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Pragyan Ojha has revealed that he went “literally blank” when he was banned last December for chucking, but has come through the difficult period with a successfully remodeled action and is looking forward to the new season.”I was literally blank for a couple of days,” Ojha told ESPNcricinfo. “I really could not understand what to do and how to go about it.”Ojha credited the strong support system he had for helping him bounce back.”I felt this should not end like this,” he said. “I was very emotional about what happened but I was lucky to have great support and encouragement from my family and [VVS] Laxman . They connected to me everyday, they took my feedback, and also gave their feedback. The passion towards playing for the country pushed me.”Having confirmed his switch from Hyderabad to Bengal in a bid to compete in the top tier of the Ranji Trophy, Ojha is looking forward to winning games for his new team.”Mentally and physically I am in a good space now,” Ojha told ESPNcricinfo. “My aim is to take wickets, do well for the Bengal side, and win games for them.”Ojha became the third-fastest Indian to 100 Test wickets in March 2013 and eight months later went on to claim match figures of 10 for 89 in Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell Test. Soon after, however, his fortunes slid drastically.First, he was left out of India’s squads for the tours to New Zealand and England. Then, in December 2014, he was banned from bowling in competitive cricket, and was subsequently withdrawn from the Hyderabad squad.Ojha reported to the ICC-accredited testing facility at the Sri Ramachandra Medical College [SRMC] in Chennai, where former Tamil Nadu spinners D Vasu and M Venkataramana helped him correct his action. Vasu identified unwanted body movement that was breaking his ‘kinetic chain’, thereby affecting his action.”The training was pretty serious and intense,” Vasu said. “We focused on the wrist position. We have constant video feedback; it’s a live feedback the way you correct muscle memory. We have a software in SRMC when a bowler bowls, and after about six seconds he can come back and watch it. Right now he looks fine.”Ojha said his action was now more side-on, but he hadn’t made too many other changes. “Definitely [the action is more side-on],” Ojha says. “We tried different types of action to see which would suit me and helped me make things right. The unwanted body movement was corrected. It wasn’t like I changed everything completely.”Was there any specific method or exercise to correct his action? “No, there is no set or fixed pattern,” Ojha said. “It is an individualistic process, if I can say that.””Initially I used to do some visualisations but slowly and gradually [the correction] sunk in and I started doing well. After playing five-six domestic games, it become more of a natural thing.”On his return in February, after the BCCI cleared his new action, Ojha took three wickets in an over against Himachal Pradesh. He wheeled away for 42 overs in HP’s only innings and finished with a four-wicket haul. He picked up another four-for in the Irani Cup against Karnataka, before returning career-best T20 figures of 4 for 15, against Andhra, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.Ojha also showed good form in the two-match unofficial Test series against Australia A, finishing with ten wickets. India A coach Rahul Dravid lauded Ojha for his control and bowling with a half-sleeved shirt.”He has taken the bull by the horns: ‘I have nothing to hide and I want to bowl with half-sleeves’. He must be applauded for that,” Dravid said. “Because he has gone out there [with the thought] that I’m confident in my action and bowling and confident enough to wear a half-sleeve t-shirt.”Asked if preferring to bowl in a half-sleeved shirt was an emphatic statement, Ojha said: “That is up to you experts. But the compliment from Dravid boosted my confidence. It really inspires me to do well.”Ojha’s immediate task is to fill a troubling hole in Bengal’s bowling attack. While Ashok Dinda and Veer Pratap Singh led Bengal’s pace attack last season with handy back-up options in Shib Paul and Sourav Sarkar, spin was an area of concern.Left-arm spinning allrounder Amit Banerjee, who made his debut last season, took nine wickets in four matches, while Iresh Saxena managed only two wickets. Offspinner Saurashish Lahiri, who led Bengal to the knockouts in 2013-2014, has tailed off and has been left out of the squad for the match against double-treble champions Karnataka. Ojha’s guile and experience add weight to a revamped bowling line-up that also includes the former India Under-19 offspinner Aamir Gani.Should Ojha solve Bengal’s spin quandary and bag a sizeable wicket haul this season, a national recall could follow. Ojha, though, emphasised that he was not thinking that far ahead. He said his immediate focus was to take wickets in the Ranji Trophy and maintain his fitness.”The only things in my control are my bowling and my fitness. If I keep these things right, everything will fall in place. Other things are not in my control. I want to keep it as simple as that.”

