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South Africa ensured their first series win in India in 25 years by building on their lead for nearly five hours. While the declaration, setting India more than they have ever been set at home, seemed a touch conservative, the visitors went to stumps needing eight wickets on the final day to take away all 12 WTC points from this Test and consign India to their second whitewash at home in 12 months after 12 years of spotless series record.As it often happens in such match situations, the same pitch that South Africa batted on, looking untroubled for 70.3 overs, began to look unplayable in the 15.5 India got to play. Marco Jansen didn’t even bother with swing and seam, and began to bounce Yashasvi Jaiswal before getting him out on the cut shot. Simon Harmer, who has out-bowled the home spinners, continued his dream series with a dream offbreak to bowl KL Rahul through the gate, and came desperately close to getting B Sai Sudharsan out lbw.The day began with curiosity around how much South Africa valued the 12 full points from this match vis-a-vis ensuring they give India no chance to threaten their series lead. Turns out they were in no mood for adventure. Especially as the ball started to turn more consistently in the first session of the fourth day than it had done at any point before. Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar got long spells in. Jadeja got Ryan Rickelton caught at extra cover, but then India did what they have struggled to do all Test: get wickets on defensive shots. Jadeja beat Aiden Markram’s outside edge and hit the off stump, Washington got one to bite at Temba Bavuma’s glove and settle in the hands of backward short leg.As three wickets fell for 18 runs, South Africa remained slightly cautious. Tristan Stubbs and Tony de Zorzi, though, managed to keep the threat of spin out with their sweeps and reverse sweeps. After Rishabh Pant missed a stumping off Stubbs, the No. 3 batter limited his options to just the sweeps whenever he wanted to force the pace.3:49

Can India’s youngsters grind out a draw?

Stubbs and de Zorzi added 101 for the fourth wicket, 41 of those in sweeps and reverse sweeps. Like Stubbs in the first innings, de Zorzi fell one short of a fifty, beaten on the sweep for a change. It was mid-afternoon and South Africa led by 466, but they still continued to bat at normal pace.Related

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Only after the lunch break did Stubbs get a move-on to try to complete a Test hundred, but even this charge was not frenetic. The team management gave him all the time as he scored 32 from the last 19 balls he faced, taking the lead past the 542 that Australia attained in Nagpur in 2004. He slog-swept Jadeja to go from 88 to 94, but Jadeja slowed the ball down to beat a repeat attempt. Stubbs still was the highest run-getter in the series (163), and would need a big effort from someone in the final innings to be eclipsed.That effort wasn’t coming from the openers. India have done this to many a visiting side – just when everybody thought they had been too conservative with the declaration, the pitch would magically change its nature and wickets would start falling.Something similar happened when Jansen ran in and started bowling short. In the first over itself, he had Jaiswal fending uncomfortably. One didn’t pop up, the other landed just short of second slip. While Jaiswal managed to ramp him once, he fell to his favourite cut shot again. Since Jaiswal’s debut, nobody has scored more Test runs with the cut off fast bowlers than his 291, but no one has got out as often as his seven times. Nobody has played as many false shots as he has on the cut to the fast bowler: 68. He averages 41.57 on the cut against fast bowlers, but has fallen to this shot four times in his last eight innings.3:19

Saba Karim: Spinners need long spell to set up batters

Rahul was more traditional in the route he took to fight for a draw. He scored just 6 off 30 balls, but the 30th was a bewitching dipping, drifting delivery, which had him playing well away from where he thought it would originally pitch. In panic, he turned his drive into a flick, but it wasn’t enough to plug the gap created between his body and his bat. Harmer was again level with Jansen for most wickets in the series: 12.Harmer came extremely close to taking the lead when he appealed for lbw against Sai Sudharsan. In all likelihood, the on-field call for not-out was down to an inside edge, but the replay showed the ball had hit the pad first. However, the ball tracking returned an umpire’s call on impact, saving Sudharsan to fight another day.India somehow survived the rest of the day but it looked like a wicket could fall anytime. South Africa now have six hours to take eight wickets because the light has consistently dipped by 4pm, not allowing any extra play.

