Top Stories: Things that made news in the cricket world today

US President Donald Trump to not inaugurate the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad

• Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad is set to become the world’s largest stadium when it will be inaugurated.
• It was earlier reported that the visiting US President Donald Trump will be inaugurating the stadium next week. However, if the latest developments are to be believed, Trump will not be doing the honours.
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Will play all three formats for at least three more years: Virat Kohli

• Team India captain Virat Kohli is one of the few cricketers in the world who are regular in all three formats of the game.
• Add to it the pressure of expectations of being the premier batsman and captain of a cricket-mad nation, and it can be easily fathomed the magnitude of pressure (physical +mental) that the legendary batsman has to endure.
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‘Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal may be inexperienced but they have class’ – Tim Southee ahead of the first Test

• India and New Zealand have so far seen an ‘all or nothing’ series between them in the limited-overs.
• After the visitors won the T20I series 5-0, the hosts came back hard to clinch the ODI series 3-0.
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‘Do better than what I did’ – Brendon McCullum has cheeky advice for Ross Taylor ahead of his 100th Test

• New Zealand middle-order batsman Ross Taylor is on the cusp of history.
• Not only is Taylor set to become the first cricketer to play 100 matches in each of the three formats of the game but he is also set to become only the fourth cricketer from the South Hemisphere country to feature in 100 Test matches.
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Gloucestershire sign Cheteshwar Pujara for County Championship

• India’s batting maestro Cheteshwar Pujara has been signed up by English cricket county Gloucestershire.
• The right-hander will be available for the first six matches of the county championship.
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‘I was waiting for my time to come’ – Sarfaraz Khan on his prolific form with the bat

• Even though perennial domestic heavyweights Mumbai endured another forgettable season, they unearthed a run-machine in the form of Sarfaraz Khan, who broke a plethora of records during his gobsmacking run-making spree.
• The right-hander may have had a quiet start to his 2019-20 campaign of the Ranji Trophy when he scored just 8 runs in his opening innings but the right-hander made amends for it in the second innings when he scored an unbeaten 71.
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Niroshan Dickwella and Thisara Perera named in Sri Lanka squad for West Indies ODI series

• The Sri Lankan cricket board has announced its squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series against the visiting West Indies team. The two countries will also play two T20I matches as well.
• The first ODI will be played at Colombo SSC on February 22, while the second and third ODIs will be held in Hambantota and Kandy on February 26 and March 1, respectively. The first match will be a day game, while the other two will be day-night encounters.
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‘We can compete against anyone in the world’ – Virat Kohli banks on India’s chances in New Zealand Tests

• India have not been known to be good tourists in cricket traditionally.
• Till the era of Sourav Ganguly saw the Asian powerhouse doing some hard work to shed their ‘rabbits abroad’ tag, nothing much was to be written about their Test success overseas.
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‘Pakistan Super League is the best franchise tournament in the world’ – Shadab Khan

• The fifth edition of the Pakistan Super League is set to be a magnanimous affair with the entire tournament set to take place across four cities- Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Multan- of Pakistan for the very first time.
• Pakistan Super League has grown by leaps and bounds since its inaugural season in 2016 and one of the things that have become its USP is the quality of bowling that is on offer across all the franchises.
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Imad Wasim rubbishes rivalry between him and Babar Azam in Karachi Kings

• The 2020 edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL) is a day away and fans from across the world are looking forward to the tournament which has earned accolades over the years.
• This year, the entire tournament will be played in Pakistan and not partially in the UAE. Defending champions Quetta Gladiators will take on two-time champions Islamabad United in the first match in Karachi on Friday.
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‘I think if we just look at Bumrah we are in trouble’ – Ross Taylor hails Indian bowling lineup ahead of Test series

• Team India is all set to lock horns with New Zealand in the two ICC Test Championship Test matches, starting at Basin Reserve in Wellington.
• The Men in Blue are currently on a seven-match winning streak and are comfortably placed at the numero-uno spot in the points table (360) as well as in the rank turner.
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I’ve never had so much fun in the India team: Smriti Mandhana

• There’s no party quite like an India party when it comes to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020.
• With an average age of just under 23 in a squad featuring four teenagers, Harmanpreet Kaur’s side is awash with youthful energy.
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Yohan Blake set to play for West Indies Legends in the Road Safety World Series

• In a bid to spread awareness among the people about road safety, a plethora of former cricket legends will descend in  Mumbai next months to take part in what is tipped as an annual cricket tournament- The Road Safety World Series.
• The tournament, which will feature features teams- Indian Legends, West Indies Legends, Australian Legends, South African Legends, Sri Lankan Legends will have a plethora of star power in the form of Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Carl Hopper, Brett Lee, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Jonty Rhodes, Lance Klusener among many others.
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Opening game between Australia and India will set the tone for Women’s T20 World Cup: Brett Lee

• Women’s cricket could reach the next level in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 and I’m incredibly proud that Australia will play host to this historic tournament.
• We have already seen just how far the women’s game has come in such a short space of time, developing leaps and bounds even since the first Women’s T20 World Cup in 2009.
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IPL franchises request BCCI to play their off-season matches in US, Canada and Singapore

• Indian Premier League 2020 is just a month and 10 days away from its commencement.
• And, the franchises are busy in the preparations for the same. Some are even planning to play their off-season games abroad and they have put forward suggestions regarding the same in front of BCCI.
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World Test Championship is the biggest of all ICC tournaments: Virat Kohli

• India captain Virat Kohli has conceded that the hectic schedule of modern-day cricket is taking a toll on him but added that he was gearing up for three more “rigorous years” in which he would play all the three formats after which he might re-evaluate his workload.
• The ace batsman, who will turn 32 this year, has been playing cricket continuously since his debut in 2008 with occasional breaks in between. In 84 Tests, 248 ODIs and 82 T20Is, Kohli has scored over 21,000 runs with 70 international hundreds.
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Virat Kohli hints at playing Ishant Sharma and Prithvi Shaw in the Wellington Test

• Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, is delighted with Ishant Sharma’s performance in the nets after he recovered from his ankle injury.
• Kohli reckons that the speedster’s experience of playing in New Zealand is likely to come in handy for India going into the two-match Test series. Kohli has hinted his participation in the opening Test, starting February 21 at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.
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New Zealand call up Matt Henry as cover for Neil Wagner for the first Test against India

• New Zealand have called up pacer Matt Henry as a cover for Neil Wagner ahead of the first Test against India.
• The Black Caps are gearing up for the two-match series against the world number one side, starting on Friday.
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