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KL Rahul has been drafted in as the 16th member of India’s squad that will tour Zimbabwe for three ODIs between August 18 and 22. Rahul will also captain the squad, with Shikhar Dhawan, who was earlier set to lead, now named his deputy.Rahul’s inclusion follows a clearance from BCCI’s medical team that has earlier advised a two-week post-Covid-19 recovery time frame. Rahul is believed to have contracted the virus a week prior to his scheduled departure for the West Indies mid-July, for the five match T20I-series. Last week, Rahul was named in India’s full-strength squad for the Asia Cup that will be held in UAE from August 27.Since recovering from Covid, Rahul has had to pass the mandatory cardiovascular test following which he has slowly amped up his training routine. ESPNcricinfo understands Rahul has resumed batting and training full tilt over the past week, following which he underwent a medical assessment. Prior to contracting Covid, Rahul had been recovering from a surgery he underwent for sports hernia in Germany in June.Rahul hasn’t played any competitive cricket since IPL 2022, where he led debutant-franchise Lucknow Super Giants to the playoffs. He was initially set to be part of the England tour party for the fifth Test in Birmingham in early July, but had to pull out due to a groin strain, which was later revealed as a sports hernia.This will be Rahul’s second stint as India captain. His first stint was far from memorable, with India being blanked 3-0 in the ODIs in South Africa earlier this year.

Injury scare for Washington Sundar

Washington Sundar, who is also part of the squad, suffered an injury scare on Wednesday. In the midst of a stint with English county Lancashire, Washington landed heavily on his left shoulder after diving from mid-on to stop a drive in a Royal London Cup fixture against Worcestershire. He left the field immediately and didn’t take any further part in the match as a precautionary measure. Washington is likely to link up with India’s squad directly in Harare after Lancashire’s clash against Hampshire on Sunday.Like Rahul, Washington too has had a run of injuries this year. In February, he was sidelined from the West Indies and Sri Lanka T20Is at home due to a hamstring injury. During the IPL, he injured his bowling hand while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He then underwent a month-long rehabilitation at the NCA in June and it is understood he had a shoulder issue to sort out before making his County Championship debut.The Indian team will depart for Zimbabwe later this week. All three ODIs will be played at Harare Sports Club, with the hosts on a high after an impressive 2-1 win over Bangladesh. While the series is part of the ICC World Cup Super League and massively important for Zimbabwe – finishing in the top eight on the Super League table means direct qualification to the World Cup – India qualify for next year’s World Cup automatically by virtue of being the hosts.Updated India squad: KL Rahul (captain) Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Deepak Chahar.

