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The Vijay Mallya-owned UB Group has decided to withdraw the controversial commercial featuring MS Dhoni that allegedly mocked Harbhajan Singh according to a legal notice sent by his mother Avtar Kaur

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jul-2011The Vijay Mallya-owned UB Group has decided to withdraw the controversial commercial featuring MS Dhoni that allegedly mocked Harbhajan Singh according to a legal notice sent by Avtar Kaur, the offspinner’s mother. The UB Group said in a statement from its lawyer that Mallya had “graciously chosen to replace the commercial based on larger national cricketing interests, particularly at a time when the Indian team is engaged in a crucial test series”.Saying that the UB Group and Mallya had a significant stake in cricket, the statement claimed the notice had been instigated by vested interests and that there was no case against the commercial according to the group management and “clear-cut legal opinion”.The notice had demanded that the UB Group publicly apologise and remove the advertisement failing which legal action would be taken. The UB Group, however, said the commercial sent a message that Harbhajan, having “made it large,” should now “change his goal post to be first among equals”, and that there was no one better to send that message than MS Dhoni, “a close friend of Mr Harbhajan”.

Guyana had some anxious moments halfway through their chase but another cameo from Jonathan Foo helped them pick up their second successive win

Cricinfo staff25-Jul-2010
Scorecard
Floyd Reifer’s 49 gave CCC a fighting chance but it was not enough to deny Guayana their second successive win•Nicholas Reid/West Indies Cricket Board

Guyana had some anxious moments halfway through their chase when they lost three of their senior batsmen in 10 deliveries, but another cameo from Jonathan Foo helped them pick up their second successive win and assured them a spot in the semi-finals. Their bowlers had done the job earlier in the day, keeping Combined Campuses and Colleges to a modest total, with offspinner Lennox Cush taking a hat-trick in the final over.The chase of 143 looked on track despite the loss of Travis Dowlin, Man of the Match in the victory on Friday, in the first over. Ramnaresh Sarwan and Sewnarine Chattergoon didn’t have too much trouble taking Guyana to 57 for 1 after eight overs – the only chance being a reprieve for Chattergoon on 10 when wicketkeeper Chadwick Walton grassed an outside edge.CCC’s fightback started when Sarwan mishit a pull which was snapped by Nekoli Parris at midwicket after juggling it thrice. It was a similar stroke that had ended Sarwan’s innings against Windward Islands as well, and the Guyana captain was livid at losing his wicket. His mood didn’t improve when Narsingh Deonarine sliced a catch to extra cover in the next over. Three balls later, the set batsman, Chattergoon, also fell to an overhead catch by Omar Phillips at backward point.Royston Crandon hit a couple of boundaries but he was soon stumped by Walton, and with Christopher Barnwell making slow progress, the asking rate sneaked up towards 10 with five overs to go. Foo crashed a boundary to extra cover in the 16th over to revive Guyana’s chase, before Barnwell smashed the first ball of the next to the midwicket boundary. Foo rounded off that over with a clean hit towards the sightscreen. Three more fours in the next over, which completed a forgettable debut for Rubel Brathwaite, brought it down to nearly run-a-ball in the final two overs, which was easily picked off with four deliveries to spare.It shouldn’t have been such a convoluted chase after CCC had been kept down to 142. Following a 40-minute delay due to rain, the CCC openers made contrasting starts: Miles Bascombe hammered Cush for 15 in an over including a six over square leg as he raced to 31 off 16, while Romel Currency watchfully made his way to 8 off 13. Currency’s first attempt to clear the infield led to his dismissal in the sixth over, and Bascombe also holed out to midwicket after a quiet two-over spell.From there, the innings revolved around another substantial innings from captain Floyd Reifer, who battled his way to 49 despite a leg injury. A short ball was clubbed over the bowler Crandon’s head, and another was heaved beyond midwicket. As the innings progressed, Reifer found it harder to run between the wickets and started scoring almost exclusively in boundaries. There were four fours in quick succession to push CCC to 123 for 4 after 17 overs. However, just as he set himself up for a final assault, Reifer was run out by a Sarwan direct hit and CCC could only make 19 runs from the final three overs.The last over of the innings, from Cush, started well with a swipe over midwicket for six but the batsmen swung each of the next three deliveries to fielders in the deep to hand Cush a hat-trick, and spark wild celebrations. Guyana and Cush would have expected a simple victory at that stage but their batsmen were made to work hard by a spirited CCC team which for the second game in a row fell just short of victory.

