Former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is regarded as one of the best bowlers India has ever had. He played for the country from 1998 to 2016 and was also part of India’s World Cup-winning team in 2011 and the T20 World Cup-winning team in 2007. He picked up 711 wickets for India and also scored 3,569 runs.

Harbhajan was one of the top earners in the Indian Premier League (IPL), playing for Mumbai Indians (MI), Chennai Super King (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). He is also associated with a number of brands and it is learnt that his net worth shot up by 40 per cent from 2021. According to India Fantasy, his monthly income increased to INR 50 lakhs in 2022.

Harbhajan owns a luxury house in Jalandhar worth INR 6 crores

Harbhajan’s net worth in 2022 is estimated to be about INR 60 crores. He also owns a luxury house in Jalandhar, Punjab, worth INR 6 crores. His net worth includes the value of his luxury cars, properties, endorsements, investments, and other miscellaneous assets.

The former Punjab cricketer was known for his ability to bowl across formats with an extensive skill set in his armoury. He had a unique whiplash action and was not a conventional finger spinner as he did not always toss up the ball often. He majorly dealt with varying lengths with different speeds and subtle variations.

Harbhajan, or ‘Bhajji’ as he was called, was one of the best spinners of his time, picking up 417 wickets in Test cricket, 269 wickets in ODIs and 25 wickets in T20Is. He is the fourth-highest wicket-taker in Tests for India after Anil Kumble, Ravichandran Ashwin and Kapil Dev. He also has two Test centuries and nine half-centuries in his name, with a top score of 115.

Harbhajan, one of India’s long-time servants, who thrived under captains Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni, played in the finals of the 2003 World Cup and picked up two wickets. India, however, went on to lose that match to Australia by 125 runs. He was one of the core members of the team in the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 World Cup.

India will be locking horns with the West Indies in a three-match One Day International series the first of which will be played on Friday, July 22. The Men in Blue would be upbeat heading into this series having registered a comprehensive 2-1 win last week against England. Meanwhile, the hosts would be desperate to make amends in the 50-overs format after a recent 0-3 drubbing in the home series against Bangladesh.

The Indian team will be led by senior batter Shikhar Dhawan with star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja as his deputy. Regular skipper Rohit Sharma has been rested for the One Day series, but he will be back in action for the five T20Is. With the likes of key players including Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant rested, it would be a perfect opportunity for the emerging players as well as the bench strength to prove their mettle on the field.

There could be a lot of auditions in the bowling department as well as the middle-order with an eye on next year’s ODI World Cup and therefore, all the players would be hoping to make the maximum use of the opportunities presented to them and play an important role in winning the series.

WI vs IND ODI Series: Schedule and Squads

The first ODI will be played on the 22nd of July while the second and the third One Day Internationals will be played on July 24th and 27th respectively. The ODI series will be held at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

After a glorious 11 years in ODI cricket, Ben Stokes announced on Monday afternoon that he has decided to bid farewell to the format. England’s star all-rounder took to social media to break the news of his retirement to his fans and friends all around the globe. The southpaw will be in action for the last time in the format in the ODI series opener against South Africa in Chester-le-Street, Durham on Tuesday, 19th of July.

Stokes was a vital part of Eoin Morgan’s ODI team, which revolutionized England’s limited overs cricket post the 2015 World Cup. The New Zealand-born cricketer has been the instigator of some famous wins for the national team, none more so than in the thrilling 2019 World Cup finale at the home of cricket against New Zealand.

One of the most renowned cricketers in the world, the 31-year-old has been a part of multiple franchises in domestic T20 leagues, which has contributed to his status and wealth. The flamboyant all-rounder’s net worth is estimated to be around $11 million, with an estimated annual salary of more than $1 million, according to a report by CAknowledge.com. 

Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, Stokes is quite fond of luxury cars, which is a trend among athletes these days. A blue 195mph Mercedes AMG GT63, Range Rover, Mercedes, and Audi are some of the brands owned by the gifted cricketer.

