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It will come a year later than anticipated, but Zafar Ansari looks set to make his Test debut in the second Test against Bangladesh in Dhaka on Friday.But for a badly-broken left thumb, Ansari would almost certainly have played his maiden Test in the UAE 12 months ago. But, just hours after he was picked for the tour, he sustained the injury in the field, and was subsequently obliged to undergo two operations. Samit Patel was recalled, instead, and he played the Sharjah Test.While Ansari enjoyed a decent rather than spectacular season for Surrey in the County Championship – he averaged 27.43 with the bat and claimed 22 wickets at 31.40 – the England management admires his calm temperament almost as much as his all-round abilities. While they were reluctant to thrust Jack Leach, the Somerset spinner, who enjoyed a more remarkable season – he claimed 68 wickets in the first-class season at an average of 22.58 – into international cricket, they seem to have no qualms about Ansari.The case of Simon Kerrigan continues to influence selectors in such cases. Kerrigan, drafted in for his debut in the final Ashes Test of the 2013 summer, was mauled by Australia’s batsmen, and appears to have never fully recovered from the experience. Even Leach’s captain at Somerset, Chris Rogers, remarked that “emotionally, he still has a bit of a way to go” before he would consider him suitable for selection. He will instead be given an opportunity to familiarise himself with the England environment as part of the Lions programme.Ansari, though slightly younger, is seen as more worldly and experienced. He gained a first from Cambridge University, and, having graduated through the England age-group system – he played for England at the Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19 levels – made his international debut in the rain-ruined ODI in Ireland in May 2015. He bowls at a relatively sharp pace, and, as a left-arm spinner whose turn will take the ball away from the right-handers, could prove more useful than a second spinner when England face an Indian top-order heavily stocked with right-handers.Ansari fits the mould of this team, too, in that he can bat, bowl and field to a decent standard. Generally patient and compact in red-ball cricket, he has opened the batting for Surrey. But, after a modest County season – his highest score was 53 – it seems Ansari will bat at No. 8 for England. That will move Chris Woakes to No. 9, and Adil Rashid, a man with 10 first-class centuries, down to No. 10. It seems Gareth Batty will be the unfortunate one to make way.There might have been a good case for resting Rashid instead. The pitch looks remarkably dry and cracked already, and, while the weather forecast for Dhaka is not wonderful – the city is braced for cyclonic storm Kyant – it seems likely that Bangladesh may take a bit of a risk in preparing a result-surface in the hope that they can square the series. On such turning surfaces, the control of Batty might prove more useful than the turn of Rashid, though Rashid did look as though he would benefit from anther long bowl ahead of the India series.England are also set to recall Steven Finn. He has been bowling with good pace in the nets and will probably replace Stuart Broad, who will have to wait until the India Tests before gaining his 100th Test cap. While there will be a temptation to give Jake Ball a game and rest Chris Woakes, the team management may be wary of making too many changes against an improving Bangladesh side that went within an ace of achieving their first Test victory against England in Chittagong.That means little opportunity for Jos Buttler. While he continues to hit the ball well in the nets – as one of the local net bowlers discovered on Wednesday when he received a black eye after being unable to get out of the way of a straight drive – Jonny Bairstow took another step towards cementing his place with the gloves with an impressive performance standing up to the stumps in Chittagong. And Trevor Bayliss has already indicated that he is keen to stick with the top-six in the batting line-up for the Dhaka Test.

