UDARA CRICKET FACE

Broad likely to be rested for Edgbaston Test

2012-06-04T18:17:00.003-07:00

England is planning to rest Stuart Broad at Edgbaston this week after resting a disappointed Jimmy Anderson, who wanted to play in the third Investec Test against West Indies.

The move would see Test returns for Steve Finn and Graham Onions. If they impress in practice, they will most likely team up with Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann in a four-man attack.

Coach Andy Flower is keen to conserve his first-choice new-ball pairing before the start of a busy summer looming, including the Test series against South Africa.

But another aspect of the rotation is that Flower is also keen to see how Finn and Onions shape in a match situation, The Daily Express reports.

Anderson's disappointment was made clear in his Sunday newspaper column, stressing that he was fully fit despite suggestions he had struggled at Trent Bridge with a slight quadriceps problem.

National selector Geoff Miller explained England's thinking with regard to Anderson at least, when naming the 12-man squad.

"James Anderson will miss this Test as we look to manage his workload ahead of a busy period - a decision which is the best interests of the team and James himself," said Miller.

"We have been made to work hard for our two victories and are delighted to have secured the series. However, we know that we will need to continue to play some good cricket if we want a third win," he said.

Following the third Test, England play West Indies in three ODIs and one T20, Australia in five ODIs and then South Africa in three Tests, five ODIs and three T20s - all before they travel to Sri Lanka for the defence of their world T20 crown.

Gayle formally recalled to West Indies squad

2012-06-04T17:30:00.002-07:00

Chris Gayle will finally be back in the West Indies colours © AFP

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West Indies ODI squad

Chris Gayle, Johnson Charles, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Darren Sammy (capt), Dwayne Smith, Andre Russell, Tino Best, Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul, Sunil Narine

"Directors of the West Indies Cricket Board recently met by teleconference and are pleased that consistent with his previous commitment Mr Chris Gayle has made himself available for selection to the West Indies team," a WICB statement had said of the meeting. "The board believes that Mr Gayle's stated commitment to West Indies cricket will be an asset to the team and looks forward to his contributions in that regard."

Gayle's recall was first mooted during West Indies' earlier home series against Australia, when he met with WICB officials to repair a relationship that had deteriorated around the emergence of Twenty20 and the rise of the Indian Premier League. It then dissolved entirely when the former captain criticised the coach Ottis Gibson and the WICB during a radio interview last year.

In England the mood for Gayle's return has gathered strength, pushed along by the words of Kevin Pietersen, who said it would be "brilliant for the game" if he was recalled, while the former West Indies fast bowler and widely respected commentator Michael Holding effectively challenged the WICB to stop delaying Gayle's rehabilitation as an international player.

Lendl Simmons is the other notable recall to the ODI team after he missed the home matches against Australia. Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell also return to the team for limited-overs matches after completing their IPL duties.

Sri Lanka's search for a consistent start

2012-06-04T11:21:00.001-07:00

When Sri Lanka begin their Test series against Pakistan on June 22, one of the aspects that they'll want to set right is their opening combination. During the days of Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu, there wasn't much to worry about - especially in home Tests - but since their departure things have changed, as Sri Lanka have tried several options without finding a stable replacement. Their star-studded middle order of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera has compensated with some outstanding performances - all three average more than 55 over the last six years. Thanks largely to their contribution, Sri Lanka's overall partnership average for all wickets is the third-best during this period, but that shouldn't hide the fact that their opening act has been one of the worst in world cricket in this time.

In the last six years (since the beginning of May 2006), Sri Lanka's opening pairs - there have been 15 during this period - have averaged a mere 29.83 per completed partnership, with only four century stands in 93 innings. That's a far cry from their record between 2000 and 2004: in those five years, their average opening stand was 43.01, which was thefourth-best average among all teams, next only to South Africa, Australia and England. That was a period dominated by the Jayasuriya-Atapattu pair - they opened in 75 out of 91 innings, and averaged more than 44 per stand. Sri Lanka had nine century stands for the first wicket in those five years, all of them courtesy that pair, which means the two batsmen averaged 8.33 innings per century partnership during that period, and the team had a century stand every 10.11 innings. Also, Sri Lanka's opening pair lasted, on average, 73 deliveries (12.1 overs) during that period.

