‘MAKE BUTTLER SKIPPER TO HELP ROOT’S BATTING’

LONDON: Shane Warne believes England should consider replacing Joe Root with Jos Buttler as Test captain to allow Root to focus on becoming world’s best batsman. “Root would love to have more hundreds to be able to be spoken about in the same sentences as Virat Kohli and Steve Smith. Maybe England could think about their best player not having the responsibility of captaincy, and give it to someone like Jos, ” Warne said.

Punam Raut to lead India A against Australia A

NEW DELHI: Punam Raut will lead the Indian Women’s A side for a three-match ODI home series against Australia A to be held in Mumbai from October 15 to 19. The ODI series will be followed by a T20 series and the squad for it will be named later, according to a media release.

India A Women’s ODI squad: Punam Raut (captain), Priya Punia, Devika Vaidya, Mona Meshram, Tanushree Sarkar, Sushma Verma (wicket-keeper), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sushree Dibyadarshani, C Prathyusha, Reemalaxmi Ekka, Shikha Pandey, Nethra L, Hemali Borwankar, Kavita Patil, Preeti Bose.

Kumble lauds ICC steps on suspect bowling action

MUMBAI: Former India captain Anil Kumble, who is also ICC Cricket Committee chairman, on Thursday lauded the world cricket body for its crackdown on bowlers with suspect action. “Over the last two years, you don’t hear too many issues (of suspect bowling action). I think overall ICC has done a great job in controlling that (issue). A fair bit (has been done) from the ICC perspective in terms of looking at the suspected actions,” he said.