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Former India legspinner Sairaj Bahutule has joined Punjab Kings (PBKS) as their new spin bowling coach ahead of the 2026 IPL season. He replaces Sunil Joshi, who held the role from 2023 to 2025.ESPNcricinfo understands Joshi decided to leave as he is set to take over as spin coach at BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.”Sairaj’s deep understanding of the game, particularly his extensive experience in grooming domestic bowlers and managing strategy, will be invaluable to our side,” PBKS CEO Satish Menon said. “His expertise aligns perfectly with our vision of building a strong and cohesive bowling unit for the season ahead.”Bahutule joins a backroom team that has Ricky Ponting as head coach, Brad Haddin as assistant coach, James Hopes as the fast bowling coach, and Trevor Gonsalves as assistant bowling coach.”I’m really excited to join Punjab Kings as a spin bowling coach for the upcoming IPL season,” Bahutule said. “This is a team that plays a different brand of cricket, and I can see the potential is massive. They have a bunch of talented players, and I’m looking forward to working with them to refine their skills and help them reach new heights.”Bahutule was the spin bowling coach at Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2025. He had also been RR’s spin bowling coach from 2018 to 2021 before joining the National Cricket Academy and serving as support staff for India A assignments.Bahutule’s exit from RR follows Dravid’s departure from the franchise as head coach. Dravid has been replaced by Kumar Sangakkara.PBKS finished runners-up in IPL 2025 after finishing top of the points table in the league phase. They lost the final to Royal Challengers Bengaluru by six runs.

Former India wicketkeeper-batter Karuna Jain has announced her retirement from all formats of cricket. She played 44 ODIs, five Tests and nine T20Is for India between 2004 and 2014.”With a lot of happy and satisfied feelings, I am able to make this announcement of my retirement from all forms of cricket and looking forward to contributing back to the game,” Jain, 36, wrote in a post on Instagram.”I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been a part of my cricketing journey from the very beginning to all my coaches, support staff and my team-mates whose (sic) been a part throughout my career. Each one of them has taught me something different about the game and life that made me the player and person I am today. It’s been an incredible journey I’ve been able to have and it would not have been possible without everyone who supported me during my ups and downs.”Jain scored an unbeaten 68 on ODI debut – becoming just the fifth Indian woman to get a fifty on debut – against West Indies in Lucknow in 2004. It is still the third-highest score in women’s ODIs by a wicketkeeper-batter on debut – behind Reshma Gandhi (104*) and Anju Jain (84*) – in women’s ODIs. She is also one of only two wicketkeepers to have scored a women’s ODI hundred for India – Gandhi being the other. She still holds the record of being the fourth-youngest Indian woman to score an ODI hundred.”My family being the biggest support and my brother being a cricketer himself made it easy and challenging for me to adopt the game and deliver the best in every time I stepped onto the grounds,” Jain wrote. “I could continue to play the sport and contribute for a very long time because of unflinching support and sacrifices done by them.”Jain’s 58 dismissals as a wicketkeeper are third-most for India in women’s ODIs. While she played for Karnataka for a large part of her domestic career, she also played for Air India, for Nagaland in 2018-19, and then for Puducherry in her final couple of seasons. She also picked up eight wickets with her offbreaks in domestic white-ball cricket.She was part of the 2005 Women’s World Cup squad – where India finished runners-up – as a back-up wicketkeeper. She played the Women’s World Cup in 2013 and the Women’s T20 World Cup in 2014.

The sound of the no-ball siren was sweet music in Sri Lanka’s ears in Dubai. As soon as Asitha Fernando and Maheesh Theekshana ran two off the third ball of the last over, the TV umpire adjudged that offspinner Mahedi Hasan had overstepped, fatally, for the second time in the match. Sri Lanka had beaten Bangladesh by two wickets, to advance to the Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup.It sparked huge celebrations in the Sri Lanka dressing room and rounds of laughter as they couldn’t believe their string of luck in this crunch game. Asitha, on T20I debut, struck two fours in what turned out to be the last four balls of the match, before hitting the ball into long-on for the two that sealed the deal.Bangladesh had hope when Mahedi removed Dasun Shanaka in the 18th over after the Sri Lanka captain struck a 33-ball 45 with three fours and two sixes. Then came a seesawing 19th over, bowled by another debutant in Ebadot Hossain, in which Sri Lanka scored 17 runs but also lost the dangerous Chamika Karunaratne, run out by a Shakib Al Hasan direct hit.But it was Sri Lanka’s day, and it seemed fated to be so when Kusal Mendis survived four lives while scoring a 37-ball 60. He struck seven boundaries including three sixes, and Bangladesh were left ruing a dropped catch, a wicket chalked off when Mahedi bowled a no-ball, a missed run-out, and a review not taken.Bangladesh had a good outing with the bat, with Afif Hossain hitting 39 off 22 balls after Mehidy Hasan Miraz, playing his first T20I in four years, rocked Sri Lanka with a brisk start.Asitha Fernando and Maheesh Theekshana celebrate Sri Lanka’s victory•AFP/Getty Images

