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The former chairman of selectors has accused N Srinivasan and MS Dhoni of favouring the Chennai Super Kings player S Badrinath

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Mar-2018Dilip Vengsarkar believes he paid a hefty price – his job as chairman of selectors – for selecting a young Virat Kohli, Under-19 World Cup winner, ahead of S Badrinath, domestic stalwart, back in 2008. At an event to felicitate sports journalists, Vengsarkar accused N Srinivasan, the then BCCI treasurer, and then captain MS Dhoni of favouring the Chennai Super Kings and Tamil Nadu player Badrinath.Vengsarkar went on to accuse Srinivasan of costing him his job as the chairman of the selection committee and replacing him with former India and Tamil Nadu player Kris Srikkanth. However, at the time, Vengsarkar could have qualified for an extension of his term if he had given up a conflict of interest that arose from his being vice-president of the Mumbai Cricket Association.In July 2008, when Sharad Pawar was the president, the BCCI working committee approved a new criteria concerning any conflict of interest pertaining to a selector. The clause, which was ratified at the AGM later that year, said a selector could not hold a dual post. Vengsarkar refused to stand down as MCA vice-president despite having served only half of his four-year term.The selection that Vengsarkar spoke of was for the limited-overs leg of the 2008 tour of Sri Lanka, incidentally the first year of the IPL. Super Kings captain Dhoni had been the limited-overs captain for a year. Asked which of his roles – player, captain, chairman of selection committee – was the toughest, Vengsarkar picked selector and went on to explain.”There was an Emerging Players tournament between Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and India in 2008,” Vengsarkar said. “We decided to send only Under-23 players for this tour. That year, we had won the U-19 World Cup as well, and Virat Kohli was the captain of that team. We included him in that team.”I went to Brisbane to watch those matches. This match was against New Zealand, and they had a stronger side than us. They had a few Test players too. In that match he scored 123 not out, and I knew we needed to play him in the Indian team. I felt he was mature as a batsman.”Kohli did score an unbeaten 120 as an opener in the match Vengsarkar spoke of, helping India chase down a target of 249 set by a New Zealand side that included Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill, BJ Watling, Corey Anderson and Hamish Bennett.”I felt the ODI leg of the Sri Lanka tour was an ideal situation to include him in the squad,” Vengsarkar said. “The other four selectors told me, ‘Dilip we will do whatever you say. There is no problem at all.’ But Gary Kirsten and Dhoni were reluctant because they said they hadn’t seen Kohli before. I told them, ‘You haven’t seen him but I have. This boy needs to play.'”I knew that Badrinath was from the south and he was from Chennai Super Kings. From N Srinivasan’s team. He would have to miss out if Kohli had to be picked. And that happened. I picked Virat Kohli, and Badrinath went out.”As it turned out, Sachin Tendulkar missed the ODIs with injury, which gave Badrinath an opportunity to play. Kohli played all five matches, Badrinath three. Kohli averaged 31.50, scoring a half-century too. Badrinath averaged 19.5 in the three innings he got. India won that series, their first bilateral success in Sri Lanka.However, Vengsarkar said the selection committee meeting was not the last of the resistance he had to face. “Next day Srinivasan asked me, ‘How could you leave Badrinath?'” Vengsarkar said. “I said I had seen the Emerging tour, and that Virat Kohli was an exceptional player. He said, ‘But Badrinath has scored 800 runs for Tamil Nadu.’ I said he will get his chance. Srinivasan said, ‘When will he get his chance? He is 29 [27, actually].’ I said he will get his chance when he gets it. I cannot make guarantees.”The next day he took [Kris] Srikkanth to Sharad Pawar – the BCCI president – and sent me home. That was the end of my career as a selector.”The decision to disqualify state officials from being national selectors was ratified at BCCI’s AGM in September 2008, where Srikkanth was appointed chairman of selectors, and where Srinivasan and Shashank Manohar took over as the board’s secretary and president respectively.The contentious selection was made in early August that year. Incidentally Badrinath had called the rejection a “crushing blow” that left him numb. “Forget Emerging Players Trophy, I have scored heavily during the A series against Australia and South Africa earlier and the only player to have done better than me in domestic competitions is Gautam Gambhir,” Badrinath told then. “When Manoj Tiwary went for the tri-series in Australia earlier this year, I was intrigued. Still, I tried to keep my cool. Now it’s Virat Kohli. This is really going nowhere.”Vengsarkar is not the only selector to have spoken of Srinivasan’s influence on selections. Mohinder Amarnath, the chairman of selectors in 2011-12, has in the past accused Srinivasan of blocking a move to remove Dhoni as the limited-overs captain after India had been whitewashed in successive Test series in England and Australia. However, Srinivasan was the president of the board then. The BCCI’s constitution said all captaincy changes had to be ratified by the board president. This one wasn’t, and Dhoni went on to captain India until after the 2015 World Cup.

