As Babar Azam’s prowess has increased, so has his side’s tendency to rely heavily on him

Danyal Rasool16-Dec-2020Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq isn’t averse to bone dry gallows humour, but this is the one thing you don’t joke about in Pakistan cricket these days. The absence of Babar Azam from the T20I series against New Zealand would appear to be the loss not just of a player but of an entire strategy of late. Few sides in world cricket are quite as reliant on one batsman as Pakistan have been on Azam in T20Is; he has papered over enough cracks to have turned a fifth-day Galle pitch into a featherbed. Pakistan’s batting plan in the shortest format at times rests entirely on watching Azam do the batting, while they plan to develop a system that one day might produce more of his kind.Of course, it’s not just the T20I leg of the tour that Azam’s absence spells trouble for Pakistan, unless the medical prognosis is so precise it can accurately determine his injured thumb will heal between December 22 and 25, the interregnum between the end of the T20Is and the start of the first Test. The fact Azam could be a doubt for the first Test spells significant trouble for that side, too, given he was just awarded the captaincy in that format, and his replacement – Mohammad Rizwan, has played fewer than 10 Tests.Indeed, you can perhaps track the moment Azam finally worked out Test cricket’s cheat codes – a little bit later than he’d managed in the limited-overs formats – because it’s the instant cricket fans in Pakistan finally gave up on Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq ever stepping into MisYou’s shoes, and pinning their hopes entirely on Azam replacing all of them. The PCB has gone all in too, turning him, within 12 months, from a young player who needed to be carefully managed into their all-format captain.But it is in T20 cricket that Azam has proved himself most indispensable. This is perhaps odd in the modern game, given that Azam isn’t some renegade power-hitter and that the anchor role has suffered something of a reputation hit among elite T20 sides. In fact, Pakistan appeared to set such little store by his power hitting they sent in Iftikhar Ahmed and Khushdil Shah out for a Super Over last month, minutes after Azam had just scored 125 against Zimbabwe.Azam was captain so would have had a say in that decision, of course, but was passive enough post-match to suggest the decision had been made elsewhere. That Ahmed ended up falling off the first ball of that Super Over is by the by. And either way, Misbah has developed a reputation of placing the sort of faith in Ahmed middle children could only dream of.ESPNcricinfo LtdDespite the distractions, chaos and self-destruction Pakistan are prone to, Azam and T20 cricket has been a match made in heaven. Since he made his T20I debut, he has scored 23% of his entire team’s runs – no other side in this period has relied on one man so heavily for their runs. Colin Munro is the closest with 20%, with Aaron Finch and Rohit Sharma at 19% and 16% respectively. He has scored 16 of the 39 T20I half-centuries Pakistan have scored in this period, with no other individual batsman even managing five. He has played every single match except a tri-series he missed in Zimbabwe.Over in domestic cricket, he was the leading run-scorer at the recently-concluded PSL, having scored almost 50% more runs than Fakhar Zaman in second place. He’s just 21 runs off most PSL runs in history, trailing Kamran Akmal, who has played ten more innings. And if you’re wondering whether the PSL alone is enough evidence of his prowess in franchise cricket, he was the top scorer in the Natwest T20 Blast last year, with Tom Banton the only player in the top 10 who bettered his strike rate of 149.35. And unlike England, who currently can’t move for stumbling upon another elite T20 gem, Pakistan don’t have too many coming down the carousel.Haider Ali is one, though he recently remarked at a press conference he had been told to “preserve my wicket”, spend “more time at the crease” and “rotate the strike”. These are infuriatingly Pakistani euphemisms for playing T20 cricket conservatively, and frankly inspire little confidence in the current coaching and management staff’s ability to take this T20 side back to the top. Everyone simply can’t be Azam, who somehow does all the things Haider seems to have been told to do, while maintaining a strike rate that is acceptable in modern T20 cricket. Expecting someone to simply copy what Azam does with the same level of success is as much a strategy as rubbing a lamp, intending to wish the genie does appear.ESPNcricinfo LtdStill Pakistan might be able to extract some hope from what looks like a hopeless situation. Remember that T20I tri-series in Zimbabwe, the only one Azam has missed since his debut? Well, Pakistan ended up winning the trophy, coming back from 2-2 in the final to chase 183 against Australia. It did, to be fair, require contributions of 61, 47, 73 and 91 across the tournament from Fakhar Zaman, who has since crossed 25 just once in 16 T20Is, and indeed isn’t a part of this tour anyway.In case you wanted further flickering signs of encouragement, Azam scoring big runs of late hasn’t always translated into T20 victories. Until February 2019, Pakistan had won every T20I in which Azam scored a half-century, but they have since lost four of eight such games – with three of the victories coming against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. None of that is to suggest Azam’s absence does the Pakistan side much good on paper. But Mohammad Hafeez, who seems to reinvent himself every time retirement looms large, has found sparkling form once more. And if Haider, and younger colleagues like Khushdil Shah, who has shown promise, and Shadab Khan – provided he is fit – can hold off on the management’s advice to become more conservative, their natural firepower may just end up having a more telling impact on the series than Azam’s anchoring presence might have done.And what if Azam isn’t fit by the Tests? Well, there might be a joke there, but don’t expect Misbah, or indeed anyone else in Pakistan, to feed you the punchline.

