Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the ICC Champions Trophy with a back injury.
Australia gelled superbly during last year's triumph in the United Arab Emirates and 14 of that 15-man squad will bid for back-to-back titles
Reserve batsman Fakhar Zaman, who has been out with a knee injury, will also travel to Brisbane with Afridi.
England's Johnny Bairstow and Harry Brook smashed half centuries before debutant Gus Atkinson took four wickets to power England to a 2-0 lead over New Zealand in their four-match Twenty20 International series with a 95-run victory on Friday.
The inaugural edition's winner Mumbai Indians will bank on their core group of players while two-time finalists Delhi Capitals will expect fireworks from Shafali Verma when they face-off in the second game of the Women's Premier League here on Saturday. The finalists of the first WPL in 2023, both Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals made it to the knockouts in the second edition last year but lost to the eventual champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the eliminator and the final respectively. Those defeats were certainly not reflective of how well MI and DC had fared until the knockouts stage, with Harmanpreet Kaur's side finishing second in the points table with five wins in eight matches and Meg Lanning's team topping it with six wins in as many outings. The winners of WPL 2023, Mumbai Indians tend to lean on their core group of players both overseas and Indian and a similar approach can be expected this year, with only a few changes taking place in terms of squad composition. India pacer Pooja Vastrakar, who was grappling with an unspecified injury, was ruled out of the competition and has been replaced by slow left-arm orthodox bowler Parunika Sisodia, who was one of the main performers in India's title-winning campaign in the U-19 Women's T20 World Cup recently. Mumbai Indians have let go of England's Issy Wong, who took the first-ever WPL hat-trick in 2023, after the player lost form and the franchise found the leader of their attack in South Africa's Shabnim Ismail. Among domestic talents, another member of the U-19 T20 World Cup winning squad G Kamalini would be one to watch out for, having finished as the third highest scorer in the competition with 143 runs in seven matches. Apart from a strong leader in Harmanpreet, MI have strong figures from other international sides such as Nat Sciver-Brunt (England), Hayley Matthews (West Indies), Amelia Kerr (New Zealand), as well as South Africans Nadine de Klerk, Shabnim Ismail and Chloe Tryon. While Yastika Bhatia is MI's No 1 wicketkeeper-batter, other Indian players in Saika Ishaque, Sajana Sajeevan, uncapped Akshita Maheshwari and Amanjot Kaur will be expected to play their roles to perfection. On their part, Delhi Capitals will be keen to do one better after finishing as runner-up for two times in a row ever since the competition began. One of the most consistent teams in the competition, the Lanning-led Delhi have strong talent base across departments but the key will be to deliver in crucial matches. All eyes will be on the explosive Indian batter Shafali who has responded to her exclusion from the Indian side with runs in domestic cricket. She forms a lethal opening pair with Lanning at the top, while the likes of Australia's Annabel Sutherland, England's Alice Capsey and India's Jemimah Rodrigues form the core of their middle order. All-rounder Sutherland will hope to draw inspiration from her recent success of having struck 163 in the only Test of the women's Ashes followed by winning the highest individual honour in Australian cricket. While Delhi boasts of three wicketkeeper-batters in India's Taniyaa Bhatia, Nandini Kashyap and Scotland's Sarah Bryce, their bowling looks settled with Marizanne Kapp as the leader of the attack, backed by Australia's Jess Jonassen, India's Radha Yadav and Shikha Pandey as well as Titas Sadhu.
There have been 24 occasions on which 400 has been passed in ODI cricket and 15 of those have come since the 2011 World Cup.
India are likely to rest most of their senior players during the T20I series against New Zealand at home, which starts less than a week after the final of the T20 World Cup next month.
Purists may hope for a better balance between bat and ball compared to previous slugfests, and the big grounds and long boundaries may offer some relief for bowlers while putting a premium on fielding.
England will rest Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Mark Wood for the three-match one-day international series against South Africa starting in Cape Town on February 4. Worcestershire seamer Pat Brown, Somerset batsman Tom Banton and the Lancashire pair of Matthew Parkinson and Saqib Mahmood received their maiden call-ups.
