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Stokes faces both offspinners in floodlit nets session as England consider change to all-pace strategy

Vithushan Ehantharajah01-Dec-2025Around 20 punters watched England’s first evening net at the Gabba ahead of the day-night Ashes Test starting on Thursday.The outdoor facilities at this historic but ageing colosseum are the most amenable in the world for observers, offering a behind-the-batter view of what it’s like to face the fiercest bowlers going. There were plenty of eyes on the lane closest to Main Street, as Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson steamed in with the pink Kookaburra ball.But it was the net furthest away that had the most immediate interest ahead of the second Test. Both Shoaib Bashir and Will Jacks were bowling their offspin to England captain Ben Stokes, duking it out for what seems, at this juncture, the last available spot in the XI.Related

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Mark Wood has been ruled out – England are optimistic his heavily strapped left knee will get adequate rest to ensure he is back in the mix for Adelaide – but the other 10 starters from the defeat in Perth are likely to be rolled out again.Josh Tongue is the most like-for-like replacement if the tourists want to repeat their all-pace attack from Perth. But they are understood to be trending more towards spin in their bid to come back from 1-0 down, with the expectation that the pink Kookaburra will soften earlier than the red one.The pair have had very different routes to these Ashes. Bashir has been the captain’s go-to spinner since a shock call-up to the India tour at the start of 2024, with 68 wickets in 19 caps to date. His traits – a high release-point, revs coming from over the top of the ball – were deemed better suited to Test pitches (particularly Australian ones) compared to traditional English, doorknob-turning finger spinners.Jacks, an allrounder, was the first conventional offspinner picked by Stokes, drafted on the tour of Pakistan in the winter of 2022 for his only two Test caps after developing as Surrey’s primary spin option. He took 6 for 161 in his first go on debut – the first Test at Rawalpindi – and showed his dexterity as a batter by slotting in at No. 3 in the second innings of the next Test in Multan to give Ollie Pope extra rest after keeping. That he is on this tour owes as much to his batting – destructive qualities, and comfort filling in any top six position – and his tall action and ambition with the ball.Bashir is understood to be the one in pole position, though it was Jacks who seemed to have the better of it on Monday night, before padding up. Nets can only tell you so much, of course. Stokes and the rest of England’s batters were focused on getting attuned to the shift from day to night, and then how the floodlights transformed the grass beneath their feet. They will have one more hit in similar conditions on Wednesday before they get going in their attempts to square the series.Visiting spinners have had very little success with the pink ball over here, collectively managing just 28 wickets at 64.03. Joe Root’s three in the Adelaide Test on the 2021-22 tour has him joint-second on that list (with Yasir Shah); Dawid Malan is joint-fourth with two picked up from that same game. R Ashwin sits top with six at 20.66.England would not be wrong to look at Nathan Lyon’s impressive record of 43 dismissals at 25.62 from his 13 day-night home Tests and surmise spin is a must. But they may take more meaningful notes from Kevin Sinclair’s cameo in Australia’s one and only pink ball defeat.That came here at the Gabba last year. Sinclair – also an offspinner – struck a vital 50 and then 14 not out, both from No. 7, in a tight eight-run win. He bowled just eight overs, all in Australia’s first innings which sandwiched his batting efforts, but was able to snare Usman Khawaja for 75. Replicating Sinclair’s impact rather than Lyon’s is a far easier task and would favour Jacks.It will be these cues from day-night affairs in Australia, and England’s own learnings from the seven they have played, that will continue to be disseminated among the group over the coming days. The entire top five played in England’s last pink-ball Test – against New Zealand at Mount Maunganui in 2023 – but Jamie Smith, for instance, will be playing his first of any kind.”We’ve spoken with the guys who have played some pink-ball games, and had a look at some of the pink-ball games that have been played in Australia in the past four or five years,” Carse said. His only day-night match happened to be in this country for England Lions against Australia A at Melbourne in January 2020.”On an evening, it does seem to do a little bit more, especially if you have a slightly newer ball, which I’m sure we’ll take into consideration throughout the game. It’s going to be exciting. I’m expecting a massive crowd, a hostile crowd. The guys are really looking forward to it.”I think looking back at a couple of highlights of previous games played in Australia, it’s certainly very admirable how their new-ball bowling goes. You know, they strike early and I think that’s going to be important, whether that’s certain lines we’ll be bowling or maybe bowling a touch fuller to let it swing. They’ve played some really good cricket with a pink ball. So, yeah, I’d like to say that we’ve had a look at some of the stuff that they’ve done over the previous years.”

