Rajasthan Royals batsman Donovan Ferreira during IPL T20 Match against Punjab Kings at the New Chandigarh Stadium in Punjab on April 28, 2026.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy

Virat Kohli in action during his splendid knock in the third and final ODI in Indore on January 18, 2026
| Photo Credit: PTI

Former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar poses with his statue during the inauguration of the MCA Sharad Pawar Cricket Museum at Wankhede Stadium, in Mumbai on August 23, 2025
| Photo Credit: PTI

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England suffered a disappointing 3-0 ODI series sweep at the hands of India on Wednesday. The side failed to challenge the Rohit Sharma-led side in any of the games and its batters looked clueless against the Indian spinners. While talking about the struggle of England batters, former India player Ravi Shastri pointed out that the players have had just one training session during the entire ODI series. Ex-England player Kevin Pietersen also slammed the players of his nation for taking ‘disrespecting Indian conditions’.

“From what I’ve heard, England have had just one net session this entire trip, if not any. If you’re not prepared to do the hard yards, you’re not going to improve,” said Shastri during commentary in third ODI.

Meanwhile, England great Pietersen said, “The 2-hour flight from Dubai across here. He (Tom Banton) was on the golf course yesterday. He wasn’t batting, and where have the issues come? The start, 1 for 60, 2 for 80. And then, what happens? None of them can play spin. And how do you improve playing spin?”

After the game, Pietersen revealed that he read an article where a journalist claimed that the England players could not have sufficient training due to injury concerns and the little gap after the T20I series that preceded the ODIs.

Notably, the India vs England T20I series concluded on February 2, while the ODI matches took place on February 6, 9 and 12.

“Just got sent an article where a leading UK journo has said that Shastri & I got it wrong last night when discussing England not training,” said Pietersen in a post on X.

“Reason – injuries and quick turnaround between games…!

“Do me a f*****g favour! Stop writing about cricket if you’re going to write such rubbish.

“Injuries are part of sport and this schedule is like every bilateral series almost ever played.

“Injuries are NOT stopping batters from batting against net bowlers and learning the art of playing spin. And that’s where they should have been to IMPROVE! Trust me on this one as it saved my career against spin!

“It seems the journos are in cahoots with what we’re trying to be brainwashed into believing! You won’t fool the fan with such!”

Just got sent an article where a leading UK journo has said that Shastri & I got it wrong last night when discussing England not training.

Reason – injuries and quick turnaround between games…!

Do me a f*****g favour! Stop writing about cricket if you’re going to write…

— Kevin Pietersen(@KP24) February 13, 2025

Both India and England now head up to the Champions Trophy that is set to kick off on February 19.

After reaching the historic 10,000-run milestone with a single, Steve Smith went on to score his 35th Test century and helped Australia reach 330 for 2 on Day 1 of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle, Sri Lanka on Wednesday. Smith was batting on 104 at stumps with Usman Khawaja unbeaten on 147, having anchored the Australian innings, raising 195 runs for the third wicket partnership. Coming in to bat at No.4, Smith displayed his trademark precision and composure, forging a strong partnership with Usman Khawaja. His hundred, achieved off 179 balls (10 fours and 1 six) in his 205th innings, places him third on the list of fastest to 35 Test centuries, trailing only Ricky Ponting (195) and Sachin Tendulkar (200) in terms of innings taken to reach the milestone.

Smith is now only the seventh batter to record 35 Test centuries, joining an elite list that includes Tendulkar (51), Jacques Kallis (45), Ponting (41), Kumar Sangakkara (38), Rahul Dravid (36), and Joe Root (36).

Smith surpassed the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene and Younis Khan in the list of batters with most Test hundreds. All the four ex-cricketers slammed 34 tons each in the format.

His achievement is further amplified by his captaincy record, as this was his 16th Test hundred as Australia captain, surpassing Allan Border and Steve Waugh, both of whom had 15. Among Australian captains, only Ponting (19) has scored more centuries, while globally, Smith ranks fourth behind Graeme Smith (25), Virat Kohli (20), and Ponting.

Smith’s dominance with the bat extends to his numbers as a leader, as he closed in on 4,000 Test runs as captain, boasting an average of over 68 – second only to Don Bradman’s extraordinary 101 among skippers with at least 3,000 Test runs.

