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The Chennai Super Kings captain has been ‘pretty sick during the week’, but his recovery is ‘progressing’, according to coach Stephen Fleming

The Preview by Karthik Krishnaswamy30-Apr-20197:32

Vettori: Santner gives Super Kings another all-round option

Big picture

Both teams are already through to the playoffs, but places in the top two are still up for grabs, and any slip-ups in the closing stages of the league phase could land either Delhi Capitals or Chennai Super Kings in the Eliminator. It’s not a situation either team wants to be in. Capitals have considerable momentum behind them, having won six of their last seven matches, but Super Kings come to this meeting with defeats in three of their last four games.This slump in form can be read as a season-long weakness finally beginning to reflect in their results. Of all teams in the competition, Super Kings have been the slowest-scoring team in the Powerplay, with a run rate of 6.4 in that phase, and in the middle overs (7-15), where they have gone at 6.9. Two of their key batsmen, Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav, are this season’s slowest scorers among all batsmen with a minimum of 100 runs to their name, with strike rates of 89.49 and 96.42 respectively. In third place, at 110.49, is another Super King – Faf du Plessis.MS Dhoni’s form (his 314 runs this season have come at an average of 104.66 and a strike rate of 137.11) could only cover these cracks for so long. It wasn’t surprising that Super Kings, minus Dhoni, slumped to 109 all out, and their first home defeat of the season, in their last match against Mumbai Indians.

Form guide

Chennai Super Kings: lost to Mumbai Indians by 46 runs, beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets, lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore by one run
Delhi Capitals: beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 16 runs, beat Rajasthan Royals by six wickets, beat Kings XI Punjab by five wickets

Apart from the fever that kept him out of the game against Mumbai, Dhoni has also had to deal with back trouble this season. Will he be back on Tuesday? We don’t know yet.”Dhoni is progressing,” Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming said on the eve of the match. “He’s been pretty sick during the week. We’ll make a call on him tomorrow but he’s progressing, which is good.”Whether Dhoni plays or not, Capitals will know it’s never an easy task to play Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Their away record – five wins in six games this season – should give them confidence, but if they haven’t been quite as good at home – three wins in six games – it’s because they haven’t enjoyed batting on the slow, grippy surface at Feroz Shah Kotla. Only one surface this season has been slower and grippier this season – the one they’ll play on tomorrow.

Previous meeting

Dwayne Bravo picked up three wickets at the death, and Capitals only managed 29 in their last five overs, leaving Super Kings a not-hugely-challenging 147 to chase. Shane Watson’s 26-ball 44 gave them the early impetus, but the win took until the last over to arrive, thanks to a leisurely stand of 48 in 53 balls between Dhoni and Jadhav.

In the news

Like Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja and du Plessis were also absent ill from the match against Mumbai. Unlike Dhoni, both have recovered fully. “Faf’s been fine. Jadeja’s also training well,” Fleming said. “Definitely in consideration for tomorrow.”Kagiso Rabada is pumped up•BCCI

Likely XIs

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Faf du Plessis/M Vijay, 2 Shane Watson, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 MS Dhoni/Dhruv Shorey, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Ravindra Jadeja/Mitchell Santner, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Imran TahirDelhi Capitals: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Colin Ingram, 6 Sherfane Rutherford, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Sandeep Lamichhane, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Ishant Sharma

Strategy punt

• Kagiso Rabada has played 18 games for Capitals/Daredevils in the IPL, and he’s picked up two or more wickets in 11 of those matches. Of those 11 games, his team has won eight and lost three. When he’s picked up less than two wickets, however, they’ve only won two out of five. These numbers suggest that teams are unable to go after the other Capitals bowlers if they suffer too much damage at the hands of their main strike weapon; perhaps there is a case for Super Kings to play Rabada out watchfully.
• Colin Ingram has had an excellent IPL season against spin, scoring 91 off 64 balls while only being dismissed once. He’s not been great against pace, though, scoring 80 off 62 while being dismissed six times. Rishabh Pant has been pretty good against spin – 152 off 108 balls, four dismissals – but devastating against pace – 191 off 105 balls, six dismissals. Spinners always bowl plenty of overs in Chennai, and which of these two left-handers bats at No. 4 and which one is held back to No. 5 could well depend on the phase of the innings and which bowlers are operating.
• Jadeja has bowled 165 balls to right-hand batsmen in IPL 2019, conceding 161 runs and taking nine wickets. Against left-hand batsmen, he has bowled 75 balls, conceding 104 runs and taking no wickets. Mitchell Santner, on the other hand, has been excellent against left-hand batsmen (14 balls, nine runs, two wickets), albeit from a small sample size. Given the number of left-handers in Delhi’s top order, however, Super Kings might be tempted to retain Santner even though Jadeja should be available, even if they aren’t able to bring back du Plessis as a result.