Different India teams for the different formats – that’s been discussed. Harbhajan Singh feels a different coach for T20Is, like England had with Matthew Mott in their run to the T20 World Cup title recently, is the way to go for India, and the man for the job, in his opinion, is Ashish Nehra.”He knows this [T20 cricket] better than” Rahul Dravid, the all-format India coach, Harbhajan feels.”In T20 format you can have someone like Ashish Nehra who recently retired from the game,” Harbhajan told PTI in Abu Dhabi, where he is a part of the Delhi Bulls line-up for the T10 league. “He [Nehra] knows this better than – with all due respect – Rahul.Related

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“We [Dravid and he] have played together for so many years; he has vast knowledge, but this is a tricky format. Someone who has played the game more recently is better suited for the coaching job in T20s. I am not saying you remove Rahul from T20; Ashish and Rahul can work together to build this team for the 2024 World Cup.”Dravid played his last representative match in T20s in October 2013, while Nehra finished up in November 2017. he has since turned to coaching, and was in charge of the back room at Gujarat Titans in the IPL earlier this year, when they won the tournament in their first season.”With such an arrangement [split coaching], it is easy for Rahul as well, who can take a break as well like he did for New Zealand tour and Ashish can do the job in his absence,” Harbhajan said. On the ongoing New Zealand tour, where India won the T20I series, VVS Laxman has filled in for Dravid.‘The approach has to change in the T20 format’
At the recent T20 World Cup, where India exited in the semi-finals after a ten-wicket loss to England, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, the openers, scored 116 and 128 runs respectively, scoring at strikes rates of 106.42 and 120.75. Virat Kohli, at No. 3, was much more impressive, topping the overall scoring chart for the tournament with 296 runs at a strike rate of 136.40. But he, too, failed to up the tempo at times, and there have been suggestions that India need to take a serious look at their top three.KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma failed to up the scoring rate consistently in the powerplay overs•Getty Images

“The approach has to change in the T20 format,” Harbhajan said. “The first six overs are important. If that doesn’t happen, you will be depended on Hardik [Pandya] or Surya [Suryakumar Yadav] for scoring 50 off 20. If they don’t fire, you will end up with a below-par total.”England changed their approach and they have won two World Cups [including the 2019 ODI World Cup]. T20 has to be played like T20 not like ODIs.”Talking specifically about the trio of Rohit, Rahul and Kohli, Harbhajan said, “All the top three need to do is increase their strike rate. It is tough when you bat at 110 or 120 strike and try to make 180. They have to score at least nine runs per over in the first 10-12 overs.”I am no one to comment whether they would want to play [T20Is] or not. They are quality players. If they can remain fit, why not, provided the approach is different. Players can’t be changed overnight, the approach has to change.”

Megan Schutt’s career-best T20I figures, and a crisp half-century from Ellyse Perry opening the batting, spearheaded Australia to a convincing eight-wicket victory in the opening T20I against Pakistan as they began the final build-up to their T20 World Cup title in South Africa last month.Schutt became the fourth Australia bowler to take a five-wicket haul in T20Is and finished with their third-best figures behind Molly Strano (5 for 10) and current team-mate Jess Jonasssen (5 for 12).A target of 119 was always unlikely to challenge Australia and they eased home with 38 balls to spare. Perry, who earlier claimed 2 for 3 from two overs, opening with captain Meg Lanning as Beth Mooney managed what was termed a “niggle” although she had been able to keep throughout Pakistan’s innings.Lanning was beaten by an excellent arm ball from Sadia Iqbal but Perry, dropped on 3 when Iqbal missed a tough return catch, followed her rapid scoring in India – and prolific WNCL form – with a confident 57 off 40 balls which included a six pulled over wide mid-on against a free hit from Fatima Sana.Schutt’s first wicket came courtesy of a superb catch down the leg side by Mooney to remove Bismah Maroof although Australia needed DRS to confirm it had touched the glove. Three balls later Sadaf Shamas spooned to mid-on as Pakistan lost their way after a promising start.Schutt completed her maiden five-wicket haul when she returned at the death, getting Sana taken at cover then top-scorer Omaima Sohail and Tuba Hassan with slower deliveries.However, the single standout moment of Australia’s display in the field was the remarkable return catch snaffled by Alana King from a fiercely struck drive by Nida Dar. King, who barely had time to react, flung out her right hand and even appeared to surprise herself at holding on.King’s figures were only dented marginally in her last over when Ayesha Naseem launched her third six of an impressive counterattack, although King had her revenge.Naseem’s 20-ball innings was the highlight of Pakistan’s display as she showed a boldness that is not always on display. She launched Tahlia McGrath into the fig tree over long-on and played a ferocious pull off Darcie Brown onto the grass bank at midwicket.Brown had an off day which included consecutive no-balls in her opening over and the 34 she conceded was the most of what remains a T20 career in its infancy.It had been Perry, a player at the opposite end of the experience spectrum, who had opened the wicket-taking for Australia with a superb yorker to remove Muneeba Ali which ended a spritely opening stand of 27 in 4.2 overs.In her next over Perry added Javeria Khan via a bottom edge as Pakistan lost 4 for 5 but she wasn’t called upon to bowl again by Lanning who used seven options and that still left Annabel Sutherland not required.

