Marnus Labuschagne has revealed that he would be happy to open the batting for Australia if that’s the way forward for him to return to the Test XI. One of the consistent batters over the years for Australia, Labuschagne has struggled for form off late in red-ball cricket that led to him being axed for the recent West Indies tour. While he is expected to feature in the ODI XI this month against South Africa, especially after the retirements of Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell from the format, Labuschagne is eyeing a swift return to the Test squad with a home Ashes series scheduled this summer. With Cameron Green slotting in at No.3 in West Indies, Labuschagne’s favoured position, the 31-year-old’s best bet could be right up top especially with young Sam Konstas not making his chance count in the three Tests. “If you had asked me where I prefer to bat, obviously I have batted at three my whole career, but at this stage you don’t get a choice,” Labuschagne admitted to News Corp. “I opened in the World Test Championship final and felt I batted quite well. I got in but did not go on with it. I would be happy to do that. I would love to. If opener is where I need to bat to be playing in the Test team, that’s fine.” The moment he was told that he would be left out, Labuschagne’s immediate thoughts were on the Ashes series with Australia not scheduled to play any Tests prior to that. To strengthen his case now, Labuschagne will also have three Sheffield Shield games before the marquee series apart from the ODIs. “It was tough because you never want to be dropped,” he looked back. “But almost as soon as their (selectors) words came out my mind shifted straight away to, ‘Okay, how am I playing the Ashes … how do I make that happen?’.” However, being left out gave Labuschagne an opportunity to sit back and reflect on his game, as per his own admission. “This has given me an opportunity to reflect and not having the pressure of the media saying, ‘Marnus has got to go’, he said. “I mean that’s part of the game. There is a tipping point but it’s something I thrive on… proving the doubters wrong and being able to find a way. Missing those West Indies Tests gave me the chance to back and think, ‘This is where I want to be and this is how I’m going to get there’.”

Tim David batted around top-order wreckage, smashing eight sixes in his whirlwind knock that pushed Australia to a winning total of 178 in the T20I series opener against South Africa in Darwin. The impressive 19-year-old pacer Kwena Maphaka’s 4-20 was then eclipsed by Josh Hazlewood, as South Africa fell short in chase. This was Australia’s record ninth straight win – their longest winning streak in T20Is, surpassing eight wins between February 2024 and June 2024. Mitchell Marsh kickstarted the Aussie summer with a six over extra cover off Lungi Ngidi. That paved the way for a chaotic PowerPlay where Australia lost four wickets while hitting 71 runs. Kagiso Rabada didn’t let the Aussie opening pair of Marsh and Travis Head blossom beyond the second over as he dismissed the latter for just two. George Linde then saw the back of Josh Inglis for a first-ball duck. Marsh was gone by the start of the fourth over too but Tim David and Cameron Green swung for the hills when the restriction was still on. Green started off with two fours and a six against Linde in the third over and David smashed Rabada – including a disdainful six down the ground. The pair went after Corbin Bosch in an 18-over over before Green lived and died by the sword against Ngidi in the sixth over. He fell for a 13-ball 35. The young and strapping Kwena Maphaka struck in his first over in the middle-phase to dent Australia further, as they dropped to 73/5. That became 75/6 in the eighth over when Glenn Maxwell holed out to sweeper cover against Senuran Muthusamy. The wreckage did not perturb David in his endeavours to repeatedly send the ball to the stands. He and Ben Dwarshuis took the team to 88/6 at the halfway stage. This pair batted for seven overs to add 59 runs, of which Dwarshuis scored just 17. During this stand, David deposited a ball from Muthusamy on the roof to take Australia past the 100-run mark in the 12th and also got to his seventh T20I half-century. Maphaka returned in the 15th over to break the stand with Dwarshuis’s wicket, and Muthusamy nearly ended David’s stay too, but Stubbs fluffed a catch. David punished South Africa for their missteps at the death by carting sixes. Rabada thought he finally stopped David in his tracks, only for a no-ball to be adjudged on a catch in the deep. Not for the first time though, Maphaka returned to strike, getting David caught in the deep for an exceptional 52-ball 83. In the same over, Maphaka dismissed Adam Zampa to finish with figures of 4 for 20 in 4 overs. A 12-run final over pushed Australia to 178, which proved sufficient on the evening. South Africa made a false start when Aiden Markram drove Josh Hazlewood on the up, but straight to Green at cover in the first over after already started out with three fours. South Africa too threw caution to the winds in the PowerPlay as Lhuan Dre-Pretorius and Ryan Rickelton eyed quick boundaries. But the former was sent packing in fifth over before Dewald Brewis was taken out by Dwarshuis in the sixth over. South Africa had an inferior PowerPlay total of 48/3 but were offered a facelift by the fourth-wicket alliance between Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs. Australia attempted to squeeze the chase with spin through the middle as this pair dragged the visitors to 78/3 in 10 overs, still needing 101 in the second half. From 85/3 in 11 overs, Stubbs attempted to narrow the equation and put some pressure back on Australia in the process. He hit Nathan Ellis for two fours, and then took on Zampa, with Rickelton taking runs off Maxwell between those two overs. With 60 needed off 36, Mitchell Marsh brought back Hazlewood, whose double-wicket over squarely put the control back in the home team’s favour. Hazlewood ended Stubbs’s fight and dismissed George Linde, which was followed by Zampa following suit and picking two wickets in his six deliveries. The leggie got rid of Corbin Bosch and Muthusamy to leave South Africa down to 123/7 in 16 overs and the equation at: 56 runs off 24 balls. Yet, Australia were kept on their toes by Rickelton, who got to his fifty, and refused to give up. He messed with Ellis’s lengths in the penultimate over where 16 runs were taken to bring the chase down to 21 off 6. Dwarshuis started with a well-disguised slower ball for a dot and then Maxwell showed off his boundary line theatrics to dismiss Rickelton and effectively bring down the curtains on the chase. Dwarshuis picked his third wicket of the evening – cleaning up Rabada – on the last ball to secure the 17-run win. Brief Scores: Australia 178 in 20 overs (Tim David 83, Cameron Green 35; Kwena Maphaka 4-20) beat South Africa 161/9 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 71; Josh Hazlewood 3-26, Adam Zampa 2-33) by 17 runs

