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New Zealand have opted for experience in the ODIs against Bangladesh, recalling Neil Broom and Luke Ronchi, with the former back after a long hiatus

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Dec-2016Batsman Neil Broom, who last played an ODI in March 2010, has been recalled to the New Zealand squad for the upcoming three-match series against Bangladesh, which starts from December 26.Wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi was also recalled in place of BJ Watling, who was excluded from the side. Two other players who were part of the squad for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, batsman Henry Nicholls and legspinner Todd Astle, were also left out.

NZ ODI squad

Kane Williamson (capt), Trent Boult, Neil Broom, Lockie Ferguson, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Colin Munro, James Neesham, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee
In: Neil Broom, Luke Ronchi
Out: BJ Watling, Todd Astle, Henry Nicholls

Broom had signed a two-year contract with Derbyshire in 2015, but chose to forego the second year to give himself another chance with New Zealand. The right-hand batsman is expected to slot in at No. 4 in place of Ross Taylor, who was ruled out after recently undergoing surgery on his left eye.”I appreciate everything Derbyshire have done for me and have really enjoyed my time with the club,” Broom said. “It was a tough call at the time. I had signed with Derbyshire for two years and I would’ve liked to see out the contract, but to get an international recall just outweighs it, so it was a pretty easy decision.”Broom played 22 ODIs between January 2009 and March 2010, scoring 333 runs at an average of 17.22. He has also played 10 T20Is, with the last one against Sri Lanka in November 2013.”When I first came in, I was overawed by everything and just really really wanted to do well and I put too much pressure on myself, so this time I’m not going to do that,” Broom said. “I tell myself this might be my last game every time I go out there. It’s probably something they tell you not to do, but you’ve got to enjoy every moment of it and try and have a couple of good years with the team.”Broom is among the top run-getters in the 2016-17 Plunket Shield first-class tournament, having scored 354 runs in seven innings at an average of 59. In 2015-16, he topped the run charts in the List A competition, the Ford Trophy, scoring 508 runs in nine matches with three centuries and two fifties.Ronchi, too, was rewarded for recent form. After a poor tour of India, and a modest run since early 2015, Ronchi was left out for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. Turning out for Wellington in the Plunket Shield, he scored a century and, on Thursday, struck an unbeaten 58 in a Super Smash match against Canterbury, which Wellington eventually lost in the one-over eliminator.Watling had scored 31 runs in the series against Australia, which New Zealand lost 3-0, while Nicholls played only one match, scoring 3. Astle was not given a game.New Zealand’s chairman of selectors Gavin Larsen acknowledged that Ronchi was seen as the best ODI wicketkeeper in the country and both players added value to the side with their experience.”With 12 years of domestic cricket under his belt and having previously spent time in the BlackCaps squad, Neil brings a lot of experience to the group,” Larsen said. “Neil was the top run-scorer in the Ford Trophy competition last year, with an average of 84.66. He has an impressive strike-rate and obviously fills the number four role with Ross out injured.”It’s been pleasing to see Luke scoring runs for Wellington again and he returns as one of the most experienced members of the squad. At this stage we see him as the best ODI gloveman in the country and the leadership he brings to the group is also immensely valuable.”The team will convene for a camp on December 23 and 24, with the first match scheduled for Boxing Day in Christchurch. The second and third ODIs will be played on December 29 and 31 in Nelson. The ODIs will be followed by three T20Is and two Tests.

