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Ahead of the only Test in Fatullah, India had their first practice session in Bangladesh, which went on for more than three hours in the heat of Mirpur

Mohammad Isam in Mirpur08-Jun-20150:59

Kohli and team arrive in Bangladesh

The only noise to come on the hot Monday afternoon from Milk Vita Road in Mirpur section 6 was of the screaming and whistle-blowing policemen trying to keep vehicles from getting in the way of the India team bus that chugged in slowly towards the Shere Bangla National Stadium’s entrance.A touring team’s first training session in Bangladesh has been generally to get acclimatised to the heat and humidity, and the pitches. India had originally scheduled only one day of training ahead of the Fatullah Test but a few days before their arrival for their 18-day tour, they added the afternoon session on Monday, a few hours after their plane landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.They had requested the BCB for it to be held in Fatullah, the venue for the Test, but Bangladesh’s training schedule was already set for the afternoon in Fatullah.At the Academy ground in Mirpur, there was a lot of running around of the local team attendants with water bottles, energy drinks and juices while everyone else tried to find a bit of shade. There was very little shade except on the western end of the ground where the slightly higher wall on the side of the road offers a bit of respite. There are no trees around, only a few buildings overlooking the practice area.The ground in Fatullah, despite being almost in the middle of an industrial area, was surprisingly breezy on Sunday morning despite the heat going over 35 degrees even in the shade. In Mirpur on Monday, there was no such breeze but when the sun did go behind a cloud, there was momentary relief.India did a bit of warm-up with some stretching, light jog and then a spot of football, the only time there was some noise from their group during the whole session. The nets went on for more than three hours as they played spin, throw-downs and pace from left to right in three nets.India’s Test captain Virat Kohli batted throughout the first hour, first taking throwdowns and then pace and spin. He hardly missed deliveries but did leave a few fuller ones outside the offstump from the seamers. Rohit Sharma, M Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan batted for a long time before R Ashwin also got a hit.Meanwhile, a four-man group took part in a close-in catching session. Varun Aaron was taken aside after a bowling stint to take some high catches at the eastern end of the ground. In the nets everything was happening full pelt, especially Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar who bowled for more than an hour.The spinners – Harbhajan Singh, Ashwin and Karn Sharma – bowled for nearly the entire session but they had it slightly easier than the rest as they bowled mostly in the shade. Among the net bowlers provided by the BCB, only one bowled some round-arm left-arm spin. It has usually been Bangladesh’s practice not to give touring sides the comfort of facing left-arm spinners in the nets.Both India and Bangladesh will train in Fatullah on Tuesday. It is the first Test at the venue since 2006 when Bangladesh faced Australia with none in the current home squad having played in that game. India played there in a few ODIs last year but a Test match remains an altogether different proposition. As a result, one of the first questions in their pre-match post conference would certainly be about the short preparation time in Bangladesh, and Fatullah in particular.

Entering a second summer as Australia’s No. 1 spinner, Nathan Lyon has
revealed his struggles to deal with the avalanche of bowling advice
fired his way across the first 12 months of his time in the Test team

