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The rapidly changing global T20 landscape leaves England’s domestic offering on an uncertain footing

Alan Gardner16-Jul-2023How do you like them apples? Somerset’s cider boys finally ended their Finals Day hoodoo to cap one of the most-dominant seasons in the history of T20 (no team anywhere in the world has won as many as 15 games in a single campaign), providing a feelgood story in the middle of another English summer in which discontent about the schedule is impossible to ignore – even after 12 hours of getting bladdered in the Hollies Stand.The T20 showpiece remains one of the domestic game’s great days out. Where else can you see three thrillingly contested 20-over fixtures and a conga in the crowd led by a fancy-dress giraffe? Saturday at a packed Edgbaston felt like a triumph of elemental proportions, too, as the groundstaff – who began their day at 3.30am following hours of heavy rainfall in Birmingham – kept the show on the road even as stormy weather repeatedly threatened to trigger the use of a reserve day for only the second time in the competition’s 20-year history.T20 is a fickle game, as more than one participant from the four teams involved reflected – except Somerset’s unstoppable form suggested quite the opposite. They were the first team ever to win 12 games (out of 14) in the Blast group stage, and then in all three of their knockout encounters successfully fought back from losing positions.Related

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Key to their success was a cutting edge with the ball. Somerset had the competition’s two leading wicket-takers – Matt Henry overtaking Ben Green with his four-for in the final to finish on 31 for the season – and claimed an almost unbelievable 151 out of 170 wickets going. Only one team in the South Group avoided being bowled out by Somerset this summer and that was Sussex, who played them once (and made 183 for 8 in a five-wicket defeat). Essex were on the receiving end three times.With the bat, the big guns at the top of the order are all England candidates of varying merit – Tom Banton, Will Smeed and Tom Kohler-Cadmore scored almost 1500 runs between them at strike rates of 150-175 – and yet their hero on Saturday was journeyman pro Sean Dickson, whose 53 in the final was the joint top-score of his nine-year T20 career.Somerset’s head coach, Jason Kerr, has been involved with the club since 2006, a time that encompassed seven fruitless trips to Finals Day. He said afterwards that his overriding emotion had been one of relief.”I genuinely believe you get what you deserve, and I genuinely believe we’ve been the best team in the competition this year,” he said. “But we had to go out there and demonstrate that, and that’s what we managed to go out there and do.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”We’ve been building as a side. We’ve been to Finals Day for the last three years, and last year we didn’t turn up at all. We didn’t do ourselves justice, so I was adamant that we were going to do that this year. I think Lewis [Gregory] has led the group immensely well, but it really has been a team performance throughout the campaign, and that has shown with glory today.”Gregory, Somerset’s captain, called the experience “pretty damned good”. This was not, however, the first time he had held a T20 trophy aloft, despite having spent his entire county career at Taunton. That is because Gregory is also the captain of Trent Rockets, the reigning champions in the men’s Hundred, whose campaign to defend their trophy gets underway in just over a fortnight’s time. Another T20 showpiece, anyone?When the counties voted to create a second, city-based short-format competition back in 2017, the inevitable result was the Blast having to live in the shadow of a shinier, better-resourced competitor. But the global T20 landscape has shifted a huge amount in the intervening period and both English tournaments now find themselves hemmed in on all sides – by the behemoth that is the IPL at the start of the season and an increasing number of competitors in the middle of the year: the CPL, Major League Cricket and the Global T20 Canada.Surrey, defeated by Somerset in the second semi-final, felt the knock-on effects directly in the farrago of Sunil Narine’s non-appearance – despite the club believing they had an agreement for the West Indian spinner to fly back for Finals Day between his commitments to LA Knight Riders in the MLC. And speaking on BBC radio at Edgbaston, Glenn Maxwell, the Australia allrounder who joined Birmingham Bears straight from the IPL but recently opted to pull out of a planned stint at the Hundred for workload reasons, underlined the difficulties facing the ECB and the county game.The umbrellas were in regular action on Finals Day but only 10 overs were lost•Getty Images”I think now the Major League Cricket tournament’s come in, that’s going to affect the Blast really badly,” he said. “When you’ve got an opportunity to go over to America for two weeks, compared to 14 games here with a stressful schedule where you’re travelling all over the place. There was one week where we played on a Tuesday in Durham, Thursday in Leeds and then Friday here in Birmingham – that’s three games in four days with a day’s travel in between.”It can really drain you, your body and mentally. I found that very tough this year and I think with the Major League being a lot more attractive, bigger crowds, I think there’s eight [six] overseas players per team, the excitement of a new tournament, it’s only two weeks long. Less of a burden on your schedule. I think it’s going a lot more attractive to some overseas players.”Maxwell also pointed out the absurdity of England running its entire 50-over competition in parallel with the Hundred, with the result that the some of the country’s best white-ball players have barely played any List A cricket (a format which, unlike the Hundred, is played internationally and features a World Cup every four years). “I would say it does the same thing as T20 cricket but it’s not relevant to the international schedule,” he concluded.That is almost a whole other conversation, none of which really helps the Blast. There are signs that the competition has bounced back a little post-Covid, with the ECB reporting a 15% increase in advanced tickets sales and overall attendance expected to be in the region of 800,000 – similar to 2022 but down on the pre-pandemic high of 920,000. Edgbaston can still throw a party like no other in T20 but the logistics are more challenging than ever.Rumours about the Hundred being wound up have persisted, despite public denials from the ECB management and a broadcasting deal that runs until 2028. And even then, as Maxwell alluded to, an 18-team system is hardly the optimum starting point for a competition to achieve cut-through in an ever-more crowded market.Somerset’s success this weekend, after an 18-year gap since winning the third edition of the Twenty20 Cup in 2005, was a story that will resonate with many beyond the heartlands of county cricket. But whether the Blast will look the same in 18 months – let alone 18 years – is at the crux of the challenge for those running the game.

