Saturday’s loss to South Africa in Karachi was England’s seventh straight defeat in ODIs – their joint-second-longest losing streak in the format

Sampath Bandarupalli01-Mar-20257 – Consecutive ODI defeats for England. It is their joint-second-longest losing streak in men’s ODIs, behind their 11 successive defeats over 2000 and 2001.0.692 – Win-loss ratio as captain for Jos Buttler in ODIs (Saturday’s game was his last as captain). It is the second-lowest win-loss record among 14 captains to have led England at least 20 times in this format. Alec Stewart had a win-loss ratio of 0.600 as a captain across 41 ODI matches.England won only 18 out of 45 ODIs under Buttler. Buttler won only three out of 12 matches as captain across the ODI World Cup and Champions Trophy.Only Duleep Mendis (0.090) and Heath Streak (0.250) have a poorer win-loss ratio among captains to have led in ten-plus matches at ICC men’s ODI tournaments (World Cups and Champions Trophies).26.34 – Buttler’s batting average in ODIs in Asia. Only three visiting batters with 1000-plus runs in Asia average lower than him. Buttler’s average in Asia reads only 20 across 26 ODI innings since 2017, with only two fifties.Quick bowlers have had Buttler’s number on 18 occasions since 2017 in Asia, and he averages 11.16 against them. Against spinners, though, Buttler averages 45.57 with seven dismissals in 311 balls.43 – Balls faced by Buttler for his 21 runs on Saturday, when he failed to hit a boundary. Only once before did he face more balls in an ODI innings without hitting a boundary – 60, against Australia, in 2015.It is also the longest innings without a boundary by an England batter since Joe Root’s unbeaten 57-ball 32 against Sri Lanka in 2018 in Pallekele.179 – England’s total against South Africa on Saturday is the lowest by any team in this Champions Trophy. Afghanistan’s 208 all out against South Africa at the same venue was the previous lowest.England have found it tough to get through the middle overs•Getty Images29 – Wickets lost by England during the middle overs (11-40) across the six ODIs they have played in 2025, including seven on Saturday. They lost only two wickets in the middle overs against Australia in Lahore, where they made 351 for 8. In 2025, they have been bowled out without playing 50 overs whenever they have lost four or more wickets between the 11th and 40th overs.21.38 – Batting average of England’s Nos. 5, 6 and 7 across the six ODIs they have played in 2025. Only two fifties have been scored by players batting in those positions in the six matches – 52 by Buttler and 51 by Jacob Bethell, both during the series against India.5 – Consecutive 50-plus scores for Heinrich Klaasen in ODIs. It is the joint-longest streak of 50-plus scores by a South Africa batter in men’s ODIs. Jonty Rhodes, in 2000-2001, had five successive 50-plus scores in ODIs, while Quinton de Kock did it twice – in 2017 and 2019. Kepler Wessels also had five consecutive fifties between 1985 and 1992, but the first of the five came while representing Australia.3 – Wickets for Marco Jansen during the powerplay against England on Saturday, the most he has taken in the first ten overs of an ODI innings. Jansen’s three wickets were England’s top-three batters – Phil Salt, Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith.The previous instance of a South Africa bowler dismissing the opposition’s top-three batters within the first ten overs was in 2015 by Kagiso Rabada against Bangladesh in Mirpur.

Head coach returns to county cricket after two decades, with a focus on high standards and no excuses

Andrew Miller17-Mar-2025The first thing that strikes you, on seeing Adam Hollioake in the flesh for what feels like the first time in two decades, is his breadth. He fills the doorway with the stature of a bouncer, a neck the size of an average person’s waist, and a gruff Aussie voice that is the very epitome of no-nonsense.”G’day … Adam Hollioake,” he intones, as if any sort of introduction is necessary. Despite his long years away from English cricket, it’s striking how ubiquitous he remains – for his stature, his back story, and his litany of achievements, most of them as captain of one of the great Surrey teams, but also as one of the great leaders that England didn’t quite have.And now he’s back, after 20 extraordinary years of self-imposed exile in Australia, as head coach of Kent – a fact that seems to have caught him as much by surprise as it did the rest of English cricket, when word of his appointment first circulated in December.”The way I’ve lived my life, I’ve kind of … what’s the right word? … free-styled, and just accepted whatever’s come my way,” he says in Canterbury, on the club’s pre-season media day. “I’ve just seen where life’s taken me, and in this instance, it has brought me down here today. I don’t know why, because the crowd always hated me down here. So not sure why God’s sending me down this way, but he’s done it.”Hollioake’s referencing of his faith is fleeting but instructive. Twenty-three years ago this week, English cricket was rocked by the death of his brother Ben, in a car-crash in Perth, and Adam’s own world was turned upside-down. The journey he’s since been on has seemed, from afar, like his personal Calvary. He’s accumulated his scars like badges of honour – including those earned during his brief pivot to cage-fighting – while the collapse, in the mid-2010s, of his £13 million property empire was another crushing experience that, if nothing else, reinforced that vital recognition that real life is what happens away from the field of play.Hollioake’s CV includes a brief stint as an assistant coach with England in 2017•Getty Images”Everyone always says your school years are the best years of your life,” he says. “I don’t think so. I’m 53 now and the best years of my life were playing professional cricket. Those years come and go very quickly, so make the most of it, give it your best shot, enjoy it along the way because, at the end of the day, it is just a game.”Whatever we do in life, some things are transferable back into cricket. When I went into fighting, everybody said, ‘what’s cricket and fighting got in common?’ And it turns out there’s a lot of things, like discipline, controlling your arousal levels, preparing and getting yourself into the right shape for an event. It just emphasises to me that there is a process to go through to have success back here in cricket, which is where I began.”I’ve always felt like my destiny is to be a head coach, but my first priority over the last decade has been bringing my children up,” he adds. “The most important thing in life was to be a dad and give them the best start in life, but now I’ve got to the point where, thankfully, they’ve left [laughs]. Now it’s my opportunity to bring on some of these guys and hopefully turn them into better players and better men. And do some stuff for myself.”Related

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Perhaps it’s glib to make the comparison, but the parallels with England’s unveiling of Brendon McCullum in 2022 are striking. Each man arrived in their respective roles with little by way of a conventional coaching CV – McCullum had before never overseen a red-ball team, while Hollioake is embarking on his maiden head-coach role – and each entered a dressing-room that was visibly down on its luck.”I know about Bazball and I love the idea of Bazball,” Hollioake says. “I haven’t analysed in depth what his message is with the England team, but I like it, so if you’re comparing me, that’s a compliment.”When I saw it, I thought ‘this is really smart’, not because tactically it’s wise, but what it does is remove the fear of failure which, historically, English players are handcuffed by.”That certainly seemed to be true for Kent in a grim 2024 campaign. Their relegation in the County Championship was compounded by a rock-bottom finish in the T20 Blast South Group. But, if there’s any sense that the players are still feeling sorry for themeslves, then as Sam Billings, their T20 captain, acknowledged, a 10-minute chat with the new coach is as likely as anything to snap them out of it.”I don’t necessarily deserve respect. I’ve got to earn that every day, just like when I was [Surrey] captain,” he says. “I’ve no idea what they did last year, I don’t concern myself with the past. It’s just about turning up with a good attitude, wanting to play hard and work hard. If that’s a shift, then they were obviously doing something wrong in the past.Hollioake (left) with his mixed martial arts coach Stephen Ng”What I can do is be clear with my messaging, and the standards that I expect. Just simple things like the state of the balls we were warming up with. We had white balls, red balls, old balls, new balls, all in the same bag. Our kit was all over the place. The standards of what we expect was just not good enough.”We need to respect ourselves and expect more from the club. If that message is helping them, then great. If it’s not, then they’ll learn.”Although Hollioake’s appointment has brought with it a tangible level of excitement and interest, it’s also hard to ignore the realpolitik at play where clubs such as Kent are concerned. They are due their share of the Hundred windfall, as and when Surrey complete their negotiations with their new partners at Oval Invincibles, Reliance Industries Ltd, but that deal in itself merely exacerbates the sense of them and us that is a growing feature of English professional sport.Hollioake, however, has a terse opinion of such navel-gazing. “The first thing we’ve got to do is stop using that as an excuse,” he says. “Money can be important, but it doesn’t mean that if you haven’t got it, you can’t be successful. I’m happy to acknowledge that sides like Surrey might have more money than us. That doesn’t give them a right just to come out and beat us. Hollywood’s littered with stories of underdogs. So let him make some movies about us.”It’s a variation on a theme he has encountered before – back at Surrey, no less, who had waited 18 long years for a County Championship title until Hollioake helped guide them to three in four years from 1999 to 2002, plus four further white-ball trophies.”We had a big excuse culture back then,” he recalls. “It was like ‘everyone cheats and changes the pitches against us’, or ‘the umpires don’t like us’. I find that when you start complaining or moaning about stuff, it gives you an excuse to lose. It’s subconsciously giving yourself a soft way out, or you can use it as a motivation. Certainly in my time at Surrey I did. I was like, ‘everyone hates us. Good!’ Let them hate us. I don’t care. We’re not here to be liked.”It’s the same here. No one’s going to look back in a hundred years’ time, and look at who won the Championship or T20 cup, and say, ‘well, how much money did you have?’ You don’t. It’s all about who wins.””We’ve got 11 guys that go out on the pitch. Two fists, one heart. They’re the same as the opposition.”

With 20 T20Is scheduled before South Africa embark on the T20 World Cup, the road back for Maharaj and Shamsi looks unclear

Firdose Moonda09-Aug-2025The role of spinners in South African cricket has evolved from optional extras in the mid-90s through mid-2000s to essential, in the form of Imran Tahir in white-ball sides in the 2010s and Keshav Maharaj in Tests for most of the last decade. Now, in the Shukri Conrad white-ball era, they might also be required to do something else: bat.”It’s ideal if you can stack your side with as many allrounders as possible,” Conrad said from Darwin, where South Africa will play the first of 20 further T20Is in the lead-up to next year’s World Cup. “And when I say allrounders, I mean fully-fledged allrounders: guys that offer quite a lot with the bat, and obviously with the ball as well.”Related

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That’s why neither Maharaj nor Tabraiz Shamsi, who is South Africa’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is, have been included in the T20I squad for the tour of Australia. Instead, Conrad has left-arm spin-bowling allrounders George Linde and Senuran Muthusamy and offspin-bowling allrounder Prenelan Subrayen to choose from. Linde and Muthusamy have spent the bulk of their domestic careers batting at No. 6 or 7 and Subrayen at No. 8 or 9 and all of them have a strike rates above 110.Maharaj and Shamsi’s T20 strike rates both sit below 110, neither is known for their batting prowess, and both also missed out on the T20 tri-series in Zimbabwe last month. That’s where Conrad said the spinners he had chosen, Linde and Muthusamy, had the “inside lane” on World Cup selection which suggests Maharaj and Shamsi may not return in this format and it’s up to the other three to tussle over who gets the main gig.For Linde, appearing at a T20 World Cup would be a full-circle moment after he was left out of South Africa’s squad for the 2021 tournament despite playing in 11 out of 12 matches in the lead-up to the tournament. At that stage, he had fallen out of favour completely, and out of love with the game until late last year, when Rob Walter, who was then South Africa’s white-ball coach, recalled him for a series against Pakistan. After taking career-best figures of 4 for 21 in his comeback match, Linde wiped away tears as he recalled how he struggled with being dropped. Now, back he is keeping his emotions together as the prospect of making his World Cup bow looms.”It obviously means a lot [to be considered]. It gives you a little bit more confidence and you can play with a little bit more freedom but I don’t really think too much ahead,” Linde said in Zimbabwe, during the tri-series. “I’m just trying to focus on the process now and if I don’t do well and Shuks decides I’m not the guy for him, then so be it. I’m just trying to do my best. If I do well and I’m on that plane to the World Cup, happy days. It’s always been a dream of mine to represent South Africa at the World Cup.”Of the three on the Australia tour, Linde is the most consistent batter and has shown an ability to play late-innings cameos. He scored 48 off 24 balls in that comeback game against Pakistan as well as an unbeaten 23 off 15 and a 30 off 20 during the Zimbabwe tri-series. He also has four T20 fifties to his name and big hitting will keep him top of Conrad’s mind.Is there still time for Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj to stake their claims for a T20I comeback?•Getty ImagesHis nearest competitor is Muthusamy, who made his T20I debut in Harare after spending most of the home summer on the bench for the Test side. Muthusamy was happy to bide his time, especially as he has had fairly regular game time in the SA20 over the last three seasons including all 10 group stage matches for the Pretoria Capitals earlier this year.”It’s fantastic to get a crack. I have waited in line and waited my turn and have been integrated into the squad in the last few months, which has been fantastic. That’s what carrying drinks brings: an awesome opportunity to grow and to learn and bounce ideas off and to be a part of the group,” he said. “And with Pretoria, Adil Rashid was someone that I’ve managed to spend quite a bit of time with, so just to pick his brain, understand how he goes about it, his thought processes, and the way he dissects what he’s trying to do in different conditions is very interesting.”Muthusamy was South Africa’s leading spinner in the Zimbabwe tri-series and was carded as high as No. 4 in one of the matches. A score of 7 would not have done much for his cause but he will have opportunities to put that right in the next few weeks.As for Maharaj and Shamsi?Maharaj cryptically said at the CSA awards that he “only play[s] two formats now”, while Shamsi, who opted out of a national contract last year, is awaiting a discussion with Conrad about his future. When Shamsi was not picked for Zimbabwe, Conrad confirmed he would have talks with him but ahead of these tours also acknowledged he has not yet been able to. Since then, CSA have appointed a new convenor of selectors in Patrick Moroney, whose job it may be to inform the pair of their fate.But there’s time before that needs to be set in stone. South Africa will play three T20Is each against Australia, England and Pakistan, one against Namibia to inaugurate their new stadium, and five each against each of India and West Indies before the T20 World Cup. Whether that many matches is a help or hindrance will depend on results, but it gives Conrad, who is new to the white-ball role, the opportunity to really figure out what the make-up of South Africa’s best squad could be.”I’ve only been in the job a few months so it’s not as if I’ve had a year or so to look at what potentially is going to be our best squad to go to India,” he said. “It’s about developing, winning, and then potentially getting to what our best squad is for the conditions in India. So I think these tours have great value for me as a new head coach, for the coaching staff.”

Ever since the WTC final, the fast bowler has gone from strength to strength under a management that has emboldened him to unleash his skills as he sees fit

Firdose Moonda22-Aug-20252:16

Ngidi: Always a test of character against Australia

When cricketers are encouraged to express themselves, we usually know what that looks like for batters: play your shots, innovate, entertain. But how do bowlers interpret that instruction?”It’s pretty much about giving you the freedom to bowl what you want to bowl,” Lungi Ngidi said, after claiming his second ODI five-for during South Africa’s 84-run win in the second ODI against Australia in Mackay. “We’ve been playing international cricket for a couple of years now, so we kind of know what we’re good at and what we need to do. Set your field and bowl what you want to bowl according to whatever you see in front of you. Play the conditions in front of you and don’t be scared to try things.”Like offering one of the opposition’s most dangerous batters a little bit of width, in the belief he would nick off. Or dropping your pace down to just over 100kph because you’d seen the efficacy of the slower ball in the first innings.Related

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Ngidi did both those things as he bowled South Africa to a series-winning victory, and he did them because he had the confidence to make bold decisions about how he wanted to go about his business.His strategy against Marnus Labuschagne was informed by what Ngidi saw in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, when Labuschagne was dismissed in both innings driving loosely at Marco Jansen. Ngidi, of course, is not the same type of bowler as Jansen, but he believed he could exact similar results.Marnus Labuschagne fell into Lungi Ngidi’s deliberately laid trap•Getty Images”We do our video analysis and we’ve seen, even from the Test Championship, outside off with the ball shaping away seems to be effective. He leaves very well, but you need to score runs at some point in ODI cricket so you’re probably going to feel outside off,” Ngidi explained. “I just tried to keep it simple and just plug away at that length and that line and it seemed to come off. It went according to plan.”Pace-off is Ngidi’s speciality but he used it more after getting confirmation that it worked during South Africa’s innings, in which Nathan Ellis was the stand-out seamer. Ellis started with a 110kph back-of-the-hand slower ball and delivered at least two an over among his pace-on, short-ball change-ups, which got him both his wickets. Ngidi was taking notes.”The beautiful thing about bowling second is I get to sit there and watch what works. And I saw Ellis’ plan and he was pretty successful with that,” he said. “It just gives you an idea of what’s going to work later on in the innings. Also Watching [Xavier] Bartlett up front, it seemed to be swinging or nipping around so it pretty much gives you a blueprint of how to go about things.”Both Ngidi and Nandre Burger found movement early on and made the initial breakthroughs but it was Ngidi’s second spell that earned him his first Player-of-the-Match award, in any format, in nearly three years. He ripped through Australia’s lower order and took four wickets for eight runs in 14 balls. The first was a signature Ngidi delivery, a slower offbreak that Aaron Hardie chipped back to him. But it was Ngidi’s quick reaction to get across and take the catch low to the ground that showed how committed he was to the contest against an opposition he loves playing against.’The beautiful thing about bowling second is I get to sit there and watch what works’•Getty ImagesHis career-best, of 6 for 58, also came against Australia and he has taken more wickets against them in ODIs – 26 at an average of 16.96 – than any other opposition (and he has only played against them once more than he has England, India or Sri Lanka) and it’s fair to say they bring out the best in him.”It’s always a battle against Australia. It’s always competitive,” he said. “It’s a test of character because we were put under pressure from the T20s, and we had the opportunity to win a series tonight so just mentally stepping up and finishing it off. It’s just a great rivalry that’s always been there. And it’s going to continue for many, many years.”Ngidi emphasised “staying strong mentally” both to the broadcasters and at his press conference, and it may apply to more than just the ongoing series. His career to date is perhaps best described as stop-start, with injuries and indifferent form often interrupting a good run. The last time he played all matches in a multi-format tour was in 2018, when he played in four of South Africa’s four games in Australia.Currently, Ngidi is on a five-match streak in Australia, and he also played in four of South Africa’s five T20Is last month in Zimbabwe and made a Test comeback the month before that at the WTC final at Lord’s. It was in that game, where his selection raised eyebrows because he had not played a Test in 10 months, that Ngidi showed the value of being backed by the coaching staff and being given freedom by them.Ngidi picked up the second five-wicket haul of his ODI career•AFP/Getty ImagesCoach Shukri Conrad picked Ngidi even after dropping him from the 2024 tour to Bangladesh and, after a rusty start, Ngidi delivered a match-changing second-innings performance when he took 3 for 38. Conrad has since picked Ngidi across all formats, and the returns have only been getting better. Ngidi iced the cake when he became the first South Africa seamer since Kagiso Rabada in July 2015 to take an ODI five-for away from home.Because they came up in the same Under-19 group and are at similar ages, the two are often spoken about in parallel terms, Rabada’s stardust usually leaving Ngidi in the shadows. That was the case in this game too. Ngidi told the broadcasters that when he knew Rabada would be unavailable for this series because of injury, he would “have big shoes to fill.”It’s easy to assume that means he needs to take on Rabada’s role but that only applies to seniority and experience, not style of bowling. While Rabada’s game is based on pace and accuracy, Ngidi’s is on variation and movement and he had the perfect stage to show that in Mackay. That he performed to expectation and beyond is an example of South Africa’s new way, which is as much about staying true to their identity as it is about getting the results they want.”The most important thing is how we played. Are we playing our brand of cricket? Are we playing the way we want to play? When we lose and we’re not playing our way or with the freedom that the coach has given us, then it’s a problem. But when we execute and we play the way we want to play, that’s the beautiful thing,” Ngidi said. “We have lots of white-ball cricket to come. So this is good momentum to kick us off for the rest of the season.”

Left-arm spinner got eight wickets in the second unofficial Test against Australia A, and is now eyeing success in Irani Cup

Daya Sagar27-Sep-2025Before India A’s second unofficial Test against Australia A this week, Manav Suthar last played a competitive match at the senior level back in January, when he turned out for Rajasthan against Andhra in the Ranji Trophy. In that match, he followed a half-century with the bat with four wickets with the ball.Since then, Suthar has travelled with Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025, went on the England tour with India A and was part of the Central Zone squad in the Duleep Trophy. The left-arm spin-bowling allrounder didn’t play a single game on any of those assignments.Even in the first unofficial Test against Australia A, Harsh Dubey was preferred over him. But in the second one, when he finally got his chance, Suthar grabbed it with both hands. He bagged his fifth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket on the first day of the match, and with that, got to 100 wickets in the format.In the second innings, Suthar picked up three more wickets, and helped bowl Australia A out for 185. Speaking to reporters after India A won by five wickets, he explained how he had used the time on the sidelines to improve himself.Related

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“I wasn’t getting chances in the playing XI,” Suthar said, “but that doesn’t mean I was disappointed or frustrated. I was continuously working behind the scenes on my skills. I was very focused and kept practicing regularly. In practice, my aim was to bowl as many deliveries as possible. Apart from that, I was focusing on my fitness too. I was doing hard strength and conditioning training. At that time, my only thought was that I had to put in all my effort. The more I focused on myself, the better it would be for me in the future.”On the first day of the India A game, when the other bowlers were expensive, Suthar pulled things back with his accurate line and length. It is often said that left-arm spinners are generally not effective against left-hand batters because the ball spins into them. But Suthar troubled Australia A’s left-handers with those very deliveries that came in.In the first innings, he bowled Oliver Peake, and the next ball, had Cooper Connolly caught at slip. In the second innings, Suthar dismissed Peake once again – this time caught at leg slip – and breached Todd Murphy’s defence. Out of the eight wickets Suthar took in the match, four were of left-handers.Manav Suthar says he’s “more comfortable” with a diagonal run-up against left-hand batters•Tanuj Pandey/UPCAAccording to Cricviz, in 2024, over six first-class matches for which ball-by-ball data is available, Suthar averaged 25 against left-handers and 64 against right-handers. These matches include three games from last year’s Duleep Trophy, the Irani Cup final, and two India A matches against England Lions and Australia A, highlighting the quality of opposition. Overall, he has 28 wickets of left-handers in his 103 first-class dismissals.This year, against Australia A, Suthar bowled to left-hand batters from around the wicket in order to angle the ball away from the bat. And he did this the old school way, running in diagonally from the left of the pitch to right, between the umpire and the stumps.”Since childhood, I’ve been coming with a diagonal run-up against left-handers – my coach also taught me that,” Suthar said. “Later, I tried to change it and bowl straight on, but I felt more comfortable this way. When I come in diagonally, my body moves better, and I can put in more effort. That’s why I still continue with it.”It was one of these deliveries that got Connolly caught at slip in the first innings.While Suthar used the around-the-wicket angle against left-hand batters, he bowled over the wicket against the right-handers to exploit the rough outside leg.”That was part of our planning,” he said, “Because there was some rough on the on-side for right-handers, and that angle was troubling them. I plan these things according to the match and conditions. I also got inputs from [KL] Rahul and Dhruv [Jurel]. They kept telling me from time to time what length could work against which batter, at what speed, and what variation to use. When you are in such a set-up, you get to learn something new every day from every player.”

“I come from Sri Ganganagar, where it gets even hotter. I practice there in 45-50 degrees Celsius. So you can say that handling such conditions is in-built in me”Manav Suthar on how hot it got against Australia A in Lucknow

While rain affected each day of the first unofficial Test against Australia A, the second one saw players struggling because of extreme heat and humidity. Drinks, which are usually taken on the hour, were taken every 45 minutes, with bench players also bringing in large umbrellas so that their team-mates could get additional relief.On the third day of the match, Rahul, who was batting well, had to retire due to fatigue. Josh Philippe, Australia A’s wicketkeeper-batter and Player of the Series, said this was the hottest weather he had experienced in his career, and that staying focused in these conditions was a challenge. The offspinner Murphy said even holding the ball was proving difficult with how sweaty his hands got. Suthar found ways to cope because he is used to a lot worse.”I come from Sri Ganganagar [in Rajasthan], where it gets even hotter. I practice there in 45-50 degrees Celsius,” he said. “So you can say that handling such conditions is inbuilt in me. Apart from that, fitness is very important to me. The hard work we put in, [and] the fitness training we do are all for such difficult days.”Suthar, who idolises R Ashwin, has not been included in the ODI leg of the A-team series, but has been picked for Rest of India in the Irani Cup. He is not disappointed that his opportunities seem limited to the longer formats at the domestic level.”I am working very hard on my batting. It is an important part of my game, and I am focused on it” – Manav Suthar•Tanuj/ Ekana Cricket Stadium”My focus is that wherever I get an opportunity, I should perform well for the team and help win matches, no matter which format it is,” Suthar said.He is also not worried about the increasing competition among left-arm spinners in India. Rather, he considers it healthy for the growth of his career. To push himself ahead of his peers, Suthar wants to strengthen his batting. The Australia A game presented him with an unexpected chance to show those skills as well, when he was sent out as the night-watcher in the second innings, but he could only manage 5 off 29.”I am working very hard on my batting. It is an important part of my game, and I am focused on it,” Suthar said. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t score runs here, but whenever I get the opportunity, I work hard on my batting.”For now, Suthar hasn’t set any immediate or long-term goals. After this match, he has his sights set on the Irani Cup in Nagpur on October 1, where he will represent Rest of India for the second consecutive year.