Monday's first One-Day International in the five-match series between India and England was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to relentless rain and wet ground conditions in Bristol.
Cricket returns to Lord's on Thursday only days after the ground was enveloped in snow to open a season that will show if England can mount a credible challenge to Australia next year. With rain predicted for the rest of the week, the four-day match between MCC and county champions Sussex may be largely spent dodging April showers. No member of the England team that defeated New Zealand 2-1 in March is playing.
The Kiwis return to England this month for a three-Test series, starting at Lord's on May 15, followed by the altogether sterner challenge of a South Africa side who have just completed a crushing innings victory over India.
India's carefully devised plan to triumph in England seems to be coming undone with injuries to their key bowlers.
Australia head coach Andrew McDonald feels their 'sub-continent journey' helped them triumph in the World Test Championship final against India.
League Two (fourth tier) side Stevenage pulled off the shock of the weekend by winning 2-1 at Premier League Aston Villa.
England captain Eoin Morgan indicated that they will replace out-of-form opener Jason Roy with Jonny Bairstow.
29-year-old Derbyshire left-arm seamer Mark Footitt, who has taken 32 wickets for his county in Division Two this season, was handed a place at the training camp, which begins on June 27, ahead of Yorkshire all-rounder Adil Rashid.
'I find batting at number seven tough' 'When I'm in, I feel I can hit decent-sized sixes... But it's not easy for someone like me, who probably can't hit sixes like Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and hit the gas like those guys'
The Australian team on paper holds slight advantage on a bouncy track at The Oval but both Ravi Shastri and Ricky Ponting believe that the Indians are better prepared.
Sourav Ganguly and young Ishant Sharma have been included in the 12 for the three-day warm-up match ahead of the first Test against England.
Australian fast bowler Clint McKay has announced retirement from international and domestic cricket. McKay, who will continue to ply his trade with Leicestershire in England's County Championship, played a single Test for Australia against the West Indies in 2009, as well as six T20 Internationals, but the fast bowler excelled in the 50-over format, finishing with an outstanding bowling record in 59 ODIs. He became a key fixture in Australia's one-day side from 2009 - where he picked up the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni on international debut in Hyderabad - to his last match for Australia in early 2014, taking 97 wickets at 24.37, including a hat-trick against England. Over that period, only Mitchell Johnson took more ODI wickets for Australia than McKay, who was named Australia's ODI Cricketer of the Year at the Allan Border Medal awards in 2013. The 33-year-old was disappointed he wasn't selected to play more international cricket, though optimistic about Australia's bowling stocks looking forward. "Yeah it was difficult to take," McKay told cricket.com.au about losing his spot in Australia's ODI team. "But that's sometimes how things pan out.
Former Pakistan Test cricketer Saqlain Mushtaq has called on the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to appoint a full-time spin bowling coach before expressing his desire to fill in the position. The Pakistan off-spinner is currently assisting the England team on a brief consultancy basis, having joined the squad after the two Tests in Bangladesh.
India will enter the upcoming limited overs series against England on a positive note, having beaten Northamptonshire by 10 runs after an impressive display by the bowlers in their second warm-up T20 match in Northampton on Sunday.
Yorkshire pace bowler Tim Bresnan was a surprise inclusion in the England squad announced on Wednesday for the first Test against West Indies starting at Lord's in a week's time. Essex all-rounder Ravi Bopara was also named in the 12-man squad and is likely to bat at number three after the selectors omitted former captain Michael Vaughan, Ian Bell and Owais Shah.
Yorkshire added that it was not certain why and how the deletion happened and who was responsible for the act.
England's protracted search for a long-term opening partner for captain Alastair Cook could be over after teenager Haseeb Hameed showed great skill and maturity to score his maiden test fifty on debut against India on Saturday. The 19-year-old Hameed is Cook's 10th partner at the top of the order in the game's longest format since the retirement of Andrew Strauss four years ago.
India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Saturday was added to Surrey's squad for the County Championship fixture against Somerset, starting on July 11 at the Oval in London.
The two teams will play three Twenty20 Internationals, starting July 3 at Old Trafford, followed by three One-day Internationals and then the five Tests at the Edgbaston, the Lord's, Trent Bridge, the Rose Bowl and The Oval.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly feels that Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Co will find it difficult to "beat England in England".
India women's cricket team launched their campaign at the ICC Women's World Cup with a comfortable 35-run win over England, riding on superb batting display by the top-order, hin Derby, on Saturday.
Teenaged opening batsman Haseeb Hameed was one of the three uncapped players named on Friday for England's forthcoming tour to Bangladesh.
South Africa have often relied on fast bowlers on spicy home wickets to get them to victory, but are also well aware that India have developed an excellent pace attack that has brought them overseas success in the last few years.
Virat the batsman wins, Virat the captain loses
Graeme Swann recalled how he once got Rahul Dravid out and it became a momentous occasion for him. Dravid played for Kent under John Wright's coaching and had a good season with the county side.
'Once he failed in the Australia series at home, there was very little chance for him but selectors didn't want to change things ahead of WTC final.'
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will have to put in some serious thinking in the next few days as to what exactly will be his team's bowling combination in the first Test against England in Nottingham, starting on July 9.
The current cycle runs from July 2021 to June 2023 and comprises the top nine Test teams, all of whom will play six series each
English cricket's reputation has taken a "hammering" over the last 18 months but better times lie in wait following some big changes, captain Alastair Cook said on Wednesday.
Who do you think should be part of India's playing XI for the fifth Test against England?
Morgan insisted that teams are likely to do well if they stop being over-reliant on big names and find a collective group of players can deliver.
Former captain Virat Kohli has asked to be rested from the entire limited overs series against the West Indies next month, including the five T20Is, BCCI sources said.
'If we're going to be the best team in the world we're going to have to play on good wickets which are flat in certain periods. We're also going to have to be able to learn to deal with the scoreboard pressure. We should also be able to deal with the pressure of spinning wicket towards the back end of the Test match.'
All-rounder Ben Stokes has been recalled to the England squad for the first Test against India, starting at TrentBridge next Wednesday.
India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was on Saturday taken to a hospital in Leeds for precautionary scans after suffering a knee injury during the third Test against England.
Holders Liverpool survived a penalty shootout to see off third-tier Derby County
Rahul Chahar would have added another dimension to India's attack.
Rashid was only the third British-born Asian cricketer to force his way into the Yorkshire team when he made his debut three years ago.
A calf injury to explosive batsman Lynn opened an unlikely door for 34-year-old White, who played the last of his 88 ODIs in 2015 and has since been critical of a pro-youth policy he felt did not reward the performance of senior players.
The county championship Division one was scheduled to start on April 12 before it was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
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