India are in transition but the leader of their attack in the West Indies stepped up big time

Alagappan Muthu24-Jul-20231:01

Dasgupta: Siraj led the pace attack under pressure

“In the morning, we chatted about it, that the wicket was tough to bowl on. It’s slow and nothing is happening, like seam movement or spin. At the end, there was some turn but overall it was very easy for batting.”Their batting was also very defensive. So there were no chances for us because they didn’t play any attacking shots. To sum up our effort, it was great from our bowlers and each one of them did what was expected of them.”A little over 12 hours after India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey said all of that, he was watching his boys cut through the West Indies line-up.The missing link between India needing 67 overs to pick up four first-innings wickets on Saturday but only 7.4 to pick up five on Sunday was the new ball. It swung.This was a significant window of opportunity, which came with the catch that it was likely to be a small one. These are the moments that a good team seizes.India have been at this crossroads many times in overseas Test matches. Two of the more high-profile ones turned on the back of not so much the mistakes themselves but the timing of them. Their collapse on the sixth day of the first World Test Championship final and their letting Travis Head off the hook by never inviting him to hook when he was new to the crease in the most recent World Test Championship final.That hurt will never go away. Like 8-0 in 2011-12 never went away. In fact, a straight line can be traced from there to India having much improved fast bowling stocks. Perhaps in a similar way, the limitations that cost them those two ICC titles will now help them build once again.2:38

Siraj: Taking a five-for on a flat wicket isn’t easy

There were some good signs in Port-of-Spain, particularly from Mohammed Siraj. Did you know that he has been among the toughest quick bowlers to face in the last year? He has induced a false shot 211 times in 13 innings. And that’s while playing on the raging turners of Mirpur and Nagpur. The featherbed at Ahmedabad. And of course, this one here at the Queen’s Park Oval. The other quicks above him – there are 11 – the likes of Stuart Broad and Mitchell Starc and Matt Henry and Kagiso Radaba tend to play at venues much more suitable to their craft.Only a few minutes after Siraj walked back to the pavilion having bowled 3.4 overs for 13 runs and four wickets on the fourth morning, West Indies leaked 100 runs in 12.2 overs. This guy is that good and he has worked really hard for it. He didn’t rest on having a top-notch outswinger to the right-hand batters. He went out and found a way to bring the ball back into them. He knew that in order to be great, he had to test both edges of the bat. He had to create that uncertainty. In some of symmetry’s best work, two of his wickets came from balls leaving the right-hand batters and the other two from balls snarling back into them. Jason Holder’s downfall had the added subtlety of a bowler going wide of the crease to trick the batter into playing the angle, and therefore playing inside the line to be nicked off.Siraj is dangerously close to being a complete fast bowler. And he has only been playing Test cricket for two-and-a-half years.Mukesh Kumar looks a quick study as well. The control he offered on day three was crucial. The wickets he took were also significant. He had Alick Athanaze lbw with conventional swing. He used reverse seam – the ball moving off the pitch in the direction of the shine – to subdue Kirk McKenzie. And he hounded Kraigg Brathwaite on the front foot because he knew that’s the one place on a cricket field he doesn’t feel comfortable. On a quicker pitch, he might have had him lbw too.India have dominated this tour but that was expected when they were up against a team ranked eighth and a batting line-up that has routinely underperformed. Even so, the fact that they made what needed to happen happen – a collapse so that they can get in to bat early and set the pace in order to leave themselves enough time to bowl West Indies out again – will please the team management. They know they are in the middle of a transition but it is entirely possible that they’re relishing the hell out of it. Mhambrey’s smile as he greeted Siraj, who returned to the dressing room with the ball held aloft, was a dead giveaway.

A home World Cup and the conditions that brings mean Ashwin, in the blink of an eye, is back in India’s ODI plans after six years of being on the fringes in the format

Karthik Krishnaswamy06-Oct-2023If you were to compile a highlights reel of R Ashwin’s career, you’ll have no shortage of memorable Test-match wickets to choose from – the pitch-leg, hit-off dismissals of Alastair Cook at Edgbaston, for instance, or the ripping, Muraliesque offbreak with which he bowled Kane Williamson in Kanpur, or these two beauties to Ollie Pope in Ahmedabad. He’s enjoyed a parallel career as a T20 pathbreaker, so you’ll also throw in his first-over arm ball to Chris Gayle from the 2011 IPL final and the carrom ball from hell to Hashim Amla from the 2014 T20 World Cup.It’s perhaps harder to recall, off the top of your head, the magic moments of Ashwin the ODI bowler. It has something to do with the nature of the format and the limited room it has lately had for fingerspin, and a lot to do with the fact that Ashwin has only played four ODIs in the last six years.Just under two weeks ago, though, Ashwin bowled what may have been the ball of his ODI career, a reverse carrom ball that swung into Marnus Labuschagne and straightened off the deck to beat his closed bat face and hit off and middle. An inswinger holding its line, a delivery that’s existed for as long as the cricket ball has had a stitched seam, delivered in a manner that no one had previously even thought to attempt. Not a bad ball to bowl if you’ve played next to no ODI cricket for six years and get a chance out of nowhere to stake your claim for a World Cup.Related

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Four days after he’d bowled that ball – and made David Warner bat right-handed, without much success, in an effort to counter his threat – Ashwin was in India’s World Cup squad.On Friday evening, two days out from India’s tournament-opener against Australia, Ashwin was bowling at the Chepauk nets. The scene already resembled a lurid fever dream thanks to the floodlights and India’s orange training kit, and one delivery to Suryakumar Yadav heightened this feeling: he went back, looking to work it into the leg side, only for the ball to leave him and square him up.From the outside there was no way to tell what ball Ashwin had bowled. It may have been a carrom ball, a reverse carrom ball that found a bit of grip, an arm ball, or a drifting offbreak that didn’t turn.Whatever this ball was, it had done the unexpected. Much like Ashwin over these last few weeks.Six years ago, Ashwin was out of India’s ODI squad, seemingly for good, because he and Ravindra Jadeja weren’t giving India wickets in the middle overs. If he’s back now, it isn’t so much because he’s turned into a different bowler but because India’s needs have changed, and they’ve moved other pieces of their jigsaw to create room for his skillset.It’s a skillset that might not make too much of an impression on the kind of pitch that The Oval produced for the 2017 Champions Trophy, or the English pitches that India expected at the 2019 World Cup. The same skillset, though, is just what India needed ahead of a World Cup in home conditions, where their combination, at certain venues, could have room for a third spinner.Australia will face India at Chepauk – no doubt much to R Ashwin’s delight•TNCAChennai quite likely is one of those venues. Its outfield isn’t massive, but it’s bigger than those at most Indian grounds, and the pitch tends to provide a fair amount of grip. It’s harder here than at most other grounds to hit spinners out of the attack. The most recent ODI here, in March, told quite a story: Australia batted first and were bowled out for 269, with India’s three spinners combining to take 5 for 147 in 28 overs. India’s chase began promisingly but fizzled out, with Australia’s spinners bagging 6 for 86 in 20 overs.The pitch for Sunday’s clash between the same sides is likely to be similar. Chennai’s square has both black- and red-soil pitches, and the pitch selected for the game is a black-soil one. While soil type isn’t a foolproof indicator of a pitch’s character, black-soil pitches in India tend to play slower and lower than red-soil pitches.India will have quite a few difficult selections to make as they journey through the league phase of this World Cup, meeting nine different opponents at nine different venues. The most conditions-dependent choice they’ll make is likely to be the one between Ashwin and Shardul Thakur: third spinner who bats a bit versus third seamer who bats a bit.That choice could be exceedingly tricky on some occasions. It might be rather more straightforward at Chepauk. This is Ashwin’s home ground, a ground where he once said, after running through Australia in a Test match, that “the air is talking to me, each man sitting in the stands is talking to me”.Ashwin’s ODI journey has been long and circuitous and full of unexpected turns. It makes sense that it brings him here now, back where it all began.

And also, numbers from a day to forget for Adam Zampa

Sampath Bandarupalli15-Sep-2023174 – Heinrich Klaasen’s score against Australia in Centurion, which is now the second-highest individual score by a batter playing at No. 5 or lower in ODIs, behind only Kapil Dev’s unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe during the 1983 World Cup.0 – Individual ODI scores higher than Klaasen’s 174 after coming to bat in the 25th over or later (where fall-of-wickets data is available). The previous highest was 162 not out by AB de Villiers against West Indies in 2015 and Jos Buttler against Netherlands last year.14.47 – Run rate of the partnership between Klaasen and David Miller, by far the highest for a stand of 200-plus in ODI cricket (where fall-of-wickets data is available). The previous fastest was between Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler, who added 204 runs at 10.03 runs an over against West Indies in 2019.113 – Runs conceded by Adam Zampa in his ten overs – the most by any bowler in an innings in men’s ODIs. Zampa equalled the record of Mick Lewis, who had done the same against South Africa in the famous 438 vs 434 Johannesburg ODI of 2006.173 – Runs scored by South Africa in the last ten overs of their innings. This is the highest by any team between the 41st and 50th overs of a men’s ODI innings (where ball-by-ball data is available). England’s 164 was the previous highest, scored during last year’s Amstelveen ODI against Netherlands.77 – Balls Klaasen needed to complete his 150, the fourth-fastest for any batter in men’s ODIs. It is also the second-fastest for South Africa, behind AB de Villiers who needed 64 balls for his 150 against West Indies in the 2015 World Cup.7 – The partnership of 222 between Klaasen and Miller is the first double-century stand in ODIs against Australia for the fifth wicket or lower. It is also the fifth-highest partnership for the fifth wicket in ODIs overall, and the second-highest for South Africa, behind 256* by JP Duminy and Miller against Zimbabwe in 2015.20 – Sixes hit by South Africa during their innings. These are the highest number of sixes hit by South Africa in an ODI, equalling the 20 against India in the 2015 Mumbai ODI. These are also the second-most sixes conceded by Australia in an ODI, behind the 21 against England in 2018 Nottingham ODI.7 – Number of 400-plus totals for South Africa in ODI cricket, the most for any team, going one ahead of India’s six.

Right up until the moment they haven’t – the story of how Afghanistan never got the memo

Osman Samiuddin23-Oct-20232:38

Mumtaz: Panic should have set in for Pakistan during the Asia Cup

Right. Two hundred and eighty-two on the board. A bit ropey there at one stage but solid recovery. Ninety-one runs in the last 10, looking forward to the Iftikhar memes and the ‘Shadab Khan is a batter’ think pieces.Pakistan have got this.It’s Afghanistan: 7-0. Seven losses but 70 different ways of snatching defeat from the mouth of victory. Sure, they beat England but every World Cup has an upset or two. Not three. It brings some colour, a bit of hope.Anyway, here comes Shaheen Afridi and he more than anyone has got this. Back in form, back in the wickets, Mr Mojo risin’. Pace is up from the last few games too. He’s going to pick up a couple of early wickets finally and Afghanistan’s batting is all about those early wickets. Break through them and game is done.Related

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Bowls that first over. Looking for That First Over again. Starts, as he’s been doing for a while, too straight. Four down fine leg. Temporarily corrects lengths. But goes full again, this time outside off. Four more. Loosener. All good.Hello Hasan Ali. Been a bit floaty through this entire tournament. Only here because Naseem Shah isn’t. But he’ll be fine. He’s smart. Old hand. Been around. Enough tricks in the bag to see this through.Three tight balls. Good disciplines. Too much width next two balls, two fours. Not so good disciplines. All good though. Early days.Seven overs gone now, Shaheen and Hasan not breathing fire truth be told. Barely a chance, barely a sniff, just one overturned decision. No worries though, Haris Rauf’s been brought on. Pace will do for them. Express. He’s gone for plenty this World Cup but remember how he ripped through Afghanistan two months ago in Hambantota? Fifty-nine all out chasing 202. Good days those.Oh dear.The good news is that this first over isn’t as expensive as his first over against Australia. The bad news is I’m lying and there is no good news as it’s gone for 17 unless, I guess, that’s progress from conceding 24? Afghanistan racing here. It’s fine, it’s Afghanistan. The same openers raced to 227 in less than 40 overs against Pakistan also in Hambantota two months ago. Somehow, they only managed 300. Somehow Pakistan chased it down. With one ball to spare. One wicket to spare. Naseem Shah. Good days those.It’s the 11th over now. No wickets but it’s Chennai. Spin it to win it. It was spinning when Afghanistan were deploying their quartet of spinners earlier (RIP, incidentally, Bishan Singh Bedi, Afghanistan are doing your art proud). Usama Mir’s coming on. Impossible I know, like forgetting your name, but forget that drop in Bangalore. He bowled well in parts against Australia. Spun the ball, sometimes more in one ball than the accumulated degrees of turn generated by both Shadab and Mohammad Nawaz combined in the month before. This pitch is perfect for him.

Afghanistan 130 for 0. All bowlers used. Slightly alarming but like your five-year-old repeating a swear word they heard you use, not an irretrievable situation in life. I said ‘shucks’ darling

Though, hmmm. Seven off the over and Afghanistan have barely broken sweat and not breaking sweat in Chennai is some hitherto undiscovered massive hack in the physiology of human reactions to Chennai humidity. Usama’s lengths are a little all over the place. Not much turn either. Dew? The lights? Different pitch?Just throwing this out there, but the fielding’s been a little off. Overthrows. Diving over balls. Not backing up. Looking a bit spent, all of them. So, what you’re saying is that it’s going to be on the bowlers then because, lol, when is it not?Pakistan’s bowling has been the problem so far but this is Afghanistan, they’ll find a way to make them look good. Pakistan have got this.Shadab this. Here’s the story. Shadab returns, first fires with the bat, puts in a proper spell of legspin, a couple of wickets because it’s Chennai, and be all supercool in the field. The only problem will be not getting too giddy because it’s Afghanistan.Getting some nice dip immediately, a little full but this is promising. At least there’s been no…. oh wait, there it is. Filthy long hop. Third ball. Only thing filthier is the Shaheen effort at long-on. Four. Upside: at least was beaten by the spin.Drinks now. Afghanistan 105 for no loss. Pakistan have used five bowlers. You know what that means though right? Ifti is in the house, boys and girls. This is his day. He’s been bowling little spells here and there and not been a disaster. Against Australia he was 8-0-37-0 in a total of 367. It’s up there with not sweating in Chennai.He’s going to do this. It’s written. Good over to start too, only the second in the last eight to not concede a boundary. The strangle is on. Until second ball of his second over, it’s not. High and handsome over his head for six, as easy as taking a single.Afghanistan 130 for 0. All bowlers used. Slightly alarming but like your five-year-old repeating a swear word they heard you use, not an irretrievable situation in life. I said “shucks” darling. Anyway, Pakistan are much better with the ball after half an innings. Pulled it back against Sri Lanka. Pulled it back even harder against Australia. This is where it begins.A dejected Babar Azam walks back after Pakistan conceded their first ODI loss against Afghanistan•ICC/Getty ImagesShaheen’s back and here we go. Wicket first ball. Even better sign: Usama’s held a steepler at third man. is where it turns. Scrappy, unconvincing win incoming, Pakistan caravan rolls on. Well played Afghanistan.Shadab’s also on. Fast bowler and leggie, leggie and fast bowler, the Real Pakistan Way. Then Haris is back and Usama’s on. Fast bowler and leggie, leggie and fast bowler, also the Real Pakistan Way.Except, did anyone send that manifesto to Afghanistan, because there’ll be trouble if they didn’t? Did they hit ‘Send’ because it really feels like they didn’t. It’s been nine overs since the wicket. They’ve put on 41. They’ve just hit Usama for back-to-back boundaries. Cut, then pulled, you say (. Two overs, only four runs, one maiden. Even Athers is talking about it on air, willing it into reality. Pakistan are going to pull a rabbit out and you better get your ’92 on.And here’s Hasan, bemused like all of us, watching this one sail back high over his head. Lucky not to sprain his neck. Six. Afghanistan need a run a ball with eight in hand. Panic? Nah. This is just the most elaborate set-up to the punchline of how Afghanistan lose this one, perhaps the best one yet.You watch. Babar’s got this under control. Pace, spin, spin, pace, he’s making changes like a Grandmaster whirling pieces around the board in a game of speed chess. Eight lightning-fast changes of bowling in 10 overs since that six and now Afghanistan have taken 19 off two overs with just one boundary and it’s gone from 54 off 48 to 35 off 36 and now 19 off 24 and wait, who’s got this under control?There’s an edge for four and Hasan’s whiplashing his neck again watching another fly off over him and remember your five-year-old? She’s now teaching you swear words.Afghanistan have got this. They’ve had this from ball one.

And are Geoff and Mitch Marsh the only father and son to win World Cups?

Steven Lynch28-Nov-2023I noticed that ten of Virat Kohli’s 50 ODI centuries have come against Sri Lanka. Is this the most by anyone against one opponent? asked Malcolm Anderson from England
That’s a good spot, as it is indeed the record: apart from Virat Kohli against the long-suffering Sri Lankans, no one has scored as many as ten centuries against the same opposition in one-day internationals. Kohli has also scored nine against West Indies, and the previous overall record-holder Sachin Tendulkar made nine against Australia. Tendulkar also hit eight hundreds against Sri Lanka, while Kohli and Rohit Sharma currently have eight against Australia.The Test record is held by Don Bradman, with 19 centuries against England. Sunil Gavaskar made 13 against West Indies, and Jack Hobbs 12 against Australia; Steve Smith currently has 12 against England.In women’s ODIs, Australia’s Meg Lanning scored six centuries against New Zealand, while the England pair of Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver-Brunt have made four against South Africa and Australia respectively.I noticed that Shadab Kabir played three ODIs for Pakistan and was out for a duck each time. Has anyone else done this (or done even worse? asked Riaz Siddique from Pakistan
The unfortunate Shadab Kabir played three ODIs in September 1996, bagging a duck against England at Trent Bridge and two more against India in Canada. He didn’t bowl, and held only one catch – but he did finish up with a Man-of-the-Match award. Perhaps we should really say that he shared an award, as the entire Pakistan team was given the award for a good all-round display in his debut match at Trent Bridge!Two other men started their ODI careers with three ducks – Nicholas de Groot of Canada during the 2003 World Cup, and Ireland’s Peter Gillespie in 2006. De Groot made 11 in his fourth match, and Gillespie (who had been dismissed third ball, second and first) finally got off the mark with two in his fifth and last game, after not batting in the fourth.A left-hander, Kabir did score some runs in Tests. He won five caps, and his 148 runs included 55 against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2001-02. In first-class cricket, Kabir made 11 centuries, the highest his 176 for Karachi Port Trust against Sui Northern Gas in a Patron’s Trophy match in Peshawar in 2003-04.Are Geoff and Mitchell Marsh the only father and son to win the World Cup?asked Kelly Livingstone from Australia
Geoff Marsh was part of the Australian side which caused something of an upset by winning the 1987 World Cup. Marsh scored 24 as they beat England by just seven runs in the final in Kolkata.Geoff’s son Mitchell Marsh was out for 15 as his side made a hesitant start to their chase in the recent World Cup final in Ahmedabad, but it all came out right in the end for the Australians, enabling Marsh to complete this unique family double. Actually he already had a winners’ medal, as he was part of the squad that won at home in 2015, although he didn’t play in the final against New Zealand after appearing in three of the group games.His brother Shaun Marsh played two matches in the 2019 World Cup, before a ball from Pat Cummins broke his forearm in the nets. For the full list of related ODI players, click here.Geoff Marsh played the 1987 World Cup final, while his son, Mitchell, featured in the 2015 World Cup squad and played in the 2023 final•Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesIndia beat England by 100 runs in the World Cup even though they scored only 229 themselves. Was this some sort of record? asked Mohan Chowdhury from India
India’s 229 for 9 against England in Lucknow was the second-lowest total to result in a win by 100 runs or more in a World Cup match: South Africa (225 for 7) beat England (103) by 122 runs at The Oval in 1999. The lowest total in any one-day international that resulted in a win by 100 runs or more remains England’s 171 at Edgbaston in 1977 – they then bowled Australia out for 70. That was the match in which both Greg Chappell (5 for 20) and Gary Cosier (5 for 18) took five wickets for Australia, still the only time this has happened in an ODI.Don Bradman took two wickets in his Test career. Is it true that he dismissed the same batter both times? asked Mustafa Al Sharif from the United Arab Emirates
I’ve answered loads of questions on here about Don Bradman’s batting – see above for a start – but I can’t remember very many about his bowling! Bradman very occasionally sent down some optimistic legbreaks. He bowled in only nine Test innings, his most famous spell arguably coming at The Oval in 1938, when he badly injured his ankle during his brief spell and couldn’t bat. It’s said that England’s captain Wally Hammond only called a halt at 903 for 7 after he’d been assured the Don would not be able to go in.Bradman did take two wickets in Tests, as you said, but they weren’t the same person. In Adelaide in 1930-31 , he trapped the West Indies wicketkeeper Ivan Barrow lbw for 27. Bradman’s second victim, two seasons later in Adelaide again, was none other than the aforementioned Hammond, who missed a full toss and was bowled for 85. It didn’t matter much overall – England went on to a 338-run win and took a 2-1 lead in the Bodyline series – but Hammond was furious at getting out to his rival, who had supplanted him as the leading batter in the world.In all first-class cricket Bradman took 36 wickets, with a best performance of 3 for 35 for the Australian tourists against Cambridge University at Fenner’s in 1930. He took three more wickets in the second innings, finishing with match figures of 6 for 103.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Players and support staff members weigh in on the possible solutions to not lose out days of Ranji Trophy games every season

Daya Sagar and Nikhil Sharma20-Jan-2024The winter fog in northern India has once again disrupted the Ranji Trophy, forcing coaches and players to question why the matches are being played in conditions where visibility is low and the outfield often wet.Matches across the first few rounds of the Ranji season, including the ongoing third round – in Delhi, Meerut, Chandigarh, Jammu, Lahli, Kanpur and Mullanpur – were all affected to varying degrees, with overs and even days lost without a ball being bowled. The problem is not new and has persisted over the years with the BCCI unable to figure a viable solution.With vital points being lost, teams have once again listed some possible solutions the Indian board could look at before it makes the schedule next season. Former India spinner Sunil Joshi, who is the Uttar Pradesh head coach, wants north India to be ignored from the fixtures’ list during the peak of winter, and wants the respective teams’ home games to be played in the later stages of the tournament.”Look, in big tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, teams suffer losses if the matches are not completed,” Joshi told ESPNcricinfo. “My advice is that where there is so much fog [smog, in some cases], instead of playing home matches first, north Indian teams should be given home matches in February, by which time the fog reduces. You will see how many matches in the last two rounds have been affected by fog or bad light.”In the latest round, not a single ball could be bowled on the first day in three matches – Uttar Pradesh vs Bihar in Meerut, Punjab vs Tripura in Mohali, and Chandigarh vs Gujarat in Chandigarh – while Services vs Jharkhand in Delhi, at the Palam ground near the airport, started over an hour late.Similarly, in the first two rounds, time was lost during Haryana vs Rajasthan in Lahli, Chandigarh vs Railways in Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir vs Himachal Pradesh in Jammu, Delhi vs Puducherry in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh vs Bengal in Kanpur, Railways vs Punjab in Mullanpur, Jammu & Kashmir vs Delhi in Jammu, and Services vs Rajasthan in Delhi. Matches in Patna and other cities in the eastern part of India were also affected by late starts and early finishes.In two of these matches, Haryana vs Rajasthan and J&K vs Delhi, not a single innings could be completed. Obviously, points were lost, or not won, which will impact the progress of the teams to the next round.Fog has interrupted a number of Ranji Trophy games this season too•NurPhoto via Getty Images”It would have been better if our matches in north India were held after January,” Anshu Jain, coach of Rajasthan, said. Their first game, in Rohtak in Haryana, saw only 42 overs of action. Their second, against Services in Delhi, had 277.1 overs played.”Two of our matches have already been affected by this. Everyone knows that at there is fog in north India this time of the year. If we were playing in our home ground in Jaipur, this would not have been a problem and the players would have got more opportunity to spend time on the field instead of in the pavilion.”I am not saying that Ranji Trophy should start in October. It is very hot then and this will make it difficult for fast bowlers to bowl long spells. January is the right time, but then holding matches in north India in January should be avoided. If north India matches are held after January 25, that would be the best time.”Though weather patterns are continuously changing, it’s generally understood that it starts to clear towards the end of January, making it easier to complete 90 overs each day in north India.”The Ranji Trophy cannot be held earlier as the [T20] Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and [one-day] Vijay Hazare Trophy are now held earlier due to the IPL auctions,” Services captain Rajat Paliwal said. “Yes, if the first three rounds of matches are in south or west India, then it is better. In our last match, we lost 15 to 20 overs every day. Very few overs were played in Jammu and the match in Delhi (Arun Jaitley Stadium)] was also affected.”Could a tweak in the scheduling of tournaments – moving things around – help?”It is also possible to start the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in October and the Ranji Trophy in November, and end the season with the Vijay Hazare Trophy,” Paliwal said. “I hope this will be considered by those in charge for the next season. If there is a reduction in overs in any match, it affects the result of the game and the points. There is a high possibility that the match will have no result.”Not everyone is in agreement, though. Not to forget, crop burning and the overall levels of pollution make playing cricket close to impossible in parts of north India in the time of the year Paliwal talks about.”The schedule we have is fine,” Jharkhand batting coach Satish Singh said. “This is the best time and season to play first-class cricket in India. Looking at the weather, Ranji Trophy can’t be held too much earlier or much later. You cannot fight with nature. Wherever you play, the weather will affect one or two matches, teams will lose points for no fault of theirs in one or two matches. We have no problem with this schedule as a team.”The concerns of the other teams still remain valid because it is the premier first-class tournament in India, and glory at the Ranji Trophy remains cherished, despite the IPL and everything else. Whether there is a solution or not, no-one likes to lose points without scrapping legitimately for them.

With both KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja ruled out of the second Test, the hosts have to make some big selection decisions

Alagappan Muthu29-Jan-202411:42

Newsroom: How do India replace Jadeja and Rahul?

On the back of a loss to start the series, India have lost their best batter from the Hyderabad Test and one of their biggest match-winners at home to injury. KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja have been ruled out of the second Test in Visakhapatnam which starts on Friday and India face a bit of a challenge in balancing their XI, starting with…Who is the new No. 4?Shreyas Iyer, probably. He did not cover himself in glory in the second innings – but then again none of the Indian batters did. When the loss became a possibility, the pressure seemed to get to them and the aggression that they showed that threw England spinners off their lengths in the first innings vanished. India will need someone in the top four who can do that and Iyer is as good an option as they’ve got right now. Because all of a sudden, after Rohit Sharma at the top, the experience that India can call on in their batting line-up has fallen into a crater.Who replaces JadejaKuldeep Yadav is the frontrunner. He has three five-fors in eight Tests. He has been in fine form in limited-overs cricket, displaying the very trait that is essential in the longer format – accuracy. That along with the X-factor of his wristspin made him a tempting option even in Hyderabad but India went with Axar Patel because they wanted the batting depth. Now with Jadeja out, their hand has been forced.Related

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India slide to fifth on WTC table after defeat to England in Hyderabad

India fall short in the Hyderabad sweep-stakes

India have called up two other spinners to the squad as well – Saurabh Kumar, a veteran from domestic cricket and an ever-present in the India A squad, and Washington Sundar, a decent left-hand batter which helps when you’re playing an opposition with two left-arm spinners, one of whom has just made history.The trouble with replacing Jadeja is that he is among their best bowlers and their best batters in the recent past. Kuldeep and Saurabh will give India reliability in one discipline – at least in terms of trusting them to bowl a ton of overs – but not in the other. Washington is the other way around. He has almost as many fifties as he has wickets in Tests.Rajat Patidar vs Sarfaraz KhanPatidar would be the front-runner considering he was already in the squad as Virat Kohli’s replacement, but is there place for Sarfaraz as well in the XI? India need batting depth and those two have been on the fringes of selection for a while.Patidar is known for his big-match temperament. And Sarfaraz, who was due in Bengal to play for Mumbai in the ongoing Ranji Trophy but is now another step closer to making his long-awaited international debut, tends to score lots of runs quickly. One of them is almost certain to make it to the XI in Visakhapatnam, but if India choose to replace Jadeja with Kuldeep then they might consider picking both Patidar and Sarfaraz to shore up the batting.Playing both of them, though, will mean India have to drop the fifth bowler and go with a four-man attack. Mohammed Siraj bowled only four of the 64.3 overs in the first innings and seven of 102.1 in the second, so will India borrow from England’s playbook and pick just the one fast bowler?

It would have been easy for a captain to burn through his key bowlers too early, but Rohit Sharma got the balance spot on

Sidharth Monga10-Jun-20241:17

Kumble: ‘Pant has been the best player in India’s line-up’

“You can’t defend this total. You have to get them out.”Falser words have hardly ever been spoken about low scores in T20s. If India, playing their third match at a particular ground, get bowled out for a low total, there’s a high chance that particular ground is not conducive to a bigger score. There is a higher chance they might end up with a below-par total at a high-scoring venue than at a low-scoring one. So if the ball is seaming and bouncing unevenly, you don’t really need to bowl them out.There are a few IPL captains in this India team. They have all been at either end of such low defences, albeit on a slow, turning tracks. The principle is the same: unlike in ODIs, T20s are a short enough period for you to be able to defend. In fact, it pays to not go searching and offering the opposition easy scoring opportunities in the process.Related

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Bumrah spearheads India's defence of 119; Pakistan on brink of elimination

Rohit on Bumrah: 'He's a genius with the ball'

Old debate, simple answer: Pakistan's batting just not very good

T20 is a highly-strung game. It doesn’t react well to high variance in conditions. You cannot score much higher than a run a ball if the ball does as much as it has done on Long Island. If you try to, you take a big risk.Rohit Sharma has been part of four successful defences of low totals (between 129 and 149) in IPL finals alone, one as a player for Deccan Chargers and three as Mumbai Indians captain. Only one of these wins came through early wickets; in the other three, Rohit’s team hung in for long enough.All that experience came into use in defending 119 against Pakistan. Rohit didn’t want to burn through Jasprit Bumrah’s overs looking for wickets. Even when Pakistan had partnerships going for the second and the third wicket, he didn’t become desperate for wickets. He just wanted to stay in the game long enough.Strike bowler and captain: the experience of Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma combined•AFPOn such pitches and outfields, you can set fields relatively easily. Even though the ball seamed less for India, it did enough to keep the other bowlers in it. When the opposition are 72 for 2 chasing 120, it is easy to make it a final roll of the dice and bring back your No. 1 bowler too early. Rohit didn’t. Perhaps on a flatter pitch, he might need to.”Even when there is help, you can be desperate, and you can try to go fuller and try to pull that magic delivery,” Bumrah said. “I tried not to do that but when we came, the swing and seam had reduced. So, we had to be accurate because if we go for magic deliveries and try to be too desperate, run-making becomes easy and they know the target. So, we had to be very mindful of not overdoing it and, yes, add up pressure, use the big boundaries, try to use things to our advantage. That is what we were doing. So, in that we created pressure and everybody got wickets.”India were helped in part by some docile batting from Pakistan. Take the 16th over, for example. This was going to be the last over of spin, and they had a left-hand batter on strike with a small leg-side boundary facing a left-arm spinner. Imad Wasim even had the wind going for him. Axar Patel bowled wide first ball, fully expecting Imad to shuffle across and try to hit to leg. Imad, though, tried only the late-cut and the cut, which could get him only singles on this outfield. If connected, that is. Axar bowled that over for just two runs, leaving Pakistan 35 to get in four overs.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhen Naseem Shah ramped Arshdeep Singh in the 20th over, it was the first unconventional shot Pakistan had played. Again, in conditions that allow bowlers to set fields for conventional shots, you have to play the unconventional ones.Not for nothing is Rishabh Pant the most successful batter in the New York leg of matches. He knows it is difficult to time the ball when going against its force. He knows the outfield is not his friend. So he has been hitting in areas where the bowlers don’t expect the ball to go. India won by six runs; they scored 12 more than Pakistan in ramps and reverse-sweeps. In the field, India were allowed to do what they wanted whereas Pakistan were put under higher pressure.Once the thought leaders of T20 cricket, among the early acceptors of the format, Pakistan are now playing T20 cricket from an era gone by. Not long ago, you could speak of Babar Azam and Virat Kohli the T20 batters in the same breath. Kohli, though, has gone on to work on his game, started slogging left-arm spinners, puts a lower price on his wicket, and has stayed relevant. Babar is stuck in a time warp. Awkward as it may be for him, Rohit has started playing the reverse-sweep. Pant and Suryakumar Yadav have been encouraged by the system.Given the limited scoring options the Pakistan batters have, at no stage did they look like the favourites to complete the chase. That Pakistan are being left behind is possibly down to their T20 isolation and also the stubbornness of their senior batters. Either way it is a waste of bowling talent.It might not have shown in the end because the toss advantage reduced the difference between the sides, but the difference between the sides was vast. Also, while they might have lost wickets at wrong times, India kept putting themselves in a position to get to a total that could bat Pakistan out of the game. That is something you can’t always say that of them: since 2014, the only teams India had defended successfully against in T20 World Cups were Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Netherlands and Zimbabwe.

Lack of preparation and individual errors leave West Indies facing seven-session defeat

Nagraj Gollapudi11-Jul-20240:59

Seales: West Indies lacking consistency in first Test

Inevitable. Even West Indies wouldn’t mind if that’s the general conclusion drawn from the manner in which they have all but surrendered the first Test to England. They are lucky that the denouement is deferred to the third morning.You don’t need to be in West Indies’ dressing room now to know how they must feel: dejected and defeated. Barely half an hour after the close of play, Jayden Seales, who took four first-innings wickets, sat with his head bowed before the media briefing started.His first answer summed up the sombre mood in the visiting camp: Seales said it was “frustrating looking up at the scoreboard” on Friday evening with England four wickets away from an innings victory. Seales blamed West Indies’ batters for failing on Thursday.Unfortunately, those batters failed on all fronts for second successive day. Once again, wickets fell in quick succession without any meaningful partnerships. In fact, the highest stand for the visitors in the match was the 44-run stand on Thursday between Mikyle Louis and Alick Athanaze. In contrast, England had three 50-plus stands that frustrated West Indies bowlers.Unlike the overcast first day, Friday was wonderfully sunny with Lord’s festively dressed in red to mark ‘Red for Ruth Day’. Harry Brook and Joe Root looked set for a big score each, but each was defeated by the mastery of the bowler. Brook went for a premeditated pull, but Alzarri Joseph had banged in a short-of-a-length delivery on the fifth-stump line that climbed fast to gain a top edge while Gudakesh Motie, coming from around the wicket, bowled an arm ball disguised as inswinger which landed on the side of the seam to deviate naturally by that little bit, enough to push back Root’s off stump.Motie has already bowled another wondrous delivery (this time from over the wicket), which pitched in the rough outside Ben Stokes’ off stump, coughed up dust, turned big, and rushed past the inside edge to uproot the middle stump, leaving the England captain wide-eyed and gaping with astonishment.Ben Stokes was bowled by a beauty from Gudakesh Motie•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesThen there was the amazing runout by Louis who charged in from deep point to pick up a miscue from Jamie Smith which landed in no-man’s-land before darting at bullseye and uprooting the stump to run out a hapless Shoaib Bashir.Yet, those positives could not offset the mistakes of the batters. Virtually every visiting batter would look back at his dismissal today and acknowledge that he could have avoided that one action that proved fatal.One learning for West Indies’ batters will be not getting stuck without scoring for long pockets of time, something that forced them to commit an error. Of course, the pressure created by a disciplined England bowling attack, which improved their lines quickly from the first innings, and focussed on sticking to good length and short-of-length was immense.But as Holder briefly showed, you can pick the odd bad ball and cover up as long as you are not forcing the issue. Unfortunately, he failed to successfully duck a short delivery from Atkinson which came nearly a minute before the scheduled close.Related

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England’s batters never found themselves under such an incessant scrutiny. When they look at the numbers, West Indies bowlers will notice there were 111 full-pitched deliveries (as recorded by ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data) off which England looted 131 runs while losing just one wicket.While West Indies attempted to fire in the short ball to, as Seales said, force an error, the majority of those deliveries lacked the bluntness barring the one that got Brook. Instead, off 24 short deliveries, England picked 30 runs.There are some individual learnings, too. One young man England fans were keen to watch was Shamar Joseph, the 24-year-old speed demon from the remote Guyanese village of Baracara. His heroics at the Gabba this January to stun Australia on an injured foot made him a compelling story.On his first day at Lord’s, three days before the Test, Joseph said he and his team would look to “ruin” Anderson’s farewell. Not just that, he was confident about putting his name on the Honours Board, which eluded even Brian Lara. Joseph was not being cocky, having delivered on similar desire in the only two Tests he played – in Adelaide where he bagged a wicket on his first ball on debut and a five-for and then a seven-wicket haul in Brisbane.James Anderson got Kraigg Brathwaite for the eighth time in Tests•Getty ImagesAt Lord’s, though, we will remember Joseph mainly for lying flat twice on his back, suffering cramps and stiffness in his leg and eventually walking off. Joseph had missed the warm-up match in Beckenham last week due to Hurricane Beryl disrupting flights from the Caribbean. He had not played any red-ball cricket since January 29, when the Gabba Test finished and since then was just playing or training in a T20 environment – in IPL and then in the World Cup.Test cricket, Joseph will know now, is ruthless. You can’t just turn up and hit the straps. The hard yards are necessary: he can look at Atkinson, who opted out of the playing at Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL to focus on playing first-class cricket because the ECB had set England-after-Anderson in motion. The best example is Anderson himself – 40,000-plus deliveries in Test cricket, but never did he forget to be ready.Fitness, temperament, patience, consistency and relentless discipline: these are the factors that underpin Anderson’s longevity and unparalleled success. The same applies to Stokes.A Test defeat in just over two days is embarrassing, no doubt. Unfortunately for West Indies, this is the second time this year they find themselves in that position. This January, they lost the first Test of the Australia series in Adelaide inside three days. A week later, they turned up for the pink-ball Test in Brisbane and created history by winning a Test match in Australia for the first time since 1997.But expecting a miracle like the one Joseph performed is wishful. The turnaround in this three-match Test series is fast so West Indies have the disadvantage of not having any time to switch off. Nor do they have the luxury of another warm-up: they have to do things on the run.

England missed their chance for a perfect Test summer, but never mind because the Aussies are here. The pod chat more Oval success for Sri Lanka and England’s latest white-ball overhaul

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Sep-2024Sri Lanka got the better of England in the third Test at The Oval, meaning the home side missed out a 6-0 summer sweep – but the agenda is already moving on, with white-ball series against Australia and the announcement of a touring party for Pakistan. In this week’s podcast, Alan Gardner was joined by Andrew Fidel Fernando, Andrew Miller and Vithushan Ehantharajah to dig into the Sri Lanka series – has Ollie Pope silenced the doubters? Is Josh Hull’s high ceiling worth investing in? – before Andrew McGlashan jumped on to help preview the Australia tour, which will see England give debuts to a number of new faces over the next couple of weeks.