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South Africa’s Dayle Steyn Retires from Test Cricket

Dale-Styen-South-Africa

On Monday the veteran star bowler of South Africa Dayle Steyn announced his retirement from Test Cricket with immediate effect. This was the second major retirement announcement after Muhammad Amir announced his retirement last week. This announcement took the cricketing world by surprise.

Dale Steyn has the most glorious Test cricket record for South Africa he owns the record of being highest wicket-taker for his country with an amazing 439 wickets to his name. He played 93 test matches with the best strike rate.

Dale Steyn ruled the Test cricket arena and was the best bowler in Test cricket for 263 weeks. Test Cricket will surely miss Dale Steyn and his furious bowling during the ICC Test Championship. However, Steyn will continue to play white-ball cricket and will be available for the upcoming ODIs and T20I for South Africa. He has so far represented South Africa in 125 ODIs and 44 T20Is.

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Rishabh Pant vs MS DHONI, Has India made their choice?

Rishabh-Oant-vs-MS-dhoni

BCCI had some tough decisions to make post World Cup exit. The team came in under a lot of criticism after a rather satisfactory performance at the mega event. Fans and critics bashed many players for not rising to the occasion and one of which was MS Dhoni.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a legend when It comes to his achievements in cricket. There isn’t a trophy or title he hasn’t had his hands upon. He is the only captain to lift all ICC world title trophies including ODI world cup, T20 world cup, Asia Cup, Champions Trophy and others. However, with the passing time, he hasn’t been at the top of his game for a while.

Many argue that he is off shadowed by the heavy Indian top order who seldom disappoints and score bulk of the runs for the team and more often than not the lower order is not exposed at all. MS Dhoni batted on Number 7 position in the ICC World Cup that decision itself came under a lot of fire after India’s exit from the CWC19 event.

Rishabh Pant was trusted with the gloves after MS Dhoni excused himself from the West Indies series and took the time to join Paramilitary force of India and perform training and guarding duties with the military. There were many sounds of inducting the fresh blood into the side and get rid of the old schools’ right after the world cup. Many anticipated retirements from the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman, however, there was no such commitment made on Dhoni’s part.

BCCI also hinted upon entrusting the future of the team with young players and Rishabh Pant is the top candidate. Pant impressed with the bat and his shots in the world cup and there is absolutely no doubt on his abilities but will he be good enough player to replace a player like MS Dhoni? Virat Kohli thinks so. Here is what Virat had to say on the matter.

“His (MS Dhoni’s) experience has always been a crucial factor for us. Having said that, as I said, it’s a great opportunity for someone like Rishabh Pant to really to play a lot of international cricket. You know, show his credentials really, unleash his potential at this stage.”

Virat further praised the youngster and encouraged PANT as he believes the future lies in the hands of young players in the Indian team.

“We know how much ability he (Rishabh Pant) has and we all want him to become a consistent performer for the Indian cricket team.”

Rishabh Pant failed in the first ODI he played against India on a tough pitch he was out of “DUCK”! this wasn’t the start R Pant was looking for in the series however he has several matches ahead of him to prove his metal. For MS Dhoni fans the situation is still cloudy as the space for Dhoni is narrowing down in his absence from the cricket.

Also Read: MS Dhoni Out of Indian Team

RISHABH PANT STATS AND FIGURES:

MS DHONI STATS AND FIGURES:

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Steve Smith on his Redemption journey

Steve Smith Redemption and the ashes series

From overseeing a Ball Tempering and getting banned for it, till coming back and scoring a brilliant century in the first innings of the Ashes series, It has been a tough right for the Aussie star. But he has left his past behind and he is back with a bang.

Steve Smith was banned on 28th-March-2018 for his actions involving ball tempering during the third test against South Africa. He took the world by surprise and no one could believe that a player of such stature could be involved in something like this. Smith was probably at the peak of his career back then and was captaining a very successful Aussie side. One Year ban was imposed on his

30 years old Smith made his comeback earlier this year staring in IPL along with David Warner. He was then straight away picked into the Australian team. Steve Smith continued performing well and he had a huge role in the team’s semi-final qualification journey during ICC ODI Cricket World Cup 2019.