Stats that matter

• Super Kings have won 13 and lost six of their matches against Capitals.
• If du Plessis features, he will be playing his 200th T20 match.
• Dwayne Bravo is one short of 300 T20 sixes, and also one short of 50 T20 wickets at MA Chidambaram Stadium.
• Suresh Raina has 49 fifties in T20 cricket.

He signed off the Dhaka Premier League campaign with an unprecedented fifth century, but could not stop another loss for his side who went down by six wickets to Brothers Union in the relegation playoff

Mohammad Isam01-Apr-2018Mohammad Ashraful signed off his Dhaka Premier League campaign with an unprecedented fifth century. However, he could not stop another loss for Kalabagan Krira Chakra, who went down by six wickets to Brothers Union in the relegation playoff fixture. Mizanur Rahman struck a 104-ball 115 that took Brothers Union to their 253-run target in 44.3 overs.Mizanur struck 11 fours and six sixes in his knock. He added 69 runs for the first wicket with Junaid Siddique, 49 for the second with Myshukur Rahaman and 58 for the third wicket with Alok Kapali. Mizanur fell in the 31st over, before Yasir Ali and Nazmus Sadat completed the win with an unbroken 75-run fifth-wicket stand.Earlier, Kalabagan posted 252 for 3 in 50 overs. Ashraful added 116 runs for the second wicket with Waliul Karim who made 79 with five sixes and six fours. Ashraful added 78 runs for the third wicket with Munim Shahriar before putting together an unbroken 53 for the fourth wicket with Faruque Hossain. Ashraful’s unbeaten 102 included 10 fours.Ashraful’s ton was his third in a row, having made 127 and 103 not out in his previous two innings. He finishes the tournament with 665 runs from 13 matches at a batting average of 66.50. But of his five centuries this season, only one came in a Kalabagan win.Ashraful becomes eligible for BPL and international selection from August this year.

Giles Clarke, head of the ICC’s Pakistan Task Force, has cautioned that bringing international cricket back to Pakistan will be an arduous process requiring “a lot of time and hard work”

Danyal Rasool28-Jan-2017Giles Clarke, president of the England and Wales Cricket Board and chairman of the ICC’s Pakistan Task Force, has cautioned that bringing international cricket back to Pakistan will be an arduous process requiring “a lot of time and hard work”.Clarke arrived in Lahore on Saturday – his first visit to the country as head of the Pakistan Task Force – on a fact-finding mission to inspect security arrangements that can be put in place for visiting teams. During his visit, Clarke met with senior officials of the Punjab government, including the chief minister and the Home Secretary.Addressing a press conference at the National Cricket Academy at the Gaddafi Stadium, Clarke praised Punjab’s government for “significant investment” in safety and security arrangements for potential touring aides. He was quick to point out, however, that these observations were not to serve as a replacement for expert advice.”I have to receive a proper report from my experts,” Clarke said. “But speaking as a non-expert, I was deeply impressed by the size of the investment, and the passion of everyone I’ve met from the chief minister downwards, the desire and determination to see international cricket return to Lahore was absolutely there. It is a goal of the ICC that every Full Member plays international bilateral cricket in their own country. But for us to do that, we need everyone to be safe and secure.”Clarke referred to a bomb blast in a crowded park in Lahore last March that killed over 70 people. The PCB was in talks with the MCC at the time for the latter to send a cricket team to Lahore, but the terror attack put an end to that.”We don’t want to get it wrong,” Clarke said. “We all know one terrible incident can push things backwards again. What happened here in one of Lahore’s parks did make it impossible for us to send a team here last year. So we’re hoping to move forward, but this isn’t an easy road.”There’s a considerable amount of perception that needs to be changed [around Pakistan being an unsafe country] and information that needs to be shared. But I am most impressed by the efforts of the authorities to make Lahore a safe city.”Clarke, who has been on the Pakistan Task Force since it was set up in the aftermath of the Lahore terror attacks on the Sri Lanka team in March 2009, praised Zimbabwe for coming to Pakistan in 2015 to play two T20s and three ODIs, and said it was a “very well organised” tour. “We want to build on that and move forward in a sensible and measured fashion.” Even that tour, however, was the target of an attempted attack.Clarke didn’t comment on a recent statement by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) that “an acceptable level of participant safety and security cannot be expected or guaranteed” in Pakistan, saying he hadn’t discussed that statement with FICA, or read it in full. “I was far more interested in coming here for myself before I opened that conversation,” he said.That statement had come on the back of the PCB announcing that the final of the second edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) would take place in Lahore, whether or not international players travelled to Pakistan. Clarke expressed strong support for the PCB’s endeavours to hold the final of “their own domestic competition” in Pakistan. “I completely understand that desire, and will support their efforts to do that.”

