Australian head coach Justin Langer on Thursday hinted that Mitchell Starc will play the Boxing Day Test against England which gets underway from Sunday.

Australia are 2-0 up in the ongoing Ashes after winning the second Test at the Adelaide Oval and will meet England in the Melbourne Game on Sunday. Starc suffered discomfort while batting in the second Test against England when he attempted a slog sweep that put some pressure on his ribs. “It’s just [Starc’s] rib actually. A lot of the bowlers talk about when they come back to Test cricket, bowl more overs, they jam down on that rib area so he should be fine. He’s tough,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Langer. “If he’s not right, then we’ll look at it. But at this stage, there’s no indication suggesting he won’t be playing the next Test,” he added.

Langer, however, was unsure about pacer Josh Hazelwood’s inclusion for the third Ashes Test in Melbourne. “We will wait and see how Josh Hazlewood pulls up, he arrives this afternoon,” said Langer.

Eoin Morgan will captain a 16-player squad for England men’s T20I matches against West Indies next month.

Paul Collingwood will stand in as head coach for the five-match series, which will be played in Barbados from January 22-30. Marcus Trescothick will join the squad as an assistant coach. The squad includes 11 players who travelled to the United Arab Emirates for the T20 World Cup last November.

George Garton and David Payne are both uncapped players in the squad.

In an official release, Paul Collingwood said: “We have selected a strong squad with some serious batting power and a balanced attack as we begin preparations ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia.”

“The World Cup is less than a year away and there will be increased opportunities for the squad in the absence of those players who are with the Ashes squad. I have good memories winning a World Cup in Barbados and I’m really looking forward to going back there with this squad to face a very good West Indies who will test all aspects of our skills,” he added.

England Squad: Eoin Morgan (Middlesex – captain), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Tom Banton (Somerset), Sam Billings (Kent), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), George Garton (Sussex), Chris Jordan (Surrey), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Tymal Mills (Sussex), David Payne (Gloucestershire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Phil Salt (Lancashire), Reece Topley (Surrey), James Vince (Hampshire).

Spinner Ajaz Patel, who made history by taking all 10 wickets in an innings in the second Test against India in early December, has been dropped from the squad for New Zealand’s very next series against Bangladesh at home. Ajaz, 33, was only the third in the history of Test cricket to take all 10 wickets in an innings and ended the match with 14 wickets in nearly 67 overs that he bowled.

Rachin Ravindra, who also made an impression in the two-Test series in India, is the only spin bowling option that New Zealand have opted for in the 13-man squad. The series will be played in New Zealand and starts on New Year’s Day in Mount Maunganui.

Tom Latham will lead the side in the absence of the injured Kane Williamson. Williamson’s long-standing elbow injury had flared up during the T20 World Cup in November, which led to him sitting out the subsequent T20I series against India. While he then played the first Test in Kanpur, he sat out the Mumbai Test, in which Latham was the captain of the team as well.

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead had said after the first Test that Williamson could be out for a lengthy period, although it is unlikely that he will undergo surgery.

Ajaz walked back to a standing ovation from the Indian fans at the Wankhede Stadium after taking the 10th wicket during the second Test.

After the loss at the second day of the Pro Tennis league, Team Radiant outperformed Stag Babolat Yoddhas by 6-0. While Parv Nege and Saketh Myneni won their respective matches along with doubles, the tie turning the fortune in Radiant’s favour was of Suraj Prabodh from Pro Man-2 who after being down 0-2, went on to win the next 5 matches out of 6.

Team Radiant was determined to fight back after not living upto expectations at the first two days. Their mentor Yannick sat with team owners and players last night to plan a strategy for this. When they woke up in the morning, they all were pumped up and ready to roar. So, when they walked on court, they ruled the centre court completely decimating the opponent Stag Babolat Yoddhas by winning all six matches which is a record in PTL.

The team’s mentor Yannick said, “we were on the verge of elimination but after the team meeting, we were confident of our performance though 6-nil was never expected. Now we have to keep the momentum.” Visibly jubilant team owner Raadhika Khetarpal said, “it’s a classic case of underdogs making a comeback. Yes, our team was in the zone and eying finals in the very first outing at PTL.”

In another court, Banglore Challengers continued its dominance on the court and beat DMG Crusaderson the third day, winning 5 of their 6 matches. In the Next Gen category Parv Nage defeated ITF Junior Ranked 97 player Nishant Dabas by a score of 5-3. In the Pro- Men 1 Category, Saketh Myneni of Team Radiant edged out Vijay Sundar Prashant in a 5-4(5) tiebreaker match. Team Radiant’s last match of the day concluded with a Mixed Doubles win in which Arjun Uppal partnered with Prerna Bhabri and beat Nishant Goel and Vanshika Chaudhary.

