The Herald
Brandon Moyo Bulawayo Bureau
THE West Indies arrived in Bulawayo on Monday where they will play two Test cricket matches against Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club early next month.
The Windies touched down at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport late on Monday afternoon and wrote on their Twitter page, “Tasvika muZimbabwe.”
It is the Caribbean side’s first Test visit to Zimbabwe since 2017 where they also played two matches at the same venue.
Led by Kraigg Braithwaite, the Windies side arrived in Zimbabwe with legend Brian Lara, who will be part of the team’s technical side. His exact role is, however, not yet confirmed.
The two matches are scheduled for February 4-8 and February 12-16. Before the two Tests, the visitors will play a warm-up match against Zimbabwe A at Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) starting this coming Saturday.
With Lara joining the team, the last time he was with the Windies in Zimbabwe was in 2003/04 season where he scored 191 runs off 203 deliveries in a match that they won by 128 runs in Bulawayo to go on and take the series 2-1.
Experienced fast bowler Shannon Gabriel has been recalled back to the side having missed a number of Test matches.
Gabriel is looking at playing his first Test in over a year after being recalled for West Indies’ Test squad to tour Zimbabwe. Spinners Jomel Warrican and Gudakesh Motie will also come back into contention after being included in the 15-man party.
Gabriel (34) last featured in the Test side in Sri Lanka in November 2021. He was subsequently sidelined by a hamstring injury, and spent much of last year working to regain fitness; he had a spell in county cricket with Yorkshire in England and finished joint-leading wicket-taker in the Super50 Cup but was overlooked for West Indies’ Test tour of Australia.
However, with Jayden Seales rehabilitating after knee surgery, Gabriel could be reunited with Kemar Roach and Jason Holder in the West Indies seam attack.
Warrican also played the last of his 13 Tests in Sri Lanka in 2021, while Motie could add to the sole cap he won against Bangladesh in June last year. West Indies were hit by numerous injuries during their 2-0 defeat in Australia, and have omitted Shamarh Brooks, Anderson Phillip and Marquino Mindley, all of whom played in the second Test in Adelaide. For the Windies, it will be the beginning of their international calendar for 2023 and they will be hoping to get off on a positive note.
“This is the start of the international calendar for 2023 and we will hope to start with a win. We appreciate it won’t be an easy assignment as Zimbabwe, like most other teams in world cricket, play very well on their home soil on pitches that will support their style of play.
“We looked at the conditions we anticipate playing in, and have included two left-arm spinners who didn’t go to Australia in Motie and Warrican. With our fast bowlers, Jayden Seales has done extremely well for us since he started back in 2021, but with him unavailable we have decided that Gabriel would be best able to fill that role. He (Gabriel) is an experienced bowler who has been at the international level for over 10 years and has knowledge of the conditions in Zimbabwe when we won there in 2017,” said Cricket West Indies lead selector Desmond Haynes.
In 2017, West Indies won the two-match series 1-0, winning the first contest by 117 runs with the second five-day contest ending in a draw.
The two-Test series against Zimbabwe, which begins in Bulawayo on February 4, will be overseen by interim coach Andre Coley, following Phil Simmons’ decision to step down.
West Indies Test squad:
Kraigg Brathwaite (capt), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Roston Chase, Joshua Da Silva, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Raymon Reifer, Kemar Roach, Devon Thomas, Jomel Warrican
Jamieson returned to New Zealand's domestic cricket circuit only in January this year, and at the time of his selection in the Test squad, he had played two matches each in the Ford Trophy and Super Smash for Auckland.
"Kyle is a very determined character with a strong desire to play international cricket for New Zealand," head coach Gary Stead said. "Since he was forced from the field in Nottingham he's been very clear that he wants to get his body right to return.
"He's reported good progress since his return to professional cricket with Auckland and he will get the opportunity to play some long-form cricket as part of the New Zealand XI squad to face England in their warm-up match next week at Seddon Park."
