India to tour Bangladesh after IPL

	India will most likely have a new captain on the Bangladesh tour, with MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli unavailable © Getty Images Enlarge
Related Links News : BCB to invite bidders for media rights Players/Officials: MS Dhoni | Virat Kohli Teams: Bangladesh | India

India will tour Bangladesh for a three-ODI series during the window between the IPL final on June 1 and their departure for England on June 22. The three ODIs will be played in Dhaka on June 15, 17 and 19.

ESPNcricinfo understands India will have a new captain in all likelihood, with MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli unavailable for the tour. Dhoni has planned a family vacation and the BCCI is inclined towards resting the captain for a rigorous season starting with the England tour and culminating with the 2015 World Cup.

Similarly, Kohli, who led India during the Asia Cup in March in the absence of the injured Dhoni, has also indicated to the BCCI hierarchy that he would prefer a break going into the hectic season. The other three players who have led India in the recent past are Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina. None of them were part of the Asia Cup campaign. As a result, the selectors could be forced to choose a new captain, with Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin the main contenders to lead.

India's tour to Bangladesh was in principle agreed upon between the boards at the time of FTP negotiations in February, and the dotted line was signed on the sidelines of last month's ICC executive board meeting in April.

ESPNcricinfo had learned last week that the BCB was waiting to hear from the BCCI and also waiting to confirm the six-year TV broadcaster's deal, for which they had asked for bids from April 24. The main selling point for the BCB was the two India tours to Bangladesh during this period, including the series in June. The open bid to determine the broadcaster is on May 16.

Amol Karhadkar is a correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84

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Smith and Faulkner stun RCB

Rajasthan Royals 191 for 5 (Nair 56, Smith 48*, Faulkner 41*, Yuvraj 4-35) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 190 for 5 (Yuvraj 83, de Villiers 58) by five wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Untill the 14th over of the Rajasthan Royals chase, it was the Yuvraj Singh show. He had shrugged off poor form with a pulverizing 83 off 38 to revive his side to 190 for 5 from 40 for 3. He had then taken four wickets to leave Rajasthan Royals reeling on 106 for 5. Royals needed 65 from the last four overs, but Steven Smith and James Faulkner catapulted them home with an over and a delivery to spare. Mitchell Starc went for 21 in the 17th over, Ashok Dinda for 23 in the 18th, and Varun Aaron for 21 in the 19th. Smith blitzed 48 off 21 deliveries, while Faulkner ended with a 17-ball 41.

Yuvraj's fourth wicket had been Karun Nair, whose 56 off 39 had given Royals a fine start, but his innings ended just as the team were beginning to lose steam. Aaron leaked 14 in the next over as Smith pulled, lofted and flicked him for boundaries. Still, Royal Challengers seemed to be ending the possibilities of any scares as legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal completed his spell by giving away only four runs in the 16th over.

What followed was so unexpected for them, Virat Kohli could only grit his teeth in helpless frustration as every bowler disappeared for plenty. Starc bowled some length balls in the 17th, and Faulkner drove and swung him for four and six before an outside-edged slog brought a third boundary in the over. Dinda began the 18th with two full deliveries that were taken for four and six. Dinda went wider now, and Smith responded by steering him to the deep-point boundary. Just as it seemed nothing could go wrong further for Royal Challengers, Dinda overstepped and bowled under the bat to be carted for a straight six. Smith could not get anything off the free-hit, but Faulkner took charge in the penultimate over with 21 needed.

Only a single came off the first ball before Aaron sent one down the leg side allowing the batsmen also to scamper for a bye. Royal Challengers continued to crack as Aaron delivered a length ball which was powered for six over long-on. A high full toss followed a wide full toss. Faulkner hit the first to the deep-cover rope and sent the second into the stunned Chinnaswamy crowd over deep square leg. He then ran towards Smith, jumped into an embrace and took his fellow Australian down on the ground.

