T20 World Cup 2022

Australia won the opening match against the Caribbean side by three wickets in Gold Coast on Thursday with Green scoring just 14 as opener. Clarke, a member of the ODI World Cup-winning side in 2007 who later led Australia's victorious campaign at the 2015 event at home, indicated Cricket Australia's (CA) selection was going awry ahead of the T20 World Cup at home.

India play their first match on October 23 at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground against arch-rivals Pakistan. This is the most crucial match for the Indian side as a defeat in it could put them in deep waters to qualify. The main rivals, thereafter, are South Africa, Bangladesh and possibly the West Indies, if they qualify from their group games.

In fact, even if they make a clean sweep of the three-match series here and also win the ODIs against England at home and the two games remaining from their suspended home series against the Netherlands, it is unlikely they will be able to automatically qualify for the showpiece event.

Interim head coach VVS Laxman feels that with India having incredible riches in the ODI squad, especially with youngsters like Shubman Gill shining with the bat, the selectors will have a tough time in selecting the squad once the main players come into the frame.

Marcus Stoinis, Richardson and Agar re-join the squad for the England Series and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup. Swepson and Ellis have been added to the squad for the opening game against England in Perth as selectors continue to prepare for the World Cup at home.

"To be honest, it (being upstaged by Kohli and Rohit in leading T20I run-getters list) doesn't really bother me too much. My primary focus is to contributing to wins for New Zealand. As long as I can do that, other things take care of themselves. As long as I am contributing to the team and able to score runs, I am happy with that," said Guptill to IANS, in an interaction organised by Amazon Prime Video.

India head coach Rahul Dravid had his say on the side departing early for Australia, explaining that being based in Perth will help the team adapt to the pace and bounce offered by the pitches in Australia, especially with nearly half of the side not having played a T20 game in the country before.

After the conclusion of the T20I series against South Africa, head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma have subtly hinted at the possibility of senior pacer Mohammed Shami being promoted from one of the four travelling reserves to the main T20 World Cup squad as Bumrah's replacement.

The 33-year-old has been at the forefront of England's Test resurgence under new skipper Ben Stokes, enjoying the best summer of his professional career so far and scoring four centuries across three straight Tests. The Bob Willis Trophy was originally conceived as First-class cricket silverware during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the award was discontinued after two years.

In what looks like a mixed bag for Indian sports, shooting, which has been India's highest medal-grosser in the last several editions of the CWG, will return to the fold after being removed from the 2022 Birmingham edition, while wrestling, in which India are the traditional powerhouse in CWG, has got a short shrift.