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Star allrounder plays down injury concerns after another showstopping performance

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jul-2020Ben Stokes has moved to ease injury concerns after he pulled up in discomfort while bowling late in England’s second-Test victory, in which he played a starring role.Stokes stopped bowling after four deliveries of his 15th over in West Indies’ second innings, having claimed the wickets of key batsman Jermaine Blackwood and tailender Alzarri Joseph, the latter putting England within one wicket of victory.”I’m fine,” Stokes told Sky Sports after England had won the match by 113 runs to level the series 1-1. “Just the body started to get quite stiff. I said to Broady, ‘the body’s starting to stiffen up, what do you reckon?’ and he said, ‘just stop’.ALSO READ: England surge to victory as Stokes turns on style again“Three or four years ago against Pakistan I had the same thing and I ended up blowing my calf so I didn’t want to take that risk.”Despite bowling an 11-over spell in West Indies’ second innings, on the final day of a Test in which he had also scored a patient century and bludgeoned a fifty, Stokes rejected suggestions too much had been asked of him with the ball.”Absolutely not,” Stokes said. “Obviously, I’ll give everything to the team, whatever is asked of me. We sort of found a method within our attack to change things up when things are looking a bit dry to go to that type of bowling or being aggressive in setting the field.”Not only does it give us a wicket-taking option. It also dries it up because we feel the batsmen don’t have really anywhere to go. So, you know, once you get past that five-, six-over mark you sort of feel like you’re fresh as anything you keep going in. But I’ll always do whatever’s asked of me.”Having scored 176 from 356 balls in England’s first innings, then 78 from 57 in the second, Stokes also broke up key partnerships with the wicket of Kraigg Brathwaite in the fist innings and then Blackwood’s in the second.Ben Stokes walks off with a stump after his Man of the Match performance•Getty Images

Asked about his contrasting performances with the bat, he couldn’t pick a favourite, but he took pride in batting long for his century while clearly enjoying captain Joe Root’s intent in sending him to open for the first time in a Test alongside fellow big-hitter Jos Buttler as England chased quick second-innings runs, a decision he said came after “a few conversations”.”Obviously Joe has the final call and that’s what he decided to go with, so it was a real positive move, I thought,” Stokes said. “It’s no good for us walk away with this game with a draw and so Joe made a real positive effort to get me get me and Jos up the order.”Looking at the scoreboard seeing 300 balls bowled feels a bit weird,” he added of his first innings, “but it had to be done.”Root, also speaking to Sky Sports, said Stokes’ starring role in the match was not the least bit surprising.”It doesn’t surprise me, you watch how he goes about his business, whether it be in practice his fitness, everything,” Root said. “He leads the way in many, many respects and he seems to want to keep getting better and better.”And we’re seeing those results out in the field as well, which is great for a lot of the younger guys coming through to see that you’ve got to put the hard yards in. He certainly does that and, you know, we’re starting to see that feed into the rest of the team, which is a great place to be.”