"Ish really impressed us with his approach with bat and ball," Stead said. "He's worked very hard on both in exact years and it was great to see that on the international Test stage."
The first Test against England from February 16 to 20 will be a day-night contest at the Bay Oval, after which the teams will travel to Wellington for the second Test at the Basin Reserve from February 24-28.
CONCORD, N.C. — The sights and sounds surrounding Charlotte Motor Speedway Monday morning, afternoon and evening brought that all-too-familiar feeling. It’s the feel of a looming NASCAR season, and, in particular, the dawn of getting back into a routine. Such was the case for NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers on Jan. 30.
The driver practice sessions around the 1.5-mile track served another purpose, too. More specifically, a mechanical one — competition officials changed the rear-end housing on Xfinity cars to eliminate skew. A skew that creates “crabbing” can lead to cars running at an angle that gives the illusion the car is moving diagonally.
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Sammy Smith, who will drive full-time behind the wheel of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in 2023, discussed his initial thoughts following the test. Over a nine-race run in the circuit last season, Smith finished his Xfinity campaign with one top-five and three top-10 finishes.
“Honestly, right now, we are kind of running through some stuff with what they want to do package-wise,” Smith said. “So, you can‘t feel it a ton, just because they‘ve compensated so much for what they‘ve taken away from skews, so you can definitely feel a little bit on entry, but obviously, the teams are good enough to work around that.”
As part-time driver of the No. 24 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota, Connor Mosack had the opportunity to not only get a feel for the changes but additionally, compare his car to others on a 1.5-mile oval. Mosack raced on two road courses during the 2022 Xfinity season (Portland International Raceway and Watkins Glen International).
One main objective was finding value in seeing how his car can handle all facets.
“We’ve got a competitive car,” Mosack said. “We‘re right there with the JGR cars, and we‘re on similar tire strategies, so I think the car is more than capable of helping me learn, and we can be competitive in it.”
After his first full-time season in the Xfinity Series last year, Austin Hill offered technical differences during the test run, including the difference in throttling and corner entry.
“As I get into the cross center of the corner, I feel like last year I could kind of like lean into the right rear tire a little bit more and kind of yaw it out and be able to pick up throttle and drive off the right rear,” Hill said. “So far in the test this year, as I pick up throttle, it kind of just gets the right rear out of the race track and kind of loses lateral grip. I just don‘t feel like I have that stability to kind of lean on the right rear tires.
“I guess that‘s my biggest takeaway right now, but like I said, we‘re trying a lot of different things. There‘s a lot of stuff that we have on our test plan that we just kind of work out.”
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Despite Mother Nature being an initial hindrance to Monday’s session, drivers found importance in getting lengthy practice runs in before the season.
“It‘s huge,” Mosack said. “I think there‘s only a few races we get a full hour of practice, which still isn‘t much, especially at a track I haven‘t been to before, so taking advantage of something like this and getting as many laps as I can is a huge help.”
“You can try different things as a driver,” Hill said. “This race track, in particular, I kind of struggle at, so there‘s things that I‘ve been trying as I go out on the race track, and you got all the data to kind of go back and look at and see, ‘All right, with that lap I was driving in deeper, and that‘s kind of probably why I was getting really tight across the middle,‘ or, ‘Maybe that lap I shallowed up my entry, and that‘s why I kind of got tight across the middle or got loose on entry because I tried to lift early,‘ or whatever the case may be. So, there‘s just a lot of data you can kind of go back and look at and just try to learn from, and I think that‘s gonna help us better going into the season.”
Rishabh Pant will miss the Test series against Australia due to injury© AFP
Former Australian cricket team skipper Ian Chappell believes that India may find it difficult to score freely in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Test series due to the absence of Rishabh Pant. Pant was one of the top performers for India when they defeated Australia back in 2021 and it is mainly due to his aggressive gameplay against the pacers. However, the wicket-keeper batsman will not be available for the series starting on February 9 after he was injured in a road accident. In his absence, KS Bharat is expected to keep wickets for the hosts while Ishan Kishan was included in the squad as a back-up.