Daniel Brettig17-Oct-2012Entering a second summer as Australia’s No. 1 spinner, Nathan Lyon has
revealed his struggles to deal with the avalanche of bowling advice
fired his way across the first 12 months of his time in the Test team.One of the side-effects of Lyon’s rapid rise from obscurity to the
national team was that many glimpsed his bowling for the first time in
Test matches. A return of 42 wickets at 27.83 from 13 Tests suggests
Lyon had a decent enough idea of how to bowl but everyone, it seemed,
had an opinion on how he might do better.During the summer Lyon was incredulous to find himself being called by
strangers advising him of how to gain better results against India’s
batsmen. Then, amid a difficult Australia A tour of England on which
Lyon’s bowling became “muddled” in the words of the national selector
John Inverarity, it is believed he was even offered technical
suggestions by Mitchell Johnson.Having shown signs in the recent Sheffield Shield match against
Tasmania of a return to the tantalising loop, curve and spin that
first won him a national spot, Lyon said he was now very careful about
who he listened to, keeping the counsel of a small group including the
South Australia coach Darren Berry and the spin coaches Craig Howard
and John Davison.”It’s been pretty difficult to be honest with you,” Lyon told
ESPNcricinfo. “To come into the thing and no-one say anything at the
start, then come seven Tests you have people ringing you up and stuff.
I’ve been fortunate to have Darren Berry and Craig Howard and John
Davison on my side, and having that close unit together, really being
able to work with each other.”We’ve got that little group there where we all trust each other and
are on the same page heading in the right direction. Everyone has
their own opinion and stuff, but I’ve really tried to block that out
and just worry about working with the people I really trust and know
where my game is at and where I need to get to. I just rely on Darren
Berry, Craig Howard and John Davison now really.”Inverarity was concerned by what he saw of Lyon in England, where he
was outdone by the Victorian left-arm spinner Jon Holland. However the
national selectors are determined to persist with Lyon, given the
significant role he played a critical junctures of the past year, not
least in Sri Lanka, the West Indies and also South Africa, where he
took vital wickets in both innings of the epic Johannesburg Test.”We hold Nathan in very high regard, he’s a bowler with a lovely
action, he gets drop and bounce and turn,” Inverarity said. “For six
months he got a bit muddled and he didn’t bowl well on the A tour, and
he didn’t bowl well in Brisbane [against Queensland]. But in Adelaide
he bowled much better.”On the first day of the Shield game against Tasmania he bowled 30
overs, 0 for 90 in round figures. He got [Mark] Cosgrove dropped at
mid-on, chest-high. He had [Alex] Doolan mistiming one to point and
dropped, he had [Ricky] Ponting missed stumping. So he’s got 3 for 50
let’s say, and he might’ve picked up another couple. You can’t do much
more than deceive someone in flight and they hit it chest high to
mid-on.”The ebb and flow of Lyon’s rhythm is something the Australian
hierarchy is prepared to roll with for a time, aware that Test matches
account for exactly half of his 26 first-class appearances to date.
Inverarity offered parallels with the young fast bowler James
Pattinson, who has shown himself to be a bowler of great destructive
capability at his peak, but one of rather more modest results when
rhythm and swing prove elusive.”You’ll often see with fast bowlers it can often be little technical
things … with Nathan he had a lovely rhythm and good drop and bounce
and turn,” Inverarity said. “For whatever reason he lost it, lost his
rhythm, and he got frustrated and then I think he was running in to
bowl and he was thinking about where his front arm was and he was
falling short. He’s practised now and is concentrating on where he’s
landing it.”James Pattinson last December bowled superbly, and in Brisbane last
week he bowled fast, he swung it, was accurate, he was terrific. In
the West Indies and England he was not the same bowler, he was very
ordinary. He lost pace and rhythm and was ordinary. So these things
happen, particularly with young bowlers.”Irrespective of where his advice is coming from, Lyon knows he must
keep improving so as to grow into a more senior member of Australia’s
bowling attack. It will help that he has a battery of high class fast
bowlers around him, plus a captain in Michael Clarke who has the right
sense of how best to use spin as an attacking weapon.”Personal results always help, but we’ve really got a solid bowling
group at the moment,” Lyon said. “We’ve got quality fast bowlers,
probably the best in the world at the moment, and it’s really good
working closely with Michael Clarke, he’s fantastic and just being
able to know my role has been a massive help over the last 12 months.”Being able to play in 13 Tests and being involved in 14 Tests was
unbelievable. I’m pretty grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had,
but I really need to grab the ones that come my way this summer and
really try to move forward, keep trying to improve and keep trying to
win games of cricket for Australia.”

ESPNcricinfo previews the Champions League Twenty20 game between Kolkata Knight Riders and South Australia Redbacks

The Preview by Nitin Sundar26-Sep-2011

Match facts

Kolkata Knight Riders v South Australia, September 27
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Gautam Gambhir’s return from a concussion lasted only one ball. He will want to last longer against South Australia•AFP

Big Picture

Both Kolkata Knight Riders and South Australia Redbacks suffered defeats in their opening games, and need quick turnarounds. The Knight Riders are worse off: their campaign has been shorn of momentum after successive losses to Somerset, including one in the qualification round. Gautam Gambhir’s return to action after the concussion he suffered in England was closely watched, but fizzled out when he perished first ball. Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan batted extremely well to lift the Knight Riders to 161, but the bowling let them down for the second time in two games, despite not having a perceptible weak link.South Australia were walloped by the Warriors in their first game, one in which they seemed saddled with one spinner too many. To make matters worse, Shaun Tait endured a forgettable day and was taken apart by JJ Smuts. Coming back from that 53-run hiding will require tremendous depths of resolve, but the fact that their opponents are just as short on confidence should lift their spirits.It is early days yet, but the Warriors look the most complete side in Group B, which is widely considered the easier one to qualify from. Four other teams could be tussling for the second semi-final spot in the group, and the team that loses on Tuesday could be out of that race.