New Zealand completed a stunning final-day win in Wellington, after Bangladesh slumped to 160 all out in their second innings

The Report by Alagappan Muthu16-Jan-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:42

Isam: Latham innings turned the tide in the game

A gruesome day for Bangladesh was highlighted by Mushfiqur Rahim being taken off the field in an ambulance after being struck on the helmet by a bouncer from Tim Southee. The fact that he was batting in the first place, having injured his hand, was a sign of how desperate the situation was for the visitors. They were eventually bowled out for 160 seven overs after lunch. Set 217 to win in 57 overs, a quickfire Kane Williamson century saw New Zealand home in 39.4 overs; the hosts’ seven-wicket win also broke a record that had stood for 122 years.Overnight on 66 for 3, Bangladesh’s day began with Shakib Al Hasan’s awful heave barely seconds after the start of play. When the focus should have been on survival, he popped a catch to mid-on off Mitchell Santner. The man who had set Bangladesh up with the possibility of beginning an overseas series with a win, hitting their highest ever individual score of 217, had fallen for a duck. They were reduced to 96 for 5 when Mominul Haque did not anticipate a fuller delivery from Neil Wagner. His feet were pinned to the crease, hinting he was expecting a bouncer, and was caught in the slips.Adding to Bangladesh’s woes were the injuries to key batsmen: opener Imrul Kayes had retired hurt on the fourth day during Bangladesh’s second innings due to a thigh injury, and Mushfiqur’s innings was cut short on day five. The end to Mushfiqur’s innings came at a time when he seemed to be dealing with the short ball quite well. A ball that kept low from Southee hit him on the helmet just behind his left ear. There would be outcry over how often the bowlers targeted the fingers on Mushfiqur’s bottom hand – which might well be broken – but he would have known what he was in for when he decided to bat with a target on him. Mushfiqur was taken to the hospital, where scans indicated he was out of immediate danger, and returned to the ground to watch his record partnership for Bangladesh with Shakib – they had added 359 in the first innings – become the second-highest one to result in a defeat.Bangladesh still had hope of something face-saving while Sabbir was at the crease. A naturally aggressive batsman, Sabbir spent 51 minutes without scoring – during which he could have been caught and bowled – and batted sensibly with the tail until lunch. After the break though, perhaps worried by Kamrul Islam Rabbi and Subashis Roy’s batting abilities, he began taking a lot more risks and was caught behind for 50 while attempting an on-the-up square drive. Imrul came out to bat again at the fall of Kamrul – the seventh wicket in the innings – and added 12 more as Bangladesh lost their last four wickets for 23 runs. Trent Boult picked up 3 for 53, bowling Roy and Taskin Ahmed with reverse-swing.New Zealand’s chase was a contrast to the manic day that it was for Bangladesh. Williamson reinforced his reputation as a fourth-innings master. He reached a hundred off only 89 balls, the fourth-fastest in the final innings in all Tests. And yet there were no pyrotechnics. The most he did was meet a few lifters in mid-air and paste them through cover though there was no room on offer, or alternatively work his wrists over them and find the midwicket boundary.Mehedi Hasan, given the new ball again, dismissed Jeet Raval and Tom Latham before tea, beating the first man with flight to earn himself a return catch and the second with turn as a half-hearted defensive shot led to an inside edge onto the stumps. But Bangladesh bowled poorly thereafter, drained by their injury worries and shocked by how wildly the match had turned. Even as late as tea on the fourth day neither team had begun their second innings. By 5.47pm on the fifth, the visitors were beaten. Badly. They couldn’t get the simple disciplines right. The quicks were too short, the spinners bowled leg stump and outside and while that was meant to slow down the scoring, it had the opposite effect. In a 10-over after the second wicket, they leaked 77 runs.New Zealand’s overall run-rate – 5.47 – was the third-highest in the fourth innings as Williamson, with his 15th century, and Ross Taylor, with his 24th fifty, put on their eighth hundred partnership and ensured the fans who packed the Basin Reserve – it was free entry for the final day – witnessed history.

