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Islamabad United and Multan Sultans have both had players become unavailable, with Australian wicketkeeper Matthew Short and West Indies’ spinner Gudakesh Motie ruled out of PSL 2025. Irish allrounder Curtis Campher replaces Motie for the Sultans, while United have not yet announced a replacement.Short arrived in Pakistan at the start of the PSL nursing an injury he never quite recovered from. A statement from United said he had shown “encouraging signs of recovery” but felt discomfort during training sessions.Related

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Though the franchise, in collaboration with Cricket Australia’s medical staff, attempted to get him back to full fitness, the franchise said a “joint decision” to send Short back to Australia to continue his rehabilitation was made “in the best interest of the player’s long-term fitness and career”.United have enjoyed a perfect start to the tournament, winning each of their first four games so far and sit at the top of the table.”Islamabad United remain fully committed to the well-being of all our players and extend our support to Matt during his recovery,” the statement said. “We thank him for his professionalism and positive presence in the camp and wish him a swift and complete recovery.”Sultans said Motie had returned to Guyana “to attend to a domestic matter”. ESPNcricinfo understands his father has been taken ill, and the Sultans remain hopeful he will be able to return to the tournament at some point. Motie did not play any of the Sultans’ first three matches – all of which the side lost. Sultans will look to turn their season around at home, with the PSL shifting to Multan, where Mohammad Rizwan’s side play their next two matches against Lahore Qalandars and Islamabad United.

Katie Mack upstaged the women’s Australia A squad with an unbeaten century in a three-day red-ball warm-up game in Canberra for Australia’s emerging stars ahead of England A’s tour of the country.Mack made 102 not out for CA Green against CA Gold in the third innings of the match to help Green XI claim a 121-run win, with Australia A 50-over and four-day captain and new Australia T20I squad member Nicole Faltum also making 62, while offspinner Lilly Mills took seven wickets for the match including 5 for 28 to bowl Gold XI out for 127 on the final day.Mack, 31, stole the show despite being one of the few players in the game not selected in any of the three Australia A squads for the upcoming multiformat series against England A that will feature three T20s, three 50-over matches and a four-day match in Sydney.Mack and Faltum shared a 137-run stand in the third innings of the match to set up victory after Green had claimed a first-innings lead thanks to 62 from Sianna Ginger on day one and 5 for 31 from Georgia Prestwidge on day two. South Australian batter Emma de Broughe made 84 in Gold’s first innings to ensure the lead was only 34.But Mack and Faltum feasted in the third innings before Faltum declared to set Gold a chase of 249 on the final day. Ginger took two early wickets with the new ball to complete a strong all-round performance before Mills tore through the middle and lower order, taking five of the last six wickets to bowl Gold out. Charli Knott was the only Gold batter to pass 17 on the final day with 59.The Green versus Gold three-day match has quickly become an important part of the women’s domestic calendar in terms of giving emerging players valuable long-form experience. Georgia Voll, who made her Test debut in January, made an unbeaten 200 in the game last year, while Alana King took a four-wicket haul on the final day before destroying England in the Ashes Test at the MCG.Australia A squadsAustralia A T20 squad: Lauren Cheatle, Hannah Darlington, Sophie Day, Amy Edgar, Tess Flintoff, Sianna Ginger, Heather Graham (capt), Charli Knott (vice-capt), Anika Learoyd, Rhys McKenna, Madeline Penna, Amy Smith, Courtney Webb, Tahlia WilsonAustralia A 50-over squad: Lauren Cheatle, Hannah Darlington, Sophie Day, Nicole Faltum (capt), Tess Flintoff, Sianna Ginger, Nicola Hancock, Ella Hayward, Charli Knott (vice-capt), Anika Learoyd, Amy Smith, Georgia Voll, Courtney Webb, Tahlia WilsonAustralia A Four-Day squad: Maitlan Brown, Lauren Cheatle, Maddy Darke, Sophie Day, Nicole Faltum (capt), Tess Flintoff, Sianna Ginger, Nicola Hancock, Ella Hayward, Charli Knott (vice-capt), Anika Learoyd, Lilly Mills, Rachel Trenaman, Tahlia WilsonWomen’s Australia A v England A series26 March: First T20, 1pm, Hurstville Oval28 March: Second T20, 1pm, Hurstville Oval30 March: Third T20, 1pm, Hurstville Oval2 April: First 50-over match, 10:30am, Cricket Central, Sydney4 April: Second 50-over match, 10:30am, Cricket Central, Sydney7 April: Third 50-over match, 10am, Cricket Central, Sydney12-15 April: Four-day match, 10am, Cricket Central, Sydney

