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Speculation about surprise comeback had been rife, but ultimately Australia opted for discretion

Andrew McGlashan04-Dec-2025Pat Cummins became a genuine option for a recall in Brisbane over the past week as he surprised everyone with the speed of his recovery. However, Australia’s selectors ultimately decided there was too much risk attached in playing a bowler whose overs would still need to be managed, but are very confident in him being ready for Adelaide.Chair of selectors George Bailey said his panel had not been “playing silly buggers” in leaving Cummins out of the squad but refusing to officially rule him out of contention in the lead-up to the second Test. However, he did admit a hug between Cummins and Andrew McDonald during a pitch inspection on Wednesday had been “for laughs”.Bailey said that there had been no expectation of Cummins being available when the group was selected but it became a realistic prospect as he ramped up his training in Brisbane, which included two spells on Monday and his first bowls on back-to-back days.”We weren’t playing silly buggers with him not being in the squad and in the mix. But I think once we got up here, saw his training, got as much of the background medical information as well, it became a live possibility,” he said. “Then it was just working through the permutations of what would that look like in terms of the amount of overs, what would it look like going forward from that as well.Related

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“I don’t think we thought he was going to be as close, it really changed through the week. Then risk tolerance became the conversation around what could he take on. Yes, he could have played. There would have been some restrictions around the overs and then obviously just the permutations [around that].”There was also consideration into what bringing Cummins back for this Test could mean going forward, and the added pressure it could leave on the rest of the attack. “Being in a really controlled environment [in] the nets where you can be really structured around the breaks and how you want it, then it’s just that risk of maybe going into a game,” Bailey said. “There’s some things you can control and probably some things that do get taken out of your control.”Meanwhile, Bailey said that the selectors had not got to the stage of debating whether Usman Khawaja would retain his place for the Gabba because he had never been passed fit to play. Khawaja batted on Tuesday before being ruled out of the Test the following day, having not recovered from the back spasms he suffered in Perth. He returned to the nets on Thursday. Travis Head, who made 123 in Australia’s chase in the opening match, will continue in the opening role during the second Test.”He hadn’t got his back back to baseline,” Bailey said. “And if you’re not back to the starting point then it’s obviously a heightened risk. There’s obviously your own performance, but when you’re injured and you feel like you’ve let the team down, I think that was something he was just conscious of; if it happened again, it would be an awful feeling. So sitting this one out buys time.”For now, Head is not being locked in at the top beyond this Test, and there has even been discussion of having in-match flexibility to batting orders.”We’ve gone into this series so far very much with a Test-by-Test focus,” Bailey said. “I imagine we’ll get another look at it here and see what that looks like and see that combination. We can cross that bridge [and] make that decision as and when we need to make that decision, but it’s an interesting one. What’s the threshold now for it to be a specialist opener, what’s that look like?”

