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The New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was recently in India to have a meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. Joining him in the delegation was former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum.
However, at a tourism event in Delhi, the announcer called out the Prime Minister's name, but instead of calling John Key, said McCullum instead.
Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar has said that one can't expect Virat Kohli to win all of India's matches single-handedly and everyoe else will also have to contribute for India to win.
"Virat Kohli can't always win you a match.When Dhoni has to bat at No. 4 and there is no faith in No. 5 and 6, then India need to worry considerably. You can't depend on Virat Kohli bailing you out every time. It looks like if Virat fails the others are not being able to handle the pressure," Gavaskar told NDTV.
Surrey spinner Zafar Ansari is set to play his first-ever Test match for England in the second game of the series against Bangladesh in Mirpur, starting on Friday.
Ansari will replace Gareth Batty, who played his comeback Test at Chittagong, in the team. Stuart Broad will also have to wait for his 100th Test as Trevor Bayliss is looking to rotate key players before the big trip to India and Steven Finn will play in the secons game.
“Zafar’s going to make his debut coming in for Gareth and Finny’s coming in for Broady," Skipper Alastair Cook told in the pre-match press conference.
Cyclone Kyant could play spoilsport at Vizag
The India - New Zealand one-day international (ODI) series is well poised and the series-decider is scheduled to be played at Vizag on October 29. While fans await the day in anticipation, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is keeping a close eye as well. However, it's not India's finishing abilities that they are worried about. Instead, it's an impending cyclone that is their cause for concern.
It's called the Cyclone Kyant and it's currently hovering over the Bay of Bengal - some 620km southeast of Vizag. As officials monitor their charts, the next 24 hours will be crucial as Kyant's movements evolve. Strong surface winds are set to emanate from the cyclone and is likely to clock speeds of up to 50km per hour.
Meanwhile, 60% of the tickets are currently sold out for the series decider and officials at the Visakhapatnam District Cricket Association (VDCA) are hoping that the cyclone abates. The curators however are optimistic. They are confident of getting the ground ready through super soppers if the rains were to stop five hours ahead of the start of play.
Ex- ICC umpire Amish Sahiba is all set to officiate in his 100th first-class match on Thursday. He will become only the second Indian umpire to achieve this feat after Suresh Shastri.
"I am really happy to stand on the field to officiate as umpire (in) my 100th first class match to be played between Kerala and Chhattisgarh here from tomorrow," Sahiba was quoted as saying in The Indian Express.
Sahiba, who was adjudged by the BCCI as "The best Indian umpire" in 2009-10, has officiated in three Tests, 51 ODIs and 12 T20 matches.
Australia will host a T20I against Sri Lanka at the Adelaide Oval a day before the first of their four Test series against India begins in Pune. Instead of looking at the negatives, Cricket Australia's high performance manager, Pat Howard wants to "embrace" the possibility of two Australian teams playing simultaneously at different parts of the world.
"To a certain extent I want to embrace it," Howard said on SEN radio. "We've done better and performed better when players have really lavished the opportunity, versus it being tacked on at the end of a long season.
"So there is a way to have a think about this differently to give us a better chance of winning," he added.
Karnataka Ranji team will be missing the services of Indian opener KL Rahul ahead of its fourth-round Ranji trophy match against Assam, which is scheduled to start from Thursday. Rahul is recovering from a hamstring injury that he suffered during the first Test against New Zealand in Kanpur.
The Karnataka cricket association stated that the right-hander is undergoing a rehabilitation and is yet to go through a fitness test.
New Zealand defeated India in the fourth ODI on Wednesday at Ranchi by 19 runs. The visitors posted a decent total of 260 runs in their 50 overs, thanks to some aggressive batting by Martin Guptill. The 30-year old started from the word go and scored a 84-ball 72.
"It wasn't as fluent as I would have liked. But at the end of the day, I'll take 72 any day of the week," Guptill said in the post-match press conference.
Guptill mentioned that the wicket was tough to bat on and it became even more difficult as the game progressed. He said, " Early on the ball came on and bit more and you were able to hit through the line bit better but once the ball became a bit softer, the scoring became a lot tougher and you had to work for your runs, you had to grind it out a wee bit. I was happy to get through that little period."
Bangladesh physio Bayjidul Islam confirmed that Sabbir Rahman will be fit for the second Test against England, which begins on October 28. Mosaddek Hossain was earlier called up as cover for Sabbir, who made a mark on his Test debut in the first Test which Bangladesh lost.
"Sabbir had been suffering from gastric-related problems for quite some time," Bayjidul said. "He had stomach pain, so we kept him under observation in Chittagong where he visited a doctor. There had been some findings but when he underwent the endoscopy at the Apollo Hospital, there wasn't anything serious in it.
"It is a normal gastric problem - peptic ulcer. The doctor has advised him for some dietary changes. Since he did the endoscopy today, he has been told to take the day off. He can start training from tomorrow. The good news is that the pain has also reduced. He will get better."
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Afridi dropped from PCB contract list, Shehzad and Umar Akmal demoted
PCB contracts have been released for the new cricketing year, and there have been both promotions and demotions among Pakistani players. Shahid Afridi has been dropped altogether from the list of contracted players. Junaid Khan and Fawad Alam are two others who have been given the axe.
Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad have been dropped to Category D, the lowest rung of contracts. The contracts will be valid from October 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017.
Yasir Shah and Sarfraz Ahmed have been promoted to be given Category A contracts.
Others who have received contracts this year after having missed out last year are Mohammad Asghar, Hasan Ali, Khalid Latif, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Sohail Khan and Sohail Tanvir.