New Zealand head coach Rob Walter said he wants to see 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi tested on pace and bouncy wickets during the upcoming T20I series. Sooryavanshi made his T20I debut against England in July and has dominated in the IPL.

Walter said the challenge is to see how the batter's IPL form translates to different conditions. He added that coaches always want to observe how young players respond under pressure.

Sooryavanshi is not guaranteed to feature in every match of the five-game series starting on October 22. Walter said India still possess other quality players if the teenager is rested.

Karan Lal and Ishant Bhardwaj stood out at Rajasthan Royals' two-day trials held on September 22 and 23 at the High Performance Centre in Talegaon. Lal scored an unbeaten 54 off 22 balls with six sixes in one of the practice matches.

The 25-year-old Bengal all-rounder also impressed Delhi Capitals scouts earlier in the season with 78 off 34 balls. He topped the run charts and hit the most sixes in the Bengal T20 League 2026.

Left-arm pacer Ishant Bhardwaj, 22, took three wickets across the two matches. Royals veteran Sandeep Sharma spent extended time speaking with the Haryana quick after the sessions.

India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak confirmed Shubman Gill will play the first ODI against the West Indies after the captain took a blow on his right elbow during a net session on Friday. Kotak told reporters the injury was minor and Gill faced throwdowns later in the session.

Gill was hit by a rising delivery from Mohammed Siraj at the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram. He left the net in visible discomfort before medical staff attended to him.

The 27-year-old will open the batting alongside Rohit Sharma when India begin the three-match series on Sunday.

Jordan Cox is set to keep wicket for England in the third and deciding ODI against Sri Lanka at The Oval on Sunday after Jos Buttler was ruled out with a hamstring injury. The 25-year-old has not played an ODI since 2024 but featured in England's 3-0 T20I series sweep against Sri Lanka earlier this summer.

Buttler sustained the injury while batting in the second ODI at Headingley, where he scored 69 off 49 balls before retiring hurt. England lost the match by 16 runs, leaving the three-match series level at 1-1. Sri Lanka posted 321 for six, led by Kusal Mendis's 121, before their death bowlers restricted the hosts to 305 for nine.

Cox has impressed in the Test series against Pakistan, scoring three half-centuries in five innings at number three. He is expected to receive his first central contract next week after a breakthrough summer that has included appearances in all three formats.

Pakistan opener Abdullah Fazal scored an unbeaten 309 off 339 balls on his return from a lower-back injury. His opening partner Hasan Raza made 222 as the pair added 417 for the first wicket.

The innings was Fazal's first since he was ruled out of the West Indies and England tours earlier this year. He had made twin half-centuries on Test debut against Bangladesh in May.

Fazal crossed 2,000 first-class runs during the innings at an average of 47.46. He remains outside the playing XI for the ongoing England series after Pakistan made wholesale changes to the squad and coaching staff mid-tour.

A video of former India batter Vinod Kambli at an elderly care centre in Thane has gone viral. Kambli struggled to speak clearly while praising the facility's care and hygiene.

Kambli, 54, said he was undergoing treatment and felt at home at the centre. He added that he receives love and respect from staff and residents.

His friend Marcus Couto earlier said Kambli has a blood clot in his brain that affects his memory. Kambli's wife Andrea Hewitt dismissed the reports as rumours and said he is fine.

Sagar Virk spent the Sher-e-Punjab T20 in the same dressing room as Abhishek Sharma, and the 17-year-old left with a clearer sense of how to handle pressure. Sharma told the younger players to stick to their own game and trust that runs would follow.

Virk had already shown what he could do — 134 in the Youth Test against Sri Lanka — before he stepped into the India U-19 side for the series against Australia. His parents backed the early-morning nets, and his coach kept pushing after two failed U-16 trials.

The focus now is Australia, then the Asia Cup and World Cup campaigns.

Pat Cummins trained at the Wanderers on Saturday and is in contention to play his first ODI in two years when Australia face South Africa on Sunday. The Test captain underwent an extensive running session and batted in the nets at altitude ahead of the second match.

Australia's middle order remains a concern after Josh Inglis suffered a broken finger in the first ODI. Matthew Renshaw scored a century against Zimbabwe last week, but the Nos. 3-7 positions have managed only two centuries combined since the 2023 World Cup.

Cummins is expected to play either in Johannesburg or the series finale in Potchefstroom on Wednesday. Xavier Bartlett is also in line for a recall if selectors manage both Starc and Josh Hazlewood's workloads.

Mayank Yadav has been bowling 10 overs a day in three spells at his Chandigarh base, hitting 150kph regularly and sitting in the high 140s most of the time. He moved there after IPL 2026 to work with physio Gaurav Sharma, spending three weeks before the Zimbabwe tour.

Injuries have kept cutting into his progress since that IPL 2024 breakthrough — lumbar stress fracture, toe infection, side strain. His last proper cricket came in the Delhi Premier League, where he picked up eight wickets in seven matches. Devender Sharma, who coached him early on, says Yadav has been told to aim at the 2027 ODI World Cup and longer formats.

Sharma's plan is simple: build the workload slowly, keep him fit, and cap the load once it peaks. Yadav is injury-free right now.

Ben Stokes won't get an England and Wales Cricket Board No-Objection Certificate to play in overseas franchise leagues next summer while he's still registered with Durham. The former England captain has already spoken with Major League Cricket and Pakistan Super League franchises.

His central contract runs out this month after retiring from internationals in June, but the ECB still controls NOCs for any player tied to a county. November 2024 rules let the board turn down requests if a tournament clashes with domestic fixtures.

Stokes wants to help Durham push for the County Championship. The club has floated short-term deals that would free him during the MLC window. A new IPL rule also blocks him from the 2026 season because he missed the 2025 mega-auction registration.

Dhruv Jurel said he was in tears when Rajasthan Royals raised their paddle at his base price of 20 lakh rupees during the 2022 IPL mega auction. No other team had bid in the first round, and calls came in from home as relatives asked more about his IPL prospects than his India career.

Jurel warmed the bench through the entire 2022 season and called it a blessing because he felt unready. What stayed with him was watching Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal share the same dressing room.

Retained for 14 crore ahead of the 2025 auction, Jurel scored 515 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 154.65 in IPL 2026. He also spoke about 15-year-old teammate Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who finished with the Orange Cap after scoring 776 runs at 237.31.

Dhruv Jurel joined a swimming camp at Eklavya Stadium in Agra but slipped away to play cricket without telling anyone at home. He borrowed kit, played matches and watched his runs appear in the local newspaper. That was how his father found out.

His father, a retired Havaldar who fought in Kargil, had expected his son to chase a government job. Once the secret was out, the older man backed the cricket instead. Jurel has since played 12 Tests and four T20Is for India.

Jurel is the reserve keeper for India's upcoming ODI series against the West Indies, which begins on Sunday at Thiruvananthapuram. He also recalled that the first major purchase after the 2020 Under-19 World Cup went towards his sister's wedding and the down payment on a Hyundai Verna.

Former Namibia captain Yasmeen Khan has been included in South Africa's 28-player women's red-ball training camp running from September 27 to 30. Khan, born in George, made herself available for the country of her birth and is eligible to represent South Africa.

Khan played 117 T20Is for Namibia and captained the side 27 times. She plays domestic cricket for the Dolphins in Durban and recently featured for South Africa's women's emerging team against Bangladesh. She joins five other uncapped players in the expanded group.

South Africa are preparing for Tests against India in December and Australia in April 2027. The expanded squad aims to expose more players to red-ball cricket, which is absent from their domestic structure.