kingdom, TOI reported. England has emerged as the most preferred location because the UK government is likely to allow spectators into the stadiums which the BCCI believe will boost the revenue for all itself and all stakeholders such as ECB, English counties and IPL franchises. “UK is a relatively costlier destination. But on the flipside, the UK government is allowing crowds for sports events. That means, franchises can earn from gate money and that will subsidize costs. As of now, this is how the BCCI is seeing it,” the TOI report said. The report also claimed that the BCCI has marked the UAE as only an alternative option to the UK in case the cost of holding the remained of the tournament will be estimated above the manageable level. The report also suggested that the BCCI has ruled out Sri Lanka as a potent location of choice for relocating the IPL 2021. “Only if costs are escalating to a point where it starts affecting stakeholders, the BCCI will consider the UAE as the second option for the IPL. On that front, we aren’t even discounting the idea of hosting the IPL in Sri Lanka,” the report said further. Notably, three English counties had offered to host the remainder of the IPL 2021 at their grounds in consultation with the ECB. The Surrey, the MCC and Warwickshire had written to the ECB to show interest in hosting the cash-rich league this year.

Lack of red-ball cricket no problem for captain Tim Paine ahead of the Ashes

For Australia skipper, Tim Paine lack of international red-ball cricket for his team ahead of the all-important Ashesh 2021-22 is not really a problem. According to the Tasmanian, modern-day cricket requires teams to change gears as and when necessary and thus he is confident that his team would be able to do that too. "In modern-day cricket, you've got to be good at changing between formats quickly. We went into an Ashes in England two years ago now, and the only red-ball game we had was against each other,” Paine told reporters in Hobart after Cricket Australia announced the schedule of its upcoming Summer of cricket. "You've got to be adaptable, you've got to be ready to go 12 months of the year and our guys are very professional like that,” Paine added saying that since Sheffield shield would be on at the same time and hence will give players the required practice before the big series. Paine will also become the first Tasmanian to lead an Australian side in the Hobart game for the first time after Ricky Ponting in 2010 against Pakistan. The 36-year-old will lead the men in Baggy Greens in their first-ever Test against Afghanistan at his home ground of Bellerive Oval also called Blundstone Arena in the first Summer Test starting November 27. "It’s something I have always wanted to do. It will be a very proud moment for me to lead the Australian Test side out here," Paine who has so far played 35 Tests for the Aussie nation said. He added that playing against Afghanistan will also set them up for Ashes. “Afghanistan have got some highly talented spinners in particular that will create us a real challenge."