The “Not So Easy” Course of Redemption

It was never an easy task for Smith to get back in the ground and play in front of the fans, he was welcomed with the chants of “Cheat, Cheat, Cheat!” probably where ever he played since is come back crowd has rather being unforgiving. especially during the World Cup against Australia’s arch-rivals England. English crowd certainly didn’t like Smith’s come back and Smith was often greeted with some harsh banners, chants, mean tweets, and trolls on social media. All this did show some impact on his form and he was not getting any big scores at all. Smith scored with an average of 32 in the world cup games but then he stepped up his game at the right time when his team needed him the most.

Steve Smith got his form back in the Knockout games and scored an amazing 311 runs in 4 knockout games with 1 Century and 3 fifties. After being eliminated from the world cup in Semi-final against England. Now a new challenge was ready for smith in the longer format in the form of “The Ashes Series”.

England after winning the World Cup event came to the “Ashes” series with a lot of confidence. and Australia did need to raise their game seeking some redemption from the poor loss against England in the World Cup. But there is another redemption going on during this Ashes series and that’s Smith seeking redemption in the Test format.

The recent heroics

Australia was under the pump in the first innings of the first ashes test when Smith came to their rescue. At one point it was looking that Australia isn’t going to cross 150 runs mark but thanks to one of the most exciting innings from Steve Smith of 144 runs Australia managed to get to a total of 284. This was not only a much-needed innings for the Australian team, but also It was needed for Smith’s confidence and his whole redemption journey as a well. Test cricket has been his strong suit and smith one again proved that he is worthy of his place in the side.

Much needed Claps and Standing ovation

Not only this innings proved his skills are still intact but also reinforced his determination to play for his country. This was a composed innings playing with only tail-enders like Peter Siddle. This innings will probably go done as one of his career-best. But perhaps what would matter for smith are those claps and the standing ovation he received for his effort at Edgbaston.

Steve Smith Stats and Figures

Smith has not the greatest of numbers in the shorter formats of ODI and T20I. Smith is an unorthodox player and isn’t the most pleasing to the eye with his shot selection but on the contrary, he has better numbers in Test Format averaging 62 in Test cricket.

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Aussie vs England Ashes Squad Comparison

The Ashes Series 2019 Live cricket Steaming

SQUADS FOR ASHES 2019

As the ashes series is around the corner, both Cricket Australia and The England Cricket Board announced their squads in the past week. Ashes series is scheduled from 1st of August 2019. Cricket Australia announced their 17 men squads for the ashes while England Cricket Board announced their 14 men squad for the first test match of the ashes series 2019.

Australian Squad for Ashes 2019:

Cricket Australia announced their 17 men squad for the away series of ashes 2019. Australia is the defending champion as they won the Ashes series in Australia last year. Tim Paine will lead the Australian side in this ashes series. The team consists of

  • Tim Paine (C)
  • Cameron Bancroft
  • Patrick Cummins
  • Marcus Harris
  • Josh Hazlewood
  • Travis Head
  • Usman Khawaja
  • Marnus Labuschagne
  • Nathan Lyon
  • Mitchell Marsh
  • Michael Neser
  • James Pattinson
  • Peter Siddle
  • Steven Smith
  • Mitchell Starc
  • Matthew Wade
  • David Warner

England’s Squad for 1st test of Ashes series 2019:

England cricket board announced their 14 men squad for the 1st test of the home ashes series 2019. The ECB further said that their few mainstream players are recovering from the injury that’s why they just announced their 14 men squad. Joe Root will lead the England side in this home series of ashes 2019 and they will try their best to regain the ashes trophy. The team consists of:

COMPARISON BETWEEN BOTH SQUADS:

both the teams are very well balanced and experienced test sides of the world, but if we look at both sides and try to analyze them by their performance, stats, facts, and figures. Then this is quite difficult to analyze and compare which one is the better team. Both teams have no comparison because they are the best in their own way. Let’s have a look…

Captains:

England Cricket Team will be led by Joe Root while the Australian Cricket Team will be led by Tim Paine in the Ashes series 2019. If we talk about captains of both teams, Joe root is very much ahead of Tim Paine as Joe Root played 80 test matches for his side in which he scored 6,685 runs with an average of 49.51, while Tim Paine played only 21 test matches in which he scored 984 runs with an average of 35.14.

