How he handles the pressure in an all-important game against RCB could well define his season

Ashish Pant18-May-20242:35

Aaron: Santner gives CSK a lot of options

Ruturaj Gaikwad’s first year as Chennai Super Kings captain has fetched mixed results so far. Not once have CSK won more than two games in a row this season, not once have they lost more than two on the bounce. Apart from the results, there have been issues that Gaikwad hasn’t had much control over. He has lost 11 out of 13 tosses and had had to deal with key bowlers missing out through injuries and national commitments.But the sternest test for Gaikwad’s captaincy will be when CSK take on a resurgent Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a game that decides who makes it to the IPL 2024 playoffs.This is somewhat of an uncharted territory for CSK. Not since 2012 have they been in a situation where their playoff hopes hinged on their final league game of the season. They have either aced the league stage to qualify with a few games to spare or have been knocked out well in advance, like in 2020 and 2022 when they finished second from the bottom.Related

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How Gaikwad goes about handling the pressure of such a crucial game could well define his season as captain.An RCB-CSK game at the best of times is an adrenaline-pumping affair, and this one comes with high stakes attached in front of a vociferous Bengaluru crowd. But Gaikwad has shown his wares when under the pump. When he was handed the captaincy before this season, probably the biggest question was whether it would affect his batting. After all, it is not easy taking over the reins from someone who has led the team to five IPL titles. Ask Ravindra Jadeja, who was appointed captain at the start of IPL 2022 but had to be replaced midway.It wasn’t the smoothest of starts for Gaikwad the batter, too. In the first four games of the season, he managed 88 runs at an average of 22.00. But probably the biggest issue was his strike rate: 118.91. In a season where the openers from other teams were going at full throttle, Gaikwad was still stuck in the past. He did score an unbeaten 67 against Kolkata Knight Riders but even that came at a strike rate of 115.51. In Gaikwad’s defence, though, CSK were chasing only 138.Gaikwad is currently the second-highest run-getter in the tournament•AFP/Getty ImagesIn his next game, he also moved down to No. 3. It was quite a selfless act on the captain’s part, which was done to accommodate Ajinkya Rahane at the top. It was as if a switch was flicked, with Gaikwad whacking 69 off just 40 balls. He batted in that position for one more game before going back to opening the innings. With his confidence back he smashed an unbeaten 108 off 60 balls against Lucknow Super Giants and followed it up with 98 off 54 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad. His 98, in particular, was a stellar knock as it came in fairly trying circumstances in the Chennai humidity with Gaikwad admitting after the game that it got a “little bit tough to breathe”.He even held the orange cap for a few games before Virat Kohli took over. As things stand, Gaikwad is second on the runs chart with 583 in 13 innings, at an average of 58.30 and a strike rate of 141.50.Another feature in Gaikwad’s scoring rate that has stood out this season is not slowing down a great deal after the powerplay. His strike rate in the first six overs is 141.84, while in the middle overs it goes down only to 133.51. And it’s not that Gaikwad hasn’t dropped anchor when needed. In CSK’s previous game against Rajasthan Royals, on a slow Chepauk surface and with his side in a bit of bother, he shepherded the chase with an unbeaten 41-ball 42.Gaikwad’s calmness on the field has impressed CSK batting coach Michael Hussey too.”It’s been challenging for him. He has taken over as captain which you have got to take your hat off,” Hussey said about Gaikwad after the SRH game. “He’s taken over from arguably the greatest captain of all time in this country in MS Dhoni and he has been able to come in and do that and keep his batting standards up very high as well.”Of course, you have to appreciate as captain there are a lot of things going on in his mind. Tactical things, preparation for games, he’s got to make sure everyone in the team is in a good place. For him, to be able to take care of the captaincy side of things but then be able to come out and bat the way he has been batting has been a real credit to him and he is showing the world just how good a player he is. I am biased because he is my favourite player.”Gaikwad is used to playing at venues where CSK have enjoyed huge support. While they are likely to get that at the Chinnaswamy as well, it might not be as vocal as some of the other grounds. It was visible on match eve, with hordes of RCB fans teeming outside the venue to welcome their favourite stars. The decibel level is expected to go through the roof on match day. Will Gaikwad the captain and the batter remain unflappable, especially if things go south?

