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Big Picture

This has been a long time coming. It was 2006 when these two sides last met in a Test match. The one-day series has whetted the appetite for what could come on the Gold Coast, particularly with the added element of the day-night pink-ball factor – just the second such Test in the women’s game.It is India’s second Test of the year after their encounter against England in Bristol where they fought hard on the final day to secure a draw. Australia have not played since the 2019 Ashes – England have been their only opposition since that Adelaide Test 15 years ago. Preparation has been a challenge for both teams, although the Australian players have at least been able to practice with pink balls in pre-season. For many, though, it will be learning on the fly – even the home side will only have four players who appeared in the 2017 Test at North Sydney Oval.The multi-format series stands at 4-2 after India’s streak-ending victory on Sunday. There are four points available for the Test, so should Australia win, they will take an unbeatable lead ahead of the T20I series. Matthew Mott, Australia’s head coach, has said that his side will play “one-day cricket for four days”.The previous day-night was a high-scoring draw on a docile surface. There is the hope that this encounter will be a more even contest with the start of Australia’s chase in the second ODI, albeit with a white ball, where it nipped around considerably for Jhulan Goswami and Meghna Singh a hopeful indicator. Ellyse Perry and Tahlia McGrath also swung the ball during the one-day series, although they struggled for control at times.Related

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• Ash Gardner ready to attack in first home Test

• Yastika's promise, Perry's problems: what we learnt from the Australia-India ODIs

• Haynes ruled out of pink-ball Test and T20Is with a hamstring injury

• Perry set to keep new ball for Test match despite ODI struggles

Both teams should bat deep with a strong group of allrounders to select from. In the final ODI, Australia had Sophie Molineux at No. 10 and something similar could happen in this match, although the loss of Rachael Haynes with injury is significant. Against England, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana added 167 in the first innings (with Verma making 96 and 63 on her Test debut) but the experienced duo of Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur produced a combined tally of just 18 runs.It remains to be seen when India will next play Test cricket after this series, but for Australia, they have the Ashes in January. However, the four days of play out there shouldn’t be 15 years until the two teams meet again. “Hopefully, it’s the first of many and not just a one-off and we can go and play a Test over in India in the next few years, think that would be a really cool thing to do,” Meg Lanning said.

In the spotlight

Ellyse Perry‘s Test record is astonishing: a batting average of 78.00 and bowling return of 18.19. Her last three Test innings have been 213*, 116 and 76*. However, the last 12 months have not been easy for her, especially with the ball, after the injury at the T20 World Cup in 2020. Last season’s tentative return could largely be put down to the recovery but, while a lack of match practice and 14 days hard quarantine made the build-up to this series difficult, her ODI returns were very unconvincing. With the strength of pace bowling coming through the Australia game, it could be that her batting becomes the central role, although never rule out a champion.Jhulan Goswami is one of two survivors from the 2006 Adelaide Test along with Raj. With the ODI World Cup next year a likely end point for her outstanding career, this is shaping as a 12th and final Test match. She bowled superbly in the ODI series, particularly the final two matches (barring that final over with a wet ball), with her seam and swing troubling Australia’s top order. The ball to remove Alyssa Healy was a classic.Meg Lanning did not play the previous day-night Test in 2017•Getty Images

Team news

Haynes being ruled out of the series with a hamstring injury means Beth Mooney will open the batting, something she did on her Test debut in 2017. If Australia want a specialist batter to replace Haynes, they have Georgia Redmayne in the squad, but the more likely route would appear to be another allrounder. Annabel Sutherland impressed in the last ODI. At least one of Darcie Brown and Stella Campbell is expected to debut while both could play.Australia (possible): 1 Alyssa Healy (wk), 2 Beth Mooney, 3 Meg Lanning (capt), 4 Ellyse Perry, 5 Tahlia McGrath, 6 Ash Gardner, 7 Annabel Sutherland, 8 Sophie Molineux, 9 Georgia Wareham, 10 Darcie Brown, 11 Stella CampbellHarmanpreet has been ruled out having not recovered from her thumb injury. That could be a spot for Punam Raut, who played against England, or Yastika Bhatia after an impressive ODI series. India also need to decide on the balance of their side from one of Pooja Vastrakar or Shikha Pandey for a seam-bowling allrounder option, though Vastrakar has fared far better than Pandey with the bat this year. Taniya Bhatia is expected to regain the gloves from Richa Ghosh.India (possible): 1 Shafali Verma, 2 Smriti Mandhana, 3 Mithali Raj (capt), 4 Punam Raut/Yastika Bhatia, 5 Deepti Sharma, 6 Sneh Rana, 7 Taniya Bhatia (wk), 8 Pooja Vastrakar/Shikha Pandey, 9 Jhulan Goswami, 10 Meghna Singh, 11 Rajeshwari Gayakwad