Hasan Ali has been dropped from both Pakistan’s squad for the ODI series in the Netherlands as well for the Asia Cup T20Is later this month. Naseem Shah has been named in both squads. Shaheen Shah Afridi, who missed the second Test in Sri Lanka last month because of a knee injury, has been included in both squads, with a PCB statement saying, “his rehabilitation programme will be overseen by the team trainer and physiotherapist, who will also decide on his return to international cricket”.Babar Azam continues to be in charge of both the set-ups, with Shadab Khan as his deputy.Hasan’s form across formats in the last year has been middling at best, with his T20I bowling strike rate moving to 23.2; he has picked up eight wickets in nine games in this period. In the three ODIs he has played in the last 12 months – all at home between March and June this year – he averaged 76.50 with the ball, picking up two wickets overall. Earlier this year, in the PSL, he had a bowling average of 40.55 and had an economy rate of 10.84 as he got nine wickets in nine games for Islamabad United.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“We have done our homework, especially for the players who have served Pakistan well and have won so many games for the country,” Mohammad Wasim, the men’s chief selector, said when asked about Hasan. “To give them a longer run is a part of the plan, but then there is the stage when you realise that now is the time we think he needs a break for his own and the team’s betterment.”So we had a similar thought process with Hasan Ali, to give him an extended run, but now we think he needs to regather himself and return as a match-winner. We hope going forward we will find the same old Hasan Ali.”It has been a downward spiral for Hasan since last year’s T20 World Cup, where he dropped a catch that could, potentially, have won Pakistan the semi-final against Australia. He ended the tournament with five wicket in six bowling innings, at an average of 41.40 and an economy rate of 9.00.Naseem, who has never played ODIs or T20Is, has taken Hasan’s place after a good performance in the two Tests in Sri Lanka last month, when he picked up seven wickets on not-very-helpful pitches. Naseem had struggled with fitness issues till recently, but has come back stronger.”Naseem Shah is a quality bowler, and we have seen him in domestic white-ball cricket,” Wasim said. “He has got express pace and we wanted to include an attacking option; it is important to take wickets in white0ball cricket. He has that ability. He can swing the ball, he has got pace, and if we talk about his temperament, we have seen the evidence in Tests.”He was a good replacement for Hasan Ali, and we hope he can take his success from red-ball to white-ball cricket.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Agha Salman, the middle-order batter who made his international debut in the Test series against Sri Lanka last month, now has a chance of making his ODI debut in the Netherlands.The selectors have also kept faith in PSL sensational Mohammad Haris, the wicketkeeper-batter, for the ODIs. He made his debut in the home series against West Indies in June, but failed both the times he got a chance to bat, scoring 6 and 0 from the middle order.He has, however, been identified as the back-up to Mohammad Rizwan behind the stumps, which will likely ensure more opportunities, at least in the short term. Haris shot to prominence at PSL 7, scoring 166 runs in five innings at a strike rate of over 185 for Peshawar Zalmi. At the 50-over Pakistan Cup last year, he scored 289 runs in eight innings at an average of 41.28 and strike rate of over 100 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.The selected players will assemble in Lahore on August 6 for a six-day training camp. The ODI side will leave for Amsterdam in the wee hours of August 12 for the three-ODI series – the matches are on August 16, 18 and 21, all in Rotterdam – and the T20I specialists will reach Dubai on August 22, where they will be joined by the T20I members of the ODI squad.

James Anderson has called for English cricket to “redress the balance” between red- and white-ball formats, throwing his weight behind Joe Root’s demand for a “reset” in priorities.In the aftermath of England’s innings defeat in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, which saw Australia take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series and retain the Ashes, Root implicitly criticised the standard of County Championship cricket and said that a third successive thrashing in an away Ashes series should prompt changes in England’s approach to developing Test cricketers.”It’s a big part of where the game is at in our country right now that the only place you can really learn [to play Test cricket] is in the hardest environment for what is quite a young batting group,” he said. “You look back at 2015 and the reset that happened in white-ball cricket, and maybe that’s something that needs to be happening in our red-ball game as well.”Anderson, speaking to reporters at England’s optional training session in Melbourne on Thursday following another round of PCR tests, echoed Root’s comments and admitted that England’s recent performances had been “inconsistent”.Related

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“What I will say is, I think that there has been a big push with white-ball cricket since the 2015 World Cup,” Anderson said. “So I just would like to think that maybe the balance between red- and white-ball cricket is there, going forward. At the minute, it’s tipped slightly towards white-ball, and it has been for the last few years.”If you look at our performances in Test cricket over the last few years, they’ve been pretty inconsistent. So, from that point of view we can hopefully just redress that balance a little bit.”The standard of the county game has come under fire in the early stages of the inquest into England’s defeat but Anderson denied that it had dropped since his first-class debut in 2002. However, having taken 41 first-class wickets at 8.87 for Lancashire since the start of 2019, he suggested that the standard of pitches has dropped in recent years.Anderson has taken 41 first-class wickets for Lancashire at 8.87 across the last three years•Getty Images

