Smriti Mandhana has recovered from her toe injury and will join the India women's squad in the Caribbean ahead of the second ODI against West Indies on November 3.

ESPNcricinfo understands that Mandhana, who had sustained a fracture to her right toe while batting in the nets ahead of the ODI series against South Africa at home last month, will be leaving for the Caribbean on November 2. However, it's unclear if she will be available for the second and third ODIs of the series, which begins on November 1 in Antigua. The two teams will play a five-match T20I series after the ODIs.

Mandhana spent a part of her recovery at home in Sangli, from where she posted an update via Instagram of her first running session. She subsequently underwent rehab at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru even as the Indian squad left for the Caribbean on October 21. No replacement for Mandhana had been announced at the time.

Mandhana, the vice-captain of the T20I side, had been named in both ODI and T20I squads for the tour, which is India's final assignment this year. With no India players participating in the ongoing fifth edition of the Women's Big Bash League in Australia, the matches in the West Indies could give Mandhana a chance to regain form ahead of the tour of Australia in January next year, where India will play a T20I tri-series against the hosts and England in the lead-up to the women's T20 World Cup in February-March in Australia.

In her most recent international assignment, the T20I series against South Africa in Surat, Mandhana had scored only 46 runs in four innings. Prior to that, she was below her best in the Women's Cricket Super League in England too, scoring 268 runs in 11 innings for Western Storm.

Two days before the Delhi T20I between India and Bangladesh, the air quality in Delhi has plummeted to hazardous levels, and led to a public-health emergency. Schools have been shut, construction work stalled, and athletic activity advised against, but the two teams trained out in the middle and continued to shrug off the threat of playing in such poor air quality.

This match is the first international fixture in India after Diwali, which raises severe questions over BCCI's planning because it is well documented that the weeks immediately after Diwali are some of the most hazardous on public health. The BCCI has had first-hand experience with Ranji Trophy matches cancelled and a Test match interrupted in the past.

The schedule was announced as early as June 2019. Match allocation in the BCCI works on rotation basis, but exchanging matches is not unheard of. However, the current BCCI office bearers took charge only last week, until when the board had been under the charge of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, who had been entrusted with ensuring the implementation of the Lodha Committee's reforms and overseeing the running of the board while that happened. So direct responsibility for this scheduling is hard to pin down.

Questions asked of CEO Rahul Johri, who was the chief executive even when the current BCCI was not in charge, went unanswered. New secretary Jay Shah didn't respond either, but new president Sourav Ganguly said on Thursday that it was not possible to change the venue at such a short notice.

The two camps, who are at possibly the biggest risk because they are undertaking strenuous athletic activity, tried to play the issue down. While the Bangladesh players privately complained of burning eyes, sore throats and their struggle to sleep, their coach Russell Domingo said they were not going to moan about it. In what might come across as an insensitive statement, he even said it is not like anybody has died on the field.

"It's not something you'd want, but there is nothing you can do about it," Domingo said. "It is what it is. We have to make sure that we prepare as well as possible and deal with it as well as possible. Thus far, for sure have some scratchy eyes and some sore throat now and then, but it's been okay. Nobody's been sick or dying or anything like that. We've been okay with it."

Domingo, who was one of the members of the Bangladesh camp who wore a mask during training, was thankful the team was playing just a T20I and not a Test match or ODI. "Obviously you don't want to be in it for six or seven hours," Domingo said. "Three hours we're playing and three hours practice sessions. It's probably as long as you would want to be in it at the moment."

Domingo also said conditions back home might have helped the players ready themselves for this game. "There's a bit of pollution in Bangladesh as well so it's not a massive shock to the system as maybe some other countries can experience. The players have dealt with it really well - 'It's a bit smoky but let's get on with it and practise.' They haven't made too much of an issue out of it. Coaches haven't either. And we just have to go about our business as well normally would."

India's batting coach Vikram Rathour compared it with playing in extreme weather conditions. Rathour himself played a lot of cricket in north Indian winters, so he was asked how much worse the pollution has become over time. "I don't think you even notice it," Rathour said. "Playing cricket, you play sometimes in very hot weather… 45-46 degrees [Celsius]. Sometimes you play in extreme cold. Once you are in a game, I don't think you notice these things. It's when you are sitting out…"

When told of the emergency conditions and the public-health advisory against athletic activity, Rathour said: "I understand that but we are here to play a game and can't really do much about it. We are here to play and we will play."

That's what the local hosting body, the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) said too. "As you must be aware that BCCI has said that it's too late to change the venue at the last moment," Rajat Sharma, the DDCA president, told ESPNcricinfo. "DDCA, however, is taking all possible measures in consultation with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). A meeting was held by the representatives of DDCA with various other departments such as DPCC, Traffic Police, SDMC (South Delhi Municipal Corporation), PWD (Public Works Department) and others chaired by member secretary CPCB. The situation was reviewed and departments were advised to take certain measures to help reducing the pollution around Arun Jaitley Stadium.

"DDCA was advised to wash the trees inside the stadium so that the dust doesn't flow. DDCA was also asked to survey the area of about two kilometres around the stadium and if any polluting items such as construction material, burning garbage etc. is found it is to be reported to CPCB. They will ensure immediate action."

With the AQI (air quality index) reaching 471 on the afternoon two days before the match, these measures are not likely to make any significant impact on the air quality.

The best allrounder in the world. Bangladesh's best player ever. Friend. Mentor. At times, the voice of Bangladesh cricket. Two players in one. Now a banned cricketer because he didn't report suspect approaches, something you are obliged and taught to do. As the Bangladesh team began its preparations for the tough tour of India, coming to terms with the loss of Shakib Al Hasan is a long way away.

For starters, there are disappointed team-mates for whom Shakib was a role model. Coach Russell Domingo hasn't even worked properly with Shakib yet, but he can see it in the dressing room. "Everyone is a bit disappointed," Domingo said. "I don't think I should be talking too much about it. I've been here for a month, and I've known Shakib for a month. The relationships the players have with him are a lot deeper than I've got because I don't know him well. But the players speak very highly of him, have a lot of respect for him, admire the way he goes about his business, his performances. Now he's made a mistake, he's paying the price."

Shakib is banned for two years, one of which is suspended. That means he will be out for one year, and there is no telling how he will be accepted when he does make the comeback. "One year in cricketing terms is a long time," Domingo said. "I haven't even thought about it; how Shakib gets in the game, back into the team, it's something that hasn't crossed my mind. It hasn't crossed anybody's mind.

"He has been a big player for Bangladesh. Very close friends with a lot of the players, so it's obviously affected some of the players. He has made a mistake and he is paying the price for it. There's not too much that we can say about it. It's not something we can control or something that affects us too much at the moment. It obviously affects the team in terms of his performances, but our mindset and our focus will be entirely on the series and the [T20] World Cup in 12 months' time."

When it comes to performances, Domingo admitted any replacement for Shakib will leave the team one player light. "Shakib bats at No. 3, often opens the bowling or bowls first change," Domingo said. "He bowls four overs every single game. He's one of our leading batters. Do I replace the batter or replace the bowler? Because it's very difficult; he plays both. There aren't too many players who provide you with both skills.

"So you might find yourself short in one department, and strengthening the other department. Depending on the conditions, if it's a flat wicket, you want to strengthen your bowling. If you think there's a little bit in for the wicket you might as well strengthen your batting. So, it would very much depend on the conditions. I don't think there's anyone earmarked who's specifically going to do Shakib's job. Everyone's going to try to contribute and fill up the numbers as best he possibly can."

India will go into the series without their usual captain Virat Kohli, but Domingo was of the view that Shakib was just as big a miss if not bigger for Bangladesh. "There's no Virat, [at the same time] there's no Shakib," Domingo said when asked of the advantage Kohli's absence might give his side. "So, there's an advantage for India with no Shakib and there's an advantage for Bangladesh with no Virat."

Baseball's regular season has the pace-of-play problem with which we're all familiar: Many of the 2,430 games take on dead time until they are boring, lulling. It's a good dish, watered down until you don't love it as much.

