Cricket now

Image :Debasis Sen Vaibhav Tripathi, Colombo At the end, when the practice game came to an end, a certain Gautam Gambhir was seen smiling and laughing with Sitanshu Kotak and Sairaj Bahutule. Even the players looked in a jovial mood after defeating SLC XI in the practice match at the NCC. The way India played gave the team management plenty to smile about, especially on the last day, with Shubman Gill coming out to bat after being on the sidelines for two days. All the chatter around the Indian captain’s fitness was swept away once he batted in the middle without any sort of discomfort. Devdutt Padikkal’s century, along with the all-round brilliance of Ravindra Jadeja and Manav Suthar, meant Team India took plenty of positives from the game. For India, more than individual performances, the main objective was to adapt to the conditions. Apart from Jadeja, KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav, no other player had come to Sri Lanka for a Test series. Adaptability was the main objective of the g...

  Kuldeep Yadav. Image :X Ravindra Jadeja’s mimicry of Kuldeep Yadav has gone viral on social media. Now, what needs to go viral over the next two weeks is Kuldeep’s performance. There has never been any doubt about Kuldeep’s talent. But his career has been a stop-start one. Has he been given the opportunities he deserves? Perhaps not. Yet he has stayed the course and persevered. That is the quality one should look for in a sportsperson, and it is a quality Kuldeep has displayed in abundance. The day before yesterday, I was in conversation with distinguished banker and corporate leader Shyam Srinivasan at the launch of his book at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Shyam was asked what one piece of advice he would give the students in attendance. Interestingly, he told them to simply show up. Not every day will be a good one, and not every day will bring success. In fact, there will be far more days of disappointment than triumph. Yet all you need to...

With the two-Test series against Sri Lanka around the corner, one question stands out for India: How important is it for Kuldeep Yadav to make himself India’s lead spinner? The question becomes even more relevant with Ravindra Jadeja back in the squad and younger options such as Manav Suthar and Saransh Jain around him. Kuldeep has the experience and the skill set, but now he needs to take ownership of the role. Kuldeep has also developed into a more rounded bowler over the years. He entered the Sri Lanka series with 79 Test wickets from 18 matches, while his recent Test numbers underline how effective he can be when given an extended role. He took 12 wickets in India’s two-Test series against the West Indies in October 2025. The Wrist-Spin Advantage: Why He Doesn’t Need the Pitch’s Help A wrist-spinner at his best doesn’t need much assistance from the pitch; he can create pressure and pick up wickets purely through skill, regardless of conditions. That’s wh...

  Image: Debasis Sen Debasis Sen, Colombo India Test captain Shubman Gill missed the second day of the three-day warm-up match against the Sri Lanka Cricket XI at the NCC Grounds in Colombo after being advised to rest by the team’s medical staff. Gill sustained an impact injury to his right ring finger during Thursday’s training session and was rested as a precaution. With India’s first Test against Sri Lanka beginning in Galle on August 15, the visiting team’s management is taking no chances with the captain’s fitness. Instead of batting, Gill spent time on the sidelines on Saturday, closely observing Gurnoor Brar and Manav Suthar during their net session. The India captain interacted with both players and shared technical inputs as they went through throwdowns, and faced Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar and Tanush Kotian. Brar, in particular, strengthened his case for a place in India’s playing XI with an impressive all-round performance in the warm-up game. The seamer retur...

  Images: Debasis Sen Unlike football, where the manager is the real boss of the team, cricket has been and always will be a sport where the captain is the ultimate authority. If there is ever a clash between the captain and the coach, as was the case between Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli a decade ago, it is the captain who eventually prevails. From that standpoint, the Sri Lanka series is a very important one for Shubman Gill. While there is no clash whatsoever between Gautam Gambhir and Gill, the truth is that Gill needs to make the team his own and be his own man. As a batter, he is India’s best red-ball player at the moment. He looks sublime, and the 2025 England series saw Gill coming of age as a Test batter. Sadly for him and for India, he was injured in Kolkata in the game against South Africa and could not play any further part in the series. I still believe that had Gill played the Kolkata Test, India would have won the contest. Rishabh Pant led the team in his absence i...

Shashank Singh  Image :X Shamik Chakrabarty, Mumbai Shashank Singh lets out his frustration and alleges that he was poorly treated by the Chhattisgarh cricket hierarchy. He makes it clear that his allegations aren’t against Prabhtej Singh Bhatia, a senior Chhattisgarh cricket official who currently serves as the BCCI joint-secretary. The player trains his gun on “two other officials” who didn’t treat him well, forcing him to part ways with Chhattisgarh and migrate to Puducherry this season (2026-27) to play domestic cricket. “I won’t name them, but the way they behaved with me, the disrespect, I decided that enough was enough,” Shashank, who is also the Punjab Kings vice-captain in the IPL, told RevSportz. He recalls certain incidents. “Last season, we were playing our Ranji Trophy game against Mumbai at BKC and I hurt my shoulder while fielding,” he said. “It was a bad injury and yet, I batted, scored 33 and we eventually managed to eke out a draw. But after ...