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Big picture: South Africa missing their big guns

South Africa posted a 328-run win in the first Test against Zimbabwe, but they will be depleted in the second Test by the absence of Keshav Maharaj, who has been ruled out with a groin strain.As a result, Wiaan Mulder will take over the captaincy even though he has no prior experience of leading a side in first-class cricket. Having played 20 Tests, Mulder is the second-most experienced player in this South Africa squad behind Kyle Verreynne, who has played 26. They are without many of their main players, including regular captain Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram and Kagiso Rabada.Related

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In total, South Africa have 93 caps, including Zubayr Hamza, who didn’t play the first Test. Lesogo Senokwane and Prenelan Subrayen, meanwhile, are still uncapped at this level.But South Africa have some exciting players in their ranks. Lhuan-dre Pretorius struck a barnstorming 153 in the first Test, while Corbin Bosch struck a century and took a five-wicket haul. As for Mulder, he scored 147 and had a four-wicket haul. After having impressed in IPL 2025 and the T20 Blast, Dewald Brevis hit 51 off 41 in his maiden Test innings.In contrast, Zimbabwe will be banking on experience. Sean Williams struck a sublime 137 in the first Test and has an average of 68.22 since 2020. Wellington Masakadza made a fourth-innings fifty in the first Test. But Zimbabwe will need more from their captain Craig Ervine, who scored 36 and 49 in that match.Blessing Muzarabani will lead the bowling attack with Tanaka Chivanga bubbling with confidence after taking a match haul of 6 for 159 in the first Test. Legspinner Vincent Masekesa produced some magic deliveries, too, but he will have to provide more control if Zimbabwe are to turn the tables on South Africa.

Form guide

Zimbabwe LLLWL
South AfricaWWWWWSean Williams has been Zimbabwe’s standout batter in Test cricket over the past five years•Zimbabwe Cricket

In the spotlight: Sean Williams and Corbin Bosch

Sean Williams has been Zimbabwe’s best Test batter in the last five years. In the first Test, he once again bailed his team out of trouble with his simple but effective technique. Williams’ short back-lift allows him to drive comfortably and he is arguably Zimbabwe’s best player of spin, thanks to his variety of sweeps.Corbin Bosch‘s double of five wickets and a century in the first Test was the first for South Africa in 23 years. Bosch is a hit-the-deck bowler who is capable of hitting 140kph. He usually bowls with the old ball and his century batting at No. 8 was a throwback to South Africa’s heydays of Shaun Pollock and Lance Klusener.

Team news: Muthusamy may get a game

Brian Bennett, who suffered a concussion during the first Test, could miss this Test, and Prince Masvaure, who was his concussion replacement, could keep his place in the XI. Trevor Gwandu, Clive Madande, Kundai Matigimu and Newman Nyamhuri are the other options on the bench for Zimbabwe.Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Prince Masvaure, 2 Takudzwanashe Kaitano, 3 Nick Welch, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Craig Ervine (capt), 6 Wessly Madhevere, 7 Tafadzwa Tsiga (wk), 8 Wellington Masakadza, 9 Vincent Masekesa, 10 Blessing Muzarabani, 11 Tanaka ChivangaMaharaj’s injury opens up a place for Senuran Muthusamy. They also have Hamza, Senokwane and Subrayen as options in the squad.South Africa (probable): 1 Matthew Breetzke, 2 Tony de Zorzi, 3 Wiaan Mulder (capt), 4 David Bedingham, 5 Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 6 Dewald Brevis, 7 Kyle Verreynne (wk), 8 Corbin Bosch, 9 Senuran Muthusamy, 10 Codi Yusuf, 11 Kwena Maphaka

Pitch and conditions: A lively surface on the cards

For a change, pace dominated spin in the first Test at the Queens’ Sports Club. The scoring rate, too, was higher than usual from both sides, though the pitch slowed down considerably later in the Test. The weather remains chilly, at times slipping to around 13-degrees Celsius.

Stats and trivia: Williams second only to Andy Flower

• At 19 years and 93 days, Pretorius became the youngest to hit 150 in men’s Tests.
• Williams, who began his international career 13 months before Pretorius was born, also made a century in the first Test in Bulawayo. It got him level with Grant Flower and Brendan Taylor on the centuriion’ table for Zimbabwe in Test cricket. Only Andy Flower is ahead of Williams now.
• This will only be the third Test since September 2017 where South Africa will be without Rabada, Bavuma, Maharaj and Markram.

