England have named a 16-man squad for the first two Tests against Pakistan that begin August 19 at Headingley. Ollie Pope, Dan Lawrence and Sam Cook are back, while Jordan Cox steps in for the injured Jacob Bethell.

Joe Root leads England for the first time since his reappointment as permanent Test captain. Marcus Trescothick is interim coach until Stephen Fleming takes over for the South Africa series in December.

Six quicks are in the squad — Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Matthew Fisher and Ollie Robinson. Lawrence should bat at number six; his off-spin lets Root keep four frontline seamers at Headingley.

Ajinkya Rahane said the positive and frank conversations between him and Virat Kohli helped the two forge crucial partnerships for India in Test cricket. Speaking on the Stick to Cricket podcast, Rahane said batting with the former India captain brought out the best in him. He scored 12 centuries and amassed 5,077 runs in 85 Tests for India.

Rahane added that Kohli always backed him to trust his instinct and play his natural attacking game. He credited Kohli's tenure as captain, with Ravi Shastri in charge, for India's dominance in the longest format where the team secured back-to-back series wins in Australia.

Rahane lamented India's woeful form in Tests at home, which has seen the side slump to series losses against New Zealand and South Africa. He said Test cricket needs at least seven senior players in the playing eleven and felt this Indian side had transitioned too fast after Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin retired.

The Pakistan Cricket Board said players who appeared in the Asian Legends Cup in Zambia without approval could receive two-year bans from NOCs and PSL roles. Mohammad Irfan, Imran Nazir and Taufeeq Umar are on the list of those who played.

Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and Wahab Riaz pulled out once they realised the event had no sanction. The tournament folded on Tuesday.

Any future overseas stint will need an NOC first.

FrogBox chief executive Rob Knee says the Australia-based service has posted more than three million clips from 1,850 clubs, mostly in the UK and Australia. Kits cost £2,380, and the current season is sold out with pre-orders open for next year. Partners include Cricket Australia, Cricket Scotland, Netherlands Cricket and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Clubs use the footage to chase sponsors and funding, while parents watch their kids take their first runs or wickets. One clip went viral when a taxi driver hit a six into his own cab. The service auto-generates highlights from ECB live scoring data.

The Brian Devine finger-clicking incident at Saltburn showed how quickly a stream can turn into a public row. Knee says clubs choose whether streams are public or unlisted, and they must tell participants that audio is being recorded.

India's fast-bowling coach Morne Morkel will appear as a guest on the fifteenth season of Khatron Ke Khiladi, which premiered on August 1. The former South Africa pacer will bowl deliveries at speeds between 140 and 150 kmph for contestants to catch.

Host Rohit Shetty introduced Morkel to participants while warning them about the challenges involved in the stunt. Morkel represented South Africa in 86 Tests, 117 ODIs and 44 T20Is, taking 544 wickets across formats.

The season was filmed in Cape Town, South Africa, with celebrity contestants including Gaurav Khanna, Avinash Mishra, Avika Gor and Rubina Dilaik.

Sachin Tendulkar was 13 when he ran onto Brabourne Stadium in a Pakistan shirt. The 1987 exhibition match had dragged on, and when Javed Miandad and Abdul Qadir left at lunch, Imran Khan asked the Cricket Club of India for local kids to fill the gaps.

Tendulkar sprinted out. Not long after, Kapil Dev struck a ball toward him in the outfield and the boy was suddenly fielding for the opposition.

He later wrote in Playing It My Way that he still has no idea whether Imran Khan remembers the moment at all.

Australia won't play a warm-up match before the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India early next year. Coach Andrew McDonald confirmed the team will instead hold an extended pre-series camp to acclimatise to Indian conditions.

The approach follows recent subcontinental tours. They trained in Dubai before the 2025 Sri Lanka series and held a camp in Alur ahead of the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. This time, the shorter gap between the New Zealand Tests and the India series has forced a different plan.

Players likely to feature in India but not against New Zealand could begin preparations earlier in Australia. McDonald said the focus will be on location and individual workload management rather than match practice.

New Delhi Tigers captain Himmat Singh accidentally kicked the ball onto the stumps after misfielding, forcing a Super Over in a Delhi Premier League match against Outer Delhi Warriors at Arun Jaitley Stadium. Outer Delhi needed one run from the final delivery when Pratham Saluja squeezed the ball towards mid-on and set off for the winning single.

Himmat moved forward to collect the ball but failed to gather it cleanly. In frustration, he kicked the ball away, and it travelled directly towards the wicket, striking the stumps with Saluja still short of his crease. The dismissal forced the match into a Super Over, which Outer Delhi won after posting 20 for one.

Himmat had earlier scored 61 from 25 balls with four fours and five sixes to help New Delhi Tigers reach 156 for five in the rain-shortened 15-over contest.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has cut Water and Power Development Authority and Sahir Associates from the 2026-27 domestic season. Both sides missed the new rules the board brought in during June, which require full-time coaching staff and minimum welfare standards. Neither submitted the paperwork on time.

WAPDA and Sahir Associates had played in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and other first-class events before this. The PCB hasn't said whether they can apply again. With them gone, the first-class competition drops to eight departmental teams, and the board will name replacements before September.

Ben Stokes pushed back on the idea that England cricket has a special drinking problem. Alcohol sits in the game at every level, he said on the For The Love of Cricket podcast, weeks after retiring from internationals. Stuart Broad and Jos Buttler joined him.

Stokes pointed to the split between cricket's push on nutrition and medical care and its unchanged habits around drink. The culture runs from club grounds to Test teams, and it hasn't moved with the rest of preparation. The comments came after he and Gus Atkinson were stood down for a Test over a curfew breach.

The ECB tightened its alcohol rules for England players after that. Stokes now plays only domestic and franchise cricket.

Mohammed Siraj was fined 25 percent of his match fee and handed one demerit point for a Level 1 breach during the second Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo. The incident occurred after Siraj sledged Kamil Mishara before the umpire intervened.

Yashasvi Jaiswal received the same sanction after a separate confrontation with Asitha Fernando on day one. Both players accepted the sanctions without contest.

India reached 503 for nine declared on day two, with Dhruv Jurel scoring an unbeaten 115. Sri Lanka finished day three at 265 for eight.

Shashank Singh said he received no explanation from the Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh after being dropped from the Chhattisgarh Cricket Premier League and the state probables camp following shoulder and finger injuries. He obtained an NOC and will represent Pondicherry from the 2026-27 domestic season.

The Punjab Kings all-rounder won the Lala Amarnath Award for best domestic white-ball all-rounder in 2023-24 after amassing 927 runs in List A cricket at an average of 40.30 across seven years with Chhattisgarh. He scored 653 runs in 42 T20 matches at a strike rate of 129.30 and took 18 wickets.

Shashank rejected claims that he prioritised the IPL over domestic cricket and said he was not seeking preferential treatment, only clarity on selection decisions after representing the state in 24 first-class and 31 List A matches.