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Manav Suthar. Second Test match. Ten wickets in the game. Six for 55 in the second innings alone to seal a 165-run win for India in Galle. Devdutt Padikkal. Third Test match. 167 runs in the first innings on one of the most spin-friendly surfaces in world cricket. Player of the Match. Not even close.

India came into this series without Jasprit Bumrah, lost Sai Sudharsan. They won by 165 runs. They bowled Sri Lanka out for 206 chasing 372. They did it on Day 5 with a spinner in his second Test match running through the tail with four wickets in ten balls.

The Ashwin era ended in December 2024. Everyone spent the last eight months asking who fills that spin role for India in subcontinental conditions. Suthar has now taken ten wickets across two Tests. The question might already have an answer and nobody had even heard his name six months ago. Padikkal's story is just as good — dropped, recalled, questioned, doubted, scored 142 not out in the warm-up match, scored 167 in the actual Test and won Player of the Match.

India are 1-0 up. Second Test in Colombo on August 23. Sri Lanka need to find answers fast because right now India look genuinely dangerous even without their best players.

Babar injured his right hand during Pakistan's warm-up game in Beckenham when he was struck by an England Under-19 pacer and was forced to retire hurt. It is the same hand that took a blow during the second Test against West Indies earlier this month. Pakistan waited until the last possible moment hoping he would recover in time. He has not. Coach Sarfaraz Ahmed confirmed at a Headingley press conference that Salman Ali Agha will captain Pakistan in a Test match for the first time in his career. There is no fracture in the middle finger but the pain has been significant enough to rule him out entirely. Sarfaraz was careful to say the absence is confined to the first Test for now and expressed hope that Babar will be fit for the second Test at Lord's.

The timing could not be worse for Pakistan. Babar averages 65.75 from four Tests on English soil and is arguably their most important batter in these conditions. Shan Masood is expected to return to the top of the order in his absence and Saud Shakeel will occupy a middle order slot. Salman Ali Agha is a capable cricketer who leads the T20I side and is a fixture across all three formats for Pakistan but leading a touring Test side in England for the first time is a completely different challenge. England have not lost a home Test series to Pakistan since 1996 and they will be fully aware that Pakistan have handed them a significant advantage before a single ball has been bowled at Headingley.nd. On day one of a three-match series.

The timing could not be worse. Babar averages 65.75 from four Tests on English soil — he is arguably one of the best Pakistan batters in English conditions. The one series where his record genuinely demands he plays and a finger injury picked up in Barbados has taken him out before a ball has been bowled.

England have not lost a home Test series to Pakistan since 1996. Thirty years. And Pakistan are now going into the first match of a three-Test series without their captain, without Shaheen Afridi and with a debutant captain leading them at Headingley.

Salman Ali Agha is a talented cricketer. He can bat, he can bowl off-spin and he has been a useful contributor in Test cricket. But leading a touring side in England in your first ever Test as captain is one of the hardest things you can ask any cricketer to do.Pakistan need something extraordinary at Headingley. And right now they have given themselves the hardest possible start.

Think about what happened in Darwin. Bangladesh bowled Australia out for 198 on the first day and then won the match by nine wickets. Australia's top order had no answers for Hasan Mahmud. Weatherald specifically could not get going at any point and paid the price immediately.Matt Renshaw comes back in. The 30 year old Queensland opener who has been in and out of the Australia Test squad for years depending on who else is available. He is reliable and technically correct and exactly the kind of batter Australia bring in when they need someone to actually bat rather than play shots.

But here is what makes this selection interesting. Australia changed only one player after losing a Test to Bangladesh for the first time in history. One. Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon all keep their places. The bowling attack that was outbowled by Hasan Mahmud and Taskin Ahmed in Darwin gets another go. The only person who pays with his spot is the opener.

