Rohit wants to expand India's fast-bowling bench strength

 India's captain wants to create a pool of eight or nine fast bowlers capable of stepping into the Test XI at any given point

Rohit Sharma wants to injury-proof the Indian cricket team, and has called for expanding their bench strength, particularly the fast-bowling department so that they have eight or nine players ready to step into the first XI at any given moment.

"We want to create a bench strength where tomorrow if anything happens to anyone, we are not worried, and we don't want to be worried or too heavily reliant on a few individuals. That's not the right thing to do," Rohit said on the eve of the first Test against New Zealand in Bengaluru. "We want to look at the future at the same time, try and make sure that we get the right guys in as well.

"We want to create guys where even if there are injuries, we have got someone to quickly step in and take that role.

"It's not about three or four options. We want to try and do that like, you know, when it comes to batting, there are a lot of options. We want to create the same with the bowlers as well."

Along with the 15-member squad for the three-match series against New Zealand, India are also carrying Harshit Rana, Mayank Yadav and Nitish Kumar Reddy as travelling reserves. Mayank and Reddy recently made their international debuts in the T20Is against Bangladesh recently, while Rana was an unused member of that squad.

Prasidh Krishna was also initially named as a travelling reserve for the New Zealand Tests, but he has reportedly suffered another injury setback. During Karnataka's opening fixture of the new Ranji Trophy season, against Madhya Pradesh in Indore, he bowled only eight of the 140 overs that his side sent down.

"You know, the reason we wanted to keep them close to us was because we are thinking of them to take them to Australia," Rohit said. The five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy begins on November 22. "We just want to monitor them and see their workload. We have seen some talent in them. I understand that they have not played a lot of red-ball cricket, but when you see a talent, you want to try and groom them.

 

"You want to try and bring them as close to the team as possible. And in a short period of time, they have shown they have some ability as well. So, we want to keep them with the team and see whether they will be ready for international cricket or not, especially Test cricket, because Test cricket is a different ball game compared to white ball cricket. So, we want to keep them, we want to see what they can offer us, and have more options with us, more than anything else.

"Nitish and Harshit both obviously are quite talented individuals, and in the future obviously they are going to provide a lot of stability to the team. So, just want to see what they are capable of, what they have to offer."

Mayank's rise has been both rapid and eye-catching. He burst on the scene during IPL 2024, bowling at speeds of 155kph, and accurately at that, for Lucknow Super Giants. He could only play four matches though with an abdominal issue keeping him sidelined. Still, India had seen enough to fast-track him into their T20 side against Bangladesh earlier this month, where he picked up four wickets from three games while consistently pushing the speed gun into the high 140kph.

"Mayank obviously has shown what he can do, but we just want to be very careful with him, he has had a lot of injuries in the past," Rohit said. "So, we want to progress him, not rapidly, we want to just see every day how he feels.

"We are trying to build his workloads with the red ball. He has not played a lot of red-ball cricket at all. So, for us, it's important that we try and build them gradually, rather than just getting them into international cricket straight away.

"T20 format is such where you can get a lot of these guys and see what they are capable of and if they can handle the international exposure. But Test cricket is a different ball game. The pressure is different. You have to sustain for five days, that's the most important thing. So, we are trying to monitor them and see, you know, what they can offer to us."

The most important cog in India's fast-bowling line-up is the leader of the pack Jasprit Bumrah. The 30-year-old was recently named vice-captain for the series against New Zealand.

There is a chance Bumrah might step in as captain in the early Tests against Australia next month with Rohit's participation in doubt owing to personal reasons.

"He's always been part of that leadership group and one of the experienced players as well," Rohit said of Bumrah. "He's played a lot of cricket and I've played a lot of cricket with him. He understands the game pretty well. He's got a good head on his shoulders.

"Tactically, I can't say much because he's not captained much. But, when you talk to him, he understands the game. He understands what is required. When you are in a situation where you need a leader to step up, I think Bumrah will be one of them. In the past, he's always been in our leadership group.

"So, it's probably the right thing to just have him around and speak to the bowlers and internally discuss how to take the team forward."

Rohit remained tight-lipped about the India XI for the opening Test against New Zealand stating that they will take a call once they reach the venue on match day. It has been raining relentlessly in Bengaluru over the last few days, forcing India to cancel their training session on the eve of the game, while New Zealand were left to train indoors.

"It all depends on the conditions now. Even today, there has been a lot of rain. The pitch is under the covers. So, we want to take that call when we come here in the morning tomorrow," Rohit said. "And again, it depends on match-to-match, what sort of pitch we play on. Based on that, we want to decide what is going to be our best playing XI. We keep our options open for playing three seamers and three spinners as well."

