Tag Futebol

The lower back injury that ruled out Australia fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile from the tour of Sri Lanka has been diagnosed as a lumbar bone stress injury, Cricket Australia said on Monday

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2016The lower back injury that ruled out Australia fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile from the tour of Sri Lanka has been diagnosed as a lumbar bone stress injury, Cricket Australia said on Monday. Coulter-Nile will now begin a lengthy rehabilitation period, and David Beakley, Australia’s physiotherapist, said that the bowler’s return to cricket “will be determined in due course”.Coulter-Nile had been in Sri Lanka since the start of the tour as part of the Test and ODI squads, but did not play a match. He was ruled out of the tour last week and flew home to have his injury assessed. Beakley had stated at the time that the bowler had been experiencing a “gradual increase in lower back pain which is now preventing him from bowling at match intensity.”Coulter-Nile has struggled with injuries over the last year. In September 2015, a recurring hamstring injury forced him out of the ODI series in England. He was in the frame to make a Test debut in the home series against West Indies last summer, but dislocated his shoulder while playing for Perth Scorchers during the 2015-16 Big Bash League.He made his comeback in the T20I series during the South Africa tour in March 2016, and then played all four of Australia’s matches during the World T20 in India. The pacer also played three matches in the ODI tri-series against West Indies and South Africa in June.

Outstanding fielding made the difference as Gloucestershire made it two wins in as many games in an exciting finish to a wonderful Royal London Cup game at Grace Road

ECB/PA31-Jul-2015
ScorecardGareth Roderick’s hundred gave Gloucestershire a total that proved just enough in the end•Getty Images

Outstanding fielding made the difference as Gloucestershire made it two wins in as many games in an exciting finish to a wonderful Royal London Cup game at Grace Road.Leicestershire had looked dead and buried when they subsided to 128 for 5 chasing 316 to win, before a partnership of 96 in 13.3 overs between 20-year-old Aadil Ali (84 from 86 balls) and 21-year-old Michael Burgess (49 from 44) dragged the Foxes back into the game.Rob Taylor then hit an unbeaten 42 from just 23 balls, leaving Clint McKay required to hit three off the last ball to win the game. The Australian drove David Payne hard towards extra cover, but Gloucestershire captain Michael Klinger pulled off a fine diving stop and a run-out, restricting the hosts to just a single.Gloucestershire beat Derbyshire off the final ball in their previous game and Klinger said it was “nice” to win some tight matches for a change.“We lost our discipline a bit towards the end with our bowling, and we knew they could bat all the way down, but David Payne bowled a tight last over,” said Klinger, who had earlier lost one of his bowlers, James Fuller, who had to be withdrawn from the attack after bowling consecutive beamers – the second time this season the young pace bowler has had to be withdrawn from the attack.”James does not mean to bowl beamers, but it is the second time he’s done it this season and it gives me something else to worry about,” said Klinger.Gloucestershire scored quickly from the start after being put in by Foxes skipper Mark Cosgrove. Gareth Roderick, initially in company with Chris Dent and then with Klinger, paced his innings superbly, taking full advantage of some loose bowling and fielding by the hosts to go to his century off 114 balls.Geraint Jones took up the attack in style, hitting a List A career-best 87 off 61 balls in his 205th appearance before being caught at long-on off McKay, comfortably the pick of the Leicestershire bowlers with 2 for 31. Benny Howell kept the momentum going with an unbeaten 28 off 17.Cosgrove, Angus Robson and Ned Eckersley all gave their wickets away cheaply after getting in, but youngsters Ali and Burgess – the latter making his home debut – played without apparent nerves, and Ali looked unfortunate to be given out caught behind off after a half-hearted appeal.Taylor hit out strongly but lost the strike off the final ball, and Klinger’s excellent fielding saw the visitors home.”We know we’re going in the right direction, and it was tough not to get over the line, but the bottom line is we have to get results. Even so, we’ll take alot of confidence into the match against Yorkshire on Monday,” Burgess said.

