Shikhar Dhawan

New Delhi: Opener Shikhar Dhawan was on Thursday named as captain of the Indian team that will travel to Sri Lanka for a limited-overs tour next month as the BCCI announced a 20-man squad, packed with youngsters, including six uncapped players.

With country’s top cricketers already in England for the World Test Championship final and the subsequent England series, the selection of a number of youngsters in the squad is on expected lines.

Many of them impressed in the suspended IPL and have been rewarded with their maiden India call-up. They included Devdutt Padikkal, pacer Chetan Sakaria, Nitish Rana, Krishnappa Gowtham, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Varun Chakravarthy.

Prithvi Shaw and Manish Pandey have made a comeback but Shreyas Iyer missing out on selection means he has not yet recovered from his shoulder injury.

Out of favour spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal are also part of the squad that also has Pandya brothers — Hardik and Krunal — apart from two wicket-keeper batsmen in young Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson.

India are scheduled to clash with Sri Lanka in three One-day Internationals and as many Twenty20 matches on the tour that will begin on July 13 and conclude on July 25.

All the matches will be played at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo.

India’s squad: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya

Net Bowlers: Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh.

LONDON: England’s white-ball skipper Eoin Morgan and wicketkeeper batsman Jos Buttler are under investigation by the country’s cricket board after their alleged racist tweets, mocking Indians, surfaced on the social media.

The posts, in which Buttler and Morgan used the word ‘sir’ to mock the Indians, started doing the rounds on social media after the ECB suspended pacer Ollie Robinson for some of his offensive tweets dating back to 2012-13.

“Screenshots have also been shared of a message by Buttler in which he says ‘I always reply sir no1 else like me like you like me’ and, separately, Morgan includes Buttler in a message which says, ‘Sir you’re my favourite batsman’,” according to a report in the Telegraph.co.uk.

Buttler and Morgan both feature in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with the former playing for the Rajasthan Royals and the latter leading the Kolkata Knight Riders.

“Although there are questions over the precise context of the tweets, they were written at a time when Buttler and Morgan were established England players and have caused offence on social media,” the report added.

The ECB said the matter will be dealt in an appropriate manner.

“Since we were alerted to offensive tweets last week, a number of historical social media posts by other individuals have been questioned publicly as well,” an ECB spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“There is no place for discrimination in our sport, and we are committed to taking relevant and appropriate action where required.

“Given the concerns which have been raised are clearly now broader than a single case, the ECB Board will discuss how we deal with issues over historical social media material in a timely and appropriate manner.

“Each case will be considered on an individual basis, looking at all the facts. We will assess cases with the ECB Board before making further statements.”

A homophobic tweet dating back to 2010 from veteran pacer James Anderson has also emerged.

“For me it’s 10-11 years ago, I’ve certainly changed as a person. And I think that’s the difficulty, things do change, you do make mistakes,” Anderson told the British media.

Anderson, who will become England’s most capped Test player if he plays in the second Test against New Zealand on Thursday, said the squad is anxious about what could come out next.

The FIFA Council approved the dates for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2022™ earlier today. The youth World Cup will kick off on 11th October 2022 and the final will be played on 30th October 2022.

This global event will be the second FIFA tournament hosted by India, after the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017, which broke the record for being the most attended youth World Cup in FIFA’s history.

Speaking about the announcement, AIFF General Secretary, Mr Kushal Das said, “The announcement of the dates for U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2022—11th to 30th October—marks a fresh beginning for the tournament. The LOC is carrying on the work that had already begun with the previous edition. As the Covid-19 situation improves, we look forward to restarting all the legacy activities that have been planned, and to the growth of women’s football through this tournament.”

The Coach Education Scholarship Programme, launched in March 2021 with the aim of nurturing more female coaches at the grassroots, is one of the legacy activities of the upcoming tournament.

India 2022 will be the 7th edition of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.

NEW DELHI: Wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha has recovered from COVID-19 and will be available for India’s tour of England next month.

He was picked for the England-bound squad subject to fitness.

The 36-year-old was among the players who contracted the dreaded virus in the currently-suspended Indian Premier league while playing for SunRisers Hyderabad.

