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Hello and welcome to the daily round-up of all the major stories happening in the cricketing world today.
First up are the ICC annual awards where Ben Stokes, Pat Cummins, and Rohit Sharma bagged the top honors. Following it up is the wrath of India's 10-wicket loss and Virat Kohli's stand on the number four slot and experimentation. Aaron Finch has applauded the effort of bowlers to restrict a strong Indian batting line-up while Prithvi Shaw is finally set to fly to New Zealand to join the A-side. Lastly, the custodians of cricket's laws, MCC have advocated five-day Tests over the new proposed format of four-day matches.
Here is a look at those stories in detail.
#1 Stokes, Cummins and Sharma bag top ICC honors; Kohli named captain of ICC Test and ODI side
2019 CWC World Cup winner Ben Stokes lead the honors board at the annual ICC awards by winning the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Best Cricketer of the Year. Stokes played an important role in England's maiden triumph at the CWC 2019 at home and his stupendous innings of 135 not out in the third Test in Leeds. He scored a total of 1540 runs and took 23 wickets in both ODIs and T20Is combined in 2019.
Also see – India vs Australia schedule
“The last 12 months have been the best in my career, and I believe what we attained will be the catalyst to achieve further success over the next few years.”
Indian vice-captain Rohit Sharma won the ODI cricketer of the year for his consistent performances in the format throughout the year. Sharma scored five centuries at the CWC 2019 and made a total of 648 runs at an astonishing average of 81.00.
“I would like to thank the ICC for giving me this award and the BCCI for giving me the opportunity to represent the country. It is great to be recognised in this fashion. We are very happy with the way we performed as a team in 2019. We could have done better but we have a lot of positives and a lot to look forward to in 2020.”
Pat Cummins was awarded the best Test cricketer of the year award for taking 59 wickets in 12 Tests last year.
“It’s a tremendous honour to be considered the best player of last year and one which was certainly unexpected. I owe much to my team, team-mates and all those involved in Australian cricket for what was a really successful year for the team. The highlight was certainly being able to retain the Ashes which was a great reward for the hard work that went into that tour.”
Indian captain Virat Kohli won the spirit of cricket award for his gesture to the crowd in support of Steve Smith, who was making a comeback from the ban. Kohli was also chosen as the captain of both the ODI and Test side for the year 2019.
ICC Men’s Cricket Awards
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Best Cricketer of the Year
Ben Stokes (England)
Test Cricketer of the Year
Pat Cummins (Australia)
ODI Cricketer of the Year
Rohit Sharma (India)
T20I Performance of the Year
Deepak Chahar (India, 6-7 v Bangladesh)
Emerging Cricketer of the Year
Marnus Labuschagne (Australia)
Associate Cricketer of the Year
Kyle Coetzer (Scotland)
Spirit of Cricket Award
Virat Kohli stopping the fans booing Steve Smith at the Oval
David Shepherd Trophy for Umpire of the Year
Richard Illingworth
ICC Test Team of the Year (in batting order)
Mayank Agarwal, Tom Latham, Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli (captain), Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, BJ Watling (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Neil Wagner, Nathan Lyon
ICC ODI Team of the Year (in batting order)
Rohit Sharma, Shai Hope, Virat Kohli (captain), Babar Azam, Kane Williamson, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav
Full article: ICC Awards | Ben Stokes, Pat Cummins, and Rohit Sharma bag top ICC honors; Virat Kohli named captain of ICC Test and ODI side
#2 'I am allowed to experiment a little bit and fail at times', says Kohli
After a humiliating 10-wicket loss at the hands of Australia in the first ODI in Mumbai yesterday, Indian skipper Virat Kohli responded to a flurry of questions about the change of batting order yet again.