No. 3 “disappointed” not to get to three figures as Bangladesh fight back in Pallekele

Andrew Fidel Fernando30-Apr-2021Losing the middle order cheaply, before bad light and rain took 24 overs out of the day, set Sri Lanka back in the match. This was according to No. 3 batter Oshada Fernando, who hit 81 in the first innings and was involved in a 104-run second-wicket stand with Lahiru Thirimanne.On a Pallekele surface that began to exhibit signs of life on day two. The hosts began the day on 291 for 1, but lost five wickets for 69 runs through the first two sessions, before rallying to 469 for 6 thanks to a Niroshan Dickwella half-century. Bad light and later rain allowed only 9.5 overs to be bowled after tea.Related

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“What we had planned for was to give them 15-20 overs to bat at the end of today,” Oshada said. “But because of the weather, and because we lost a few wickets in a cluster, we got stuck a little bit in the middle. From what I saw from the surface 550 would be a good score.”Bangladesh had put pressure on Sri Lanka early on day two, when they allowed just 18 runs to be scored in the first hour, before taking three wickets for 25 runs in 16 overs before lunch. It was only Dickwella’s run-a-ball 64 not out that helped Sri Lanka’s scoring rate recover either side of the tea break.”They bowled well in the morning, so we weren’t able to score quickly then,” Oshada said. “They bowled line and length very well. Because there was a bit of cloud cover, they probably had some help from the surface as well.”The pitch was also was a bit slower today than it was yesterday. The ball tended to stick in the wicket a bit. I think by tomorrow or day after tomorrow, there will be some turn on this surface. There weren’t many footmarks yet, but maybe if it pitches there there could be some turn.”Oshada has one Test century, which he made in Karachi at the end of 2019, but narrowly missed another hundred for the second time in three games. In the first Test against West Indies in February, he was dismissed for 91 in the second innings. Coach Mickey Arthur has spoken of grooming Oshada for a long stint at the first-drop position.”I’m very disappointed about not getting to a hundred. I was out for 90-odd in the West Indies as well, and when you’re a batsman you feel you need to get those runs. It doesn’t matter where I get to bat – No. 3 or 4, or wherever, what you have to do is score runs as a batsman.”

After missing most of the 2015-16 season due to injury, Vernon Philander is looking to reinvent himself as a Test allrounder as he seeks to regain his place in the South African team

Firdose Moonda19-May-20163:42

Cullinan: Philander could be an ideal No. 7

Vernon Philander is looking to reinvent himself as a Test allrounder as he seeks to regain his place in the South Africa team. Philander sat out most of the 2015-16 summer after tearing ankle ligaments during the warm-ups before the Bangalore Test in November. The injury kept him out of seven of the eight Tests in the season and all the limited-overs fixtures, and saw him lose ground to a younger crop, including Kagiso Rabada. But Philander is hopeful he can still bring something to the national side.”What I do is unique: I do what I do. When it comes to the batting side of things, that’s a bonus as well,” Philander said at a sponsorship announcement on Wednesday. “We are all different types of bowlers in that set-up. It’s all about combinations at the end of the day. I’ve played a couple of crucial innings towards the back end. Batting at No.8 is just unique. If you have a guy who can bat at 8, that makes a difference. So yes, my all-round ability is something, I would like to see that still being part of the fold. That’s what I bring to the party.”Not only was Philander the fastest South African to 100 Test wickets but he has also scored four fifties in 32 Tests. With South Africa’s Test slide from No.1 to No.6 in the space of five months, it’s easy to see why they might want to recall someone with Philander’s record. However, with Dale Steyn back in the Test frame, Philander will need to replace one of the other pacers, such as Kyle Abbott. South Africa are still searching for an allrounder and they last used Chris Morris in the role but Philander hopes he can claim that spot despite a lack of recent game time.Since his injury, Philander has played only two first-class matches for his franchise but believes he has recovered well enough to be recalled. “The first match was touch-and-go from the mental side of things. The second one was much better,” he said. “I have been working hard in the gym. I am getting tired of the gym actually. The body is feeling good and I am looking forward to the season.”In the two matches, Philander bowled 33 overs and took five wickets at an economy of 2.18, showing signs of his usual miserly self. He also scored 64 runs in three innings. Philander had secured a short county stint, but failed to get a deal and was also not selected for South Africa’s ODI tri-series in the Caribbean next month. Instead, he hopes he will be picked for the A side and then the Test side to play two matches against New Zealand in August.”I know there is an A side tour going to Zimbabwe and I will probably want to play those four-day games before the New Zealand series, if selected. I am probably looking to get ready for that.”

