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Despite recent struggles with the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules, Everton look set to open the chequebook this summer and bring a number of reinforcements to the club.

Fresh faces expected to arrive at Goodison

One name linked with a move to Merseyside is former Liverpool loanee Arthur Melo. The midfielder boasts 22 caps for Brazil and whilst his spell at Anfield was marred by injury, he would no doubt be a massive asset in the Toffees' midfield.

Dyche personally monitoring Everton move for £20m Branthwaite successor

Everton are eyeing up a replacement for their star man amid intense interest from Manchester United.

ByJosh Barker Jun 17, 2024

A midfielder clearly ranks high on Everton's shopping list with recent reports also linking the club with a move for Matteo Guendouzi and Khephren Thuram. Whichever midfielder ends up joining the club will likely be arriving to replace Amadou Onana, with the Belgian attracting interest from a host of top clubs.

North London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur look set to battle it out for the 22-year-old with the Toffees reportedly asking for a fee in the region of £50 million to secure his services. Onana made 30 league appearances for Everton last season, proving a vital part of Sean Dyche's side as they fought off relegation in spite of multiple points deductions.

With Onana's exit now likely, it appears that Everton have agreed a deal to sign a midfielder from a side that secured Champions League football last season.

Everton agree deal for Aston Villa's Tim Iroegbunam

As first reported by Football Insider's Pete O'Rourke, Everton have agreed a deal to sign Aston Villa midfielder Tim Iroegbunam. The 20-year-old central midfielder is set to join the Toffees in a deal worth somewhere in the region of £10million after a "breakthrough" in talks.

The young Englishman is said to be highly rated at his current club however a number of factors have led to him being shown the door at Villa Park this summer. Most prevalent is Iroegbunam's lack of game time during his time in the Midlands, with the midfielder managing just nine league appearances as the Villans finished fourth in the Premier League.

The second reason behind his exit is Villa's need to sell players to satisfy FFP rules. An earlier report by Football Inisder suggested that the Villans need to raise £60 million in player sales this summer before they can start to bring fresh faces in. With Unai Emery unlikley to want to lose any of his key players, it is inevitable that promising but non-essential talents like Iroegbunam will be sacrificed in order to balance Villa's books.

Despite struggling for game time at his parent club, Iroegbunam has excelled out on loan in particular during a spell with QPR in 2022/23. The midfielder made 32 appearances for the Hoops and earned the plaudits of then manager Michael Beale in the process.

Speaking to the press following Iroegbunam's debut, Beale was quick to praise the midfielder: "Tim's a very good player and we're fortunate to have him. We can't rush him. He's 19 but I think he's going to have a good season here with us."

In this situation, Villa's loss will certainly be Everton's gain with the Toffees getting their hands on a quality talent for a cheap price.

However you want to slice it, he is a three-format monster and Sri Lanka’s first serious entry into the space-age batting genre

Andrew Fidel Fernando19-Jun-2025Roughly 70 overs into a scorching third day against Bangladesh in Galle, Pathum Nissanka smokes Bangladesh’s fastest bowler through the covers, flicks him past the keeper next ball, and soon speeds from the 150s into the 160s.He had faced a little over 200 deliveries by this stage, but even this far into a long day, Bangladesh’s bowlers are finding there is still so little room for error with this guy. While they labour in their run ups, feet picked off the ground as if out of wet sand, Nissanka is taut, poised and clinical. If your length is off, he has laid into a crisp drive, a rasping cut, and a dismissive pull, almost before you’ve looked.Bangladesh’s seamers are tall and imposing. Nissanka is compact and lean. But in this moment, on a flat Galle surface, Nissanka strikes you as the bully. In some passages, he is so intent on working every possible scoring opportunity that on his own he feels like a SWAT team storming every room of a building in search of suspects (runs).Related