In the last six years those numbers have dropped drastically. For almost the same number of innings, almost twice as many combinations have been tried, which indicates how unsettled it has been at the top. Those 15 combinations have produced, on average, an opening partnership of 29.83, lasted about 8.5 overs per partnership, and produced a century stand once every 23 innings. Whichever way you look at it, the fall in standards has been quite dramatic.

Sri Lankan opening pairs, then and now
Period	Pairs	Innings	Runs	Average	100/ 50 stands	Balls per dism.	Inngs/100
Jan 2000-Dec 2004	8	91	3699	43.01	9/ 15	73.15	10.11
Jan 2005-Apr 2006	7	23	657	31.28	1/ 4	54.57	23.00
May 2006 onwards	15	93	2715	29.83	4/ 17	51.56	23.25

Perhaps the biggest concern will be the falling numbers in home conditions. Opening the batting overseas - especially outside the subcontinent - has always been a tough task for subcontinent teams, but the story has generally been different at home. Between 2000 and 2004, Sri Lanka's opening combinations averaged almost 48 in Sri Lanka, with five century stands in 52 innings. The Jayasuriya-Atapattu combination averaged 48.40 in 45 innings.

In the last six years, though, Sri Lanka's home numbers have fallen away considerably, to 31.46, with only two century stands in 45 innings. The comparative averages in overseas and neutral venues are 28.37 in the last six years, and 36.81 between 2000 and 2004. Clearly the greater fall has been in home conditions, which the Sri Lankans will want rectify in the three Tests against Pakistan. In the last two home series, for example, the highest opening stand in eight innings was 81. In the last 35 opening partnerships at home, spreading across seven series, there has been only one century stand, and even that barely made it past 100 - 102, against West Indies in 2010. As you'd expect, in most overseas countries the opening partnerships haven't yielded much except in the West Indies and in India, though Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana had a couple of memorable partnerships on the last tour to England in 2011.

Sri Lankan opening partnerships in each country
Host country	2000-04: Inngs	Ave stand	100/ 50 stands	May 2006 onwards: Inngs	Ave stand	100/ 50 stands
Sri Lanka	52	47.69	5/ 12	45	31.46	2/ 10
England	7	42.67	0/ 1	12	32.08	1/ 1
West Indies	4	69.33	1/ 0	4	59.25	1/ 1
India	-	-	-	5	41.80	0/ 2
South Africa	10	13.30	0/ 0	6	23.83	0/ 1
Australia	4	16.50	0/ 0	4	29.00	0/ 1
Bangladesh	-	-	-	4	24.00	0/ 1
UAE	-	-	-	6	13.67	0/ 0
New Zealand	-	-	-	4	18.25	0/ 0
Pakistan	12	26.50	1/ 2	3	7.00	0/ 0
Zimbabwe	2	190.50	2/ 0	-	-	-

Sri Lanka's overall poor numbers for the first wicket during the last six years mean they're second from bottom in the table of average opening stands during this period - only New Zealand have done worse, with an average of 24.97. Sri Lanka's average is about 20 short of India's, who're on top of the table with an average of 49.80. (India's numbers are a fine example of how they've exploited home conditions - they average 62 at home, and 43 abroad. The surprise packet in terms of away opening stands is Bangladesh - they've had some superb partnerships for the first wicket in England and New Zealand, and average 47.76 overseas, but only 18.64 at home.)

Not surprisingly, Sri Lanka's balls-per-completed-partnership is among the poorest too, at 51.56 - only 0.01 better than New Zealand's.