“I don’t think [the standard has dropped],” he said. “There’s a bit more cricket now, I guess. There are more competitions to think about.”I think that the one thing for me is that potentially the wickets aren’t as good as they used to be. You see a lot more result pitches now in county cricket. So perhaps, with the bigger picture, that’s something we can think about in the future.”Anderson also gave Root his backing to continue as captain and said that England would need to “block out what’s happening off the field” in the final two Tests, with seven members of the wider touring party testing positive for Covid-19 in recent days.”Everyone thinks so highly of him [Root],” he said. “Not just as a bloke but as a cricketer, and as a captain. So yes, hopefully he will continue.”We are just hoping it’s not spreading any further and we can make sure everyone is safe and able to travel to Sydney. We’re trying to control the spread as much as possible and use the safety protocols around the hotel.”It’s not ideal but it’s been that sort of tour. Something has been happening all the time. We have to restore some pride and try and compete – that’s our main focus as players. We have to block out what’s happening off the field and focus on the fourth and fifth Tests.”It can be difficult at times, especially for guys experiencing the Ashes for the first time who are not that experienced with Test cricket and touring. That’s where the more senior players come in, we have to try and rally round, make sure everyone is in a good place and a good headspace.”

Graham Thorpe, England men’s assistant coach, will head up the advance party’s preparations for the Ashes, when the Test specialists and Lions arrive in Australia this weekend.Thorpe will stand in for head coach Chris Silverwood while England’s white-ball squad complete their T20 World Cup campaign in the UAE, with the tour party due to undergo 14 days of quarantine on the Gold Coast, before moving to Brisbane to play two intra-squad warm-up matches later in the month.The extended squad, including the 15-man Lions party, is due to arrive in Australia on Saturday, a month in advance of the first Test at the Gabba, starting on December 8. They will undergo three days of hard quarantine, but have been granted an exemption to undertake socially distanced training at Carrara’s Metricon Stadium from November 10-20.Thorpe will be assisted in this initial period by Jon Lewis, the ECB’s elite pace bowling coach, along with Carl Hopkinson (fielding coach), Bruce French (wicketkeeping consultant) and Jonathan Trott (batting consultant), all of whom will remain with the Lions squad. Kent’s Min Patel and Nottinghamshire’s Ant Botha have also been seconded from the county network to assist with the tour.Related

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England’s former bowling coach, Troy Cooley – who played a key role in honing England’s pace attack ahead of the 2005 Ashes – is understood to have been recruited to assist with the squad’s build-up to the first Test, with an announcement expected in the coming days.The coaching staff will be completed once the white-ball squad has completed its own quarantine period, with Silverwood due to be joined by Paul Collingwood, Jeetan Patel and James Foster, all of whom are currently in Sharjah preparing for England’s final group match against South Africa on Saturday, with their place in the semi-finals all but certain.Speaking from England’s white-ball camp in the UAE, Collingwood welcomed the chance to get stuck into the next leg of their winter campaign.”We’ve got two exciting parts of our cricketing history and that’s the T20 World Cup and the Ashes,” Collingwood said. “I’m very much looking forward to being a part of it.”I’ll be 100% honest, I’m not great with bubble life, I don’t really enjoy it that much, but I’m hoping Australia is going to have a little bit more freedom out there to go and enjoy the country and the cricket, because to be successful out there is hard work but it’s very satisfying if you do well.”The ECB and Cricket Australia, in consultation with Australia’s state and federal governments, agreed to a number of measures to enable the Ashes to take place this winter in spite of the country’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions, including an allowance for families to join the tour. While Collingwood was grateful for the concessions, he warned that the use of bio-secure environments for international tours could not last indefinitely.”I think world cricket has done really well so far, in terms of how much bubble life we’ve done,” he said. “We all cope in different ways. It’s tough. Being very honest, I’m not sure how much more bubble life world cricket can take – not just the England team, I’m saying world cricket here.”We’re going to have to look closely at mental welfare moving forwards. I don’t think it can continue for too much longer,” Collingwood added. “I think a lot of players and management around the world are close to capacity in terms of how much they can take with this. Hopefully the hierarchy look into it and in the future we find ways that we’re not so restricted.”It puts a lot of pressure on, not just individuals, but families as well. It can be tough at times but we’re here to help each other out in these environments and hopefully have some good friends in here that help you out when you have some dark days.”England Ashes Coaching Team
Head coach: Chris Silverwood
Assistant coaches: Paul Collingwood, Graham Thorpe
Elite pace bowling: Jon Lewis
Elite spin bowling: Jeetan Patel
Wicketkeeping consultant: James FosterEngland support and Lions Coaching Team
Elite Fielding coach: Carl Hopkinson
Batting consultant: Jonathan Trott
Wicketkeeping consultant: Bruce French
Coaching consultant: Ant Botha
Spin-bowling consultant: Min Patel

