India's captain was on Thursday ruled out of Asia Cup due to a Grade 1 left side injury.
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Virat Kohli was focus personified as India geared up to take on a traditionally pace-heavy South Africa in their upcoming ICC World Cup match.
Or should they include a fast bowler for the Eden Gardens Test against Sri Lanka?
Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway's effortless six-hitting exhibition was well complemented by a four-wicket haul from Mukesh Choudhary as Chennai Super Kings notched up an emphatic 13-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Shocked by an inexperienced Sri Lankan side on a green wicket in the first Twenty20 match, India would aim to regain its winning touch and keep the series alive.
Will the struggling Manish Pandey make way for Dinesh Karthik?
India were in with a very good chance of levelling the series in Melbourne on Friday after reducing Australia to 132 for 7 in 19 overs but rain put paid to their hopes.
This was India's 50 victory in ODIs against New Zealand, against whom they have played 100 matches.
Skipper David Warner produced a majestic 93 as he single-handedly led Sunrisers Hyderabad into the IPL final after securing a four-wicket win over Gujarat Lions in the Qualifier 2 at the Ferozshah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi. Chasing a tricky 163, Sunrisers overhauled the target with four balls to spare as Warner anchored the chase with his responsible 58-ball knock, embellished with 11 four and three sixes.
'Today we bowled a lot of slow balls. It was a part of our strategy on this wicket, to do away with pace and make it difficult for the batsmen to score'
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead an 18-man squad for the Test series against England. Opener Gautam Gambhir, whose last Test was in 2012, makes a comeback while two uncapped medium pacers - Ishwar Pandey and Pankaj Singh - find a place in the team after Zaheer Khan, who had to set out of the India leg of the Indian Premier League following a back injury, was overlooked.
Talented Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey, who recently led the India A squad to a tri-series win in South Africa, made a comeback to the team.
The legendary Kapil Dev heaped praise on India's current pace battery, saying the fast bowlers have changed the face of Indian cricket in the last four to five years.
India's batting woes in South Africa continued as the visitors folded up for 187 on Day 1.
In David Warner, who is back as captain for this season, the franchise has an inspirational leader and a superb batsman, who would like to lead from the front.
India's up and coming pacer Barinder Sran attributes his good showing in the ongoing Zimbabwe series to a tweak in his bowling action and fruitful experience in this year's Indian Premier League.
Brimming with confidence after a clean-sweep in the Test series, India will look to carry on their dominance over New Zealand when the two teams lock horns in the first cricket One-day International of the five-match series, in Dharamsala on Sunday.
India's seven-pronged bowling unit has five pacers with four quicks, who can regularly hit 140 clicks, and Prasanna wants captain Virat Kohli to play five bowlers in the first Test against South Africa.
Play Selector and pick India's playing eleven for Thursday's semi-final in Birmingham.
A win on Friday would seal the three-match series for Virat Kohli and Co.
Having won the series, India would like to carry on momentum forward, especially with the three-match T20I series to follow soon after. Yet, the visitors would also like to find a balance between going all out in a dead rubber and resting a few players keeping in mind a long overseas schedule later this year.
A cultural shift with rising fitness standards are the primary reasons for India's current depth in fast bowling department, said former captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly. A young Jasprit Bumrah in the company of the experienced Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar has made India's bowling one of the world's most potent pace attacks.
Yuvraj Singh made it back to the Indian team for the limited overs series against Australia but seniors Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were again ignored.
Mohammad Shami also revealed that skipper Virat Kohli leaves it on his pacers to decide which one of them gets to bowl with the new ball.
IMAGES from the IPL match played between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Mumbai on Tuesday
Kohli started his English summer on a bright note hitting an unbeaten 52 off 55 balls while Mahendra Singh Dhoni also played some delightful strokes square off the wicket.
Rohit Sharma will lead a second string Indian team, comprising leading performers in domestic (Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and IPL) tournaments, for the Twenty20 tri-series in Sri Lanka, starting March 6. S hikhar Dhawan will be his deputy in the side that has as many as six changes.
Sodhi has represented Royals in eight IPL matches, taking nine wickets at an economy rate of 6.69.
The susceptible technique of Indian batsmen in seamer-friendly conditions was thoroughly exposed as Sri Lanka comfortably beat India by seven wickets in the first ODI of the three-match series.
India are unlikely to tinker with the winning combination save the return of star white-ball opener Rohit Sharma
'What's the best thing about this attack is the fact that they are on top of their game'
Captain Virat Kohli hit an unbeaten half-century, while Krunal Pandya picked up a career-best four-wicket haul to guide India to a series-levelling victory in the third and final T20 International against Australia.
Virat Kohli's inspirational leadership for Royal Challengers Bangalore will be up against the brute force with which David Warner has steered Sunrisers Hyderabad when the two teams, eyeing their maiden IPL title, square off in a high-intensity summit clash in Bengaluru on Sunday. RCB, however, will have a slight advantage over Sunrisers as they have the experience of playing in an IPL final twice in the past -- 2009 and 2011, but on both occasions, they had finished runners-up. Sunrisers' best finish was a play-off berth which they managed in their debut season in 2013.
Maninder Singh, the talented left-arm spinner, was taken to cleaners with utter disdain, but he never faced public wrath.
Images from the fourth Twenty20 International between India and England, in Ahmedabad, on Thursday.
Pace bowler Mohammed Shami complained of soreness in his knee after the third Test.
The Indian team will want Sanju Samson to translate his phenomenal talent into consistent performances when they try to wrap up the T20 International series against Sri Lanka by winning the second match in Colombo on Tuesday.
Veteran Ashish Nehra has mounted a stinging counter-attack on chief selector MSK Prasad for his comments on the seamer's retirement, saying he started playing without the selectors' permission and is leaving it likewise.
India's bowling coach Bharath Arun made it clear on Tuesday that Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav are first choices for Test matches, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah are the preferred option for the limited-overs' format.
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