India

Big picture: Kohli joins 300 club Scroll down to the form guide section. Actually, no need, because, spoiler warning, both teams have WWWWW next to them going into this match. These are two exceptional ODI outfits in potentially title-winning form, deep and balanced thanks to the allrounders they possess. They’re particularly well-suited to conditions at

KL Rahul has suggested Mohammed Shami and Rohit Sharma will be niggle-free and good to go in India’s last Champions Trophy group game, against New Zealand in Dubai on Sunday. India go into that match a week on from Shami having not bowled out against Pakistan because of trouble with his shin, and Rohit showing

India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has highlighted the need to keep the bowlers fresh with only two days’ gap between the team’s last group match and the semi-final. India – who are assured of a semi-final spot – will not compromise on their balance, he said, as they also want to top the group,

Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has been appointed Delhi Capitals’ mentor for IPL 2025. The 44-year-old will join Hemang Badani (head coach), Matthew Mott (assistant coach), Munaf Patel (bowling coach) and Venugopal Rao (director of cricket) in the DC backroom. The franchise, which made the announcement on its app, is yet to name a captain

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting reckons Virat Kohli will give himself the “best chance to be remembered as the all-time leading run-scorer” in ODIs. “With someone like Virat, you never write him off, because I’m sure he’d be motivated by that [achieving the record], I think,” Ponting said on the ICC Review Podcast. “Now that

India and Madhya Pradesh allrounder Venkatesh Iyer is “definitely ready” to captain Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in case the job is offered to him. The defending champions, who will play the first match of IPL 2025 on March 22 at Eden Gardens against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), are yet to appoint their new captain after

Kohli began the game against Pakistan 15 runs short of 14,000, and passed the milestone during India’s successful chase of 242, leading his team to victory with an unbeaten hundred, his 51st in the format. He reached his century by hitting the winning runs, a cover-driven boundary off part-time spinner Khushdil Shah. “The difference that

He was Australia’s assistant coach from 2016 to 2022, a role he left to focus on his assignment with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). In August 2022, Sriram was also appointed Bangladesh’s T20 consultant ahead of the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup. In September 2023, he joined Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) as assistant coach for

“Can you just tell me how many overs were left?” Shreyas Iyer asked journalists, right at the top of his press conference. “Forty five balls? Okay.” “I think we could have won a bit earlier. It would have been a convincing win.” Uhh, what? Is a six-wicket win with more than seven overs left not

India 244 for 4 (Kohli 100*, Iyer 56, Afridi 2-74) beat Pakistan 241 all out (Shakeel 62, Kuldeep 3-40, Hardik 2-31) by six wickets In the biggest match of the year, with his mortality showing more than it ever used to, Virat Kohli proved he’s still got it, that maybe, just maybe, the little he’s

Mumbai 270 and 83 for 3 (Anand 27*, Dube 12*, Dubey 2-26) trail Vidarbha 383 and 292 (Rathod 151, Mulani 6-85) by 323 runs Yash Rathod struck a superb 151, his fifth hundred this season, as Vidarbha set Mumbai 406 for a place in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy final. Mumbai will be chasing history –

The PCB has reached out to the ICC for clarification after the Indian national anthem was erroneously played for a moment at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Ahead of the game between Australia and England, the national anthem of the UK was played without incident. However, instead of following it up with the opening tunes

They’ve only opened together 28 times in this format, so the sample size is small. But in those innings they’ve put on 1943 runs at an average of 71.96. Only in ten of those 28 innings have they failed to get India to 50 for no loss or better. To this dependability, they have also

Big picture: Pakistan’s fight for survival If ever Pakistan needed a miracle, it is now. Not for the cricketers’ fault, they find themselves isolated in international cricket to the extent that this is the first ICC event they are hosting in 29 years. And barely three days into the Champions Trophy, following a thrashing against

Anil Kumble, the former India captain and legspinner, believes the team must start setting transition plans in motion after the ongoing Champions Trophy, and build a new, younger team capable of challenging for the 2027 ODI World Cup. Speaking on ESPNcricinfo’s Matchday show ahead of India’s opening game against Bangladesh, Kumble said that head coach