Royal Challengers have now lost six of their previous seven games, and this one will take some time to forget. Their desperation to win was evident when they chose to bat after having bowled first six out of six times earlier this season, and when Kohli came out to open alongside Chris Gayle instead of batting at No 3. The pair were tied down, however, by some tight swing bowling from Kane Richardson and Shane Watson.

Kohli soon thick-edged a swipe to third man off Richardson while Gayle was tied down further by Rahul Tewatia's googlies and eventuelly caught behind off the other legspinner Pravin Tambe for a slow 19. India Under-19 captain Vijay Zol succumbed to Tewatia's seventh googly on the trot after hitting a few spunky fours, and Royal Challengers were going at under five an over when Yuvraj walked in.

Eleven overs later, Yuvraj walked back, having carted seven sixes and as many fours. His hitting was so severe and dominating, even AB de Villiers' 58 off 32 was overshadowed. The pair put on Royal Challengers' highest fourth-wicket partnership, scoring 132 runs in 10.5 overs.

Yuvraj got going with a series of sweeps against the legspinners. Batting with his back leg outside off stump, he found the combination of power and timing that makes him so destructive when he is in touch. Soon he was flicking the fast bowlers casually for six over the leg side. De Villiers hit five sixes and went at a strike-rate of 181.25 but it was hard even for him to take attention off Yuvraj.

Ajinkya Rahane and Nair put on 54 in seven overs for Royals but Chahal removed Rahane with his first delivery. In the next over, Yuvraj bowled Watson with an arm ball. Three balls later, Stuart Binny charged at Yuvraj and mishit to sweeper cover. Yuvraj kept striking, having Sanju Samson pop one back before taking out Nair, but his quota ran out eventually, and Smith and Faulkner brought the curtains down on his show.

Abhishek Purohit is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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MCA protests over losing IPL final

	The inability to set off fireworks after 10 pm was one of the reasons the final was shifted out of Mumbai © AFP Enlarge
Related Links News : No IPL matches in Chennai, final moved to Bangalore Series/Tournaments: Indian T20 League Teams: India

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has registered a strong protest against the IPL governing council's decision to move the 2014 final from the Wankhede Stadium to the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. In a letter to IPL authorities signed by its president Sharad Pawar, the MCA has asked for reasons for the "sudden decision" to take the final away from Mumbai.

ESPNcricinfo understands the letter will be placed before the IPL governing council during its next meeting and a decision on whether an explanation needs to be given to the MCA will be made. What is certain at the moment is that there are no second thoughts about having moved the final to Bangalore.

In the opening season of the IPL in 2008, the second most expensive franchise -Bangalore - was awarded the opening ceremony, while the final was given to the most expensive franchise - Mumbai. Since then, the practice has been for the defending champions to host the opening ceremony and the final, and the runner-up to host the other playoffs.

While announcing the change of venues on May 10, the IPL governing council said the decision to hold the playoffs in four cities was due to part of the tournament being played in the UAE this season.

"Considering that twenty matches of the ongoing Pepsi IPL season were played overseas, the GC [governing council] took a decision to try and take the Playoffs to as many different stadia as possible. Several venues had expressed their interest in hosting the Playoffs," BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said.

The reasons being given by the IPL for taking the final away from Mumbai are several, but none of them mention the possibility of tension between the MCA and BCCI after Pawar criticised the board for suspending the Rajasthan Cricket Association following Lalit Modi's election as its president.

The issues with the Wankhede as the final venue stem from when security officials left the acting BCCI president Sunil Gavaskar and IPL chairman Ranjib Biswal stranded at the stadium's gate for a prolonged period on May 3, the first match of the season in Mumbai. They were there to attend a meeting at the BCCI's headquarters, which are in the stadium's premises. The incident was said to be a repeat of one in 2012, when BCCI president N Srinivasan was kept waiting for an hour on an IPL match-day before being allowed to enter.

