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Karachi Kings have won only three out of their last 19 PSL matches, they won just one game in 10 last season, and they’ve begun PSL 2023 with three defeats. That’s not a great position to be in while preparing to take on their biggest rival, Lahore Qalandars, but captain Imad Wasim refuses to write his team off yet.”We are presently coming with a losing streak from last season until now, but once we get winning momentum then you become a force,” Imad had said after narrowly failing to chase down 169 against Quetta Gladiators last night. “But it’s not happening right now and it’s our mistake. We will sit and talk about it. Someone needs to play that finishing role and be that one person so that we can have our belief back. Faith is very important in any sport and any career and I still have faith in Karachi.”They will not have too much time to do this introspection, with the Qalandars clash lined up later today, but Imad did try to make sense of the rut. “I won’t say we are playing very bad cricket overall but we are only playing good cricket in phases. Sometimes it happens in a team when you aren’t able to click all together – once we do, we will start winning.”We made a lot of mistakes but they are done. No team goes out and tries to lose, it’s just a lean patch that hasn’t come to an end since last season and we are trying to get out of it. As a professional, when you see the chips are down, everything is against you, that is when you turn up to win your team a game.”Imad is one of the most experienced PSL captains, second only to Sarfaraz Ahmed, but his record is patchy: 44 captained, 20 won, 20 lost (Super Overs aside). This season, all three losses have come at home, even as they’ve fiddled with their combination and strategy. Among the changes dished out was Matthew Wade, the Australian wicketkeeper-batter, who played as opener in the first game scoring 23 off 15, but was pushed down to the middle order for the next two games and has scored 18 off 18 and 15 off 19 from there. Imad did say finding the right person to finish innings was on his mind.”We aren’t able to finish well, it is one of the factors [in our slump]. Secondly, our death overs are a factor…”Then there is the matter of making it count once in, and Imad said that too had been discussed with the team. “Sometimes if you don’t show enough intent, you give away your wickets very easily in such conditions. It was talked about, not letting it go so easily because with one set batsman in, anything is possible, especially on Karachi pitches. But it’s not happening, everyone who is getting set is getting out other than Shoaib Malik.”Imad had advocated an aggressive brand of cricket coming into this tournament, and he said the rocky start has not changed his mind. “It’s a way of playing cricket, you play shots and express yourself. Unfortunately, we’ve lost wickets in the powerplay and so have not been able to express ourselves, but once we settle in everything will click. We are still going to play the same brand of aggressive cricket with the ball and bat.”

Delhi Capitals are set to sign Bengal’s Abishek Porel as a replacement for the injured Rishabh Pant ahead of IPL 2023. Porel’s signing, which is yet to be announced officially, comes following a series of practice games at a week-long preparatory camp in New Delhi.Porel and three other uncapped wicketkeepers – Sheldon Jackson, Luvnith Sisodia and Vivek Singh – had been put through a series of match simulation exercises, apart from being monitored by the Capitals coaching group, headed by director of cricket Sourav Ganguly and head coach Ricky Ponting, over the past week.Capitals’ punt on Porel comes on the back of his first full season with Bengal in domestic cricket, where he impressed with his glove work but failed to make big scores across formats.Related

• Ponting wants Pant to be around Capitals team during IPL

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• Delhi Capitals have firepower despite Pant's absence, but who will keep wicket?

His three outings in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy brought him 22 runs, with one of those knocks being an unbeaten 20. He has slightly better returns in first-class cricket, having managed six half-centuries across 26 innings with a best of 73.

Sarfaraz Khan still Delhi Capitals’ front-runner?

Porel could yet be a back-up wicketkeeping option with the franchise keen on trialling Sarfaraz Khan in the role. Sarfaraz has been in prime form with the bat over the past three domestic seasons. In fact, he’s one of only two players to have scored over 900 runs in two consecutive Ranji Trophy seasons (2019-20 and 2021-22). This time around, he managed 556 runs in six innings.Sarfaraz, who played a clutch knock to deliver Mumbai the title in the Syed Mushtaq Ali final last November, was picked up for his base price of INR 20 lakh last year. He featured in six games in IPL 2022, batting in the lower middle order for 91 runs with a best of 36 not out.With Pant unavailable – he’s recovering from injuries sustained in a serious car crash in December – the team management had sounded out Sarfaraz as early as January to be ready for the wicketkeeper’s role. It’s a role he’d carried out for Mumbai at the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s.