Having lost just one wicket during the final session of day one of their Pura Cup clash against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval, Western Australia will head into the second day comfortably placed at a score of 4/273.Star batsman Justin Langer said the match, played by two full-strength teams, was a good practice for Australian players gearing up to face an international season agianst the West Indies and Zimbabwe. And, for much of the day, it looked it – with Western Australia being made to work hard for its runs and the visitors finding it difficult to take wickets.After winning the toss and electing to bat, the Warriors scored at a solid rate, but lacked the extra edge to lead them to the three-hundred mark by the end of play. They will be hoping for a big score from Damien Martyn when play resumes tomorrow – the Australian Test hopeful having finished the day on 56.Martyn, who toiled for 186 minutes to post his 50 off 161 balls, struck six boundaries for the day. He will resume tomorrow with Tom Moody by his side, the captain on 47 off 97 deliveries.The pair were joined with the team on 4/190, when Simon Katich fell lbw to Peter McIntyre. Katich, one of Australia’s most exciting young batsmen, played a slow innings today – finishing on 25 from 60 balls, with two fours.Earlier in the day, the crowd of 900 was entertained by a breezy 60 from Langer, but not before he had endured an early scare.After scoring three ducks from three innings so far this season, Langer nearly departed for another today, when a Gillespie yorker went straight through him. “It was an absolute beauty,” he said of the ball that almost sent the speedster on his way to a hat-trick. “Most times when you get out in batting, it’s batsman error, but had I have got cleaned up that first ball, I’d definitely say that I could’ve done too much about it, it was a great ball,” he said.But the 29-year-old was glad the ball didn’t crash into the stumps after missing his edge. “Yeah it was good to get off the mark. You’re always a bit nervous when you come off a couple of ducks, but you know, for me, it was a bad week at the office really. Most people have a week at the officebut mine becomes public that’s all. I wasn’t too worried about it, I know I’ve been batting well. When you play every week of the year, you’ve got to have one bad one in 12 months, so I’d like to just put that behind me and get on and have a good season now.”In the first session of the day, Western Australia had fallen just shy of the one hundred mark, going to lunch at 1/99. The Redbacks then swung the momentum their way, with Jason Gillespie and Paul Wilson picking up the wickets of Langer (60) and Mike Hussey (48).Fittingly, Jason Gillespie, the hardest-working of the Redbacks today, was involved in each of the first three dismissals – snaring Campbell and Langer’s wickets and assisting Wilson with a regulation catch to end Hussey’s marathon innings.Looking sharp and dangerous, he was the pick of the South Australian attack today, finishing with a miserly 52 runs off his 26 overs, including ten maidens. Wilson was the next best, with one wicket, five maidens and 49 runs off his 20 overs. Blewett, with 24 runs from his three overs, and Young,with 62 from 21, were the most expensive. McIntyre also had a disappointing day (his only consolation Katich’s wicket in the last session) and was hit for 70 runs off 23 overs.

Essex trail Glamorgan by 41 runs with nine wickets intact after being forced to follow on 171 runs adrift with the visitors Darren Thomas enjoying another superb day.Early in the day, he reached 138 to record the highest score by a No 8 batsman in his county’s history before Glamorgan were finally dismissed for 370, adding another 35 to their overnight score before 26-year-old Thomas then weighed in with five wickets.Essex made an abysmal start declining to 23-3 within seven overs when they began their reply and the loss of Stuart Law for 19 provided another crucial setback when the Australian gave a return catch to bowler Owen Parkin off a leading edge.Barry Hyam though grafted responsibly and late support from Ashley Cowan and Peter Such only served to expose the earlier frailities of the home batsmen. The ninth wicket added 38, the highest of the innings, until Such on 25 was caught at mid-on off the bowling of Dean Cosker.The same bowler then collected the wicket of the resilient Hyam who reached a career-best 63 before being bowled around his leg although he was fortunate to survive a catch to slip with his score on 52, one short of his previous highest in the competition.The squandered chance cost Thomas a five-wicket haul although the bowler was rewarded with the wicket of Paul Prichard in the fifth over when Essex started their second innings.They did restore some propriety to proceedings, however, with an unbroken second-wicket partnership of 102 between Paul Grayson and Darren Robinson that saw both batsmen reach half-centuries to offer some encouragement to their side when they resume in the morning.