The postseason's pace-of-play problem is different. It's not that games get boring, since a World Series game is almost always tense and urgent, and if you're on a cross-country flight with cable TV access you will enjoy every moment of it. But most people aren't on cross-country flights. Most people have full lives, and they have to squeeze in their baseball indulgences among other obligations, like family, and sleep, and moving at least once every four hours to avoid nerve damage. These postseason games are thrilling, but they are so lengthy that they become impractical for many otherwise enthusiastic customers -- a good dish that goes cold before it can be finished.

Nearly every game in this World Series was long, even by World Series standards. Of the 13 longest nine-inning World Series games this decade, six came this year. Game 3, a 4-1 Houston victory, took 4 hours, 3 minutes:

This was the first time a game lasted 4+ hours, didn't go to extra innings, and had 5 or fewer total runs scored https://t.co/InhtMBDxAF

— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) October 26, 2019

In some ways, the most discouraging part of the pace of these games is how well disguised the slowness is. It's not that the games are slow for reasons that are anomalous (like 15-14 slugfests) or that could be easily legislated away (like limiting constant mound visits by catchers, which have been sharply curtailed since the 2017 postseason) or that would be delightful (very good dogs running onto the field to frolic). Rather, they're slow because ... well, why are they slow?

We rewatched Game 3 of the series, that unprecedented four-hour affair, with a stopwatch in hand and a few spreadsheets open, looking for the stuffing. Here's what we found.

Let's start with the baseline: While the average nine-inning baseball game this year was 3 hours, 5 minutes (an all-time high), the 65 4-1 games -- with less offense than typical games -- averaged just 2 hours, 55 minutes. That's our baseline. (The longest 4-1 game in the regular season, incidentally, was 3 hours, 29 minutes. There were two previous 4-1 games in this postseason that were at least 15 minutes longer than that. Postseason games are very long.) So Game 3 of the World Series was, at 4 hours, 3 minutes, 68 minutes longer than we would expect from the score and the year. What are those 68 minutes showing us?

1. For around 17 of them, they are showing us this:

Postseason commercial breaks are longer than regular-season breaks, by about 50 seconds. There are 17 between-inning breaks (one after every half inning except the final one), plus pitching change breaks (which are also longer in the postseason), so that adds around 17 minutes. This is baked into every postseason game, so if you want to know what an average postseason game is, start at 3 hours, 20 minutes.

2. For a little more than three minutes, they are showing us this:

There are, on average, 2.05 mid-inning pitching changes per game in the regular season, each of which adds about 3 minutes,15 seconds of dead time. (Pitching changes at the start of an inning add only a few seconds of extra time.) There were three such pitching changes in this game, which is in keeping with the World Series norm: There have been an average of 3.7 mid-inning pitching changes per World Series game since 2016. Managers have more urgent hooks for their pitchers (both starters and relievers) in the postseason, and a lot more innings generally go to relievers in the postseason, hence more mid-inning pitching changes. The three longest half-innings in Game 3 -- all of them lasting at least 22 minutes, compared to about 10 minutes for a typical half-inning -- all had mid-inning pitching changes.

3. For about five minutes, they are showing us this:

That's a single that the Nationals hit in the bottom of the ninth, which, as you know, wouldn't have been possible if the Nationals -- the home team -- had been winning the game. But the road team won all seven games in this World Series, which added about 10 minutes to each game -- or, more fairly, about five minutes, since the home team does bat in around half of baseball games.

We're up to about 25 minutes of our 68.

4. For about 16 minutes, they are showing us this:

That's Yuli Gurriel singling with a runner on first base and two outs. We noted that scoring was below average this World Series, but it was uncharacteristically heavy on baserunners. The Astros and Nationals combined for a .331 on-base percentage, the highest in a World Series since 2011, and significantly better than the .299 OBP that World Series hitters had this decade. Batters in this year's regular season had a .323 on-base percentage. It doesn't feel as if we saw an explosive, offense-packed series -- there were only nine runs scored per game, down from 9.6 per game in the regular season -- but that's just because nobody is getting hits with runners in scoring position. There have been a ton of baserunners, but they're not being driven in.

Put this together with the third factor -- more home teams batting in the bottom of the ninth -- and this year's World Series has had about six more batters per nine innings than the average World Series this decade. And despite the low score, the Astros' 4-1 victory in Game 3 had 81 plate appearances -- almost 12 more than the average 4-1 game this year.

We already counted the time spent by batters hitting in the bottom of the ninth, so we won't count that again. But at a little under two minutes per batter, on average, the other eight extra batters account for about 16 minutes of extra baseball.

5. For about 20 seconds, they are showing us this:

That's just a pitch, one single extra 3-2 pitch. There tend to be slightly more pitches per plate appearance in the World Series than in the regular season, as strikeout pitchers face disciplined hitters and produce deeper counts. The difference was minimal for this game, though: In Game 3, there were 3.94 pitches per plate appearance, compared to 3.93 in the regular season, which is one extra pitch. So that's those 20 seconds.

6. For about two and a half minutes, they are showing us this:

We mentioned that more baserunners have meant more plate appearances, each one adding about two extra minutes. But more baserunners also means more men on base, and pitchers tend to slow way down when men are on base -- not just to try to stall the running game, but to go through more complex signals with the catcher, to pace themselves through longer innings and to keep themselves composed. The average time between pitches when a man is on base is about 5.5 seconds longer than when the bases are empty, according to Baseball Prospectus' pace metric.

Because there were a lot of baserunners in this series, and this game -- and, especially, a lot of baserunners early in innings -- there were a lot more pitches thrown with runners on base than normal: 53% of all pitches in Game 3, compared to about 42% in the regular season. That adds up to 17 extra pitches thrown from the stretch, which -- at 5.5 extra seconds per -- adds about two and a half extra minutes. That gets us to about 44 extra minutes accounted for, and about 24 minutes unaccounted for. So where are those?

7. For at least 13 minutes, and probably a lot more, they are showing us this:

Exciting! Dramatic! It's pitchers taking longer than usual to pitch!

Nearly every pitcher in this World Series has worked more slowly than he did during the regular season. On average, World Series pitchers have taken an extra 1.5 seconds between pitches with the bases empty and an extra three seconds per pitch with men on base. Sometimes this is obvious to the viewer: When Zack Greinke fell behind 3-0 to leadoff hitter Trea Turner, he took slow walks around the mound after the second and third balls, settling himself. When Anibal Sanchez was facing George Springer in a long at-bat during the second inning, he continually shook off signs and stepped off the mound. But mostly this shows up in an extra beat or two that you wouldn't notice unless you were timing it, at least until you wake up groggy from sleep deprivation the next morning.

Greinke took about six more seconds between pitches with men on base in this game, compared to the regular season, and about three extra seconds per pitch with the bases empty. Sanchez took an extra four seconds with men on, and an extra second with the bases empty. Relievers Brad Peacock, Will Harris, Joe Smith, Josh James and Joe Ross were all slower in this game than they typically are.

All those extra seconds add up to 13 minutes, compared to the regular season, but even that total probably undersells it. The "pace" figures we're using, from Baseball Prospectus, exclude the time between any pitches that come more than one minute after the previous pitch, because it assumes that something unusual happened -- an injury, a visit from the pitching coach, a pickoff attempt. We weren't able to determine whether there are usually more pickoff attempts in the World Series, but we can say definitively that there were more pickoff attempts than usual in this specific game, Game 3. On average, teams threw over about 3.5 times per game in the regular season. Sanchez threw over five times just in the first inning, and continued to do so as the game went on.

So that undefined time -- pickoff time, mound-visit time -- could get us pretty close to 68 minutes. The rest can be blamed on Turner, who spent two and a half minutes in agony after fouling a pitch into his crotch.

From MLB's perspective, we can break this time into three segments:

1. Commercials (17 extra minutes)

2. The type of game that happened to be played (around 27 extra minutes)

3. Postseason-specific dawdling (around 24 extra minutes)

The first is easy to fix -- but they presumably never will. The second is impossible to fix -- but nobody would ever want to, since that was all the natural and exciting stuff. The third is what executives dream of erasing.

But it's not simple. Pitchers aren't taking more time between pitches because they've never considered moving faster. They're doing it because these games are incredibly important, and those extra seconds help them, and research has found that working slower helps pitchers throw faster. As Joe Garagiola Jr. told Jerry Crasnick in 2013, "If people are taking a little more time between pitches ... it's because somebody is going to be the world champion at the end of the next eight or nine days. You can't lose sight of that."

The fact that pitchers slow down so much in the postseason is evidence of how important to their performance pitchers consider those extra seconds. Taking those extra seconds away in the name of business would be like outlawing sliders in the name of business. It would rightly infuriate pitchers, prioritizing a secondary aspect of the sport (the surface-level entertainment value) over the primary aspect of it (competition between elite athletes attempting to be their best). It's no wonder the union has pushed back against pitch-clock proposals that would disproportionately penalize one class of employee for the league's relatively unimportant business interest.

If the league really wanted to cut the time pitchers spend between pitches in the most important innings of the year, they would do better to consider pitch-clock rules as explicit efforts to hamper pitcher performance, not to save time but to strengthen the actual competition on the field. Those sorts of changes are common in setting (or changing) the rules of game play: imposing play clocks and shot clocks in other sports, banning spitballs and regulating mound height in baseball.

The main thing keeping offense going in baseball right now is the juiced ball; otherwise, pitchers are and have been ascendant for the past decade, with strikeout rates setting records every season. If the dead ball goes away -- and since Major League Baseball claims not to know what caused the dead ball, it also doesn't know how to preserve it -- baseball could quickly enter a new dead ball era.

One small thing the league could do to return an advantage to batters is take away pitchers' ability to slow the game down to their own preferred rhythm. Not for pace-of-play reasons, mind you, but to maintain a nice balance between pitching and offense. If, as a convenient side benefit, World Series watchers get a good night's sleep ... well, that'd be OK too.

Thanks to Lucas Apostoleris and Baseball Prospectus for research assistance.

Another new England number one
By SEAN REUTHE and ALAN THATCHER

Ever since Nick Matthew retired, England has witnessed something of a merry-go-round as James Willstrop, Daryl Selby and Declan James have enjoyed spells as the new national number one. Now we can add Adrian Waller to the list.

Waller, from a squash-loving family in Middlesex, has broken into the top 20 for the first time in his career to become the highest ranked Englishman on the men’s tour after the PSA Men’s World Rankings for November were released today.

Waller, the 29-year-old from Enfield, won his eighth PSA Tour title at the Life Time Chicago Open in October, and that victory, along with a third round finish at the U.S. Open, has helped elevate him seven places to sit at a career-high World No.17 ranking.

Waller and his brothers have become familiar figures on the Middlesex League scene over many years, while Adrian has quietly worked his way up the world rankings.

Waller represented England in last year’s Commonwealth Games and gained some extra PSA ranking points after winning the recent $30k Chicago Open, defeating New Zealand’s Campbell Grayson in a one-sided final.

Perhaps significantly, he beat Declan James in the second round of the US Open earlier last month.

U.S. Open champion Ali Farag extends his lead over runner-up Mohamed ElShorbagy at the top of the World Rankings, while Tarek Momen (No.3), Karim Abdel Gawad (No.4) and New Zealand’s Paul Coll complete the top five.

The rest of the top 10 is also unchanged as Simon Rösner (No.6), Diego Elias (No.7), Mohamed Abouelghar (No.8), Miguel Rodriguez (No.9) and Marwan ElShorbagy (No.10) all retain their spots.

India’s Saurav Ghosal stays at No.11 ahead of Welshman Joel Makin, while Egypt’s Fares Dessouky rises a spot to No.13. France’s Gregoire Marche moves up two spots to a career-high No.14 ranking, while Omar Mosaad drops two places to No.15. Zahed Salem falls a place to No.16, with England’s former World No.1 James Willstrop staying at No.18.

Egypt’s Mazen Hesham rises two places to return to the top 20 for the first time since September 2016, while England’s Daryl Selby completes the top 20 after falling three places.

 
PSA Men’s World Rankings Top 20 – November 2019.

Pictures courtesy of PSA

MANCHESTER, England -- Manchester United are sweating on the fitness of Marcus Rashford, Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof ahead of the trip to Bournemouth.

Rashford and Lindelof were forced off during the 2-1 Carabao Cup victory over Chelsea while Maguire was left hobbling at the end of the game at Stamford Bridge.