Aaron has given away 35 runs in eight last-balls of an over, making him the worst finisher of an over in IPL 2020

S Rajesh06-Nov-20200.6
Aaron to Dhawan, FOUR, . Bowls a slower ball half-volley at 117ks. Dhawan loves it, and plays the pick-up over the leg side15.6
Aaron to Pooran, 1 no-ball, short of a length, Pooran sets himself up for the six over square leg again, but the slower ball beats him. Oh hang on, this is a no-ball. Oh
15.6
In a format where each ball is so vital and the margin for error so minimal, few things would be more infuriating for a bowler, and his captain, than a good over gone wrong because of a poor last ball. The inability to close out an over strongly can become a difficult thing for some bowlers, and with no bowler is this more apparent in IPL 2020 than with Varun Aaron.ESPNcricinfo LtdAaron had some bad luck in the tournament, with two vital catches – of Prithvi Shaw and Chris Gayle – dropped off his bowling, but he also struggled with things which are in his control. He bowled only eight overs in the tournament, but even in this small sample size there have been two instances, mentioned above, when ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentators have recorded him failing to close out an over. In the game against Kings XI Punjab, Aaron leaked 47 in four overs, of which 17 came from the balls he bowled after the fifth legal delivery of each over – those included two wides and a no-ball.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn all, Aaron’s eight last balls from his eight overs have gone for 35 runs, including five fours and two sixes. That is an economy rate of 26.25 per six balls, and it constitutes a whopping 37% of the total runs he has conceded. Had he been bowling five-ball overs, Aaron’s economy rate would have been 8.85 runs per over (six balls), compared to his tournament economy rate of 11.75. Aaron’s economy rate – if it can be called that – of 4.38 runs per ball from the sixth ball of his over is easily the worst among all bowlers in this tournament. With an eight-over cut-off, the next poorest is Daniel Sams’ 2.38.A comparison with first-ball economy rates is even more interesting, for on that parameter, Aaron sits pretty in second place, conceding only five runs in eight balls – an economy rate of 0.63 per ball. Compare that to his last-ball economy rate of 4.38 per ball, and it’s a ratio of 7.00, easily the highest among all bowlers.At the other end of the scale are three overseas fast bowlers who were excellent on this count. Josh Hazlewood has a last-ball economy rate of 3 and a ratio of 0.5, while the ratios for Lockie Ferguson and James Pattinson are 0.53 and 0.61.For most top bowlers of the season, that ratio is much lower. For Jasprit Bumrah it is 1.29, for Jofra Archer it is 1.03. Similarly, it’s around 1.00 for Rashid Khan (0.95), Yuzvendra Chahal (0.93) and Kagiso Rabada (0.90).ESPNcricinfo LtdWhat if we expand the first and last-ball analysis to the first three and last three balls of an over? That will indicate which bowlers end an over worse than they start it. Increasing the cut-off to at least 15 overs bowled in the league stage, the bowler with the worst ratio of runs conceded from the second half of the over compared to the first is James Neesham. He has averaged eight runs per over from the first three balls and 11.73 from the last three, which means the second half is nearly 1.5 times as expensive as the first. Ben Stokes is among the top five offenders on this parameter: he has an economy rate of 11.6 runs off his last three balls, compared with 8.93 in his first three.ESPNcricinfo LtdRuns conceded is one aspect is comparing bowlers on how they perform within the two halves of an over; the other is their tendency to take wickets.Till the end of the league stage, three bowlers took six more wickets from the last three balls of an over compared to the first three. Among them are Ravi Bishnoi, who took only three wickets from 153 deliveries in the first half of his over, but nine from the same number of deliveries in the second half of the over. Similarly, fellow legspinner Chahal also has a difference of six, though he has taken more wickets than Bishnoi in each half.ESPNcricinfo LtdHowever, it is not as if all legspinners set up batsmen in the first half and then dismiss them in the second – the T20 format doesn’t usually allow such luxuries, though there might be specific match-ups where this has happened. At the other end of the scale is M Ashwin: of his ten wickets, eight came from the first three balls of an over, and only two from the last three.It is tough to gauge patterns from the dismissal numbers, but bowling stats, grouped by each ball of an over, can help identify specific patterns for each bowler, hence offer clues to batsmen and a possible area of weakness for a bowler. Going by the data from IPL 2020, Aaron urgently needs to address the issue of closing out an over well.

Time we accepted players will try their best to play for the country but won’t sacrifice IPL for it

Sidharth Monga24-Nov-2020Now that we know reliably that Rohit Sharma is still about two weeks of rehab away from being “70-80% ready” for Test cricket, there will be questions raised over the BCCI’s handling of the injury. Apart from the obvious issue of a practically absent communications wing, that is.Questions for the BCCI

Should the BCCI have intervened sooner and taken over Sharma’s injury management during the IPL?

Could he not have been sent to Australia from the UAE to save him the two weeks of hard quarantine? Saha, for example, was despite his hamstring injury.

Was there any assessment or treatment that he could have been given only at the NCA and not with the travelling party?

Did the BCCI make him aware that he would have to go through two weeks of hard quarantine if he came to India for his rehab?

Can the BCCI still fly him over ASAP? That will involve shifting the assessment responsibility to the team physio and trainer, but will give him the best chance to serve the quarantine and salvage part of the series.

Is what is being said in interviews by Shastri and Ganguly being communicated officially to each other?