Pathum Nissanka is raising his bar one notch at a time

Nissanka 187 leads SL's solid reply after Bangladesh post 495

His first 50 took 88 balls, as he let Lahiru Udara make the early charge while he settled in, but his next 50 took 48 balls, the next one 74, and he was roughly on track to make another 75-ish ball 50 when he was dismissed late in the day. His 187 off 256 balls (a strike rate of 73), is largely why Sri Lanka traveled at close to four runs an over, giving them a greater chance of moving into a winning position. But this 187, his third Test hundred in as many continents, is not Nissanka’s highest international score. That would be his 210 not out in ODIs.Any way you slice it, Nissanka is Sri Lanka’s first serious entry into the space-age batting genre. You know the type by now, right? The Harry Brooks, Glenn Phillips, Yashasvi Jaiswals of the world – the kind possessed of an ultramodern batting brain that takes the lessons from the shorter formats and sprinkles them effortlessly into the longest. Already, batters such as Virat Kohli, Steven Smith, and even Babar Azam, feel like prototypes of these. With the newest generation, the batting IQ is more elastic, the skills are more transferable, and the transitions are observably smoother. Getting stuck? Hitting a wall? Retreating into your shell? Ew. What is that?Sri Lanka have had three-format monsters before, but for the likes of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, they had had to go through the effort of embracing aggression and innovation. For Nissanka, rapid and emphatic evolution is a natural component of his cricketing journey. Nissanka’s first Test hundred had been a hugely stodgy 252-ball 103 in the Caribbean, after he had broken into the red-ball team on the back of a first-class average in the mid 60s.Following that, he had a lean spell in Tests, and became a white-ball specialist while he overcame a bad back injury. Having picked up new skills, he returned to Tests, and hit a 127 not out at better than a run-a-ball at The Oval last year, in what was Sri Lanka’s funnest Test win of 2024.

“Until this match, I’d never hit a Test hundred in Sri Lanka. I’d wanted to break my own mental barrier. Thankfully, today I was able to do that.”Pathum Nissanka after his 187

He may be 27, but it is clear that already, we are looking at Nissanka 2.0. Cricket may still be lugging an almost 150-year old multi-day format, but as more nations are drawn into the sport’s gravity, and the populations in cricketing centres continue to explode, even the oldest format is probably changing as quickly as it ever has.If we are to be critical of the batter that has top-scored in this match so far, it is that he didn’t score enough runs down the ground. Yes, Nissanka has strong wrists and prefers the funkier anglings of the bat, even against the juiciest half volleys. But modern batting is also about accessing all 360 degrees of the ground. So sorry, we will be filing the wagon wheel of Nissanka’s biggest Test innings under “Areas for improvement”. When you are a three-format batter in the third decade of the three-format age, these are the breaks.Nissanka, helpfully, also thinks of his batting as having format-specific holes that need to be filled. “Until this match, I’d never hit a Test hundred in Sri Lanka,” Nissanka said after his 187. “I’d wanted to break my own mental barrier. Thankfully, today I was able to do that.”Another of Nissanka’s answers reveals a generational change. Asked how he and Dinesh Chandimal had planned to bat in what turned out to be the biggest partnership of the innings so far – a 157-run stand – Nissanka said they had planned to “just bat normally”. Chandimal was once one of the most aggressive Sri Lanka batters of his youth. But to him, batting normally meant hitting 54 off 119 balls. Nissanka also faced 119 balls in that partnership. But he crashed 103 runs.Pathum Nissanka brought up his fifty in 88 balls•Ishara S Kodikara/AFP via Getty ImagesScoring faster is actually a team directive, Nissanka revealed. “When we came into this series, we had a target that in this [World Test Championship] cycle, we’d raise our run rate. We tried that, and we have been successful so far. Hopefully, we can take that forward into other matches.” This, actually, is pretty standard stuff for a Test team in the mid 2020s.It took an exceptional second-new-ball delivery from Hasan Mahmud to dismiss Nissanka. It snaked in viciously, flicked the edge of his front pad, and crashed into the stumps. Nissanka missed out on a Test double century by 13 runs, and did express regret about it. But he didn’t seem that cut up. Don Bradman has 12 double-hundreds on his own, and Kumar Sangakkara has 11. Only ten batters ever have made ODI double tons. Nissanka is already part of the more elite club.If Nissanka’s goal is three-format domination, this innings, his biggest in Tests, is a good staging post. Sri Lanka’s hope is that for him, as for some hypermodern others, success in one format carries seamlessly into match-winning batting in another, and another. Sri Lanka don’t have any Tests to play in the next ten months after this series ends. But with huge T20 assignments coming up, they still desperately need Nissanka in roaring form.

