After England retirement, Ben Stokes tipped for record AUD 600K BBL c…

Ben Stokes is reportedly set to become the Big Bash League's highest-paid player. The Sydney Sixers are leading the race to sign the former England captain. Stokes retired from international cricket earlier this year and wants to play franchise leagues. A record-breaking contract worth around AUD 600,000 is on the cards. Scheduling conflicts and other global leagues remain potential challenges for him.

India's Glasgow Commonwealth Games medal count was lower than previous events. Athletics and boxing showed strong performances, contributing significantly to the medal tally. Judokas also achieved historic wins, marking a positive development for the sport. Preparations for Amdavad 2030 will focus on retaining strengths and improving medal performance. India aims to host a better Games than Delhi 2010.

IND vs SL 2026: Team India will begin a two-match Test series against hosts Sri Lanka in Galle on August 15. It will be the first series in the World Test Championships (WTC) 2025-27 calendar for Shubman Gill’s side this year after facing Afghanistan in a one-off Test in June. The game against Afghanistan wasn’t part of the WTC schedule.

Team India cricketers don’t want to leave any stone unturned to win comprehensively to win this away Test series. After India’s 2-0 loss to South Africa at home last year, Shubman Gill’s side need to win 7 out of the remaining 9 Tests to stand a chance of reaching the WTC 2027 final next year.

Team India Test opener KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal have been going through the paces in Mumbai ahead of their departure for Sri Lanka from the city on Tuesday evening. According to a report in Cricbuzz website, both Rahul and Jaiswal were seen training at an academy ground in Bandra amid intermittent rain in the city. sport-tr.bet

The report states that Rahul and Jaiwal were seen batting at Wings Sports Centre in Bandra West, a multi-sport facility with a specialized cricket nets managed by former India cricketer and BCCI selector Jatin Paranjape. The report added that both Indian openers had special focus on batting against spin, considering that the Lankans may field a spin-heavy attack against the visitors.

Rahul is India’s 2nd highest run-getter in the WTC 2025-27 behind only skipper Shubman Gill. The Delhi Capitals batter has scored 796 runs in 9 Tests at an average of 49.75 with 3 hundreds and 3 fifties to his name. He scored a century against Afghanistan in the one-off Test but it was not part of the WTC calendar.

While his opening partner Jaiswal managed to score 713 runs in 9 Tests at an average of 41.95 in this WTC cycle with 3 hundreds and 3 fifties. The Rajasthan Royals will look to improve his form as he had scored 1798 runs in the WTC 2023-25 cycle in 19 Tests with 4 hundreds and 10 fifties.

KL Rahul with youngsters. pic.twitter.com/JPHftqs6Sh

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 3, 2026

Rahul and Jaiswal faced a group of Mumbai spin bowlers including all-rounder Tanush Kotian at Bandra apart from a range of left-arm spinners, leg-spinners and off-spinners.

“They’ve been coming here regularly over the past few days. Jaiswal was here two days ago, KL came yesterday, and today they trained together,” Paranjape was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz website.

“It’s not surprising that they were practising against spin, given the conditions they expect to encounter in the series,” the former BCCI selector added.

Kotian added that Rahul and Jaiswal chose to train at Paranjape’s academy as the surfaces here provide plenty of assistance to the spin bowlers. “I train regularly at Jatin Sir’s academy. It’s one of the few facilities where we can practise during the monsoon. The wicket there offers plenty of turn, and Yashasvi and KL have been training with us over the past few days,” Kotian was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz website.

Tanush Kotian, Vipraj Nigam and Harsh Dubey travelling to Sri Lanka as net bowlers

Meanwhile, Kotian will be part of group of spinners including IPL stars Vipraj Nigam and Harsh Dubey as well as Shivang Kumar will be travelling with Team India Test squad as net bowlers. All of them are spin bowlers along with spinners Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar and Saransh Jain, who are part of the squad.

India’s updated squad for the Test series against Sri Lanka

Shubman Gill (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sai Sudharsan*, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain, Auqib Nabi.

(* Subject to fitness)