Former captain passes 10,000 runs as he and Ben Foakes complete fourth-inning chase

Alan Gardner05-Jun-2022England 141 (Crawley 43, Southee 4-55) and 279 for 5 (Root 115*, Stokes 54, Jamieson 4-79) beat New Zealand 132 (de Grandhomme 42*, Potts 4-13, Anderson 4-66) and 285 (Mitchell 108, Blundell 96)After three madcap days to begin England’s new era of Test cricket under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, there was an air of serenity around their march to victory on the fourth morning at Lord’s. Joe Root provided the quality and the clarity to cut through the gloom, bringing up his hundred and 10,000 runs in Test cricket with the same shot, as New Zealand’s challenge – which had seemed sunk the moment they were 45 for 7 on day one – finally fell away.Root’s century, remarkably his first in the fourth innings of a Test, formed the bulwark of a chase of 277 that had been in trouble at 69 for 4 but became increasingly comfortable as the former captain took control following Stokes’ fortune-favoured fifty on the third evening. He was ably supported by Ben Foakes during an unbroken century stand that never gave New Zealand a sniff; Foakes finished on 32 not out, having played his most important innings since a century on debut during a Man of the Series performance in Sri Lanka four years ago.That the result remained in the balance, after England had reached 59 without loss in reply to New Zealand’s first-innings 132, was testament to the fighting qualities shown by Kane Williamson’s side. Having limited England to a nine-run lead, they had the look of favourites after the 195-run stand between Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell – but Stuart Broad inspired another turnaround and the game continued to ebb and flow until Root’s decisive contribution.He finished the job himself with three fours in an over from Tim Southee, walking off to a standing ovation, as well as handshakes from the opposition. This was his 26th Test hundred, his third of the year already, and his first back in the ranks. Life under the new regime hasn’t changed a jot for Root.Despite a murky morning greeting those arriving at Lord’s, it was soon clear that New Zealand had their work cut out for them. The juice that contributed to 23 wickets falling across the first four sessions of the Test had long since dissipated, and they began the day with a ball that was 65 overs old. Root shuffled down to Southee’s first delivery, pushing hard but settling for one after flicking off his pads, as England looked to start positively.The prospect of the second new ball coming around an hour into the day encouraged the venturesome approach. After Stokes’ frenetic counter shifted the balance on the third afternoon, Root had ticked up almost imperceptibly through the gears – from 34 off 89 at the point when England lost their fifth wicket, he scored at exactly a run a ball to finish on 115 from 170.There was greater intent about Foakes, too. Kyle Jamieson, who threatened to decide the contest single-handedly on Saturday, returned to the attack in the third over, having shifted back around to the Nursery End. His second ball was driven confidently back through mid-on by Foakes, only a diving stop from Southee preventing four, and the wicketkeeper further settled England nerves a couple of overs later by threading the first boundary of the morning through backward point.Jamieson was punched for straight fours by both batters, as Root moved into the 90s. A chop past his stumps off Southee moved him within sight, before a clip through midwicket two overs later brought him a comfortable two and a loud rendition of “Rooooooooooot!” from around the ground. His ninth hundred since the start of 2021 continued a purple run of batting, as he became the 14th man overall to 10,000 in Tests, and the second Englishman after Alastair Cook.By that point, any tension about England’s ability to knock off the runs had eased. Williamson gamely made several attempts to get the ball changed, but the breakthrough that would have given New Zealand a crack at the home side’s lengthy tail was not forthcoming, and the winning runs came inside 14 overs – Root’s beneficence extending to a full refund for the crowd – and before the weather could close in to delay the inevitable, putting England 1-0 up in the three-match series.Defeat for New Zealand was their first against England in Tests since the 2015 result on the same ground – a match that was significant for Stokes as a player in a way that he will hope this one is for his captaincy. It also ended a run of nine Tests without a victory for England, as the Stokes-McCullum axis hit the ground running; even if it was more of a stroll for Root.