UP Warriorz went out of WPL 2025 in the most thrilling manner, and they took defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru along with them. This means Gujarat Giants will now make their maiden playoffs appearance, joining Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians. The fight for the top spot, though, is still wide open.Warriorz belted the tournament’s highest total yet, courtesy Georgia Voll’s unbeaten 99, another record for the WPL’s joint-highest individual score. And that nearly didn’t prove enough because Richa Ghosh and Sneh Rana threatened a jailbreak.Ghosh smashed 69 off 33, but her dismissal with RCB needing 55 off 3.4 overs left them on the edge. Then came another twist, when Deepti Sharma, who dismissed Ghosh, conceded the most runs in a single over in the WPL’s short history – 28 off the 19th – as Rana smacked her for an incredible sequence of 4, 6, 6, 4, 6 to bring the target down to 15 off seven balls.Sneh Rana’s six-ball 26 gave RCB a glimmer of hope•BCCI

One of the fours also came off a no-ball, but more dramatically, prior to delivering that ball, Deepti stopped short of her delivery stride when Kim Garth backed up too far at the non-striker’s end, but did not run her out.But Rana’s magic ended when she muscled a flat hit straight to Poonam Khemnar, whom RCB had let go ahead of the auction, at the deep midwicket fence. That blow, which left RCB nine down, was the knockout punch for the defending champions, with Warriorz sealing victory in the final over when they had Renuka Singh run out.Fittingly enough, Voll, who at one point may have wondered if her magical knock may have gone in vain, delivered the final over that she began with two dots to all but close it out before the run-out. It marked an incredible end to Voll’s maiden WPL stint, which had needed her to cut short her home renovation in Queensland to make a quick dash to India only a week ago.Having come in as a replacement for Chamari Athapaththu, Voll showed potential to possibly be retention material, a definite positive for the Warriorz in a campaign that brought them just three wins in eight matches.

Voll, Harris make merry

Having made an impression in her first set of games for Australia in Alyssa Healy’s absence, Voll did the same in the WPL too. Three nights after hitting a half-century on debut, she cranked it up several notches along with Grace Harris as the Warriorz went hell for leather in the powerplay, hitting the second-most boundaries (13) in this phase in the tournament’s short history.Voll exhibited her strong back-foot game, a consequence of having been brought up on bouncy decks in Queensland. She often stayed beside the line and opened up impossible gaps in the backward point region, but the standout was her display of brute forearm strength and a strong bottom hand to play a ferocious whip in front of square.At the other end, Harris scooped and paddled her way to boundaries, quick to pounce on anything loose – and there were plenty of such deliveries from RCB’s new-ball pair of Garth and Renuka. Warriorz muscled their way to 67 for 0 in six overs – the highest powerplay score this season.Kiran Navgire’s 16-ball 46 came at a strike rate of 287.50•BCCI

Navgire cranks it up

RCB had a gift soon after the powerplay when Harris was run out, but Kiran Navgire didn’t take long to settle in, muscling her second ball, off Ellyse Perry, over the 60-metre boundary at deep square leg, and then carrying on to hit legspinner Georgia Wareham for back-to-back sixes in the following over.At the other end, Voll raised her second straight fifty, off 31 balls, when she swung a full-toss to the deep midwicket boundary. The second-wicket pair’s comfort against spin forced Smriti Mandhana to turn to Renuka again in the 12th over, but the move proved utterly ineffective as Navgire clobbered her for 4, 2, 4, 0, 6, 6. The sixes were a thing of beauty for her nonchalance in swatting length balls bowled into the deck over the leg-side fence.Overs 9-12 brought Warriorz 64 runs as they set themselves up for over 200. RCB had a clutch of wickets in the back end when they dismissed Navgire, Chinelle Henry and Sophie Ecclestone, but a tiring Voll charged towards a the tournament’s first-ever century, only to be denied off the last ball when a half-attempt at a second run to long-on, which would have brought up the landmark, led to Deepti being run out.Richa Ghosh reached fifty off 25 balls•BCCI