Watch out for …

Brett Lee played a key role in the Knight Riders’ victory against Auckland Aces in the qualifying round, but has not been among the wickets. The chance to steam in against his domestic rivals could fire him up, though.Michael Klinger was one of the stand-out batsmen in the previous edition of the Champions League. He started well in the chase against the Warriors, but will want to make a bigger contribution against the Knight Riders.

Team news

South Australia will consider dropping one of their three spinners in favour of a seaming option. The Daniels – Harris and Christian – combined to pick up 4 for 47 against Warriors, but the rest of the attack went at over ten runs per over in picking a solitary wicket. The Daniels might be pressed into service earlier on Tuesday.The Knight Riders have tried Jaydev Unadkat and L Balaji as Lee’s support seamer, but neither looked convincing in their respective outings. With the spin depth in their side, they might be better off benching both, provided Jacques Kallis can complete a full spell. His solitary over was pounded for 16 runs in the previous game, which is an area of concern.

Stats and trivia

• This will be the first encounter between these sides
• Jacques Kallis is one of only five batsmen to have made more than 100 runs in the tournament. All five played in the qualifiers too.

Quotes

“We’ll obviously sit down and have a chat and the selectors will have another look at it. But playing three spinners has worked very well for us over the last two years and I don’t see that being any different on Tuesday or for the rest of the tournament.”

The Professional Cricketers’ Association will be contacting all of its players in England to remind them of the need for vigilance in the wake of the latest match-fixing scandal to rock the sport

Andrew McGlashan01-Sep-2010The Professional Cricketers’ Association will be contacting all of its players in England to remind them of the need for vigilance in the wake of the latest match-fixing scandal to rock the sport, but remains confident that the vast majority of the English game remains corruption-free.The sting which allegedly showed Mazhar Majeed accepting money to organise pre-arranged no-balls during the Lord’s Test between England and Pakistan has once again left cricket assessing its integrity at all levels.Angus Porter, the PCA chief executive, told Cricinfo it was also considering starting its education programmes earlier than is currently the case to ensure young cricketers are aware of potential dangers. There is considerable sadness around the world game that one of the Pakistan players alleged to be involved in the spot-fixing controversy is the 18-year-old star, Mohammad Amir.”We are in no way complacent about the English game, but are confident it remains clean,” Porter told Cricinfo. “It’s impossible to say these things never happen – and we are aware of approaches being made to players – but remain confident that the system we have in place works.”However, we are currently reminding all the players of their responsibilities and may consider beginning our education programme at an earlier stage. Currently that only starts when a cricketer turns professional but we will give serious thought to going into the Academy system and there is the potential for an online training system to also be implemented.”Players have already been cautioned in their use of social-networking sites such as Facebook and told not to divulge personal information that could be used for ‘grooming’, a method by which seemingly friendly approaches are made to players with a view to gain information in a manner to the approaches made to Shane Watson and Brad Haddin during the Ashes last year.The county game suffered its own spot-fixing controversy earlier this season when Danish Kaneria, the Pakistan legspinner who is Essex’s overseas player, and team-mate Mervyn Westfield were arrested and questioned over alleged spot-fixing during a one-day game at the end of the 2009 season between Essex and Durham. Both players were bailed and Kaneria has continued to play for Essex this season after being dropped by Pakistan, but Westfield has been released by the club.While spot-fixing is not believed to take place within the UK betting market, the county game is susceptible to corruption because domestic one-day matches are broadcast into the subcontinent, as in the case of the Essex-Durham match.”We feel both the PCA and ECB are being proactive to ensure the game stays clean in this country,” Porter added. “The players understand the importance of being alert to situations and the fact we have had approaches reported to us shows the system works.”

