Sports News: India’s Sri Lanka Tour Squads Announced; Key Highlights and Records

The BCCI announced India's squads for the Sri Lanka tour starting July 27. Rohit Sharma returns as ODI captain with Shubman Gill as vice-captain. Riyan Parag and Harshit Rana get maiden ODI call-ups, while Sanju Samson is dropped. Suryakumar Yadav is named T20I captain, with Gill as his deputy. Notable exclusions include Hardik Pandya from T20Is and Kuldeep Yadav from both formats. Gautam Gambhir begins his coaching stint with this series. This tour includes three T20Is and three ODIs in late July and early August.

England dominated Day 1 of the second Test against West Indies in Nottingham, ending at 416 runs. Following an early setback, Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope laid a solid foundation. Joe Root and Ben Stokes made valuable contributions while Pope hit a ton. The West Indians did show some fightback in the last session of play, taking six wickets that included Pope and Stokes. This was after West Indies bowlers, led by Alzarri Joseph, pegged England right back skilfully towards the end. It is the latter who will be hoping for a stronger performance come Day 2.

The opener in prime time for the Women's Asia Cup will feature defending champions India against Pakistan. Under Harmanpreet Kaur, India goes as clear favorites. They have dominated tournaments and have a very strong record against Pakistan. Further, against South Africa, they drew a series quite recently. Key players in their lineup would be Smriti Mandhana and Pooja Vastrakar. Nida Dar-led Pakistan will look to make amends after a poor series in England. The other two teams in Group A, Nepal and UAE, will face off earlier in the day.

Abhishek Sharma was overlooked in the T20I squad of India for the series against Sri Lanka despite doing well against Zimbabwe and having an extremely good IPL season. The Lucknow Super Giants opener, who struck a 47-ball ton against Zimbabwe, lost out on his place with the return of Pant, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, and Mohammad Siraj. Ruturaj Gaikwad has also been left out despite some good knocks. Suryakumar Yadav will lead India's T20I squad, while Shubman Gill will be his deputy. The series will now commence on July 27 and feature three T20Is and three ODIs.

The BCCI announced on Wednesday the squads for the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka, in which Shubman Gill was included as vice-captain for both ODIs and T20Is, much to everyone's surprise. One expected KL Rahul to hold on to the post. This move actually underlines what the BCCI is doing in terms of giving opportunities to fresh talent with senior boys like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli closing in on the end of their careers. Adding more competition to the wicket-keeper spot will be KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, with Sanju Samson out of the team despite some impressive performances of late.

Gautam Gambhir's stint as India head coach opens with a tour of Sri Lanka, comprising three T20Is and three ODIs. Suryakumar Yadav will captain the former; Rohit Sharma returns to captain the latter. A little surprisingly – following earlier reports that he would be rested – Virat Kohli has been named in the ODI squad. Earlier, Kohli and Gambhir had disagreed on many things, but those problems have now been sorted out, and Kohli says that there are no personal problems between them that would not interfere in their professional relationship. Jasprit Bumrah is the only prominent player rested for the series.

On July 18, at just sixteen years old, Rocky Flintoff became the youngest-ever batter to score a Test century for England U-19. He is the son of former England captain Andrew Flintoff. Flintoff scored 106 runs off 181 balls, including nine fours and two sixes against Sri Lanka U-19 at Cheltenham. England U-19 captain Hamza Shaikh also hit a century in the match; Jaydn Denly came up with 91 runs. Flintoff was an all-rounder, one of the legends in the history of cricket, who played such a distinguished international game—on top of that, he had the success of winning the 2005 Ashes and representing Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.

Scottish Premiership club Celtic has announced the signing of Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel on a one-year deal. The 37-year-old, instrumental in Leicester City's title win in the 2016 Premier League and their first-ever FA Cup in 2021, joins from Anderlecht after playing for Nice and Leicester. He also himself paid tribute to Celtic as a club of great passion and success, but added that he was excited by the opportunity to link up again with former manager Brendan Rodgers. Rodgers welcomed Schmeichel to the club, citing his quality, experience, and positive influence on the squad.