It was Pakistan's last roll of the dice that saw them throw Sarfraz Ahmed into the role of opener at the World Cup and the gamble looks to be paying off.
Dhoni holds the record of winning most matches in all 3 formats -- the first Indian and also the first among current captains from all sides.
India need to change its policy of mixing sports with politics.
Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame before the start of the first Twenty20 International between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai Sports City.
Rajneesh Gupta presents all the interesting numbers from Day 2 of the India-England Test at Lord's.
Legendary cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Ian Chappell tipped India as favourites in their much anticipated World Cup clash against Pakistan.
'Shaheen's absence big setback for Pakistan'
Shoaib Malik hit his first century in six years to help Pakistan beat Zimbabwe in the first One-dayer by 41 runs in Lahore on Tuesday, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Former World Cup winning captain, Imran Khan said Pakistan have got a golden opportunity in the Champions Trophy final to avenge its humiliating defeat to India in their first match of the tournament.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar feels the jinx that a host country has never won a World Twenty20 title may be broken this time. "There has to be a first time. No host country has won it and it can be India. The way the Indians have been playing from Australia, they look a happy, balanced unit. The fielding is top class and that's great. " The former India captain said, "India are favourites by a 'little bit' to win the WorldT20 and along with the hosts, Australia, South Africa and England can make semis going by current form. Gavaskar also found New Zealanders a potential threat for other formidable teams. "New Zealand play under the radar. Expectations are less, so they can come and surprise. It will be a cracker of a game against India. They have fabulous strokemakers. Trent Boult is there and Tim Southee, who had played in IPL. He knows how to bowl in Indian conditions. They can spring a surprise," he said.
Former pacer Shoaib Akhtar says he is he is not the least bit surprised by Pakistan's poor run in the ongoing World T20 Championship.
ICC president Zaheer Abbas has said that a Pakistan and India bilateral series is bigger than the Ashes and should be revived.
Kohli promoting Pandya ahead of Dhoni is an indication that the skipper is looking to use his former captain more as an accumulator -- in Javed Miandad mould who would rotate strike, frustrate bowlers and launch a furious counter-attack after getting his eye in.
A selection of musings from around the cricket World Cup.
Kanitkar's boundary against Pakistan under fading lights at the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka in 1998 or Joginder Sharma's final over act against the arch-rivals in the inaugural World Cup at the Wanderers were one-off acts that made them household names.
The World Cup bound Pakistani cricketers will have two counselling sessions with a well-known sports psychologist before leaving for the World Cup.
This provided only the sixth such instance in Test cricket of the first six batsmen getting the past the half-century in an innings and four of them have have come against India.
Like Sachin Tendulkar, Pakistan's record breaking Test batsman Younis Khan too wants to end his career in front of his home crowd.
Alishah laid down the family tree of Dawood Ibrahim and said that the gangster's first wife gets in touch with people through WhatsApp calls.
'In India we have a lot of superstar worship.' 'If we lose a match, but Tendulkar hits a century people are happy that their star did not let them down.' 'This should change. People should support the team and the sport and not individuals.'
PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan has again raised hopes of an Indo-Pak bilateral series saying in the aftermath of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit there could be 'good news soon', evoking sharp criticism in Karachi for continuing to pursue the issue.
Cricketing legends Kapil Dev, Wasim Akram and Sourav Ganguly have heaped praise on Virat Kohli with one comparing India's batting mainstay to tennis great John McEnroe and another saying that his value in the team is more than his teammates.
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli's failures with the bat in the first two games of the IPL has not gone down well with the fans, but his childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma said his ward is 'only human and not a machine' and is bound to have 'off days'.
Speculation is rife that Younis Khan will quit One-day cricket after the World Cup and chances are it would be far from a fairytale farewell for one of Pakistan's modern batting greats.
Maninder Singh, the talented left-arm spinner, was taken to cleaners with utter disdain, but he never faced public wrath.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that the youngest entrant in the illustrious 10,000 Test run club, Alastair Cook can challenge batting legend Sachin Tendulkar's all-time Test run record. Cook became the first England cricketer to cross the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket, and the youngest overall, beating Tendulkar's record by five months by reaching the milestone at the age of 31 years and five months. Tendulkar -- Test cricket's most prolific batsman with 15921 runs -- was 31 years, 10 months 20 days old when he scored his 10,000th run in 2005. "Well the big advantage that England always has is that they are always playing a minimum of 11-12 Test matches on an average in a year. In 11-12 Test matches even if you score 50 runs per Test match you are getting about 500 runs every year," Gavaskar said.
We take a look at Team India's dominating performance against Pakistan in the World Cup
Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq will quit international cricket after the three-Test series in West Indies beginning later this month, the veteran batsman announced on Thursday.
"He (Sarfaraz) has shown himself to be a fine captain and yes he was struggling a bit for form but when a senior player is under pressure you have to encourage and back him, not dump him like this".
As Sachin turns 50, Rediff brings you 50 fascinating facts about the God of Cricket.
Imran Khan will always be first and foremost the enigmatic 'Kaptaan', who pulled off the impossible -- transform an immensely talented but fractious bunch of cricketers into world beaters.
Younis Khan became Pakistan's all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket and Shoaib Malik scored his first century in almost six years, as the home side posted 286-4 at the end of the opening day of the first Test against England in Abu Dhabi.
Pakistan continued to dominate at their adopted home in the United Arab Emirates by defeating New Zealand by 248 runs in the opening Test of the three-match series in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Starting the day needing two wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the series, Pakistan, who are forced to host matches in the UAE due to security concerns back home, dismissed the visitors for 231 in the second innings on the fifth morning.
With the gradual decline in Pakistan's performance, the Karachi-born Mohammad Bashir has shifted allegiance to the 'formidable' Indian team ahead of the marquee ICC Champions Trophy clash later this week.
"For me, I did not find anything controversial in it. This is something he felt. It's his emotions."
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and veteran pacer Ashish Nehra on Friday did not come for Indian team's pre-match day training after being advised rest ahead of the crucial Asia Cup T20 game against Pakistan, in Fatullah on Saturday. While Dhoni is suffering from back spasms, the injury-prone Nehra has his own specific training programme, which is different from the general team routine. Dhoni had played through pain against Bangladesh but back spasms need adequate recovery time, which is specifically the reason he has been given 48 hours to recuperate before the Pakistan match. His cover Parthiv Patel had his first training session but had precious little do as he did not get to bat in the main nets. Unless Dhoni's physical condition deteriorates further, Parthiv's chances of playing are minimal. There was one interesting sight during the training session on the match-eve. Both India and Pakistan trained adjacent to each other inside the main stadium at the Khan Saheb Osman Ali Stadium and trained at the same time between 4-6:30 pm local time. However, during the entire two and half-hour training session, no pleasantries were exchanged between the members of the two sides.
The most sought-after megastars of the current generation are primed to show their might against a bunch of enigmatic cricketers as India and Pakistan engage in an ICC T20 World Cup face-off, something that transcends the 22-yard strip.
"The players and officials could face an angry reception on their return home to Lahore and Karachi but I think they should be prepared for this."
'I was merely trying to give a positive message to the rest of the world that we enjoy a lot when we play in India.'
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