Selectors Pick Specialists, Tails Bat in Order

Cricket Manager: a player with no record in a format was rated from his other formats and picked as if that were a real record, so Nathan Lyon and Marnus Labuschagne played T20Is, Tim David and Adam Zampa played Tests and Arshdeep Singh opened the bowling in India's Test side. Selectors now strongly prefer players with a real record in the format, for every nation and for your default squads. A side short of specialists can still call on one.

Cricket Manager: lopsided Tests (an 877-run win, a side bowled out for 54) mostly came from those weakened XIs, with T20 batters in the top order.

Live T20 matches (Cricket Manager, T20 World Cup, IPL Dynasty, WPL): once only bowlers were left, the AI captain sent in the best bowler next, so Zampa batted 7 and Cummins 8 while Dwarshuis did not bat. The tail now comes in the order the XI was picked.

Test and ODI scorecards (The Follow-On, ODI World Cup, Cricket Manager): a batter you sent up the order, or a nightwatchman, was listed in his original slot. Send Jadeja in at 5 ahead of Hardik and the scorecard now shows Jadeja at 5. Matches already played keep their old order.

Cricket Manager: on a laptop or tablet the player dossier on the Squads page could not scroll, so training, the talks (reassure, challenge) and scouting sat out of reach below the pane.

Cricket Manager: an honest answer praising a player after his big day ("Yes, he's incredible") was scored as if it stung him, and the press room said he would not have enjoyed it. Honest praise now lifts him; honesty after a bad day still stings.

IPL Dynasty: the 2027 auction (the first one past the real data) had almost nobody in it: AI teams kept their whole squad. AI franchises now release their weakest and oldest players in a mini auction (they keep their best 20), and the auction also puts around 280 real players on the block: the unsold and also-registered men from the last auctions and the recently active, at their real 2026 ratings. Careers that have already passed 2027 keep the pool they had.

IPL Versus: the how-to-play card said the draft cap was ₹100 Cr. It is ₹120 Cr, and the card now reads the figure from the draft itself.

Cricket Manager: India no longer gets an international series during the IPL (25 March to 31 May). Applies from the next season your career builds; fixtures already on your calendar stay.