To accommodate KL Rahul in the top-order, Kohli decided to demote himself at four which eventually back-fired as India faltered at the end to be all-out for 255. Speaking at the post-match presentation, he explained the experimentation process and how it backfires sometimes. Kohli accepted the fact that the home team was dominated by the visitors in all the departments of the game but the fans needed to keep patience to find a settled line-up in the limited-overs internationals. India will play Australia next on January 17 in Rajkot and Bengaluru two days later.
"We were outplayed in all three departments. It’s a very strong Australian team and if you don’t play well enough they will hurt you and we saw that... With bat in hand, I don’t think we had enough intent to go out there and take risks, get those extra runs and put the bowlers under pressure.”
Speaking about demoting himself to number 4, Kohli said,
“We’ve had this discussion many times in the past as well. Because of the way KL has been batting, we have tried to fit him in the batting line-up. But I don’t think it’s gone quite our way whenever I batted at four so probably will have to rethink about that one.”
"It’s about giving some guys opportunities. Every now and then, it’s about putting people up there and testing them. People need to relax and not panic with one game. I am allowed to experiment a little bit and fail at times. Today was one of the days it didn’t come off.”
Full article: India vs Australia 2020: 'I am allowed to experiment a little bit and fail at times', says Virat Kohli
#3 'The way we fought back during the middle overs was impressive,' says Finch
Australian captain Aaron Finch praised the comeback from the bowlers in the middle-overs that eventually played a crucial part in their convincing 10-wicket win in the first ODI in Mumbai. Finch, who recorded a historic first-wicket stand with David Warner, stated that the period after Dhawan and Rahul's partnership was extremely crucial and the bowlers played their part to perfection. After adding 121 runs for the second wicket, the Australian bowlers kept things tight throughout and didn't let the Indians step-up the run-rate.
Finch made a calculated 110 while Warner blasted his way through to score magnificent 128 runs to put on a stand of 258 runs for the first wicket.
“I thought the way we fought back during the middle overs was impressive. Shikhar and KL were batting really well, looking to accelerate. So, I’m proud of the way the boys fought back."
“We could still brush up in the field a bit but that happens sometimes when the outfield is slightly damp. Overall, a good performance. Always tough to beat India in India.”
Full article: India vs Australia 2020: Fightback post-KL Rahul-Shikhar Dhawan stand played a big part in the win, reckons Aaron Finch
#4 Prithvi Shaw set to join India A squad in New Zealand
2018 Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Prithvi Shaw was finally cleared to tour New Zealand as a part of the India A side. Shaw, who recently suffered a blow to his shoulder after making a decent return from his doping ban, cleared his yo-yo test at the NCA and will fly on the 16 or 17 January to join his India A team-mates in New Zealand.
A source close to the BCCI stated,
"He cleared the mandatory yo-yo test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on Tuesday morning. He should be flying on the 16th or 17th of January to join the India A side in New Zealand."
Shaw is also in line to be selected for the senior Test side for the New Zealand series as the selectors are scheduled to meet on January 19 to select the squad.
Full article: Prithvi Shaw clears fitness test; set to join India A squad in New Zealand
#5 MCC advocates 5-day Tests
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), custodians of the laws of cricket have come in support of the five-day Test format and continue the rich tradition of the game. In a meeting between The MCC Cricket Committee and MCC World Cricket Committee, both groups came out in support of Test cricket being played over five days and not four days, as proposed by the ICC recently.
Recognised players and coaches like Virat Kohli, Ravi Shastri, Joe Root, and Faf du Plessis have advocated five-day Tests and stated that the traditional format shouldn't be truncated.
The MCC released its statement that stated the following,
“MCC has noted the recent discussion regarding the future of test cricket and the ICC’s desire to debate the introduction of four-day test cricket to replace the current five-day format in the World Test Championship from 2023. The MCC Cricket committee and MCC World Cricket committee have recently discussed the issue and although they can see some benefits that four-day Test cricket could bring, both committees believe that test cricket should continue to be played over five days."
Full article: Test cricket should continue to be played over five days, advocate MCC
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