Ireland spinner was suspended from bowling earlier this year after her action was found to be illegal

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Aug-2025Ireland left-arm spinner Aimee Maguire has been cleared to resume bowling in international cricket with immediate effect.Maguire, 18, was suspended from bowling earlier this year after being reported during the first ODI against India in Rajkot on January 10. Her action was deemed suspect under the ICC’s Illegal Bowling Regulations.Maguire has since remodelled her action and subsequently underwent an independent re-assessment at an ICC-accredited testing centre where she was cleared.”An independent assessment of Maguire’s remodelled bowling action at an ICC accredited testing centre concluded that the amount of elbow extension was within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted under the ICC Illegal Bowling Regulations,” an ICC release said.Maguire made her ODI and T20I debut against West Indies in July 2023. She has so far played 11 ODIs, where she has picked 16 wickets, with best bowling figures of 5 for 19 against England last year. Maguire has also played nine T20Is, where she has nine wickets at an economy rate of 7.20.The 18-year-old is not part of the Ireland squad that faces Pakistan in a three-match T20I series, which begins in Dublin on Wednesday.

Quetta’s total of 98 at actually looked decent after they had been reduced to 21 for 6

The Report by Danyal Rasool07-Mar-2020
Has the PSL really moved back to Pakistan, and is this a T20 league? Today, on a pitch redolent of the most treacherous surfaces in the UAE, Samit Patel, aided by a contingent of Lahore Qalandars spinners who happened to come in handy, blew Quetta Gladiators top order away, reducing them to 21 for 6.The pitch was ragging square, and there was little Quetta could do but cautiously bat out the 20 overs from that point on. They limped to 98, which appeared impressive in the circumstances, but when the second innings rolled around, Quetta’s slower bowlers simply didn’t possess the same bite. A 62-run partnership between Mohammad Hafeez and Ben Dunk put any early fears to rest, and Lahore cantered to a crushing win with 8 wickets and nine overs to spare.Well, where did this surface come from? The last two days have seen Lahore peppered by intermittent rain; it was responsible for the abandoned game between Multan and Karachi last night. And when the fast-improving Shaheen Afridi’s exceptional first over saw Shane Watson depart for a golden duck, it looked as if the strip would favour bowlers who could move the ball at pace far more than the spinners.But that’s where Patel came in. The first ball to Jason Roy looped and beat the outside edge; it was a harbinger for what was to follow. Roy would be removed by an identical delivery that beat him so comprehensively he actually had to check with the keeper to confirm it had dislodged his off bail. It was one of four wickets Patel took, with his figures reading a 4-1-5-4.From thereon, Quetta hunkered down and focused on batting out the overs, Sohail Khan biding his time and cashing in towards the end. When he hit Dilbar Hussain for 18 in the 18th over, it seemed like a match-turning moment. However, there was no one in the Quetta ranks who played the superhuman role Patel had for Lahore, with the early bedlam responsible for consigning them to a fourth successive defeat.Samit Patel stunsThere is no doubt the surface was a dream to play on, but it is notable Patel’s performance so far exceeded those delivered by any of his peers. There wasn’t a delivery that didn’t hit the spot, Patel confident enough to give it plenty of flight, continuously bringing the outside edge of the right-handers in play.That is how Sarfaraz Ahmed fell, nicking off to first slip for 1, but the over that took his spell from magnificent to history-making was yet to come. In his third over, he was a walking highlights reel, the aforementioned Roy dismissal kicking it off. It would get better from there, Azam Khan’s outside edge carrying to Ben Dunk in a near-identical manner to Sarfaraz’s. The final ball, Ben Cutting’s first, was arguably the only loose delivery of the spell, a long hop the Australian looked to dispatch to cow corner. But Patel had the Midas touch going, and Cutting failed to get elevation onto the shot, and pulled it straight down midwicket’s throat.This left Quetta at 21 for 6, and if Patel hadn’t run out of overs, you’d assume they wouldn’t have got close to the 98 they ended up posting.Hafeez and Dunk play their partNever underestimate Lahore’s ability to navigate a pathway to defeat, no matter how impregnable their position. And when Quetta set them 99 to chase, the perception was they had managed a comeback of sorts, and with momentum – and a trio of especially capable spinners in Fawad Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, and Zahid Mahmood – on their side, the chase could become particularly tricky. Aside from a second over in which Fakhar Zaman pillaged 20, that is exactly what it might have turned into. Zaman fell to Nawaz, his fourth dismissal to spin in this season, and two overs later, the captain Sohail Akhtar, who had never quite got going, was beaten in the air and stumped.This was exactly the sort of scrap Quetta wanted, but Hafeez and Dunk would not let that happen. After cautiously getting themselves in for a couple of overs, they turned the chase around with 15 runs off a poor Fawad over. Quetta fell away after that, never quite able to wrest back the control they believed their spinners would grant them, and with the pressure reducing after every boundary, the fight sapped out of the defending champions relatively quickly. It would take just 4.5 overs for the final 60 runs to be scored, and when Hafeez sealed it with a six over cover, it was just an exclamation mark on a convincing – and complete – Lahore performance.Where the teams standFor the first time in PSL history, Quetta have lost four on the bounce, and drop to fifth – outside the cut-off for qualification. The only side below them is the one they beat, Lahore, who now have two wins in six matches.

