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England’s centrally contracted players are unlikely to be available for the completion of the IPL wherever and whenever it is rescheduled.While the England management were happy to allow up to a dozen English players to miss the Test series against New Zealand at the start of June due to their involvement in the IPL, any rescheduling of the event is likely to clash with series in the Future Tours Programme (FTP). And that, according to England men’s director of cricket, Ashley Giles, means they will be viewed differently.The IPL was postponed last week due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases in India. With BCCI president Sourav Ganguly having accepted the competition cannot be completed in India this year, various dates and venues have been mooted. Those include the second half of September, before the T20 World Cup, and from mid-November, after it.Related

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• England considering 'new faces' for New Zealand Tests – Giles

But England’s top players will be in action at both times. And with very little space in the schedule until their Caribbean tour ends at the end of March 2022 – just ahead of the next season of the IPL – it is increasingly probable they will play no part in any rearranged tournament.Giles dismissed the suggestion that this signals any change of approach from the ECB. While the series against New Zealand was a late addition to the schedule – it was only finalised in the early part of this year and does not feature as part of the World Test Championship – most of England’s remaining obligations have been in the FTP for a long time.”We’re planning on the involvement of England players in England matches,” Giles said. “We’ve got a full FTP schedule. So if those tours to Pakistan and Bangladesh [in September and October] are going ahead, I’d expect the players to be there.”The New Zealand scenario was very different. Those Test matches were formalised at the end of January, by which time all those contracts and NOCs [no objection certificates] were signed for full involvement in the IPL.”None of us knows what a rearranged IPL looks like at the moment; where it’s going to be or when. But from when we start this summer against New Zealand, our programme is incredibly busy. We’ve got a lot of important, high-profile cricket including the T20 World Cup and the Ashes. And we’re going to have to look after our players.”England are currently scheduled to depart for a six-match limited-overs tour of Bangladesh on September 16. They are then due in Pakistan in mid-October and, while that tour is not strictly speaking part of the FTP, it’s an important one for various reasons and will mark England’s first to the country in 16 years.Even before the T20 World Cup finishes, some of England’s touring party for the Ashes are likely to have arrived in Australia ahead of a series that is likely to start on December 8. England then have a limited-overs tour to the Caribbean at the end of January 2022 – days after the completion of the Ashes – before a Test series to the same destination in March.Meanwhile Giles expressed a hope that players would be allowed “a bit more freedom” from bio-bubbles as the England summer progresses. The Test squad are likely to enter their latest bubble from around May 28. For those who play all formats of the game, it could seem the start of a daunting period.All of England’s home fixtures in 2020 were played in biosecure environments•Pool/Getty Images for ECB

“We think it’s probably unreasonable to expect that our players could be in bubbles all summer,” Giles said. “We want to keep them in safe environments, obviously. But we are really aware of the importance for these guys, their time with loved ones, families in particular. That’s the balance we are trying to strike.”We are hopeful this year that as we see society move a certain way, that we can move with it. It could be the case that we may start tighter, as society is right now, and look to release, as everything else does.”Despite the hectic schedule, Giles remains keen to see the England players appearing in the Hundred. The event starts on July 21 – the day after England’s men play a day-night T20I in Manchester – and runs until August 21. England’s Test series against India is scheduled to start in Nottingham on August 4.”We’d love them to be involved in the Hundred at some point and the launch of that competition,” he said. “It would be great to have our best players playing in it.”But we’ll have to look at workloads very carefully. We’ve got a lot of cricket coming up so it’s a difficult juggling act but I know the players are also looking forward to that tournament and would love to be involved at some stage if they can.”

