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The India batter has looked good in his two innings this series but will want a few more runs to show for it

Alagappan Muthu13-Dec-20245:07

Gill: We should consider this as a three-match series from now

It didn’t take long for the memories to come flooding back for Shubman Gill. People forget he played a big part at the Gabba in 2021.Only 21 years old, playing his third Test match, he walked out into perhaps the most intimidating stage Australia had to offer – their captain Tim Paine had made a point to remind them of that when they were able to salvage a draw in Sydney earlier – and looked like he belonged.Gill at his best is comes with a volume warning, because when he hits the ball, it just reverberates around the ground. Sometimes you feel like you could pick out his shots with your eyes closed because the connection is so crisp.Early in India’s chase of 329, he hit Mitchell Starc off the back foot all along the ground through cover and on commentary former England cricketer Isa Guha exclaimed, “Crunched! Sound off the bat. Shubman Gill. Wow!” It is unmissable. The 91 he made at the top of the order set India up for the miracle that followed.”Definitely very nostalgic when I came here,” Gill said on the eve of this year’s Gabba Test against Australia. “The whole team was coming and just walking to the stadium again after 2021 win, felt very nostalgic.”Related

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Apart from that natural gift, he seems very well attuned to the vagaries of batting. He understands how things can go wrong and spends ages in the nets trying to fix them. He also understands how things can go right. Former India coach Ravi Shastri recently spoke about how Gill had gone up to Rishabh Pant at tea on the final day of the 2021 Gabba Test and pointed out that Australia might resort to Marnus Labuschagne’s legspin to tide them through to the second new ball and that was a time to cash in. (Labuschagne bowled only one over though)Gill was shaping to be an important weapon for India on this tour, but he injured himself while training and had to miss the first Test at Perth and his return in Adelaide came with a pink-ball handicap. Gill looked good in the first innings making 31 runs, 20 of them through boundaries, and then he missed a straight ball and got lbw.”When you are out there one of the challenges is can you play the game how you want to play the game irrespective of what’s happening on the other end or what’s happening on the scorecard and I think I faltered in the first innings around because of that,” Gill said, “Because what happened on the other end I kind of took that on me.”There was a period where I didn’t get to face, maybe I faced one ball in like four overs and then the next ball that I faced I kind of missed a straight ball, a fuller ball [and was lbw]. But these are the challenges that you face while playing a Test match, you might not get the strike for three or four overs, you might get the strike less or you might face like 18 balls on the trot.”1:52

How can India bounce back in Brisbane?

Looking good but not going on is part of why Gill’s Test average is at 36.45 after 30 Tests. He has crossed 20 in 33 of his 57 innings. So he’s good at getting starts but converting them is a problem. More than half of those 33 innings have ended before he could bring up fifty.In Adelaide, he pointed to the mitigating factor. “Just the dynamics of a pink-ball Test,” Gill said, “We don’t play [it] as much, and just playing at night, it is a little bit harder to gauge the seam position and the hand position at which the ball is released, so it is a bit more difficult to look as a batsman.”Sometimes when you feel like you’ve got the flow going, you start to push things. Playing on the up. On 29 off 27 against England in Chennai 2021, Gill thrust his hands out at Jofra Archer the next ball and was caught at mid-on. He’d hit five boundaries in that short stay, he thought there was one more for the taking. Reaching outside the line of his body. On 36 off 54 in Cape Town in 2024, he got sucked in by Nandre Burger’s left-arm angle and handed a catch to gully. Gill’s stillness at the crease – which is usually a strength because it keeps his head level and really helps him out when he plays his back foot shots – worked against him here.Australia will test him like that too. And in a million other ways. “I think the intensity at which the games are played here, especially Test matches is one of the most difficult things,” Gill said, “To be able to maintain that intensity throughout the course of five days is what makes touring Australia so difficult, and I think more than anything it is the mental intensity and the mental fitness that is required here in Australia, especially here [at the Gabba].”It will be fascinating to see how he comes through an examination like that.