No official BCB word yet on reduction of his ban, but he played a Dhaka Premier Division match on Saturday

Mohammad Isam05-Jun-2021Bangladesh fast bowler Shahadat Hossain, banned in November 2019 for five years for slapping a team-mate during a first-class match, played in a Dhaka Premier Division game on Saturday, despite there being no official statement from the BCB on the reduction of his ban.ESPNcricinfo has learnt Hossain, who bowled two wicketless overs for Partex Sporting Club on his return against Old DOHS Sports Club, will not need to serve any more than the 18 months he has already completed in his five-year ban.Related

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Hossain had appealed to the BCB in February that his ban be reduced, so he can resume his career and take care of the expenses relating to his mother’s cancer treatment. BCB cricket operations chairman Akram Khan had said at the time that he had taken up Hossain’s case with the board higher-ups.”He is in a lot of problem in his family,” Khan told in March. “His mother is diagnosed with cancer. He is not playing cricket now so when he called me, I spoke to a few directors. We have requested the BCB’s disciplinary committee. We are hopeful to get a positive result from them. I have also informed the board president, who is also positive about him. , we hope that he can play in the NCL (National Cricket League).”In November 2019, Hossain had slapped team-mate Arafat Sunny Jr during an NCL match in Khulna, after the latter refused to shine the ball for the fast bowler. After being withdrawn from the match, he was charged with a Level-4 offence, which amounted to a fine of BDT 100,000 (US $1200 approx.) and a five-year ban with two years as suspended sentencing.In March, Hossain had said his primary motivation to return to competitive cricket before the completion of his five-year ban was his mother’s treatment.”I regret my actions. I was wrong, and I will try not to do it again. I won’t have any problem for the rest of my career. My mother is a cancer patient. I want to return to cricket, to help my mother’s treatment,” he had said during a press conference.Hossain didn’t appear in the NCL edition that ran earlier this year for two rounds before being postponed in April owing to a second wave of Covid-19 infections in Bangladesh.Hossain played the last of his 95 international matches in May 2015. He remains Bangladesh’s second-highest wicket-taker in Tests among fast bowlers.