The three-match T20 series will begin on July 7 in Southampton.
England all-rounder Moeen Ali has retired from international cricket at age 37.
Pakistan's head coach Waqar Younis is confident that his new-look team would be able to break the jinx of not winning against India in major ICC events when they lock horns in the upcoming World T20, which begins right after the Asia Cup T20.
Chris Gayle was not at his brutal best in the IPL but Andre Russell's butchering of the bowlers has forced the teams to take note of what could await them at the World Cup.
Choose Your India team for the first ODI against England in Nagpur.
The board said that while Shaheen has been ruled out of the T20 Asia Cup and the seven-match T20 home series against England, he is expected to return to competitive cricket in October with the New Zealand tri-series, which will be followed by the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.
All about IPL 2025 which kicks off on March 22, Saturday.
Shami, who had reached Brisbane after recovering from COVID-19 was named as replacement for an injured Jasprit Bumrah in the squad of 15. He was out of the team for close to three months.
Pace spearhead Trent Boult has been omitted from the white-ball squad a few months after being released from his national contract.
Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant has been included in the Test squad for the upcoming two-match series against Bangladesh.
Shami last played for India in the ODI World Cup final in November 2023. He had sustained an ankle injury on his left leg that required surgery.
None other than India skipper Virat Kohli acknowledged Afghanistan's rapid rise in the last four years.
England captain Ben Stokes went on to call Jofra Archer an 'incredibly gifted cricketer', irrespective of the colour of the ball in his hand.
West Indies appointed Floyd Reifer as their new interim head coach on Thursday, replacing Richard Pybus as part of a series of administrative changes less than two months before the World Cup.
Consistent death bowling from a Bumrah and spinners picking up wickets in the middle overs is why the average run-rate in the last few years hasn't exploded the way one would have expected, says Dhruv Munjal.
'This team was incredibly difficult to select over such a highly competitive tournament. Selections were based predominantly on the Super 12 onward to the final.'
England simply got it right on the day, something they have struggled to do in recent years.
Considered one of the modern greats of the game, England's Test captain is yet to play in the cash-rich Twenty20 league, having gone unsold in the 2018 auction. However, all that can change in next year's tournament, which is set to be expanded with the inclusion of two new teams.
Former India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar revealed how ODI captain Rohit Sharma entrusted him with mentoring K L Rahul to adopt a more aggressive approach and unleash his full potential across formats.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya was named as India's T20I captain for the three-match series against Sri Lanka, with Rohit Sharma retaining the ODI leadership role.
India coach Rahul Dravid hopes to have his full-strength squad in time for the World Cup starting next week.
"The ebbs and flows of the game made it such a good one for the spectators. It was just unfortunate we came out on the other side of it."
The former left-arm spin legend further said the key to success for a spinner in Australia is to bowl more topspin and get bounce like the way Nathan Lyon does for the home side.
Hales's inclusion was seen as a risk by some pundits and his patchy lead-up form spilled into the early matches at the tournament with 19 against Afghanistan and seven versus Ireland.
It is not only Dhoni's batting, but also his regular inputs during a game to bowlers and fielders that should work in the veteran's favour when it comes to the 2019 World Cup.
India's white ball players have that imposing alpha-male like presence out there in the middle even if their best player Kohli is on the wane.
Indian women's team was also scheduled to tour England for the tri-series (also involving SA) but it had pulled out due to the health crisis in their own country.
Penpix of the Australia squad that will play the cricket World Cup final against New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.
The Rajasthan Royals entered the IPL 2025 auction with a strategic approach, carefully balancing retention and acquisition.
Opener David Warner and all-rounder Mitch Marsh will be rested for the five-match Twenty20 International series against Sri Lanka next month to prepare for the upcoming tour of Pakistan.
'Hopefully, he will be back from his injuries soon. The priority will be the Champions Trophy, so we are going to make sure he is ready for that.'
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