Sajid Khan is back partnering Noman Ali and Pakistan have also recalled Abrar Ahmed

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jan-2025Mohammad Abbas and Naseem Shah have been rested from Pakistan’s Test squad for the two-Test home series against West Indies with Pakistan looking to beef up their spin options.Aamer Jamal and Mir Hamza, who played in South Africa, have also been rested as Pakistan recalled Mohammad Ali and picked fast bowler Kashif Ali for the first time.Sajid Khan, who played a leading role in the series win against England earlier in the season, is back partnering Noman Ali. Pakistan have also recalled Abrar Ahmed.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“As part of workload management, the pace quartet of Aamer Jamal, Mohammad Abbas, Mir Hamza, and Naseem Shah has been rested,” the PCB said in a media release.Abbas was a standout performer in the South Africa series, ending as the joint-highest wicket-taker with ten wickets from the two Tests – including his 100th Test victim. Those were his first Tests for three years. His resting is likely also a result of the expected condition of the pitches – aiding spin – on which his relatively slower pace might not offer a threat.There is no place in the squad again for Shaheen Afridi, who also didn’t play in the Tests in South Africa. With Naseem also out, it means that a home season that began with Pakistan talking up their pace depth and fielding an all-pace attack will end with Shaheen and Naseem having played two and three Tests out of nine. The pair was widely seen as the attack’s pace spearheads when the season began but neither managed to play two Tests consecutively. Tellingly, when Pakistan fielded an all-pace attack in Cape Town against South Africa in their most recent Test, neither made it to the XI.Noman Ali and Sajid Khan reunite for the West Indies Tests•Getty Images

Saim Ayub, who sustained a fracture of his right ankle during the first Test against South Africa, is also missing from the squad. That will mean a new opening combination for the series as Abdullah Shafique, on the back of a prolonged run of poor form compounded by three ducks in three ODIs in South Africa, has also been dropped. The selectors have picked Imam-ul-Haq and Muhammad Hurraira in their places.Rohail Nazir will be the back-up wicketkeeper for Mohammad Rizwan. He replaces Haseebullah Khan, who split the webbing on his right hand in South Africa.Both Tests against West Indies will be played in Multan, with the first starting on January 17 and the second on January 25.

Pakistan Test squad for West Indies series

Shan Masood (capt), Saud Shakeel (vice-capt), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Kashif Ali, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Noman Ali, Rohail Nazir (wk), Sajid Khan, Salman Agha

New Zealand’s five-wicket win over Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on Monday confirmed this; that means Bangladesh and hosts Pakistan are out of contention

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Feb-2025New Zealand and India are through to the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy from Group A, following New Zealand’s five-wicket win over Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on Monday. The two will face each other on March 2 in Dubai for top spot in Group A, but regardless of the result in that game, India will play the first semi-final in Dubai on March 4, while New Zealand play the second semi-final in Lahore on March 5.Bangladesh and hosts Pakistan are out of the running. The two will play each other for consolation points – both are winless after two games each – in Rawalpindi on February 27.New Zealand leave for Dubai on Tuesday morning, captain Mitchell Santner confirmed after the Bangladesh match. He lauded Player of the Match Michael Bracewell for setting up the victory over Bangladesh. “We knew Bangladesh would be a tough challenge on this wicket and I think the way we were able to pull it back with the ball in the middle [overs] was pleasing,” Santner said at the post-match presentation. “That’s probably the hardest thing in one-day cricket, to take wickets in the middle, and I think Bracewell was outstanding.”Bracewell bowled his ten overs on the trot to finish with figures of 4 for 26 – 43 dots included – as New Zealand restricted Bangladesh to 236 for 9, and then the chase was directed by centurion Rachin Ravindra, who stroked 112 off 105.Bangladesh had been 45 for 0 when Bracewell came on in the ninth over, but he struck straightaway, and by the time he was done in the 27th, they had fallen to 119 for 5. Bracewell said he was happy to contribute to sealing the semi-final spot, and the experience he gained from the preceding tri-series against Pakistan and South Africa helped.”It’s awesome to contribute to a win. The main focus was coming here and getting the win and securing that semi-final spot, and we were able to do that today,” Bracewell said, adding about his learnings from the tri-series: “I think just keeping the stumps in play as long as you can [is important]. Looks like if you give a little bit of width [on these pitches], guys can free their arms and score pretty freely, so [I was] just trying to bowl as straight as I can, bring in that little bit of variable bounce [which the pitch offered].”Australia and South Africa, who play at this same venue on Tuesday, might be taking note. They are in a tussle in Group B, which is still wide open. Both teams as well as Afghanistan and England are still in contention for a semi-final spot, although Afghanistan and England have little room left for error, both having lost their first game.