From press conferences set against statues of bald eagles to construction workers burning the midnight oil, it’s all happening in Texas as cricket looks to light a spark

Peter Della Penna13-Jul-2023It’s 2am in Grand Prairie, Texas, a city of 200,000 people. While most of its residents are happily asleep, there’s a lot of noise coming from just off Exit 34 of US Interstate Highway 30. With the first ball of the inaugural season of Major League Cricket (MLC) less than 18 hours away, a few dozen construction workers, not to mention MLC tournament director Justin Geale and a small number of his staff, are burning the midnight oil to get everything at the venue finished.Until 2020, the stadium was the home of a minor league baseball team called the Texas Airhogs. But minor league baseball’s Covid-enforced cancellation of the 2020 season started a domino effect that resulted in the Airhogs folding, MLC taking over the lease of the stadium, and spending more than $20 million to renovate and repurpose the facility for cricket. That included stripping apart the original seating structures to allow the outfield to be redesigned for cricket before relaying the grass and installing new seats everywhere.The stadium might not look new to residents as they drive by, but on the inside, the smell of fresh paint is still pungent in the air. Cement is still drying from the newly installed section-pole markers. The sound of power-drills continues to whirr as cup-holders are attached to chairback seats being installed in high-end sections of the stadium.A few hundred feet away, numbered stickers are going on seats. The only thing breaking the monotony of working through each seat of the empty stadium is the sound of Zac Brown Band’s classic country anthem “Chicken Fried” blasting away on one of the construction crew’s speakerphones. According to the construction foreman, they’ll be on the job for another six hours, till well after the sun rises, to see the job to its completion.Burning the midnight oil: not much time and still quite a few finishing touches needed at the Grand Prairie stadium•Peter Della PennaIn temperatures well past 100F (38C) all week, local workers who have never seen a cricket match have been pouring thousands of hours of sweat – mostly in 15-hour shifts, ending purely for a union-mandated nine-hour break before coming back to repeat the 15-hour cycle all over again – to get everything ready to give the newly formed Americanfranchise cricket league its grand debut in Grand Prairie.”Growing cricket in America is not a piece of cake,” Sameer Mehta, co-founder of MLC, tells ESPNcricinfo in Dallas after the conclusion of the tournament’s trophy unveiling and captains’ press conference. “We’ve got a unique set of challenges out here. We’ve got cities that are lukewarm interested. We’ve got audiences that are not used to cricket happening locally so they focus on cricket that happens elsewhere, even though they love the sport. We’ve got a wonderful sport that people are confused about. Is it five days, is it one day, is it T20? And then we have no facilities.”So it’s taken us four years, and we’ve got somewhere. We’ve got one, I would say, pretty well-done facility in Grand Prairie. We’ve got a facility in Morrisville that the city was kind enough to build and that we are enhancing. We have four more in the pipeline. I feel very good with where we are right now. We are at the start of something. Four years back, it wasn’t the start. Four years back, we were building something. Now we are going to start executing.”Part of the reason that the Grand Prairie venue was targeted for securing the lease towards the end of 2020 is because Mehta believes the Dallas Metroplex local community will embrace local cricket. Communities like Plano and Irving have a heavy South Asian influence, seen not just in the number of South Asian shops, but also by the fact there more than 250,000 subscribers of Willow TV (MLC’s American TV broadcast partner) between the Dallas and Houston metro areas. It stands Grand Prairie in sharp contrast to the transient experience of Lauderhill, Florida, as a neutral site where 15,000 fans flooded in during the summer of 2019 to watch India play matches against West Indies while USA played in front of 19 people just weeks later on their home ODI debut against the likes of Papua New Guinea and Namibia.

“You walk into baseball, and facilities are unbelievable. You walk into a stadium and you go ‘wow’ and you go, ‘This could be cricket in America.’ I don’t know how many years it would take to get there, but you see cricket working like it. It’s got a different feel to it than anywhere else in the world.”Faf du Plessis, who will captain Texas Super Kings, on sport in the USA

There may be some credence to Mehta’s $20 million investment bet on Grand Prairie. Opening night at Grand Prairie Stadium has already been confirmed as a sellout at the 7,200 seat venue, albeit with between 1,000 to 2,000 seats given away for free to local MLC academy players and their families. Ticket sales have not been quite as robust in Texas for the remaining seven fixtures over the first week before the tournament shifts to Morrisville, North Carolina. But the amount of revenue-generating ticket sales has been healthy enough to be in the mid-four-figures, a volume of daily ticket sales that is unprecedented for a cricket event in America.”Five of those days are going to be sold out,” says Mehta, believing that there will be more buyers on gameday. “Three of those days are going to be at least half full, possibly sold out. Now that doesn’t mean that we won’t get some academy kids to come fill up some seats. But my view is, as far as the economics of the event go, we have crossed $2 million in ticket sales. We are fine and the product will fine.”There will be three days where we may have less than full attendance, but otherwise people have shown enough enthusiasm to come. Again, this is Texas in the middle of summer [with temperatures forecast to be 103F at game time], but we couldn’t get any other window to play because of the world calendar and 11 games in a small time frame and that too without a hugemarketing blitz. It’s been very organic and the majority of the games in Texas will be sold out, and Morrisville will be all sold out.”Even for a player who has seen it all in international cricket and the franchise scene, Texas Super Kings captain Faf du Plessis said he has been impressed since arriving in Dallas to lead the home-town franchise. Du Plessis was one of several players were hosted on field at a baseball game by the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros last week – most MLC teams used the Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston as a training base while Grand Prairie Stadium was going through its finishing touches – and it gave him a glimpse of where cricket in America might one day reach if MLC goes according to plan.A very-American wing of Perot Investments HQ was the scene of the pre-tournament captains’ press conference (In pic: Anurag Jain, co-owner of Texas Super Kings, and Aaron Finch, captain of San Francisco Unicorns)•Peter Della Penna”You come to a sport in America, it’s very big,” du Plessis said at the captains’ press conference, held at the Perot Investments HQ in Dallas, in a wing adorned with Texas-sized American flags and massive statues of American bald eagles (H Ross Perot Jr is a co-owner of the Texas Super Kings, and grandson of the late influential Texan billionaire best remembered for his attempted US presidential run against George Bush and Bill Clinton in 1992). “You walk into baseball, and facilities are unbelievable. You walk into a stadium and you go ‘wow’ and you look at it and you go, ‘This could be cricket in America.’ I don’t know how many years it would take to get there, but you look at and see cricket working like it. It’s got a different feel to it than anywhere else in the world.”Something I would like moving forward is to just rub shoulders with these people, whether that’s American football or baseball, just high level elite sportsmen coming together and sharing a dressing room… I think that to grow cricket, you need these other sportspeople to talk about cricket as well because we’re going to need all of the American people to jump on this and actually make this a success.”That means American players too. One of the things absent from the launch press conference was American flavour on the podium. Whereas PSL teams are mostly captained by Pakistan players, IPL teams by Indian players, CPL teams by West Indian players, American players have been mostly relegated to the background in year one.But one of the leading lights for USA on the franchise scene over the last five years has been fast bowler Ali Khan. After making his big splash in the summer of 2018 with Trinbago Knight Riders to propel them to a CPL title, he has turned into a fixture in various other Knight Riders-affiliated squads, including becoming the first American in an IPL squad with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2020. Being part of the Knight Riders lineup on opening night when they take on Texas Super Kings holds extra significance for Khan because he now lives in the state, having moved from Ohio in 2020, and married a Texan girl with Pakistani heritage this past May.

