Though India lead every other team on the number of points earned, the ICC recently introduced a points system that ranks teams on percentage of points instead of the overall points earned, after several series/matches could not take place due to Covid pandemic around the world.
South Africa will go into the second test against Sri Lanka with the same top six batsmen but coach Mark Boucher acknowledges the return of fitagain fast bowler Kagiso Rabada is no certainty.
2020 has been such a year. With a major part of it consumed by the Covid-19 pandemic everything else took a back seat, including cricket and the news of cricket retirements. A number of big players bid adieu to the game in the year but barring one or two superstars, hardly anyone got coverage in the media. We look back at 10 players who bid farewell to the game (international, domestic or professional) in 2020.
Former India leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan has the joined the BJP on Wednesday. The move is set to bolster the party ahead of the TN Assembly elections next year.Opening batsmen David Warner and Will Pucovski have been included in Australia's 18man squad for the third test against India in Sydney but Joe Burns has been dropped after twin failures in Melbourne.Australia opener Joe Burns has been dropped for the third test against India in Sydney next week after twin failures with the bat in the Boxing Day test in Melbourne.New Zealand's bowlers produced a late final session surge to guide their side to a tense 101run victory over Pakistan in the first test in Mount Maunganui on Wednesday and keep alive their hopes of reaching next year's World Test Championship final.Australia head to the third test against India desperately searching for answers to their batting woes and with fingers crossed that sidelined opener David Warner will be ready to slot back into the side in Sydney.Playing alongside top international players in the Indian Premier League (IPL) has developed a fearlessness in opener Shubman Gill and quick Mohammed Siraj, said India coach Ravi Shastri after the duo excelled in the second test against Australia.
Rahane not only led from the front, but tactfully used available resources at his disposal to level the four match Test series 1-1, that too after the team recorded their worst ever Test debacle in the series opener at Adelaide.
Opening batsman David Warner will return from injury to take his place in the Australia squad for the third test against India beginning Jan. 7 in Sydney while struggling fellow opener Joe Burns has been dropped.
New Zealand beat a resilient Pakistan by 101 runs in the last few minutes of the fifth day's play to go 1-0 up in the two-Test series and reclaim the second spot in the ICC World Test Championship points table. Pakistan entered the final day in quite a hopeless situation at 71 for three, needing 302 to win with seven wickets in hand. The Kiwis' strong bowling line-up looked favourites to topple Pakistan in the 90 overs they had at their disposal on the last day.It was a memorable day for Ajinkya Rahane as not only he led India to a comprehensive win in the MCG Test, but also became the first recipient of the prestigious Johnny Mullagh Medal. The medal is a tribute to honour Australia’s first sporting team to tour internationally. Mullagh was also the leader of the 1868 aboriginal tour to UK. Mullagh took 245 wickets at an average of 10.00 and scored 1,698 runs at 23.65 in 45 matches during the 47-match tour.Australian authorities are asking fans at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) not to cheer too loudly during the third test against India next week as the city grapples with an outbreak of COVID19.
Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took off to Dubai with his wife Dhanashree Verma recently. The newlywed couple is having a great time on their honeymoon and is actively updating their social media feeds with their romantic diaries.. Yuzvendra met former India captain MS Dhoni who is in Dubai with his family. MS Dhoni and his wife Sakshi Singh Dhoni invited the recently married couple for dinner.
India staged a remarkable fightback after the humiliation in Adelaide to draw level the four-match series at 1-1 with a splendid 8 wicket victory in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. There were many heroes for India - their stand-in-captain, Ajinkya Rahane who led from the front with a hundred and brilliant field placements and bowling changes, Ravindra Jadeja who scored an invaluable fifty, took wickets and a fine catch running backwards, the two debutants, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj and of course the leading pacer and spinner - Jasprit Bumrah and R Ashwin - who were the architects of Australia's downfall in the first innings.
Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi wants to set up an academy in PoK and is keen to bring the game to the locals. According to a report in the Nation, Afridi said that he is eager to be a part of KPL. “I will try my best to do as much as I can for KPL. My heart wants me to play with every KPL franchise. The condition I have put on myself for playing in KPL is that a cricket academy will be set up in Kashmir,” he said.
India were touring Australia in 2018-19. The series was tied at 1-1. India had won the opener in Adelaide but Australia had bounced back strongly to level the series in Perth. India's top and middle order fired with Pujara, once again, leading the way with a fine 106 in the first innings. Fifties from Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma helped India amass 443 for the loss of 7 wickets before they declared their innings.
After a convincing eight-wicket win over the Australians in the Boxing Day Test, India perhaps has come one step closer to making it to the final of the World Test Championship. After Covid-19 struck and many series were cancelled, ICC had changed the rules for the championship, and New Zealand looked the likely beneficiaries from it. But with the win India has narrowed down the gap from table-toppers Australia.2020 has been a bit of a mixed year for Tom Holland, as he kicked things off by lending his voice to the awful box office bomb Dolittle, before redeeming himself with his second vocal performance shortly after, although Pixar’s Onward also suffered from weak audience turnout. But at least in that case, the Coronavirus pandemic was to blame, as the film itself wasn’t that bad.