"India also have some points to prove, not the least to do with how Pant's replacement performs. The main thing India will lose from Pant's unavailability is an excellent run rate, which came from his belligerent aggression. No one can replace Pant's desire to dominate bowlers, so India have to rely on their top batters not only performing but also maintaining a good strike rate," Chappell wrote in his column for ESPNCricinfo.
The Indian pitches are traditionally quite helpful to spinners and Chappell wrote that it will be extremely important for the top Indian batters to stop Nathan Lyon from picking up wickets at regular intervals.
“One of the main tasks for Indian players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara will be to establish mental superiority over Lyon. If Australia can't rely on Lyon claiming regular wickets at an acceptable rate, their bowling will then depend greatly on the "big three,” he explained.
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RISHIKESH, (ANI) – Ahead of India’s Test series against Australia, cricketer Virat Kohli and his wife Anushka Sharma embarked on a spiritual trip to Rishikesh.
The couple paid a visit to Swami Dayanand Giri Ashram.
Several pictures went viral in which the two were seen worshipping at the ashram. Virat also obliged other devotees with selfie requests at the ashram. Their visit to Rishikesh comes days after the duo along with their daughter Vamik sought blessings at an ashram in Vrindavan.
Australia is set to tour India in the coming few days for a four-game Test series. The series, popularly known as the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023, will be essential in determining the top two spots in the World Test Championship. The top teams will earn a playoff position for the one-off championship game at The Oval in June.
The series will begin on 9th February in Nagpur while the ODIs will kickstart on March 17 in Mumbai.
Off-spinner Ashwin may prove to be a major threat for Australia, who haven't won a Test series in India since 2004.
Expecting spin to play a major role in the four-Test series, the visitors have opted for tailor-made pitches and have availed the services of Pithiya to get accustomed to the action of Ashwin.
The four-Test series begins in Nagpur on February 9.
"Of all the stops Australia have pulled out to prepare for their trip to India, the most noticeable at their Test tour's first training session was the presence of a Ravichandran Ashwin duplicate," a report in cricket.com.au said.
"With facing spin the major focus on Thursday, Pithiya was the standout among the local 'netties', bowling tirelessly and virtually without break through the day as he troubled the likes of Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head, who all had long batting sessions."
Pithiya, interestingly, didn't see Ashwin bowl until the age of 11. Growing up in Junagadh, Gujarat he didn't have access to TV and when he finally watched the India ace in action against the West Indies in 2013, he started idolising him.
The youngster, who made his first-class debut in December for Baroda, was flown in for the four-day training camp at the KSCA Ground in nearby Alur by Australia after seeing his footages in social media.
It was Pritesh Joshi -- one of the bowlers giving throw downs to the Australian batters with the 'side-arm' aid -- who first brought Pithiya to the attention of assistant coach Andre Borovec.
He also arranged for Mehrotra Shashank, a left-arm spinner who played first-class cricket for Hyderabad, to attend the camp.
"While no spinner in the world can perfectly mimic the challenge Ashwin will pose in this series, facing Pithiya over the coming days will at least help the Australians come to terms with the visual cues of the world's top-ranked Test spin bowler," the report said.
"The Aussie batters were also tested out by a self-described throwdown specialist Khaleel Shariff, who has worked with numerous Indian Premier League teams and was known to coach Andrew McDonald and Vettori from their time at Royal Challengers Bangalore."
The other Tests will be played in New Delhi (February 17-21), Dharamsala (March 1-5) and Ahmedabad (March 9-13).
Indian cricketers practice ahead of the Test series against Australia© BCCI
India began training ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 against Australia in Nagpur on Friday. The Men in Blue will face a tough test from Australia, who is the number one ranked Test side. The first Test will be played in Nagpur between February 9 and 13. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday shared pictures of Team India's training session on Twitter. The Indian cricket team defeated New Zealand in both the ODI and T20I series in the run-up to the Test series.
