Sports

Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup preparations begin today

Published

3 years ago

2023/08/24

Wanindu Hasaranga will certainly miss the first leg of the Asia Cup and might even miss the entire tournament due to injury.

Sri Lanka begin their Asia Cup preparations today at Sinhalese Sports Club ground with the team expected to regroup following the Lanka Premier League that concluded on Sunday.

Several players whose LPL campaign had ended early had been training individually at the High Performance Center at RPS and today will be the first team training session. There will be an inter-squad warm-up game on Thursday before the team leaves for Kandy on Sunday to prepare ahead of their opening game against Bangladesh on the 31st of August.

Sri Lanka have a demanding schedule. After their opening game at Pallekele, they have to travel to Lahore to play Afghanistan and then return home to face the second round.

The team management is waiting to hear from the medical staff about the fitness of Dushmantha Chameera and Wanindu Hasaranga. Both players were injured during the LPL and missed the tail-end of the competition.

The Island reliably learns that the chances of both players being available for the start of the tournament is slim. The medical staff is unlikely to take any chances with the World Cup around the corner.

If the players are ruled out from the Asia Cup, Kasun Rajitha and Dushan Hemantha are expected to replace the injured duo.

The Asia Cup will be played in Pakistan and Sri Lanka with Lahore and Multan hosting the games in Pakistan while Pallekele and RPS hosting the remaining games.

India-Pakistan draw scheduled for 2nd September at Pallekele is the biggest game of the tournament. The two nuclear armed neighbours are likely to meet in the second round as well and possibly a third time in two weeks if they reach the 17th September finals.

India Pakistan and Nepal are pooled in one group while Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are in one group in the six-nation tournament.

Although ODIs in Sri Lanka generally start at 2:30 pm, the Asia Cup timing has been delayed by half an hour with 3pm starts.

This is Pakistan’s turn of hosting the Asia Cup, but Sri Lanka are hosting bulk of the games with India not willing to travel to Pakistan due to security concerns.

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England elect to field first at Wankhede

Published

4 hours ago

2026/03/5

Priyan

England won the toss and chose to field first in the 2nd semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

India XI: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah

England XI: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (capt), Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid.

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Daren Sammy issues plea as West Indies remain stuck in Kolkata hotel

Published

6 hours ago

2026/03/5

Priyan

The Dubai airport, among other airports in the Gulf region, were affected by the crisis in West Asia [Cricinfo]

As West Indies continue to remain stuck in Kolkata four days after being eliminated from the 2026 T20 World Cup, their head coach Daren Sammy has put out a post on X, saying “I just wanna go home”.

He followed it up with another post a little later, saying, “At least an update, tell us something. Today, tmw, next week. It’s been five days.”

West Indies are one of the teams stranded in India in the wake of the crisis in West Asia. ESPNcricinfo has learned that initially, the ICC had informed West Indies that attempts were being made for the squad to return home to the Caribbean via a charter flight to London. The plan, it is believed, was for West Indies to fly out of India mid-week, though no specific date was given. However, West Indies continue to remain in Kolkata where they lost to India in the final match of the Super Eight on March 1.

With the usual airspace corridors closed owing to the crisis, which began last weekend, the ICC has been confronted with a severe logistical challenge of arranging return flights for teams.

On Wednesday, though, there was good news for Zimbabwe, with the first batch of their squad members leaving for home from Delhi after the ICC reworked their travel arrangements.

Like West Indies, Zimbabwe played their last match at the T20 World Cup on March 1, losing to South Africa in Delhi. Zimbabwe were originally scheduled to depart on March 2, but that plan was cancelled.

There is no official word on the travel plans for the rest of their squad members.

“Zimbabwe Cricket confirms that the Zimbabwe senior men’s team participating in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 are on their way home from India after the International Cricket Council secured alternative travel arrangements following recent transit disruptions,” Zimbabwe Cricket said in a statement on Wednesday. “Due to flight availability and revised routing, the squad will return to Harare in batches.

“Zimbabwe’s original travel route was via Dubai on an Emirates flight but it had to be altered. It has been learnt that Zimbabwe are now travelling to Harare via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.”

South Africa were eliminated in the semi-final by New Zealand on Wednesday night, and will now wait to know their schedule for getting back home. In case England lose to India in the second semi-final on Thursday, their travel plans back will also have to be worked out.