Pitch and conditions

Two days out there was a healthy covering of grass on the drop-in wicket although it was likely to have had a cut before the game. The weather forecast could be a problem with showers and storms forecast for the first two days.

Quotes

“There’s some weather around but we are focusing on what we can control. Sounds like there’s a decent storm coming but we’ll just play with what we’ve got and hopefully, we don’t lose too much time.”
Meg Lanning“It will be my first experience with the pink ball. I’m quite curious to see around that [night] period and they say it will be a little difficult.”
Mithali Raj

James Anderson has admitted he had to be talked out of retirement by his wife after a series of injury setbacks.Anderson managed just four overs in the 2019 Ashes after a recurrence of a calf injury ruled him out in the opening moments of the first Test. In the aftermath, he concedes he was struggling with the prospect of more rehabilitation work and it required the intervention of his wife, Daniella, to persuade him to continue.He has claimed 42 more Test wickets at a cost of 23.00 since then, becoming the only seamer in Test history to reach the milestone of 600 wickets.”A big reason I am still playing cricket is my wife,” Anderson said ahead of the first LV= Insurance Test against India at Trent Bridge. “She’s been really supportive.Related

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“When I pulled my calf in the first Ashes Test, it was the second or third time I had pulled my calf and I was really considering whether I wanted to go through the rehab again. She basically took us away on holiday and told me to stop being silly. She told me to carry on.”Of course there have been difficult moments. I think everyone goes through it playing professional sport, whether you are out of form, have a loss of confidence or if it’s injuries. There are all sorts of things you have to deal with. For me it’s about having a good support network: friends and family that you can rely on and lean on.”My wife has been really supportive. She wants me to keep playing; she encourages me to keep playing. She’s quite happy for me not to be around the house I think.”Despite his age – he celebrated his 39th birthday a few days ago – Anderson dismissed any suggestion that the next 10 Tests (five against India and five against Australia) could prove the finale of his career.”Absolutely not,” he said. “I feel like I’m bowling as well as ever. I feel great physically. I’m just looking forward to this series against India.”We’ll look at everything else once we’re past this. That’s something I’ve done really well throughout my career. But right now I’m bowling as well as I ever have and I’m really looking forward to this series.”James Anderson in action during England nets•Getty Images

Anderson has an excellent record at Trent Bridge. In 10 Tests at the ground, he has claimed 64 wickets at an average of 19.62 apiece with seven five-wicket hauls. He also made his highest score – 81 – here against India in 2014. While that Test may be best remembered for rumours of an altercation between Anderson and Ravi Jadeja as the players made their way to the dressing rooms after a session, it remains a ground upon which he has happy memories.”I do like playing here,” Anderson said. “I feel at home here. It is such a friendly place to play. The stewards and staff are incredibly friendly. It’s just somewhere I feel really comfortable.”In years gone by, swing has played a big part here. It’s a ground where you look up [at the atmospheric conditions] not down at the pitch. If there’s cloud cover or if it’s humid, it’s generally a good place to bowl. If there’s a bit of grass on the wicket it will carry to the keeper and slips.”While conceding the India battling line-up is “riddled with talent”, Anderson insists he is relishing the prospect of testing himself against them and Virat Kohli, in particular.”I’m definitely excited to play against him again,” Anderson said. “You always want to challenge yourself against the best in the world and he’s certainly that. We know how big a player he is for them both as a batsman and as captain, he has a huge influence on that team. So we know he’s a big wicket and to be honest I don’t care if I get him out. As long as somebody gets him out that’s the main thing. He’s an important wicket.”But I think challenging yourself against the best in the world is really exciting and their top six is riddled with talent. It’s going to be a big challenge for us seam bowlers.”