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.”

Hosts left the door ajar handing everything that could go wrong free rein in Multan

Danyal Rasool10-Oct-2024Ollie Pope stood on the balcony, looking fresh and ready. He should have been, after all; he’d spent all but eight balls of the past 150 overs in the air-conditioned comfort of the dressing room. Chris Woakes had just taken a couple that took Saim Ayub past 100 conceded runs. He was the sixth bowler this innings to get there, a feat that has just one precedent in Test history. England had racked up 823-7; at this point, there was more interest in the post-match pitch report than the match report.Pope signalled them in, and ten minutes later, Abdullah Shafique came out to face the first ball. He was coming off a first innings hundred, and England had demonstrated there was little to fear from the surface as the Test dragged on. There is, in truth, little to fear from Chris Woakes away from home at this stage of his career, or from the first delivery he sent down. A polite enquiry of a half-volley, just asking the new ball if it would take early swing. As it headed straight down the line it was released, the answer was definitive: it would not.No matter, though, Shafique would play down the wrong line, anyway. The ball whispered through the unlocked gate, uprooting the off stump. After three-and-a-half days of the surface looking like it was offering nothing, England were repeatedly breaking in. It may look like a magic trick, but even the most impenetrable safe can be broken into if the door’s been left ajar.Related

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And Pakistan have left that door ajar up front a fair bit. Saim Ayub and Abdullah Shafique’s opening stands read like a phone number: 0, 0, 5, 3, 7, 0, 8 and 0, at a combined average of 2.87. No specialist batting pairing has ever managed to go as many innings without cracking into double figures, and if two innings on this surface don’t break that streak, you wonder what will.It says something about a year that saw Pakistan lose a home Test series to Bangladesh 2-0 that this day in Multan might be the nadir. The jarring contrast between the feast of wicket-taking in the second half of the day and the famine that preceded it, the broken spirits of Pakistan as they wilted in the heat, and the sheer inevitability of the disintegration with the bat. How often do you get 823 for 7 and 82 for 6 on the same day, and how do you justify it? It took England 73 balls to take Pakistan’s first four wickets; Pakistan had earlier needed 817 to get there.In that ignominious second half of the day, Pakistan’s fragility, both mental and tactical, was left as nakedly exposed as the pitch prepared in Multan. Shan Masood lasted all of 22 balls in a galling struggle of an innings, and was fortunate to survive that long, reprieved twice when Woakes and Atkinson each put him down. Babar Azam’s nick through to the keeper was reminiscent of the way he kept getting dismissed in Australia, except this was Multan rather than Perth and Atkinson, for all his promise, isn’t exactly Josh Hazlewood or Pat Cummins.Babar Azam’s woes continued in Multan•Associated PressBut with confidence approaching subterranean levels, there isn’t a situation pressing enough to drag him out of the rut he seems irrevocably trapped in, or a pitch flat enough to prevent Pakistan’s now customary third-innings collapse. It is how they’ve lost every other Test match this year, a streak that will be extended when England wrap up the formalities on the final day tomorrow.”Everyone’s a bit disappointed,” Pakistan high-performance coach Tim Nielsen said after the day. “If the players learning anything, it’s that Test cricket is hard. And that’s not a bad lesson to learn because it doesn’t get easier. They need to be resilient and strong and tough.”It hadn’t seemed quite so hard when England, batted, though. In 49 overs, England amassed 331 runs, Pakistan setting the tone when Babar generously put Joe Root down at midwicket off the luckless Naseem Shah. More spilled chances would follow, more boundaries would accumulate, and more records would tumble. The highest away partnership in Test cricket, the highest total Pakistan have ever conceded, the highest individual score against Pakistan? You got them all, and then some.ESPNcricinfo LtdBut little of this is new, and even less is surprising. The only evidence we have of Masood and Abdullah’s return to form is day one of a surface England did on, while the jury on the Saim Ayub experiment remains out. Babar’s now approaching the longest run without a half-century by any specialist Pakistan batter in history. The whack-a-mole Pakistan play with injuries shows no signs of abating, with the struggling Abrar Ahmed the latest fitness doubt.Pakistan’s options to replace him are underwhelming, exacerbated by no obvious replacements from the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. You know why? Because three Tests into the biggest red-ball summer in a generation, this year’s edition is yet to begin. September saw them play the Champions One-Day Cup instead, and while its merits or otherwise remain disputed, white-ball spinners are of little use to Pakistan without any evidence their skills are transferrable to this format against a batting line-up of England’s class.But while it’s hard to blame individuals for a broken structure, losing six wickets in a session on this deck lies at the feet of the individuals in this side. Aamer Jamal and Salman Ali Agha – two of Pakistan’s brighter spots over the last year – demonstrated exactly that in an unbeaten 70-run partnership that closed out the day. Pakistan may have dragged out the inevitable overnight in Multan, but the agony is merely being prolonged. And as far as many in this particular Test side are concerned, it’s perhaps an appropriate metaphor.