Zimbabwe will play ODIs and T20s against Bangladesh in November, BCB president Nazmul Hassan said, instead of the two Tests announced last week

Mohammad Isam16-Oct-2015Zimbabwe will play ODIs and T20s against Bangladesh in November, according to BCB president Nazmul Hassan, instead of the two Tests announced last week.”It has been decided [on the sidelines of the ICC meeting] that Zimbabwe will fill up the slot that opened up due to Australia’s postponement,” Hassan said. “We have to finish the series by November 18 or 19. They have to come by the first week of November. Zimbabwe have confirmed they are coming. It will be ODIs and T20s. There will be four to five matches, though that hasn’t been decided.”The Bangladesh-Zimbabwe series was originally scheduled for January 2016, when the sides were supposed to play two Tests, three ODIs and three T20s. But after Australia postponed their tour earlier this month, the BCB contacted ZC to bring forward the tour to early November. And with the Bangladesh Premier League set to start on November 22, the window for the series is about three weeks. ODIs and T20s would better fit that window, some in the BCB believed, hence the change in plans.Hassan also said that Cricket Australia have committed to playing in Bangladesh in the near future, even if it is during a tour to India or Sri Lanka. The two Tests could likely be shifted to late 2016 or sometime in 2017.”Australia regretted the postponement repeatedly, at one point in front of everyone. They postponed because the Italian national was killed. When everyone started saying IS was involved, they became worried.”But they said they will make it up to us. The problem is, they have a very busy schedule. They can’t come to play a Test before the end of 2016 or in 2017. They confirmed this in front of everyone. In addition, they said when they will tour India or Sri Lanka, they will play a couple of matches in Bangladesh to show that they want to come.”Hassan added that Cricket South Africa have asked the BCB to send over fresh schedule for the women’s tour that was also postponed earlier this month. “Cricket South Africa told us that they will send the women’s team. They have asked for a new schedule, which we sent yesterday. They will let us know soon.”

A round-up of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches on March 30, 2013

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Mar-2013

Group A

In a one-sided match, Kerala were crushed under the weight of a dominant batting performance from Gujarat, led by Manprit Juneja, who scored a belligerent century, and Abdulahad Malik, to lose by 90 runs in Indore. The victory helped Gujarat qualify for the final of the tournament, to be played against Punjab, as they snatched the top spot via a better net run-rate than Kerala.Soon after being put in to bat, Gujarat were struggling at 31 for 3 in the fifth over, with the top three batsmen in their line-up having been dismissed. Juneja and Malik, then, shared an unbeaten 202-run partnership – the third-highest for any wicket in Twenty20s and the highest for the fourth wicket – in 94 balls to take them to a daunting 233 for 4. Juneja scored 108 off 50 deliveries, and Malik 84 off 46, both unbeaten. The two hit 25 fours and six sixes between them.In reply, Kerala lost wickets frequently. Except opener VA Jagadeesh (36), Sanju Samson (32) and Raiphi Gomez (26), none of the other batsmen put up much resistance. They were eventually bowled out for 143, with seamer Mehul Patel and offspinner Jesal Karia taking three wickets each.A quick half-century from Faiz Fazal helped Vidarbha beat Delhi by five wickets. Delhi, batting first, put up a strong 156 for 7, through a knock of 45 from Mohit Sharma and an unbeaten 39 from middle-order batsman Milind Kumar. Two significant partnerships, between Mohit and Jagrit Anand (worth 57 runs), and between Milind and Nitish Rana (40) helped Delhi get to the total, even though they kept losing wickets.Fazal set the tone in Vidarbha’s reply by dominating the opening stand of 31. He added 53 runs with Urvesh Patel, and when the stand was broken, Vidarbha were strong at 83 for 2. Three wickets fell for 31, but Shalabh Shrivastava, with a 14-ball 26, took them home in 19 overs.