Are R Ashwin and Chennai Super Kings drifting apart? While that may not yet be confirmed, the latest developments in the CSK camp seem to suggest that Ashwin – one of the greatest match-winners for India in red-ball cricket – is likely to part ways with the Super Kings franchise. The exact reason for the inevitable separation is immediately not clear but the veteran offspinner is believed to have made up his mind and is understood to have conveyed this to the franchise. Whether he has got any indications of CSK’s future plans is not known but as Cricbuzz reported yesterday, top CSK officials and players, including current and former skippers, MS Dhoni and Ruturaj Gaikwad, have been meeting in Chennai over the last few days. It is likely that the franchise discussed plans for the coming season. In what seems like an inevitable step, the veteran spinner is likely to give up his role as the Director of Operations at the CSK Academy – a position he has held for the past year. If he were to join another franchise, continuing in the CSK role could present a situation of a conflict of interest, something he is, it is learnt, keen to avoid. A veteran of 221 matches with 187 wickets (with a healthy economy rate of 7.29) and 833 runs (with a strike rate of 118), Ashwin will inevitably find takers in the IPL circuit. The point of interest is whether the player will be traded to another franchise or he will go to the auction. Last season he played nine games for the franchise. Ashwin was an INR 9.75 crore buy for CSK, marking his return to his home franchise after nine years away. Between 2016 and 2024, he turned out for Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings, and Rajasthan Royals. The veteran off-spinner began his IPL journey with CSK, spending his first eight seasons (2008-2015) with the MS Dhoni-led side; he made his debut in 2009. The development comes a day after this website reported that Sanju Samson has requested the Rajasthan Royals franchise to release him. Cricbuzz reached out to CSK officials for a comment. Ashwin was unavailable for immediate response.

India had begun their lap of honour around The Oval without their man of the moment. Three-fourths of the ground had stood to applaud a famous win. But Mohammed Siraj was still finishing up with his interviews, beaming his smile through questions, when all he wanted was to be among his people. When he finally broke free, he sprinted across the turf to catch up. And the first person he sought out wasn’t the captain, or the coach, or the cameras. It was Prasidh Krishna. They say fast bowlers often move in pairs. Siraj didn’t just join him. He leapt into his arms. It was a spontaneous, joyous hug at the end of a historic Test win. But what made it even more poignant was where it happened, that very part of the ground near the Vauxhall End where the two had shared a quieter, more private embrace just a day earlier. Lunch had just been called on Day 4. And Siraj, instead of turning toward the dressing room, began walking in the other direction where Prasidh had been fielding. He could’ve waited for Prasidh to join him. When he got there, he put an arm around his partner and then patted his head. It was an apology. For the mis-step that had cost India Harry Brook’s wicket. And possibly the match. Possibly the series. That was the story of the Anderson-Tendular Trophy, encapsulated in two Siraj vignettes. Because if this series that finished 2-2 was a roller-coaster, then Siraj was the guy in the front seat: wind in his face, hands off the rail, riding every twist, turn, plunge and peak. Even on Day 25, after 181 overs, he wasn’t done with the ride. He woke up at 6 a.m., two hours earlier than he had on any match day across the last six weeks. On his phone, he searched for an image of Cristiano Ronaldo, one with “Believe” emblazoned across it, and set it as his wallpaper. All series long, Siraj had been bounding in. On hot days and flat tracks, through cramps and collapses. He was the only fast-bowling survivor across all five Tests, still running. Still believing. Even when England were only 35 runs away from clinching the series. On the last day, he was running even before the first ball was bowled. India had just finished their morning huddle, one of those long, shoulder-gripping kinds meant to lock in the final hour of a long tour. As it broke, Siraj peeled away first, eager and restless. Only, in his urgency, he tripped over a BCCI staffer who was filming the moment. It would be the only misstep he’d make for the next 56 minutes. It was plain obvious that Gill would have him continue from where he’d left off the previous evening under similar cloud cover. Siraj’s 42nd – and final – spell of the series had started before Tea on Day 4 and was now spilling into a third session. On the final morning, it resumed after England had knocked off eight more runs before he got the ball in hand. He began by curling a 77-over-old ball away from the right-handed Jamie Smith. He stuck to that channel once more. Then, on the third, Smith shuffled across to cover the angle, perhaps to get outside the line of the wobble-seam nip-backer, or to smother the swing. He managed neither. He nicked off. The first wobble-seam ball actually went to Gus Atkinson, who somehow survived. But Jamie Overton didn’t. And when all the conventional wicket plans had gone out the window against Atkinson, who was farming the strike with an injured Chris Woakes and looking to hit big, Siraj switched to white-ball mode. His 1122nd delivery (including extras) of the series was a 143kph full ball that dipped late and snuck under Atkinson’s bat swing to knock out the off-stump and end the series.