Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting, AO, is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer, two-time World Cup winning captain in 2003 and 2007 regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. Ponting was captain of the Australian national team during its'golden era', he is a specialist right-handed batsman, an excellent slip / close catching fielder, as well as a occasional bowler. He was named "Cricketer of the Decade 2000", he led Australia to victory at the 2003 and 2007 Cricket World Cups and was a member of the 1999 World Cup winning team under Steve Waugh. He led Australia to a ICC Champions Trophy victory twice in a row, in 2006 and 2009. Ponting is considered the most successful captain in international cricket history, with 219 matches won overall from 322 matches with a winning ratio of 68%, he represented the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket, the Hobart Hurricanes in Australia's domestic T20 competition the Big Bash League, played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.
He is considered to be one of the best batsmen of the modern era, alongside Sachin Tendulkar of India and Brian Lara of the West Indies. On 1 December 2006, he reached the highest rating achieved by a Test batsman for 50 years, though this was surpassed by Steve Smith in December 2017, he stands second in the List of cricketers by number of international centuries scored behind Sachin Tendulkar. After being involved in over 160 Tests and 370 ODIs, Ponting is Australia's leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket, he is one of only four players in history to have scored 13,000 Test runs. Statistically, he is one of the most successful captains of all time, with 48 victories in 77 Tests between 2004 and 31 December 2010; as a player, Ponting is the only cricketer in history to be involved in 100 Test victories. Ponting holds the record to have been involved in the most ODI victories as a player, with 262 wins. On 29 November 2012 Ponting announced his retirement from Test cricket, the day before he would play in the Perth Test against South Africa.
This was his 168th and last Test appearance. Ponting retired on 3 December 2012 with a Test batting average of 51.85. He continued to play cricket around the world. In February 2013 it was announced that he would be captaining the Mumbai Indians team in the Indian Premier League, and in March 2013 he was announced as the first international franchise player for the Caribbean Premier League. That month it was revealed by Ponting that this would be his last season playing cricket, as at the end of the competition he would be retiring from all forms of the game. In July 2018, he was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. Ponting is the current assistant coach of the Australian national men’s cricket team, having been appointed to the role in February 2019. Born in Launceston, Tasmania on 19 December 1974, Ricky Ponting is the eldest of Graeme and Lorraine Ponting's four children. Graeme was "a good club cricketer" and played Australian rules football, while Lorraine was a state vigoro champion, his uncle Greg Campbell played Test cricket for Australia in 1989 and 1990.
Ponting's parents first lived in Prospect 4.1 km south of city centre. After marrying his long-time girlfriend, law student Rianna Jennifer Cantor, in June 2002, Ponting credited her as the reason for his increased maturity, their daughter Emmy Charlotte was born in Sydney on 26 July 2008. Second daughter Matisse Ellie was born in Sydney on 8 September 2011. Third child, first son, Fletcher William was born in Melbourne on 24 September 2014. Introduced to cricket by father Graeme and uncle Greg Campbell, Ponting played for the Mowbray Under–13s team at the age of 11 in 1985–86. In January 1986, he took part in the five-day annual Northern Tasmania junior cricket competition. After scoring four centuries in a week, bat manufacturer Kookaburra gave Ponting a sponsorship contract while in just eighth grade on the back of these four centuries. Ponting took this form into the Under-16s week-long competition less than a month scoring an century on the final day. Ted Richardson, the former head of the Northern Tasmanian Schools Cricket Association said: "Ricky is the equal of David Boon at this level.
Australian Rules football was a big part of Ponting's sporting life, is a keen follower of the North Melbourne Kangaroos. During the winter he played junior football for North Launceston and up until he was 14, it could have become a possible sporting option; this was before he broke the humerus in his right arm playing for North Launceston Under–17s as a 13-year-old. Ponting's arm was so badly damaged. Told to endure a 14-week lay-off, he never played competitive football again. During Tasmanian Sheffield Shield matches at the NTCA Ground, Ponting helped out with the scoreboard, thereby surrounding himself with international cricketers. After leaving school at the end of year 10 in 1990, he began work as a groundsman at Scotch Oakburn College, a private school in Launceston. In 1991 the Northern Tasmanian Cricket Association sponsored Ponting to attend a fortnight's training at the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide; the two weeks turned into a full two-year sponsorship as he was said to be the best 17-year-old batsman Academy coach Rod Marsh had seen.