West Indies slumped to 27 for 6 as Starc and Hazlewood did the early damage and never recovered enough

Andrew McGlashan20-Jul-2021Mitchell Starc took a five-wicket haul as he and Josh Hazlewood dismantled West Indies in the opening ODI to give Alex Carey, who had earlier played a key hand with the bat, a winning start as Australia’s ODI captain.Carey, standing in for the injured Aaron Finch, had formed the backbone of Australia’s innings with Ashton Turner in a fifth-wicket stand of 104 in 19 overs before Hayden Walsh Jr sparked a late collapse with a career-best five-wicket haul.However, Australia’s 252 – which was adjusted to a target of 257 after three rain interruptions cut the match to 49 overs – quickly looked imposing as Starc and Hazlewood got to work with the new ball to leave West Indies in a heap at 27 for 6. Starc took three wickets in his first spell and then returned to end the aggressive rearguard of Kieron Pollard. Pollard hit a 41-ball fifty, but the West Indies captain had been left with far too much ground to regain.Starc, whose form had improved through the T20I series, removed Evin Lewis first ball with a low return catch from a leading edge and then produced a trademark inswinger to castle Jason Mohammed. Hazlewood then showed off his skills with a superb one-handed catch to his left off his own bowling to snaffle Shimron Hetymer’s leading edge – the pitch, where the ball was going through the top, proved tough to drive on.Mitchell Starc ripped through the West Indies batting line-up•CWI

Nicholas Pooran became Starc’s third wicket when an lbw decision was upheld with the ball trimming leg stump and Hazlewood kept pace with his new-ball partner as Darren Bravo drove carelessly to point, when some circumspection was needed, and then Jason Holder hooked to long leg.At six down inside eight overs, the match was heading for a very swift finish but Pollard counterattacked against Adam Zampa, with Alzarri Joseph providing solid support in a seventh-wicket stand. Mitchell Marsh broke through when he knocked back Joseph’s off stump before Starc returned to add the finishing touches with his eighth five-wicket bag.For only the third time since 1980-81, Australia handed out three ODI debuts in the same game with Josh Philippe, Ben McDermott and Wes Agar given their caps. For South Australia quick Agar – his brother Ashton handed him his cap – it was a first international appearance. Agar ended up delivering six tight overs after the early damage inflicted by Starc and Hazlewood.Philippe and McDermott were paired at the top of the order – the last time Australia had two new openers in the same ODI was also the last time they fielded three debutants, against Sri Lanka in 2012-13 – and they made a strong start led by Philippe who dominated the scoring. Philippe twice cleared the ropes in the first ten overs, the first a pull off the slightly wayward Sheldon Cottrell and then a clean strike down the ground off Mohammed, before undoing his good work when he chopped on trying to give himself room against Akeal Hosein.The in-form Marsh set off in positive fashion before glancing a catch down the leg side that wasn’t given on field but was overturned by DRS – Marsh knew his fate and was walking off when the review was called.Hayden Walsh Jr had career-best returns of 5 for 39•CWI

On a surface where the ball was occasionally going through the top from the quicks and offering some turn for the spinners, timing wasn’t always easy and Australia’s innings became harder work against good spells from Hosein, who bowled his ten overs straight through, and Joseph. Moises Henriques’ difficult 24-ball stay ended with a top-edged a sweep to short fine-leg and when McDermott – who had only faced 48 balls in 25 overs – nicked the deserving Joseph to slip, Australia were 114 for 4.By then Carey had already opened his boundary account with a slog-swept six off Hosein and after a second rain break, he took consecutive boundaries from Mohammed’s part-time offspin.Turner was given a life on 12 when he pulled Cottrell towards long leg but Mohammed could not hold a low chance as he ran in off the boundary. That was in an eight-over period where Australia did not find the boundary against some tight bowling from Walsh Jr and Joseph.Carey began to kick things on when he brought up his fifty with a flat six over long-off, which was followed next ball by a scooped four off Holder. Turner then started to find his range with back-to-back sixes off Holder – the first a strong blow over wide long-on followed by a top edge over the keeper – before another rain interruption.Walsh Jr had been held back until the 29th over by Pollard but then conceded barely three an over for the majority of his spell. In his eighth over, Carey missed a sweep to lose his leg stump and Turner top-edged to deep square one short of his fifty, which was followed by Starc and Matthew Wade picking out fielders deep on the leg side in a five-wicket haul that took 16 balls to complete. But in the end, though, Australia had more than enough.