Ben Stokes is a superstar in every format of our game: Clare Connor, ECB CEO

The prominent cricketer has amassed 2919 runs in 104 appearances for the team and scalped 74 wickets before his final match. He will go down as one of the best all-rounders in the format and probably England’s best ever in the 50-overs format. His retirement evoked a response from the England Cricket Board’s interim CEO, Clare Connor, who hailed the all-rounder as a “superstar” for England in all formats of the game.

“Ben Stokes is a superstar in every format of our game. His remarkable contribution to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Final at Lord’s in 2019 enabled England Men to win that prestigious trophy for the first time,” said Clare Connor in an official statement.

Even as England and India will lock horns in the rescheduled fifth and final Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham, the visitors’ T20I squad will face Derbyshire in a T20 warm-up game. This is not the first time that India’s two separate squads will be in action at the same time. The squad that faced Ireland will also be in action during the first warm-up game on Friday. The match is set to be played at the County Ground in Derby and will commence at 11.30 PM IST.

The BCCI has announced a different squad for the first T20I of the three-match series against England to give ample resting time for the players featuring in the ongoing Test match. Rohit Sharma will be leading the side in the T20I series but he will have the squad that faced Ireland at his disposal for the series opener. India’s full-strength squad returns for the last two T20Is and the ODI series as well.

Coming back to the warm-up game against Derbyshire, this is another opportunity for fringe players to showcase their talent and stake their claim with the T20 World Cup to be played later this year in Australia.

Here’s all you need to know about Derbyshire vs India T20 warm-up match:

When is the match?

Friday, July 1 – 11:30 PM IST, 7 PM local time

Venue

County Ground, Derby

Squads

India

Hardik Pandya (captain), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda, Venkatesh Iyer, Axar Patel, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi.

Derbyshire

Shan Masood (C), Luis Reece, Hilton Cartwright, Wayne Madsen, Harry Came, Leus Du Plooy, Brooke Guest, Hayden Kerr, Alex Thomson, Alex Hughes, Mattie McKiernan, Anuj Dal, Mark Watt, Ben Aitchison, Sam Conners, George Scrimshaw

Where to watch live on TV?

The match will not be televised by any broadcaster.

Live Streaming Details

Live Streaming of the Derbyshire vs India T20 warm-up match will be available on Derbyshire County Cricket Club’s official YouTube channel.

A four-match T20I series between Singapore and Papua New Guinea (PNG) is slated to start on July 2 (Saturday). All four matches of the series will be played at the Indian Association Ground, Singapore. The home team was recently involved in a T20I series against Malaysia and despite winning the first match, they lost the series after losing the last two matches.

Meanwhile, PNG played their last match against Oman in April this year and lost the match by a big margin of 85 runs. Both teams are coming to the series after losing their previous fixtures and will want to give their 100% and try to grab the series. To note, PNG won their previous encounter against Singapore by 43 runs.

The home team will now want to take their revenge on the PNG side as the visitors will be playing their first international match after more than two months. It is expected to be a good competition between the two evenly matches teams.

Here’s all you need to know about the series:

PNG tour of Singapore 2022

Singapore

Ananth Krishna, Akshay Puri, Aman Desai, Aritra Dutta, Arjun Murteja, Aryaman Uchil, Amjad Mahboob(c), Janak Prakash, Rezza Gaznavi, Manpreet Singh(wk) Navin Param, Neil Karnik, Vinoth Baskaran, Surendran Chandramohan and Rohan Rangarajan

PNG

Alei Nao, Damien Ravu, Assad Vala(c), Chad Soper, Hila George Vare, Kabua Vagi-Morea, Charles Amini Jr, Lega Siaka, Norman Vanua, Riley Hekure, Sema Kamea, Sese Bau, Simon Atai and Tony Ura

PNG tour of Singapore 2022

02nd July 2022: Papua New Guinea vs Singapore – 1st T20I

03rd July 2022: Papua New Guinea vs Singapore – 2nd T20I

05th July 2022: Papua New Guinea vs Singapore – 3rd T20I

06th July 2022: Papua New Guinea vs Singapore – 4th T20I

Venue

Indian Association Ground, Singapore

The live streaming of the six-match series between the home team Singapore and Papua New Guinea is starting on July 2 (Saturday) and it will be available on the Fancode app.

