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BCCI president Sourav Ganguly will not play the one-off exhibition match on September 16 that will act as a curtain raiser to the second season of the Legends League Cricket (LLC). In a letter to the league, Ganguly expressed his inability to play citing “professional commitments and continuous work with cricket administration”.”It’s [Legends League Cricket] a wonderful idea of bringing retired cricketers back on the cricket field and engaging with fans across generations,” Ganguly said in a statement from LLC. “However, due to my professional commitments and continuous work with cricket administration, I will not be able to take part in this game. I am sure the fans are eagerly looking forward to this league and there will be large crowds at the stadium. The league is bringing together the stalwarts of the game and I am sure there will be exciting cricket on display.Ganguly said he would be at Eden Gardens to watch the game between Indian Maharajas and the World Giants, led by England’s World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan. The match will also commemorate 75 years of India’s independence and the proceeds from the game will be donated to Kapil Dev’s Khushii Foundation, which supports the education of female children.The Indian Maharajas team includes former players like Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Kaif, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Parthiv Patel among others. The Giants have former South Africa stars Jacques Kallis, Jonty Rhodes, Dale Steyn and Herschelle Gibbs in their ranks, Sanath Jayasuriya and Muthiah Muralidaran from Sri Lanka, and Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson from Australia.The final of the second season of LLC is scheduled for October 8. The tournament comprises four teams led by Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Pathan and Harbhajan.

James Hildreth, the long-serving Somerset batter, has announced that he will retire from professional cricket at the end of the season, almost 20 years after making his debut for the club.Regarded by some as the best batter of his generation not to have represented England, Hildreth amassed more than 17,000 first-class runs for Somerset, putting him third on the county’s all-time list behind Harold Gimblett and Marcus Trescothick. He currently averages 40.98, with 47 first-class hundreds, but the closest he came to being capped was a handful of Lions appearances more than a decade ago.He is Somerset’s leading run-scorer in T20 cricket, with 3906, and also tallied more than 6000 runs in List A games. Hildreth hit the winning runs when Somerset won the 2005 Twenty20 Cup, aged 20, and then did the same at Lord’s 14 years on to secure the Royal London Cup.Related

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Hildreth will turn 38 next month, and has only managed 256 runs at 25.60 in this year’s County Championship. He was not involved at all in Somerset’s Blast campaign.”It feels like the right time to start a new chapter in my life and I’m excited about what the future holds,” Hildreth said. “I left school at 18 and have spent the last 20 years with the club. It’s been my life and I’ve loved every minute of it.”The club and cricket as a whole has given myself and my family so much over the last 20 years, and I’ve got nothing but fondness and love for the club and that will continue for the rest of my life. I’m looking forward to being a Somerset supporter and to coming down to watch the guys with my family and my children.”The thing I’ll miss most is the pride that you feel when you pull on that shirt to represent the club and the whole of the south west. The Somerset members and supporters have been incredible to me. They’ve always been so supportive, and I’ve always felt that, whether that’s walking through town or being out on the pitch. I’d like to thank them for their support over the years, and hopefully I’ve managed to bring a little bit of enjoyment into their lives with what I’ve done on the pitch.”Hildreth, who was awarded his county cap in 2007 and a testimonial year in 2017, has made 715 appearances for Somerset – more than any other player – and was a central figure as the club regularly pushed for their first Championship pennant during the 2010s, five times finishing as runners-up.Somerset’s director of cricket, Andy Hurry, said: “James Hildreth will go down in history as one of the best players ever to represent this club. His stats speak for themselves, but his contribution to Somerset cricket has been so much more than that.”During his time at the club he has proved himself to be the model professional and he is the perfect role model for any aspiring player. The way that he has conducted himself both on and off the field has been exemplary, and as such he has become one of the most respected players within the domestic game over the last 20 years.”His name will forever be synonymous with Somerset County Cricket Club, and everyone associated with SCCC wishes James and his family well in their future endeavours. On behalf of everyone at the cub both now and in the past, thank you for so many incredible memories.”Somerset’s head coach, Jason Kerr, recalled two of Hildreth’s “outstanding” innings for the club – a 53-ball T20 hundred against Glamorgan in 2012, and his century on one leg during the final game of the 2016 Championship – while Gordon Hollins, the chief executive, described him as one of the finest batters of his era and a “mainstay of the success that this club has achieved over the last 20 years”.Kerr added: “I guess all good things have to come to an end, but James has had an outstanding career and I’m sure that we’ll see a deserving outpouring of best wishes and superlatives for him over the next few weeks. There’s no doubt he’ll be missed, first and foremost as a person, but obviously also as a cricketer. Players of Hildy’s calibre are few and far between.”