Phil Salt also in the running

The only other wicketkeeping option Capitals had was England’s Phil Salt, who was signed for his base price of INR 2 crore at this year’s auction. Salt is coming off a “frustrating time” in Bangladesh during the white-ball series. However, he comes with the experience of having played 180 T20s that have brought him 4118 runs at a strike rate of 149.79, much of it in the top order.With Capitals’ top-three set to be David Warner, Prithvi Shaw and Mitchell Marsh, it’s likely they may find it hard to fit Salt in in his preferred position (11 of his 15 T20I innings have come at Nos. 1-3), and this could play to Sarfaraz’s advantage.Capitals begin their campaign on April 1 in an away fixture against Lucknow Super Giants.

Graham Onions, the Lancashire and former England fast bowler, has announced his retirement from the game. Onions, 37, suffered a back injury ahead of the start of this year’s Bob Willis Trophy and has taken medical advice to end his professional playing career.Onions played nine Tests between 2009 and 2012, taking 32 wickets at 29.90, and would likely have featured more if not for injuries. He claimed a five-wicket haul on debut against West Indies to get on the Lord’s honours board, and featured in three out of five Tests as England reclaimed the Ashes in 2009.Although not renowned for his ability with the bat, he was twice the hero on England’s 2009-10 tour of South Africa, seeing his side to draws at Centurion and Cape Town nine wickets down – Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel both denied by the No. 11 in their final overs.A naggingly accurate fast-medium seamer who learned his trade on the pitches of Chester-le-Street, Onions was part of the Durham side that won three Championships in six seasons and became their leading wicket-taker in first-class cricket – with 527 at 25.58 – before leaving for Lancashire in 2017. He took a further 104 first-class wickets at 20.73 with his new club.Onions retires having reaped 874 wickets across all formats in a 16-year career. Although red-ball bowling was his strength, he also played four ODIs for England, and helped Durham lift their first major trophy with victory in the final of the 2007 Friends Provident Trophy at Lord’s.”This is not the way I wanted to bow out of the game, but I have to listen to the medical staff and have come to terms with the fact I am protecting my health and wellbeing in future years,” Onions said.”I gave absolutely everything I could and finish with no regrets. From being part of an Ashes-winning England team to becoming Durham’s leading first-class wicket-taker, I have achieved more than I could have dreamed of when I first started out and feel lucky to have had the privilege of being a first-class cricketer for so many years.”I will be forever grateful to Dave Roberts, Sam Byrne, Tom Webster and the rest of Lancashire’s medical team for their help, support and professionalism over the last two-and-a-half seasons since I joined. They have been truly fantastic with me and I cannot thank them enough.”Glen Chapple, Paul Allott and the rest of the Lancashire staff and players have also made me feel truly welcome from the first moment I joined and I have loved every moment of being in the home changing room at Emirates Old Trafford.” As part of the contract extension he signed in 2019, Onions has been working in a coaching capacity with the age-group and academy sides at Emirates Old Trafford and will continue in that role until the end of the season.Lancashire’s director of cricket, Paul Allott, said: “It’s a sad day when anyone has to retire from professional sport and even more so when it is effectively taken out of their control. As we have seen in his performances over the last few years, Graham’s talent and drive is still there but unfortunately he has to take this decision on the advice of the medical staff.”I would like to congratulate him on not only what he has achieved at Lancashire, but also across his 16-year career in professional cricket. He has been the consummate professional and a shining example to young bowlers of what you can achieve when you match talent with the dedication and desire he has displayed throughout his career.”As far as skilled fast bowlers in county cricket, they do not come much better than ‘Bunny’ and were it not for some injuries at key times at his peak, he certainly would have played more for England.”Everyone at Lancashire Cricket and Emirates Old Trafford wish him all the very best for the future and thank him for his considerable and invaluable contributions to the club.”

Virat Kohli has endorsed Kane Williamson as the “perfect leader” for New Zealand, despite the hosts suffering a 5-0 T20I whitewash against India on the back of a 3-0 Test whitewash against Australia.”Very similar mindsets, very similar philosophies. He’s just a really nice guy, and we got along well, we’ve known each other for a while. It’s amazing to know that in different parts of the world you are thinking the same things, talking the same language and heading in the right direction,” Kohli told the host broadcaster on Sunday. “Although the scoreline looks very different for New Zealand, I truly believe that New Zealand cricket is in the best hands with Kane. He is the right guy to lead this team, and lay out that vision for them which he has in the past as well.”New Zealand were World Cup finalists and ranked No. 2 in Tests under Williamson not too long ago. But their form has plummeted since a horrid tour of Australia where they went as the higher ranked team but returned with their confidence shattered after suffering their worst-ever defeat in the country.Williamson’s own form was worrisome, with only 57 runs in four innings. He sat out the final match of that series in Sydney due to illness. And although he seemed to have rediscovered his best against India in the third T20I, where he toyed with no less a bowler than Jasprit Bumrah to make 95, it wasn’t enough to take his team over the line as they succumbed to a third Super-Over defeat across formats in seven months. New Zealand have since squandered two more opportunities to get across the line, with Williamson out injured.Rishabh Pant listens in as Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson have a chat•Getty Images