Broad will miss a home Test for the first time since 2012

George Dobell07-Jul-2020English cricket could be witnessing a changing of the guard with Stuart Broad set to miss out on a place in the first Test against West Indies.Broad, a veteran of 138 Tests and taker of 485 Test wickets, has not missed a home Test since 2012, a run of 51 matches in succession. The last time he missed one – the Edgbaston Test against West Indies – he was rested with the series already won.But England, and their stand-in captain Ben Stokes, are thought likely instead to opt for the pace of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood with James Anderson back with the new ball after suffering injury in South Africa. Chris Woakes is the other player set to be left out from their 13-man squad.England had originally planned to name their Test team on Tuesday evening. But although it is understood the players have been notified of the final XI, the team management reasoned that, with poor weather around and the possibility a bowler could sustain an injury in the lead-up to the match, there was no need to commit to anything at this stage.If Broad is, indeed, left out, there may be a temptation to write his career obituary, but that would be premature. England are set to play six Tests in little more than seven weeks and some rotation of the seam attack is inevitable. There is a decent chance he could return as soon as next week for the second Test at Emirates Old Trafford. He could still become just the fourth seamer to claim 500 Test wickets.ALSO READ: ‘Do it your way’ – Root’s message to StokesHe has been left out before, too. At the end of 2018, he played only one of the Tests on England’s tour of Sri Lanka while he was also omitted from the side for the first Test of the series in the Caribbean 18 months ago. He demonstrated his undimmed enthusiasm for the challenge, though, by tinkering with his technique – in particular, he shortened his run-up and bowled a fuller, more probing line and length – and enjoyed personally successful series against Australia (in which he claimed 23 wickets at a cost of 26.65 apiece) and South Africa (in which he claimed 14 at 19.42). It would probably pay not to write him off now.But this is another sign that England are looking to the future. And while Broad might have struggled to retain his status as a first-choice bowler in overseas conditions, this is the first time in the best part of a decade that he has not been considered among the first-choice attack in England.It is, perhaps, also an indication that the England management are looking to Wood and Archer, in particular, as the nucleus of the attack that they feel can help them win the Ashes in Australia in around 18 months’ time. Both are blessed with sharp pace and would appear well-suited to the hard wickets anticipated in Australia. Wood also claimed a nine-for in his most recent Test – against South Africa – and took his maiden Test five-for the last time England and West Indies met. Wednesday’s first Test will be their first in the same XI.It might also be relevant that, for the first time in many months, England are blessed with a surfeit of fit, fast bowlers. By the end of the South Africa tour, England were without Anderson and Archer due to injury. Perhaps, had all been available, this decision may have come earlier.Stokes admitted on Tuesday that having five seamers fit and ready to go had presented him with “an absolute nightmare”, and said he would be “dreading” delivering the bad news to the two players that missed out.Mark Wood and Jofra Archer have yet to play a Test together•Getty Images

“You can only pick so many but it’s a great place to be,” Stokes said. “To have so many to pick from is great as a team, I’d rather be in this position. With the amount of cricket we’ve got coming in the next seven weeks I think all the guys will get opportunities. That’s a hell of a workload especially taking into consideration the time we haven’t been on the field. You’ve got to realise there’s no cricket behind anybody.”To play six Tests in seven weeks would be a huge ask for any bowler, but if we are going to rotate it’s not going to affect the standard. The guys we’ve got here are all unbelievable and they’ve all put a good case forward.”I’ve been dreading it for the last two or three days, telling the unfortunate guys. It’s not a nice conversation to think about and I can’t wait to give Joe the armband back for that reason, but that is leadership. It’s great to tell guys they’re playing but with that comes the fact that you have to deliver the bad news. It’s never nice.”Stokes also said that the prospect of Wood and Archer bowling together was “exciting”, adding that it would be difficult to leave Wood out given his “transformation” in the past two years.”The transformation of Mark Wood, more from a mental side, has been phenomenal. He’s obviously had his troubles in the past with injuries. I’m so excited with where he’s at with everything – all the worries and troubles that he would have had two or three years ago about his body seem to have just disappeared.”The skills that he possesses are very, very rare to have in a bowler. There’s been a lot of thought put into the team that we’re going to select.”England were also set to confirm that Joe Denly will bat at No. 3, with Zak Crawley at No. 4.Probable England XI for first Test: 1 Dom Sibley, 2 Rory Burns, 3 Joe Denly, 4 Zak Crawley, 5 Ben Stokes (captain), 6 Ollie Pope, 7 Jos Buttler, 8 Dom Bess, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Mark Wood, 11 James Anderson

Australia to resume international cricket with England tour, which is likely to be the beginning of a long period in bio-secure bubbles