Thierry Henry believes PSG are more balanced without Kylian Mbappe, but also admitted they have "lost a bit of magic" with the Frenchman's exit.

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Mbappe joined Real Madrid in the summerPSG's European struggles continueFour points from three UCL games Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Luis Enrique could have done with someone of Mbappe's class in attack as he watched his Paris Saint-Germain side stumble to a 1-1 draw against PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League. PSG had 26 shots on goal, including 18 in the second half, but were unable to find a winner after fighting back from 1-0 down.

AdvertisementAFPTHE BIGGER PICTURE

That result leaves PSG with work to do if they're to qualify automatically for the round of 16. They have four points from their opening three matches and lie in 17th place before Wednesday's fixtures, several spots beneath the coveted top eight. The situation is rosier in France, where PSG lead Ligue 1 after going unbeaten through their first eight games, but Henry believes Mbappe's exit has impacted their ability to turn close encounters, such as the PSV fixture, into wins.

WHAT HENRY SAID

“I think they are a team. They are a bit more stable, less counters. But they still lost Mbappe," the former Arsenal striker said on CBS Sports Golazo. "It’s very difficult. For example in a game like that, Kylian can turn it into a 2-1 or a winning goal towards the end, a moment of magic. He can turn it around. You lost a bit of magic but the team looks a bit more sound in terms of balance. But obviously the result is not good enough."

When asked by Jamie Carragher if Mbappe's departure means less pressure for Luis Enrique and his players, Henry replied: "No, the same. You decided to get rid of those guys. The way it was with the crowd and everything, they decided to go young and I was calling that when I was in France. But when you go young, you can’t go full young too early. You need to have a couple of guys that can be around. Marquinhos stayed, [Achraf] Hakimi is passing the veteran status. You need to have guys that can help those guys to be better also. It doesn’t mean that because Kylian Mbappe left it is easier, I think [Luis Enrique] has to be disappointed in that result tonight."

AFPWHAT NEXT FOR PSG?

PSG, who are embroiled in a legal battle with their former striker, travel to in-form Marseille on Sunday. Plans will also be underway for their next Champions League encounter, a home tie against Atletico Madrid on November 6.

Catch all the updates, chatter, stats and more from the opening game of IPL 2021

Sidharth Monga09-Apr-2021

11.25pmHarshal Patel digs out a near yorker last ball to take RCB to a win in a thrilling finish. Harshal had taken a five-for earlier in the night to restrict Mumbai to 160. It was that once-in-a-generation slow end from Mumbai, and then some genius of AB de Villiers that has sealed the win for RCB. This is the eighth time in a row that Mumbai have lost their first match of the IPL. If this start is anything to go by, we are in for some ride this IPL. Thanks for joining us tonight.ESPNcricinfo Ltd10.25pmWhy no Bumrah against Maxwell?Rohit and Mumbai Indians are big on match-ups. And here is a match-up if ever there was one: Japsrit Bumrah has taken Glenn Maxwell out six times in 58 balls in T20 cricket for just 67 runs. Rohit usually brings Bumrah on as soon as Maxwell comes on to bat, but not on this occasion. By the end of the 10th over, Maxwell has faced 15 balls, but none from Bumrah.It is not as though Rohit is not aware of the match-up. Is he saving Bumrah up for AB de Villiers? Or does he think a slightly older ball will provide Bumrah’s slower balls more grip?9.55pmIntroducing Rajat PatidarRajat PatidarShashank Kishore has been on the ball, and has produced this piece immediately after it was confirmed Patidar was making his IPL debut

“It’s been amazing, the last few months,” Patidar says. “The night of the IPL auction, I received a text from Virat, saying ‘welcome Rajat, wishing you the best, go smash it.’ I didn’t even have his number. Now, getting a chance to bat with him in the nets and maybe even in the matches will be a dream.”

