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Chamari Atapattu will the lead Sri Lanka women in their home series against West Indies while allrounder Eshani Kaushalya has been named her deputy

ESPNcricinfo staff02-May-2015Chamari Atapattu will lead a 14-member Sri Lanka Women squad in their home series against West Indies. Allrounder Eshani Lokusuriyage will be her deputy for the four ODIs and three T20Is.West Indies have not played 50-over cricket since November 2014, when they lost to Australia 0-4. Sri Lanka have their own concerns against rust – the last time they played was in January and were beaten 3-0 by Pakistan.Sri Lanka lead West Indies in the head-to-head battle – 13 wins in 24 games – but they have lost seven of the last 10 matches. Their T20 record against West Indies is a little more clear cut – 12 losses in 15 games.The last three ODIs on the tour will account towards the ICC Women’s Championship, where West Indies are ranked fifth on the points table and Sri Lanka are at seventh.Sri Lanka squad Chamari Attapattu (capt), Prasadini Weerakkody, Nipuni Hansika, Sanduni Abeywickrema, Dilani Manodara, Shashikala Siriwardene, Eshani Kaushalya, Sripali Weerakkody, Ama Kanchana, Inoka Ranaweera, Sugandika Kumari, Lasanthi Madushani, Chathurani Gunewardene, Maduri Samuddhika.Stand-by players Yasoda Mendis, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Udeshika Prabodhani, Achini Kulasooriya, Hasini Perera, Chamari Polgampola, Nilakshi de Silva

Glamorgan have added to their South African contingent by bringing in Wayne Parnell for the NatWest T20 Blast

ESPNcricinfo staff07-May-2015Glamorgan have added to their South African contingent by bringing in Wayne Parnell for the NatWest T20 Blast. Allrounder Parnell will fill the second overseas slot and is initially expected to be available for the first ten of Glamorgan’s 14 group games.”I’m very excited about the prospects of joining up with both Jacques Rudolph and Colin Ingram and playing for Glamorgan,” Parnell said. Rudolph, Glamorgan’s captain, is the main overseas signing in Cardiff, while fellow former South Africa international Ingram has joined on a Kolpak deal.Parnell, who has been capped in all three formats and was a member of South Africa’s recent World Cup squad, has taken 118 T20 wickets, with an economy of 7.56. He has previously appeared in the IPL, as well as playing county cricket with Kent and Sussex.”We are delighted to have secured the services of Wayne Parnell, who was earmarked at a young age as one of South Africa’s brightest talents and who is a naturally gifted allrounder,” Glamorgan’s chief executive and director of cricket, Hugh Morris, said.”He will give us a wicket-taking threat and also the potential for valuable runs. Even more importantly, Wayne is available to us for the vast majority of our NatWestT20 Blast group games and we will re-visit discussions around a potential extension as the competition unfolds.”

By his own admission, Luke Wood has no pedigree as a batsman. When he made his debut at the end of last season his thoughts were that if he might achieve anything in cricket it would be through his ability with the ball. He might now have to revise that