It came down to two off the last ball and Arundhati Reddy had to put in a dive to make her ground and seal the win

Vishal Dikshit15-Feb-2025Barely 24 hours after 202 was chased down easily on the opening night of WPL 2025, a target of 165 proved to be tricky on the same pitch for Delhi Capitals, who got over the line on the last ball against Mumbai Indians for a two-wicket win. It came down to 30 from 18, 10 from six, two off the last ball and eventually a matter of centimetres as Arundhati Reddy put in a dive to make her ground that turned out to be the winning runs.Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Niki Prasad will remember her WPL debut for taking DC within touching distance. She held the chase together in the end with her 35 off 33 and started the last over with a four when they needed 10 to win but holed out when the equation was two off two.The game otherwise saw collapses in both innings after blazing knocks from the frontline batters. Nat Sciver-Brunt led MI to a respectable total with her unbeaten 80 off 59 and Harmanpreet Kaur blasted 42 off 22, but they soon lost 7 for 35. Shafali Verma’s 43 off 18 set the tone for the chase to hammer away 60 runs for DC in the powerplay, but they soon lost four wickets for 16 runs that made the equation far more tense and took it down to the last ball.Niki Prasad guided Delhi Capitals late in the chase•WPL

The three contentious run-outs that weren’t

As the match got closer and closer with DC losing wickets, there were three run-out decisions that all went to the third umpire Gayathri Venugopalan, and those decided the game. The first came in the 18th over when Shikha Pandey was given not out on her first ball, which resulted in DC getting a bye. No part of Pandey’s bat seemed inside the crease when the LED wicket lit up, but the third umpire gave it not out, basing her decision on a later television frame in which the bail was visibly dislodged.The second came in the next over when DC needed 16 from eight. Radha Yadav was given not out when she ended up bouncing her bat off the ground while diving in; the bat was in the air when the wicket lit up but the umpire, again, was heard going by when the stumps were visibly broken. Radha then smashed the next ball for a six and brought the equation down to 10 off the last over.The last instance was on the last ball of the game, when DC needed two off two. Reddy put in a dive while trying to complete the second run and the stumps lit up when the bat seemed to be on the crease line but the third umpire gave it not out again and it sparked off celebrations for DC.

Shafali swings the powerplay in DC’s favour

Shafali came out all guns blazing even as Shabnim Ismail made Meg Lanning look clueless against her outswingers and beat her six times in 12 balls before eventually knocking over her off stump. Shafali, at the other end, tore into Saika Ishaque with a belligerent hit for a 22-run over. She followed a big six over the covers with four consecutive fours, three of which raced to the off-side boundary and one straight back over Ishaque’s head. Shafali then took Hayley Matthews for 15 runs in the last powerplay over with two fours and a six although she mis-timed one in the same over to midwicket.

Two WPL debutants hold their nerve for DC

Two balls later Lanning fell when Ismail got a fourth straight over and it soon became four wickets in four overs when Jemimah Rodrigues was dismissed by Amelia Kerr and Annabel Sutherland missed a shooter from Sciver-Brunt. When DC thought the partnership between Alice Capsey and Prasad of 33 was bringing them back on track, Capsey found Ismail at long-on and DC were in trouble, still needing 56 off 31 with five wickets down.The match turned again when another WPL debutant, Sarah Bryce, also punished Ishaque and then followed an edged four off Sciver-Brunt with a six on the leg side. Bryce soon fell though, for 21 off 10, but Prasad held her nerve to chaperone the lower order into the last over before it went down to the last ball.Sarah Bryce whacked 21 off 10•WPL

Pandey’s swing and Sciver-Brunt’s class

Pandey made a stellar start to her WPL campaign with some delicious inswing into both right and left-hand batters. She struck twice in her first spell; first in the first over when she made Matthews edge to slip for a duck and four overs later she knocked over Yastika Bhatia’s leg stump in a frugal spell of 3-0-8-2.The other bowlers were not spared so much though. Capsey leaked 19 runs in an over, with Sciver-Brunt showing her dexterity by placing the ball perfectly in the gaps for boundaries. She dabbed one late off Capsey on off, she scooped Reddy on leg, and she unleashed powerful pulls to help MI to 41 for 2 in the powerplay.