That feels like the wrong lesson to take from what happened in Darwin. Bangladesh bowled brilliantly and batted even better. The problem was not just Weatherald. The whole top order crumbled and the bowling attack conceded 426 runs to a Bangladesh lineup missing Nahid Rana.But selectors rarely drop five players at once. Weatherald is the scapegoat and Renshaw is the fix. Australia need to win in Mackay to level the series. Bangladesh have Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Pat Cummins all determined to make a point after the embarrassment of Darwin.

Mackay. August 22. Australia's pride is on the line.

Jadeja now has 4,108 Test runs and 350 Test wickets. He is only the fourth player in the entire history of Test cricket to combine 4,000-plus runs with 350-plus wickets. Kapil Dev did it with 5,248 runs and 434 wickets. Ian Botham did it with 5,200 runs and 383 wickets. Daniel Vettori did it with 4,531 runs and 362 wickets. And now Jadeja.

He completed this double in 90 Tests and that makes him the second quickest to achieve it behind only Ian Botham who did it in 83.

The 4,000 runs milestone came in November 2025 during the South Africa Test in Kolkata on the second day of the first Test and he became the fourth player with 4,000 runs and 300-plus wickets at that point. Now with 350 wickets added to those runs the achievement is even more exclusive.

The 350th wicket itself came in typically Jadeja fashion. Keshara Nuwantha tried to slap-drive a turning delivery and the ball hit silly point Yashasvi Jaiswal's knee and lobbed up for a straightforward catch to Shubman Gill. Even milestone wickets have a bit of chaos around them when Jadeja is involved.

He is only the fifth Indian bowler to reach 350 Test wickets joining Anil Kumble with 619 and Ravichandran Ashwin with 537 and Kapil Dev with 434 and Harbhajan Singh with 417.

Among left-arm spinners he now sits third behind Rangana Herath with 433 and Daniel Vettori with 362.

People spent years arguing about whether Jadeja was a genuine wicket-taker or just a containing spinner. At 37 years old in his 90th Test he answered that question once and for all. 4,108 runs. 350 wickets. Kapil Dev. Ian Botham. Daniel Vettori. Ravindra Jadeja.

Swordsmanship celebration fully deserved.

Atul Wassan didn't hold back when he called out Gautam Gambhir's coaching style, describing it as a straight up my way or the highway approach that goes all the way back to his Delhi cricket days. He didn't stop there and said not everyone in the current squad is in a happy place under Gambhir, essentially confirming what a lot of fans had already suspected but couldn't prove. The timing makes it worse. Gambhir has genuinely delivered white ball glory with a T20 World Cup, a Champions Trophy, and an Asia Cup all under his belt, but Test cricket tells a completely different story. Home whitewashes against New Zealand and South Africa, plus losing the Border Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in ten years, is not a small dip in form, that's a full blown crisis. Wassan's comment basically puts into words what the results have been screaming for months. Winning covers up a lot of personality clashes, but the moment results stop coming, every uncomfortable truth about man management starts leaking out.

Let me lay out exactly what Gambhir has done since taking over in 2024. Champions Trophy 2025 won. Asia Cup 2025 won(not icc) . T20 World Cup 2026 won. Two ICC titles in two years. Under Dravid before him India won one in four years. By any white ball metric Gambhir is one of the most successful India coaches in history.

And yet before the Sri Lanka series started the headlines were full of "Gambhir's job on the line" and "senior players raising concerns with BCCI" and "dressing room politics developing." Not because of the white ball results. Because of Test cricket.

The Test record is genuinely difficult to defend. Home whitewashes against New Zealand and South Africa. Multiple support staff exits including two assistant coaches and a fielding coach. India are fifth in WTC standings with a 48.15 percentage.

But here is the context nobody is giving Gambhir. Kohli retired from Tests. Rohit retired from Tests. Ashwin retired. Jadeja has been managing injuries. Bumrah has been in and out with injuries all year. India went to Sri Lanka without Bumrah, without Sudharsan, without Washington Sundar and without Harshit Rana. And in that context Padikkal scored 167, Manav Suthar took a wicket with his very first ball in Test cricket and India are completely dominating.