For the first time in Sri Lanka’s cricket history international umpireAsoka de Silva has been assigned by the International Cricket Council (ICC)to officiate in two Tests of a three-Test series between Pakistan and NewZealand commencing next month in Pakistan.De Silva (45) who represented his country in ten Tests as a right-armleg-spinner, will officiate the first two Tests of the series at Peshawar(October 2-6) and at Faisalabad (October 13-17).He is the fourth Sri Lankan umpire to figure in the ICC’s internationalpanel of umpires after K.T. Francis and B.C. Cooray – both retired, andPeter Manuel.De Silva officiated in two Tests of the recently concluded home seriesagainst India. Having first come into the Test scene against Pakistan atGalle in June 2000, De Silva has so far officiated in five Test matches.The new assignment will be his second as an ICC umpire. He did one Test inZimbabwe against India early this year.Presently, Sri Lanka has only one umpire (De Silva) in the ICC panel. Theywill nominate their second choice very shortly.

Match facts

November 20, 2015
Start time 1500 local (1100 GMT)
1:34

We’re desperate to win the series – Buttler

Big Picture

Such has been the force of England’s comeback after going 1-0 down, they would now be sorely disappointed not to clinch the series. Even allowing for the fact they won the ODIs 4-0 on their last visit to the UAE, victory would count as another significant staging post for Eoin Morgan’s young side on their journey to being considered genuine contenders in the 50-over format.They overturned a significant disadvantage after losing the toss and being asked to chase in Sharjah, with James Taylor and Jos Buttler showing commendable sangfroid to avert crisis in the middle overs and ultimately steer England to a comfortable win. Taylor is fast building a reputation as one of England’s most accomplished players of spin, while Buttler’s return to form with an unbeaten 49 could have wider significance.Pakistan’s collapse from 132 for 2 to 161 for 8 raised eyebrows and tempers – though why anyone would be surprised by such a performance from one of the game’s flakiest batting line-ups is perhaps the bigger mystery. Back home, some have questioned selection – the continued absence of Ahmed Shehzad particularly – while dissent against the coach, Waqar Younis, has increased, despite Pakistan’s rise to No. 2 in the Test rankings just a fortnight ago.While there had been signs of an upturn in their one-day form under the captaincy of Azhar Ali, any progress has apparently been checked. The top order remains in a muddle, with Babar Azam’s promotion to opener yet to bear fruit, while the running in Sharjah would have embarrassed the Keystone Kops. It is all the more galling to have stuttered against England, who were antediluvian at the World Cup eight months ago but have located a flux capacitor to arrive with a zap in the present day.Pakistan can still tie the series but they remain without a win over England in bilateral ODI contests since 2005. Lose in Dubai and it will be three series defeats in a row. The last time that happened, Pakistan were at least consoled by having the World Cup in their possession.Jos Buttler found some welcome form in England’s Sharjah victory•Getty Images

Form guide

Pakistan: LLWWL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
England: WWLLW

Players to watch …

He has overseen three series wins in a row (albeit two of them were against Zimbabwe) and is only just back from injury but Azhar Ali is quickly learning about the pressure of being Pakistan captain. Having taken over from Misbah-ul-Haq after the World Cup, Azhar resumed his ODI career after a two-year gap with two hundreds and three 70-plus scores in eight innings; that form has tailed off, however, and he has managed just 66 runs in three games against England, at an antique strike rate of 60.55. Needs a score almost as much as victory.James Taylor might finally have made himself an automatic selection, more than four years after his ODI debut. He impressed after getting an opportunity at No. 3 in Sri Lanka 12 months ago, before being dropped down the order at the World Cup and then dropped from England’s new-look side altogether (despite captaining the team against Ireland). Another chance came when Joe Root was rested against Australia – as did a maiden hundred – and his Man of the Match display in Sharjah ought to secure him a berth in the middle order for some time.

