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Izharulhaq Naveed gets a call-up while Naveen, Naib named among backup reserves

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jun-2023Rashid Khan, who was rested for the one-off Test in Mirpur, has been named in Afghanistan’s squad for the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh, which starts July 5.There was no place, however, for Noor Ahmad, who was a part of Afghanistan’s squad in their last 50-over assignment, against Sri Lanka.Izharulhaq Naveed, the legspinner who impressed in the last Big Bash, has been given a maiden ODI call-up. Shahidullah, Zia-ur-Rehman, Wafadar Momand, Mohammad Saleem and Sayed Shirzad are the other new names to be added to the squad that recently toured Sri Lanka.Apart from the squad to face Bangladesh, the Afghanistan Cricket Board also named 10 players who will form the reserves for their future ODIs and the World Cup.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The list of reserves includes the likes of Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Naveen-ul-Haq and Darwish Rasooli.Afghanistan squad for Bangladesh ODIs: Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Izharulhaq Naveed Shahidullah, Zia-ur-Rehman, Wafadar Momand, Mohammad Saleem, Sayed ShirzadAfghanistan backup reserve: Karim Janat, Zubaid Akbari, Qais Ahmad, Ihsanullah Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Naveen-ul-Haq, Farid Malik, Darwish Rasooli, Ishaq Rahimi

Rohit is now averaging 10.43 across 16 innings in first-class cricket in the 2024-25 season

S Sudarshanan23-Jan-2025Rohit Sharma’s return to the Ranji Trophy was a short-lived one – he lasted 19 balls and scored just three in Mumbai’s Group A fixture against Jammu and Kashmir at the Sharad Pawar Academy in BKC in Mumbai.Rohit, India’s Test and ODI captain who has been going through a terrible run of form, was the focus of a lot of attention in the lead-up to the game as soon as he confirmed his presence in the game with a nod and “I will” at the Champions Trophy squad announcement press conference last week. With a white floppy hat and sunglasses on, Rohit was relaxed before the game, joking with his team-mates as they warmed up with some head volleyball.But he wore a determined look as he walked out to open with his regular India opening partner in Tests, Yashasvi Jaiswal, after Mumbai’s captain Ajinkya Rahane opted to bat. To accommodate Rohit and Jaiswal at the top, Mumbai had to leave out Ayush Mhatre, who, in his debut season, has been one of Mumbai’s star performers: 408 runs from nine innings at an average of 45.33 with two centuries.It was a cool winter morning in Mumbai, a relief after a week that saw temperatures touch the mid-30s. And J&K’s opening bowlers made sure to make use of the early-morning nip.Related