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead has cautioned captain Kane Williamson against “over-hitting” in the nets after his elbow complaint flared up during the warm-up fixtures in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup. Williamson captained the side and fielded during New Zealand’s most recent warm-up against England on Wednesday, but didn’t bat in their pursuit of 164.Williamson missed New Zealand’s first warm-up, against Netherlands, with a niggly hamstring. He then came back in against Australia, top-scoring for New Zealand with 37 off 30 balls, but aggravated his elbow, a problem that he has been managing in the recent past.”I think we’re still pretty hopeful and confident that if we get the rest right, initially here now, and get that balance right then he should be right to play,” Stead said. “I mean Kane is a prodigious hitter of balls, he loves to prepare that way as well, and in some ways that’s probably the worst thing he can do, is over-hit at times. So, it’s really [about] getting that balance right, between feeling ready and feeling prepared to go, and making sure we don’t aggravate anything any further.”Mark Chapman also missed the game against Netherlands with a hamstring niggle but slotted into the middle order against England, although he was dismissed for 1 off 5 balls. Meanwhile, Tim Seifert, who had suffered an abdominal strain, returned to his dual role of opening the batting and wicketkeeping on Wednesday.”Good to have Tim [Seifert] back, he just had a very minor abdominal strain and so he’s recovered well,” Stead said. “Played full part today and no issues at all. Mark [Chapman] had his first run back for a while as well and got through the games nicely, so again we will see how he scrubs up tomorrow morning when the physio looks at him; just to check over where he’s at. Kane’s elbow has just flared up a little bit after the last match and so it was more precautionary than anything. We just feel if we can get his preparation right in terms of not over-hitting and aggravating it through training, then it gives him the best chance to be right through the tournament. I think on the whole we’re tracking pretty well.”Stead was particularly wary of the Sharjah pitches that were relaid ahead of the UAE leg of the IPL. He admitted that Sharjah tracks could pose a greater challenge to the batters than the ones in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. New Zealand will open their T20 World Cup campaign against Pakistan in Sharjah and will play one more match, against a qualifier from the first round, at the venue.”Yes, it looks that way from what we’ve seen,” Stead said. “Look, they [teams] haven’t played there since the semi-finals of the IPL, so there’s probably about a ten-day period there where, who knows, it could be better and even through the IPL we saw, I think, where KKR scored 170 there in one game as well. So sometimes you don’t want to overthink what it might be, but you do want an idea at the back of your mind how you believe it will play. And we have that in our mind now, we just have to make sure we’re really clear on our strategy around how we get there and adapt if we need to.”Stead wasn’t too perturbed by New Zealand’s back-to-back defeats in the official warm-ups against Australia and England, reckoning his side got the game-time they needed.”Certainly not the result of them – hasn’t [affected us] at all,” he said. “We had the game against Australia that went down to the last couple of balls. I think from our perspective we didn’t bowl out all of our bowlers we thought would bowl at the time and I know Australia sent in an opening batsman to come in at No.9 as well, which you normally wouldn’t see in that situation.”Versus England, I think it was little bit more of bowling… we wanted to make sure [Daryl] Mitchell and [Glenn] Phillips had an over, for example, and just making sure they were ready if they do get the opportunity further down the track. So, there’s a lot of things: we retired Daryl Mitchell in one of them as well, so it’s really about us trying to get the best out of the warm-up games – what we felt that we needed. And overall, we got that, which was really good.”