Team news

Will Shehzad finally get his chance? Haroon Rasheed, the chief selector, has said that his exclusion is not on disciplinary grounds and his proven quality at opener has been lacking. Mohammad Rizwan’s self-inflicted run-out was the dopiest of the lot and he could make way for Azam to return to No. 6, where he scored an unbeaten 62 in the first match. Doubts remain over Yasir Shah’s fitness but Zafar Gohar did provide something for Pakistan to be encouraged about with his debut performance.Pakistan (probable) 1 Azhar Ali (capt), 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Iftikhar Ahmed, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Babar Azam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Anwar Ali, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Yasir Shah/Zafar Gohar, 11 Mohammad Irfan.England have stuck with the same XI in all three games so far and seem likely to continue with that approach as they look to seal the series.England (probable) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 James Taylor, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 David Willey, 11 Reece Topley.

Pitch and conditions

The teams have moved to Dubai for the final match, where the Test surface was more receptive to pace. The last three ODIs between Full Members there have seen the chasing team win, suggesting that batting under lights won’t be such an issue.

Stats and trivia

• Eoin Morgan needs 47 runs to become the sixth England player – and first captain – to score 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year.
• England won both of their previous ODIs in Dubai, beating Pakistan by nine wickets and four wickets in 2012.
• Sarfraz Ahmed needs 18 runs for 1000 in one-day internationals.

Quotes

“Yes we have been making mistakes so we have to overcome that. England is playing well and we did not play to our potential, that’s why we lost but we have confidence that we can play well and win.”
“It was a magnificent win, we look to the next game to go on and win the series, we’ve earned the right to do that so hopefully we can produce another performance like that.”

Zimbabwe Cricket has signed an eight-year deal with Total Sports Marketing (TSM), a Bangladesh sports marketing agency, for the marketing rights and live television coverage of all of Zimbabwe’s home international matches.The agreement, which both parties claim to be a “zero-cost deal” as of now, was signed in July and could conceivably end ZC’s partnership with Indian firm Ten Sports, whose parent company Taj Television holds the television rights for Asia and the Middle East. Due to their association with Essel Group, an Indian conglomerate company said to be eyeing an extraordinary takeover of world cricket, Ten Sports have fallen out of favour with cricket authorities.Only last month, India’s tour of Zimbabwe was initially called off due to the unresolved issues between the BCCI and Ten Sports, though the tour eventually took place after crunch talks after the two boards worked out a deal.Moinul Chowdury, the TSM’s chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo that his company was ready to operate at a loss until Zimbabwe started attracting significant corporate interest. Chowdury claims that ZC saved at least $2.5 million in television production costs when the country hosted India and New Zealand over the last two months. He added that the board retained the $3.8 million in revenue generated from the India series alone.”The ZC leadership convinced me to invest and I’m confident that around 2016-2017 we will start operating at a profit,” Chowdury said. “Zimbabwe was the only Test nation that was meeting its own television production costs and it took a huge toll on the board. They’ve shown us a good blueprint, and we are happy to be in business with them.”ZC interim chairman Wilson Manase said under the deal, Zimbabwe are guaranteed at least 50 days of home international cricket in all three versions of the game until the 2023 World Cup.”Under the FTP, we were supposed to play just 58 ODIs outside the ICC tournaments. That was going to decrease our chances of improving rankings. The onus is now on us to make ourselves marketable and repay the confidence and faith shown in us by TSM,” Manase said.