Kohli, however, stressed that there was more to leadership than results reflected. “As I said, results always can’t determine your leadership. I spoke to him today, and the way he thinks about life and the game, he is just the perfect, perfect man to lead this side. I wish them all the luck and all the power to come back stronger, and they are a side everyone loves to watch and play against as well. Just had a very nice conversation, something that I will remember.”Reflecting on India’s series win, Kohli said the most heartening aspect was the youngsters standing up, particularly in the last final T20I where he himself was resting and stand-in captain Rohit Sharma couldn’t take the field after suffering an injury when he was batting.”Really proud of the way we played this series. The conversation we had in the change room was always looking to find a way to win. That’s something we have been working on as a team. When it comes together nicely, it feels really good, and especially today, I mean, you don’t want to see what happened to Rohit, but the fact that in the field, there were all these young guys playing together, and handling pressure situations was something I was very happy to watch from the outside. Obviously gives you a lot of satisfaction as a senior player, because you know the team is in good hands, and there are people who are thinking in the right manner about the game and who are going to take this momentum for the team forward in many years to come.”

Phil Simmons, West Indies’ coach, has challenged his players to consign the events of the first Test at the Ageas Bowl to “history”, as they look to guard against complacency and close out their first overseas series win against a leading Test nation in more than a quarter of a century.Speaking after his team’s return to Emirates Old Trafford ahead of Thursday’s Test, Simmons praised the resolve of his players in Sunday’s four-wicket win in Southampton – in particular Jermaine Blackwood for his decisive 95 on the final day of the contest, and Shannon Gabriel, whose haul of nine wickets across the two innings demonstrated his return to full fitness following ankle surgery.The result means that West Indies have now won four of last six Tests against England – dating back to their famous run-chase at Headingley in 2017, and encompassing their 2-1 series win in the Caribbean in early 2019. However, they have not won a series in England since 1988, and Simmons acknowledged that it would be their duty to start from scratch in the coming days.”For me it was a great win because I think that it signified a lot of hard work being done by the players over the last four or five weeks,” he said. “But you don’t come to England and just win a Test match. It was a top-class Test match, with good cricket played by both teams, and even coming down to the last hour, it could have gone either way.”To come out on top. It’s been great for us, and it was important because you don’t want to have to chase England in England. So the chasing is from their point of view now. But you guard against complacency by just trying to do the same things you did before the first Test. Right now that Test match is history. We’ve got to be thinking about what we do from Thursday to Monday.”West Indies successfully backed up their first-Test victory in Barbados last year with an equally impressive win in Antigua, but the challenge of replicating that form in an overseas campaign is rather harder.Leaving aside their tours of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, they have only taken the lead in the first Test of an away series on three occasions since 1995. In that year’s tour of England, they were pegged back to a 2-2 draw after a crushing win at Headingley, and were then overturned 3-1 on their next visit to England in 2000, and 2-1 in South Africa in 2007-08.ALSO READ: ‘When he crosses the line he gives his all’ – Holder on BlackwoodHowever, the circumstances of the current England tour are different in a number of key respects – firstly, the absence of a home crowd, which England arguably noticed during a flat day in the field in West Indies’ first innings, but perhaps more significantly, the extended preparation period, which may have been forced on the tourists by the Covid-19 outbreak, but which Simmons said harked back to his own playing days in the 1980s and 1990s.”I think that has been the biggest influence on the performance,” he said. “I think the fact that we’ve been here for that period of time, we’ve had quality bowling in the nets because we’ve had nearly 11 seamers here, you can’t put a price on that.”I think that’s something that we have to look at. I don’t like to go back into my [playing] days, but we would come to England and play something like three or four proper warm-up games before the first Test, and we would also have three-day or four-day games in between the Test matches. So I think that period of training goes a long way to how we performed in that first Test.”One of the key beneficiaries of the lead-up time was Gabriel, who had not originally been named in West Indies’ first-choice 14, but was added to the squad after proving his fitness in both the nets and the intra-squad contests at Old Trafford. His hostility in both England innings echoed his crucial contributions to the win in the Caribbean last year, and Simmons took particular pleasure in his two-wicket burst on the pivotal fourth evening of the match.”The hardest time for bowlers, after bowling from the morning, is that last session,” Simmons said. “To see him and Alzarri [Joseph] come up trumps in that session is so pleasing to us. With him coming back from that ankle surgery and working as hard he has worked since we’ve been here, it was a joy to see him successful in that period.”Blackwood also proved his mettle, and not for the first time against England, against whom he now averages 55.00 in seven Tests. He withstood intense pressure on the final day – both from the scoreboard, which read 27 for 3 with John Campbell retired hurt, and from England’s fielders, with Ben Stokes in his ear from the outset as they attempted to goad him into a rush of blood.”I think he must be commended because he has worked very hard on trying to get that temperament right for each part of his innings,” Simmons said. “As we saw in the first innings, it was still there a bit, but in the second he controlled it a lot better. And that helped him to bring home the game for us.”Blackwood himself conceded that England’s words were “nothing bad, just cricket” and Simmons accepted that it was all part and parcel of the Test match battle.”It’s what I would have done too,” he said. “Try to get him irrational, but I think he held his own. He looked at the situation and played it as well as he could have. So that shows that his mindset is improving, and that’s all you can ask for.”

