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Super Kings haven’t lost a home game this season, but they have lost five of their last seven meetings with their biggest rivals

The Preview by Sruthi Ravindranath25-Apr-2019

Big picture

This is arguably the biggest rivalry in the history of the tournament – the IPL’s . Mumbai Indians ended Chennai Super Kings’ three-match winning streak earlier this month. And while Super Kings are yet to lose a home game this season, the last team to beat them at Chepauk were Mumbai, in IPL 2015, breaking a two-year streak. Super Kings have a 44% win record against Mumbai, while it’s 60% or above against every other team. Since 2015, Mumbai have won five of the seven meetings between the two teams.All this sets up a mouth-watering contest, as Mumbai face table-toppers Super Kings at a crucial stage in the tournament.

Form guide

Chennai Super Kings: Beat Sunrisers by six wickets, lost to RCB by one run, lost to Sunrisers by six wickets
Mumbai Indians: Lost to Royals by five wickets, beat Capitals by 40 runs, beat RCB by five wickets

While Super Kings have all but sealed their spot in the playoffs, Mumbai are looking to cement their position with the race heating up. They’re coming into the game following a five-day break after their loss to Rajasthan Royals. A win here will lift them to second, while a loss might land them in trouble, leaving their playoff hopes dependent on other closely-competing teams’ results.Super Kings went into their last game, against Sunrisers Hyderabad, facing questions over whether their batting was too dependent on MS Dhoni. They answered some of them, with Shane Watson and Suresh Raina stepping up to lead the chase of 175, and Dhoni didn’t even come out to bat. There are, however, concerns surrounding Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav, who have been in middling form this season. Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, has struggled to convert starts, but his form does not seem to be that big a concern yet for Mumbai, who have enviable batting depth. After producing slow turners in the first half of the tournament, a batting-friendly track was laid out at MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday, which is good news for the visiting team. Hardik Pandya’s late assault ended Super Kings’ last major unbeaten home streak in 2015. Can Mumbai take down Chennai in their Chepauk fortress yet again?

In the news

South Africa fast bowler Beuran Hendricks, who was named as the injured Alzarri Joseph’s replacement, has linked up with the Mumbai side in Chennai.

Likely XIs

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Faf du Plessis, 2 Shane Watson, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Kedar Jadhav, 5 Ambati Rayudu, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Dwayne Bravo, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Imran TahirMumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Kieron Pollard, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Krunal Pandya, 7 Suryakumar Yadav, 8 Rahul Chahar, 9 Jason Behrendorff, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Lasith Malinga

Previous meeting

Mumbai’s seamers razed through a sloppy Super Kings line-up when the teams met at the Wankhede earlier this month.

Strategy punt

• Quinton de Kock has been a force for Mumbai at the top of the order, having made 378 runs in ten games. He’s coming into this match with four consecutive 30-plus scores, including two fifties. But this year, he has managed only 114 off 99 balls against spin while being dismissed four times in eight innings. In the IPL since 2015, de Kock has lost his wicket 13 times in 25 innings to spinners. Super Kings could introduce spin early to counter the de Kock threat. Harbhajan Singh, who has had plenty of Powerplay success against left-handers, will be the obvious choice for this match-up.
• Suryakumar Yadav might be one of Mumbai’s biggest assets, but this season he hasn’t really taken off, particularly struggling in the middle overs against spin. In nine innings, he’s lost his wicket three times to spinners and has scored just 107 off the 91 balls he’s faced from them. A possible fix for this could be Mumbai sending in Ishan Kishan or Kieron Pollard earlier. Kishan has been aggressive against spinners, striking at 163.1 since 2018 in the IPL, while Pollard’s best scores (83 v Kings XI and 46 not out v Sunrisers) this season have come when he’s walked out within the first 12 overs of the innings.

Stats that matter

• Hardik has an average of 42 in the death overs and has been striking at 207.9 in this phase in nine innings.
• Raina needs one more fifty to bring up 50 fifties in T20s and one more catch to get to 100 catches in the IPL.
• Dhoni is one big hit away from 200 sixes for Chennai Super Kings.