Once Gavaskar and Biswal were allowed to enter, they could not park their cars in the stadium. The IPL governing council called it a "major administrative glitch", but MCA officials said they would have made the necessary arrangements had they been informed of the arrival of many dignitaries in advance.

Another reason not in the Wankhede's favour was the Maharashtra government's decision not to burst firecrackers after 10pm, and the high cost charged by local police for providing security. Since the playoffs are BCCI property, the expenses are not borne by the franchises. Mumbai Police have been charging INR 50 lakh per match, while Bangalore Police charge INR 20 lakh.

The MCA officials said they would have tried their best to negotiate with state government authorities had they been told about the issues. "One meeting with Pawar and the state government could have made an exception and allowed the customary celebration with firecrackers around midnight after the final," an official said. "And perhaps the police charges could also be brought down."

Amol Karhadkar is a correspondent at ESPNcricinfo

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Mushtaq set to lose England role

	Mushtaq Ahmed could move into a role with the Pakistan team © Getty Images Enlarge
Related Links Players/Officials: Mushtaq Ahmed Teams: England | Pakistan

Confirmation is expected on Monday that Mushtaq Ahmed, the former Pakistan legspinner, has been the latest of England's backroom staff to lose their job in the Peter Moores reshuffle but David Saker, the fast bowling coach, will continue with his current deal under the new set-up.

Mushtaq was recruited by Moores in 2008, during his previous spell as England coach, after the pair had been together at Sussex when they won their first Championship title in 2003.

Mushtaq was involved in an era where Graeme Swann became one of England's greatest ever spinners, but he leaves with English spin bowling in one of its leanest patches with the strong possibility that they will not field a frontline spinner against Sri Lanka next month.

The decision, originally reported in the Guardian, will not come as a complete surprise for Mushtaq who has recently applied for a position with the Pakistan team which is also now under a returning head coach in Waqar Younis. It is understood he is in competition with Saqlain Mushtaq for the spin coach role.

Moores is keen to reduce the number of specialist coaches who are involved with England on match days so it is unlikely that Mushtaq will be directly replaced. Instead Peter Such, who looks after the spin programme at the academy in Loughborough, is expected to fill the role when required.

Mushtaq joins Graham Gooch, the former batting coach, and Richard Halsall, the fielding coach, in not retaining their roles under what is becoming an extensive restructuring exercise.

Saker, however, will be remain and will work with the young quick bowlers selected to play alongside the senior pair of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

England's decision to take an attack full of tall quicks to Australia, and their subsequent failings, raised questions about Saker's role especially after the dramatic loss of form by Steven Finn. However, he can rightly point to the development of Anderson and Broad under his guidance, plus England's sustained period of success from 2009-2013, as factors in his favour. Last October he signed a contract that took him up to September 2015, which includes the next Ashes series.

England's backroom staff is gradually taking shape ahead of the start of Sri Lanka's visit which begins with a T20 later this month. Gooch's replacement is yet to be confirmed - Graham Thorpe and Mark Ramprakash remain favourites - while the future of Bruce French, the wicketkeeping coach, is still to be rubber stamped. With Moores and Paul Frabrace in position it is unlikely England will need a regular keeping specialist with the national side.

With inputs from Umar Farooq in Pakistan

Andrew McGlashan is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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Calm Knight Riders secure big win

Kolkata Knight Riders 150 for 1 (Gambhir 63*, Uthappa 46) beat Kings XI Punjab 149 for 8 (Sehwag 72, Chawla 3-19) by nine wickets

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Gautam Gambhir's third successive fifty anchored Kolkata Knight Riders' chase and steered them to a nine-wicket win over table-toppers Kings XI Punjab. The Knight Riders bowlers had pinned Kings XI down to 149 - the second time in the tournament they were kept to less than 150 - despite a swift 72 from Virender Sehwag.