A career-best night with both bat and ball from Mitchell Marsh ensured Australia got off the mark in the series as Mitchell Starc stymied Andre Russell at the death to clinch a four-run victory over West Indies.After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Marsh propelled Australia to 189 for 6 with 75 off 44 balls, his third half-century in four innings this series. Defending the total, Marsh followed it up with 3 for 24 including a prized trio of scalps – Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons and stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran – to stunt momentum in the West Indies chase.Needing 11 off the final over and with Russell on strike, after Riley Meredith had been taken for four sixes by Fabian Allen in the 19th, Starc came around the stumps and bowled four leg stump yorkers that Russell could not get under to elevate and – with only the tail left in at the non-striker’s end – resulted in turned down singles on each occasion. On the fifth ball, Russell flubbed a knee-high full toss well short of the rope at deep midwicket before a boundary on the final ball made a cosmetic adjustment to the final margin. It also meant Pooran’s perfect record as captain to start the series was no more.Marsh continues hot batting formOne of the few bright lights in this series for the visitors, Marsh has continued to impress in his audition for the No. 3 role ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year. Entering in the second over after the fall of Matthew Wade, Marsh lit up the scoreboard with a Vine-esque loop of inside out lofted drives over extra cover.He brought up his third half-century of the series off just 24 balls with another such shot for six off Allen in the ninth over. Having dominated the early stages of his century partnership with Aaron Finch, who had been missed on 2 when an edge went between keeper and slip, rain disrupted Marsh’s momentum when the players were taken off the field shortly after Marsh’s half-century at the end of the ninth over. When play resumed, Finch seized control of the stand to clatter five boundaries in the space of nine balls across the 10th and 11th overs to bring up his own 34-ball half-century, ending a run of bad form in the first three matches of the series.

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Hayden Walsh Jr sparks fightback with the ballBy the time the innings finished, the Hayden Walsh Jr’s series-leading wicket tally stood at 11 after adding another three to bring them back into the game. He dismissed Finch with a googly to break the Marsh partnership at 114 after the Australia captain missed a heave across the line. Walsh Jr put himself on a hat-trick when he took a straightforward return catch next ball after Alex Carey played through too early on a leg stump half-volley to produce a leading edge back to the bowler.He rounded off his haul a few overs later with perhaps his best work of the night. Finding some turn with the legbreak, Ashton Turner overstretched prodding forward and Pooran made up for a sloppy fumble on a straightforward stumping two nights earlier to complete a sharp dismissal on this occasion.Marsh’s bowling best thwarts West Indies victory chargeSimmons got the chase off to a fiery reply alongside Evin Lewis as the pair added 62 off the first 28 balls. Simmons got momentum moving in the second over off Meredith with a six and two fours through the leg side before Lewis had yet to face a ball. Lewis joined the party in the fourth over against Dan Christian by thumping two fours followed by two sixes over mid-on and backward square.After Lewis fell to an ambitious shot backing away to Adam Zampa in the fifth, Simmons continued his supreme touch, shuffling across his stumps to flick a pair of boundaries over fine leg off the medium pace of Meredith in the seventh over. A single to start the eighth brought up a 28-ball half-century before Marsh struck for the first time, inducing a catch from Gayle to long-on.Simmons was still humming but Andre Fletcher and Pooran stuttered after arriving in the middle overs. After Zampa bowled Fletcher in the 11th, Marsh returned for a double-strike in a magnificent 16th over in which he conceded just one run. He removed Pooran for 16, caught skying to long-off, before Simmons pulled the next ball flat to Moises Henriques for a sterling catch sliding along the rope at deep midwicket for 72.Marsh’s work with bat and ball on the night looked like it might go to waste at the end of the 19th when Allen smoked four sixes off the penultimate over bowled by Meredith. But Meredith struck back on the final ball getting Allen to edge a wide delivery behind leaving 11 for Russell to get off Starc in the last. In the end, vintage yorker accuracy from Starc allowed the visitors to prevail.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:04