India’s coach Anil Kumble has once again thrown his weight firmly behind Cheteshwar Pujara. Speaking strongly two days after Virat Kohli had verified former selector Sandeep Patil’s revelation that the team management had spoken to Pujara about his strike rate, Kumble said strike rate was relevant for bowlers in Test cricket, not batsmen. He went to the extent of saying he was satisfied with Pujara’s performance in the West Indies even though he was dropped for Rohit Sharma in the third Test.On slow pitches against a pretty defensive West Indies attack and field-sets Pujara scored 16 off 67 in Antigua and was run-out for 46 off 159 balls in Kingston before he was dropped. A top-order collapse resulted in his return to the side for the fourth Test, and India have played both Pujara and Rohit in the two Tests since then.”Even I’m a bit old-fashioned,” Kumble said when a journalist asked him about strike rates in Tests. “I know there is a lot of strike rate in the last eight years after the advent of T20. As far as I was playing, in Test cricket strike rates were mostly talked about for bowlers and not for batsmen. That’s how I like to look at it. In a team you need different characters, different quality players. Players whose skill sets are suited to different challenges that happen in a Test match. Because we’ve seen that that’s what happens in a Test match. That’s the beauty about Test cricket. From my point of view, as far as I am concerned, strike rates are relevant only for bowlers in Test matches.”Kumble complimented Pujara for seeing out a tough period of play in the first session of the series in the West Indies after Shannon Gabriel had removed M Vijay early with a bouncer that also injured his hand. By the time Pujara got out in the 28th over, the sting had been taken out of a limited West Indies attack.”I think you need to bat based on situations,” Kumble said. “Yes, Virat is right that someone like Pujara in the West Indies, probably on one occasion…and he only played two innings. And both those innings were relevant. Even in the first Test match, Vijay got out cheaply and then he and Shikhar [Dhawan] had a good partnership till lunch. That was crucial for the team, because we went into lunch losing only one wicket. And we all know the importance of the first session of a match that is the first Test of a series.”So the relevance of Pujara is extreme there. But I’m really surprised and a bit disappointed that this talk keeps coming up. As long as someone reads the situation and plays according to the situation, that’s what is expected of the team. And he is a very important cog in our team and in our plans. And he’s been successful and I know that he will continue to be successful.”Even in a different context Kumble continued to defend Pujara. With the inclusion of Gautam Gambhir in the Test squad as back-up opener, Kumble was asked if Pujara could breathe easy and not be asked to open in an emergency scenario. “I don’t think Pujara has ever breathed easily, from all you guys’ perspective and some people who are constantly watching him. At least from the team management and the team’s perspective, there is absolutely no pressure on Pujara.”And we’ve seen over the years his contribution. Even in the last Test match, we saw the importance of his contribution to the team’s cause. So I don’t see pressure on anyone in this team. The beauty about this squad is that there’s hardly any pressure on anyone, yes there is roles and responsibilities but there’s no pressure put on any player.”Even after coming back from the West Indies, where Pujara seemed under pressure to keep his place and lost it eventually, Kumble had reassured that Pujara was a vital part of the team. Since then, Pujara has scored a double-century and a century in Duleep Trophy, and two half-centuries on a difficult pitch in the Kanpur Test.

Mitchell Starc was to be rested, and is now injured. Josh Hazlewood is being rested. James Faulkner is injured. Nathan Coulter-Nile is injured. Pat Cummins and James Pattinson are recovering from long-term injuries. John Hastings and Scott Boland are, remarkably, the senior frontline fast bowlers, such is the dearth of experience in Australia’s one-day attack in South Africa.The squad has arrived for their tour of five ODIs against South Africa and one against Ireland, but the locals could be forgiven for wondering if this was an Australia A tour. The presence of Steven Smith, David Warner, George Bailey and Aaron Finch at least provides Australia with an experienced batting order, but when it comes their turn in the field, Smith’s men could hardly be greener.Hastings, with 33 ODI wickets, and Scott Boland, with nine, are the only specialist fast men in this squad who have so much as a one-day cap, although allrounder Mitchell Marsh will also feature in the attack. The rest of the pace group is made up of Victoria’s Chris Tremain and the South Australia pair of Daniel Worrall and Joe Mennie, all of whom will debut over the next few weeks.But Australia’s selectors and team management are already looking ahead to the first Test of their home summer in Perth, also against South Africa, which is just six weeks away, and keeping Hazlewood and Starc fresh was a priority – until Starc gashed his leg at training. Coach Darren Lehmann said the absences provided wonderful opportunities for new men to shine.”We do turnover a bit in our one-day set-up because you’ve got to give the Test players a break somewhere,” Lehmann told reporters in Johannesburg upon the squad’s arrival. “So we get our one-day players to chop and change a little bit. They handle it very well.”The great thing is it gives them a chance at this next level, so we’ve had someone like Travis Head come in and do really well for us, and the bowlers chop and change a bit. Steve knows he’s got a lot of depth of bowlers in this format.”We’ve done that since the World Cup final, you can really chop and change, and making sure we’re giving everyone enough game time looking ahead to major tournaments – we’ve got the Champions Trophy next year and then looking ahead to 2019 [World Cup]. We’re always looking ahead. The players adapt really well when we do that.”There’s obviously good reasons we don’t bring Starc and Hazlewood here. We’re playing you in a Test series and we want to give them a break. It’s a great challenge for our young guys … They’re good young players and they’ll go well.”Remarkably, Hastings is the only specialist bowler in Australia’s attack who had so much as made his ODI debut when this year began. Boland first appeared against India in January and legspinner Adam Zampa debuted in New Zealand in February. At least one of Worrall, Mennie and Tremain – and potentially all three – will debut in the opening ODI against Ireland in Benoni next Tuesday.”We’ve got some good young fast bowlers,” Lehmann said. “We’ll only know that at the end of a series against a quality side. We’re hoping they step up and I’m sure they will. They’ve got some pace, they swing the ball and we’ve got some variations.”We’ve also got some good quality there with Hastings who has played really well for us, Boland did well last series [in Sri Lanka] and then you’ve got the three debutants who will play at some stage during the tournament.”