Mehidy gamble pays off
Bangladesh sent out Sabbir Rahman and Mehidy Hasan Miraz after exhausting six different opening pairs this year. Sabbir was opening for the first time in international cricket, while Mehidy had never opened in T20Is and only once in international cricket, in the Asia Cup final four years ago, when the tournament was an ODI event.With this backdrop, Sabbir scooped the first ball he faced, after three years of absence from the top level, to the fine-leg boundary. Mehidy rode out Sabbir’s dismissal in the third over, hitting two sixes soon after, one down the ground and one ramped behind the wicket while swinging around on his toes. He hit two fours in the first six overs too, and Bangladesh rushed to 55 for 1 in the Powerplay. Mehidy fell soon after, bowled while trying to slog Wanindu Hasaranga. But he had done what he was sent out to do, and a Bangladesh opener had scored at a 140-plus strike rate in an innings spanning more than 25 balls for only the third time this year.Wickets keep SL on track
Bangladesh got off to one of their best starts, but Sri Lanka kept on picking up wickets. Mehidy’s dismissal in the seventh over was followed by Mushfiqur Rahim’s in the next over, as Chamika Karunaratne got one to rear into his face, and his attempted glide towards third-man took the shoulder of the bat and only went as far as wicketkeeper Mendis.Shakib tried to keep the run-rate going at the other end, hitting three fours off Karunaratne in the 10th over. One of them took him to 6,000 T20 runs, making him only the second cricketer to score this many runs and take more than 400 wickets in the format. But Maheesh Theekshana removed him in his last over, the 11th, again cutting down Bangladesh’s momentum just when they looked to be going strong.Afif gives Bangladesh late boost
Mahmudullah and Afif Hossain put on 59 for the fifth wicket, hitting five fours and three sixes between them. Afif struck Hasaranga for a four and a slog-swept six in the 13th over, before Mahmudullah pasted the same bowler in his next over, for another slog-swept six and a hit inside-out, high over extra-cover. Afif hammered Fernando for his second six in the next over, before scooping him for four.The pair fell within four balls of each other, both trying to slog the ball into the deep leg-side field. But Mosaddek Hossain hit two fours immediately after walking in, before adding two more fours in a 17-run last over bowled by Asitha, which also included a scythed six over long-off from Taskin Ahmed.Kusal Mendis goes aerial•AFP/Getty Images

Ebadot hits back after brisk opening stand
Sri Lanka’s openers began slowly, scoring just 13 off the first three overs of the chase, before exploding to life in the fourth and fifth overs, highlighted by Mendis slog-sweeping and sweeping Shakib for two sixes and a four off successive balls. Just when Sri Lanka seemed to be running away, though, Ebadot Hossain salvaged Bangladesh’s powerplay, removing Pathum Nissanka and Charith Asalanka in his first over in T20Is. Both were off short balls. Nissanka, who had struck a six and two fours, only managed to lob-pull a catch to midwicket, while Asalanka’s attempt to clear mid-off found the fielder.In his next over, the eighth of the innings, Ebadot removed Danushka Gunathilaka, as Taskin ran hard from the deep fine-leg boundary and dived forward to complete a brilliant catch. Inspired by the catch, Taskin then removed Bhanuka Rajapaksa in the next over, caught at deep third off an attempted ramp gone wrong.Mendis rides his luck
Just how many lives can a batter fit into a T20I innings? Ask Mendis. He got away with four lives in his 37-ball stay. When he was on 2, keeper Mushfiqur dropped him off Taskin. Then, in the seventh over, he was caught behind off Mahedi, only for the no-ball siren to blare around the ground, allowing Mendis to continue his innings at 29. In the next over, he swung at an Ebadot delivery that took a bit of glove. Neither the bowler nor wicketkeeper Mushfiqur were sure of it, and Bangladesh missed out on sending it up for review.Sabbir had another chance when Mendis, on 44, and Shanaka got into a mix-up, but he missed the stumps with Mendis at least a foot short of the crease. Finally, Taskin took a diving catch at third to send Mendis back for 60. Taskin had a fine day, finishing with 2 for 24 from four overs apart from taking those two catches, but his energy didn’t quite rub off on the rest of his team.