[Cricinfo]

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India’s momentum meets Wankhede’s memory in big semifinal bout

Published

8 hours ago

2026/03/5

Priyan

India have a bunch of players who call the Wankhede Stadium 'home' during domestic cricket or the IPL [Cricbuzz]

A World Cup semifinal at the Wankhede Stadium has, historically, not been kind on India, the 2023 game against New Zealand aside. They’ve lost two of their three ICC knockout games at this venue, one of them to England in 1987, the very opponents awaiting them tonight. If there is any equilibrium to be found, it lies in the present: Harry Brook’s England have appeared just as fragile in this tournament as Suryakumar Yadav’s India, making this less a clash of invincibles and more a test of which side can steady itself under the heaviest lights.

India have leaned heavily on individual brilliance rather than collective cohesion to reach the last-four stage. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav (vs USA), Ishan Kishan (vs Namibia and Pakistan), Shivam Dube (vs Netherlands and South Africa), the Abhishek Sharma-Hardik Pandya combine (vs Zimbabwe), and most recently Sanju Samson (vs West Indies) have each stepped in to rescue the side at different moments. As a unit, however, India have not quite lived up to their ‘favourites’ tag.

India’s struggles have largely been down to some key players blowing hot and cold – Abhishek Sharma with the bat and Varun Chakaravarthy with the ball. Even skipper Suryakumar, barring the opening game, has not delivered in the manner expected of him. More gallingly, fielding – particularly catching – has been awful.

Jasprit Bumrah’s mastery has often come to India’s aid when the situations were seemingly slipping away. At times, Arshdeep Singh with his wide yorkers and Hardik Pandya with his slower bouncers have delivered in crunch moments, but their effectiveness with the ball has been rather sporadic. India will be hoping for a more collective output – shared heroics rather than individual brilliance – to administer the coup de grace against England and book the March 8 date at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

“That is something we haven’t really spoken about, about the perfect game. I think the quality of this team has been shown that, on the day somebody can put their hand up and put up a performance. And then hopefully now in the last two games, especially now tomorrow night, we can put that special performance in,” Morne Morkel, India bowling coach, said on the eve of the match.

“Unfortunately we all know how the game goes, that success is never guaranteed. But if we can give ourselves the best chance to go out and perform. That is what we strive for. And a big occasion tomorrow night here, semifinal, a great stadium to play a great game of cricket. So hopefully the boys can rock up tomorrow and just be calm and execute those skills.”

Thursday’s face-off may be India’s first designated knockout match for them, but they have already overcome two knockouts situations – against Zimbabwe and West Indies in the Super Eights. On both occasions, they raised the bar, momentum they’ll hope to carry into this high-stakes contest.

Another advantage for the hosts is their familiarity with the Wankhede Stadium, which serves as a home ground for several Indian players, starting with Suryakumar himself. Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Shivam Dube and Ishan Kishan have all represented Mumbai, Mumbai Indians, or both here.

If India have struggled into semifinals, England have been no showstoppers, although Harry Brook oozed extreme confidence on the eve of the contest. “We don’t feel like we’re ever out of a game so far. All it takes is one of the top seven to get a decent score or one of our five or six bowlers to have an amazing day out there. And all of a sudden you’re walking away with a victory and that’s what we’ve done so well so far,” the England skipper said.

England needed an extraordinary century from the skipper himself to get over the line against Pakistan and were on the ropes against New Zealand before being bailed out by a superb cameo from Rehan Ahmed. They won a low-scoring thriller against Sri Lanka and were nearly upset by Nepal before West Indies humbled them here in Mumbai, incidentally on the same pitch that will be used today.

The pitch carries a tinge of grass, but Morne Morkel anticipates a high-scoring contest. It was against this very opposition, at this very venue, that Abhishek Sharma blazed a stunning century a year ago. India will hope for a similar explosion from their opener, although this World Cup has already reinforced a familiar truth – ICC tournament games are a different beast altogether from bilateral contests.

Having comfortably beaten West Indies in their last outing, India are unlikely to tinker with their XI, despite murmurs advocating for Rinku Singh to replace Abhishek Sharma

England drafted in an extra spinner in Rehan Ahmed last time and he repaid the call with a decisive all-round performance against New Zealand last Friday. But that was at the R Premadasa Stadium, a surface that offered significant grip and turn. Conditions this time are unlikely to demand a second leg spinner, especially against a batting line-up stacked with left-handers.

England already possess three contrasting spin options – a leg spinner in Adil Rashid, a left-arm orthodox bowler in Liam Dawson, and an offspinner in Will Jacks, the latter particularly handy against an out-of-form Abhishek Sharma at the top and as a tactical match-up option through the line-up. All of which is set to open the door for the return of Jamie Overton.

India Probable XI: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy

England Probable XI:Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid

[Cricbuzz]