Cricket Blog | IPL 2024 | T20 World Cup

As the year 2019 comes to an end, fans around the globe are wondering what happened in the world of cricket. England have won their maiden ODI World Cup crown while team India have continued their reign as the no.1 Test team. The Ashes earlier this year saw returns of David Warner and Steve Smith in the Australian cricket team after 12 months of the suspension. Former left-arm Australian spinner Brad Hogg, who has impressed with his performances in his late 40's - released his Best Test XI of 2019 on his YouTube channel.   The 48-year-old picked Indian opening pair Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma at the top. Both struck double centuries at home, with Rohit, as an opener in Tests, impressed one and all, smashing two tons in a Test and has been on a roll in the Test format, while the 28-year-old Mayank has impressed everyone with his skills to merge attack and defence at the same time. Hogg also picked Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith to go with Virat Kohli in the middle

ECB (England Cricket Board) have announced squad for the four-match Test series to be played against South Africa, starting from a boxing day game in Centurion. It will be a crucial series for both sides to gain some points and improve their ranking in the ICC Test championship. Earlier, this year, England couldn’t win Ashes against Australia in their own home soil followed by their two-match Test series defeat by 1-0 against New Zealand. England have only made one change to the squad that lost the Test series to New Zealand with Saqib Mahmood replacing Jimmy Anderson, who sustained a calf injury during the Ashes in August. Jonny Bairstow makes his way back into the longer format as a proper backup for Jos Buttler in the upcoming Test series. England Test squad : Joe Root (capt), James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Pope (wk), Dom Sibley, Ben