There had been speculation about his future in the format since he took a break

Mohammad Isam17-Jul-2022Tamim Iqbal has announced his retirement from T20Is shortly after leading the ODI side to a 3-0 series win over West Indies in Guyana. Bangladesh won the match by four wickets, with Tamim winning the player-of-the-series award. At around 6pm local time, he wrote a short message on his official Facebook page, posting in Bangla saying, “consider me retired from T20 internationals from today. Thanks everyone.”It ends speculations over the last several weeks about his decision to continue playing the format he had taken a break from in January this year. He said at the time that he is going to take a break of six months from T20Is.”My full focus will be on Tests and ODIs,” Tamim said on January 27 this year. “We are preparing for the World Test Championship and qualification for the 2023 World Cup. I will not be thinking about T20Is in the next six months. I hope that those playing will do so well, that the team won’t need me in T20Is. But if God forbid the team or cricket board needs me, and I am ready, I will possibly think about it.”Related

• Tamim becomes first Bangladesh batter to reach 8000 ODI runs

• Tamim Iqbal steps away from T20Is for next six months

• Tamim Iqbal drops out of T20 World Cup, says other players deserve a chance

Tamim had kept himself away from this format since the middle of last year when he made the surprising decision to voluntarily pull out of contention from the T20 World Cup in the UAE. Tamim stepped away to give Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Naim an extended run as openers, although both failed and were later dropped from the T20I side.Tamim last played a T20I in March 2020 when he made 41 off 33 balls against Zimbabwe. He was criticised in some quarters in the T20I series before that, in Pakistan, when he made 65 off 53 balls.Instead, Tamim has flourished in the other formats, leading Bangladesh to five consecutive ODI series wins including the one against West Indies that concluded on Saturday.Tamim was a regular in the Bangladesh T20I side from 2007 to 2018, having played 75 out of 84 possible games for the side. He remains the only batter with a century for Bangladesh, finishing as the third highest run-scorer with 1701 runs at 24.65 average. Tamim is likely to play in domestic T20 competitions. He is the all-time leading run-scorer in the BPL, having played in every season of the tournament.

Sri Lanka took the last eight wickets in just 23.4 overs to secure a series-levelling win in Galle

Danyal Rasool28-Jul-2022Babar Azam, the Pakistan captain, admitted it was “disappointing” to see his side fold as swiftly as it had either side of lunch on the final day in Galle and miss out on an opportunity to win their second successive series in Sri Lanka.With eight wickets still in hand half an hour before lunch and rain and poor light looming, a draw seemed like it was all but secured. But three quick wickets before the interval gave Sri Lanka an opening who, spearheaded by Prabath Jayasuriya, went on to rip through the Pakistan batting line-up.”The lower order falling cheaply was disappointing. Credit to Jayasuriya for how he bowled, he was outstanding. He was patient; in Test cricket, you need patience. He’s a consistent bowler. He plugs away at a length and sticks to it. Even if he gets hit for a boundary, he doesn’t deviate from his length. As a batting unit, you need patience too, and we were slightly lacking in that department. And that goes for our lower order as well.”Related

• Stats – Jayasuriya's record-breaking start, Galle's result streak, and Babar's fourth-innings form

• Babar rises to No. 3 on Test batters' table

• Jayasuriya, Mendis run through Pakistan as Sri Lanka level series

• Jayasuriya: 'I gave my everything to play for Sri Lanka'

There appeared to be no demons in the pitch to worry Pakistan when the day began. The early loss of Imam-ul-Haq was followed up by a 79-run stand across 23 overs between Babar and Mohammad Rizwan, with Jayasuriya and Mendis – who operated almost that entire time – made to look relatively harmless. Then things changed.”Early morning, the pitch wasn’t doing much,” Babar said, “But after a bit of rain, the spinners began to get a bit of help which led to a few of our wickets falling early. We didn’t strike up a partnership like we needed to, and whenever back-to-back wickets fall, you inevitably feel the pressure.It was Rizwan’s wicket that opened the floodgates, with the wicketkeeper-batter letting one go that carried on to take his off stump. The panic began to set in at that point and bled over into the next dismissal, when a mix-up between Fawad Alam and Babar led to the former being run-out. Agha Salman’s dismissal on the stroke of lunch effectively put Babar as the sole roadblock between Sri Lanka and a huge win. When Jayasuriya trapped him in front for 81 a few overs after lunch, Pakistan’s fate was effectively sealed. In the end, the last eight wickets took just 23.4 overs to fall, the disappointing fourth-innings showing a bit of a departure from Pakistan’s performances of late.”When you’ve chased big scores in the past, you get confidence,” Babar said. “We brought that confidence into this chase. We had belief we could do it, but Sri Lanka came well prepared and bowled according to their plans. As a batting unit, we were slightly unlucky because there were plenty of soft dismissals.”Day by day, the team is improving and the performances are improving. These conditions weren’t easy but we did well in phases. We did things wrong, too, which we’ll discuss. But there are lots of positives here, too. And we’ll try and build on those.”