Glamorgan make early running but lower-order turn tables from 110 for 6

ECB Reporters Network03-Sep-2023Club Captain Brett D’Oliveira helped inspire a Worcestershire comeback on his return from injury for the LV=Insurance County Championship top-three encounter with Glamorgan at New Road.D’Oliveira, side-lined for three weeks with a dislocated shoulder, came to the wicket with Worcestershire 103 for 5 after they had been put into bat with Jamie McIlroy picking up three wickets.A mixture of probing and accurate bowling but also some undistinguished shots had put Glamorgan in command until D’Oliveira redressed the balance of the day.He top-scored with 74 not out and was given excellent support by Logan van Beek and on loan Essex all-rounder Ben Allison during stands of 101 and 64.D’Oliveira has a liking for playing against Glamorgan, having scored three Championship hundreds, including a career best 202 not out, and his best bowling figures of 7 for 92.Earlier, Gareth Roderick and Adam Hose had led a partial recovery in challenging conditions during the morning session from 33 for 3.Worcestershire were able to secure two batting bonus points before being dismissed shortly before the close and then Glamorgan openers Ed Byrom and nightwatchman James Harris survived two overs.A see-saw day ended with honours even with McIlroy returning 3 for 41 and Harris 3 for 74.Of concern to Glamorgan will be what appeared to be a hamstring injury suffered by Timm van Gugten during his 17th over which had to be completed by James Harris.Allison was brought in after injuries to Matthew Waite and Adam Finch led to a search for a temporary replacement.Spinner Ben Kellaway made his first-class bow for Glamorgan who went into the game in third place and 14 points adrift of their opponents.Glamorgan skipper Kiran Carlson opted to bowl first and the new-ball pair of van der Gugten and McIlroy quickly made inroads in a pitch offering enough assistance to encourage the seamers.Jake Libby has experienced a prolific summer with more than 900 Championship runs but the opener tried to force van der Gugten off the back foot and was caught behind.Azhar Ali then gave his wicket away when he clipped McIlroy straight to midwicket.Jack Haynes, playing his first senior game for six weeks after injury, was undone by a fine delivery from Harris which nipped away and was caught behind.Roderick passed 600 runs for the summer but survived a low chance to second slip on 23 off former Worcestershire Academy player Zain Ul Hassan.He battled away in typically resolute fashion through to lunch with Hose who had returned to the side after his spell with Northern Superchargers in The Hundred.But there was another clatter of wickets on the resumption.Roderick (43) added only a single before he was lbw after pushing forward to Harris in the third over of the afternoon session.Kashif Ali, the leading six-hitter in the Metro Bank One Day Cup with 21 maximums, replicated Azhar Ali in picking out mid wicket off McIlroy.Hose had batted impressively in mixing defence with aggression but on 43 tried to cut a widish delivery from McIlroy and only found first slip.D’Oliveira and van Beek joined forces and redressed the balance during an aggressive stand.The latter had attracted head-lines in June for smashing 30 for the Netherlands off a Super Over from his close friend Jason Holder in a ICC World Cup qualifier against the West Indies in Zimbabwe.Van Beek, who also played for Worcestershire in the Metro Bank One Day Cup, mixed some powerful hitting with watchful defence while D’Oliveira batted with typical fluency.A cover-drive off Kellaway for his 10th four enabled van Beek to complete a 73-ball half century and also earn Worcestershire their first batting point.The partnership was broken shortly after tea when van Beek (53) attempted to drive ul Hassan and was caught and bowled low down.But D’Oliveira completed his own fifty from 87 deliveries, also at Kellaway’s expense with a late cut for his seventh boundary, and Allison gave him good support.They added 64 in 18 overs before Allison (37) aimed a drive at Harris and was bowled via the inside edge.Ul Hassan then wrapped up the innings by dismissing Joe Leach and Dillon Pennington cheaply to leave D’Oliveira undefeated with his 139-ball innings containing seven boundaries.

Iyer has been ruled out due to back spasms, while Dube will miss out because of a side strain

Vishal Dikshit20-Feb-2024Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out of Mumbai’s upcoming Ranji Trophy quarter-final with back spasms, ESPNcricinfo has learnt. Mumbai will also be without the in-form Shivam Dube because of a side strain for the knockout game against Baroda starting February 23 at home.Iyer played one round of the Ranji Trophy this year to warm up for the Test series against England, as he was picked for the first two games. He was, however, left out of the remaining three Tests after scores of 27, 29, 35 and 13 in the Tests in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad. Iyer had experienced back spasms soon after the second Test, but had been cleared for selection for India.It was a back injury that had kept Iyer out of the entire IPL 2023 and beyond until he returned for the Asia Cup in September, just before the ODI World Cup at home. He batted just once in the Asia Cup before smashing 530 runs in the World Cup while averaging 66.25 and striking at 113.24, with two centuries and three half-centuries. He soon returned to the Test side too, for the South Africa tour, before being retained for the first two Tests against England at home.Related

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Fitness permitting, Iyer will return to lead his IPL side Kolkata Knight Riders after missing the last season with a back injury, and he has just over a month to recover for that.Apart from injuries, the absence of India’s centrally-contracted players will be closely watched by the BCCI as the board secretary Jay Shah sent a letter to them last week, warning them to not prioritise IPL over domestic cricket.Mumbai will probably miss Dube more in the quarter-final because he had struck two attacking centuries and two half-centuries in his six Ranji innings this season. Dube picked up the injury in the last league game against Assam and had gone for scans on the second day, when Mumbai trounced the visitors by an innings and 80 runs. It was Mumbai’s third innings win of this Ranji season.Shivam Dube has averaged 67.83 this season•PTI

