Heena Sharma Blog

  India's stand-in white-ball captain Shikhar Dhawan has completed 10,000 runs as an opener in international cricket. The left-handed batsman achieved the feat against Sri Lanka in the first ODI of the three-match series here at the R Premadasa Stadium on Sunday. Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, and Rohit Sharma are the other four Indian batsman to have scored more than 10,000 runs as an opener in international cricket. In the first ODI against Sri Lanka, Dhawan also became the tenth Indian batsman to score 6000 runs in the 50-over format. Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Mohammed Azharuddin, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag are the other nine batsmen who have scored more than 6000 runs in the ODI format. Read More

  Former India skipper MS Dhoni will always be remembered for finishing tight matches with a smile and sending a billion people into a frenzy. He might have called time on his international career in August 2020, but Dhoni still holds a special place in the hearts of the fans and just one glimpse of him is enough to send social media into a frenzy. For over a decade, Dhoni's unorthodox batting style, especially the famed helicopter shot, gave international bowlers a headache. As the wicketkeeper-batsman celebrates his 40th birthday today, let's relive his first century in international cricket. It was on April 5, 2005, when Dhoni made his first international ton. The former skipper registered the feat against Pakistan in the second ODI of the six-match series. The match was played at the Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Read More

  India have not named their playing XI for the fourth Test against Australia and will be announcing it on Friday before the match starts at The Gabba as they are monitoring the injuries of the players. This was informed by batting coach Vikram Rathour on Thursday. Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is suffering from an abdominal strain and is a doubtful starter for the series decider. If he doesn't play, the visitors can bring in Shardul Thakur to join Mohammed Siraj and Navdeep Saini in the pace department. With KL Rahul returning home due to a wrist injury and Mayank Agarwal hit on the hand at the nets, India also face a dilemma as they look to bring in someone to replace Hanuma Vihari, who injured his hamstring during the drawn third Test and is unlikely to play as the No. 6 batsman. There are also concerns over Ravichandran Ashwin's fitness as he woke up with a back tweak on the final day of the Sydney Test and then suffered a hit on his ribs by a short delivery from P...

  The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president and former skipper Sourav Ganguly had an "uneventful" night and check-up echocardiography will be done today to check his heart function, the Woodlands Hospital said in its latest medical bulletin. The medical board will also meet today at 11:30 am to discuss the further treatment plan with his family members, the Woodlands Hospital said. The hospital said that the doctors are keeping "constant vigil" on Ganguly's health situation and appropriate measures are being taken from time to time. The 48-year-old former skipper was hospitalised at 1 pm on Saturday with "chest discomfort, heaviness of head, vomiting and a spell of dizziness" while performing physical exercise in the home gymnasium at around 11 am. Following this, doctors had conducted angioplasty on him. Read More

  Australian cricket team has pushed India to the second spot in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) points table after the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday effected changes to the WTC rules. The changes in ICC WTC points system has be made as several bilateral series could not be played due to Covid-19 pandemic. Changes to the rules were made to determine the nine teams' standings on the points table. ICC World Test Championship new rules Although India (360 points) still has 64 more points than Australia (296) and more series wins, the Aussies have gone atop after the ICC Board approved that the matches played and the matches lost won't be treated as drawn and points would be split. Australia now has 0.822 percentage points (82.2 per cent), which propelled them to the No.1 spot, while India has 0.750 (75 per cent). Read More

India cricket team would love to forget the whitewash against the New Zealand cricket team and take on South Africa cricket team in the first one day international of the 3-match series at Dharamshala. South Africa, on the other hand, will be pumped up after crushing the might Australia 3-0 in their home series. The Indian team led by Virat Kohli will have an uphill task at their hands when they face Quinton de Kock led South Africa. Bhuvneshwar Kumar makes a come back to the squad, so does Hardik Pandya. This series will be followed by IPL 2020. Players will have to show their best to stake a claim for a spot in the T20 World Cup squad. India vs South Africa 1st ODI predicted playing 11 India tentative playing 11: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav. South Africa tentative playing 11: Quinton de Kock (C), Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen...

Two Indians -- Akash Singh and Ravi Bishnoi -- and three Bangladesh players were on Tuesday found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute and handed suspension points for the ugly on-field confrontation that marred the Under-19 World Cup final in South Africa. Akash and Bishnoi along with Bangladesh's Md. Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain and Rakibul Hasan were found guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct after the two sides nearly came to blows following Bangladesh's three-wicket win for their maiden U-19 World Cup title in Potchefstroom, on Sunday. "Five players have been found guilty of a Level 3 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Support Personnel ... (they) were charged with violating Article 2.21 of the code, whilst Bishnoi received a further charge of breaching Article 2.5," the ICC said in a statement. The article 2.21 of the ICC code relates to conduct that bring the game into disrepute. It covers public acts of misconduct, unru...