9.50pmESPNcricinfo LtdThere have been only three one-run final overs in the IPL. Harshal Patel joined Praveen Kumar and Dale Steyn, both of whom managed it back in 2008.9.20pmHow did Harshal Patel outdo the Mumbai hitting machinery?BCCI/IPLHarshal Patel’s five-for was the first five-wicket haul against Mumbai Indians in all IPL. More important than that, his bowling at the death kept Mumbai to just 25 off the last four overs, their lowest since 2016. Harshal took the wickets of the designated death-overs hitters, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya, to go with Ishan Kishan in his last three overs.Two things happened, which both had to do with the pitch in all likelihood. The ball reversed for him, and it gripped the surface too. It was probably down to a dry track. It was expected the bowlers would go for slower balls into the surface to use both the surface and the dimensions of the ground, but the little bit of tail made Harshal even more dangerous. RCb bowled slower 23 balls in the last five overs, which accounted for four wickets and just 29 runs.Expect Mumbai to do more of the same?

Did Virat Kohli miss a trick by not bowling Washington Sundar earlier than the 13th over?

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) April 9, 2021

8.25pmWhy is Washington Sundar not bowling?It’s a slow, low surface, and Washington Sundar is at his home ground. He is at Chepauk where he has played most of his cricket, but he hasn’t been used in the first 11 overs. The most obvious reasons might be all the right-hand batsmen at the top of Mumbai Indians’ batting order. However, there is another trend here.Sundar came to prominence with his superb restrictive performances with the ball in the Powerplay for Rising Pune Supergiant. Then he joined Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2018. So 2017 remains the only year in which he bowled more overs in the Powerplay than the middle overs.Protecting fingerspinners against right-hand batsmen makes sense, but if there is an offspinner you would back against right-hand batsmen, it is Sundar. In all IPL, he has a better average against right-hand batsmen than left (26.4 as against 39.22) and only a slightly worse economy rate (6.9 as against 6.83).Also Glenn Maxwell, who bowled a lot in the Powerplay for Kings XI Punjab last year, hasn’t been used at all. Could RCB have made better use of their spinners on this slow surface?Mumbai Indians 94 for 2 in 11 overs.7.50pmEarly signs of a slow, low pitchIt is evident from the bottom edges in the first four overs. This is a slow pitch with low bounce, and Chris Lynn is struggling to force the pace. Rohit Sharma has been run out after he did create the pace in a couple of shots by advancing down. This might be a very good toss to win because if there is any dew the pitch might quicken up a little later in the night. Mumbai Indians 24 for 1 after four overs7.10pmVirat Kohli has finally won a toss. RCB have decided to field. There is a whole new look to RCB. Glenn Maxwell, Kyle Jamieson, Dan Christian. Devdutt Paddikal has just recovered from Covid-19, and has been advised not to play this game. Rajat Patidar comes in in his place.Mumbai Indians are so settled they have made just the two changes from the last final, and one of them is forced because Quinton de Kock is still in quarantine. Chris Lynn comes in as does Jansen. Two changes is what Rohit Sharma said at the toss. There are three. Seems he forgot the tactical inclusion of Jayant Yadav in the final. I sure forgot. So Rahul Chahar is in too.Royal Challengers Bangalore 1 Virat Kohli (capt.), 2 Rajat Patidar, 3 AB de Villiers (wk), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Daniel Christian, 6 Washington Sundar, 7 Kyle Jamieson, 8 Shahbaz Ahmed 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Yuzvendra ChahalMumbai Indians 1 Rohit Sharma (capt.), 2 Chris Lynn, 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Ishan Kishan (wk), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Jasprit Bumrah6.50pmSurely