The decision will allow the batter to play tournaments like the Road Safety Series and overseas T20 leagues

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Sep-2022Suresh Raina, the former India and Uttar Pradesh batter, has announced his retirement from “all formats of cricket,” confirming the end of his IPL and India domestic career. Raina, 35, had already retired from international cricket, announcing that decision on August 15, 2020 shortly after MS Dhoni had retired.”It has been an absolute honour to represent my country & state UP. I would like to announce my retirement from all formats of cricket,” Raina posted on Twitter on Tuesday.The decision will allow Raina to play tournaments like the Road Safety Series, for which he has already been confirmed, as well as overseas T20 leagues. “I want to continue playing cricket for two or three years,” he was quoted as saying by . “There are some exciting youngsters who are coming through the ranks of Uttar Pradesh cricket. I have already taken my No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA). I have informed BCCI secretary Jay Shah and vice-president Rajiv Shukla about my decision.”I will play in the Road Safety Series. T20 franchises from South Africa, Sri Lanka and UAE have contacted me but I am yet to take any decision.”Raina had not played any first-class or list A cricket since 2018, and his last IPL game was in October 2021. Raina was a key figure for the Chennai Super Kings, whom he represented for 11 seasons between 2008 and 2021. He won four titles with CSK in 2010, 2011, 2018 and 2021 and still remains their top-scorer with 4687 runs from 176 matches. He was released by Chennai Super Kings ahead of the 2022 player auction, where he was not bought by any of the ten franchises.Raina retires having scored 6871 runs in 109 first-class games, 8078 runs in 302 list A games, and 8654 runs in 336 T20 matches. He began his senior domestic career for UP back in 2002-03, and made his international debut in 2005. Raina played 226 ODIs, 78 T20Is and 18 Tests for India, and was part of the squad that won the ODI World Cup in 2011. He was the first Indian batter to score a century in all three international formats.

Umran Malik, Tilak Varma, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sarfaraz Khan also make the cut for the three four-day games

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Aug-2022Kuldeep Yadav and Prasidh Krishna have been named among a contingent of international players in the India A squad to face New Zealand A over the course of three unofficial Tests starting on September 1.A majority of the 16-member squad consists of up-and-comers such as Umran Malik, the Jammu & Kashmir fast bowler, who lit up IPL 2022 with his ability to bowl at 150kph, and Tilak Varma, the Hyderabad batter who earned high praise from Mahela Jayawardene while playing for Mumbai Indians.A couple of India A mainstays – Priyank Panchal, who will captain the side, and Abhimanyu Easwaran – are to shoulder most of the batting burden in the long-form matches. Both players have an enviable record in first-class cricket as well as the experience of being around India’s Test squad.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Also part of the squad are Rajat Patidar, who scored a century in an IPL knockout match this year; Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has been travelling with India’s white-ball teams as back-up opener; KS Bharat, widely regarded as Rishabh Pant’s understudy in Test cricket; and Sarfaraz Khan, the top run-getter in the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy with 982 from nine innings.India A and New Zealand A will play each other across three first-class matches to be held in Bengaluru and Hubli between September 1 and 18, and three 50-over matches to be held in Chennai between September 22 and 27. New Zealand A have named a strong squad for the tour.

Former Surrey and Somerset chief executive will join from Bristol City FC in January 2023

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Oct-2022Richard Gould, a prominent critic of the Hundred during his tenure at Surrey, has been appointed chief executive at the ECB, beating Durham’s Tim Bostock to the role. Gould has spent the last 18 months as CEO at Bristol City Football Club but was previously involved in county cricket for 16 years, spending six years as Somerset’s chief executive before another decade in the same role at Surrey.Gould’s ECB-appointment comments focused on discrimination and inclusivity, with the ECB’s own statement noting his influential role in launching Ebony Rainford-Brent’s ACE Programme while at Surrey.”I am honoured to have been given the opportunity to lead our game forward in England and Wales as part of a talented and committed team that encompasses the ECB, every cricket club in the land, all the counties, our partners, sponsors, fans and the army of players and volunteers that support the game in every corner of our country,” he said.Related

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• Gould, Surrey CEO, to take up post at Bristol City

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• Thompson appointed ECB chair for next five years