Andrew McGlashan18-Aug-2020Mental health will be top of the agenda for the Australia men’s team as they resume international cricket for the first time since March with the tour to England, which is likely to be the beginning of a long period in bio-secure bubbles for most of their players.The Australian squad flies out of Perth on Sunday for a limited-overs tour which includes three T20Is and three ODIs. They will initially be based in Derby before the internationals take place at the major bio-secure venues at the Ageas Bowl and the Old Trafford.ALSO READ: FAQs – How Australia’s limited-overs tour to England will happenFrom there some players will head to the IPL in the UAE, which will require almost two more months in a biosecure environment. Australia’s international players then face the prospect of heading home straight into another bubble to prepare for their home season, which is likely to face significant reorganisation.Even those who return straight back to Australia after the England matches will be required to undertake two weeks quarantine in Perth – although CA is trying to negotiate a possibility of them being able to train during that period – and the Australian domestic summer is looking increasingly likely to require hubs of various types given the travel and border restrictions in place.It all adds up to what will be a challenging period that could last until after Christmas at least, and may yet be a model needed for considerably more time depending on how the Covid-19 pandemic impacts sport over the next 12 months.”[Mental health] is something to monitor heavily,” Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch said. “I know from an Australian point of view there’s a lot of work behind the scenes going into making sure there’s as good a goal post in place for players and really tailored approaches to make sure that we’ve got all our checkpoints in place to understand and recognise when things might be a little bit off. It could be a few months that people are in these bio bubbles and being stuck in a hotel room by yourself can be really tough.”ALSO READ: Another blow for Usman Khawaja, Andrew Tye’s return and a glimpse of the future captainTeam psychologist Michael Lloyd will travel with the squad to the UK and has been talking to players individually ahead of the trip. “I definitely feel it’s going to be a real issue and a real factor over the next couple of years in particular,” Finch said.Australia will follow England, West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland into the biosecure environment which appears set to enable the ECB to play their entire men’s international summer despite the pandemic. England have so far kept their Test and limited-overs squads entirely separate – although there could be some overlap during the Australia series – while the Test players were allowed a brief exit from the bubble between the West Indies and Pakistan series.The whole operation has been a considerable success although there has been the occasional breach, most notably when Jofra Archer made a detour home which forced him to miss the second Test against West Indies. Last week Mohammad Hafeez also broke protocol by having a picture taken with a member of the public on the golf course adjacent to the hotel at the Ageas Bowl. Access to the golf course has been one of the few activities available to the players inside the bubbles away from the cycle of hotel room, training and playing.Finch said that there would be conversations with the squad about all the protocols in place ahead of their departure and how to ensure everything is followed to the letter but knowing the consequences should be enough of a reminder.”What’s important to remember is we are in a position to help continue the global game,” Finch said. “And there should be no more motivation than that to do everything right.”I’ve been very strong with the guys in the last couple of weeks about making sure that we do literally everything we can with regards to the protocols to keep the global game going. Because at the end of the day, if that fails then we are all out of jobs and the game is not in a healthy state, which we can’t afford to have.”There’s been so much time and effort put in by thousands of people to give us the opportunity to play international cricket again, and even us leaving Australia, leaving Victoria, is a big process. The people who’ve worked their backside off over the last couple of months to allow it to happen, thousands of people are doing an unbelievable amount of work to get the game up and running again. So we owe it to them in particular to do everything right.”

Captain Farrant claims three cheap wickets to put Sunrisers on the back foot

ECB Reporters Network13-Sep-2020South East Stars 199 for 4 (Capsey 73*, Cranstone 46) beat Sunrisers 198 (Farrant 3-24) by six wickets All-rounder Alice Capsey struck an unbeaten 73 as South East Stars strolled to a six-wicket Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy victory against winless Sunrisers at Chelmsford.Capsey’s bustling knock took her just 75 deliveries and included nine fours as she and Aylish Cranstone put together a match-winning partnership of 114 to secure the Stars’ second success of the tournament.Stars skipper Tash Farrant made early inroads after the home side had opted to bat, having opposite number Amara Carr caught at second slip and removing Lissy MacLeod in her next over.That left Sunrisers struggling at 17 for 2, although their prospects of posting a competitive total were raised by a solid partnership of 55 from 57 balls between Cordelia Griffith and Naomi Dattani.However, none of the Sunrisers batters were able to convert starts into the significant score that could have anchored their innings, with spin duo Dani Gregory and Capsey stifling them through the middle overs.Capsey also made a key contribution in the field, with throws from backward square to run out Hayley Brown and Grace Scrivens – the latter having just clubbed her for three consecutive boundaries.Jo Gardner and Katie Midwood did their best to haul Sunrisers above the 200 mark, but both fell to well-executed stumpings off Hannah Jones before Farrant returned to finish them off in the penultimate over.Stars made an uncertain start to their run chase, with Kirstie White leg before in the third over to seamer Katie Wolfe, who produced a tight opening spell in tandem with the nagging spin of Scrivens.Tash Farrant claims another wicket•Getty Images

Debutant Chloe Brewer lifted the shackles by steering Wolfe through the slips twice for boundaries and, with Cranstone also starting to find the gaps, the visitors began to make steady progress.The pair added 56 before Brewer fell to Scrivens, caught behind attempting a cut, but new batter Capsey immediately made her intentions clear, pulling her first delivery through midwicket for four.Capsey flourished against the Sunrisers spinners, outscoring her partner as she reached 50 from 52 balls – and Cranstone missed out on a half-century of her own, cutting Gardner to the point fielder with just 20 more required.Although the impressive Gardner followed that up with the wicket of Amy Gordon, it made no difference to the outcome, Susie Rowe stroking the winning single with 12.5 overs to spare.