Hogg: Game lost for KKR with Yusuf’s reckless dismissal

Mumbai Indians ended the league stage of the IPL with a table-topping 20 points after they beat Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs at the Eden Gardens. The defeat meant Knight Riders, with 16 points, would not finish in the top two. Sunrisers Hyderabad, who had beaten Gujarat Lions in Saturday’s afternoon game, had ended the league stage on 17.Having made as many as six changes to their line-up in an effort to test their bench strength ahead of the playoffs, Mumbai posted 173 on the back of half-centuries from Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu. Knight Riders were in control of the required rate from the start, but kept losing wickets far too frequently.As many as five Knight Riders batsmen got to 20, and yet their top-scorer only made 33. This proved decisive, in the end, as they fell short of their target by 10 runs. It was Knight Riders’ first home defeat while chasing since 2013.Rayudu fires to lift sluggish MumbaiLendl Simmons came into this game with an ordinary T20 record against left-arm pace – 503 runs off 492 balls, 20 dismissals – and he duly fell to a left-arm quick, flat-batting Trent Boult to mid-off in the third over of Mumbai’s innings. Rohit Sharma, pulling and slog-sweeping crisply, then scored 27 off 20 before Ankit Rajpoot had him lbw with an offcutter. That left Mumbai at a healthy 69 for 2 in 8.2 overs.From there, though, they slowed down. Tiwary and Rayudu were Mumbai’s most productive pair in the 2010 season, and now, seven years on, they added 61 in 7.4 overs. Tiwary struggled to find the boundary once the Powerplay restrictions disappeared, scoring only 18 off 21 from the start of the seventh over before muscling Sunil Narine for successive fours in the 15th over to bring up his half-century. A comical mix-up – he stood unmoved at the non-striker’s end when Rayudu called for a fairly regulation single – ended his innings at 52 off 43 – it was the second-slowest 50-plus score of the season.The four other fifties in that top five (Mandeep Singh, Virat Kohli, Chris Morris and Manoj Tiwary) had all ended up in losing causes.Rayudu, though, ensured Mumbai would post a challenging if not entirely massive total. He began fairly sedately, hitting only one boundary in his first 20 runs, but upped the pace by peppering the leg-side boundaries, the highlight of his innings a pick-up shot over the deep backward square-leg boundary off Boult to bring up his half-century. Despite Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya only scoring 14 off 14 between them, Rayudu’s 63 off 37 ensured Knight Riders wouldn’t run away with the game.Slog on, regardlessGiven that a team has ten wickets to exhaust over 20 overs, the “ideal” T20 innings would consist of batsmen going for big hits right through, with no pause for the rebuilding phases characteristic of 50-over cricket. That approach, however, requires a side that bats deep, with power hitters all the way down to Nos. 9, 10 and even 11.Here, Knight Riders – in a chase of 174, where such an approach may not have been strictly necessary – seemed to be aiming for the platonic ideal of a T20 innings without having the line-up for it. Given that Chris Woakes was ruled out with an ankle injury, and that his replacement Boult is a classic No. 11, Knight Riders’ serious batting only extended up to Colin de Grandhomme at No. 7.Still, they kept going hard; they kept finding the boundaries, but they also kept losing wickets. By the end of the ninth over, they had hit seven fours and six sixes and lost five wickets. Chris Lynn, Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan fell in the 20s, and it felt as if one of them could have attempted to anchor Knight Riders and give them some stability to go with their scoring rate. Instead, all three were out going for big shots.When Yusuf holed out against Vinay Kumar, Knight Riders needed 87 from 66 balls; a perfectly straightforward ask, but they already had their last recognised pair at the crease.Pandey, de Grandhomme steady chaseManish Pandey and de Grandhomme gave Knight Riders the partnership they needed, putting on 41 in 31 balls. De Grandhomme maintained Knight Riders’ momentum, employing deftness rather than brawn to pick up his boundaries. He used Vinay Kumar’s pace to steer him either side of short third man for three fours in the 11th over, before clubbing Hardik Pandya over the midwicket boundary in more characteristic fashion.Umpire S Ravi missed an inside-edge from Pandey to wicketkeeper Rayudu in the 14th over, but Mumbai didn’t have to wait too much longer for a breakthrough, Hardik nipping one back off the seam to bowl de Grandhomme at the start of the 15th. At that point, Knight Riders needed 46 from 35.Knight Riders run out of batsmenPandey’s run of luck continued – substitute fielder J Suchith put him down at deep midwicket when he pulled Tim Southee uppishly in the 17th over. The rest of that over continued to frustrate Mumbai. Kuldeep Yadav guided the next ball past short third man for four, and then escaped being run out while taking a non-existent single when Karn Sharma missed the stumps at the bowler’s end. Then Southee was no-balled for bowling with only three fielders inside the circle. At the end of that over, Knight Riders only needed 25 off 18.But they still only had one real batsman left, Pandey, and he pulled Hardik straight to deep midwicket off the first ball of the 18th over. Having now lost seven wickets, Knight Riders simply had no batsmen left with the skill to score 25 off 17 balls, particularly when umpire A Nanda Kishore gave Kuldeep caught-behind in the penultimate over when the ball missed his outside edge.