The duo has been asked to do so “in order to purge” their “collective indiscretion” on a talk show where they made controversial and offensive comments

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Apr-2019Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul have been directed to contribute INR 20 lakh (USD 30,000 approx.) each to charity by BCCI ombudsman Justice DK Jain “in order to purge” their “collective indiscretion” on a talk show where they made controversial and offensive comments. The two have already missed five ODIs each as part of a provisional ban pending inquiry. Both are part of India’s 15-member squad for the World Cup to be played in June and July in the UK.The controversy began when their interview on the show was aired in the first week of January. At various points on the show, Hardik spoke of feeling “West Indian in spirit” and of how he likes to observe women in night clubs and has ties with many women, comments that were immediately criticised for being racist and sexist on social media. These remarks led Vinod Rai, the head of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), which is running the BCCI right now, to take immediate action. However, in the absence of an ombudsman or an ethics officer in the BCCI, an inquiry couldn’t take place and it was decided that the players can’t be suspended indefinitely.Having missed ODIs in Australia and New Zealand, the duo made their comebacks. Their case was handed over to Justice Jain as soon as he assumed the charge of the BCCI ombudsman. He sent a notice to the two players on April 2 and both appeared before Justice Jain in person on April 9 and 10, and repeated the apology they had made in public. The BCCI CEO Rahul Johri also appeared before Jain, and present the CoA’s view that missing out on five matches and the match fee for those matches was sufficient penalty in their view.ALSO READ: These seven months have not been easy – Hardik PandyaJain didn’t disagree with it, but added a further direction. “Taking into consideration all these aspects,” his order read, “in particular that the player has tendered an apology for the incident without seeking to justify his action, has acknowledged his duty to the society and expressed his willingness to hold himself to higher standards expected of him and has missed out five ODIs; in the interest of justice and fair play, in order to purge his collective indiscretion, it would suffice if the player is directed to…”The order goes on to direct that the players should pay INR 1 lakh each to the “most-deserving” widows of 10 constables of the para-military forces and deposit Rs 10 lakh each to a fund created for promotion of cricket among the blind.Having studied all evidence including the oral submissions of Pandya and Rahul, Justice Jain said that since both players had not “contested” the BCCI action against them, there was no need for any “categorical findings” to establish their acts constituted misconduct and indiscipline.Justice Jain said that in a country where cricketers are “idolised”, “revered” and are “role models”, the player has to be mindful of the fact that he is “shouldering the responsibility towards the society” at all times on and off the field. “These impressionable young adults try to emulate not only their style of playing but also their conduct and demeanour and therefore, they cannot be unmindful of the impact of their casual and off the cuff remarks,” Justice Jain said.The ombudsman concluded that he had “no hesitation in observing that the remarks” made by both players “did offend sensitivities, which ought to have been avoided”.

Back-up wicketkeeper scores second half-century of the match as Glamorgan sneak home in final session

ECB Reporters Network22-May-2019Tom Cullen held his nerve to score an unbeaten half-century that steered Glamorgan to a thrilling two-wicket victory over Derbyshire in the Division Two match at Derby. The 27-year-old wicketkeeper, who was only playing because Chris Cooke is injured, scored 51 from 88 balls to take Glamorgan to their target of 246 with help from Andrew Salter and Lukas Carey.Derbyshire were favourites when they reduced Glamorgan to 162 for 7 with Ravi Rampaul taking three wickets but Cullen played superbly to give his side their first Championship win of the season.Derbyshire began the day 203 on but for the second time in the match, the last wicket added precious runs with Rampaul taking the lead role. He smashed Michael Hogan for four before driving him over long-on for six and by the time he missed a sweep at Marnus Labuschagne, the stand with Anuj Dal was worth 51 and Derbyshire’s lead was 245.It meant Glamorgan had to make their highest successful run chase against Derbyshire to win and they started wretchedly with Nick Selman wafting at the third ball from Tony Palladino to be caught behind.Charlie Hemphrey had scored three consecutive half-centuries but never got going and was lbw to one that kept low from Rampaul in the sixth over. Labuschagne looked in good touch but after several fluent drives through the covers, he tried to turn Rampaul to leg and was caught at midwicket for 32.At lunch, Glamorgan needed another 170 but they could not build a partnership as Billy Root was trapped by one from Rampaul that nipped back and was on his way before the umpire’s finger was raised.Glamorgan’s task was complicated by increasing variable bounce from the Racecourse End and when David Lloyd fell in the thirties for the fourth time in five innings, lbw half-forward to Palladino, Derbyshire were favourites. Jeremy Lawlor lifted Matt Critchley over wide long-on for six but then dragged the legspinner to deep midwicket and after Daniel Douthwaite drove a slower ball back to Wayne Madsen, Glamorgan appeared to be fading on 163 for 7 at tea.But Cullen had played well in the first innings and with Salter, reduced the target to 30 going into the last hour and the stand was worth 55 in 25 overs when Salter cut at a wide ball from Luis Reece and Madsen held a sharp catch at slip. Derbyshire tried to unsettle the batsmen with short balls but Cullen took 10 from a Logan van Beek over before driving a Critchley full toss for the winning boundary.