India cricket team right-arm pacer Deepak Chahar has been ruled out of the third and final One Day International (ODI) against the Windies cricket team due to a lower back injury. Navdeep Saini has been named as his replacement and will join the squad for the decider to be played on Sunday. In a media release, BCCI stated that Deepak felt mild pain in his lower back following the second ODI played in Vizag on Wednesday which India won comprehensively. "The BCCI medical team examined him and has suggested that the fast bowler needs some rest in order to fully recover. He has thus been ruled out of the final ODI," the statement read. Deepak went wicket-less in Visakhapatnam, giving away 44 runs in his seven overs. He had also dropped a catch of Nicholas Pooran, who along with Shimron Hetmyer at one stage, threatened to take the game away from India. However, the visitors were bundled out for 280 inside 44 overs, thus falling short of India's total of 387 by 107...

IND vs WI 2 nd ODI :- India cricket team will have to get their bowling combination right after the hiding in Chennai when they take on a buoyant Windies cricket team in the second ODI in Vishakhapatnam on Wednesday, aiming to keep the three-match series alive. A series win would certainly raise Kieron Pollard's profile from a T20 freelancer to an able leader but a blinder from Rohit Sharma or another hundred from Virat Kohli on a batting belter can't be ruled out. It wasn't a nightmarish bowling performance in Chennai by any stretch of imagination but not being able to defend 287 on a slow Chennai track left the team management with a few points to ponder. With the par-score at the ACA-VDCA stadium here set to be in the 320-plus range, a fifth specialist bowling option could be mulled upon considering the plight the hosts faced in the last game with Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope beautifully planning the chase with their respective hundreds. The biggest reaso...

When India national cricket team take on Windies cricket team in the last T20 International of a three-match series at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday, they will be in the hunt for yet another bilateral series win. Their fans would expect to see some power hitting, especially as Wankhede has small square boundaries. Though India have not lost a bilateral series at home in recent times, Wednesday’s T20 match will be a different ball game. The way West Indian batsmen Nicholas Pooran and Lendl Simmons scored in the 2nd T20, sending Indian fielders on a constant leather hunt, Virat Kohli and company will definitely need to up their game in all departments to be a match to this young Caribbean side. India vs WestIndies Match Prediction TEAM INDIA Top order: Opener Rohit Sharma, who failed to live up to his name in the first two games, would be raring to go, especially on his home ground of Wankhede. K L Rahul and Kohli have been in the midst of runs and would be ex...

The India cricket team will aim to continue their dominance over Windies cricket team when the two sides clash in the first of a three-match T20 series at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday. India had whitewashed West Indies in all formats of the game when they visited the Caribbean for a bilateral series in August this year. However, the Men in Blue did not appear to be their best last month when they played at home against Bangladesh under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. India conceded their first-ever T20 defeat to their Asian neighbours. India playing 11 predictions Top order: The Indian batting line-up will get a major fillip with regular captain Virat Kohli’s return to the T20 side. Meanwhile, K L Rahul will get a chance to open the innings with Rohit Sharma, as Shikhar Dhawan, who got injured during a Delhi fixture in Syed Mushtaq Ali Tournament, is not in the side. Read More

India captain Virat Kohli has managed to hold on to his second position behind Australia's Steve Smith in the ICC Test Rankings for batsmen released on Monday. Kohli, with 903 rating points, is 34 points behind Smith (937). Besides former Australia captain Smith, compatriot Pat Cummins has also retained his one position in the ICC Test bowlers' rankings. Both Smith and Cummins player key roles in helping Australia retain The Ashes. The Ashes culminated with a 135-run victory for England in the fifth and final Test on Sunday. The series ended in a 2-2 draw with Australia retaining the Urn. Smith's scores of 80 and 23 in the two innings in the final Test helped him remain at 937 rating points, an incredible effort since he started the series in fourth position with 857 points before his surge that came courtesy 774 runs in four Tests. Cummins too is well clear of other bowlers as he enjoys a lead of 57 points over second-placed Kagiso Rabada after finishing...

India skipper Virat Kohli is just a step away from becoming the nation's most successful leader in the longest format of the game. If India manage to win the second and final Test of the series against West Indies, Kohli, who had equalled former India captain M.S. Dhoni's record of 27 Test wins in the first game of the series, will add another feather to his cap. A win in the second Test, starting at Sabina Park on Friday, will take Kohli's number of Test victories as captain to 28 - the most by any Indian captain. Dhoni had a win percentage of 45 as captain, after winning 27 matches, losing 18 and drawing 15. On the other hand, Kohli's win percentage is 55.31 -- the best among all other Indian captains in the format. In the 47 Tests under Virat Kohli, India have registered 27 wins, lost 10 games and drawn another 10. The run-machine had also surpassed Sourav Ganguly with the most Test wins in overseas matches for India as captain in the first Test of the se...

