Let us take a look at cricket news from 8 July.
Grant Flower tests positive for Covid-19
Sri Lanka batting coach Grant Flower has been isolated from the squad after returning positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, 8 July. They are all set to take on Shikhar Dhawan’s side in less than a week time.
The Sri Lankan contingent was supposed to undergo a bubble-to-bubble transfer from their England tour to Colombo. But now they have to undergo a mandatory self-isolation period before hitting the ground for practice sessions.
There is no change in the itinerary as the ODI and T20I series will go on as planned. The first ODI of the three-match series is on 13 July. Sri Lanka will be without Niroshan Dickwelll, Danushka Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis.
Sent back home for breaching bio-bubble during England tour, they have not been included in a 30-men squad that signed the tour contract with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).
England takes 1-0 lead against Pakistan
Half-centuries from Dawid Malan and Zak Crawley helped England ease past the 142 set by Pakistan and take a 1-0 lead in the series. England lost only one wicket, of Phil Salt.
Malan (68) and Crawley (58) added 120 runs for the second wicket. England chased down the target in just 21.5 overs.
Earlier, Saqib Mahmood struck twice in his first over to push the visitors on the backfoot. They never recovered from early setbacks. Barring Fakhar Zaman (47), the batters gave up without any fight. Mahmood was named Player of the Match.
Shanaka named Sri Lanka captain
Kusal Perera has been relieved of captaincy duty after a disastrous tour to England. Sri Lanka were clean-swept 0-3 in the T20I, and lost the ODI series by 2-0.
Perera will be replaced by Dasun Shanaka, who has previously captained Sri Lanka once in a T20I series versus Pakistan in 2019. Sri Lanka won that series by 3-0.
As per a report in ESPNCricinfo, the captaincy shuffle is less of a consequence of on-field performance. Perera is punished for differences with the board.
Mahmudullah ton puts Bangladesh in commanding position
An unbeaten 150 from Mahmudullah, coupled with a fifty from Taskin Ahmed, propelled Bangladesh to the driving seat in the match. The duo added 191 for the ninth wicket. Bangladesh posted a mammoth 468 in the first innings.
Zimbabwe got off a sedate start. Milton Shumba and Takudzwanashe Kaitano added 61 runs for the first wicket. Shumba was on 41 when he was trapped for an lbw by Shakib Al Hasan. Brendan Taylor is unbeaten on 37 and Takudzwanashe on 33 as Zimbabwe finished the day on 114/1.