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ScorecardVarun Chopra made an elegant 81 to keep Warwickshire’s heads above water•Getty Images

At first glance, it may appear Warwickshire are in something of a tight spot in Taunton. At second glance, too.It is true that they would have to break a variety of records if they are to overhaul their victory target of 515 in a minimum of 143 overs. Not only have they never scored more than 417 to win in the fourth innings of a first-class game (they made 417 for 2 to defeat Glamorgan in 1983, with Andy Lloyd making a century and Alvin Kallicharran a double-century), but only one team in the history of first-class cricket has managed as many as 515. And West Zone’s 541 to beat South Zone by three wickets in the Duleep Trophy final in Hyderabad in February 2010 was played over five days. For Warwickshire the draw is the more realistic target. And even that is ambitious.But, if ever a side was to chase down 500, these may be the circumstances. On a pitch that remains flat and even-paced and against an attack that contains two teenage seamers and a 21-year-old spinner playing his third Championship match, Warwickshire’s openers constructed an opening stand of 108 with such ease that a Somerset side not unacquainted with snatching defeat from the jaws of victory could have been forgiven a few nervous moments. Had William Porterfield not been the victim of a disappointing decision – he was deemed out to a catch at short leg despite the ball not coming within six inches of his bat – Warwickshire might have resumed with all ten wickets in hand.As it was, Jack Leach – who may well find himself third choice left-arm spinner at the club once George Dockrell is fit and Abdur Rehman returns – claimed two wickets in two balls in the dying overs of the day to snuff out any hopes that might be building in the Warwickshire dressing room. Jim Troughton, who looks as if he may be suffering vertigo batting as high as No. 3, left one that pitched in line and would have hit leg stump – a fine decision from the umpire – while Ateeq Javid, as timid as a rabbit in a box of foxes, prodded his first ball to silly point. Warwickshire will resume on day four requiring another 371 to win. It is a most unlikely proposition.Leach was impressive. While Warwickshire’s spinner, the former New Zealand international Jeetan Patel, dropped short relatively often and was hit over the top on several occasions, Leach’s control was so good that seven of his 15 overs were maidens. He is only on a summer contract and may find opportunities at Taunton limited but, on this evidence, there is no reason he should not enjoy a future at this level.The fact that Varun Chopra remains into the fourth day may yet prove crucial, however. Such is his willingness to play away from his body, that bowlers must feel they are always in the game against Chopra. But, far more often than not, he connects with his back-foot forces, his cuts and his drives off front foot and back that their hopes must often turn to despair. There are few more elegant players in England.But, at a higher level, against faster bowlers capable of generating more bounce, one wonders whether it is a technique that would serve him well. It may prove that Chopra is one of several Warwickshire players – the likes of Rikki Clarke, Chris Woakes, Tim Ambrose, Keith Barker, Boyd Rankin and Chris Wright could all be grouped in the same category – who might be considered as top-end domestic cricketers, but not quite able to command a permanent position in the international side. From a county perspective, it is the perfect balance.Certainly it was interesting to compare Chopra and Nick Compton, who made a century earlier in day to help Somerset to a declaration about an hour before tea. While Chopra is happy to aim strokes through point and cover, Compton leaves with admirable discipline in an attempt to eradicate risk from his game. Chopra may have more scoring opportunities and appear more elegant but Compton – for now, at least – looks the more compact, solid and likely to see off a hostile new-ball attack.To be fair to Compton, he did demonstrate a few more aggressive strokes as he accelerated in an attempt to set up the declaration. He brought up his century – the 19th of his first-class career – with a beautifully struck six into the old pavilion and also unveiled some pleasing square drives and cuts. The manner in which he celebrated his century suggested his appetite for runs remain far from sated. With Craig Kieswetter, who batted fluently, he added 134 in 27 overs, looking increasingly comfortable against Warwickshire’s tiring attack.Woakes, who demonstrated the virtue of moving the ball both ways by trapping Alviro Petersen to one that nipped back off the pitch and James Hildreth to one that swung in, was the pick of the bowlers, though Wright delivered a sustained spell of short-pitched bowling that might have bothered a player less assured than Compton.The sight of Clarke leaving the pitch with a hamstring strain was not encouraging for Warwickshire. While he insisted it was not a serious problem, he must be a doubt, as a bowler at least, for Warwickshire’s match against Sussex starting on Wednesday.