Match facts

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders
Hyderabad, April 30, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)3:08

Hogg: No 3 the perfect slot for Uthappa

Head to head

This season: Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 3 for 20, Yuvraj Singh struck two sixes in his innings with a strike rate of 162.50 but Sunrisers Hyderabad only managed 155 in pursuit of their 173-run target.Overall: Kolkata Knight Riders hold a dominant 7-3 lead over Sunrisers

Form guide

• Sunrisers Hyderabad (third): beat Kings XI Punjab by 26 runs, lost to Rising Pune Supergiant by six wickets, beat Delhi Daredevils by 15 runs.

• Kolkata Knight Riders (first): beat Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets, beat Rising Pune Supergiant by seven wickets, beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 82 runs.

The likely XIs

Sunrisers Hyderabad 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Moises Henriques, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Deepak Hooda, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Siddarth KaulKolkata Knight Riders 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Umesh Yadav

Strategy punt

Sunil Narine could very well open the batting. No surprises there. Maybe Knight Riders should also consider opening the bowling with him, against two left-handed Sunrisers openers. While David Warner has scored a decent 67 runs off 50 balls against Narine, Shikhar Dhawan has only managed 31 runs off 30 balls. When Narine bowled one over to them in the Powerplay earlier in the season, he conceded seven runs, including three singles and two dots in the over.

Stats that matter

• Sunrisers are the only side yet to lose a home game this season, while Knight Riders are the only team to win three away games so far
• Robin Uthappa is the most prolific batsman in the middle overs (seven to 15) this season. He has amassed 225 runs off 124 balls at a commanding strike rate of 181
• This could also be Uthappa’s best IPL season if he keeps scoring the way he has been. His average this IPL – 41.37 – is his second-best, behind 44 in IPL 2014. His strike rate of 168 in 2017 is second best after 171.55 in IPL 2010 and he has smashed 17 sixes already. In the last two seasons combined, he had struck only 15 sixes in 28 innings.
• Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sunrisers’ top wicket-taker and most economical bowler (minimum five overs) this season, has never dismissed Gautam Gambhir or Uthappa in the IPL. Gambhir has scored 72 runs off 63 balls against Bhuvneshwar, and Uthappa has collected 63 runs off 51 balls.
• Among the current Knight Riders bowlers, Umesh Yadav has been most successful against Warner. The fast bowler has dismissed him three times while conceding 30 runs off 23 balls. No bowler has dismissed Warner more than three times in the IPL.

New Zealand legspinner Ish Sodhi was unwanted at the IPL, and often by his country, but has joined Nottinghamshire for the NatWest T20 Blast.Sodhi, 24, comes with the recommendation of Andre Adams, the former Nottinghamshire and New Zealand seamer, and will be available for the duration of the tournament.During a brief spell with Adelaide Strikers at the BBL he claimed the remarkable figures of 6 for 11, the sixth best in T20 history, against Sydney Thunder but that was not enough to attract interest from an IPL franchise at the recent auction. Overall in T20 he has 60 wickets at 21.96 and an economy rate of 7.14. He was impressive at the 2016 World T20 where he claimed 10 wickets in five matches with an economy of 6.10.”Ish is a young player whose game has really moved forward,” Peter Moores, Nottinghamshire’s head coach, said. “He’s growing fast and we’re really excited to have him. We’ve seen the impact legspinners can have in T20 cricket. With the way batsmen strike the ball, you need bowlers that can take wickets throughout the innings.”Ish is a natural attacking leg-spinner who can create pressure and get us some crucial breakthroughs in the middle overs.”Sodhi has been in and out of the New Zealand side during their current season following his omission after the tour of India. He played two T20s against Bangladesh, where he claimed five wickets, and the first two ODIs against South Africa before being overlooked for Jeetan Patel in the last two matches of the series.Unless New Zealand take three specialist spinners to the Champions Trophy he could miss out on a place in the final 15.