Match timings – 5:00 PM Indian Standard Time (IST)

England continued to play fearless cricket on the final day of the third and final Test match against New Zealand. Despite rain eating up the entire first session on the fifth day, the hosts managed to churn out the remaining 113 runs to win the Headingley Test and whitewash the World Test Champions in the three-match series. It was Jonny Bairstow in action yet again on the last day as he scored a 30-ball half-century making sure there was no drama due to rain.

Joe Root also played a crucial role in remaining unbeaten on 86 and making sure his team won the game with seven wickets to spare. Bairstow, on the other hand, fittingly finished the Test with a six off Michael Bracewell. He remained not out on 71 off just 44 deliveries with nine fours and three sixes to his name.

This win for England certainly doesn’t change much in terms of the ongoing cycle of the World Test Championship thanks to their dismal form earlier. Even New Zealand are more or less knocked out of any contention to make it to the final of the tournament. The top two teams in the points table remain with Australia leading and South Africa being just behind them at number two.

England climb to 7th place

England, with their third consecutive win, have toppled New Zealand to climb to seventh position in the table and their PCT reads 28.89 with 52 points to their name. New Zealand, the defending champions, have had a forgettable outing in the UK this time around and they have slipped to 8th place with three back-to-back losses.

The finalists of the last edition, India, are at third place with 58.33 PCT. The Rohit Sharma-led side will face the in-form England side on July 1 in the rescheduled fifth and final Test in Birmingham. It is a crucial game for them to stay in contention for the final of the WTC. Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies occupy the fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively. Meanwhile, West Indies are on the verge of winning second and final Test against Bangladesh (9th placed) but that shouldn’t change the table much.

Here’s the latest WTC points table after ENG vs NZ 3rd Test:

The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) concluded with the debutants, Gujarat Titans winning the title in their first season itself. They defeated Rajasthan Royals in the final by seven wickets chasing down a meagre target of 131 runs with 11 balls and seven wickets in hand. GT skipper Hardik Pandya was named the “Player of the Match” for his all-round show in the game. The all-rounder returned with figures of 3/17 with the ball and then scored a crucial 34 in the chase after coming out to bat at 23/2.

As for the overall team performance, Gujarat Titans won the most matches in the league stage. They emerged victorious in 10 out of 14 games and ended the league stage at the top of the points table. The two most successful IPL teams in history, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings lost 10 matches to end at 10th and 9th positions respectively.

Rajasthan Royals opener Jos Buttler hit the most sixes in the tournament. He sent the ball over the ropes a whopping 45 times while Liam Livingstone stood second in this aspect with 34 sixes to his name. Livingstone also smacked the longest six (117 meters) of the tournament. Andre Russell (32), KL Rahul (30), and Sanju Samson (26) followed them on this list.

Infographics by GrabOn:

Jos Buttler topped the charts in terms of hitting fours as well smacking 83 of those with Delhi Capitals opener David Warner following with 52 strokes to the boundary. Faf du Plessis, Shubman Gill, and Quinton de Kock are the other three batters in the top five in this aspect. It was no surprise that Buttler won the “Orange Cap” as well for scoring 863 runs while Yuzvendra Chahal won the “Purple Cap” for picking 27 wickets this season.

Buttler also scored four centuries, the most, in IPL 2022 with the best score of 116. The other centurions of the season were KL Rahul, De Kock, and Rajat Patidar. Wanindu Hasaranga, Kagiso Rabada, Umran Malik, and Kuldeep Yadav were the other competitors for Chahal in the race for most wickets.

After 73 matches that stretched over two months, the IPL 2022 has reached its climax with the Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals locking horns in the grand finale at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 29. While the new entrants Gujarat will be eyeing a maiden title, Rajasthan would be eager to lift the trophy for the second time after 2008.

Ahead of the blockbuster summit clash, there will be a star-studded closing ceremony that will take place at the venue with several eminent celebrities performing at the occasion. They include the musical maestro AR Rahman, one of the popular playback singers in India, Neeti Mohan, and Bollywood star Ranveer Singh to name a few.

Without further ado, let’s know more about this glittering closing ceremony as Ahmedabad gets set to crown a new IPL champion for the first time after 2016.