If we talk about captaincy, Tim Paine leads the Australian side from January 2018 while Joe Root leads the England side from February 2017 and according to these records Joe Root has better experience to lead his side.

Bowlers:

Both England and Australian team heavily rely on their pace attack. England surely has some benefit from their home grounds which will surely help their bowlers too. But Australians are too good and too quick to respond to the conditions and situations and behave accordingly.

England has two veteran fast bowlers in the form of James Anderson and Stuart Broad who will surely lead the pace attack from the front. Jofra Archer call up for the 1st test match as James Anderson is not fully fit and it may the first test match. Chris Woakes also add some strength to the pace attack while Sam Curran, Olly Stone, Ben Stokes further strengthen this pace attack. In the spin department, Moeen Ali is the only proper spinner England have for the first test while Joe Root, Joe Denly did part-time spin bowling in the past.

The Australian pace attack will be led by Mitchell Starc and Peter Siddle for sure. They both are the most experienced fast bowlers in the Australian side. Josh Hazlewood, Patrick Cummins, Cameron Bancroft, James Pattinson, Mitchell Marsh provide further strength to this pace attack. In the spin department, Nathan Lyon is the most senior spin bowler while Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne help Nathan Lyon as a part-time spin bowler.

All-rounders:

In cricket of today’s Era, no matter which format you are playing, you must have at least 1 or 2 all-rounders in your team, who can bat or bowl for the team in the tough time.

England has Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali. They both are talented all-rounders who can perform with the bat and the ball for the team. Ben stokes will surely be an alarming point for Australians because of his brilliant form throughout the world cup.

Australia has Mitchell Marsh and Patrick Cummins. They both work really hard and polish their skills with the ball and the bat. In recent times, they both perform well for Australia with both bat and ball.

Batsmen:

Red ball cricket is always a tough challenge for the batsmen as compared to white-ball cricket. Temperamentally strong, technically sound batsmen are the requirement of the test cricket. Both England and Australia have a brilliant history of great batsmen in the past and in the present too.

England has Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Joe Denly as a senior most batsmen while Rory Burns and others all-rounders can bat too.

Australia has Tim Paine, David Warner, Steven Smith, Matthew Wade, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja who led the batting department is ashes series 2019.

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Muhammad Amir Retires from Test Cricket

MUHAMMAD AMIR RETIRES FROM TEST CRICKET

Pakistan’s ace fast bowler Muhammad Amir has announced retirement from test cricket prior to the ICC TEST CHAMPIONSHIP.

26 years old Muhammad Amir has taken the decision of Test retirement announcing it via a press release today where he explained his decision saying that ” It has been an honor for him to represent Pakistan in the premier format of the game but its now time to move away from it so he can concentrate on white ball cricket”

The Pakistani pacer also said that it’s his ultimate goal to play and represent Pakistan and that is his sole objective. he wants to get in a good shape and physical fitness is a priority in order to be at his best for the coming matches of Pakistan team including ICC T20 World cup.

He further said that it hasn’t been an easy decision for him to move away from the test cricket but now is the right time as the ICC Test championship is coming ahead and Pakistan has some young and exciting pace talent in the hut. He is making space for them to come forward and play for their country at the top level. He sees his future with Pakistan Cricket Team in the limited-overs cricket where is wants to play and contribute for his country.

Amir played a pivotal role in the World cup 2019 for Pakistan in order to keep their Semifinal qualification hopes running when they needed to win all their 4 matches and they did. however, they weren’t through to the semis due to poor run rate and New Zealand qualified as the fourth team.

Amir debuted against Sri Lanka in Galle back in 2009. He played 36 Test for his country taking 119 wickets in the Test format.

MUHAMMAD AMIR STATS AND FIGURES.

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