Rodrigues, Ghosh and Verma among five women’s cricketers awarded Grade B contracts

Shashank Kishore27-Apr-2023Deepti Sharma, the allrounder, is a new entrant to BCCI’s highest bracket of annual retainers – Grade A worth INR 50 lakh – alongside Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur for 2022-23.Poonam Yadav, the legspinner, who had previously been placed in the highest bracket when the central contracts were last made public in May 2021 (for the period October 2020-September 2021), drops out altogether along with the now-retired pair of Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, who had both been placed in Grade B (worth INR 30 lakh).Raj retired after last year’s 50-overs World Cup in New Zealand while Goswami made her final appearance during a historic ODI-series win over England at Lord’s last September.Related

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Shikha Pandey, the allrounder, who earned a recall after 15 months ahead of this year’s T20 World Cup in South Africa has been left out altogether. She had previously been in Grade B which had 10 players. That list has now been pruned to five, with Renuka Singh and Richa Ghosh, who was earlier handed a Grade C retainer, being the new entrants. The others include Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma and Rajeshwari Gayakwad.Renuka enjoyed a breakthrough 2022, where she played a stellar role in India’s run to a silver-medal finish at Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year and has since emerged as the leader of India’s seam attack after Goswami’s retirement. Ghosh, meanwhile, has emerged as the frontline wicketkeeper and the team’s designated finisher.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Grade C, which is worth INR 10 lakh, has nine players from six previously. Among the first timers are fast bowlers Meghna Singh and Anjali Sarvani, allrounders Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana and Devika Vaidya and batters S Meghana, Yastika Bhatia and Harleen Deol. Allrounder Radha Yadav is also part of this group, having earlier been given a Grade B contract.The formal announcement of annual retainers comes six months after the BCCI announced a pay parity, under which the women – like the men – stood to earn INR 15 lakh for a Test, INR 6 lakh for an ODI and INR 3 lakh for a T20I. These amounts are significantly higher than the flat INR 1 lakh that India women players earned for an ODI or T20I appearance, and INR 2.5 lakh for a Test match prior to that.The Indian team’s next assignment is a tour to Bangladesh in June. Earlier this month, board secretary Jay Shah said it was “imperative we have a dedicated, full-fledged support staff to drive the team forward” while also saying the “best coaches will be roped in to help players realise full potential and achieve excellence on and off the field.”The national team is currently without a full-time head coach since former India offspinner Ramesh Powar was asked to step away as part of a restructuring process. Since then, former India batter Hrishikesh Kanitkar has been in charge and led the team to a semi-final finish at the T20 World Cup.Applications for various positions, including head coach, will be announced soon before BCCI’s three-member Cricket Advisory Committee will conduct interviews to identify the new coaches.

With WA only needing a draw to claim the Shield title, Whiteman made 123 and Hardie finished 119 not out to all but bat Victoria out of the game with a day to play

Alex Malcolm03-Apr-2022Western Australia have one hand on the Sheffield Shield trophy after centuries from Sam Whiteman and Aaron Hardie took the game away from Victoria on the fourth day at the WACA ground in Perth.With WA only needing a draw to secure the title after claiming the bonus point lead on day three, Whiteman produced a superb display of concentration and determination to blunt the visitors for more than three sessions and found able support from Hardie, who produced an outstanding century, to push WA’s lead to a nearly unassailable 393 with four wickets in hand and a day to play.Whiteman batted 500 minutes for his 123 from 338 balls, to go with his 85 in the first innings. He became the second WA player to face more than 500 balls in a Shield final after Mike Veletta did it in 1987.Hardie showed his blossoming all-round talents, adding his second Shield century to his three crucial wickets in Victoria’s first innings.The pair produced a brilliant 184, the highest sixth-wicket partnership for WA in a Shield final after coming together at a critical point in the first session. WA had crawled along to 5 for 110, with a lead of just 190, after the fall of Teague Wyllie and Josh Philippe in quick succession.But Whiteman’s disciplined leaving and Hardie’s obdurate defence wore down Victoria’s attack across more than 62 overs on a warm afternoon.Whiteman hardly made a mistake, having already batted the final session of the third day. Scott Boland, Will Sutherland and Mitchell Perry threw everything at him but his judgement of length was superb. He also played the spin of Jon Holland and Matthew Short with similar discipline and assured footwork. He sweated on anything short and wide unfurling cuts and late cuts behind point in between long periods of leaving and defending.He brought his century off 268 balls with a late cut off Holland. It was ninth in first-class cricket and his eighth Shield century. It was also his sixth ton in the last four seasons since becoming a full-time top order batter, having started his career in WA as a specialist wicketkeeper-batter before a bad finger injury forced him to abandon the gloves.Sam Whiteman walks off at tea with an unbeaten century•Getty Images

