KKR rub Salt into DC’s playoff hopes
Salt & Chakravarty bury DC, an Aussie plan for Women's cricket, is Pandya dropped or India's vice-captain, & Kuldeep Yadav was a CSK fan.
KKR rub Salt into DC’s playoff hopes
KKR’s Salt & Chakravarty bury DC, GT’s Director of Cricket talks about Gill’s captaincy, & Mayank Yadav is over his injury.
The Kolkata Knight Riders beat the Delhi Capitals by 7 wickets. Cricket.com’s Pramod Ananth writes about two KKR heroes on the night; first about how Phil Salt aced the pace test, and then on how Varun Chakravarty battled the odds to pick up 3 wickets.
Cricbuzz’s Kaushik Rangarajan & Prakash Govindasreenivasan interview the Gujarat Titans’ Director of Cricket, Vikram Solanki, about Shubman Gill’s captaincy, their relative underperformance this year, & the challenges of replacing the injured Mohammad Shami.
ESPNcricinfo’s Alagappan Muthu writes that Sunrisers Hyderabad need to figure out how to chase before they are left behind in the playoff race. His colleague, Matt Roller, looks at how impactful bowlers win T20 leagues that are dominated by hard-hitting batters.
Lucknow Super Giants’ pacer Mayank Yadav has recovered from his injury, and is expected to play against the Mumbai Indians tonight.
As Pakistan split their white ball & red ball coaches for the first time, I thought I’d look at their recent appointments…
…even by their standards, the last 18 months have been chaotic. Seven different coaches since the start of 2023, including two interim coaches & a foreign coach that gave up on them real quick.
By the way, I’ve set up a Twitter and Instagram account under @BestCricStories where I post all these graphs & images, and would appreciate the support if you like them!
600,000 spectators a year for Women’s cricket
AUS has a plan to boost Women’s cricket, the ECB wants to sell their entire Hundred stake, & remembering Stuart Broad’s career.
Cricket Australia have laid out a plan to increase attendance of Women’s cricket fivefold to 600,000 spectators a year in a decade. You can read the entire plan here.
The Telegraph’s Nick Hoult & Will Macpherson report that the England & Wales Cricket Board want to privatise 49% of their holdings in the Hundred teams (giving 51% to the counties running them), and hope that this will bring in £500 million to be used for grassroots development. [Paywall]
Forbes’ Tristan Lavalette reports on the odd nature of the third party vendors that are running everything for the upcoming World Cup - from marketing to stadium construction - because no one can trust USA Cricket’s administration.
Wisden have reproduced a piece by Jonathan Liew from the 2024 Cricket Almanac on Stuart Broad’s brilliance as he retired last year.
An uncredited piece in Cricbuzz reproduces an interview with Bangladeshi bowler Mohammad Saifuddin on his long road to recovery and why he’s focussing on variations rather than increasing his pace.
The South Asian heatwave is starting to affect cricket as Bangladeshi schools have reduced their games to 20 overs-a-side from the original 50 over matches.
The Kiwi golden generation is hanging on
Southee’s going to his 7th T20 WC, Gill and Samson probably miss out, & is Pandya out of the team or IND’s vice-captain?
The ICC has details of the squads for the World Cup before tomorrow’s deadline. As of publication, only New Zealand have finalised their squad, with Tim Southee set to play in his seventh T20 World Cup.
Jay Shah & the BCCI are meeting today to discuss India’s squad, with Hardik Pandya’s inclusion a big debate. However, Cricbuzz’s Vijay Tagore reports that he is in, with the debate more around whether he should be vice-captain. Cricket.com’s Aakash Sivasubramaniam details Pandya’s travails during the IPL that have created all this confusion around his role.
Indian Express’ Devendra Pandey & Venkata Krishna B write that Shubman Gill & Sanju Samson are all but out of the squad, while ESPNcricinfo’s Sidharth Monga reports that the squad will not be heavily reliant on the players’ IPL form.
Indian Express’ Tanishq Vaddi & Lalith Kalidas have crunched the numbers to see how the impact player rule has changed the IPL’s batting, and which Indian players have benefitted from it, while Hindustan Times’ Aratrick Mondal has looked at which Indian hopefuls have done the best during this IPL season.
ESPNcricinfo’s Vithushan Ehantharajah & Matt Roller report that Chris Jordan, Ben Duckett & Tom Hartley are set to make the England squad while Chris Woakes & Rehan Ahmed miss out. Jofra Archer should also make it.
ESPNcricinfo’s Firdose Moonda goes through South Africa’s batting options for the World Cup, while Cricket Australia’s Louis Cameron analyses if there is a spot for Jake Fraser-McGurk in the 15-man squad.
From Chennai to Delhi
Kuldeep Yadav was a diehard CSK fan, Mahroof reflects on 17 game changing years, & debating the IND, PAK and AUS WC teams.
Ravichandran Ashwin talks to Kuldeep Yadav about being a childhood CSK fan, his hopes of becoming a football manager, and his journey to this point.
Revsportz’s Boria Majumdar talks to the recently retired Pakistani captain Bismah Mahroof about her era-defining career and the changes in the Women’s game in the 17 long years that she played international cricket.
The 81 All Out crew discuss the new imbalance between bat and ball in the IPL this season, and how to think about this new normal. [Apple Podcasts]
ESPNcricinfo’s Irfan Pathan, Aaron Finch & Tom Moody debate India’s team for the World Cup.
Backward Point’s M. Nazar Syed & A. Bashaar discuss the instability in the Pakistan squad before they make their announcement.
Willow Talk’s Dan Christian & Adam Peacock debate Australia’s side for the World Cup, including the hot topic of Jake Fraser-McGurk’s inclusion. [Apple Podcasts]
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