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In the toughest circumstances, he produced his A game

Aakash Chopra10-Dec-20212:11

Mayank Agarwal – ‘I’m happy that I got set and could capitalise’

It is believed that comebacks are a lot tougher than debuts. For the latter, while there’s anticipation about seeing a new player for the first time, when someone is making it back into the side, there’s only expectation from them.As a player, you don’t want to think about how and why things went pear-shaped last time around; that will only add to the pressure. Unfortunately, try as you might to keep them away, those memories find ways to make an appearance. And if your first outing on return doesn’t live up to expectations, the pressure of walking out the next time is immense. You’re trying to tighten your fist as you feel sand slipping out of it fast.This is how Mayank Agarwal must have felt on the first day of the second Test against New Zealand in Mumbai.Related

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His opportunity had arisen because KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma were unavailable, which made you wonder what the returns for a good performance by him would be. The best-case scenario, in which he would cement his place in the squad, also hinged on how Shubman Gill performed; Agarwal was fourth in the pecking order. A good performance should not result in a no-win situation, but this one was. Of course, in the worst case, he would be dropped from the side if he didn’t fire in the second Test too.Agarwal started cautiously against the New Zealand fast bowlers and looked decisive with his foot movement and shot selection. As soon as the spinners arrived, he switched on his A game. He is one of the finest Indian players of spin, with as much confidence in his defensive technique as he has competence in strokeplay.The foundation of his game against spin is the ability to stretch fully when the ball is full, and to go deep inside the crease for short-pitched deliveries. He is quick to dance down the pitch but not reckless in his shot selection when he does. In fact, it seems like he steps out to try to get as close to the ball as possible, then playing along the ground.

If you are unsure about your defence, you look to attack at the first opportune moment, and if that doesn’t arrive quickly, you end up manufacturing shots. That’s where Agarwal is different

With such a tactic, your weight is always going forward, which is ideal. For Agarwal, stepping out doesn’t equal committing to playing an aerial shot, so he has plenty of choices after he steps out. A lot of players start their forward movement with the intent to go big, and when they get it right, they do manage big shots, but when they end up not as close to the ball as intended, they sky it, because the weight starts going backwards. Agarwal steps out the way it should be done: you stay low, with your weight going forward all the time.It’s not just about technique but intent and confidence against certain types of bowlers. If you are unsure about your defence, you look to attack at the first opportune moment, and if that doesn’t arrive quickly, you end up manufacturing shots. That’s where Agarwal is different: he is comfortable defending ball after ball, which in turn allows him to pick and choose the deliveries he wants to target.The second part of Agarwal’s success in attacking against spin is his ability to pick areas in the field that are rarely manned in the longer format. Not that he can’t clear the fence – he does it regularly in T20 – but in Test cricket it’s important to pick areas where even a half-decent connection is enough to fetch a boundary. His inside-out shot over cover against left-arm spinners and over mid-off to offspinners are two such shots that target optimal areas in the field.In Tests, it takes a lot of beating for a left-arm spinner and an offspinner to push those two fielders back to the fence. When that happened, as it did in Mumbai, it allowed Agarwal to move swiftly deeper into his innings.In addition to the lofted shots while stepping out, he was equally adept at using the depth of the crease to punish bowlers either side of the pitch if they pulled their lengths back too much in anticipation of him dancing down the track. And while he might not have used the sweep in Mumbai, he has that option covered too.In a nutshell, he has everything it takes to be a superb player against spin, which will always make him a successful player at home. If he continues to develop his game against pace, he will continue to present himself as a tempting option. Considering his prowess against spinners, India might start viewing him as an option for the middle order if a spot doesn’t open up at the top.

Big shoes to fill for legspinner-batter in absence of new club’s trophy-winning stalwarts