Opening partnership stats for each team since May 1, 2006
Team	Pairs	Innings	Runs	Average	100/ 50 stands	Balls per dism.	Inngs/100
India	13	125	5977	49.80	19/ 24	70.96	6.58
Australia	11	114	5384	48.50	12/ 30	81.68	9.50
England	5	135	5797	43.58	15/ 25	83.20	9.00
South Africa	13	100	4222	43.52	8/ 25	76.34	12.50
Zimbabwe	2	8	304	38.00	1/ 2	76.13	8.00
Pakistan	15	91	3092	35.13	7/ 14	72.63	13.00
Bangladesh	5	57	1820	31.92	3/ 7	52.09	19.00
West Indies	19	99	3011	30.72	6/ 15	53.83	16.50
Sri Lanka	15	93	2715	29.83	4/ 17	51.56	23.25
New Zealand	15	81	1998	24.97	3/ 8	51.55	27.00

And now a look at the pairs who have opened for Sri Lanka during this period. There are 15 in all, but seven who've done so at least five times. Among them, the best stats, by a long way, belong to the Dilshan-Paranavitana combination: in 32 innings they average 41.80, with a best of 207 against England at Lord's last year. Since then, though, the pair has slumped, adding only 157 runs in their next ten partnerships, which led to Paranavitana being dropped in favour of Lahiru Thirimanne for the home series against England. In fact, Sri Lanka have tried various combinations among Dilshan, Paranavitana, Thirimanne, Michael Vandort and Malinda Warnapura, but they haven't yet settled on a consistent combination. In terms of batting averages of these openers, Dilshan is the only one with an average of 40. Some of the others have averages in the 30s, but Thirimanne has disappointed so far, averaging 19.84 in 14 innings. A couple of them will probably get more chances against Pakistan - all of Sri Lanka will be hoping they finally get the combination right this time.

Sri Lankan opening pairs since May 2006 (Qual: 5 innings)
Pair	Innings	Runs	Ave stand	100/ 50 stands	Run rate	Balls per dism.
Dilshan-Paranavitana	32	1296	41.80	2/ 10	3.92	63.94
Vandort-Warnapura	13	359	27.61	1/ 1	3.15	52.46
Paranavitana-Thirimanne	8	184	26.28	0/ 1	1.95	80.57
Paravitana-Warnapura	8	195	24.37	0/ 2	3.83	38.12
Dilshan-Thirimanne	5	118	23.60	0/ 1	4.34	32.60
Tharanga-Vandort	7	114	16.28	0/ 0	3.33	29.29
Jayasuriya-Tharanga	7	107	15.28	0/ 0	5.13	17.86

Sohail Tanvir retained for Sri Lanka ODIs

2012-06-04T08:14:00.002-07:00

Pakistan fast bowler Sohail Tanvir has been retained for the ODIs in Sri Lanka and will replace the injured opening batsman Nasir Jamshed in the squad. Tanvir impressed in the two Twenty20s in Hambantota, bowling economically and taking four wickets. He also picked up the Man-of-the-Series award.

On the request of team management, chief selector Iqbal Qasim in consultation with the National Selection Committee has recommended the inclusion of Tanvir in the ODI Squad for the series. The chairman of the PCB has approved the replacement.

"In view of the request from the team management and keeping in consideration the current form of Sohail Tanvir, the selection committee has decided that he may be retained for the ODIs in Sri Lanka." Qasim said.

Jamshed, who was originally named in the ODI and T20 squads, was ruled out before the team left for Sri Lanka due to a fractured left index finger. The PCB hadn't named a replacement back then.

Tanvir, who was named only in the Twenty20 squad for the current tour, last represented Pakistan in ODIs during the tour of Bangladesh in December 2011 where he played two matches but failed to pick up a wicket. He will miss at least the first two matches of this season's Friends Life t20 after signing up with English county Worcestershire.