PERTH – Australian cricket selectors might be tempted to impose tearawayBrett Lee on the fragile English batting lineup on a WACA pitch whichcould be the fastest in 20 years.While incumbent Andy Bichel is still favoured for the third paceman’sspot for the third Ashes Test starting Friday, Lee has an imposingrecord at the famed fast bowling paradise.Lee, one of the quickest bowlers on the planet, has taken 15 wickets at19.6 in his two Test appearances in the west and has been in career-bestform at first-class level.”We have potential for the fastest Test pitch since the early 80s,” headcurator Richard Winter wrote in Cricket WA magazine.That can only aid Lee press for a recall after Bichel played in theopening two Ashes Tests this summer.It was a devastating bowling display for NSW at the WACA three summersago which elevated Lee to his Test debut against India in the Boxing DayTest in Melbourne.Bowling with frightening pace and swing Lee broke WA tail-ender JoAngel’s arm as the Blues claimed a rare outright victory in WesternAustralia.The 32-year-old Bichel has taken five wickets at just over 36 againstEngland in the Test series having missed out bowling in the tourists’second innings capitulation at the Gabba.But while the statistics don’t make great reading he took key wicketsduring the Adelaide Test including opener Michael Vaughan at the end ofthe first day.Speedster Lee meanwhile has responded to his demotion with 21 wicketsfrom two Pura Cup matches.With weather expected to remain fine and warm this week, Winter expectedit to be a good deck on which to bat first.”It will still be a good pitch to bat on first, whoever survives thefirst two sessions will do well on it,” he said.Already trailing 2-0 in the five Test series, England returns to Perthtomorrow facing its eighth successive Ashes series defeat.And the road doesn’t get any easy for the tourists with Australia’sopening bowling combination of Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespieexpected to extract every bit of bounce from the WACA pitch.In its opening tour matches, two England bowlers found success on theWACA pitch but one has been ruled out of the series (Simon Jones), andthe other is under a serious injury cloud (Andy Caddick) with a backproblem.

Michael Clarke’s heir apparent Steven Smith has deflected Shane Warne’s criticism of the Australia coach Darren Lehmann, saying that the national captain is in control of the team and denying that Lehmann had orchestrated a final day declaration during the Boxing Day Test against India.Australia’s World Cup campaign was interrupted on Saturday by heavy rain that forced the abandonment of their match against Bangladesh, and as they waited, Warne delivered a pointed critique of Lehmann during an in-depth radio interview with the former legspinner and commentator Kerry O’Keeffe.Smith brushed off Warne’s contention that Australian cricket had to decide whether the coach or the captain was in charge of the team, stating that he had been allowed control over on-field decisions during his time substituting for an injured Clarke during the Border-Gavaskar series.”It’s exclusively up to the captain what happens out there,” Smith said. “Your breaks in play and stuff throughout Test matches, he comes and gives a bit of what he thinks we can do in the next session but the captain is the one who runs the ship.”Steven Smith: “Everyone who was playing that Test match knew what was going on, knew that I’d made that declaration”•Cricket Australia

Speaking specifically about the final morning of the Boxing Day Test, when television cameras pictured Lehmann apparently waving the batsmen in himself from the boundary line, Smith clarified that the coach only did so after the players in the middle had failed to see his gesticulations from the team viewing area.”I think Boof was sitting on the sideline where he tends to sit here and there to watch the cricket and I was up the top actually trying to call the guys in but they couldn’t see me,” Smith said. “He sort of just said ‘look up there, he’s calling them in’. They showed him on the TV actually doing it, but I was up the top doing it. Yeah it was me [who declared].”Everyone who was playing that Test match knew what was going on, knew that I’d made that declaration. I think Boof has done a terrific job around the group as coach, he’s done an outstanding job getting all the players together. We’re in a good place.”How good a place the team is in is becoming less clear due to their extended break between games. By the time Clarke walks out for the toss with New Zealand’s captain Brendan McCullum in Auckland, it will have been two weeks since Australia’s opening day hiding of England in Melbourne. Smith felt the break was useful towards the end of the longest summer many can remember.”I think we’ll be fine,” he said. “We’ve been playing a lot of cricket, so a day off is not the worst thing. I think we’ve prepared well throughout the tournament and we’ve got a few games of training before that game there, so we’ll be fine. We’ve played a lot of cricket recently and we’re in a good place.”We’ve got a few days of preparation there in New Zealand before the game next Saturday, plenty of time, we’ll see what the coaching staff has for us when we get over there. [New Zealand] are a tough opposition and they’re playing some very good cricket in their own backyard. We’ve got to be on top of our game to beat them.”The wickets are probably a little bit slower than what we are used to here. Hopefully the nets replicate what we’re going to get out in the middle and we can get used to it that way. We’ll have a chance to see the wicket when we get over there and we can prepare accordingly.”