Zak Crawley has conceded that some of England’s batters may have been overawed in the Ashes series but believes the last two Tests could start a rebuilding process.England were blown away for 185 and 68 in the Melbourne Test as the Ashes were lost inside 12 days. They have not passed 300 in the series so far, are yet to score a century, and in 2021 the side equalled their record of 54 ducks in a calendar year.Related

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Crawley was thrust into the side for the Boxing Day Test at the expense of Rory Burns, having barely batted since the end of the English season because of the disrupted preparations in Australia. He made 12 and 5, taking his Test record for the year to 173 runs at 10.81, and termed the second evening against Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins as the toughest period he had ever faced.”Just not fearing them,” Crawley said when asked about how England could counter Australia’s attack. “I feel like quite a few of us on our first Ashes tour maybe we were a bit wary of them when there’s no need to be.”It’s a great place to bat even though they are great bowlers, some of them are the best in the world, but when you get in as Rooty [Joe Root] and [Dawid] Malan have shown, they look very comfortable at times. I’m certainly going to do that this game, [play with a] bit more confidence, because I know full well that I can score a hundred here this week.”Overall in his first-class career Crawley, who made his mark with 267 against Pakistan in 2020, has five centuries from 66 matches and an average of 30.91. Graham Thorpe, England’s assistant coach who is filling in for Chris Silverwood this week because of the head coach’s Covid-19-related isolation, spoke last week about the gap between county and Test cricket and that England’s batting had been exposed on this tour.”Everyone has seen the talent that our batters have shown over the last few years,” Crawley said. “We’ve all got the talent to score big runs in Test cricket, you just have to get in the right headspace to perform like that. Feel like that’s where we’ve gone slightly wrong, haven’t been in the right headspace, but physically and talent-wise there’s no question that we can score big hundreds over here.”Crawley admitted he had not had a good year in 2021 but argued there were some extenuating circumstances and also walked away from his Melbourne examination with a positive reflection.”That evening with the crowd, it didn’t go my way but I look back on that with quite a few fond memories,” he said. “Special to be a part of. Fair play, they bowled well, but hopefully I can have a good week this week.”I haven’t played my best cricket. I actually feel in a really good place with my batting. Those stats [averaging 10] are misleading sometimes. I’ve never experienced anything like playing in India, if I scored 10 it felt like a good score, then I didn’t feel in great touch in summer and all of a sudden you are averaging 10.”I’m hoping it will be a slightly flatter wicket here [Sydney, for the fourth Test], it usually is, [Melbourne] offered quite a bit. I learned that there were certain balls I could leave where in England you have to play and I’ll try and do that better this week. It’s great chance to start again and build up the side into a better place.”

Mohammad Saifuddin, the Bangladesh medium-pace-bowling allrounder, has been ruled out of the rest of the T20 World Cup because of a back injury. Rubel Hossain, the veteran quick, has been moved in to the main squad from the reserves’ list as a replacement for Saifuddin and is now available for selection for Bangladesh’s next match, against England on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.Saifuddin, 24, played all of Bangladesh’s games so far, picking up at least a wicket in each of them, and also hit an unbeaten 19 in six balls against Papua New Guinea in the last first-round game at the World Cup. He played the game against Sri Lanka too, on Monday, proving expensive in his three overs – he took 1 for 38 – and not getting a chance to bat.His replacement, Rubel, is vastly experienced, having played 159 international matches including 28 T20Is, in which he has picked up 28 wickets with an economy rate of 9.45.Bangladesh, who got into the main draw of the tournament after a stutter, losing to Scotland before beating Oman and Papua New Guinea, have had a poor start in Group 1, losing by five wickets to Sri Lanka after a decent batting performances was followed by a poor show in the field. The game against England on Wednesday is, therefore, a key one for Bangladesh to stay alive in the competition, with matches against Australia, South Africa and West Indies to follow.