“Cricket is a national asset that can be played by all, and helps strengthen and enhance communities across the nation. It can inspire the country and provides opportunities for all. But we have also seen the pain suffered by those who have experienced discrimination. We are determined to repair this damage, and show that cricket can become the most inclusive and welcoming sport of all.”I look forward to taking up the role in the new year, but for now will be an armchair fan supporting our men’s team in the T20 World Cup in Australia, whilst the women prepare for their T20 World Cup challenge in February.”The ECB said in a statement that their nominations committee had “unanimously recommended” Gould to their board, which had then ratified the appointment on Friday after a lengthy recruitment process.Gould will take up his post at the end of January, with Clare Connor – who has been interim chief executive since Tom Harrison’s departure earlier this year – continuing in that role over the next three months.Gould is the second recent Surrey employee to move into a senior ECB role, after Richard Thompson was appointed as chair in August. The pair worked closely together during their time at The Oval, where they were outspoken critics of the Hundred.However, Thompson conceded shortly after starting as chair in September that his stance has softened, saying: “If the Hundred can generate significant value to the game then that’s got to be a good thing.”The competition also forms part of the ECB’s TV deal with Sky Sports, which runs until 2028, so there is no realistic prospect of it being scrapped imminently.Gould’s own position had become more conciliatory by the time he left Surrey. Shortly before leaving the club in 2021, he told Sky: “We hope the Hundred is a great success, we hope that every match here plays to a sell-out attendance and we’ll be doing our absolute utmost to make sure that is delivered.”Thompson added: “When I joined the ECB, I said that this was a reset moment for our organisation and our sport. Recruiting a CEO who can lead the organisation forwards and deliver on the vision of becoming the UK’s most inclusive sport was one of the first important steps in that. With his outstanding leadership skills and experience of managing transformation, the Nominations Committee felt that Richard Gould was the outstanding candidate.”I am looking forward to working with Richard to not only bring our game together, but to show how cricket can do so much more in bringing communities together. We will work in a spirit of collaboration and partnership with the whole cricket network to do this.”I’d also like to express my sincere thanks to Clare Connor who has done an outstanding job as Interim CEO at an incredibly challenging time for the organisation. I look forward to her continuing to play a leading role in growing our game as part of the ECB’s leadership team when Richard joins.”

Greg Shipperd, the Sydney Sixers’ coach, will take charge until the end of the season

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Nov-2022Former Australia batter Phil Jaques has lost his job as New South Wales head coach after the state’s poor start to the domestic season which sees them bottom of both the Sheffield Shield and Marsh Cup.A planned mid-season review during the BBL break was brought forward following NSW’s latest Shield defeat against Western Australia last week and it was announced on Tuesday morning that Jaques had left his role.Greg Shipperd, who is currently Sydney Sixers’ coach in the BBL, will take temporary charge until the end of the domestic season. He will begin with this week’s Shield match against Victoria before moving into his Sixers’ role then back to NSW for the latter part of the summer.Jaques came into the head coach role for the 2018-19 season having done two years with Queensland between 2015 and 2017 before returning to NSW as batting coach. NSW won the Sheffield Shield in the 2019-2020 season which was curtailed by the pandemic and the Marsh Cup in 2020-21.”On behalf of all at Cricket NSW I’d like to thank Phil for his contribution to cricket in NSW as both a player and coach,” Greg Mail, the NSW chief of cricket performance, said. “Phil is an immensely passionate NSW person and has given his all in his time as head coach, but we feel that now is the right time to make a change. We wish Phil well in his future endeavours.Shipperd is one of the most highly-regarded coaches in the Australian game and has also filled various roles around the world.”Greg Shipperd’s cricket acumen and his coaching record is well renowned, and we are very pleased that he has agreed to guide our Blues program while we take the time to understand our next move,” Mail said. “He has existing relationships with many of the players and staff and I expect his transition into the group, starting with this week’s match against Victoria, will be seamless.”