you have heard Marco Jansen is making his debut? Who is he, did you ask? The young South African beanpole who beat Kohli in the nets, that’s who. Here’s Saurabh Somani’s piece on himKoos JansenBrothers in arms•BCCI/IPL6.30pmWhat if I told you we could put together all the awesome Cricinfo content in one place so you don’t have to go looking. And what if I told you that place is here?Aakash Chopra has declared he will be training his binoculars to focus on a select group of players this IPL, men who can have a big impact on their teams winning the tournament.Among the multitude of people MS Dhoni has influenced is Rishabh Pant. The 23-year-old became the fifth-youngest captain in the IPL after the Delhi Capitals appointed Pant as the interim captain this season after Shreyas Iyer was ruled out due shoulder surgery. At his first toss Pant will walk out with Dhoni, on Saturday, and he has promised to expect something different.Millions mean nothing to Glenn Maxwell, who has said he wants to be a “positive influence” on the group. But former Indian opener and IPL-winning captain Gautam Gambhir reminds Maxwell here that why it is important for him to be consistent, something he was in 2014 IPL when he won the Most Valuable Player award.Talking about impact players, there are few who can match Kieron Pollard, who has been the key backbone for five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians, the team he joined in 2009 IPL. And it was Pollard’s knock in the final of the 2013 edition that helped Mumbai win their first title. Pollard’s 32-ball 60 is among ESPNcricinfo’s Greatest IPL Performances series.There are also a host of expansive interviews to choose from: T Natarajan talks about his fairy tale journey since the last IPL. Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara returns to the IPL after seven years, to a format he believes is a “piece of cake”. T20 specialist Dan Christian returns to the IPL after a forgettable outing last time, and is ready to make a mark even as he will turn 38 during the tournament at the Royal Challengers.Robin Uthappa reveals how he is coming into grips with specialist roles of a topo-order batsman that has evolved rapidly.Also have a listen to the IPL-10 series where Shubman Gill talks about not only scoring the “most runs” but also dominating a bowler, that has been among the best bowlers in the tournament for the past few years. Others in this series include Shakib-Al-Hasan, who is back in the IPL, at Kolkata Knight Riders and wants to score a 100 and take 5-for.Also get ready for some key changes to the IPL playing conditions: no more soft signal, cap on the time for multiple super overs, and third umpire to rule on a short run.Finally, Alan Gardner analyses why 40 is the new 30 in T20 cricket.6.15pmIt is not all normal at Cricinfo. There’s a Covid baby here. Please welcome the newest member of the family, Cricinfo Hindi. This is from a welcome note from our editor Sambit Bal. And here is the first live Hindi scorecard on Cricinfo

Technology makes it possible today to get descriptions from raw data or to create instant translation. But that would never have felt right. Communication is a deeply personal experience: it requires individuality, personality, quirks and human imperfection. Ball-by-ball commentary is the heartbeat of our site, it needs flesh and blood. Over the years, you have related to our commentators, bantered with them, sent them your affection and cursed them too. It’s a ride, and it’s very human.So we now have a team that will bring Hindi commentary to you, with all the flavours that the language merits and you deserve. We have spent the last few weeks discussing tone and temper and words and idioms, and we have been energised by the new flush of enthusiasm in our commentary team. But now we will let their natural impulse and instinct take over. Engage with them, let them know what you like and what you don’t and we will learn together. And, while at it, you can follow ESPNcricinfo Hindi on Facebook and on Twitter.

