With days left for IPL 2021 to kick off, several key players will miss the biggest show in the cricketing universe.
Shami is the leading wicket taker in the IPL with 17 scalps from nine games.
Smith could emerge as the figure the embattled team looks up to for a revival in its fortunes.
As he gears up to surpass legendary Dennis Lillee in the tally of Test wicket-takers for Australia, pacer Mitchell Starc opened up on strong words from his former head coach Tim Nielsen that paved way for his durability and said that it would be humbling to surpass the Aussie icon in wicket-taking charts.
The likes of Virender Sehwag, David Miller and Glenn Maxwell have not managed to live up to expectations for Kings XI Punjab in IPL 8.
South Africa pacer Morne Morkel feels that the post-tea sessions will hold the key with the Proteas bowlers looking to inflict maximum damage on the Indian batsmen late in the day.
Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has picked Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar as the toughest bowler he has faced in his illustrious international career.
Dale Steyn has claimed that cricket takes a back seat at the Indian Premier League
Top India batsman Virat Kohli has maintained his second position in the latest ICC batsmen rankings while medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has moved up a place to be seventh in the bowlers' standings.
South Africa have included the world's number one test bowler Vernon Philander in their preliminary 30-man squad for the World Twenty20 tournament to be played in Bangladesh in March and April next year.
Ricky Ponting picked India skipper Virat Kohli to lead his all-star Test team of the decade
Mirroring Shami's views, star South African pacer Anrich Nortje said Umran will surely play for India but to survive the rigours of international cricket, raw pace alone wouldn't be enough and the youngster will need to supplement his skills with quality execution.
India pacer Mohammed Siraj said the disappointment of not being able to perform in IPL 2022 pushed him to focus more on white-ball cricket, which is paying rich dividends.
Opener Kusal Perera stroked a fluent half-century before Sri Lanka's bowlers produced a brilliant display in the death overs to help their team pull off a thrilling five-run victory against South Africa.
South African pacer Dale Steyn said his urge to bowl an additional over after each dry spell paid rich dividends as he returned with a four-wicket haul on the opening day of the second Test in Durban.
India fast bowler Jaydev Unadkat claimed a Rs 11.5 crore deal with the usually thrifty Rajasthan Royals even as South African pace ace Dale Steyn went unsold on the second day of the Indian Premier players' auction in Bengaluru, on Sunday.
Delhi's performance at home is woeful, but having registered a win after two consecutive losses at the Kotla, the Shreyas Iyer-led outfit is high on confidence.
CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni missed the game against SRH due to a stiff back but is likely to be back for Sunday's match against Virat Kohli-led RCB.
Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell from New Zealand. Travis Head from Australia. Gerald Coetzee from South Africa. Harry Brook from England.
Brian Lara conceded that he was not able to come to 'grips' with the rigours and emotions of IPL in his first year as Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach.
Many netizens started to feel that both of them engaged in a heated argument, but later Jones and Patel clarified that all is going on in good spirits.
Check out the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad for IPL 2014.
South African captain Graeme Smith is reportedly unhappy with Cricket South Africa's (CSA) announcement of player contracts as it has been difficult for some of the players to handle.
Delhi Capitals badly missed Rabada's services in the game against CSK in Chennai on Wednesday, when they were handed a massive 80-run loss. It was the first time this season Rabada missed a game.
South African pace ace Dale Steyn might not turn out to be as big a threat for India in next month's highly-anticipated Test series, feels senior spinner Harbhajan Singh.
South Africa will head to India armed with three frontline slow bowlers in their Test squad after recalling leg-spinner Imran Tahir and off-break bowler Dane Piedt for the four-match series starting in November.
Titans skipper Henry Davids (64) and Jacques Rudolph (49 not out) put on a century stand to lead their side to a crushing eight-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Champions League Twenty20 Group B match in Ranchi on Saturday.
Allan Donald has stepped down as bowling coach of South Africa, confirming his departure.
Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane jumped three places to enter the top-10 in batsman's list while Ravichandran Ashwin maintained his pole position among all-rounders in the latest Test rankings released by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Rabada, in a recent interview to a cricket website, had recalled an incident during an IPL game when he felt that Kohli lacked maturity.
JP Duminy has been named in the South African Twenty20 squad for the three-match home series against West Indies next month, but a number of other top players will again be rested.
AB de Villiers won as many as five awards, including the South African Cricketer of the Year for a second consecutive time, at a gala function, hosted by Cricket South Africa (CSA), in Johannesburg on Wednesday night. Besides being voted Cricketer of the Year for the second successive season, the South African batting great bagged four more accolades out of nine major awards.
Australia captain Michael Clarke has re-injured his hamstring and will take no further part in Friday's one-day match against South Africa, governing body Cricket Australia said.
David Warner thumped a run-a-ball century as Australia dominated the opening day of the third and final Test against South Africa, piling up 331 for three at Newlands on Saturday.
Despite the painful semi-final loss to New Zealand in Auckland in the World Cup, South African fans and media went easy on its cricket team. A long history of failure at the tournament has often put the Proteas at the sharp end of stinging criticism from the demanding media and fans back home.
"We're playing a strong team in India, and as a team, we know we're not good enough at the moment and we have to turn it around."
As we head to the head to the business end of the tournament, that involves three former champions, a look at the players who flattered to deceive, faltering under the weight of expectations, hurting their respective teams.
The tremors of an earthquake in Afghanistan has forced new Indian Premier League team Gujarat Lions to evacuate their hotel on the eve of their first match in the competition. The National Centre for Seismology in India has reported the epicentre of the earthquake to be in the Hindukush mountain range on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale. The aftershocks were throughout northern India, including Chandigarh were the Lions are set to face home side Kings XI Punjab at the PCA Stadium on Monday. Moments after the earthquake hit, the Gujarat players and support staff were whisked out of the building by team management and to a safe area outside. "I was sitting on the end of my bed fixing a cricket bat and it felt like the bed started to move," the Lions' Australian paceman Andrew Tye told cricket.com.au outside the hotel.
India face a South Africa in their final World Twenty20 warm-up game in Mumbai, on Saturday.
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