IMO there is no deep thought process in recent captaincy change because core Indian team already getting into test match mode and about to reach England. When your 1st, 2nd, 3rd captaincy candidates are playing all 3 formats then these sort of quick changes are natural, we have seen this in recent time, even Sikhar led the Indian team in the SL. These bilateral series are giving them option of testing their bench strength, changing captaincy is part of it and in doing so they are giving everyone fair chances to prove themselves and get some International experience.

Pant will join test squad along with S. Iyer and there is a possibility of Pant playing in 4 days warm up match against county team.

I don't think NZ or any SENA country (Even India) take this position regarding test cricket.

I don't believe in this notion that Kiwis are not familiar with English condition, they have more or less same condition back at home. It's just that Poms really playing well in this series, also injuries in NZ's camp is another factor.

BCCI has announced T-20 squad for 2 T-20 match series against Ireland (June, 26 and 28). They are rotating everyone. Pandya is new skipper for this short burst.

At the same time Indian test team is playing 4 day warm up match in England, we have 1 off test left in last Eng vs Ind. I guess Pant is moving to test team after South Africa series.

Haha 2.5 TB might sounds lot of data but once you get used to it then you won't even realise. I also share wifi with my Baba and Wife.

I have dedicated screen for cricket at my workstation. Mainly for Test cricket, all Indian fixture and The Ashes, even when i'm not watching, it always stays on only because of commentary. 

I don't think if we ever going to find next Dhoni. Pant is riding his test performance run and now i starting to think that he's more destructive in Test cricket, which is weird because at start of his career he's used to be equally destructive in shorter format too.

^^ They had a very easy outing in last cycle, they played most of the (3) series at home in comparison to 2 away series, 1 against Australia in which Kiwis got whitewashed and 1 draw series against SL. Last series got cancelled due to covid and it helped them with the percentage wise, otherwise Australia was the next contender for the finals.

I can't even imagine living with just 60GB per month anymore. My appetite for data consumption has increased by many folds, i checked my data log and on average i use almost 2.5 TB per month/16-20 days. I'm not shilling but you should try to get one, use yearly package for better price. I can vouch for excitel broadband personally.

Having said that i'll wait for more details to come out regarding IPL subscriptions on JIO/Voot etc before jumping in as i like to believe that they'll offer more exciting offer to new users. 

Might be a better option, although i've no idea how efficient this JIO fiber is because i use excitel services and i'm kinda satisfied with the connectivity. I pay almost 5800 inr yearly for their fiber service (100 mbps) without any OTT benefits (not counting any other OTT platform, which i use in sidelines) they do have some plans with OTT services included in upgraded plans which i'm yet to check.

If you have senior citizen in your home then i guess you should stick with the local cable too, i also pay 350 inr/pm in Delhi without any benefits, only because my maa and sasu maa are not familiar with the tech stuff.

Excellent game of cricket, although it's flat wicket but you still need to be fearless to chase almost 300 runs in 70-ish overs.

I'm aware that this might be too early to say but it does look like Brendon Mccullum (along with Ben stokes) did managed to bring some sort of change in English cricket culture. This is the same outfit who used to think that drawing the match on the 5th day is their only option. So far I'm loving it!!

Pitch has no demons and still terrific to bat on. Kiwis just didn't batted well for small period of time, 2 run out mixup and 1 injured player (Jamieson) made situation bit tough at some point.

NZ still managed to add valuable runs in the end. England followed short ball tactic which was useful today but at same time in last part of the inning they gave 30-ish extra run due to this.

England has 50-50 change in last inning despite 4 rpo, as pitch is good for batters and outfield is way too quick. Kiwis are 1 bowler short too (Jamieson).

I've checked voot's subscription and it's under 300 INR /Yearly, although their existing catalog virtually empty in comparison to Disney/Hotstar but 300rs is not much, if it stays the same. Also JIO owns the majority of shares so there is a possibility of free subscription or free to watch with JIO pack (I guess they already provide tons of free OTT subscriptions if you own JIO fiber connection), considering Mukesh Ambani already has countless services to sell.