Andrew Miller05-Apr-2022It’s been lovely weather for legbreaks lately. Matt Critchley rolls his eyes in acknowledgement.”We’ve already had about three seasons in our pre-season so far,” he says. “It was 40 degrees in Abu Dhabi. Then two weeks ago here, it was lovely for about two days. And then last week at Middlesex, it was snowing… minus-one, seven layers on, five handwarmers in the pocket. It wasn’t ideal, but I managed to thaw out a bit on the last day and bowl a bit.”There, in a nutshell, is the thankless challenge faced by county spinners up and down the country. You can hone your skills in as many off-season camps as you wish, but if – come the start of the season – the conditions are likely to offer you as little traction as your frost-numbed fingers, you can be fairly sure which facet of your county’s attack is going to take centre stage.And yet, in spite of the invidious circumstances at Merchant Taylors’ School, it turned out to be a productive three days for Critchley – whose winter switch from Derbyshire to Essex was arguably the most eye-catching of the year’s county transfers. His fluent 64 in Essex’s first innings turned out to be the only half-century of the contest, and having demonstrated his value as a top-six batter, he popped up on the final day with the tidy figures of 2 for 31 in ten overs of legspin – an opportunity he probably would not have been on the pitch to grab had it not been for his many-stringed attributes.”Watching how the seamers have been bowling pre-season, I don’t think I’ll have to be doing too much bowling in April, hopefully,” Critchley adds with a smile. “I’m sure I’ll be all over it when needed, but watching Sam Cook, Jamie Porter, [Shane] Snater, [Aaron] Beard, [Mark] Steketee, and the rest of the lads bowling, hopefully I’ll be spending some less time in the field than at Derby…”However, Critchley is under no illusions about the scale of the challenge, and of the opportunity, that awaits him at Chelmsford. After six seasons of stealthy development as an allrounder, he joins the serial red-ball champions off the back of a brace of break-out years – first with the ball in 2020, when his 17 wickets at 26.88 proved a major factor in Derbyshire’s spirited challenge in that summer’s Bob Willis Trophy, and then with the bat last summer, when he made exactly 1000 runs at 43.47, including a century against Worcestershire.”For a club like this to want to sign someone like myself, it’s a huge vote of confidence in itself,” Critchley says. “I remember when I started in 2015, they were with us in Division Two, but then they got promoted and won all those Division One titles, the Bob Willis Trophy, that Finals Day [in 2019] when they beat Derbyshire in the semi-finals to win it in the end as well. That was something that I want to be a part of: not only progressing my own cricket, but being part of a squad that’s challenging in every format of the game to win trophies, and play with some of the best players in the country.”Critchley has four first-class hundreds to his name to date•Getty ImagesCritchley already knew he’d have one sizeable set of shoes to fill at Essex, following Ryan ten Doeschate’s retirement at the end of last season. Less predictably, however, he is set to be their senior spinner from the season’s outset, against Kent at Chelmsford on Thursday, following Simon Harmer’s recall to South Africa’s Test set-up. And given Harmer’s immediate impact, with seven wickets against Bangladesh in his first appearance since 2015, the club can expect to see rather less of their stalwart than has been the case throughout a trophy-laden few years.”I definitely came thinking that Harmer would play every game,” Critchley says. “And I’m looking forward to playing with him eventually and seeing how he goes about things. But this will be the role that I’ve played throughout my career anyway – batting in that top six, then playing as your first spinner behind probably four seamers.”I think that’s probably one of my biggest assets,” he adds. “The fact that, by doing both to a certain level, you can change the balance of the side to however they want to play it. But whatever role they get us to play, or not play, I’m quite open to learning and keeping improving. Ultimately I’ve come here to win Championships, so whatever role that fulfils, I’m more than happy to partake.”Critchley’s under no illusions that he’s a work in progress. Currently aged 25, he reckons it won’t be until he’s past 30 that he becomes a fully-rounded red-ball legspinner – with the tactical nous to work his fields and angles in accordance to the changing match situations. But as his fellow leggie – and former age-group rival at Lancashire – Matt Parkinson is discovering while waiting on the cusp of Test selection, there’s not much development to be had unless you can secure a place in the team in the first place.”Ultimately [being a batter] gives you another way in,” Critchley says. “A lot of spinners now are a lot more valued in the white-ball stuff, if you’re being brutally honest, rather than in April and May and September, when seamers generally do most of the damage. You tend to play the batsman who can bowl a bit of spin, rather than the spinner that can take 20 wickets, because you probably don’t need them as much, which is another whole kettle of fish in itself.”But it’s definitely helped me play more games than I probably should have in my career development stage,” he adds. “In my early stage, I was probably more of a bits-and-pieces player but I feel like I’ve grown into a genuine version of both now, and that gives you more of a chance of being in the field and contributing to a win.”Critchley consults with his captain at Derbyshire, Billy Godleman•Getty ImagesCritchley’s first-class stats speak to that gradual improvement – overall he’s taken 114 wickets at 43.05, but 104 of those have come in the four seasons since he attended an ECB spin camp with Stuart MacGill in Sydney in 2018, including 32 at 38.43 last summer, his joint-biggest haul to date.Shane Warne, inevitably, was a huge influence in his developmental years – in 2016, Critchley missed Derbyshire’s final game of the season to attend a spin clinic with Warne at Lord’s – but in terms of his technique, he regards himself as more of an Anil Kumble-style spinner.”I’m a little bit taller, with a bit more bounce and over the top, but I’ve spent hours watching Warne, watching McGill, trying to spin it as far as I can,” he says. “So I do like to try and do both, and now you watch the subcontinent legspinners that spin it both ways and bowl flat and quick. And you see how effective that can be, especially in white-ball cricket.”So you try and take as many ideas as you can from your contemporaries, including the English lads, and fit that to suit you, because you can only be the best version of yourself. If you try and be someone else, you’ll be the second-best version of them. I’m sure there’s stuff I’ll learn from Simon Harmer, although he’s a fingerspinner, and ideas that Adam Wheater has behind the stumps, or Alastair Cook at first slip or whoever. I’ll try to listen but the most important thing is to be authentic to yourself.”In terms of his environment, Critchley is on a familiar footing already when it comes to Chelmsford’s low-key surroundings. “At a smaller ground, there’s probably a bit more of a community, family feel about it,” he says. “You see the same people around each day, the office staff, the chief executive and chairman, your supporters as you walk in through and around them, and something that I’m obviously used to at Derbyshire. I’ve never played a white-ball game here, but I’m looking forward to that as I’ve heard it can be a good atmosphere.”For the time being, his base remains near his family and girlfriend in Derby – “It’s a nice part of the world round here but house prices are a bit more expensive than up north!” – but he’s found himself a flat for the season so won’t be “living out of suitcases 24/7”.Related

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“The biggest thing coming here is that you want to be here every day,” he says. “It’s such an enjoyable atmosphere to be in, because you know you’re going to come and have some fun and learn around the lads.”And in terms of his higher ambitions, Critchley is realistic but hopeful too. His retention by Welsh Fire for this season’s Hundred is a reminder of the burgeoning value of his white-ball game, but given the state of flux within England’s Test team, and the sense that a new generation of contenders may be required to reboot the country’s red-ball standards, the coming run of Championship opportunities is his only focus for noe.”I scored 1000 runs last year but only scored one hundred,” he says. “So if I want to try and contend higher up, I’ve got to try to score big hundreds. It’s probably a mindset thing, really, learning how to bat for long periods of time – sessions, two sessions, three sessions, days – as a solo batsman, let alone as a team.”That’s probably the main learning point for us as young batters throughout the country. But the beauty of it at the moment is you’ve got seven or eight games in a row at the start of the season. Obviously people who have done well in the past will probably be at the front of that queue, but it’s definitely a time where a lot of county cricketers will be thinking there’s spots to be had.”Seamers, spinners, batters, allrounders. There’s probably spots throughout the team, and only a couple that you’d say are nailed on at the moment. But I just want to compete for a batting spot against the batters and a bowling spot against the bowlers, look at constantly improving, and see where that goes.”