Scorecard
Australia sealed a tight win over New Zealand on the third day at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln. New Zealand began the day on 153 for 4, and would have hoped to save the game on what was the final day but were bowled out for 241. They slipped to 175 for 6 and then lost their captain Tim Seifert, who had held the innings together until then, making 97. Having collapsed to 196 for 9, New Zealand were helped by an unbeaten 33 from No.11 Harley Jenkins, who stretched the lead to 206.Australia had limited time to chase down 208 but did so successfully, with three wickets to spare. They were 38 for 3 at one stage but didn’t stray from their objective of winning the game. Opener Jaron Morgan made 72 in 89 balls and was ably supported by the middle and lower orders, with valuable contributions from each batsman. Tom Andrews made 31, Cameron Valente guided the chase after Morgan fell with an unbeaten 36, and there was assistance from Guy Walker, Matthew Short, and Jake Doran, who scored at better than a run a ball. The chase was completed in 44.5 overs.In the first innings, both teams declared after batting for 80 overs. New Zealand made 385 for 9, with the openers Rakitha Weerasundara and Henry Collier being among four batsmen to hit half-centuries. Australia responded strongly, scoring at better than five an over, making 420 for 4, thanks to hundreds from Short and Sean Willis.

Lendl Simmons felt “free” during his match-winning innings on Saturday, an innings that guided West Indies to an easy win against Zimbabwe in the first Twenty20 in North Sound. Simmons was returning to the side after being left out of the preceding ODI series, and he said he relished compiling the knock of 63 not out.”I enjoyed my knock today, that’s the way I like to play. It was good coming back into the team. I was feeling like myself again,” Simmons said after the match. “I came into this game in good form and it was matter of me going out and expressing myself. Once I got myself set, I looked to bat as deep in the innings as I could.”Simmons had last played for West Indies on the tour to Bangladesh in December. After that he had a satisfactory Caribbean T20 for Trinidad & Tobago, finishing the tournament fourth on the overall runs charts with 182 runs at 30.33.On return, Simmons opened the innings and batted through, ending the chase of 131 with a straight six in the 17th over. After a couple of sixes in the Powerplay, he slowed down a bit, going from 18 off 13 to 26 off 31, before launching once again. His 63 runs came off 49 balls and included six sixes.”It is always nice to have a good understanding with your batting partner and [the other opener, Johnson] Charles said the small target could be tricky, so he said one of us should ‘go at it’. I said ‘let’s both go at it’ in the first six overs,” Simmons said. “The sensible thing to do was to go with the breeze rather than against the breeze, so I decided to target those boundaries.”Simmons, who has a career strike-rate of 69 in ODIs and 122 in T20s, said he knows he does not have a reputation as a big-hitter, but he trusts himself to dispatch the balls that suit him. “I am not seen as one of the power-hitters in the team, but when I get [bad] balls I know I can clear the boundaries. I decided to rotate the strike here against the offspinner [Prosper Utseya] and I said to [Dwayne] Bravo I would look to take the attack to the bowler at the other end [North End]. It worked for us today.”Dwayne Bravo was involved in an unbroken 85-run stand with Simmons, which took West Indies home with eight wickets and 23 balls to spare.Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor said his team’s below-par batting performance was “frustrating”. Zimbabwe have been struggling to get off to solid starts with the bat all tour, with a top opening stand of 39 in four limited-overs games. Here they slumped to 28 for 3 in the fifth over, before Craig Ervine and Malcolm Waller attempted to repair the innings with a 60-run stand. None of the lower-middle order could build on the partnership though, leaving Zimbabwe with just 130 to defend.”It’s very frustrating that our top three batters are not getting starts,” Taylor said. “We can’t rely on our middle order to bail us out every time, but Waller and Ervine batted really well today.”We made it hard for ourselves, too many dot balls. It’s frustrating, we’re not playing as well as we can as a unit.”The one positive for Zimbabwe was fast bowler Chris Mpofu, who took both West Indies wickets while conceding 14 runs in his four overs. His performance came after a poor one-day series, in which he took two wickets at 61.00 with an economy rate of 6.65. Taylor had words of praise for him: “Chris is a good character, a strong character, and we knew he’d bounce back.”The teams will play the second Twenty20 on Sunday at the same venue.

Northamptonshire have signed Muhammad Azhar Ullah on a one-year deal. The 29-year-old seamer was born in Pakistan and, until November, had been playing for the Water and Power Development Authority in Pakistani domestic cricket but qualifies as a non-overseas player in county cricket through residency, which was granted in February, and a UK passport, which he expects to receive in April. He is married to a British girl and lives in Yorkshire.”We are pleased that Azhar has decided to join us as he will provide proven first-class quality in the seam bowling department, providing healthy competition for places,” David Ripley, the Northants head coach, said. “He bowls with good pace and having learnt his trade in Pakistan has developed ways of getting batsmen out on flat subcontinent pitches.”Azhar Ullah has a decent first-class record. Since his first-class debut in 2004, he has played 53 first-class matches and claimed 190 wickets at 26.51 apiece. In List-A cricket he has claimed 40 wickets and concedes an average of 5.27 runs per over, but he has not played a T20 game since 2008. He was recommended to Northants by their allrounder James Middlebrook and has a good record in league cricket in England over several years.Northants’ CEO, David Smith, said: “Our seam bowling attack with Trent Copeland, David Willey, Steven Crook, Luke Evans, Olly Stone, Andrew Hall, Lee Daggett, Azhar Ullah and Sam Sweeney offers us good cover for potential injury and player rotation to manage work load. We also have good spin bowling options with Middlebrook, Con de Lange and Matt Spriegel.”His signing is subject to approval from the ECB, though Northants do not anticipate a problem.

Stuart Broad may have to live with his heel injury for the rest of his career, with England’s Twenty20 captain admitting he and the medical staff will have to ‘manage’ the problem to keep him playing at the highest level.Broad has not played since the second Test in Mumbai in November, where his 0 for 60 was his second consecutive wicketless Test and continued a disappointing end to 2012. Broad was subsequently dropped for just the second time in his career.The heel problem prevented his return as captain for the T20 series and he also missed last month’s ODIs, but he is back in the fold for the series in New Zealand. After a trip to Germany to be fitted with specially designed boots he claims he has felt good in training, and took a hat-trick in a warm-up game, but his admission that the problem is unlikely to go away is a cause of concern.”It is going to be a long-term thing,” Broad said ahead of the opening T20 in Auckland. “It is a laceration of the fat pad so is not going to go away overnight.It is something I need to manage. It has been good these couple of weeks, I have found good ways to look after it. It is not going to go away with a week’s rest or a year’s rest.”Broad admits his career path as a fast bowler is an issue on account of the type of injury he has which suggested that he may have to be rested a certain periods.,”If I did pretty much anything else in the world but bowl seam it would not be a problem, I don’t feel it walking or running or batting – it is just fast bowling,” he said. “I do not get too down about it. It is something I have to manage. We have a great management team on the physical side.”We have been speaking to specialists all over the world trying to find out what they can do, but there is no operation or injection suitable for it. It is manageable at the minute.

ScorecardBrad Hogg’s spell of 4-29 was his most productive this season•Getty Images

Perth Scorchers have catapulted to second on the Big Bash table after a thumping nine-wicket win over the lacklustre Sydney Thunder.Thunder’s loss was a result of a dismal batting performance. Their captain, Chris Rogers, was out of the game before the toss with a fractured finger, and they lost their way not long after the coin fell in Chris Gayle’s favour.The Thunder slumped to their worst powerplay score of the tournament, just 2 for 23 after six overs. 22-year old left-arm swing bowler Jason Behrendorff, in just his third game, used the pace and bounce of the WACA to his advantage. Gayle guided a catch to slip from a good length outswinger. Matt Prior fell for the third match in succession trying to loft over mid-off. Alfonso Thomas took a spectacular catch running back with the flight.Thunder’s position worsened when Michael Beer induced mistakes from Simon Keen and Ryan Carters to leave them at 4 for 33 after nine overs.Usman Khawaja was called upon to mount another rescue mission. After his classy, unbeaten, 66 against the Sixers, the left-hand batsman backed it up with another half-century. He started slowly, with a couple of streaky leading edges through point. He clicked into gear against Beer in the 13th over, using his feet twice to find the rope at midwicket and then clear it at long-on.Khawaja and Mark Cosgrove combined to score 47 before the latter cut Nathan Coulter-Nile to deep point.Without Khawaja’s efforts the Thunder would have failed to reach a three-figure score. He passed 50 with a magnificent lofted six over cover from the miserly Thomas. Extraordinarily, it was only Khawaja’s third six of his T20 career, equalling his tally of half-centuries. He fell in the last over to Brad Hogg, the first of three wickets in the over. The Thunder posted their lowest total of the tournament thus far.The Scorchers made light work of the chase, despite losing Herschelle Gibbs early. Gurinder Sandhu, in just his second game, bowled well to collect his first wicket at this level. The 19-year-old conceded just 18 from his four overs.After that Shaun Marsh and Marcus North took control. Marsh cruised to his third half-century of the tournament, and superseded Aaron Finch as the BBL’s leading scorer. Marsh’s unbeaten 56 allayed any fears about his thumb injury, having been struck by Doug Bollinger on January 1 in Hobart. Marcus North found some much-need touch, scoring an unbeaten 39 from 30 balls. The partnership was trouble-free, and helped by a 12-ball over from Scott Coyte, who delivered 5 wides and a no-ball before leaving the ground with an elbow problem.The win moved the Scorchers from sixth on the table, thanks to enormous boost in net run-rate, and they now have a chance at hosting another BBL semi-final. The Thunder, meanwhile, have lost 12 consecutive matches as a franchise, with this arguably their most disappointing.

As Australia ponder the output of their Test openers, Sri Lanka have an opening conundrum brewing of their own. In ODIs, Sri Lanka are so awash with talent, they routinely play four capable openers in the XI, yet in Tests there has been a dearth of men with technique and mettle to chisel out a long-term role atop the batting order.Sri Lanka’s last tour of Australia in 2007 was Marvan Atapattu’s swansong, and his long-time partner Sanath Jayasuriya played his final Test not long after. Though Tillakaratne Dilshan has advanced Jayasuriya’s legacy in the years since, Sri Lanka have not found a bona-fide successor for Atapattu, though several have been trialled.Tharanga Paranavitana has had a steady spell of opportunities since his debut in early 2009, but while he has shared Atapattu’s penchant for collecting ducks, his career has also been frustrated by middling scores and a limited range of strokes. At times he has been defensively capable, but mentally tentative – particularly susceptible outside off stump, where his powers of judgement have been found frail.Paranavitana had appeared to overcome a slow start in Test cricket when he made hundreds in back-to-back matches against India in 2010, but has not crossed triple figures in 39 innings since. Sri Lanka rightly acknowledge that their domestic competition does not produce opening batsmen who can find immediate success in Test cricket, but with 32 matches now behind him, the team may have hoped Paranavitana was further along in his development. In 2012, he has played 10 innings and made only one 50, averaging a shade below 30.Perhaps partly in the hope of spurring Paranavitana’s stagnating output, Sri Lanka have taken a spare left-hand opener to Australia. Dimuth Karunaratne got a Test debut when Dilshan sat out the first Test against New Zealand through injury, and a sparkling unbeaten half-century in the second innings of that match earned him a place in the squad to Australia a day later. Sri Lanka are unlikely to displace Paranavitana early in the series, but Karunaratne’s presence will serve as a statement to Paranavitana that he cannot subsist on the selector’s largesse for long.”Dimuth has been around for a long time and when he got his opportunity in Galle he showed his potential,” Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka’s captain, said ahead of the series. “It’s healthy for everyone to have some sort of competition in order to push ourselves to keep improving.”Jayawardene has seen both men develop at first-class level: they open together for the Sinhalese Sports Club, where Jayawardene also cut his teeth. Though Karunaratne and Paranavitana will compete for a spot in the XI in Australia, they have been earmarked as potential long-term openers when Dilshan retires from Tests. Karunaratne’s aggression has complemented Paranavitana’s more circumspect approach in their time together at SSC, and Jayawardene suggested the synergy they have established in domestic cricket may help ensure a successful partnership in years to come.”What we’re looking into developing for the future is to try and get a combination that will be there for a while. It’s very important that the two guys are comfortable and understand each other’s game, because the start makes a big difference.”I think Dimuth adjusted pretty well to international cricket. He knows his game quite well, which helps him. International cricket is always going to be a big step up for anybody. We’ve said to Dimuth that the first six months will be a honeymoon period after which the other teams will analyse you and then it will get tougher. He has got a good head to handle all that. Tharanga is another guy who I’ve played with quite a bit and who has had that same kind of commitment. We need to make sure we help them develop.”For the moment, Paranavitana’s place is the only one in any sort of contention in Sri Lanka’s top seven. Jayawardene believed Paranavitana’s inability to make his position his own despite the extended run is not down to flaws in technique.”It’s about consistency. From time to time we’ve had chats with him and the coaches have been working with him. I think he’s got the technique, but it’s the mental approach that he sometimes makes mistakes with. Technically he’s very sound, but he needs to approach certain situations differently. He needs to work hard at that.”It’s a tough position. Openers always will always have tough times. That’s not just in the Sri Lankan team, that happens in other international sides as well. You need to show authority and feel confidence about that position. That’s where everything is being set up for the rest of the batting order.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Jonathan Trott scored his eighth Test hundred on the final day of the series•BCCI

As an individual event this torturous Test match will not linger long in the memory, but for what the end result enabled England to achieve will be chronicled as one of the team’s finest hours.By batting out the final day with barely an alarm, largely through a 208-run stand between Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell, who both scored hundreds, England secured their first series win in India for 28 years.India have significant weaknesses and problems that need to be addressed, but it has been England’s excellence over the last three games that has exposed those shortcomings. On the last day in Nagpur it was two batsmen earning redemption for relatively lean years that prevented any late nerves and added to the complete team nature of the performance.Trott’s hundred, his eighth, was his first since March and for Bell, while also being his first hundred in India, it ended an even longer wait for three figures going back to The Oval against this opposition in 2011 at the end of what had threatened to be a low trip for him.What was really extraordinary, though, is the turnaround, not only from a crushing defeat in Ahmedabad but also from a year that was on the brink of being their worst ever in Test cricket. Throw into the mix controversy surrounding their star batsman and a change of captain before this series and it is one of England’s finest achievements. Alastair Cook, who was able to watch contently from the dressing room during the final day, has laid down a high marker for his captaincy career.India needed a couple of early wickets to send a few tremors through the England camp but they never threatened. The new ball was taken one over into the day without making a jot of difference. Barring a couple of sessions, this has been a Test devoid of excitement and low in the watchability stakes. England, of course, will not care in the slightest about that but pitches like this are far worse that the “result” surfaces that get the ICC twitchy. If it is not marked down the game’s priorities are wrong.However dead the surface, for Trott and Bell there was a job to do in the first session and they did it expertly. There was good intent from the pair in the first half an hour of the day to ensure the lead was soon in excess of 200 and getting out of sight of India.Trott has played as freely as anyone in the game and twice drove Ravindra Jadeja beautifully through mid-on – or, in the second case, under mid-on as R Ashwin dived over the ball. His leg-side play was wonderfully elegant throughout the innings. He reached his hundred with two boundaries in three balls against Piyush Chawla, a cover drive followed by a trademark flick wide of mid-on, and allowed a little bit of emotion to come through his steely demeanour.Trott had not reached three figures since the second innings against Sri Lanka in Galle earlier this year, and it was only his second hundred since making 203 against Sri Lanka in Cardiff in May 2011. However, he has continued to chip in, the average has only dipped and not plummeted, and once again England were immensely grateful to their rock-solid No. 3.It did not look as though he was going to give away the chance to boost his statistics during the afternoon and it came as a surprise when he clipped Ashwin to leg slip shortly before tea, a few runs short of setting a new record fourth-wicket stand for England in India. That mark remains held by Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood, who added 214 in Chennai in 2008.Trott’s Warwickshire team-mate, Bell, was equally composed in making his first major contribution of a difficult series, where his frailties in India had been exposed again. Although the situation was comfortable for England by lunch, that was not the case when Bell had come in at 94 for 3 so it was a strong display of character from him. His fifty, just the second he had scored in India, came with a straight drive off Ashwin as the off-side play that makes him so pleasing to watch when in form began to make an appearance.He was given a life on 75 when Virender Sehwag spilled a catch at slip and he would have been run out for 97 by a direct hit from square leg. For much of the afternoon he eked along at a pace befitting this match, but started using his feet to Jadeja, lofting him for a straight six followed by a slightly scuffed boundary over mid-on.Bell’s series had begun ingloriously when he tried to launch Pragyan Ojha over the top first ball in Ahmedabad only to find mid-off, for which he was heavily, and rightly, criticised. But he is too good a player to shelve the shot. Deep into the final session, shortly before Cook called his men in to put the final stamp on the result, Bell tickled Ashwin down to fine leg from his 293rd delivery. Everything really had come full circle.

Andy Flower, the England team director, hopes James Taylor can take ownership of England’s problematic No. 6 position but has said that Ravi Bopara will be considered for future selection when his personal situation is resolved.Bopara, who returned to the side for the first time in a year at The Oval, was inked in for the second Test against South Africa at Headingley, despite a lean comeback match: he made 0 and 22 in the crushing innings defeat before informing the management that he would not be available. His withdrawal means England are set to use their fifth No. 6 of the year as the middle-order spot, which has not been consistently filled since Paul Collingwood’s retirement, continues to cause headaches.Eoin Morgan was the first to be given the role and had a sustained run through last summer and the early part of 2012 until paying the price for a poor series against Pakistan. Matt Prior then moved up the order in Sri Lanka, with Samit Patel playing an allrounder’s role at No. 7, before Jonny Bairstow was debuted against West Indies where he struggled.That laid out a clear route for Bopara to finally return to a position that would have been his earlier in the year but for injury but now another obstacle has been put in his way meaning a second debutant of the season in the role. It has also meant another tricky Test build-up for Flower to manage, following the issues revolving around Kevin Pietersen in the days leading towards The Oval.”It’s disappointing for him obviously but it opens the door for another player who has come through the academy system and worked really hard over the years to get his chance,” Flower said. “I certainly hope James can make six his spot for a while.”I don’t know him that well. We’ve had him down for the odd net and he’s worked with Graham Gooch. I watched him play against Sri Lanka at Derby last year. He looks like a young man that understands his game pretty well and he knows how to score runs. We don’t know how he’ll do but we wish him well and hope he has a wonderful international career. It doesn’t close the door on Ravi Bopara.”Flower all-but confirmed that Taylor will debut at No. 6 by saying that it was “unlikely” England would employ a five-man bowling attack despite only taking two