Smith insisted he had not requested a move back down the order but rather just told Andrew McDonald his preference

Alex Malcolm21-Oct-20241:36

What’s the logic of moving Smith back down the order?

Steven Smith has said Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne “hated” him opening the batting in the Test team, and believes it was a key driver behind his return to No. 4, but has insisted he did not request the move and would have continued to open if asked to.Australia’s chair selectors George Bailey confirmed last week that Smith would not be opening against India saying Smith “had expressed a desire to move back down from that opening position” and that captain Pat Cummins and Andrew McDonald had made the decision.McDonald stated on ABC Radio at the weekend that he and Cummins were the key decision-makers in the move, playing down Smith’s influence.Related

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Smith wanted it on the record that he had not explicitly requested to move back to No. 4 but had rather been asked by McDonald what his preferred batting spot was. He also added that Khawaja and Labuschagne had both expressed their discontent at him opening.”I got asked where I’d prefer to bat, and I said four. I didn’t ask [to move] though,” Smith said. “I also said I’m happy batting wherever. I’m not really too fussed. I got asked where my preference would be, and I said four. I saw a few things last week saying that I’ve requested to bat at four. That wasn’t the case. I said I’m happy to bat wherever you’d like me to bat but, yeah, four would be my ideal position.”Asked what had changed since earlier this year, he said: “Obviously there’s a spot there now with Greeny [Cameron Green] out. And I think just conversations we had after New Zealand with particularly Marnus and Uzzie, they hated me up top, to be honest. They wanted me behind them.”They just like the…they call it security behind them, in a way. They were pretty strong on me not batting there. So that was a big part of it. And then obviously, I’ve got a decent record at four.”It was good fun having a crack at something new, batting up top. I still feel like I could do a job there for sure. It was a pretty small sample size. But I’ve done pretty well at four for a number of years now. I feel like it’s probably where I can have my best input for this team at the moment.”Smith was set to move regardless of Green’s injury as the conversations had taken place prior to the limited-overs tour of England.He was asked whether he felt like he could have continued in the role longer term given his average of 28.50 in the four Tests in the job was not that bad as no opener averaged more than 32 across those four Tests.In his own style: Steven Smith leaves the ball alone•Getty Images

“Honestly, I’m not that fussed,” Smith said. “I said it when I took that job, I’m not really fussed where I bat. The conversations I had with the other guys, they didn’t like it at all. They wanted some security, I suppose, behind them, where I’ve done really well for a number of years, and I can understand that as well. So it is what it is and I’m not going to be opening this summer. That’s it.”Smith made 3 off 29 balls for New South Wales against Victoria in his first red-ball innings since the New Zealand Test series in March and his first Sheffield Shield match since 2021.On a day when 15 wickets fell at the MCG in difficult batting conditions, Smith was upbeat about the innings despite being caught down the leg side off Fergus O’Neill.”I actually felt pretty good out there, to be honest, for the three that I scored strangely enough,” Smith said. “I felt like I was moving well. I was leaving well, and got a little bit unlucky with the one that sort of took off a little bit down the leg side. And that can happen. But I actually felt like I was getting in nice positions. My bat path was good and felt pretty good. So happy with that.”Meanwhile, Smith has been impressed with his limited time watching 19-year-old Sam Konstas who was lbw after 10 balls on the second day at the MCG”He got a bit unlucky there I reckon,” Smith said. “It looked like it might have been just darting down leg a little bit. I haven’t seen a lot of him. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of him out here in the middle for sure. But from what I have seen in the nets, he’s got a lot of time.Steven Smith threw in Nic Maddinson’s name as a potential opening option•Getty Images