Match facts

March 3, 2017
Start time 0930 local (1330 GMT)

Big Picture

After the rigours of a winter in the subcontinent – and with little to show for their efforts following gruelling losses in all three formats against India – a spring sojourn in the Caribbean, three ODIs in the course of a fortnight on tour, has the distinct flavour of a rest cure. Nothing, however, is quite that straightforward for one-day cricket at the moment, as West Indies’ absence from this year’s grand jamboree amply testifies.Could it be that West Indies’ failure to qualify for this summer’s Champions Trophy is the wake-up call that cricket in the Caribbean has long needed? This time last year, of course, they were beating England in thrilling fashion in the final of the World T20, but that emotional triumph was achieved, quite literally, in spite of the WICB, which remains defiantly at loggerheads with so many of its star players, as epitomised by its failure to select the man of that match, Marlon Samuels, for these three games.But at the same time, the cosy assurances that West Indies cricket would forever be invited to the sport’s biggest gatherings has been shattered, and already their new coach, Australia’s Stuart Law, has admitted that qualification for the 2019 World Cup is the team’s over-riding priority.They are currently ranked at No. 9 in the world, one place outside the automatic slots, and it’s fair to say that West Indies’ record against England in the coming six months will make or break their ambitions. They have these three games, plus five more in the summer, ahead of September’s qualification cut-off, and there’s no time like the present to get their late push up and running.And what of England, the renaissance team of world white-ball cricket? Their stunning coming of age since the 2015 World Cup has been dissected ad nauseam but, two years down the line, Eoin Morgan’s men can no longer get away with surprising people with their potential. In particular, despite their fighting efforts in a historically heavy-scoring ODI series in India, their ambitions faltered because of the shortcomings of their bowling attack. These three matches – plus five more against Ireland and South Africa in May – will be critical to their fine-tuning process.They go into the series with a glut of absentees. David Willey, Mark Wood, Jake Ball and Reece Topley are among the seamers who might have been expected to press their claims in these three games, but injury has struck them all down and instead the stage is set for the likes of Liam Plunkett, Steven Finn and Tom Curran – newly inducted into the squad after a hefty journey from the heart of Sri Lanka.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
West Indies: LLTWL
England: WLLWL

In the spotlight

Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight, out in the middle of a cricket field. That is rather how Ben Stokes feels, after admitting his discomfort at talking about his status as England’s most newly-minted cricketer. And yet, even without the small matter of USD 2.16 million in his back pocket, following his stunning acquisition by Rising Pune Supergiant in the IPL, Stokes was destined to be the talk of Antigua, given what happened to the last four balls he sent down against West Indies, in the World T20 final in Kolkata. And, even if that experience had all been a bad dream, we’d still have Stokes’ last visit to the Caribbean to look back on, and that broken hand courtesy of a punched locker in Barbados. In an otherwise low-key series, his presence alone adds an element of vital intrigue.It takes two to tango, however, and in the maroon corner, Carlos Brathwaite is revving up to resume his heavy bombardment against an England bowling line-up that – for all their strides as a team – has been under the cosh in recent contests. At least, that’s how the narrative is meant to pan out. Unfortunately for Brathwaite, life hasn’t been quite that simple since Kolkata. Expectations, both personally and from West Indies’ fans, have been through the roof in the past 12 months, much like those four sixes had been. “Unfortunately, it went downhill quickly,” he told the Daily Mail. “Because of what happened that night, people expected things and I guess, for a brief period, I expected them as well. It became a negative.” He has the chance, over the course of these four matches, to reset his ambitions, and those of his team.