Sri Lanka found their groove four weeks into the New Zealand tour, and their reward may be a used Saxton Oval pitch that will offer a lot more turn for the fourth ODI

The Preview by Andrew Fidel Fernando01-Jan-2016

Match facts

Saturday, January 2, 2016
Start time 1100 local (2200 GMT)

Big Picture

It took four weeks, but Sri Lanka put together their most comprehensive day of cricket on this tour and suddenly their outlook seems transformed. They lost so badly in Christchurch that this trip to New Zealand was threatening to become the tour from hell. In that handsome Nelson win on Thursday, there were signs it may instead be remembered as a journey of discovery.Chief among the promising new talents is Dushmantha Chameera, who was the third-change bowler when the tour began, but is now taking the new ball. He is not as fast as Adam Milne, but so far seems to have a better knack for taking wickets. Maybe he bowls the bouncer too much and the yorker not enough, but the coaches say he is eager to learn. Angelo Mathews also helped by using him as a strike bowler in the middle overs of the third ODI, instead of saving him for the death.Legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay troubled batsmen on a track that didn’t give him much turn, and Danushka Gunathilaka was poised and powerful at the top of the order. New Zealand will be wise to their weaknesses in their coming matches, however, and the young Sri Lanka players will want to prove they can’t be easily decoded.New Zealand have lost Tim Southee for the remainder of the series, but such is the depth in their bowling that the man replacing him is the bowler of the series so far. Matt Henry’s bustle ruined Sri Lanka’s innings in Christchurch. A slower, lower Nelson surface may draw some of his venom, but Sri Lanka’s batsmen would still probably have preferred it if he had remained outside the squad.Thursday’s match was also the first occasion in which the hosts seemed a little vulnerable. The middle order doesn’t look in great shape with Ross Taylor and Luke Ronchi still searching for good scores. Mitchell Santner is promising, but perhaps he’s not quite ready to be the top spin option.With Kane Williamson, Tom Latham, Martin Guptill and Henry all still playing well, New Zealand have more than enough quality to lock the series up. But they will now have to win on a used Saxton Oval surface that was beginning to resemble the slower, abrasive tracks Sri Lanka often find in their part of the world.

Form guide

(last five matches, most recent first)
New Zealand: LWWLW
Sri Lanka: WLLWW
Spot the missing ingredient: New Zealand’s batting has suddenly looked a little less threatening•AFP

In the spotlight

Doug Bracewell hasn’t been New Zealand’s most penetrative bowler, but he has made himself useful with the bat. He has contributed a good score every time he has come to the crease on this tour. Bracewell’s sober 30 from 34 balls on Thursday helped push New Zealand towards 275, after they had threatened to be all out for less than 250. He has been good in the field as well, though that hasn’t always been a strength for him.Aside from one very expensive over to Martin Guptill in the second game, Jeffrey Vandersay‘s introduction to international cricket has so far been smooth. His legbreaks aren’t the most controlled, or biggest-turning, but he appears to be the kind of bowler that likes to outthink batsmen, if he can’t out-skill them. Sri Lanka are facing a minor spin-bowling crisis, as Rangana Herath moves into the twilight of his career. Having picked Vandersay over two more experienced spinners on Thursday, the selectors may feel he is the man to step into Herath’s shoes.