Alyssa Healy is looking towards Rohit Sharma for a formula to find cross-format success opening the batting as she prepares for the multi-format series against India that will include a pink-ball Test.Healy, who has played four previous Tests, admitted it will be a challenge to prepare for the format amid the condensed series with the additional elements of the game being day-night plus a venue they haven’t played at before in Metricon Stadium adding to the uncertainty. There has already been an emphasis on the Test with Australia’s first post-quarantine training session being against the pink ball.Australia were part of the previous day-night Test, against England during the 2017-18 Ashes, where Ellyse Perry made a double century at North Sydney Oval during which Healy was part of a 102-run stand.For her first three Tests, including that game against England, Healy batted in the middle-order but the last time Australia took the field in the format, during the 2019 Ashes, Healy was promoted to open which brought her a maiden Test half-century and it appears likely she will continue in the role.In that game Healy opened with Nicole Bolton who is no longer part of the set-up so a new opener will need to be found with either Rachael Haynes or Beth Mooney the likely options.Related

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“It’s a tricky one because I’ve only played four Tests so I wouldn’t say I’m overly comfortable with how to play or how to approach a Test,” Healy said at a Fox Cricket launch event for the series. “From my point of view, I don’t think it’s going to change too much from my one-day international batting. I think the ability to give yourself more time is such a blessing.”I look at the modern Test game and see how it’s changed quite a lot. I watch a lot of the men’s cricket and I look at someone like Rohit Sharma who is one of the most devastating white-ball batters in the world and yet he’s a really successful opener in Test cricket. So for me, I said look at somebody like him and think about how he translates those skills across all the formats, could I potentially replicate that somehow?”Healy, who has faced some spicy pre-season nets against her New South Wales team-mates Stella Campbell and Maitlan Brown, is prepared for the need to adapt quickly during the multi-format series, both in terms of the conditions on offer at Mackay (ODIs) and Metricon (Tests and T20Is) and in terms of what India will throw at them.Alyssa Healy made her maiden Test fifty opening the innings against England in 2019•Getty Images

The teams have had some see-sawing battles in recent years, most notably at the 2017 ODI World Cup where India dumped Australia out in the semi-final and then last year’s T20 World Cup where India took the opening match, on the back of Poonam Yadav’s spell, to throw the group stage wide open before Australia claimed the historic final with a huge victory.Yadav did not play the Test against England earlier this year and was not at her best in the limited-overs matches although found more rhythm as the series went on.”Sometimes a bit of the unknown and the unpredictable nature of India makes them incredibly dangerous. They’ve picked a few new players that we haven’t seen before on this tour,” Healy said. “So they always love throwing something new at us, even if it is Poonam Yadav, she always has something new to throw at us, just to kick us off track again.”The Test match will be just the second between the teams in 30 years – the previous one came back in 2006 – and with an Ashes Test to follow in January, Healy hoped the format could find a regular place in the Australia calendar.”The boys have their designated Test match spots every summer,” Healy said. “Look at the Boxing Day Test, we know it’s going to be on December 26 and everyone goes to the Test. I would love to see the same thing happen for us every summer. Imagine, November 1, Australia are playing a pink-ball Test at North Sydney Oval against whatever the opposition might be.”Obviously it’s a pipe dream and I’ll do whatever I can to keep pushing that point forward, but at least for the minute it’s great that the conversations are being had and that there’s three international sides that are willing to play the Test game because I think it’s a great thing for us.”Australia will play an intra-squad game on Thursday – “one of the most competitive games of cricket that you’ll ever find,” Healy said – before facing India in a warm-up match on Saturday ahead of traveling to Mackay.