Leaving aside the odd season of injury comebacks, it’s been 15 extraordinary years since James Anderson last went into a home summer as anything other than England’s attack leader. You have to go way back to the India series in 2007, when his second Test five-for at Lord’s hinted at the bowler he was about to come, for the last time Anderson was genuinely out to prove his worth, rather than cement the credentials he had already established.And so it was an oddly cagey Anderson who faced the media in Leicester on Monday, at the behest of the Test sponsors LV= Insurance, but before he’d had any cast-iron assurances that his name will be back in the frame for another Lord’s appearance, when the squad for the first Test against New Zealand is announced on Wednesday.”Until that squad’s picked I’m not counting on anything,” he said. “My job’s to try and prove that I’m in good form, take wickets for Lancashire and help them win games. That’s all I’m bothered about, and then we’ll see what happens whenever the team is announced.”Chicken-counting aside, however, Anderson’s return for his 170th Test appearance, and 96th on home soil, is a given. Not only has he proven his form and fitness on the county circuit – including with the eye-catching dismissal of his former England captain, Joe Root, in last week’s Roses clash – he and his long-term sidekick Stuart Broad are just about the only capped England seamers available to Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum as they prepare to begin their captain-coach alliance in a fortnight’s time.Saqib Mahmood and Matt Fisher, both of whom debuted in Anderson’s and Broad’s absence in the Caribbean, have succumbed to stress fractures, the same complaint that Sam Curran is currently returning from, while Craig Overton and Chris Woakes – who shared the new ball in Antigua in March – are labouring with knee injuries. Jofra Archer and Mark Wood are coming back from elbow operations, and Ollie Robinson – the man who ought to be in possession – has been a fitness concern since struggling through the Hobart Test in January.Anderson and Broad, on the other hand, just keep rumbling on. “I don’t know, it’s just luck I guess,” he said of their longevity. “We still love playing, we’re really hungry to take wickets, and still love that feeling you get from it. I’ve spoken to Stuart a lot over the last few months, we still feel like we’ve got a lot to give the game, whether it’s for Notts or Lancashire, or for England.”Nevertheless, Anderson admitted that, with his 40th birthday approaching in July, his omission for the West Indies tour had caused him to reassess his priorities as he enters his 20th season as an international cricketer.”I definitely questioned it, yeah,” he said. “I talked it through with my family as well, and they saw it as I did, that I feel like I’ve got more to give to the game. The longer time went on, the more I was with the Lancs lads doing pre-season training. I was still doing the gym work, and I wasn’t bored of it. I wanted to be there doing it, irrelevant of what was going to happen in the summer.”If I play the whole season for Lancashire, then great. If I get a Test call-up then brilliant, but at the minute I’m really enjoying playing cricket. It did come into question, I guess – do I want to do I want to carry on? But in my head, I quickly decided I did want to see what happened this year.”James Anderson attended a #Funds4Runs community initiative in Leicester•LV= Insurance/#Funds4Runs