In the Pro- men 1 category Niki Poonacha triumphed over Vishnu Vardhan with a score of 5-3. Paras Dahiya of Bangalore Challengers conquered the match with a 5-1 victory against Karan Singh of DMG Crusaders. Lastly, the exceptional Mixed Doubles duo of Dilip Mohanty and Sai Samhitha who whitewashed their opponent in Day 2 continued their winning spell on Day 3 after a 5-1 win over Rishi Kapur and Kashish Bhatia.

Indian Aviators continue their winning form on Day 3 beating Sankara and receiving a spot on the semi-finals. After the third day of the league they ranked first on Group A with 5 major wins out of the six matches. In the Next gen category Ajay Malik beat Shivank Bhatnagar of Sankara by a score of 5-3. Indian professional Tennis player Sriram Balaji edged out a win from Sankara’s Arjun Kadhe in a tiebreaker thrilling match by a score of 5- 4(4). Siddhant Banthia’s match against Parikshit Somani in which Aviators received their final win with a close score of 5-4(4).

ProVeri Super Smashers with a comeback on the third day made their entry into the semi-finals after beating Sapphire Superstars and gaining 6 points. The Super Smashers placed second in Group A and India’s number Tennis player performed outstandingly. Ramkumar Ramanathan beat Jeevan N in the Pro- Men 1 category with a result of 5-3. Ramkumar Ramanathan once more in a dedicated match partnered with Nitin Kumar Sinha beat Sapphire’s duo of Jeevan N and Prithvi Shekhar. ProVeri’s last victory came from Nitin Kumar Sinha who dominated the court against Prithvi Shekhar which resulted in a 5-1 win.

On Day 4 of the League the semi-finals will be played. The teams which will face each other in the semi-finals of the Pro Tennis League are Indian Aviators and Team Radiant.

The second semi-finals will be played by ProVeri Super Smashers and Bangalore Challengers.

HYDERABAD: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Thursday announced its new coaching staff ahead of the IPL 2022 auction.Former West Indies skipper Brian Lara and fast bowler Dale Steyn will be SRH’s batting and pace bowling coach respectively. Former Sri Lanka bowler Muttiah Muralitharan has also been roped in as the spin bowling coach of SRH while former Indian cricketer Hemang Badani will be handling scouting duties along with being the fielding coach.

Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody has returned to his role as head coach of SRH and Simon Katich will be Moody’s deputy. “Introducing the new management/support staff of SRH for #IPL2022! Orange Army, we are #ReadyToRise! @BrianLara #MuttiahMuralitharan @TomMoodyCricket @DaleSteyn62 #SimonKatich @hemangkbadani,” SRH tweeted.

Meanwhile, the IPL 2022 mega auction will take place either in Bengaluru or Kochi in February. Speaking to ANI, sources in the knowledge of the development said that the IPL 2022 mega auction is likely to take place in the first or second week of February 2022. “Most likely it will be in February first week or second week. The venue of the IPL auction will be either Bengaluru or Kochi,” the source told.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction will take place either in Bengaluru or Kochi in February. Speaking to ANI, sources in the known of the development said that the IPL 2022 mega auction is likely to take place in the first or second week of February 2022. “Most likely it will be in February first week or second week. The venue of the IPL auction will be either Bengaluru or Kochi,” the source told ANI.

When asked about the plans of staging IPL 2022 in India amid the COVID-19 and whether there is any contingency plan of staging the League in UAE, the source said, “It is too early to comment on this.”

Last month, all the existing IPL franchises revealed the list of their retained players ahead of the mega auction of the upcoming season. MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, and Glenn Maxwell are among some of the big names that the existing franchises have decided to retain for IPL 2022.

Meanwhile, the two new IPL franchises—Lucknow and Ahmedabad have a budget of Rs 33 crore to pick three players who go back into the pool before the mega auction begins.

The rules for the existing franchises who decided to retain players were, they will be debited Rs 16 crore for the first player, Rs 12 crore for the second player, Rs 8 crore for the third player, and Rs 6 crore for the fourth player and the total deduction will be 42 crore.

For the eight franchises, rules were that they cannot retain more than three Indians (capped/uncapped). They cannot retain more than two overseas players and not more than two uncapped Indian players.

For the two new franchises—Lucknow and Ahmedabad—they cannot pick more than two Indian players (capped/uncapped). They cannot pick more than one overseas player and more than one Indian uncapped player. Apart from RPSG who won the bid for the Lucknow franchise, the Irelia Company Pte Ltd (CVC Capital Partners) won the bid for the Ahmedabad franchise (for INR 5,625 crores).