Harmanpreet throws the hammer

Harmanpreet often starts slow and then suddenly flicks her switch on in T20s, and on Saturday this happened in the eighth over. Once she carved Radha over cover-point for four off a no-ball, Harmanpreet launched the free hit for a six over long-off to make it an 18-run over. Next over, she picked Reddy for a six over long-on in a 15-run over but the assault didn’t last too long.After back-to-back fours off Sutherland on the off side, Harmanpreet smoked a six over the midwicket rope to reach 8000 T20 runs and followed it with another four over point. But when she went for another slash outside off, she handed a catch to Prasad; nobody else would hit a six in the remainder of the MI innings.Nat Sciver-Brunt brought out many shots•WPL

Sciver-Brunt the lone woman standing

Sciver-Brunt had also struck eight fours by then to lead MI past 100 with Sutherland’s 20-run over. Sciver-Brunt reached fifty off 36 balls to keep MI in touching distance of 10 an over with seven overs to go and seven wickets in hand.MI, however, slipped and didn’t even last all 20 overs; they lost wickets in nearly every over from thereon. Kerr was run-out at the non-striker’s end when Minnu Mani deflected a ball off her own bowling, S Sajana edged a slower one to the keeper, Amanjot Kaur yorked herself against Capsey to lose her stumps, and there were two more run-outs as the tailenders tried to give the strike to Sciver-Brunt at the death. When she did get strike, she used her power to despatch the older ball and finished with her highest WPL score.

Derbyshire facing significant deficit as Keaton Jennings adds another half-century in second innings

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay30-Jun-2025Lancashire 367 and 114 for 1 (Jennings 51*) lead Derbyshire 261 (Andersson 79, Madsen 70, Balderson 4-71) by 220 runsJames Anderson gave another impressive demonstration of the fast bowler’s art as Lancashire took control of the Rothesay County Championship match on day two against Derbyshire at Chesterfield.The former England great struck twice in his opening burst and bowled two more spells in sweltering heat to finish with 2 for 45 from 13 overs. George Balderson was the visitors’ most-successful bowler claiming 4 for 71 with wicketkeeper Matty Hurst taking five catches.Martin Andersson made 79 and Wayne Madsen 70 but Derbyshire were bowled out for 261 to trail by 106 and at the close, Lancashire were 114 for 1, a lead of 220.Anderson with the new ball was always going to be key to Lancashire’s hopes and he duly delivered, removing both openers in his first three overs. Running in from the Lake End at Queen’s Park for the first time in his career, the 42-year-old’s control and movement was too much for Mitch Wagstaff and Caleb Jewell.After leaving several deliveries, Wagstaff shouldered arms to one that came back and was struck in front with only two on the board. Jewell was similarly deceived in Anderson’s next over, playing no stroke to a ball that knocked out his off stump.Despite the conditions, Lancashire’s captain bowled a seven-over spell, his longest of the season, no doubt in the hope of removing another evergreen but Madsen survived.Harry Came did not, caught behind down the leg side off Balderson to reduce Derbyshire to 35 for 3 but that was Lancashire’s last success of the morning.Madsen imposed himself on the bowlers and with Brooke Guest adopting a more circumspect approach, the hosts recovered well to reach 109 for 3 at lunch. But as on the first day, wickets fell after an interval with Guest another victim of a leg-side strangle before Balderson got the big wicket of Madsen.The Derbyshire captain was beaten by a ball that cut back to trap him in front and Lancashire should have removed Andersson in the next over. Anderson was the frustrated bowler, seeing an edge fly to second slip where Keaton Jennings could not hold on.It proved an expensive drop as Andersson played positively, reaching his 50 with his eighth four, a cover drive off Chris Green, but Lancashire plugged away in the sauna-like heat to chip away the lower order.Anuj Dal became the third batter to fall offering no shot and, after Andersson was dropped in the gully on 57, Zak Chappell was run out in a mix-upBen Aitchison lasted only three balls and Andersson was caught behind cutting at Green. Blair Tickner swung Balderson for a big six before Hurst took his fifth catch.Luke Wells and Jennings drove home Lancashire’s advantage and although Dal straightened one to bowl Wells, Jennings followed his first-innings century with an unbeaten 51 to put his side on course for a substantial lead.