Playing five games for Tasmania for the 1992 Under–19 carnival in Perth, Ponting scored 350 runs, earning him selection in the 13-man na
England cricket team
The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board, having been governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end of 1996. England, as a founding nation, is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test, One Day International and Twenty20 International status; until the 1990s, Scottish and Irish players played for England as those countries were not yet ICC members in their own right. England and Australia were the first teams to play a Test match, these two countries together with South Africa formed the Imperial Cricket Conference on 15 June 1909. England and Australia played the first ODI on 5 January 1971. England's first T20I was played on 13 June 2005, once more against Australia; as of 12 March 2019, England has played 1010 Test matches, winning 365 and losing 300. The team has won The Ashes on 32 occasions. England has played 726 ODIs, winning 362, its record in major ODI tournaments includes finishing as runners-up in three Cricket World Cups, in two ICC Champions Trophys.
England has played 108 T20Is, winning 53. They won the ICC World Twenty20 in 2010, were runners-up in 2016; as of 12 March 2019, England are ranked fifth in Tests, first in ODIs and third in T20Is by the ICC. Though the team and coaching staff faced heavy criticism after their Group Stage exit in the 2015 Cricket World Cup, it has since adopted a more aggressive and modern playing style in ODI cricket, under the leadership of captain Eoin Morgan and head coach Trevor Bayliss; the first recorded incidence of a team with a claim to represent England comes from 9 July 1739 when an "All-England" team, which consisted of 11 gentlemen from any part of England exclusive of Kent, played against "the Unconquerable County" of Kent and lost by a margin of "very few notches". Such matches were repeated on numerous occasions for the best part of a century. In 1846 William Clarke formed the All-England Eleven; this team competed against a United All-England Eleven with annual matches occurring between 1847 and 1856.
These matches were arguably the most important contest of the English season if judged by the quality of the players. The first overseas tour occurred in September 1859 with England touring North America; this team had six players from the All-England Eleven, six from the United All-England Eleven and was captained by George Parr. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, attention turned elsewhere. English tourists visited Australia in 1861–62 with this first tour organised as a commercial venture by Messrs Spiers and Pond, restaurateurs of Melbourne. Most matches played during tours prior to 1877 were "against odds", with the opposing team fielding more than 11 players to make for a more contest; this first Australian tour were against odds of at least 18/11. The tour was so successful that George Parr led a second tour in 1863–64. James Lillywhite led a subsequent England team which sailed on the P&O steamship Poonah on 21 September 1876, they played a combined Australian XI, for once on terms of 11 a side.
The match, starting on 15 March 1877 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground came to be regarded as the inaugural Test match. The combined Australian XI won this Test match by 45 runs with Charles Bannerman of Australia scoring the first Test century. At the time, the match was promoted as James Lillywhite's XI v Combined Victoria and New South Wales; the teams played a return match on the same ground at Easter, 1877, when Lillywhite's team avenged their loss with a victory by four wickets. The first Test match on English soil occurred in 1880 with England victorious. G. Grace included in the team. England lost their first home series 1–0 in 1882 with The Sporting Times printing an obituary on English cricket: In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R. I. P. N. B. – The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. As a result of this loss the tour of 1882–83 was dubbed by England captain Ivo Bligh as "the quest to regain the ashes".
England with a mixture of amateurs and professionals won the series 2–1. Bligh was presented with an urn that contained some ashes, which have variously been said to be of a bail, ball or a woman's veil and so The Ashes was born. A fourth match was played which Australia won by 4 wickets but the match was not considered part of the Ashes series. England dominated many of these early contests with England winning the Ashes series 10 times between 1884 and 1898. During this period England played their first Test match against South Africa in 1889 at Port Elizabeth. England won the 1890 Ashes Series 2–0, with the third match of the series being the first Test match to be abandoned. England lost 2 -- 1 in the 1891 -- 92 series. England again won the 1894 -- 95 series. In 1895 -- 96 England played Test South Africa; the 1899 Ashes series was the first tour where the MCC and the counties appointed a selection committee. There were three active players: Lord Hawke, W. G. Grace and Herbert Bainbridge, the captain of Warwickshire.