A round-up of all the Group A fixtures from the first round of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy matches on October 9, 2016

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Oct-2016Madhya Pradesh secured a bonus-point victory on the back of an innings and 64-run thrashing of Uttar Pradesh in Hyderabad. UP, asked to follow-on after being bowled out for 176, slumped to 225 all out on the final day. Chandrakant Sakhure, the right-arm medium pacer, playing in only his third first-class game, finished with career-best figures of 6 for 40. MP’s 465 in the first innings was built around Harpreet Singh’s unbeaten 216. UP captain Suresh Raina, recovering from fever, didn’t bat in both innings.A double century from Manpreet Juneja helped Gujarat pull off a heist and pocket three points, courtesy a first-innings lead, despite conceding 544 against Baroda in Jaipur. Gujarat began the day needing 267 runs with six wickets in hand, to take a lead. The task appeared tougher when they lost the services of Rujul Bhatt, who retired hurt on 58. But Juneja found able support from Axar Patel, the left-arm-spinning allrounder, who made an unbeaten 109 as Gujarat went past Baroda’s score without losing a wicket on the final day.Railways’ push for an outright win was thwarted by Uday Kaul as Punjab salvaged a point after conceding a first-innings lead at Palam grounds in New Delhi. Set a target of 362, Punjab were 170 for 3 when play ended, with Kaul (61 not out) and Mandeep Singh (41 not out) having forged an unbroken 86-run fourth-wicket stand. Railways, who resumed on 180 for 2, lost five wickets for the addition of 65 runs before the declaration. Shivakant Shukla, who made 128 in the first innings, made 97 in the second dig. Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh had a disappointing outing, making 9 and 17 in his two outings.

Dimuth Karunaratne and Lahiru Thirimanne have been named in the Sri Lanka A squad for the first two four-day games at home against West Indies A

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Sep-2016Sri Lanka batsman Dimuth Karunaratne has been named captain of the A team for the first two four-day games at home against West Indies A. Lahiru Thirimanne, who was omitted for the Tests as well as limited-overs series against Australia, found a place in the 15-member squad.Thirimanne has not played competitive cricket since the Lord’s Test in June. Karunaratne, meanwhile, is coming off an underwhelming Test series: he had managed only 41 runs, including five single-digit scores, at 6.83 in six innings against Australia. Strong performances for the A team could help the two batsmen bolster their prospects at the senior level.Left-arm wristspinner Lakshan Sandakan, who took match figures of 7 for 107 in the first Test against Australia in Pellekele, the best by a chinaman bowler on Test debut, was another prominent name in the A squad. Sandakan’s match returns were also the third-best by a Sri Lanka bowler on debut.Batsman Avishka Fernando and seamer Lahiru Kumara, who recently broke into the ODI squad, and Under-19 captain Charith Asalanka, who led them to a whitewash against England Under-19 last month, were also named in the squad. Fernando and Kumara are also Under-19 graduates.Kusal Perera, named vice-captain, Niroshan Dickwella, and Asela Gunaratne were the other international names in the squad. The first of three four-day matches gets underway at the R Premadasa Stadium on October 4.Sri Lanka A squad: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt.), Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Perera (vice-capt.), Roshen Silva, Charith Asalanka, Niroshan Dickwella, Asela Gunaratne, Avishka Fernando, Anuk Fernando, Vimukthi Perera, Prabath Jayasuriya, Lakshan Sandakan, Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Kasun Madushanka

Multan Sultans coach backs the decision to change captains just days out from the start of the 2021 PSL season

Umar Farooq17-Feb-20213:12

Flower: ‘Rizwan has the qualities to make him a very successful leader’