BCCI's official position is confirmed. Gambhir is safe regardless of the Sri Lanka result and will continue at least until the 2027 ODI World Cup. VVS Laxman is reportedly comfortable staying at the BCCI Centre of Excellence. No interim appointment is being considered.

The real story is not whether Gambhir keeps his job. He will. The real story is why two ICC titles in two years are still not enough to silence the conversation when Test cricket struggles. And whether that is fair on any coach managing a team in the middle of the biggest generational transition Indian cricket has seen in two decades.

India had tried 11 different batters at number three across 19 Tests without a century. The position had been a problem for so long that it had become a running joke. Sai Sudharsan was the plan and he got injured before the tour. Padikkal stepped in as the replacement.

He came in after Jaiswal was run out for 32 with India at 47 for 1. Gill fell for 16. KL Rahul retired hurt with cramps after making 77. Through all of that Padikkal just kept going. He was 131 not out at stumps on Day 1. Then he came back on Day 2 in difficult conditions and rain had delayed the start and Sri Lanka's spinners were far more effective with better lines and lengths. Prabath Jayasuriya was turning the ball sharply and Keshara Nuwantha was troubling the batters. Seven wickets fell around him for 172 runs.

Padikkal kept going. He brought up 150. He eventually fell for 167 and that was his career best score and the highest by an Indian number three batter in Sri Lanka. India finished the innings on 462.

India coach Sitanshu Kotak said he had "used his opportunity brilliantly" and that is putting it mildly. He came as a replacement at a position nobody had owned for 19 Tests in Galle and scored 167. The number three problem India have had for two years is solved. At least for now.

Australia 198 and 284. Bangladesh 426 and 57 for 1. Nine wickets. Four days. Darwin.

Six days before this Test Bangladesh were bowled out for 54 against a Cricket Australia XI in their warm-up game. Nahid Rana was not there. Nobody gave them a chance. And then they went to Marrara Stadium and completely dismantled the number one Test team in the world from the very first session.

Hasan Mahmud was the architect. Six for 55 in the first innings as Australia were bowled out for 198 after losing the toss. Steve Smith top scored with 71 but the rest crumbled against disciplined seam bowling in conditions that were supposed to suit Australia. Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon all fit and playing together for the first time in over a year and none of them could stop what was coming.

Then Bangladesh batted. Tanzid Hasan made 101,his maiden Test century. Shanto made 84. Mehidy Hasan Miraz came in lower down and made 65. Bangladesh posted 426 and took a first innings lead of 228 runs. Hazlewood took 6 for 89 but the rest of Australia's attack had no answers.

Australia's second innings was better. Cameron Green made a heroic 104 to delay the inevitable and Australia reached 284. But Mehidy came back with the ball and took 5 for 66 in 33 overs at an economy of 2.00 — strangling Australia's lower order with relentless accuracy. Hasan Mahmud added 3 for 56.

Bangladesh needed 57 to win. They knocked them off in 14.2 overs with nine wickets to spare. Shanto wanted to play good cricket across all five days. He did not even need all five.

From 54 all out in the warm-up to beating Australia by nine wickets. In Australia. Without their best bowler. This is Bangladesh's greatest ever Test result and it is not particularly close.

Darwin. Day 1. Smith is on 7 runs when Ebadot Hossain gets one to kiss the outside edge. Bangladesh go up instantly. Dharmasena shakes his head. Shanto reviews. And Smith was already starting to walk off. His body language said everything.

He later stood in front of the press and said it himself. "I think so yeah" when asked if he nicked it. "I was lucky. Yeah, it seems that way. You got to take it sometimes." His exact words. On record. The DRS showed a flat line. Not out upheld.