It is expected that Shreyas Iyer will, however, continue to lead the side

PTI01-Dec-2024India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav will be back in action for Mumbai’s next Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) game, against Andhra on December 3 after taking a two-week break to attend a family function. He is expected to play the remainder of the tournament and also feature in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy starting December 21.It’s likely Suryakumar will not lead Mumbai in SMAT with Shreyas Iyer in charge till now and expected to continue in that position. It is understood that Suryakumar is fine with Iyer continuing as the captain and is ready to bat at any position that the team management feels is suitable for him.Suryakumar, who led India to an emphatic 3-1 series win over South Africa recently, will link up with the Mumbai squad in Hyderabad on Monday and is expected to turn up for the next game. Placed fourth in Group E, Mumbai have won two of their three games so far and have two league games left after Sunday, when they play against Nagaland.The ongoing SMAT has seen a number of high-profile names participate after the T20I tour of South Africa, such as Hardik Pandya, Iyer, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, and others. Suryakumar had also played one round of the Ranji Trophy in October before leaving for South Africa.

The left-arm fast bowler will be reunited with India and Saurashtra team-mate Cheteshwar Pujara

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Aug-2023Fast bowler Jaydev Unadkat is set for his first stint in the County Championship after signing with Sussex, where he will join his India and Saurashtra team-mate Cheteshwar Pujara.Unadkat is set to be available for at least three of Sussex’s remaining four matches, starting with the game against Durham on September 3. He could, however, miss the team’s final match, if he returns to lead Saurashtra in the Irani Cup, which starts on October 1.”I have been following the team’s recent run of success and I had a nice conversation with Paul [Farbrace, Sussex head coach] and it looks like I can definitely add value and contribute towards the team’s goals,” Unadkat said in a statement. “The English County Championship has a wonderful legacy, and I was keen to grab the opportunity whenever I can and it seems to be the right time for me at this point in my career.”I hope to add to the laurels that my dear friend and team-mate, Cheteshwar, has been adding aplenty while representing Sussex for the last couple of seasons, and more importantly helping the team win games.”Unadkat recently turned out for India in their two Tests against West Indies, but went wicketless. He did however pick up a wicket in the only ODI he played on the tour.Unadkat, 31, has played 103 first-class matches, including four Tests. He has picked up 382 first-class wickets at an average of 22.58 and an economy of 2.94.He captained Saurashtra to their maiden Ranji Trophy title in 2020, taking 67 wickets in that campaign, which is the most by a fast bowler in a single season.He then led them to a second title this year, claiming the Player-of-the-Match trophy in the final against Bengal.”We are delighted that Jaydev will join us for the September championship period, he is a quality bowler and a great guy to have join our squad at an exciting time of the season,” Sussex head coach Farbrace said. “His record is outstanding, and we will be looking for Jaydev to share his experience with our developing team.”

Tom Prest provides support act for Hawks captain as visitors fall well short

ECB Reporters Network17-Jun-2022Hampshire 221 for 3 (Vince 100, Prest 52) beat Kent 167 for 8 (Denly 49, Wood 2-26, Ellis 2-26) by 54 runsJames Vince demolished Kent Spitfires with an obscene Vitality Blast century as Hampshire Hawks romped to a fifth straight victory.Hawks skipper Vince recorded his third T20 century with exactly 100 in 54 balls as he combined with Tom Prest – who impressed with his second format fifty – for a 128 stand for the second wicket. With Ross Whiteley’s six-ball 23, the hosts bashed their third-highest T20 score of 221 – something Spitfires never looked like chasing, eventually falling 54 runs short, in front of the largest Ageas Bowl crowd of the season.After four straight losses to start the Blast, Hampshire have got on a roll and moved into the top four for the first time. Holders Kent remain rooted to the bottom of the South Group with two wins from nine.Having been stuck in, Hampshire were only 32 for 1 – Ben McDermott skied Grant Stewart – at the end of the powerplay, and 12 of those came in the sixth over. That inauspicious start ramped up as Prest and Vince found their gears quickly.They started by using the expansive Ageas Bowl outfield to milk ones and twos, before accelerating into boundaries. The turning point from normal accumulation to intergalactic striking was Stewart’s third over which went for 25 runs. Prest started with a slog-swept six before Vince rounded it out with six, six, four.From then on, the Hawks flew. Only one over in the second half of the innings went for fewer than nine runs. Both Prest and Vince reached half-centuries in 34 balls as they became the first Hampshire duo to put on 100 together in a T20 versus Kent.After Vince had taken George Linde for 17, including a huge maximum over the leg side, Qais Ahmad ended the partnership on 128. Prest’s slog sweep only went up as he departed for a season-best 52.If Vince had noticed his partner had morphed into Joe Weatherley or not his steely demeanour and crisp ball-striking wasn’t affected. His second fifty came in 19 balls – making it 53 balls in total – and was coloured by three towering sixes into the leg side and five fours. He fell a ball later, which only brought Whiteley to the crease. He and Weatherley put on 40 in 10 balls to take Hawks miles past 200 – with 30 coming off the final over.The enormous score, albeit the third-highest around the country on Friday night, was only beaten in Hampshire’s record books by 249 at Derbyshire in 2017 and 225 versus Middlesex at home in 2006.Kent’s reply couldn’t have started worse as Daniel Bell-Drummond and Jordan Cox were both caught in the ring before the end of the third over. Sam Billings was bowled by James Fuller not long after, but Joe Denly and Alex Blake added 54 to momentarily fight back.Denly drilled to long off, Alex Blake to long-on, Linde to a sprawling mid-off, Jack Leaning was cleaned up and Qais was caught and bowled as Kent ended up on 167 for 8 and Hampshire cruised to the two points.