The decision to elevate wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan as captain of Multan Sultans was an acknowledgement of his inherent leadership qualities rather than his recent red-hot form, according to head coach Andy Flower. Flower said his franchise hoped to play a part in Rizwan’s development for the good of Pakistan cricket.Multan’s decision to replace Shan Masood, who led them to the playoffs last year, days before the sixth season was surprising – Masood was integral in trialling a system of signals between coaching staff and the captain on-field, a kind of real-time strategising as play went on. That was a system England later used in their T20Is against South Africa – Nathan Leamon, England’s white-ball analyst was also with Multan. But at least partly it would appear the change is a result of a shake-up within the franchise. ESPNcricinfo understands that Alamgir Tareen, a prominent businessman, has now taken complete ownership of the franchise, in a move that has seen Ali Tareen, his nephew and hitherto the face of the franchise, moved out.Multan insisted, however, that the decision was a cricketing one.”Rizwan has shown that he’s got leadership qualities when he captained Pakistan while Babar (Azam) was injured,” Flower said. “He’s also got a really good record in domestic cricket, recently won the T20 tournament for his state (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) so he’s got the qualities to make a very successful leader. I don’t know him well, but obviously been doing a bit of research on him and he had some of the leadership qualities that we’re looking for for a new way forward. In saying that, I would say that I really enjoyed working with Shan Masood last year. I thought he captained very well, played very well, and was very much a part of us doing well last season.Mohammad Rizwan made his maiden Test and T20I hundred this month•AP Photo

“However, nothing stays permanent in life and this is a change that we’ve made. Shan is still a very important part of the Multan group. In whatever way, as a batsman or an internal leader, he’ll still play a very big part in this upcoming tournament. But for the moment, Rizwan is our captain and we’re very much looking forward to him leading the side and us getting to the play-offs again. It’s not a short-term decision. Rizwan has shown leadership qualities over a longer period of time and It’s not just his form with the bat.”The move is further confirmation of Rizwan’s swiftly rising status within Pakistan cricket, having for so long been back-up to Sarfraz Ahmed. He has now firmly established his place across formats with PCB naming him vice-captain in Test cricket. He announced himself in England last year to win a Player-of-the-Series award and his stocks rose further in New Zealand where even though the team lost both Tests under his leadership, he continued scoring runs in crisis situations.Though he’s scored first-class runs for a while now in much the same vein, the surprise has been his T20 form. In the National T20 Cup before the New Zealand series, he scored four fifties, including an unbeaten 99 against Central Punjab, which helped him finish as the highest run-scorer. His tournament tally of 389 runs at 38.90 – and a strike rate of 127.96 – led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the 2020 title.”We would like to be a part of his development for his own good, and also for the good of Pakistan cricket,” Flower said. “All of the franchises, I think, need to keep in mind the development of Pakistan cricket and its long-term good and Rizwan is case in point. In our particular example, Shan is a really good young man and a strong young man. He’s had various speed bumps and hurdles to overcome in his young career and this will be another one for him. It’s not easy for him and we can empathise with him, but we all grow stronger from some of these hurdles that we have to overcome. And in this case, I am absolutely certain that that is the way Shan will react.”Although he is yet to play T20Is for Pakistan, Masood rose to prominence with good run in domestic cricket last year scoring 569 at 27.09 at a strike rate of 125.60. However, he isn’t an explosive opening batsman and with Rizwan likely to play in the top order Masood’s chances of keeping his place seem bleak with James Vince, Chris Lynn, Sohaib Maqsood, and Rilee Rossouw also around.”We’ve got a good number of options for the top order, but there are also people in that line-up that have batted at Nos. 3 and 4 quite regularly,” Flower said. “So we’re not concerned about the order. I think it’s a strength for us. That we have players that are adaptable and that we can adapt either to the conditions that are at play or the opposition and some of their tactics. So we think that the number of options that we have at the top of the order and in the middle order is a strength. If you’re asking about what particular order we’re going to use, I’m not going to tell you right now, we’ve got a couple of practice matches now, but obviously sharing that sort of information for our opposition, we wouldn’t do that.”