Junaid Khan, the Pakistan left-arm fast bowler, has credited the former fast bowler Wasim Akram for helping him develop the incoming delivery against the right-handers

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jan-2013Junaid Khan, the Pakistan left-arm fast bowler, has credited Wasim Akram for helping him develop the incoming delivery for right-handed batsmen, which led to him picking up eight wickets in the three-match ODI series that concluded in Delhi on Sunday.Junaid was most potent in the first ODI in Chennai, taking out four of the top five to reduce India to 29 for 5. He also took two top-order wickets in the second ODI in Kolkata, finishing with 3 for 39. The Indian batsmen had struggled to counter Junaid’s swing and his contributions helped Pakistan take the series 2-1.”I have been a bowler who has relied on bowling outswingers consistently at a good pace. It was Wasim (Akram) who told me to develop the incoming delivery which would be my weapon against the Indian right-handers,” Junaid told .Junaid had dismissed Virender Sehwag with an incoming delivery in Chennai and Virat Kohli in all three matches.”It’s very natural for left-arm fast bowlers to slant it across the right-handers,” Junaid said. “Once a guy like Virender Sehwag gauges the length of the away-going deliveries, you can be murdered. When I did my homework, I found out that Sehwag has a problem with the ball that comes in. I then started working hard on that incoming delivery with our chief bowling coach Mohammed Akram.”This is not the first time Junaid has credited Wasim for his development as a fast bowler. Last June, after taking 5 for 73 on a flat SSC pitch in a Test against Sri Lanka, Junaid spoke of how he was inspired by Wasim’s spell in the 1992 World Cup final, where his two wickets in successive deliveries turned the game Pakistan’s way. Junaid said he had watched the Youtube video of it and Wasim himself had passed on tips on reverse swing. Junaid found appreciable reverse swing in that Test to put Sri Lanka under pressure.In his short career with Pakistan, Junaid has established a reputation for being one of the quickest bowlers in the country. However, he says swing is more important to him than pace.”I don’t want to compromise on pace but swing is the most important aspect of my bowling,” he said. “One might get adjusted to pace but if one has the ability to move the ball consistently at a decent pace, he can create trouble in batsmen’s mind.”He said it was a team effort that helped Pakistan win. “I was never under any kind of pressure to perform. I also got a lot of back-up from the other end as Mohammed Irfan and Umar Gul also bowled superbly. It was certainly a collective effort.”

Australia’s cricketers must be mature enough to accept changes to the team for reasons of balance or rotation will become more frequent under the new team performance regime

