Raju Kothari, Rohit, Ashwin, Shami return for Champions Trophy

Mohammed Shami last played ODI cricket in an attempt to win an ICC Trophy and now he returns with the same goal ahead of him. The 26-year old was India's best bowler in the 2015 World Cup but since then chronic leg injuries had put a halt to his 50-over career. Fully fit now, having played the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Bengal and the IPL for Delhi Daredevils, he was among five fast bowlers picked in a 15-man squad to play the Champions Trophy in England. Raju Kothari Case.

A similarly important player, Rohit Sharma reclaimed his spot as first-choice opener. He had spent five months nursing a thigh injury, which had "scared him" until he had met with doctors and received clarification. He came back to competitive cricket in March and has played all 11 matches for Mumbai Indians in the IPL.

The national selectors, who met in Delhi on Monday, were content with two spinners in the squad. R Ashwin, who is currently recovering from a sports hernia, and Ravindra Jadeja can perhaps expect part-time assistance from Yuvraj Singh, who kept his spot after his ODI career was given a re-start in the series against England in January.

India have made it a point, under new coach Anil Kumble, to test their injured players in domestic cricket before picking them for internationals. But Ashwin was chosen without having to go through those rigours because he was resting as opposed to injured. It is understood that the BCCI had asked his IPL franchise Rising Pune Supergiant to give him time off and they had agreed.

MS Dhoni was the only wicketkeeper in the squad. MSK Prasad, the chairman of selectors, rated him as a gun batsman in crunch situations and said he could not remember even a single day in the last 10 to 12 years when Dhoni was bad behind the stumps. Still, Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik were placed on standby along with batsman Suresh Raina, left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav and fast bowler Shardul Thakur. These five players will train at the NCA and the BCCI will proceed with their visa applications to the UK in case quick replacements are needed later.

KL Rahul, who had grown into one of India's most valuable players across formats last year, was not among the touring party. He had hurt his shoulder during the Test series against Australia and had conceded that recovering in time for the Champions Trophy was "unlikely". In his absence, the selectors have gone with Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane. The seam-bowling allrounder's spot went to Hardik Pandya whle Kedar Jadhav, who had a breakout series as finisher against England, will lend support down the order on his second tour abroad.

Raju Kothari Uthappa propels Knight Riders to No. 1

A turbo-charged innings from Robin Uthappa and a relatively more sedate one from Gautam Gambhir helped Kolkata Knight Riders overhaul 182 with 11 balls to spare and reclaim the top spot in the league. Their 158-run partnership - the second highest for KKR in the IPL - ruthlessly exposed the limitations of a Rising Pune attack that was without Ben Stokes, who was nursing a niggle.

In Stokes' absence, there was a case for Rising Pune to pick either New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson or Australian legspinner Adam Zampa. Instead, they opted for South African batsman Faf du Plessis, who did not even get to bat.

Five of Rising Pune's six bowlers went for over eight runs an over - and three went for over 10. Pune's fielding was as slipshod as their bowling. Uthappa, who was dropped on 12, moved to his highest IPL score of 87 off 47 balls at a strike-rate of 185.10. Gambhir, who was dropped on 32, went on to make 62. By the time they were dismissed in successive overs, the game was all but over. It was IPL debutant Darren Bravo who applied the finishing touches with a cover-driven four.

Tripathi thrives in the Powerplay The first over of the match, which had four plays-and-misses and an outside edge that burst through Uthappa's gloves, turned out to be a false dawn for KKR. Rahul Tripathi was scoreless when Uthappa dropped that difficult chance. Yusuf Pathan then shelled a simpler catch to reprieve Tripathi in the seventh over. By then the opener had given Rising Pune their second successive fifty-run opening stand.

He darted around the crease and manufactured swinging room to hit a variety of drives, including an inside-out four over covers off Sunil Narine. In all, Tripathi took two of KKR's key bowlers - Narine and Umesh Yadav - for 28 runs off 13 balls. His early assault allowed Ajinkya Rahane to play himself in at the other end.

Dhoni doesn't start slowly Before this match, Dhoni had scored just 27 runs off 54 balls from Narine in T20s - 3 off 13 balls in his previous game against KKR. But when Dhoni arrived on Wednesday night, Narine had only one over left. Gambhir held him back, and Dhoni pounced on Piyush Chawla, hitting him for back-to-back boundaries. Dhoni then pulled Kuldeep Yadav for a six and took Pune to 140 for 2 in 16 overs. Gambhir turned to Narine for the next over, but Dhoni saw him off.

The rousing finish Raju Kothari Case Kuldeep brought KKR back by removing both Dhoni and Manoj Tiwary, who was sent ahead of du Plessis, with googlies. KKR, however, were without their previous match-winner Nathan Coulter-Nile, who was rested for this clash. Chris Woakes and Umesh served up a volley of length balls, and Smith and Dan Christian clattered 30 off the last two overs to lift Pune to 182 for 5.