Adam Zampa might be Australia’s specialist white-ball spinner at the moment, but he hopes to use the upcoming summer to prove that his skills can be transferred to the longer form of the game. Zampa made his ODI and T20 debuts for Australia earlier this year and immediately impressed with his poise under pressure, a trait that has brought him success, particularly in T20 cricket.He was the leading wicket-taker among spinners during the recent Caribbean Premier League, in which he claimed 15 victims at 18.46 for the Guyana Amazon Warriors, and is about to join Australia’s squad in Sri Lanka for the limited-overs leg of their tour. The axing of Glenn Maxwell from the ODI squad should create plenty of chances for Zampa, named alongside Nathan Lyon in the squad.”It’s a big opportunity for me,” Zampa told reporters in Adelaide during a brief trip home between the CPL and the Sri Lanka series. “Looking at the next six months or so coming up too, there’s quite a lot of white-ball cricket. There’s probably three or four tours this summer. It’s a good opportunity for me to cement my spot even more in that one-day and T20 side.”However, Zampa also knows that opportunities are presenting themselves for spinners in the Test side, with Steve O’Keefe and Jon Holland both having played alongside Lyon during the ongoing Test series in Sri Lanka. In order to make himself a candidate for a Test call-up, Zampa will need to make the most of his opportunities at the Sheffield Shield level during the gaps between his white-ball commitments.Last summer, Zampa played five Shield games for South Australia and collected 10 wickets at 45.20, but he was far from alone in terms of spinners being overshadowed during that season. The top 10 wicket-takers in the previous Shield summer were all fast bowlers, including three from Zampa’s own state – Joe Mennie, Daniel Worrall and Chadd Sayers – who dominated the wickets tally.”It’s been made pretty obvious that I’m predominantly white-ball cricket at the moment,” Zampa said. “I want to try and show that I’ve actually improved as a bowler in the last 12 months. I haven’t had a great opportunity, but in Shield cricket last year, I actually felt like I bowled really well.”With our bowling attack and the way the wickets were going last year, I actually didn’t get too much opportunity. I’m hoping to get some suitable conditions this year, and I want to try and win some games for South Australia before I’m ready to play for Australia.”If Zampa can show his red-ball skills during whatever Shield games he plays this summer, the reward could be significant. A Test tour of India in February-March will require Australia to take at least two, and possibly, three spinners.”I’ve got to get quite a few more games under my belt,” Zampa said. “I’ve only played three or four four-dayers in the last 12 months. This year is going to be a great opportunity for me. There’s some opportunities coming up, you’ve seen with O’Keefe, Lyon, Holland… there’s an India tour coming up, so Shield cricket this year is going to be big for me.”