RCB go hell or high water

Mandhana was out to a tame pull early on, but RCB kept going after the bowling with S Meghana, playing in her first game of the season, picking up 22 off the second over, bowled by Harris. Perry didn’t take long to settle in either, as she was up and running with three successive fours off Henry – all to different parts. She got on top of the bounce to cut the first one along the ground, then flicked a full-toss to fine leg, and followed up with the most blistering of pulls.This intent cost Meghana and Perry their wickets, but not before they had played neat cameos. But there was a sense that they’d left too much for Ghosh to cover up – which she nearly did, exhibiting tremendous range. She used the depth of the crease to pull, made room to get beside the line to loft imperiously, and was quick to rock back when the bowlers dropped short to unfurl flat-bat pulls that bisected long-on and deep midwicket.Her 64-run sixth-wicket stand with Wareham kept RCB alive, before it got to a point where it was Ghosh or nothing. When she fell, the end was nigh. But Rana wasn’t going to go down without a fight. In the end, she nearly pulled RCB home, but the fairlytale wasn’t to be.

Taskin Ahmed became only the third bowler in history to take a seven-wicket haul in men’s T20s, claiming 7 for 19 in Durbar Rajshahi’s Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) match against Dhaka Capitals. It is also the best bowling figures in the BPL’s history, beating Mohammad Amir’s 6 for 17 for Khulna Tigers in 2020.Taskin continues to be consistent in all formats after he finished 2024 with 63 international wickets at 19.23, Bangladesh’s biggest haul in the year.He emulated Colin Ackermann, who was the first bowler to take seven wickets in a T20 – in a Vitality Blast game in 2019 – and Malaysia’s Syazrul Idrus, who took seven for Malaysia against China in 2023.After Dhaka decided to bat at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Taskin removed both openers Litton Das and Tanzid Hasan in his first two overs. He bowled a ripper to Litton, who fended the short ball towards first slip, before Tanzid was caught behind chasing a wide one.Dhaka recovered in the middle overs before Taskin returned with the wicket of Shahadat Hossain in the 17th over. Beaten by a slower ball, Shahadat holed out to Ryan Burl who took a sharp catch at long-on. Taskin had Chaturanga de Silva later in the same over, before a triple-wicket final over. Alauddin Babu was the first to go in the 20th, skying one to mid-off, before Taskin yorked Mukidul Islam. He missed out on the hat-trick but got Shubham Ranjane next ball to finish with 4-0-19-7.The glut of wickets in the last four overs slowed Dhaka down significantly, leaving Rajshahi with a moderate 175 to chase. They reached the target in the 19th over, with seven wickets in hand.Taskin said it was a proud moment for him, becoming the bowler with the best figures in the BPL. “I have always thought about taking a lot of wickets. If you don’t visualise it, you can’t make it happen. Obviously you need luck to take wickets. I am happy that I could execute my plans… It is a great feeling that I could deliver whenever my captain brought me into the attack.””It is always special to take a five-wicket haul in every format,” he added. “I have taken three or four wickets plenty of times. You need luck to get five. I am really happy. It’s a big deal for me. I am from Bangladesh so I will remember holding this BPL record.”Taskin said that he was happy with the type of pitches on offer at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, with the surfaces mostly sporting. “I think there is little margin for error. We can’t get away with any lose deliveries. Pitches are great for batters, who face a bit of challenge only against the new ball. I think such pitches will help us in the Champions Trophy [in February] where we will play on mostly good batting tracks in Pakistan and UAE.”