Earlier in the day, Smith became just the 15th batter to surpass 10,000 Test runs, joining an exclusive club of Australian greats that includes Allan Border, Steve Waugh, and Ricky Ponting. He also became the fifth-fastest to the milestone, trailing only Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Sangakkara, and Ponting, all of whom reached the mark in 195 or 196 innings.

Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma has allegedly complained against legendary batter and commentator Sunil Gavaskar to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), according to a report by CricBlogger. The report claimed that Rohit felt that Gavaskar was “too negative” regarding his recent poor form against Australia and he relayed his concerns to the cricket board. Rohit scored just 31 runs in 3 Test matches against Australia and he even decided to drop himself for the final match in Sydney. In his column for the Sydney Morning Herald, Gavaskar wrote that Rohit would step down from captaincy “if he doesn’t score runs in Melbourne and Sydney and he won’t wait for the selectors to make that call”.

The report added that Rohit has allegedly expressed his ‘discomfort’ regarding the external pressure over his performances. “Rohit felt that it was not necessary for Gavaskar to criticise him in that fashion and that’s why he complained to the BCCI about Gavaskar,” a source said.

Rohit Sharma, along with his teammates Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer, will miss Mumbai’s upcoming Ranji Trophy clash against Meghalaya in a must-win clash starting on Thursday.

Ajinkya Rahane-led Mumbai are currently placed third, behind Jammu and Kashmir and Baroda, in Group A with 22 points in six matches. They suffered a five-wicket loss against J&K on Rohit’s return to domestic cricket.

The trio of Rohit, Jaiswal and Iyer will prepare for the upcoming ODI series against England starting on February 6 in Nagpur, four days after the scheduled end of the last Ranji Trophy round.

Rohit and Jaiswal, who also open together in Tests, partnered at the top for Mumbai in their previous Ranji Trophy match. Their return to domestic cricket followed the BCCI’s new guidelines mandating players to participate in domestic competitions. This directive came after India’s consecutive Test series defeats to New Zealand and Australia, which ended their hopes of making the third successive World Test Championship final, largely due to the batting unit’s struggles.

Rohit has been particularly out of form, scoring just 164 runs in his last 15 Test innings at an average of 10.93 this season. His struggles continued for Mumbai, where he managed just 3 and 28 against J&K. Jaiswal also had modest scores of 4 and 26 but had a better Test season, with a century and two half-centuries in Australia after scoring four fifties at home.

Iyer, in contrast, has been Mumbai’s standout performer this Ranji season, amassing 480 runs in seven innings at an average of 68.57, including two centuries. He also impressed in white-ball cricket, scoring two unbeaten hundreds in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and 345 runs at a strike rate of 188.52 during Mumbai’s victorious Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign.

(With IANS inputs)

As the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, etc. joined their respective Ranji Trophy sides, a few others like Virat Kohli and KL Rahul gave the round a miss due to ‘injury issues’. A host of senior Team India stars marked their return to domestic cricket after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) issued a 10-point diktat, all but mandating domestic cricket participation. Kohli and Rahul, who didn’t join their teams in the last round, cited ‘injury concerns’ as the reason behind their absence.

Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, however, raised suspicion on Kohli and Rahul’s ‘injury concerns’, since they didn’t report to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) over the said issues, as is the norm for BCCI-contracted players.

In his column for Sportstar, Gavaskar wondered if Rahul, Kohli and Mohammed Siraj would go on to play for their respective state teams in the next Ranji Trophy round, beginning January 30. He also wonders what action would the BCCI take against players who decide to give this round a miss too.

“It would be interesting to see if KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, and Virat Kohli, who didn’t play in last week’s round of Ranji Trophy matches, will play the next round,” he said.

Gavaskar feels players who gave the previous Ranji Trophy round a miss might have done so because of non-injury reasons, even though they claimed to have been battling injuries.

“More interesting would be what action the BCCI takes if they don’t play. Were they injured? Getting a medical certificate for an ‘injury’ is child’s play, and if they are injured, did they go to the NCA for treatment and recovery, as Nitish Reddy was sent the moment he had that side strain?

“Isn’t that the practice for the BCCI-contracted players, that as soon as there’s an injury, they have to report to the NCA, and only after the BCCI experts there certify them as fit can they resume playing for India? For all we know, these players might have opted out of the earlier games for non-injury reasons. We shall soon find out,” he wrote in the column.