Originals captain hands gloves to Phil Salt to “see if it feels different” leading from mid-off

Vithushan Ehantharajah05-Aug-2022If one of the downsides of the start to the second season of the Hundred is the absence of England stars such as Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow, then Friday at Emirates Old Trafford was a boost the competition needed.The cheers for Jos Buttler as he strode out to the crease to get this game underway, having opted to bat first upon winning the toss, was as cheap and reliable a pop you could get. This format might be pitched to those who don’t know, but not many are unaware of Buttler, as English cricket’s greatest white-ball talent and now captain of that code.Even though his Manchester Originals lost by six wickets with as many balls to spare as Northern Superchargers chased down a target of 162, the interest on Buttler was perhaps the closest the Hundred will get on finding that vital middle ground of the Venn diagram between newbies and traditionalists.His first act was to strike 59 off 41 deliveries to get the game up and running, including a huge six into the second tier at the Brian Statham End. Then he took the focus as captain as he marshalled his bowlers and fielders to defend their 161 for 4. And it was the latter, even in vain, that hinted at a potential new era in the world beyond the black, purples and greens of this one.Related

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Having kept wicket in each of the 26 matches he has led England’s limited-overs teams, including 12 times in 25 days last month as the permanent replacement for Eoin Morgan, Buttler decided to hand the gloves over to Phil Salt to test drive captaincy in the outfield.”I’m intrigued to see if it feels different,” he revealed at the end of the match. “If I feel like there’s any benefits, or if not. I’d rather find out the answer than just keep on keeping wicket and thinking, ‘oh, I wonder what it feels like to be at mid-off,’ or something. I’m just open-minded.””I’ve captained and kept wicket a lot as well, which I certainly think there’s a lot of benefits of that.”He went on to say he would be receptive to someone else keeping wicket for England instead, provided he decides his best leadership happens in the open rather than behind the stumps. Ultimately, it will be defined by feel: “I think it’s important for me to be comfortable with what I’m doing.”So, how did he do? Well he certainly got his ten thousand steps in for the day. Beyond the usual mid-on and mid-off, he put himself out in the deep – midwicket, long-on – after the powerplay, recognising himself as one of the better fielders: quick across the ground, good hands and with a very un-keeper-like cannon of an arm. It made chats with the bowlers that little bit harder. On a number of occasions he scampered in from the fence to offer either his ear or words of advice.When Ashton Turner was reverse-swept by Michael Pepper, Buttler was already in from the leg-side boundary before the ball had been returned, enquiring about a potential shift in the field. The next delivery, Pepper was out caught, failing to connect well enough to an inside-out shot over cover. Coincidence? No doubt, but the optics were pretty good.

“I don’t quite understand why spinners aren’t allowed to bowl at the end of an innings. A seamer is allowed to get hit for 20 or 25, so a spinner can bowl in that phase of the game as well.”Buttler trusted his spinners at the death with mixed results

Then there was the moment after the 49th ball of Superchargers’ chase, when he shouted from long-on to long-off, where Andre Russell was lost in his own thoughts between Matt Parkinson deliveries. Having got his attention, he gave him the universal sign to warming-up – rolling both shoulders like an optimistic chicken preparing to take flight – before pointing to the top end. On came Dre Russ and, two balls after making it to his half-century, out went Adam Lyth, caught by Sean Abbott at deep cover.”I enjoyed it,” Buttler said of the overall experience. “I’ve fielded a lot over my career. The IPL just gone, I fielded throughout the whole tournament. I’m personally just intrigued to see how I find it as a captain.”It doesn’t mean I think it’s better or worse, I just feel like it’s the time to try it and see how I find it. Is there any benefit to being in the field? Or do I find it a benefit actually keeping and being able to have that visual down the wicket? I’m just going to try it throughout the tournament. It’s something I just wanted to see. And personally, does it affect my batting, or any of those kind of things. I’m just giving it a try.”Importantly, he trialled more than just freeing his legs from the relentless crouching. In a bid to break a stand between David Willey and Harry Brook, he decided upon spin from balls 80 to 90. The first five did the trick, as Parkinson removed Willey to cut the partnership off on 41 off 29 before conceding five off the remaining four deliveries in his set.But with 30 required from the final 15, Tom Hartley’s left-arm orthodox was taken for 18 by Brook to all but confirm a Superchargers victory. While undoubtedly a bold call to opt for spin at that juncture, it was another aspect Buttler is keen to explore. Because, from his point of view, why not?Buttler brings out his scoop•Getty Images”It’s actually something I’m quite intrigued by: I don’t quite understand why spinners aren’t allowed to bowl at the end of an innings. A seamer is allowed to get hit for 20 or 25, so a spinner can bowl in that phase of the game as well. Especially here at Old Trafford, if the wicket gets used, it’s not easy to try and attack spin at the end.”Maybe with a little bit of dew, it made it a bit trickier for them [the spinners]. But I’m confident in anyone to bowl at any stage of the game. Someone like Parkinson especially can create wickets in that phase of the game. Adil Rashid’s done that kind of role for England a bit in the past. I think it’s something spinners can be able to do.”It is, in so many ways, a refreshing approach. One of the annoyances of Twenty20 leagues the world over is a lack of accessibility to their own top-shelf talent, both literally and figuratively. Often those that do take part in their own leagues mail in performances every so often because there is no great jeopardy to their output.So to see Buttler, reputation assured, status secure, juggling entertainment with experimentation was something of a novelty. With just four wins in 12 under his full-time tenure as England captain so far, it has become easy to wonder if giving him the responsibility of leadership was the right call. He is doing everything in his power to prove that it was.

Coming back after a 42-day break from cricket, he was India’s joint top-scorer without ever finding his fluency

Shashank Kishore28-Aug-2022The noise levels had soared by several decibels as Virat Kohli walked out to bat, third ball of India’s chase. As he stood marking his guard, the giant screen played a package of his imperious cover-driving against Mohammad Amir during the 2016 Asia Cup. Kohli took a fleeting glance at it before settling into his stance.As the first delivery tailed in, he left it alone, trusting the bounce. He looked at the spot from where the ball had lifted, giving it a wry smile. The surface was a little tacky. There was grip if the bowlers were willing to dig it in, like Hardik Pandya had done during Pakistan’s innings. Ravindra Jadeja had got it to turn sharply from leg to off. With India chasing only 148, maybe this was Kohli’s opportunity to dig in and not go after the bowling straightaway, despite the chatter around intent and India’s new batting template.Related

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Kohli was returning from a month-long break where he hadn’t picked up a bat. His ferocious intensity can lift the team. It can lift the entire stadium. As it did when he was among the first players to bound out to the nets in India’s first training session four days ago.Starting Wednesday, whatever he’s done on the field has been closely captured, reeled, storied, and shared widely: his towering hits, his exchanges with Babar Azam, his 50-metre sprints, the goals he’s scored in warm-up football.On Sunday too, he was among the first to walk out for India’s pre-match routines. The pleasantries with the opponents were done. He was a picture of concentration amid the noise. He took throwdowns initially, and then proceeded towards the boundary edge to take some catches. Within 10 minutes, Kohli was in and out. He wasn’t going to drain himself in the afternoon heat.It was a big occasion. His 100th T20I. He was about to become only the second player, after Ross Taylor, to play as many games in all three formats. Rahul Dravid invited Kohli to give the team a pep talk. He spoke passionately, and the huddle dispersed with a chorus of claps. With that, Kohli’s comeback was officially underway.He had played just four T20Is this year prior to this game. He hasn’t been a part of India’s changing template consistently, and so there’s this matter of having to buy into the philosophy, and then fit into it, which can be easier said than done. Perhaps it would have been a cakewalk for the Kohli of 2016, when he could flick on a switch and kill chases with ridiculous ease. Or blast his way out of the blocks while batting first and smash both pace and spin.Back to the present, though.It’s the second ball of his innings. Kohli’s instincts draw him into a drive. Except the ball isn’t quite there and it hits the seam and nips away. By the time Kohli has played the ball, he knows he’s in trouble, but a diving Fakhar Zaman grasses the chance at slip to the collective despair of the western block of the stadium, which is dominated by Pakistan fans in green.You begin to imagine what could have been had the chance been taken. ‘Kohli out for duck after opening up about mental-health struggles’? ‘Kohli’s much-anticipated return ends in damp squib’? There was potential for an explosion of headlines, memes and judgments. But luck has smiled on Kohli and he gets off strike next ball with a nudge to fine leg. He is off the mark.Virat Kohli slowed down against spin before chipping Mohammad Nawaz straight to long-off•AFP/Getty ImagesNow he’s up against Shahnawaz Dahani, the reason why Pakistan are defending 147 rather than 135. Kohli plays out three dots and then mistimes a lofted hit that plonks into the outfield after beating mid-off. Dahani is quick and zippy, and Kohli hasn’t managed to get him away. Whether he feels it or not, you feel the pressure.Square leg is in, and fine leg is out. The short ball could be coming, and it does. Kohli belts out a roar after getting into excellent position to wallop it to the midwicket boundary. He’s up and running.Or is he? Next ball, Kohli gets a thick inside edge. On another night, this may have rolled onto the stumps. Tonight it rolls down to short fine leg. India, 10 for 1 after two overs, have made a nervy start.It remains that way. KL Rahul is gone, Rohit Sharma is scratchy. In the next over, Kohli top-edges Haris Rauf for six over the keeper’s head. More luck. Surely it’s his night?Kohli is chewing gum, smiling, fist-bumping Rohit. The ball isn’t always flying where he wants it to, but he’s still in the contest. There’s a sliced drive over backward point off Dahani in the fifth over. He had been looking to go over cover only for his bat to turn in his hands.Multiple times over the last two years, Kohli has played imperious innings that haven’t lasted as long as they promised to. This innings is promising to be different – scratchy but enduring. But then he flicks a switch and plays a majestic flat-batted pull over wide mid-on. He stands and admires the shot until the ball crosses the boundary, and turns back to look at the replay on the giant screen. He’s nailed it off the sweetest spot on his bat.It’s been a perfectly imperfect Kohli knock – hard to categorise in any way.But in some respects, we’ve seen this innings before. At the end of the powerplay, he’s batting on 29 off 24. Then the spinners come on and the fields spread. Against Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz, he scores 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1. In that time, India lose Rohit. A seemingly straightforward chase is turning rather tricky.Then Kohli steps out, and chips Nawaz straight to long-off. Just like that, his stay is over. A perfectly imperfect end to a perfectly imperfect innings.

Offspin, legspin or left-arm orthodox – this is the choice facing Australia as they evaluate their support spinners

Alex Malcolm11-Jan-2023Australia could consider playing two offspinners in the same Test team in India after uncapped 22-year-old Todd Murphy was named in their Test squad, but Ashton Agar remains the preferred option to partner Nathan Lyon despite a modest return to Test cricket in Sydney last week.Australia’s selectors named four spinners, including two offspinners in Lyon and Murphy, a legspinner in Mitchell Swepson, and a left-arm orthodox in Agar for Australia’s four-Test tour of India starting in Nagpur on February 9.Australia played two spinners in their last Test match, with Agar playing his first game alongside Lyon since 2017, while legspinner Swepson partnered Lyon in four of five Test matches in Pakistan and Sri Lanka last year.Australia have had moderate success with two spinners in the same XI over the past 12 months, claiming two wins, two draws and one loss in Galle. Australia did win one Test in India on their last tour in 2017 off the back of playing two spinners, with left-arm orthodox Steve O’Keefe claiming 12 for 70 in Pune.Part of the reason for Agar’s return in Sydney, despite a very modest first-class record over 10 years and 64 games, was because Australia’s selectors would prefer a left-arm orthodox bowler in India both to complement Lyon and replicate the success of O’Keefe in India, and the success of India duo Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.Australia’s chairman of selectors George Bailey believes that Agar would be better for the run in Sydney ahead of the tour of India.”Certainly in India, we would like to have the availability of a left-arm orthodox,” Bailey said. “[It’s] great that we have the opportunity to get Ash a game. He hasn’t played a great deal of red-ball cricket and then in horse-racing terms I think he will be better for the run. [It was] great to have him around the group again and with a focus to sort of build his red-ball stuff up over the next little period until we get to India.”Agar has played just seven first-class matches since the start of 2020, taking just 17 wickets at 50.64 and striking at 109.5 with an economy rate of 2.78. He took figures of 0 for 58 from 22 overs in Sydney, and was bowled sparingly by captain Pat Cummins compared to Lyon’s 55 overs for the match. But Cummins was pleased with Agar’s efforts.Todd Murphy has made an excellent start to his first-class career, but are Australia willing to play two offspinners?•Getty Images

Could Murphy’s emergence prompt Australia to play two offspinners?

While a left-arm orthodox spinner is preferred in India, Bailey conceded that Murphy’s emergence has made the selectors consider playing two offspinners in the same side. Murphy has only played seven first-class matches in his short career for Victoria, Australia A and the Prime Minister’s XI, all in the last two years, but has taken 29 wickets at 25.20, striking at 57.6 with an economy rate of 2.62.”Absolutely, he’s a chance to play,” Bailey said. “[It’s] certainly not a development tour. So he’s earned his spot through his performances and what we think he can do, clearly.”Whether he can play alongside [Lyon] is a question but they are different as far as offspinners go. So I don’t think you’re necessarily looking at the same type of bowler. We’ll get across and assess the conditions and what we think we need once we hit the ground.”Bailey and his fellow selectors, Tony Dodemaide and coach Andrew McDonald, have been consistent in their messaging around picking a complementary spinner to partner Lyon in order to balance out the attack. McDonald stated on record prior to Agar’s selection in Sydney that having a spinner who complemented Lyon by turning the ball away from the right-handers was more important than picking the next-best spinner.That desire is exacerbated by the development of Travis Head as a part-time offspinner within Australia’s XI. The idea of picking two specialist offspinners, along with the part-time offspin of Head, with only the part-time legspin of Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith to complement them, could leave Australia’s attack unbalanced in spinning conditions, particularly given most of India’s top six will be right-handers in the absence of Rishabh Pant.Mitchell Swepson took 10 wickets at 45.80 on the tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka•Getty Images

The case for Swepson

Australia selectors have selected one legspinner in Swepson but have cooled on the idea of using him to complement Lyon. He bowled well at times without luck in Pakistan and Sri Lanka but took just 10 wickets at 45.80, striking at 89.2. He also didn’t quite contain the run-rate in the way Australia would have liked while they attacked with reverse swing from their quicks at the other end.There was a consideration to pick Australia’s white-ball spinner Adam Zampa after he made a return to first-class cricket for the first time in three years in December. But Bailey confirmed that Swepson remains Australia’s number one legspinner in red-ball cricket.”Swep’s on the tour because if we feel that we need a legspinner we think he’s our best option,” Bailey said. “I think Zamps has displayed a real keenness to be around the Test squad. And we just probably haven’t seen enough red-ball cricket from him. And to be fair to Swep we’ve liked what he’s given us when he’s had his opportunities and [we’ll] continue to invest in him.”But Australia’s selectors are aware of the difficulties overseas legspinners have had in India, with Australia’s greatest ever Shane Warne struggling in three tours of India, averaging 43.11 and striking in 81 with an economy rate of 3.19. But Warne played a pivotal role in Australia’s 2004 series triumph in India, though he played more of a defensive role as the lone spinner in Australia’s two Test wins in Bengaluru and Nagpur while Australia’s three fast bowlers in Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz did the bulk of the damage.

A look at the records broken during Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s maiden ODI century and his partnership with Mahmudullah

Sampath Bandarupalli07-Dec-20222 Number of players to score an ODI hundred while batting at No. 8 or lower, including Mehidy Hasan Miraz in Mirpur. Simi Singh was the first player with the feat, who also scored an unbeaten 100 against South Africa in 2021 while batting at No.8.202 Runs added by Bangladesh after the fall of the sixth wicket. Only four teams have added more runs for the final four wickets in an ODI. The highest is 213 by Australia against New Zealand in 2017. The previous highest for Bangladesh was 174 against Afghanistan earlier this year in Chattogram.148 Partnership between Mehidy and Mahmudullah for the seventh wicket. It is the joint third highest by any pair for the seventh or a lower wicket in ODIs. The highest is 177 between Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid against New Zealand in 2015, while Mehidy shared an unbeaten 174 with Afif Hossain against Afghanistan earlier this year.The 148-run stand between Mehidy and Mahmudullah is now the highest for Bangladesh for any wicket against India. The previous highest was 133 between Anamul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim, for the third wicket in Fatullah in 2014. The unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 138 between Justin Kemp and Andrew Hall in 2006 in Cape Town was the previous highest against India in ODIs for the seventh or lower wicket.14.08 Run rate of the partnership between Mehidy and Nasum Ahmed, the second-fastest 50-plus stand for Bangladesh in ODIs. Their only stand to have come at a quicker rate is the 54-run one between Mushfiqur and Tamim Iqbal, it came off 3.2 overs at 16.2 against West Indies in 2018.298 Runs scored by Mehidy while batting at No. 8 this year. These are the most ODI runs by a batter in a calendar year while batting at No.8 or lower since Heath Streak’s 429 runs in 2001. Overall, he is sixth on that list.

It was the perfect result for the Ahmedabad crowd: their defending champions getting off to a winning start, even while they had their fill of the MS Dhoni show

Shashank Kishore31-Mar-2023On IPL opening night, a 100,000-strong Ahmedabad crowd enjoyed the best of both worlds. It couldn’t have been more perfect for them than an MS Dhoni special and Gujarat Titans win.Except, Motera’s definition of “special” was something as simple as Dhoni tying his shoelaces, Dhoni waving while being paraded around the ground on a golf cart decked up like a chariot, or, even better, Dhoni emerging from the dressing room in his match gear. Who could fault them for going into a tizzy, though, with it being just shy of eight years since he last played at the ground. In fact, it was closing in on a year since he was last spotted on a cricket field of note anywhere, and that last sighting was at the end of an atypically woeful run for Chennai Super Kings at IPL 2022. Yes, everyone was waiting to see Dhoni, at 41, hoping for one more glimpse of the man if not the legend.They had braved traffic snarls, the sapping humidity that typically follows a summer downpour, the long queues to pick up physical tickets, and impossible levels of frisking and poking and prodding to finally get to their seats. As if all of this wasn’t stressful enough, they had to sit through the opening ceremony with the anxiety of whether Dhoni would actually play.On match eve, Dhoni had trained with knee braces. The news spread like wildfire on social media, with reports emerging that he’d probably have to skip the game. So every move Dhoni made today was viewed through the prism of him being a doubtful starter.It was a full house at Motera to kick off IPL 2023•AFP/Getty ImagesWhen he stretched his right leg, they wondered if he’d cramped. When he crouched low and did his wicketkeeping drills, they wondered if he was testing his hamstrings. When he gently lobbed a few overarm deliveries during the warm-ups, they wondered if the casual vibe was a sign of him not playing. Then, during the match, in the dying moments, when he clutched his toes to stretch after diving but failing to stop four leg byes, there was a collective cry of anguish, the four leg byes that benefitted Titans be damned.It needed a breathtaking opening ceremony to briefly keep the Dhoni chorus away. It felt like a home game for Chennai Super Kings, but when has it not been so at a Super Kings game, particularly since Dhoni’s message on Instagram at 19:29 on India’s Independence Day in 2020 to “consider me retired” from international cricket. Covid-19 pushed the IPL that year to September and CSK went on to have a season to forget, finishing joint-last on the points table. He couldn’t sign off altogether from cricket on that note, surely?In 2021, Dhoni duly lifted the IPL trophy. Dad’s Army had done it. There couldn’t have been a sweeter way to bid goodbye, right? But the win hadn’t come in Chennai, with the IPL once again moved to the UAE due to Covid-19. How could he have left without saying goodbye to his beloved Chepauk faithful? And so he came back in 2022, only for the tournament to be played only in Mumbai and Pune as cricket, like everything else, slowly got back on its feet after the ravages of the pandemic.Hardik Pandya could not have been faulted if he was left wondering about the concept of home advantage•Associated PressIn a rare expression of emotion after the season, Dhoni said he’d like to say goodbye in front of his home fans. When? No one knew.And so, here we were, in 2023, beginning all over again. Wondering if this would be his last dance. It’s a thought that consumed many in the crowd as they watched the opening ceremony. There was a point when the cameras panned to the Super Kings dugout with Dhoni the only one seated there, his feet tapping to Arijit Singh’s chartbusters. From singing along to “Channa Mereya” the crowd switched to “Dhooo-ni! Dhooo-ni!”. It was a proper throwback for those who grew up in the ’90s and 2000s, to hearing chants of “Saaa-chin! Saaa-chin!”.At several points during Super Kings’ innings, the crowd yelled for Dhoni to come out. For close to 90 minutes, they keep trying. At one point when Shivam Dube kept swinging for the hills and missing, they lost patience. The home team was in the ascendancy despite an astounding Ruturaj Gaikwad innings. You’d think the home fans would have rejoiced. They didn’t. They kept waiting for Dhoni. And after 90 minutes, when he finally took strike, the noise was deafening.But the loudest cheer on the night was yet to come. It was reserved for when he clattered his fourth ball for a six off Josh Little. Hardik Pandya could have well been left wondering if this was what they meant by home advantage.The Dhoni mania briefly gave way to rich applause when Shubman Gill played a series of aesthetically pleasing shots to get Titans’ chase going. But every now and then, there was a reminder that the fans were mostly here for Dhoni.A touch of Titans, a dash of Dhoni – the recipe in Ahmedabad on Friday evening•AFP via Getty ImagesThe 179 Super Kings had set wasn’t quite in the Dhoni territory of choke by spin, definitely not on this deck where the ball skidded through and came on nicely. But in empowering two rookies in Tushar Deshpande and Rajvardhan Hangargekar with the new ball, Dhoni played his cards like he always has amid the clamour.He was calm even when Deshpande went for a succession of boundaries and when he and Hangargekar overstepped. He was waiting for that one opening, and when he finally had it, he brought Ravindra Jadeja on and promptly attacked, with a slip in place for Hardik. Perhaps the presence of that fielder prompted Hardik’s dismissal, bowled missing a sweep.The match nearly went into Dhoni’s grasp after Hangargekar struck in the 18th over, but in the end it became amply evident that Super Kings’ middle-order slip-up, after Gaikwad’s stunner, was going to cost them. Dhoni alluded to this, his parting line at the presentation being: “I’m not disappointed, our bowlers tried their best.” It was a typical, succinct Dhoni assessment of where they’d erred.As for the crowd, they left a happy lot, perhaps wishing they could see a repeat of this clash come May 28, and return in big numbers to cheer for the man in the yellow No. 7 jersey while having their own team defend their crown.

For the first time in the series, Australia’s containment strategy unravelled

Andrew McGlashan20-Jul-20231:51

McGlashan: England’s Bazball finally hurts Australia

Pat Cummins has not had many bad days in his entire Test career, let alone while he’s been captain, but Thursday at Old Trafford can challenge for the top of the list as Australia felt the full force of Bazball.It started when he drove the first ball of the day from James Anderson to cover point and did not get any better. By stumps he had been taken for nearly six an over – and it was higher before his final three-over spell – as England’s scoring rate ran away from Australia. He also missed the opportunity to catch Moeen Ali when he seemingly lost sight of the ball at mid-on, dropped a chance at midwicket off the same batter (although Moeen fell the next ball he faced), and in the final session couldn’t back up a throw from the deep by Steven Smith which left him chasing the ball towards a mass of cheering England supporters.Across two sessions, England scored 323 in 56 overs and even that was pulled back by Harry Brook and Ben Stokes playing for the close. Between lunch and tea 178 runs were flayed from 25 overs and the 206-run partnership between Zak Crawley and Joe Root took 30. In what has been an excruciatingly tight series it was, for that period, the most one-sided cricket that had been played.Related

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For the first two Tests of the series at Edgbaston and Lord’s, Australia found ways to keep up with, and even temper, England’s approach. In the opening match the home side scored briskly, but Australia took wickets at regular-enough intervals that things didn’t get out of control and they were able to nick the victory at the end.At Lord’s they dominated for significant periods and, with the help of the short ball, overcame the loss of Nathan Lyon. Stokes made them nervous on the final day after Jonny Bairstow’s run out ignited tempers, but they had enough runs in the bank.However, cracks started to emerge at Headingley when England were able to get away with the bat over shorter periods, notably after lunch on the second day which enabled them to get almost level and then, as promised by Stuart Broad, knocking off the target one-day style although it was tighter than they would have wished.Australia have often spoken about doing things at their own tempo this series and not getting sucked into playing England at their own game. It worked – just – at the start of the series when it was aided by some of England’s own errors, particularly in the catching, and they were able to build strong first-innings totals but now Australia have made mistakes themselves.Old Trafford has been where, on day two at least, they became overwhelmed by England’s approach. Having put in a wasteful display with the bat to only reach 317 from 183 for 3, they looked as shell-shocked and rudderless in the field as any time in recent memory while Crawley and Root were together.While England’s post-lunch surge took shape, at times there was barely a ball where fields weren’t being changed and bowlers not being talked to. And it did not feel proactive. The game was being played a pace that Australia couldn’t keep up with. There was more than the occasional furrowed brow and even a startled look as boundary after boundary was peeled off, many in increasingly audacious fashion. Root’s reverse scoops over the slips were back after last appearing at Edgbaston.”They are scoring quickly, [so] you feel like you can take a wicket,” Daniel Vettori, Australia’s assistant coach, said. “Do you keep going? Do you keep pressure? I feel like today was probably the first time our press was met with them going at seven an over. In the back of our minds we always knew England had this in them because they play so aggressively.Pat Cummins looks bereft of ideas as England pile on the runs•Getty Images”You see the respect our players have for their tactics with the fields we have set to mitigate that at times. Today was the perfect storm of them coming hard at us, and us not being able to come back against them with wicket-taking options, which is what has allowed us to be ahead in the series so far.”The build-up to the Test had been dominated by talk of how Australia would structure their XI with Cameron Green fit again. It was Todd Murphy who lost his place in what was always going to be a hotly debated decision given Australia had last played without a specialist spinner in 2011-12. It’s quite possible he would have been carted by England’s batters as well, but with Travis Head introduced in the 23rd over the absence of a frontline spinner was noticeable. Head, who was reverse swept for four first ball by Crawley then sent for six from the next, ended up going at eight an over.Meanwhile, Mitchell Marsh’s figures may not suggest he should have bowled earlier than the 36th over, when he entered the attack, but it was an odd decision by Cummins to not at least try him earlier against Crawley who he had removed twice at Headingley. By the time he did bowl, Crawley had 112.”It is a constant factor trying to marry up your own bowling against the plans,” Vettori said. “Through the whole series Pat has been exceptional. He likes advice, he likes to talk to talk to people around the group. It was just one of those sessions where we pushed exceptionally hard and England responded. The amount of boundaries that they were able to score even with the field set the way they were, we just weren’t able to mitigate that run rate at all. I think he has done an exceptional job all through the series.”The weather may yet come to Australia’s aid, but even if that’s the case to just be talking about such an escape shows how the mood has turned since Lord’s. Whatever happens from here, this was a day where Australia, and their captain, had few answers against an England side that is doing all it can to set up a decider at The Oval.

For every good India vs Pakistan cricket memory, there are many unpleasant ones. On Saturday, despite the world we live in, let’s all be heroes, for one day

Sidharth Monga13-Oct-2023Last night was the first in three that I went to sleep without fever. At around 4am, I woke up with fever, and a fever dream.I have had quite a few of these through the last three nights: repetitive, vivid, all-consuming, still extremely difficult to remember when I wake up with a parched throat. And yet I have been going back to the same dream when going back to sleep.I vaguely do remember meeting the ghost of a cricket match in my dream. I call it IP. Short for India vs Pakistan. IP has been extremely anxious, passing the anxiety on to me. Not that I am not anxious already. I don’t remember the conversations we have been having well enough to reproduce them verbatim, so please bear with my paraphrasing.Related

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One thing I clearly do remember saying to IP is that no recovery can begin until we accept that whatever has happened so far, wherever we are right now in life, was inevitable. That there is nothing anyone could have done to avoid that. That it is no one’s fault. Only then can we move on.Okay, it’s already working. Writing down things can help you remember. Now I remember why IP was anxious. They didn’t like what they had become. They just wanted to be a cricket match with great performances and memories.Memories of the time a whole country opened its arms and welcomed those from the other side, refusing to let them pay for food or clothes, showing them how well they had looked after the Nankana Sahib gurudwara left behind, opening their homes for their neighbours, comparing notes on dal makhni, butter chicken and mangoes, realising how little different they all were. Memories of the time one stand in one ground felt the best way to deal with the heartbreak they witnessed minutes ago was to applaud the opposition as the better side only for that emotion to catch on like wildfire and reverberate far beyond just the stands.Memories of even last year, when fans of both teams grooved together to outside the MCG, elevating the already popular song to a status very few pieces of art attain: a unifying force for nations at odds, which is quite befitting as the song at its heart is a lament of the writer of the song who couldn’t travel to India to collaborate on a project because of the world we live in.5:40

‘Once the first ball is bowled, everything is back to normal’

That night in Melbourne, India and Pakistan collaborated to play the most magical of T20Is that culminated in a last-ball finish and a roar that could be heard by my colleague Alex Malcolm’s partner at their home two suburbs away. You could see the afterglow of the match on the faces exiting the MCG. Now MCG has hosted massive footy games, but never yielded anything quite like it.All these memories almost made me feel better, but the , as IP duly went on to remind me, is that these memories have become aberrations with them. All the ugliness came back to mind. The burning stands just two Tests after Pakistan were given that standing ovation in Chennai in 1999. The stone-pelting at Indian fielders in Karachi 15 years before the two teams kickstarted that magical tour in 2004. For everything good that happens to them once in a while, said IP, there were tens of instances of ugliness, hate, jingoism, opportunistic politics and capitalism.Again, I asked, was it possible for things to have turned out any different? Or was it possible for the cricket rivalry to only have good memories? I mean, how many things would we have to wipe off for IP to remain a cricket match? The Partition of 1947. The war of 1965. Of 1971. Kargil 1999. The last is not a historical conflict even. Many survivors of it are still alive, they still think of the victims, of the horrors of a terrible time.I remember telling IP that for their own piece of mind, they have to accept things as they are. “You were never meant to be just a cricket match like other neighbours, say, Australia and New Zealand, play. You don’t get a choice in the matter. You were going to be the vehicle to legitimise – sometimes, just be able to express – our feelings that otherwise can’t even be acknowledged: hatred, anxiety, fears, revenge, pettiness, shame, guilt, love, joy, dreams, forgiveness, pain, reconciliation.”Along with the blue of India and green of Pakistan, these colours will be out in force come match time•Associated PressTo the best of my knowledge, till two days before the Pakistan match, only four Pakistanis outside the Pakistan team bubble were here for the match: commentators Waqar Younis and Ramiz Raja, statistician Mazher Arshad, and businessman-cum-super fan Bashir . On Thursday could come in journalist Shahid Hashmi and – on my flight from Delhi to Ahmedabad – PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf, his family and other delegates to a welcome befitting their status.Still it will hardly be India vs Pakistan in the stands. The of the world we live in!In my delirious state, I remembered a press conference of a BCCI official late in July where the official didn’t even want to talk about the protocols for fans to come.Even in a normal state, I wouldn’t know what to make of it. All I am thinking right now is what I think I told IP: it will be all right, have faith in Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, and Haris Rauf and Babar Azam. They will speak Punjabi to each other. They and their team-mates will play great cricket. They will rise above this again.It won’t quite be MCG but, as it has been on loop in my mind for the last three days, “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” That bit of poetry is written by Rainer Maria Rilke. In my head plays David Bowie’s . Let’s all be heroes. Just for one day.

Between them, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen broke records, Mumbai Indians’ hearts, and T20 batting rules

Vishal Dikshit28-Mar-20241:43

Moody: Head set the tone, and Sunrisers just didn’t look back

If, before Wednesday, you were asked which team would break Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s record total of 263 for 5 from IPL 2013, who would you have picked?Not a team that has traditionally been known as a bowling powerhouse, surely?And yet, it’s Sunrisers Hyderabad. And the great bowling team of the past has not only broken the record by a distance, they have topped 200 in back-to-back matches in IPL 2024.Related

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And even if you had guessed Sunrisers, it would have been because of the presence of Henrich Klaasen, given his T20 strike rate of 193 since the start of 2023. He did top-score in Sunrisers’ 277 with a scorching 80 off 34, but it was the belligerence of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma that “set the tone” – in Klaasen’s words – for a magical night in Hyderabad.Sunrisers were seemingly under pressure coming into this season – they had finished IPL 2023 at the bottom of the table with just four wins from 14 games; they have a new leader with no T20 captaincy experience; they hosted Mumbai Indians knowing that home teams had won all the previous matches this season. When Sunrisers arrived in Hyderabad, they knew they had won just one out of seven home games last season.Sometimes, that sort of pressure can free you up, and when it’s so early in the tournament, you can also free your arms more easily, especially on the flattest of pitches. It helps if the team management gives you a “clear message” to “go out and express yourself”.Head may not need such messages, but it must have done wonders for 23-year-old Abhishek, who had seen Head cart the ball around in the first four overs to race to 32 off 12. When IPL debutant Kwena Maphaka offered pace, Head sent him for a 22-run over. When Abhishek joined him in the fifth over, and Hardik Pandya tried different lengths and pace, Head smashed the Mumbai Indians captain for three fours in a row. And when Jasprit Bumrah was not going to get a second over in the powerplay, Head and Abhishek went all guns blazing.By the end of the powerplay, Head had registered Sunrisers’ fastest IPL fifty off just 18 balls. Head is one of Abhishek’s favourite batters, and the infectious energy was passed on when Abhishek smashed his second ball for a six. Abhishek revealed after the game that Head had told him that if he felt like going after the ball, even if it’s the first ball, “just go for it”. And he did!2:42

Rapid Fire: An absolute nightmare for bowlers

After an 81-run powerplay, Sunrisers’ new record in the phase, Hardik fed the two left-hand batters legspin in the form of Piyush Chawla, and that meant only one thing – the ball sailing beyond the leg-side boundary, which is where Abhishek’s three sixes in that over landed. Sunrisers had crossed 100 in just seven overs. They were not just rewriting record books, they were smashing them to pieces.This batting duo was making the most of not just a flat track but also on a bowling attack that had an IPL debutant, one playing his second IPL game, one spinner turning the ball into them, and the best T20 bowler not bowling to them.Logic suggests that Bumrah should have bowled after Head fell to Gerald Coetzee in the 15-run eighth over, but Hardik persisted with himself and the 17-year-old IPL debutant Maphaka. Abhishek was in his groove by now, and when he clobbered a slower ball into the sight screen, he had broken Head’s record of the fastest fifty for Sunrisers – off 18 balls, set barely 20 minutes earlier – by getting there in 16 balls.”The message was simple for all the batters in the meeting we had before this match, that everyone just go and express yourself. That’s a very positive message,” Abhishek said at the press conference after the game. “If you get it from your captain and coach, I think that’s really supportive for all the batters.”The run rate was almost kissing 15 at the halfway mark and there was still no Bumrah, who, it appeared, was being saved for Klaasen. But when Klaasen came out at the start of the 12th over, there was still no Bumrah. Instead, Hardik brought on a bowler playing just his second IPL game: left-arm spinner Shams Mulani. Possibly because there were two right-hand batters in then, Klaasen and Aiden Markram. But this was despite Klaasen’s phenomenal record against spin in the IPL. Klaasen doesn’t need an invitation from spinners to hit sixes, and he launched Mulani down the ground for the first of his seven sixes off the second ball he faced.By the time Bumrah got the ball again, Sunrisers had soared to 173 in just 12 overs. The match was gone by then because even if Bumrah bowled three maidens after that – which might be beyond even his magical powers – Sunrisers would target the other 30 balls to still get to a daunting total. Hypothesis aside, Head and Abhishek had set the stage so beautifully and brutally for the rest that Klaasen’s seven sixes for his 34-ball 80 seemed routine rather than jaw-dropping.3:16

Moody baffled by Mumbai’s use of Bumrah

It has to be said that for a long time, Mumbai Indians were seriously in the chase of 278. Seventy-six runs in the powerplay, 100 off 45 balls, and sixes flying off the bat like in a highlights package.At 165 for 3 after 12 overs, when their run rate was 13.75 and the asking rate 14.12, it looked not just possible but achievable for Mumbai Indians. But that’s when Pat Cummins proved that despite the lack of T20 captaincy pedigree, he had the smarts – the World Test Championship title and the ODI World Cup trophy are evidence of that.Unlike Hardik, Cummins brought on his key bowlers when it mattered. He summoned his most experienced quick – Bhuvneshwar Kumar – before the death overs for a third over that went for just five runs. And when Cummins himself dismissed the dangerous Tilak Varma with a slow bouncer in a three-run over, he turned to Jaydev Unadkat for his knowhow of bowling mainly slower balls on a pitch where lack of pace was tough to score off. Unadkat’s five-run over continued a streak of 16 boundary-less balls and the asking rate had shot to 22 as Mumbai needed 88 off 24 balls.”Credit to SRH, they bowled pretty well there at the end, taking the pace off on a slowing pitch,” Tim David said at the press conference. “It can be pretty hard to hit to the big side so that’s credit to them.”The bowling was expected to do it, but with this new, improved, swashbuckling batting, Sunrisers have sent a message no opposition wants to show two blue ticks for.