Teams news

As the pitch is expected to take more turn in this game, there is a chance Sri Lanka may add a second frontline spinner to the attack. More likely they will keep the same XI and rely on Milinda Siriwardana’s left-arm spin, and Tillakaratne Dilshan’s part-time offbreaks.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Danushka Gunathilaka , 3 Lahiru Thirimanne, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Angelo Mathews (capt.), 6 Milinda Siriwardana, 7 Chamara Kapugedara, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Jeffrey Vandersay, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Nuwan PradeepNew Zealand may be without their regular captain Brendon McCullum again, as he recovers from a back injury. If he does return, Tom Latham may be the man to make way. Legspinner Ish Sodhi is likely to play in place of one of the seamers.New Zealand (probable): 1 Brendon McCullum (capt.)/ Tom Latham, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Henry Nicholls, 6 Mitchell Santner, 7 Luke Ronchi (wk), 8 Doug Bracewell, 9 Adam Milne, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Ish Sodhi

Pitch and conditions

The strip had begun to take good turn towards the end of the third ODI, and will probably become lower, slower and more given to spin still. Sunny Nelson may belie its moniker however, as showers are forecast throughout the day.

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand played Sri Lanka in 11 ODIs in 2015. Sri Lanka won only three of those games.
• With Martin Guptill (1489 runs), Kane Williamson (1376 runs), and Tillakaratne Dilshan (1207 runs), this series features each of the top three ODI run-scorers of 2015.

Quotes

“On the whole 2015 was probably a good year, but we’ve got a game the next day, so we won’t be doing too much reflecting.”

Mark Stoneman struck a century as Durham racked up a big total to take the lead on the third day at Taunon

08-Jun-2013
ScorecardMark Stoneman went past a hundred in 160 balls•Getty Images

With a day remaining the Championship match between Somerset and Durham at
Taunton looks to be heading for a draw after the hosts ended the day 28 runs
behind with all second-innings wickets remaining.Replying to Somerset’s first-innings total of 458, the visitors were all out
for 493 which included a century for Mark Stoneman, 70 from both Paul
Collingwood and Michael Richardson and half-centuries from Ben Stokes and Scott
Borthwick.At the start of the day, resuming on 163 for three off 44.3 overs, still 295
runs in arrears, opener Stoneman who was 78 not out overnight went to his second
century of the season when he took a single to backward point off the final ball
of the 51st over. His century arrived off 160 deliveries and included 16 fours.New batsman Stokes looked untroubled by the Somerset bowlers and pulled Hussain
to long-on to bring up the Durham 200.Stoneman had moved onto 122 when Peter Trego bowled a slower delivery which he
hit to short cover where Craig Meschede claimed the catch. The fourth-wicket
partnership added 73 runs in just over 20 overs.Stokes went to his half-century in style with a straight six off George
Dockrell but seven runs later he was caught at mid-off by Arul Suppiah as he
looked to drive left arm spinner Dean Elgar. Phil Mustard hit Elgar for consecutive boundaries to bring up the Durham 300
but after taking his score onto 30 at just less than a run a ball he was caught
at deep square leg by Suppiah off Hussain.Richardson joined Collingwood and both found batting easy in the sunshine at
Taunton. The new batsman went to his half-century with a boundary off Dockrell
to third man.But on 70 he pushed a ball from Dockrell to backward point, set off for a
single before realising that Overton had picked the ball up and returned it to
keeper Alex Barrow who removed the bails, before he could regain his ground.Collingwood and Richardson shared a partnership of 101 for the seventh wicket
in 39 overs. Collingwood remained at the wicket until he was the last man out for 70,
by which time the total had moved onto 493.Batting for a second time 35 runs behind Somerset had moved on to seven without
loss from the remaining four overs, Marcus Trescothick unbeaten on four and Nick
Compton two not out.