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.

Openers dropping anchor, spinners dictating the tempo – the first ODI had old-school energy from the jump

Andrew Fidel Fernando03-Aug-2024The legbreaks dance. The topspinners fizz. There’s chatter around the batter. A slip is in. The run rate is fine, and there are wickets to burn. But you’re still not sure the chasing team will win.Hello. You’re in it now. This is a classic of the ODI genre. Keep your eyes on this thing. We’ve got a low-scoring-dogfight here.Squint and watch the puffs of dust that come off the surface, listen to the pleading lbw appeals, and then hear them turn into a drawn-out chorus. See top players of spin bowling grope for the ball, get both edges beaten, while others fight every impulse in their body to play the slog or the sweep as if decades of batting evolution haven’t occurred. Find yourself transported to the late nineties and early aughts, to a time before ball tracking or real-time snicko, a time when LED stumps were a mere glint in some nerd’s eye.Related

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This game is a hip hop beat with a big bassline, a piano melody, and a snare drum. It’s got old-school energy from the jump. Like when Pathum Nissanka hits five fours in the first ten overs, then pumps the brakes when the field spreads.In most modern matches, you’ve got no business taking 67 balls to score fifty as an opener. A 56 off 75 balls (a proper throwback strike rate of 74.66) is more likely to be described as weird innings than a solid one.An anchor? Ugh. What is that? Take it out and drop it deep in the ocean where it belongs.The standard operating procedure now is to reverse pressure, never let bowlers dictate the play, and if you’re really going to slip into accumulation mode, come down the track and launch one down the ground once in a while, or slap a reverse-sweep past short third, or scoop a seam bowler over your shoulder once just to shake things up a bit.Pathum Nissanka dropped anchor at the top for Sri Lanka•Getty ImagesBut 2024 DMed, and this game left it on read. Look down that Sri Lanka card. Read those strike rates out loud and tell me you don’t feel like you’ve just stepped out of a time machine. There are scores like 14 from 31 from Kusal Mendis, 14 from 21 from Charith Asalanka, and 20 off 26 from Janith Liyanage, a No. 6 batter. These are “tortured” and “laboured” innings by today’s standards. They may have merely been “cautious” in what already feel like the dinosaur times.And glance down through those bowling figures. Only 20 overs of seam bowling, and 30 delivered by spinners, including one over of wonderfully optimistic but mediocre offspin from Shubman Gill. This is as God/the Gods/Mother Cricket/The Universe intended for matches in South Asia between two South Asian teams. Helpfully, this series is unattended by genre-bending freaks such as Jasprit Bumrah, who may have finessed his way to many wickets, and ruined the chance of this match running so close.Even India’s opening combination summoned up the turn-of-century spirit in their partnership. Gill ambled his way to 13 off 25 in the first ten overs like the good old-fashioned straight man to the balls-to-the-wall Sanath Jayasuriya-Virender Sehwag-Adam Gilchrist type, which Rohit Sharma played so beautifully on a tough pitch.Rohit ran down the pitch and smoked Asitha Fernando over midwicket second ball, crashed debutant Mohamed Shiraz for four, four, six in his second over of international cricket, then even when the spinners came on, and were turning it loads, kept hitting out. In a time when powerplays were merely known as “fielding restrictions” these were the gun players. The batters who sent the scoreline screaming out of the starting blocks while the ball – there was only one – was still hard. Who saw opportunity, where others saw danger.Rohit Sharma hit a six second ball of the innings•Associated PressThat the chase twisted, and that Sri Lanka called on 37.5 overs of spin, most of it pretty high quality, but some of it Charith Asalanka, was perfect too. This is not really a jibe at Asalanka, who as a spinner of limited skill operated on a big-spinning surface as he should – largely bowling wicket-to-wicket, and changing up his pace. But in most modern ODIs, he’s not finishing with 3 for 30.You could never fool yourself completely that this was a game happening way back then, of course. Khettarama was way less than half-full for a big international on a Friday. If this had been a T20, you suspect there would be a full house. Of the formats dying in cricket, ODIs feel like they are the dyingest – they don’t have the moral value or the old money of Test cricket, and they don’t have that sweet, sweet eyeballs to advertising to broadcast-revenue capitalist magic that T20s have right now.That this series is even ODIs, rather than the whole tour being six T20s, seems like it might have something to do with the next Champions Trophy being an ODI tournament, which India have obviously qualified for, but Sri Lanka have not. How long till that becomes a T20 affair, though?Perhaps we are in the final stage of bilateral ODIs, which to be honest, feels fine. But though it jarred with the tenor of most modern limited-overs matches, this game at Khettarama was glorious in its own way. Sri Lanka competed like the Sri Lanka of old, throwing tenacious spin at a tough opposition, finding ways to hoist themselves back in the game. India employed more contemporary methods, but the pitch dictated so much it kept pulling them back to the yesteryears as well.The final act was perfect. Sri Lanka’s fourth best spinner Asalanka, darting a ball into India’s 11th best batter Arshdeep Singh, who produced a hoick across the line that harked back to a time when batting coaches barely had time for bowlers, and as a result the tailenders would produce shots that would be described in terms that brought loincloth-wearing farmers to mind – words such as “agricultural”.It’s not anybody’s idea of perfect. Still, there’s fun in occasionally replaying a classic.