6pmIt’s been a hard hard year/Pushing shit uphill/But shit happens all the time/And I guess it always willNow the days are getting long/Summer’s on its way/I can’t wait for Christmas/’Cause the day after Christmas is Boxing DayYou’ll know where to find me/Ten rows back at the MCG/Right behind the bowler’s arm/Right behind the bowler’s armThat is the legendary Paul Kelly’s legendary welcome to the grand occasion of Boxing Day Test in Australia. We are living a dystopian version of this song in India and in the rest of the world. It’s been a – pardon my French – shitty year-and-a-half, and I really don’t know if cricket or any sport can provide a distraction from what is going on. All I know is, any activity going on with any semblance of normalcy is a message that we need to get up and keep living and working no matter what. So here is to a somewhat normal IPL 2021

The Ranji season resumes for two more league games after a break for the white-ball tournaments, and it’s going to be a star-studded show

Shashank Kishore21-Jan-2025Virat Kohli was barely a few months into his role as full-time Test captain when Rohit Sharma last featured in the Ranji Trophy, in November 2015. And when Kohli last played in India’s premier first-class competition, in November 2012, Sachin Tendulkar was India’s Test No. 4, and MS Dhoni the India captain. Both Tendulkar and Dhoni have now been retired for over a decade.Kohli and Rohit, on the other hand, are now both at a crossroads as far as their Test careers go, and with the tour of England coming up in the summer, the two of them are among some of India’s top players returning to the Ranji Trophy that resumes following a mid-season break for the white-ball competitions. Here is a primer to bring you up to speed ahead of the sixth round of matches beginning January 23.Is Virat Kohli really in line for a Ranji return?Kohli won’t be part of the upcoming round due to neck spasms. However, he is believed to have communicated his availability to the Delhi selectors for the final round of the league phase starting January 30, when Delhi play Railways at home.If he does make a Ranji return, Kohli will have four days to move from first-class cricket to the first ODI at home against England, with the series assuming great significance as it is India’s final ODI engagement ahead of the Champions Trophy.Kohli or not, Delhi have Rishabh PantDelhi will have the services of Rishabh Pant in what is a must-win game for both Delhi and Saurashtra, starting January 23 in Rajkot.Pant will, however, not captain the side as Delhi are keen on ensuring continuity in that regard. The squad will be led by Ayush Badoni, who will play under Pant’s captaincy at Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at IPL 2025.This will be Pant’s first Ranji outing since December 2017. He will line-up against Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja in the opposition on what is expected to be a turning Rajkot deck, with voices within the Saurashtra team management saying that’s their best chance of forcing an outright result, which they desperately need to make a last-ditch effort to reach the knockouts.Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma are both in the mix for Mumbai’s next match•BCCIWill Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal open together?Mumbai vs Jammu & Kashmir at the BKC Ground should get plenty of attention. Mumbai, the defending champions, are very much in the hunt for a top-two spot in Group A, and will have in their line-up Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal – who could open the batting together – as well as Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur and Shivam Dube. The big absentee from this game is Sarfaraz Khan, who is recovering from a rib injury, while his younger brother Musheer Khan too isn’t ready yet as he rehabs for a neck injury sustained in a road accident last year.Rohit and Jaiswal’s pairing at the top, if it happens, means Mumbai will find it incredibly hard to fit the in-form opener Ayush Mhatre, who has had a sensational initiation into top-flight cricket in 2024. Mhatre, who was part of India Under-19 at the Asia Cup, has already hit two first-class centuries in six matches. He also hit two hundreds in seven games for Mumbai in his maiden List A season that finished with the Vijay Hazare Trophy last week.While Mhatre is still part of the squad, there is no space for another youngster Mumbai have punted on to deliver – 20-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who was one of the emerging stars for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) during their title-winning run in the IPL last year.Shubman Gill will face KarnatakaThe other game to follow is Karnataka vs Punjab at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Shubman Gill, recently elevated as India’s ODI vice-captain, will play for Punjab after enduring a tough tour of Australia, where he featured in only three of the five Tests; he was injured for the series opener in Perth and was left out of the Boxing Day Test owing to team combination. In five innings, Gill tallied 93 runs at 18.60.Shubman Gill had a poor tour of Australia•Getty ImagesHis return to the domestic set-up comes at a time when his numbers outside Asia since June 2021 – he averages 17.64 in 18 innings – have come in for sharp scrutiny. His presence will, however, bolster a line-up that will be without Abhishek Sharma and Arshdeep Singh, with both part of India’s T20I squad for the England series starting on Wednesday.Karnataka, winners of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, will welcome the return of Prasidh Krishna and Devdutt Padikkal to the XI as they look to win their two remaining games to try and qualify for the knockouts. KL Rahul has informed the KSCA of his unavailability to nurse an elbow niggle ahead of the England ODIs and the Champions Trophy.What are the injury updates?Fast bowler Akash Deep and opener Abhimanyu Easwaran won’t be playing for Bengal to nurse injuries that will need monitoring from the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence. Akash Deep is out with a back niggle that also forced him out of contention for the Sydney Test earlier this month. Abhimanyu, who didn’t get a game on tour, is believed to have fractured his middle finger on the right hand while playing a club fixture in the lead-up to the Ranji games. He will likely be out of action for three weeks.Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj isn’t part of Hyderabad’s squad as he has been asked to rest by the national team management as part of his workload management. Siraj played all five Tests in Australia, but has been left out of India’s ODI squads for the England series and the Champions Trophy.Who are the other players to watch out for?Karun Nair is on a dream run, having finished the Vijay Hazare Trophy with five hundreds and 772 runs. With Vidarbha all but through to the Ranji knockouts, he’ll have two league games and a maximum of three more games to try and get a place in the Test middle-order with the England tour coming up.

