The legendary Sachin Tendulkar found senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin's exclusion from India's playing XI for the World Test Championship final baffling.
Former South African captain Graeme Smith is confident that his country will end its long wait for an ICC trophy in 2023, with the Champions Trophy and World Test Championship final on the horizon. He believes the team is in a strong position to break their drought and is focused on developing the nation's cricket ecosystem ahead of the 2027 World Cup.
'Bumrah's 2024 exploits were a masterclass in skill, precision, and relentless consistency,' ICC said in a statement.
Who do you think should be part of India's playing XI for the WTC final against Australia?
Besides, Bangladesh's star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was fined 10 percent of his match fee and received a demerit point for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct.
Australia finished the 2021-23 WTC cycle on top of the table, their only loss being the 2-1 away defeat to India earlier this year.
Top Australia batter Travis Head on Saturday shattered day-night Test records at Adelaide, continuing his golden run against India.
India face Australia in the WTC final on June 7 at The Oval in London.
Travis Head's blistering century powered Australia's innings on Day 2 of the second Test against India
Former India coach Ravi Shastri has backed K L Rahul to seal his place as a wicketkeeper-batter for the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval in June.
IPL had paved the way for Ajinkya Rahane's Test comeback after more than a year, but it was not the case for wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha.
Ahead of the WTC final between India and Australia, Ricky Ponting picked Australia's playing XI.
Cheteshwar Pujara will get a chance to sneak peek into Steve Smith's preparations ahead of the high-profile World Test Championship final, starting June 7, as the former Australian skipper gears up to play three English county games for Sussex this month.
Sourav Ganguly names Rishabh Pant as the next-best red-ball batter after stalwart Virat Kohli and predicts him to have a "huge impact" in the Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Perth on Friday.
Sunil Gavaskar believes switching from the T20 mode in the IPL to Test cricket will be the biggest challenge for the Indian players when they take on Australia.
Only two batters have managed to achieve this unique record before him.
''The Oval can present itself with some spin occasionally, particularly as the game wears on. So we could face some sort of similarities to what we had in India at certain stages of the game.'
Sri Lanka bid to sweep New Zealand and reach WTC final
Pakistan slipped to eighth in the World Test Championship standings following their 10-wicket loss to Bangladesh.
Kohli, widely considered one of the batting greats of the modern game, has managed just two centuries in the last five years and only two fifties in his last 12 innings in the longest format.
Anirudha Srikkanth heaped praise on talisman batter Virat Kohli's captaincy and said that he was the reason why India could win Tests outside home soil.
Smith needs just 315 runs to become the fourth Australian batter after Ricky Ponting (13378), Allan Border (11174), and Steve Waugh (10927) to reach the landmark of 10,000 Test runs.
'We had hoped that however behind we were, we could've shown more fight but we knew we needed exceptional performances. It was not a 469-run wicket. We gave away a lot of runs -- bowling was disappointing. We played some poor shots yesterday.'
Who do you think should be part of India's playing XI for the second Test against Bangladesh?
Rahane stands at crossroads in his comeback Test
India slipped to the fifth spot in the latest WTC points table
Ponting said at the end of the day it comes down to individual preparation.
Even though India's all-round struggles in the ongoing series have compounded their issues, there were some soothing words from the opposition camp, which has not put a foot wrong on this trip.
India have been fined 40 per cent of their match fee and penalised two ICC World Test Championship points for maintaining a slow over-rate against England in the rescheduled fifth Test in Birmingham.
Following the SGM in Ahmedabad, BCCI secretary Jay Shah said the World Cup schedule is expected to be announced during the WTC Final.
Travis Head hammered a solid ton at the Oval as Australia dominated the proceedings over India on Day 1 of the WTC Final.
Who do you think should be part of India's playing XI for the third Test against Australia in Brisbane?
As many as four world-class match-winners are expected to bid adieu to the game one by one in the next couple of years and Gautam Gambhir is in an unenviable position as head coach.
Images from Day 3 of the second Test between India and New Zealand at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Saturday.
India will be hoping to pull off a miracle on Sunday by surviving Australia's relentless bowling onslaught.
Vettori also expects Cameron Green to play a big part in the WTC final, especially after his superb showing in the just-concluded IPL.
Who do you think should be part of India's playing XI in the ICC WTC final against New Zealand?
'Gautam Gambhir and Morne Morkel will need to provide Rohit with more inputs like whether to bowl bouncers or bowl round the wicket or whether we are allowing the game to drift.'
IMAGES from Day 3 of the 3rd Test played between India and Australia in Indore on Friday.
Ricky Ponting advised star batters Virat Kohli and Steve Smith to stop trying hard to rediscover their best and pushing themselves too hard and just focus on watching the ball and scoring runs.
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