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.

And among openers who have played at least 50 Tests, who has the highest average?

Steven Lynch03-Dec-2024Jacob Bethell batted at No. 3 for England on his Test debut in New Zealand. When was the last time England had a debutant No. 3 who had not scored a first-class century? asked Nick Stephens from England

The 21-year-old Warwickshire left-hander Jacob Bethell made his Test debut at No. 3 against New Zealand in Christchurch last week – and hit the winning run as England won by eight wickets.Bethell was the first specialist batter to play a Test for England before scoring a first-class hundred since Mike Gatting in Pakistan in 1977-78. But Gatting (who eventually scored 94 first-class tons) went in at No. 5 then. It’s quite rare for an England debutant to bat at No. 3: as far as I can see, England have never before selected someone without a first-class century to his name to bat at No. 3 in their first Test. The use of nightwatchers means that occasionally the person who actually went in at No. 3 did not have a three-figure score at the time – fairly recent examples of this are Ian Salisbury in 1992 and Neil Williams (who never did reach three figures) in 1990 – but no specialists.For the full list of England debutants who batted at No. 3, click here. Several of them went in as nightwatchers, so were not selected to bat there.India won the Perth Test by 295 runs. Was that their biggest win away from home? asked Ricky Dooley from Scotland

India’s win in the first Test against Australia in Perth last month was their third-biggest by runs away from home: they beat West Indies by 318 runs in Antigua in August 2019, and walloped Sri Lanka by 304 in Galle in July 2017. Their previous biggest win in Australia was by 222 runs in Melbourne in 1977-78.India have also had 12 innings victories away from home, the biggest by an innings and 239 runs over Bangladesh in Mirpur in May 2007, while they beat Sri Lanka by an innings and 171 in Pallekele in August 2017. They have also won three away Tests by ten wickets.Kraigg Brathwaite played his 86th successive Test in Antigua. I think I heard that this was a record – who did he beat? asked Misha McKenzie from Barbados

