Follow UsJust to give you an idea of how ‘happening’ a week this has been, the Jonny Bairstow stumping hadn’t even taken place when the last Newsletter was published. In fact, when last week’s Newsletter was published, Australia were 130/2 in their second innings (LOL).
So yes, this is a fair warning: fasten your seatbelts. NOW!
Men’s International cricket
THE DUTCH ARE GOING TO THE WORLD CUP!
We officially have the final two entrants for the World Cup, and it is Sri Lanka and — wait for it — NETHERLANDS. Indeed, Zimbabwe were strong favourites to go through, but they got eliminated after losing to Scotland. The Scots then entered the Netherlands match as favourites to progress, thanks to their superior NRR, but the Dutch astonishingly chased 278 inside 43 overs to pocket the final spot.
They won thanks to Bas de Leede, who produced arguably the greatest all-round performance in ODI history: 5/52 with the ball and then 123 off 92 with the bat.
The Jonny Bairstow saga and its aftermath
Around 5.00 PM IST on Sunday, July 2, Jonny Bairstow wandered out of his crease thinking the ball was dead. The rest is, well, history. The video of the incident is below; I’m gonna save some words and not explain the incident.
But the fallout of the incident was….something else. Hard to remember a fallout like that in any sport, let alone cricket.
Lord’s booed the Aussie players non-stop, and you had the (ahem) classy MCC members disgrace themselves by showing utter lack of class, abusing the Australian players. You had every English player take the moral high ground, giving interviews and writing columns talking about the ‘spirit of cricket’, and even the Aussie and English Prime Ministers got involved. It was MADNESS.
All that chatter is FINALLY over, thanks to the Headingley Test starting. Phew.
Meanwhile, in The Ashes
The Headingley Test is going on now, but Stokes almost did a Headingley 2019 on Sunday at Lord’s. But the Aussies had the last laugh as Stokes perished, after which England slipped to a 43-run defeat.
Meanwhile, both Ollie Pope and Nathan Lyon have been ruled out due to injury and will take no further part in this Ashes series.
As far as the third Test is concerned, well, like the first two, both sides have been throwing away advantageous positions FOR FUN! So two days on, the game is in the balance, Australia effectively 142/4 (lead included).
The highlight of this Test has been Mark Wood’s thunderbolts with the ball and Mitch Marsh’s thunderbolts with the bat. Glorious, glorious, both.
Tamim Iqbal has retired and unretired from international cricket
In a shock move, Bangladesh’s ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal announced on Thursday that he was retiring from international cricket with immediate effect.
But. BUT.
Just 24 hours later, on Friday, he withdrew his decision to retire after intervention from Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. No, this is not a joke, nor is it a satire.
Cricket’s very own soap opera, Bangladesh edition.
Ajit Agarkar is the new chief selector
Team India finally have a chief selector for the Men’s side, and it’s none other than Ajit Agarkar. He was unanimously picked for the post by the Cricket Advisory Committee, consisting of Sulakshana Naik, Ashok Malhotra and Jatin Paranjape.
Agarkar’s appointment was confirmed on July 4th. The post had been vacant since February. #JustBCCIThings
Speaking of selections — Tilak Varma and Jaiswal have been handed maiden T20I call-ups
Indeed, the Agarkar-led selection committee wasted no time in naming the T20I squad for the Windies tour. While Tilak and Jaiswal were handed maiden T20I call-ups, there was no place for Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad. The selectors rested the seniors — Kohli, Rohit etc — while they handed a surprise recall to Avesh Khan.
India’s squad for the T20Is vs West Indies
Ishan Kishan (wk), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Surya Kumar Yadav (VC), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya (C), Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
The India ‘A’ squad for Emerging Asia Cup has been announced too
The young squad will be led by Yash Dhull. Sai Sudharsan, Prabhsimran Singh and Riyan Parag are among the notable names that have been picked.
India A squad
Sai Sudharsan, Abhishek Sharma (VC), Nikin Jose, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Yash Dhull (C), Riyan Parag, Nishant Sindhu, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Manav Suthar, Yuvrajsinh Dodiya, Harshit Rana, Akash Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Rajvardhan Hangargekar
Standby list
Harsh Dubey, Nehal Wadhera, Snell Patel, Mohit Redkar
Andrew Balbirnie resigns
Following Ireland’s disastrous showing in the World Cup qualifiers, where they finished second-to-bottom in the round-robin stage behind Oman, Andrew Balbirnie has stepped down as the country’s skipper. Ireland have named Paul Stirling as the interim captain.