“Playing for Knight Riders, the franchise I’ve been with over the years, and playing in my hometown in Texas where I live now, that’s really exciting. Having your own family members and friends coming to watch, it’s really exciting. Having a facility like this in America, it’s a game-changer.”USA and Knight Riders fast bowler Ali Khan

“It’s a very special moment for cricket in America,” said Khan. “I think it’s going to be a really huge success. A lot of people have been waiting for this to happen over the years. So finally, we have something coming into our own country. I’ve been playing franchise cricket around the world, but having a league in our own backyard, it’s really good and I’m really excited to see it. Ican’t wait to get it started.”Playing for Knight Riders, the franchise I’ve been with over the years, and playing in my hometown in Texas where I live now, that’s really exciting. Having your own family members and friends coming to watch, it’s really exciting. Having a facility like this in America, it’s a game-changer. It can only get better from here.”

He’s been a valuable asset in the ODI side but a lacklustre start to the World Cup has compounded England’s problems

Matt Roller16-Oct-20231:13

How did England’s bowling unit perform against Afghanistan?

There is not much difference between hard-earned trust and blind faith. As England travel to Mumbai on Monday and pick the bones out of their shock 69-run defeat to Afghanistan, they must work out which of the two they are placing in Chris Woakes.Woakes has led England’s ODI attack for eight years and has been among their most valuable players in that time. At his best, he takes wickets with the new ball before keeping things tight with the old one. He combines stability and power with the bat from No. 8, and he makes difficult chances look straightforward in the outfield.But Woakes has not been at his best in England’s first three matches at this World Cup – far from it. In all three, he has wasted one of the two new balls by feeding half-volleys to opposition openers in Devon Conway, Litton Das and, on Sunday afternoon, Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Across his three new-ball spells, his combined figures read 11-0-95-1.His opening burst against Afghanistan was a shocker from which England never fully recovered. Woakes started the day by spraying the very first ball down the leg side, and Jos Buttler’s fumble meant Afghanistan were 5 for 0 before they had faced a legitimate delivery. “I missed one: it set the tone for the first 10 overs,” Buttler said after the game.Related

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Woakes struggled again to locate a good line and length, floundering when Gurbaz put him under pressure. With a short leg-side boundary to defend, he was swung over midwicket for an early six and responded by overcorrecting, hanging the ball outside off and being driven for consecutive fours.He was unfortunate at times: his figures would have looked better with better support in the field, with Jonny Bairstow misjudging a ball at point on top of Buttler’s early error. Yet this was the third consecutive match in which the leader of England’s attack had looked impotent with the new ball.Chris Woakes has managed just two wickets in three games so far at the World Cup•Getty ImagesIt has not been hard to diagnose the problem. Far too often, Woakes has strayed from the line and length that makes his seam movement so effective. Primarily, this has been through overpitching: according to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, he has bowled 13 ‘full’ balls in the first powerplay which have cost 32 runs.Perhaps the most telling moment came in the 25th over of Afghanistan’s innings. After conceding 106 for 0 in the first 14 overs, England’s spinners – Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone – dragged things back after drinks. Across the subsequent 10 overs, Afghanistan managed 33 for 3, and Buttler sensed an opportunity to reintroduce Woakes.But, Azmatullah Omarzai, a 23-year-old allrounder batting in the top five for only the third time in his ODI career, saw things differently. The second ball of Woakes’ second spell was an attempted cutter which disappeared over the leg side for six. Two balls later, when Woakes went full and wide outside off stump, Omarzai opened the face to pick up four more through point.And that was that. Woakes was out of the attack six balls after his return and was deemed unusable for the rest of the innings. He finished with figures of 0 for 41 from his four overs. The last time he bowled so few in a full-length ODI innings was six years ago, when he strained his side in his second over.Things haven’t gone to plan for the England fast bowlers in India•Getty ImagesWoakes’ reputation as an unhappy traveller is justified by his Test record; less so in ODIs. His record overseas (96 wickets at 32.33) is not much worse than at home (69 at 27.91) and there will be surfaces in this tournament which suit him much more than Delhi did – not least the Wankhede, where England vs South Africa is the first game the stadium will host in this tournament on Saturday.Buttler was asked about Woakes in several media interactions after the game and made clear that he will continue to be backed. “He’s been a high-class leader of our attack for a long period of time,” he told the . “I always maintain huge amount of faith in him.” On , he said: “He’s been such a brilliant bowler for a very long period of time and is a class guy, so you keep backing that.”A class guy? Few would argue with the sentiment, but the comment jarred: how was it relevant to his form, or his likely retention in England’s side to play South Africa on Saturday night? Buttler called him “a class bowler” in another interview; perhaps this was a slip of the tongue, and he should be given the benefit of the doubt.Woakes was hardly the only England bowler to struggle in Delhi. Sam Curran bowled his worst ODI spell, leaking 46 runs in four wicketless overs – including 18 off the 46th, as Mujeeb Ur Rahman swung from the hip – and, like Woakes, is yet to contribute with the bat in this tournament. There is every chance David Willey will replace him against South Africa.Yet Woakes’ status as the leader of England’s attack – and Buttler’s unequivocal backing – means he is the bowler who finds himself under real pressure. He has started tournaments slowly before: just look at the 2019 ODI World Cup, when he took 6 for 57 across the semi-final and final. Unless he shows a similar improvement this time, England’s bid for back-to-back World Cups will be over before it has started.

He is going up the ranks in the Tamil Nadu side with heaps of wickets

Deivarayan Muthu11-Feb-2024No R Ashwin? No Washington Sundar? No problem for Tamil Nadu. They still have immense spin depth, with R Sai Kishore leading the line. There was no room for Manimaran Siddharth in Tamil Nadu’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy squad, even though he was snapped up by Lucknow Super Giants for INR 2.4 crore after a bidding war with Royal Challengers Bangalore. Then there is Ajith Ram, who is more of an old-school left-arm fingerspinner who relishes bowling long spells.Ajith isn’t as tall as Sai Kishore but can create sharp angles from wide of the crease and is particularly accurate with his lengths. On Sunday, he created such a sharp angle from left-arm around that he burst through Mayank Agarwal’s defences and knocked out his leg stump for 11 in Karnataka’s second innings at Chepauk. Ajith wheeled away for almost 20 overs, returning 5 for 61 as Karnataka folded for 139, leaving Tamil Nadu a target of 355. This, after Ajith had taken 4 for 75 in nearly 30 overs in the first innings.”So, my kind of bowling style is to bowl long spells,” Ajith had said on Saturday. “So, when I have to bowl long [spells] I have to give confidence to the captain that I can bowl tight enough and not leak runs. At the same time, I’m a bowler who can support the bowler at the other end. On a particular day, if both the bowlers bowl well, anyone can get wickets. That has been my pattern so far.Related