Visitors must find a way to draw series on most challenging of pitches, keeper says

Valkerie Baynes28-Feb-2021Expecting more of the testing conditions they faced in their hefty defeat inside two days in Ahmedabad, Ben Foakes says England will be better equipped to level the series against India in the final match, starting at the same ground on Thursday.Foakes was among a handful of players in the touring squad who trained at the Narendra Modi Stadium in on Sunday, the day the third Test was due to finish had England not been defeated by 10 wickets three days earlier. After the training session, Foakes said the Motera surface would be less of a mystery second time round and it was up to his team to work out how to fare better in conditions he described as the toughest he’d played in.Related

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“I was at training today and from the look of it I think it’ll be pretty similar,” Foakes said via Zoom. “I don’t think we’re concerned. We know what we’re going to get and I guess they’re pushing their conditions to the extremities. We know it’s going to spin considerably from ball one so it’s about trying to find a way to play well in those conditions and understand they’re going to be challenging.”The state of the pitch was the subject of much conjecture and the skiddiness of the pink ball was deemed to be a factor in a match described by Virat Kohli, the India captain, as “bizarre” after England were routed by ten wickets. The visitors collapsed to scores of 112 and 81 in their two innings, while India scarcely fared any better in their first innings, with Joe Root claiming 5 for 8 with his part-time offbreaks as batsmen found survival tough.But Foakes admitted – as his captain, Root, did immediately after the match – that England were “thoroughly outplayed”. And, while the final match will feature a return to the red ball and daytime play, Foakes said the solution for England was relatively simple as they set out to level the series 2-2.”Firstly not getting too down our ourselves after the last couple of innings,” he said. “Trying to keep a positive, clear mindset because when you’re struggling your judgement can get clouded and things can go badly. It’s about trying to keep a clear mind, stick to the gameplans and be slightly more positive at times if the situation dictates, but trying to come up with a gameplan that potentially works on that surface now we’ve had experience of what it was like in the last game.”We’re still in a position to draw in India… we are in with a chance of a pretty awesome achievement if we win this last one. It’s going to be difficult knowing the kind of surface we’re going to play on but we have just got to be better than we were in the last game.”Ben Foakes says England know the challenge ahead now•BCCI

From batting and wicketkeeping perspectives, Foakes has been in the thick of England’s battle since he arrived to replace the resting Jos Buttler starting with the second Test at Chennai.There, he acquitted himself particularly well as spin also played a big part in the match, albeit on a more traditional sub-continental pitch. His unbeaten 42 was England’s highest score in their first innings and he completed three stumpings, took two catches and was involved in a run out before they succumbed to a 317-run defeat. In the third Test, meanwhile, 20 of the 30 dismissals were either lbw or bowled.”From playing on the last two pitches I’ve never seen turn like that,” he said. “They almost feel like day-five pitches from ball one and it’s understanding we are going to get out at times and it’s making peace with a certain way of getting out if it means we can score runs.”The last two games have been the hardest pitches I’ve kept on. They’ve been challenging and the last game, I think it was to do with the pink ball, the amount it was skidding on or spun, I’d probably never experienced a wicket like that before. So it was a good challenge to keep on and I guess it was one I enjoyed.”Any time it’s done as much as it has been you’re always in the game. It’s just about trying to do as solid a job as possible and trying to impact the game by stealing a wicket or a stumping – that’s my goal.”But Foakes was also resigned to making way for Buttler once more when his rest period is over.”The way I’ve mentally approached the games is it’s three more opportunities to play for England and I’ll try and do as well as I can,” Foakes said. “I’m purely looking at how I can do well in the next game rather than the bigger picture.”