Watching IPL coverage with SONY was amazing, their advertisement, Buildup and presentation was top notch. Although i believe OTT platforms (Digital) are going to dominate this space in next cycle.

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Check this out

https://www.jio.com/fiber.html

Bid is still going on so lots of speculation going on who got the rights, no one showing their cards as Package C is kinda related to Package B ( media rights)

But many source confirmed that Viacom 18 won the package B, bit of confusion on Package A tho. We'll get accurate picture by tomorrow evening after BCCI release.

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Also time for IPL salary to increase by 2 folds, may be increase the budget minimum 200 cr INR/per franchise.

Must be enjoying his life.

Now that ICC almost secured big amount of money. There focus should be on other areas too like.

- Improve at least 10-12 existing stadiums with the help of franchise and State board (they need spanking for politics),
- Improve spectators experience be taking care of basic facilities( Good Food, Shades, hygiene etc) for IPL and Tests facilities are okay but for internationals it's like a hell.

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Edited
New updates

Bids finished
Package A (TV rights for Indian subcontinent) : Disney  NOTE (there is confusion among all sources) It's Disney or Sony.
Package B (Digital rights for Indian subcontinent) : Viacom 18
 

Bids in progress

Package C ( 18 special match rights for digital) : Stads at 1700 Crore INR, it'll continue tomorrow.
Package D ( TV/Digital rights for rest of the world) : Yet to start.

You know it's a flat deck when Ollie Pope scoring a daddy hundred.

Traditional wisdom says that this match should end up as draw but at the same time we have witnessed some unexpected 5th day result, similar to Eng vs Ind, it was also dead wicket but India managed to find reverse swing so i'm open for this scenario too, if by any chance it happens then this dull test could turn into fine thriller. I know hoping too much.

Yeah, apart from bragging rights /ego etc, now it came down  to owning prime time slots and ours drawing rooms.

It's not about cricket anymore, some might say it was never about cricket anyway, which i partially agree, thanks to Lalit modi. He was corrupt af but i've no hesitation to say that guy was visionary.

I tell you ladies.

Bilateral cricket is about to fuck up in international cricket (rightly so, except test cricket), at least in the biggest market. According to some reliable journalists IPL media rights auction already crossed the base amount (it's only for A+B category) and it's kinda 2 days affair.

Hmmm

Can someone enlighten me why Aaron Finch got the man of the series award? I mean it's okay as everyone in cricketing world suck up to Batriarchy, which is hard reality unfortunately but he scored 61 and 29 in 2 matches, David Warner scored more runs than him, marginally but still (unless they are looking at strike which i highly doubt). Award should have to gone to bowler, may be Hazelwood.

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Edit

Oh well i thought it was 2 match series (he scored 61+ 24 + 29) , facepalm. But still Warner scored more....

Could have been exactly opposite if Poms were batting first.

No assistance from the pitch and bowling sub 130kmph doesn't help either when ball isn't even reverse swinging.

On green seaming wicket medium pacer or even average seamer can terrorise the batters but on flat wickets they are dead weight. Potts is still new and very young so he'll learn the art of bowling on such pitches.

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Ha! 4 quick wickets.

Stokes wins the toss and opt to bowl, for straight 127 overs and 5 sessions  

No test playing skipper want this scenario. It's very demoralizing situation to look at considering fielders are not helping the bowlers either and keep dropping sitters every where. Daryl Mitchell is reaping the rewards, ofc.

Only possible solution for ICC would be to create alternate source of revenue and new market (first step should be start multi nation WC and discard existing formula), in a longer run they can't afford to depend on Indian market only. BCCI have ambition to expand IPL footprints in the future, we don't know how would it look like after 10 years as IPL is still new product but if somehow it clicks then Broadcaster/advertisers  are going to divert all money to IPL instead of ICC events, it's already started to happen.

For streaming Amazon was right candidate, unfortunately they are out. I really loved their cricket based streaming. In comparison Hotstar (buffering etc) provides horrendous user experience and it looks like they don't even care and just want to increase their subscription base with cheap fees. SonyLIV is also same.

Get ready for more shitty ads in all this drama. I hope that these companies also considering ad-free cricket (additional category of subscription) to their audience, they can even charge extra for that.