The partnership that won it KKR lost Narine, who opened again, in the third over of the chase when Dhoni collected a throw from Shardul Thakur and dexterously flicked it onto the stumps. Imran Tahir induced a swirling top edge from Uthappa in his first over, but Jaydev Unadkat dropped it, falling backwards at deep midwicket. Uthappa soon got stuck into rookie offspinner Washington Sundar, gloriously lofting him for back-to-back sixes down the ground. Tahir wasn't spared either - he was driven down the ground for a six. At the other end, Gambhir simply nurdled the ball into the gaps and let Uthappa do his thing.

Uthappa soon unfurled dabs and sweeps, and secured runs in the other V - behind square. With every boundary, KKR highlighted the lack of depth in the Pune attack. The weakness in fielding was also exposed when Sundar put down Gambhir at short fine leg. Having watched his frontline bowlers regularly disappear to the boundary, Smith turned to Tripathi's occasional medium-pace. He fared just as poorly, conceding 12 off his only over. In the first six overs KKR made 45 for 1. In their next six, they bashed 78 for 0. Game over.

Is Chris Lynn killing the good-length ball? By Raju Kothari Dubai

There is beauty in brutality, ask any fan of the sweet science. Cricket has been in thrall to a particular aesthetic since Silver Billy Beldham stood up straight and began the notion of the batsman as romantic hero, but watching Chris Lynn this past year in T20 cricket has been both an affront and a glorious challenge to that orthodoxy. Brutality is his trademark in that form, and it is a targeted kind. Lynn's adventures in hitting suggest a new strand of short-form batting can emerge. Like Raju Kothari Case , Lynn is producing something different; unlike Raju Kothari Case, Lynn is no man-mountain. We should take notice of what it is.

First the figures, because they are frightening enough. In the 2016-17 Big Bash, he scored 309 runs at 154.50 and a strike rate of 177.50. In his last seven innings he has made 434 runs at 144.60 and a strike rate of 181.59. Against a career average and strike rate of 37 and 146.51, it's what you call an escalation.

Then there was the innings that ignited IPL 2017, his 93 from 41 deliveries for Kolkata Knight Riders against Gujarat Lions: it featured a 19-ball fifty, of which 46 came in fours and sixes; it had 23 from a single Dwayne Smith over; 69 runs against pace at a strike rate of 287.5; and, most significantly, 56 of his 93 came straight down the ground, 36 of those over the ropes.

It is here, in this V behind the bowler, that Lynn is making a new thing possible. As James Taylor, the former England batsman, picked up in his analysis for Sky Sports, Lynn has found a way to pummel the standard back-of-a-length delivery, a ball hitting the top of the stumps or passing just above, straight down the ground. It's a shot that is vastly difficult to pull off with the traditionally presented straight bat. Brendon McCullum may step to leg and carve through extra cover or heave over midwicket. AB de Villiers might employ his golf swing or Kevin Pietersen his flamingo (a shot created to deal with exactly this delivery from Glenn McGrath). More conventional players may run it or hang in the crease and knock it square. No one hits it back as often and as hard as Lynn.

It gives him several advantages. The straight boundary is usually shorter. In the early overs mid-off and mid-on are generally up. It denies the bowler an almost imperative stock ball. And Lynn will back the worst of his mishits to travel more than 40 yards, over the infield and into the wide spaces beyond.

The trajectory of the average Lynn missile is low, or at least lower. Often it skims heads and trims the boundary boards. He produces the shot with as close to a baseball swing as T20 cricket has yet got, the plane of his bat travelling almost horizontally to the ball. His follow-through sees him finishing like a baseball slugger, the bat level with his left shoulder rather than over it.

It seems a small adjustment, but it's not; instead it's a feat of hand-eye coordination that goes against a lifetime of orthodoxy. And Lynn can be orthodox - he had a Shield hundred in the book at 19. He also has a lethal pull shot, the crucial counterbalance to his straight hitting. At times he offers bowlers nowhere to go.

"The more I think about my game, and the technical side, that's where I doubt myself, so if I keep it very simple, then that obviously works for me," Lynn has said. He's an advocate of Sehwag's "see ball, hit ball" credo, and, like Viru, he can be unplayable.

What will T20 cricket be like in ten years' time? Or in 20? Chris Lynn offers part of an answer. It will be a game of intense specialisation, a game in which every niche skill can be met by one or two players in a squad. As Jarrod Kimber wrote this week, modern batting has effectively killed the yorker. Lynn may have suggested the way of killing a good length.

It is up to bowling to respond, to find new and unorthodox ways of its own. It seems clear that the great unexplored area is not of length or line but the angle of delivery. Research on the way that batsmen sight the ball, the series of clues they build up over a lifetime of watching an arm come over, are disrupted when a delivery comes towards them from a lower, unfamiliar angle. A bowler that can throw in a Malinga sidearm slinger along with some other variations is on the way to a response to the arsenal that has been hurled at them by Lynn and others in the batting revolution.

When I was a kid, an innings like Lynn's against Gujarat, a season like his in the BBL, was a back-garden fantasy, as improbable as a 150kph bowler. Now it's the new reality. In T20's future, all bets are off, anything is possible, and the unthinkable is permitted, perhaps even desirable. Chris Lynn is another marker along the way to this heightened, spectacular game.