Group B

A career-best, unbeaten 93 from Gurkeerat Singh helped Punjab beat Uttar Pradesh by 51 runs and gave them a berth in the final, to be played against Gujarat on Sunday. UP, after choosing to field, removed opener Mandeep Singh in the first over, and Ravi Inder Singh in the sixth over. But Gurkeerat struck useful stands with Mayank Sidhana, Chandan Madan and Amitoze Singh to steer his team to 161 for 5. His 58-ball knock consisted of eight fours and six sixes.UP’s innings never took off as seamer Sandeep Sharma dented the top order with quick wickets and spinner Rahul Sharma followed up by taking four wickets. Mohammad Kaif (46) and captain Piyush Chawla (29) provided resistance with a 46-run stand for the fifth wicket, but then they lost six wickets for 19 runs to be bowled out for 110.Half-centuries from Jyot Chhaya and Vishnu Solanki took Baroda to a tight five-wicket victory over Karnataka at the Holkar Stadium. In their chase of 168, Baroda’s top-order batsmen squandered starts, but at 75 for 4, Chhaya added 90 runs off 52 balls with Solanki to take them home in the penultimate ball of the innings.Karnataka’s innings revolved around a 34-ball 49 from opener Robin Uthappa, and contributions from Karun Nair (22), Manish Pandey (29), and K Gowtham (24). Spinners Bhargav Bhatt and Krunal Pandya took three wickets each.

ESPNcricinfo previews Delhi Daredevils in IPL 2012

Sharda Ugra03-Apr-2012

Big Picture

Constant revival is the historical motif of the Daredevils’ home city, but a more contemporary representation of Delhi would include high speed and road rage. Season five of IPL for the Daredevils will then naturally require not only brazen overtaking over hairpin bends, but navigational acumen to arrive at their destination.To finish at the bottom in 2011 after topping the table two years ago is evidence that what was previously fixed, had been broken. The Daredevils ended up with only four wins from 14 matches, trailing even the season’s two new teams. Maybe rejigging of the team after the auction caused the imbalance or maybe it was a brittle top order.Regardless of the explosive pair of Virender Sehwag and David Warner, the Daredevils’ opening partnership crossed 50 only three times in 14 innings, and it lacked an energetic middle order to carry on after repeated early setbacks. Their season opened with a home game in which the Daredevils were all out for 95 and of their four victories, only one was to come at home. By the end of the season, the Daredevils were left in shambles.The repair work for the new season has come in the form of the arrival of two quality middle-order men, Kevin Pietersen, who was brought in from Deccan Chargers, and Mahela Jayawardene, to follow the openers.Had Morne Morkel not broken Ross Taylor’s arm in Wellington, the Daredevils’ middle order would have had the perfect mix: batsmen of calibre combining with the game’s leading entertainers. Morkel himself leads a quick bowling attack with several options, and the presence of Indians among them gives the Daredevils room for flexibility. Along with New Zealand’s Doug Bracewell, who will get his first taste of Indian conditions, and West Indian allrounder Andre Russell, the Daredevils will also field a genuinely quick and now toughened Umesh Yadav. The experience of Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar is valuable and Varun Aaron is said to be recovering from the injury that he picked up last year.Team mentor T A Sekhar who has been signed on again, after a couple of years with the Mumbai Indians, believes that the general gloom about the Daredevils’ lack of slow-bowling options is largely baseless. Twenty20 specialist spinning allrounder Roelof van der Merwe comes with more than useful promise.Along with its eye-catching star cast, a surprise performance from the Daredevils’ second line will be a bonus: whether through Australian allrounder Glen Maxwell, who scored a fifty off 17 balls, a record in Australia’s List-A or teenager Unmukt Chand, who is leading the India under-19 team in Australia during a two-week tour. The formula of a successful team, says Sekhar, comes from a high-profile core of performers and a handy supporting cast arranged around them.

