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Ashes Preview: Australia have the edge

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One of the most exciting Test series of the year, Ashes 2021-22 is starting on Wednesday.

The opening match of the series will be played from 8th December to 12th December 2021.

Ashes is one of the popular and famous series in the history of test cricket.

This will be the 73rd edition of the Ashes.

Out of those 72 series, Australia has won 33 times, while England has managed to win on 32 occasions.

Australian squad

Australia will play this series under the leadership of a new captain, Pat Cummins.

Cummins was named as Australia’s new red-ball skipper because Tim Paine has resigned from the captaincy role.

The hosts have already named their playing XI for the first Test match against England.

Warner is key

David Warner, who had terrible Ashes last time, is set to open the innings for his side alongside Marcus Harris, who has shown great form in domestic cricket.

David Warner has played only 2 Tests in the last 23 months.  

He was totally out of form in the past 12 months.

However, Warner has regained his form and he was also the Player of the Tournament in the T20 world cup that was played last month.

He will be the key player for Australia in this series 

Things become a lot easier for the middle-order if Warner score runs with the bat in the top position.

Lot depends on Steve Smith

Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne will be the biggest assets for team Australia in the middle-order.

Steve Smith was simply outstanding in the last Ashes.

He played some unbelievable cricket in the 2019-20 Ashes.

He was also the leading run scorer in that series scoring 774 runs at an average of 110.57 in the 7 innings of the 4 matches including 3 hundreds (out of which 1 was a double hundred)and 3 fifties.

Marnus Labuschagne was the second-star performer with the bat for Australia in the last Ashes as he scores 353 runs in 7 innings at an average of 50.42.

The Australian team would be hoping that these two replicate similar performances in this Ashes as well.  

Alex Carey will be the wicketkeeper for Australia in the absence of Tim Paine.

Strong pace attack

Australia will go into the Ashes with their same relentless pace attack, including Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and the number-ranked Test bowler and their skipper Pat Cummins.

Nathan Lyon will be their front-line spinner and he has 399 wickets at the moment in Test cricket.

One more scalp will help him to reach the magical 400-wicket landmark in Test cricket.

England squad 

England have a very tough task in their hands.

They will face the brutal pace attack of the Australian side in Australian conditions and to be honest, England isn’t the best batting line-up in the longest format right now.

England has a brilliant batting lineup in white-ball cricket but in Test cricket, the English batters are struggling to score big runs in the last couple of years.

There will be a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the skipper Joe Root, who has been in the form of his life.

Root is the leading run-scorer in Test cricket in 2021, he has scored 1455 runs at an average of 66.13, including 6 centuries and 1 half-century.

Though these stats are enough to describe his form right now in Test cricket, he is yet to score a Test century in Australia.

With the form he is in, Root will be hoping to improve his record in Australia this time.

Root will be the key player for England in this series and if England wants to win the Ashes, Root will have to perform brilliantly.

Stokes returns

The return of the star all-rounder Ben Stokes will be the biggest encouragement for England.  

Australia wouldn’t have forgotten what Ben Stokes did in the last Ashes series. His presence in the team will give a lot of courage and confidence to the side.

England has rested the experienced James Anderson in the first Test match in order to have him fully fit for the pink-ball Test in Adelaide.

The likes of Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, and Ollie Robinson will form the seam attack.

It will be very exciting and interesting to see if England go with the five-specialist fast bowlers or will Jack Leach makes his place in the playing 11 for the first test match.

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Smriti Mandhana and Ellyse Perry star in RCB women’s comeback win against UP Warriorz in WPL 2024

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Smriti Mandhana and Alyssa Healy (Source - X)

RCB women overcame UP Warriorz by 23 runs to clinch their third win of the season. The home side outperformed Warriorz in all the facets of the game and emerged victorious. A collective team effort, particularly with the bat, helped RCB women to beat Warriorz for the second time in the season. They now have three wins in their five matches in the WPL 2024.

Alyssa Healy won the toss and opted to field first. Given how things have panned out in the league so far, it needed a great batting performance from RCB to challenge the chasing side. The home side did exactly that. They were full of intent which was lacking in the last few games. Right from the start, S Meghana and Smriti Mandhana smashed the bowlers.