And if there were any residual doubts, then they were emphatically quashed by the 11th and most recent of his first-class wickets this season – the uprooting of Root’s off and middle stumps at Headingley on Sunday, as Anderson’s typically frugal figures of 15-7-17-2 briefly set Lancashire up for a final-day victory push against Yorkshire.”I did enjoy that one, it was nice to get a player of Joe’s quality out,” Anderson said. And it was doubtless all the sweeter given that Root had still been England captain for the Caribbean tour, and therefore was at least complicit in Anderson’s controversial omission.Did he say anything to Root when he got him out? “Absolutely not, no. Didn’t need to. Just pick the two stumps off the ground,” Anderson said. “We do talk. We’ve not fallen out or anything. Yeah, we chatted. I spoke to him before he announced that he was stepping down. There’s still a huge amount of respect between the two of us so there’s no animosity.”The biggest thing for me [on Sunday] was that we were pushing for a win,” Anderson added. “Obviously he got 140 in the first innings; we know how good a player he is. A few of our guys were seeing him up close for the first time and realising how good a player he is; they all commented on it. It was fruitless in the end, but we were pushing hard for that win, and he was the best player so it was nice to get the best player.”Three months after the event, Anderson says he hasn’t had a full explanation for his omission from the Test squad, and still doesn’t know whether there was a perceived issue with his attitude in Australia, where his eight wickets at 23.37 couldn’t prevent a 4-0 series loss. However, with his focus now back on adding to his England-record tally of 640 wickets, his thoughts are firmly fixed on the coming summer, as he hopes to help the new team hierarchy pick the performances up after a torrid 12 months.Related

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“It’s gone now. It’s history. I’m not bothered about what’s gone in the past,” he said. “All I can control is what I do in the future. I’ve got to try to prove that I’m still good enough to play international cricket and keep my fingers crossed that the selectors and the captain think so as well.”I don’t think from a performance point of view my confidence would have taken a knock. I felt like I bowled well in Australia and since I’ve been bowling back in England I’ve felt like I’m in good shape and bowling well. So from that point of view I feel like I know what I’m doing and I don’t think that will change, really.”I guess you do start questioning other things when that sort of thing happens – is it something I’ve done around the group or whatever else? I guess that’s the one thing that you start thinking about. But when it comes to cricket I’m pretty confident that I’m doing okay.”Anderson will be reassured too by the vote of confidence he received from Stokes after his accession to the Test captaincy, and is ready to return the compliment after seeing glimpses of his leadership style during the Ashes campaign.”He’s a natural leader and the lads all look up to him in the dressing-room,” Anderson said. “When he’s had the opportunity to be captain… I think there was maybe an hour in Australia, and you could see he’s got a real good tactical brain on him. He’s the hardest trainer in the group and sets the example of how to be an international cricketer.”We’re at quite a low point at the minute as a Test side. Where we are in the Test championship, we’re going to have to do something serious to be able to turn it around and get back up towards where we want to be, towards the top. I don’t think that necessarily happens overnight. But with Brendon and Ben, we’re never going to take a backward step. It could be a really exciting time for English cricket.”James Anderson and other England cricketers surprised Leicester Electricity Sports Cricket Club during an inter-squad friendly game organised by Test partners LV= Insurance. The club will receive support to train a new coach and relaunch their women’s team as part of LV= and the ECB’s commitment to support 4000 coaches through their #Funds4Runs community initiative. Visit Funds4Runs for more information

What does it tell you about a team when they post their highest total in an ODI World Cup in one game and their lowest in the tournament in 17 years in the next? “There’s no explanation,” according to Smriti Mandhana, but it’s clear that India’s batting is inconsistent, an issue that troubled them in the past World Cup cycle too.”Well, if I had an explanation, I would have definitely discussed in the team dressing room, but I wouldn’t say there’s any explanation because you cannot really… there’s no explanation we can give for something like that,” Mandhana said ahead of Saturday’s big contest against Australia.Related