Key players

Virender Sehwag: He was the only player the Daredevils wanted to retain in 2010, he is the captain from the 2008 ‘icon’ bunch still standing and he remains the team’s centrifugal force. He will be energised not only by the presence of many shot-makers around him, but by the quality all the way down to No. 6. Still, it will be Sehwag who will need to set the tone for how the Daredevils’ campaign turns out, especially, if he can get them to better starts than last year.Mahela Jayawardene: After Pietersen, the highest signing by the Daredevils from the 2012 auction, Jayawardene finds himself in his third IPL team in five years after being an asset for any franchise and a tough man to let go of. He found himself in the auction only because Kochi Tuskers Kerala got booted out of the IPL and will arrive into a set up that can do with his reassuring presence in the midst of extravagant talents. If he’s not worn out by Sri Lanka’s unending travels, Jayawardene can be the improvisational middle-order man who keeps his head when the big hitters go into turbo mode. His calmness at the crease belies his strike rate. His nous on the field will be of assistance to Sehwag’s leadership and he was quickly named as the vice-captain.

Big names in

Kevin Pietersen: Who else? The Daredevils were willing to spend up to half of their auction purse – $2.3m in fact – on signing Pietersen from Deccan Chargers in the January transfer window. The signing comes with the hope that Pietersen will become the Daredevils’ talisman like Chris Gayle for Bangalore. In theory, Pietersen and the IPL are made for each other – the attention-grabbing performer and the big-ticket stage. His record in the tournament though, is most unlike the man: modest. There’s far too few runs – 329 with two half-centuries – in 13 matches, despite having belonged to the bling-filled environment of Royal Challengers Bangalore. But Pietersen will arrive into the IPL after three weeks of acclimatising in Sri Lanka. What awaits him is a team looking for performers in cricket’s biggest showboat. It’s a match made in heaven.Andre Russell: Russell has pace, aggression, athleticism and star quality. Yet to prove himself internationally in the shortest form of the game, he has fitted well into the West Indies ODI squad and caught the eye when playing India in eight ODIs last year just after the World Cup. At the domestic level though, he has come to terms with the curious demands of Twenty20, churning out runs at a strike rate of 148. He has played in the Bangladesh Premier League for the Khulna Royal Bengals*, but now comes the big stuff. Over the next six weeks, Russell will have a chance to prove that he is cut out for cricket’s most lucrative event, the IPL, and therefore, worthy of a $450,000 pay cheque.

Big names out

James Hopes brought optimism when he was inducted into the Daredevils side. He was every inch an allrounder needed by a Twenty20 franchise – a bustling batsman anywhere in the order with handy medium-pace. Last season for the Daredevils though, Hopes played in ten games without producing the high-impact returns expected from him. In exchange for Hopes and Ashok Dinda, both players traded in with the Pune Warriors, the Daredevils had enough cash in hand to sign Pietersen onto their rolls.

Below the radar

Irfan Pathan: Irfan Pathan will always have his days, like his bigger hitting elder brother Yusuf. Now that injuries are behind him and he has had a satisfactory domestic season for Baroda, the Daredevils will hope for bigger performances from him. If things are going for Irfan with the bat, he can unleash a late charge or a recovery. When the ball is swinging, he has what is needed to disturb batsmen and check the flood of runs. If a player is only as good as his last game, then Irfan’s produced quite a signal: an allround performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final against Punjab that helped Baroda win the title.

Availability

David Warner will turn up in May after the end of Australia’s tour of the West Indies and Ross Taylor, when he has recuperated from his injury. Varun Aaron is building up towards recovery and should be ready by the third week. Unmukt Chand will be back from Australia in the second week but if he gets a game, he will have to make it count.

2011 in a tweet

Two semi-finals and a fifth-place finish followed by a crash landing. Law of averages be damned.* April 3, 2012, 16:05 GMT: The article earlier said that Andre Russell played for the Chittagong Kings. This has been corrected

Visiting seamer Ian Saxelby claimed career-best figures of 5 for 53 as 15
wickets fell on the opening day at Cardiff