On Friday, the likes of captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul were pictured training at the nets.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma looked to be in good touch during a net session, while Kohli and opener KL Rahul also enjoyed a fruitful net session. The practice session was an intense one as both bowlers and batters worked hard to take their skills to the highest level before their opening Test against Australia.
Australia and India, currently ranked No.1 and 2 respectively in both the ICC Men's Test Team Rankings and the ongoing ICC World Test Championship 2023 cycle, will meet in a four-match Test series in India. The opening Test will be played in Nagpur between February 9 and 13.
India and Australia have played in 27 Test series since their first meeting in 1947-48. Australia lead the way with 12 series wins to India's 10, while five series have been drawn.
As part of the preparation, the Australian team has hired Maheesh Pithiya a 21-year-old spinner who bears an eerie likeness to Ravichandran Ashwin. Even as Pithiya's career developed to see him make his first-class debut for Baroda in December, his approach has stayed uncannily similar to Ashwin's, who will be one of Australia's biggest bowling threats during the four-Test series, which begins next week in Nagpur.
India are the current holder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after winning the series in Australia in 2020-21.
Australia squad:Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson and David Warner.
India squad: (for the first two Tests) Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat and Suryakumar Yadav.
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FanCode, a sports live streaming app in India, will be live-streaming the West Indies tour of Zimbabwe. The two-test match series will be available on FanCode’s application for Android, iOS, and TV, besides its website.
The company said that the fans will be able to watch the series starting as low as Rs 29, with its unique match and tour passes. Further, monthly and yearly subscriptions plans are also available, through which, one gets access to more live sports on the platform.
Under the leadership of Kraigg Brathwaite, West Indies will look to continue their winning spell in Zimbabwe. The return of Caribbean player Shannon Gabriel will be key for the Windies to extend their perfect record in the African nation. Craig Ervine will take over as Zimbabwe captain in place of the injured Sean Williams. A former England player, Gary Ballance, will make his test debut for West Indies in the series.
Besides this tour, FanCode will also be streaming the Bangladesh Premier League and the Dream 11 Super Smash from New Zealand during February. Other than cricket, FanCode said that it is also streaming the HSBC World Rugby Sevens and the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Basketball, among others.
With interactive streaming features such as live stats, data, and analysis on the match screen, FanCode’s aims to deliver sports fans an immersive experience, a statement from the company said.
31-year-old says Australia are not oblivious to other threats lurking in these spin-friendly conditions
Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
File picture
| Bangalore | Published 04.02.23, 04:46 AM
While Australia are prepared for a trial by spin in India they fully recognise the threat reverse swing may pose in the four-Test series against Rohit Sharma’s men, wicketkeeper Alex Carey said on Friday.
Spin talk has dominated the build-up to the series between the world’s top two Test teams, who meet in the opener in Nagpur on Thursday.
Australia batters practised on a scuffed-up pitch in Sydney before flying to India and have since gathered a bevvy of local spinners for their net sessions in Bangalore having decided against playing any warm-up matches.
Carey is set to play his first Test in India and the 31-year-old said Australia were not oblivious to other threats lurking in these spin-friendly conditions.
“Going to Pakistan, it was a lot of spin talk, and I found the reversing ball difficult,” Carey told reporters referring to their subcontinent tour last year.
“When I played a four-day game here in 2018, a lot of talk was about spin and you probably forget a little bit about how damaging both teams’ fast bowlers are with a reversing ball, and on wickets that might be a little bit up and down.”
Carey said Australia’s batting line-up had enough experience to cope with the challenges they will face in the series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“We are having the preparation in the game to ebb and flow between spin and fast bowling, dry periods and periods where we score quickly,” he added.
“I think what’s great about this team is the experience we have. There are players who have been here a number of times and players that are new, to be able to talk to other guys, what they’re doing, trust their game.
“I think we’ll enjoy this and embrace this challenge. It’s going to be a big, big series.”
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