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge01-Jun-2015
ScorecardLuke Wood made a fine century•Getty ImagesBy his own admission, Luke Wood has no pedigree as a batsman. The 19-year-old from Worksop is a left-arm seamer by trade and when he made his debut at the end of last season his thoughts were that if he might achieve anything in cricket it would be through his ability with the ball.He might now have to revise that view a little, having suddenly found himself with a first-class century to his name in only his eighth innings, rescuing Nottinghamshire from a familiar plight with a performance a man of no less experience and judgment than Mick Newell described as “the most remarkable hundred I’ve seen in first-class cricket”.It was certainly an extraordinary one, given what had gone before and indeed what followed. Put in on another green-tinged result pitch, Nottinghamshire slumped to 38 for 5, their top order blown away by the combined forces of Steve Magoffin and England’s Chris Jordan. Under glowering clouds, the Australian Magoffin seemed to have the ball on a string as he reached 30 wickets for the season, dismissing both Taylors – Brendan and James, the latter for a second-ball duck — and the in-form Riki Wessels.Jordan dismissed Steven Mullaney and Alex Hales in spectacular style, taking a brilliant diving catch off his own bowling to remove Mullaney and sending two stumps flying with a ball that Hales could only prod at in hope.Six down for 55 was hardly a recovery and although Will Gidman did a sterling job in taking up the finger-in-the-dyke role customarily performed by the currently injured Chris Read, at 98 for 7 Nottinghamshire’s position still looked as bleak as the weather.At this point emerged young Wood, fresh from a pair in his last match, a catastrophic defeat to Somerset on an even greener pitch, with no greater ambition than to support Gidman in doing what they could to salvage some respectability if nothing else. Yet 23.2 overs later, Nottinghamshire had two batting points and Wood a century from 105 balls with 10 fours and six sixes, an innings buzzing with youthful exuberance yet after a fairly wobbly start constructed with remarkable assuredness.For good measure, in the chill of the evening before a final burst of rain did for the day, with a third of the overs lost, Nottinghamshire added value to their unexpected success by reducing Sussex to 39 for 3, with Wood taking two of the wickets.He could have been out several times early on as he flailed the bat in hope, but once he began to feel he might just help the cause with a few meaty blows he began to target the short boundary on the Bridgford Road side of the ground and the bat began to connect rather nicely. A high cut off Matt Hobden from the Radcliffe Road End sailed into the New Stand, and then he went after Magoffin, bowling from the Pavilion End. Gidman fell to the first ball after tea, edging to first slip after a solid 57, after which Jake Ball decided he would join the fun, he too hitting Magoffin into the New Stand and then launching Jordan way over extra cover to clear the longer boundary before a top-edge off Magoffin saw him caught a third man.But Wood was not done. Remarkably, given that the adrenalin must have been pumping as never before, he managed to score his last 28 runs at nine wickets down and with Harry Gurney, what is known as a genuine No. 11, at the other end. Gurney was in for 25 minutes but did not face a ball as Wood took control, keeping the strike by running singles off the bat or byes to the last ball of every over.Two sixes in the same Magoffin over took him to 98, at which point Chris Nash, captain with Ed Joyce on Ireland duty, tried something different at last, turning to Luke Wells to bowl spin. It took only four balls to do the trick, but not before Wood had taken the chance to push his third delivery into an open space and scamper two runs, at which point he leaped into the air to celebrate, waving his bat above his head as the crowd stood, the Nottinghamshire team lined up on their balcony and every Sussex player on the field joined in the applause.Magoffin finished with six wickets but had gone for 109 runs by the time Wood had done with him, half of those scored by the teenager himself.”In first-class cricket it’s the most remarkable hundred I’ve ever seen,” Newell said. “For a kid who got a pair in the last match and when he first went in looked like getting out every ball, to hit it as cleanly as that is remarkable. To hit that many sixes against a high quality attack is incredible.”Wood himself certainly had no idea he was capable of such a feat. “I couldn’t see us getting 200 as a team, let alone me getting a hundred,” he said. “I’ve not done a massive amount with the bat before really. I work hard at it and I try to be positive but I’ve not done anything like that before.”I didn’t really think about the hundred until I was in the 80s and it’s been pretty phenomenal how it has turned out. The best feeling I’ve ever had on a cricket field and to get two wickets at the end has topped it off nicely.”Wood dismissed Mike Yardy and Matt Machan to catches in the slips after Ball had trapped Wells leg before, lifting Nottinghamshire’s spirits to unexpected heights. “It was looking pretty gloomy at lunch,” Newell said. “We lost a toss we wanted to win and were in danger of feeling sorry for ourselves. But it was a case of good bowling rather than poor batting that put us where we were and had a chat and picked ourselves up.”

