England

It speaks of the crossroads at which Dawid Malan finds himself that he will start the 2024 season moonlighting as a batting coach for Yorkshire. Even with the T20 World Cup two months away, Malan, the ICC’s No.11-ranked T20I batter – Phil Salt (second) and Jos Buttler (ninth) are the only Englishmen sitting higher –

In Stokes’ absence, England will consider using Liam Livingstone in the No. 4 spot that he filled during their 3-2 defeat to West Indies in December – though Livingstone limped off with an apparent muscle strain while fielding for Punjab Kings on Sunday, and is waiting on scan results to determine its severity. Jamie Overton,

Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, says there is a “strong consensus” within English cricket that the Hundred should be opened up to private investment and that the owners of American and British sports teams, as well as IPL franchises, have made their interest clear. The ECB has consulted with the first-class counties since the

Ollie Robinson has conceded that he faces a “make-or-break summer” when it comes to proving himself as a bowler England can build their Test attack around, following a difficult tour of India on which he made just one injury-affected appearance that raised questions about his future despite an average of 22.92 in the format. Robinson,

Ten years after its previous edition, “active conversations” are on between the cricket boards of Australia, England and India to revive the Champions League T20 (CLT20) tournament. This comes from Cricket Victoria CEO Nick Cummins, who also said the biggest challenge would be to find a window in the jampacked cricket calendar for the tournament.

Ben Foakes will continue to bat in the top six for Surrey in the early stages of the County Championship season, despite conceding that he is learning on the job while batting at No. 7 in England’s Test team. Twenty-five Tests into his England career, Foakes has batted exclusively at No. 7 or 8 and

Liam Dawson has conceded that his ambitions as a Test cricketer are at an end after missing England’s tour of India this winter, saying that he was happy with his decision to prioritise commitments in overseas T20 leagues rather than potentially wind up running the drinks again as an unused squad member. Dawson, who won

England 138 for 5 (Knight 35, Sciver-Brunt 31, A Kerr 3-30) beat New Zealand 136 for 6 (Gaze 51*, Ecclestone 3-30, Sciver-Brunt 2-24) by five wickets Nat Sciver-Brunt and Sophie Ecclestone were devastating with the ball as England secured a clinical five-wicket win over New Zealand in their final T20I for a 4-1 series victory.

Zak Crawley says that England will not allow their shortcomings in India to derail their positive approach to Test cricket but admits that a bit of “refinement” is needed to capitalise on their positions of dominance, such as the one that slipped through their fingers in the fourth Test in Ranchi last month. Speaking at

England 177 for 3 (Bouchier 91) beat New Zealand 130 for 7 (Dean 4-26) by 47 runs Maia Bouchier hit an outstanding 91 to supercharge England towards a series-clinching 47-run victory against New Zealand in the fourth T20I, in Wellington. Bouchier, who had been promoted to open as England reshuffled their side with WPL players

Ollie Pope has made himself available for Surrey’s opening match of the County Championship, against Lancashire at Old Trafford, and says he’s fully focused on giving Alec Stewart the trophy-laden send-off he deserves, as Stewart embarks on his final season as the club’s director of cricket after 11 transformative years in the role. “I feel

Nathan Lyon was impressed with how England’s inexperienced spinners acquitted themselves in India, even though the visitors lost 4-1 having won the opening Test, as he prepares to join forces with one of them, Tom Hartley, for a county season with Lancashire. In two of the five Tests England fielded Hartley, Shoaib Bashir and Rehan

New Zealand 155 for 3 (Devine 60, Kerr 44*) beat England 152 for 8 (Bouchier 71, Bates 2-4) by three runs Centered around a captain’s performance from Sophie Devine, New Zealand kept the T20I series alive in dramatic circumstances after England had appeared to have victory wrapped up following a blistering innings from Maia Bouchier.