The red-ball players will leave Pakistan early to quarantine before the home series against Australia

Firdose Moonda22-Jan-2021Both the South African and Australian Test squads will quarantine ahead of their yet-to-be-confirmed three-Test series in March, in what will be the strictest biosecure bubble yet in South Africa. Unlike for the England and Sri Lanka series, where training could begin after the squads had taken their first Covid-19 tests – though social interaction was not allowed until after the third test – for the Australia series, players on both sides will be confined to their rooms for a longer period of time.For that reason, South Africa’s Test squad will leave Pakistan on February 9 to begin their quarantine period at home. A separate squad will play the three T20Is in Pakistan on February 11, 13, and 14 in what CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith sees as an inevitable consequence of the times and something member boards will have to work together to ensure the cricket calendar is as unaffected as possible.Related

• Boucher: 'Emphasis' on Australia Tests

• 'Australia's tour at this stage is going ahead' – CSA

“When you work on biosecure environment protocols for Covid-19, you work with other member nations and if member nations don’t support each other and play cricket, cricket’s going to find itself in a very challenging space,” Smith said. “Your objective is to find the protocols that work for both. In working with Cricket Australia (CA), we’ve come to a lot of those medical conclusions and how that’s going to look. There will be an initial quarantine period before that series. Unfortunately, we would have to play two different squads at the time.”While the dates for the Australia series are expected within the next week, ESPNcricinfo understands they are at an advanced stage and will see Australia playing Tests at SuperSport Park and the Wanderers in March. Although Smith told Australian media late last year that he would like to have fans at the grounds for the matches, with South Africa battling through a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, that is highly unlikely. Currently, the country is on Level 3 Lockdown (of five levels, with five being the strictest) and no spectators are allowed into stadiums, while all sports events have to finish by 8pm. The lockdown status will be reviewed before February 15 but even if it changes, it is unlikely to make provision for crowds. Insiders have confirmed that CA has already asked for more extreme measures than either the ECB or SLC required, and CSA is doing all it can to make it happen.The series is the marquee event of this South African summer which has already seen a T20 series against England (but the ODIs that were to follow were postponed following concerns about the bubble in Cape Town) and festive season Tests against Sri Lanka. The men’s team are currently on their first tour to Pakistan since 2007 while the women’s team are hosting Pakistan, with more fixtures in the pipeline. But for CSA, the Australia series is a money-making opportunity through television rights, and a key series because of the historic needle between the two sides.”We would love to get our home summer completed, and Australia are a big part of that home summer. Not only do we want to get it played, we want to compete in that series,” Smith said. “We saw from the Australia-India series the hype around Test cricket. I think it’s going to be a great test of where we are as a squad. We are motivated. The last time a Test series with Australia happened in South Africa it was very heated and we all know what went on. We are very excited to be able to host Australia, but that comes with certain restrictions and medical protocols.”The same is likely to apply to another other cricket played in South Africa this summer, and possibly beyond. The domestic franchise one-day cup is currently being played in a biobubble in Potchefstroom, which was organised late last year after it became clear that having teams travel to various venues around the country would not work. That was the case for the franchise first-class competition, in which two games were affected by Covid-19 in the penultimate round of 2020, and the final round was postponed.All indications are that any other domestic cricket that takes place, including the remaining first-class fixtures, a franchise T20 cup and semi-professional cricket, which has been dormant since before the pandemic hit, will have to take place in biosecure environments as well. “I’m quite positive that with all the Covid-19 issues we’ve been able to get cricket played. There’s going to be a focus on trying to get semi-pro underway,” Smith said.With South African domestic cricket’s impending restructure to 15 provincial teams and no franchises, this season’s semi-professional matches are important for players who are pushing to be contracted next season. At least 75 cricketers across the current franchise and provincial structures will find themselves out of a job, so competing for places is their work this summer.Just as it is for the national men’s team. After slipping as low as eighth on the Test rankings last summer, and winning just one of the five trophies on offer, they are in a period of rebuilding and although Smith would like to see results, he believes this season is one of patience instead. “We want our team to win as much as possible but I wouldn’t say that’s the defining thing for me this season. I would like to answer a few questions in my own head. I think the selectors and the coaching staff would want to do the same,” he said. “(Because of the pandemic) there are going to be more opportunities for players than in the past. I’m really excited to see who puts their hand up and who are the people we can back into the future.”