Prior to this, England teams for home Tests had been chosen by the club on whose ground the match was to be played. England lost the 1899 Ashes series 1–0, with WG Grace making his final Test appearance in the first match of the series; the start of the
Pat Cummins
Patrick James Cummins is an Australian international cricketer, the co vice-captain of the Australia national team in all formats. He plays domestic cricket for New South Wales. Cummins is a capable lower-order right-handed batsman; as of February 2019, Cummins is the top-ranked Test bowler and seventh-ranked Test all-rounder in the world, according to the ICC Player Rankings. Cummins played junior cricket for the Glenbrook Blaxland Cricket Club in the Blue Mountains before playing first-grade cricket for Penrith in 2010. In the preliminary final of the 2010–11 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash against Tasmania, Cummins took 4 for 16 and was named Man of the Match, he finished with Nathan Lyon as the leading wicket-taker in the tournament. In March 2011, he made his first-class debut in a match against Tasmania. Cummins joined the Sydney Sixers franchise in 2011, he missed the 2012 season due to injury. He made his debut for the Scorchers when they beat the Adelaide Strikers in Perth on 16 January 2014. Cummins was selected in Australia's provisional team for the ICC Under-19 World Cup to be held in Queensland in August 2012.
Cummins was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders of the Indian Premier League for the 2014 season. In February 2017, he was bought by the Delhi Daredevils team for the 2017 Indian Premier League for 4.5 crores. In the 2018 IPL auction, he was bought by the Mumbai Indians for a price of 5.4 crores. Cummins was ruled out of the entire tournament due to an injury. Cummins was granted a Cricket Australia contract in June 2011 and in October 2011, he played two Twenty20 International matches for Australia against South Africa. On the basis of his performances in these games, Cummins was selected in the Test squad to play South Africa. Cummins made his Test debut at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg in November 2011, in what was only his fourth career first-class match, becoming Australia's youngest Test cricketer since Ian Craig in 1953. Cummins took 1/38 and 6/79, becoming the second youngest Test cricketer to take six wickets in an innings, he scored 13 runs in the second innings, including a four to win the match and was presented with the Man of the Match award.
Cummins' early cricketing career has been plagued with injury a stress fracture in his back. He played his first game since October 2012 for the Northern Ireland Cricket Academy on 19 June 2013. Cummins was a late call-up for 2015 Ashes squad after the retirement of Ryan Harris, but he was not selected for a Test during the series, he was part of the One Day T20I series in the same tour. After 1946 days of absence due to various injuries, Cummins returned to Test cricket on 17 March 2017, he was reselected due to Mitchell Starc's injury. During the 2017–18 summer of cricket in Australia, Cummins established himself as a handy lower order batsman, scoring two scores in the 40s during The Ashes series. In a warm-up game against South Africa A, Cummins scored his 2nd first-class half century. Cummins scored his first Test half-century in the fourth Test against South Africa during Australia's tour of South Africa in 2017–18. In April 2018, he was awarded a national contract by Cricket Australia for the 2018–19 season.
In January 2019, Cummins became one of Australia's two Test vice-captains, alongside Travis Head. He played in the two Tests of the 2018–19 Sri Lanka tour of Australia and was the chief architect of Australia's innings win over Sri Lanka in the 1st Test at The Gabba with his maiden 10-wicket haul, he was named as the man of the series. In February 2019, he played in the T20Is against India in that he took 1-19 and 1-40. In ODIs he took 0-48 in the first ODI and 4-29 in the second but not successful with the bat and praised heep on teammate Marcus Stoinis for his performance, he took 3-37 in the 3rd ODI. In the 4th ODI against India in Australia's tour of India, Cummins claimed his best bowling figures in an ODI with 5/70 that India had restricted to 358/9 but Peter Handscomb and Ashton Turner took Australia to largest run chase against India. Allan Border Medal: 2019 Man of the Series Cummins grew up in Mount Riverview, in the Blue Mountains with his two brothers and two sisters, he attended St Paul's Grammar School and is an Elite Athlete Program scholar and Bachelor of Business student at the University of Technology, Sydney.