Daniel Brettig06-Dec-2011Be they bowlers or batsmen, Australia’s cricketers must become mature enough to accept that changes to the team for reasons of balance or rotation will become more frequent under the new team performance regime, the head coach Mickey Arthur has said.As the national selectors, Arthur among them, deliberate over whether to bolster Michael Clarke’s bowling resources with the allrounder Daniel Christian for the Hobart Test against New Zealand, the possibility of wider and more frequent rotation is dawning on the team.The senior batsman Michael Hussey has expressed reservations about shuffling batsmen in and out for fear that it would flirt with form and confidence, but Arthur said all players had to be prepared to accept the possibility, irrespective of their role. His words echoed those of the Argus review about “adult conversations” surrounding selection.”That’s a maturity that we want to try to get into the group getting down the line,” Arthur told ESPNcricinfo. “Players need to be mature enough to realise that it is a balance shift or something like that, and we’ll communicate that all very well to the guys and they’ll understand exactly where they’re at.”Christian remains a chance to become Australia’s 427th Test cricketer, pending assessments of how the bowling quartet has backed up from a comprehensive defeat of New Zealand in the first Test in Brisbane. Also a factor in discussions is the tendency of the Hobart pitch to flatten out into a strip less reminiscent of the Gabba than Allan Border Field, where the visitors batted far more comfortably against Australia A.”You always want that extra bowling option, an allrounder in the team is like gold,” Arthur said. “So with Shane [Watson] not playing there is a position there for an allrounder within our squad and the selectors have felt that he’s the next best.”We’ll just have to see when we get down to Hobart how all the different permutations work out. We need to keep rotating guys through the summer because there is just so much cricket, guys are going to break down and we need others ready to come in at any given time.”Phillip Hughes’ present troubles are less physical than technical, and Arthur stressed a balance needed to be struck between advising the 23-year-old on how to straighten his bat and granting him the freedom to indulge the appetite for runs that has already reaped 17 first-class centuries.”I think we need to see him tighten up his technique just a little bit, because he’s getting out in the same ways and that’s, not the alarming thing, but that’s an area of concern that he keeps getting out in exactly the same way,” Arthur said.”But he is an incredibly talented player with a very big future, so we just want to tighten up his technique but give him the wings to fly with the bat, because he’s still got a major role to play down the line for Australian cricket.”In planning ahead for the series against India, Arthur is aware that the problems posed for Hughes by Chris Martin are most liley going to be magnified through the lens of Ishant Sharma, who delivers with a similar trajectory and a knack for shaping the ball across left-handers.”One hundred per cent [we’re aware of Ishant coming up],” Arthur said. “Chris Martin has troubled a lot of left-handers because of his angle, and he is going to continue to do that, but it’s not going away, that is always going to be a challenge for the left-handed batters, and Hughesy in particular, so that is something we’ve got to make sure we get right.”

Pakistan continued to punch above their weight in Tests under a new captain, grabbing the opening-day honours by stifling New Zealand on a surface that has plenty of runs

The Bulletin by Siddhartha Talya06-Jan-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMartin Guptill, despite his fifty, had a forgettable day•AFP

Pakistan continued to punch above their weight in Tests under a new captain, earning the opening-day honours by stifling New Zealand on a pitch that has plenty of runs. Their advantage was a result of their perseverance as well as New Zealand’s failure to build on a strong foundation laid by Brendon McCullum. Kane Williamson and Tim Southee, however, revived their team with a fighting stand, promising another tilt in the scales heading into the second day.Pakistan’s decision to bowl on a dry pitch appeared to be a mistake, and for good reason. There was virtually no swing, only slight movement off the track, and with the sun breaking out of an overcast sky, the prospects didn’t seem bright for the three-pronged seam attack. McCullum’s dominating approach, particularly after lunch, as he drove and pulled Umar Gul for sixes, temporarily served a chilling reminder of Pakistan’s apparent misjudgment. But his dismissal, the subsequent stagnation against Abdur Rehman’s left-arm spin and a stroke of luck vindicated Misbah-ul-Haq’s decision at the toss.New Zealand had themselves to blame for the slide. The batsmen didn’t take advantage of the opportunities given, through umpiring errors and lapses in the field, and slipped during a shift in momentum brought about by Martin Guptill’s self-imposed grind. Following the lunch break, Guptill played out five consecutive maidens against Rehman, who kept a tight line around middle and off. Despite the lack of turn, he was played respectfully with a straight bat that seemed devoid of intention to force the pace.McCullum’s wicket was the trigger. Since giving up wicketkeeping in Tests, he has enjoyed his role as opener and was on track for a big score this morning. He went after Gul in the first over, driving him over cover, and was particularly ruthless against the over-pitched deliveries, cracking Younis Khan and Wahab Riaz to the extra-cover boundary. He showed no inhibitions when attacking, even though Pakistan had plugged his favourite areas. They had a deep point for the cut, as well as two fielders square for the pull, and he beat both. He should have been out caught behind when he gloved Riaz in the 19th over but this carefree approach cost him his wicket after the break. He mowed Gul over midwicket and then slashed him straight to deep point the next ball.It was then that Rehman stepped in. Attacking with a slip and two close-in catchers on either side of the pitch, he bowled quicker through the air, and only managed to extract spin when he flighted the ball. He didn’t threaten but the nagging line sent Guptill into a shell that led to his dismissal.Guptill had looked assured against pace, leaving deliveries in the channel outside off when there was a bit of nip, and kicked things off with a couple of straight drives. But his misery against Rehman – he scored 4 off 44 balls against him – ended when the bowler gave him his best possible chance to score; the full toss, however, was gifted as a catch to cover.In the interim Taylor, who had a poor series in India, feathered one to the keeper as he tried to cut Rehman. Ryder, though, batted enterprisingly. Deliveries bowled on the pads were deftly glanced to the fine-leg boundary and when the opportunity came, Rehman was slog-swept for six. But a moment of ill luck robbed Ryder of his wicket; he was run-out backing up too far as Riaz deflected a straight drive onto the stumps. Despite his half-century, it was a day to forget for the man who played that drive, Guptill.Williamson, playing his first Test at home, batted with the composure that guided him to a century on debut against India and rescued his team from 177 for 7. Barring a dropped catch at slip, Williamson was solid and seized any chance to play his favoured back-foot punch through cover and point. While watchful against Rehman, Williamson freed up against pace, the standout shot being a straight drive off Gul bowling with the new ball.Williamson’s assured presence was complemented by a determined innings from Southee, who seemed gifted with timing. Several of his boundaries were firm pushes in front of square, or were guided the ball behind point. His second half-century, which included three consecutive fours off Gul, underlined what was possible on the pitch and what the frontline batsmen had missed out on. The unbeaten 83-run stand prevented Pakistan’s complete domination on a placid track.

