Kranti Goud picked up 3 for 20 to continue her rapid rise with India’s ODI side

Shashank Kishore05-Oct-20254:12

Goud, Deepti, Ghosh make it two from two for India

Kranti Goud, 22, was informed of her India debut at the R Premadasa Stadium in May 2025. She had largely been picked as an apprentice, with India waiting on two senior players – Renuka Singh and Pooja Vastrakar, both injured and in rehab.It was an unremarkable debut, for figures of 5-0-22-0. But among the many things she did right was hitting Chamari Athapaththu, a ferocious puller of the cricket ball, on her ribs. That tiny moment, lost amid Smriti Mandhana’s century and Sneh Rana’s four-for, encouraged India’s selectors to take a punt on her for the England tour.When she picked up a six-for in Durham, hooping the ball and leaving England’s top order gasping en route to an impressive series victory, it was fairly evident Goud had sealed her World Cup spot, irrespective of whether the injured senior pacers returned. Renuka has, Vastrakar hasn’t, but Goud has made herself undroppable after just two outings.Related

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Bugs halt play between India and Pakistan in Colombo

A week after she opened the 2025 World Cup with 1 for 41 in India’s win over Sri Lanka, Goud stung Pakistan’s top order in a fiery new-ball spell. She finished with 3 for 20 in India’s 88-run win in Colombo, one that her neighbourhood watched on a giant LED screen they’d installed back in Ghuwara, a town in rural Madhya Pradesh.”The talk is about focusing on line and length only,” Goud said after winning the Player-of-the-Match award. “I haven’t thought of doing much extra. Variations like bouncer or slower balls, those depend on the situation. The coaches told me to pull my lengths back a little based on the conditions and surface, that’s what I did.”It wasn’t merely Goud listening to her coaches that did the trick. She also got the captain to give her the fields she wanted most times. In the 12th over, with the ball losing some of its shine, Harmanpreet Kaur pulled out Deepti Sharma from the slips, only for Goud to wheel her back to where she’d been.The result? Aliya Riyaz was defeated by late movement to get a healthy edge through to Deepti at second slip. A jubilant Goud immediately turned to her captain, who ran towards her to acknowledge her contribution.”The ball was swinging early on, I couldn’t understand what was happening,” Goud said with a chuckle when asked about her first spell. “One ball came in a long way. Then when the ball was old, Harman wanted to take the slip off, but I said, ‘no didi, let’s keep the slip for this over.'”I had that feeling from within that I could get a wicket, and I got it off the first ball. They found it tough to play our pacers. Because the ball was moving in and out, that’s why I had a lengthy first spell.”Goud bowled six unchanged overs with the new ball. The other small contribution she made to India’s win was her crucial lower-order runs with Richa Ghosh. Coming in with India 226 for 8, the ninth-wicket pair added 21 to haul India to 247.Goud’s contribution was 8 off 4 balls, including two fours: a cover drive off her first ball, against left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal, and then a boundary off Diana Baig when she got inside the line to help a short delivery past short fine leg.”Richa told me, if there’s a ball to be hit, go for it. But if you’re not able to, just give me a single,” Goud said. “Because only a few overs were left, we needed to score as many as we could. First ball itself was hittable, so I hit a four. Then she told me, play like this only. The second [boundary] was a short ball, so I went for it. Look forward to playing well like this.”Goud would perhaps acknowledge tougher tests await, but the stage on Sunday wasn’t to be scoffed at, even if India did come in with a 11-0 record over Pakistan in women’s ODIs. With the men’s Asia Cup having been played in an environment far from the bonhomie the teams have shown in the past, the focus was on the women’s game to see if some of the hostilities would spill over. It didn’t, even though the teams didn’t shake hands before or after the match.But the off-field noise was far from Goud’s mind. “I wasn’t thinking of India-Pakistan or other things,” she said. “My duty is to bowl, and I was doing just that.”

Smith has recently returned from New York and will play two Sheffield Shield matches for New South Wales ahead of facing England

Andrew McGlashan21-Oct-20251:14

Mitchell Starc: Smith ‘has been a great sounding board’ for Cummins

Steven Smith had his first hit against bowlers since the Hundred finished in late August on Tuesday, but declared he was already “ready” for the Ashes after his break in New York.Smith, who is set to captain Australia in the first Test due to Pat Cummins’ back injury, returned to Sydney last week and had three nets against throwdowns before facing the New South Wales attack during training at Cricket Central as he ramps up towards the start of the Ashes.Related

Australia's top order: What are the selectors' options?

