Cricket News Live Updates, January 23: Ravindra Jadeja Reveals His Top Priority, KL Rahul Gets Married

“…See my first priority is to get on the field and be fit…100 per cent fit. Once I am 100 per cent fit, I will work more on my skills, whether it is batting or bowling. Now, my first priority is fitness…” Jadeja said on Monday. Read More Here.

The veteran batter came out to bat in the middle at a tricky stage as Rangpur were two down for just 26 but Malik took the charge and rebuilt the innings. He shared a crucial 105-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai. Read More Here.

“In terms of the IPL, the NCA and our medical team is constantly in touch with the franchises, and if there are any issues or injuries we connect with them. Unless the players are injured or there are other concerns then of course I think the BCCI has the right to pull them out,” Dravid said.

Leading India cricketer and Test vice-captain KL Rahul has gotten married to Bollywood actress Athiya Shetty. The couple had reportedly been dating for the past three years. Read More Here.

“I am personally in negotiations with Mickey and we have resolved 90 percent of issues,” PCB chairman Najam Sethi told a news conference. Read More Here

Wasim Jaffer says Virat Kohli has struggled against the leg-spin in the past and now left-arm spin is becoming his new nemesis.  “Virat Kohli must be disappointed by his dismissals in this series. He has been struggling to play leg-spin for quite a while now whether it be Adil Rashid or Adam Zampa, and now he has gone out to left-arm spin of Mitchell Santner two matches in a row,” Jaffer said. Read More Here.

Former Pakistan international Haroon Rasheed will take over as the chief selector of PCB.  He has also named on the 14-member cricket management committee to run the PCB, on December 22, by the patron-in-chief of the board, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Read More Here

“Hopefully, our media won’t be going to overseas commentators asking who should be picked for India. Never forget that these commentators are loyal to their country and may actually suggest names that may not be what India need,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for the Mid-day. Read More Here

Jos Buttler has been named the captain of ICC’s T20I Team of 2022. The eleven comprises three India stars including Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. Read Here

Left-handed opener Smriti Mandhana, off-spin all-rounder Deepti Sharma, wicketkeeper-batter Richa, and right-arm fast-bowler Renuka Singh Thakur were included in the ICC Women’s T20I team of the Year for 2022. Read More Here

Former Australia head coach thinks finger spinners will have a vital role to play during the upcoming India Test tour and therefore, advises including Ashton Agar in the playing XI.

”It just gets through the air quicker and some spin and some don’t. The leg-spinners sometimes spin it too much, if that makes sense… (for finger spinners) some skid on and you get beaten on the inside and you get an LBW. That’s probably why they’re looking at a finger spinner. We certainly did that four years ago (2017) and Steve O’Keefe bowled India out basically on his own in one of the last Test matches to win there. That’s why I’d be looking at someone like an Agar, bat a little bit, bowl as that second spinner,” the 52-year-old said. Read More Here

According to market experts, the teams are expected to shell out in the “range of 500 to 600 crore INR” per team in the closed-bid auction for the Women’s IPL.

“WIPL has huge potential but most of the legacy teams would like to mix optimism with pragmatism,” an industry insider, who has previously worked on men’s IPL team bids, told news agency PTI. Read More Here

“Expect a few bids in the range of Rs 500 crore upwards. Rs 800 crore plus could be a bit ambitious but BCCI won’t complain,” he added.

“Umran Malik is not as trained and fit as Haris Rauf. If you look at him in ODIs, in his first spell he bowls around 150 kmph but by the 7th or 8th over the speed drops to 138 kmph. The difference is the same as it is between Kohli and the rest of the batters,” Aaqib Javed said. Read More Here.

Meanwhile, Saurashtra coach revealed how Jadeja is looking forward for some Ranji action over Whatsapp.

“In fact, I had sent Jaddu a WhatsApp text saying that the boys are really excited to have him back. He immediately wrote back saying he is looking forward to catching up with the team. It’s been a while since he played Ranji Trophy for Saurashtra. A player of that calibre joining the team is a huge morale boost as well,” Niraj Odedra told Sportstar.

“His training and workload will be as per the National Cricket Academy (NCA) protocols.”

India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is all set to play his first competitive match since August 2022 when he was ruled out of the Asia Cup with a knee injury. The 34-year-old has been named the new Saurashtra skipper in absence of regular skipper Jayadev Unadkat. This will also be his first first-class match since November 2018 when he takes the field against Tamil Nadu on January 24.

“You can look at the scoreboard and see what the team demands from you. My cricket idol is AB De Villiers and I look at him very closely and his performances in Test cricket and T20 as well and that’s why I also try to play according to the demand of the team.

“In T20 cricket, sometimes you can go with a slow strike rate because sometimes in T20 you are in a position where the opposition are looking to take wickets. You can go slow, when you’ve lost a couple of wickets, but when the team needs you to hit the long ball, you can go with the momentum. For me, assessing the time is important and thankfully, most of the time, I am successful,” he said.

Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan has admitted that sometimes it gets embarrassing for him to play the role of anchor in the shortest format.

Rizwan, who is playing for Comilla Victorians in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League, feels that whenever he gets picked for a franchise-based T20 tournament, he is asked to play the anchor role like he does for Pakistan in international cricket.

“It is very difficult to play the role of anchor in the shortest format and sometimes it looks very embarrassing. What my experience says and what I know is that whenever someone hires me, they demand me to play the anchor role like the way I do in Pakistan,” Cricbuzz quoted Rizwan as saying.

Roelof van der Merwe delivered the bowling performance of the SA20 thus far for the Sunrisers Eastern Cape to decimate Durban’s Super Giants at St George’s Park.

Van der Merwe claimed 6/20 to rout the Super Giants for just 86 in 14.4 overs. The Sunrisers won by a massive 124 runs to earn a bonus point.

It was a near-perfect performance from the Sunrisers after they had earlier delivered a batting exhibition to posted a mammoth 210/2.

Former Australia head coach Darren Lehmann has urged the current Test side to pick left-arm spin all-rounder Ashton Agar as the second spinner to partner off-spinner Nathan Lyon for the upcoming four-Test tour of India, ahead of leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson and uncapped off-spinner Todd Murphy.