Avishka Gunawardene, the former Sri Lanka opening batter, has been appointed the Afghanistan men’s team’s batting coach for the forthcoming ODIs against Pakistan. The Afghanistan Cricket Board announced this on August 17 via Twitter. ESPNcricinfo understands the ACB had wanted Gunawardene for a longer stint, but Gunawardene has only confirmed his involvement in the ODI series – which is to be played in Sri Lanka – for now. This will be Gunawardene’s first major assignment since being cleared of corruption charges relating to alleged breaches of the Emirates Cricket Board’s anti-corruption code during the T10 tournament in the UAE in 2017. An independent tribunal cleared Gunawardene in May, following an investigation, leaving him free to resume his coaching career. Gunawardene has served as the Sri Lanka national men’s team’s batting coach, and has also coached the Sri Lanka A and Emerging teams.Related

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The appointment comes at a time of major upheaval in Afghanistan with the Taliban taking back the political reins following the withdrawal of US troops from the country. It remains to be seen how cricket is affected by these events, though ACB CEO Hamid Shinwari has been quoted saying he expects the sport to carry on as before.”We will resume our office from tomorrow and the national camp which was underway ahead of the Pakistan series in Sri Lanka will also resume after a two-day break with the change in regime,” Shinwari told PTI on Monday.It is as yet unclear when the Afghanistan side can fly to Sri Lanka for the series (expected to be played sometime in September), as Kabul airport remains closed following the Taliban’s takeover of the city. It is hoped the team can fly over the next two weeks.All three ODIs against Pakistan will be played in Hambantota.

The New Zealand contingent arriving in Dhaka on August 24 will have most of the elements of the bio-secure environment that the BCB provided Australia with, according to chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury. The only major difference will be that the New Zealand squad will not get the direct tarmac-to-hotel ride that Australia got from the airport – Australia arrived by chartered plane, while New Zealand will be on a commercial flight.”They [NZC] have requested us to give them the same bio-bubble environment that we ensured for Australia,” Chowdhury said. “Keeping everything in mind, we will do as much as practically possible to put together a complete bio-bubble environment to have a successful series. They will be travelling commercial, so their airport procedure won’t be exactly like Australia’s arrangements. But we will try to minimise public contact on their way to the hotel.”The contingent will undergo a three-day in-room quarantine on getting to the hotel. Once that is over, they will start to train at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, where all five matches of the series will be played.At the airport, New Zealand are likely to go through the usual VIP channel and have their immigration process done separately, as is usually the case for cricket teams travelling to Bangladesh these days.Chowdhury also said New Zealand were not inclined to play the tour match scheduled for August 29, in the lead-up to the five-match T20I series that begins on September 1, to avoid bio-bubble complications. “They were offered [a practice match] but since it means an additional bio-bubble in another venue, they [NZC] have discouraged it,” Chowdhury said. “They also want minimum movement during the series.”The Bangladesh players, meanwhile, have been instructed by the BCB to be conservative in their movements ahead of joining the bio-bubble for the series. “They will enter the bio-bubble when it is ready,” Chowdhury said. “Our players have been instructed to keep their movements restricted, and told to be within the family environment. They have been discouraged from attending public functions.”Chowdhury also confirmed that the games will start earlier than usual, keeping New Zealand audiences in mind. “We plan to start the matches at 4pm (local time) after speaking to the team management. We have kept in mind the viewership in New Zealand.”

Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium has been busier than usual since the resumption of cricket after the Covid-19 hiatus around the middle of last year. It has hosted 81 ICC-approved games in the last 11 months, including franchise T10s and T20s, and there is a lot more lined up.It’s a lot of pressure on one cricket facility. As a result, Abu Dhabi Cricket (ADC) has had to expand, and has thrown open Tolerance Oval, a floodlit, broadcast-ready stadium, with five playing surfaces. The ICC accreditation isn’t there yet, but the authorities expect everything to be in place soon, in time for some of the 31 remaining matches of IPL 2021 in September-October, and then matches of the men’s T20 World Cup between October 17 and November 14.Related

