Picture by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images. Joe Root and Harry Brook at the crease together during the Ashes series, which finished earlier this week.
It will be of little consolation to Joe Root that he finished the Ashes series as England’s leading run-scorer with 400 from the five matches, including two centuries – a best of 160 – at Brisbane and Sydney.
Travis Head was a huge part of why Australia triumphed 4-1, finishing as the leading run-scorer in the series with 629, including three hundreds. Root was second on the list.
Mitchell Starc, a former White Rose overseas player like Head, finished as the leading wicket-taker in the series having struck 31 times with a best of 7-58.
Harry Brook was third on the leading run-scorer’s list with 358.
Both Root and Brook currently sit at number one and two in the ICC’s Test Match batting rankings.
While Brook will lead England at next month’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, Root will not be involved in that tournament. He will, however, be part of England’s three-match ODI series in Sri Lanka at the end of the month, starting on January 22.
Brook will captain, and Adil Rashid is in that squad as well.
Brook and Rashid will then tackle three T20s against Sri Lanka before the World Cup starts for England against Nepal in Mumbai on February 8.
Root, meanwhile, is closing in on 20,000 first-class career runs.
The 35-year-old sits on 19,089 heading into the new summer, which he could start with some Rothesay County Championship cricket for Yorkshire during the opening block.
Of that number, 4,177 have come for the White Rose in 61 appearances since his debut in early 2010. That county haul includes 11 centuries with a best of 236.
He has 13,943 Test Match runs under his belt, and he is now within 2,000 of record-holder Sachin Tendulkar, who totalled 15,921 runs before retirement in 2013.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Will Bennison is off to the Under 19s World Cup in Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Will Bennison will follow in the footsteps of Harry Brook, Will Luxton, Ben Cliff, Harry Duke and George Hill in representing England at recent Under 19s World Cups.
White Rose batting all-rounder Bennison has been called up to England’s squad as an injury replacement for Worcestershire Isaac Mohammed, who has fractured a thumb.
The 50-over World Cup takes place in Zimbabwe and Namibia, starting on Thursday.
Those Yorkshire players named above have all been involved at U19s WCs since 2018.
In the forthcoming campaign, England are one of 16 teams split into four groups. The top three in each advance to the Super 6 stage, when there will be two groups of six. Each team carries forward points, wins and net run-rate. The top two from each group then advances to the semi-finals.
England will start in Group B alongside Pakistan, Scotland and Zimbabwe, a group which is played solely at the Takashinga Sports Club in Harare.
Their opening game is against Pakistan on Friday, with the final taking place at the Harare Sports Club Test Match venue on February 6.
Midway through last summer, Bennison signed rookie professional terms at Yorkshire and made his first-team debut in a Metro Bank One-Day Cup win over Kent at Canterbury.
Picture by Matt Lewis/Getty Images. Lauren Winfield-Hill and wife Courtney are celebrating the arrival of their first child.
Lauren Winfield-Hill is back in state action for Queensland following the Christmas break and the birth of her daughter, Margot Joan last weekend.
Yorkshire captain Lauren and wife Courtney celebrated the arrival of their first-born whilst wintering Down Under.
The state 50-over WNCL competition resumed on Saturday following a two-and-a-half-month break, with the Big Bash played in between.
Winfield-Hill missed Queensland’s win over Tasmania in Hobart on Saturday but played against the same opponents at the same venue on Monday, contributing 18 from number three to a 60-run success.
At the midway point in the competition, Queensland are top of the table with a perfect played six, won six record. The final takes place on March 20. This campaign, Winfield-Hill has scored 225 runs from five appearances with a best of 101 not out.
The Yorkshire players, from both the men’s and women’s squad, who are wintering in Australia and New Zealand will resume club cricket duties this weekend following the Christmas break.
The likes of Fin Bean, Ami Campbell, Rebecca Duckworth, Harry Duke, Will Luxton and Jess Woolston – amongst others – are in Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast and last played on the weekend of December 20/21.
It’s the same case for Yash Vagadia, who is wintering in Wellington.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yash Vagadia is wintering with Wellington club Onslow.
Jonny Bairstow smashed five sixes in 34 taken off one over as he hit a superb unbeaten 85 on Monday as Sunrisers Eastern Cape beat Pretoria Capitals at Centurion to continue their good start to the SA20 competition.
Sunrisers have won three of five matches so far and are very much in the mix for silverware at the midway point in the campaign.
Yorkshire’s red-ball captain has posted scores of 31, 2, 33 and that unbeaten 85 in four innings so far.
He smashed former Yorkshire overseas spinner Keshav Maharaj for five sixes and a four in an over en-route to chasing down 177. He shared an unbroken 177 opening stand with Quinton de Kock in a 10-wicket success.
Sunrisers play again today – 3.30pm, televised on Sky Sports – against Durban’s Super Giants in Durban.
Picture by Harry Trump/Getty Images. Jonny Bairstow has made a productive start to his spell with Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
Leg-spinner Jafer Chohan has played twice for Sydney Sixers in the ongoing Big Bash League in Australia, striking once.
Chohan has returned to the Sixers for a second successive campaign and played in pre-Christmas matches against Adelaide Strikers and Sydney Thunder, the first a defeat and the second a win.
He returned 1-28 from four overs in the Strikers’ game.
The Sixers have won four of seven matches so far and are currently fielding Babar Azam, Sam Curran and Aussie-born Italian spinner Ben Manenti as their trio of overseas players.
Picture by Mark Evans/Getty Images. Jafer Chohan is currently with the Sydney Sixers in Australia’s Big Bash.
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Yorkshire’s new men’s recruit Sam Whiteman has scored 544 runs in both four-day Sheffield Shield cricket and the one-day Dean Jones Trophy during the ongoing Australian domestic summer.
Whiteman, 33, is Western Australia’s state captain and will join the White Rose ahead of the new county season starting in early April on a three-year all-format contract.
He is not currently involved in the ongoing T20 Big Bash competition, a competition he has won three times with Perth Scorchers.
Unfortunately for WA, regular title winners under Whiteman’s leadership, they currently sit bottom of the Shield table with one win from six matches, while they are second-bottom of the Dean Jones Trophy table with two wins from five.
The state season concludes with the Shield final from March 25-30, with the regular group matches concluding on March 14-17.
Left-handed Whiteman has 320 Shield runs to his name from six matches with a best of 103, while he has posted three half-centuries in five one-day matches, totalling 224 runs.
Picture by Dylan Burns/Getty Images. Yorkshire’s new signing Sam Whiteman.