“He’s very organised. He plays fast bowling and spin well from what I’ve seen in the brief couple of times I’ve seen him bat, it’s looked really good. He’s a bright prospect. We’ve got to remember he’s only 19 as well so you he’s got plenty of time. But what I’ve seen so far, it looks promising”He’s got all the makings to definitely be a really good Test player. That’s for sure. Whether it’s now or in the future, time will tell.”Smith also threw Nic Maddinson’s name in the mix as a possible candidate to open the batting for Australia against India given he is a similar type of player to David Warner.”There’s a few really good candidates, guys that have, done really well the last few years,” Smith said. “[Cameron] Bancroft and the usual suspects that have been talked about. Maddo I think is also another really good candidate. He’s had a good couple of years. If you’re looking for someone similar to a Davey replacement, he gets after the ball and can score really quickly.”So he’s someone who probably hasn’t been spoken about a great deal from all you guys in the last little bit, but I think he’s someone that could definitely play test cricket and have a similar impact to what Davey sort of had at the top, the way he plays. So plenty of options. We’ll wait and see.”

After watching a hat-trick from the non-striker’s end, he told Shoriful to run whether he hit the next ball or not

Mohammad Isam15-Jul-2023Despite playing the match-defining knock in the first T20I against Afghanistan which Bangladesh won in the last over, Towhid Hridoy was nervous as he watched the dramatic win unfold from the non-striker’s end. Bangladesh made a meal out of a cakewalk when, with two needed off five balls, Karim Janat took a hat-trick in the final over in Sylhet. Ghosts of the Bengaluru 2016 meltdown were however banished when Shoriful Islam unfurled a cut that got them the winning runs.At the presentation ceremony, Hridoy said that he was nervous while watching Janat’s hat-trick at the other end. Shortly afterwards in the press conference, he further said that he felt each of the dismissed batters could have hit the winning runs in the last over, and when it came down to two off two balls, he told Shoriful to run regardless of hitting the ball.”I had confidence in everyone,” Hridoy said. “Taskin [Ahmed] , Nasum [Ahmed] and Shoriful all bat well. Taskin won us a game like this with two boundaries against England. I believed Shoriful could do the job. We have played Under-19s together. I was confident till the last ball. I told him that, ‘we are running whether you hit it or not. You will win us the game’.”I felt okay. We needed just two runs. We could score one or two runs if ball hit the bat somehow. I always try to stay calm.”I tried to tell my batting partners what the bowler could do.”Hridoy said that when Shamim Hossain joined him at 64 for 4 and they needed 91 off 59 balls, he felt that two big overs could give them the rhythm. The first of those came swiftly, when they took 21 off the 13th over, bowled by Azmatullah Omarzai, which included five wides after Hridoy slammed two fours, and the asking rate of 9.50 came down to under eight an over.The match could have still swung either way as Bangladesh needed 35 from 24, but they collected 16 runs off Fazalhaq Farooqi in the 17th over to turn the game.”I told Shamim that we have won matches from this situation in domestic cricket,” Hridoy said. “We are middle-order batters so if we can get the momentum in the next two overs, the course of the match will change. That’s what happened. The rhythm changed in those two overs.”We stuck to a plan. We tried to bat with calculative risks. We were focused on execution. International opponents are challenging. Everyone has a strong side. We tried to be positive.”We reacted to the demand of the situation. Regardless of the opposition, this type of win always gives the players a lot of confidence. I am happy to have walked off with the win. These opportunities don’t come always.”But Shamim and Mehidy Hasan Miraz getting out, followed by Janat’s hat-trick underlined the risk Bangladesh are taking by playing six bowlers. This strategy strengthens the bowling, but puts a lot of onus on Nos. 6 and 7 to finish off games. Taskin Ahmed is the most capable of the batters from Nos. 8 to 11. Among the others, Shoriful, Nasum and Taijul Islam can hold their own but Ebadot Hossain and Hasan Mahmud are genuine No. 11s.How the batting coaches shape and improve the last four batting spots will go a long way in Bangladesh’s quest for glory in the two big white-ball tournaments later this year.