Alex Hales’ strained relationship with Ben Stokes will not throw England off course in their bid to win the T20 World Cup in Australia, according to Matthew Mott.Hales and Stokes were involved in the infamous brawl outside a Bristol nightclub in 2017 that saw Stokes charged with affray – he denied the charge and was found not guilty – and both players handed backdated bans and fines by the Cricket Disciplinary Commission.In his recently-released documentary, , Stokes refers to “my friend at the time, Alex” when addressing the incident and did not answer questions about Hales during interviews about the film.Stokes, who has been rested for England’s seven-match T20 international tour of Pakistan after a busy summer captaining the Test side, was tight-lipped when asked about his relationship with Hales and whether they had spoken recently earlier this month, saying only: “We’ve both got the same goal: to win World Cups.”Mott, England’s white-ball head coach, had not worked with Hales before his recall as an injury replacement for Jonny Bairstow for trips to Pakistan and Australia, and said that he had no concerns about the potential for friction within the squad.”They might not be best mates and that’s OK,” Mott said. “I’m sure you work with colleagues all the time who aren’t your best mate but you can work with them if you’ve got a common goal.”Ben’s come out and stated that as well. He wants to win World Cups. I’m sure Alex does as well and we all do, so we try and pick the best players and if they end up becoming good mates again that’s great; if not, as long as they’re going towards that goal of winning the World Cup together then that’s how teams function.”Related

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Hales himself did not specifically address his relationship with Stokes when speaking in Karachi on Friday but was keen to insist that he was “only looking to the future” rather than dwelling on the chain of events that led to his three-year exile from international cricket.Mott also revealed that he considered “the key phone call” involved in Hales’ recall to be one he made to Trevor Bayliss. Jos Buttler made several calls to senior players after Bairstow’s injury came to light but Mott decided he should also speak to the man who was England’s coach at the time of Hales’ last-minute omission from the 2019 50-over World Cup squad after news emerged of a second failed recreational drugs test.”I rang Trevor Bayliss around the time we were considering it and asked if he had any views,” Mott said. “Obviously he was coach at the time and has worked with him at Sydney Thunder. He said he’s had absolutely no problem with him at all, he’s made mistakes but he’s trying to get better.”For me, that’s it. Nobody’s perfect – I’m certainly not – but if he’s trying to get better and he’s the best player, then we can work around it.”Like Jos said, we asked the senior players whether they had an issue. It was well before my time, so one of the things I said was ‘mate, you start with a blank canvas’. He’s been contrite and has shown he’s trying to learn from his experiences.”

The Yorkshire racism hearings are set to be held in public later this month, after the Cricket Discipline Commission agreed to Azeem Rafiq’s request for greater transparency in the process.The move comes in the wake of an initial two-day hearing in October, with Tim O’Gorman, the chair of the CDC, confirming on Wednesday that an exception to the body’s usual protocols would be permitted, given the significant public interest the case has generated.The ECB is understood to have argued against the move, given that much of its evidence was gathered on the understanding of anonymity and may now be inadmissible. However, their submissions were over-ruled, with the hearing now expected to get underway on November 28.Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, is among the seven ex-Yorkshire players who were charged by the CDC in June, following Rafiq’s claims that he had said there are “too many of you lot, we need to do something about it” ahead of a T20 match in 2009.Vaughan had steadfastly denied the claims, with the Telegraph, the newspaper for which he is a columnist, reporting that he is “happy for the proceedings to be held in public and will appear in person to defend himself”.Responding to the news in a statement on Twitter, Rafiq wrote: “I’m pleased the CDC has agreed that this is too important an issue to be held behind closed doors. It is something I have made very clear from the offset [and] throughout to the ECB. Such openness is vital if the sport is to learn from previous mistakes and root out institutional racism. I believe this decision is in the best interests of cricket and I confirm that I will give evidence at the hearing.”One of the key witnesses is likely to be Adil Rashid, the England legspinner who was also playing in that 2009 match and has since corroborated Rafiq’s version of events. He is expected to be playing in the Abu Dhabi T10 tournament from November 23-December 4, but as an ECB contracted player is likely to come under pressure to make an appearance.Other implicated players include the former England players Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan and Gary Ballance, as well as the former Yorkshire captain and coach, Andrew Gale, who has since declared the process to be a “witch-hunt” and has insisted he will take no part in the proceedings.A follow-up to the parliamentary hearings in which Rafiq made many of his claims is set to be held on December 13, with the DCMS select committee announcing it will hold a fresh evidence session to examine cricket’s response to the crisis.