Women’s international cricket
The India Women’s squad for the Bangladesh tour is out
Unlike the Men’s squad, this one features a lot of shocks and surprises. Richa Ghosh (yes, Richa Ghosh!!) has been left out, as has Renuka Singh.
India's T20I squad:Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Devika Vaidya, Uma Chetry (wk), Amanjot Kaur, S. Meghana, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Anjali Sarvani, Monica Patel, Rashi Kanojiya, Anusha Bareddy, Minnu Mani
India's ODI squad:Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Harleen Deol, Devika Vaidya, Uma Chetry (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Priya Punia, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Anjali Sarvani, Monica Patel, Rashi Kanojiya, Anusha Bareddy, Sneh Rana
Chamari Athapaththu continues being a record-breaking, history-making legend
Thanks to two unbeaten tons in the span of three ODIs against New Zealand, Chamari Athapaththu rose to the top of the batter’s rankings in ODIs. And by doing so, she created history, becoming the first player from Sri Lanka to top the ICC Women's ODI Player Rankings.
Chamari’s heroics helped Sri Lanka pocket the ODI series 2-1.
Women’s Ashes — England are off the mark
England are officially on the board in the 2023 Women’s Ashes after beating Australia by 3 runs in the second T20I on Saturday. They’d gone 0-6 down (4 points for Test, 2 for T20Is) after losing the one-off Test and the first T20I, but thanks to a 76 from Dani Wyatt, Heather Knight’s side got the better of the Aussies at The Oval.
This was Australia women’s first non-super-over loss in T20Is since 30th March 2021.
Franchise cricket
BBL takes a leaf out of IPL’s book for forthcoming season
Five teams will no longer qualify for the knockouts in the Big Bash League (BBL) as the new, revamped structure sees the competition take a leaf out of IPL’s book. The Top 4 will now qualify for the knockouts.
1 & 2 will play the ‘Qualifier’, the winner of which will directly progress to the final.
3 & 4, meanwhile, will battle it out in the ‘Knockout’. The loser of ‘Qualifier’ and the winner of ‘Knockout’ will then lock horns in the ‘Challenger’ encounter. The winner of that clash will take on the winner of the ‘Qualifier’ in the Final.
Last year, BBL had five teams progress to the knockouts. They’ve done away with the ‘Eliminator’, which was played between #4 and #5.
More BBL news — Zampa has moved to the Renegades
We have a rival-to-rival swap. While Zampa will move to the Renegades, Sam Harper will be donning the green of the Stars next season.
Moeen bids goodbye to ILT20; jumps ship to SA20
The SA20 sides have announced retentions and new signings for the upcoming season and the big news is that Moeen Ali has ditched ILT20 to feature in the SA20, where he’ll be playing for the Jo’burg Super Kings. MI Cape Town have pre-signed Liam Livingstone and Tom Banton, while Durban have roped-in Bhanuka Rajapaksa.
You can check out the full list here
What’s happening in the Duleep Trophy?So, the Duleep Trophy semi-finals are underway (they’re actually almost going to be over).
We know no fan really cares about ‘zones’, so here are the key player highlights from the semis.
In the West Zone vs Central Zone clash
Safaraz Khan endured twin failures; Pujara scored a gritty second innings ton; Shaw failed twice; Shivam Mavi took a six-fer;
In the South Zone vs North Zone clash
Vyshak and Vidhwath Kaverappa both took five-fers; Tilak scored a gritty 46; Prabhsimran Singh impressed in both innings; Washington Sundar failed to make a big impression
Articles in focus
Our boy Bastab was in Alur, closely watching the Duleep Trophy, and he’s churned out quite a few beautiful pieces (fair warning: you might need a thesaurus)
On Sarfaraz’s missed chance - Twin failures put Sarfaraz behind the eight ball, again
On Shivam Mavi’s sensational six-fer - Shivam Mavi underlines virtue of persistence
A lovely Saurabh Kumar interview - Content with everything, Saurabh Kumar is “living the dream”
Pramod, meanwhile, has been killing it too, covering the World Cup qualifiers
On Bas de Leede’s GOATed showing - Bas de Leede, a Dutch clutch master
On Scotland’s heartbreak ft. Kyle Coetzer - Five years on, the heartbreak continues for Scotland
Tamim Iqbal trolled us to the extent that Aakash ended up writing a tribute piece (LOL)
Tranquil Tamim sets Bangladesh and Barishal’s standards at an all-time high
And finally, here’s Shubh's excellent piece about The Bison
Mitchell Marsh seizes comeback with inch-perfect power hitting