An ICC plan is being organised to appoint a local advisory board in America to help the USA Cricket Association rectify numerous issues that resulted in suspension on Friday

Peter Della Penna26-Jun-20152:51

‘USACA suspended with immediate effect’ – Richardson

ICC chief executive David Richardson says a plan is being organised to appoint a local advisory board in America to help the USA Cricket Association rectify numerous issues that resulted in having its Associate membership suspended on Friday at the ICC annual conference. Richardson stated that USACA’s “conditions relating to governance, finance and its cricket activities” are of great concern and “must be addressed and remedied in full” before consideration will be given to lifting USACA’s suspension.”We will visit the USA,” Richardson told assembled media at a press conference on Friday in Barbados where USACA’s suspension was announced. “We will set to support the development of a meaningful strategy for USA cricket going forward including through the appointment of a locally based advisory group which we think will be well placed to put USA on track, put a strategy in place to be able to move forward.”Richardson stated that the “unification of stakeholders” was especially important for cricket to move forward in the USA, echoing statements made by ICC head of global development Tim Anderson in a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo. At the moment, Richardson says the rivalry between USACA and the American Cricket Federation has created a divide in the country which is further compounded by the ambivalence of players and leagues not interested in pledging allegiance to either group, choosing to organise activities on their own instead.”Cricket is played in upwards of 80 or 90 leagues in the USA but they are fragmented,” Richardson said. “Some of them are under the USA Cricket Association. Some are under another rival body called the American Cricket Federation. Some are on their own and there is no coordinated effort.”It’s going to be a challenging task but hopefully these efforts will be aimed at unifying everybody and then moving forward with a proper strategy and hopefully we’ll see USA cricket qualifying for major global events. If the UAE and countries like that can get to the events, there’s no reason with the number of cricketers in the US that USA cricket can’t do the same.”Richardson played down suggestions USACA’s problems are bad enough that it would result in expulsion from the ICC. A decision on expelling USACA as an ICC member would not be taken until the 2016 ICC annual conference at the earliest. However, Richardson was optimistic that things can improve with the assistance of the local advisory board – as well as oversight from himself and representatives from the BCCI, ECB, WICB and Cricket Australia – well before next June.”Hopefully we’ll make some significant progress by the October meetings,” Richardson said. “We aim to report back to the board by then. We would have visited the USA and put the advisory group in place and they will be getting on with putting together a strategy and plan that we will hopefully be able to report back by October.”

The 53rd first-class hundred of Kumar Sangakkara’s glorious career and the continuation of 17-year-old Sam Curran’s memorable debut helped to put Surrey in position to beat Kent