Boland: 'I've got my own internal motivations'

Confidence growing that Cummins will play 'major part' in Ashes

Ashes tracker: Weatherald makes a statement as Boland primes for Perth

He will play two Sheffield Shield matches – against Queensland at the Gabba and Victoria at the SCG before facing England – but believed he was already good to go having in recent times found downtime from the game more profitable than endless training or extra matches.Unlike earlier in the year when he was recovering from a finger injury sustained in the World Test Championship final and left the tour of West Indies, Smith did not hunt out a baseball cage in New York and only picked up a bat on his return home.”Honestly, it takes me two hits to get sorted,” Smith said. “I feel like I’m ready to go now. I feel like I’m moving really nicely. I feel in a good place.”I’ve been training quite hard. I’ve been doing a lot of lifting, trying to get a bit stronger. And I did all my strength tests yesterday and they’re all as good as they’ve ever been. So I feel like I’m going good.”Cummins has yet to be officially ruled out of the opening Test, but time is quickly running out and Smith said on Tuesday that he had still yet to start bowling. “Things can turn around pretty quickly so we’ll see where everything lands with him,” Smith said.”He’s obviously got a few things to tick off and get into his bowling, but he was in good spirits and the team’s obviously better with him in it for sure. Hopefully he can get right and if he plays three Tests or five Tests or two Tests, as many as we can get out of him, it’s the best for the team.”Steven Smith speaks to reporters as he ramps up his Ashes preparation•Getty Images

The duo have worked well as a captain-vice captain combination with Smith standing in on six occasions since Cummins’ promotion, winning five of those Tests. His tactical nous has particularly come to the fore on the subcontinent and, although Smith himself played it down, his head-to-head with Ben Stokes looms as a fascinating aspect of the early Ashes exchanges.Even if unable to play, Cummins is expected to travel with the Australia squad and Smith was confident the change of leadership would prove smooth but added he would do things in his style.”It’s nothing out of the ordinary,” Smith said. “I know how the team operates. We’re in a good place. So if it happens, I’ll look forward to it. I think the important thing is doing it my way. I think when I get out on the field, I’ve got a certain style and the way I like to do things and I need to be authentic.”I think it’s worked well when I’ve stood in over the last few years. It’ll just be a seamless sort of transition if that comes around.”Smith has rarely had a problem with the dual responsibilities of captaincy and batting: his average when captain is 68.98 against 49.90 when in the ranks. One of the six Tests where he has filled in was during the 2021-22 Ashes when Cummins was a Covid close contact in Adelaide with Smith making 93 in the first innings.”It’s interesting how the brain works, I suppose,” Smith said when asked whether he’s aware of how the captaincy makes a difference. “I feel like I kind of go to another level and try and set a standard.”I think I’ve chilled out a lot over the last probably four or five years, just a bit more relaxed out in the middle and maybe not as cranky at times. I like to listen to people, get their opinions, and then obviously make a decision when I’m in charge.”In terms of losing Cummins’ bowling, Smith was of little doubt that Scott Boland could fill the breach. “I mean, we’ve got a pretty good replacement in Scott Boland who I think is arguably one of the best bowlers in the world,” he said. “His record in Australia is outrageous, so we’re good there.”Then the other two [Starc and Hazlewood] obviously have done a wonderful job for a long time as well. So I don’t think it disrupts too much.”