The ability of the West Indies and India teams to get US visas may be the biggest obstacle standing in the way of three T20s being staged between the two sides in Florida next month.BCCI and WICB officials held further discussions on Thursday afternoon at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, site of the six CPL games in Florida beginning on Thursday. A source with knowledge of the discussions said that further progress had been made in coming to an agreement, but several logistical hurdles still needed to be overcome in order for the series to happen in Florida.The biggest one was the ability to secure visas to play in the USA. According to a source at the stadium, one issue that arose in the meetings was that it may take six weeks for India players to secure visas to get into the USA.The Central Broward Regional Park is the only ICC-certified ODI standard stadium facility in the USA and the only available dates that have been reserved for potential cricket use at the facility are from August 24-27, with August 28 potentially becoming available if another booking can agree to be moved. Those dates were targeted by both cricket boards to play at the conclusion of the ongoing four-Test series, which is slated to end on August 22 in Trinidad.Immediate availability beyond that at the stadium is limited due to the stadium’s main tenant, the  Fort Lauderdale Strikers, who play in the North American Soccer League, a second division league below Major League Soccer. The Strikers move into the stadium early next month as their new training base and venue for home games.The Strikers’ upcoming schedule includes home games on August 31, September 3 and September 10, leaving the stadium unavailable for cricket until at least mid-September. India is due to begin a three-Test series at home against New Zealand starting in Kanpur on September 22, making it unrealistic to play the games in the USA then.Further discussions between the BCCI and WICB will be held over the next few days before a final decision is taken whether to go ahead scheduling the matches.

Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, has admitted there are “big concerns” over the security of the team’s tour to Bangladesh later this year following last week’s terrorist attack in Dhaka.The ECB has said they will follow government advice – and guidance from their highly regarded head of security Reg Dickason – to decide whether the tour will take place as planned. England are due to fly out on September 30.”I think it is quite a big concern at the moment,” Morgan said. “We’ve always left the big decisions to the ECB. They write reports, send guys out to see if it’s safe then come back to the players to see if they’re happy or unhappy. But certainly it’s a concern at the moment.”When asked about the potential of moving the tour to a neutral location, Morgan said: “I think that could be feasible if it came to that.”On Sunday, the BCB president Nazmul Hassan said he understood the reaction to the attack but hoped that the tour would still go ahead.”I have seen England’s reaction, which is quite normal. We would have done the same thing if we were in their position … England are coming after three months, by which time the situation in Bangladesh will get better. It is hard to say which place is safe now. Safety can be an issue in England after three months. We will strengthen our security. If we can ensure that, cricket should not be a problem.”Seven gunmen, armed with bombs and guns, had opened fire in a bakery before taking occupants hostage in Gulshan area in Dhaka on July 1. Twenty civilians were killed. Last year, Australia had postponed their tour of Bangladesh based on their government’s security advice. Earlier this year, Australia had pulled out of the Under-19 World Cup hosted by Bangladesh for the same reasons.

The appointment of Anil Kumble as India coach has received a lot of positive feedback. Legendary India batsman GR Viswanath likes him for his “engineering brain” and polished approach. Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad hailed his “integrity and tactical shrewdness.””I have watched Anil from his under-19 days, from the beginning, to playing for Karnakata and then playing for India and captaining,” Viswanath told ESPNcricinfo. “He has done everything in a meticulous way. Typical engineering brain.”Despite being “very, very aggressive” on the field, Viswanath felt Kumble has always conducted himself with dignity. “In a very polished, cool and composed way, he can handle any situation. He is, of course, very well-mannered. [An example is] the way he handled the situation [Monkeygate] in Australia as captain. Everything is going well for him, and with him having been a mentor already for a couple of teams in the IPL, it’s a very good choice.”Srinath felt Kumble’s biggest asset is his ability to spot and nurture raw talent. “I think he is a man with tremendous integrity. It’s about getting stuck. Basically, the never-say-die attitude is quite strong in Anil. He has the mind for all formats of the game, which is very crucial to be consistent with the boys. Apart from that, the technical inputs, the strategy and analysis comes naturally to Anil.”I think it’s a good decision by the panel to pick his name and a good process was adopted. The one good thing is he is quite close to this generation of cricketers.”Srinath, who served as secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association when Kumble was elected president in 2010, said Kumble was a consummate professional. “He will never be a media-savvy person in the sense he will never communicate too many things [to the media],” he said. “He gets on with the job. He will make sure he is at it all the time. He is somebody who will be on the field and with the boys all the time.”Prasad, who was also part of Kumble’s administration at KSCA, said Kumble’s tactical sharpness would help take India to the next level. “It’s amazing for the simple reason that he has not only proven himself as a cricketer, he has also proven himself as a leader,” he said. “If I had known that he had also applied or he was going to apply I would have withdrawn my application.”As a bowling coach, I have worked with him when he was a player and captain. He is tactically outstanding. That’s what made him a huge success as a player and that’s exactly brings to the table. These are exciting times for Indian cricket.”India’s Test captain Virat Kohli was among the well-wishers too. He tweeted, “heartiest welcome, Anil Kumble sir. Look forward to your tenure with us. Great things in store for Indian Cricket with you.”