ECB/PA15-Jul-2015
ScorecardKumar Sangakkara made his 53rd first-class hundred•Getty ImagesThe 53rd first-class hundred of Kumar Sangakkara’s glorious career and the continuation of 17-year-old Sam Curran’s memorable debut helped to put Surrey in position to beat Kent. But Kent’s headlong second innings collapse to 99 all out, with Gareth Batty’s off spin bringing him 4 for 12 as they disintegrated in a rush of poor strokes, meant they were also the architects of their own downfall at the Kia Oval.Surrey, who earlier replied with 311 to Kent’s first innings 336, finished a dramatic day on 4 for 1 from two overs. Offspinner James Tredwell, bowling Zafar Ansari for nought with the last ball of the day, has at least given Kent some hope that they can prevent Surrey from scoring just 125 to complete a sixth Championship win of the season and move to within eight points of second division leaders Lancashire.It had been Kent who seemed to be in the ascendancy early in the day when a highly-disciplined bowling performance by their four-pronged seam attack pegged Surrey back from their overnight 144 for 1. But Curran junior, who took 5 for 101 in Kent’s first innings, then exploded from the blocks when Kent batted again to have Daniel Bell-Drummond leg-before for 5 with his sixth ball – after seeing him inside-edge the previous ball streakily past his stumps for four. Midway through his second over he had Adam Ball caught for nought, miscuing a pull to short midwicket, and his bustling, whippy-armed opening spell was remarkable for someone still so young.Kent’s second innings decline gathered yet more pace when Joe Denly became Curran’s third victim, in his fifth over, athletically caught by the bowler falling to his right in his follow-through as Denly tried to flip the ball towards mid on. Sam Northeast’s 33 steadied Kent a little, as Ben Harmison also dug in, but 54 for 3 was soon 56 for 5 as Ansari’s left-arm spin snared Northeast, caught low at slip as he pushed forward, and Sam Billings, for 1, who chipped a catch tamely back to the bowler.Batty got four of the last five wickets to fall, with Kent imploding from 86 for 5, first having Harmison caught behind for 24 trying to cut. Calum Haggett also snicked to the keeper, pushing out defensively, and Darren Stevens then hit Batty on to his boot to be stumped for 14 as the momentum of his shot took him out of his crease. The end of the innings came quickly, with Tredwell bowled by Tom Curran for 2 and Matt Coles, heaving at Batty, skying a simple catch to keeper Ben Foakes.In Surrey’s innings it was 21-year-old fast bowler Matt Hunn who shared the bowling honours with 39-year-old veteran Stevens as Kent fought back with the ball. Stevens took 4 for 76, picking up the 300th first-class wicket of his long career when he removed Arun Harinath in the opening over, and Hunn included Sangakkara’s prized scalp in his 3 for 51.Sangakkara’s elegant innings of 110, made from 183 balls across four and a quarter hours, included a six and ten fours but even the great 37-year-old Sri Lankan had to work hard for his runs against Stevens, Hunn, Coles and Haggett.Surrey lost Harinath for 76 to the fourth ball of the day, and the first ball that the left-hander faced, when Stevens nibbled one away from him and was rewarded by a snick to first slip. Stevens, in an initial eight-over spell from the Vauxhall End, struck again when he had Ansari caught by Coles in similar fashion at first slip for 10 to peg Surrey back to 171 for 3. Then Jason Roy, who had made only 17, got a beauty from Haggett which he touched through to Billings behind the stumps.Dominic Sibley, joining Sangakkara at 204 for 4, was leg-before to Coles as he shaped to play to midwicket and, soon after lunch, Foakes was leg-before to Stevens for 5, aiming across the line. James Burke made just 6 before he was caught at the wicket off the persistent Stevens and Batty was Hunn’s first victim when on 3 he thick-edged to Tredwell, who took a good sharp catch high to his right at second slip.Sangakkara, running out of partners, reached his hundred by pulling Hunn for four, but he soon under-edged into his stumps attempting a similar stroke against the same bowler. That was 288 for 9 but Sam Curran’s four fours earned Surrey a third batting bonus point before his older brother Tom, on 4, hit Hunn to Denly at backward point.

India’s limited-overs captain MS Dhoni was pleased with pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar who set up India’s thumping win against UAE with figures of 4-2-8-2

Alagappan Muthu in Mirpur03-Mar-2016India’s victory over UAE was set up by a pristine spell with the new ball by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He was able to move it both ways, force the batsmen into their shell, and came away with two wickets and 20 dot balls out of his four overs.Bhuvneshwar is well known for keeping it tight and providing India with early strikes, but in Mirpur he was able to showcase something else he had been working on. Pace. Several of his deliveries were clocked at 140 kph by the speed gun.Bhuvneshwar had a tough limited-overs series against South Africa in October 2015. He had averaged 49.57 and his economy rate of 7.13 was the worst by a specialist bowler from either side. He conceded 106 runs off his 10 overs, the second-worst figures in an ODI, in the decider in Mumbai.Since then, he played five List A games for Uttar Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and finished with 10 wickets at 15.40 apiece and gave away an average of 3.27 runs per over. His 9-2-25-3 against Tamil Nadu in December 2015 nearly helped Uttar Pradesh defend 168 in the third quarter-final. That performance and his potential kept him in the side for India’s tour to Australia, but when flat tracks were rolled out, he was picked for only two ODIs.While Bhuvneshwar’s 4-2-8-2 against UAE, a semi-professional team, whose batting line-up is still very unsure of their strengths, cannot be read into too much, India’s captain MS Dhoni was pleased with what he saw.”He is a hard-working guy,” Dhoni said. “He always works hard in the nets and also in the gym and I feel that’s something that is important for the fast bowlers, to keep themselves fit and also take the break in the best possible manner. That has actually helped him increase the pace but at the same time, it has not affected his swing bowling.”That is key, because you don’t want to bowl quick but lose that extra movement that you have. So that’s a big positive sign for us. And when it comes to his consistency, he is still somebody who bowls very consistently with his line and length. So overall, he has used the break, whether it was forced or when he was out of the side in the best possible manner and also him coming good gives us that extra option in case Shami doesn’t get fit, he’s somebody who can straight away come in and start doing the work for the team.”UAE’s captain Amjad Javed remained upbeat despite the defeat, which was their fourth on the trot in the main draw of the Asia Cup.Javed reasoned that the effect of merely playing in a tournament along the biggest names in cricket would foster greater interest among the sports-watching public back home.”When they will be seeing us playing India, their expectation will go sky high,” Javed said. They want to become cricketers and follow us, they want to represent UAE; you can get a good cricketer from them.”Now we should get more international matches, like Zimbabwe, Ireland, Bangladesh … these games will give us the experience of playing at that level. If at some stage in the future we can qualify for the Asia Cup again, it will be easier for us then. The team will have that sort of experience to compete with them.”Since Pakistan use the grounds in Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi as their base, Javed also suggested that international teams that tour the UAE should take the time to play against them as well.”If ICC can really look into this – any team that now comes to Dubai – it’s home for Pakistan,” Javed said. “It will be good that any international teams that are coming there, they play one 50-over game and one T20 with us. That will be great experience for us and very good for UAE cricket.”

A slow surface that makes strokeplay difficult and large outfields in Nagpur can be turned into Afghanistan’s favour

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Nagpur26-Mar-2016They worried Sri Lanka with a rousing batting recovery, startled South Africa with a barnstorming start in a big chase, and left England gasping with their spin bowling. Three Super 10 matches against three Full Members, and Afghanistan created chances of winning each of them. They eventually fell short all three times, but the displays have only strengthened their belief that beating top opposition is not a distant prospect.On Sunday, Afghanistan will end their World T20 with a meeting against West Indies, who top their group with three wins in three matches. Afghanistan will be up against, perhaps, the most power-packed batting line-up they have faced in the tournament.But in Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Samiullah Shenwari and Hamza Hotak, Afghanistan have enough depth in the spin department to make life difficult for batsmen reliant on big shots on a slow pitch and one of the bigger outfields in Indian cricket. Afghanistan have played three matches at the VCA Stadium before, in the first round, and though they faced far weaker opposition at that stage of the tournament, they know the conditions.”Definitely, their batting is very [strong], but we have a very good spin department,” Asghar Stanikzai, Afghanistan’s captain, said on the eve of the match. “So where we can restrict them is, we will try to depend more on spinners, since the boundaries over here are longer and hitting the spinners will not be that easy. They are good strikers of the ball but we play good cricket, and are not just trying to give them a tough time but we are here to go back with at least one win [from the Super 10 stage].”

In the next one or two years we will be a serious team and beat these Full Members very easily, as we have potentialAfghanistan captain Asghar Stanikzai

Afghanistan have made massive strides since their first appearance at a world event in 2010, and Stanikzai said they were no longer content simply with pushing big teams hard. He was particularly disappointed that they had let strong positions slip against Sri Lanka and England, and said Afghanistan were close to being a “serious team” that would win matches regularly.”When we first appeared in that [2010 World T20] in West Indies, we were only thinking that we are playing with big names and most of us were very impressed with the players around,” Stanikzai said. “This time we are not only participating in this tournament but we were serious about it.”If you see our last three matches, especially against Sri Lanka and England, we have played very good cricket. To be honest, we could have won those games because we knew the strength of our team, but somehow we made mistakes and that’s why we couldn’t finish on a winning note. If you compare between 2010 and 2016, there is a lot of difference in the Afghanistan team, and in the next one or two years we will be a serious team and beat these Full Members very easily, as we have potential.”West Indies are already through to the semi-finals, but their coach Phil Simmons knows they cannot take Afghanistan lightly.”They’ve played well in all the games,” he said. “They’ve batted really well, [especially when] they were chasing a big score against South Africa, who we played yesterday. So they’ve been playing well and I know them from before [Simmons was Ireland’s coach from 2007 to 2015], so I know that they’re going to come to try and win. So we’ve got to just play properly.”While Afghanistan are clearly a team on an upward curve, there are fears that West Indies are heading in the opposite direction. They have failed to qualify for the ODI Champions Trophy in 2017, and have struggled in Test cricket for a number of years. They have been among the best T20 sides in the world, as their displays in this tournament have suggested, but some of their biggest stars in the format, including Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy, are in their 30s and could possibly be playing at their last ICC event.Simmons disagreed with the pessimistic view of the future, pointing to the fact that Bravo and Sammy are only in their early 30s, the fact that the current squad has performed so well while missing Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons and Sunil Narine, and the fact that West Indies have just won the Under-19 World Cup.”I’m not too sure how you write off guys at 30, 32 and 33,” Simmons said. “But to answer your question, yes, you can see it in the amount of players we have missing here. You see it in the young players coming up. You saw it in the Under-19 squad and you see it in the CPL at home, so it’s going to keep coming for a long time to come.”