A quick recap might be in order. During IPL 2020, Sharma pulled out of four games with a hamstring injury. India’s squads for Australia, selected during this period, didn’t include him, which in a logical world would have meant an end to his IPL. However, he kept training and returned for the final three matches of a dominant Mumbai Indians campaign. As a result, the BCCI said that he was added to the squad for the Tests – still more than a month away – provided he went to the NCA and proved his fitness.Ten days later, he is still not considered anywhere near fit enough for the rigours of Test cricket. Add to it the complications that arise from the need for a hard quarantine – unlike a soft quarantine for those who flew out from the IPL bubble in the UAE – for two weeks, and he is practically out of the whole tour.There were enough hints in the squads selection for the Australia tour, and in the interviews of national coach Ravi Shastri and the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly that the board didn’t want Sharma to make a comeback during the IPL. Both Shastri and Ganguly said, based on what they had seen in the reports from the medical team, that this could have implications beyond the Australia tour. It was also clear from Sharma’s comeback, and all his and his IPL team’s – incidentally just as hazy as the BCCI’s – communications that he wanted to play the playoffs at the IPL and also make himself available for the Australia tour.As a centrally contracted player, Sharma is the BCCI’s employee all year round. So the first and foremost question is, why did the board have to take the passive-aggressive route of interviews in the press and not just pull him out of the IPL? They knew pretty well the nature of the injury and the logistics of this pandemic-ridden world. Hamstrings heal with rest and rehab. Playing during that period not only doesn’t allow rest and rehab but can also potentially set your recovery further back.Rohit Sharma injury timeline•ESPNcricinfoAs a result, the BCCI is on the verge of losing Sharma for an international tour. One can argue whether Sharma had nailed a regular spot in India’s first Test XI, especially overseas, before a calf injury ruled him out of the New Zealand tour earlier this year, but Virat Kohli’s absence did create room for a batsman, especially one with international experience. That is not the point, though. This is a clear case of the IPL taking priority over India’s international cricket.This could well have been someone much more instrumental to India’s chances in the Tests. Bhuvneshwar Kumar in 2018 is a good example: he was just the seam and swing bowler India needed in England, but the board couldn’t make Sunrisers Hyderabad go easy with him in the lead-up to the tour. A Sunrisers official had confirmed to ESPNcricinfo at that time that they were under no instructions from the BCCI to manage the workload of Kumar, who was struggling with a lower-back injury, which eventually ruled him out of the Tests at a time when even Jasprit Bumrah was injured. It is in stark contrast to Cricket Australia and the ECB, who micro-manage their players’ workloads even when they are under the charge of their IPL teams.However, you can’t put all the blame on the board no matter the optics. The IPL is the BCCI’s tournament: it has to make every effort to make its superstars available to the IPL teams. In terms of the revenue it brings to the BCCI, the IPL is bigger than any international cricket. So while the board can’t do anything if a player wants to protect himself for an international tour, in the practical world, it can’t really force Sharma to sit out when he is so visibly keen to play out the IPL.Nor is it that Sharma played out the IPL because of some financial greed. It is perhaps time to wake up to the high regard the players, and indeed the fans, hold the IPL in. It is the most-watched tournament in the world, bigger than any Test series and even the World Cup. These cricketers are performers and want to perform in front of the biggest audience possible. It doesn’t mean they don’t want to be tested in the most comprehensive format of the game, just that they are not willing to sacrifice for it as much as some lovers of Test cricket might want them to.

“With what has emerged about the injury now, it can be argued that the quickest possible way to put Sharma back on the park was to take him to Australia from the UAE. That would have allowed him to continue his rehab and training even when in quarantine.”

Nine years ago, Virender Sehwag delayed his shoulder surgery to play out the IPL and turned up uncooked for the Tests in England, which India lost 0-4. He was not the only one to spark outrage. Sachin Tendulkar retired without a Test series win in the West Indies because he chose to rest during that tour in 2011, and not the IPL that preceded it, in order to be ready for the England tour. Nine years on, it is perhaps time we normalised not prioritising Tests over IPL. At any rate, prioritising Tests is a luxury only three boards can afford. For years now, West Indies and New Zealand players have been turning up practically a couple of days prior to their respective Test series.Just like the players, the best that can be expected of the BCCI is a balancing act, which became even more difficult because of the Covid-19 pandemic. With what has emerged about the injury now, it can be argued that the quickest possible way to put Sharma back on the park was to take him to Australia from the UAE. That would have allowed him to continue his rehab and training even when in quarantine. We don’t know if he really needed to see an expert outside the team set-up to arrive at the assessment that we know now. This is an important question, among others (see sidebar), that the BCCI should ask itself: could it have acted more decisively and saved those two precious weeks of rehab?Of course, better communication – not just with the fans but also with each other – would have saved a lot of unnecessary speculation, but this kind of an impasse is something you better get used to in order to avoid repeated disappointment if you want your cricketers to place Test cricket on a pedestal or if you are the nationalistic kind and place bilateral limited-overs internationals over a much more competitive and prestigious T20 league.

At 30, he is poised to become India’s latest T20I debutant, and the call-up will be every bit deserved

Shashank Kishore10-Mar-2021The Indian team management seldom refers to selection calls on social media. But in November, after the team was picked for the Australia T20Is and Suryakumar Yadav, widely touted to earn a maiden call-up, missed out, head coach Ravi Shastri tweeted: ‘Surya Namaskar. Stay strong and patient’. An aching Yadav, not for the first time, had to patiently read tons of consolatory messages. Among those, Sachin Tendulkar’s stood out. He is said to have told him: ‘This is your final hurdle. Surrender yourself to the game.’Related

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The next day, Yadav squared off for Mumbai Indians against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dubai. Virat Kohli tried to unsettle him, constantly chirping to his in-fielders about Yadav’s apparent discomfort against Yuzvendra Chahal. Yadav remained poker-faced, almost as if he couldn’t hear what was being said. Yadav batted through to make an unbeaten, match-winning 43-ball 79*, and gestured to the dressing room afterwards, as if to say: ‘Keep calm. Why worry when I’m here’, even as a fuming Kohli stormed off. It soon became a meme that spread like wildfire on social media.It’s this calmness that has also defined the second coming of Yadav, who at 30 could become India’s latest T20I debutant. Some teams have no hang ups in picking players at this age. But in India, it’s particularly rare. Among specialist batsmen, you’ll have to go as far back as 1981 to TE Srinivasan for a 30-plus debutant in international cricket. In T20Is, the last such instance was in 2011, when S Badrinath played his first – and only – game in the format. But Yadav’s won’t be an unlikely cap when he gets it. He has been an IPL regular since 2012, has an un-ignorable domestic record: a T20 strike rate of 140 across 150 innings; a List A average of 37.55 and a strike rate of 103 in 87 innings, 5326 first-class runs with 14 centuries and 26 half-centuries.”He’s mentally very tough now, but a few years earlier, I did feel he could have had someone to guide him along the right path,” Chandrakant Pandit, for whose team Yadav turned up as 21-year-old and scored 182 in a club game a day after he was supposedly ruled out for Mumbai with a finger injury in the 2011 Champions League T20, says. Yadav’s career began with this brush of controversy – fit one day, unfit another.Then there were complaints about his “hot headed” avatar when he got involved in an on-field altercation with team-mate Shardul Thakur in 2014. Then there were reports of infighting and indiscipline, and Yadav was stripped of the Mumbai captaincy across formats. It was the lowest ebb to a promising career that appeared to be hitting a dead end.