Hardie overcame a nervous start and survived a close lbw shout off Sutherland just after lunch. The umpire deemed it just going over the top after the ball hit the back thigh in line with off. He also edged Holland from over the wicket, but the ball brushed the gloves of keeper Sam Harper and fell short of Peter Handscomb at slip.But the longer he went, the tighter his defence became and the better his driving was off both feet. He hit the spinners powerfully wide of mid off from both the front and back foot and produced a couple of sparkling straight drives, including one to bring his century in fine style.Victoria bowled well throughout the day and deserved better than their returns. They ground WA to a halt in the morning session thanks to Boland and Sutherland. WA scored just three runs in the first nine overs of the day and only 43 in the first 30 overs before lunch. The slow scoring and the dual breakthroughs gave Victoria hope that they could bowl WA out and chase down a target of under 300.Wyllie, who scored just 23 off 86 balls, edged Perry to slip prodding a forward defence at a ball he could have left. Handscomb held yet another catch to add to his record season tally. Shortly after, Philippe played a loose shot to Holland, chipping him to cover for 1.But they failed to make another breakthrough until the final hour when Whiteman finally made an error in judgement and lost his off stump shouldering arms to Sutherland.Hardie and Joel Paris saw WA to stumps without further loss and only a miraculous final day chase from Victoria would deny them a first Shield title in 23 years.

Sri Lanka’s captain was impressed with his lead spinner’s ability to bounce back from tough outings in the fifth ODI

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Colombo12-Aug-2018He conceded 81 runs in the third ODI, went at 10 and over in the next one, and yet, claimed 6 for 29 in the fifth ODI, in Sri Lanka’s 178-run victory over South Africa. So emphatically did Akila Dananjaya bounce back from those Pallekele pastings, that Angelo Mathews has declared him to be “made of steel”. Not only did Akila finish the series in possession of the best match figures for a Sri Lanka bowler against South Africa, he was also the series’ best bowler, having taken 14 wickets at an average of 17.85. Despite the expensive outings at Pallekele, his economy rate also finished at a respectable 5.95.

Quinton de Kock

On Akila
“We’ve picked him really well through the whole series, but tonight it was really difficult to pick him initially, in the night. He performed really well and bamboozled us.”
On SL’s batting improvement through the series:
“In the first two games we didn’t have the biggest targets to chase. In the last two matches the Sri Lankan batting lineup batted with a lot of freedom. They put a lot of pressure on us. They set us big, challenging totals. In the fourth ODI we batted really well but didn’t manage to finish it. Tonight, Akila just bowled really well.”