As a child he idolised Brett Lee, with whom he briefly played domestic and international cricket. In 2011, during an interview with cricket.com.au, Cummins revealed that, at the age of three, he lost the top of his middle finger when his sister accidentally slammed the door on it. Pat Cummins at ESPNcricinfo Pat Cummins at Cricket Australia Pat Cummins at Howstat
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of, a 20-metre pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this and dismiss each player. Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, by the fielding side catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground; when ten players have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches, they communicate with two off-field scorers. There are various formats ranging from Twenty20, played over a few hours with each team batting for a single innings of 20 overs, to Test matches, played over five days with unlimited overs and the teams each batting for two innings of unlimited length.
Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the basic kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball, a hard, solid spheroid made of compressed leather with a raised sewn seam enclosing a cork core, layered with wound string. Cricket's origins are uncertain and the earliest definite reference is in south-east England in the middle of the 16th century, it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the second half of the 19th century. The game's governing body is the International Cricket Council, which has over 100 members, twelve of which are full members who play Test matches; the game's rules are held in a code called the Laws of Cricket, owned and maintained by Marylebone Cricket Club in London. The sport is followed in the Indian subcontinent, the United Kingdom, southern Africa and the West Indies, its globalisation occurring during the expansion of the British Empire and remaining popular into the 21st century.
Women's cricket, organised and played separately, has achieved international standard. The most successful side playing international cricket is Australia, having won seven One Day International trophies, including five World Cups, more than any other country, having been the top-rated Test side more than any other country. Cricket is one of many games in the "club ball" sphere that involve hitting a ball with a hand-held implement. In cricket's case, a key difference is the existence of a solid target structure, the wicket, that the batsman must defend; the cricket historian Harry Altham identified three "groups" of "club ball" games: the "hockey group", in which the ball is driven to and fro between two targets. It is believed that cricket originated as a children's game in the south-eastern counties of England, sometime during the medieval period. Although there are claims for prior dates, the earliest definite reference to cricket being played comes from evidence given at a court case in Guildford on Monday, 17 January 1597.
The case concerned ownership of a certain plot of land and the court heard the testimony of a 59-year-old coroner, John Derrick, who gave witness that: "Being a scholler in the ffree schoole of Guldeford hee and diverse of his fellows did runne and play there at creckett and other plaies". Given Derrick's age, it was about half a century earlier when he was at school and so it is certain that cricket was being played c. 1550 by boys in Surrey. The view that it was a children's game is reinforced by Randle Cotgrave's 1611 English-French dictionary in which he defined the noun "crosse" as "the crooked staff wherewith boys play at cricket" and the verb form "crosser" as "to play at cricket". One possible source for the sport's name is the Old English word "cryce" meaning a staff. In Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, he derived cricket from "cryce, Saxon, a stick". In Old French, the word "criquet" seems to have meant a kind of stick. Given the strong medieval trade connections between south-east England and the County of Flanders when the latter belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, the name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch "krick", meaning a stick.
Another possible source is the Middle Dutch word "krickstoel", meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church and which resembled the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket. According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of Bonn University, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, met de sen. Gillmeister has suggested that not only the name but the sport itself may be of Flemish origin. Although the main object of the game has always been to score the most runs, the early form of cricket differed from the modern game in certain key technical aspects; the ball was bowled underarm by the bowler and all along the ground towards a batsman armed with a bat that, in shape, resembled a hockey stick.
Graeme Smith
Graeme Craig Smith is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer, who played for South Africa in all formats. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the national team, he held the position of test captain until his retirement in 2014. He is regarded as one of the greatest South African players of all time. A tall, left-handed opening batsman, Smith is regarded as one of the best test match openers of all time. On the 2003 South African tour of England, he made double centuries in consecutive Test matches: 277 at Edgbaston, 259 at Lord's; the 259 is the highest score made at Lord's by a foreign player. On 24 October 2013, Smith became the second South African and 12th overall to complete 9,000 runs in test cricket in his 112th test match. Known for the success of his opening partnership with Herschelle Gibbs, South Africa's most prolific opening partnership, Smith has the distinction of having been part of all four of South Africa's opening partnerships of over 300 runs: in three of them he was partnered by Gibbs, in 2008 Smith added 415 for the first wicket with Neil McKenzie against Bangladesh, a world record opening partnership.