Rob Key, England’s managing director, believes that Andrew Flintoff has a similar “gift” for man-management to that of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, and would make an “excellent” candidate to one day take over as England head coach. Key, one of Flintoff’s closest friends in the game, was instrumental in his return to the public

Alec Stewart has announced that he will step down from his role as Surrey’s director of cricket at the end of 2024, after 11 years in the role. Stewart, 60, has overseen one of the most successful periods in Surrey’s history, including back-to-back County Championships in 2022 and 2023, and a further title in 2018,

England 149 for 7 (Knight 56*) beat New Zealand 134 for 8 (A Kerr 44) by 15 runs Heather Knight was again to the fore as she lifted England out of trouble in Nelson and into a position where the visiting spinners were able to squeeze the life out of New Zealand’s chase to take

Five of the seven players signed on top-bracket £125,000 contracts in the men’s draft were West Indies power-hitters, with the new Northern Superchargers coach Andrew Flintoff choosing Nicholas Pooran as the first signing of the draft. Andre Russell and Shimron Hetmyer will play for London Spirit, Kieron Pollard has joined Southern Brave and Rovman Powell

Robin Hobbs, the former Essex and England legspinner, has died at the age of 81. Hobbs, who made his England debut against India at Headingley in 1967, claimed 12 wickets in seven Tests over the course of the next four years, and was the last specialist legspinner to play for England until Ian Salisbury’s debut

The ECB has written to parents of children signed up to its All Stars Cricket and Dynamos Cricket programmes asking them to discard previously supplied plastic equipment over concerns about the levels of chemicals present. Independent testing confirmed that balls used in both programmes, as well as the Dynamos batting tee and PVC promotional banners

Anderson, 41, achieved the feat on the final morning of the series, when he had Kuldeep Yadav caught behind to become only the third bowler in all of Test cricket to reach the 700 mark. Each of the other two, however, were spinners – Sri Lanka’s Muthiah Muralidaran (800) and Australia’s Shane Warne, whose former

Kolkata Knight Riders have brought in Phil Salt as a replacement for Jason Roy for IPL 2024 after Roy pulled out citing “personal reasons”. Having remained unsold in the latest auction after representing Delhi Capitals last year, this will be Salt’s second season in the IPL. He was acquired by KKR at his reserve auction

Brendon McCullum admits India exposed flaws in England, forcing them to play “timid” cricket, and says refinement and some tough conversations will be on the agenda in the aftermath of their 4-1 defeat. The fact that this was the first series loss of McCullum’s reign did not lead the head coach to sugarcoat his assessment

After winning a series in which injuries, player unavailability, workload management and general transition forced India to give out five debuts – their joint-equal highest after their very first series – India’s coach has reserved special praise for the selectors, who, Rahul Dravid said, “pushed and challenged” the team management to play new options. At

At least James Anderson scaled his own peak, claiming his 700th Test wicket in the day’s opening exchanges, to achieve an altitude that surely no other seam bowler will ever challenge. But it was left to another of Test cricket’s most enduring performers to put his personal seal on a landmark contest, as R Ashwin

England were outplayed by the better team since winning the first Test against India – that was Ben Stokes’ assessment of his side’s 4-1 series defeat, delivered well inside three days of the final match in Dharamsala. Faced with a first-innings defict of 259, England were bowled out for 195 in their second as India

James Anderson scaled new heights in the foothills of the Himalayas on Saturday morning, as he became the first seam bowler to claim 700 Test wickets, against India in Dharamsala. The moment came in the fourth over of the third morning, as Anderson induced Kuldeep Yadav into a thin edge to the keeper for 30,

Stumps India 473 for 8 (Gill 110, Rohit 103, Padikkal 65, Sarfaraz 56, Bashir 4-170, Hartley 2-126) lead England 218 by 255 runs India took the scenic route to a match-dominating position in the Dharamsala Test, batting throughout the second day to amass a lead of 255 over England with two wickets still standing. There

India 135 for 1 (Jaiswal 57, Rohit 52*, Gill 26*) trail England 218 (Crawley 79, Kuldeep 5-72, Ashwin 4-51) by 83 runs If, in a nutshell, England’s batting approach on this India tour has been to rack up their runs before they get a ball with their name on it, then in Kuldeep Yadav, they

Big picture: Bowing out on a high One way or another, England will be ending their tour of India on a high, as they head to the foothills of the Himalayas for the fifth and final Test in Dharamsala – the first of the Bazball era in which Ben Stokes’ men are not in the

Joe Root has moved up to No. 2 in the ICC’s Test batting rankings, behind New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, after Steven Smith’s fallow run of scores caused him to slip below 800 points for the first time since 2014. Root, who himself returned to form with a century against India in Ranchi last month, is