Both teams will still need other results to go their way, but they themselves need to win first

Alagappan Muthu31-Oct-20206:34

Time for KKR to recall Kuldeep Yadav?

Big picture

Ben Stokes is firing, with bat and ball. Sanju Samson seems to have rediscovered his early season form. Jos Buttler is prepared to play finisher. And Jofra Archer – bubble fatigue or not – is almost unplayable. Talk about peaking at the almost-too-late-but-not-quite time.The Rajasthan Royals are still in IPL 2020. They will stay there with a victory over the Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday but they will need help from elsewhere if they are to qualify for the playoffs. Both teams will be keeping an especially watchful eye on the evening game because if the Kings XI Punjab win that, things get dicey.The Knight Riders are in a similar position. But the problem is their net run-rate (-0.467) is so low that they will not only have to win their last match, they have to hope no other team ties with them on 14 points.

In the news

If ever there was a time for Andre Russell, it is now. But the allrounder hasn’t played a game in two weeks and in the absence of any update from the Knight Riders, it is likely that he won’t be fit for this one either.

Likely XIs

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Nitish Rana, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Sunil Narine, 5 Eoin Morgan (capt), 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Rinku Singh/Prasidh Krishna, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Kamlesh Nagarkoti, 11 Varun ChakravarthyRajasthan Royals: 1 Ben Stokes, 2 Robin Uthappa, 3 Sanju Samson (wk), 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Jos Buttler, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Shreyas Gopal, 10 Varun Aaron/Ankit Rajpoot, 11 Kartik TyagiIntense, focused – Ben Stokes warms up•BCCI

Previous meeting

Defending 174, the Knight Riders’ fast bowlers Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti ripped through the Royals – four of the top five fell for single digits – to seal a 37-run win.

Strategy punt

• Sunil Narine is the Knight Riders’ best asset right now. And with their campaign hanging by a thread, they have to start the game well. Only, they aren’t taking any wickets in the powerplay. Well, they have eight across the whole season, which is the worst by any team. So maybe they should unleash their trump card in the first six overs. Plus, here are Narine’s T20 head-to-heads with the Royals’ top order: Stokes (17 balls, 17 runs, one dismissal), Samson (45 balls, 39 runs, three dismissals), Steven Smith (42 balls, 47 runs, two dismissals), Buttler (41 balls, 43 runs, two dismissals).
• The Royals have struggled to find a good bowling partner for Archer at the top of the innings. Perhaps they could try Shreyas Gopal. The legspinner is at his best in the powerplay (eight IPL wickets at an average of 13 and economy rate of 7), and he isn’t half bad at bowling to left-handers – the Knight Riders have a lot of those – with 13 IPL wickets at an average of 24.46 and economy rate of 7.45.

Stats that matter

• Stokes has shown dramatic improvement over the past two matches. Where he could only go at a strike rate of 110 in the powerplay during his first five matches of the season, he is now whacking it with a strike rate of 195.
• Varun Chakravarthy is the only fingerspinner with more than ten wickets this IPL. The only spinners with more than his tally (15) are Yuzvendra Chahal (18) and Rashid Khan (17).
• Samson has recorded the most 30-plus scores (five) for the Royals this year. He has recorded the most single-digit scores (six) for them as well.
• Fourteen of Archer’s 19 wickets this season have been of top-order batsmen. The next (and slightly distant) best is Chahal with ten top-order wickets.