Ashleigh Gardner put in another all-round display while Grace Harris continued with her big-hitting heroics as Australia thumped India by 54 runs to seal a 4-1 series win at the Brabourne Stadium on Tuesday.After Gardner and Harris propelled Australia to 196 for 4 – the highest total in this series – India’s batting line-up crumbled for 142, as Heather Graham claimed a hat-trick in just her third T20I for Australia.Deepti Sharma hit a half-century to take India to a respectable total at a time when a more embarrassing defeat looked to be on the cards.Gardner, Harris onslaught
India started well with the ball, getting both openers out in a powerplay that also saw Renuka Singh bowl a maiden over to Australia’s stand-in captain, Tahlia McGrath. McGrath, however, came back strong and helped Australia kick on, before being stumped off Shafali Verma in the eighth over. Australia were 67 for 4 when the in-form Ellyse Perry fell in the 10th over, holing out to long-on off Devika Vaidya’s legspin.However, like in every match in this series, a big partnership derailed the hosts’ hopes. It was Beth Mooney and McGrath in the first two games, Perry and Harris in the third and then Perry and Gardner in the fourth. On Tuesday, it was Harris and Gardner, who added 129 runs off 62 deliveries for the fifth wicket.They started their onslaught in the 13th over, when Gardner hit Anjali Sarvani for four consecutive boundaries. Australia hammered 112 runs in the last eight overs, including the 19 that came off Sarvani’s.Gardner toyed with the fielders, finding the gaps with regularity, hitting 11 fours and a six. Harris, on the other hand, was less interested in where the fielders were and more in clearing the rope. She hit four sixes and six fours en route to her first T20I half-century.India were not helped by the poor fielding, gifting Australia runs from overthrows on three different occasions. And a rare dot ball in the death overs from Renuka also slipped past Richa Ghosh for four byes.Heather Graham picked up a hat-trick•BCCI

Graham, Gardner rattle India
Chasing a mammoth 197, India hit their first roadblock in the first over, when Smriti Mandhana flicked an innocuous delivery from Darcie Brown straight to Harris at forward square leg.Struggling to accelerate, the hosts lost Shafali soon in the fifth over as Gardner teased her with a flighted delivery outside off that she hit straight to Annabel Sutherland in long-on.Harleen Deol, who didn’t get to bat in the last game, was promoted to No. 3 with India opting to rest Jemimah Rodrigues for the match. Deol upped the tempo with a few quick boundaries, including a square drive behind point off the first delivery she faced.However, a mix-up with Harmanpreet Kaur brought an end to her knock of 16-ball 24 and India lost wickets in regular intervals after that run-out. Harmanpreet was trapped lbw by Sutherland before Gardner returned to get rid of the big-hitting Ghosh to leave the hosts at 70 for 5 in the 10th over.Gardner finished with figures of 2 for 20, identical to the last game, to cap off another brilliant all-round display that saw her win both the Player-of-the-Match and Player-of-the-Tournament awards.Meanwhile, Graham, introduced to the attack in the 13th over, ran through the lower middle order with a fine hat-trick. Vaidya was her first victim, deceived by a slower ball and stumped as she went forward to play at it. Her second wicket was a length ball outside off that nipped back in to crash into the stumps to send Radha Yadav back to the hut.While Australia’s innings took off in their 13th over, India’s chase all but ended there.Graham was taken off the attack after that, and she came back to bowl the final over, castling Renuka to complete her treble. She was not done yet, as she had Deepti hole out at long-off with the final ball of the match. She returned figures of 2-0-8-4.In between the two overs that Graham took her hat-trick, Deepti once again put her finishing skills on show, scoring 53 off 34 balls, including eight fours and one six.