Weekly cricket rewind: Everything that happened on 22 yards

by Robin Sharma
Weekly Cricket Rewind

We are back with our weekly cricket rewind. We’ll talk about all the happenings around the cricket world this week. Franchise cricket leagues are happening all around the world, the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is nearing and there are a few international matches going on as well. 

India will be against England in a 5-match T20I and 3-match ODI series starting from 22nd January. Australian cricket team may get a big blow ahead of the Champions Trophy and many more

We’ll talk about everything that happened this week and if you missed out on the cricket action then this is the right place for you!

So let’s get straightaway into it: 

Weekly cricket rewind from the 22-yard

1. Mohammed Shami returns to the Indian T20I side 

The biggest news from this week was that pacer Mohammed Shami has been declared fit and will play in the 5-match T20I series against England from 22nd January 2025. 

Shami got injured in the final of the ICC World Cup 2023 and has been sidelined due to injury since then. Firstly news came up that the right-arm pacer would return to the Indian squad when Bangladesh toured India back in 2024 but he couldn’t gain fitness for that tour. Then there were reports that he’ll be available for the test series against New Zealand last year and that didn’t happen as well.

Lastly, there were hopes of Shami returning to the test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 but that too didn’t happen as the BCCI medical team said that he’s not yet 100% fit. Shami’s return will be a big boost for the Indian side who will miss the services of young speedster Mayank Yadav in the England series. 

2. SA20 2025 starts with a bang

The franchise cricket fever has taken over the cricketing fraternity at the moment. The Big Bash League, SA20 League, Super Smash, ILT20 and the Bangladesh Premier League are being played simultaneously in different parts of the world. There’s plenty of action for the cricket fans throughout the day. 

The third edition of the South Africa 20 (SA20) league started with a lot of hype and excitement. Cricket South Africa’s marquee franchise league is arguably the best cricket league after the IPL. The tournament is very popular in South Africa and almost all the games have been a houseful till now.

All 6 teams in the tournament are owned by the IPL franchises and the best of the best players around the cricket world participate in this league. As of now, there have been 4 matches played in the tournament. MI Cape Town, Paarl Royals and Johannesburg Super Kings are the top 3 in the points table.

Follow our daily fantasy tips for the SA20 for consistent winnings!

3. Big Bash League 2024-25 nearing its business end

Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) 2024-25 is nearing its business end. Only 9 matches are left in the league stage of BBL 14 and almost all the remaining matches are very important for all the teams to qualify for the ‘BBL finals’. 

None of the teams can be completely ruled out now and it’s going to be a thrilling few days in the Big Bash League with all 8 teams giving their all to qualify for the next round. Steve Smith lit up the BBL with a match-winning century on his return. Matthew Short also scored a century on the same day!

As of now, the Sydney Sixers are at the top of the points table followed by Hobart Hurricanes, Sydney Thunder and the Brisbane Heat. Aussie legend David Warner is currently the highest run-scorer of this season with 316 runs in 7 matches. 

Jason Behrendorff, Tom Stewart Rogers and Lloyd Pope are the joint-highest wicket-takers of BBL 14 with 13 wickets to their names. 

Don’t forget to follow our daily BBL Fantasy Tips for bigger winnings!

4. Axar Patel announced as India’s vice-captain for T20I series against England

BCCI announced Axar Patel as India’s vice-captain for the upcoming 5-match T20I series against England. This is a very surprising move as Hardik Pandya who was earlier the captain of the T20I squad is already there and to choose Axar as the vice-captain over Pandya came as a surprise for everyone. 

Earlier, Suryakumar Yadav was appointed as the T20I captain of India when everyone expected Hardik Pandya to get the captaincy duties. It will be interesting to see if the team management is looking at Axar as a long-term captaincy option. 

India’s T20I squad for England series: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Axar Patel (vice-captain), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Dhruv Jurel (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami

5. Reports suggest that ICC may divide test cricket into two divisions

After the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, reports have been circulating that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is planning to divide test cricket into “two divisions”. ICC is thinking about this to increase the popularity of test cricket.

ICC may divide test cricket into 2 divisions.

The first division will have big names like India, Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan. The second division will have West Indies, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Ireland. There will be a promotion system for the teams in the second division to the first division if they play well.

Fans and experts have mixed opinions on this. Many ex-cricketers are saying that this will hamper the growth of the teams in the 2nd division as they won’t be able to play the stronger teams. While some say that this will be a good move as we’ll get to see the top teams playing against each other more frequently. 

6. Champions Trophy may move out of Pakistan; Australian captain Pat Cummins may miss the marquee event

The majority of the matches in the ICC Champions Trophy will be played in Pakistan at three venues: Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has invested heavily to renovate these three venues and the deadline to finish that work is January 25th 2025. 

But as of now the work is still going on and quite a lot of work is left. According to sources, it will be a miracle if the PCB can complete the work by the deadline. The tournament may shift to the UAE if PCB fails to get the venues ready in the given time. 

Another big news from the Champions Trophy is that the Australian captain Pat Cummins may miss the entire tournament due to injury. Cummins is not the part of the Australian squad for their upcoming Sri Lanka tour and Steve Smith will lead the side there. 

Cummins is having an issue with his ankle and he’ll undergo scans. The Australian captain is not 100% certain to play in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

This was the weekly rewind of the major happenings around the 22 yards from this week. We’ll continue to bring out this series every week so you don’t miss out on any action. 

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