The opening pair of Robin Uthappa and Gambhir - with two century stands in their last few games - set the platform for the chase, racing to 68 in seven overs. Uthappa's fluency was evident early on as he laid into Sandeep Sharma's second over, taking three fours off him, before collecting another 18 off Mitchell Johnson. Uthappa's 28-ball 46 brought the asking rate under control and put the chase firmly within Knight Riders' reach.

Conscious, perhaps, of the fact that another batting meltdown could end up becoming the symbol of Knight Riders' campaign, Gambhir and Manish Pandey played mostly percentage cricket in their unbeaten 82-run stand, which took the team home with two overs to spare. There were a few run-out chances but Kings XI did not have the best day in the field- George Bailey's dropped catch off Gambhir in the 17th over was the best example of that.

Kings XI, who had opted for a seam-centric attack, would have felt the absence of a second spinner, especially after Akshar Patel kept Gambhir and Pandey quiet for a couple of overs in the middle. However, the biggest factor in the result was the stark difference between the two halves of the Kings XI innings.

Coming into this game, Knight Riders were the most economical team in the death overs in the IPL, giving away just 8.30 runs an over. In the UAE leg, they were also the team that managed to stifle Kings XI successfully. That control with the ball, especially in the latter half of the innings, set up the game for the side. At 10 overs, Kings XI were 85 for 2, but they made only 64 for 6 in the next ten.

One of Knight Riders' chief contributors was Piyush Chawla, who was brought back in place of Shakib Al Hasan. In UAE against Kings XI, the legspinner had figures of 4-0-19-3 and he finished even this game with the same numbers. Chawla struck immediately with the big wicket of Glenn Maxwell, and then got rid of Sehwag and Rishi Dhawan in the 15th and 17th overs. Chawla, along with Ryan ten Doeschate and Morne Morkel, smothered any momentum Kings XI would have hoped to build.

Narine came on at the end and choked the run flow and even the normally industrious Bailey found it difficult to push for boundaries. Between the 15th and 20th overs, Kings XI - who average 50 runs in this period of play - scored only three boundaries, and two of them were from Mitchell Johnson.

Before the ten-over mark, though, the innings was all about Sehwag and that was the most heartening sight for Kings XI. His studied nonchalance of old was on display when he smacked the first ball of the match, off Jacques Kallis, for four through the off side and then capitalised down leg as the bowler tried to compensate. He got to 50 off 35 balls, but like most Sehwag innings, the opposition also had their share of chances. He was dropped in the second over and a few shots fell out of reach of the fielders. Luckily for the Knight Riders, those mistakes weren't too costly in the end.

Rachna Shetty is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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Ganguly advises captain Kohli, and Praveen's nightmare

	Praveen Kumar: 'There came a point when I actually stopped getting out of my house, thinking what people would talk about me' © BCCI Enlarge
Related Links News : No IPL matches in Chennai, final moved to Bangalore News : Mumbai Indians sign Praveen Kumar News : Kings XI surprise with Vohra and Miller retention Players/Officials: Virat Kohli | Sourav Ganguly | Praveen Kumar | Stephen Fleming | Manan Vohra | Sanjay Bangar Series/Tournaments: Indian T20 League Teams: Bangalore T20 | Chennai T20 | India | Mumbai T20 | Punjab T20

Kohli has to find a way to stay fresh - Ganguly
Royal Challengers Bangalore began IPL 2014 with two wins in two games. Since then, they have won one match in six. Their captain, Virat Kohli, India and limited-over cricket's golden boy over the past couple of years, has three ducks in eight innings. Former India captain Sourav Ganguly thinks the two are interconnected, with the challenges of leading Royal Challengers affecting Kohli's batting.

"Kohli is realising that the combination of captaincy and batsmanship is a bit different and he must quickly find a way to make that mental adjustment," Ganguly wrote in his column in Times of India. "It's not a tough thing to do and my advice to him would be to decide on a plan [for the team] at the start of the game, shut it out completely and direct all his mental energy and space towards scoring runs for himself, though he is bound to get affected at times for wrong decisions.