Parthiv Patel, the former Indian wicketkeeper, will lead an Indian side to tour Australia for the Emerging Players Tournament, to be held from July 14 while Jaydev Shah, who led Saurashtra to the Ranji one-day title, will captain another second-string side to Israel.The bulk of both the teams comprise players who caught the eye during the Indian Premier League. Chennai’s S Badrinath will be Parthiv’s deputy in a side that contains Shikhar Dhawan, Abhishek Nayar and Manpreet Gony – all high on the IPL charts.Consistent domestic performances have also been rewarded. Mohnish Parmar, the offspinner from Gujarat, and Rakesh Dhruv, the left-arm spinner from Saurashtra, will travel to Israel. Amit Mishra had a good time in the IPL but he was already in the reckoning after a prolific season for Haryana in the Ranji Trophy.However, a few consistent domestic performers missed out – Aakash Chopra and Niraj Patel had a fine run with the bat while Sudeep Tyagi and Ashraf Makda missed out despite sterling efforts with the ball. Tyagi, though, might have been ignored because of an injury.Squad for Israel Jaydev Shah (capt), Swapnil Asnodkar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravi Teja, M Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, Rajat Bhatia, Yogesh Takawale (wk), Rakesh Dhruv, Mohnish Parmar, Vishal Bhatia, Basant Mohanty, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashok Dinda, R Vinay KumarSquad for Australia Parthiv Patel (capt), S Badrinath (vice-capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Manoj Tiwary, Abhishek Nayar, Virat Kohli, Amit Mishra, Pankaj Singh, Manpreet Gony, Siddharth Trivedi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Iqbal Abdulla, Ravinder Jadeja, Pinal Shah.

The winners of the Twenty20 Cup at the Rose Bowl on Saturday will join in Allen Stanford’s winner-takes-all bonanza in Antigua in November, as county cricket prepares for the biggest single payday in its history.David Collier, the ECB’s chief executive, believes that Stanford’s involvement can take county cricket to another level. It gives the domestic champions a taste of international action as the ultimate victors from this Saturday’s Twenty20 Finals Day will take on Trinidad & Tobago, the 2008 Stanford 20/20 champions, ahead of the £10million winner-takes-all match between Stanford’s All Stars team against England.”It’s a great opportunity for the champions to play Trinidad and Tobago,” Collier said. “A real opportunity to link the domestic game with international game.” Kent, Essex, Durham and Middlesex are the four teams vying for the prize.Richie Richardson, the former West Indies captain, added: “It’s going to create interest and enthusiasm that’s been lacking in West Indies cricket.”Collier also confirmed that there would be no appearance fees on offer for England players in their winner-takes-all clash. This will not help to dispel the players’ fears of potential rifts in the camp which is why they had wanted the appearance fees.The tantalising offer will go some way towards compensating the counties if the proposed Champions League, which is due to feature the two teams that contest the final, fails to take place.At present, the Champions League proposal is on the rocks due to the insistence of the host board, the BCCI, that the counties will be disqualified if they include players from the “rebel” Indian Cricket League. If Essex and Middlesex make it to the final, there will be no complications as neither side is implicated, but if Durham or Kent progress, they both have players involved.”I’m confident it will go ahead this year,” Collier told . “We’ve had discussions during the week, I think it’s well known there are some differences about rules and regulations which still have to be ironed out.”But certainly, we are hoping for two days in the sun, not just one. This [Stanford] game is obviously a great game for the counties to go to, but we’re also hoping they will be representing us in the Champions League as well.”Stanford’s intervention, however, increases the possibility that the ECB will simply walk away from the proposal, and seek further money-making opportunities with their billionaire benefactor.