Dispute and discontent over a Sheffield Shield “debacle” in Brisbane has highlighted the immense challenge confronting Cricket Australia (CA) this summer.Stunning details of Tuesday’s sudden postponement of a Shield match between Queensland and Tasmania, set to feature star Marnus Labuschagne and a stack of Ashes hopefuls, have been laid bare.Queensland Cricket (QC) chief executive Terry Svenson first learned of what he termed a “rushed” and “panicked” decision via a groundsman at Ian Healy Oval.Svenson told he then called CA counterpart Nick Hockley, who at that stage was also unaware the game had been aborted because of Covid-19 cases in Brisbane that prompted Tasmania’s squad to flee the state.There is hope the sides’ first four-day match of the season will be played next week, with discussions between CA, QC and Cricket Tasmania (CT) continuing.But the circumstances that led to the postponement, which legend and QC board member Ian Healy lashed as an “absolute debacle” that “disrespected” the integrity of the Shield, underlined how this season’s schedule – domestic and international, male and female – remains a precarious beast.England are expected to name a men’s Ashes squad soon but the prospect of the final Test being staged in Perth has significantly diminished. The Shield chaos will have done little to soothe the various concerns of Joe Root’s squad.The AFL and NRL navigated another season of lockdowns, border closures and coronavirus-related scares.Part of CA’s problem is that it is trying to appease multiple state governments but also state associations – effectively its shareholders – in addition to players and foreign cricket boards. Common ground can often be hard to find.”We should still be playing,” Svenson told Healy on the latter’s radio show. “We have to be better at making decisions like this and not panicking.”That decision to postpone and ultimately cancel the match was done before we heard from the Premier and CHO [chief health officer].”There’s a flaw in the decision-making process. There has to be a sign-off process. Surely if there’s a material change in the game, has to be the CEO of Cricket Australia and the relevant state CEOs. That’s what I’ve appealed to Nick to do and Nick is aligned with my view.”Healy was stunned by the visitors’ haste. “Tasmania decides ‘we’re out’ … can you imagine the [Canterbury] Bulldogs flying home and deciding not to play a [NRL] game without Peter V’landys knowing? It’s unbelievable,” he said. “What the hell were Tasmania thinking?”CT made its decision because of fears that players could be forced to quarantine upon returning home, while it was also worried about future travel to South Australia and Western Australia.”To some extent, I certainly understand that,” Svenson said. “I would have liked to have seen them hang around for another 24 hours.”CT counterpart Dominic Baker claimed “players were happy to come home”, having debriefed with captain Matthew Wade on Tuesday.”He said the sentiment of the group was, if we can get out and get back, that’d be preferable. They don’t want to be sitting around, doing nothing,” Baker told . “No doubt there would be a level of frustration amongst the group.”

Debutant Rachin Ravindra rushed through a leg-side clip in the very first over and chipped a simple return catch to offspinner Mahedi Hasan. Will Young slashed at Shakib Al Hasan and dragged a non-turning ball back onto his stumps. Colin de Grandhomme tried to slog his way out of the mess, but holed out to deep square leg – the only fielder in the deep on the leg side in the powerplay. Tom Blundell misjudged an arm ball from left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed and was also knocked over. Just like that, New Zealand lost four wickets in their first four overs of the series opener against Bangladesh, and the fall turned out to be so cataclysmic that they were rolled over for 60 – their joint-lowest total in T20I cricket.New Zealand’s stand-in coach Glenn Pocknall conceded that their inexperienced side misread the conditions at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, which offered sharp turn and bounce to the spinners, even with the new ball. In addition to that, the track was two-paced, with Shakib even saying that Wednesday’s pitch was “more difficult” than the ones rolled out for the recent Australia T20Is.”We probably didn’t quite assess the conditions as well as we thought we did,” Pocknall said after the defeat. “Losing four wickets for not many runs was always going to be a challenge in any form of cricket, especially this. We came back really well from that [collapse] with a good little partnership between Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls. I think we will take a lot from that performance in the way that they batted in the middle for our game in a couple of days’ time.”Stand-in captain Latham and Nicholls provided a glimpse into how New Zealand can tackle these turners. Both batters were decisive in their footwork – fully forward or right back – and often used the depth of the crease or their feet to disrupt the Bangladesh spinners. However, when they looked to raise the tempo against the seamers, they both holed out off Mohammad Saifuddin. The 34-run fifth-wicket stand between Latham and Nicholls was the highest of the match.”Yeah, obviously slightly disappointing with the start. I thought the way we managed to build a little bit of partnership through the middle… we knew it was going to be tough and unfortunately we kept losing wickets at crucial times really,” Latham told the host broadcaster at the post-match presentation. “As soon as the guys came in, it was certainly hard to start. We knew it was always going to be a challenge. We were prepared for this, but unfortunately we couldn’t quite put it together today.”Hopefully, we will take plenty of learnings from what happened today and for us it’s about trying to find a way in these conditions and obviously it’s completely different to what we have back home. So, it’s about trying to assess what a good score is on this sort of surface and as we showed with the ball tonight, certainly it isn’t easy with runs on the board. So, if we can put a competitive total and put pressure on if we do bat first, you never know what might happen.”Related