It was the night of the RCB skipper. The Southpaw scored 80(50) in her stay. S Meghana perished after a valuable 28(21). Ellyse Perry batted well and registered her first fifty of the WPL 2024. She was aided well towards the end by Richa Ghosh whose 21(10) propelled RCB to a score of 198 on the board. It was the highest team total in the WPL 2024.

Alyssa Healy’s efforts go in vain

Chasing the daunting total, UP Warriorz were off to a flier. The opening duo of Healy and Kiran Navgire gave a fiery start to the visiting side. When the two were batting in the PP overs, it seemed like the Warriorz could pull off an insane chase. However, Sophie Devine brought RCB back into the game with crucial wickets. At Bengaluru, the home crowd was literally behind the RCB women.

It helped the home side to stay calm and do their job with ease. Sophie Molineux and Asha Sobhana were the pick of the bowlers, who claimed 2/29 each in their spell of four overs. While Healy scored a fifty and Deepti tried her best in the death overs, ten daunting targets could not be chased down. Despite the early hiccups, RCB managed to restrict UP Warriorz to a score of 175 and won by 23 runs.

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WATCH: Ellyse Perry in disbelief as her six breaks car’s window

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Ellyse Perry smashed a six in the match against UP Warriorz in the WPL 2024. It was an interesting six as the ball travelled towards the boundary ropes and fell exactly on the window of the car. As a result, the glass of the window was broken. The car is set to be provided as a reward for the player of the tournament.

It was the over of Deepti Sharma towards the last few moments of RCB’s innings. Before Perry struck, the home side was in a great position in the match, thanks to a great start provided by Smriti Mandhana. The star batter scored 80 (50) and shined in front of the home crowd. Her form helped RCB to have a good momentum towards the death overs.

Watch the viral video here –

Perry, who was struggling till that point, opened up and smashed the bowlers for fun. She went hard against the spinners like Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Deepti Sharma who were asked to bowl at the death. The right-handed batter smashed back-to-back sixes in the over of Sharma. One of those travelled towards the mid-wicket region where the car was stationed. The video of her shot has gone viral on X.

RCB teammates laugh, Ellyse Perry in disbelief

As the ball fell on the car and damaged the window, the fans erupted. There was no end to the joy of the fans who started chanting “Perry.. Perry..” and lit the atmosphere of the stadium. However, Perry was in disbelief. As she saw the impact of the ball damaging the car’s window, the Australian batter could not believe her eyes and thought about what she had just done.

On the other hand, the RCB teammates of Perry were in awe of the shot. They looked at the replays and appreciated the shot of Perry. At the same time, players like Sophie Molineux and Sophie Devine had a laugh about the car’s window getting damaged. Ellyse scored a fifty and helped her team score 198 runs with her batting in front of the home crowd.

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Praveen Kumar addresses Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer’s negligence of taking part in Ranji Trophy

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Praveen Kumar

Praveen Kumar has given his opinion on the preferences of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer in recent times. The duo did not take part in the Ranji Trophy matches for their respective teams despite being fit. It did not go well with the Indian Cricket Board which landed the duo without a ventral contract which was announced a few days back.

Praveen Kumar has reacted to the issue recently. The former India pacer claimed that he has been of an opinion on the issue for a long time. Praveen felt that one should definitely earn money but not at the cost of neglecting to play for domestic and national teams. The right-arm pacer felt that players today are having a certain mentality which is not good.

The former pacer claimed that the players have a mindset that they can rest for a month before taking part in the IPL, thereby bypassing playing for their national team or the domestic teams. Praveen felt that the players could not resist letting go of money which they could earn by taking part in the IPL and other T20 leagues (For foreign players).

‘Ye mentally hota hai, ki mai itne paise kaise chodun’ – Praveen Kumar

“This thing is now firmly in the mind of players. Mai ek mahine pehle rest kar lunga, fir IPL khel lunga. Ye mentally hota hai, ki mai itne paise kaise chodun,” said Praveen in the interview. He claimed that youngsters these days are spoilt and are behind money. The former RCB pacer felt that it is not fair on the part of the young players to neglect the country over the IPL.

Kumar felt that a player needs to maintain a balance between playing for the IPL team and for the country. He felt that money is an important factor, but not at the cost of playing for the national team. “But this is not fair at all. A player needs to balance things. Money is important, but this (giving franchise cricket the priority) is wrong,” said the former Indian bowler in the interview.

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