Dinesh Chandimal has been advised to go and work on his game in club cricket by Sri Lanka’s chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya, after the tour of South Africa concluded with a 5-0 ODI defeat. Chandimal endured a difficult time in South Africa, where his highest score was 36 in 12 international innings. He was eventually dropped from the ODI XI for the last two matches.Although Chandimal had been among Sri Lanka’s most consistent batsmen in 2016, Jayasuriya suggest he was nevertheless prone to worrying troughs of form. In a previous stint as chief selector, Jayasuriya sent Chandimal off to play for the Sri Lanka A team in the middle of a Test series with South Africa.”Chandimal should go back to club cricket,” Jayasuriya told Cricbuzz. “He should work his game out. This is not the first time he has gone through a tough patch. He has to be mentally very strong. You can’t think of failure all the time. Have a chat to the computer analyst, find out what’s going wrong and come back stronger. These are tough times for him. You find media and social media going after you, and you have to keep these things aside and concentrate on your cricket.”Jayasuriya also said the surfaces in South Africa on this trip were surprisingly green, in comparison to Sri Lanka’s previous tours to the country. All three Test tracks had a substantial covering of live grass on the first morning – which Test captain Faf du Plessis confirmed was part of a ploy to neutralise Sri Lanka’s spinners. The limited-overs surfaces were more neutral in their appearance but Jayasuriya suggested several of those were perhaps made to order as well.”I am not trying to give excuses and I admit we played bad cricket – we should be up for any challenge. But having said that, I must mention that I have never seen so much of grass in South Africa especially when it comes to one-day cricket.”In ODIs, you generally get wickets that are good for batting. Port Elizabeth, for example, is the slowest wicket in South Africa, but this time I found they had left a lot of grass [on].”Though Sri Lanka recently triumphed in an ODI tri-series against West Indies, who are ranked ninth, and Zimbabwe, who are 11th, they have lost their four most recent bilateral series to higher-ranked sides.”The Champions Trophy in England is a few months away and hopefully that can be a new start,” Jayasuriya said. “Again the conditions will be tough and we need to sit down and discuss how we can prepare. Maybe we can send the team to England earlier to help the players to adjust to conditions.”

Shreyas Iyer, on 191 overnight, stood between Gujarat and a first-innings lead. His early dismissal for 194 on the final day meant Mumbai fell 15 short of taking three points, despite Shardul Thakur’s half-century at No. 9. Mumbai were bowled out for 417, having begun the day on 328 for 6.The second innings was reduced to a mere formality as Gujarat’s openers scored 82 without loss in 45 overs when the captains shook hands in Hubli. Priyank Panchal, the opener who made 232 in the first innings, was unbeaten on 56. Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah was named Man of the Match for a career-best 6 for 71.Mandeep Singh struck a brisk century, and medium-pacer Manpreet Gony hammered an unbeaten 66 off 26 balls, in the drawn game between Punjab and Tamil Nadu in Nagpur.Punjab had conceded the first-innings lead thanks to Kaushik Gandhi’s career-best 164. In the second innings, they scored at 4.74 runs per over, before declaring for 375. Mandeep Singh’s 128 off 160 balls anchored the innings in which Uday Kaul (65) and Gurkeerat Singh (55 off 45) also got runs, before a promoted Manpreet Gony hit eight sixes.However, the timing of Punjab’s declaration left Tamil Nadu only 37 overs to negotiate in a chase of 306. They lost only one wicket, as Abhinav Mukund (67*) and Gandhi (21*) put on 78 for the second wicket and took them to stumps.Saurabh Wakaskar scored his second fifty of the game as Railways settled for a point after conceding the first-innings lead to Madhya Pradesh at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. MP took the lead early in the day, having begun on 356 for 5, just 15 behind Railways’ 371. Overnight batsmen Devendra Bundela and Shubham Sharma continued their remarkable partnership for the sixth wicket, taking it past 200 and finally being separated with the score on 406, having come together on 164 for 5.Shubham scored 119, his maiden first-class century, while Bundela scored a career-best 188. MP added 104 runs in the last 21 overs, before declaring on 510 for 8. In reply, Railways reached 150 for 1 at the end of play. Wakaskar was unbeaten on 71, after putting on 100 for the opening wicket with Shivakant Shukla, who scored 57.