– Match abandoned due to rainThe much-anticipated Champions Trophy match between Australia and South Africa in Rawalpindi was washed out without even a toss, forget a ball being bowled, after persistent drizzle. The match was called off at 5.10pm local time, three hours and ten minutes after the scheduled start of play at 2pm and two hours and 22 minutes before the cut-off time for a 20-overs-a-side game, 7.32pm local time. This was due to be the teams’ first meeting at a Champions Trophy.The result means that if Australia and South Africa win their final group matches, against Afghanistan and England respectively, they will progress to the semi-finals. Wednesday’s match between Afghanistan and England is a knockout, with the loser certain of exiting the competition. The winner will have to beat their next opposition to make it through to the final four. As a result, one of the matches between Australia and Afghanistan on Friday and South Africa and England on Saturday could be a virtual quarter-final. Both Afghanistan and England have to win both their matches to qualify for the semi-finals.With no XIs named for this encounter, South Africa kept their cards close to their chest on Heinrich Klaasen’s availability. He missed their opening match against Afghanistan with an elbow injury and now has three more days to recover before the game against England on Saturday.This was due to be the first meeting between Australia and South Africa since the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-final, which Australia won, and means that they continue to have the advantage over South Africa in ICC events. In nine matches, Australia have won four, South Africa three, there was a tie at the 1999 World Cup and now, their first washout.

Jay Shah, the ICC chair and ex-secretary of the BCCI, has joined a new Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) advisory board, which will replace the club’s world cricket committee.Shah was a notable absentee when MCC staged the inaugural World Cricket Connects forum last year, which saw over 100 leading voices gather at Lord’s to discuss the state of the global game. But he is among 13 founding members of the new World Cricket Connects advisory board, which will be chaired by former MCC president Kumar Sangakkara.MCC announced on Thursday that the second World Cricket Connects forum will be staged on June 7 and 8, before Lord’s hosts the World Test Championship final. MCC chair Mark Nicholas said: “We are looking forward to welcoming many of the game’s most influential figures to debate the most important topics that dominate global cricket.”The new advisory board replaces the world cricket committee, which formed in 2006 and met for the final time last summer. Other founding members include Sourav Ganguly, Graeme Smith and Andrew Strauss, as well as England women’s captain Heather Knight and JioStar’s CEO (Sports), Sanjog Gupta.”An important step has been made in the forming of the World Cricket Connects Advisory Board,” Nicholas said. “We have assembled an impressive group of the best minds in cricket across several different areas relevant to our sport. I am delighted to be working with this experienced group and excited about what we can collectively achieve for the benefit of the global game.”The world cricket committee was an independent body which did not hold any formal power, but its recommendations have often been adopted by the ICC. These have included calls for a Decision Review System, the formation of a World Test Championship, the introduction of day-night Test cricket, and the use of a shot clock to improve slow over-rates,The new advisory board will meet virtually throughout the year, and in person after the symposium at Lord’s. MCC said: “This independent group will shape the annual World Cricket Connects agenda, help facilitate the event’s discussions and in turn maximise the opportunity for genuine impact on the health of the game.”World Cricket Connects advisory board members: Kumar Sangakkara (chair), Anurag Dahiya (ICC chief commercial officer), Chris Dehring (CWI CEO), Sourav Ganguly, Sanjog Gupta (JioStar CEO – Sports), Mel Jones, Heather Knight, Trudy Lindblade (Cricket Scotland CEO), Heath Mills (World Cricketers’ Association chair), Imtiaz Patel (Former SuperSport chair), Jay Shah, Graeme Smith, Andrew Strauss.