That Australia would conclude a domineering home series against New Zealand with their second highest ever ODI total on home shores, on the way to a record-setting 21st consecutive ODI victory, was startling enough. That they would achieve those feats with a 232-run win, without their captain Meg Lanning as well as their famed allrounder Ellyse Perry in the XI, was downright unnerving for the rest of the world.Lanning’s absence, due to a right hamstring strain sustained during her unbeaten century in the second of three ODIs on Monday, was the talk of Allan Border Field on Wednesday morning, giving New Zealand a chance to pressure a batting order shorn of its most vaunted name. Certainly it was enough to encourage Sophie Devine to send the hosts in upon winning the toss despite a slowing and ageing surface.But the response was that of a team far more enthused than overawed by such challenges. The acting captain Rachael Haynes and Alyssa Healy combined for a commanding opening stand worth 144 in a little more than half the available overs, before Haynes and the middle order accelerated fearfully to take the Australians to 325 – only a gargantuan 397 against Pakistan in the amateur days of 1997 surpassed it among matches at home.ALSO READ: How Australia made it 21 wins in a rowIn the midst of the punishment, including 104 from the final 10 overs as Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney and Lanning’s replacement Tahlia McGrath made merry, there was also room for development: an occasionally halting but equally promising stay at No. 3 from the 18-year-old allrounder Annabel Sutherland, as she added 78 in 87 balls with Haynes. Asked to chase a distant 326, the touring side were in trouble virtually from the start, as Devine was cramped into pulling Megan Schutt into the trap of two midwickets placed for her, departing the scene for a disconsolate first-ball duck. There onwards, the Australian bowlers did not relent, as Jess Jonassen and Georgia Wareham particularly enjoyed the expansive spin occasionally on offer.There had been far more optimism for New Zealand early on, as an overcast morning offered the chance for swing, and the knowledge that Healy and Haynes were to be followed by the callow Sutherland rather than the hamstrung Lanning.ALSO READ: Meg Lanning interview – On leading superstars, legacyBut they were unable to find a way through, allowing Healy and Haynes to punish any errors in line and length, and build with something approaching impunity as both passed 50 and Healy reached the outskirts of a century. Thirteen short of a century, she skied wristspinner Amelia Kerr, clearing the way for Sutherland’s entry.The next period saw New Zealand regain some control of the scoreboard as Sutherland struggled to rotate strike with her correct and upright technique, only for Haynes to intervene with some aggressive blows to get the run rate going again. With time, Sutherland began to join in, but was bowled behind her pads attempting to sweep Kerr just as the final 10 overs began.Haynes’ steadfast display merited a century, but was ended on 96 by a marginal lbw call when she, too, knelt to sweep Kerr. Mooney might also easily have followed lbw, saved only by a little doubt over whether the ball had pitched outside leg stump before looking likely to crash into middle. Kerr’s wristspin skills had again been very evident, but upon the conclusion of her spell, having seen Gardner wretchedly dropped by Natalie Dodd, the Australians freed their arms. Eight sixes for the innings were the joint-most for Australia in a women’s ODI.New Zealand’s pursuit was never more than a cursory one, save for Amy Satterthwaite’s 41. On a slow and spinning surface, against bowling options ideally suited to the conditions, they were completely overwhelmed. The evenness of Australia’s display was underlined by the fact that wickets were shared among every member of the attack, rounding off a massive victory without their two biggest names.Twenty-one ODI wins in a row equalled the record set by the Australian men’s team in the 2000s; seldom if ever were Ricky Ponting’s side quite as dominant as this.