The 91-run defeat hurts Capitals’ net run-rate and puts their playoff chances in doubt

Sreshth Shah08-May-20224:10

Where are Delhi Capitals going wrong?

Devon Conway continued his purple patch with a third fifty-plus score, and Moeen Ali took three wickets in a miserly spell to help Chennai Super Kings complete a 91-run demolition job over Delhi Capitals. With Capitals trying to stay in contention of a top-four finish, RIshabh Pant’s side conceded 208 runs in the first innings, after which they lost their last eight wickets for only 45 runs in the chase.For Capitals, it was the seven single-digit scores that hurt their chase. A target of 209 was always going to be steep, but it proved even more difficult in the absence of Prithvi Shaw and a premature end to David Warner’s innings. Every Super Kings bowler enjoyed success on the night, with two-fors for uncapped seamers Mukesh Choudhary, Simarjeet Singh and allrounder Dwayne Bravo, and a 1 for 29 for mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana.Super Kings’ win took them out of the bottom two for the first time in over a month, and keeps them alive for playoff contention, even though their road to the final-four remains dependent on a huge slice of luck. Capitals are now in danger of slipping from fifth to seventh over the next few days with Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad both on 10 points after 11 games.Moeen Ali all but ended the contest after striking three times in his first two overs•BCCI

The collapseThe Capitals chase offered promise early on, despite the dismissal of KS Bharat – playing instead of Shaw as opener – as he fell to the slip cordon trying to pull Simarjeet. Warner was then out lbw to Theekshana even though he was convinced he got some bat en route to the pad, but then Mitchell Marsh and Pant looked to rebuild. Between the two, the seven fours and the lone six kept Capitals in contention of the net run-rate as they moved into the seventies by the eight over.But then came the fall. Moeen tempted Marsh to slog to a wide-ish ball, only to get caught on 25. The offspinner then returned next over to pick off Pant with a chopped-on bowled dismissal and soon picked up Ripal Patel. A recovery from 81 for 5 was still possible, but a double-wicket over from the other end in the next over made the result a formality. Choudhary picked off Axar Patel and Rovman Powell in the space of five balls in the 11th over, and at 85 for 7, the target for Capitals was to finish respectably, helped in part by Shardul Thakur’s 24. However, all they could reach was 117 before Bravo picked up wickets nine and ten off back-to-back deliveries in the 18th over.Moeen’s day outAfter the game, Moeen said that his primary job as offspinner is to spin the ball, and on Sunday’s used wicket, he found that. It helped Moeen that he picked up Marsh’s wicket three balls into his spell, and used that momentum to remain on top of the batters. Moeen enjoyed a bit of luck with Pant’s dismissal onto his stumps, but earned Ripal’s wicket by ensuring he did not go full after being hit for a six. Instead, his flatter, length ball left the batter trying for a big leg-side swipe even though the ball was not in his arc.Moeen also enjoyed the advantage of the pressure being applied by the bowler from the other end, as his third over came following the two Choudhary wickets. That allowed him to eke out five dots against Kuldeep Yadav – who was still trying to find his feet in the crease – and finished his spell of 3 for 13 with 16 dot balls.Conway shines (again)The left-hander from New Zealand is scoring fifties for fun now, his hat-trick of fifties corresponding to big Super Kings totals, too. Quite early on, Conway made it clear in fellow opener Ruturaj Gaikwad’s company that he preferred spin inside the powerplay, and when it was offered to the batters by Pant, Gaikwad rotated the strike often enough to let Conway face the slow bowlers.That proved to be brutal as Axar was welcomed inside the powerplay with two sixes over his head by the charging Conway, and when Kuldeep came on for the first time in the eighth over, the batter lofted him for six, swept him for another six and drove him for four. The two big overs helped Conway race away to a 28-ball fifty, following up from scores of 56 and 85 not out in his last two outings.Pant continued to trust Kuldeep after an 18-run opening over, and when Conway faced him again, the batter hit him for a hat-trick of fours through the covers. By the time the partnership broke – with Gaikwad falling for 41 to an Anrich Nortje short ball – Super Kings were 110 for 1 after 11 overs.Dube, returning to the side following Ravindra Jadeja’s absence from the XI due to injury, entered at No. 3 and chose to be the one taking the risky batting options as Conway entered his 80s. And he did by hammering Shardul for 6, 6 and 4 in the space of four balls to end the 16th over.But Conway’s prolonged period at the non-striker’s, starved of strike, did have some impact. When he got back on strike on 87 in the 17th over, he failed to get the desired connection off a ramp and fell 13 short of what could’ve been high first IPL century. Nonetheless, he finished on his highest tournament score.At the point of his dismissal, Super Kings were going at over 10 runs per over, and the remaining batters ensured they didn’t let the momentum die after the set batters’ dismissal. MS Dhoni walked in and got off the mark with a six and four, Ambati Rayudu and Moeen swung the bat around for useful boundaries, and despite a tidy nine-run 20th over from Nortje that also included two wickets, Super Kings could not be stopped from posting their fourth 200-plus total.