“That was an easy catch, I should have taken that,” Rohit said at the presentation. “The standard I’ve set for myself for standing in the slips… That was a little disappointing, but these things happen, I do understand that. But again, the way these guys bowled that set the game for us. “I know they

Former India captain and coach Anil Kumble feels that Virat Kohli is “trying too hard” and that’s making it tougher for him to find form amid a lean patch. “Having been through a lean patch, so to speak, especially in white-ball cricket – he hasn’t had that kind of run for a long period of

Shubman Gill is a “lambi race ka ghoda [one for the long haul]” and batting at just 60% is enough for him to score a century like he did in India’s Champions Trophy opener against Bangladesh. This is the assessment of Sanjay Manjrekar, who also feels that Gill gives the impression of being someone who

India 231 for 4 (Gill 101*, Rahul 41*, Rishad 2-38) beat Bangladesh 228 (Hridoy 100, Jaker 68, Shami 5-53) by six wickets Shubman Gill dug deep for his slowest ODI hundred and India’s slowest in the last six years to see India through a tricky chase of 229 that must have brought back memories of

Mohammed Shami feared that his career was over when a lengthy rehabilitation kept him out of cricket throughout 2024. Now leading India’s pace attack in the Champions Trophy, Shami compared his comeback to “a toddler learning how to walk”. “I always wondered when I would be able to put my feet on the ground again,

Milind Rege, the former Mumbai captain, died of a heart attack on Wednesday just days after turning 76. Rege took 126 wickets with his offbreaks in 52 first-class matches between 1966-67 and 1977-78. He also scored 1532 runs at an average of 23.56 in those games. After his playing career, Rege was associated with Mumbai

Big picture: Those boring middle overs It can feel like the middle phase of an ODI don’t matter all that much. Mahela Jayawardene came in to bat at exactly this point in the final of an ODI World Cup and made a hundred. But that is not that match, or even he, is remembered for.

Shubman Gill and Maheesh Theekshana have become the new No. 1 men’s ODI batter and bowler respectively in the ICC rankings update released on the opening day of the Champions Trophy. Gill has gone past Babar Azam on his list, while Theekshana has gone past Rashid Khan on his. Gill had an excellent time of

India allrounder Shardul Thakur has signed to play for Essex in the opening block of County Championship games. Thakur, 33, will be available for seven fixtures during April and May this year. The stint will be a first in county cricket for Thakur, who was available after going unsold in November’s IPL auction. For India,

Eden Gardens, the home ground of IPL 2024 champions Kolkata Knight Riders, will host both the tournament opener of IPL 2025 on March 22 and the final on May 25. It will also host Qualifier 2 on May 23. This will be the first final in Kolkata in a decade, with Eden Gardens having previously

The opening fixture will feature two teams led by new captains. While RCB recently appointed Rajat Patidar as their captain, KKR are yet to announce the successor to Shreyas Iyer, who led them to the title in 2024. RCB had finished fourth in the league last year, following a streak of six defeats with six

Vastrakar has been a “big player” for MI, as their head coach Charlotte Edwards alluded to during the pre-season press-conference, so filling the void created by her absence could be a challenge. Sisodia, the left-arm fingerspinner isn’t a like-for-like replacement for Vastrakar, but her recent form is encouraging for MI: she took five wickets across

India beat England 3-0 quite comprehensively, but two irregularities in the batting department raised a few eyebrows, and both might have something to do with coach Gautam Gambhir‘s preference for right-left batting combinations. In two of the chases, Axar Patel was promoted, which left KL Rahul with little to do. It attracted criticism from commentators,

India wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson has undergone a surgery on his finger, but is expected to be fit in time for the IPL, where he will lead Rajasthan Royals (RR). It is understood that Samson will take around a month to recover after his surgery took place on Tuesday. That gives him enough time for be

In a significant jolt to India, Jasprit Bumrah, their premier fast bowler, will miss the 2025 Champions Trophy. ESPNcricinfo has learned that Bumrah is yet to completely recover from the discomfort in his back, an injury he picked up during the Sydney Test in January that also ruled him out of the England white-ball series.