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Apr-2011
Scorecard
Visiting seamer Ian Saxelby claimed career-best figures of 5 for 53 as 15
wickets fell on the opening day at Cardiff.The 21-year-old helped to reduce Glamorgan to 202 all out in 47.5 overs and
Gloucestershire themselves struggled to 76 for 5 before bad light stopped
play for the day.Despite winning the toss, Glamorgan had been 26 for 4 and 54 for 6 but
they were rescued by a seventh-wicket partnership of 138 from Ben Wright, who
made 83 on the day he was awarded his county cap, and Graham Wagg (58).They made a terrible start against the new ball as they lost Gareth Rees to
only the second ball of the game, lbw to Jon Lewis. And six overs later, despite striking three boundaries, Will Bragg fell in similar fashion. Glamorgan further capitulated to 20 for 3 when skipper Alviro Petersen was also trapped in front, this time by Liam Norwell in his first over.Mike Powell became the fourth lbw – the third for Lewis – playing down the
wrong line. The flow of wickets was stemmed briefly by Jim Allenby, who struck a run-a-ball
22 before he edged Saxelby to Ian Cockbain at second slip.Wright was dropped was dropped by Saxelby off Norwood’s bowling, but Saxelby
made amends in the next over when he had Mark Wallace caught by Cockbain at
second slip. Either side of lunch, Wright and Wagg launched a more than profitable recovery
in 22 overs.The pair took Glamorgan to 192 for six before Saxelby dismissed both in the
space of two overs. Wright went for 83 from 98 balls with 14 fours after being
bowled attempting a pull, while Wagg was bowled via an inside edge.Saxelby completed his first five-wicket haul by having Dean Cosker caught
behind as the last three Glamorgan wickets added just 10 runs. In reply, Gloucestershire were reduced to 49 for four despite Glamorgan losing Wagg to a hamstring injury after only one over.His replacement Adam Shantry had Richard Coughtrie caught behind by Mark
Wallace before Harris claimed his first wicket of the season when he bowled
Cockbain for 21.From 29 for 2, the visitors were further reduced to 37 for 3 as Chris
Taylor was trapped lbw failing to offer a shot to Harris. After tea Shantry took his second wicket, Jon Batty pinned leg before, and then Allenby dismissed Alex Gidman.

Jamaica made hard work of their Digicel-sponsored Jamaica Cricket Festival fifty-over contest against Canada, losing six wickets before labouring past the paltry target of 149 in the 29th over

Cricinfo staff09-Apr-2010Jamaica made hard work of their Digicel-sponsored Jamaica Cricket Festival fifty-over contest against Canada, losing six wickets before labouring past the paltry target of 149 in the 29th over.Despite having a below-par score to defend, Canada made a contest out of the encounter and showed their intentions from the very first delivery in the Jamaican response, getting rid of opener Danza Hyatt who was caught in the slips by Harvir Baidwan off the bowling of Henry Osinde.The Canadians were at it again minutes later when Donovan Pagon was sent on his way, caught by Rizwan Cheema off Khurram Chohan, to leave the Jamaicans precariously poised at 3 for 2.Things looked even worse for the locals when Carlton Baugh and captain Tamar Lambert, who went for a first-ball duck, were sent packing with the score on 64. Opener Brenton Parchment was the saviour for the hosts with a responsible, unbeaten knock of 72 achieved at a run-a-ball, with ten fours. Hard-hitting lower-order batsman Andre Russell hastened the finish, crashing four boundaries in a rapid 19.Earlier in the day, David Bernard had Canada in trouble early, as the top three fell for single-figure scores. Captain Ashish Bagai stemmed the rot with a 64-ball 53, and he got some support from Usman Limbada and Sunil Dhaniram, before Odean Brown ran through the lower order. He finished with 4 for 33, as Canada folded for 148 in 41 overs.

Several familiar family connections in squad for three-match white-ball series

Vithushan Ehantharajah11-Jun-2024Rocky Flintoff, the son of former England allrounder Andrew Flintoff, has been called up to England men’s Under-19 squad for their three-match youth ODI series against Sri Lanka later this month.Despite being just 16, Flintoff has impressed for Lancashire 2nd XI this season. He made his debut two days after his 16th birthday and scored a maiden century in April against Warwickshire 2nd XI at Edgbaston. His father, Andrew, is currently out in the Caribbean as part of the England coaching staff for the T20 World Cup.The U19 squad has plenty of other family connections throughout. They will be captained by Essex allrounder Luc Benkenstein, son of former South Africa batter and current Lancashire head coach Dale Benkenstein.Offspinner Farhan Ahmed, younger brother of England international Rehan Ahmed, is also included, having signed his first professional contract at Nottinghamshire this week. Durham wicketkeeper Haydon Mustard, whose father Phil earned 12 white-ball caps with England, has also been selected alongside Somerset’s Thomas Rew, another keeper batter and the younger brother of the highly touted James Rew.The 16-man squad includes nine players who played in the U19 World Cup earlier this year in South Africa. England failed to make the knockout stages, eventually placing sixth overall.Related