“He was distracted, demoralised. It was a phase, but you define someone by how they bounce back”Chandrakant Pandit on Yadav’s earlier temperament

But somewhere in 2016, Yadav decided to break the rut, transform his attitude, fitness and batting and mental discipline. That discipline even stopped him from playing certain shots in matches until he knocked off targets set by Pandit. He changed his eating habits, started to develop muscle-strength to hit big, apart from spending hours at the nets. All these changes over the years have contributed in an India call-up. His selection isn’t a punt, but a reward for churning big runs consistently season after season, both in the IPL and for Mumbai. A bit like what Mayank Agarwal did four seasons ago in the Ranji Trophy – breaking the door down and barging his way in.”He was distracted, demoralised,” Pandit says of the bad times. “It was a phase, but you define someone by how they bounce back. He acknowledged there were issues and he worked on it. That is the first step. To know there’s a problem. Hats off to him.”Since the transformation, Yadav made his first big push towards the India cap in 2018-19, when he made 392 runs at a strike rate of 168 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy, he batted only four times in eight games, but no one had a better average or strike rate (minimum 100 runs) than him.His average (113.00) was higher than that of Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made three centuries, including a double-ton in six innings. It was higher than that of one of his middle-order competitors Manish Pandey, who kept piling on runs for fun. Yadav’s strike rate (154.79) was better than anyone else. It made him genuinely believe he was going to “push the door open”.”Keep calm. Why worry when I’m here?”•BCCIIn the IPL too, Yadav has been a key player for the Mumbai Indians since 2018, now having made 400 plus runs for the last three seasons and counting. However, while his role at Mumbai Indians has been that of an anchor who steadily builds, allowing Pollard, Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya to don the finisher’s hat, it’s hard to envisage a similar setting for Yadav in the Indian team – given their potentially power-packed top-three in KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Kohli.Then there’s Shikhar Dhawan, who has had a phenomenal IPL, and Shreyas Iyer, an IPL franchise captain, for competition. Rishabh Pant’s recent exploits in Tests – he wasn’t part of the T20Is in Australia – may have virtually sealed his middle-order spot. So Yadav could well be in a situation where he may not get regular opportunities to build an innings. He could find himself having to go from ball one, with Pant and Pandya to follow. It’s not ideal, but it’s the reality for anyone looking to break into India’s middle order. There’s just too much competition.But while some of the other middle-order contenders may still get picked ahead of him, Yadav has the advantage of having gotten used to multiple roles. He opened at Mumbai Indians in 2018 until Sharma made that spot his own, played as a finisher for Kolkata Knight Riders for much of his five seasons there, and then adapted to anchor the innings on his return to Mumbai. What works for Yadav is also he’s an excellent player of spin. He hardly ever gets out to them – a variety we could see a lot of at the T20 World Cup – and scores quickly. His numbers since IPL 2018 are only behind David Warner and Kane Williamson, as he averages 54.54 while striking at 130.At IPL 2020, he added another dimension to his batting: that of a finisher. He not just averaged 40.22 but struck them at 155.36. He counterattacked in the powerplay and showed the ability to accelerate in the death overs. He struck at 235 between overs 17 and 20 last season, faster than Pandya and just a shade off Pollard, who has struck at 210.25 at the death. Yadav has all the textbook shots and scores a lot of runs with drives through the offside, but he has also used the lap and ramp shots effectively – ask Jofra Archer who was reverse-ramped for six – scoring nearly half his runs behind the wicket this season. The change in gears is significant in Yadav’s push to be an India regular.History hasn’t been too kind to India’s most-recent 30-plus debutants. Three of them – Faiz Fazal, Naman Ojha and S Aravind played all of one game. Stuart Binny left the scene within two years of his debut. But for Yadav, it’s a take-off point. Potentially a good series against England followed by a productive IPL could strengthen his hold of a middle order berth for the T20 World Cup. And with two more World Cups in the pipeline, he could well become a trendsetter for other 30-something players for whom the fire still burns.

But it takes patience and perseverance, with Root finally defeated by Bumrah’s cunning and accuracy

Nagraj Gollapudi07-Aug-20211:28

Laxman: Bumrah is India’s No. 1 bowler across all three formats

In the fourth over post tea on Saturday, Virat Kohli asked Mohammed Siraj to keep a lid on his emotions while bowling. It drew an instant chuckle considering Kohli is ever laden with emotions at all times on the field. Siraj had not just fired three short-pitched deliveries at Sam Curran’s head, including two bouncers, but had charged the England allrounder and exchanged words animatedly – all in reaction to being driven for four at the start of the over.It was part of a segment of play comprising half an hour on either side of tea that had contributed to tantalising theatre and added further intrigue to this fascinating Test. Kohli understood that Joe Root was threatening to take the match away from India. He also understood his bowlers had to grind under gloriously sunny skies on a slow pitch where England had used the heavy roller – first late on Friday afternoon, then in the morning. So Kohli wanted India not to take their eye off the ball now.Marshalled by Root’s aggressive batting, England had kept their run rate consistently over three. The pressure was on India’s bowlers once Root and Dom Sibley had offset the sprightly start the visitors had been given in the morning by Jasprit Bumrah and Siraj with Rory Burns and Zak Crawley returning with a head full of questions over their technique.But Root transferred that pressure immediately back on the bowlers each time they pitched full or gave him width on the off stump. So positive was Root that the usually immovable Sibley was stirred and fancied freeing his arms a few times despite hitting straight to the fielder. At lunch England’s lead was 24. By tea it had swelled to 140. And even though India had got three further wickets by the time Siraj fired balls at and eyeballed Curran, India had not yet succeeded in uprooting the England captain, who was on the brink of a memorable Test century.Not that they did not try.”.” (Bowl the same delivery on the middle stump), Kohli instructed Siraj during the latter part of his first spell in the morning session. The previous delivery, Root had defensively pushed at a ball on his back foot and was lucky it did not trickle down onto the stumps. India had done their homework and understood Root has been vulnerable to straighter deliveries attacking the stumps recently. Hence Kohli asked Siraj to fire at the stumps. Next ball, Siraj used the scrambled seam, pitched a bit straight and once again an inside edge nearly knocked onto Root’s stumps.Related