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Going from 317 in a 144-run win over West Indies to 134 in a four-wicket loss to England was bad enough, but made worse by the fact that the defeat has pushed India towards a league-stage elimination.”In the series [against New Zealand last month], our batters were really doing well. We were getting a good total on board,” Mandhana, who scored 123 against West Indies and 35 against England, said. “But, yeah, in the last four matches, our batting unit together hasn’t clicked and that’s something which we all really want to work on, and I’m sure there will be a perfect game for the batters.”Of course, our bowlers are doing [an] amazing job. They just need a little more support from the batters to get the ‘W’ on the board.”In all of India’s four outings so far at this World Cup, two of which they have won, wickets falling in clusters has been a feature. Mandhana stressed the need for set batters, including herself, to show more judiciousness with their approach, something Mithali Raj, too, had underlined ahead of the start of the tournament.”We have been losing wickets back to back and that’s something which we, as a batting unit, want to address,” Mandhana said. “Fifty-overs [cricket] is all about partnerships, good partnerships, so we definitely want to work on it. As set batters, it’s more responsibility on that batter to take the game forward from that time when you know you’re able to time the ball well.”That’s something I’ll be really conscious about, that we don’t lose wickets back to back and develop a partnership from there, because one or two good partnerships [and] we’ll be able to post a total which will be a good one to defend.”Mandhana, like Jhulan Goswami, backed allrounder Deepti Sharma to make bigger contributions with the bat than her returns of 5, 15, and 0 that have followed her 40 in India’s tournament opener.”See, when you come to a tournament or go to [bilateral] series, not all batters are going to be able to bat in a certain way,” Mandhana said. “She [Deepti] scored a good 40 runs in the first match. But yeah, in last three matches, she was not able to contribute. But I’m sure that she’s just one game away from getting a good score.”As a batting unit, we are just there to back everyone because it’s not that every day all the seven batters are going to click. So our thing is, whoever two or three [batters] are getting to time the ball well, it’s their responsibility to play the 50 overs and get to a respectable total.”The Australia vs India game will be the first at Auckland’s Eden Park at this World Cup. Rain is forecast for Saturday, and Mandhana said India have that “at the back of our mind”.1:48

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Only a win for India can delay Australia’s entry into the semi-finals, while a loss would further dent, though not entirely wipe out, India’s chances of qualifying. A no-result will leave Australia at the top of the table, while India will remain in fourth place.According to Australia head coach Matthew Mott, it will be a “fast bouncy wicket”, which will mean that the teams will rely heavily on their quicks, especially in the powerplay.”We will certainly be encouraging everyone to be aggressive at the start. We want to take early wickets, which we’ve done pretty well throughout the tournament,” Mott said. “But if they do get on top, there’s some Plan Bs and Cs that we’ve got up our sleeve – whether it’s wide, wide lines or change in pace.”Every bowler in our squad is very different. So when Meg [Lanning, the captain] asks them to bowl, [it’s about] making sure they’re really clear on what their job is at the time. And that’s really important for our structure. So, with a number of bowling options, it does give Meg plenty of opportunity to be flexible – shorter spells, if there’s a wind up, certain bowlers might bowl into it.”Having come in from Wellington in the last couple of days, where the conditions have been quite disruptive at times with big winds and gusts, I think our bowling group are pretty good to adapt to these conditions as well.”

Big picture

It’s pretty straightforward, as Wayne Parnell put it: South Africa are in the knockout stages. They must beat Netherlands to go through to the semi-finals and if you’d said that pre-tournament, many would have thought the conclusion foregone, but this has been a World Cup of surprises and perhaps there’s one more?Netherlands looked to be steadily improving from the first round, when they nearly toppled Bangladesh in their Super 12 opener, but then they ran into India and Pakistan and came apart. Had they also lost to Zimbabwe, they might have considered this campaign something of a waste, but they rallied and now have the opportunity to bow out on a high – and do Pakistan a favour.If Netherlands beat South Africa in first of three Group 2 games on Sunday, Pakistan only need to beat Bangladesh to go through to the semi-finals. If South Africa win, the result of the second match between Pakistan and Bangladesh will dictate what India have to do to ensure they qualify. That’s a lot of ifs before we even get to wondering what kind of contest this will be.South Africa and Netherlands have only played one T20I against each other but they have some recent history. Netherlands were in South Africa for a three-match World Cup Super League ODI series last November, when the omicron variant of Covid-19 hit and they left the tour early, but not before taking 10 points off South Africa in a washed-out match. South Africa will host Netherlands again in April 2023 and those matches are crucial to ensuring their automatic qualification for the ODI World Cup so there’s some wider context to the clash. And there’s also the obvious niggle: Netherlands are coached by a South African – Ryan Cook – and have as many as four South African-born players in their squad. Even if South Africa may not know much about the Dutch approach in the shortest format, they will know plenty about the players involved.For South Africa, their blueprint has mostly worked but there’s still work to do in the batting department. They will view this game as a final opportunity to get the likes of Temba Bavuma and Tristan Stubbs into form and a chance to make a statement about whether they can justify the favourites’ tag placed on them just a few days ago.Temba Bavuma’s batting form is still a concern for South Africa•Getty Images

Form guide

South Africa LWWWL(last five completed matches, most recent first)
NetherlandsWLLLL

