Zaheer Khan feels that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's form will be key to India' title defence as they get ready to face arch-rivals Pakistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup in less than a week's time.
Top class left-armers are in short supply and chief selector Rod Marsh joked that he had mulled telephoning Johnson to see whether he might like to come out of retirement.
India's Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara's contentious dismissal in an English County Championship match between Yorkshire and Warwickshire created a mini-controversy as some of the home team fans booed the umpires at the end of the day's play.
Australia captain Steve Smith has been ruled out of the upcoming one-day international series in New Zealand after he picked up a minor ankle injury in the ODI victory over Pakistan in Adelaide on Thursday.
United States Grand Slam doubles record holders Bob and Mike Bryan have retired from the Davis Cup after playing in the competition for almost 14 years.
Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni figure among the top-10 ODI batsmen.
India's batsmen came good on a flat track to put up 369 for 5 on Day 3 of the first Test against Australia in Adelaide on Thursday. Wriddhimaan Saha (1) and Rohit Sharma (33) were at the crease at the draw of stumps. Images from the day's play.
Besides Kohli, seam bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma could also be rested for the game, according to reports.
Former paceman Ryan Harris has taken a major step towards achieving his ambition of becoming Australia's permanent bowling coach after the 36-year-old was handed the role for the team's limited-overs tour of South Africa.
With only couple of days left for India to open their cricket World Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan, the team had a gruelling training session in Adelaide on Thursday in preparation for the high-voltage contest.
Australia's stand-in coach David Saker on Wednesday said that the team management will closely monitor premier fast bowler Pat Cummins' workload in the upcoming limited overs series against India even though they expect him to play all the five ODIs.
Captain Michael Clarke battled through pain to score 128 and Steve Smith produced a career-best 162 not out Australia piled up a mammoth 517 for 7 against India on a rain-truncated Day 2 in the first Test in Adelaide on Wednesday. Images from the day's play.
Adelaide, which was due to host the second Test from December 12-16, will now host the series opener from December 9-13, in what is sure to be a highly emotional occasion.
Spinner Nathan Lyon, top order batsman Usman Khawaja and all-rounder Moises Henriques have been omitted after being selected in the squad that defeated Sri Lanka 4-1 away
The proposed bilateral cricket series between India and Pakistan due to be held in the UAE later this year should be postponed until long-standing border unrest between the two countries ends, said former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar.
Pakistan paceman Wahab Riaz and Australia all-rounder Shane Watson have been fined for over-stepping the mark during their fiery confrontation in Friday's World Cup quarter-final.
West Indies coach Phil Simmons says it will be very tough for his side to perform in the day-night Test against Pakistan as the players do not have enough experience of playing with the pink ball.
The Australian cricket board said it is comfortable with the level of security provided to their Champions Trophy team following Saturday night's attack in London that killed seven people.
Virat Kohli's form may have taken a hit since dropping to number four in the batting order, but West Indian legend Sir Viv Richards feels the marauding cricketer should continue in the position if that is what the Indian team requires.
It's all about the crowd that creates this kind of environment. It's good to have people coming to see the match when it is an India-Pakistan game, feels India batsman Kedar Jadhav
The World Twenty20 Championships to be held next month in India are nothing but a "waste of time", feels former Australian pacer Ryan Harris. A day after Australia were whitewashed 3-0 by India in a T20 series, Harris said there is no point in having a Twenty20 World Cup when the sides involved do not play too many of such games on a regular basis. "Personally I think it's a waste of time having a Twenty20 World Cup," Harris, who retired from the game last year, told 'SEN Radio'. "Last year we played one T20 (against England in August). This year because there's a World Cup I think we play six - there's three more in South Africa before they get over there (to India).
Opener Mithali Raj held the innings together with an unbeaten half-century as Indian women notched up a comfortable seven-wicket victory over South Africa in the first T20 International, in Potchefstroom, on Tuesday.
Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin is in a race to be fit for the Test series against India after being ruled out of Australia's One-Day series against South Africa.
Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar says pink ball should be used in One-day cricket to make it more competitive since white ball leaves nothing for the bowlers.
Retired pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson has slammed the Australian team culture under former captain Michael Clarke and coach Mickey Arthur as fractured and "toxic", saying the dynamics changed when Ricky Ponting retired. In his newly-released autobiography 'Resilient', Johnson suggested things were so bad that some teammates did not want to play, with cracks emerging after veteran Ponting called it quits in late 2012. "The dynamics definitely changed. It became more groups in the team. It wasn't a team. There was different little factions going on and it was very toxic," Johnson told Fox Sports News late Thursday.
Wicket-keeper batsman Sarfraz Ahmed was, on Tuesday, named captain of Pakistan's Twenty20 team, replacing Shahid Afridi who resigned from the position after the side's dismal World Twenty20 campaign.
India's premier batsman and team's vice-captain Virat Kohli suddenly lost his cool after the training session in Perth on Tuesday as he hurled abuses at a journalist before the side's group league game against West Indies at the WACA.
Former Indian cricketer Atul Wassan on Sunday said that the idea of experimenting with the pink ball and the day and night Test would be a flop from the perspective of attracting more spectators to the stadium to watch the game in real time.
Australia have called batsman Shaun Marsh into their squad for the opening Test of the four-match series against India, which was pushed back to next week after the death of Phillip Hughes.
Pakistan-born Aftab Farook who captained the Italian youth cricket team has been expelled from Italy for allegedly plotting an attack in the name of the Islamic State (IS) group according to media reports.
Australia captain Michael Clarke has been reprimanded for showing dissent at an umpire's decision in a Sheffield Shield match, the country's cricket board said on Friday.
Rilee Rossouw smashed a sparkling 78 off 50 balls to drive a youthful South Africa side to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Australia at the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday in the first of three Twenty20 internationals.
An image of West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo taking a full-length diving catch in mid-air has been named the Wisden-MCC 'Cricket Photograph of the Year 2014'.
The Indian team has set 16.1 as the Yo-Yo test benchmark for the past couple of years and any player failing to clear the test is not selected.
Australia are confident pace bowler Josh Hazlewood will be fit to face New Zealand in Sunday's World Cup final despite being forced to leave the pitch towards the end of the semi-final.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland believes there will be more day-night Tests in the future
The Indian team management, headed by coach Ravi Shastri, intimated the Committee of Administrators that the team will take at least 18 months to prepare for the Day-Night Test.
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.
Cheteshwar Pujara says his stint with the English county side Yorkshire has helped him rectify the flaws in his batting and is ready to bat at any position when the Indian team square off with Bangaldesh in the one-off Test in Fatullah.
Bowlers have often found themselves short-changed since the 2011 decision to have one new ball from each end which, many believe, has rendered the already batsman-friendly format even more lop-sided.