ESPNcricinfo’s live updates and analysis from England v India

Deivarayan Muthu30-Jun-2019

Questions had been asked as to whether neutral umpires are still needed after Joel Wilson and Aleem Dar came under fire at Edgbaston

Daniel Brettig07-Aug-2019Umpires are united in their belief that neutrality should not be tampered with in the wake of calls for the best officials to be used in the Ashes series after Joel Wilson and Aleem Dar combined for a total of 20 decision reviews in the opening Test at Edgbaston.Furthermore, Australian and English voices calling for an end to the neutral umpires system first experimented with by Pakistan in the late 1980s and formalised in 1994 are believed to be very much in the minority at the ICC’s various committee tables.The question of dumping the neutral umpires system, a query raised by Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath and Michael Vaughan among others during the Edgbaston Test has been debated more than once over the years, typically around the time of an Ashes series. Most recently the issue was raised at an ICC match officials forum in 2018, and ESPNcricinfo understands that the umpires were not only united but vehement in their opposition to any change.Put simply, umpires are happier to accept criticism of their decision-making on a basis of skills, conditions, eyesight – just about anything so long as they are not regarded as biased towards one side or favouring their home team. This accusation, which was levied at countless umpires over many years before the introduction of neutral officials in the early 1990s, is not one that any umpires involved in international cricket would like to revisit, and they have the support of the majority of countries at ICC level.Wilson, who was standing in his 14th Test at Edgbaston, was subject to 15 of the 20 reviews, with eight of his decisions being overturned after the players made the “T” sign to query them with the third umpire, Chris Gaffaney.In the wake of the match, Wilson is understood to have spent time reviewing his performance with his umpires coach David Levens, who is responsible for mentoring ICC umpires from Australia, England and the West Indies, and is slated to be working as the television umpire during the second Test of the series at Lord’s before he returns to the middle for the third match at Headingley in Leeds alongside Gaffaney. Aleem and Gaffaney will be on the field at Lord’s, before the Sri Lankans Kumar Dharmasena and Ruchira Palliyaguruge, plus South Africa’s Marais Erasmus, take over for the final two Tests.Joel Wilson and Aleem Dar came under scrutiny for their performance at Edgbaston•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

In addition to the views of umpires and member countries about the complications presented by returning to a system where it is possible to officiate over Test matches played by your own countrymen, other concerns include the fact that it would simply create a greater array of areas for competing teams to query, given that it would not always be possible to have the supposed “best two umpires in the world” taking charge when other factors like the global schedule and team preferences are taken into account.The old complaints of touring teams about home umpires are legion, with neutral officials first tried by Pakistan in 1986 against the West Indies and in 1990 against India to help assuage accusations of bias. In Australia in 1990-91, Phil Tufnell has recounted how an Australian umpire, Peter McConnell, made no secret as to his distaste for the English side. When asked how many balls were left in an over at the MCG, Tufnell recounted McConnell’s reply as: “Count ’em yourself you Pommie ****.”An exchange of words involving England’s captain Graham Gooch followed, and McConnell turned down a vociferous caught behind appeal by Tufnell against David Boon a few over later. South Africa’s players were left similarly disenchanted by Darrell Hair and Terry Prue during a Test in Adelaide in 1994, in one of the last series before neutral umpires were formally made part of the system – match referees having been introduced in 1992.Ponting, though, gave voice to mounting calls for a change. “I would like to think the game has come far enough now for the game to not have neutral umpires,” Ponting told cricket.com.au.”People might say that with all the technology we’ve got now, it doesn’t matter that much. But it’s not a good spectacle when pretty obviously wrong decisions are made. There’s been a lot a negativity about the DRS over the years, but we’re pretty lucky that we had it last night.”It’s already been spoken about a lot among the players. If it’s not brought up, I’ll make sure it’s added to the agenda. Surely Richard Kettleborough and the like would want to be umpiring the best series. The best umpires can end up missing out on all the big tournaments. It could force umpires into retirement a bit early.”Joel Wilson was under scrutiny after a series of incorrect calls•Getty Images