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“If you speak to the best groundsmen in the world, they wouldn’t want more than five international matches on each of their surfaces. Our main stadium is now broadcast-ready for seven strips, and the Tolerance Oval is broadcast-ready as well with five strips. So we have 12 broadcast-ready strips, that’s 60 games,” Matt Boucher, ADC chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo. “Tolerance Oval is another international venue in the Emirates. It’s not a 20-25,000 capacity ground. We have modelled it on the English county grounds and the Hagley Oval [in Christchurch]; we have grass banks around the perimeter, so 12,000 people at the most.”At the moment, the UAE has the three main international venues, including the Dubai and Sharjah stadia. That aside, there is the ICC Academy ground, which, however, is not a night-playing alternative. Which makes Tolerance Oval, if approved by the ICC, the fourth night- and broadcast-ready ground in the region.”I can’t speak on behalf of the ICC, but from our perspective, we wanted to increase our infrastructure. Our business was very different two years ago. We were hosting a lot of junior sport, junior football and junior rugby, in our outer ovals. We made a dedicated decision at the beginning of this year that we wanted all our cricket facilities to return to cricket and be fully focussed on cricket,” Boucher said. “So we have overhauled everything, and it should be ready by the end of August.”It’s not with an event in mind, but for Abu Dhabi to offer a higher class of playing surfaces and dedicated cricket surfaces for the domestic community here and the international community too.”As such, Abu Dhabi has played its part well. No one venue has hosted more ICC-approved games than it has since June 2020 – though Dhaka’s Shere Bangla National Stadium has been marginally busier, having also been the primary venue for Bangladesh’s domestic matches.Sheikh Zayed Stadium has hosted 81 ICC-approved matches in the last 11 months•BCCI

“It has been an incredibly busy season since August last year. It’s all moved pretty smoothly, approvals have come in quickly, the ground has been in great shape, and yeah, it’s gone pretty well for us,” Boucher said. “Hopefully some more big months coming up with the remainder of the IPL and then the men’s T20 World Cup and then the Abu Dhabi T10 again. It’s been an exciting period.”Obviously, without the pandemic, we wouldn’t be hosting many of the events we just discussed. Around 18 months ago, we were generating our own events and conceptualising products with public and private stakeholders, because we were not reliant on the international events coming in. That sort of flipped on its head because of the pandemic, and all the international events we have hosted, in the most stringent and secure atmosphere we possibly can.”It will be interesting to see next year, how the bilateral season works at the end of the men’s T20 World Cup, there are a lot of countries, even a lot of Associate countries, who need to catch up on their cricket, who are behind on their FTP.”Tolerance Oval is not new to cricket. It has hosted a variety of cricket, and cricketers, but mainly as a training facility, for the UAE national team, English counties on their pre-season travels, as well as ‘A’ matches featuring Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia, etc. It’s got a facelift now, but that doesn’t count as guarantee for anything when it comes to the ICC. It might continue to be a training facility for the teams playing in the IPL or the T20 World Cup, in terms of the immediate future, while games of the Abu Dhabi T10 league could well be played there.”We will wait for the lights to go in, probably some lights’ testing, probably some dimensions’ testing… and hopefully in six weeks’ time we will have the accreditation for that oval, and then it’s over to the decision-makers if they want to use it for any upcoming tournaments or whether we use it for practice,” Boucher said. “Either way, it’s a brilliant new facility. And just to have it for IPL practice and T20 World Cup practice alleviates some space on our other surfaces.”