Coaches in the Hundred have raised questions about how squads in the competition will look next year, suggesting that a partial re-draft of squads will be necessary ahead of the tournament’s delayed launch in 2021.Players’ contracts were terminated on Monday through a ‘force majeure’ clause following the tournament’s postponement and the ECB has opened discussions with the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) and other stakeholders in the past few days to work out what will happen to squads.And while there seems to be little appetite for a total re-draft, question marks over Kolpak players, overseas availability, and possible retirements mean that freezing the squads would prove close to impossible.ALSO READ: Hundred delay a knock for women’s game – LevickUnder the competition’s planned retention rules, teams were able to keep up to ten players from their initial squad for the 2021 edition of a tournament, at a salary band negotiated with the player. Another draft would then follow for teams to fill the gaps in their squads during the winter, with the lower number of players to pick allowing a shorter and more focused programme for TV. A modified version of this system seems – at an early stage – to be the most likely solution.Speaking on a Sky Sports podcast, Shane Warne and Tom Moody – coaches of London Spirit and Oval Invincibles respectively – said that there would be issues with keeping the same squads for 2021.”It’ll be two years basically when the Hundred starts from when we did the auction [draft],” Warne said. “There’ll be different players, some players might retire, so I’m not sure how they’re going to – will they start from scratch again, where you have to put together different squads? Will they have a ten-player core of that squad and then you can only pick ten players?”It’ll be interesting to see what the ECB come up with about the rules and whether they say ‘you know what, we’re going to start again’ or another alternative. I think everyone was pretty happy with the squad they had but two years later from when the auction [draft] is, there’s a lot of time passed as to how players develop in that time. It’d be interesting to see how it affects them. People might be playing international cricket then, might have got elevated so they’re not available as much, so you might have chosen a different squad.”In the London Spirit squad Warne picked, there are four players who would be 35 or older at the start of next year’s competition: Joe Denly, Jade Dernbach, Mohammad Nabi, and Roelof van der Merwe. Kyle Abbott, initially selected as a local player thanks to his Kolpak registration, would have to be picked as an overseas player. Moody’s Invincibles squad has fewer issues in terms of age, but he has a similar problem with Kolpak players having signed Rilee Rossouw and Hardus Viljoen for £75,000 and £60,000 respectively.”I think most teams would be pretty comfortable with the squads they’ve got. Not only did most teams plan to have a squad that was capable of winning in the first year, I think they had also a long-term eye as well with regards to making sure that they had players they wanted to be part of their franchise for years to come,” Moody said.”I think there are some tricky little hurdles that the organisers will have to get their head around. One of the ones that really stands out for me is the Kolpak player situation – it [the loophole] is due to expire at the end of December this year, so teams that had picked Kolpak players knowing that they had them for the first year but then would have had to make a decision with them the following year, with regards to whether they keep them on board as an overseas or let them go back into pasture.”Jason Roy models the Oval Invincibles’ kit•Getty Images

PCA chairman Daryl Mitchell has taken the lead in discussions and has led multiple calls with county representatives and other senior players since the tournament was officially postponed last Thursday. Of the 21 county reps (three counties have two), six have contracts in the Hundred: Ben Cox, Luke Fletcher, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, David Payne, Max Waller and Chris Wood. Others, such as Jake Ball and Jack Taylor, would have been well-placed to win selection as a ‘wildcard’ through performances in the T20 Blast.ALSO READ: Where now for the Hundred following ECB postponement?Both men’s and women’s players were notified via a letter on Monday that their contracts had been terminated. An ECB spokesperson said: “This letter is necessary paperwork to legally update and inform players of the situation, which follows a notification last week around the launch of the new competition being moved to 2021. We are currently working with the PCA and other key stakeholders with regard to player selection and retention for the first edition of the Hundred in 2021.”Selection and retention for the women’s competition is less likely to raise concerns, with players signed by teams partly based on location via an informal recruitment process rather than a draft. Charlotte Edwards, the former England captain and Southern Brave head coach, said on Sunday it was a “worrying time” for the women’s game following the tournament’s postponement, with several players set to miss out on deals in the short term.While the Hundred’s postponement has been confirmed, the ECB has downplayed reports that a revised schedule for the summer could include no women’s cricket. “We’re working alongside all international boards whose men’s or women’s teams are due to come here this summer,” said a spokesperson.