He could also become available for the ODIs against West Indies next month

Mohammad Isam01-Dec-2020Mashrafe Mortaza bowled in the nets for the first time since recovering from a hamstring injury, with one eye on returning to competitive cricket. Although he is not part of any of the Bangabandhu T20 squads, it was mentioned during the players’ draft that he can join any of the squads after recovering from the injury.Mortaza, whose last competitive appearance was during the Dhaka Premier League in March, has had a rough time since the pandemic began, having tested positive for Covid-19 in June. Members of his family also contracted the virus in the past few months, and he hurt his hamstring while training last month.Tushar Kanti Howlader, the BCB trainer, said that Mortaza bowled four overs in the nets after completing his fitness work on Tuesday.”I am helping him with his return to training,” Howlader said. “He had been doing some work after recovering from Covid, so now he wants to get into a better position, fitness-wise. He is just bowling now. We cannot talk about match fitness just yet. He can be fit if he continues to train in this way. He doesn’t have to work on technique, it’s only his fitness that is the main concern.”Howlader said that Mortaza also lost a lot of weight which could pave the way for a comeback in the Bangabandhu T20 Cup, in which eight matches have been played and another 12 league games remain before the playoffs begin on December 14. So far Gazi Group Chattogram have lost Mominul Haque to injury, but any of the five participating teams would love to take Mortaza in their squad.”He has bowled four overs with full run up. I think he is around 84kg, after losing ten kilos,” Howlader said. “He will reduce more, I am sure. I think the match fitness is also up to him. He is Mashrafe, quite different, and he can do a lot of things. It is up to him, if he wants to play. He has to bowl four overs in the middle, so if he can manage it, then he will have match fitness.”Mortaza, who resigned from ODI captaincy earlier this year with a 3-0 win over Zimbabwe, could still become available for the ODI series during West Indies’ scheduled tour of Bangladesh next month.

Board officials say cultural sensitivities may make it far more challenging for the women to be able to rise up the rankings in the same manner as the men’s team achieved

Peter Della Penna10-Nov-2020The development of women’s cricket took a significant step forward late last week with an announcement from the Afghanistan Cricket Board who pledged to award 25 central contracts to players from a select talent pool that was invited to a national team trial camp at Kabul International Stadium in October. However, board officials have told ESPNcricinfo that cultural sensitivities may make it far more challenging for the women to be able to rise up the ICC global rankings in the same manner as the men’s team achieved through the last decade.”We need to go steadily and gradually,” said one ACB official to ESPNcricinfo, requesting anonymity due to what he described as “complex” reactions within Afghanistan to the plans for women’s cricket. “We need to be very careful given what is happening in this country because of security. In countries like Afghanistan, it is quite challenging. The first thing is we should not challenge the cultural and traditional norms and principles. We should go ahead understanding the context. We should not copy and paste what is happening in other countries. It’s absolutely not comparable.””So we need to be very careful about moving forward, but the intention is there and the vision is there. You never know. If things improve in this country, if there is stability in this country, we could have some surprises in terms of women’s cricket. But it depends on what is happening in this country in terms of political and social situation. We are in dire need of resources and facilities that people do not question in terms of religion and cultural issues.”Besides those based in and around Kabul, the next biggest group of players who attended the women’s national team camp came from the Herat Province, situated in the western part of the country bordering Iran. It’s an indication of how much cricket has spread across the whole of the country. According to multiple sources, the contracts for the women’s players will be 12 months in length and will be reviewed on a rolling six-month basis, but exact remuneration was not disclosed.At a very basic logistical level, one of the biggest hurdles women’s cricket development faces in Afghanistan is the demand for women’s only facilities. According to an official, the women’s national team camp was organized in a time frame so as not to clash with any activities for men’s national team players that were scheduled to take place at Kabul International Stadium. No men were allowed to be present during the duration of the women’s team camp, an accommodation that can be difficult to organise outside of Kabul.”We have some very good plans for women but the problem is the facilities to accommodate them,” said an ACB official. “Unlike the western countries, here you need to respect the religion and the culture and that requires isolated facilities for the women. That is lacking in Afghanistan. We don’t even have enough facilities for the men in Afghanistan at basic standards, leaving aside international standards. This would be the biggest challenge.”If we have isolated facilities specific to women, I’m sure it will somehow reduce the public reaction because they know there are no specific facilities for women. The morale situation for fighting and war in this country is affecting all cricket including women’s cricket.”At the time of Afghanistan’s elevation to Test status, they were the only one of the 12 Full Member countries to not have a functioning women’s national team. To date, Afghanistan has not entered a women’s team to compete in any ICC or Asian Cricket Council regional tournament. However, the pledge to award central contracts is a move that local officials hope will demonstrate to the rest of the world that they intend to make women’s cricket a meaningful part of their overall plans going forward.”It is not very easy to engage women in education, sports, health or any other sector,” said an ACB official. “What we have seen from the men’s point of view, we have seen some very good progress that the men have done extremely well in terms of the cricket development of Afghanistan. We thought we can also encourage women. We are being careful but the plans will proceed and we will see how the women progress.”