Smith went on to make 71. The only score of substance in Australia's entire innings. Without those runs Australia are bowled out for something in the 120s and Bangladesh are looking at a first innings lead of 150 plus. The entire match changes.

This is not an accusation of cheating. The technology said what it said. But Smith publicly admitting he thought he had edged it while DRS cleared him completely opens up the same debate that has followed Australian cricket for years. About technology, about walking, about the spirit of the game.

Bangladesh bowled beautifully. Hasan Mahmud took 6-55. They did everything right. And then a moment they had no control over potentially cost them 50 runs of first innings lead.

Technology saved Steve Smith today. He said so himself.

Six days ago Bangladesh were bowled out for 54 in their warm-up match against a Cricket Australia XI. Nobody gave them a chance. The series was being written off before it started. And now they are sitting at tea on Day 2 with an 88-run first innings lead and a century from Tanzid Hasan that will be talked about in Bangladesh for a very long time.

Hasan Mahmud set the tone on Day 1 with a career-best 6 for 55 as Australia were bowled out for 198 on a flat Darwin pitch. Steve Smith top scored with 71 but the rest of the lineup crumbled against a disciplined and charged-up Bangladesh pace attack. Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon together for the first time in over a year and Bangladesh exposed every single one of them.

Tanzid Hasan brought up his century and then got out after it but Bangladesh never really looked in trouble throughout the innings. Mushfiqur Rahim is now in alongside Shanto and Bangladesh will be targeting a lead of somewhere between 150 and 200 before the innings closes.

Australia need something very special in the final session today. Because right now Bangladesh are not just competing in Australia. They are winning.

Look at Australia's XI for the Bangladesh Test. Cummins 33. Starc 36. Hazlewood 35. Lyon 38. Smith 36. Head 32. Labuschagne 31. Carey 34. The average age of this XI is 33 years old. That is not a cricket team, that is a reunion tour.

And the thing is ,t works right now. They are ranked first in the WTC standings. This generation of Australian cricketers is genuinely one of the greatest ever assembled. Nobody is questioning that.

But nobody is asking the uncomfortable question either. What happens in two years when this group starts breaking down at the same time?

Starc and Hazlewood are both on the wrong side of 35. Lyon turns 39 next year. Smith and Carey are mid-30s. These are not players who have five years left in them. They have maybe two, if the body holds up. And fast bowlers at 36 do not tend to hold up.

The Pipeline problem is real. Cameron Green at 27 is the only players under 30 in this XI. In an eleven. That is not a succession plan, that is a hope and a prayer.

Cricket Australia have been talking about "Project Green" and youth development for three years now. The article circulating today literally says "time is running out for Project Green to show results." That headline should terrify every Australian cricket fan.

England had this exact problem after 2005. One golden generation, no one behind them, and a decade of pain followed. Australia are staring at the same cliff edge and nobody wants to say it out loud because the current team keeps winning.

They will keep winning for another year or two. And then it is all going to hit at once.

ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta gave an interview today that every cricket fan needs to read. He did not mince words. "The era of randomly scheduled bilateral series has to come to an end, because countries will not be able to sustain cricket without context, culture, competition and competitiveness." Read that again. The man running world cricket just officially admitted the current system is broken.

Think about how many ODI series you watched in the last two years that genuinely meant nothing. Two teams, five matches, no stakes, no context, no reason to care. Boards scheduling series around broadcaster deals rather than any sporting logic. That era is apparently ending.

Jonty Rhodes added fuel to the fire at the same event, saying ODI cricket "might be in trouble" going forward. His reasoning was interesting — when T20 arrived everyone said it would kill Test cricket, it did not, but Rhodes believes 50-over cricket was always the most vulnerable format to T20's rise.

Here is the uncomfortable truth underneath all of this. Only Australia, England and India can currently afford to play Test cricket sustainably. Every other full member is struggling. The ICC CEO knows this. He is not just talking about ODIs. He is talking about the entire structure of international cricket being broken.