He took four wickets across phases, took two catches and finished things off with a last-ball boundary to end West Indies’ losing streak

Danyal Rasool02-Aug-2025This was not so much a game as an exhibition to showcase the brilliance of Jason Holder. The allrounder opened the bowling, took four wickets across phases of the Pakistan innings, walked in to bat when the equation was steepest, and won West Indies the second T20I with a boundary off the final delivery from Shaheen Shah Afridi. The two-wicket win sees the hosts level the series following a pulsating contest, one that ended with a savage Holder swipe past fine leg when they needed three off one, and a yell of unadulterated joy that ripped through Florida.West Indies had won just two of their last 19 completed T20Is before this, but began the better of the two sides, puncturing Pakistan with early wickets that left them trying to catch up through the middle overs. They accomplished this to a point thanks to a counter-attacking 60-run fifth-wicket partnership between Salman Agha and Hasan Nawaz, only for Holder’s double-strike to peg them back again. The hosts dominated the final five overs which saw Pakistan produce just 23 runs, setting Shai Hope’s side an eminently manageable 134 for victory.But batting appeared only to be getting more difficult, and Pakistan’s immaculate bowling complicated matters further for a tentative West Indies. Beyond a brief early flair from Jewel Andrew, West Indies soon fell behind the asking rate, epitomised by a tortured stay at the crease for captain Hope, who limped to 21 in 30 deliveries. With spinners scything through the middle order, it fell once more to Holder to pull off a heist.There was some support from the other end as Gudakesh Motie and Romario Shepherd struck blows of their own. But just when West Indies had it in control, they appeared to lose it once more as Holder found himself stranded at the non-striker’s end for large parts of the final two overs. He was given the most consequential delivery of all though – the final one. When Afridi tried the surprise delivery by going at the pads rather than wide outside off, Holder found a way to get enough bat on it, slicing through two fielders, dashing Pakistan’s dreams in the process.

Holder’s day out

Holder was on fire with the bat as the first T20I closed out, taking West Indies closer to the target than they appeared on track for throughout the innings. With ball in hand, he carried on where he left off in the powerplay, drawing Saim Ayub into a slog wide outside off which kissed the edge. His opening partner Sahibzada Farhan, too, fell to Holder in the fourth over. Holder was everywhere, taking a sharp catch that sent Mohammad Haris on his way to reduce Pakistan to 21 for 3.An hour or so later, Pakistan had stormed their way back into the game. Hasan Nawaz shook off a stodgy start to wallop Shepherd for three successive sixes to round out the 15th over and put Pakistan on target for a total in excess of 150. Once more, though, it was Holder who dragged them back, inducing Hasan Nawaz into a chip back to him to send him on his way. He would round out his bowling figures by dismissing the other Nawaz – Mohammad – and his figures of 4 for 19 did not flatter him in the slightest.And then, of course, there was the small matter of what he did with the bat.

Agha’s vision, Pakistan’s spin

When Agha won the toss, he broke somewhat with modern convention and opted to bat, saying he believed the conditions would assist spin towards the back-end of the game. For the best part of the West Indies innings, Mohammad Nawaz, Ayub and Sufiyan Muqeem set about proving their captain right.Mohammad Nawaz broke open the West Indies innings in the powerplay, removing the top three and putting paid to any notion this would be a straightforward chase. Ayub, often only good for the odd over or two, ended up bowling his full quota, showcasing his full range of variations as he removed Sherfane Rutherford and Roston Chase, while Muqeem’s masterful control of pace, length and spin tormented West Indies at a time they needed quick runs. The trio combined for six wickets in 12 overs for 53 runs, and had set Pakistan up nicely by the time they were done. But for Holder.