"He will also realise, in due course, that a lot of captaincy and tactics happens out in the middle and it's also about being aware of situations. On the whole he has to find a way to relax and stay fresh because too much of worrying can drain you out mentally."

Not being picked at auction left Praveen depressed
India pacer Praveen Kumar, who played his first game of the tournament on Saturday, only after Mumbai Indians brought him in as a replacement for the injured Zaheer Khan, said not being picked up at the auction in February left him in a mess mentally. In an interview with the IPL website, Praveen said he even went as far as to stop leaving his house due to the "negativity" that had set in. "Obviously, I was very disappointed when I was not picked in the auction. It was a shocking moment for me. I was dejected for the first week-and-a-half.

"There came a point when I actually stopped getting out of my house, thinking what people would talk about me and feared if they would ask me different kinds of questions. I was gutted that I hadn't got a chance to play on a platform where I have been playing for so long."

He kept himself going by taking part in the domestic T20 tournament, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Praveen said. "I played the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and a few corporate matches. My only motive was to get as much match practice as I can under my belt. I wanted to put in all my efforts and keep myself in sync with the game. I knew my shoulder, which had troubled me in the past [and kept him out of the India team recently], would only get better the more I bowl.

"I was extremely happy when I got a call from Mumbai Indians to represent them in the IPL. I couldn't sleep that night, and all of a sudden, I became a lot more positive. I have been playing international cricket for close to seven years now, and it was a great moment for me when I realised that I will be back in action."

CSK 'devastated' to miss out on Chepauk games - Fleming
Chennai Super Kings will not play at their home ground, the MA Chidambaram Stadium (or Chepauk), in IPL 2014 because of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association's prolonged deadlock with the municipal corporation over the legality of the construction of three new stands in the stadium in the lead-up to the 2011 World Cup. This, Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming said, was "very disappointing". "I say this on behalf of the team, I announce our disappointment that we can't go back," Fleming said after Super Kings' game against Mumbai Indians. "We enjoy amazing support all around India and around the world. But we were looking forward to giving back to the Chepauk [crowd]. We are devastated. as we were really looking forward to those games.

"Though Ranchi has been home away from home and we have played there beautifully, there was an element of returning back to the Chennai faithful. We won't be able to do that this year. We will carry that with us and hopefully put up a couple of good performances at Ranchi and move on. But as I said the team is sad not to be going back to our fan base."

Vohra will have to wait his turn - Bangar
The biggest surprise to come out of the franchises' player retentions this year was the case of Manan Vohra. The young Punjab batsman was one of only two uncapped players retained across eight teams. Kings XI Punjab had said then that Vohra was in the mould of Rajasthan Royals' Sanju Samson, prompting his retention. While Samson has played all eight of Royals' games this season, Vohra is yet to play once for Kings XI.

Kings XI coach Sanjay Bangar said the quality of Indian batsmen Vohra was competing with meant he had to miss out, and he'll have to wait his turn yet. "Manan is competing with Virender Sehwag and Cheteshwar Pujara. He'll have to wait," Bangar told the Telegraph. "We [also] have Shaun Marsh who hasn't been able to get a game. It's my job to keep them motivated and to make them understand that all decisions are taken keeping the team's interest in mind."

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Bell must shape new England

Ian Bell's fifty against Scotland, and the match as a whole, will not linger long in the memory but calmness and maturity were just what England needed

Ian Bell's breakthrough innings did not come against South Africa. It did not come against Australia. It did not even come against Sussex. It came against Shropshire.

It was May 2004. Bell was 22 years old and, though his talent was undoubted, his lack of progress was beginning to frustrate the management at Edgbaston. John Inverarity, at the time the Warwickshire director of cricket, even considered dropping Bell from a strong battling unit that was struggling to find room for the abundance of talent the club possessed at the time. "It's all very well having talent," Inverarity said in exasperation at the time, "at some stage you have to shape games."