England’s captain Joe Root was more conciliatory, noting that umpires made mistakes much as players did. “Players make bad decisions from time to time, lose their wicket or get smacked out of the attack. Umpires are going to make mistakes as well,” Root said.”It’s very easy to over-criticise and point the finger. Sometimes there has to be respect and understand they’re under as much pressure as some of the players. They might have got a fair few decisions wrong in this game but that’s all part and parcel of cricket and that’s why DRS is there to overturn the wrong ones, thankfully it was there this game. It’s never going to be a perfect system, there will always be areas that can be made better or we can pick holes at. As long as the players understand and accept that, it’s the same for both sides. You’ve just got to get on with the game.”Similarly to players, umpires are assessed and developed over time, graduating from junior and club ranks to first-class level, then Twenty20 international, ODIs and finally a spot on the 12-man ICC elite panel to officiate primarily in Test matches and major ICC events. Wilson is a West Indian graduate of this system, and as such will not be discarded out of hand after one poor game. Along with Levens, the other umpires coaches overseeing development are Peter Manuel from Sri Lanka, Denis Burns from England and Karl Hurter from South Africa.A more pressing concern is the fact that seven of the 12 elite panel umpires are currently Australian or English, meaning options for the Ashes are relatively few. Last month is was announced by the ICC that S Ravi, India’s only elite panel member, had been relegated for performance reasons, with Michael Gough (England) and Wilson being promoted, with the longtime English umpire Ian Gould retiring. the need for a wider spread of umpiring talent has been repeatedly stressed to member countries, among other issues, and a pair of recent developments can be expected to help in the medium term.The first is the broadening of the DRS to be used in all T20Is, meaning that a wider pool of umpires will become used to dealing with its vagaries either out in the middle or in the third umpire’s chair. The second is the gradually expanding pool of skilled Asian umpires via their experiences in the IPL, offering the chance for more to graduate the same system that indicated Wilson’s Edgbaston experience was more redolent of a bad game for an elite player than an indication of his overall quality or otherwise.

Bangladesh have made six changes to their T20I squad for the tri-series against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe beginning September 13

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Sep-2019Bangladesh have made six changes to their squad for the T20I tri-series at home against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe starting September 13. They left out Mehidy Hasan, Rubel Hossain and Mohammad Mithun, while Tamim Iqbal is still on a break from the game.

Bangladesh T20I squad

IN: Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Taijul Islam, Mahedi Hasan, Yeasin Arafat
OUT: Abu Hider, Ariful Haque, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Mithun, Nazmul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Tamim Iqbal

Fast bowler Yeasin Arafat and Test specialist Taijul Islam received their maiden T20I call-ups, while Mahedi Hasan, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain and Sabbir Rahman were recalled. Other absentees from the squad, who were part of the T20I series against West Indies earlier this year, were Abu Hider, Ariful Haque and Nazmul Islam.Chief selector Minhajul Abedin said that the likes of Mahedi and Yeasin, who were part of the high-Performance squad this year, had been selected as part of a mandate to try new players. Taijul was picked not just because of his Test performances, but for his impressive BPL statistics over the last few years. Afif and Mahedi, meanwhile, made their T20I debuts against Sri Lanka last year, but did not make any noteworthy contributions in their respective games.”We have to pick a new set of players, which is why we picked Mahedi and Yeasin,” Minhajul said. “There’s no real reason to drop Mehidy Hasan Miraz. We are just trying out some new players.”Yeasin, 20, has played just seven first-class matches and six List A games. He recently played for the Bangladesh emerging team against the touring Sri Lanka side, in which he took three wickets in the three one-day games. His impressive outings in domestic cricket had also earned him a place in the 31-man preliminary squad for the senior team’s tour of the West Indies last year.T20I squad for tri-series: Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Taijul Islam, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman, Yeasin Arafat