Virender Sehwag is confident his fast bowlers will come up with a plan to restrict Tillakaratne Dilshan

Cricinfo staff20-Dec-2009Virender Sehwag,
India’s stand-in captain, is confident his fast bowlers will come up with a plan to restrict Tillakaratne Dilshan
, who has been Sri Lanka’s leading batsman this series with back-to-back centuries. Dilshan is currently in the form of his life, scoring a combined ten centuries and eight fifties in Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 internationals since the start of the year.”It’s very difficult to stop somebody who is in such good form,” Sehwag said on the eve of the third ODI in Cuttack. “We must think of how to get him out instead of thinking of stopping him. I am sure Zaheer (Khan), Ishant (Sharma), PK (Praveen Kumar) will work it out.”Dilshan’s 160 gave Sri Lanka a very realistic chance of chasing a mammoth 415 in Rajkot
– they fell short by three runs – but his 123 in the second game in Nagpur
set up their successful chase of 302. His strike-rate of 118.93 is indicative of how destructive he has been.Sehwag will lead the side for the next two ODIs in MS Dhoni’s absence, following the ban handed to Dhoni by the match referee for a slow over-rate in the second game in Nagpur. Sehwag said the team will miss Dhoni, who has been in good touch with the bat.”He is our match-winner. If we look at the last game, he got us back (with a century),” Sehwag said. “Without him, we would have been got out for 40-45 overs. He is our best player in our middle order line-up and also a very good captain. But there is no extra pressure as a captain with everybody contributing for the team.”Sehwag was also confident of settling quickly into his makeshift role. “It’s (captaincy) not difficult. I am part of the team and I know who is playing, who is not playing,” he said. “I know of our strategy and planning. I don’t think it’s any kind of a problem.”One of India’s biggest problems in this series has been their woeful fielding and catching. India hired Mike Young, formerly with the Australian team, as their fielding consultant before the limited-overs leg of the tour to counter this problem. However, Sehwag urged for patience and was confident Young’s training methods would eventually work.”He just joined the time and he needs sometime,” he said. “He is a very good at it. He just taught us few drills, some new fielding session. He is very keen on what he is doing. I’m sure it will help.”It’s very difficult for pacers after bowling 7-8 overs to do well in the fielding. It is a concern and we are working towards it.”