 

Suryakumar out of first round of Duleep Trophy with injury

Suryakumar Yadav has been ruled out of the opening round of the 2024-25 Duleep Trophy to nurse a hand injury he sustained during last week's pre-season fixture for Mumbai at the Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament in Coimbatore. Suryakumar has been advised rest and is currently at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru for a routine assessment.

Suryakumar didn't bat in the second innings of the fixture against TNCA XI last week, after injuring his hand while fielding on the third day. At the time, the Mumbai team management confirmed the move was precautionary keeping in mind his participation in the season-opening Duleep Trophy.

Suryakumar, India's T20I captain, recently expressed keenness to pitch for a Test comeback. Having not played any first-class cricket in over a year, Suryakumar made himself available for the pre-season Buchi Babu Tournament to tune up for red-ball cricket with India slated to play 10 Tests over the next five months, starting with the two-match series against Bangladesh from September 19 in Chennai.

Suryakumar, whose only Test so far came last year against Australia, was named in the India C squad, led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, who will be taking on Shreyas Iyer's India D in Anantapur. India A and India B will simultaneously play the other opening-round fixture at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Recently, fast bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik had also been ruled out of the opening round of Duleep Trophy because of illness, and Ravindra Jadeja had been withdrawn, though no reason for provided for him by the BCCI. Navdeep Saini and Gaurav Yadav will replace Siraj and Malik for the India B and C squads respectively.

Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar Reddy has been declared fit by the NCA. His inclusion was subject to fitness after he was diagnosed with a groin injury that led to his withdrawal from India's T20I squad to Zimbabwe in July.

Revised squads for Duleep Trophy first round

India A: Shubman Gill (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel (wk), KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat.

India B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (wk)

India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (wk), B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (wk), Sandeep Warrier

India D: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wk), Saurabh Kumar

Harmanpreet on T20 World Cup: 'Want to give the country another reason to celebrate this year

 

India women's captain Harmanpreet Kaur wants her team to draw inspiration from the India men's team that won the T20 World Cup in June, when they travel to the UAE for the Women's T20 World Cup in October. While the men's team won the title after 17 years and lifted an ICC trophy after 11 years, the women's team is yet to lift the T20 World Cup. They came close in the 2020 edition, when they were runners-up in Australia.

 

"We have been really inspired by the men's team, the way they won the T20 World Cup this year," Harmanpreet said at an event in Delhi, on the same day the India's T20 World Cup squad was announced. "They worked really hard for this trophy and won some tough matches. We need to learn how they maintained their body language for such matches and how they approached such games. We're on the same road now and getting ready for our World Cup campaign. The team is working really hard and our attempt will be to give our country and fans another opportunity to celebrate this year."

 

The women's side last reached the ODI World Cup final in 2017, when they lost by just nine runs at Lord's, before going down to Australia in the T20 World Cup final in 2020, and two years later they again lost to Australia, also by nine runs, in the final of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. In last year's T20 World Cup, India went down to Australia in the semi-final, by just five runs, and when they were the favourites to win the Asia Cup in the T20 format last month, they were beaten comprehensively by the much lower-ranked Sri Lanka.

For the upcoming T20 World Cup in the UAE, India are in Group A with Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan. Their first three matches will be in Dubai, before they take on Australia in Sharjah. Will India be under pressure against Australia and the new Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka?

"The World Cup is a kind of tournament for which all teams prepare differently," Harmanpreet said. "So no team can be taken lightly and similarly no team should be overestimated either. Bilateral series have a different kind of pressure and for World Cups there is pressure as well as expectations and hopes of fans. We are working extremely hard to live up to those expectations, we have been holding camps where all players are working hard. We have also worked on the mistakes we made the last time. Now we're ready with a positive mindset."

 

The T20 World Cup will start on October 3 in Sharjah with two matches on the opening day. India's campaign will kick off on October 4 against New Zealand, before taking on Pakistan on October 6, Sri Lanka on October 9 and Australia on October 13. After the round-robin stage, the top two teams from each group will play the semi-finals on October 17 and 18, and the final is scheduled for October 20 in Dubai.

 

Morne Morkel appointed India's bowling coach

Morne Morkel, the former South Africa fast bowler, has been appointed as the bowling coach of the Indian men's team. After weeks of speculation, the signing was formally confirmed by BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Wednesday.

Morkel replaced former India fast bowler Paras Mhambrey, and his appointment completes India's coaching staff, which comprises head coach Gautam Gambhir, assistant coaches Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate, and fielding coach T Dilip.

As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Morkel was the frontrunner for the job after being part of the shortlist with R Vinay Kumar, the former India seamer.

Morkel was Pakistan's bowling coach until last December. His name was recommended by Gambhir, who worked with him for two seasons (2022-23) at Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL as well as at Durban Super Giants in the SA20.

Among Morkel's immediate challenges will be to ensure India's fast bowling bench strength remains strong as they play five home Tests between September and November, followed by a tour of Australia, where they will play a five-Test series for the first time since 1992.

It isn't clear yet if Sairaj Bahutule, the former India legspinner who doubled up as bowling coach on the tour of Sri Lanka, will continue to be part of the support staff. It is understood that the team management wants to build a pool of spinners apart from R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav, and it's likely Bahutule could be involved as a spin consultant, even if not on a permanent basis.

Morkel played 86 Tests, 117 ODIs and 44 T20Is during a 12-year international career in which he picked up 544 wickets. Since retiring, he has been a bowling consultant with different teams around the world. Apart from Pakistan and LSG, Morkel also worked with New Zealand at the 2023 Women's T20 World Cup and most recently with Namibia at the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup.

IPL mega auction here to stay says BCCI, player retention number to be increased from 4 to 6

Many franchises expressed their unhappiness about the mega auction at the meeting between the IPL and the BCCI on July 31.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made its intentions clear. The IPL mega auction isn’t going away any time soon. A week ago, the board met with all ten franchise owners and asked their opinions on multiple things. The mega auction and retentions turned out to be the most contentious thing, with two owners even trading verbal blows due to their disagreement on the topic.

IPL owners’ reservations regarding mega auction

The number of players that are allowed to be retained is directly related to the mega auction. Depending on its future, the franchises will be able to make long and short-term decisions. If a mega auction takes place every 3 years, a franchise won’t be able to invest in players and would rather go for stop-gap solutions.

This issue was raised by the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders, the two finalists of the IPL 2024 season. The teams felt that they’ve made progress since the last mega auction in 2022, and it would be done away if they were allowed to retain just 4 players.

Mega auction to stay, retention number increased & RTM comeback possible.

But the BCCI isn’t budging. According to Cricbuzz, the board won’t do away with the IPL mega auction but is willing to allow franchises to retain six players instead of the previous limit of four. The Right to Match (RTM) may make a comeback as well, with teams being allowed to retain players through a combination of RTMs and retentions.

Mind you, the RTM hasn’t been used since the mega auction in 2018. Back then, a maximum of 5 players were allowed to be retained by each franchise, with not more than 3 players being bought back using the RTM. If it makes a comeback, we could have a 4+2 or 3+3 (retention and RTM) system for player retention in the IPL 2025 mega auction.

"It Is A Joke": Rohit Sharma's Brutally Honest Verdict On Series Loss Against Sri Lanka

India slumped to an ODI series loss on Sri Lankan soil for the first time in 27 years after Rohit Sharma-led side lost the third ODI by 110 runs against Sri Lanka on Wednesday. Chasing a target of 249, India were completely outplayed as they were bundled out for just 138 on a pitch that assisted the spinners. India ended up losing the three-match series 2-0 and it was a big setback for head coach Gautam Gambhir who did not fare well in his first assignment. Following the match, Rohit said that the result is not a big concern for the side and even if the team lost the series, it was not the "end of the world".

"I don't think it is a concern. But it is something we have to look at individually and as a gameplan. It is a joke. When you are playing for India there is never going to be complacency. When I am captain there is no chance of complacency. But you have to give credit to good cricket. Sri Lanka played better than us. We looked at the conditions and went with the combinations, there also guys who need to be looked at and hence the changes. There are lot of areas we need to look at rather than the positives. These things happen, series lost is not the end of the world, you will lose an odd series here and there but it is about how you come back after the loss," Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

The hosts had earlier won the second ODI by 32 runs after the first ended in a thrilling tie.

Chasing 249, India once again began well but crumbled against Sri Lankan spinners as Dunith Wellalage (5.1-0-27-5) led the attack for the island nation with a fine spell.

India were bowled out for 138 in 26.1 overs with skipper Rohit Sharma (35) and Washington Sundar (30) waging lone battles.

Earlier, all-rounder Riyan Parag took 3 for 54 on debut but Sri Lanka still managed a competitive 248 for 7 riding on Avishka Fernando's composed 96 and Kusal Mendis's well-compiled 59.

Bowling his off-breaks, Riyan denied Fernando a well-deserved century. His 102-ball innings had nine fours and two sixes. Fernando added 89 runs for the first wicket with Pathum Nissanka (45) and another 82 for the second wicket with Mendis.

 

 

 

Shivam Dube Gets wicket

 L.B.W! Shivam Dube gets wicket number 2 for #TeamIndia! Sri Lanka lose Kusal Mendis for 14.