The two-year deal, starting with the upcoming series against South Africa, also includes coverage of men’s and women’s domestic tournaments

Nagraj Gollapudi11-Sep-2019Cricket will be back on All India Radio (AIR), the national radio broadcaster, after a gap of nearly five years. On Tuesday, the BCCI announced it had signed a radio rights deal for two years with AIR, and according to the contract, AIR will start live audio commentary from South Africa’s tour of India, which begins this weekend, until August 2021. The coverage will also include select men’s and women’s domestic matches, such as the Ranji Trophy final, and games in the Women’s Challenger Series, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Cup and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.Making the announcement through a media release on Tuesday, BCCI said the move aimed to “enhance the coverage” of Indian cricket and to take it to the “nook and corners” of the country.The deal brings to an end a deadlock over the radio rights issue, which involved several negotiations between the BCCI and Prasar Bharati, the chief broadcasting arm of the Indian government, which runs AIR. According to Rahul Johri, the BCCI chief executive officer, both parties have agreed on a 50:50 revenue share. He said Prasar Bharati will be in charge of the commercial aspect as well as paying the commentators.”Radio is a very strong medium and it was one of the pieces that was missing in our engaging our audience,” Johri told ESPNcricinfo. “Cricket being the life blood of India, we believe radio will play a big role in taking cricket to the masses.”Until the early 1990s, AIR was the chief mode of delivering cricket to fans in the country. Generations of cricket fans followed India’s greatest moments in the game, from the first Test win to the 1983 World Cup win, on radio. Commentators became household names, and some great players – including Lala Amarnath and Vijay Merchant – added a dimension to their legend with their work at the microphone. The spread of television from the mid-1980s and the satellite TV revolution a decade later pushed radio to the background.In 1994, the BCCI decided to sell the broadcast rights for Indian cricket for the first time. At the time the rights included both television as well as audio (radio). But the BCCI could not sell the radio rights within India as the feed is owned by the Indian government.Also, by default AIR got to broadcast cricket within India between 1994 and 2014 mainly because the private broadcaster, who had bought the television rights, still needed permission from the Indian government’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to uplink the feed to the satellite. With Prasar Bharati coming under the MIB purview, the private broadcaster was forced to allow AIR to air the telecast over the radio within India.Impatient and anxious about not getting the permission to uplink the feed, on several occasions the broadcaster sought the BCCI’s help to mediate with the MIB. In 2014, the BCCI decided to remove the radio rights from the broadcast rights bouquet. This meant the broadcaster just needed to make the payment to the MIB for the uplinking.The radio rights were now with the BCCI, which negotiated directly with the MIB. There was an ad-hoc arrangement struck for a while, where AIR was allowed to broadcast Indian cricket but that lasted only till 2014. Since then both parties held several discussions without any apparent solution in sight. The BCCI finally took a stand saying that it was happy to share the radio rights within India with AIR as long as there was a commercial contract where it would be paid 50% of the net income.The second condition that the BCCI asked of the MIB was that AIR should ensure quality commentary. The BCCI even extended its willingness in producing the commentary, which would allow it to pick the panel of commentators, and a willingness to incur these expenses. Even the Committee of Administrators (CoA) is understood to have supported the BCCI stance.

Kent opener earned his first international call-up for England’s two-Test tour of New Zealand in November

Valkerie Baynes25-Sep-2019Zak Crawley is under no illusions about the task ahead if he is to secure himself a place in England’s Test side.But for a man who is not yet 22, Kent opening batsman Crawley, who this week earned his first international call-up for the two-Test tour of New Zealand in November, is not short of a plan.”I know how selection works, you’ve got to prove yourself,” Crawley told ESPNcricinfo. “And there’s some people who have had great years this year who I’m going up against, so I’m going to have to have good practice and try and impress them that way, because obviously there’s only one innings left before that tour.”I’m not going in there assuming I’m not going to play or I’m going to play, I’m just going to try and put in the hard work and hopefully win them over like that.Kent’s Zak Crawley on his way to a ton•PA Photos

