Mithali Raj may retire from T20Is after home series against England

Agencies
February 6, 2019

Feb 6: Indian women cricket team's seniormost player Mithali Raj in all likelihood will bring down curtains on her T20 International career after the home series against England while continuing in the 50-over format where she is still the captain of the side.

Raj was not picked for the opening T20I of the three-match series against New Zealand at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Wednesday. And it has been learnt that the 36-year-old will not continue beyond the three-match T20 series against England, starting March 4 in Assam's Barsapara.

"Mithali understands that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur will like to concentrate on building a team for the 2020 World T20 and that she is unlikely to feature in that tournament," a senior official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told PTI on condition of anonymity.

"But a player of her stature should get a warm send-off and that is likely to be against England," the official added.

There were indications that Mithali may not be selected in all the matches against the 'White Ferns' and she had been made aware by a senior member of the team management.

It is understood that Mithali can read the writing on the wall and the cricket board will give her chance to retire on her own terms from the shortest format.

"It is still not sure whether she would like to play the full series against England or like former men's team pacer Ashish Nehra, play the first game of the series and retire," the official further said.

Mithali's place in the T20I side has been under scanner due to her slow strike-rate and waning fielding abilities which led to her being dropped for the all-important Women's World T20 semi-final against England.

The ouster from playing XI led to a public spat with Committee of Administrators (CoA) member Diana Edulji, whom she accused of trying to "finish her career" along with interim chief coach Ramesh Powar.

Powar didn't get an extension in his role and WV Raman was appointed coach before the New Zealand series.

Mithali has so far scored 2283 runs from 85 T20 Internationals with the highest score of 97 and 17 half-centuries to her credit.

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News Network
July 5,2020

Colombo, Jul 5: Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Mendis was on Sunday arrested for knocking down a pedestrian while driving, police said.

Mendis hit a 74-year-old man, killing him in the wee hours, in the Colombo suburb of Panadura.

He is to be produced before a magistrate later today, police said.

The 25-year-old wicket-keeper batsman has represented Sri Lanka in 44 Tests and 76 ODIs. Mendis was part of the national squad which had resumed training after the Covid-19 lockdown.

Sri Lanka's international assignments, including a tour by India, have been cancelled due to the pandemic.

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News Network
May 19,2020

Karachi, May 19: Babar Azam wants to take a leaf out of Imran Khan's aggressive captaincy and besides cricket, he is also brushing up his English to become a "complete leader" like the World Cup-winning all-rounder.

Last week, the star batsman took over the reins of Pakistan's white-ball cricket after being appointed as the ODI skipper.

Azam, who was one of the world's leading batsmen across formats last year and already the T20 skipper, replaced wicket-keeper batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed as the ODI captain for the 2020-21 season.

"Imran Khan was a very aggressive captain and I want to be like him. It is not an easy job captaining the Pakistan team but I am learning from my seniors and I have also had captaincy experience since my under-19 days," Azam said.

He said that to be a complete captain one must be able to interact comfortably with the media and express oneself properly in front of an audience.

"These days I am also taking English classes besides focussing on my batting," he said on Monday.

The 25-year-old Babar said he was not satisfied with Pakistan's current standing in international cricket.

"I am not happy with where we stand and I want to see this team go up in the rankings."

Babar said captaincy would be a challenge for him but it would not affect his batting.

"It is an honour to lead one's national team so it is not a burden for me at all. In fact, after becoming captain, I have to lead by example and be more responsible in my batting."

Babar hoped the T20 World Cup is held this year in Australia as he wanted to lead his team in the ICC event.

"It would be a disappointment if the event was not held or rescheduled because I am looking forward to playing in the World Cup and doing well in it," he said.

About plans for Pakistan to fly to England in July to play three Tests and three T20 internationals amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Babar said a lot of hard work and planning would be required to make the players feel comfortable and safe.

"Touring England won't be easy. Health and safety of players is of great importance and the tour will only be possible when proper arrangements are in place," he said.

"Both England and Pakistan team fans, along with the cricketers, are missing cricket because of the pandemic."

"We will still try to perform to the best of our ability despite no support from the fans in the stadium," he added.

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Agencies
February 7,2020

New Delhi, Feb 7: It was on February 7, 1999, that Anil Kumble became just the second bowler in the history of cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, now known as Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in Delhi during the second Test of the two-match series.

India had set Pakistan a target of 420 runs in the match and the visitors got off to a steady start as openers Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar put on 101 runs for the first wicket.

It was then Kumble who came into the attack and wreaked havoc on the Pakistani batting line-up.

The spinner, also known as 'Jumbo' first dismissed Afridi (41) in the 25th over. After the right-handed batter's dismissal, India kept on taking wickets through Kumble and Pakistan was reduced to 128/6 in no time.

Kumble then kept on taking wickets at regular intervals and he got his tenth scalp in the 61st over after dismissing Wasim Akram.

This effort enabled India to register a win by 212 runs, and Kumble became the second bowler after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in a single Test inning.

Kumble finished with the bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs.

Kumble announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 and finished with 619 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He has the third-highest number of wickets in Tests, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australia's Shane Warne (708).

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