The big news: End of the road for Afridi?

The Pakistan Cricket Board has decided not to renew Shahid Afridi's central contract. Afridi has not been a part of the team since their early exit from the World Twenty20 in India in April, after which he resigned as Twenty20 captain.

The 36-year-old retired from Test cricket in 2010 and from One-Day Internationals in 2015. He has scored more sixes than any other player in the history of ODIs, with 351. Spinner Saeed Ajmal has also been omitted by the PCB, hurting his chances of making a comeback in the national side. Batsmen Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad have been dropped to category D, the lowest level of contracts.

Other top stories

  1. England are set to take on Bangladesh in the second Test in Dhaka and have ringed in two changes to their side. Zafar Ansari will make his Test debut, with pace bowler Steven Finn replacing Stuart Broad. England will play three spinners – Ansari, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. Broad has been rested for the match, so Finn joins Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes in the seam attack.
  2. Cricket Australia's head of security Sean Carroll arrived in Bangladesh to examine the security measures in place for England's ongoing tour. Australia are due to arrive in Bangladesh in August 2017 to fulfil the two-Test tour of 2015 that was postponed due to security concerns.
  3. Mitchell Johnson was the latest cricketer to share his feelings about Michael Clarke, describing his captaincy as toxic. “The dynamics definitely changed," said Johnson. "It became more groups in the team. It wasn’t a team as so. There was different little factions going on and it was very toxic. The toxic culture just built very slowly but everybody could see it, everybody could feel it. Nothing was being done at that time, so it wasn’t a very enjoyable place to be and you’re supposed to be enjoying yourself when you’re playing for your country," he added.
  4. Baroda's Deepak Hooda tore into the Punjab bowling unit on day one of the third round of the Ranji Trophy match at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. Hooda's unbeaten 190 powered Baroda to 358/6 at the close of play. Maharashtra found yet another batting hero in Naushad Sheikh (118 not out) against Rajasthan.