Team news

Kieran Powell, back in West Indies’ one-day squad for the first time in three years, could pick up where he left off by facing England in an ODI at Antigua, just as he did on his last appearance in March 2014. If selected, he is likely to open the batting with Evin Lewis, who cemented his claim to a top-order berth with 148 in a thrilling run-chase against Sri Lanka in November.West Indies (probable) 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Kraigg Brathwaite, 4 Shai Hope (wk), 5 Jonathan Carter, 6 Carlos Brathwaite, 7 Rovman Powell, 8 Jason Holder (capt), 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Ashley Nurse, 11 Shannon GabrielThough Ball remains with the England squad, he didn’t look comfortable during training and is unlikely to be risked following his knee injury. Alex Hales is likely to sit out as well as he fine-tunes his recovery from a broken hand, while Tom Curran is still in transit and won’t be in the frame until the second match at the earliest. Therefore, Sam Billings is expected to open with Jason Roy, with Jonny Bairstow squeezed out of a strong middle order. Plunkett and Finn could both feature, along with both the front-line spinners, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.England (probable) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Sam Billings, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 Steven Finn.

Pitch and conditions

In a development that would make Antigua’s local heroes Curtly Ambrose and Andy Roberts weep, Caribbean wickets tend to be pretty slow and low these days. Nevertheless, England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, admitted he had been surprised by the amount of grass still in evidence on this surface. With a 9.30am start in the offing, there may be some early assistance for his seamers if he manages to call correctly and bowl first.

Stats and trivia

• Stokes’ locker punch in 2014 was not the wisest shot he has ever played, but dare one say it, his frustrations were justified. In his last three ODIs in the Caribbean (all in Antigua, in fact) he made a grand total of nine runs in three innings, and took no wickets in six overs.
• Brathwaite’s struggles to live up to his Kolkata heroics have been telling. A grand total of 248 runs at 16.53 in 18 subsequent innings, with his solitary half-century coming in his one-off Test appearance against India in Antigua. Having struck four sixes in as many balls in Kolkata, he’s managed 11 more in 301.
• It is technically an away fixture for England although, in keeping with recent Test tours of the Caribbean, the visiting support is likely to be vast. Of a ground capacity of 13,000, some 7,000-8,000 tickets have been sold to England supporters.

Quotes

“I know the media will bill the series as Carlos Brathwaite v Ben Stokes, but it’s West Indies v England.”
“We do have one eye on the Champions Trophy, getting a reasonable squad together before then and one idea of nailing down our team.”

Former left-arm spinners Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar will receive the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award this season. Starting this year, the BCCI has also decided to institute the Lifetime Achievement Award for Women with India’s first Test captain Shanta Rangaswamy being the inaugural recipient of the honour. The trio would each get a cash prize of INR 25 lakhs too.

The unheralded four

Goel and Shivalkar are two of only four non-Test players, the others being wicketkeeper Bhausaheb Nimbalkar and journalist KN Prabhu, to receive the BCCI’s lifetime achievement award. Here is the full list
1994 – Lala Amarnath
1995 – Mushtaq Ali
1996 – Vijay Hazare
1997 – KN Prabhu
1998 – Polly Umrigar
1999 – Hemu Adhikari
2000 – Subhash Gupte
2001 – MAK Pataudi
2002 – Bhausaheb Nimbalkar
2003 – Chandu Borde
2004 – Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, S Venkatraghavan, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar
2007 – Nari Contractor
2008 – Gundappa Viswanath
2009 – Mohinder Amarnath
2010 – Salim Durani
2011 – Ajit Wadekar
2012 – Sunil Gavaskar
2013 – Kapil Dev
2014 – Dilip Vengsarkar
2015 – Syed Kirmani

The winners were chosen by a three-person jury comprising the pair of Ramachandra Guha and Diana Edulji (both of them sit on the Supreme Court-appointed committee of administrators that presently supervises the BCCI) along with senior journalist N Ram. Former India and Tamil Nadu legspinner VV Kumar and the late Ramakant Desai, former India and Bombay fast bowler, will have been named as recipients of a Special Award for their yeoman services to Indian cricket. This award also carries a cash prize of INR 15 lakhs each.Both Goel, who played for Haryana and Delhi, and Shivalkar, who represented Bombay, never played for India. Still, their legend is well-known in Indian cricket history. In the mid-1960s, when Bishan Singh Bedi was making his mark, the question that was asked was, “is he as good as Goel?” Ironically, one reason Goel never played for India was because Bedi had cemented his position in the Indian team. The closest Goel came to play for India was in the unofficial Test against Ceylon in 1964-65.In 1985, Goel retired aged 43. He had 637 wickets in the Ranji Trophy, a record that stands to date, going past VV Kumar’s tally. He had an incredible 53 five-fors and 17 ten-wicket match hauls. Overall, Goel played 157 matches and got 750 wickets.Another young man who was denied an India berth as his career clashed with that of Bedi was Shivalkar. A product of the famous Shivaji Park Gymkhana, Shivalkar’s accuracy to land the ball repeatedly on the same spot and then spin it viciously made him unique. He made his Ranji debut at 22 and retired when he was 48. During that time, Shivalkar finished with an aggregate of 589 first-class wickets at an average of 19.69 in 124 matches, between the 1961-62 and 1987-88 seasons. Shivalkar’s 361 Ranji wickets came for Bombay, most by any bowler. He had 11 ten-wicket hauls (joint-second).Rubbing shoulders with the greats: Rajinder Goel (left) with MAK Pataudi•Rajinder Goel