Trio are asymptomatic but medical staff will continue to monitor their health, CSA says

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2020A South African player has tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the upcoming limited-overs series against England.The player and two others considered to be close contacts by South African team medical staff have all been placed in isolation in Cape Town. All are asymptomatic but doctors will continue to monitor them, Cricket South Africa said in a statement on Wednesday.CSA said about 50 tests were carried out on players and support staff before entering their biosecure base in Cape Town ahead of back-to-back series against England, due to start on November 27 with the first of three T20Is, followed by three ODIs. All matches will be played between Newlands and Paarl.”One player has returned a positive test result and two players were considered close contacts based on the risk assessment undertaken by the medical team,” the statement said. “All three players have been placed in immediate isolation in Cape Town as part of the COVID-19 protocols. While all players are asymptomatic, CSA’s medical team will monitor them to ensure their health and well-being.”At this stage, none of these players will be replaced for the tour, but two replacement players will be included into the squad for the purposes of the inter-squad practice matches that will be played on Saturday, 21 November.”England’s squad have arrived in South Africa to begin their preparations and will play a 50-over warm-up on Saturday in Cape Town. An ECB spokesman confirmed on Wednesday that all Covid-19 tests carried out on the England squad members had returned negative results.

Steven Smith makes 23 from 38 balls before heading to nets for extended session

Daniel Brettig at Derby30-Aug-2019Steven Smith batted in a match for the first time since his concussion diagnosis during the Lord’s Test with the air of a cricketer impatient for the Ashes to resume or, at least, to face better bowling than the modest spin being twirled down at him by Derbyshire on a low-key second day of the tour game.He indicated as much by following a brief, 38-ball innings of 23 that ended in a skewed slog to cover by immediately taking up a far longer stint in the nets. There, still in his creams, he faced up to speedier deliveries with newish balls being sidearmed at him by the assistant coach Sridharan Sriram and the resting David Warner – his habitual throw-downer Graeme Hick being spelled from coaching duties this week.Perhaps Smith was still getting used to dealing with the hemmed-in feelings he has complained about when wearing a protective stem guard on the back of his neck – the place where Jofra Archer struck him at Lord’s. “I just feel claustrophobic,” Smith has said of the stem guards. “I compare it to being stuck in an MRI scan machine.”But certainly this sequence indicated that for Smith at least, the Derbyshire attack was far from his preferred way of preparing for a Test match; not that other team-mates of his took the same view with rather less open-and-shut cases for selection at Old Trafford.Steve Smith returned to the middle for the first time since his concussion•Getty Images

