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“Let us begin this bulletin with some news on India’s tour of England.
As the Indian team underwent its first practice session in England on Monday with most of their premier players turning up for training with the red ball, Ravichandran Ashwin was a notable absentee. It seems that the off-spinner has been infected with Covid-19 and couldn’t board the flight to England a few days ago.
There is also no clarity on whether Ashwin will be boarding a flight in time to be available for the rescheduled Test against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham, starting July 1.
The Indian team captained by Rohit Sharma flew to London to complete the series they lead 2-1 ahead of the final Test.”
“India had declined to play the fifth Test of the series in England last year after a Covid-19 scare in their dressing room. Former coach Ravi Shastri and the team physiotherapist too had got infected and as a result the players didn’t want to turn up for the game.
The statement read,
“The Board of Control for Cricket in India along with the England and Wales Cricket Board have jointly decided to call off the 5th Test Match scheduled at Manchester The BCCI and ECB held several rounds of discussion to find a way to play the Test Match, however, the outbreak of Covid-19 in the Indian team contingent forced the decision of calling off the Old Trafford Test Match.” ”
“Meanwhile,
India captain Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill were seen sharpening their batting skills in the nets as India prepare to take on England in the postponed Test series decider, scheduled to take place from July 1 to July 5.
The video shared on the official Instagram handle of the Indian cricket team showed Sharma and Gill practicing a wide array of shots, including a pull shot.
Rohit, who was rested for the T20I series against South Africa at home, defended few deliveries on the front foot, while also playing the pull shots against the short balls. Gill, too, looked to work on his game during the batting session.
”
“In other news,
The BCCI named Hardik Pandya as the captain of India’s T20 team touring Ireland later this month, leaving out KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Shreyas Iyer from the team entirely. India will play Ireland in Dublin on June 26 and June 28 in a two-match bilateral series. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has been named the vice-captain.
The trio has been replaced by Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, and Rahul Tripathi. This series is Yadav’s return to the Indian team after injury ruled him out for South Africa, while Samson has been called up once again after failing to make the team for the ongoing series.
The matches will be played on the 26th and the 28th of June.”
“Moving on,
England batter Jason Roy said that a couple of months with his family helped reinvigorate him after he went through a ‘dark time’ in the winter.
Roy scored a scintillating 73 runs from 60 balls in the recent ODI against Netherlands on Sunday which also marked his 100th one-day international.
Three months ago, Roy was given a suspended two-match ban and fined by the Cricket Discipline Commission, the reasons for which were not disclosed by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
He did not delve deeper into what led to his suspension but said that while playing the Pakistan Super League, he was away from his newborn son which had an affect on his batting.”
“South Africa head coach Mark Boucher termed India seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s performance in the series as “special” while ruing the absence of Aiden Markram, who he feels could have made a lot of difference for the Proteas over the course of the five T20Is. Bhuvneshwar, who now only plays white-ball cricket, got six wickets in four completed games and gave away only 85 runs in 14
He said,
“Bhuvneshwar was special in this whole series as we came up against some quality bowling. He put us under pressure in Powerplays and barring one game in Delhi, where we got off to a good start, they have dominated us with both ball and bat in Powerplays,” ”
“And finally,
It was on the 20th of June, 11 years ago, that former India captain Virat Kohli first wore India’s whites in Test cricket. The former India captain played his first Test on the India tour of West Indies back in 2011 at Kingston.
Since then the right-handed batter went on to play 100 more Tests for India, scoring over 8,000 runs in the format. He completed a century of appearances earlier this year when India hosted Sri Lanka in Mohali.
The 33-year-old has played 101 Tests in his career so far, scoring 8,043 runs at an average of 49.95 with the highest score of an unbeaten 254.
Kohli, on his Twitter post celebrating 11 years of red-ball cricket, wrote ‘Time flies’,”
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