Ben Sawyer has been reappointed head coach of the New Zealand women’s team for two years.Sawyer, who oversaw New Zealand’s first-ever T20 World Cup win earlier this year – they beat South Africa in the final – will remain at the helm until December 2026. This period includes the women’s ODI World Cup in India in late 2025 and the women’s T20 World Cup in England in mid 2026.”I’m stoked Ben’s re-signed with us,” white-ball captain Sophie Devine said. “The work he’s done with the White Ferns group and for women’s cricket in New Zealand has been huge.Related

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“The team is in a great spot right now, so I think locking him in for another two years and having that consistency will be big for us.”Sawyer, who has worked as an assistant coach with the Australia women’s team in the past, was first appointed New Zealand head coach on a two-year contract in June 2022, which ran through till the end of the India tour in October 2024. His reappointment follows an extensive review process, according to a NZC press release.New Zealand did not start their year well, winning just one in 13 T20Is heading into the T20 World Cup, but they turned things around in the UAE.”We’re so pleased to have Ben sign on for another two years,” Liz Green, NZC head of women’s high performance, said. “He’s unlocked a lot of belief and trust in this group and to have him stay now is massive, both for the current squad, and the long-term planning for the White Ferns. The consistency and stability is important.”Ben’s played a big part in progressing the White Ferns and helping build the women’s pathway. There was a huge amount of growth during that tournament, a result of what Ben and the coaches have been building over the last two years.”New Zealand will next take on Australia in a three-match ODI series that gets underway on December 19 in Wellington. The squad for the series will be announced later this week.NZC also said that the T20 World Cup trophy will be on display at the upcoming matches, “giving fans the chance to see it up close and capture photos”.

Brendon McCullum, England’s head coach, says his team have “no excuses” after crashing to a 2-1 series defeat with back-to-back losses in Multan and Rawalpindi, but admits he was surprised it took Pakistan until the second Test to prepare the sort of spinning pitches that have been his team’s undoing on recent tours of the subcontinent.Pakistan had been left with no place to hide after England’s ruthless victory on a flat deck in the first Test in Multan, where they powered past a seemingly impressive first-innings 556 to post 823 for 7 declared, the fourth-highest Test total in history, with Harry Brook setting up their innings win with a career-best 317.But, after changing their selection panel and tailoring the subsequent surfaces with the use of heaters and industrial fans, Pakistan transformed their fortunes, with spinners Sajid Khan and Noman Ali sharing 39 of England’s next 40 wickets, as their opponents mustered just 814 runs across their final four innings of the series.Not only is the result a stark turnaround from England’s 3-0 win in Pakistan two years ago, it comes in the wake of their 4-1 loss in India in February, meaning that England have now gone from winning four in a row under Stokes and McCullum in Asia, to losing six of their last seven, and by comprehensive margins.Related

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“That’s life,” McCullum told Sky Sports after England’s nine-wicket defeat. “We obviously coughed up the opportunity to win the series. We did some good stuff throughout, and we leave ultimately disappointed, but also very much complimentary of how Pakistan played. But we know within ourselves that we’ve had an opportunity to have been better than that and we’re a little bit disappointed about that.”Credit to Pakistan, the way that those two spinners bowled was superb,” McCullum said, after Noman and Sajid had combined to rout England for 112 in their second innings in Rawalpindi.”I thought they varied the pace beautifully. Noman from one end, taking pace off most of the time with the occasional fast one, and Sajid flipping that around and putting pace on with the occasional slow one. I thought was great partnership bowling. And our guys weren’t able to sustain the pressure, unfortunately.”Asked if he was comfortable with the extreme measures that Pakistan had taken to bring their spinners into the series, including the seemingly unprecedented reuse of the first-Test pitch in Multan, and the raking of the Rawalpindi surface to exacerbate the turn on offer, McCullum said he welcomed the initiative they had shown.”I kind of like it to be honest,” he said. “They were brave enough to make decisions on their personnel, and they were brave enough to make decisions on the surfaces that they wanted to play on.”When teams come to England, ideally we play on the surfaces that we’re more accustomed to, which allow our strengths to really flourish and maybe paper over some of the weaknesses as well, which every team naturally has.”I’m a little bit surprised it’s taken Pakistan as long as it has. Because when you go to Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, the ball is always going to turn. What we had here a couple of years ago, or in that first Test match, where it was pretty flat, was a different challenge. It’ll be interesting to see over the next couple of years whether they persist with these types of services, but certainly there are no excuses from our point of view. We had our chances, and we ran second.”Despite remaining magnanimous, McCullum acknowledged that the series defeat would increase the scrutiny on his team. Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley were notably short of answers in the more extreme conditions, while Brook managed a top score of 26 in his final four innings of the tour, having racked up four centuries and a fifty in his previous six in Pakistan.England were thoroughly outplayed in spinning conditions in Multan and Rawalpindi•Getty Images

