Suzie Bates to retire from international cricket after T20 World Cup 2026
New Zealand allrounder Suzie Bates is set to retire after the 2026 T20 World Cup in England following a stellar 20-year-old cricket career. With 5964 ODI runs, Bates is the leading run-scorer in women’s T20Is with a tally of 4717 runs and fourth in women’s ODIs with 5964 runs. She led New Zealand for almost seven years after being appointed as their captain in July 2011. Bates was also the first female cricketer to appear in 350 international matches and score 25,000 career runs (international and domestic).
Bates said. “I’m immensely proud to have worn the fern so many times, and I’ve been filled with enormous purpose and joy in striving each day to be a better person, team-mate, cricketer, and athlete for this team. She added, “I have one final mission: to head to the UK – a place that holds so many special memories for me – and win another World Cup. I’m going to give every ounce of my energy to this final quest, dedicating every minute to helping this team play the kind of cricket we, and our country, can be proud of.”
BCB to not release Mustafizur, Nahid Rana for the remainder of PSL 2026
The BCB has withdrawn the No Objection Certificates (NOC) for Mustafizur Rahman and Nahid Rana for the remainder of PSL 2026. Mustafizur and Rana had to return for the Bangladesh-New Zealand ODI series at home during the PSL. Mustafizur was playing for Lahore Qalandars whereas Rana was playing for Peshawar Zalmi. After the third match, the BCB has informed that both would not be returning for the Pakistan Super League. Mustafizur would go for the rehabilitation for his knee injury and Rana would be rested for workload management.
“It has been decided that the player [Mustafizur] will undergo an immediate scan to further assess his condition,” a BCB statement said, “after which he will commence a rehabilitation programme under the supervision of the BCB medical team. In this regard, the board has withdrawn the No Objection Certificate (NOC) previously issued to Mustafizur. He will therefore not be available to participate in the remainder of PSL 2026.”
This is the right time where we can learn and come back strong: Harmanpreet Kaur
Despite conceding a 0-3 lead to South Africa with two T20Is still to be played, India women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur believes that her team would be able to “come back strong” in the upcoming T20 World Cup after learning from the mistakes. “After the last T20 WC, we have won the maximum T20 series, this is the only one we didn’t execute the way we were in the last series.” Harmanpreet further said in the press conference, “I think it’s good that whatever mistakes we are making are now and not in the World Cup. This is the right time where we can learn and come back strong.”
The captain opined, “The score was decent but unfortunately we were not able to get a breakthrough in the powerplay. No matter what match you are playing, taking wickets in powerplay always helps and we were not able to do that and it really cost us.” She added, “As a batting unit we were able to put up a decent total. but in the second innings there was dew and the ball was not gripping well and on top of that they were batting really well and while bowling nothing really worked for us.”
