A resurgent New Zealand have landed in Australia with high hopes of upsetting Steven Smith's rebuilding side in a three-match series capped by Test cricket's first day-night clash.
Senior India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh on Thursday said former captain Rahul Dravid is ideal to be the next chief coach of the Indian cricket team with Zaheer Khan as the bowling coach.
Axar Patel and senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin exploited the turning Motera pitch to bundle out England for 112 in their first innings
Smriti Mandhana headlined a rain-hit opening day with a career-best 80 not out, which had elegance written all over it, as India finished on 132 for 1 in the one-off Day/Night women's Test against Australia, in Gold Coast, on Thursday.
India's limited overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma wants to play in both the T20 World Cup and the IPL this year as chances are that only one of the two tournaments could be salvaged due to the coronavirus pandemic. The ICC is yet to decide on the fate of the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in October-November in Australia, while the BCCI has postponed the popular and lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) indefinitely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Former ICC president and Test captain Zaheer Abbas believes Pakistan will eventually revive international cricket in the country. "I do not want to predict a time frame of international teams touring Pakistan, but I do hope over the next 2-3 years we could see them playing back in Pakistan," Abbas said. "When I used to sit on international forums as ICC president I used to talk a lot about it (cricket in Pakistan), but people didn't want to come due to their security concerns."
Photos from Day 3 of the first Test played at The Gabba on Saturday
Ahmedabad will also host the final Test, though with the traditional red ball, and the pitch is unlikely to be vastly different from the one that saw 30 wickets fall in five sessions in the shortest completed Test match since 1935.
Ashwin doesn't have the best record overseas -- in Australia alone he's got 27 wickets from 7 matches at an average of 48 and a best of 4 for 105.
Playing only his second match at this year's IPL, Saha smashed 87 off 45 balls in Sunrisers Hyderabad's 88-run romp against Delhi Capitals.
Standing in as skipper for the injured AB de Villiers and without pace spearhead Dale Steyn for all but a day and a half of the campaign, the 32-year-old batsman delivered a 2-1 series triumph that sent Australia plummeting into crisis.
India skipper Virat Kohli was effusive in praise of Ravchandran Ashwin after the off-spinner became only the fourth Indian, and sixth spinner in the world, to take 400 Test wickets.
Australia pace spearhead Mitchell Starc has been ruled out of the Test series against West Indies and is no certainty to play in Australia's tour of New Zealand early next year as he recovers from a broken foot, the left-armer said on Monday.
'Their whole batting line-up is world class. So any opportunity to bowl at those guys is a test for myself and a challenge I can't wait to get.'
Who do you think should be part of India's playing XI for the third Test in Ahmedabad?
India's pace trio took less than three hours to rout the tourists after Mominul Haque's decision to bat backfired.
'If we keep bowling like this, we will win as many as Tests as possible.'
Chasing a record victory target of 482, England were all out for 164 in their second innings with No. 9 batsman Moeen Ali their top scorer with a breezy 43.
England lost all 10 wickets in their second innings to spinners, who bowled the lion's share of India's overs.
India will usher in 2016 with a three-week tour of Australia, comprising five ODIs and three T20 Internationals, starting January 12.
India's limited-overs' skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni may be a shadow of his old self but former Australian batsman Dean Jones feels the Jharkhand dasher will be "missed more in sub-continental conditions" once he calls time on his illustrious career.
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma sustained the injury during their last IPL game against Kings XI Punjab on Sunday.
Mohammed Shami grabbed a match haul of seven wickets as Mohun Bagan beat Bhowanipore Club by 296 runs in India's first pink ball four-day match under lights, at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, on Tuesday.
Kuldeep Yadav, among all the players in this team, has more experience of playing with pink ball and the kind of revolution he produces, he could make it difficult for batsmen to spot the black seam of the pink kookaburra under lights.
Australia skipper Tim Paine believes his side is climbing back towards the top of Test cricket after a third successive victory at Perth
'He (Ashwin) will bowl to the same spot but the way it gets there and whether it hits the seam or hits the lacquer varies and the ball reacts very differently.'
Left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc will return from a broken foot during Australia's limited-overs triangular series in the West Indies in June.
Cricket fans paid tribute to the late Test batsman Phillip Hughes on the first anniversary of his death.
'If you have a captain of India who is not interested in Test cricket that will impact the scene. Virat loves Test cricket, he champions Test cricket, and while that's happening India will play Test cricket.'
Australia were two wickets from victory at the end of day four of the first day-night test against Pakistan on Sunday, but the tourists were buoyed by a feisty fourth innings chase and a brilliant unbeaten century from Asad Shafiq.
'A lot of our recent success has been based on the value of our number six batsman bowling some overs and we're comfortable continuing in that vein'
Former captain Nasser Hussain feels incumbent Joe Root is arguably' England's best ever player of spin and will end up breaking all their Test batting records.
Ishant last played in an ODI in 2016 and a T20 International match in 2013.
In order to seal the place in the squad, the duo will have to cancel their league tours in South Africa and Bangladesh.
South Africa's success in Australia is often put down to their comfort on the hard local tracks, which can be similar to those at home, but they could face some unfamiliar conditions this year.
Australia's Test captain Tim Paine admitted the series defeat to India two years ago still 'grinds' him, but pointed out that the hosts boast of a better all-round side this time around.
It may be possible that both Bumrah and Shami will play the ODIs where they can bowl their 10 over quota and then switch to Test match mode
'It's not necessarily just been that one moment and the lights, or that twilight period. It's sometimes been right at the start of the game... later on in day four, these strange passages of play have happened.'
Ashwin has been a regular member of the Indian side in the longest format of the game but the spinner last represented played an international limited-overs match back in 2017. His last T20I game came against West Indies in July 2017 while his last ODI match was against the same side in June 2017.
India batter Smriti Mandhana lauded teammate Punam Raut's decision walk even before the on-field umpire's decision on Day 2 of the one-off day/night women's Test against Australia, in Gold Coast, on Friday.