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Auqib Nabi conceded a four early in the opening over but then tightened his lines; Rohit got off the mark with a single through the on side. But he was given a proper work over by Umar Nazir Mir, who bowled two successive maidens to him. Nazir maintained a consistent line outside off and varied his lengths a touch, not allowing Rohit to get going.Rohit managed to drive a Nabi delivery through the covers for a couple in the next over but once again was kept quiet by Nazir, who got his reward on his 17th ball. He bowled a length delivery on the fifth stump, with a hint of movement away from the right-hand batter. Rohit looked to play his trademark pick-up shot over midwicket but only managed to get a leading edge to the off side. Paras Dogra ran a few yards to his left from mid-off to extra cover, called loud and clear, and pouched it to end Rohit’s stay in the middle.The short stay in the middle meant that Rohit’s lean run in red-ball cricket continued. Across five home Tests against Bangladesh and New Zealand at home last year, he had just one half-century to show – against New Zealand in Bengaluru – with four single-digit scores across ten innings. He also had just one double-digit score in five innings in Australia, where he played in three of the five Test matches. He finished the 2024-25 Test season with a batting average of 10.93.Rohit’s first-class batting average of 10.43 across 16 innings in the 2024-25 season is the second-lowest for any batter since 2006 (for a minimum of 15 innings while batting in the top six). England’s Haseeb Hameed averaged 9.44 across 18 innings in the 2018 season.Before Rohit, Jaiswal fell. Nabi managed to get his line right against the left-hand batter, getting a couple of balls to move away. One of those narrowly missed the outside edge of Jaiswal’s bat – a muted appeal was given not out. On the next ball – the third ball of the third over – Nabi got a length ball to jag back viciously; Jaiswal was caught off-guard, and was beaten on the inside edge and hit on the back leg right in front of middle and leg. He was quite deep in the crease and the umpire took little time in raising the finger. Jaiswal, who was one of India’s most successful batters at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, dragged himself off with 4 against his name.After the close of play Nazir, who took 4 for 41, said Rohit’s wicket was a “prized” one. “A good ball is a good ball against any player, you don’t look at the stature of the player. But Rohit Sharma’s wicket is a big one, I am happy. When you dismiss an international player, it is always a prized wicket. There was some help from the surface, I tried to bowl in right areas. Rohit Sharma is a big name and his wicket was important for us and for me, personally, as well.”Nazir was part of J&K’s line-up when they defeated Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium in 2014. He had picked up four wickets in the second innings, which was why he was unfazed by having to bowl at such high-profile batters.”I slept off at 10pm last night and woke up around 7am and was quite relaxed,” Nazir said. “I tried to bowl fuller lengths because of the bounce on the surface. [When Rohit was dismissed] the first thought in my mind… I did not celebrate because I am a big fan of Rohit Sharma. If we manage to win this game, it would be a proud moment for me, and the team, because India’s captain is playing in the opposition.”

Tendulkar also praised Gill’s front-foot defence and Rahul’s judgement of his off stump and said Jaiswal “was a treat to watch”

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Aug-20253:23

Bangar: Gill, the leader, gained confidence through the series

Sachin Tendulkar has hailed the efforts of some of the India players who played a key role in the five-match Test series against England that ended 2-2 after a heart-stopping finish on the final day. Tendulkar heaped praise on “unbelievable” Mohammed Siraj, talked about how KL Rahul tightened his game around off stump with “precise footwork”, how Yashasvi Jaiswal showed a lot of character and maturity during his twin hundreds, and how Shubman Gill remained “calm and composed” as a captain.Apart from the high-octane finish and the inaugural Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy being shared, the series saw a number of twists and turns, dramatic face-offs and some extraordinary individual efforts, such as Rishabh Pant and Chris Woakes walking out to bat with injuries. Pant played four of the five Tests and scored two centuries and three half-centuries, the last of them with a fractured right foot to average 68.42 with a strike rate of 77.63.”The sweep shot that he played, he likes to get under the ball to scoop it with some elevation,” Tendulkar said on Reddit. “People think he has fallen, but it is intentional so that he can get under the ball. The secret to play those shots is to be able to get under the ball. So it’s a planned fall, he doesn’t go off-balance. All that depends on the length of the ball.”Related

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While calling Pant’s strokeplay and the “punch” he adds to them a “god’s gift”, Tendulkar said, “There were occasions where people felt he doesn’t have to play that shot, it’s not the right time, but someone like Rishabh should be left alone. But when he’s looking to save a match, he has to have a different approach, like in the last 15-20 overs of a match. But he has figured out [how to approach an innings] depending on the match situation.”

Gill was ‘so much in control’, Rahul played some ‘magnificent shots’