The captain was “a little bit surprised” by the number of withdrawals from West Indies and Bangladesh trips

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jun-2021Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch believes it will be difficult for those players who have withdrawn from the tours of West Indies and Bangladesh justifying a return to the IPL when the competition resumes in September.He confirmed that it had been part of long-term planning to rest David Warner and Pat Cummins from the trips, but they have been joined in staying home by Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Kane Richardson and Jhye Richardson. Allrounder Daniel Sams, who caught Covid-19 in India shortly before the IPL started, had previously taken himself out of contention for selection while Steven Smith was ruled out with an elbow injury.Finch said he understood the mental toll that the IPL had taken on players – with the Australians enduring a complicated journey home due to border closures – but followed what national selector Trevor Hohns said last week about national duty taking priority later in the year.Related

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“This is only my personal opinion, I think they would find it hard to justify going back and playing that second half of the IPL purely based on the workload coming up with a T20 World Cup then a huge home summer,” Finch told SEN WA when speaking to Adam Gilchrist. “It’s a tough situation everyone has been put in but personally I’d find it hard to do that knowing how challenging it is mentally and on your family.”Although Finch knew he would be without Warner and Cummins in the coming months he admitted the overall number of pullouts had “surprised” him. Their absences have meant recalls for Dan Christian, Ben McDermott and Ashton Turner plus a maiden international call-up for pace bowler Wes Agar. It also means that Finch won’t have had a first-choice T20 team together for a year when the World Cup comes around.”Pat Cummins and David Warner, that was a long-term plan for them that they weren’t going to go on this tour from the outset,” he said. “Having a big summer last year followed by IPL with a T20 World Cup and a view to the Ashes, guys who are playing three formats of the game it can be so brutal on them travelling and playing in bubbles.Aaron Finch will again be well short of having his first-choice T20 side together•AFP

“I was a little bit surprised [with the others]. I’ve chatted to them all. A little bit surprised but also understandable. I know from my own point of view having gone to the UK then all the way through the home summer, I know towards the end of that year I was absolutely cooked mentally. Almost when the season finished it’s a great relief so I can understand, but wish they were there.”Australia are due to depart for West Indies on June 28 for a tour that will include five T20Is and three ODIs. They are then scheduled to head straight to Bangladesh for five further T20Is between August 2 and 10 although those matches are still awaiting final approval around the biosecure plans.Finch will return home and complete his quarantine shortly before his wife Amy is due to give birth to their first child on September 8. He expects to be able to be at home for three or four weeks before beginning final preparations for the T20 World Cup which is due to start in mid-October and may also be shifted to the UAE.Once he is back and through another two weeks of quarantine, Finch’s home season will begin with domestic cricket in the BBL for Melbourne Renegades. Australia’s limited-overs cricket during the summer features visits by New Zealand and Sri Lanka from late January after the Ashes.

Adam Hollioake added to coaching staff after Covid-19 isolation rules hit tourists

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Dec-2021England’s batters have been given a “wake-up call” and an “education” by Australia’s bowling attack in the first three Ashes Tests. That is the view of Graham Thorpe, their assistant coach, who will stand in for the self-isolating Chris Silverwood in next week’s fourth Test at the SCG.The stats from the first three Ashes Tests make grim reading for England’s batters. Their highest team total is 297 and there have been no individual hundreds, while Dawid Malan and Joe Root are the only players to have made half-centuries, or to average more than 30 in the series. The three batters that England have used who are under the age of 30 – Haseeb Hameed, Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley – have made 130 runs between them across 12 innings.Related

