Former Indian cricketer Ashish Nehra has revealed MS Dhoni’s words which motivated him to play the complete 2011 world cup. Nehra was struggling with an injury during the mega event.

And he decided to opt out of the world cup. But then skipper MS Dhoni has appealed and suggested Nehra to not take any decision in haste. It is a well known thing that Nehra was facing back problems ahead of world cup.

But Dhoni’s words meant Nehra managed to maintain decent fitness as he played important role in India’s title triumph. Despite not being in the best fitness in the world cup, Nehra did play a major role especially in the semi finals against Pakistan.

Nehra recollected the incident and suggested it was MS Dhoni’s call that helped him pllay three games in that world cup. Also, he praised Dhoni being the chief architect for India’s title triumph after 28 long years.

“Listen, just hang in there for another two to three weeks. See how you feel. Be with the physio, sort it out with him, wait for two-three weeks and then we’ll see how it goes.”

Ashish Nehra- Long Career Rattled With Injuries

Ashish Nehra is undoubtedly one of the greatest Indian pace bowlers ever. However, his career was always halted due to some sort of injury. Despite all the setbacks, the cricketer always bounced back and made comebacks to Indian team time and again.

He is one of the very few to have such long career than spanned close to two decades. He also face a very bad fracture during the match against Pakistan in 2011 world cup. Nehra managed 33/1 in his 10 over quota and played a massive role in India’s route to final.

“I had a massive fracture. The day after the final itself, I left for Australia for surgery. It was very disappointing but it was satisfying as well that we won the final, we won the World Cup. It was a roller-coaster ride for me but in the end, I did manage to land safely,” Nehra concluded.

Always smiling despite all the lows and setbacks, Nehra has earned a name for himself not just for being a great cricketer but also a great human being. He is still actively participating in cricket in the roles of mentor and commentator whenever possible.

India will play host to ICC Men’s T20 world cup next year, while Australia will host the 2022 editions, ICC announced. Ever since the corona outbreak happened, the world has come to a stand still.

Many major sporting events including Tokyo Olympics, Euro 2020, T20 World Cup 2020 etc were cancelled. Australia were initially intended to host the T20 World Cup this year. However, with this major crisis the tournament was cancelled.

However, Australia will now instead host the tournament in 2022. Meanwhile, India which was planned to host T20 World Cup in 2021 will proceed as per earlier plans.

All the teams qualified for T20 World Cup 2020 will now be eligible to play in 2021 edition in India. Also, International Cricket Council (ICC) will release a new qualification rounds for 2022 world cup soon.

India: 2021 🇮🇳
Australia: 2022 🇦🇺

CONFIRMED: The next edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup will be held in India, while Australia will stage the tournament in 2022! pic.twitter.com/lcFzo4HK7N

— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) August 7, 2020

The apex body received a lot of criticism for postponing the mega event this year. Some member nations like Pakistan made allegations that ICC cancelled the tournament to make way for IPL 2020.

Women’s World Cup 2021 Postponed

ICC Women’s world cup was schedule for 2021 in New Zealand. However, the tournament is now postponed to the following year, 2022.

The last women’s world cup took place in England in 2017. As per the initial reports, Women’s world cup should start during February- March window in 2022.

“There has been no women’s international cricket played since the conclusion of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup earlier this year and due to the varying impact of COVID-19 globally that is likely to remain the situation for a number of the teams,” Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said in a statement.

“Moving the event by 12 months gives all competing teams the chance to play a sufficient level of cricket ahead of both the qualification event and leading into a Cricket World Cup so the integrity of the tournament is maintained,” he added.

Cricket is slowly getting back into normalcy as measures are in place to tackle corona virus. England became the first cricket nation to host a test series last month.

Now, Caribbean Premier League 2020 is set to be played next week. On the other hand, Indian Premier League will be played in UAE from next month. However, we are still very far away from having fans back in the stadium.

It might take another six to twelve months to at least have few fans in the stadiums as Corona is showing no signs of slowing down.

Former Pakistan cricketer Ramiz Raja slammed Pakistan cricket team after losing first test against England. Despite being in command for majority of the test match, Pakistan lost to the hosts after England chased down 277.

The Pakistan team managed to gain upper hand at the end of first innings. They managed to get a huge 107 run lead. However, with Pakistan once again being Pakistan, they faltered in the most unusual way during their second innings.

The batting lineup were made a paltry 169  before getting all-out in their second innings. On the other hand, England struggled chasing 277 as they found themselves at struggling at 117/5.

But all rounder Chris Woakes and Jos Buttler stitched a century stand between them. This helped England clinch the first test by three wickets. Speaking after the match, Ramiz Raja was critical of Pakistan team as they failed to register the win despite dominating the game.

“Only Pakistan could have lost from that position. With such a lead they may have thought 250 would be enough to roll over England. With five wickets down and big guns back in the pavilion at 117, allowing over 100-run (139 runs) partnership between Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes is the disappointing part. Mind you, Buttler was playing for his position in the XI,” Ramiz Raja said.

“Pakistan were little confused during that partnership. This has been happening with Pakistan quite often, unfortunately. It was a superb partnership no doubt but why did Pakistan allow it? There is a reason their ranking is low in Tests (No 7).”

Azhar Ali Under Scanner

Pakistan captain Azhar Ali was under scanner after the defeat. The skipper did not try anything out of the box to try and break the partnership between Buttler and Woakes.

Instead, they went for a defensive approach as the partnership progressed. This has led to easy singles and little pressure on the batters. Eventually, Woakes remained till the end and saw England home in the first test at Manchester.

“When you got a captain, who is not in great form, the coaching staff has to be more proactive. Also, they get a good perspective sitting outside. England were allowed to take easy singles, close to 40 singles were taken by Buttler and Woakes through point,” he concluded.

Pakistan will play two more test matches in Ageas Bowl, Southampton. The visitors will look to make amends to their mistakes in the first test. The second test will begin on August 13, while last test is scheduled on August 21.