Marcus Harris glided to an attractive 64 before he was run out when Usman Khawaja, who went on to 72, declined his call for a quick single. While Khawaja initially set off and so may be seen to be at fault for changing his mind, the speed with which Dustin Melton’s throw from cover was fired back to hit the stumps direct was a good indicator that the senior man’s judgment was the soundest of the two.That wicket cleared the way for Mitchell Marsh to play decently on his way to 74, equal parts watchful and powerful, though only likely to take part in this series if one of the two remaining pitches is prepared to be a flat surface requiring the Australians to consider a fifth bowler. Marsh has flagged that after spending the past two years or more prioritising Test cricket, he is now growing impatient to return to the Twenty20 circuit with all its attendant riches.Another brief and distracted-looking innings was played by Matthew Wade, granting Cameron Bancroft and Marnus Labuschagne the chance to add an unbeaten 76 together, speckled with boundaries against the second new ball. Khawaja’s declaration left the Australians with about 80 minutes in which to bowl, enough time for Mitchel Starc to send down an encouraging new-ball spell in his last chance to press for selection at Old Trafford.Clean bowling Billy Godleman with a ball of full length, he went on to pin Anuj Dal lbw. Peter Siddle followed up by coaxing an edge from Luis Reece that was pouched by Wade in the slips, and beat the bat several more times in the closing 20 minutes to underline that he, too, is eager for Manchester and all that will unfold there.

The last assignment for Justin Langer’s team before the two finalists are decided is a trip to play the Proteas in 2021

Daniel Brettig20-Jun-2018

Australia’s FTP schedule*

2015-2019
Tests 43
ODIs 58
T20Is 24
2019-2023
Tests 39
ODIs 47
T20Is 45
*excludes ICC tournaments

Australia’s hopes of reaching the inaugural Test World Championship final are set to hinge upon their ability to atone for the disgrace of this year’s tour of South Africa, with the 2021 return trip to play the Proteas looming as the last series for Justin Langer’s team before the two competing teams are decided.Currently placed third in the ICC’s Test rankings, the Australians face three away trips and three home series over the initial two-year cycle, starting with the 2019 Ashes tour of England and ending with the journey to South Africa. A visit to Bangladesh in early 2020 is the other away tour, while there are home series against Pakistan and New Zealand (2019-20) and India (2020-21). An inaugural Test against Afghanistan is also scheduled to take place at home, immediately prior to the India series.Given their present ranking and the fact that all teams will start equal going into the start of the Championship cycle, Australia are likely to be in the mix for a place in the final entering the South Africa series, providing exactly the sort of context and third-party interest among neutral nations that the game’s governing bodies and broadcasters have been seeking.James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, said the new Future Tours Program and the Test and ODI league structures now meant that the Australian summer would effectively be limited to five home Tests a season and somewhere between eight and 12 limited-overs matches. New Zealand (2019) and South Africa (2022) are set to return to Boxing Day Tests at the MCG for the first time since 1987 and 2006 respectively.”It looks like five Test matches per summer is the staple diet of Test cricket. In terms of white-ball cricket, ODIs or T20I, there’ll be eight to 12 white ball matches per summer at home,” Sutherland said. “By natural extension, six of those matches will be ODIs as part of the one-day league, the remainder will be T20 matches.”What we are trying to do by design with T20 internationals is to play more matches when the cycle allows and when the cycle has us leading into ICC T20 events so we’re managing as best we can to increase the volume of T20 cricket in and around the World T20. Who we play against in Tests and one-day cricket there’s little flexibility now. That will be worked through in this model – when we play and how much cricket we play or how long each series is is a matter for bilateral agreement between the two countries.”Our preference is to play Tests at home in that traditional Test-cricket period which would encompass the Boxing Day and New Year’s Test matches. In 2022-23 South Africa have agreed to play Test matches over that Christmas-New Year period in Australia.”The cap of Test matches at five a summer creates a conundrum around the allocation of Tests to venues beyond the traditional centres of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. In the forthcoming summer there are six scheduled, with Canberra’s Manuka Oval making its five-day debut for a fixture against Sri Lanka in February. Hobart has also been a common recipient of the sixth Test of a summer, but may now find its opportunities reduced to white-ball formats.Two bilateral Tests against Afghanistan – there is also an away match in the calendar preceding Tests against Pakistan in the UAE in early 2022 – mark a significant addition to Australia’s footprint, being the first new nation they have played since Bangladesh in 2003. Sutherland explained that the 2020 match would effectively serve as a warm-up to the India series to follow, after Australia committed to a T20-heavy diet of matches around that year’s global event. The increase in T20Is in the schedule is the most noticeable change from the previous 2015-2019 cycle.”I would imagine the Afghanistan Test match would be a prelude to a warm-up if you like to that Test series against India, noting that that off-season we won’t have had any Test cricket. There’ll be a long break from Test cricket,” Sutherland said. “If you think about that summer in 2020-21 we still have only five Test matches – four against India and one against Afghanistan. It’s a big summer of cricket, and the World T20 and matches in that summer will be played at all venues. Hobart has got matches and Canberra has got matches as well – it will be shared around.”

