5:41 AM GMT New Zealand are crossing their fingers they can put together a healthy XI for the final Test in Sydney after illness struck the camp forcing Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls to sit out training for the second day running. Mitchell Santner, whose position in the side was under scrutiny after two poor

5:58 PM GMT Jos Buttler has admitted he is “not quite performing to the standards” he would like with the bat in Test cricket. Butter is averaging just 23.14 since the start of the Ashes – a period of 14 innings in seven Tests – with one half-century (70 against Australia at The Oval). His

12:36 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Angelo Mathews has been named in Sri Lanka’s squad for the T20I series against India starting from January 5, and could play his first T20I in nearly 16 months if picked in the XI. Mathews last played in this format for Sri Lanka as captain, in a one-off match against

2:07 AM GMT Matt Roller Close Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98 Picking XIs for a decade can feel a bit like trying to form Powerplay rules – introducing artificial restrictions to drum up some excitement – because cricket careers and schedules don’t naturally lend themselves to decade-style reviews.

4:12 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff England are “cautiously” backing an ICC proposal to scrap five-day Tests from 2023. The ICC’s cricket committee are expected to formally consider a proposal in 2020 to make four-day Tests mandatory as part of the World Test Championship in a bid to ease pressure in an increasingly crowded international schedule.

Dom Sibley in action during England nets earlier in the tour © Getty Images England have finally received some encouraging news on the health front, with Dom Sibley feeling better after being struck down by the illness that has cut a swathe through the visitors’ camp. Opening batsman Sibley became the latest player to succumb

3:30 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Trevor Penney has been named West Indies’ assistant coach in white-ball cricket for two years. He will work on the team’s fielding in this period, starting on January 2, 2020, when preparations begin for the home series against Ireland. Penney, 51, comes with the vast experience of having worked with

6:00 PM GMT Chris Silverwood has insisted England “will not be afraid” to take tough selection decisions if necessary. Silverwood, the England coach, will have to weigh up whether or not his side should pick a spinner for the second Test in Cape Town starting on January 3. If they do, it could leave him

Play 01:09 Root refuses to blame illness for defeat in South Africa Spare a thought for holiday-makers catching a flight to Cape Town from Johannesburg on New Year’s Eve. For there is a fair chance some of them will be sharing a plane with an England squad so sickly that they should probably be led