The two batting stalwarts for India in this series were Gill and opener Rahul, who racked up 754 runs and 532 runs respectively with six hundreds between them. Tendulkar pointed out both batters had “precise footwork” on the challenging conditions in England. Gill’s series aggregate was the second-highest tally of a captain, only behind Don Bradman’s 810 in 1936.”He was extremely consistent as far as his thought process was concerned because it reflects on your footwork,” he said of Gill. “If you’re not clear in your head, your body doesn’t respond accordingly, and his body was responding brilliantly. He looked so much in control, he had so much time to play the ball. The most important thing I noticed was the respect to a good ball where the tendency sometimes is to push the ball on the front foot, even if it’s not close to your foot. He was able to defend there and consistently defend well on the front foot. His front-foot defence was solid.”On Rahul, who scored more than one hundred in a series for the first time in a Test series, Tendulkar said: “He was terrific, possibly one of the best I’ve seen him bat. The way he was defending close to the body, he was leaving in a completely organised manner, he knew exactly where his off stump was and which balls to leave. I got the feeling sometimes he was able to frustrate the bowler, that where should they bowl to him if he’s letting so many balls go. So he got the bowlers to come back to him, and when the ball was in striking range he played some magnificent shots. I thought he looked in that zone, calm and composed.”4:04

How do you move on from such an epic series?

Siraj ‘doesn’t get the credit he deserves’

Among the bowlers, Siraj impressed Tendulkar. Siraj was the only bowler across both teams to play all five Tests and sent down 1113 balls in all, 361 more than anyone, and led the wicket-takers’ list with a haul of 23. He had to do the heavy lifting in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah in two Tests.”Unbelievable. Superb approach. I love his attitude. I love the spring in his legs,” Tendulkar said. “For a fast bowler to be constantly in your face like that, no batsman will like it. And the approach he had till the end on the last day, I could hear commentators also saying he bowled around 90mph (145kph) on the last day after having bowled more than 1000 deliveries in the series. That shows his courage and big heart.”The way he started on the last day was remarkable and he has always been instrumental, playing a key role whenever we need him, whenever we want him to deliver that knockout punch, he’s been able to do that consistently in the past, and so was the case in this series. The way he picked all those wickets and performed, he doesn’t get the credit he deserves.”

Jaiswal was ‘a treat to watch’

Rahul’s batting partner Jaiswal ended the tour with a century at The Oval, just like he had started at Leeds in the first Test. He scored two more half-centuries in between and drew particular praise for his century in the fifth Test, where he stitched a crucial century stand with nightwatcher Akash Deep. Jaiswal finished the series with 411 runs at an average of 41.10.”I was impressed with Yashasvi’s mindset. He’s a fearless batsman and he knows when to accelerate, when to see through a phase, and when to go to the non-striker’s end. He scored a hundred on a difficult track in the first Test where the ball moved around a bit, not as much and not for as long as we expected, but he played an important role there.”In the last Test he scored a magnificent hundred on a difficult track. Before that the tracks weren’t as challenging, but the last one was a difficult one to bat on. He showed a lot of character, maturity and determination. The way he was guiding Akash Deep…a batter’s responsibility is not to score his own runs, it’s also how you build partnerships. He played a role in how to motivate Akash Deep. All in all, a fantastic series for Yashasvi, a treat to watch.”

Fargana Hoque, who became Bangladesh’s first century-maker in women’s ODIs, admits to panicking in the 90s, but says she drew inspiration from the top men’s batters

Mohammad Isam22-Jul-2023Nigar Sultana is hopeful that the 1-1 scoreline in the ODI series against India will give the Bangladesh women’s team more prominence in their country.”We are quite happy with the overall outcome,” Nigar said after the third and final game ended in a tie in Dhaka. “We would have been really happy had we won the series. I feel we have taken a respectable step forward. Many people [at home] didn’t know who plays in the Bangladesh team. Now people will recognise who is Nahida [Akter], who is [Fargana Hoque] Pinky, who is Marufa [Akter]. I think this itself is an achievement. It was nice of the cricket board to say positive things about us too. They came to see our matches. The crowd supported us. The media is promoting us.”Nigar reserved special praise for Fargana, who became the first Bangladesh woman to score a century in women’s ODIs. “We batted really well. It was a real positive,” Nigar said. “Pinky batted superbly. Held up one end. We couldn’t bat the full 50 overs in the previous game, so that was a target for us today.”Related

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Fargana batted at No. 3 in the first two ODIs, but was sent to open the batting in the final game, something which was communicated to her by head coach Hashan Tillakaratne the night before. She repaid the faith by cracking 107, the first ODI century by a Bangladeshi woman, which also earned her the first Player-of-the-Series award for a woman from her country in ODIs.”I always bat in the top order. I played at No. 3, but yesterday the head coach told me to be mentally prepared to open the innings,” Fargana said. “I went to the wicket with a strong mindset. I could adjust to the swing. I believed in myself. We have four or five batters who are capable of getting big scores. You have to be very skilful when playing against big teams. I believed in my skills, my process.”I wanted to capitalise on my good start. We are getting results slowly, so we will keep following the same process. I liked the fact that I tried to bat long, and it paid off. My batting isn’t free of mistakes, so I want to improve more in the future.”Were there any nerves in the nineties?”I hadn’t scored a hundred at this level, but I saw people making centuries. I saw Mushfiq [Mushfiqur Rahim] score a hundred. I saw [Najmul Hasan] Shanto score two hundreds recently. I looked at how they spent time in the middle,” she said. “I didn’t think of scoring a hundred here but it was about batting every ball on its merit.Fargana Hoque finished with 107 as Bangladesh posted a good total•BCB

“When I reached 96, I panicked a bit. I played out a few deliveries. But I told myself that to be a good batter, I have to bat till the end. My friends were disappointed when I got out on 47 in the last game. I tried to stick to the process, which helped me get the big score.”Nigar said that her team should have bowled better to close down the game much earlier but was happy with how it ended, India going from 160 for 3 – and then 191 for 5 – to 225 all out.”I think we could have won the game had we bowled better,” Nigar said. “It wouldn’t have come this far then. We came back well after a poor powerplay with the ball. I think we overcame some of the mistakes from the second game. We should have closed this series in the second game itself. There’s a lot of lessons from this series that we can use in the future.”There cannot be anything more positive than playing well against a top opponent. We have been boosted by this performance. We are going into a break with good feelings. We tied the game, so we didn’t lose. It gives everyone a boost.”

Ellyse Perry made a half century but Sixers remain bottom of the table

AAP01-Nov-2023Amy Edgar and Alana King spun the Perth Scorchers to a clinical 36-run win over the Sydney Sixers at the WACA Ground.After King’s unbeaten 33 off 14 balls lifted the Scorchers to 166 for 8, Edgar’s career-best 4-19 kept the Sixers to a spluttering 130 for 9Skipper Ellyse Perry was the only Sixers batter to make any impression whatsoever against a stifling performance from the Scorchers’ tweakers, with Edgar being well supported by legspinner King.Related

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“We’re trying to make the WACA our fortress and we’ve done that two games now,” player-of-the-match King said. “Bowling out here it’s not always spinner-friendly, so when it is we’ve got to make the most of it. As a spin unit, we’re really happy with this.”Scorchers (3-2) moved up to third position after notching their seventh victory from their past nine starts against the Sixers (1-4), who remain at the bottom of the points table.Beth Mooney and Chloe Piparo combined for a quickfire 53 for the first wicket for the home side before Amy Jones and captain Sophie Devine stroked neat cameos.Ash Gardner moved to the top of the top of the competition’s wicket-taking leaderboard (10 at 14.70), her crafty spinners and some magnificent outfielding from the visitors sparking a 4 for 24 Scorchers collapse.King came in at No. 8 and blasted the best knock of her WBBL career before impressing with the ball, dismissing Gardner for a first-ball duck and snaring the key scalp of Perry.NZ great Suzie Bates’ poor tournament continued, battling for timing and ultimately out slogging as Sixers never were able to get the asking-rate under control.Bates, Erin Burns, Chloe Tryon and Mathilda Carmichael all fell to the probing Edgar, who proved difficult to get away.Perry struck 10 boundaries in a typically classy knock but when she holed out to opposite number Sophie Devine in the deep, Sixers’ faint hopes went with her.”We played some good patches of cricket but we were a bit untidy with the ball,” Perry said. “And across the whole [batting] innings, none of us quite got going.”