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“I definitely rely more on bowling the stump line. So that anything that happens off the wicket will be beneficial for me. If the batsman misses, I will get him lbw, or if it turns, there’s a good chance for me to get him at slips or the keeper.”Ajith had been on the fringes of the Tamil Nadu Ranji side for a while before he established himself as their second spinner behind Sai Kishore in the 2022-23 season, when he picked up 19 wickets in four games at an average of 20.36. He has followed it up with 27 wickets in five games at just 13.03 this season.”I’ve always dreamt of playing for the Tamil Nadu [senior team] and it’s been my goal for a long time,” Ajith said. “Right from playing Under-19s and Under-23s and everything…so I was always looking forward to getting better every day. Luckily I got the chance last season after doing well for three-four years in Under-19 and Under-23, and it has been going well for me.”Ajith could have cut short Devdutt Padikkal’s first innings at 77 on the opening day had M Mohammed not dropped a catch at long-on. Padikkal went on to finish on 151 and almost batted Tamil Nadu out of the game. But at one point, it seemed like Ajith would never be bowling to top batters like Padikkal. So, when he was not on Tamil Nadu’s radar, he enrolled himself into an MBA course just to get some game-time by playing university cricket.”That [The MBA degree] is just for playing university games and something like that,” Ajith said. “It was not from my side to study and pursue MBA; it was just to get some extra games when I’m not playing in the Ranji Trophy. During the time, we will have our inter-college matches and that will be a good opportunity for me.”Ajith believes that his stints at university cricket have been useful for Ranji Trophy. “I personally take it as good match practice because all good cricketers play for the colleges and universities,” he said. “So, definitely it’s good match practice – like seeing them play there and coming here… I’ve played against three-four Karnataka guys in university games. So, it’s a good experience to learn more.”

He had to wait his turn a long time, almost gave up on cricket, then came the SA20… Now, at the T20 World Cup, he’s holding his nerve to keep South Africa winning

Firdose Moonda18-Jun-2024In the early hours of a cold, dark morning in the Klein Karoo valley where the town of Oudtshoorn is situated, one family stayed up on Saturday night while everyone else hunkered down for the winter: the Baartmans.They were awake from 1.30am, to watch South Africa’s match against Nepal, and did not drop their gazes until just after 4.30, when one of their own, Ottneil, defended seven runs off the last over to seal a tense win. And then, they immediately reached out to him, to let him know they had seen every ball, even at the expense of sleep, and wanted to celebrate with him.”When we arrived back at the hotel there were quite a few messages from them, saying they’re so proud of me and happy for me. I asked them, ‘Don’t you people sleep? It’s 3am (sic) where you are,” Baartman said from Antigua, where South Africa will play their first Super Eight fixture against USA. “They said, ‘No. It’s (great) to support you.’ And you need that support system, especially when things don’t go according to plan.”Related

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Leaving it to the last ball to beat Nepal, for example, was definitely not in South Africa’s plan, even though they were already through to the next round by then. Neither was doing the same thing the game before, against Bangladesh, who have tripped them up in World Cups before. It was also not their plan to stumble through a chase of 104 against Netherlands, and almost go down to them for a third successive tournament. On all three occasions, Baartman played a key role in getting them back on track.It was his 4 for 11 that kept the Dutch to 103 for 9 and included wickets with the new and old ball. It was the seven runs he gave away in the 19th over of Bangladesh’s innings – when they needed 18 off the last two overs – that left Keshav Maharaj with enough for the last over. And it was his use of the wide yorker and the short ball in the last over against Nepal that proved too difficult for Gulsan Jha to get away and ensured South Africa swept the group and remain unbeaten.And all that from someone on his first international assignment and his first overseas trip. Just how does he do it?”I spoke to my coaches way back, when I was in the academy and still in high school and, for me, it’s just to stay calm and know I have been in this situation before. That’s the most important thing,” Baartman said. “Obviously, there’s the pressure from the crowd. But if you execute, there is nothing more you can do. Just don’t show fear. Don’t show that the [other] man is on top of you. That’s the small margins in the game.”

“If you execute, there is nothing more you can do. Just don’t show fear. Don’t show that the [other] man is on top of you.”Baartman on how he handles the pressure situation

If that sounds like Baartman is holding his tactical cards close to his chest, it’s not. His skill and variations have been on display for all to see and it’s clear that his mindset has been honed for tough situations, on and off the field. Speak to those close to Baartman and they will tell a story of struggle; of having played cricket in a place – South Western Districts – he has previously said “nobody really looks at” because all the big sport in the Western Cape happens in Cape Town and Paarl; of considering a career in the South African National Defence Force because cricket did not seem like a viable option. They will tell the sacrifice of commuting to play professionally in Durban, on the opposite side of the country, rather than uproot his young family from their home, and of waiting until after he had turned 30 – when sportspeople are generally considered to be closer to the end of their careers than the beginning – to finally get noticed.Baartman is now going to be remembered as the SA20’s first international success story. If not for that competition, where he was the leading wicket-taker until the final where he was overtaken by team-mate Marco Jansen, Baartman would not have had a high-profile opportunity to show what he could do, and it was during that competition that his bowling coach Dale Steyn told him a call-up could come. “He told me doors are opening for you now, things are happening,” Baartman remembered. “So just stay the person you are. Don’t change for anything in the world.”Steyn is part of the commentary team at the T20 World Cup, has shared a few private moments of camaraderie with Baartman, and is the closest thing to a relative Baartman has on the trip. Unlike many (but not all) of his team-mates, none of Baartman’s parents, his wife, or children – he has a seven-year-old and a three-month-old – have travelled to the World Cup. Instead, they’re cheering him on from over 10,000 kilometres away and living the journey through watching his success. Has it been everything he dreamt of?That and more. “It’s quite amazing. If you represent your country in any given format, it’s amazing. But in a World Cup, it’s just magnificent,” Baartman said. “I’ve been enjoying this journey so far and I can’t wait to do it more often.”

We love using real-life metrics to understand our beloved game better

Alan Gardner16-Sep-2024How high is Josh Hull’s ceiling? These are the sort of questions that keep the Light Roller up at night. And not just ones related to home improvement. Is Sam Billings an air-fryer convert? Does Ravi Bopara own a ride-on lawn mower? Never mind averages and strike rates, this is the good stuff.But anyway – just how high is Hull’s ceiling? It has been the talk of English cricket since Hull, a 6ft 7in left-arm seamer from Leicestershire, was picked for a surprise Test debut a couple of weeks ago. If he’s that tall, you’re probably thinking, then he a high ceiling. Quite likely a “massive” one, as his captain, Ollie Pope, put it in the build-up to his first England appearance.Does it have any nice cornicing, though? And what about the paintwork? Presumably an ornate light fitting is out of the question, with headspace at such a premium.Related

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You might be wondering what this has to do with Hull’s potential as a Test cricketer – let’s just have a look at his numbers and decide whether he’s any good. But this isn’t how the game works in England anymore, not under Brendon McCullum’s Holistic Cricket Wellbeing Programme (Golf Module optional). Selection is now about attributes and moments. Zak Crawley is our guy to open – it, brother! Shoaib Bashir is a tall spinner with huge hands – get him on a plane to India!Now we have Hull, who had taken two wickets at 182.5 for his county this season, but has size 15 feet and a massive ceiling. And to be fair to Rob Key, McCullum and Co, this Jedi mind-trick stuff seems to be working out: Hull now averages 30.33 in Test cricket, compared to 84.54 in the County Championship.So what’s next? It turns out that, despite his enormous ceiling (as previously mentioned), Hull’s release point is slightly lower than Stuart Broad’s was – somewhere around the level you would hang a nice portrait in your hallway. England do like their raw data, so this will have doubtless been spotted. A plan may already be in place, involving yoga and visualisation techniques. Or maybe some time in the nets. You know, whatever works.And then it’s onwards and upwards, hopefully accompanied by statistics that go through the roof in the right way. Because only in the fullness of time will we come to know whether Josh Hull has the fixtures and fittings to accompany his truly stratospheric ceiling.Won’t even try to think up a joke about Pakistan here, because the PCB will always outdo us•AFP/Getty Images

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Of course, despite all the attributes and moments, not to mention scintillating entertainment for Joe Public when Pope opted to bowl spin for a bit when the light was bad, England lost the Oval Test to Sri Lanka. Afterwards, Joe Root explained the team’s failure in the following terms: “Coldplay can’t be No. 1 every week.” Which seems to betray a fundamental misunderstanding of how the music industry works, as well as provide an interesting insight into Root’s musical tastes (are such bedwetters even allowed on the Baz boombox?) And, as far as analogies go, it also fails to explain why England have spent exactly zero weeks at No. 1 (on either the ICC rankings or the World Test Championship table) since McCullum took control of the playlist two years ago.

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Elsewhere on the charts, meanwhile, Pakistan are still playing the old hits: dysfunction, hubris and farce. Barely a year on from Mickey Arthur minting “The Pakistan Way”, his replacement, Jason Gillespie, is discovering that the only way is down, as a 2-0 home defeat to Bangladesh extended their losing streak under Shan Masood’s captaincy to five Tests in a row. Afterwards, Masood attempted to put his team’s struggles into a context everyone can understand. “You can’t prepare for science and then sit a maths exam,” he said. “If you’re being tested for maths, you study maths. To play red-ball cricket, you must play red-ball cricket.” The PCB’s response, meanwhile, has been to come up with an entirely new curriculum in the form of the Champions Cup – proving themselves once again to be top of the class in shambling ineptitude.

Bangladesh are a good opposition for the ever-improving wristspinner to play against, especially in Kanpur

Alagappan Muthu26-Sep-20241:22

Should Kuldeep Yadav be playing more Tests?

A Player-of-the-Match award usually comes with a trophy, some money and maybe a bit of a headache about what to do with the giant novelty cheque. They never fit in the luggage to carry back home.Kuldeep Yadav has been given this honour twice in his Test career so far. And each time, he couldn’t find a place in the India XI for the next game. Since when did they start smuggling pink slips into these things?In Chattogram 2022, which was his first Test in 22 months, Kuldeep ran through Bangladesh’s middle order in the first innings to set up a comfortable victory for India. He finished with 8 for 113 in that game but in the next one, in Mirpur, a week later, his place was taken by Jaydev Unadkat.”Ideally, like in IPL, if Test cricket also had the Impact Player rule, I would have definitely loved to bring in Kuldeep in the second innings,” stand-in captain KL Rahul said at the time.Related

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In Dharamsala 2024, he was the difference India were looking for against an England side who, when in doubt, often tried to whack it out. Kuldeep took a five-for in R Ashwin’s 100th Test match. It almost seemed like a sign. For years, he had been that kid who kept hearing he wasn’t tall enough to go on this ride – because Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja kept raising that bar sky high – but now, he was up there with them. Ashwin even insisted that he take the match ball.Then came Chennai, a pitch made for fast bowling and once again Kuldeep had to make way. It was a gross error in foresight on his part. He should’ve known all those years ago, when he switched from fast bowling to wristspin, that the 2024 home season would begin in conditions borrowed from Headingley or something.Now India are in Kanpur, his home ground. A black soil pitch awaits, which usually tends to be batting friendly and eventually starts to take a bit of turn. Kuldeep makes a lot of sense in these conditions, because as a wristspinner he is able to turn the ball both ways and keep the batter guessing. That is part of the reason why Ravi Shastri, when he was India coach, proclaimed that they had found a new No. 1 overseas spinner after Kuldeep took a five-for in Sydney. (Guess what happened when India announced their playing XI in the next match in North Sound?)Kuldeep Yadav last played a Test in Dharamsala in March this year•Getty ImagesThere are two ways to deal with a less-than-ideal pitch as a bowler. One, be as disciplined as possible. Deny the opposition easy runs. And if you manage to do that long enough, you might just be able to buy a mistake. The other is what Kuldeep specialises in, his wristspin is capable of rising above the need for any help from the pitch. It is perhaps this belief that made India try him out at Lord’s in 2018, but that backfired. He was slow through the air back then and in Test cricket, where there was no need for the batter to manufacture runs, England were able to camp on the back foot and punish him with ease.Kuldeep has worn these setbacks well, in that he has never given up the one thing that makes him special, giving the batter precious little indication about which way his balls will turn. At a point, when he was being clapped at for being too slow through the air, he clapped back saying nobody was telling him how to be quicker without compromising on his other skills. Even when he was left out, and called out, he was clear in his mind that he wouldn’t change anything unless he was sure it would add to the bowler he already was.That belief can also be seen in how he rarely shrinks when a batter tries to take the attack to him; he still tosses it up. Like when he bowled to Ben Duckett in Dharamsala and had him caught off the leading edge while sweeping. There was no change in length; no thought of flattening it. He just shifted his line wider and made it riskier for the batter to play the shot with which he seemed to want to build his innings.Bangladesh are a good opposition for Kuldeep to play against. They do not have any real history of wristspin bowlers, let alone facing them on a regular basis. Kanpur is a good place for Kuldeep to play in. He’s never had the opportunity to represent India here in the past. Only time will tell though if India are also thinking this way because they have to consider a lot more than just the romance of a hometown boy getting his day in the sun.

England allrounder thriving after being picked to produce moments of brilliance

Cameron Ponsonby15-Nov-2024In the seminal cult classic , characters Joey and Chandler buy a pet duck for their flat. They don’t really know what they want to do with said duck, or how exactly they’re going to look after it, but they know they like it.Jamie Overton is England’s pet duck. They have no idea what they want from him, or how they’re going to take care of him, but they like him. And for now that’s enough.Overton is an exceptionally modern cricketer. A career-long bowling allrounder with a hulking 6ft 5in frame, a series of stress fractures (and move to Surrey) has seen the balance of his worth shift.Related

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For the past five seasons in the T20 Blast, his batting strike rate has never dipped below 167. In 2020 and 2022, it was above 180. During last season’s Hundred, he made 83 not out off 30 balls against a bowling attack containing England team-mates Reece Topley, Adil Rashid and Brydon Carse.Mixed in with an ability to bowl heavy-length seamers and catch flies, he has become an increasingly attractive option on the franchise market.”Last year at the Adelaide Strikers, I spoke to one of the analysts halfway through the tournament and he was like, ‘yeah, we didn’t really pick you for your bowling’,” he says.”I’m just enjoying the ride really. If you said to me five years ago I’d be playing for England just as a batter, I’d have been like yeah, whatever.”Until a month ago, Jamie Overton had only ever played once for England (you’re thinking of his brother, Craig): a Test in 2022 against New Zealand where he made 97 with the bat from No. 8 in one of the early Bazball miracles. But stress fractures in 2023 and 2024 hit pause on a promising start to his international career.Overton’s stress fractures didn’t require surgery, but did require a change in lifestyle. In an attempt to “get everything right” and lessen the load going through his back when bowling, he has lost 10kg through a combination of cycling and moving on to prepped meals.”I’ve always eaten pretty well, but the quantity was always a bit too much,” he said to warm nods of agreement from all round the world.Counterintuitively though, his time away from bowling saw his stock rise as he was able to further prove his worth with the bat. Overton’s worth with the ball was known, but with the bat it wasn’t – and over the past two seasons, he has played as a specialist batter for Surrey in T20 cricket.

“It gives you massive confidence. I was chatting to him before the series, and he was just like, ‘we back you’. Just go out and do what you do”Jamie Overton on Rob Key’s support

Such was Overton’s jump in value that before the second of his stress fractures earlier this year, he was set to be a bolter for the T20 World Cup squad, with Rob Key liking what he saw.”It gives you massive confidence,” Overton said of Key’s support. “I was chatting to him before the series, and he was just like, ‘we back you’. Just go out and do what you do.”Such is England’s keenness on Overton, he debuted in ODI cricket at No. 8 and didn’t bowl. In part, his absence with the ball on that occasion was due to England’s meagre total of 209, but in the second T20 played at Barbados, which was just one day after the first, Overton was picked as a specialist No. 8 with no intention to bowl him.”It felt a little bit like I shouldn’t be there,” Overton said of his sometimes unique space in the team. “But then I think they’re looking at the big picture. They see me bowling and batting at eight. So it’s trying to get me in that role.”During the Hundred last year, Overton’s ability to clear the ropes meant his team-mates started jokingly referring to him as Dre Russ. Overton isn’t sure who started that one, but after his dipping slower ball to dismiss Romario Shepherd in the third T20I, his England team-mates have started referring to him as another West Indian legend: DJ Bravo.”They’re some of the best T20 players in the world,” Overton says of the comparisons. “So if you can do anything that’s near their ability, then I’m over the moon.”The ball that got Shepherd out was the result of time spent with Surrey coach Neil Killeen, who Overton had been working with on bowling several different offcutters and in particular trying to bowl them slower. By his own admission, he isn’t able to bowl a legcutter, so the goal is to have as many different styles of offcutter in his armoury to make up for it.In the space of a month, Overton has leapfrogged from outside the international circle, to a wildcard, joker selection where England think they have something special.T20s are often won by moments of individual brilliance. A flurry of wickets or sixes, or an amazing catch at slip in the powerplay or long-on at the death. Overton ticks all those boxes. Ultimately, no-one knows how the Overton adventure will end, but they do know it’ll be fun to watch along the way.

Ash Gardner’s clean hits, Sneh Rana’s comeback, Ellyse Perry’s top form, and more highlights from the league phase of WPL 2025

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Mar-2025A moment that made you go ‘wow’Srinidhi Ramanujam: The first match of WPL 2025. RCB’s Richa Ghosh vs Giants’ Ashleigh Gardner. It was the 16th over of the chase when Ghosh slammed 4, 6, 4, 4, 4 and eventually helped RCB chase down 202 with her unbeaten 64 off 27.Hemant Brar: Gujarat Giants’ Kashvee Gautam stepping out to Mumbai Indians’ Shabnim Ismail, hitting her for a six, and celebrating with multiple fist pumps. An uncapped Indian taking on the fastest bowler in women’s cricket with such chutzpah was a sight.Related

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Sruthi Ravindranath: Sneh Rana’s six-ball cameo from No. 10 that almost won RCB their must-win match against UP Warriorz. She went 4, 6, 6, 4, 6 and out in the 19th over of the 226-run chase, giving her team a glimmer of hope. That one innings and her bowling throughout the season would make one wonder why she is not even in the fray for T20I selection.Shashank Kishore: Every time Smriti Mandhana went out for the toss at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Mandhana often had to wait for the cheers to subside before speaking into the mic. It was another reiteration of how far women’s cricket has come: from playing in front of empty stadiums to seeing full houses, from students and volunteers being driven into grounds by force to it being a ticketed event.Vishal Dikshit: Medium-pacers in women’s cricket often hover around the 105-110kph mark. This WPL threw up a spinner who breached 100kph. When Hayley Matthews resorted to bowling bouncers at the end of the league stage, one of them hit Phoebe Litchfield’s helmet and another fetched her a wicket. When she saw RCB’s S Meghana was going after her offbreaks, Matthews sent down a bumper at 102.8kph, which rose on the batter and induced a top edge.S Sudarshanan: For long, Gardner has thwarted Indians at the international stage, and it was refreshing to see Ghosh take her down in the season opener. Ghosh hit Gardner for a sequence of 4, 6, 4, 4, 4 to take 23 off the 16th over and turn the match decisively in RCB’s favour. The power shots were interspersed with some deft touches, evidence that Ghosh is growing as a finisher.Kashvee Gautam launches Shabnim Ismail for a six•BCCIAshish Pant: Rana’s six-ball 26 against Warriorz. It was some of the cleanest hitting you would ever see in any form of cricket. You wouldn’t generally associate Rana with the big hits, and that they came against Deepti Sharma, who has a T20 career economy rate of under seven an over, made the knock even more special.One player you couldn’t take your eyes offVishal Dikshit: Without doubt, it was Gardner. She came into the season with runs in the Women’s Ashes, but in the WPL she had a new responsibility of leading Giants, who had suffered two forgettable seasons. That pressure didn’t show at all as she started the league with two blistering knocks, against RCB and Warriorz, that featured some breathtaking sixes.Ashish Pant: Chinelle Henry. Every time she walked out to bat, it felt like she owned the stage, even when she did not score as many runs. Ditto with the ball. Her 23-ball 62 against Delhi Capitals was special.S Sudarshanan: Gautam. There aren’t many Indian fast bowlers who can move the ball at speed. Gautam, who missed last season due to injury, had worked on becoming stronger and increasing her pace. It was so good to see her attack the stumps, and the nip-backer to clean bowl Meg Lanning was one of my favourite moments of the season. With Pooja Vastrakar having a long injury layoff in a home World Cup year, Gautam’s success as a seam-bowling allrounder is a good sign for India.Shashank Kishore: Gautam. Raw pace, late swing. What a cocktail. Add to it her rocket throws from the deep and big sixes in the middle order, she has all the makings of being India’s next all-round wonder.Hemant Brar: Ellyse Perry, who made four fifties and an unbeaten 49 for RCB in eight innings. In the first two WPL seasons, Perry’s strike rate was 123.41 and 125.72. This time, she not only lifted it to 148.80 but also scored more runs (372) than the previous two seasons. Sruthi Ravindranath: Bharti Fulmali, Giants’ finisher. She showed glimpses of what she is capable of with her 40 off 29 against Capitals, but it was her 61 off just 25 balls against Mumbai that made heads turn. She smote eight fours and four sixes in that game, striking the ball with brute force and targeting the square boundaries.Srinidhi Ramanujam: Perry, with the bat and ball and on the field.Chinelle Henry batted like a boss•BCCIThe biggest surprise from the league phaseSrinidhi Ramanujam: Henry’s 18-ball fifty against Capitals at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.Hemant Brar: Henry smashing 163 runs – the joint-most for UP Warriorz – at a strike rate of 196.38. Her 15 sixes are the third-most in the league stage. All this is in complete contrast to her T20I record: a strike rate of 91.13 and eight sixes in 53 innings.Vishal Dikshit: Rana, 31, was not in contention for India’s white-ball squads throughout 2024 and was released by Giants recently. But she made a WPL comeback as a replacement player for RCB and grabbed headlines for performing with both bat and ball. She bowled in the powerplay, started with a three-for against Warriorz, and hit an incredible 26 off six in the reverse fixture, before ending the tournament with a Player-of-the-Match spell of 3 for 26.Ashish Pant: Gautam. Everyone knew she was good, and that is why Giants splurged INR 2 crore on her in the 2024 auction and retained her despite her not playing last season. But the way she has made her presence felt against some top-tier names is incredible.S Sudarshanan: Sophie Ecclestone’s batting helping Warriorz take their game against RCB into a Super Over. That she can bat is no secret, but she came into the season on the back of a lean Women’s Ashes and hadn’t really set the WPL stage alight with her batting till then.Sruthi Ravindranath: That toss had such a big say. Fifteen out of the 20 matches were won by teams chasing.Shashank Kishore: Arundhati Reddy going off the boil massively, after bowling one of the best spells by an Indian fast bowler in a women’s ODI in Australia earlier this year. Perhaps it’s a reflection of her lack of confidence currently, having been dropped – for reasons unknown – from the national team.Shabnim Ismail will have her tail up against Lanning if they meet in the final•WPLA match-up you can’t wait for in the playoffsSrinidhi Ramanujam: Gautam vs Harmanpreet Kaur in the eliminator. Among the uncapped players this WPL, Gautam has been the one to watch.Sruthi Ravindranath: Nat Sciver-Brunt vs Gardner in the eliminator. Two of the best allrounders in the game, they have been crucial in their respective teams’ successes this season. While Sciver-Brunt got the better of Gardner in their first encounter of the season, Gardner dismissed Sciver-Brunt in the reverse fixture.S Sudarshanan: Capitals vs Mumbai in the final, a repeat of 2023, when MI won. DC won both their games against MI in the league stage. If they meet again in the final, I’d be looking forward to the Ismail vs Shafali Verma battle.Vishal Dikshit: If MI reach the final, I can’t wait for the fiery Ismail to steam into Lanning. In the first Mumbai vs Capitals match this season, Ismail made Lanning look clueless against swing bowling. Ismail beat Lanning six times in 12 balls and finally knocked over her off stump.Hemant Brar: Capitals vs Destiny. Despite topping the league stage in each of the first two seasons, Capitals are yet to win a title. They have once again secured a direct spot in the final. Will they be third time lucky?Shashank Kishore: Ismail vs Lanning. One of the fastest bowlers up against one of the best players square of the wicket on the off side. It’s a battle we miss at the international level; cherish it right here, right now.

England’s captain said he had a feeling on an auspicious date, and so it transpired

Vithushan Ehantharajah14-Jul-20250:55

Manjrekar: Stokes always makes things happen

Ben Stokes had a hunch when he woke up on Monday morning.On the sixth anniversary of England’s 2019 ODI World Cup win, on the final day at Lord’s, with six wickets to get before India achieved the remaining 135 to win this third Test, Stokes felt there was only one man who should start the day with the ball.It was not from the end from which Jofra Archer bowled that famous Super Over against New Zealand. Stokes still had two deliveries left after taking out nightwatcher Akash Deep with what became his final ball on Sunday. But the Pavilion End, from where Archer, on Thursday, had taken his first Test wicket since February 24, 2021, would do just fine. Especially when fate was calling.Related

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So it proved. A six-over spell produced a pearler to send Rishabh Pant’s off stump for a walk, then a stunning reflex catch – Archer sprawling to his right in his follow-through – did for Washington Sundar. Since 2006, when such records started being kept, Archer’s was the sixth fastest day-five spell recorded.”It felt right in my tummy that Jofra was going to do something this morning to break the game open,” Stokes said. “Gut feel doesn’t always work, but those two wickets he got this morning swung the game massively in our favour.”Undoubtedly, it was Stokes’ dismissal of KL Rahul, sandwiched by Archer’s strikes, that was top of the podium. England’s three wickets in the first seven overs of play had put them out in front. And just when it looked as though India were creeping back into the picture with their ninth-wicket stand, Stokes returned to prise out Jasprit Bumrah, even if the No. 10’s shot selection was curious given the situation.England’s heroes in that 2019 final – both the man who dragged them to that Super Over, and the one who held his nerve to defend 15 therein – were back at it in 2025. Cricket is a sport that, more often than not, baits romance rather than serves it up. However, for Stokes to bowl as much as he did, and for Archer to be back bowling in a Test match at all, provided a moment – as was the case six years ago – that English cricket will not be able to take for granted.Then and now: Six years on from the 2019 World Cup final, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer were centre stage at Lord’s•Getty Images

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Archer was at midwicket when the final ball of the match trickled agonisingly onto Mohammed Siraj’s leg stump. As Shoaib Bashir charged off towards the Grandstand – where Archer himself had been enveloped by Bashir after removing Jaiswal four days earlier – Archer fell to the floor.His resting place was more or less the same patch of grass onto which he had sprinted and dived after Jos Buttler had run out Martin Guptill from Jason Roy’s throw. But the significance of that moment is probably a little overblown, considering Archer could not recall why July 14 was special when Stokes broached it with him”You know what day today is, don’t you?” Stokes had asked before the start of play, looking to stir the 30-year-old. It turns out, Archer thought this was the anniversary of India’s two-wicket win over England at Lord’s in 2002’s NatWest series final. “You know that highlight package of India knocking off 300-odd back in the day with Ganguly?” Stokes explained to the media, referencing the then-India captain windmilling his shirt over his head on the away balcony. “He thought that was a World Cup final. He thought that was six years ago today.”The confusion was broadly understandable. That fixture actually took place on July 13, and highlights of that 325-plays-326 slobberknocker were on the television screens on Monday morning when England arrived at the ground. When Stokes informed Archer he meant the World Cup “we won”, Archer responded with, “oh, that one”.Ben Stokes at the centre surrounded by the rest of England•Getty Images

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Archer will have known which one, of course, and confusing it with a match that took place 23 years ago suggests 2019’s final feels more recent than it actually is.The memories from that summer have kept Archer going, and kept England so invested – literally – in getting him back to this point. He had followed his World Cup haul of 20 dismissals at 23.05 (the third most in the tournament) with 22 more at 20.27 in the men’s Ashes, all of them underpinned by express pace. Few players have had such a sweet first taste of international cricket, and fewer still have nailed their own involvement so spectacularly.Archer’s problems have come ever since. From that summer into this one, his nine Test caps brought just 20 further wickets at 42. When people doubted that Archer could return as the bowler he had been back in 2019, they had their reasons.During this period, England did overbowl him, most notably on a flat pitch in Mount Maunganui, where he sent down 42 in a single innings. The link between his elbow and lower-back stress fractures was easy to make.Even on his thrilling Test debut at Lord’s against Australia, England were already playing recklessly with their new toy, as he sent down 44 overs in the match. And though he did get into a 40th on this comeback, the breakdown of his work suggests lessons have been learned.In 2019, there was an eight- and seven-over spell, along with six other spells at least four. This time, there were only six spells of four or more across the four days England spent in the field, with his two longest at five when opening the first innings, and six on this final morning.Much of that is down to the fact Stokes shouldered the longest burdens. Going into stumps on day four with 4.4 overs, he resumed in the morning for 9.2 more, and then later in the day for 10.While Archer did the post-match media rounds, looking fresh and beaming from ear to ear, an exhausted Stokes, carrying his bowling boots in one hand, blood seeping through the sock on his left foot, began his session for the written media with a simple request: “Any chance you can just do ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions?”2:32

Stokes: I was going to decide when I stop bowling

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The connection between Stokes and Archer truly began in 2019, bound by that World Cup win.Stokes was the first to go over to Archer in the moment of victory, putting his arms around him during those celebrations on the outfield. They have gone on to become good friends, gaming together, even becoming business partners. And as Test captain, with Archer trending towards full fitness throughout Stokes’ tenure, the 34-year-old has been his biggest cheerleader and defender during various setbacks.Despite all the affection, Stokes did lose his cool with Archer on Sunday evening.During Archer’s third over, after Karun Nair had hit him for a second boundary through the covers in four deliveries, he gestured for a man to be placed out as insurance. Stokes refused.At the start of the 16th over, Rahul’s bunt out to deep square-leg was not immediately attacked, resulting in Stokes throwing his arms out at Archer, who was stationed back on the leg-side boundary. As the players walked off after Stokes had taken out Akash Deep’s off stump, Sky cameras caught Archer trying to speak to Stokes, who gave him short shrift.This is not Archer’s first Test in which Stokes has been captain, but it is his first since his regime officially began in 2022. Though Archer has been with the team since the second Test, this was the first time he was really “in it”. It is not a total surprise he is not up to speed with some of the non-negotiables.One insistence he seemed to fall foul of was asking for negative field settings – Stokes believes every fielder should be affecting a dismissal, something he reiterates by telling his bowlers he simply does not care about their economy rates. The other “must” is giving your all in fielding. No dawdling or escorting. A great example was Bashir, an over before he took the final wicket. Nursing a broken pinkie on his left hand that has ruled him out for the rest of the series, Bashir slid along the point boundary to intercept the ball inside the rope – scooping it with his right hand, then cradling it in the pit of his right elbow.Archer, by Monday, had clearly got the memo, diving about in the field, and letting his captain set whatever field he demanded. In return, he maintained his express pace throughout, including when he struck Siraj on the shoulder with a fierce bumper clocking in at 88mph. It turned out to be his final delivery of the match.Ben Stokes celebrates after sending back Jasprit Bumrah•Getty Images

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Stokes revealed the main sticking point he had with Archer on the penultimate evening was not to do with his fielding but where people were stationed. Specifically, Stokes himself.”He wanted me to come to mid-on and Carsey [Brydon Carse] to go to leg slip so he could talk to me,” Stokes said. “But I didn’t trust Carsey at leg slip, to be honest. Honestly, that whole thing was he wanted me to come to mid-on so we could chat about what he’s trying to do.”Even in the heat of this Test match, it was a rare moment of vulnerability from Archer. Public-facing, too. Those chats would have been tactical, but there is something to be said for the extra comfort Stokes would have brought Archer by his side.Stokes was at mid-on for the last ball of the Super Over, collapsing onto his back at its conclusion. His unbeaten 84 had left the match all-square in normal time. But more important even that the eight extra runs he picked off alongside Jos Buttler in setting New Zealand a Super Over target of 16 was his advice to Archer before he took centre stage.Though Archer already had the confidence – he knew he’d have to bowl the Super Over even before Eoin Morgan had confirmed it – he was wary. He would later admit: “I don’t know what I would have done tomorrow” had he been responsible for losing that final.Stokes, however, had experience of that from 2016’s World T20 final in Kolkata. And so, he took Archer to one side and offered the following: “Win or lose, today does not define you. Everyone believes in you.”The irony is failure in this Test may have re-defined Archer. It would have been proof, in the eyes of the doubters, that he was a waste of central contracts. That he has been coddled by the ECB. That maybe he does only care for franchise riches, that he is only good for white-ball cricket. That, you know what, he is overrated. Speaking to Sky in the moment of victory, he railed against the “keyboard warriors” who had been the bane of his rehab for four years.Now, those thoughts can settle down. Of course, much will depend on how Archer recovers from this week’s exploits, though the nine days between now and the fourth Test will help him. A meaningful role in this winter’s Ashes is now a genuine possibility.A lot has happened in six years. And yet here we are, back at Lord’s, with English cricket grateful for Stokes and giddy about Archer all over again. All told, it’s good to be back.