The ICC has finally reached a breakthrough in the 2025 Champions Trophy impasse, with a hybrid model agreed upon that will see India’s matches in the eight-team event taking place at a neutral venue. In return, Pakistan’s matches in ICC events hosted by India will also take place at a neutral venue.ESPNcricinfo has seen a resolution with details of the agreement, which went through an ICC board vote. In the agreement, during the 2024-2027 event cycle, all matches involving India in an event hosted in Pakistan will be played at a neutral venue, and in return all matches involving Pakistan in an event hosted by India will be played at a neutral venue. In both instances, all matches are taken to include knockout games such as the semis and the final.The agreement begins with the 2025 men’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan, and will apply to the 2025 women’s ODI World Cup in India, and the 2026 men’s T20 World Cup which is co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka. The last event offers an easy solution with Sri Lanka as co-host but it would mean that any game India and Pakistan are drawn to play – a group game or a knockout – will take place in Sri Lanka. It could also apply to the 2028 women’s T20 World Cup, the first tournament of the next events cycle and which has now been awarded to Pakistan.The choice of neutral venue will be made by the tournament host and will need to be approved by the ICC. In the case of the Champions Trophy, the PCB has to propose a neutral venue within 24 hours of the resolution being passed. The UAE has been the frontrunner, though Sri Lanka has also been mentioned. The PCB will retain full hosting rights for the event.The resolution also refers to the possibility of a triangular or quadrangular T20I tournament, involving India, Pakistan and another Full Member from Asia (and an Associate Asian nation if it is a quadrangular). This is thought to have been one of the points pushed for by the PCB in its negotiations during the impasse, although the ICC has only said that it will not object to such an event being staged and that similar neutral venue arrangements will apply as those in the ICC event model. The resolution also says that no ICC director will make a public announcement on the tri-series, which will be a matter solely between the BCCI and PCB.The resolution will allow all parties to breathe a considerable sigh of relief, given how close it is to the start date of the Champions Trophy. The uncertainty has plagued the event from the moment the BCCI notified the ICC that it would not travel to Pakistan for the event more than a month ago.That sparked off a period of intense negotiations between the PCB, BCCI and the ICC, and was complicated by the poor political relations between the two countries. The governments of both countries were involved in final approvals on the agreement but were also present through the process; Mohsin Naqvi, the PCB chair, is the interior minister in Pakistan’s government. Jay Shah, who was the BCCI secretary until December 1 when he took over as ICC chairman, is the son of India’s home minister, Amit Shah. The PCB had begun by insisting they would not adopt a hybrid model for the event but subsequently began to push for any solution to be more equitable and just in the longer term. In that sense, they will be happy to have secured an agreement on not playing matches in India in the next two ICC events in the country.

South Africa 308 (Verreynne 114, Mulder 54, Taijul 5-122) and 106 for 3 (De Zorzi 41, Stubbs 30*, Taijul 3-43) beat Bangladesh 106 (Mulder 3-22, Rabada 3-26, Maharaj 3-34) and 307 (Mehidy 97, Jaker 58, Rabada 6-46) by 7 wicketsSouth Africa have moved up to fourth place on the World Test Championship table after a seven-wicket win over Bangladesh in Mirpur. They chased a target of 106 in 22 overs to seal victory before lunch on the fourth day after Kagiso Rabada finished the match with nine wickets.This was their first Test win in the subcontinent in 15 matches, dating back a decade to when they beat Sri Lanka in Galle in 2014.Aggression and intent was the tone of final exchanges South Africa hit 15 fours and two sixes, and ticked along at a shave under five runs an over. They lost three of their top four in pursuit but the batters were largely comfortable on unfamiliar surfaces and new No. 3, Tristan Stubbs, who was unbeaten on 30, impressed with his ability to adapt.Related