Crawley will be vying with Dom Sibley and Ollie Pope for key batting positions at the top of England’s far-from-settled top-order.Sibley, who also earned his first Test call-up for the New Zealand tour, is the leading scorer in county cricket and the only batsman in Division One to pass the 1,000-run mark with 1,324 runs at 69.68. He scored 215 not out and 109 in Warwickshire’s penultimate match of the season, an eight-wicket win over Nottinghamshire last week.And Pope, who has played two Tests for England batting at No. 4 against India last year, is also enjoying a fruitful end to the 2019 Championship, having missed much of the season through injury. In only his fifth match of Surrey’s current campaign, his 106 against Nottinghamshire gave him 561 runs at an average of 80.14 in eight innings.”I’m not bothered where I bat, to be honest,” said Crawley. “Most likely it would be top of the order but if they said to me, ‘bat anywhere’, I’d bat anywhere, so I won’t pigeon hole myself to one spot just yet.”With Kent’s final match of the season heavily interrupted by the weather, Crawley looks set to finish his campaign with 820 runs at 34.16, including two hundreds and five half-centuries. However, his past four innings have yielded scores of just 3, 4, 15 and 0, and so a phone call from England’s chief selector, Ed Smith, shortly after his duck against Hampshire at Canterbury brightened Crawley’s mood immeasurably.”It’s something I’ve been working for my whole life so hopefully now I can just seize the opportunity and go well, that’s the plan,” Crawley said. “There was an idea at the end of the tunnel where I wanted to be at, and England is definitely right up there. If and when I get the go, hopefully I can just put in a good performance and hopefully play for a long while.”Crawley credits a stint with Sydney Cricket Club in the last NSW Premier Cricket season, particularly in the T20 arena, for his impressive development over the English summer. While at Sydney, he scored the fastest century in the competition, reaching an unbeaten 100 off just 42 balls.Zak Crawley has blossomed into an impressive white-ball player over the past year•Getty Images

“I had a good winter away last year,” Crawley said. “It seems to be a common theme when people have good winters, they come back and have good summers. I reckon that had probably the biggest influence on me.”That was one of my goals in the winter, to do well in white-ball this year naturally, and improve that game. This is a Test call-up so I’m more than happy with that but that was one of my main goals for the winter so that was very pleasing. I was just trying to know my game better and move forward, and I think I did that pretty well in the winter. I definitely came back to England with a clear picture of what I wanted to achieve and what I needed to do to do that.”Kent captain Sam Billings, who earned a recall to England’s T20I squad for five matches in New Zealand in November, was hugely impressed with Crawley’s T20 progress, which included a top score of 89 off 55 balls against Essex last month, and tipped big things for the youngster across all formats.”With my own call-up, I was actually happier with Zak getting called up,” Billings said. “His temperament is probably the most impressive thing with him, his work ethic as well. He will be a very successful cricketer around the world, not only in the four-day, five-day game but also in T20. How he just naturally picked up the game and he has all the skills to go with it, for me it’s great to see him kick on and get the recognition he deserves.”

I know my opportunities are smaller than they were in the past, says the veteran paceman

Alex Malcolm29-Oct-2019Australia veteran Peter Siddle admits he is not blind to the fact that his international career may be over, after revealing that he had bowled through injury in the final Ashes Test.Siddle, who turns 35 next month, played in Australia’s last Test against England at The Oval but tore his hip flexor on the first morning. He bowled through the pain but was nowhere near as effective as he had been previously on the tour.He played in the first two Tests at Edgbaston and Lord’s and bowled better than his figures suggested, with at least four catches dropped behind the wicket off his bowling. In the critical first Test at Edgbaston, Australia coach Justin Langer had said: “I thought Peter Siddle was almost the bowler of the game, he was brilliant, that was the best none-for I’ve ever seen today.”Following his hip injury, Siddle had a month off after the Ashes to recover and the break gave him a chance to “freshen up” before his first Sheffield Shield appearance against Western Australia last week.But with the big four of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson all fit and available, plus the re-emergence of Jhye Richardson, who could have taken Siddle’s Ashes spot had he not injured his shoulder, the veteran is well aware he is at long odds to add to his 221 Test wickets, despite still having a burning desire to do so.”I’m not blind,” Siddle said. “I know my opportunities are smaller than they were in the past, but while I still love playing the game I’m still striving to be my best and try and play at the highest level and that is for Australia. I still want to continue that.”If I do, I’ll be a happy man. And if I don’t, I’ll still be a very happy man. I’ve played a lot of Test cricket now, I’ve had a great career. If I don’t play again then so be it. But I’ve still got the hunger to pull on that Baggy Green to be a part of it. This summer could be the last chance I get. Who knows. But I’ll keep striving for it.”I thought Peter Siddle was almost the bowler of the first Ashes Test – Justin Langer•Getty Images

