Bangladesh announce two-Test home series against West Indies

Dhaka [Bangladesh], September 9 (ANI): The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Tuesday announced the schedule for the upcoming two-Test home series against the West Indies, with the first match set to begin on October 28, according to the ICC website. tr-sport.click

The two-Test series will get underway in Mirpur on October 28 as part of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship cycle, with the second and final Test scheduled to begin in Sylhet on November 5. Bangladesh are currently fourth in the WTC standings after drawing their recent two-match series in Australia.

Bangladesh have played six Tests in the current WTC cycle, securing three wins, suffering two defeats and earning one draw. Their campaign has also included a 1-0 series loss away to Sri Lanka last year and a 2-0 home series sweep against Pakistan.

West Indies, on the other hand, are eighth in the nine-team WTC standings, with Pakistan below them. The Caribbean side’s most recent assignment in the current cycle ended in a 1-1 draw against Pakistan.

Having played 12 Tests so far, the West Indies have managed just two wins, while suffering eight defeats and registering two draws. They endured five consecutive losses at the start of the cycle, including a 3-0 home series defeat against Australia and a 2-0 away series loss to India.

The West Indies had to wait another three Tests for their first victory of the ongoing World Test Championship cycle, eventually securing it against Sri Lanka in a 1-0 home series win.

Ahead of the Bangladesh series, the touring side will play a three-day warm-up fixture, beginning on October 22.

Bangladesh vs West Indies series schedule:

October 28-November 1: 1st Test, Mirpur

November 5-9: 2nd Test, Sylhet. (ANI)

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New York [US], September 9 (ANI): World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka kept her bid for a third consecutive US Open title alive after rallying from a 4-2 deficit in the deciding set to defeat Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova 7-6(1), 3-6, 7-6(7) and reach the semifinals at Flushing Meadows.

The top seed sealed the hard-fought quarterfinal victory in two hours and 22 minutes, extending her winning streak at the US Open to 18 matches, according to the WTA website.

Sabalenka is now through to her sixth consecutive US Open semifinal and 15th Grand Slam semifinal overall. She is two victories away from becoming the first woman since Serena Williams, who won three straight US Open titles from 2012 to 2014, to achieve the feat in New York.

10-0 in tiebreaks at the US Open since 2022

Aryna Sabalenka stays fearless in the clutch. pic.twitter.com/CcJQA6PKGC

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 8, 2026

Noskova produced 46 winners, including 18 aces, and saved seven of nine break points. Sabalenka responded with 42 winners and 12 aces, clinching the match on her first match point with a second-serve ace out wide.

The victory marked Sabalenka’s first win over a Top 10 opponent since defeating Coco Gauff in the Miami final in March and her sixth such victory of the 2026 season.

It was also Sabalenka’s first three-set win at a Grand Slam this year after she lost to Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final and Diana Shnaider in the Roland Garros quarterfinals.

Sabalenka also ended Noskova’s six-match winning streak in third-set tiebreaks and improved her own record in deciding-set tiebreaks this season to 2-1.

The match was the first meeting between reigning Grand Slam champions since the Miami final and the first clash between two Top 10 players at this year’s US Open.

Sabalenka will next face either third seed Jessica Pegula or 26th seed Emma Navarro in the semifinals. A meeting with Pegula would be the 14th encounter between the two players, with Sabalenka having defeated the American at the US Open in each of the last two years. ANI)

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Joe Root has insisted it's "disrespectful" to accuse Pakistan of showing "no fight" with the tourists on the brink of suffering a Test series whitewash by his England side. England head into the third Test at Edgbaston starting Wednesday with an unbeatable 2-0 up in a three-match series after mammoth wins at Headingley and Lord's.

Last week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) took the extraordinary step of sending seven players home after the second Test and sacking Test coach Sarfaraz Ahmed, with white-ball boss Mike Hesson replacing him. Seven players have been added to the Pakistan squad, five of whom have yet to make their Test debuts ahead of the series finale in Birmingham.

The team has been labelled one of the worst Pakistan cricket sides in decades. Root, during his pre-match press conference at Edgbaston on Tuesday, was asked what it was like to face opponents offering "no fight", with Pakistan yet to make 200 in four innings so far this series against a revamped England pace quartet of Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson. England captain Root took issue with the question, saying it was "disrespectful" to both sides.

"Absolutely we have found (Pakistan) a challenge," Root said, even though England thrashed Pakistan by an innings and 103 runs at Headingley, before inflicting a 194-run defeat upon the tourists at Lord's. "I think that's a bit disrespectful to both Pakistan as a team and to us as a team," added Root, in his second spell as full-time England skipper following the shock international retirement of Ben Stokes.

"I don't think we've allowed them to get into games because of how well we've played as well and how quickly we've read the situations and the surfaces that we've had. "I think it's very easy to say one team is excellent and one team is poor. Normally it's somewhere in the middle."

"If one team has been outstanding then the other team can't have been poor and vice-versa. I think it's important to live in that middle area somewhere and understand that that's not how it is. "Regardless of what's happened over the last two games, this week it's a completely different proposition for us. "There's a very talented group of players in that dressing room and you've got to be ready for it, so we'll make sure that we are."

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