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With a small total to defend, Bangladesh opened the bowling with their sole seamer Hasan Mahmud and their most successful bowler of the first innings, left-arm spinner Taijul Islam. His first ball was a full toss, which Aiden Markram slashed through extra cover and the take down of Taijul had begun. Three balls later, Markram drove Taijul through the covers and in his next over, Tony de Zorzi took two boundaries off him.Hasan was more threatening upfront and drew an edge from de Zorzi, which fell short of second slip and Taijul thought he had a breakthrough when he had Markram given out lbw in the eighth over, on 13. Markram missed a sweep and was hit on the pad but reviewed straight away and replays showed he had under edged the ball.South Africa were undeterred by the incident and de Zorzi finished the over by sweeping Taijul past square leg for four more. The opening pair put on 42 inside 10 overs before Taijul finally had some success. He bowled Markram through the gate, with South Africa still 65 runs away.De Zorzi and Stubbs shared a stand of 29 in 32 balls and had settled well but de Zorzi became a little too ambitious. He advanced on Taijul to try and hit him out of the ground but dragged the ball to Hasan at long-on. Again, there was no slow-down. Stubbs took 10 runs off the rest of the over.David Bedingham was done by a good delivery from Taijul that turned away and took the edge and was dismissed with victory nine runs away. Taijul finished with match figures of 8 for 165, after a first-innings five-for.Earlier, South Africa needed just 4.5 overs to bowl Bangladesh out and keep their target to just over 100 after the hosts’ lower-middle order forced the match into a fourth day. Bangladesh’s lead grew to 81 on the third evening when they faced the second new ball for five overs as South Africa were forced to use spinners in fading light. That changed on the fourth morning. The second new ball was available and taken and it had an almost immediate impact.Rabada opened proceedings and his third ball seamed in to Nayeem Hasan and struck him on the front pad. Nayeem’s wicket gave Rabada a 15th Test five-for to cap off a memorable game in which he also took his 300th wicket.Mehidy moved into the 90s with a boundary off Wiaan Mulder but was tested by Rabada, who teased the outside edge and induced an aerial flick that was dropped by Tony de Zorzi. Bangladesh’s 300 came up when Taijul Islam hit Mulder through gully but his fun didn’t last long. Two balls later, he feathered one to second slip to leave Mehidy with the last batter.He was in a rush to get to his hundred and was on 97 when tried to ramp Rabada, but the length was not quite right and he steered the ball to slip instead. Rabada finished with 6 for 46. Bangladesh had added 24 runs to their overnight score and even if they felt they had something to bowl at, South Africa soon showed that was not enough.South Africa have played Tests in Bangladesh just twice in the last 16 years and both matches of their 2015 series were washed out. The last time they won a Test in the country was in 2008, when they won both matches by an innings. The second match in this series starts next Tuesday in Chattogram. Thereafter, South Africa have four home Tests, two each against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. If they win at least four of their remaining five matches, they will be in with a good chance of getting to the WTC final.

Olly Stone will fly home from England’s tour of Pakistan on Wednesday ahead of his wedding this weekend, and appears unlikely to return in time to be considered for the second Test.Stone took seven wickets in two Tests against Sri Lanka at the end of the English summer, which were his first caps for three years in the format. Brydon Carse was preferred as England’s high-pace option for the first Test in Multan, which started on Monday, which has freed Stone up to fly home earlier than initially planned ahead of his wedding on Saturday.The date of Stone’s return is unconfirmed and may depend on the status of England’s other fast bowlers after the first Test. But with a very tight turnaround between his wedding and Tuesday’s second Test, he is unlikely to feature. Carse, Gus Atkinson and Chris Woakes are the three seamers picked to play in the first Test, with Matthew Potts the other fast bowler in the squad.England’s management are understood to be happy for Stone to leave Pakistan, given he was not included in their last batch of central contracts and his wedding was arranged long before his recall. He spoke to Rob Key and Brendon McCullum – England’s managing director and coach respectively – before the tour, who agreed that he should head home to get married.”We booked the wedding on the basis of me only playing for Notts at the time,” Stone recently told the BBC. “Jess said she was happy to move the wedding and I was adamant on keeping it where it was if possible. For what she has given up and sacrificed for me, I thought the least I could do was to try and make it work.”In a previous era, the seamer Tony Pigott postponed his own wedding at short notice in order to play what proved to be his only Test on England’s 1984 tour to New Zealand. More recently, contracted players have rescheduled weddings due to clashes: Joe Root said on Saturday that he and his wife Carrie had rearranged their own “three times because of different tours”.Root said that Stone would leave the tour with his teammates’ best wishes. “It’s a special time in anyone’s life,” he said. “I’m really excited for him. I’m sure he is all over the place with everything that’s going on, but it’ll be very special for him – and his wife – starting a different chapter in his life. We’ll all be raising a cold water to him at some point, celebrating.”