Klaasen admits the travel is “not ideal for the bodies” but is all part of the job

Firdose Moonda03-Mar-20251:49

Is Klaasen among the best batters against spin?

South Africa have taken the 18-hour stopover in Dubai between matches in Pakistan in their stride and used the opportunity to “get out and walk and have some nice steak” between the end of the Champions Trophy group stage and their semi-final against New Zealand on Wednesday.They are one of two teams, the other being Australia, who left Pakistan after their last pool match, in case they were required to play in Tuesday’s semi-final against India in Dubai. Australia are confirmed for that match, so South Africa have returned to Pakistan and viewed the quick flights as just another part of the tournament.”We knew that there was a big possibility that we might have to fly up and down,” Heinrich Klaasen said in Lahore. “It’s not ideal for the bodies, but at least we had some time to get out and walk around and get loose and just had some nice steak, to be fair. We knew it’s going to happen and it’s part of the scheduling so two teams had to do it, and unfortunately, we were one of them.”Related

• South Africa, New Zealand gear up for run-fest as even contest beckons

• Klaasen scores fifth successive fifty, wants to be 'the best in the world'

• India vs Australia in Dubai semi-final; NZ vs SA in Lahore semi

• SA, Australia travel to Dubai due to tangled scheduling

South Africa left Karachi on Sunday morning after confirming their final-four spot with a seven-wicket victory over England. They flew back to Pakistan on Monday at 11am, later than New Zealand, who left at 4am after losing to India on Sunday evening. As a result, Klaasen expects South Africa to be slightly more rested, especially since they did not have to leave Pakistan, as the other teams in Group A did, during the league stage.”We haven’t really travelled a lot in this competition,” he said. “It was obviously just a crazy 18 hours. They [New Zealand] played a game and they had to travel six hours after the game. We had at least that off time and we could stretch our legs and recover as well before we had to come back. I think our bodies will be in a better position than their bodies but it’s part of professional cricket at this moment. You just have to suck it up and go back and see if you can recover well and just get the job done at the end of the day.”Part of the downtime for three of the South Africa players, including Marco Jansen, also included night golf in Dubai. Though the teams are allowed to go out of their hotels in Pakistan to play golf, South Africa have not made use of this provision and have remained in their hotels, as necessitated by the security situation in the country, which is not the case in Dubai, where they are allowed out. Several other squad members used the time in Dubai to visit a mall and Klaasen confirmed none of them, apart from some support staff, watched the match between India and New Zealand.As it turns out, South Africa won’t need any intel into conditions in Dubai unless both they and India reach the final, but Klaasen pointed out obvious differences. “The conditions are quite different,” he said. “The conditions in Pakistan are quite nice to bat on, so the bowlers have a harder job to do. In Dubai, the wickets are slow, but you still have to play good cricket.”Regardless of where you play, you still need to beat two good teams. If we beat New Zealand and India beat Australia, we still have to beat India there. Or if Australia beat them, we still have to beat a good Australian team to win this trophy. Regardless of where you play, you just have to play good cricket.”After reaching a third successive knockout fixture in an ICC event, South Africa may argue that they have done exactly that – played good cricket – over the last two years and are hoping to pick up a major trophy after winning a World Cup semi-final for the first time at last year’s T20 tournament. The majority of that squad is also at this Champions Trophy and ready to go one step further.”The nerves are a little bit less because we have a little bit more experience in the semi-final department now. We’re playing good cricket,” Klaasen said. “Since I’ve been around from 2018, we have played some incredible cricket. We just had some bad luck here and there and one or two games that didn’t go our way, but we’ve been playing good cricket. It’s the rewards that we’re seeing now. The boys are holding a little bit more composure in the bigger moments in the game. Hopefully, we can get into another final. We’ve got the experience now. The big boys need to step up on Wednesday.”South Africa haven’t lost a game so far in the Champions Trophy•Associated Press

