CRICCLUBS BLOG

New Zealand Cricket revealed their fixtures for the 2019-20 home season, with England, India and Australia visiting to play the men's team and South Africa being the women's guests. Mount Maunganui, which will be staging the first Test against England, will become New Zealand's ninth Test venue.

In his first global tournament as captain, Virat Kohli fell short by just one step in lifting the trophy when Pakistan decimated India in the finals of the 2017 Champions Trophy. Two years later, in his third World Cup - and first as captain - Kohli will not only be keen to justify India's favourites' tag but also correct the wrongs of what stopped his side from winning the second most prestigious ODI event for the second time running.

If there has ever been more hype about any single team before a global event since 2015, it has been England. And all of that has got to do with their rapid transformation from an old fashioned, rusty one-day side before the 2015 World Cup to a flamboyant, glamorous team full of typically spirited modern limited-overs cricketers after it. Credit for that must go to their coach Trevor Bayliss and captain Eoin Morgan, whose exemplary leadership of an army of audacious cricketers unfazed to take the attacking route has made England a dangerous outfit in the last four years.

There was a time when Bangladesh were assumed as just another upcoming international side lacking the competitiveness demanded at the highest level. Indeed, there was such a time. Today, they have the ability of defeating much better oppositions even in global tournaments. Not only that, maiden Test match victories against Sri Lanka, England and Australia since 2017 have proven why they are the emerging stars of the international game.

India picked up all four of Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja in their World Cup squad, leaving no room for either of Rishabh Pant and Ambati Rayudu.

Our experts have chosen their Test team of 2018.

Almost a century ago, 109 years to be precise, it was a single man’s vision and effort that led to the establishment of the massive body of International Cricket Council. In 1907, Abe Bailey, President, South African Cricket Association suggested the formation of an Imperial Cricket Board to regulate the matches.