Sourav Ganguly may give up the Pune Warriors captaincy after this season and take up a mentoring role in 2013, franchise owner Subroto Roy has said

ESPNcricinfo staff10-May-2012Sourav Ganguly may give up the Pune Warriors captaincy after this season and take up a mentoring role in 2013, franchise owner Subroto Roy has said. Ganguly, 39, has been in indifferent form this season and his team is second last in the IPL.Roy said Ganguly had originally been interested in a role as mentor this year as well, before changing his mind. “Sourav will be the mentor next season,” Roy told news channel NDTV. “We rather pushed him to play in IPL 5 as he is such a fantastic captain.”Warriors have three matches remaining this season but are already out of the playoff race, having lost nine out of 13 matches. Roy suggested Ganguly, who has scored 261 runs at a sluggish strike-rate of 100.77 this year, would rest for the remainder of the season. “Sourav wants to give youngsters a chance in the last games,” he said. Ganguly has led Warriors in all 13 of their matches this season.Franchise sources, however, told ESPNcricinfo that Ganguly would not miss all three remaining matches, but might opt out of one or two of them. They said a final decision on Ganguly taking over as mentor of the franchise would only be taken after the season.

Sri Lanka Cricket is seeking government grants and a soft loan to meet part of the amount it spent on co-hosting the 2011 World Cup, according to sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jun-2011Sri Lanka Cricket is seeking government grants and a soft loan to meet part of the amount it spent on co-hosting the 2011 World Cup, according to sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage.”Sri Lanka Cricket ran out of funds after hosting the World Cup and sought government help to settle some payments,” Aluthgamage said. SLC has asked for a grant of two billion rupees ($18.35 million) and a loan of 1.5 billion rupees ($13.75 million) from the state-run Bank of Ceylon.Sri Lanka built two new grounds, one in Hambantota and the other in Pallekele, while the R Premadasa stadium in Colombo received an extensive renovation for hosting World Cup matches. “In total, we spent about five billion rupees ($46 million) to build the three World Cup venues,” Aluthgamage said.The board was forced to pledge the newly-built stadiums plus the income from upcoming tours as collateral to raise funds to pay for the World Cup. Sri Lanka hosted 12 games over the course of the tournament. SLC is expecting to get about $25 million from the ICC by way of hosting rights but will require government support to bridge the deficit.”It’s not a crisis situation yet. We are confident the government will help us out,” Aluthgamage said.

Chairman of selectors, Clyde Butts, has said that Jamaica batsman Marlon Samuels will be considered for West Indies selection if he performs at the domestic level

Cricinfo staff30-May-2010Chairman of selectors, Clyde Butts, has said that Jamaica batsman Marlon Samuels, who has finished serving his two-year ban, will be considered for West Indies selection if he performs at the domestic level.”We all know Marlon Samuels can play cricket,’ Butts told . “Certainly, for a man who has been out of cricket for two years, you
would allow him to play some cricket, develop his game again and get back into form and, of course, he will be available to West Indies then.”Marlon needs to come out and start playing some cricket, [and] we will probably see that in the regional T20 and the one-day series and who knows. If Marlon certainly shows that he still has it, I think he will be considered.”Samuels returned to action recently for Jamaica, playing in a 50-overs match and two Twenty20 games against USA in Florida. He had missed two seasons after he was banned in 2008 for breaching rules, relating to “receiving money, benefit or other
reward which could bring him or the game of cricket into disrepute”. Samuels was punished by a West Indies Cricket Board disciplinary committee for discussing team information with Mukesh Kochar and later approaching him to pay a hotel bill.Samuels has played 29 Tests and 107 one-day internationals for West Indies since making his international debut against Sri Lanka in 2000.