“Akila’s made of steel – going for runs in the last couple of games and coming back with a six-for in this game was fantastic,” Mathews said. “He has been bowling so well for us over the past year and a half. You can have a couple of off days but he has been consistent with his performances over the past year and a half. He showed once again what he’s capable of.”At Khettarama, it was the googly that was Akila’s most destructive delivery, claiming the wickets of Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks in consecutive balls, before dismissing Heinrich Klaasen and Quinton de Kock as well. It is, of course, unusual that someone who primarily bowls offbreaks has a googly and a legbreak in his repertoire, but an unusual bowler is what Akila has always been. It was on the basis of that unorthodoxy that he made his debut for Sri Lanka way back in 2012, as a 17-year-old. Though largely ignored by the selectors between early 2013 and the middle of last year, Dananjaya has become a more refined bowler over the past six years, and Mathews – who is also a teammate at Colts Cricket Club – has watched him grow.”There is a big difference when you consider his debut, and you look at him now,” he said. “He bowls with a lot of confidence. He’s not afraid to bowl his variations. And those variations are now also bowled with a lot of control. So those add up to a big difference.”As Sri Lanka attempt to nail down their World Cup combination, Akila is imposing himself as the team’s lead spinner – a position Sri Lanka have struggled to fill in limited-overs cricket since the declines of Sachithra Senanayake and Ajantha Mendis. Despite some expensive outings, Akila has at least been reliably penetrative, claiming at least one wicket in each of his last six matches. Though the offbreak has always been his stock ball, the wristspin deliveries are proving effective for him, he said.”I got most of my recent caught-and-bowled wickets with the googly, and I’ve got a lot of wickets with the legbreak as well. In this series I’ve also been trying to turn the legbreak as much as I can. The googly and the legbreak need to get better, so I’ll keep working on those.”

Paul Collingwood’s retirement, at 42, comes with Scotland seeking a coach after the departure of Grant Bradburn

David Hopps13-Sep-2018The handshakes with his team-mates at the end of Durham’s victory over Sussex at Emirates Riverside on Wednesday said it all: Paul Collingwood, the former England batsman, has decided to end his first-class career at 42.Collingwood will not be short of coaching offers. He has impressed with England in his occasional forays as a fielding coach and there is bound to be interest in Scotland, where he has already worked extensively and where Grant Bradburn, a 52-year-old New Zealander, resigned a week ago to become Pakistan’s fielding coach.It has taken a while for coaching opportunities to prise out Collingwood from the middle. More than seven years after the end of his England career, he retires with quite a record: he has represented the club in 23 of their 26 years in professional cricket and has amassed 304 first-class appearances, 16,844 runs and 164 wickets.In common with Marcus Trescothick at Somerset, he grew into one of the grand old stagers of the county circuit, communicating that England’s professional circuit remained a place where international stars who had known the best could still find satisfaction. A phlegmatic, hard-working, get-the-job-done cricketer, he squeezed value from himself to the very last drop.”After much thought and deliberation, I have decided to announce my retirement from cricket at the end of the current season,” Collingwood said.”I knew this day would eventually come but it hasn’t made it any easier – although it’s an emotional decision, I know that the time is right and I’m comfortable knowing that I have given every last ounce of energy to the sport.”I have achieved so much with both Durham and England; far more than I ever imagined and I feel extremely privileged to have had such a long and rewarding career. I am excited about what the future holds for me and am looking forward to new challenges.”Paul Collingwood bowls in the England nets•Getty Images