What replaces it is the real question. And nobody has answered that yet.

Let me put this in perspective. The last time Sri Lanka beat India in a Test series was 2008. Eighteen years ago. Ajantha Mendis was destroying India's batting with his mystery spin, Muttiah Muralitharan was still playing, and MS Dhoni had just taken over as captain. That's how long ago this was.

Since then India have come to Sri Lanka and won. Every single time. 2010 drawn. 2015 India won 2-1. 2017 India won 3-0, including a 304-run demolition in Galle itself, the very ground where this series starts on August 15. That 304-run win is still India's largest ever victory by runs against Sri Lanka.

The head-to-head numbers make it even more uncomfortable for Sri Lanka fans. 46 Tests between these two sides since 1982. India have won 22. Sri Lanka have won just 7. Seventeen draws. This is not a rivalry. This is India occasionally showing up and reminding Sri Lanka who the bigger team is.

And yet here is the thing nobody is saying out loud. India arrive at Galle without Bumrah. Without Sudharsan. With a captain in Shubman Gill who has never led India in a Test match before in sri lanka With a No. 3 spot that has been unsettled for three years. On one of the most spin-friendly surfaces in world cricket against a Sri Lanka side that has home advantage and everything to prove.

Sri Lanka have not beaten India in 18 years. But the conditions have never been this favourable for them to finally do it.

August 15. Galle. The streak either continues or it ends. There is no in-between.

Cricket Association of Nepal announced on August 10 that Sandeep Lamichhane will replace Rohit Paudel as Nepal's new ODI captain. His first series in charge will be the ACC Men's Premier Cup starting August 30 in Malaysia.

Context matters here. Paudel took over captaincy in 2022 and did a genuinely good job. Under his leadership Nepal won 11 of 12 ODIs in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 and qualified for the World Cup Qualifier. That was a successful era. This transition is not ungrateful, it is strategic.

Look at Lamichhane's numbers. 154 wickets in 77 ODIs. The fastest Nepali bowler to reach 150 ODI wickets, getting there in just 73 matches. The first player from Nepal to take 100 T20I wickets. And now captain at just 26 years old. This is a complete package.

Paudel remains in the squad so there is no permanent split between the two — both will play together, only the roles have changed.

The ACC Men's Premier Cup runs from August 30 to September 12 in Malaysia and carries real weight as a stepping stone toward 2027 Asia Cup qualification. The stakes for Nepal are genuinely high.

With Lamichhane leading, this feels like an exciting new chapter for Nepal cricket. World-class legspinner, proven experience, records already in the bag. Now it is time for the trophies.

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Abhishek Porel, the 23-year-old Bengal and Delhi Capitals wicketkeeper-batter, was arrested today by Kolkata police following a Calcutta High Court directive. He was produced before the Chinsurah Court on the same day after being taken into custody in Hooghly.

The complaint was originally filed in June 2026 at Magra Police Station in Hooghly district. The allegations include rape, criminal intimidation, and threats to circulate private photographs of the complainant. The case involves multiple non-bailable offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita alongside sections of the Information Technology Act. The court had also directed police to seize all of Porel's electronic devices to protect the complainant's privacy and dignity.

Porel has denied all allegations against him. The case remains under investigation and the allegations are yet to be established through legal proceedings.

On the cricket side, Porel has played 35 IPL matches for Delhi Capitals and over 100 domestic games for Bengal. He had featured in only four matches in IPL 2026 and had not played any competitive cricket since.

Further legal proceedings are expected to follow

The 2027 ODI World Cup was supposed to feature 14 teams in two groups of seven, followed by a Super Six stage. Standard format. Everyone knew the rules. Associate nations built their entire qualification campaigns around it.

Then the ICC held their annual conference in Edinburgh in July and just changed it. Added a "Super Series" and a "Super 7" phase. No consultation. No formal communication. No written explanation to the affected members even after two follow-up meetings.