However far South Africa go, they have already eased pre-event concerns about poor form, which included being clean swept in an ODI home series for the first time, by Pakistan, and being on a six-match losing streak. White-ball coach Rob Walter put those results down to being without his first-choice players, who he believed will stand up when it counted, and he has been proven right. Klaasen asked South Africans to expect more of the same in future bilateral events, which will be used to blood players at the expense of results to ensure that the best can come together when it matters most.”The public needs to understand that after the ICC event, you’re trying to explore a little bit as a group, see what’s out there and give guys opportunities so when they need to come in as back-up players, at least they’ve got international experience,” he said. “You can’t expect a young guy to just come in and perform and win every game.”We were in a position over the last couple of years where we really tried to broaden our group a little bit. And with that will come some losses. And as long as your main team and the guys that are your first picks bring it everytime we need to come play, then I don’t see the issue.”

India captain says his spinners have “so much skill” to apply pressure on batters in home conditions

Andrew Fidel Fernando01-Nov-20236:42

How do you stop India? Do SL have any chance?

If required, India will not hesitate to field a three-spinner, two-seamer attack, particularly as they await the return of Hardik Pandya. This is what captain Rohit Sharma said on the eve of India’s seventh match in the World Cup, in which they have only once played an XI featuring all three of Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and R Ashwin – against Australia, in Chennai.But then in their last game, in what was always expected to be a spin-friendly track in Lucknow, India continued to keep Ashwin out of the side, and had Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Jasprit Bumrah in the XI instead.Related

• India look to seal semi-final spot against struggling Sri Lanka

• Tendulkar's lofted drive immortalised at the Wankhede

As it happened the quicks claimed seven wickets between them. But then the spinners only bowled 15 overs in total, as England collapsed to 129 all out inside 35 overs.”All sorts of combination are possible,” Rohit said. “We can still play three spinners and two seamers if need be. In this tournament you’ve seen that spinners are actually the ones stopping that run flow in the middle overs. I’m keeping my options open whether we have Hardik or not. If the situation demands we play three spinners, we will play three spinners. A lot of skillsets can put a brake on the scoring rate in the middle overs. Our spinners have got so much skill in these conditions.”So far in this World Cup, spinners have been a little more effective at keeping a check on the scoring between overs 15 and 40. Where seam bowlers have conceded 5.97 runs per over during this period, spinners have gone at 5.23 run an over. Seam bowlers have been a little more penetrative during these overs though – their average is 35.69 through this period; the corresponding number for spinners is 39.22.Will R Ashwin get another game in this World Cup?•AFP/Getty Images

If there was a thought to resting India’s key bowlers ahead of the knockouts, though – particularly when India have a bowler of the quality of Ashwin on the bench – Rohit insisted India’s attack remained fresh. The hosts have not quite qualified for the knockouts, but a victory over Sri Lanka would put them in the clear. From there, they would still be keen to finish as high on the table as possible, with the first-placed team set to play fourth place in the semi-final.”As far as resting for the bowlers is concerned, they are in great rhythm at this point in time,” Rohit said. “They don’t want to rest. Their bodies are fine. This is the feedback that I’ve got from all the bowlers. They are happy to play games.”This is despite India having racked up some serious miles through the course of this campaign. Having traveled to practice matches in Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram – two opposite ends of the country, essentially – India have also been to Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune, Dharamsala, Lucknow, and have now arrived in Mumbai. They cover significantly more ground than any other team in the competition. But that’s just part of the job, Rohit said.”We are actually enjoying from one end to the other end – it’s nothing new for us,” he said.”And I’m sure all 15 of us – when you travel through India, whether you’re playing matches or not, there are people at the airport, in the flight next to you, or anywhere you are traveling, they will talk about your game. ‘We want a hundred.’ ‘We want to see you taking five wickets.’ ‘We want to see you winning games, tournaments,’ and all of that. I don’t think it’s pressure, but it’s nice that people are expecting a lot of things from us.”