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Pocknall echoed Latham’s comments, saying the New Zealand attack could apply pressure on Bangladesh if their batters work their way to a competitive total.”Both teams performed exceedingly well with the ball and two quality outfits in terms of spin bowlers and the fast bowlers were able to execute their slower balls,” Pocknall said. “I think the bowling attacks really even themselves out. So, the challenge in two days’ time is to [find out] how we can get to a 100 and then, yeah, defend that. I think we can defend that with an extra few runs.”The lone bright spot on an otherwise forgettable day for New Zealand was how their spinners immediately got cracking in Dhaka. Cole McConchie struck with his first ball in international cricket as Mohammad Naim scooped a catch to short cover while Ajaz Patel matched the relentless accuracy of the Bangladesh spinners, returning 1 for 7 – the second-most economical four-over effort for New Zealand in T20Is. As for Ravindra, he came back after conceding 10 in his first over to end with 1 for 21 in his four overs.”They [conditions] do favour them but they’re also very inexperienced at this level. Cole and Rachin made their debuts and Ajaz, I think, has played two or three Twenty20 international games,” Pocknall said. “But, the thing that all three of them have is they have performed very well at domestic level and that’s a big reason why they’re here. So, to see them do what they do is a really positive sign for the rest of the series.”New Zealand have a one-day break to reflect further on their first-ever T20I loss against Bangladesh before they face Mahmudullah’s men again in the second game at the same venue. The one way for them – from 60 all out – is up.

Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills’ death-bowling partnership was a key factor in Southern Brave’s triumph in the first season of the men’s Hundred and Mahela Jayawardene, their head coach, has suggested that England should look to replicate it at October’s T20 World Cup.Only Adam Milne, the standout bowler in the tournament, finished the season with a lower economy rate at the death than Jordan (1.37 runs per ball) and Mills (1.11) and Brave’s captain, James Vince, increasingly held the majority of their spells back until the death, forcing teams to take more risks against the new ball in order to get ahead of the game.They closed out a tight win against London Spirit in tandem midway through the group stages – which Jayawardene said was the “turning point” for their season after a slow start – and continued to impress in the knockout stages. In both Friday’s eliminator and Saturday’s final, their opponents anticipated the ‘backloading’ tactic but lost wickets while attacking against the new ball, meaning Mills and Jordan could close out both innings with little pressure on them.Related