Other notable players who will feature in the tournament include Rishabh Pant, Harbhajan Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Shikhar Dhawan, Axar Patel and Ambati Rayudu

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Mar-2017Rohit Sharma and Parthiv Patel have been chosen to lead the India Blue and India Red teams, respectively, in the Deodhar Trophy scheduled to begin on March 25. Tamil Nadu were the third team in the tournament, having clinched the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Monday.

Squads

India Blue: Rohit Sharma (capt), Mandeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Hooda, Harbhajan Singh, Krunal Pandya, Shahbaz Nadeem, Siddarth Kaul, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna, Pankaj Rao
India Red: Parthiv Patel (captain & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal, Kedar Jadhav, Ishank Jaggi, Gurkeerat Mann, Axar Patel, Akshay Karnewar, Ashok Dinda, Kulwant Khejroliya, Dhawal Kulkarni, Govinda Poddar

Rohit returned to competitive cricket earlier this month – with scores of 16 and 4 for Mumbai in the Vijay Hazare Trophy – following a thigh injury that had sidelined him for four months. He had sustained the injury in the series-deciding fifth ODI against New Zealand in October 2016, when he top-scored with 70.The other notable players in the India Blue roster were batsman Shreyas Iyer, offspinner Harbhajan Singh, left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and 19-year old wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.Rohit’s long-term opening partner in ODIs, Shikhar Dhawan, was part of the India Red squad, which also featured Kedar Jadhav, who had made 232 runs in three ODIs against England in January, and Manish Pandey, who had also played his last international game in that series-decider against New Zealand.The tournament is set to begin on March 25, with the final scheduled for March 29. All matches will be played in Vizag.

Steven Finn has been ruled out of the World T20 with a calf strain and Liam Plunkett named as his replacement.

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Feb-20161:43

Injured Finn replaced by Plunkett

Steven Finn has been ruled out of the World T20 in India with a calf strain with Liam Plunkett named as his replacement.It is the latest blow for Finn who has suffered an injury-hit period. He was forced out of the tour of the UAE before Christmas with a stress injury to his left foot and left the tour of South Africa early with a side strain he picked up during the third Test in Johannesburg.”He was just warming up for a bowl a couple of days ago and felt his calf go ping,” Angus Fraser, Middlesex’s director of cricket, told ESPNcricinfo. “He had the scan today and unfortunately we can’t take him. I’ve just spoken to him and he’s pretty low at the moment.”In between his injuries, Finn has developed into an automatic pick for England in all three formats, and the absence of his hostile method of attack on India’s wickets will be a major dent to England’s hopes of progressing deep into the tournament.He has endured a bittersweet period in the past six months, having fought back from being deemed “unselectable” during the 2013-14 Ashes to claim eight wickets on his return to Test cricket last summer. Against Australia at Edgbaston last July, he claimed a second-innings haul of 6 for 79 in his first outing for two years.”Really disappointed to have picked up another injury on my road to recovery,” Finn tweeted. “Gutted doesn’t describe it. Good luck to the guys out there!”Plunkett was considered unlucky not to make the original 15-man squad, having impressed in the T20 series against Pakistan in the UAE. He claimed three wickets in each of his two appearances in England’s 3-0 series win, including a decisive haul of 3 for 33 in a three-run win in the second match at Dubai.Plunkett will now form England’s pace options for the tournament alongside David Willey, Reece Topley, Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes.