In Case You Missed It: The Pied Piper of cricket, and Steven Smith's return to the game

Virat Kohli and Co are hoping for an Indian summer in the UK as they get ready to play the first of their T20Is against England, after thrashing Ireland 2-0 last week. Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal is hoping for clemency and Zimbabwe are hoping for… well, a team. Here's everything momentous you may have missed in the last few days.

KL Rahul, Suresh Raina set up India's biggest T20I win
India landed in the UK last week, warming up for their England tour by making a light snack of Ireland in two T20Is. The victory, though, cost Jasprit Bumrah his spot in the upcoming T20Is against England, thanks to a fractured thumb.

WATCH: Is India's new left-handed batsman also the Pied Piper?
All eyes, as always, are on Virat Kohli, who turned up for training at a London school and batted left-handed ahead of the Ireland T20s.

Cricket on the menu: a dinner in 1946
India's arrival in Great Britain is also the perfect time to look back at the last tour undivided India undertook to England, in 1946. Anindya Dutta chronicles a special dinner that caught both countries on the cusp of great change.

Why you should've been watching West Indies-Sri Lanka Tests
Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, a low-key series was turning into a classic. You missed a cracker of a series if you didn't bother to watch the West Indies-Sri Lanka Tests. Andrew Fidel Fernando tells you why.

Sri Lanka to ask ICC for leniency in Chandimal case
SL's administrators are unlikely to impose separate sanctions on captain Dinesh Chandimal in the ball-tampering case - they feel the ICC's penalties are punishment enough.

Should ball-tampering be punished if the home team never gets caught?
On the same subject, Sidharth Monga examines the role played by broadcasters in nabbing (or not) ball-tamperers.

WATCH: Playing in Global T20 Canada part of my rehab - Steven Smith
Speaking of ball-tampering - though Darren Sammy would much rather you not - Steven Smith has played his first competitive cricket since the Newlands controversy - for Toronto Nationals in Global T20 Canada. He talks about the mental fatigue that led him to making "horrible decisions" in the aftermath of a draining Ashes summer.

Zimbabwe T20 Tri-Series - featuring two and a half teams
Zimbabwe are going through troubled times, with a host of big names missing from their squad for the home T20 tri-series with Australia and Pakistan. With the players embroiled in a dispute with their board over non-payment of outstanding dues, and with no place in next year's World Cup, Firdose Moonda asks, what does this tri-series mean for Zimbabwe?

Reports of discord in India women's team following Asia Cup loss
Whispers of differences in the India women's team have surfaced after a string of disappointing results, culminating in the team's loss to Bangladesh in the Asia Cup final.

IPL - a cricket giant, but a global mouse?
Tim Wigmore thinks the IPL can do a whole lot more to compete with the commercial might of the top European football leagues and American leagues like the NFL, NBA and MLB. LISTEN to Wigmore talk to Jarrod Kimber and Srinath Sripath about whether T20 can take cricket to new frontiers and turn it into a truly global sport.

The top 25 bowling performances of all time in Test cricket
Stuart Broad's 8 for 15 in the Trent Bridge Ashes Test is No. 2 in stats whiz Anantha Narayanan's mega list. You can read about his ratings system and the parameters he used here.

Cricketers take on that other World Cup
Tthe football World Cup is on and our cricketers have some strong feelings about it, including some cheeky messages for the ICC.

Collapzilla! Club team loses seven wickets for 1 run in 11 balls
This week saw one of the all-time greatest collapses in club cricket, courtesy High Wycombe.

Photo feature: who wore it better?
Summertime in the northern hemisphere, so we're looking at a lot of cricketers (and monarchs) wearing sunglasses.

Jack Shantry: from figure of fun to folk hero
George Dobell pens a fond farewell to Worcestershire county seamer Jack Shantry who retired last week because of ongoing back injuries. We're not crying, you are!