Paul Pogba, Luke Shaw, Nemanja Matic and Axel Tuanzebe are still sidelined and are unlikely to be fit before the international break.

"It's still early," Solskjaer told a news conference on Friday. "Hopefully we can get them back on the pitch [at Bournemouth].

"They had some treatment on Thursday, a little more treatment today [Friday], a light session and hopefully they're ready. I can't exactly tell you exactly now."

Rashford has scored four goals in four games as United have recovered from a disappointing start to the season to win three away games in a row.

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They face a Bournemouth side on Saturday who have not won since September and did not score at all in October as Solskjaer's men chase four away wins in 10 days.

"The confidence is getting better," Solskjaer said of his side. "Getting players back from injury helps.

"In football it's not very far from failure to success or other way round. Every game is a new opportunity to show what you can do and that's part of being here.

"I didn't play every game and every game I played was a chance to show the manager I should play the next one and hopefully these boys feel like that."

Before hitting his purple patch, Rashford had scored once in his previous nine games. His return to form has coincided with Anthony Martial's return from injury and Solskjaer has credited the France forward with helping to get the best out of his No.10.

"Since Anthony's come back Marcus has blossomed," the United boss said. "He's probably happier facing goal, being direct, driving at people, taking players on rather than [a] target man with [his] back to goal but Marcus wants to master all the skills."

Australia and Perth Scorchers bowler Andrew Tye is set to miss most of the summer after needing surgery to fix his injured elbow.

Tye was named in Australia's T20I squad for the six matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan but was withdrawn prior to the first game in Adelaide after injuring his right elbow while throwing at training. He was replaced in the squad by Sean Abbott.

Scans revealed that Tye requires surgery and will miss three to four months of cricket, which includes the entire BBL.

Tye's injury is a blow to Australia's plans ahead of the T20 World Cup. His unique skills as a middle overs and death specialist make him a rare commodity in T20 cricket.

However, his loss will be felt most at the Perth Scorchers in the BBL. The Scorchers have already lost Jason Behrendorff for the tournament after he opted to have back surgery to fix recurring stress fractures in his lower back.

They are now without Tye as well, having also lost Nathan Coulter-Nile after he signed with the Melbourne Stars.

A change of heart at the ECB could see the County Championship - rather than the One-Day Cup - played at the same time as the Hundred from 2021.

Next summer the domestic one-day competition is scheduled to be played at the same time as the Hundred, meaning England's best limited-overs players will not be available for 50-over cricket. But Ashley Giles, the managing director of England men's cricket, has suggested that decision could be reviewed after the 2020 season.

While he insisted the 50-over competition would provide an opportunity for "young guys to get exposure" in 2020, he did admit that, ahead of the 2023 World Cup in India, the ECB may look to ensure the domestic competition is of as high a standard as possible and not hit by absences.

"It definitely will be 50-over alongside the Hundred next summer, but this will be consistently reviewed," Giles told The Cricketer in an interview in their November edition. "You could then move your 50-over back to the start of the year.

"Fifty-over cricket remains really important. But we have to prioritise slightly differently over the next few years. We have two T20 World Cups ahead of the 2023 50-over World Cup. We'll still play 50-over.

"Can I sit here and say it's the most important thing when it's being playing alongside the Hundred - no, I can't. You'd laugh at me. It's actually a really good competition for some young guys to get exposure. Then in 2021 we might have a look at the scheduling again."

One option likely to be discussed by the ECB cricket committee now chaired by Andrew Strauss is the possibility of staging Championship games - perhaps offering half the points of matches at other stages of the season when all players are available - during the window designed to accommodate the Hundred. That will not be a universally popular option and may lead to suggestions that the ECB is compromising the integrity of the first-class game and, as a consequence, the development of the Test side.

But Giles feels the benefits, not least playing more first-class in the prime weeks of the summer when conditions should encourage spin bowling, are worth further consideration.

"People will say the integrity of the Championship would be in question," Giles said. "But you could view it slightly differently: play with a points system, and have a healthy mix of senior players who are not in the Hundred, alongside some 19 and 20-years-olds.

"You could have four rounds of Championship cricket at the height of summer, on good pitches that might spin. A lot of county members like seeing the young players, at outgrounds. That would be great."