BCCI releases IPL schedule, Rohit reveals his IPL batting position and more - Cricket News Today, 19th March 2019

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The BCCI has announced the schedule for the rest of the IPL. Barring the playoffs and the finals, all dates have been released. The conventional home and away format has been retained. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals had their pre-season pressers as well.

South Africa is slated to face Sri Lanka in a three-match T20I series, starting today. Most of the star players will feature in just one game before leaving to join their respective IPL sides. Also, South Africa’s head coach Ottis Gibson has admitted that form will be considered over reputation as far as World Cup slots are concerned.

Thus, here is all the top news that made headlines in the cricketing world today.

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BCCI releases IPL schedule until 5th May

The complete schedule of the 12th edition of the IPL is finally out. The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) had announced the schedule for the first 17 games (March 23rd to April 5th). They wanted to wait for the 2019 general election dates to be released.

The election dates were out last week and subsequently, the BCCI announced the schedule for the entire IPL today (19th March). The playoff dates and venues are the only ones that are yet to be decided. The home and away format has been retained with all eight teams will be playing seven home games at their respective designated home venues.

The IPL starts this Saturday (23rd March) with defending champions Chennai Super Kings facing Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening game in Chennai. The group stages will conclude on the 5th of May and the final is likely to take place on the 12th of May.

Rohit Sharma to open the batting for Mumbai Indians this season

Rohit Sharma has become the face of Mumbai Indians ever since he took over captaincy back in 2013. He has led the franchise to the IPL title three times (2013, 2015 and 2017). However, there’s one thing that’s always up for debate when he turns up to play for MI and that is his batting position.

Despite opening the batting for India in limited-overs cricket, Rohit Sharma has tended to always push himself down the order to lend solidity to the MI middle-order. He barely batted at the top of the order last year and ended with just 286 runs at an average of 23.83 as MI failed to make it to the top four.

However, this year he has revealed that he will be opening the batting in all the games. “This year I will open the batting for all the games,” Rohit Sharma revealed.

Dimuth Karunaratne enters Sri Lanka’s ODI captaincy fray

After a thrilling 2-0 Test series win in South Africa, Sri Lanka were whitewashed in the ODI series 5-0. In fact, the Islanders have been far from impressive in white-ball cricket. Since September 2018, they have just won one ODI.

There has been a lot of chopping and changing and captains have been at the forefront of this chopping and changing. Angelo Mathews was sacked as ODI captain after Sri Lanka’s early exit from the Asia Cup. Dinesh Chandimal didn’t last long either as Lasith Malinga was handed the reigns. Now, after a dismal show in South Africa, Dimuth Karunaratne is being looked upon.

The left-handed opener led Sri Lanka to a memorable Test series win in South Africa. However, he hasn’t played an ODI in the last four years. The last time he donned the Sri Lankan jersey in a 50-over game was back in the 2015 World Cup. Karunaratne who had signed up to play county cricket this year for Hampshire might ascend to the ODI captaincy.

“The selectors haven't confirmed anything, but they've told me to keep in mind there's a possibility I could become one-day captain. They've asked me to stay back for the provincial tournament. If I get picked for the World Cup squad, there will be camps and training after that as well, so I might not be able to go to Hampshire in those months,” Karunaratne was quoted saying by ESPNcricinfo.

Ponting, Ganguly back Rishabh Pant to fix India’s No. 4 issues

Rishabh Pant has been in and out of the Indian limited-overs sides in the recent past. Despite establishing himself as India’s No.1 wicket-keeper batsman, he hasn’t been able to translate his form to white-ball cricket on the international stage. He has played just 20 white-ball games (5 ODIs and 15 T20Is) for India and has mustered just 326 runs.

However, both Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly who are a part of Delhi Capital’s think-tank, feel that he can solve the No. 4 conundrum for India and is a must for the World Cup.

“The first thing I would do is pick him in that Indian squad for the World Cup, I would play him as a batter, I would play him at number four. He is the sort of guy, with that kind of talent, he can win you a World Cup, he has just got that x-factor,” Ponting was quoted saying.

Ganguly echoed Ponting’s thoughts and said, “If you send Rishabh at number four, he will score runs for you because he is so talented, he has got so much time to play.”

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