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has said he is likely to open for the remainder of the IPL season, ahead of their match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday

Nagraj Gollapudi in Kolkata12-Apr-20161:00

‘We can’t take any baggage with us as a team’ – Rohit

Just over a month ago, Rohit Sharma had scored an unbeaten 98 at Eden Gardens. It was in India’s first warm-up match of the World Twenty20, against West Indies. Incidentally, Rohit had made the same score at the same ground in last year’s IPL opener against Kolkata Knight Riders, who Mumbai Indians will face on Wednesday evening. Although Rohit had succeeded that day last year, Mumbai had failed. Eventually, they won the IPL with three Mumbai batsmen featuring among the top-10 run-scorers – Lendl Simmons, Rohit and Kieron Pollard.This IPL season is Pollard’s first competitive tournament since his knee surgery last year. In the tournament opener in Mumbai on April 9, Pollard struggled against Rising Pune Supergiants, labouring for eight balls to make just one run.Simmons, one of the heroes in West Indies’ triumph over India in the World T20 semi-finals, is now likely to be rested for the next few matches. He had originally dropped out of the West Indies squad due to a bad back, only to be flown in as a late replacement for the knockout matches.Ambati Rayudu, Hardik Pandya and England batsman Jos Buttler, playing his maiden IPL, form the Mumbai middle order, but it is difficult to imagine and expect them to play the lead batsman’s role in case the top order fails as it did against Supergiants.That leaves the onus on Rohit, the team’s best batsman and captain. T20 history is abundant with examples in which a good beginning often ensures a team defends a big or huge total. Rohit has been opening regularly for India in limited-overs matches since 2013. However, with Mumbai Indians he has not done the same. Last IPL, he opened only twice. This season, though, he has decided to open with a longer stint in mind.”It’s important to get the balance and the position of each player right, where they have batted for their country/state, it’s important to keep that going,” Rohit said on Tuesday. “For me, I’ve been opening for a while – three years now – so I’d like to continue that for the remainder of the series. But everything depends on the balance, if I feel me batting top of order is not right for the team, I’ll come down as a middle-order batsman. If it helps the team, I’m ready to do whatever it takes to help the team win.”According to Rohit, the Mumbai batting has depth, including batsmen who are proven matchwinners in international cricket. “We have to share the responsibility. I cannot be just one person winning the tournament,” Rohit said. “Last year, we hardly had anyone in the top five in the batting list which shows that everybody contributed and shared the responsibility. You will have individual performances and brilliance at times, but if you want to win the tournament, it has to come from everyone not just one person. In the last three years, we have had so much success because the responsibility was shared. I would expect the same, but as a leader, I would like to step up and perform every game.”Building momentum in the first half, especially in the first few matches, is what Mumbai coach Ricky Ponting has always said is the key to succeed in tournaments like IPL. Last year, Mumbai had a horrid first half. In order to not repeat the mistakes, Rohit and co. will have to play their roles convincingly.Mumbai have two IPL editions in the last three seasons – 2013 and 2015. And which Mumbai batsman was among the top-10 run-scorers in those two seasons? Rohit would once again like to lead from the front, although in a different role.