“It’s pretty much the same batting group that came here two years ago, and were outstanding in these conditions, and it’s the same batting group that put on 800 in the first Test match,” McCullum said. “As the conditions changed, we were presented with different challenges and we weren’t quite able to adapt to those challenges. And that’s a missed opportunity.”I have no doubt, and the skipper has no doubt, that our batting group that we’ve now had together for the best part of 18 months is the best that we’ve got,” he added. “We’re very confident, we’ve just got to make sure we keep allowing guys to develop them and keep becoming the players that they want to become, and will benefit from that.”The focus will also fall on England’s spinners, particularly Shoaib Bashir and Jack Leach, whose direct counterparts Sajid and Noman exploited the conditions with significantly more success in the final two Tests. Bashir, whose selection for the India tour had been on the basis of his natural attributes, rather than any proven record in first-class cricket, has now bowled more overs in Tests in 2024 than any other player, but his series haul of nine wickets at 49.66 pales compared to Sajid’s 19 at 21.10.”[Sajid and Noman] were brilliant in the way they bowled together, and they challenged in different methods with the paces that they used,” McCullum said. “Could we have been better? Yeah, of course, right? Anytime you lose a Test or lose a series, you’ve got to have that period of reflection. And we’ll do that, and say, right, next time we’re presented with conditions similar to that, how will we respond? What do we need to do? Do we need to vary our pace more? Do we need to adjust our tactics more? That’s natural, right? It’s no difference to when a batsman gets out.”You’re always trying to improve, but you’ve got to be really careful that you’re not seeking perfection, because it doesn’t exist in an inconsistent game. The game we play is going to come with periods where it’s not going how you want it to, but you’ve still got to hold firm.”We will be confronted with spinning conditions at some stage in the future, and we hope that some of the lessons, good and bad that we’ve had throughout this series, will give us a bit more of a base to be able to be successful.”

The range of viable investors in the Hundred teams is “way broader and bigger” than anticipated ahead of Friday’s first-round deadline for bids. That is according to the ECB’s senior leadership team, who defended the Hundred’s projected valuations of overseas broadcast rights on Wednesday by insisting: “We are confident in our product”.The ECB sent investment prospectuses to around 100 interested parties last month, who were set a deadline of October 18 to register their initial interest in buying a stake in one of the eight Hundred teams. The teams are currently owned by the ECB but will become franchises run as joint-ventures with host counties (or the MCC) once the sale process is complete.The Hundred’s overseas broadcast rights are currently valued at around £2 million per year. Financial projections in the prospectuses distributed by Deloitte and the Raine Group – who are running the sales process – involve a jump to £33 million by 2030, with a year-on-year growth rate of 42%.One prospective investor, who has since withdrawn from the sales process, told ESPNcricinfo that those figures “make no sense” and had not been fully explained. “It seems like they first thought of a valuation then made up the numbers to justify it – things like the sudden and exponential growth in broadcast revenue from India and North America,” they said.Richard Gould and Richard Thompson, the ECB’s chief executive and chair respectively, are in Multan this week during England’s second Test against Pakistan, ahead of the first-round deadline. They said the board has fielded interest from a “full gamut” of potential investors and defended the projected increase in revenue from Indian broadcast rights.Related