In the spotlight

In a pace pack that seems to have it all, Kagiso Rabada has flown under the radar. He has taken only two wickets from four matches so far and has the highest economy rate of any of the South African bowlers. In dealing with swing from Parnell, pace from Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi’s slew of slower balls, line-ups have identified Rabada as a bowler they can target, which is unlikely to sit well with him. Although he has long shied away from being called the leader of the attack, Rabada is South Africa’s most experienced bowler, and he will want to turn in a big performance as the tournament approaches the business end.It had to be a South African expat and though Roelof van der Merwe is the headliner, Colin Ackermann is a player many will be interested in as he plays his first T20I against his home country. Ackermann made his name as a red-ball player in South Africa and, with a first-class average over 40, there was much consternation when it turned out that he was unavailable for national selection. He hasn’t had quite the same impact in shorter formats, with just 96 runs from his four ODIs and a T20I average under 25. He has had a fairly quiet tournament so far, apart from a 62 against Bangladesh, and should see this match as a final opportunity to go out with a bang.

Team news

David Miller sat out the match against Pakistan with lower back spasms and South Africa will be keen to get him up and running as soon as he is fit. If that’s in this game, Tristan Stubbs may miss out with Heinrich Klaasen retaining his place. South Africa may also bring back Keshav Maharaj at the expense of one of the quicks.South Africa: : (possible) 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Temba Bavuma, 3 Rilee Rossouw, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 David Miller, 6 Heinrich Klaasen/Tristan Stubbs 7 Wayne Parnell, 8 Keshav Maharaj/ Anrich Nortje, 9 Lungi Ngidi, 10 Tabraiz Shamsi, 11 Kagiso RabadaAfter a convincing win over Zimbabwe, Netherlands are likely to go in unchanged.Netherlands: 1 Stephan Myburgh, 2 Max O’Dowd, 3 Tom Cooper, 4 Colin Ackermann, 5 Bas de Leede, 6 Scott Edwards (capt, wk), 7 Roelof van der Merwe, 8 Logan van Beek, 9 Fred Klaassen, 10 Paul van Meekeren, 11 Brandon Glover

Pitch and conditions

An early start may prove challenging for the batters because the ball won’t skid on as it does at night. Expect inconsistent bounce and a slowish start, although runs may come from the short, square boundaries. The surface also won’t offer the quicks as much as some of the other venues, which could take the sting out of the contest to some degree. There’s been rain in the lead-up to this match but Sunday’s forecast is clear.

Stats and trivia

• South Africa and Netherlands have met once in a T20I before, at the 2014 World Cup. South Africa won by six runs.
• In four matches at this venue so far in this World Cup, the average first innings score is 164, and the chasing team has only won once.

Quotes

“It’s a crucial game for us. In T20 cricket, teams get closer. We still have to play well to beat them. They are a quality side. They’ve shown they can play good cricket. Hopefully it’s only in patches and if we bring our A game, I reckon we should have enough.”
“We do understand the significance of the game if we do beat South Africa. But obviously for us it’s just playing a game and beating South Africa, so we don’t think too far outside of that. But we just have to do what we’ve done well, and if we do that well against South Africa, you never know, we might have a good day against them.”

Rohit Sharma has been ruled out of the Test leg of India’s tour of South Africa with an injury to his left hamstring. The Gujarat opener Priyank Panchal has been drafted into the squad as his replacement.ESPNcricinfo has learned that Rohit suffered the injury during a net session before the India squad entered quarantine in Mumbai, from where they are scheduled to travel to South Africa this week.For Rohit, this is the second major tour affected by injury in the last 12 months. He only featured in the third and fourth Tests of India’s 2020-21 tour of Australia, missing the first two Tests due to a hamstring injury picked up during IPL 2020.Related

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Rohit’s absence will be a blow to India’s preparations given he has been their highest Test run-getter in 2021, and one of only two batters – Rishabh Pant being the other – with a 40-plus average from 10 or more innings. Since moving to the top of the order during the home series against South Africa in 2019, Rohit has scored 1462 runs in 16 Tests at an average of 58.48, with five centuries including, most recently, a Player-of-the-Match-winning 127 in India’s win at The Oval in September.KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal are the other openers in India’s Test squad apart from the uncapped Panchal.Rohit had also been named vice-captain of the Test squad, apart from taking over as full-time captain in the white-ball formats.It remains to be seen if India will hand the vice-captaincy back to the out-of-form Ajinkya Rahane, or name a new deputy to Virat Kohli. It is learned that the selectors are deliberating over Rohit’s availability for the three ODIs that follow the Test series. A decision is likely to be taken this week.Priyank Panchal captained India A in two of their three recent four-day games in South Africa•Cricket South Africa