Saha will have to return another negative RT-PCR test before joining the pre-departure bio-bubble in Mumbai, where the squad will undergo hard quarantine before boarding the flight to England.

India are scheduled to take on New Zealand in the World Test Championship final from June 18 in Southampton.

The five-Test series against England is to be held in August.

Just four days back, Saha had received conflicting results in two coronavirus tests, which prolonged his isolation.

This was confirmed by Indian Premier League sources hours after the 14th edition of the lucrative T20 league was indefinitely suspended due to a COVID-19 outbreak in its bio-bubble.

NEW DELHI: Chennai Super Kings batting coach Michael Hussey on Tuesday tested positive for COVID-19, a day after the IPL team’s bowling coach L Balaji returned positive for the dreaded virus.

Hussey’s test reports came on Tuesday.

“Hussey was tested and his sample came positive. We sent it for retesting but that has also come positive,” an IPL source told PTI.

On Monday, CSK bowling coach Balaji along with Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers Sandeep Warrier and Varun Chakravarthy had also returned positive results.

The spread of infections had led to postponement of two IPL games earlier.

The suspension of the league was announced after Sunrisers Hyderabad’s wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha tested positive for COVID-19 along with Delhi Capitals’ veteran spinner Amit Mishra.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Premier League was on Tuesday suspended indefinitely after multiple COVID-19 cases were reported in its bio-bubble.

The annoucement came after Sunrisers Hyderabad’s wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha tested positive for COVID-19.

A source in the SRH team who also said that the entire squad has gone into insolation.

“He had fever and had been in isolation for the past five days. We are also being asked to stay in the room,” the source said.

This comes after Wednesday’s IPL game between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals was postponed after CSK bowling coach L Balaji tested positive for the virus.

On Monday, the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore was also cancelled after KKR bowlers Sandeep Warrier and Varun Chakravarthy tested positive for the infection.

As per the Board’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), anyone who has come in contact with an infected person has to undergo six days of hard quarantine and return three negative RT-PCR reports during the course of it.

“Tomorrow’s match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium between CSK and RR will be rescheduled as per SOP rules. As Balaji was in contact with the players, all of them have gone into hard quarantine. They are supposed to be tested everyday,” a senior BCCI official said

When CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan was contacted, he said that the team had informed the BCCI about Balaji’s RT-PCR result.

“From our end, we had informed that Mr Balaji has tested positive and as per SOP our players have been isolated,” Viswanathan said.

All CSK playing members have tested negative during their scheduled RT-PCR tests

This is the second IPL match to be rescheduled after Monday’s Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore game was postponed owing to a couple of KKR players, Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier — testing positive.

Delhi is hosting Mumbai Indians vs SunRisers Hyderabad clash this evening.

The match remains on schedule for now but there is palpable anxiety as Mumbai Indians had played against CSK as recently as Saturday and Balaji did come in contact of MI players during the match.

Many in BCCI feel that it would have been prudent to even reschedule this evening’s game.

“Even MI players are at risk having played CSK. BCCI ideally should reschedule today’s game also. Normally symptoms start showing mostly on 6th or 7th day after you have come in contact of the infected person,” the BCCI source said.

Speculation is also rife about a possible shift to Mumbai for the remainder of the tournament but some logistical concerns are in the way.

“What do you do for seven days of hard quarantine for multiple hotel staff as you would need at least four hotels to create a new bio bubble,” the official said.

If the tournament is moved to Mumbai, then Kolkata and Bengaluru would be missing out on their quota of games.

Another view is to keep the games in the venues currently being used — Delhi and Ahmedabad.

“If you see when matches were being held in Mumbai and Chennai, things were under control. The trouble started after teams began were travelling from one city to another,” a franchise official said.

The spread of infections had led to postponement of two IPL games earlier.

There was cause of concern in Delhi too as a few groundsmen at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium tested positive even though DDCA chief Rohan Jaitley asserted that “none of the groundsmen on duty” were among the infected.

Just days before this, three Australian players had pulled out of the league, citing COVID-19 concerns amid a devastating second wave of the global pandemic that has overwhelmed the medical infrastructure of the country.