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Ben McKinney, who captained the team at the World Cup, and Hamza Shaikh were not considered for selection as they are likely to appear for a County Select XI in a three-day match against West Indies. That fixture, which will be played at Beckenham from July 3, will be West Indies’ sole warm-up match ahead of their three-match Test series against England, which begins at Lord’s on July 10.The squad for the two-match Youth Test series with Sri Lanka is due to be announced later this month.England Men Under-19s coach, Mike Yardy, said: “We have selected an exciting squad for the series, with a blend of some players who are currently playing in the Vitality Blast and some younger players for whom it will be their first time in an Under-19s squad.”As always, it’s a great opportunity for the players to perform in an England Under-19 shirt and to experience international cricket.”England Men U19s squad: Luc Benkenstein (Essex – captain), Farhan Ahmed (Nottinghamshire), Tazeem Ali (Warwickshire), Charlie Allison (Essex), Noah Cornwell (Middlesex), Rocky Flintoff (Lancashire), Keshana Fonseka (Lancashire), Eddie Jack (Hampshire), Dom Kelly (Hampshire), Freddie McCann (Nottinghamshire), Harry Moore (Derbyshire), Haydon Mustard (Durham), Thomas Rew (Somerset), Noah Thain (Essex), Raphael Weatherall (Northamptonshire), Theo Wylie (Warwickshire).

The left-arm fast bowler has undergone surgery to remove blood clots in his shoulder but is yet to resume bowling

Nagraj Gollapudi24-Mar-2023Uncapped Indian fast bowler Mohsin Khan will be a key absentee in the Lucknow Super Giants’ line-up for majority of the 2023 season as he recovers from a left shoulder injury. ESPNcricinfo has learned that Mohsin, who was among the best bowlers last IPL, underwent surgery to remove blood clots in his bowling shoulder last year and is yet to resume bowling.Mohsin is understood to have experienced discomfort late into the 2022 season and has not bowled since last IPL. He travelled to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and subsequently had the blood clots removed surgically. The left-arm fast bowler from Uttar Pradesh is currently part of the Super Giants’ preparatory camp in Lucknow. It is understood that while Mohsin has been batting in the nets, he is not ready to start bowling again because he is still strengthening his bowling shoulder.Super Giants, who finished third in their maiden IPL season last year, remain optimistic and expect Mohsin to start bowling in the second half of the IPL. While the franchise picked Saurashtra and India left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat as a ready replacement at the IPL auction last December, they kept Mohsin in the squad and is understood to have supported him throughout the rehab phase.Super Giants had entrusted Mohsin with the most challenging task: bowling in the powerplay and death. He had a shaky start to IPL 2022, leaking 18 runs in two wicketless overs against Gujarat Titans in Super Giants’ first IPL game and was subsequently benched for the rest of the first half of the season. But once he returned, he made an impact in virtually each of the eight matches he played, including Eliminator against Royal Challengers Bangalore at Eden Gardens, where his 1 for 25 in four overs was the joint-most economical spell in the game.In terms of impact per match measured by ESPNcricnfo’s Smart Stats, Mohsin even pipped Rajasthan Royals’ Jos Buttler, last season’s leading run-getter, with a score of 58.4. Smart Stats takes into account match context for each ball bowled and it was here that Mohsin made the telling impact. His 4 for 16 against Delhi Capitals and 3 for 20 against Kolkata Knight Riders featured in the list of top-five highest impact points for a bowling performance last IPL.In his last eight matches, Mohsin conceded 12.78 runs per wicket and 5.77 per over. Among the 33 bowlers who bowled at least 20 overs in that period, none had a better average or economy rate. Overall in the 2022 season, no bowler had a better economy in the powerplay than his 5.25 while only four other bowlers did better than his 8.62 at the death (minimum qualification: eight overs for each).