On 3 March 2014, during the third Test against Australia, he announced his retirement from international cricket. He was the overseas player and captain of English side Surrey, he appeared in his 100th Test against England on 19 July 2012. He captained his 100th career Test match on 1 February 2013, on his 32nd Birthday. He's the only player to captain a side in 100 Tests. Born and raised in Johannesburg to Scottish parents Graham and Janet, Smith was educated at King Edward VII School. Smith played three Tests, seven One Day Internationals for South Africa Under-19s, of which five were during the Under 19 Cricket World Cup, he scored one fifty in the test scored five half-centuries in the one dayers. Smith was awarded the South African Cricketer of the Year award for his performances in the 2001–02 South African cricket season. Smith married Irish singer Morgan Deane, at St Bernard Catholic Church in Claremont, Cape Town in August 2011, their daughter, Cadence Christine Smith, was born 25 July 2012.
A year the Smiths welcomed a boy, Carter McMorrin Smith, on the 15 July 2013. On 18 February 2015, Graeme and Morgan publicly announced that they would be divorcing after four years of marriage. On 24 December 2016, Smith's girlfriend Romy Lanfranchi gave birth to Smith's third child, a boy. Smith is an ardent Liverpool F. C. supporter. Graeme Smith has played for a number of cricket teams in South Africa, he plays for the Cape Cobras but due to his international commitments, his appearances for them have been limited, his last game for them being in 2010. In total he has played 17 games for Western Province scoring 1,312 runs with four centuries at an average of 46.85. He has played for other teams in South Africa including United Cricket Board of South Africa Invitation XI and Western Province Boland, he has played county cricket for Somerset in the 2005 English cricket season, captaining the club for part of the 2005 season, he scored a century in a tour match against the Australians in preparation for the 2005 Ashes series.
Against Leicestershire at Taunton he scored his maiden first-class triple hundred. He hit 105 in the Twenty20 Cup match against Northamptonshire, the 15th highest score in the domestic Twenty20 Cup competition. Smith captained the team to victory on finals day to secure the Twenty20 Cup trophy, making 64 not out from 47 balls in the final. In 2008 Graeme Smith played in the inaugural Indian Premier League for Rajasthan Royals, his opening partnership with Swapnil Asnodkar achieved significant success. "You can know an opponent as a cricketer," Royals captain Shane Warne, with whom Smith had had multiple dustups in the past, wrote afterwards, "but you only start to know him as a bloke when you play in the same side. As it turned out, the Graeme Smith I played alongside for the Rajasthan Royals in 2008 was different to the Graeme Smith I faced in the Test arena; that was the great thing about the Indian Premier League. It brought together players from all countries to share ideas, swap experiences and take the game forward worldwide.
We had a joke about the things we had said in the past. They sounded quite funny looking back. I know he has a few regrets, all credit to him, he sees the funny side." On 1 November 2012 Graeme Smith was announced as the new captain of Surrey County Cricket Club starting in the 2013 season. He received his county cap at lunch on day 1 of the first championship fixture of the 2013 season against Somerset. Smith made his Test debut for South Africa in 2002 in Cape Town against Australia, batting at number three and scoring 68 in the second innings. Promoted to open the batting with Herschelle Gibbs against Bangladesh in his third Test match, Smith scored 200. In the following home series against Pakistan and Gibbs shared a first-wicket stand of 368, a national record until bettered by Smith and Neil McKenzie's 415, at the time the fourth highest opening partnership in Test history. Following the 2003 Cricket World Cup and Shaun Pollock's subsequent resignation, Smith was selected as captain for South Africa's next Test.
The decision was criticised as it was felt that he had shown'few leadership credentials': He had played only eight Test matches and 22 ODIs before being given the captaincy. Graeme Smith was only 22 years and 82 days old when he captained his first match against Bangladesh, the youngest South African captain. During the tour of England in 2003 he made double centuries in consecutive test matches: 277 (and 85 from 70 balls in the secon
Joe Root
Joseph Edward Root is an English international cricketer, the current captain of the England Test team. He represents Yorkshire domestically, he was a right-handed opening batsman and occasional off-spinner, with a similar playing style to former England captain Michael Vaughan. However, he has played the majority of his cricket for England in the middle order, he is regarded as one of the best batsmen in the world. He now predominantly fields at first slip, he made his debut for England in the 2012 Test series in India and made his ODI and Twenty20 International debuts on the same tour, before scoring his maiden Test century at his home ground of Headingley the following spring against New Zealand. He is ranked fourth in Test batting and fourth in ODI batting rankings according to the ICC Player Rankings, having been ranked the best Test batsman. Root grew up in Dore, near Sheffield, he has a younger brother Billy. He attended King Ecgbert School, Sheffield and at 15, on a cricket sports scholarship, Worksop College as a weekly boarder.