The 2020 IPL had also been held in a bio-secure bubble in the UAE and at that time, infections were only reported before the start of the tournament.

India is currently recording over 3 lakh cases everyday and more than 3,000 daily deaths.

LONDON: England all-rounder Ben Stokes has criticised the slow track of Chennai’s Chepauk Stadium and hoped that teams competing in the IPL do not end up regularly scraping to low scores because of wickets that are “trash”.

“Hope the wickets don’t get worse as the IPL gets deeper into the tournament..160/170 minimum not scraping to 130/140 cause the wickets are trash,” Stokes tweeted after Mumbai Indians painstakingly reached 131 for 6 which was chased down by Punjab Kings.

Till Friday, Chennai has hosted nine IPL games and only twice has the team batting first scored in excess of 170.

Once, it was Royal Challengers Bangalore which posted a commanding 204 against Kolkata Knight Riders and the other time was KKR scoring 187 against SunRisers Hyderabad.

Otherwise, any score in the range of 145 to 150 has been good enough to win for teams batting first.

Chennai will host its last IPL game of the season on Sunday when Delhi Capitals take on SunRisers Hyderabad before the caravan shifts to Ahmedabad and New Delhi.

Mumbai: The spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Moeen Ali tormented the Rajasthan Royals batting line-up to ensure a second consecutive win for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL here on Monday.

Cameos from Faf du Plessis (33 off 17), Dwayne Bravo (20 not out off 8), Ambati Raydu (27 off 17) and Ali (26 off 20) helped CSK post 188 for nine after being put in to bat.

Royals made a promising start in the run chase courtesy Jos Buttler (49 off 35) before the batsmen succumbed to the spinners on the Wankhede pitch which offered more turn than earlier games. CSK won the game by 45 runs after Royals’ innings ended at 143 for nine.

Ali (3/7 in 3 overs) picked up three wickets in quick succession to effectively seal the game for his team after Jadeja (2/28 in 4) provided the crucial breakthrough by castling Buttler with a classical away turning delivery. One of the best fielders around, Jadeja also took four catches.

It was another emphatic win for CSK after they outplayed Punjab Kings while Royals suffered their second loss in three games.

Earlier, CSK lost wickets towards the end with the batsmen going for big hits and also in the face of some good bowling by Royals.

Bravo smashed a huge six off the last ball of the innings from Mustafizur Rahman (1/37) to ensure the Super Kings got close to 190.

Du Plessis top scored with 33 as the CSK batsmen got starts but couldn’t capitalise on them after.

Young Chetan Sakariya (3/36 from 4) was the best bowler for Rajasthan while Chris Morris finished with 2/33 despite conceding 15 runs in his final over.

M S Dhoni, in his 200th match as CSK captain, came in to bat at No.7 but could not get going as quickly as he would have liked. He, however, managed two boundaries in his 17-ball 18 before being beaten by an off-cutter by Sakariya only to give a catch to Jos Buttler.

He survived a run-out chance and a few anxious moments in his brief knock.

Rayudu and Suresh Raina (18, 15 balls, 1 four, 1 six) added 45 runs in quick time for the fourth wicket before the former perished going for an attacking shot on the off-side off Sakariya.

Sakariya struck again a few balls later, getting Raina to hit one straight to Morris at mid-off as CSK slipped to 125 for fice in the 15th over.

Rayudu hit sixes off successive deliveries in Tewatia’s second over, scoring 14 runs as he and Raina attempted to take advantage of the fifth and sixth bowlers (Tewatia and Riyan Parag) employed by Royals skipper Samson.

Tewatia had begun well by conceding only five runs in his opening over and got ride of Moeen Ali (26 off 20).

Opener Ruturaj Gaikwad’s struggles continued as his attempt to hit his way out saw him miscue a pull only to see it lob to Shivam Dube off Rahman. He fell for 10 (13 balls, 1 four) after adding 25 runs for the first wicket with fellow opener du Plessis.

The South African showed intent and waded into Jaydev Unadkat in the fifth over, hammering three fours and one six before an ambitious shot brought his downfall off Morris’ bowling.