Ridiculous selections must stop, says Shane Warne

Agencies
January 4, 2019

Sydney, Jan 4: Spin legend Shane Warne on Friday criticised the Australian team picked for the three-match ODI series against India, terming the selections ridiculous and senseless for not keeping in mind the upcoming World Cup.

Australia named a revamped 14-member squad, including veteran pacer Peter Siddle, Usman Khwaja and Nathan Lyon.

"Just saw the Aust ODI squad that was announced & was absolutely staggered at some of the players that were left out & some of the inclusions - they don't make any sense whatsoever.These ridiculous selections must stop in all forms of Australian cricket - end of!" Warne tweeted.

Shortly after Warne named his own ODI side on Twitter.

The 49-year-old put his weight behind all-rounder D'Arcy Short.

"I cannot believe that D'Arcy Short has been left out of the side. I don't know what he's done wrong. He can bowl and his batting at the top is dynamic. He's in terrific form, and he and Finch make an awesome partnership at the top," Warne was quoted as saying by foxsports.com.au.

Warne insisted that the correct combination of players should have been selected keeping in mind the conditions the side will face in England during the World Cup in May-June this year.

"When you're picking this team you want to look at some players you are interested in, but you've also got to look at those players with the World Cup in mind and the conditions you're going to have in England," he said.

"Those conditions are going to be flat wickets that will probably spin a bit, so you need clever bowlers and you need some bowlers with pace. And they're little grounds. So a mixture of power hitting and people that can bat time; you need that right combination."

Warne was also critical of pacer Peter Handscomb's treatment by Cricket Australia.

"I don't think it's fair on Peter to keep putting him out into the international arena, even for the Sydney Test match here. Whether he makes 100 or 200, it's still not the right selection or the right message that you're sending to the rest of first-class cricketers."

Handscomb was dropped for the Boxing Day Test after scoring 68 runs at 17 across his first four innings of the series before being brought back for the fourth and final Test.

"To say you haven't got a technique that's good enough for international cricket and you're dropped, just like last year, and then you put him back in again a week later. It doesn't make any sense," Warne said.

Apart from Short, Warne named Aaron Finch,wicketkeeper Alex Carey, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, either Ashton Agar or Mitchell Marsh depending on conditions followed by James Pattinson, Jhye Richardson, Riley Meredith, Adam Zampa

"I would have liked to see them go with a bit more youth and a bit more pace with the ball in Meredith and Pattinson to add to Jhye Richardson, I think those three are very good. Behrendorff with his left arm is okay, but I think there's better options."

Completing Warne's 14-man squad are spinner Nathan Lyon and Chris Lynn.

"Lynn is there if you need a bit more power at the top, then I've got Nathan Lyon that I'd like to see with the white ball as well at some stage."

Warne, who has been critical of the Australian pace attack in the ongoing Test series, also denied holding any "personal vendetta" against the pacers.

"The bowlers when you look back at 2018 and all the numbers they have put in for an attack that is meant to be one of the best in the world, the numbers don't stack up," he said.

"That's facts, it is not a personal vendetta or anything like that. We have nothing against these guys, we are just dealing in facts."

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News Network
June 20,2020

Dhaka, Jun 20: Former Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza on Saturday tested positive for coronavirus.

The skipper had gone for a coronavirus Test last week, and now his reports have come back as positive, ESPNCricinfo reported.

As per a report in ESPNCricinfo, it is not known how Mortaza contracted the virus.

Mashrafe, also a member of the parliament from Narail 2 constituency, had stepped down as the ODI captain of the country in March this year.

Covid-19 cases have crossed 1,00,000 mark in Bangladesh and the government is now planning area-wise lockdown.

Bangladesh was slated to face Sri Lanka in July in a three-Test series and the side would have later hosted New Zealand in August, but both series look unlikely now.

The Asia Cup, scheduled for September, is also uncertain due to the coronavirus.

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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: Thrilled after getting to know about Hardik Pandya and Natasa Stankovic's engagement, skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday called it a "pleasant surprise".

Extending his best wishes to the newly-engaged couple, Kohli posted a comment on Pandya's Instagram post which read, "Congratulations H. What a pleasant surprise. Wish you guys great times ahead. God bless".

On the first day of the New Year 2020, Pandya announced his engagement with Serbian actor Natasa Stankovic.

The cricketer took to Instagram to share the photo with the actor and captioned the post: "Mai tera, Tu meri jaane, saara Hindustan. 01.01.2020 #engaged".

The couple got engaged in Dubai and were seen taking a ferry ride along with close friends.

On the work front, Stankovic was last seen in a song from the Bollywood movie The Body starring Emraan Hashmi and Rishi Kapoor. She had also made it to the finals of the TV show Nach Baliye with her ex-boyfriend Aly Goni.

Stankovic first became a household name after appearing as a contestant on famous reality show Bigg Boss 8.

In 2019, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had confirmed that Pandya had had lower-back surgery in London.

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News Network
July 1,2020

New Delhi, Jul 1: After being named as India's 'Most Valuable Player' in Test cricket in the 21st century, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Wednesday said that he will always aim to give his best for the country.

His remark came as Jadeja achieved an MVP rating of 97.3 and as a result, he was also rated as the second most valuable player Test player worldwide, only second to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

"Thank you Wisden India for naming me the 'Most Valuable Player'. I would like to thank all my teammates, coaches, fans, and well-wishers for your support as I aim to give my best for our country. Jai Hind," Jadeja tweeted.

Based on CricViz's market-leading analytics, each player in world cricket was awarded an 'MVP rating' by Wisden using a statistical model to rank their 'match impact' compared to their peers.

Jadeja has played in 49 Tests from 2012, managing to score 1,869 runs and has also picked up 213 wickets.

"It might come as a surprise to see Ravindra Jadeja, India's spin-bowling all-rounder, feature as India's number one. After all, he's not even always an automatic pick in their Test team. However, when he does play he is picked as a frontline bowler and has batted as high as No.6 - contributing to a very high match involvement," the official website of Wisden quoted CricViz's Freddie Wilde as saying.

"But Jadeja's position is based on more than simply volume: it's what he does when he's involved that really counts. The 31-year-old's bowling average of 24.62 is better than Shane Warne's and his batting average of 35.26 is better than Shane Watson's. His batting and bowling average differential of 10.62 runs is the second-best of any player this century to have scored more than 1,000 runs and taken 150 wickets. He is an all-rounder of the very highest quality," he added.

With the bat in hand, Jadeja has managed to score one century and 14 fifties in the longest format of the game.

He was last seen in action during India's two-Test series against New Zealand earlier this year.

He would have been in action for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL had the tournament commenced from March 29.

However, the IPL has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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