Former Indian cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin hailed Tilak Varma following a calm and composed knock in a tense run chase against New Zealand in the second T20I, while also expressing hope that he gets to play Test cricket for India as well. Tilak Varma's love affair with run chases and death overs batting continued as he and Nitish Kumar Reddy pulled Team India out of troubled waters, stitching a 69-run stand to chase down 181 runs with a ball to spare at Christchurch. Once again while batting in the middle-order, Tilak brought his game awareness and ball striking, calculated acceleration while chasing. Speaking to ANI after the match, Azharuddin, one of the finest cricketers to emerge out of Hyderabad, said, "Today, I am very happy with the way Tilak Varma has played. He is a very good player, and I sincerely hope and pray that he gets the opportunity to play Test cricket. For me, Test cricket is the most important format, and I hope he goes on to represent India in Tests a...
Indian cricketers, including Test skipper Shubman Gill and ODI captain Rohit Sharma, have cleared the pre-season fitness test which was conducted at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Gill will travel to Dubai soon for the Asia Cup, starting on September 9, and his teammates Jasprit Bumrah and Jitesh Sharma too have passed the fitness parameters. The 25-year-old Punjab batter was named India's vice-captain for the T20 tournament. A fitness test became mandatory for Gill as he had to pull out of the Duleep Trophy, where he was named the North Zone captain, because of a fever, and was resting at his home town for the last few days. PTI understands that other players who went through the test at the CoE without any alarm were Mohammed Siraj, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur. Apart from the now standard Yo-Yo test, a DXA Scan, which is a simplified method to test bone density, was also done during the fitness test. Both Jaiswal and Washington are in th...