The Barbadian opener Kraigg Brathwaite has been ever-present in the West Indies team since June 2014, and the second Test against Bangladesh in Kingston was his 86th in a row (he had played a few before this run started, so now has 96 in all). The record he broke was the most consecutive Tests for West Indies without missing one, previously held by an even more distinguished Barbadian, Garry Sobers, who did not miss any of their 85 Tests between April 1955 and April 1972. Desmond Haynes played 72 successive Tests for West Indies, and Brian Lara 64.Brathwaite has a long way to go to match the overall record: Alastair Cook played 159 successive Tests for England between May 2006 and his international retirement in September 2018. Five other men have played 100 or more consecutive Tests.Herbert Sutcliffe averaged 61.10 as an opener, the highest of all openers who have played at least 50 Tests•Getty ImagesOpening is considered to be the most difficult batting position, and having an average above 50 for a Test opener is rare. Who are the top openers from a minimum of 50 Tests? asked Nikhil Dugar from India

You’re right that it’s a difficult place to bat: only 28 men who opened in at least 50 Tests have an average of 40 or more when doing so. Top of the list is the England opener of the inter-war years, Herbert Sutcliffe, who averaged 61.10 from 54 matches. He’s ahead of two other England greats, Len Hutton (56.47) and Jack Hobbs (56.37). Of those who played in the current century the leader is Australia’s Matthew Hayden (50.73). Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag of India both also averaged over 50.I thought 50 Tests was rather a lot, so tried lowering the qualification to 20. Sutcliffe stays top on that list, but the obdurate South African Bruce Mitchell (56.90) pushes Hutton and Hobbs down a place. And the leading “modern” becomes Australia’s Usman Khawaja, who averaged 52.25 from 34 matches as opener before the second Test against India.Ivory Coast were bowled out for only seven by Nigeria in their T20 international the other day. Was this the lowest completed team total in any international? asked Madhav Gokhale from New Zealand

Ivory Coast made a reasonable start to their reply to Nigeria’s 271 in their recent match in Abuja – they had four runs on the board before the first wicket went down, but the rest managed only three between them. There were six ducks (and a 0 not out) in the final total of 7, which is a new low for men’s T20Is: there had previously been two cases of 10 all out, by Mongolia against Singapore two months previously, and the Isle of Man vs Spain in February 2023. The lowest by a Test-playing nation is West Indies’ 45 against England in St Kitts in March 2019.This was not, however, the lowest score in all international cricket. In women’s T20Is, Mali were skittled for 6 by Rwanda in Kigali in June 2019, and six months later Maldives matched that with 6 all out against Bangladesh during the South Asian Games in Pokhara (Nepal). As this list shows, Maldives were bowled out two days later for 8 by Nepal, while the Philippines were skittled for 9 by Thailand in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) in May 2023.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

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.

The Rajasthan Royals opener grabbed headlines by scoring the fastest century by an Indian in the IPL

Ashish Pant29-Apr-20254:12

Jaffer: Have advised Suryavanshi to always play his natural game

[Has it ever happened that you’ve hit the first ball you’ve faced for six]?Vaibhav Suryavanshi is seen asking this question – much before his IPL debut – to a fellow Rajasthan Royals (RR) player in a video posted by the franchise. On April 19, the 14-year old lived this dream when he flat-batted Shardul Thakur over the extra-cover fence off his first ball on IPL debut.Suryavanshi has played just three games in the IPL. But, he’s already wowed people in every step of the way, with his six-hitting skills, with his bat speed, with his ability to rip apart bowlers of international repute. On Monday, he took down a Gujarat Titans bowling unit which had in their ranks Mohammed Siraj, Ishant Sharma, Rashid Khan, Washington Sundar and R Sai Kishore – all bowlers who have at least one international cap, to become the youngest men’s T20 centurion. It was also the second-fastest hundred in IPL history, off 35 balls.Related