He was sharp on the field, making batters overthink, and off the field, spoke out against petty-minded administrators

Suresh Menon25-Jun-2025At a Rolling Stones concert in Bengaluru many years ago, Dilip Doshi, then an ex-India cricketer, spotted Rahul Dravid, a current player, and escorted him towards the stage. Mick Jagger, Doshi’s good friend, was performing. I was sitting with my family nearby and saw this as entirely natural. Doshi was a team man and saw colleagues as family.It was the attitude that saw him stand up for Dilip Vengsarkar after a misunderstanding at Sharjah airport in the 1980s that led to Vengsarkar being deported to India. A bunch of Indian stars who were with the team then didn’t raise any objections. It was a commentary on the times in which Doshi played his cricket in India: it was every man for himself and the devil was assisted in his effort to take the hindmost.Of the left-arm spinners who had the misfortune to play under the huge shadow of Bishan Singh Bedi, Doshi was probably the most gifted and understood his craft better than most. He made his debut at around the same age that Bedi played his last Test (past 30) and still claimed over a hundred wickets, a tribute as much to his competitiveness as his resilience. It helped that he played first-class cricket in England; it kept him fit and saw him bowl to the best batters on the international circuit.Related

• Dilip Doshi – The man apart (2006)

• Doshi: 'Spin bowling is a battle of wits' (2008)

• Dilip Doshi, former India left-arm spinner, dies aged 77

His strike rate (81.7) was only a whit behind Bedi’s (80.3), but in the era of Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, it was generally considered sacrilege to look beyond the quartet. Every spinner who followed was expected to combine the aesthetics and effectiveness of that generation.Doshi was his own man. He gave the ball a rip that spun it alarmingly on helpful wickets and confused batters on good ones – batters who were taken in by the apparent effort. In this he was a bit like Clarrie Grimmett, who spun it the least when he seemed to be putting in the most effort. As that great left-arm spinner Wilfred Rhodes said, it is enough if the batter it’s spinning. Doshi was not only a thinking bowler himself, he was the cause for overthinking in batters.With his thick glasses and slightly distracted air, Doshi reminded many of the absent-minded professor who knew he had found the solution to the problem the previous day but couldn’t recall where he had left his work. But in fact, he was sharp and knew exactly what was happening around him. Some of his powers of observation found release in his autobiography Spin Punch, which earned praise from the likes of Garry Sobers, but didn’t find too many cheering in his own team.Doshi was not afraid to speak his mind, even during his playing career•AFP/Getty ImagesHe played for India at a time when the authorities kept players in check by injecting individuals with large quantities of insecurity. You had to be in the right camp, support the right official, and engage in public-relations work all the time. Doshi was unafraid to speak his mind. In Spin Punch, he went public with how team meetings were invariably about money and how much could be made how; cricket was discussed if at all only incidentally. He saw the BCCI as a self-aggrandising body, and his one-time friend Sunil Gavaskar as a “petty tyrant”.I am not sure he wanted to play a role in Indian cricket after his retirement, but if he did, he had trodden on too many toes for that to happen. Toes, his own, played an important role in the Doshi legend, when, bowling with broken ones that needed much medication, he bowled India to victory in the Melbourne Test of 1981. Fans love a performer who cuts through the pain barrier, and for a while Doshi, India’s leading spinner, became a national hero despite the fact that he was not Bedi.Yet, in the end, Doshi might have echoed Jagger to sum up a career that gave “Satisfaction” as much to himself as to lovers of the game of which he was a shining representative.

Harry Kane hailed Bayern Munich’s fighting spirit after his side secured a last-gasp 3-1 victory over St. Pauli in the Bundesliga on Saturday afternoon. Vincent Kompany's league leaders bounced back from their Champions League defeat against Arsenal in midweek thanks to late goals from forwards Luis Diaz and Nicolas Jackson at the Allianz Arena.

Getty Images SportDiaz and Jackson score late on as Bayern go eight points clear

Locked level heading into stoppage time, Bayern looked set to drop points against strugglers St. Pauli. Alexander Blessin’s visitors took a surprise lead when Burnley loanee Andreas Hountondji scored after just six minutes, before Diaz recorded a stunning assist for Bayern defender Raphael Guerreiro’s equaliser before half time.

And then after three minutes of second-half stoppage time, former Liverpool forward Diaz saved Bayern’s blushes as he headed home from Joshua Kimmich’s teasing cross, before substitute Nicolas Jackson – on loan from Chelsea – made it 3-1 on 90+7. On a day when second-placed RB Leipzig were held to a 0-0 stalemate with Borussia Monchengladbach, Bayern’s victory saw them move eight points clear at the top of the table.