India inflicted a humiliating 318-run defeat on the West Indies in the first Test as Jasprit Bumrah dismantled the hosts with a five wicket haul after Ajinkya Rahane found his first century in two years, here on Sunday. West Indies were chasing a stiff 419-run target but Indian pacers, led by Bumrah demolished the hosts, who were all out for just 100 in 26.5 overs in the final session of the fourth day. It was a Bumrah show in perfect weather conditions as he sent the wickets cart-wheeling thrice during a sensational eight-over spell in which he conceded just seven runs. Playing his 10th Test, he also became the fastest bowler to take 50 Test wickets. Bumrah swung the ball both ways to torment the home batsmen while Ishant Sharma (3/31) and Mohammed Shami (2/13) too contributed in India's resounding victory which gave them a 1-0 lead in the two-match series. Kemar Roach (38), Miguel Cummins (19 not out) and Roston Chase (12) were the only batsmen who managed double-di...

Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has backed India's limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma to be a part of the playing XI for the opening Test against West Indies and feels that not picking the batsman will be 'wrong. Speaking on his official Youtube channel, Akhtar said that since Rohit was a part of the squad for the two-match Test series against the Windies, it was important that he should also be given a chance in the XI to go out and grab his opportunity. "I know Rohit has been given chances to play in the Test format earlier and he has not been able to grab on to the opportunity. But I believe he should be included in the team. He is a big match-winner, and not including him will be wrong. He is in good form and he should be given a chance right away," the 44-year-old expressed. "When you have selected him in the squad, leaving him out of the playing XI should not be an option. I believe he will showcase his talent in the longest format of the ga...

The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), led by former captain Kapil Dev, began the process to choose India's next men's coach on Friday with former all-rounder Robin Singh appearing first for the interview. Singh, a former Mumbai Indians coach, appeared before the three-member panel, which also comprises Anshuman Gaikwad and Shantha Rangaswamy. The CAC will announce the selected candidate later this evening. Six names -- incumbent Ravi Shastri, Singh, Lalchand Rajput, Mike Hesson, Tom Moody, Phil Simmons -- have been shortlisted for the high-profile position. Singh was followed by Rajput, who was the team's manager when it won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007. The CAC members, on arrival, side-stepped questions on whether Shastri is a clear favourite to retain the job. Shastri, who got a 45-day extension after the end of his tenure following the World Cup in England, has been publicly backed by captain Virat Kohli. Read More Article Source -> Bus...

India's ouster from 2019 World Cup triggered many controversies and murmuring about the mistakes the team committed during the tournament and also a possible way ahead by making right decisions. And one of the many was - Is it the time for split captaincy? Well, in cricket, the characteristic of a team is, more or less, defined by its leader. Be it New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who showed calm on and off the field despite umpiring blunders, or Virat Kohli, whose 'exaggerated' emotions on the field give camerapersons and viewers a reason to smile. Williamson's measured approach always looks good but Kohli's aggression, sometimes, sends cricket fans into tizzy. However, Kohli's animated aggression, to an extent, has borne fruit for Team India in Test matches. But his defensive tactics in limited over cricket has been widely criticised. India will have to start preparing for mainly three major tournaments - T20 World Cup in Australia next year, ...

The International Cricket Council (ICC) launched the inaugural World Test Championship on Monday, setting the stage for a long tournament in red-ball cricket to determine the World Test Champion. The two-year affair comprises top nine Test teams-- Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies -- who will compete in 71 matches in 27 series. Each team will play three home and three away series. The top two teams at the end will compete in the ICC World Test Championship Final in the UK in June 2021. The first Ashes Test between England and Australia at Edgbaston will mark as the inaugural game of the event. India will not play against Pakistan because each team has picked six opponents by mutual agreement, within the existing framework of the Members rights agreements. Also, the teams can play matches outside the World Test Championship during this period. Accordingly, The Indian team would be playing against Wes...

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday questioned the omission of veteran Ajinkya Rahane and young Shubman Gill from the ODI squad for the tour of West Indies, urging the selection committee to be consistent with their policies. An inconsistent Kedar Jadhav has been retained while Gill, who has been adjudged man-of-the-series in the five List A games in the West Indies, scoring 218 runs. Ganguly took to Twitter to take a dig at the selectors stating the main agenda should be picking the best possible team and not making people happy. "Time has come for Indian selectors to pick same players in all formats of the game for rhythm and confidence.. too few are playing in all formats ..great teams had consistent players ..it's not about making all happy but picking the best for the country and be consistent @bcci," Ganguly tweeted. "Here are many in the squad who can play all formats ..surprised not to see Shubman Gill. Rahane in the one day squad,...

India skipper Virat Kohli calls Kane Williamson special and the New Zealand skipper says his Indian counterpart is a superstar. In the modern era of cut throat competition where every inch counts, the mutual admiration that Kohli and Williamson share is indeed a lesson for youngsters looking to play the gentlemans game. Speaking on the eve of the first semi-final of the 2019 World Cup , Kohli was the first one to point out how he always saw talent in Williamson. In fact, even as scribes asked him about playing against Williamson in the U19 World Cup in 2008, the India skipper went back to the 2007 U19 Test match he played against New Zealand to recollect his first memory of the Kiwi skipper. "It's not even 2008, I remember in 2007, we went to New Zealand and we were playing an U19 Test match and he played a shot off one of our fast bowlers, who was quick, off the back foot and I remember standing in slips and telling guys standing with me, "I have never seen an...