England

Ollie Robinson and Shoaib Bashir will play the fourth Test against India as England roll the dice in this must-win game on a cracked Ranchi pitch. The pair, who will replace Mark Wood and Rehan Ahmed, are the only changes from the 434-run defeat against India in Rajkot, which leaves England 2-1 down, desperate to

“It looked interesting, didn’t it? I don’t know. I can’t say much.” It was perhaps the most diplomatic answer Ben Stokes has given in India so far. Coming into this tour, England made a conscious effort not to moan about pitches. Just like any team at home, curating a surface on their own terms was

England are considering turning back to their one specialist quick approach for the must-win fourth Test in Ranchi, with Ollie Robinson set to make his first appearance of the tour. And they could also be boosted by Ben Stokes returning to his role as a seam-bowling allrounder. The tourists are yet to make a concrete

Brendon McCullum says he may have to hold Ben Stokes back from bowling in the ongoing series with India but admits it is “a good sign” the England captain is open to the possibility of reprising his allrounder role in the final two Tests. Stokes has been progressing his bowling throughout this tour following an

India 445 (Rohit 131, Jadeja 112, Sarfaraz 62, Wood 4-114) and 430 for 4 dec (Jaiswal 214*, Gill 91, Sarfaraz 68*) beat England 319 (Duckett 153, Siraj 4-84) and 122 (Wood 33, Jadeja 5-41) by 434 runs India needed such a day. Just to send the message out to those who had started believing they

Ben Stokes, England’s captain, has promised that his team will park the disappointment of their crushing 434-run loss in the third Test in Rajkot, and move onto Ranchi later this week fully focussed on bouncing back to claim a 3-2 series victory. After challenging India hard over the first two days of the contest, England’s

Ben Stokes has called for the Decision Review System (DRS) to scrap umpire’s call after England were left bemused by Zak Crawley‘s second-innings dismissal in their defeat in the third Test against India. Crawley reviewed Kumar Dharamasena’s decision to give him out lbw to Jasprit Bumrah in the ninth over but left the field incensed,

Joe Root‘s dismissal, reverse-scooping Jasprit Bumrah straight to second slip to spark England’s collapse on the third morning in Rajkot, should be viewed no differently to him “playing a drive and nicking off”. That was the argument put forward by Ben Duckett, who defended his team-mate’s shot selection amid widespread criticism. Root has played the

England 207 for 2 (Duckett 133*, Root 9*) trail India 445 (Rohit 131, Jadeja 112, Sarfaraz 62) by 238 runs A sensational century by Ben Duckett, at 88 balls the third fastest against India in India, left the hosts shell-shocked after they once again left runs un-scored in their first innings of 445. There was

The ICC has banned Rizwan Javed, a UK-based club cricketer, for 17-and-a-half years – the second-longest sentence handed out by the ICC to date – after he was found guilty of five different breaches of the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) anti-corruption code. Javed was among eight players and officials originally charged by the ICC in

India 326 for 5 (Rohit 131, Jadeja 110*, Sarfaraz 62, Wood 3-69) vs England On the first day of the third Test, India’s batting finally came together but not without an early alarm. Down at 33 for 3 on a pitch that was full of runs and with two debutants to follow, India were looking

Mark Wood has been recalled to England’s attack at the expense of the offspinner Shoaib Bashir, as England confirmed their team for the third Test against India, which gets underway in Rajkot on Thursday. Wood played as a lone seamer in England’s victory in the first Test at Hyderabad but went wicketless on a surface

Ben Stokes continued his return to operating as a fully functioning allrounder on Wednesday with a 20-minute bowling session in Rajkot, but will not bowl in England’s remaining three Tests in India. The England captain has been stepping up his bowling on this tour after an operation on his left knee at the end of

England have whittled their team for the third Test down to 12, with Mark Wood in line to regain his place in the XI on a green-tinged Rajkot pitch. The tourists have played just one seamer in each of the first two Tests, with Wood getting the nod in the first match in Hyderabad before

It is understood Sultans wanted to replace Topley with South African quick Nandre Burger – who also had a stellar season in the SA20 – but was told by Cricket South Africa he wouldn’t be granted an NOC. They are believed to be considering Olly Stone, who played in the SA20 and the ILT20 recently,

England encountered yet more visa trouble on their tour of India after Rehan Ahmed was stopped from leaving Hirasar airport, Rajkot, because he was not in possession of the right paperwork. Sportstar reported on Monday that Rehan had been prohibited from re-entering India after England’s mid-series break in Abu Dhabi because he only held a

Jack Leach has been ruled out of the rest of England’s Test series against India after failing to recover from a knee injury. The left-arm spinner damaged his left knee fielding on the opening day of the first Test in Hyderabad, diving to stop a boundary and colliding with the ground. He then exacerbated the

England have allowed Dan Lawrence to rejoin his team at the ILT20 while the squad is on a break in Abu Dhabi between Tests against India. Lawrence, who was called up to the Test squad after Harry Brook’s late withdrawal, had been a wildcard signing for Desert Vipers but only played one match for them

So, it’s back to the UAE England go, two Tests down and three to go. A peculiar 10-day gap in this schedule allows the team to retreat from the relentlessness of a five-match India series. Players’ families will be meeting them in Abu Dhabi, offering some comforts of home and an opportunity to shed the

India drew level in the five-match series with a 107-run win over England in Visakhapatnam, but the batting performance remains an area of concern. Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a double-century in the first innings and Shubman Gill hit a hundred under pressure in the second, but no other batter could get a big score. Captain Rohit

Ben Stokes has questioned the DRS for giving Zak Crawley out lbw but does not believe it was the reason England lost the second Test in Visakhapatnam. India levelled the series 1-1 with victory by 106 runs on day four, bowling the tourists out for 292 in pursuit of 399. Just as in the first

It proved to be the case, but Ben Stokes says at no point did his side believe their lofty fourth-innings target in the second Test against India was too many. Still needing 332 of the 399 set by the hosts, captain Stokes and his team began the fourth day in Visakhapatnam with the trademark self-belief

It meant, after bowling two overs to start the day’s play, England were short a bowling option. Nevertheless, they rallied to dismiss India for 255, with the inexperienced spin trio of Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir combining for eight wickets to limit England’s target to 399 to win in Visakhapatnam for an unlikely

England 67 for 1 (Crawley 29*, Duckett 28) and 253 need another 332 runs to beat India 396 and 225 (Gill 104, Axar 45, Hartley 4-77, Rehan 3-88, Anderson 2-29) Ludicrous though it may sound, the chase is on. No team has ever hunted down a target of 399 to win a Test match in

England batter Hamza Shaikh ensured his time at the Under-19 World Cup would not be forgotten when he was given out obstructed the field against Zimbabwe. In the 17th over, Shaikh defended a ball down by his feet and Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Ryan Kamwemba started to come from behind the stumps to collect it. Then, with

Mark Alleyne, the former England allrounder who captained Gloucestershire to an unprecedented era of success in the 1990s and 2000s, has been named as the club’s new head coach. Alleyne won nine trophies during his time as Gloucestershire’s captain and also oversaw the club’s promotion to the top flight of the County Championship. He will

India 396 (Jaiswal 209) and 28 for 0 (Jaiswal 15*, Rohit 13*) lead England 253 (Crawley 76, Bumrah 6-45) by 171 runs Ben Stokes’ expression said it all. For the second time in as many first-innings counterattacks, all he could do was shrug his shoulders and marvel at the genius of the man who’d just

Australia batter Cameron Bancroft will return to Gloucestershire this year after signing a deal to represent the club across formats in the 2024 season. Bancroft was recently overlooked by Australia’s selectors for the Test opening spot vacated by David Warner, but has been prolific for Western Australia in the last two Sheffield Shield seasons. He

The ECB has made an unsuccessful request to New Zealand Cricket (NZC) to move the dates of England’s upcoming women’s tour, with four players deemed unavailable for the first three T20Is as a result of their Women’s Premier League (WPL) commitments in India and two others pulling out of their franchise contracts. NZC confirmed the

India 336 for 6 (Jaiswal 179*, Bashir 2-100, Ahmed 2-61) vs England You can only judge a pitch after both sides have Bazballed on it, or so the saying might now go, after England’s preposterous exploits in Hyderabad. On Yashasvi Jaiswal‘s watch, India appeared in the mood to make amends for their first-Test failings, thanks