Eoin Morgan has accepted that his commitment to limited-overs cricket may have ended his hopes of winning back a place in England’s Test team.While Morgan, England’s captain in limited-overs cricket, insists he would love to add to his 16 Test caps, he admitted he “couldn’t see it happening” without a major change of commitment in the coming months.Morgan, 29, returned from a 12-week trip to India on Tuesday. As well as reaching the final of the World T20 with England, he was a member of the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad – albeit a non-playing member in the final – that won the IPL. He will feature in Middlesex’s NatWest Blast side on Thursday. But he has not played a first-class match since July and reasons that he is unlikely to play more than three or four this season. As a result, he has little realistic chance to win a Test recall.Such is his confidence in the England’s limited-overs squad, however, that it is a sacrifice he is happy to have made. He believes his young team could “do something special” over the next few years and he is happy to have prioritised that ambition.

Eoin Morgan on…

James Anderson’s ODI future
“He’s still available for ODI selection, he is unbelievable in English conditions and he has great experience, so you can’t say that he won’t play. But Jimmy is at a stage of his career where he’s made it to No. 1 in the world in the Test rankings and where he is going to be remembered as a great of English cricket and world cricket. And with the injuries he’s had in the past, focusing on that is going to be really good for him.”
The captaincy
“With the players we have and the stage I’m at in my career, it feels right captaining this side. It’s just a young side and I happen to be the most experienced player within it. I feel I’ve a lot to offer. I see stages where other people have taken over different teams around the world and they’ve had to come in and captain guys who have played 200 one-dayers or 100 Tests and I can understand that presents completely different challenges. But I haven’t had that with this side.
The Champions Trophy
“I certainly believe there should be an expectation of England there. The sooner we have expectation, the better. The experience of playing WT20 and getting to the final will put us in an early position where we’re able to deal with that expectation.”

“Do I still want to play Test cricket?” he said “Absolutely. How I’m going to get there? I’m not sure yet. I would have to cut back my white-ball commitments. And at the moment I don’t see it happening because of what’s happened for me in white-ball cricket in the last year.”There is a huge opportunity to take this England side forward. Even if I’m not captain in the future, with the crop of players we have at the moment I still believe we could do something special. And that for me in my career at the moment is my priority.”I don’t play a red-ball game until August, so at the moment it’s not at the forefront of my thinking. I average about three or four games a year, for the last six years, so playing it and actually focusing on it when you look at the amount of white-ball cricket I play can be difficult.”Crucial to England’s improvement in limited-overs cricket has, Morgan’s says, been the selection of young players who are largely unscarred from previous defeats. While he remains adamant that the message given to players at the 2015 World Cup – a low ebb even in the context of England’s inglorious recent history at such events – was the same as that given to the team now, he believes that this side has little baggage to hold them back.”It does make it unique that there aren’t any guys around who have scars from the past,” Morgan said. “I remember the first time I went to Australia in 2010-11, the guys who had been there previously all had stories about going there, but a lot of them were bad stories. They had not won over there. The experience of copping it everywhere – out in the crowd or out and about – rubbed off.”I remember it was quite intimidating hearing it from a senior player or someone who had played 90 Tests. The fact that we don’t have that now gives us a bit of a raw factor.”Having an unscarred side to do something we’ve never done before and play in a manner we’ve never played before has been important. But the way the guys have performed has been outstanding.”Morgan also suggested that the current England limited-overs team had a better attitude than some of those in which he featured previously. “The big thing that’s changed is the attitude,” he said. “The will to always want to be better.”It’s quite easy for a side, when you do well against strong teams, to sit back and reflect on how good you are as a side. But the will to improve in the side is something different that I’ve experienced in the last 12 months as opposed to the last six years. That’s the thing that’s changed for me.”The character has changed with the personnel. A lot of the guys in the side now are extroverts, but that’s just coincidental.”As well as crediting the influence of T20 cricket on the new England side – for the first time, the entire side were developed in the era of the newest format – Morgan also believes an abandoned English domestic competition, the 40-over league, might have played an unheralded part in recent improvements.The 40-over competition was introduced in England in the late 1960s. But, after many alterations and adaptations, it was finally discontinued at the end of the 2013 season with the ECB reasoning that domestic List A cricket should, as much as possible, mirror that played internationally.By that time, though, many of this England squad had taken their first steps into professional cricket and Morgan feels the influence of the 40-over competition continues to be felt.”The 40-over league has a lot to say for itself,” Morgan said. “And the manner it was played. In 50-over cricket you often used to have a lull towards the back end for rebuilding. But in 40-over cricket you don’t have that. You just keep going. If you lost wickets you might rebuild for five overs. But you kept going.”A lot of the guys in the team are products of that competition. It’s not just T20 cricket that contributes. It’s 40-over cricket as well.”

