England spinner Jack Leach has left big shoes for somebody to fill ahead of the Ashes, according to Steve Smith.
Leach, who has played in all 13 England Tests since Ben Stokes took up the captaincy in April last year, has been ruled out of this summer’s series due to a stress fracture in his back.
England open their bid for a first Ashes win since 2015 at Edgbaston on 16 June, following on from last week’s resounding 10-wicket victory against Ireland.
Former Australia captain Smith, who has spent the last month playing for Sussex in the County Championship, feels Leach will be a tough act for any replacement to follow.
“I watched little bits and pieces (of the Ireland Test), England played pretty well,” said Smith. “Obviously the news of Leachy broke yesterday. It’s a real shame, he’s done really well for England the last 12-18 months in particular.
“I think it’s going to be some big shoes for them to fill. Obviously (I) feel for him, he wants to be involved in the big series, an Ashes series. Hopefully he recovers well.”
Australia have the World Test Championship final against India at the Oval to come before the start of the series, with play due to get under way on Wednesday.
And Smith insisted the tourists will fully focus on that before turning their attention to a first Ashes win on English soil since 2001.
He added: “I’m just playing each game as it comes. I’m not even thinking about the opposition too much, just going out and playing the game. That’s really it to be fair.
“We’ll get through this game then start focusing on England after that. We’re all just looking forward to this (India). It’s two years in the making, of getting to the final of the World Test Championship, it’s a big week for us and India, so we’ll get through this then we’ll focus after that.
“Every game you play for your country is important. Every series is important. Certainly the Ashes series here, it’s one that eluded us, we’ve never won here. We got close last time but couldn’t quite get over the line. It’s certainly something I’d love to tick off my bucket list, winning an Ashes series here.”
The India Test will be a chance for Smith to add the top prize in red-ball cricket to the one-day and T20 World Cups he has won with Australia.
Asked whether he felt Test cricket was under threat from proposed changes within the game and talk of possible franchising, he said he believed recent matches have emphasised the popularity and importance the format still holds for fans.
He added: “In terms of one-day cricket, obviously the World Cup is the biggest tournament in white-ball format but it’s still a while away so we’ll focus on that later. It’s certainly one that we want to win as well.
“Hopefully Test cricket stays alive and well, I think it’s in a good place at the moment. Some of the games we’ve seen recently have been pretty amazing.
“For me as a traditionalist, someone that loves Test cricket, I hope it still remains at the front of all the boards’ minds and stays alive and well for some time to come.
“(The World Test Championship) is really important. Having the two best teams play in the final I think is great. It adds a bit more relevance I suppose to Test cricket, it’s what we all work towards for a couple of years. This week should be an exciting one and the guys are looking forward to it.”
IPL: Kohli shines as RCB maintain winning run against Kings
Virat Kohli's superb knock of 92 helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a fourth straight win in the Indian Premier League on Thursday as they kept their playoff hopes alive with a 60-run triumph over Punjab Kings.
Kohli smashed seven fours and six sixes in his 47 balls faced as the Challengers set the Kings a daunting target of 241, with Rajat Patidar also bringing up his half-century and Cameron Green (46 off 27) falling just short of doing so.
The Kings pulled off the biggest run chase in IPL history less than two weeks ago, but their hopes of another comeback were dealt a huge blow when Faf du Plessis took a wonderful over-the-shoulder catch to send Jonny Bairstow packing with Punjab at 71-1.
Kohli's contribution wasn't only limited to the bat, as he produced a stunning run out of Shashank Singh, haring onto the scene to send wickets flying with an underarm throw as Shashank failed to make it back by mere inches.
It was then up to Mohammed Siraj to polish off the Punjab tail, finishing with figures of 3-43 as the Kings fell to back-to-back defeats, keeping them ninth in the standings.
Data Debrief: Kohli leads the way
Having previously claimed the honour in 2016, Kohli leads the way in the race for the 2024 Orange Cap, another impressive innings taking him to 634 runs for the campaign.
Averaging 70.44 with a strike rate of 153.51, Kohli put further distance between himself and Chennai Super Kings' Ruturaj Gaikwad, whose 541 runs put him second in the standings.
Pooran's unbeaten 48 in vain as Head, Sharma lead Sunrisers to dazzling 10-wicket win over Super Giants
Sunrisers Hyderabad hammered Lucknow Super Giants by 10 wickets with more than 10 overs to spare in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.
Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head struck an unbeaten 167 from the opening partnership to move SRH third in the points table, with LSG unable to come up with any answers to defend their own haul of 165-4.
Head plundered 89 from 30 balls, including eight fours and eight sixes, while Sharma's 75 from 28 had eight fours and six maximums, in an explosive batting display that saw the duo hit 100 inside the powerplay.
Earlier, Lucknow struggled to get going in their innings, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-12) conceding only singles and shutting down LSG's top order, who scored just 66 in the first 11.2 overs.
Former West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran continued his fine build up to the ICC Men's T20 World Cup with an unbeaten 26-ball 48, as he crafted a 99-run fifth-wicket stand with Ayush Badoni, who was also unbeaten on 55.
Pooran struck six fours and a solitary six, while Badoni's 30-ball knock had nine fours, as the two gave Lucknow a chance, but in the end, it was nowhere near enough.
Data Debrief: Sunrisers pounce again in the powerplay
Sunrisers scored 107 runs in the powerplay. In all of T20 cricket, there have only been seven instances of a team scoring 100 runs or more in the powerplay – SRH have the two top scores, with both coming this year.
Pooran and Badoni's 99-run partnership was LSG's highest for the fifth wicket in IPL, surpassing the previous record of 87 between Deepak Hooda and Badoni. However, it proved fruitless.
CPL's Russell urges greater collab between franchise leagues to avoid frequent schedule overlap
Caribbean Premier League (CPL)'s CEO believes scheduling arrangements through collaboration by the various T20 leagues should be routine to avoid the frequent tournament clashes, which forces players to fly from one tournament to another in a short window.
Russell’s suggestion came during an interview with ESPNcricinfo, as he called for regular meetings among franchise leagues owners and administrators to solve cricket's global scheduling crisis. This, as CPL and the Hundred have overlapped in the past, but will avoid a clash this season, following dialogue with England Cricket Board (ECB) earlier this year.
“[The ECB] have a defined window that they have to play in, and it happened that we could move everything out to ensure that we didn't clash [with the Hundred]. It makes absolutely zero sense if you've got [Sunil] Narine and [Andre] Russell having to fly back the day before the final of the Hundred. That's in no one's interests, and certainly not the Hundred's,” Russell declared.
"I hope that [collaboration] continues. It's not rocket science; it's what should happen with all leagues. It's just nonsense that we've got all this overlap when it just needs to be worked through. Scheduling is a challenge, I know, but it can't be that you have two leagues going at each other at the same time. To my mind, it doesn't make any sense,” he added.
While there is a precedent for leagues negotiating to manage potential clashes as shown by the PSL and ILT20, there were a number of leagues that ran simultaneously earlier in the year. Australia's Big Bash and New Zealand's Super Smash finished in mid-January; South Africa's SA20 and the UAE's ILT20 started in January and ran into February; the Bangladesh Premier League started in January and finished in March; and the Pakistan Super League ran from mid-February to mid-March.
With the ICC Champions Trophy scheduled for a return next year February, it is expected to further complicate the schedule where franchise leagues are concerned. It is for that reason why the general consensus among players worldwide is for global scheduling windows for franchise leagues and international cricket, to limit overlapping between the two.
While representatives of national governing bodies meet regularly at ICC level - most of whom control their own leagues - there is no specific forum for the owners and administrators of franchise leagues to discuss scheduling.
"It's the logical way to go - because we're all maturing, and we're all getting to a point where we are sustainable. They are generally regarded now as being part of the domestic calendar, wherever they are played,” Russell said.
“I think it is a case of, 'OK, let's have that group of people and say how do you figure out the schedule to the benefit of everyone. I think it's workable. Others might think it's not, but I just think the conversations at least need to take place, just to make sure [there's no clash],” he opined.
Russell used the recent release of Major League Cricket (MLC)'s 2024 fixture list –two months before the tournament starts – as evidence of a shortage of "joined-up thinking" among administrators. MLC is scheduled to begin on July 5 and, as such, is on a six-day overlapping course with the Hundred.
"They've only just come out with their schedule. Why does it take leagues so long to put a schedule together? We have all year to figure it out,” he noted.
That said, Russell also encouraged administrators to find a solution to the perverse incentives that emerged for players earlier this year.
"It can't be right. I saw the other day that where leagues were overlapping, a player who got knocked out before the semi-finals or finals could actually make more money by going to another league. That shouldn't be a thing,” he stated.
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