MOVIES WORLD BY JAZLAN

[ad_1] An experienced squad led by long-time captain William Porterfield will face Pakistan at Malahide Cricket Club when the two sides meet next week in what will be Ireland's first Test match. Cricket Ireland's 14-man squad includes many stalwarts of the Irish game, including the O'Brien brothers, Andrew Balbirnie and Paul Stirling. Left-arm spinner George Dockrell, who has struggled for form and had a disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign in Zimbabwe, was left out. Ireland's best chance of troubling Pakistan in home conditions lies in the quality and strength of their seam bowling, and unsurprisingly, players with that skill set feature heavily in the squad. Boyd Rankin , Tim Murtagh , Stuart Thompson , Tyrone Kane , and Kevin O'Brien are all handy options in their own conditions. Less than a week ago, Pakistan were bowled out for 168 against second division Kent, their troubles to handle seam bowling particularly evident. Despite this being their first T...

[ad_1] Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur is hopeful that the time of the year will help them overcome the loss of legspinner Yasir Shah for the Tests against Ireland and England. Yasir has taken 89 wickets in the last two years - more than double Pakistan's next most successful bowler in the period - but was ruled out of this tour due to a hip injury. Shadab Khan , the 19-year-old legspinner, who has impressed with the white ball but has played just one Test, has huge shoes to fill although there remains a chance Pakistan will decide to go without a specialist spinner given the early-season conditions which are likely to prevail. There has been a significant decline in Pakistan's Test fortunes since the shared series against England in 2016 which helped them to the No. 1 ranking. They are now languishing at No. 7 following series defeats against New Zealand, Australia and most recently Sri Lanka - their record with Arthur as coach is 11 defeats and six wins from 17 Tests - and a...

[ad_1] India will most likely not play a day-night Test during their 2018-19 tour of Australia. Cricket Australia still hopes the first Test in Adelaide, which is scheduled to start on December 6, will be a pink-ball, day-night game, but ESPNcricinfo understands the BCCI is not in favour of the idea and has made its position clear to the Australian board. CA announced the schedule of Australia's home summer on Monday without confirming a start time for the Adelaide Test. Since November 2015, Adelaide has hosted one day-night Test every year. "It is our preference that we play India in a day-night Test match in Adelaide, but we are still working through this detail and hope to have an answer on this in the coming weeks," chief executive James Sutherland said. Women's international cricket will bookend the summer, with Australia playing three T20Is against New Zealand in September-October - which leads into the women's World T20 in the West Indies in November - and ...

[ad_1] India are now the No. 1 Test team by a larger margin than they were last month. This is a result of the ICC's annual update to the rankings, which happens on May 1 every year; India have gained four points after the update, while South Africa have dropped five points, meaning the gap between the two has increased from four to 13. Bangladesh, meanwhile, have broken into the top eight of the Test rankings for the first time ever, going past West Indies - the team from the Caribbean has dropped to a record low at No. 9. ESPNcricinfo Ltd The ICC's rankings system works as follows: matches played over the previous four years are taken into consideration, with the oldest matches in the cycle being left out in May of every year. For the current cycle, matches played from May 2015 to April 2017 carry 50% weightage, while matches played since then carry 100% weightage. As the No. 1 ranked team, India will receive a cash prize of USD 1 million from the ICC. Mushfiqur Rahim, who wa...