The win also saw Bayern bounce back from their 3-1 loss against Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal in the Champions League on Wednesday. Suffering defeat for the first time in Europe’s premier club competition this season, Kompany’s side fell to goals from Jurrien Timber, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli after youngster Lennart Karl scored in the first half.

Advertisement'Proud' Kane pays tribute to Bayern team-mates after the game

And after the final whistle, England captain Kane took to social media to pay tribute to his Bayern team-mates following the all-important win. Writing on X, he said: “Important win today, proud of the boys for pushing until the very end!”

Echoing Kane’s thoughts, Bayern head coach Kompany also praised his side’s determination against St. Pauli, telling reporters: “Such hard-fought wins are part of a season. That gives us confidence in the future that we can win in such situations. Compliments to the boys that they kept going and believed in themselves. We need that over the course of the season.”

Getty Images SportGerman giants' director of sport delivers update on Kane's future

While he was unable to join Guerreiro, Diaz and Jackson on the scoresheet, Kane was a topic of discussion after the match as Bayern director of sport Max Eberl delivered a cryptic update on the striker’s future amid speculation linking him with a move to Barcelona.

Asked whether the Bavarians have entered into contract renewal discussions with Kane, whose current terms expire in 2027, Eberl told “Harry knows exactly what he wants and we have plans for him. We would like to continue. We can very, very well imagine that, but we will basically discuss everything with Harry.”

And when pressed on the future of defender Dayot Upamecano, whose contract expires next summer, Eberl added: “We definitely want it [a renewal]. I think we've communicated that clearly enough. I believe he feels very, very comfortable here.”

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England captain insists he is calm regarding his future at Bayern

While speculation continues to swirl, the former Tottenham forward insists he remains calm over his future at Bayern, saying there is “no rush” to enter into discussions regarding a new contract.

“I haven't had any contact with anyone, nobody has contacted me,” he told this week. “I feel very comfortable in the current situation, even though we haven't yet discussed my situation with Bayern.

“There's no rush. I'm really happy in Munich. You can see that in the way I'm playing. If there's contact, then we'll see. But I'm not thinking about the new season yet. First up is the World Cup in the summer. And it's very unlikely that anything will change after this season.”

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أعلنت جائزة جلوب سوكر اليوم الأربعاء، عن القائمة النهائية للمرشحين لجائزة أفضل مهاجم في العالم، وذلك عن عام 2025.

ومن المقرر أن يقام حفل جلوب سوكر يوم 28 ديسمبر المقبل، وذلك في الإمارات، حيث يقام الحفل كل عام بالفعل.

وشملت قائمة المرشحين لأفضل مهاجم ثمانية لاعبين يتقدمهم نجم ليفربول، محمد صلاح، والذي لعب بشكل رائع مع النادي الإنجليزي خلال هذا العام.

محمد صلاح لعب بشكل استثنائي مع ليفربول خلال هذا العام وحقق مع ليفربول بطولة الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز، إذ توج بهداف المسابقة.

ويأمل محمد صلاح في أن يعود إلى مستوياته في أقرب وقت ممكن، حيث يعاني اللاعب الأمرين خلال هذا الموسم مع ليفربول وفشل في تقديم المأمول منه مع النادي الإنجليزي.

اقرأ أيضًا.. القائمة النهائية للمرشحين لجائزة أفضل لاعب في العالم من جلوب سوكر.. موقف محمد صلاح

ودخل محمد صلاح في فترة شك وقام مدرب ليفربول، آرني سلوت، بإجلاس الدولي المصري على مقاعد البدلاء أمام وست هام يونايتد يوم الأحد الماضي بالدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز.

وشهدت القائمة سيطرة كبيرة من لاعبي برشلونة، حيث تواجد ثلاثة لاعبين وهم رافينيا دياز وروبرت ليفاندوفسكي ولامين يامال. المرشحين لجائزة أفضل مهاجم في العالم من جلوب سوكر

محمد صلاح (ليفربول).

روبرت ليفاندوفسكي (برشلونة).

لامين يامال (برشلونة).

رافينها (برشلونة).

كيليان مبابي (بريال مدريد).

هاري كين (بايرن ميونخ).

خفيشا كفارتسخيليا (باريس سان جيرمان).

عثمان ديمبلي (باريس سان جيرمان).