Siddle was overlooked for the Australia A side that was selected to face the visiting Pakistanis in a day-night tour game in Perth ahead of the first Test in Brisbane. The selectors opted for a four-man pace attack that includes Richardson, Ashes tourist Michael Neser, Sean Abbott and Riley Meredith.Siddle said he had been in constant communication with both Langer and chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns since the Ashes and was not surprised to miss out on the Australia A team.”When you’ve been around 11 years and you’re about to turn 35, I don’t think you need to be picking me in any A side,” Siddle said. “I think they know there. I think it gives them an opportunity to give blokes a bit of international experience.”I know it’s not classed as an international but it gives young guys a chance to play against an international team and get that little rise in intensity and it gives a chance to those guys to showcase their skills. And that’s what you want it for. You want it as a younger side but you still want it to be the next tier of good young players.”Siddle will instead spearhead Victoria’s attack as they head to Bellerive Oval to face Tasmania this week. Pattinson has been rested in the build-up to the Test series against Pakistan. The Victoria bowlers have copped a pasting in the first two games against South Australia and Western Australia and the likelihood of a greener surface in Hobart will be sight for sore eyes.Siddle still believes he could put his hand up for Test selection in certain conditions this summer, particularly with two pink-ball Tests in five this summer. “It’s just about staying fit and bowling well,” Siddle said. “If I’m doing that, if the opportunity comes up, like the UAE when I got back in around the Australian set-up, in conditions I thought I’d never get picked in, I got that opportunity because players were injured and weren’t available. I think that’s what it comes down to.”There is a couple of pink-ball Tests that I’m a bit more suited to. There are grounds, like the Gabba, around the country that I am going to be a bit more suited to, and then there’s going to be some that I probably won’t be.”

He has captained three BPL teams in the past, leading each of them to at least one title

Mohammad Isam01-Dec-2019Mashrafe Mortaza will captain Dhaka Platoon during the 2019-20 Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) season. Mashrafe is recovering from a back injury, and had also sustained a groin injury last month. He has begun training with the Platoon team as part of his rehabilitation process.Mashrafe has captained three BPL teams in the past, and led each of them to the title at least once: Dhaka Gladiators in 2012 and 2013, Comilla Victorians in 2015, and Rangpur Riders in 2017.Despite all his success as a captain in the BPL, Mashrafe wasn’t a popular choice in last month’s player draft, since he hadn’t played any competitive cricket since the World Cup in July. He missed the subsequent Sri Lanka series with a hamstring injury, and hasn’t played any domestic cricket either.Platoon eventually signed him as their second A-plus category pick, having earlier acquired Tamim Iqbal with the draft’s first call.Platoon coach Mohammad Salahuddin is confident Mashrafe will be available from the start of the tournament, which begins on December 11.”I think he can play the whole tournament,” Salauddin told reporters on Saturday. “I hope that he will perform. Today he bowled for the first time since his injury. There is a problem in his rhythm but I think that if he bowls for a few days then it will be sorted out. The main advantage for us is his experience. We can never deny that. When he will play, he will give 100 per cent effort.”He has talked to the physio when he started bowling. He didn’t feel any pain when he was bowling. It also looked normal to me. I think Mashrafe is more motivated than me. He has been doing practice individually for last few days to regain fitness. He has reduced his weight. He has been trying to be fit. I think he is more motivated to do well for himself and the team.”Platoon will take on Rajshahi Royals in their first match of the season in Mirpur on December 12.