As it was, the team that contested that second round game of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy did not contain either Michael Powell or Jim Troughton and Bell was given another chance to prove himself.

He responded with a Man-of-the-Match winning performance. On a damp, two-paced wicket which reduced every other batsman to ugly swipes and ineffective heaves - Nick Knight, at the time arguably the most successful ODI batsman England had ever had, battled his way to an unbeaten 22 from 57 balls - Bell timed the ball with a grace granted to very few and made an elegant, unbeaten 58 from 37 balls. While he caressed 12 boundaries, his team-mates contributed just six between them. He looked a class apart.

With confidence - and position - restored, he went on to score an unbeaten 262 against a strong Sussex attack a couple of weeks later. It was an innings that gained the attention of the selectors and the media and, by the end of the summer, Bell was playing Test cricket. Sometimes, what seems trivial at the time can have far grander consequences.

There were echoes of that innings against Shropshire in Bell's half-century against Scotland. While the bowling was not especially demanding, the pitch conditions were. No-one else in the match made a half-century; no-one else timed the ball as sweetly. This was a situation that had all the ingredients for an upset - the shortened match, the damp pitch and sodden outfield, the tension of a team beaten more often than a snare drum finding their way under a new coach - but thanks to Bell's class and calm head, the accident was averted.

It says much for Bell's limited-overs career that he became, during his innings in Aberdeen, the second highest run-scorer in England's ODI history but that for most of that career, his place in the limited-overs teams has been questioned. Perhaps because of the apparent ease with which the runs have flowed, more is often expected of him. But since his return to the ODI side in the summer of 2012 his record - 1,451 runs at an average of 46.80 - is excellent.

We should not have been surprised by Bell's contribution in Aberdeen. The days when he might be considered a luxury player - pretty but inconsequential - are long gone. If he had not proved his backbone with defiant contributions in South Africa, he surely did so with his Man-of-the-Series winning efforts in the Ashes of 2013.

Bell would be the first to admit that his reputation was forged, in part, on the back of some pretty runs on flat tracks. As he put it following his Championship century against Sussex a few weeks ago: "In my early days, maybe I scored a lot of nice runs that looked good on the eye but really didn't change the course of the game. But in the last two, three or four years, I've started to score those [important] runs a lot more often. The way last summer went against Australia really gave me a lot of confidence - I came in at 20 for 3 a lot."

Now with most of the senior figures of the England dressing room gone - Andy Flower, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen - Bell will assume more responsibility. He will be expected to lead, on and off the pitch. He will be the man England turn to in trouble; the man who will shape games.

He is batting better than ever. It is not that he is timing the ball anymore sweetly or has discovered a new range of strokes; he had most of them anyway. And it is not that he is any more likely to make ugly runs; he is hardly capable of an ugly stroke. It is that he has fully embraced his role and responsibilities. He is prepared to graft and wait and work and fight.

It was a message he reiterated following Friday's victory in Aberdeen. Asked about the upheaval in the England camp over recent months, Bell responded with comments that showed much of the talk of coaches and team environment to be, to him at least, largely irrelevant.

"The players have to stand up and score runs and take wickets no matter who's coaching," Bell said. "That's the important thing.

"Giving responsibility to the players is going to be important. It's about the players standing up and winning games for England.

"In any sport the management can only do so much. They can get you ready but they can't do anything once you've crossed the line and responsibility comes down to the players. It's a big challenge for the senior players now helping the young guys come through and getting this team gelled. We saw with Australia how quickly a team can turn things around and we've got to believe we can do it, too."

It was the talk of a man who will not hide behind excuses, who will not hide behind potential and hope in the future. It was the talk of a man who knows that his own future and that of the England team is now entwined. If England are to prosper, Bell will have to shape a lot more game over the next few years. And he is revelling in the responsibility. Aged 32 and with a fine career behind him, it may well be that the best is yet to come.

George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo

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