Dube has averaged 67.83 in this Ranji campaign while striking at 82.38. His 117 off 130 had saved Mumbai from 86 for 6 in the second innings against Uttar Pradesh, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a two-wicket loss. Last week he hammered an 87-ball century with the help of five sixes against Assam to help script Mumbai’s fifth win of the season from seven league games and top the Group B table. He has also bowled 67 overs in seven innings this season for 12 wickets at just 12.08, while delivering 23 maidens.Mumbai’s 16-man squad announced on Tuesday included allrounder Musheer Khan, brother of India’s recent debutant Sarfaraz Khan, who missed most of the Ranji season because of the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa where India finished runners-up to Australia. Musheer struck two centuries there to end with a tally of 360 runs from seven innings, the second-highest on the charts behind his team-mate Uday Saharan.Mumbai will be led by Ajinkya Rahane with Prithvi Shaw, Shardul Thakur and Dhawal Kulkarni as the other international players in the side.Mumbai squad: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Prithvi Shaw, Bhupen Lalwani, Amogh Bhatkal, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Prasad Pawar (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Shardul Thakur, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Aditya Dhumal, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Awasthi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Roystan Dias

The team has been stranded in Barbados for the last two days due to Hurricane Beryl

Edited PTI copy02-Jul-2024The Indian team is set to fly home via a charter flight on Tuesday evening after Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley said she expected the airport to become operational in the “next six to 12 hours”, ending the shutdown forced by a category 4 hurricane.The T20 World Cup-winning squad, its support staff, some BCCI officials and the players’ families have been stranded in Barbados for the past two days due to Hurricane Beryl, which hit the island on Sunday evening.”I don’t want to speak in advance of it, but I have literally been in touch with the airport personnel and they’re doing their last checks now and we want to resume normal operations as a matter of urgency,” Mottley told PTI.”There are a number of people who were due to leave last night late or today or tomorrow morning. And we want to make sure that we can facilitate those persons, so I would anticipate that within the next six to 12 hours the airport will be open.”Related

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The Indian contingent is expected to leave Bridgetown at 6pm local time and land in Delhi on Wednesday at 7.45pm IST, according to a source. The players will be later felicitated by prime minister Narendra Modi but the schedule of that event has not yet been finalised.The window for the Indian team to leave Bridgetown is a narrow one as Mottley revealed “we have another hurricane coming on Wednesday”.Five of the players – Rinku Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube, Khaleel Ahmed and Sanju Samson – were originally slated to travel to Zimbabwe for the upcoming five-match T20I series. But, Samson, Dube and Jaiswal will now travel to India with the rest of the T20 World Cup-winning side before leaving for Harare. The rest of the squad for the series left India earlier on Tuesday.Life-threatening winds and storms lashed Barbados and nearby islands on Monday. The country, with a population of close to 300,000, has been in lockdown since Sunday evening.”[We have] been working to ensure that everyone is safe in Barbados, Barbadians and all of the visitors, of course, who came for the cricket World Cup,” Mottley said. “We were very blessed that the storm did not come on land. The hurricane was 80 miles south of us, which limited the level of damage on shore. But as you can see, infrastructure and coastal assets have been badly damaged.”It could have been a lot worse, but now is the time to do the recovery and the clean-up.”

Quadricep tear could force her to miss eight of Sydney Sixers’ 10 league games

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Oct-2024New Zealand allrounder Amelia Kerr has been ruled out of the remaining two ODIs against India after tearing her left quadricep muscle. Kerr picked up the injury during the opening game on Thursday, which India won by 59 runs, and is expected to take approximately three weeks to recover. She will not be replaced in the ODI squad.This also puts her WBBL participation in serious doubt for Sydney Sixers with the tournament set to start on Sunday. Amelia was a big-name pre-signing for Sixers as a platinum-category pick and could miss eight of Sixers’ 10 league games even if she recovers in three weeks.An NZC release stated Amelia was taken for scans on Friday morning, which revealed a grade-one quadricep tear, and that she would return home on Sunday to start her rehabilitation.”We’re really gutted for Melie,” New Zealand head coach Ben Sawyer said. “Injuries are always a challenging time for a player and we know how disappointed she is to not be able to play these games.”Everyone knows how much of an integral part of this team Melie is so we’ll certainly miss her but we’re wishing her a speedy recovery.”Soon after playing a pivotal role in New Zealand’s T20 World Cup-winning campaign as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker with 15 scalps, Amelia was New Zealand’s best bowler in the opening ODI too, taking 4 for 42 before scoring an unbeaten 25 off 23 in the chase. The remaining two ODIs are on October 27 and 29, also in Ahmedabad.Amelia’s absence could hurt New Zealand’s hopes of climbing the Women’s ODI Championship table, where a top-six finish will ensure direct qualification for the ODI World Cup in 2025. New Zealand are currently placed sixth out of 10 teams and will next play Australia in December.

