Hampshire captain James Vince has been called into England’s squad for the third and deciding one-day international against India at Headingley
tomorrow.
The England and Wales Cricket Board said Sunday that Vince’s call-up would allow Dawid Malan to play for the Lions, England’s A side, in their four-day match against India A in Worcester starting today.
In addition, 2019 World Cup hosts England have also released Surrey paceman Sam Curran from their ODI squad to play for the Lions.
Vince, 27, has played 13 Tests an five one-day internationals but has yet to nail down a place in the England side despite impressing at county level.
England, the world’s top-ranked ODI team, levelled their three-match 50-over series against India at 1-1 with an 86-run win at Lord’s on Saturday that featured a century from star batsman Joe Root.
The Lions match comes ahead of England’s five-Test series against India starting at Edgbaston on August 1.
Alastair Cook, England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer but no longer a white-ball international cricketer, has been included in the Lions side as has seam-bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes. Surrey opener Rory Burns will captain the team at New Road.
England’s Anderson makes wicket-taking return
England great James Anderson took two wickets on his return with Lancashire’s 2nd XI yesterday after more than a month out of action with a shoulder injury.
The 35-year-old paceman, England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker, took two for 32 in 14 overs as Nottinghamshire were dismissed for 126 on the first day of a three-day friendly at Old Trafford.
It was Anderson’s first appearance since deciding to take some time out from cricket to rest after a longstanding shoulder problem flared up during England’s second Test victory over Pakistan completed on June 3.
As he no longer plays white-ball cricket for England, Anderson would have missed the ongoing one-day international series with India even if he had been fully fit.
Anderson, who has taken 540 Test wickets, is aiming to prove his fitness for a five-match series at home to India which begins at Edgbaston on August 1.
Sri Lanka postpones new T20 cricket league
Sri Lanka’s cricket authorities yesterday announced the indefinite postponement of the country’s Twenty20 league scheduled for next month and said revised dates will be decided by a new board.
The Lankan Premier League (LPL) was due to start on August 18, but an interim management body appointed last month decided to delay the tournament, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said in a statement.
“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to inform that the LPL (T20) has been postponed indefinitely, until an elected body is constituted at the SLC,” the statement said. In late May, Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal suspended elections for the crisis-ridden cricket board.
Sports minister Faiszer Musthapha appointed a competent authority to run the board until elections are held within six months.
Board elections were scuttled following a petition by a former secretary of SLC Nishantha Ranatunga who argued that outgoing president Thilanga Sumathipala was unsuitable for re-election.
Sumathipala was pitted against Ranatunga, a younger brother of Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga, in the election.
The Ranatunga brothers accuse Sumathipala of violating International Cricket Council regulations by holding office despite alleged links to gambling.
Sumathipala acknowledges that his family is involved in gambling, but says he has nothing to do with the business and has not violated the ICC code of conduct. The court intervention in the cricket board last month came as four Sri Lankans were implicated in an alleged match-fixing scandal exposed in an Al Jazeera documentary.
James Vince