Chelsea flop Romelu Lukaku is in the sights of a major club, as their own star striker holds talks to join Arsenal through his agent.

Edu and Arteta targeting prolific new striker for Arsenal

After missing out on RB Leipzig sensation Benjamin Sesko this week, who put pen to paper on a new and improved contract, it is back to the drawing board for Gunners sporting director Edu – as he looks to sign a new number nine for Mikel Arteta.

Arsenal table offer for Real Madrid regular who Perez may now sell for £34m

He could bolster one key area for Arteta.

ByEmilio Galantini Jun 13, 2024

Sesko had a proposal to leave Leipzig from Arsenal, as well as Chelsea and Man United (Fabrizio Romano), but the Slovenia international opted to remain in Germany. His 18-goal haul in all competitions last season, coupled with a tantalising £55 million release clause in his past contract, pushed Arsenal to move for the 21-year-old – but they were ultimately rebuffed.

Alternative options have been mooted as the transfer window now officially opens for business. Arsenal could reignite their pursuit of Bologna striker Joshua Zirkzee, with the Dutchman's deal containing its own £34 million exit clause.

Appearances

37

Goals

12

Assists

7

Minutes per goal

246

Minutes played

2,942

Zirkzee helped Bologna qualify for the Champions League with his 11 Serie A goals last season, but Arsenal face stiff competition from AC Milan, who are currently pushing for a deal to sign the 23-year-old.

Arteta wants a young partner for Kai Havertz in the forward area, and one who can add that extra degree of firepower, as Arsenal look to make it third-time-lucky and beat Man City in a race for the Premier League title.

A big-name forward who's been linked with a move to the Emirates, but to a lesser degree, is Napoli star Victor Osimhen. The Nigerian, who signed a new £209,000-per-week contract last season, also agreed to have a £113 million release clause inserted into the deal.

“We still can't rule out Arsenal in the race for Osimhen," said journalist Ben Jacobs to GiveMeSport earlier this year.

"It’s also true that PSG have Osimhen very, very high on their list of targets and can move in the market because they will free up money due to Kylian Mbappe’s departure. I'm still told by sources that Osimhen’s priority is the Premier League, which is encouraging for Chelsea and Arsenal. He would be looking for about £250,000 per week, which Arsenal, Chelsea and PSG would all be happy to pay.”

