India seek to redeem disappointing tour

So far this tour has been a misadventure for India. The experiment with rotation went awry during the tri-series, with the selectors sending a squad unbalanced in both experience and skill. The manner in which they lost their games, especially against the hosts, has led to doubts over the quality of India's next line of cricketers.

The visitors have two games to salvage the tour, and build some confidence for the players headed to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup. Can their batsmen shrug away their inhibitions and hit out in IPL-like conditions that won't test their vulnerability against the short ball? Can their inexperienced fast bowlers pull one back on the Zimbabwe top order that bullied them in the ODIs?

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Clarke retains Twenty20 captaincy

Australia's selectors have forgiven Michael Clarke for his poor form in Twenty20, naming him to captain Australia against Pakistan in England in July. Clarke will lead the side for the two Twenty20s in Birmingham on July 5 and 6 despite his struggles with the bat in the shortest format, where his strike-rate of 101 is well below par.

Clarke was praised for his attacking captaincy at the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, where he guided Australia to the final, but he needs to lift his scoring rate to justify his position as a batsman. He will lead the same squad that visited the West Indies, with Tim Paine the only omission due to the reduced need for a backup wicketkeeper.

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Seamers set up comprehensive win for Sri Lanka

Nuwan Kulasekara found the perfect lines and lengths for the slow and low track that the USA has dished out, and ripped the heart out of New Zealand's batting with three wickets in his first over. Although Daniel Vettori and Nathan McCullum, the only New Zealanders to reach double figures, avoided the ignominy of the lowest total in Twenty20 internationals, 81 was never going to test Sri Lanka even on this pitch.

The win was set up by Kulasekara's first two overs, three wickets in the first and no runs in the second. He made the necessary adjustments from the first match: everything was stump to stump, slightly short of a length, and offcutters were bowled aplenty. That the innings started with Kumar Sangakkara standing up to the stumps, with no slip in sight, said a lot about the pitch. It didn't help New Zealand that their top-order batsmen were looking to play around their front pad, and the bowlers were hardly missing. There was no bounce in the pitch to take anything over the stumps either.

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World T20 title a shot in the arm for English sport?

How much of a shot in the arm will the World T20 title prove for English sport? Despite their renowned love of sport and their sportsmen, England has always underachieved. With the football World Cup here, TOI-Crest wonders if this will finally be their year, or will it prove just another mirage.

Success is infectious. And British sports fans are getting infected in voluminous numbers. The country's stunning success in the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean is being viewed as a good omen for England's two big team events in the next six months, the World Cup football and the Ashes, where they will play their oldest cricketing opponents, the ones they beat thoroughly last Sunday - Australia.

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