Sri Lanka national cricket team

So I think if you did well on the Sheffield Shield back then, because it was so strong, you sort of, you'd get looked at pretty immediately.

So, yeah, my first tour was in 99 to Sri Lanka and, So I was still only, I think, 24 years of age at the time and, yeah, just couldn't believe it.

I'd go down to breakfast and there's all these guys that I'd been watching on TV for the last sort of decade and, you know, legends of Australian cricket like the War Brothers and Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath and I had to sort of pinch myself saying, I can't believe I'm sitting at breakfast with these guys.

I was a tad nervous, as you would be, but they were really welcoming and I look back now and think, you know, I was absolutely blessed to play in that era with some of our greatest ever players and call them teammates.

Curtis Patterson's had a good couple of seasons in the New South Wales.

Been around for a long time.

Has played test cricket against Sri Lanka and did well.

So whether he starts to force his way in, because he got 100 last week in Perth against WA.

just feeling for the English cricket team at the moment.

They're playing a tri-series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Mm-hmm.

They lost to Sri Lanka when they hit 430, Harry booked 202.

Then last night against Pakistan, they had Pakistan nine down for 150, and the last two put on 88 runs to win the game, which is the highest ever 10th wicket partnership, I think, in a one-day international.

Awesome.

Five one-day internationals, two test matches, four test matches in Australia, including the Boxing Day Test.

Yes, then three one-day internationals, three T20s, two tests against Sri Lanka to round out an outstanding summer of cricket.

And we'll round all of that off with Mr. Simon Dool.

We'll hear from you as well.

So the question's fairly simple.

What does a successful summer from the Black Caps look like? This is across all of these series.

They've got India at home, they're away to Australia, and then they finish it off with Sri Lanka at home.

This is a big summer.

The memories these three have are quite something and you'll love this round of Rondo.

We then head to Rawalpindi for England and Sri Lanka, where we discuss the absolute wonders of Harry Brooke and a rather fundamental question.

How does a cricket tri-series not have a streaming partner in the largest cricket market? At a time when cricket is trying to grow its audience, making the product difficult to watch seems like a fairly unusual strategy.

And just when you think we've seen enough runs, Sri Lanka go and chase down 430, 20 years after Australia's famous 434 against South Africa.

Finally, we turn our attention to Indian cricket off the field.

We get into the PR strategies of Indian cricketers, how carefully their public images are managed, and the rather uncomfortable captaincy transition in Indian women's cricket.

It's changed enormously in the last 5-6 years to... which

amplifies what brooke is doing in the sense that skill is even higher that he's able to play seriously great test cricket and kind of translate that skill into odia i don't think he needs to manage tempo as much like he's able to translate the tempo well so tremendous batter man just

He'll want to end his year on a high note coming off of what was.

few weeks ago coming off of what was you know a good home series against Sri Lanka not so much so against Pakistan he'll be looking to you know make up for the losses against Pakistan personally and and try and get a few big scores.

The fact that they've been in Asia for some time now would help as well in terms of traumatising to conditions, having a game plan, seeing it work.

Obviously, Bangladesh is a different country to India and you're going to face different challenges there, but...

tour.

And then you look at Justin Graves, who, in my opinion, should be moved up to five from what he's been doing as an extraordinary job at number six, but in the absence of the best batter in the team since coming back and I think Justin's just right on his heels in terms of you looking at performances and being the best batter in the team and so moving him up one position to five gives him that extra bit of time to bat get in earlier get set earlier and have an extra partner to bat with so have the opportunity to bat for longer and get bigger scores because he's shown an does get hundreds and again like Django has had success in the white ball leg of the tour in India in that first ODI before injuring his calf would have seen pictures of him in the nets obviously he didn't play in in the warm-up match but I'd assume he'd be fit and rearing to go for the first test so it's more precautionary than anything and then Joshua De Silva again someone much like a Kavim Hodge and a Brandon King I think it's kind of a big series for him obviously with Shea Hope resting from this series he potentially will have an opportunity to play and to showcase as to why he should be in and around this squad because The way that Shea has come back into international cricket and has been taking the gloves as well, has left Joshua with limited opportunities.

Someone that came in against Sri Lanka at home didn't necessarily grab the opportunity.

Django made a double.

There was a 50 for Tom Banton at the top of the order.

And Sri Lanka, you thought, no chance.

No chance will they knock off these runs.

Well, Avishka Fernando made 97 at the top of the order.

They lost their captain's second ball.

Sri Lanka were in serious trouble at 24 for two.

But then out came Pavan Ratnayake.

He made 130.

the lead up to the world cup 2027 is well and truly underway with just over 12 months until the competition begins so odis are coming thick and fast the pakistan tri-series between sri lanka and england is no different so let's have a look at who england are fielding because injury is still preventing them from having their ideal squad and see what their prospects are in this mini mini competition

Going round the sky

As mentioned, there is currently a lot of injuries impacting the England White Bulls squad.

Joss Butler out with a hamstring injury that he picked up in that ODI series against Sri Lanka a few weeks ago.

He has had to have surgery on that, so the recovery period for that, much, much longer than if he just twinged it.

Does pretty much put him in doubt for the rest of this year.

There are obviously other wicket-keeping options, but at the moment, England seem to think Cox is the next best thing in Butler's absence.

Now, obviously, Cox has had a great summer, kept very well in the Test Series, kept very well in lieu of Josh Butler in the ODI season.