Australia will qualify for the semis with five points if they beat Afghanistan on Friday

S Rajesh25-Feb-2025South Africa
If South Africa beat England, they will qualify for the semi-finals, and could take top spot even if Australia beat Afghanistan, as long as their net run-rate tops Australia’s. However, a defeat to England could knock them out if England and Australia both beat Afghanistan.For South Africa to stay in contention with three points, Afghanistan will have to win at least one match. If they beat England and lose to Australia, then Australia and South Africa will qualify; if Afghanistan beat Australia and lose to England, then South Africa and Australia will be fighting for second place; if Afghanistan win both matches, then Afghanistan will top the group, and second place will again come down to the NRR between Australia and South Africa.Related

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Australia
Australia will be through with five points if they beat Afghanistan on Friday. If they lose, their qualification chances will depend on the two remaining England games. If England win both games and Australia lose theirs, then either Australia or South Africa will finish second in the group, depending on NRR.Thanks to their 107-run win against Afghanistan, South Africa are currently sitting pretty on the NRR front. Even if Australia lose to Afghanistan by just one run chasing 301, South Africa will have to lose to England by at least 87 runs chasing the same target for Australia to sneak ahead on NRR.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

England
England need to win both their remaining games to qualify; a defeat against either Afghanistan or South Africa will knock them out. Given that the weather forecast looks fine for both their matches – though Lahore is expected to be overcast for their Afghanistan contest – sharing points in either of them looks highly unlikely.Afghanistan
Like England, Afghanistan need two wins to be sure of qualification. If they beat England and their match against Australia is washed out – there is forecast for some rain in Lahore on Friday – then they will finish on three points. In that case, they can qualify only if England beat South Africa, and if Afghanistan trump South Africa on NRR.

A round-up of the final day’s action of the first round of matches in the 2009-10 Ranji Trophy Plate League

Cricinfo staff06-Nov-2009

Group A

Scorecard
Pankaj Singh picked up 7 for 64 during Assam’s chase as Rajasthan put aside their off-the-field troubles to take full points in Guwahati. Madhur Khatri dealt Assam the first blow on the final day, sending back Dheeraj Jadhav for 16, with the hosts needing 294 to win. That opened the gates for Pankaj, who repeatedly dented Assam – an even better showing than his 4 for 44 in the first innings. The right-arm fast bowler was unstoppable as none of the batsmen managed to convert their starts, with Parvez Aziz top scoring with 45. Assam captain Amol Muzumdar had reason to celebrate though, becoming the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy, courtesy his 25 in the second innings.
ScorecardAkshay Wakhare’s five-for might have come too late as Goa held on to first-innings points against Vidarbha in Nagpur. The offpsinner ran through the Goa top and middle orders before they declared on 203 for 8 in their second innings. First-innings centurion Saurabh Bandekar was the top scorer for Goa with 40 off 53 balls. The target of 340 was near impossible to achieve as Jayesh Dongaonkar and captain Alind Naidu saw Vidarbha through to the end of the day’s play at 83 for 1.
Scorecard
Debabrata Chowdhury’s half-century ensured crucial first-innings points for Tripura against Jharkhand in the drawn-game in Ranchi. Chowdhury added 44 to his overnight score of 34, taking Tripura’s first-innings total to 438 – a narrow lead of seven. Opener Siddhartha Sinha gave Jharkhand a solid start in their second innings with 76 and they finally took stumps at 167 for 3. Jharkhand would look to make-up for the lost points when they take on Vidarbha on November 10.