They have a young captain in Jason Sangha and Daniel Sams will have a vital role with bat and ball

Andrew McGlashan12-Dec-2022Captain Jason Sangha
Coach Trevor Bayliss

Squad

Ben Cutting, Ollie Davies, Brendan Doggett, Fazalhaq Farooqi (Afghanistan), Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Alex Hales (England), Baxter Holt, Nathan McAndrew, Usman Qadir (Pakistan), Alex Ross, Rilee Rossouw (South Africa), Daniel Sams, Gurinder Sandhu, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, David Warner, Sam WhitemanIn Rilee Rossouw, David Warner, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Sam Whiteman, Usman Qadir
Out Sam Billings, Usman Khawaja, Jonathan Cook, Saqib Mahmood, Chris Tremain, Mohammad Hasnain

What happened in the draft

It felt like they had done well with Alex Hales, David Willey and Rilee Rossouw. Willey was an enticing platinum pick with his availability for most of the season, but he recently withdrew from the deal sending Thunder back to the drawing board and they brought in Afghanistan left-armer Fazalhaq Farooqi. Hales will return to his long-term club on the back of T20 World Cup success and Rossouw has had an impressive season in the format. Both, however, will only be around until early January.Related

• Explainer – Why David Warner withdrew the appeal against his lifetime captaincy ban

• Tanveer Sangha hoping for Sydney Thunder BBL return

Last season: Knockout

Thunder reached the finals on the back of a strong mid-season run where they won six games on the bounce including a 129-run hammering of Melbourne Renegades where Daniel Sams hit an astonishing 98 off 44 balls. But they fell short against Adelaide Strikers where they had got the equation down to 39 off 23 balls then 14 off the last over which Harry Conway was able to defend. Jason Sangha led the run-scoring with 445 at 49.44 and a strike-rate of 132.04 and Sams was the leading wicket-taker with 19 although Tanveer Sangha and Gurinder Sandhu were the most consistent performers.

International impact

The return of David Warner to the BBL was the big off-season story, but the window for his availability after the South Africa series may shrink with the squad due to depart for India in late January. Still, when he does suit up in green it will be one of the most anticipated moments of the tournament – especially the derby clash with Steven Smith’s Sydney Sixers. Beyond that, and the overseas players, Thunder are unlikely to be hit by international call-ups as they have no one else in the Test set-up with Usman Khawaja having moved to Brisbane Heat.

Key player

Daniel Sams is another player who might feel he has a part to play in the future of Australia’s T20 side after being on the fringes in recent seasons. For Thunder, he will have a big role to play with bat and ball, although with the later bringing down his economy rate a touch may help his international ambitions. In terms of the batting, it will be interesting to see how and where he is used. As he showed last season with that 98 he has the potential to be destructive, although that innings was an outlier in the campaign. But since then he has produced equally powerful innings in the T20 Blast (71 off 24 balls) and the Hundred (55 off 25 balls).

Young player to watch

Tanveer Sangha’s stress fracture is a blow to their bowling attack, but Ollie Davies caused instant excitement when he struck two quickfire innings at the start of his BBL career in late 2020, but things have been tougher since then making 74 in 11 innings. The early stages of this season were hindered as he came back from a hip injury but in November in made 115 off 106 balls playing for the combined NSW/ACT XI against West Indies in Canberra.

“You feel proud when you realise that you have achieved something that not many are able to,” Nadeem says after reaching the landmark of 500 first-class wickets

Syed Hussain17-Jan-2023Shahbaz Nadeem recently became the latest entrant in the club of bowlers with 500 first-class wickets. He got there in the previous round of Ranji Trophy matches, at the end of which, he also had 381 wickets in the tournament, putting him in 12th place for most successful bowlers in the Ranji Trophy. For a boy from Muzaffarpur, around 80 kilometres from Patna, reaching the milestone is a “feeling of satisfaction” and also one of having “achieved something that not many are able to”.”It’s a really nice feeling when, after playing for so many years [he made his first-class debut in December 2004], you reach a place like this, you achieve something big,” Nadeem told ESPNcricinfo. “As a cricketer, it’s a feeling of satisfaction, you feel happy. Whether you play for your country or for your state [in India’s domestic circuit], you feel proud when you realise that you have achieved something that not many are able to.”Nadeem has played all his domestic cricket for Jharkhand, a total of 129 first-class matches (before the start of the latest round in the Ranji Trophy, on January 17) and 127 List A matches, plus 144 T20s, which includes 72 appearances in the IPL, where he has been with Delhi Daredevils, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Lucknow Super Giants.Related

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Along the way, after knocking on the doors of the national team loudly and persistently for many years, he got to play two Tests: at his home venue of Ranchi, against South Africa, in October 2019, and in Chennai, against England, in February 2021. He has eight wickets from those two games.Nadeem’s career took off in right earnest after his father, a policeman, was transferred to Muzaffarpur from Dhanbad. In the 2004-05 season, he was picked to play for Jharkhand against Kerala in Jamshedpur (in Jharkhand, a state carved out of the larger state of Bihar in 2000). It was an unremarkable debut, as he picked up just two wickets in a drawn encounter, but he stuck it out, and has today made his name among India’s domestic giants.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

