South Africa's status as the top-ranked Test-playing nation has been dented after their crushing defeat in India last month and is in danger of being eroded completely by England over the next month or two.
Besides preparing for the 16-team World Twenty20 2016, India and South Africa will also aim to improve their positions on the ICC T20I Team Rankings.
Rediff.com's Manu Shankar spoke with former Essex player and fast bowling coach Ian Pont to assess England's disastrous start in the ICC's 50-over-a-side extravaganza.
Sunrisers Hyderabad stand in the way of two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders, who would be looking to bring their campaign back on track at home during an Indian Premier League T20 cricket clash, in Kolkata, on Saturday.
A floundering England will be looking to avoid a potential banana skin when they take on minnows Scotland in a crucial Pool A cricket World Cup match at the Hagley Oval, in Christchurch on Monday.
Australia will miss captain George Bailey in the One-dayer against England on Friday but their focus will be to seal a place in the ODI tri-series final.
Punjab Kings, who had paid Rs 10.75 crore for Maxwell in the previous auction, had released the 32-year-old following the 2020 edition in which he made 108 runs in 13 games at 15.42.
Jonny Bairstow bludgeoned a brilliant 83 not out in Durham to lead England to a three-wicket win over New Zealand on the Duckworth-Lewis method on Saturday, earning a 3-2 victory in the five-match series of one-dayers.
After England collapsed from 288 for five to 302 all out, New Zealand initially struggled in reply before Williamson and Taylor took the game away from the hosts with a clinical 206-run third-wicket stand.
New Zealand started their World Twenty20 campaign on a positive note, beating England by nine runs via Duckworth-Lewis method in a Group 1 league match that was called off following heavy rain and thunder storm, at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, on Saturday.
Anderson becomes number-one ranked Test bowler
England captain Eoin Morgan admitted that Kuldeep Yadav "completely deceived" his batsmen in the opening Twenty20 International in Manchester on Tuesday night, and said the hosts need to put up a better show against the Indian wrist spinners in the remaining matches if they want to give the visitors a tough fight in the series.
Kolkata Knight Riders will be aiming to exploit Sunrisers Hyderabad's recent run of poor form
Daredevils once again had a stop-start campaign in the ongoing IPL and are standing on the verge of yet another early elimination.
Rajneesh Gupta presents some interesting numbers from first T20 match between India and South Africa.
A win over Sunrisers Hyderabad is imperative for Mumbai Indians to keep their chances alive of making it to the play-offs.
Australia thrashed England by eight wickets in their fifth and final one-day international at Old Trafford on Sunday to win the series 3-2 and take some consolation for the pain of Ashes defeat.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players after the India-England ODI series.
The mountain of runs that he has plundered so far in first-class cricket has ensured that the focus will be firmly on Delhi youngster Rishabh Pant as India 'A' take on the visiting England XI, in the second and final warm-up match in Mumbai, on Thursday.
In what will be a dress rehearsal of their opening game in the World Cup, an unbeaten Australia take on England in the cricket tri-series final, in Perth on Sunday.
The 29-year-old, who got married this week, received a warm welcome from an unusually large crowd at the Glenn McGrath Oval and looked his usual twitchy self at the crease as he rattled off a half century in 62 balls.
India's batting maestro Virat Kohli held on to the number two position in the latest ICC ODI rankings for batsmen released on Monday, while Rohit Sharma dropped a place to seventh.
England pacer James Anderson reclaimed the number-one ranking from India's Ravichandran Ashwin in the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers released on Monday after the end of the Edgbaston Test.
He might be under tremendous pressure after three consecutive losses, but England skipper Alastair Cook has made it clear that he is not stepping down as ODI captain in the wake of his side's One-day series defeat against India.
Nerves will play a big role when title-hungry Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad look to outdo each other and regain the coveted IPL crown when they square off in the final in Mumbai on Sunday.
Chris Lynn's half-century and a fine spell of bowling from young Prasidh Krishna helped Kolkata Knight Riders ease past Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets to seal their place in the play-offs in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Opener Ambati Raydu scored his maiden century in the Indian Premier League as Chennai Super Kings coasted to an easy eight-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad to virtually seal a play-offs berth, in Pune, on Sunday.
India thrashed New Zealand by 53 runs to give veteran fast bowler Ashish Nehra a winning farewell, in the first Twenty20 International in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Jake Ball made a memorable One-day debut as he combined with Adil Rashid to derail Bangladesh's chase and bowl England to a thrilling 21-run victory in the first match of the series, in Mirpur, on Friday.
Misfiring batsman Gary Ballance is likely to be the sacrificial lamb when England's harried selectors decide on the line-up for next week's ICC World Cup crunch match against Bangladesh.
A win on Friday would seal the three-match series for Virat Kohli and Co.
Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq has urged his top order "to go big" in the third Test against England at Edgbaston starting on Wednesday. England levelled the four-match series at 1-1 with a crushing 330-run win in the second Test at Old Trafford - a margin of victory that was testimony to the tourists' batting woes. It was all a far cry from Pakistan's 75-run win in the first Test at Lord's, which featured an inspiring century from Misbah. Poor starts have been a problem for Pakistan in this series.
AB de Villiers could do anything and everything. If he defied gravity on field, with a bat in hand the laws of physics bent to his wishes.
Chennai Super Kings seem to hold a slight edge going into the match as they have not only got the better of their southern rivals twice in the league stages but also have the winning momentum going into the match on what promises to be a bouncy track.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni hailed his former and present team for helping him become the most successful Indian ODI captain after the visitors thrashed England by nine wickets in the fourth One-dayer to take an invincible 3-0 lead in the five-match series in Birmingham.
England will be determined to get their act together against defending champions Sri Lanka.
Unlike in the T20I series, England do not have the option of battling this phenomenon with a practice outing against the spin-bowling machine, Merlyn. With both teams travelling to London on Friday, there might not even be enough time to sit down for some video analysis. In that light, the English batsmen will have to contend mentally with how to play Yadav on Saturday.
The Indian opener tops the Champions Trophy MVP table. But Hasan Ali, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma aren't too far behind, note Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji.
Joe Root scored his second ODI hundred as England denied India a clean sweep with a 41-run victory in the fifth and final match of the One-Day International series, in Leeds.
Ben Stokes smashed an unbeaten century as England outclassed World champions Australia by 40 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain-hit match to knock them out of the ICC Champions Trophy, in Birmingham, on Saturday.
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