Shohei Ohtani recorded his 1,000th hit in MLB on Wednesday, and he did it in very Ohtani-like fashion.

The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar came to the plate in the third inning and sent mammoth two-run shot over the wall in center field. It was his 39th home run of the year, and more importantly, hit No. 1,000 for the Japan native since his arrival from NPB in 2018.

Wednesday's tilt against the Cardinals was Ohtani's 973rd game in MLB, and he was doing a bit of everything at Busch Stadium. In addition to becoming the 59th active player with 1,000 hits in MLB, Ohtani was also dominating on the mound for the Dodgers, making his eighth pitching appearance of the season.

He racked up eight strikeouts in just four innings and lowered his season ERA to 2.37 in the process. He then gave himself some run support by launching the 440-foot home run. His 39 homers rank third in MLB and second in the National League, trailing only Cal Raleigh and Kyle Schwarber.

After 12 rock-solid years across Major League Baseball, pitcher Alex Wood is calling it a day.

Wood is retiring from baseball, he announced in a Friday afternoon Instagram post. The 34-year-old Charlotte native had not pitched since a stint with the Athletics in 2024.

"Baseball was my first love. Outside of God and my family, nothing else has shaped me the way this game has," Wood wrote. "Even writing this, I can’t help but smile thinking about how much I still love the game after all this time."

Wood, who pitched collegiately for Georgia, debuted with the Braves in 2013. Atlanta traded him to the Dodgers in '15 in a three-team trade after a solid start to his career.

In 2017, Wood surprised the baseball world by opening the season 10–0. The All-Star finished the year 16–3 with a 2.72 ERA, falling just short of qualifying for the ERA title. In the playoffs, he posted a 2.92 ERA and helped Los Angeles win its first pennant since 1988.

Wood's fortunes declined after that, and he bounced around four franchises in his final seven years. He did experience a brief rejuvenation in 2021, going 10–4 with a 3.83 ERA during the Giants' shock 107–55 season.

Qarabag's youth team have been fined just over £4,000 by UEFA after a supporter was found to have racially abused a Chelsea player during an academy match in Azerbaijan. Shortly after Blues striker Sol Gordon opening the scoring at Azersun Stadium in Baku earlier this month, the 17-year-old was allegedly subjected to monkey gestures. Now, Qarabag have been punished off the back of what transpired in this UEFA Youth League encounter.

• Chelsea strongly condemn unsavoury incident

  Despite Chelsea's Under-19 side going on to win the game 5-0, the contest was marred by Gordon being discriminated against by those in the crowd. 

  At the time, the Blues said in a statement: "We are aware of an incident during today's UEFA Youth League match in Azerbaijan in which, after scoring, a number of our players were subjected to racist abuse from an individual in the crowd. Racism and all forms of discriminatory behaviour are completely unacceptable and have no place in football or indeed in society. We strongly condemn the actions of the individual responsible. Our players have the full support of everyone at the club, and we have raised the incident immediately with the UEFA match delegate and home club: We expect this matter to be investigated fully under UEFA's disciplinary procedures. We are proud of the way our players and staff responded to the incident on the pitch, swiftly reporting it to the referee, and commend those for dealing with the matter professionally and appropriately in line with UEFA protocols."

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  Qarabag apologise before getting fined

  Soon after Chelsea's statement, Qarabag responded with their own. They vowed to investigate the matter and said this incident does not reflect the club's values. 

  They added: "We are sorry about this incident. It does not reflect the values of our club. We will investigate it thoroughly."

  Now, European football's governing body, UEFA, has slapped them with a £4,379 fine, with Qarabag's youth team having to play a match behind closed doors following "racist and/or discriminatory behaviour of its supporters" – though that punishment is suspended for a year.

  A statement from UEFA reads: "The CEDB has decided: To fine Qarabağ FK Youth €5,000 and to order Qarabağ FK Youth to play its next one (1) UEFA competition match as host club behind closed doors, for the racist and/or discriminatory behaviour of its supporters. Said match behind closed doors is suspended during a probationary period of one (1) year, starting from the date of the present decision."