Last year, aged 41, Collingwood capped an incredible season with three trophies at Durham’s end-of-year awards: Player of the Year, Players’ Player of the Year and Batsman of the Year. He also recorded the club’s first T20 Blast century against Worcestershire. Earlier this year, his contribution to the club was marked with the naming of the Paul Collingwood Pavilion.His fitness record was exemplary, too – it needed to be as Durham approached Twenty20 as a fast-running game, keeping the boundaries at the Riverside bigger than many. One of his last memories will be surviving four Vitality Blast matches in six days while he scrambled ones and twos and his achilles nagged away at him and told him it was time to go. A Collingwood career should quite properly have ended with hard graft.If the prospect of more coaching opportunities with England and Scotland has arisen, it is neatly timed. This season has been tough – his 47 against Sussex was his highest Championship score of the season, but it was a vital contribution nonetheless and – if he stands down immediately – it helped him see out his career with victory.As he wrestled last month with thoughts of retirement, he mused to ESPNcricinfo: “I’ve loved every minute of my coaching work with England and we will have to see what opportunities arise but I’ve no God-given right to walk into a job with the ECB. I feel I have something to offer.”Collingwood, a three-times Ashes winner, played 68 Test matches for England, scoring 4,259 runs at an average of over 40 and produced a number of outstanding performances, including a memorable double-century at Adelaide during the 2006-07 Ashes series, an innings where Australia grudgingly accepted that there were qualities, after all, in this battling cricketer that they had grown to admire.He became the first England captain to deliver at a global men’s tournament when England beat Australia to win the 2010 World Twenty20. A year later, he was gone, his decision to retire from Test cricket after a memorable Ashes triumph in Australia quickly leading to his removal as T20 captain.He observed soon afterwards: “When you’re out of the England team you get forgotten very quickly.” Even then he was attracted by coaching, but instead he deepened his respect at Durham, the granite-like batsman, productive rather than attractive, whose upbringing in Consett, an old steelworks town, had taught him from the outset that life did not owe him a living. Having lost much of his England rewards in bad investments, he knew that all too well.He went on to lift the 2013 County Championship title with Durham and also played a significant role in the club’s Royal London One-Day Cup victory at Lord’s a year later. When the ECB had to bale out Durham financially, and relegated them as a lesson to others, he called it “brutal” and was driven by a deep sense of pride; there was no way he would retire then.But retire now he has, leaving Durham’s chairman Sir Ian Botham, to bang the drum, claiming with a certain hyperbole: “Paul is one of the greatest all-rounders to ever grace the game of cricket and to have him playing at Durham, his home county, for all these years has been an absolute privilege.”Both on and off the field he has class, intelligence and charm and it is a testament to his incredible commitment and work ethic that he has been able to compete at the top level for the amount of time that he has. Colly is Mr Durham and it will be very strange without him.”

Salil Ankola, SS Das, Subroto Banerjee and S Sharath are the other members of the committee

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jan-2023Chetan Sharma has been reappointed as the chairman of the BCCI’s national men’s senior selection committee. Chetan, who was in the same position in the previous selection committee, which had been sacked in November last year, will have Shiv Sunder Das, Salil Ankola, Subroto Banerjee and S Sharath as colleagues in the new panel.The five men were chosen by the BCCI’s cricket advisory committee of Ashok Malhotra, Sulakshana Naik and Jatin Paranjape after “around 600 applications” came in response to a BCCI advertisement for the positions. The need to appoint a fresh committee came up after the BCCI removed the earlier panel on November 18 last year – the advertisement was published on the BCCI’s website the same day – not long after India were eliminated in the semi-final of the men’s T20 World Cup.Though the panel was removed, they continued to select the India men’s national teams for the limited-overs series in New Zealand, the ODI and Test tour of Bangladesh and then the ongoing limited-overs series at home against Sri Lanka in the absence of a new committee. It was understood that the panel, led by Chetan, had been given an extension until the end of 2022 and, along with picking the national squads, had also been tasked with tracking the Ranji Trophy matches till the end of the year.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Indications were that Chetan Sharma would continue

Then, last week, in perhaps a big indication that Chetan might not be replaced – even if the others were – he was part of the BCCI’s review meeting of India’s roadmap to the 2023 ODI World Cup along with Rahul Dravid, the head coach, Rohit Sharma, the all-format captain, and VVS Laxman, the National Cricket Academy chief, as well as top BCCI functionaries.The term for the selection panel is typically four years, but they are up for renewal every year.The CAC, meanwhile, was put in place on January 1 to interview the applicants, prepare a shortlist of candidates, and send the BCCI its recommendations, on the basis of which the five-member panel has now been put in place.The latest panel has a combined experienced of 48 Test matches and 95 ODIs. Chetan and Das have both played 23 Tests each, while Ankola and Banerjee played one each. Chetan also played 65 ODIs; Ankola, Banerjee and Das played 20, six and four apiece. Sharath, a domestic great who played 139 first-class matches and scored 8700 runs in the format at an average of 51.17, never played for India.Sharath, however, was the chairman of the junior men’s selection committee till recently, and it’s an elevation of sorts for him after his panel chose the India squad that went on to win the Under-19 World Cup in February last year.Ankola, the former fast bowler, was also a selector, heading the Mumbai selection committee till the new appointment, while Das and Banerjee were involved in coaching. Das is the only member of the selection panel to have any T20 playing experience, having played three games in October 2011.