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“From the beginning we knew that those two were going to be our closers, and that we needed to make sure we took it to that part of the game so that the experienced guys could close it for us,” Jayawardene said. “What we initially found difficult was the Powerplays where we weren’t picking up wickets.”We rotated a few things and conditions helped. In the play-offs, we got a fresh wicket at The Oval and luckily Craig [Overton] got released from the Test squad – we felt that he’s a very good new-ball bowler – and him and George [Garton] had a very good combination going. That allowed us to keep CJ and T to the back end.”Some of the teams realised that the back-end bowling was going to be tough so they were coming harder up front. We then realised that meant there were opportunities for us to pick up wickets and start taking control. Jake [Lintott] was brilliant in the middle, picking up regular wickets, and everyone picked their roles, fed off each other and they bowled brilliantly as a unit.”Mills was particularly effective in the knockout stages, taking 4 for 21 in 36 balls across the eliminator and the final without conceding a boundary, and ended the season as the second-most economical bowler behind Milne. He had been challenged by England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, to present “a really strong case” for T20 World Cup selection before the tournament and Jayawardene said that he would be “disappointed” to see him miss out.”I’d be disappointed if he’s not on that plane for the World Cup,” he said. “You have some amazing talent in CJ but obviously Jofra [Archer] is not going to be available for the World Cup and I think CJ and him [Mills] had a very good partnership for us. It gives England a lot of good options going into the World Cup, especially in the UAE as well.”Throughout the comp he’s been fantastic. In the last two games, the eliminator and the final, I think he bowled 40 balls for 20-odd runs and didn’t give away a single boundary. That shows the quality of T – a healthy Tymal Mills is always going to be an asset. In the shorter format of the game he knows his skills and it’s a hard skill that he’s executing.”This was Jayawardene’s fourth T20 title as a coach, following three IPLs with Mumbai Indians, and he kept up his streak of losing the opening match of the season before Brave went on a seven-match winning run to lift the trophy, although in this case, Southern Brave lost their first two games. He hailed the way his team had “managed the pressure” of needing to win almost every game, but confirmed that he has no interest in taking up a role coaching in international cricket despite his recent success.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“Ideally we would like to have a good start but we were blown away in our first game by Trent [Rockets] – completely outplayed. In Wales it was a good game [against Welsh Fire] but we made a few mistakes and realised we needed to eliminate them and the boys reacted brilliantly. The turning point was probably London [Spirit] where we defended a small total at Lord’s: we were out of the game but guys came back and defended and that belief carried through.”It wasn’t one or two guys, it was a complete unit. We’re very proud of the boys and the way they’ve managed the pressure. The last three or four games for us have pretty much been play-offs every game. We didn’t want to let our destiny to be controlled by other results. You need to peak at the business end of the tournament and we did.”Having done 18 years of international cricket as a player I don’t want to live out of a suitcase for 12 months of the year. This is a good challenge for me and it’s early days. I don’t do too many tournaments so that I have my personal time to spend back home with the family. I’m happy to help out as a consultant here and there [with Sri Lanka] but not on a full-time basis.”

Bangladesh batting coach Ashwell Prince expects Liton Das to be in the mix for one of the opening spots in the T20I series against New Zealand. Liton was one of two returnees to the side after missing the T20Is against Zimbabwe due to an injury and the Australia series due to a family emergency.Liton has opened in 23 out of 33 T20Is for Bangladesh, but in his absence Bangladesh have mostly used the Soumya Sarkar-Mohammad Naim pair, although they too were broken up after eight matches. After their 102-run stand against Zimbabwe in July, they hardly put a dent in the powerplays, lasting no more than 3.3 overs in the following six matches. When Mahedi Hasan was promoted in the fifth T20I against Australia, he added an encouraging 42-run stand in 4.3 overs with Naim.Prince said that finding boundaries is much harder at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, but he welcomed the competition among the openers.”Personally I am not really concerned about the opening batsmen,” Prince said. “I think we had one or two good partnerships in Zimbabwe but conditions were tough against Australia. It is not easy to score boundaries frequently as you would in pitches where the ball is coming on. Adapting to the conditions is important. Partnership would be important. I think we have a strong competition in the opening position. I am sure Liton Das will get an opportunity in this position, as well.”Prince said that the Bangladeshi batters involved in the Australia series had a discussion on how best to tackle the conditions, that is likely to be similar against New Zealand later this week.”I am expecting similar conditions against New Zealand. The batsmen from Australia series had a nice discussion yesterday, sharing with guys like Liton Das and Mushfiqur (Rahim) who didn’t play in that series.”These are experienced guys but they shared what worked and what we like to improve on from the Australia series, taking it into the New Zealand series coming up,” he said.But Prince said that Bangladesh will take these visitors lightly at their own peril. He said that New Zealand will plan better now that they have seen how Australia played here.”I think we can expect New Zealand to analyse and plan well, using the recent Australia series to learn from. They are a street-wise team who would plan meticulously against every batsmen, bowlers and pitches. They will use every bit of information to help them,” he said.