It is understood that his involvement is subject to visa clearance

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Aug-2022India batter Shubman Gill is set for his maiden stint in the County Championship after signing with Glamorgan for the remainder of the 2022 season, subject to visa clearance.If all goes to plan, Gill will be the seventh India player to be signed by a county team this season, after Cheteshwar Pujara (Sussex), Washington Sundar (Lancashire), Krunal Pandya, Mohammed Siraj (both Warwickshire), Umesh Yadav (Middlesex) and Navdeep Saini (Kent). He will be the third Indian to feature for Glamorgan in County Championship after Ravi Shastri (1987-91) and Sourav Ganguly (2005).The top-order batter is coming off a superb run in the ODI series against West Indies and Zimbabwe, where he scored 205 runs at 102.50 average and 245 runs at 122.50 average respectively. Gill has experience of playing 11 Test matches in which he has scored 579 runs at an average of 30.47. His last red-ball game was the fifth Test against England in Birmingham in July this year where he made scores of 17 and 4 in India’s defeat.Related

• Crafty Gill serves timely reminder of his 50-over credentials

• Gill's 130 trumps Raza's heroic 115 as rattled India make it 3-0

• Serene Gill strengthens his case as India's back-up ODI opener

• Glamorgan give Patel chance to bring consolation to quiet summer

• Sourav Ganguly's season with Glamorgan

He has also featured in 12 first-class matches for his home team Punjab in the Ranji Trophy, India’s domestic red-ball tournament, where he has scored 1176 runs at an average of 65.33.Glamorgan are currently third in the Division Two table with five wins in 10 matches. They still have four more matches left and will resume the season against Worcestershire on September 5 in Cardiff.None of the three overseas players they have used in the Championship will be available in September, with Colin Ingram at the CPL and Marnus Labuschagne and Michael Neser back in Australia. The club previously announced that Ajaz Patel will play the final month of the season for them.

Ishant, Dhawan, Pujara, Shikha, Umesh, Rahane are few of the others to have as well

ESPNcricinfo staff10-May-2021Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikha Pandey are among a batch of Indian cricketers to get their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.India’s top cricketers are among several athletes in the country, including those who have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, to have started receiving their vaccines after the Indian government threw open the drive for those aged 18 and above from May 1.The move comes a week after the BCCI was forced to postpone IPL 2021 due to several cases of Covid infections across teams. The Indian men’s and women’s teams are scheduled to leave for the UK on June 2 via a charter flight.Related

• Piyush Chawla's father dies of post-Covid complications

• Sakariya loses his father to Covid-19

• Krishnamurthy loses mother and sister to Covid-19

• ICC biosafety head: 'Don't want to cancel tournaments, just want to have them safely'

While the men’s team will be on a three-and-a-half months-long tour, where they will first play the World Test Championship final against New Zealand (June 18-22) followed by a five-Test series against England in August-September, the women will play a one-off Test – their first in over six years – followed by a limited-overs series.In a chat with ESPNcricinfo last month, Dave Musker, ICC’s biosecurity head, had underlined the importance of players being vaccinated at the earliest.”All the vaccines have a wide spread of efficacy against various mutations, but all of them do offer significant mitigation, in that you are unlikely to get very sick if you are vaccinated, regardless of mutations and variants,” he had said.”At some point there will be a phenomenon called ‘vaccine escape’ – the virus will mutate to a position where the current crop of vaccines will have limited impact upon transmission or effectiveness. That will happen, but that’s why you are seeing so much about second-generation vaccination.”India is amid a second wave of the virus, recording in excess of 350,000 new cases every day over the last fortnight. A few prominent players, including Chetan Sakariya, Veda Krishnamurthy and Piyush Chawla have lost family members to the virus.