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Thorpe said that the lack of Lions tours and training camps over the last 21 months due to the pandemic meant that England’s young batters were learning “the basic skills” of Test cricket on the job, and suggested that county cricket was not providing adequate preparation.”With some players it’s a wake-up call,” Thorpe said. “It could actually kick-start their careers because they’ve started training in a very, very different way. They actually start to train smart. They don’t waste time hitting half-volleys.”I don’t mean that in a bad way but they actually deal with the actual nitty gritty side of international cricket, playing high-quality spin, high-quality pace bowling and learning how to put pressure back on. If a guy’s bowling well, [they have to] get through it for six, seven or eight overs.”County cricket is what it is. You’ve got to lift players out of there, then educate them into international cricket. There have been no Lions tours and no training camps for our younger players to actually learn the basic skills of the game as well. They’re trying to learn it in county cricket, but the truth is when they come out of county cricket, they have to learn it again, because Test cricket is 10 times harder.”We are still trying to educate some of the younger guys into the rhythm of Test match batting: playing situations in the game and doing it for long periods of time. Some of them haven’t been able to do it yet. Some of our young players are getting an education and if they didn’t know before, they understand how tough Test cricket is now.”Thorpe has been working extensively with Rory Burns, who was dropped for the third Test after making 51 runs across four innings on the tour – including being bowled round his legs by the first ball of the series. After 31 Tests, Burns averages 30.92 with the bat and his idiosyncratic technique has come under scrutiny in Australia.”I told him: ‘you’ve played 30 Test matches and you average 30, so we want you to be doing more, to be better than that as a player,'” Thorpe said. “So we’ve had discussions with him – does he need a major overhaul of his technique or just to tinker with things?”He needs to do the simple things better. So can he calm things down with his movements and everything? We’ve been talking him through that. It’s tough in competition. Everyone says do you work with them? Yes you do, but you can’t pick away at people’s brains too much walking into Test matches. Sometimes they have to come out and then you can reset a little bit.”When players get a little bit of success they then think, ‘My way is the right way’. And there’s a balance to it. You can see certain things. I said to him, ‘The best bowlers in the world are going to analyse your technique and the right-hand column is going to tell you whether you’re getting it right or not’.”We’ve seen he’s got a good fighting character, so I know that. But at the same time you need a technique and temperament at the highest level. I think he can come back again and play for England definitely but he’s very clear those little adjustments are going to help him to stay at the crease longer.”Thorpe is one of only three England coaches available to take training, alongside Ant Botha and James Foster, with Silverwood, Jeetan Patel and Jon Lewis all self-isolating. As a result, they have asked Adam Hollioake – the former England one-day captain and a team-mate of Thorpe’s at Surrey – to travel to Sydney from his home on the Gold Coast to support their coaching staff, though under Cricket Australia’s Covid protocols he is only allowed to work with the players outdoors.

The WICB has agreed to release captain Jason Holder, Darren Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite, Devendra Bishoo, and Denesh Ramdin for the Caribbean Premier League, starting June 30

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jun-2016The WICB has agreed to release captain Jason Holder, batsman Darren Bravo, allrounder Carlos Brathwaite, legspinner Devendra Bishoo, and wicketkeeper-batsman Denesh Ramdin for the Caribbean Premier League, starting June 30, which is four days after the tri-series final in Barbados. They can remain with their franchises until July 11, ten days before West Indies’ first Test against India in Antigua.WICB announced a confirmation of the India tour last December, but they released the full itinerary only last week. A possible clash of dates with the CPL had been one of the main reasons for the delay.According to the WICB policy, the head coach and the national selectors had final say in determining whether their players would be free to participate in the CPL. It is understood that head coach Phil Simmons had no objections with his men playing the tournament’s initial stages, provided they returned in time to prepare for the four Tests against India, which are the only Tests in West Indies’ home season.Damien O’Donohoe, the CPL chief executive, welcomed the WICB’s decision and said that the players’ availability would would be a “tremendous boost”.”Our thanks to the West Indies Cricket Board, coach and chairman of selection committee for facilitating the release of the players for the opening weeks of the CPL,” he said. “It’s a tremendous boost for the competition and I have no doubt that each of the players will be motivated to add great value to their squads.”Ramdin, who is part of the onging tri-series against South Africa and Australia, was announced as the replacement for injured fast bowler Fidel Edwards, for St Lucia Zouks. Edwards had suffered a fractured ankle in the lead up to the final day of Hampshire’s County Championship match against Yorkshire at Headingley in April.