Here is what the new format actually means. The three lowest-ranked qualifying sides now have to play a round-robin Super Series against each other first. Only one of those three advances to join the top 11 in the main groups. So you can qualify for the World Cup and still not actually play in the World Cup. You just get to play a mini-tournament to decide who gets the real spot.

Scotland and Netherlands released a joint statement and did not hold back. They called it a "setback to Associate Member cricket" that risks "undermining the progress made in recent years to grow the global game." They pointed out that some of the most iconic World Cup moments came from Associate nations beating Full Members on the biggest stage. Ireland beating Pakistan in 2007. Netherlands beating England in 2011. Those moments happened because smaller nations got to actually play.

The ICC has not responded. Not publicly, not privately, not in writing. Two meetings have been requested. Nothing has come back.These are nations with limited funding, limited resources, and players who work second jobs to represent their country at international level. They planned years around a qualification format the ICC confirmed and then scrapped without explanation 18 months before the tournament.The ICC will talk about growing the game every single chance they get. Then they do this.

Manchester Super Giants vs Welsh Fire. The Hundred 2026. Buttler walks in at No. 3, chasing 156, and hammers Marco Jansen for three consecutive sixes. With the first of those sixes, he surpassed Kieron Pollard's tally of 14,803 career runs to become the highest run-scorer in men's T20 history. "It's really cool, actually, to think you've got the most T20 runs out of anyone," he told Sky Sports after the match.

But then Chris Gayle opened Instagram.

Gayle spent 12 years as T20 cricket's leading run-scorer before being overtaken by Pollard earlier this year. He replied to a Cricinfo post with just four words. "Hundred stats added to T20 stats?" And a shrugging emoji. Just like that, a debate that had been sitting quietly since 2021 exploded back into the conversation.

The Hundred counts toward T20 records because while it uses 100 balls instead of 120, it is still played across 20 overs with five balls per over instead of six. That's the official reasoning. But if you strip out The Hundred stats entirely, Gayle would still be the all-time leading run-scorer, 29 runs ahead of Pollard and 921 ahead of Buttler. The record looks very different depending on which side of the argument you stand on.

Buttler has now scored 14,833 runs in 522 T20 matches. Pollard took 746 matches to reach 14,803. Whatever you think about the Hundred stats debate, the efficiency argument is undeniable. Buttler got there in 224 fewer matches.

Buttler himself predicted after the milestone that someone will surpass it one day and named Vaibhav Sooryavanshi as the most likely candidate. High praise from the man who just broke the record.

The milestone is real. The debate is real. Both things can be true at the same time.

The King. That is what they call him. The King.

Kings score Test centuries. Kings do not get run out for 88 while chasing 12 runs with a match on the line. Kings do not average 31 in their last 28 Test innings while their fans make excuse after excuse about pitch conditions, team support, and bad luck.

Let me tell you what Babar Azam has done in Test cricket since December 2022. Nothing. Literally nothing of match winning significance. 28 innings. Zero centuries. Highest score 88, which ended in a run out so embarrassing that even the commentators went quiet for a second.This is the man Pakistan are sending to Headingley. Against Jofra Archer. Against Gus Atkinson. Against an England pace attack that has been taking wickets all summer against far better batting lineups than Pakistan's.

And before the Pakistan fans arrive in the comments, yes, he scored runs in white ball cricket. Yes, he is technically gifted. None of that matters. Test cricket is the real game, and in Test cricket since 2022, Babar Azam has been a passenger.The saddest part is that Pakistan have built their entire batting around him. When he fails, which he does constantly now, the whole innings crumbles. Shafique is good. Masood has his moments. But this Pakistan team goes exactly as far as Babar takes them, and right now, Babar is not taking them anywhere.

Headingley on August 19. Swinging ball. England pace attack. Babar Azam.The King better show up. Because right now, all I see is someone living off a reputation he built four years ago.