‘I was confident I would win this one,’ he says of not being allowed to contest the same elections in 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Sep-2019″There are only three things on my mind right now – cricket, cricket, cricket,” Mohammad Azharuddin said after becoming the new Hyderabad Cricket Association president on Friday with a landslide victory, in which his team swept all six apex council seats on offer.The former India captain and member of parliament was not allowed to contest for the president’s post in January 2017 as his nomination papers were not accepted by the election officers, who were unsure about Azharuddin’s status because of the BCCI life ban that was imposed on him in 2000 for match-fixing (struck down by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2012). This time, there was no stopping him.”We will have to restructure everything and turn things around,” Azharuddin told the newspaper. “Look at the state of Gymkhana ground, it’s left for the cows to graze. We need to get to the grassroots and unearth talent now.”The members have done their job, mine starts now. I know it won’t be easy but I will give my best to revive the game which has suffered a lot in the last three years. We will seek support from all the club secretaries and take the game forward. Their suggestions as well as those of cricket enthusiasts will be more than welcome.”Azharuddin had no involvement in cricket-related matters after the life ban and became a politician in 2009. His initial attempts of challenging the ban were unsuccessful but in 2012, a division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court ruled the BCCI ban illegal. He recalled the beginning of his Test career, which saw him slam three centuries in his first three Tests in 1984-85.”Just a bit,” he said when asked if he was as nervous getting into cricket administration as he was when making his Test debut. “Back then I had worked very hard for close to 15 years to get into the Indian team and was very nervous when I played my first Test. Here, we worked as a team and campaigned hard and knew the result straightaway.”There are tense moments in any election, as I know anything can happen – having contested two general elections – but I was confident I would win this one. It’s a big victory though.Looking ahead in his new avatar, Azharuddin said, “I am really looking forward to BCCI meetings because I have so much to offer, having played the game for quite a while. I have represented the BCCI on teams but now to deal with the board as an administrator will be different – this should be much easier than playing.”

The fast bowler faces an uncertain future and remains out of contract with Hampshire at the end of the season

George Dobell28-Jul-2018Reece Topley is to undergo surgery on his back on Monday.Topley, who was diagnosed with a recurrence of a stress fracture earlier this month, will have a pin inserted in his lower back during the procedure at Wellington Hospital, just next to Lord’s. If his rehabilitation progresses well, he hopes to be fit to play not long after the start of the 2019 English domestic season.He faces an uncertain future, though. Not only is this the fifth stress fracture he has suffered in his lower back in six seasons as a professional cricketer, but he is out of contract at Hampshire at the end of this season and most unlikely to be offered a new deal. Any future county may require some persuasion before taking a chance on him in 2019.It is, however, the first time he has undergone surgery on his back. And while the procedure has been complicated a bit as the company that produced the screws preferred by surgeons in such situations has gone into receivership, it is thought he has a good chance of making a full recovery.While Topley has been plagued by back trouble throughout his career, he has represented England in 10 ODIs and six T20Is and remains highly-rated by the England management. Only a month ago, they considered recalling him as a replacement for the injured Tom Curran in the T20I squad facing India.