Group B

Scorecard
Girikina Prasad’s five-for ensured Andhra grabbed first-innings against Kerala. Continuing from their overnight score of 208 for 6, Preambhastn Prem and Padmanbhan Prasanth battled valiantly, as the seventh-wicket stand yielded 82. Prem surrendered to Prasad nine short of his fifty, and the offspinner then proceeded to take out the last two batsmen to end with a well-deserved 5 for 100. Sitting pretty on a lead of 106, the Andhra openers, Hemal Watekar and Prasad Reddy, saw out the remaining 11 overs in the day without trouble.
Scorecard
The runs continued to flow in Indore as the Haryana openers made merry after they had ensured first-innings points against Madhya Pradesh. Resuming on 364 for 7, still 182 behind Haryana’s mammoth first-innings total, Sanjay Pandey’s patient 46 only delayed the inevitable. He was the last wicket to fall, with the last three wickets contributing 70. Ahead by 112, Rahul Dewan and Ankit Rawat chose to extend Haryana’s domination, smashing 133 and 100 respectively. While Dewan scored 20 fours during his 171-ball innings, Rawat managed nine fours and three sixes during his knock. The unbeaten 244-run partnership was the perfect icing to the three points Haryana gained.

Sparks’ hopes evaporate in steep chase as Davidson-Richards, McDonald-Gay share six

ECB Reporters Network16-Sep-2023South East Stars secured qualification in the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy in the most emphatic style with a 152-run victory over Central Sparks in a winner-takes-all clash at Edgbaston.Stars captain Bryony Smith led from the front with a blistering 97 from 81 balls, with ten fours, three sixes, and supported by Kira Chathli (61 off 92) powered her team to a hefty 283 for 7. Spinners Hannah Baker (2 for 46) and Georgia Davis (2 for 47) imposed some mid-innings control for Sparks.Sparks would have qualified themselves if they had chased down the target but their reply never took flight. Only Maddy Green, with 39 off 48 balls, passed 20 against a disciplined attack led by Alice Davidson-Richards and Ryana MacDonald-Gay, who both claimed three-fors.Put in, Stars lost an early wicket when Alexa Stonehouse skied a slog at Emily Arlott, but it was an isolated success with the new ball for the bowlers as Chathli and Smith added 125 in 21 overs for the second wicket.After Chathli chipped Baker to mid-off and Smith fell three short of a deserved century when she top-edged Davis to midwicket, the innings lost momentum in the middle before a late fillip came from Chloe Hill (34 off 24) and Maddie Blinkhorn-Jones. They batted intelligently to add 57 in 48 balls for the eighth wicket to lift the total from around par to imposing.Under some scoreboard pressure, Sparks needed a strong platform but lost both openers in three balls from McDonald-Gay. Eve Jones was strangled down the leg side and then Bethan Ellis edged a lovely outswinger to wicketkeeper Chathli.Green and Abi Freeborn counterattacked with brief success to take the score to 50 in ten overs but the departure of Freeborn, lbw to Paige Scholfield, triggered a collapse. Davidson-Richards removed Ami Campbell, caught at deep midwicket, and Katie George who top-edged a scoop and was well caught by Chathli running back towards fine leg.When Green, having hit six fours, was bowled by Danielle Gregory, it was 102 for 7. Sparks needed something miraculous from their tail but Stars closed the game out without alarms.

Both have not had the impact their high standards demand, and now find themselves at the MCG – a ground that comes with its own challenges for the pair. But could you really bet against them?

Andrew McGlashan22-Dec-20230:31

Could David Warner reverse retirement plans?

Steven Smith had a few words to say about his second-innings lbw as he walked off at Optus Stadium, while the evening before Marnus Labuschagne had needed a trip to hospital to get his hand checked after a vicious blow on an increasingly spiteful surface.Neither moment proved significant for Australia; they won by 360 runs and Labuschagne hadn’t suffered any damage to his hand, although he admitted being “nervous” for a little while. But on an individual basis for two of Australia’s finest-ever players it continued what can probably be described as a frustrating 2023 where neither have quite been able to hit their previous prolific heights.Related

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It’s worth saying that it’s far from a crisis. Smith is averaging 42.65 for the year with three centuries and Labuschagne’s figure is 35.04 with what proved a match-saving hundred at Old Trafford. Still, it’s well below what we have become accustomed to. It is comfortably Labuschagne’s leanest year since he cracked Test cricket in 2019, and in a year where Smith has played at least five Tests it’s his lowest average since 2013.Overall, Australia’s Test batting returns for the year are set to only finish around mid-table among their rivals. Leading into the Boxing Day Test, their overall batting average is 33.77 albeit they have played significantly more matches than anyone else. Conditions in India played a part in that, although only the Indore surface was really a lottery for batters.