SPORTS

Two days before England's ICC T20 World Cup semifinal match against India, pacer Mark Wood has become the team's latest injury worry after choosing to skip training in Adelaide. According to Sky Sports, Wood appeared to pull up during a soft task on Tuesday at Adelaide Oval. He did not participate in voluntary practice, which seemed to be a preventative measure given that England acknowledged that he had generalised body stiffness.

Former India coach Ravi Shastri has backed Rishabh Pant over Dinesh Karthik for the semi-final match against England. He called Pant an X-factor for the Men in Blue.

Team India's 'finisher' Dinesh Karthik is not having the greatest of runs in the T20 World Cup. The right-handed batter has scored just 14 runs in four matches at a paltry average of 4.66. Owing to his poor form, there is growing discontent among Indian fans over his place in the team. In the match against Zimbabwe on Sunday, Rishabh Pant was given a chance to play as a replacement for Karthik, but the 25-year-old endured a poor outing and got dismissed cheaply for just three runs.

Pakistan's hopes of qualifying for the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-finals had all but ended when they started the mega-event with two straight losses to India and Zimbabwe. The Babar Azam-led side needed to win all the other matches and some other teams' results to go their way to have any hope of advancing. And that is what exactly happened. In Sunday's first match, Netherlands shocked South Africa. The following Bangladesh-Pakistan game became a knock-out for the semi-final with that result. Then, Pakistan defeated Bangladesh by five wickets to qualify for the semi-finals.

After the first two losses, Babar Azam and Company were severely criticised, but then they achieved the nearly unthinkable feat in style. After the win, Babar Azam tweeted: "Never say never! AlhumduLillah. Keep us all in your prayers."

Harsha Bhogle has urged Bangladesh fans not to "look for excuses" for their team's loss as the "fake fielding" claims against Virat Kohli gain traction on social media.

Cricket matches between India and Bangladesh frequently turn into contentious affairs. 

Wednesday's T20 World Cup 2022 Group 2 encounter saw the two teams square off, and thereafter, Bangladesh wicket-keeper batsman Nurul Hasan accused India's Virat Kohli of "false fielding." 

KL Rahul knows exactly what his team wants from him and as long as he is able to do that, he can "sleep peacefully". Having logged only 22 runs from the first three T20 World Cup games, it was Rahul's opportunity to do the star turn with one of his better half-centuries (50 off 32 balls) and a magnificent direct throw from the deep that became a turning point in India's five-run victory over Bangladesh. "My emotions were good. We are all excited to be out here and we have all looked forward to this World Cup for last one year. I have always tried to stay balanced whether I am doing well or not," Rahul said when asked about what was his mindset in the last one week when he went through a string of poor scores.