Group A

Fourteen wickets fell in Dharamsala in the fourth-round clash between Bengal and Railways. Railways’ bowlers vindicated their captain’s decision to field by dismissing Bengal for 205. But their batsmen couldn’t hold on to the advantage as they slipped to 37 for 4 by the close.Four of the five bowlers used by Railways picked up wickets, with Anureet Singh’s 4 for 66 leading the way. Right-arm medium pacer Amit Mishra picked up 3 for 38, while Karan Thakur took two wickets and Karn Sharma one. Bengal’s innings featured two partnerships of note. First, Sudip Chatterjee, the No. 3 who top-scored with 85, added 52 with Sayan Mondal for the second wicket. He then combined with Agniv Pan for a fifth-wicket partnership of 66. Ashok Dindachipped in with a 26-ball 30, before Bengal’s innings was wrapped up in 69.5 overs. Dinda got the wickets of Saurabh Wakaskar and Mrunal Devdhar early in Railways’ reply. Amit Kulia and Sayan Ghosh also joined in with a wicket each to compound Railways’ woes.At the Feroz Shah Kotla, Deepak Hooda was in sight of his maiden first-class double century as his career-best 190 not out headlined Baroda’s day of dominance against Punjab. Baroda piled on 358 for 6 in 90 overs, despite a four-for from Sandeep Sharma, who had rocked them early in the day with the wickets of their openers.With Baroda reduced to 11 for 2, Dhiren Mistry and Hooda compiled 178 for the third wicket to offset the early stumble and lay a solid platform. Mistry made 76 before being caught behind off Siddharth Kaul. Hooda added 80 more for the fourth wicket with wicketkeeper Pinal Shah. Sandeep removed Pinal for 42 and Yusuf Pathan for a second-ball duck, while Vishnu Solanki also fell cheaply. But Hooda stayed dominant and ended the day with 16 fours and three sixes, having struck at 88.37 per 100 balls.Elsewhere, at the DRIEMS Grounds in Tangi, Tamil Nadu put behind twin early jolts to recover to 262 for 4 on the opening day against Madhya Pradesh. Tamil Nadu lost both their openers for ducks inside the first two overs, after being put in. They were then lifted through half-centuries from Kaushik Gandhi (71*) and Dinesh Karthik (95).Gandhi and Karthik got together with the score at 54 for 3 and added 144 in 46 overs for the fourth wicket. Karthik struck 15 fours in his 153-ball knock, before being caught off Chandrakant Sakure, the right-arm medium pacer, five short of a century. B Indrajith and Gandhi then joined hands for an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 64. Indrajith was unbeaten on 44. Sakure ended the day with 2 for 47, while Ishwar Pandey and Ashwin Das, the new-ball duo, dismissed the Tamil Nadu openers.At the Palam Grounds in New Delhi, right-arm medium pacer Imtiaz Ahmed’s 4 for 48 helped Uttar Pradesh fight back against Gujarat, who squandered a strong start to end the day on 276 for 8. Gujarat’s openers Samit Gohel and Priyank Panchal laid a solid platform through a 122-run opening stand. Both batsmen made scores of 60, before Imtiaz dismissed both. But none of Gujarat’s other batsmen could make a noteworthy contribution, with the exception of Parthiv Patel, the captain, who also scored 60. Chirag Gandhi, the No. 6, was not out on 33 when stumps were drawn.

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim has said that consistency will be their main target in the second Test against England, even though their fighting performance in the Chittagong Test raised expectations of a better result in Dhaka. Recent history, however, suggests that Bangladesh have a hard time following up on a good performance in home Tests.Against Pakistan last year, they were hammered by 328 runs in Dhaka after earning a credible draw in Khulna in the first game. In 2012 against West Indies, they got close in the first game before going down in the second game by ten wickets. Three years earlier against Sri Lanka, they again fought well in the first game but were crushed by 465 runs in the second Test.”Our challenge will be to play consistently, especially against a good side like England,” Mushfiqur said. “We wouldn’t have become the No. 1 team in the world by beating England in Chittagong so our target remains to do well over four to five days in a Test, and afterwards if we get into a winning position, we will push on. We have many more performers in our side these days. So everyone has expectations from the players. Our performance and the fight we put up in the first Test wasn’t unexpected. We will also try to cope with the pressure of expectation.”Mushfiqur said that the loss in the first Test, and the bitter aftertaste as the margin was their closest in terms of runs, would spur them on for the second match. “We are still hurting from the loss in Chittagong so it is best to move on from that game,” he said. “We know that had we given 1% more, the Test would have been in our favour. We would like to take the positives from that game, and use them in Dhaka.”Mushfiqur said that the Bangladesh spinners’ attacking nature would keep them in the game for a long time, though heavy rain on the day before the first Test could have some effect on the Dhaka pitch, which was expected to be drier than usual.”The rain might have some impact on our plans,” he said. “The wicket is mostly prepared but if the sun was out today, it would have dried up further. If there’s a bit of moisture, the ball would be gripping on the surface for the spinners. Shakib Al Hasan, Taijul Islam and Mehedi Hasan combined to take 18 of the 20 wickets to fall, and they will be expected to have a similar effect in this game as well.”Their spinners don’t have to attack because of their pace bowlers. For us, the spinners are the main weapon; they have to attack and take the wickets. I think in that sense, our spinners are ahead of them. They are natural at bowling with the new and old ball, defensive or aggressively. But I would still say that our spinners have room for improvement.”