Pakistan’s death overs, their nail in the coffin

Thirty-one runs ahead. For all the tight margins this game saw, for all of Pakistan’s poor powerplay and sluggish start with the bat, this was how far clear they were of West Indies after the 15-over mark for each side. And though West Indies bludgeoned their way to 56 in their final 30 balls, it should have been nowhere near enough given this gulf at that late stage between the sides.If you sense this is getting repetitive, it’s impossible to talk about this game without coming back to Holder. With Hasan Nawaz breaking the shackles with three straight sixes, Holder’s removal of the batter suddenly deprived Pakistan of their only free-flowing slogger. Though Pakistan pride themselves on batting deep, their lower order – unlike West Indies – fell apart under that pressure. The bottom five managed 13 runs between them, none with a strike rate better than a run a ball, and West Indies suddenly found bowling very easy as the boundaries dried up and the dot balls began to pool. Those three Nawaz sixes were the last boundaries Pakistan scored in their innings, and as Holder showed, hitting boundaries right down to the very last ball can be the difference between victory and defeat.

They replace Shabnim Ismail, Lauren Winfield-Hill and Madeline Penna in a last-minute change

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Sep-2025South Africa allrounder Dane van Niekerk has been picked by Guyana Amazon Warriors for the Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) 2025. The franchise announced van Niekerk, New Zealand medium-pacer Molly Penfold and Ireland wicketkeeper-batter Amy Hunter as replacements for Shabnim Ismail, Lauren Winfield-Hill and Madeline Penna.This will be van Niekerk’s first stint in a franchise league since August 2023, when she played in the women’s Hundred. She was also part of the inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League in 2023, where she was signed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru but did not play a single game, and she was released ahead of the 2024 season. It will be her first stint in the WCPL.Van Niekerk recently made a U-turn on her international retirement after returning to domestic cricket and was part of a training camp with the South Africa national team, but will not be a part of the upcoming ODI World Cup in India and Sri Lanka that begins on September 30. She had initially announced her international retirement after being left out of South Africa’s squad for the home T20 World Cup in 2023 after failing to meet fitness requirements.Related

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However, South Africa head coach Mandla Mashimbyi has said she’s being looked at for future series.Van Niekerk played the 2024-25 domestic season for Western Province, and finished fourth on the list of highest run-scorers in the CSA Women Pro20 Series, with one century and a fifty.Amazon Warriors will kick off WCPL 2025 against Trinbago Knight Riders in Providence on Saturday.

India added 327 runs for the loss of just three wickets on the third day against West Indies in Ahmedabad

Alagappan Muthu03-Oct-20252:08

Chopra: Jadeja’s game against fast bowling ‘has improved leaps and bounds’

India’s batting riches put them in consummate control of the first Test of their home season, with KL Rahul and Dhruv Jurel scoring important centuries. It was Rahul’s first at home since 2016 and it was Jurel’s first one ever. They now have a lead of 286, which is large enough to potentially shrink this down from a five-day game.Ravindra Jadeja had an equal part to play on a day where India made 327 runs for just three wickets. There was a point when the pitch started crumbling and West Indies’ spinners were able to get the ball to turn sharply out of the rough. India collectively decided to attack them, hoping to throw them off the lengths where they could access the worn out parts of the pitch. Jadeja did this the best. His idea was to charge at the bowler, and every time he did, he was looking to hit a boundary. Seven of the 11 he ended up with were the result of this ruthless approach, including a six that helped him breeze through the nervous nineties.Jomel Warrican, Roston Chase and Khary Pierre, in helpful conditions, were left nursing combined figures of 4 for 283 from 82 overs. Jadeja, meanwhile, helped India reprise a feature of their England tour earlier this year, becoming the third centurion of the innings. The last time that happened at home was 2018, during West Indies’ last visit to the country. Jadeja connected that trio to this trio.Related

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West Indies could have helped themselves had they begun their day’s work with a bit more hope. Instead the captain Chase welcomed the two overnight batters with a sparsely populated slip cordon. The focus, it seemed, was run-saving instead of wicket-taking. Jayden Seales, who has a lovely outswinger, snagged Rahul’s edge in the very first over of play but regulation first slip was missing. He had been pushed wide and so this ball just skipped to the boundary.Rahul survived on 57 and went on to score 100. He celebrated it by raising his bat in one hand and sticking two fingers of the other in his mouth, a little tribute for his new-born daughter.1:41