Napoli eyeing Lukaku as Osimhen holds Arsenal talks

Italian news site Il Roma has shared an update on the 25-year-old this week, and it concerns Arsenal. They claim Osimhen has held talks to join Arsenal via his agent, with Napoli fully preparing for the African's departure amid the growing clamor for his services. He also has suitors in Saudi Arabia, specifically Al Hilal and Al Ahli, while Ligue 1 giants Paris-Saint Germain are "in the background".

Napoli have earmarked Lukaku as a top target to replace Osimhen, so it will be interesting to see if the Belgian's departure from Chelsea could actually help to greatly strengthen Arsenal's forward ranks.

Catch up with how the Australian names have gone in the opening stages of this year’s IPL

Andrew McGlashan19-Apr-20212:14

Irfan Pathan: ‘Glenn Maxwell has changed the whole RCB set-up’

Maxwell’s revivalLast year’s IPL was a forgettable one for Glenn Maxwell as he tallied just 108 runs in 11 innings for the Punjab Kings – without hitting a single six – and was subsequently let go. That did not stop him fetching a huge price this time around with the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the contrast has been stark already. In three innings he has 176 runs, playing a key role in each of three wins to open RCB’s campaign. They made heavy weather of the chase against the Mumbai Indians after Maxwell’s 39 off 28 ended, then his 59 off 41 was the standout innings in a low-scorer against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. On Sunday he found top gear with 78 off 49 balls against the Kolkata Knight Riders although that was somewhat overshadowed by AB de Villiers’ onslaught. Could this be the RCB’s year?Can Warner turn Sunrisers around?It’s a long tournament so teams have time to bounce back, but David Warner has a few problems at the Sunrisers after they started with three defeats in a row. They have been in promising, or strong, positions in all three of their chases before falling short. In second of those losses they somehow failed to chase 150 against RCB despite Warner’s half-century taking them to 96 for 1 in the 14th over. Then against Mumbai, Warner and Jonny Bairstow put on 67 in 7.2 overs for the first wicket chasing 151 only for things to again fall in a heap with Warner run out in the 12th over when he was beaten by Hardik Pandya’s direct hit. “It’s just poor batting,” Warner said. “You just need smart cricket in the middle. At the moment we haven’t been able to produce that.”Jhye Richardson produced an excellent delivery to remove Jos Buttler, but has also gone at 10 an over•BCCI/IPLLynn makes an appearance, but just oneChris Lynn spent the whole 2020 edition on the bench for the Mumbai Indians but was one of the names somewhat surprisingly retained. This time, with Quinton de Kock serving his pre-tournament quarantine having arrived from South Africa, he was named in the XI for the opening match against RCB and started well with 49 off 35 balls. Although there is a big gap involved, Lynn has passed 40 in eight of his last 11 IPL innings stretching back to 2019. That, for now, has been his lot though. With de Kock available for Mumbai’s second game, Lynn was forced out of the side and back to that familiar position on the bench.Related

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Quicks have mixed fortunesLast year Pat Cummins picked up just three wickets in his first 10 matches, so he’s already well ahead this time with four scalps in three games for KKR. Against RCB, there was a good contest with Australia team-mate Maxwell who took him for 19 runs before Cummins succeeded with the short ball off his final delivery. Elsewhere, Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith have had some punishment for the Punjab Kings: they conceded 104 in their eight overs against the Rajasthan Royals, although Richardson’s slower-ball inswinger to get Jos Buttler was an excellent delivery and they won the game. They couldn’t do much to defend just 107 against the Chennai Super Kings and were on the receiving end in another high-scoring game against the Delhi Capitals but did take three of the four wickets. Overall they have conceded 222 runs from 21 overs.

"The best I've seen him bat" – Daniel Vettori on Glenn Maxwell #T20TimeOut | #RCBvKKR pic.twitter.com/zmp8cIuzSi

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) April 18, 2021