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“We are not making an assumption that India’s men’s players will be released, because that has not been what has happened,” Gould said. “We are confident in our product, in terms of the window we occupy and the players we’ve got available. There are loads of T20 and short-format franchise competitions out there at the moment, and I don’t think they are all going to last, in truth.”Gould said that “about 100 or so” interested parties had requested access to the ECB’s “data room”, including “a lot of Indian interest” with the majority of owners of IPL and WPL franchises understood to be involved in the process. He said there has also been interest “from America, from other sports and investment houses”.He said: “We’re getting towards the end of stage one this week… at the moment, they can express an interest in all eight clubs. We’ll have a better indication over the next week or two. Thereafter, we’ll spend a month or so going through those. At the end of that process, they will be able to go and meet the county clubs and see where their relationships work best.”During that period they can have an interest in up to four teams. When we get to the crunch time, which is the next phase, they can only put their name in for two teams, and they can only win one. Clearly, we want to maximise the value, because the value the ECB holds is on behalf of the game.”Gould said there were “a few tyre-kickers” among the parties to initially register their interest, but Thompson insisted that the ECB had outstripped expectations overall. “Raine originally said they thought there’d be three to four bidders per team,” he said. “The investment base is way broader and bigger than they expected.”Vikram Banerjee, the ECB’s director of business operations, said last month that the sale process could be delayed beyond next year if the right bids do not come in. Thompson suggested that the 2025 season could be a “hybrid” model, with some teams still owned by ECB and others by private investors.”What we don’t want is to just feel bounced into selling all of them and thinking, ‘We could have got a lot more if we’d held back because that particular team wasn’t ready to go,'” he said. “The worst thing we could do would be to undersell the game and look back thinking, ‘We let some of these franchises go at prices that weren’t full market value.'”

The 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup, starting October 3 in the UAE, will be the first ICC event to feature the Smart Replay System. The technology was previously used in the Hundred and IPL 2024.”The coverage will feature a minimum of 28 cameras at every game, and will be complemented by a variety of analytical and visual enhancements. The Decision Review System (DRS) will also be available at all matches, with a Hawk-Eye Smart Replay System in place that enables the TV umpire to instantly review synchronized multi-angle footage for accurate decision-making,” the ICC stated in a release.Related

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Under the Smart Replay System, the TV umpire will receive inputs directly from two Hawk-Eye operators who will be sitting in the same room as the umpire and provide her with images captured by Hawk-Eye’s eight hi-speed cameras across the ground. The TV broadcast director, who used to be a conduit between the third umpire and the Hawk-Eye operators until now, will no longer be involved under this system. This also allows the TV umpire to refer to more visuals than she previously had access to, including split-screen images.In case of a stumping referral under the Smart Replay System, the TV umpire can ask the Hawk-Eye operators for split-screen visuals. In case there is a visible gap when the ball passed bat, the TV umpire will not ask for the UltraEdge (to see if it was a caught behind) and instead directly proceed to check the side-on replay for the stumping. If the TV umpire doesn’t see a clear gap between bat and ball, only then will she refer to UltraEdge.For stumpings, the new system will show the TV umpire tri-vision – essentially footage from side-on cameras as well as from front-on in a single frame. The front-on camera angle is important because it gives an accurate picture of bails being removed. Previously the broadcaster would show the side-on angle from each side along with footage from Stump Cam. But Stump Cam records the action at a low speed of approximately 50 frames per second, as opposed to the Hawk-Eye cameras which record at approximately 300 frames per second, meaning there will now be more accurate footage for the umpires to base their decision on.Like it was at the T20 World Cup last year, this tournament will also have an all-female panel of umpires and match officials.

Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batter Niroshan Dickwella has been suspended indefinitely following a doping violation, Sri Lanka Cricket has confirmed.Dickwella is understood to have failed a doping test held in line with World Anti-Doping guidelines, during the recently concluded Lanka Premier League, and will be suspended from all forms of cricket while further investigations take place.”The suspension is effective immediately and will remain in place until further notice,” stated an SLC media release.”The test, which was conducted by the Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency (SLADA) during the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2024, is part of SLC’s ongoing commitment to maintaining the integrity of the sport.”This initiative, undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports and in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) guidelines, is aimed at ensuring that cricket remains free from the influence of prohibited substances.”SLC, together with the Ministry of Sports and SLADA, conducts these tests during domestic tournaments randomly to safeguard the sport against anti-doping violations.”The 31-year-old, who had captained Galle Marvels in LPL 2024, had last turned out for the national side in March 2023 but had received a call-up for Sri Lanka’s T20I series against Bangladesh earlier this year. He did not feature in a single game.Following his selection, the selectors intimated that they had spoken with Dickwella over his poor disciplinary record. The left-handed batter has been no stranger to controversy throughout his career, with his off-field lifestyle proving a lightning rod for criticism in light of his frequently erratic form. He was most notably among three players banned for breaching bio-bubble protocols in 2021, alongside Kusal Mendis and Danushka Gunathilake.Dickwella has kept wicket for Sri Lanka across formats, scoring 2757 runs in Tests, 1604 in ODIs and 480 in T20Is.