And now, after getting to 500, 600 doesn’t seem too far away. Nor does the magical number of 637, the Ranji Trophy wicket-taking record that’s in the name of Rajinder Goel, a left-arm spinner like Nadeem, who played 157 first-class matches between 1958-59 and 1984-85.”When I am playing, I don’t have specific targets, but yes, if you keep playing and keep performing well, you do achieve some goals, and if I can get to 653 wickets, it will be great,” Nadeem said. “But it’s not like that is my aim. I just want to keep performing well and making my team win.”

Shahbaz Nadeem waits for ‘another opportunity’ in Test cricket

At 33, after more than a decade-and-a-half of professional cricket, there might not be many opportunities for Nadeem to add to those two Test appearances, but he hasn’t stopped dreaming altogether.”The only thing I can do is keep picking up wickets, as many as possible, and I am doing that,” Nadeem, who has 30 wickets including three five-fors from five matches in this season’s Ranji Trophy so far, said. “I was third in the wicket-takers’ list last season [with 25 wickets from five matches], and I have been picking up wickets this season too.”I feel that if, season after season, I am among the top wicket-takers, , I can get another opportunity to play Test cricket.”Before that, though, there is a Ranji Trophy campaign to worry about, and for Jharkhand, placed third in Elite Group C behind Karnataka and Kerala at the moment, the remaining games are massive. As they are for Nadeem, who might tick off a few more milestones before he feels he has had enough.

India captain backs Ashwin’s suggestion to reduce the impact of dew on day-night ODIs

Deivarayan Muthu17-Jan-20230:46

‘I like the idea’ – Rohit on early starts in ODIs in India

Rohit Sharma is in favour of early starts at the ODI World Cup in India to reduce the impact of the dew factor and promote more even contests.Day-night ODIs in India start at 1.30pm and finish around 9pm, which is prime time on television, leading to greater viewership numbers for the BCCI and the broadcasters. Rohit, however, said that this gave the chasing team a significant advantage if there’s dew, because they get to bowl in dry conditions in the afternoon and bat when the dew gets the ball wet in the evening, making it easier to score.”I mean, it [having an early start] is a good idea because it’s a World Cup, right?,” Rohit said on the eve of the ODI series opener against New Zealand in Hyderabad. “You don’t want to compromise too much on the toss factor and you want to take that [advantage] completely away. I like that idea of an early start, but I don’t know if it’s possible.Related

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“The broadcasters will decide what time the game should start [laughs]. But ideally you don’t want that sort of advantage in the game. You want to see good cricket being played without one side having the advantage of batting under lights with the dew. But those are the things that are not in your control. But I like the idea of an early start.”During the first ODI against Sri Lanka in Guwahati, India were wary of the dew factor and showed greater intent while batting first to rack up a potentially dew-proof total of 373.After that game, India offspinner R Ashwin had suggested an earlier start time, arguing that a 11.30am start to World Cup matches wouldn’t necessarily hurt viewership figures because of what’s at stake.

LIVE in the UK and USA

You can watch the first ODI between India and New Zealand LIVE on ESPN Player in the UK and on ESPN+ in the USA.

“The quality difference between the teams isn’t coming through,” Ashwin said. “Dew is narrowing that gap if you happen to lose the toss. My suggestion – or rather my opinion – for the World Cup is to look at what venues we are playing in, and at what times. Why shouldn’t we start matches at 11.30am during the World Cup? Won’t all cricket fans prioritise the World Cup and watch matches at 11.30?”The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad is known to favour teams that chase because of both dew and a fast outfield. There wasn’t much dew on Tuesday evening, though, as India’s players went through their drills on the main ground and had a net session at an adjacent facility around 6pm. Still, the dew remained a talking point, even among the visitors with New Zealand captain Tom Latham saying that it was a problem not just in India but all over the world.”I haven’t given a huge amount of thought to the change of match timings, but I think you see around the world at night time in different conditions where the ball does dew up or the ground does dew up,” Latham said. “And sometimes it can get hard to hold onto the ball and it does get a little bit slippery, but that’s something we’re presented with in international cricket where you’ve got to be able to be flexible to bowl with the wet ball or field in those conditions. You got to ride with whatever conditions you’re faced with and that’s adapting to the conditions as best as possible.”