Kagiso Rabada’s well-being was top of mind for Cricket South Africa (CSA) when the organisation learnt of his positive drug test and subsequent month-long ban. Now, coach Shukri Conrad, Test and ODI captain Temba Bavuma and director of the national team and high performance Enoch Nkwe are all satisfied that Rabada is not a regular recreational drug user, has educated himself, and is ready to get back to his best at the World Test Championship (WTC) final next month.”I’ve been engaging with KG ever since I learnt about it,” Conrad said at a press conference in Johannesburg, where South Africa’s squad for the WTC final was announced. “The biggest thing for me was whether KG is all right and to close ranks around him and ensure that he’s in a good space. At the end of the day, we care for all our players. He served his sentence, and all that I’m interested in now is KG producing performances that we know he’s capable of.”Rabada tested positive on January 21 after a match between MI Cape Town and Durban’s Super Giants in the SA20 for what the South African Institute of Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS, which is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency) calls a “substance of abuse”. SAIDS will reveal the exact substance on June 4, 30 days after Rabada’s appeal period lapses, but according to their doping code, it can only be one of four: cannabis, cocaine, heroin or ecstasy.Bavuma on Rabada: “If there is an issue there, then he gets the support that he needs. If there’s not an issue, if it was him being reckless, then he deals with it”•Gallo Images

Several sources around Rabada said they hoped it was a one-off while recognising that the chances of someone using a substance just once and being caught are minimal, which has raised questions over Rabada’s general well-being. Nkwe confirmed that the incident happened “out of competition” (which is not on a match day) but had no further details, while Bavuma, also a long-time friend of Rabada’s, said his “biggest concern is more from a personal point of view”. “If there is an issue there, then he gets the support that he needs. If there’s not an issue, if it was him being reckless, then he deals with it,” Bavuma said. “The sledging, the media from the UK, from Australia, he deals with that. Just make sure that he comes out better from the situation.”Related

• Rabada sorry about drug use but 'won't be Mr-I-Apologise too much'