Chris Woakes has conceded that his winter of inaction with England “felt like a bit of a waste”, and revealed that he had received an apology from the team management and the ECB over the shared car ride that led to him having to self-isolate on arrival in Sri Lanka in January.Woakes has not played international cricket since last September, having travelled to South Africa, Sri Lanka and India without making it into the starting XI in any format of the game. He was recalled this week to the T20I squad for the first time in almost six years, and while admitting that had come as a surprise he said he would be hoping to push himself into the selectors’ thinking ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year.”I haven’t been in this squad for a while and I look at this as an opportunity” he said. “It is great for me to be back amongst the squad. I don’t take any squad selection for granted, I am certainly not just here to make up the numbers – if I get a go I will be trying to stake a claim. I also realise there are a few injuries knocking around but that doesn’t take anything away from me being part of this England team and putting my hand up to be part of this World Cup – with two World Cups around the corner.”T20 is the only format Woakes has had any game time in recently, initially at the IPL and then with Birmingham Bears in the Vitality Blast. After being named PCA Men’s Player of the Year last summer, Woakes was part of the ODI squad that flew to South Africa only to return without playing a game after concerns over bio-security. He then missed the first Test in Sri Lanka – a game he felt he was “a shoo in to play” – after being deemed a close contact of Moeen Ali, who tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival in the country.When the Test team moved on to India, Woakes was repeatedly overlooked before returning home as part of the ECB’s rotation policy, then missed the three ODIs due to the logistical demands of travel and quarantine required to rejoin the England bubble. “I just want to put it behind me really and look to what’s ahead,” he said. “It’s certainly been a tough seven or eight months since last September.Related

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“It all bubbles up to a really frustrating time. Not playing a single game all winter, after the summer I had, almost felt like a bit of a waste for me. Still great to be with the squad but you want to be playing cricket and making the most of your form when you’re hot.”On the decision to send him and Moeen in a shared taxi from Birmingham to Heathrow, despite the multitude of protocols in place to protect players from potential Covid-19 transmission, Woakes said that he had “vented” his frustration at the time, with his period in isolation effectively costing him his place in the side.”I felt like I was kind of a shoo in to play that first Test match in Sri Lanka, and obviously having had what happened, therefore obviously it did have a knock-on effect, [if] the team wins or the team does as well, all of a sudden it becomes hard to break back in. It doesn’t mean that I’d have played all the Test matches for the winter, but it might mean that I’d have had an opportunity to put my hand up before in a strong performance. And then the thoughts around selection for further Test matches might have been different.”I vented my frustration at the time, and apologies were given. [No] stone was [left unturned], but unfortunately that was the one thing that we did not quite get it right, and I did pay a price for that.”Having opted to go to the IPL after being picked up at auction by Delhi Capitals, Woakes then missed England’s two-Test series with New Zealand earlier this month. That decision was agreed between the player and ECB, with Woakes saying time away from home had “taken its toll mentally” – but he was keen to find a way to press his case for a Test return against India later in the summer, despite few opportunities to play red-ball cricket over the next six weeks.”I spent a lot of time away from home in that period and it had kind of taken its toll mentally,” he said. “The IPL was very much a decision which I took on, it’s on my shoulders, but I felt it was a great opportunity to learn and play some cricket after the winter I’d had.”Those two Tests versus New Zealand were put in [the schedule] quite late and I think the issue was as soon as getting out of isolation in London I’d have had to have a few days at home then play for Warwickshire to make myself available for any part of that Test series. Then there’s the tricky side of Covid restrictions and getting back in that bubble. Once we’d made the decision it was never really an option to play the second Test match. You’d have had to be in the bubble from the start.”It’s a real tricky situation. I felt I needed a refresh and some time at home with the young family. I kind of put up the pros and cons of missing that two-match series. It was very much in our hands, I spoke to Spoons [head coach Chris Silverwood] and the rest of the backroom staff here and they said ‘as much as we feel you probably should have a breather and get away from cricket, it is on you. If you want to be part of that we’ll definitely let you’.”I decided that little break would do me good in the long run. They certainly know I want to play Test cricket, don’t get me wrong. I haven’t played much red-ball cricket but they know I want to be a part of that Test squad and I believe they want me to be part of it so hopefully come that India series I’ll be fit and firing and ready to play a big part of that.”