Following all that, Holland then brought us one of his best efforts yet in Netflix’s The Devil All the Time, earning rave reviews from critics and fans alike. And now, as we head into 2021, he’s looking to have a very big year. Ignoring the troubled YA adaptation Chaos Walking for a minute, which is likely to flop, the actor has mega budget blockbusters Uncharted and Spider-Man 3 on the way, while he’ll also headline semi-biographical thriller Cherry, which marks the first directorial effort from Anthony and Joe Russo since they departed the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Already, Holland’s been touted as a possible awards contender for his performance in the pic and hopes are high that it’ll deliver on all the buzz surrounding it. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to see a trailer or even any footage, but some new posters surfaced over on Twitter this week and reveal the actor sporting a number of different looks, including one where he’s rocking a mustache, as you can see below.
Plot-wise, Cherry tells the true-life tale of an Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD who becomes a bank robber in order to fund a drug addiction. Apple TV+ snagged the distribution rights to the film for close to $50 million and, as mentioned above, are angling it as an awards season favorite.
Based on the novel of the same name by Nico Walker, Cherry looks to be a gripping drama that sports what’s said to be a belter of a performance by Tom Holland, and you can check it out in theaters from February 26th and then on Apple TV+ from March 12th, 2021.
Trent Boult took a wicket with the third ball of the day but further success proved elusive as New Zealand chased a test victory over Pakistan on Wednesday on the final day of the first cricket test.Thought 2020 sucked? Well, get ready for 2021, where we’ll have to deal with not only new mutated virus strains, economic collapse, political instability, environmental catastrophes, but also jackbooted super-soldiers who’re immune to pain and have advanced senses and inhuman strength. Sound crazy? Well, China has already confirmed the development of genetically enhanced troops and now France has officially given an ethical thumbs-up to their own bionic commandos – and it doesn’t sound like they’ll be Captain America-style good guys.
The report released by the French military this week outlines various procedures that would enhance soldiers’ “physical, cognitive, perceptive and psychological capacities”, including suppressing the sensation of pain, improving their cognitive abilities via computer links, enhancing their perception through night and IR vision and strengthening their mental defences against torture.
Kings College London professor Michael Clark was asked about this brave new world by British tabloid The Sun, warning of an impending “super-soldier arms race”:
“We’ve reached the point now where we could potentially manipulate people’s DNA to breed into them extra strength, endurance and other things just as we do with animals. Just as we’ve done with standard cattle to give them more back, we can do that now very precisely with humans.”
US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe warned of these developments in a recent column in the Wall Street Journal, saying:
“U.S. intelligence shows that China has even conducted human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities. … There are no ethical boundaries to Beijing’s pursuit of power.”
So what about our own super-soldiers? Well, the US government is keeping a tight lid on their plans, though there are undoubtedly top-secret experiments underway. DARPA has already revealed a prototype brain/computer interface which they bill as assisting injured combat veterans, though has obvious utility for regular grunts too. Could it really be too long before the world is torn apart by emotionless online ‘smart soldiers’ that absolutely will not stop until they fulfil their mission?
It sure sounds like we’re barrelling towards some kind of dystopian future. But will we end up with a real-life Captain America or trapped in Metal Gear Solid? One thing’s for sure. War… has changed.
A couple of years ago, Andrew Lincoln made his last appearance on The Walking Dead and we learned that he was set to reprise his role as Rick Grimes in his own trilogy of spinoff films. Obviously, much has changed for the post-apocalyptic franchise since then – for one, the parent show is now due to conclude in 2022 – but the first of Lincoln’s movies has still yet to enter production and there’s no real indication of when we’ll see it. However, we’re now hearing that when it does eventually arrive, it won’t hold back.
Insider Daniel Richtman has taken to his Patreon account to share that the trilogy will be hard R-rated, which presumably means lots of violence, blood and gore. And we imagine that TWD fans wouldn’t have it any other way. Unfortunately, the tipster doesn’t offer up anything else, but if true, then this is certainly encouraging to hear.
Plot-wise, we’ve been told that the trilogy will kick off sometime after Rick was taken away from Virginia by Jadis/Anne on behalf of the CRM (Civic Republic Military), a group that we’ve learned a lot more about on The Walking Dead: World Beyond. It seems likely that Danai Gurira will feature in the movies, too, after her own exit from the parent series. Though as of yet, that remains unconfirmed.
In any case, we certainly have high hopes for whatever it is that AMC’s cooking up and while we wait to learn more, we can look forward to The Walking Dead returning for six brand new episodes this coming February. Maybe they’ll even drop some hints about what the Rick Grimes trilogy will entail? Fingers crossed.
