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Nortje returns, Rabada misses out in a redemption opportunity for Smith and company

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ICC World Test Championship Australia are currently visiting the place where they faced major humiliation 8 1/2 years ago thanks to Sandpapergate, a ball-tampering scandal which rocked the whole cricketing fraternity. With the series tied at 1-1, Australia were falling behind in the third Test match at Newlands, Cape Town when Cameron Bancroft pulled out a yellow Sandpaper from his pocket and tried to alter the condition of the ball with a plan to force reverse swing. The whole act was caught on camera, leaving the visiting group embarrassed by a proper brainfade moment. Bancroft who carried out the whole scheme was banned for 9 months whereas David Warner the mastermind and the incumbent captain Steve Smith were given a one-year ban. Coach Darren Lehman also lost his job and was succeeded by Justin Langer. Cricket Australia appointed Tim Paine as their next red-ball skipper in the middle of the series. Warner has since made a comeback to the side and retired from International cricket...
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By Shekhar Tomar
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Bangladesh look to fine tune themselves in Rahmat Shah's captaincy debut

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Bangladesh tour of Afghanistan It’s time for more Test cricket as this time Bangladesh & Afghanistan will lock horns at the Shaikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi starting this Friday. The Bangla Tigers have endured an up and down year so far. 2026 started through a full-blown political controversy with their neighbours India, which resulted in their government asking the national team to withdraw from the 2026 T20 World Cup at the last minute. The visitors enjoyed a solid run at home, losing only one series versus Australia having secured the ODIs versus Pakistan, New Zealand and the Aussies. A 2-0 whitewash of their arch-rivals Pakistan in the longest format was also sandwiched between these results. A tough away tour of Zimbabwe came next where they lost the one-off Test by an innings margin and then surrendered in the ODI series disappointingly, as their batters failed to adjust on a bouncy Harare track. A historic visit to Australia followed. Bangladesh won the opening contest in Dar...
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By Shekhar Tomar
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In a busy cricketing world, South Africa shows the way forward to other full-member nations

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South Africa Cricket The growth of franchise cricket has enabled loads of countries to join the band-wagon. With Afghanistan declaring the reinstatement of the APL (Afghanistan Premier league), all full-member nations except for Zimbabwe and New Zealand have a fully-functional competition hosted by each cricket board. New Zealand have themselves announced NZ20, which is planned for December 2027. Associates like USA, UAE, Canada and recently even Scotland & Netherlands have become participants of the same trend. Exponential growth of the shortest format and the amount of money associated has triggered a decline of quality in the longest format for a number of Test playing boards. Pakistan and West Indies are prime examples of two countries prioritizing the T20 format which has seen there side falling to the bottom of ICC Test rankings as well as the WTC standings in each cycle.  However, it’s not identical for each group. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have continued to focus on the ...
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By Shekhar Tomar
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England and Robinson send Pakistan into an abyss amid Razaullah's charming introduction to International cricket

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ICC World Test Championship England wrapped their home summer with another dominant one-sided victory, eventually sealing the three-match series   with a 3-0 margin. Joe Root has began his second term of captaincy with a huge statement, white-washing a despondent Pakistan team without breaking a sweat. England won the final clash by 8 wickets as the visitors eventually showed heart in their concluding innings with the bat on this dreadful tour. Ollie Robinson was named Player of the Series for taking 21 wickets at an unbelievable bowling average of 8.76. The hosts were rarely tested in all three departments by the Pakistanis who endured a terrible series, leaving the country with a sixth whitewash in the past 12 occasions. 5 of the top six run-getters were from England, whereas the trio of Robinson, Tongue and Archer combined for 52 of the 58 wickets Pakistan lost in total. They will now consider themselves in a much better position than they were two months ago in the lo...
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By Shekhar Tomar
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