This isn’t Panchal’s maiden call-up to the Test squad. Earlier this year he was part of an extended India squad that took on England in four Tests at home. Panchal, who is 31 and leads Gujarat in domestic cricket, was among the reserve openers for that series alongside Abhimanyu Easwaran.While Panchal is a relative unknown to the wider public, he has been one of the regulars for India A over the last few years. A veteran of 100 first-class matches, Panchal was most-recently part of India A’s shadow tour of South Africa, where he captained the team in two of the three four-day games in Bloemfontein. He made scores of 96, 24 and 0 in his three innings on tour.Panchal’s stocks rose significantly since his breakout Ranji Trophy season in 2016-17, where he topped the run charts with 1310 runs in 17 innings at an average of 87.33. His first-class highest, an unbeaten 314, came against Punjab that season. Those runs were part of a historic run for Gujarat, who clinched their maiden Ranji Trophy title. Following Parthiv Patel’s retirement last year, Panchal took over the Gujarat captaincy.

Tim Paine has admitted he believed the texting scandal that has cost him the Australian Test captaincy was a ticking time bomb that was always going to become public at some point.The ramifications of Paine’s resignation from the captaincy are continuing to flow in Australian cricket in the Ashes lead up, with the search for a new captain to include background checks for possible integrity issues.Paine was cleared of any misconduct in a 2018 integrity unit investigation, after he sent lewd messages and a graphic image to a Cricket Tasmania colleague.Cricket Australia chairman Richard Freudenstein and CEO Nick Hockley on Saturday admitted they would have axed Paine as captain had they been in charge at the time. But they defended the inaction since, claiming they’d felt no need to delve deeper into the investigation after being made aware of it when they joined the organisation in 2019 and 2020 respectively.However, Paine has conceded he always felt the issue could come to the fore, after previously being aware of other attempts for the story to be revealed publicly.Related

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“I thought the issue was dealt with, but it always popped up around a big series, or at the start of the cricket season,” Paine said in a interview beside his wife Bonnie. “Over the last three years, there have been numerous times where media agencies have put to us that they had evidence, yet they never chose to write it.”But I knew it was going to come out at some point, as much as I didn’t want it to.”Paine remains adamant that the 2017 messages between he and the colleague were fully consensual, and he only became aware there was an issue when a complaint was lodged six months later.By that point he had been appointed Test captain, with the integrity unit interviews taking place before the white-ball tour to England in mid-2018. He did not believe the existence of the messages were a reason not to accept the captaincy long-term.”Because it was a consensual exchange of messages months beforehand, I didn’t think it was anything to consider,” he said. “I never thought for a moment that it would become an issue. I was just excited and honoured to be asked.”He is also certain he can continue as a player in Australia’s Test team, having indicated the home Ashes summer had been his target for potential retirement.Tim Paine insists he will be able to play in the Ashes•Getty Images

“I see that as the ultimate high, to be able to finish your Test career after winning an Ashes series in Australia,” Paine said. “That’s the dream. That’s what I want to do.”Asked if he can play in an Ashes series, which would come with huge scrutiny even without a controversy hanging over him, Paine said: “Yep, I’m sure I can.”He revealed that head coach had initially tried to persuaded him to continue and that he does not believe any of his team-mates knew about the messages.”JL [Justin Langer] told me he’s devastated,” Paine said. “He was pretty firm that he wanted me to continue as captain, and again, once I explained to him the reasons that I thought resigning was the best thing to do, he was with me all the way.”Regardless, Paine’s admissions bring into question why new CA management did not look further into the 2018 investigation if there had always been fears the story would resurface.In stating his board would have acted differently, Freudenstein claimed on Saturday the Australian captain should be held to the highest account for his actions. However, he defended his organisation’s handover process, given the CEO, seven directors and several other key executives have changed since the 2018 investigation.”Once you have a private matter that has been subject to a full integrity unit investigation, it wouldn’t be normal for that to be part of the handover,” Freudenstein said.”All I can say is the whole current Australian cricket board, including those members that were on the board in 2018, are very clear that if the same circumstances arose today, we would make a different decision.”