Club found to be in breach of ECB Directive 3.3 during period from 2001 to 2010

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jun-2024Essex County Cricket Club has been charged by the Cricket Regulator – the sport’s new independent disciplinary body – after a series of historical allegations of racist abuse were last year upheld by an independent report.In December, a 38-page report compiled by Katherine Newton KC found that, in a period from the mid-1990s to 2013, Essex’s club culture had been one in which ethnic, racial and religious comments were regarded as “banter”.The report centred on the testimony of three former players – not named in its pages but known to be Jahid Ahmed, Maurice Chambers and Zoheb Sharif, one of whom was nicknamed “Bomber” due to his South Asian heritage, and another taunted with bananas for being Black.In a separate incident that prompted the commissioning of the report, the former club chair, John Faragher, was alleged to have used the racist phrase “n****r in the woodpile” during a board meeting in 2017, with Essex accepting a fine of £50,000 from the ECB in May 2022 after admitting two charges relating to that meeting.The club has now been charged with a breach of ECB Directive 3.3 during the years 2001 to 2010, for “conduct, acts or omissions which may be prejudicial to the interests of cricket or which may bring the game of cricket or any cricketer or group of cricketers into disrepute”.In a statement, the Cricket Regulator said Essex had failed to address the “systemic use of racist and/or discriminatory language and/or conduct at Essex” in that period, adding that an independent panel of the Cricket Discipline Commission would hear the case in due course.In response, Essex CCC acknowledged the scope of the breach and the club’s willingness to accept the CDC’s findings.”The club has fully cooperated with the Cricket Regulator and will continue to do so throughout the process, and intends to participate willingly with the Cricket Discipline Commission,” a statement read. “There will be no further comment from the club at this time.The Cricket Regulator came into being in December 2023, after that summer’s damning report published by Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC), which detailed structural inequalities across race, gender and class in cricket in England and Wales.In a key recommendation, the ECB’s previous dual roles as promoter and regulator of the game were found to be “irreconcilable”, in light of the board’s handling of Azeem Rafiq’s revelations of institutional racism at Yorkshire.

The PCB chairman acknowledged for the first time that he had sought selectors’ views on retaining Babar as captain

Umar Farooq10-Apr-2023PCB chairman Najam Sethi has attempted to calm speculation around the role of Babar Azam, backing him as Pakistan’s all-format captain for now. In his first public comments offering further detail on what has become a lingering locus of instability for the Pakistan side since Sethi took over, he tweeted that everyone “should support Babar and not make matter controversial in interests of the national team”.However, Sethi’s tweets did not offer the Pakistan captain his complete backing, acknowledging that he had weighed the “pros and cons” of removing him, and he would be “guided by the selectors and head coach”.Related

• PCB's Najam Sethi-led management committee likely to get extension

• New Zealand, depleted and against all logic, are in Pakistan for a clash of unequals

• PCB review could limit Babar's all-format influence

“For months media and cricketing circles have been discussing pros and cons of retaining Babar Azam as captain in all formats of the game,” Sethi said. “Since this decision is ultimately Chairman’s, I have sought views of Selection Committees headed by Shahid Afridi and now Haroon Rashid. Both Committees thought matter merited discussion but both later came to the conclusion that the status quo should be retained.”I have subsequently publicly stated this position. In the final analysis my decision will be subject to the success or failure of status quo. I will also be guided by what the Selectors and Director Cricket Ops and Head Coach have to say going forward. I expect they will be in the best position to advise me. Therefore we should support Babar and not make matter controversial in interests of national team.”Since Sethi took over from Ramiz Raja as chairman, the PCB has been reviewing team structure. As ESPNcricinfo had reported in January, the PCB is pondering taking away Babar’s all-format captaincy after a disappointing last two home seasons. Over the 2022-23 home season, Pakistan lost 3-0 against England in Tests and 4-3 in T20Is, drew 0-0 in a Test series and lost 2-1 in an ODI series against New Zealand. They fared better away, though, winning a T20I tri-series in New Zealand and reaching the final of the T20 World Cup in Australia.When Sethi took office, the PCB made Shan Masood vice-captain in ODIs somewhat out of the blue. Until then, Shan had only played 5 ODIs, the last of them coming in 2019. At the time that was perceived to cause internal strife, with Babar insisting he would have the last say in selection matters. The new vice-captain did not play the first two matches, only taking part in the third, where he was dismissed for 0.For a recent T20I series against Afghanistan, Pakistan rested a core of senior players – Babar, Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi. Shadab Khan, the official vice captain, took over at the helm, but Pakistan went on to lose that series 2-1. As a white-ball series against New Zealand looms, the seniors have returned to the squad, with Babar resuming the captaincy.