wickets in 189 overs at The Oval. However, he did not completely dismiss the idea of an all-pace attack if the Headingley pitch looked particularly lively – although that is a trap England have fallen into before at Leeds. “An all seam attack is an option for us,” he said. “But we haven’t done that for a long time.”It would be a major departure from type if England were to leave out Graeme Swann even though the offspinner went wicketless in 52 overs against South Africa, has taken just six Test wickets at 72.16 this season and is carrying a long-term elbow problem. Flower said Swann’s elbow was “Okay… He has a chronic problem but it’s improving.”Some of England’s players, especially Swann and James Anderson, have been reasonably candid in the days following the defeat at The Oval about how the team have struggled to adapt to their No. 1 ranking, which will slip away if they lose this series. Swann went as far as to call England’s recent record as “dismal” but, perhaps unsurprisingly, Flower did not quite agree.”I wouldn’t describe our results as being dismal,” he said. “I think you have to look a little deeper than that. The series in the UAE was in different conditions and we struggled against their two spinners. You can’t compare that to the first Test against South Africa.”South Africa played very good cricket, we played some good cricket in parts but we didn’t capitalise on a great platform in the first innings. On a pitch like that you need a significant score. South Africa bowled well that second morning and that was where the momentum of that game changed.”And, as even with the measured Flower, he tried to keep the situation in perspective. “Sometimes you are outplayed, regardless of your attempts at dismissal or strategy implemented, so you have to give credit to the opposition,” he said. “It would be very hard for me to argue our strategies were successful. But in international sport you’ll have huge ups and downs, and our make-up has to deal with those ups and downs.”

Dav Whatmore, Pakistan’s coach, has said it’s a “good thing” to have several members of the team’s World Twenty20 squad playing in the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL), despite a conditioning camp in Lahore, ahead of the series against Australia in the UAE, being on.”We can prepare in all sorts of ways, but there is an opportunity for some of the boys to participate in the SLPL and it’s a good thing; I have no problem with it,” Whatmore said at the camp. “At least they are playing in similar conditions and on two grounds [in Sri Lanka] where we are going to play matches [in the World T20].”The league’s matches are being played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, and at the Pallekele International Stadium, both of which are venues for the World T20. A majority of the players who are part of Pakistan’s World T20 and Australia T20s squad – including Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Umar Gul, Shoail Tanvir, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Akmal and Imran Nazir – are among the Pakistan players contracted in the SLPL. Also, Misbah-ul-Haq, and Imran Farhat, who were picked for the ODI-leg of the Australia series, are at the SLPL.”There are few other [countries] doing the same thing, they are getting good practice,” Whatmore said. “For us the practice [ahead of the Australia series], for most of the boys, will be at the SLPL.”Pakistan will play three ODIs and three T20s against Australia between August 28 and September 10, before both squads fly directly to Sri Lanka for the World T20. The Pakistan team management, with the players still in the country – the list includes Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Anwar Ali, Junaid Khan and Mohammad Sami – will leave for the UAE next week.Whatmore said Pakistan will be wary of Australia, who have fallen to No. 4 on the ODI rankings – their lowest-ever ranking after being the top ranked one-day side since September 2009. “They obviously will come hard at us to change their fortunes. But what matters is what happens on the day.”The squad chosen for the series, Whatmore said, is good enough to win. “The selectors have given us a group of players who are competitive enough to give us the right results and win the game. This is our home series, again away from home; we will do our best to perform in the conditions, which are close to the conditions in Pakistan, but certainly [not the same as] Pakistan.”Commenting on Pakistan’s chances at the World T20 in Sri Lanka, Whatmore didn’t single out any favourite. “Every team has started taking this form of the game more seriously and all of them will be pushing hard.We have good team for this format. But some countries who weren’t looking at this format seriously [before], now they are; hence you can see all teams have good squads for the format. It’s a volatile form of game and on the day, even one particular over could matter.”