Cook says he wanted to drop himself from the second ODI

The English captain Alastair Cook said that he had considered dropping himself from the side in the second ODI after news filtered in that the game will be reduced to 23 overs instead of the 50 overs. However, in the end, it was Jonathon Trott who had to be dropped and Cook went on to score a huge match-winning innings. Cook was declared the man of the match for his solid, and rather quick 80.

Cook is an ODI captain but he has not been selected in the T20I version of the game. The reduction in the number of overs to 23 would have meant that the game was going to be a near T20 fixture, which would have made it difficult for Cook, the batsman.
Cook, while speaking to a newspaper said that the dropping was spoken about in the dressing room as they wanted players who could be aggressive and that was the reason why even Samit Patel had been called up into the game. However, Cook said that he was desperate improve and hoped that he would be able to continue to play in the way he had in the game.
India had scored 186 in their 23 overs which meant that England needed to score a rather stiff 187 for the win, but England scored those runs in a rather easy, 22.1 overs. Cook was involved with his partner Craig Kieswetter in a 67-run opening stand that lasted six overs.
Cook then went on to take up the mantle of hitting the ball once Kieswetter got out, scoring 80 off 63 deliveries, that included a total five fours and a rare six. Incidentally, this was only his second six in international one-dayers.
Cook admitted that they had won the toss and wanted to bat first because they had thought that it was swing around and with the moisture underneath, it would make batting difficult. However, he said that the pitch was fantastic for batting and said that Kieswetter's innings set the tempo for the English side.
India are now 0-1 down in the series and in the six matches that have gone to their closure, they have not won a single game. They will soon need to start winning or face up to a bundle of queries from their fans and board alike.

Sri Lanka search for Test match focus

September 7, 2011

September 8-12, Pallekele
Start time 10:00 (04:30 GMT, 14:30 EST)

Australia surprised many people by outplaying Sri Lanka in their own conditions in Galle, even if the dusty pitch did mean the toss played a significant role in the outcome. Now, Michael Clarke can rack up his first series victory if the team backs up with another strong performance in Pallekele. It's nearly 18 months since the Australians have won a Test series, the last time being on their tour of New Zealand in March 2010. Much has changed for Clarke since then; on that trip, he was followed by tabloid reporters and TV cameras after his much-publicised break-up with Lara Bingle. In one sense, those days must seem a lifetime ago for Clarke, but he's also acutely aware that he hasn't made a Test century since that New Zealand series. But his second-innings 60 was key to Australia's victory in Galle, and he certainly outperformed his opposing captain, Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Dilshan was the prime culprit in Sri Lanka's top-order failure in the first Test. In the first innings he was caught slashing wildly in the second over and in the second innings he disregarded the difficult conditions and left an enormous gate between bat and pad, and was not surprisingly bowled by a ball that jagged back off the seam. It was not a sight that would have impressed one of Dilshan's captaincy predecessors, Arjuna Ranatunga, who dished out a stinging rebuke to the team in the wake of the defeat.

''I'm not really sure if [Sri Lanka] are focused enough to play the longer version," Ranatunga told the Sydney Morning Herald. "I am very disappointed with the commitment of most of the players, in particular I am really worried about a couple of the batsmen and their commitment to the longer version of the game. I think we look much better than Australia on paper, but they are more committed." Ranatunga went on to describe the non-selection of Ajantha Mendis in Galle as "unbelievable", although it seems likely Mendis will play in Pallekele.

Australia will make one change, with Ricky Ponting having flown home for the birth of his second child. That means a Test debut for Shaun Marsh, 28, who will become Australia's 422nd Test cricketer. His father, the opening batsman Geoff Marsh, is the owner of baggy green No. 333.

Also quite new to Test cricket is the venue itself. The Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, built for the World Cup, is one of the most picturesque of Test venues, set in the rolling hills just outside Kandy. It's only previous Test was between Sri Lanka and West Indies in December, and it was so badly affected by rain that not even the first innings of the match could be completed.

Ravindra Jadeja replaces Gambhir in ODI squad

The Indian team will see one more change to their line-up for the ODIs against the English side, as they take in Ravindra Jadeja into the squad, who replaces the injured Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir was indisposed from the ODIs after his head hit the ground while he attempted to take a catch.

The incident happened in the fourth Test match between India and England at the Oval and led to the side struggling without an opener in the game. Rahul Dravid had to open the innings for the side and Gambhir batted way down the batting order in the game.
This will allow Jadeja to play his first ever game in the year, after his last international had come in the last year. He had played in an ODI against New Zealand in December 2010. However, he was dropped for the tour of South Africa before not being selected for the World Cup.
Jadeja has been in form recently in the Buchi Babu competition, having scored many runs and picked up wickets as well. His batting average in the competition for Saurashtra is 70 this season while he has picked his wickets at less than 15 runs to the wicket.
It remains to be seen whether he will make it to the playing 11 though. For now, the top-order looks fairly settled and unless the side loses the first few games, there is a good chance that Jadeja would end up warming the benches.
It is interesting to see that the injured player Gambhir is an opening batsman whereas the replaced player in an all-rounder who bats at the number seven position in this format of the game. This could mean that the Indian management thinks that the Indian side has enough number of openers; Sachin Tendulkar, Ajinkya Rahane and Parthiv Patel, while what they lack is an all-rounder.
There was a chance for two other all-rounders to take up that slot, Yusuf and Irfan Pathan. However, the selectors have gone in for Jadeja, who can bowl his quota of ten overs more regularly than the Pathan brothers. Yusuf is a much better bat than Jadeja but fails to bowl well; in fact, with Raina and Rohit Sharma there, it wouldn't make too much sense to have Pathan bowl here.
On the other hand, Irfan has been out of form for some time and while there were glimpses of returning back to form in the IPL, he did not do as well as some may have liked.