• Rabada heads six-man pace attack in SA's WTC final squad

• Kagiso Rabada cleared to play again after serving doping suspension

• Rabada serves suspension for recreational drug use

The timing of Rabada’s indiscretion, with a WTC final against Australia in England as his next assignment, means that there would be more spotlight on his sanction than usual. Already, former Australian captain Tim Paine has criticised the communication around Rabada leaving the IPL for what was at the time said to be “personal reasons” even though, by then, Rabada knew he was banned.Nkwe explained that CSA was unable to communicate any more detail because they needed to “respect SAIDS in driving the process and ensuring that everything was completed correctly”. “SAIDS embarked on that process and unless an individual feels that they want to come out straight away, it is a private matter,” he said. “We needed to respect that when it was time for information to be shared, it was shared by SAIDS.”Conrad was blunt in his response to Rabada’s naysayers. “To Tim Paine and everybody else out there, I’d probably say something simple like, ‘Let he without sin cast the first stone’. I’d leave it at that.”Paine resigned as Australia’s captain in 2021, after it was revealed that he was involved in an explicit text-message scandal before he took over as captain. He had ascended to that post in the wake of Sandpapergate, when Cameron Bancroft was caught using sandpaper on the ball during the Newlands Test – in a series where tensions had been simmering all the way through.Rabada earned demerit points for a shoulder brush against Smith in the second Test and was initially banned from the following two games before a successful appeal; his history with Australia is fraught. Nkwe expected that to continue: “We know the Australians are probably going to use it against him. But he’s gone through that journey, in 2018 with Sandpapergate and we saw the outcome of that.”For now, Nkwe said, Rabada had paid his penance, which included two educational sessions.”As much as he’s a superstar, he can also make a mistake,” Nkwe said. “But for us now, it’s the educational side of things and putting that into practice. It’s one of the things that he wants to drive – educating the youth and turning this thing around and making it into a positive message. For a 19-year-old or a 16-year-old, to hear it from someone that has done great things for South Africa, I think it becomes even more impactful.”

A second century in three days from England’s Tammy Beaumont led The Blaze to a fourth straight win as they continue to set the pace in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup women’s competition.Essex captain Grace Scrivens impressed with a fine unbeaten 120 but 231 for 9 from 50 overs always looked a difficult total to defend against their top-of-the-table opponents.The England A batter had support from Jodi Grewcock (28) and Amara Carr (34) but from too few partners overall as Ireland allrounder Orla Prendergast and England legspinner Sarah Glenn took three wickets each.Beaumont followed her unbeaten 112 against Hampshire at Trent Bridge on Sunday with 116 not out here, with backing from Scotland skipper Kathryn Bryce (47) and England’s Amy Jones (41) as The Blaze won by five wickets with 55 balls to spare. Esmae MacGregor took 3 for 42 as the pick of the Essex bowlers.Put in, Essex were 37 for 2 after 10 overs, left-arm seamer Grace Ballinger having dismissed Alice Macleod, bowled, and Cordelia Griffith, leg before.Having been 17 for 2, Scrivens and 20-year-old Grewcock built a decent recovery, adding 59 before the introduction of Ireland international Prendergast brought about a mini-collapse.Prendergast bowled Grewcock, on the back foot, and dealt Essex two more blows from balls banged in short, Florence Miller gloving behind and Sophia Smale chopping on, as 76 for 2 became 95 for 5.Scrivens found more support from Carr in adding 80 for the sixth-wicket, passing 50 from 79 balls with her fourth boundary, putting Essex in a decent position at 175 for 5 going into the last 10 overs.But Glenn, after a wicketless first spell, returned to dismiss Carr, who skied to mid-off, and Eve Gray leg before with consecutive balls before MacGregor also fell leg before in her next over. Ballinger could not complete her allocation after an injury in the field.Scrivens survived a difficult chance to long-on on 92 off Josie Groves, going on to reach 100 with her ninth boundary from 120 balls, picking up another couple and a six, off Kathryn Bryce, as she and Kate Coppack added 35 for the ninth wicket.The Essex attack struggled to contain Jones and Beaumont as the England duo propelled their side to 54 without loss in the opening powerplay. Jones eventually mistimed MacGregor to be caught at mid-on for 41 out of 92, Beaumont completing a second consecutive half-century from 54 balls with six fours and a six to the short straight boundary off Grewcock’s legspin.Jones gave way to Kathryn Bryce, with no let-up for Essex, the second-wicket pair putting on 104 in a 20-over partnership, Beaumont hitting her second six over the sightscreen at the athletics track end of the Haslegrave Ground, before Bryce feathered one behind.Sarah Bryce and Georgie Boyce both holed out chasing – in vain – a bonus point on offer for winning inside 40 overs, and Prendergast was bowled swinging, before Beaumont, whose hundred came from 110 balls, restored order by hitting Gray square of the wicket for the winning boundary, her 13th to go with two sixes.