London Spirit overcame a late clatter of wickets to scramble to a three-wicket win with four balls to spare at Edgbaston, as a crowd of 6,317 – a record for a domestic women’s game outside of London in the professional era – were treated to another tense encounter in which Birmingham Phoenix did their utmost to defend a sub-par total of 128.In the end, they fell short, but not before giving their visitors an almighty scare – primarily through the efforts of Emily Arlott, whose two wickets in three balls were followed by a third in four moments later, as the well-set Deepti Sharma slapped an Erin Burns full-toss to deep midwicket, to reduce Spirit to a rocky 108 for 6, with exactly 20 from 20 required.That equation had been chipped down to six from seven by Amara Carr and Charlotte Dean, when Katie Mack swept round from deep midwicket with a bullet return to run out Dean as she raced back for the second. However, Danielle Gibson settled the nerves with a first-ball reverse-sweep to level the scores, and the game too one ball later, as Georgia Elwiss was picked off through backward square for Gibson’s matchwinning boundary.Dattani seizes her stage
Spirit had been streaking away with the game in the early exchanges of their chase, thanks largely to Naomi Dattani, an unheralded allrounder who seized an unlikely chance to set the tempo at the top of the order.Had Tammy Beaumont not been a surprise absentee – she is quarantining for Spirit’s first two games after being given permission to attend a family wedding last week – Dattani may not have played at all. Instead she romped to 34 from 19, outgunning her more vaunted opening partner Deandra Dottin in the process. Dottin made a run-a-ball 9 before falling to the up-and-coming speedster, Issy Wong, who pinned her on the crease for a plumb lbw.Devious Davies does for Verma
After winning the toss and bowling, London Spirit’s early objective was a simple one – get rid of Shafali Verma as soon as feasibly possible. A brace of fours in Dattani’s opening spell served early warning of her power and poise, even as Dottin prised an early opening by luring Mack in a cramped hack at a surprise full toss.But Freya Davies, whose lanky, languid action so had so nearly speared a first-ball yorker into Mack’s off stump, returned for a second set with a stupendous piece of trickery. An outstanding slower ball floated down through Verma’s advances to slap her leg stump and send her on her way for a run-a-ball 13, and when the captain, Heather Knight, popped up with a golden-arm first delivery that Arlott could only flash to short cover, Phoenix’s top order were in ashes.The Jones and Jones show
And yet, from 37 for 3 after 36 balls, Phoenix produced an admirable attempt to live up to their own name, as the Joneses – Eve and Amy – came together in a stand of 64 from the next 31.Complementing one another with their left-and-right combination, just as surely as they confounded Spirit’s lines of attack, the pair took it in turns to propel the score forward – 14 fours and a six between them, the latter a fumble over the rope at square leg as Davies failed to cling on to a crashing pull from Amy Jones.The return of Dean brought an end to their stand, as Amy gave herself room for a wipe over the off-side and had her stumps rearranged, while Eve missed out on a well-deserved fifty when she over-reached on a wide one from Dottin and toe-ended a looping chance to short cover.

Shakib Al Hasan will not get a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the BCB to take part in the remainder of IPL 2021 for the Kolkata Knight Riders, most likely in September-October this year. Board president Nazmul Hassan has pointed to Bangladesh’s busy international schedule in that period in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in India in October-November, but could well be shifted to the UAE keeping in mind the Covid-19 situation in India.”Given our schedule, it is almost impossible (for Shakib) to get the NOC. I don’t see any possibilities, nor any opportunity. The World Cup is coming up, which makes every game important for us,” Hassan told on Sunday.Mustafizur Rahman, the only other Bangladeshi in the IPL – for the Rajasthan Royals – is also unlikely to get an NOC, given his importance in Bangladesh’s white-ball plans.Related

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After touring Zimbabwe for a Test, three ODIs and three T20Is in June-July, Bangladesh will take on Australia in five T20Is at home in July-August, and both New Zealand (three T20Is) and England (three ODIs and three T20Is) are expected to tour Bangladesh after that for white-ball matches in the lead up to the World Cup.Akram Khan, BCB’s cricket operations chairman, stressed that keeping in mind all these matches, especially the England series – where the ODIs will be a part of the World Cup Super League – it was important for all the players to train and play together. “We have to consider the team training together,” he said. “We want to go into the England series with full strength. Both the ODI Super League and the World Cup T20 are important to us.”Shakib was involved in a tussle with the BCB in March after he accused the board of “misrepresenting” his letter requesting an NOC to play in the IPL. In response, the BCB threatened to revoke his NOC, but ended up granting it. Shakib had missed the New Zealand tour in March this year because of a thigh injury and later opted out of the two-match Test series in Sri Lanka to play in the IPL. He has since skipped the PSL, opting to play in the Dhaka Premier League T20s instead.