• Atletico Madrid punished for racism

  On a similar note, Atletico Madrid have been fined £26,256 by UEFA after their fans reportedly made monkey gestures and noises, along with Nazi salutes, towards Arsenal's players in their 4-0 home win at Emirates Stadium in October. The club has also been hit with a suspended sanction of a ban on travelling supporters for "racist and discriminatory behaviour". Despite the severity of the charges, the one-match ban on ticket sales for an away game has been suspended for a probationary period of one year.

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  What comes next for Chelsea?

  Aside from the aforementioned matter, Chelsea return to Premier League action on Sunday when they host London rivals and league leaders Arsenal in a huge clash at the top of the table on Sunday. The Blues sit six points behind the Gunners, and a win at Stamford Bridge could catapult them into the title race. But a loss could put pay to those hopes and give Mikel Arteta's team a huge boost in their bid to win their first league title since 2004.

  Following Chelsea's 3-0 Champions League win over Barcelona in midweek, head coach Enzo Maresca said: "I’ve told the players, next 48 hours, completely switch off. Have a rest. Recover the energy. Because [on] Sunday we have Arsenal. My message after the game was just: recover the energy. That, in this moment, is the most important thing. Then, on Friday, we start to think about Arsenal. We need to keep the momentum because it’s very nice – and it’s much easier to recover energy when you win games."

Bangladesh were bowled out for 93 and 109 in their 3-0 series defeat to Afghanistan

Mohammad Isam15-Oct-2025Mehidy Hasan Miraz admitted that Bangladesh are in such a dire situation in ODIs that batting out 50 overs is now their first priority. They went down by 200 runs against Afghanistan, bowled out for 93 runs in 27.1 overs. It follows their 109 all out in 28.3 overs in the previous game on the tour of the UAE.Both innings followed a similar pattern. Bangladesh’s top-order couldn’t get them off to a good start with only Saif Hassan hitting some big ones, before Rashid Khan ran through the middle order. On Tuesday, it was also Bilal Sami, the 21-year-old seamer, who joined in the wicket-taking, finishing with his maiden five-wicket haul.With Bangladesh’s next ODI series, against West Indies, starting this weekend, captain Mehidy has little time to fix things. “We have to target playing 50 overs” he said at the post-match press conference, “As we failed to do so in the last two matches. I think we have to accept that we have played poor cricket as a batting unit.”A team suffers when the batters don’t take responsibility. Every batter has to take responsibility. We will keep struggling otherwise. We can’t win a game without runs on the board, regardless of conditions.”Related

• Patience running thin back home amid Bangladesh's batting gloom

Mehidy said he will take responsibility for the series loss to Afghanistan, but believes the team now needs to recharge mentally before the next match. “The team is definitely feeling down after losing this series. We are hopeful that if we can spend time with our family in those two days that we have at home, we can play with a fresh mind.”As a captain, I want the batters to be mentally strong. I don’t expect an overnight improvement. The coaching staff is boosting the team mentally. I should be doing it too, as a captain.”Despite the 3-0 loss, Mehidy hinted that he doesn’t want many changes in the side for the West Indies series, saying he still has confidence in the current group to come good.”We are not learning from each defeat,” he said. “We are not improving as much as required. We definitely lack in certain area but we have to move ahead with these players. We don’t have a lot of players outside [the team]. We are not as bad a team as these results show, but we just have to improve, and rectify our mistakes.”The 3-0 ODI series defeat against Afghanistan cancelled out their 3-0 win over the same opposition in the T20I series earlier. This defeat also puts Bangladesh hopes of automatic qualification for the 2027 World Cup in further trouble.Although the BCB put out an explanation on the eve of the third ODI that they still have enough matches to return to the top nine in ODI rankings and secure their place for that ICC event, Bangladesh’s poor batting form isn’t encouraging at all.They made 221 in the first game batting first, before the two batting debacles. Coach Phil Simmons said prior to the third ODI that he wanted the batters to be positive against Afghanistan’s spinners but in all six white-ball games on this tour, Bangladesh surrendered in front of Rashid.Bangladesh travel back home on Wednesday and have only two days to prepare for another three-match ODI series against West Indies. The only saving grace could be home conditions, but the crowd might receive them poorly and the Dhaka pitches could still be very similar to Abu Dhabi’s. There is hardly any respite for Bangladesh’s batters.