Tabraiz Shamsi will miss the men’s Hundred final to play for Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL, in the latest blow to a competition that will be short on international quality in the knockout stages.Shamsi, the South African left-arm wristspinner, has taken five wickets in his six appearances in the Hundred this season, playing for Trent Rockets as a replacement for Rashid Khan.He was one of the few remaining overseas players in the men’s Hundred who is part of his country’s first-choice T20 side, but has left ahead of Guyana’s opening CPL game on Saturday and will miss the final at Lord’s as a result.Rockets will not be permitted to sign another replacement, as teams can only use players who were registered in the group stages during knockout games in the Hundred. Regulations were changed for this season after Tim David, a last-minute signing, made a game-changing intervention in the inaugural final.Marchant de Lange, the South African fast bowler, is available to fill Rockets’ third overseas slot alongside Colin Munro and Daniel Sams, but is yet to feature this season and Andy Flower may see Matthew Carter, the offspinner, as a more direct replacement for Shamsi.Related

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Shamsi’s departure continues a worrying trend for the competition as a whole, which has been shorn of its star names as the group stages have worn on. London Spirit, who will play in Friday night’s eliminator at the Ageas Bowl, will use only two of their permitted three overseas players in the knockout stages in Ben McDermott and Nathan Ellis.Kieron Pollard made six appearances for them before leaving for the CPL, Glenn Maxwell played four games before returning to Australia for an ODI series against Zimbabwe, and his replacement Josh Inglis made a single appearance before he was called up to Australia’s squad as injury cover.Spirit will play the winner of Manchester Originals’ game against Oval Invincibles in the eliminator, both of whom are without several of their first-choice overseas players.Originals have lost Wanindu Hasaranga (denied an NOC), Andre Russell (CPL) and Sean Abbott (Australia duty) at various stages and fielded Tristan Stubbs, Ashton Turner and Josh Little as their overseas trio in their last game against Birmingham Phoenix on Sunday.Invincibles, meanwhile, are without Sunil Narine (CPL) and Mohammad Hasnain (Pakistan duty) and picked Rilee Rossouw, Hilton Cartwright and Peter Haztoglou in their win against Spirit at Lord’s on Saturday.

Australia quick Tayla Vlaeminck has returned to Melbourne Renegades, signing a two-year deal despite the fact she is unavailable for next season’s WBBL due to a foot stress fracture.Vlaeminck returns to Renegades where she started her WBBL career and played three seasons before moving to Hobart Hurricanes. She has returned to Melbourne to rejoin close friends Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham at the club.”I’m really excited that I’ve decided to come back to the Renegades,” Vlaeminck said. “It’s enticing to be back at home and close to family and friends. I’ve grown up with ‘Soph’ and ‘Wolf’ and a lot of the girls. I obviously played at the Renegades with a lot of the girls beforehand as well, so I know everyone really well and hopefully, it’s going to be an easy transition back into the team.”Vlaeminck has been ruled out of cricket for a year following another navicular stress fracture in her foot which she suffered in January during the early stages of the Ashes and meant she missed the ODI World Cup. It was the second consecutive global event injury had curtailed for her after she withdrew from the 2020 T20 World Cup.She will not play in the WBBL for Renegades in the first year of her two-year deal but will rehab under their watch. Part of her recovery to strengthen her feet has included working with The Australian Ballet.”We’re starting to make good progress now, which is nice,” Vlaeminck said. “I obviously won’t be playing this season but hopefully I’ll be able to contribute off the field, still get around the girls and help out some of the bowlers and look to play the following year, which is exciting.””Training at the ballet is something completely different…it’s been kind of cool to get into a different high-performance environment to see how that works and grab a few little things here and there which I can hopefully bring back to cricket.”Melbourne Renegades general manager James Rosengarten said Vlaeminck’s signing was a long-term investment.”Tayla won’t play this year as she continues her recovery, but we’re committed to supporting her through this period,” Rosengarten said. “She already has strong relationships at the club and we know she will be a great asset to our group off the field too.”Our list strategy is not only about building our squad for WBBL08, but to set us up to challenge over a sustained period. To have the likes of Tayla, Sophie and Georgia locked in beyond this season is fantastic and we look forward to adding more talent ahead of the season.”