Hurricanes exacted revenge for their defeat three nights ago with a nine-run win as Thunder suffered a middle-order collapse

Tristan Lavalette13-Jan-2022Matthew Wade made an unbeaten 83 on return, then Riley Meredith lit a fuse with the ball as Hobart Hurricanes ended Sydney Thunder’s six-match winning streak with a nine-run victory at Marvel Stadium.After missing two matches due to personal reasons, Wade’s 54-ball knock held Hurricanes’ innings together after they elected to bat before speedster Meredith tore through Thunder’s vaunted batting order with three wickets in a see-saw contest.Fourth-placed Hurricanes (24 points) exacted revenge after losing by nine wickets just three days ago and tightened their grip on a playoffs berth, while Thunder (31 points) remained second behind Perth Scorchers.Wade returns in styleHaving hit two of his three BBL tons at Marvel Stadium, Ben McDermott eyed another big score but Thunder had his number again as he fell for 18. For the second straight match, he fell to a slower delivery after being deceived by Daniel Sams in the fifth over.It brought Wade to the crease, who returned after missing two matches due to personal reasons and he came in at No. 3 instead of his customary position at the top. Having struggled for most of the season, Wade’s timing was impeccable with a powerful boundary second ball and then smashed legspinner Tanveer Sangha for two boundaries in the seventh over.Wade received a life on 18 when Sangha dropped a sitter at short third man and made Thunder pay along with Caleb Jewell, who justified the faith to keep him as an opener with a 32-ball 51. Hurricanes appeared set to push for 200 until Jewell’s wicket in the 13th over sparked a collapse of 5 for 22.Having watched the carnage around him, an unperturbed Wade lifted Hurricanes with a late flurry. Hurricanes still haven’t quite got the balance right in their batting order but a rejuvenated Wade at No. 3 appears a winner.Thunder hit back after ragged startThunder appeared to be wilting amid the Wade and Jewell carnage marked by ragged bowling and sloppy fielding. But they weren’t rattled and impressively fought back to spectacularly flip the script. In-form seamer Gurinder Sandhu claimed two wickets in a momentum-shifting 13th over as Thunder tore through Hurricanes’ susceptible middle order.They claimed five wickets in a devastating 25-ball burst punctuated by a scintillating yorker by Mohammad Hasnain to clean up an ashen-faced Jordan Thompson in the 17th over. Apart from leaking 16 runs in the 12th over, Hasnain was again irrepressible with full, and fast, bowling.But the disciplined Thunder would have been disappointed with their bowling and fielding in the first 10 overs which ultimately proved costly.Meredith sizzles with paceApart from taking the wicket of Matthew Gilkes in the first over, Meredith was struggling with his rhythm and his wayward bowling promptly suffered a hammering from Alex Hales. Fellow seamer Tom Rogers, their leading wicket-taker this season, didn’t fare any better as an under-siege Hurricanes lost their nerve with Thunder’s 1 for 56 the most runs scored by any team in the powerplay this season.They clawed back through Thompson claiming the key wickets of Hales and stand-in skipper Jason Sangha, who fell to a superb slower ball. Then Meredith swung the match spectacularly in the 11th over by clean bowling Ollie Davies and Ben Cutting with sheer pace as Hurricanes gained a stranglehold.Meredith, who played five T20Is for Australia last year, had an interrupted start to the BBL season and only took three wickets in his last five matches. With his lethal pace and full-length prowess on song, the 25-year-old issued a timely reminder to national selectors.Thunder rocked by middle-order collapseChasing 178, Thunder looked supremely confident under the closed roof as they dominated the powerplay. Hales was patient early during his unbeaten 80 against Hurricanes the last time but he was in a hurry here.Hales smashed David’s spin for five boundaries in the second over and raced to 27 off just 10 deliveries after he flicked a fast delivery from Meredith for six. His whirlwind 17-ball 38 ended in the fifth over but Thunder still looked on course until they lost 4 for 10 mid-innings.Nathan McAndrew tried his best at the end to conjure a miraculous victory but it wasn’t enough as Thunder lost for the first time since December 26.