Cricket

West Indian captain Kraigg Brathwaite did not ignore the elephant in the room, but did not hide behind it, either. He said straightaway that Pakistan “prepared a dry spinning pitch from day one”, while acknowledging it was their right to do so, and challenging both his batters and his bowlers to adapt to it better

Melbourne Stars 219 for 5 (Maxwell 76*, Webster 51, Stoinis 32, Chaudhary 1-37) beat Hobart Hurricanes 179 (Ellis 40, Owen 38, Steketee 4-24, Usama 2-31) by 40 runs Glenn Maxwell may not be touring Sri Lanka, but in a silver lining he’ll be part of the BBL finals after Melbourne Stars’ remarkable regular season turnaround

Rishabh Pant is set to be named captain of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) ahead of IPL 2025. Pant became the most expensive player in the IPL at the November 2024 mega auction, bought by LSG for INR 27 crore (US$ 3.21 million approx.). India wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul led LSG for their first three seasons (from

India’s premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will test his match fitness by playing the third ODI against England on February 12 in Ahmedabad. India’s selectors and the team management are hopeful the plan works out so that Bumrah is ready to play the Champions Trophy. Bumrah was named in India’s 15-man squad for the Champions

Heather Knight believes that an injection of fresh faces and a return to England’s best format gives them hope of turning around the Ashes series around after they were trounced 3-0 in the ODIs. England have left themselves no option but to win every remaining match of the multiformat series – three T20Is and the

As for Rahul, he has an elbow issue which will keep him out of Karnataka’s match against Punjab in Bengaluru. On Thursday, the BCCI issued an unprecedented list of dos and don’ts for all players, which included mandatory participation in domestic cricket. In case the player is not available to play, he will need permission

The BCB will be launching a maiden Women’s Bangladesh Premier League (WBPL); it is likely to be held soon after the ongoing men’s competition ends on February 7. According to Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, the BCB director, it will be a three-team competition, with each team playing the others twice for a total of six league

Tea Pakistan 86 for 4 (Shakeel 33*, Rizwan 18*, Seales 3-19) vs West Indies Jayden Seales‘ triple strike put West Indies in the box seat at tea on the first day of the first Test against Pakistan in Multan. On a surface tailor-made for spin, it was the fast bowler who proved the pick of

Australia chose to bat vs England Australia have gone with a twin legspin attack for the third ODI in Hobart with Georgia Wareham recalled in place of Darcie Brown on what was a drier pitch than expected. Wareham is playing just her second ODI since last March and was not required to bat or bowl

Big picture: Expect plenty of turn in Multan The timing of this series does not exactly help raise its profile. It comes after the top two World Test Championship (WTC) berths have been decided at the tail-end of the cycle. West Indies are at the bottom of the standings, Pakistan only fractionally ahead of them.