Yorkshire legspinner Jafer Chohan has earned his first England call-up for the men’s limited-overs tour of West Indies, which begins at the end of October, becoming the first graduate of the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA) to earn international recognition.Launched in 2021 by Dr Tom Brown, the scheme aimed to remedy the under-representation of British South Asian players in the professional game. Dr Brown co-founded SACA with former England bowler Kabir Ali, after researching the subject during a four-year PhD at Birmingham City University, in which he found that British Asians represent just 5% of the cricketers at the top level of the men’s game, a sharp drop-off from the 30% that play recreational cricket in England and Wales.Chohan, who was released by Middlesex five years ago, aged 17, is one of 10 players and two coaches to have moved into the professional game from SACA, who showcase their talent in fixtures against county second XIs and sessions open to county scouts. Having joined Yorkshire in 2022, Chohan has established himself in their T20 side, and his England call-up comes off the back of a solid 2024 Vitality Blast campaign, taking 17 wickets at 15.52, with a standout performance of 5 for 14 against Durham – the third-best figures in Yorkshire’s T20 historyDespite that form, and the value of wrist-spin in the shorter formats, Chohan has yet to feature in the men’s Hundred. However, on Tuesday, Yorkshire announced he had signed a three-year contract to remain at Headingley until the end of the 2027 summer. He has also been drafted by Sydney Sixers for the upcoming Big Bash League season.England are keen to explore their spin options following the international retirement of Moeen Ali, who also happens to be president of SACA, while they also need to line up an eventual successor to Adil Rashid, whose international career has entered its 16th year. Although Rashid last month insisted that he has no immediate plans to retire after claiming his 200th ODI wicket during the Australia series, he namechecked Chohan as one of the young players he has been mentoring, both at Yorkshire and at his own cricket centre in Bradford, as part of the SACA programme.Jafer Chohan claimed five wickets for Yorkshire against Durham in this season’s Vitality Blast•Getty Images

“It feels like an absolute dream to be selected,” Chohan said. “It’s what I’ve worked for my whole life.”I’ve had a great week – having it announced about another three years at Yorkshire as well as having a call up now with England.”For me this is a really good opportunity to be around some of the best players in the world, learn as much as I can and just really sharpen up my game as much as possible. Having big England names in the Yorkshire dressing room, it doesn’t get too much better than that in terms of helping me improve.”Warwickshire’s off-spinning allrounder Dan Mousley and Hampshire quick John Turner are the other uncapped members of the 14-man group. Both were part of the limited-overs squads against Australia at the end of the summer but did not feature.Chohan’s selection, despite a professional career of just 23 T20 appearances, is in keeping with an unconventional approach adopted by England’s selectors. Since taking over as managing director at the start of the 2022 summer, Rob Key has put the onus on picking players on attributes rather than solely on domestic averages. That has come to the fore in 2024.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The year began with Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir playing prominent roles in India based on their release points and action on the ball, with little focus on their modest first-class records for Lancashire and Somerset respectively. Hartley had 40 dismissals at 36.57 and Bashir 10 at 67 heading into that five-Test series, with the latter going on to feature across home series against West Indies and Sri Lanka, at the expense of county team-mate Jack Leach, who had been Ben Stokes’ primary spinner for the first two years of his tenure as Test captain.Leicestershire’s Josh Hull was the beneficiary of this radical approach at the end of the summer, debuting in the final Test against Sri Lanka at the Kia Oval. With the 2025-26 Ashes in mind, Hull’s 6ft7in height and left-arm action set him apart as a point of difference and trumped the fact he had taken just two wickets at 182.50 in three Division Two appearances this season. All this after England legend James Anderson was forced into retirement at the start of the summer.With Test head coach Brendon McCullum set to assume the limited-overs job at the start of 2025, it is perhaps no surprise to see this left-field thinking filter into England’s plans as they look to rebuild after disappointing showings at the 2023 ODI and 2024 T20 World Cups. The West Indies tour will be Marcus Trescothick’s last as interim white-ball head coach, ahead of McCullum combining the roles in the new year.Related