“We’ll see,” he said after the loss to Australia. “Obviously you go to Asia [later this year], the make-up of the side changes”

Alex Malcolm11-Mar-20241:23

Southee: ‘Changing times for NZ as a Test side’

Tim Southee has conceded there’s no guarantee he will captain New Zealand’s next set of Test matches when they head to the subcontinent for to face Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and India later in the year.Southee cut a dejected figure after a heartbreaking three-wicket loss to Australia in Christchurch. New Zealand had Australia 34 for 4 and 80 for 5 defending 278, but were unable to finish the job as Alex Carey, Mitchell Marsh and Pat Cummins guided the visitors home.It means New Zealand’s 13-year winless streak in Tests against Australia is set to extend while their 31-year drought at home against their neighbour becomes interminable with no future tour scheduled at the moment.Southee put his own form under the microscope before his 100th Test, at Hagley Oval, saying he had not taken the wickets he would have liked. He took just four for the series even as Matt Henry, Ben Sears and Will O’Rourke all bowled impressively throughout.Related

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Southee captained New Zealand’s most recent Tests in Bangladesh last year when they only picked two seamers and he is aware that his position is vulnerable.”We’ll see,” Southee said. “Obviously you go to Asia, the make-up of the side changes slightly with spin becoming the main threat in that part of the world. But we’ll see when we get there. We’ll deal with this tonight and look to move forward to what’s to come.”Southee’s captaincy came under the microscope on day four in Christchurch as Australia wriggled their way out of trouble.He opted not to bowl Glenn Phillips until the last over before lunch after Marsh and Carey had already reached their half-centuries and the pair had shared a 94-run unbeaten stand. Phillips had picked up both men already in the series, including Carey twice. He almost had Marsh out lbw on the stroke of lunch but was saved by an inside edge.Southee said there was enough there for the seamers that enticed him to stick with pace through the first 90 minutes of the rain-shortened session.”Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” Southee said. “But I think the amount of times we went past the bat in that first session, we felt that seam was the option. We created a few chances through that first session. I think we felt that seam was the right move.”He also defended the selection of Scott Kuggeleijn who only bowled three overs in the second innings despite being selected as a specialist bowler. Kuggeleijn only conceded 10 runs off the bat but his maiden included critical extras of four byes and six leg byes from three balls that were angled down the leg side.”He’s been a been a standout performer at domestic level,” Southee said. “He added a very valuable 40-odd runs for us batting in that No.8 position and when you play the four seamers you’re looking for someone who can bat a bit.”Scott’s got a handful of first-class hundreds and we saw how valuable that 40-odd runs were.”Disappointing with the ball. But I think he’s still chimed in with a couple of important wickets in the first Test in Wellington and 40-odd runs here. It’s tough for everyone to play a role at times.”Southee also refused to blame his side’s fielding as a reason for the loss. They dropped critical catches in Wellington and Rachin Ravindra’s drop of Marsh in the second over on Monday morning proved very costly.Marsh was 28 at the time and went on to make 80. Although Southee did note that without the drop, which also cost a single, they may not have got Travis Head out next ball.”Guys don’t mean to drop catches,” Southee said. “Everyone works hard on the fielding. Obviously that one went down early in the day. But if we take that then we don’t get the wicket the next ball and who’s to say Head doesn’t go on and have an innings like Marsh. You look back on a number of things. But the guys work hard on their fielding.”Southee denied his side had a mental block against Australia but he couldn’t put his finger on why they continued to struggle in the crunch moments against them.”I’m not too sure,” Southee said. “They’re a tough side to beat, not only in Australia, but when they travel as well.”I think when you play the best you’ve got to be at your best for those periods, that little bit longer. We had moments through both Test matches where we could have been a little bit better at times and then things could have been slightly different. But it was just another great Test and there’s been plenty of those over the last few years.”