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But who is this 14-year-old sensation?Suryavanshi hails from a village named Tajpur in the Samastipur district of Bihar. With facilities limited in Samastipur, Suryavanshi travelled close to 90 kms almost every day to Patna along with his father, Sanjiv Suryavanshi. It was hardly easy, but backed by his father, he was determined to make it big.Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 14, became the second-fastest centurion in IPL history•BCCI”I am what I am because of my parents,” Suryavanshi said in a video on the official IPL site after his 38-ball 101 in Jaipur. “My mother used to sleep for three hours, wake up at 2am, prepare food for me. My father quit his job, my elder brother took over the job. We had limited means, but my father backed me to succeed. Whatever results you are seeing today, my success is all because of my parents.”Suryavanshi’s rise has been swift. He was just 12 years and 284 days old when he made his first-class debut for Bihar in the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy season. Before that, he had left a good impression at the Vinoo Mankad Trophy for Bihar, which got him a spot in the Under-19 Quadrangular series in late 2023, also involving Bangladesh, England, and two India teams, A and B, in Mulapadu, Andhra Pradesh.Watch – Highlights of Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s record-breaking hundred on JioHotstar (only in India)Playing for India B U-19, Suryavanshi scored 53 against England U-19 in the first game, followed by 75 against Bangladesh U-19s. It was during this second game that former India opener Wasim Jaffer, who was the head coach of Bangladesh U-19 then, spotted him and was “taken aback” by the youngster.5:27

‘Otherworldly’ Suryavanshi wows Bishop, Aaron

“I was really impressed that somebody so young has been picked and then also he got runs, “Jaffer told ESPNcricinfo. “I was actually pleasantly surprised, especially coming from Bihar.”Jaffer and Suryavanshi regularly chatted about batting, with Jaffer offering him tips on building an innings. “He used to keep messaging every now and then whenever he felt like asking certain things or when he felt like wanting to ask about his batting,” Jaffer said. “He is somebody who plays free-flowing cricket. But suddenly, when you go to a higher level, sometimes you are scared, especially when somebody is so young. So, he might think that he needs to change certain things or that he needs to play differently.Vaibhav Suryavanshi with Wasim Jaffer•ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I always encouraged him to be positive and play positive cricket. If the ball is there in your arc, and you feel you can hit it, I always told him to back yourself, irrespective of what standard of cricket you are playing. That’s how our relationship started.”Not that I personally coached him or anything. I won’t take undue credit.”Suryavanshi was picked up in the IPL 2025 auction for INR 1.1 crore after impressing batting coach Vikram Rathour and director of high performance Zubin Bharucha at RR during trials. He didn’t play the first seven games of the season and only came into the team because of an injury to captain Sanju Samson, making him the youngest IPL debutant.Suryavanshi had also messaged Jaffer before his IPL debut against Lucknow Super Giants.5:13

What’s the best way to handle Suryavanshi?

“He messaged me and said, ‘Sir, I am getting a chance’. I, in fact, told him to take seven to eight balls because there is so much adrenaline when you play in the IPL for the first time. Take a bit of time, let your nerves settle down. Sometimes you play certain shots because the occasion gets the better of you. But he went out there and played first ball for six. So it’s not that he takes every advice of mine. But he is a wonderful kid. And he is talented. In this format, for him to hit 11 sixes in IPL, says so much about his ability and talent.”Don’t get me wrong. A player of his ability, the manner in which he plays, he is going to fail sometimes, and he will look bad when he gets out. But when he comes good, he is a match-winner like yesterday. So we’ve got to take the good with the bad.”Jaffer also believes Suryavanshi has what it takes to become an all-format player. “He has got all the ability and he has got all the time. He has shown what he can do in this format [T20s]. And I am sure he will adapt to one-day cricket and four-day cricket pretty soon. I believe he has got a good defence as well. It’s just playing that format a little bit more.”He still has a long way to go but for now, there is obvious celebration in the Suryavanshi household back home in Samastipur.”He has made our village, Bihar and the whole of India proud. We could not be happier and are celebrating,” his father Sanjiv said in a video released by the Bihar Cricket Association. “I want to thank the Rajasthan Royals who worked on him extensively in the last three-four months. I want to thank head coach Rahul Dravid and the rest of the support staff for improving Vaibhav’s game. He himself has worked very hard on his game and this hundred is a result of that.”

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.