Sydney Thunder have secured a significant signing ahead of WBBL10 by bringing in allrounder Georgia Voll from Brisbane Heat on a three-year deal.Voll, 20, is one of the most highly regarded batting talents in the Australian game and has also had an impact with her offspin.Last season was somewhat of a struggle with the bat in the WBBL as she slid down the order during the tournament, finishing with 206 runs at 18.72 and a strike-rate of 112.56, but she claimed 4 for 19 in the Challenger final against Perth Scorchers before Heat went down to Adelaide Strikers in the final.Related

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However, her batting prowess was on show later in the season when she struck a double century in the red-ball ‘Green and Gold’ game in Adelaide and also made two WNCL hundreds for Queensland.Voll had interest from a number of WBBL clubs but said conversations with Thunder coach Lisa Keightley had swayed her decision.”I never expected myself to play for a New South Wales team, to be honest, but after talking to Lisa and the guys down there, I’m super excited for the opportunity, and it’s a really good young group coming through,” she said.”Lisa was quite clear on the role she wants me to play and what she wants me to do and that sort of got me over the line. I liked what the Thunder were about last year, really playing as a team and getting around each other on and off the field.”Trent Copeland, Sydney Thunder general manager, added: “Georgia has shown since the day she arrived on the scene that she is a special talent with both bat and ball If you were to pinpoint the next young star to crack the Australian setup, Georgia is it. The 200 for Australia A in red-ball cricket, two hundreds in WNCL last season and the all-round capabilities we’ve seen for the Heat in WBBL. This is a huge signing for the club.”Voll’s departure continues significant change at Heat during the off-season with them also losing New Zealand allrounder Amelia Kerr to Sydney Sixers while coach Ashley Noffke has departed for a job in New Zealand. However, they have signed South Africa allrounder Nadine de Klerk on a two-year deal and will still have a formidable top order that includes Grace Harris, Georgia Redmayne, Laura Harris and emerging allrounder Charli Knott.

Wes Agar has been forced to cut short his 2024 season at Kent after sustaining a shoulder injury in their County Championship match against Worcestershire in the second week of May.Though Agar recovered sufficiently enough to play against Essex at the end of last month, the decision has been taken for the fast bowler to return to Australia to facilitate a full recovery. Agar, who has two ODI caps, was originally due to be at Canterbury until the end of July, available for both the County Championship and the Vitality Blast. He leaves having not appeared in the latter this summer.The loss of the South Australian was softened by confirmation that Agar will return for the 2025 season, again on an all-format deal running from April to July, subject to regulatory approval. Agar took 12 County Championship wickets at 34.25 this season, having taken 21 at 28.33 during his first stint at the club in 2023, which saw him finish the campaign as their joint-leading wicket-taker alongside Matt Quinn, despite playing just six matches.”I’m thrilled to be coming back to my ‘home away from home’ again next year,” said Agar in a statement on Tuesday. “I feel fully part of the Kent Cricket Family now – it’s a great Club full of great people on and off the field and the decision to sign on again for another English summer was an easy one to make. I can’t wait to pull on that Kent shirt again and perform in front of our Members and supporters in 2025.”I’m gutted to be leaving the lads early this time, and I’ve absolutely loved my time in Canterbury this year. See you all in April!”Kent’s Director of Cricket, Simon Cook, said: “Wes is a talented multi-format cricketer and a very popular member of our dressing room – we’re extremely pleased that he will be joining us again next Summer.”His ethos and work ethic is great to have around the place, and we’re looking forward to him being an important part of our attack at the front end of our 2025 season. It’s sad to see him leave early with his shoulder injury, but we know that he will come back with the same enthusiasm to perform at his best in a Kent shirt next year.”Agar’s recovery will be with a view to playing a full part in South Australia’s Sheffield Shield campaign. He will then turn out for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League, having left Adelaide Strikers after eight seasons as the first player in the BBL to be traded as part of a pick exchange in the overseas draft.