Root followed in his father's footsteps by joining Sheffield Collegiate CC. Former Yorkshire batsman and England captain Michael Vaughan learnt his trade at Collegiate and was a source of inspiration for Root, who became a protégé of his. Root supports football team Sheffield United. Root became engaged to his girlfriend Carrie Cotterell in March 2016, their son was born on 7 January 2017 and they married in 1 December 2018. Root made his Yorkshire Second Team debut on 18 July 2007, against Derbyshire at Abbeydale Park, he scored 57. He continued to represent the Academy side and was named Player of the Tournament as Yorkshire's Academy won the ProARCH trophy in Abu Dhabi. After success at second team level, Root was given an opportunity in the first team in Yorkshire's final Pro40 match of the season at Headingley, against Essex. Root scored 63 and was top-scorer in Yorkshire's 187–7. Although his half-century could not inspire Yorkshire to victory, Root described his debut as a "dream come true".
After another Man of the Series performance, this time on England Under-19 duty in Bangladesh, Root signed a three-year professional contract with Yorkshire. Root was selected for the Under 19 Cricket World Cup, in New Zealand, making an unbeaten 70 in a victory against Hong Kong as England progressed to the quarter finals before being eliminated by the West Indies; that winter, he was sent to the Darren Lehmann Academy in Adelaide, South Australia, to fine tune his game. In the fourth Test against India, Root became the 655th player to represent England at Test cricket, receiving his cap from former England all-rounder Paul Collingwood. Coming in as the number 6 batsman rather than his usual position as an opener, he scored 73 from 229 balls, top-scoring jointly with Kevin Pietersen. In the second innings he made 20 not out to help England bat out the game to secure a historic series win on Indian soil. Root finished the Test series with 93 runs. Following the Tests, he made his Twenty20 debut in the second of a two-match series, although he was not required to bat, following Jonny Bairstow's withdrawal, he was included in the ODI squad.
On his ODI debut he was not required to bat, although he bowled nine overs, collecting figures of 0–51, as England won by 9 runs. He made scores of 36 and 39 in the next two matches, before making his maiden ODI fifty in the fourth match of the series, although England lost by 5 wickets, he made 31 in the final match of the series. Root finished the ODI series with 163 runs. Following the successful tour of India, Root was retained in the Test squad for the 2013 Tour to New Zealand and was added to the announced ODI and Twenty20 squads. After being an unused batsman in the third Twenty20 game, he started the ODI series with two half-centuries, contributing 56 in the first game before top-scoring with 79 off 56 balls in the second. In doing so, he became the first batsman to start his ODI career with six consecutive scores of over 30, he followed this up by hitting 28* in the third ODI. He finished the ODI series with 163 runs. In the first Test, Root batted at number 6. In the third Test he made 45 off 176 balls before being bowled by Tim Southee made 29 in the second innings.
The Test series ended Root finished the series with 88 runs. Not long after the series in New Zealand, the Black Caps travelled to tour England. Root's first involvement of the tour was to captain the England Lions against New Zealand in a four-day warm up match, where he scored 179 runs. After scoring 40 and 71 runs in the first Test at Lord's, he scored his maiden Test century at his home ground of Headingley, he hit 104 runs off 167 balls and became the first Yorkshire player to score their first Test century at Headingley. He finished the series as England's top scorer with 243 runs and helped his side to a 2–0 Test series victory. In the ODI series that followed, he made scores of 30, 28 and 33 as England lost the series 2–1. For the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, England named Root in their squad of 15, he hit 68 runs off 55 balls in England's 7 wicket loss. Root helped England to a 10 run victory over New Zealand by making 38 runs off 40 balls which helped them secure a place in the semi-final.