Chopra: WI should’ve taken the new ball earlier

The next man to three-figures was Jurel. It is clear from the way he bats that he is set up to be consistent. He has good judgment of what to play and what to leave. He’s comfortable in attack and defence. Some of his back foot shots against pace were chef’s kiss, so that, along with the way he played out the second new ball, suggests he should be able to adapt to overseas conditions. Jurel has a high floor. Rishabh Pant beats him with a high ceiling. Maybe India might find a way for both players to be part of the XI; trust Jurel to be a specialist batter. His century celebration was a tribute to his father, who was with the Indian army.West Indies had set themselves up for damage control but in doing so really early, they let India dictate terms. Seales bowled manfully, his pace up around the 140kph mark even at the back end of a very hot day that forced him off the field for a little bit for what looked like cramps.Warrican was good too, slowing the ball down and inviting India to attack him if they could. It was strange that he only bowled two overs before lunch, but did make up for that by bowling 12 back-to-back after the break and picked up Rahul’s wicket. Jadeja negated the effect he could have on the game. He made 86 runs against spin, including 41 off 15 when he chose to come down the track.Shubman Gill’s efforts were cut short on 50 in the middle of that tricky period where India decided to attack spin. He brought out a reverse sweep against Chase and got caught at slip.The second day in Ahmedabad meandered to a close with Pierre enjoying a high that he had chased all his life. Having been part of the domestic system from the age-group level, after making his first-class debut 10 years ago, he finally took a Test wicket at the age of 34 and his smile lit up the place.

He bowled two waist-high full tosses in the 18th over of Melbourne Renegades’ innings

Tristan Lavalette15-Dec-2025Shaheen Shah Afridi, on his BBL debut, was removed from the attack for dangerous bowling in the match between Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Renegades in Geelong.In the 18th over of Renegades’ innings, after Heat elected to field, Afridi bowled two waist-high full tosses – one each to Tim Seifert and Ollie Peake – and he was forced out of the attack.After being told he could no longer bowl, Afridi sported a wry grin as Heat captain Nathan McSweeney had to bowl the final two deliveries to complete the over.It meant Afridi finished with the rough figures of 0-43 off 2.4 overs, including three no-balls and two wides, in a tough BBL initiation. Entering the game amid much fanfare, with Pakistan team-mate Mohammad Rizwan also making his BBL debut for Renegades, he had started well with three dot balls in the second over.But things went downhill after that as he missed his lengths and was not brought back on until the 13th over when Renegades took the power surge. Afridi conceded 19 runs in the over before the horrors of the 18th over, where he ultimately leaked 15 runs, including three no-balls.Renegades finished with a massive 212 for 5 with Seifert smashing 102 off 56 balls and Peake clubbing 57 off 29. Rizwan, batting at No. 3, made just 4 from ten before holing out to left-arm spinner Paddy Dooley.

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According to the Birmingham Mail, Aston Villa are likely to be in the market to sign a new striker in the upcoming summer transfer window. The publication suggest Brentford goal-getter Neal Maupay as an ideal target for Dean Smith to pursue.

What’s the story?

The Villans are certain to need a new man to lead the line ahead of next season, as Tammy Abraham’s loan stay at Villa Park will come to an end at the end of this season.

Abraham’s goals must be replaced, and Smith would be wise to identify potential targets to take up this role as early as possible.

As the Birmingham Mail suggest, Maupay would be the perfect man to take over from the Chelsea loanee at Aston Villa.

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Facing a fight for his signature

Maupay has been in fine form so far this season for Brentford. 

According to Transfermarkt’s stats, the 22-year-old forward has struck 17 times and registered 6 assists in 27 Championship outings. The Frenchman’s all round play has also been very impressive and considering his age it is safe to assume that he will continue to improve in the coming years. 

An investment in Maupay in the summer would be a wise one on the part of Villa, but they may find that they have to fight off Premier League interest, especially if the Brentford striker can maintain his current form.

Smith should do all he can to bring the 22-year-old to Villa Park, especially as he knows the player so well from his own time in charge at Griffin Park. However, the striker may soon be beyond the Midlands outfit’s financial reach.