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There remains no place for Hartley, who has not added to his international caps since the Test tour of India, which he finished as England’s leading wicket-taker with 22 dismissals. He was a non-playing member of the T20 World Cup squad in the Caribbean, but was subsequently overlooked for the T20I and ODI series against Australia.Chohan’s selection also presents a challenge to Rehan Ahmed, who was presumed to be the heir apparent to Rashid. The Leicestershire legspinner has 17 international caps to his name but hopes to add to that this month, having travelled with the Test squad on Tuesday to Pakistan, where he made his debut two years ago.Rehan, 20, could yet challenge Chohan in the Caribbean with that squad due to be supplemented with two players from the Test tour. A decision on who will travel across will be made after selection for the third and final Test in Rawalpindi, which begins on October 24 – a week before the first ODI in Antigua. Hull, who picked up a season-ending quad injury on Test debut, could also be considered if fully recovered.As expected, Jos Buttler will slot back in as captain following a calf injury, and is set to make his first competitive appearance since the T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to India at the end of June. However, a decision on whether he keeps wicket will be made nearer the time. Phil Salt is the only viable stand-in in the original 14-man squad, although both Jordan Cox and Jamie Smith are potential inclusions from the Pakistan Test party.England limited-overs squad: Jos Buttler (capt), Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Jafer Chohan, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid , Phil Salt, Reece Topley, John TurnerItinerary
1st ODI: Antigua, October 31
2nd ODI: Antigua, November 2
3rd ODI: Barbados, November 6
1st T20I: Barbados, November 9
2nd T20I: Barbados, November 10
3rd T20I: St Lucia, November 14
4th T20I: St Lucia, November 16
5th T20I: St Lucia, November 17

The first ever day of Test cricket at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground was abandoned due to a wet outfield. The weather was fair all day, with the sun out, but the drainage facilities could not dry the playing area entirely, leaving New Zealand and Afghanistan to wait at least another day to begin their first ever Test encounter.There has been significant rain over the past few days and the challenge, according to chief curator Amit Sharma, was to keep the outfield fit for play if the wet weather continued. However, on Monday, there was not a single cover on the ground all day and the super-soppers were at work, but wet patches on the outfield and the bowlers’ run-up remained a concern.Multiple inspections took place, with the last one scheduled at 4.30pm local time, but the day was abandoned at 4.05 pm. The toss has been scheduled for 9am tomorrow and the remaining four days will have 98 overs each starting at 9.30am, instead of 10am.Related

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The match is not part of the World Test Championship cycle but gives New Zealand an opportunity to acclimatise to subcontinent conditions, with two Test series against Sri Lanka and India lined up in the next couple of months.Afghanistan have played two one-off Tests in this year so far, both in different countries against different opponents, and are looking for their first win since 2021.

Kusal Mendis is in outstanding form, Pathum Nissanka has had fantastic outings, Avishka Fernando has been spectacular, and Kusal Perera has made a strong comeback. On top of which, Kamindu Mendis seems in good touch too.This is all on based on Lanka Premier League (LPL) performances, that new Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka regards as the gold standard in T20 cricket on the island.The LPL concluded only on Sunday, with Asalanka’s Jaffna Kings side taking home the trophy. Top order batters flourished in that competition. Asalanka has suggested that Kamindu – who also bowled with both arms during the LPL – has sewn up the No. 4 spot, having hit 287 runs at a strike rate of 157 through the tournament.Related

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But then there are still four batters vying for the top three spots. As Asalanka said: “There are four openers in the squad, and the way I’m thinking three of them will make up the top three. One of them will have to miss out.”Those four: