The Indian team will undergo a three-day quarantine before taking off for South Africa. Cricbuzz has learnt that the members of the South Africa-bound squad have been asked to check into a five star hotel near the Mumbai International Airport by Sunday (December 12) evening to fulfil the bio-security protocols. The team will leave for Johannesburg on Wednesday (December 16) by a charter flight.

Jason Roy, Colin Munro, Tim David, Chris Jordan and Hazratullah Zazai were the overseas players picked in the Platinum category while Fakhar Zaman was the lone Pakistan player among the platinum picks in the draft for the 2022 edition of PSL which was conducted on Sunday (December 12).

Familiarity does indeed breed contempt. England’s defeat in the opening Test was due to yet another dismal batting display, a constant theme for the past decade. There is now and has been for a while, a deep sense of inevitability about England’s failings with the bat. Even when a partnership is going well, disaster is often just around the corner, as it was on the fourth morning in Brisbane. It is not proving an easy fix. In some ways, that is understandable. After all, England’s batters don’t just have one problem. They have every problem going.

“Imagine things work out…”

The Bangladesh Cricket Board on Sunday included uncapped Fariha Islam and Disha Bishwas in the 20-member preliminary squad for the upcoming Women’s ODI World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, from November 16 to December 5. Besides the duo, there were no surprises as the team management decided to keep their faith in the tried and tested.

England fast bowler Stuart Broad has said he will be willing to tour Australia later this year for the Ashes series and has urged honchos at the England & Wales Cricket Board to negotiate acceptable arrangements for the team that’ll give them the best chance to be mentally strong and comfortable enough to compete in the series.

New Zealand Cricket Players Association (NZCPA) has said that a couple of their Pakistan-bound cricketers had received death threats a few weeks prior to their departure. NZCPA chief executive Heath Mills revealed that the threats were received through social media and other channels but were not deemed serious enough at the time.

Wasim Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief executive, has pointed at “inequality” in terms of treatment towards Pakistan, in the backdrop of the New Zealand team pulling out of the tour due to security reasons.

The England men and women’s tours to Pakistan, scheduled for next month, are in severe doubt following New Zealand Cricket’s decision to abandon their own tour to the country on Friday (September 17) after what they described as a “government security alert”.