Rohit Sharma‘s return to Ranji Trophy met absolute disappointment as the India Test skipper aggregated just 31 runs in two innings against Jammu & Kashmir. Rohit showed his attacking approach throughout the match, looking to take bowlers on, but the intent didn’t reap the rewards Rohit intended, with his scores in the two innings reading only 3 and 28. Be it his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal, or other senior stars like Shreyas Iyer or Ajinkya Rahane, none of these big-name batters produced runs as Mumbai suffered an upsetting defeat against J&K.

It was another veteran star, Shardul Thakur, who set the stage on fire with a ton, though his score couldn’t rescue Mumbai. As questions arose about the performances of senior stars like Rohit, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar asked some tough questions, taking a direct swipe at the attacking approach shown by the Hitman and others.

“Only Shardul Thakur, batting down the order, showed the gumption and desire to stick it out. But for his batting in both innings, the Mumbai score would have been embarrassing for a side filled with four Indian Test players in their top five. What Thakur and Tanush Kotian showed with their big partnership is that with a proper mix of caution and aggression, runs could be scored on the surface. The J&K batters also showed the same attitude and thus overhauled the target quite comfortably,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.

“The dismissal of Mumbai’s Test batters once again brought to the fore the perils of the all-out aggressive mode of batting that is nowadays thought of as being central to run-making. It can work on flat pitches, but on pitches where the ball is doing something, there has to be a technique good enough to keep out the good delivery,” Gavaskar added, asking some tough questions to Rohit and others.

It was the diktat from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that forced senior stars like Rohit, Jaiswal, Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, etc. to return to Ranji Trophy. Gavaskar, however, isn’t sure if the players played with all their heart or only in the bid to prevent their central contracts being taken away.

“The BCCI and the coach’s insistence on the Indian players playing in the Ranji Trophy meant that most of the players who were on the disastrous tour of Australia turned up for their State teams in the Ranji Trophy.

“Whether their hearts were in it or they did that only to ensure they were not stripped of their BCCI contracts, like Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were, after missing out on the Ranji Trophy games last year, is known only to them,” Gavaskar wondered.

Rohit and Jaiswal’s inclusion in the Mumbai team meant that a talented youngster like Ayush Mhatre, who scored a century in the last game, couldn’t retain his place in the team. Gavaskar, however, didn’t feel too bad for the teenager, suggesting he must have learned something from Rohit and others by just sharing the dressing room with them.

“Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s participation meant that Ayush Mhatre, who had got a couple of hundreds and some fifties, had to be left out of the Mumbai side. Hopefully, the youngster would have spent some time with both these players and picked their brains about adding to his batting ability,” he wrote.

After urging India’s flops on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to make Ranji Trophy return, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar is delighted to see skipper Rohit Sharma committing himself to Mumbai’s upcoming match against Jammu & Kashmir. Rohit, who last played a Ranji Trophy match in 2015, has also been given additional security for the upcoming match, considering his status, while seating capacity has also been increased for as many as 500 people by the authorities. Rohit, who struggled for runs on the tour of Australia, has some big amends to make if he is to continue his career in the longest format.

Mumbai, the defending champions of Ranji Trophy, will resume the second leg of the premier domestic competition here at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy in BKC against a formidable J&K side starting on Thursday.

Gavaskar, who was livid for Rohit and other top Indian batters’ performances Down Under, is happy to see the skipper putting the hard yards in the domestic circuit.

“Yes, it’s a good thing because, look, he didn’t get runs in Australia, so he knows he needs to spend time out in the middle. How much net practice you have or however many throwdowns you face, batting in a game, feeling the ball in the middle of the bat, knowing that a mistake will send you back to the pavilion, and then still scoring runs is a big, big difference,” Sunil Gavaskar told India Today.

With Rohit named in Mumbai’s 17-member squad along with fellow Test opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, a significant crowd turnout can be expected on the match day here at Mumbai Cricket Association’s BKC facility.

However, sitting arrangements can be made for only up to 500 people where Mumbai side has been regularly playing its league games in the Ranji Trophy.

“Additional security has been arranged and we have also increased the sitting capacity of fans up to 500,” a MCA official told PTI.

Mumbai are placed third behind table-leaders Baroda and second-placed J&K in Elite Group A and will need do find their best in order to progress in the competition.

With PTI Inputs