With the summer window set to open in just three months, Goal looks at the players presently attracting the most attention in Italy's top flight

Elsa1Alisson (Roma)

After being forced to play second fiddle to Wojciech Szczesny at Roma last season, Alisson has spent the current campaign showing just why was never usurped as Brazil's No.1 by Ederson despite the lack of game time in 2016-17.

The 25-year-old has been labelled "the Messi of goalkeepers" by former Giallorossi coach Roberto Negrisolo and there are plenty of top teams across Europe who believe Alisson to be something truly special.

Liverpool recently pulled out of a £62 million deal for the Selecao shot-stopper but, given Roma's annual need to cash in on its best players in order to meet FFP regulations, it is highly likely that Alisson will be on the move this summer regardless.

AdvertisementGetty Images2Felipe Anderson (Lazio)

A former target for Manchester United, Felipe Anderson was regarded as one of the best players in Serie A after an excellent second season at the Stadio Olimpico. Three years on, though, the Brazilian is struggling for consistency.

However, he has not been helped by playing in a variety of roles, including wing-back, while he missed the start of the current campaign with a torn abductor muscle.

There have been encouraging signs of late, though, and Lazio would certainly be open to offers for a player who is not a guaranteed starter and has also recently clashed with coach Simone Inzaghi.

Getty Images3Andrea Belotti (Torino)

After a sensational 2016-17 season, Andrea Belotti looked certain to leave Torino last summer. However, Granata president Urbano Cairo insisted that the striker would only depart if a foreign club met the €100 million buy-out clause in his contract.

Milan did their best to land Belotti but they were, unsurprisingly, unable to reach an agreement with Cairo, who was dead against selling his most prized possession to a Serie A rival. Torino's stance has softened, and the asking price fallen, given Belotti has netted just five times in Serie A this season.

Indeed, the 24-year-old remains an attractive proposition for any top side looking for an all-round attacker, as his struggles this season have more to do with a minor but nagging knee injury and Torino's poor form, rather than a lack of talent on his part.

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Getty4Stefan de Vrij (Lazio)

The biggest bargain of the summer, Stefan de Vrij is available on a free transfer as his contract with Lazio expires at the end of June. The Dutch defender has been brilliant for the Biancocelesti since arriving from Feyenoord in the 2014 for approximately €7m.

In the current climate, he is now worth at least six times that amount, having established himself as one of the best centre-halves in Serie A. Lazio fought desperately to persuade him to stay at the Stadio Olimpico – or at the very least agree to a new contract with a low buy-out clause – but the two parties were unable to broker a deal.

As a result, De Vrij is now set to depart, with Inter his most likely destination, though several other clubs, including Juventus, are interested.

Goal takes a look at the players who proved to be the best new piece of business in the transfer market this term

GettyPascal Gross | Brighton

The German midfielder fled the sinking ship at Ingolstadt to join high-flying Brighton and has been one of the star men for Chris Hughton's side.

The 26-year-old's seven goals and eight assists proved pivotal in keeping his side in the English top flight and another key role awaits him next season.

AdvertisementFRANCK FIFE/AFP/GettyDani Alves | Paris Saint-Germain

The 35-year-old upset Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola when he snubbed a move to England to join Paris Saint-Germain and has shown why there was such a high demand for him despite his age.

An important figure for the French side on and off the field, he is a magnet for success and has no doubt had a key role in Neymar's quick adaptation to the capital city.

GettyMariano Diaz | Lyon

Lyon snapped up a superstar when they lured Mariano Diaz from Real Madrid. The Spaniard’s 18 goals have been vital in keeping them on track for a Champions League qualifying place as well as thrusting him into the limelight after being hidden away at Madrid for so long.

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Getty ImagesKylian Mbappe | Paris Saint-Germain

The French teenager turned Ligue 1 on its head when he swapped Monaco for Paris Saint-Germain.

The 13-goal forward has been one of his side's top performers this term to win a second straight Ligue 1 title and great things are expected in the coming years.