The ICC’s new three-stage system turns the 2027 World Cup opener into a survival test for the lowest-ranked qualifiers. Fourteen teams remain in the draw, but three of them must fight through a two-match knockout round before the group stage starts. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia host the event in October and November 2027, with […]
The ICC’s new three-stage system turns the 2027 World Cup opener into a survival test for the lowest-ranked qualifiers. Fourteen teams remain in the draw, but three of them must fight through a two-match knockout round before the group stage starts. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia host the event in October and November 2027, with […]
Gambhir has to fix a second-innings batting collapse under spin that has haunted India in Galle since 2015 and never fully went away. Ten years ago India made 375 in the first innings there, a genuinely competitive total, then needed only 176 to win and were bowled out for 112. Herath took seven wickets that […]
Welsh Fire sit sixteen points back, but a net run rate of minus 1.001 has left the two-time defending champions needing outside help just to reach the Eliminator. They face London Spirit today at Sophia Gardens in their final group game, knowing a win alone will not be enough on its own. Manchester Super Giants […]
Two bowlers in the history of Test cricket have taken ten wickets in a match and then been left out of the very next one. That is the entire list across generations of the format. Of eighteen such instances on record, only Graham McKenzie in 1967-68 and Muttiah Muralitharan in 2002 were actively rested after […]
Scott Boland, Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett stand behind Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood as Australia enters an unprecedented year of cricket. Cummins is 33, Hazlewood 35, Starc 36 and Boland 37, and all four carry serious injury histories. Twenty Tests in twelve months, against Bangladesh, South Africa, New Zealand and India, will test that […]
Team India keeps trusting Dhruv Jurel because his numbers away from Tests tell a different story than his last six innings. His first-class average sits at 55.17, and he arrives off a stunning 141 not out for India A at Galle weeks ago. His Test returns since a maiden century against the West Indies have […]
Weatherald walks out in Darwin knowing this is the closest thing to a home Test he will get, and the toughest audition his career can survive. Born in the city, he averages just 22.33 from five Tests, and this series may decide whether he tours South Africa next. He scored 183 at this same ground […]
Australia’s batting numbers have dropped, but that doesn’t make this Bangladesh series a soft target. Steve Smith tops the current group at 46.90, a mark that would have been mid-table during the 2000s. Only four batters in the squad have cleared 40 since 2022, yet Pat Cummins’ side keeps winning regardless. Darwin and Mackay host […]
Brar does, and the case is stronger than a single warm-up game suggests. He took two wickets and made 36 not out against the Sri Lanka Cricket XI in Colombo, while Prasidh Krishna managed one wicket in the same match. The bigger factor sits a month earlier: Brar took ten wickets in an unofficial Test […]
Not easily, but not hopelessly either. Bangladesh arrive without Nahid Rana for the entire series and without Shoriful Islam for the opener, yet Litton Das’s last-minute fitness clearance gives them a batting spine they didn’t have a week ago. This is also uncharted territory: no player in the touring party has ever played a Test […]
An 87.50 percent points return puts them clear of every other side in this cycle, but the fixture list ahead is the toughest of any team’s. Fourteen Tests remain, closing with a five-match trip to India where they haven’t won a series since the early 2000s. Travis Head and Mitchell Starc have carried the campaign […]