In the semi-final against South Africa Root scored 48 off 71 balls to help England to a 7 wicket win and secured a place in the final. For the 2013 Ashes series, Root was named as the opening batsman to partner captain Alastair Cook after selectors decided to drop Nick Compton from the England squad. Root was promoted to opening batsman for the firs
India national cricket team
The India national cricket team known as Team India and Men in Blue, is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test, One Day International and Twenty20 International status. Although cricket was introduced to India by European merchant sailors in the 18th century, the first cricket club was established in Calcutta in 1792, India's national cricket team did not play its first Test match until 25 June 1932 at Lord's, becoming the sixth team to be granted Test cricket status. In its first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weaker teams, winning only 35 of the first 196 Test matches it played. From 1932 India had to wait until 1952 20 years for its first Test victory; the team, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of players such as batsmen Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath, all-rounder Kapil Dev and the Indian spin quartet of Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Bishen Singh Bedi.
Traditionally much stronger at home than abroad, the Indian team has improved its overseas form in limited-overs cricket, since the start of the 21st century, winning Test matches in Australia and South Africa. It has won the Cricket World Cup twice – in 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev and in 2011 under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. After winning the 2011 World Cup, India became only the third team after West Indies and Australia to have won the World Cup more than once, the first cricket team to win the World Cup at home, it won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. It was the joint champions of 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, along with Sri Lanka; as of 19 October 2018, India is ranked first in Tests, second in ODIs and second in T20Is by the ICC. Virat Kohli is the current captain of the team across all formats, while the head coach is Ravi Shastri; the Indian cricket team has rivalries with other Test-playing nations, most notably with Pakistan, the political arch-rival of India.
However, in recent times, rivalries with nations like Australia, South Africa and England have gained prominence. The British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket match played in 1721. In 1848, the Parsi community in Bombay formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to be established by Indians. After slow beginnings, the Europeans invited the Parsis to play a match in 1877. By 1912, the Parsis, Sikhs and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the Europeans every year. In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for the England cricket team; some of these, such as Ranjitsinhji and KS Duleepsinhji were appreciated by the British and their names went on to be used for the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy – two major first-class tournaments in India. In 1911, an Indian team went on their first official tour of the British Isles, but only played English county teams and not the England cricket team. India was invited to The Imperial Cricket Council in 1926, made their debut as a Test playing nation in England in 1932, led by CK Nayudu, considered as the best Indian batsman at the time.
The one-off Test match between the two sides was played at Lord's in London. The team went on to lose by 158 runs. India hosted its first Test series in the year 1933. England was the visiting team that played 2 Tests in Calcutta; the visitors won the series 2-0. The Indian team continued to improve throughout the 1930s and'40s but did not achieve an international victory during this period. In the early 1940s, India didn't play any Test cricket due to the Second World War; the team's first series as an independent country was in late 1947 against Sir Donald Bradman's Invincibles. It was the first Test series India played, not against England. Australia won the five-match series 4–0, with Bradman tormenting the Indian bowling in his final Australian summer. India subsequently played their first Test series at home not against England against the West Indies in 1948. West Indies won the 5-Test series 1–0. India recorded their first Test victory, in their 24th match, against England at Madras in 1952.
In the same year, they won their first Test series, against Pakistan. They continued their improvement throughout the early 1950s with a series win against New Zealand in 1956. However, they did not win again in the remainder of the decade and lost badly to strong Australian and English sides. On 24 August 1959, India lost by an innings in the Test to complete the only 5–0 whitewash inflicted by England; the next decade saw. They won their first Test series against England at home in 1961–62 and won a home series against New Zealand, they managed to draw another series against England. In this same period, India won its first series outside the subcontinent, against New Zealand in 1967–68; the key to India's bowling in the 1970s were the Indian spin quartet – Bishen Bedi, E. A. S. Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan; this period saw the emergence of two of India's best batsmen, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath. Indian pitches have had the tendency to support spin and the spin quartet exploited this to create collapses in opposing batting line-ups.
These players were responsible for the back-to-back series wins in 1971 in the West Indies and in England, under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar
Afghanistan[9]
Australia[10][11]
Bangladesh
England[12]
India
Ireland
New Zealand
Pakistan
South Africa[13][14]
Sri Lanka[15]
West Indies
Zimbabwe[16][17]