The IPL 2022 Closing Ceremony

The IPL 2022 Closing Ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 29 from 6.30 pm IST, and more importantly, over one lakh people are reportedly set to be in attendance. The event can be watched live on the Star Sports network and Star Gold while it will be live-streamed on the Disney+ Hotstar app.

The former captains of the Indian cricket team have been invited to the mega event and they will be felicitated during the ceremony. Apart from these, politicians and bureaucrats are also expected to be in attendance. They include Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister as well as BJP President Amit Shah.

According to media reports, the state government of Gujarat has also made some tight security arrangements for the closing ceremony, especially with PM Modi and Amit Shah turning up. The responsibility for the security arrangements has been given to the state reserve police (SRP), rapid action force (RAF) other agencies.

The opening and closing ceremonies were excluded in the last couple of seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to have a closing ceremony this time around as they issued tender and payment details to the interested parties for staging the event.

The final of the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played between the new entrants Gujarat Titans (GT) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Narendra Modi, Stadium on May 29 (Sunday). While GT will be led by skipper Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson will lead the Royals franchise who are playing their first final since the inaugural edition.

A lot of awards are set to be given after the final on Sunday which includes the Orange Cap, Purple Cap, Emerging Player, and fair play among many others. Moreover, the winning and runners up team will get a fat cheque of INR 20 and 13 crore respectively. Here we bring you the prize money that will be linked to all these awards.

Here is all you need to know about all the awards to be given after the final of IPL 2022:

Winner:  The winning team will get a cash prize of INR 20 crore from the board.

Runners-up: The runners-up will receive INR 13 crore cash prize.

Third place: The team which lost Qualifier 2 (Royal Challengers Bangalore) will be given a cash prize of INR 7 crore.

Fourth place: The team which lost the Eliminator(Lucknow Super Giants) will be given a cash prize of INR 6.5 crore.

Orange Cap: The batter with the most runs is awarded IPL Orange Cap and a cash reward of INR 15 lakh.

Purple Cap: The bowler with the most wickets in the tournament will be awarded INR 15 lakh.

IPL Emerging Player of the Tournament: The young player will get a cash reward of INR 20 lakh.

Most Valuable Player of the season: The player will get a cash prize of INR 12 lakh.

Maximum Sixes Award in IPL: The winner will get a cash reward of INR 12 lakh.

Game-changer of the season: The winner of the game-changer of the season will get a cash reward of INR 12 lakh.

Super Striker of the season: The winner of the Super Striker of the season for the current edition will get a cash reward of INR 15 lakh.

Fair Play Award: The team that earned maximum points in fair play throughout the season will also receive a cash reward.

After 70 league matches that stretched over to almost two months, the IPL 2022 has reached its climax with the Gujarat Titans taking on the Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 1 at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The winner of this match heads straight into the final that will be played on the 29th while the loser gets a second chance to qualify for the summit clash by facing the winner of the Eliminator in Qualifier 2.

However, it is to be noted that the inclement weather conditions in Kolkata are expected to play a spoilsport in this contest, and should it continue raining throughout the evening, then there is a possibility of a truncated game. More importantly, there is no reserve day for the Qualifiers and the Eliminator and the match must be completed on the scheduled day by all means possible.

IPL 2022 Qualifier 1: Will rain play spoilsport in this key clash?

According to Accuweather, there is a possibility of thundershowers and light winds during the contest, and the downpour is expected during the beginning of this match which could go on to delay the start of this crucial knockout fixture. The chances of rain are around 65% whereas the temperature will hover around the mid-30s.

The good thing here is that the Eden Gardens has world-class drainage facilities, but even that will not be enough in case of a thunderstorm.

Since there is no reserve day, a Super Over will be played to determine the outcome of the contest if the weather plays a spoilsport and no play is possible at regulation time. Nonetheless, if the ground conditions are unplayable then the league standings will be referred to determine the winner. In this scenario, the Gujarat Titans will advance to the final since they are the table-toppers.

Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, made it to the Qualifier 1 by pushing the Lucknow Super Giants to the third position in the points table courtesy of their excellent net run rate after a five-wicket win over the Chennai Super Kings in their final league match.