While recognizing their efforts, the awards committee praised Goel and Shivalkar saying: “The two left-arm spinners traumatized the batsmen picking wickets in a heap.”Rangaswamy, who is 63, played 16 Tests for India out of which she led in 12 matches. In her own words, Rangaswamy was a batting allrounder. She shared the new ball and was a hard-hitting, middle-order batsman. There were many other notable firsts attached to her name: she scored the first Test century, hit the first six and led India to their first series victory (against West Indies in 1976). Rangaswamy, who was the chairman of the selectors till 2016, had also won the Arjuna Award in 1976.Rangaswamy was thrilled to receive the BCCI honour, and felt it was a reward to the collective brilliance of the “pioneers” of Indian women’s cricket. “It is more a recognition of the services rendered to the game of Indian women’s cricket by the pioneers, those founding mothers if I can use the word. Because had we done badly in the initial stages the game would have just withered away. We did well. We could rub shoulders with international teams and that ensured the longevity of the game. And that I feel is the single-most significant contribution of all of us. With pride I can say – yes, we did it.”

Lasith Malinga will be unavailable for the forthcoming T20 and ODI series in South Africa after a bout of dengue forced a setback in his return from injury, Malinga’s management team has confirmed.A bone bruise in his left knee had forced Malinga to withdraw from the World T20 and the IPL last year, and though he had returned to training as early as September, he had been increasing his workload in careful increments in order to regain match fitness without aggravating the injury.His illness prior to Christmas had prompted him to slow the increase in intensity of his training, however, and Malinga will now only attempt to return in time for the three-match T20 series against Australia, scheduled to begin on February 17.Malinga has played only one international match since November 2015, with multiple leg injuries having caused him substantial problems since at least the middle of 2014.In his absence, Sri Lanka will have to pick their frontline seamers from a pace battery that includes Nuwan Kulasekara, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Lahiru Kumara, Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Gamage.The first of the three T20s is scheduled for January 20; the first of the five ODIs for January 28.

ScorecardFile photo – Rob Nicol nearly took his side to victory with an innings of 68•Getty Images

Wellington staved off a challenge from Auckland captain Rob Nicol to defend their total of 182 by two runs off the last ball of the Super Smash match in Auckland.Asked to bowl the last over, with Auckland needing 11 runs, Jeetan Patel dismissed Nicol for 68 off the second ball. The pair of SM Solia and Ben Horne brought the equation down to four off the last ball before Solia’s reverse sweep trickled down the ground to a fielder for two runs.Nicol, along with Hong Kong international Mark Chapman, had put Auckland back on track in the chase of 183 from a position of 52 for 3 in the eighth over. Both openers were dismissed in the first two overs for single figures while Jeet Raval scored 26 off 19 balls before falling to Patel. The fourth-wicket stand between Nicol and Chapman yielded 89 runs, after which Nicol and Solia shared a brisk partnership of 43 to bring Auckland closer. Nicol brought up his fifty with a flat six off 43 balls and his innings of 68 came off 52 deliveries, which included six fours.Earlier, fifties from wicketkeeper Tom Blundell and Michael Pollard held up Wellington’s innings. The pair scored a total of 135 runs in Wellington’s 182 even as only one other batsman got into double-figures. The fifth-wicket partnership between Blundell and Pollard – 116 off 61 deliveries – took Wellington past 150 after they had been struggling at 41 for 4 in the seventh over, with Nicol taking two of those wickets. Blundell scored 61 off 41 but Pollard was brutal, smacking eight sixes and two fours in a 36-ball 74.