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Next over, Bumrah attacked Root’s off stump pitching consistently on length and squared up the England captain up with a delivery that straightened and took the outside edge. But Root had been watchful and played the with soft hands as the ball died in front Kohli who could just smile.Until this Test the highest target India had chased down in England was 173, which came 50 years ago in the Oval Test. The 208 target achieved by West Indies in 1980 remains the highest by a visiting team at Trent Bridge. England were aiming for something well in excess of 200.The ball was getting older, the pitch was getting slower and there was no swing on offer. Bowling was not easy and Kohli had to remind every fast man barring Bumrah to bowl straighter as Root and his partners were taking advantage of the loose deliveries which had become frequent.What was not helping the Indian bowlers was that every new batter was starting to impose straightaway: especially Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler. Buttler had been all at sea against Bumrah in the first innings. Now he just lunged forward to attack the same bowler for an easy square-driven four. India went into tea with the new ball still about 10 overs away and Root and Buttler at the crease.Jasprit Bumrah celebrates after getting Dom Sibley•PA Images via Getty ImagesHowever in the first over after the break, Shardul Thakur, who had been getting reverse swing, took advantage of Buttler’s ill-judged leave by disturbing the top of off stump. Next over, Siraj seamed in a delivery from the fourth stump into the front pad of Root, but Michael Gough disagreed. Kohli, too, was unconvinced, but was talked by Siraj and Mohammed Shami into taking the review, India’s third and final one, which they lost.Soon after, Thakur, a few miles slower, rapped Root on his front knee having drawn him into playing a length ball. But once again the impact was outside. Thakur stood mid-pitch heaving on his follow-through staring at Kohli whose hands were folded – and tied, with all reviews spent.By the time the new ball was taken England’s lead had gone to 177 with Root in no mood to surrender and India needed more than luck. The England captain was finally defeated by the cunning and accuracy of Bumrah, who finally extracted some bounce from the new ball by banging it on a length on a straight seam, but with a wrist that pushed the ball slightly away to take a soft edge off Root’s bat. While walking back to his mark, he indicated to Shami, suggesting he had been trying the same delivery throughout the day against Root but missing the spot he wanted to hit by a matter of inches.Next ball, Bumrah yorked Stuart Broad to be on a hat-trick, which he missed. After claiming the first wicket of this Test on Wednesday, Bumrah had celebrated emotionally. Today, though, he flashed happy smiles and waves at the dressing room and his wife, who is at the opposite end.Importantly, through their patience and perseverance, Bumrah along with the Indian pace pack, have left India on a strong footing once again as this Test enters its final chapter.

Young legspinner makes eye-catching start to career as academy graduates hint at bright future

ECB Reporters' Network05-Aug-2021Of all the young soldiers who have marched with Sussex this season no one has captured the imagination quite like Archie Lenham. The slightly older Tom Haines and Jack Carson already look more-rounded players, while the similarly aged James Coles and Danial Ibrahim have already played Championship cricket and could well develop into more substantial allrounders. Lenham, however, is the one who has really caught the eye.When he made his Vitality Blast debut against Gloucestershire this year, aged just 16, he became the competition’s first cricketer born since the launch of the T20 game in England in 2003. In his second match – a televised affair against Hampshire – he won the match award with figures of 3 for 14 in three overs.He has now taken ten wickets in the Blast at an average of 16.20. Will Beer, the other Sussex legspinner who is regarded as one of the most consistent slow bowlers in the white-ball game, has taken nine wickets at 27.44 with an identical economy rate. Now 17, Lenham is also the county’s leading wicket-taker in the Royal London Cup.Related

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Sussex coach and former England legspinner Ian Salisbury said: “In five years time Haines will be 27, Carson will be 25, George Garton will be 29 and Archie will be 22, and we could have quite a team.”In terms of genes and lineage I have no doubts about Archie. His granddad [Les Lenham, a Sussex batsman of the 1950s and 1960s who became one of the country’s most respected coaches] coached me, I played with his dad, Neil, and his mother was a highly competitive hockey player.”The talent is there and so is the temperament. We make sure we look after the person at Sussex and there is no doubt in my mind that Archie is ready. He might look like a little boy who’s still at school, which he is, but he’s a fierce competitor who’s aware of all the pitfalls.”Lenham bowls faster than the more flighty Beer but because he’s short he manages to get impressive loop on the ball. Salisbury says the pace is important. “If you look at Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan they both bowled with good pace, so did Anil Kumble and now Rashid Khan, who has helped Archie learn all the tricks.” A technically sound batsman, Lenham could also develop into an allrounder when he gathers more strength.Lenham himself says: “It’s been pretty amazing – a great start to my career. Ian’s been exceptionally helpful to me with all aspects of legspin. He’s been really helpful talking about what pace to bowl, line and length and everything.”So has [former Sussex captain and England batsman] Alan Wells, at Bede’s School. And then, of course my dad and granddad have helped since the day I was born. Then, in the Blast team, Will, Luke Wright and Chris Jordan have given me great encouragement. They don’t mind if I get hit for sixes as long as I bowl aggressively and take wickets. I’ve been playing for Sussex teams since I was under nine, so I feel at home. I’ve played with a lot of my team-mates at various age group levels so it feels nice and cool to be playing in the first team with them.”Sussex have had to field severely depleted teams in recent times as England, the IPL and now the Hundred have taken away some of their leading players. But they have turned this to their advantage, deploying a number of talented youngsters who have grown up together and could soon form the nucleus of a formidable team.They will be better when they get some of their senior men back – a team must manage the present as well as build for the future, look for a balance of experience and youth. But right now it’s the youth who are exciting Sussex supporters.

Fourth Indigenous cricketer to play for Australia thought his Test chance might have gone

Alex Malcolm26-Dec-2021On November 6, Scott Boland sat in the Ponsford stand of an empty MCG with three journalists and was asked about what he thought of his Test prospects.”I know there are so many good fast bowlers around,” Boland said, “it’s going to be hard for me to get a crack but all I can do is just keep doing what I’ve been doing for the last few years. If the opportunity comes I’ll be really, really happy.”On Boxing Day, the 32-year-old Victorian received his Baggy Green from Josh Hazlewood and took his first Test wicket in front of 57,100 fans. It was a moment he admitted that he thought might have passed him by a few years ago.Related

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“Definitely,” Boland said after play on day one in Melbourne. “I probably felt two or three years ago I wasn’t bowling as well as I know I could.”Boland played 14 ODIs and three T20Is for Australia in 2016 but had dropped off the selectors’ radar.Following an excellent 2020-21 Sheffield Shield season, Australia’s chairman of selectors, George Bailey, spoke to Boland ahead of the 2021-22 season and told him was doing the right things. But even by the second Shield game in early November, Boland had not been given any indication he would be part of the extended Australia/Australia A squad that needed to quarantine in Queensland.But after taking 8 for 89 against New South Wales at the MCG Bailey rang again to confirm that Boland would be in the Australia A squad to face the England Lions and that he would be a chance to be called up to the Test squad for the MCG or SCG Tests given his superb record at the grounds.Then the stars aligned with Pat Cummins being ruled out of Adelaide, which led to both Jhye Richardson and Michael Neser playing while Boland was flown in on short notice to carry the drinks. On day five in Adelaide Boland was told he would be added to the Test squad for Melbourne and the rest is history.Boland’s debut is even more significant given he is just the second Indigenous male behind Jason Gillespie, and the fourth Indigenous Australian behind women’s representatives Faith Thomas and Ash Gardner, to play Test cricket for Australia.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I’m pretty proud,” Boland said. “My family’s very proud as well. It means a lot to join a pretty small club and hopefully, it is just the start of something big for the Indigenous community in cricket. If I can be a role model for young Indigenous kids to want to play cricket, I think the Indigenous community in [Australian rules football] and rugby is so big, hopefully, one day, the Aboriginals in cricket can be just as big.”Cricket Australia’s Indigenous advisory chair Justin Mohamed believes Boland can become an inspiration for a community that has been badly under-represented in elite-level cricket in Australia.”It’s a magnificent day for Scott,” Mohamed said. “It’s a magnificent day for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders because he’s obviously representing himself and his family but also a representation of people who are so proud it could happen on such a significant day.”Aboriginal people, where they’ve excelled, they’ve gone to sports where they feel there’s an opportunity like [Australian rules football], rugby league, boxing. For some reason, that hasn’t been seen as a genuine opportunity in cricket and that’s what we’re hoping to change.”You hear of cricketers that have come through that came to the MCG and watched Dennis Lillee or Jeff Thompson who inspired them. You hear of athletes who said they saw Cathy Freeman in 2000 [at the Sydney Olympics] and that’s inspired them to be the next Olympian. Hopefully, there will be the six, eight, or 10-year-old watching something like this and saying ‘that’s what I want to do’.”

When it is part of the furniture, discrimination is hard to see for what it is

Osman Samiuddin17-Nov-2021Of the many truths Azeem Rafiq was speaking to all the powers assembled in front of him, assembled behind him, sat alongside him, who have employed him, who have played with him, who are his friends, who are not his friends, or who were simply watching on, this one resonated that little bit more.”For people of colour, to start accepting you’re being treated differently, it’s very difficult. After that you’re always asking why.”Right up to 2017, I didn’t believe it. I reported it as bullying. For me to believe I was being treated this way because of my colour, my race, it was difficult for me to digest.”Related

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In 2017. In a second stint with the club. Having been with the club for the best part of a decade. Until then, Rafiq said, he had been in denial.It is a truth that many individuals who are in that position of minority – of colour, of ethnicity, of race, of gender, of sexuality – may recognise. If the difficult part of racism is dealing with it post-hoc, then the first step of recognising it for what it is in the first place is no less a challenge.Racism doesn’t always come with a calling card. It doesn’t always come in white robes and hoods. All too often, stray racist remarks, broader racist behaviour, even entire systemically racist environments, slip by in the fog of trying to fit in; as tolerable collateral hits, so to speak, one must suffer for acceptance.Acceptance explains why, for instance, when, as a 16-year-old, Rafiq was pinned down and forced to drink red wine by a team-mate at Barnsley Cricket Club, he did not at first see this for what it was. He had never drunk alcohol before. He started drinking after that because he thought it was the way to fit in. Other than school, where is the pressure to fit in greater than in a sporting environment?It also helps explain why nicknaming non-white players “Steve” or “Kevin”, as Gary Ballance and others at Yorkshire are said to have done, did not immediately come off as racist, or exclusionary, behaviour – or at least not, comparatively, to players being called “elephant-washers” or “P**i”. Cheteshwar Pujara mentioned being nicknamed Steve in an interview with ESPNcricinfo a few years ago and nobody thought much of it, not even Pujara himself (though, of course, he was coming to it from the outside). It might even have seemed funny – if cliquey – in the way that nicknames within sports teams are a signifier of acceptance into some sacred inner circle. Maybe it’s passed off as a bit of the ol’ eccentric British wit.But at its heart, what is a refusal to make the effort to call a person of another culture by their correct name, and then to give them a generic Anglo-Saxon name? What is it other than unarguably exclusionary behaviour? It is the denial of an identity, an othering. It may sound innocuous but it is far more insidious than that.Recognising environments or institutions as systemically racist is even more fraught. If this is all you’re used to, unless you can step away from it, or are yanked out of it – as Rafiq was by the tragic loss of his son and his deteriorating mental health – it’s not always possible to see it for what it is. It’s not always possible to see that “banter” is just racism but cloaked; or to see that practices such as not ensuring halal food for Muslim players are exclusionary, not normal.Systems, unlike individuals, are nebulous targets – this is what Rafiq knows well now and has been at pains to point out. It is why he can reconcile Joe Root not remembering racist incidents – despite Root being present on nights out with Rafiq and Ballance, Root’s housemate when those incidents happened – with considering Root to be, essentially, a decent man.”He might not remember it, but it just shows how normal it was in that environment, in that institution, that even a good man like him doesn’t see it for what it is,” Rafiq said. “It was strange, but it’s the environment and the institution that made it such a norm that people don’t remember it. And it’s not going to affect Joe. It’s something I remember every day. But I don’t expect Joe to.”Protesters outside Headingley on November 6, 2021•Peter Byrne/PA Photos/Getty ImagesIt is also why he doesn’t care about Michael Vaughan’s denials of the allegations made against him, that he too was of this environment. “He may not remember it because it’s not important to him.”There’s a sadder truth in all this. Rafiq was unhappy that his case wasn’t escalated enough by officials such as Hanif Malik (the head of Yorkshire Cricket’s equality and diversity committee) and institutions such as the National Asian Cricket Council. A body such as the NACC has a bigger picture to look at, of course, and must still strive to build rather than burn bridges.But a broader point, at the level of community, will still ring true. Sometimes your own will become enablers in you not recognising what is happening. It isn’t uncommon for people of your own community to tell you, in different ways, that it’s nothing, or that you’re making a mountain out of a molehill, or that this is just how it is and that you had best get used to it.Underlining all this is the simple fact of the cognitive dissonance of racism. You know it exists, because all the evidence of human history shows you; you sense it exists, but you don’t think it is happening to you – or that it can. Somehow, on a regular day on which Rafiq isn’t testifying, for example, or an SJN hearing has not taken place, it can still seem impossible that people or systems will discriminate purely because you’re different to them; and that, even if they do, it won’t be a barrier to your progress.Rafiq has often been asked why he came back to Yorkshire if he knew the club was institutionally racist. He was asked by an MP at the hearing. It’s an egregious question because implicit in it is the assumption that he is at fault, or that he’s lying: why would you go back to such a toxic environment unless the environment wasn’t so toxic? Well, aside from the fact that he had to put food on his family’s table and this was his only option, for a long while he also didn’t think – or want to think – that the club’s institutionalised racism would be able to hold his talent back, that he would somehow defeat the system and thrive.What, then, once you recognise it? Some self-hate and shame. Rafiq was angry at himself for not seeing all this before, for looking the other way. So much so that, at the hearing, he was still blaming himself for being forced to drink that red wine.And once you start accepting that, yes, you’re being treated differently because of your colour, nothing, as Rafiq noted, can be the same again. The curtain’s not been pulled back, it’s been ripped off. It’s an incredible, overwhelming burden to live with, an anchor that, on good days, grounds you but every other day chains you. Clarity, yes – Rafiq can see now that “you had people who were openly racist and you had the bystanders”.But also a tint forever on how you see the world in front of you.

Great keeper, good mate, straight talker – that’s just a few things the former Australia player has been

Ian Chappell27-Feb-2022″Is Rod Marsh an epileptic?” The phone call came at about 11.30 am in Sydney.It was former Queensland and Australian ODI player and now Bulls Masters boss Jimmy Maher. The answer was an emphatic no.The next call was concerning. “Rodney has actually had an attack in the car,” said Maher. “His heart stopped beating for several minutes before the hospital got it started again.”Related

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Seventy-four-year-old Marsh is the best Australian keeper I’ve seen and he has been a good mate since we played together in the 1970-71 Test side.He covered more territory standing back than any keeper, and while this was a great asset, it could also be a source of frustration. When Tony Greig edged Gary Gilmour’s awayswinger in the World Cup semi-final at Headingley in 1975, it was headed to my right.It never reached me.”Listen you fat bastard, catches on my right are mine,” I told him during the celebration. That’s one reason our friendship endured: we both made our points clearly.I was once asked who was the better keeper, Marsh or Ian Healy. It was an easy answer: “Have a look at their hands.”Marsh’s hands, despite years of collecting the ferociously fast Jeff Thomson and the extremely quick Dennis Lillee, are untarnished. If you look at that Headingley catch and then the diving leg-side one where he caught Clive Lloyd, you’ll understand about the territory he covered standing back.I awarded Marsh the dubious nickname of Iron Gloves during his Test debut at the Gabba. I’d just read about the poor-fielding Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Dick Stuart, who was nicknamed Iron Glove. It seemed like an appropriate name to anoint Marsh with – he dropped a couple in his first game. Years later, when Marsh claimed the world record for most dismissals by a keeper the laconic Doug Walters informed him: “Marshy, if you’d taken ’em all in your first Test, you would’ve claimed that record four games ago.”It was after Marsh’s first Test that former Australian opener and renowned journalist Jack Fingleton approached me at Sydney airport. “What’s this cove Marsh like?” he asked.I replied, “He’s a good bloke. He can bat, and don’t worry about the first Test, he can keep,” I answered. “Why do you ask?””Well,” replied the fastidious Fingleton, “he just threw his suit carrier in the luggage rack on top of my deer-stalker. I told him, ‘Marsh, my hat’s under there,’ Fingleton continued, “and he replied, ‘It can only improve the hat.'”Marsh famously poaches a Chappell catch at Headingley in the 1975 World Cup semi-final•Patrick Eagar/Getty ImagesI thought to myself that the debutant had a sense of humour, but I only said: “Jack, he’s all right. You’ll enjoy a game of golf with him.”We won that game of golf a few years later, thanks to Marsh’s skill with the clubs.Like all excellent teams, we had not only a very good wicketkeeper but a smart one.Marsh thought that if you were the incumbent, you should improve by doing the job all the time. He improved a hell of a lot, especially against spin. He was naturally very good standing back. As captain, he let me know how the quicks were hitting his gloves, and he was never short of an idea. He also told me the truth and that helped me learn a lot about captaincy.”You’re an idiot,” he told me, with an unprintable word before “idiot”, between overs at Old Trafford in 1972. He reckoned it was a seamers’ paradise and I had two spinners bowling. That warned me I was captaining like it was Adelaide Oval and I had to adjust my thinking to the ground we were actually playing on.Following his playing days, we’ve stayed in touch. He enjoyed a very successful career as head coach at both the Australian and England academies and has been a selector for both countries, as well as chairman of the Australian panel. He was director of coaching at the ICC’s Global Cricket Academy in Dubai, and has been an administrator as well.Whatever the job, he has given it his all, and he told the truth. You always know where you stand with Rod.He has a stalwart family in wife Ros, boys Paul, Daniel and Jamie and their wives and families. He’s a widely admired character and I received numerous encouraging messages when Rod fell ill. Their gist was the same: “He’s a tough bugger, he’ll pull through.”I’m hoping so, because he was a first-class teammate and remains an excellent friend.

They were constantly on the road in a season ravaged by Covid-19, but adversity only galvanised their battle-hardened group

Tristan Lavalette29-Jan-2022Galvanised by daunting road trips
Due to Western Australia’s unyielding hard border which remains in place indefinitely, Scorchers knew they would be on the road for the majority of the season. They hoped to squeeze in a few early games at Optus Stadium, their fortress, but they only managed to host Brisbane Heat on December 8.Then they were away for 50 straight days, enduring various restrictions, and also life away from home for those based in Perth. It was surely tough, but they embraced the challenge head-on. “There has not been an ounce of whinging, everyone has been focused and resilient,” opener Kurtis Patterson had recently told ESPNcricinfo.Related

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Scorchers had been somewhat here before, having only played four games last season in Perth, but this was an even more daunting task. Obviously, it helps in camaraderie when the team is winning, but the adversity undoubtedly galvanised the group. Perhaps drawing from former coach Justin Langer’s playbook, Scorchers relished a backs-against-the-wall approach which made the triumph the sweetest in their storied history.Depth and continuity
On January 28, 2015, Ashton Turner, Jason Behrendorff and Andrew Tye were celebrating knocking off Sydney Sixers for the title; fast forward exactly seven years, and it’s déjà vu, with the trio of stalwarts playing key roles in Scorchers’ latest success against the same opposition.Andrew Tye was also part of the Scorchers side that beat Sixers in the 2014-15 final•Cricket Australia via Getty ImagesStability is part of Scorchers’ fabric, and they have always built their team around a core of Western Australia players. Even after a couple of unsuccessful seasons in 2018-19 and 2019-20 – when they finished eighth and sixth, respectively – Scorchers stuck with their mantra hoping continuity provides an edge over teams more transient in nature.More than ever, Scorchers’ vaunted depth was needed during a Covid-19-ravaged season and amid the rigours of being on the road. Such was their reservoir of talent that those sidelined for the final included impressive quick Matt Kelly, who claimed 14 wickets at 12.78 in six matches, batter Cameron Bancroft and emerging allrounder Aaron Hardie, who remains worth keeping an eye on in the seasons to come.Every championship team also needs some luck, and Scorchers were fortunate not to have been decimated by Covid-19 and injuries at the wrong time like Sixers. They did have their own dramas later in the season, but Scorchers were reloaded by the finals and further strengthened by inclusions of Marsh, Jhye Richardson and Josh Inglis from Ashes duties.It meant Scorchers fielded their strongest team of the season against Sixers in the qualifying final, and then went into the final unchanged in a far cry to their beleaguered opponents.Kurtis Patterson smashed a team-leading 391 runs at a strike rate of 142.18•Getty ImagesBlueprint of success: bat first
As has been their preference, Scorchers elected to bat first ten out of 11 times that they won the toss this season, eventually going on to win nine of those matches. Scorchers have their formula worked out, and it remains relatively straightforward: set a decent total and then let a star-studded attack do the rest.This season, their batting appeared even bolder than previous versions, thus allowing them to average a particularly healthy 170 when batting first. And that meant that Scorchers’ knack of successfully defending small totals was rarely needed this season.Patterson stars at the top, Marsh brings fear factor
Scorchers had some critics heading into this season, mainly due to having a perceived lack of firepower at the top after losing big-hitting imports Liam Livingstone and Jason Roy. But an unexpected gamble went the Scorchers’ way: left-hander Patterson, who smashed a team-leading 391 runs at a strike rate of 142.18, was converted into a belligerent opener this season, batting at the top in all but one out of 13 innings.Patterson’s pyrotechnics allowed the powerful Colin Munro, who was used as an opener early in the season, to instead find a comfortable spot at No. 4.Scorchers received another fillip with Turner’s return to form after a few lean seasons, having also been bolstered by the success of English import Laurie Evans, who made the No. 6 position his own in his debut BBL season capped by an astonishing Player-of-the-Final performance. It meant Scorchers were loaded at every position in the top six, thus making a mockery of the scepticism that had started before the season.Meanwhile, Mitchell Marsh also left off from his stunning T20 World Cup with a blistering BBL, especially early in the season where his purple patch was instrumental in Scorchers’ six-game winning streak. Those victories in the bank proved pivotal for Scorchers, who had, by then, essentially sewn up the top position early, thus in turn allowing them to navigate eventual injuries and Covid-19 drama.Marsh gave Scorchers an aura, and his intimidating presence made it easy to overlook their wealth of batting talent who could go about their business.Peter Hatzoglou and Ashton Agar combined to pick up 33 wickets in the season•Getty ImagesHandling slower pitches on east coast
Scorchers have traditionally found slower, turning pitches on the east coast difficult. However, that was not the case this season with their batting being more adept against turn. Moreover, their own spinners Ashton Agar and Peter Hatzoglou relished the conditions and developed into a formidable tandem with 33 wickets combined.They often strangled opponents after the four-over powerplay – Agar’s overall economy rate was just 6.79 and Hatzoglou’s 7.26 – and had a knack of taking vital wickets. In the off-season, Scorchers had a punt on Hatzoglou, who crossed over from Melbourne Renegades, ahead of veteran Fawad Ahmed, with the 23-year-old legspinner Hatzoglou repaying the faith.The spin twins Agar and Hatzoglou strengthened an irresistible bowling attack which conceded more than 155 only twice this season, having also impressively dominated the power surge to turn the tables on a ploy designed to favour batters.Strong leadership
It has been a tough ask for head coach Adam Voges ever since he replaced Langer four years ago. He was under pressure after Scorchers missed consecutive finals, but has had them bouncing back emphatically. Voges’ sage leadership has shone through, and he has worked well with a composed Turner, who was named permanent skipper this season after filling the role last year when the then captain Marsh worked his way back from injury.The duo is measured and doesn’t seek headlines, ensuring Scorchers run a tight ship. Both deserve plaudits – especially Voges, who has now won BBL titles as Scorchers’ coach as well as captain – and so too general manager Kade Harvey, who made all the right moves in assembling arguably Scorchers’ greatest ever team.