All of them approach batting differently and have thrived without the fear of consequences

Sidharth Monga19-Jan-20212:34

‘This win would mean the world to Pant’ – Aakash Chopra

If this series so far had been an esoteric Bob Dylan song, here is a more straightforward one for the man who laid the finishing touches.For a day, it would appear Dylan might have had Rishabh Pant in mind when he wrote ‘. Just as this team had doubters after 36 all out, Pant has had doubters within the team and outside it for playing a game they don’t really understand.Imagine – he is coming off a Test when he got out on 97 trying to hit a six with India fighting to somehow stay alive. He has been nearly stumped trying to hit another here in Brisbane, when India are thinking of the unthinkable on the final day with much more in the pitch than at the SCG. Then he sees a ball turn more than a metre. And jumps out next ball to hit a six against the turn.There will be many waiting to take credit for the way Pant has “matured”, but he played the way he has always played. His childhood coach, Tarak Sinha, told last week that more than fitness, more than “maturity”, Pant needed his bat swing back. If he gets out, he will live with the consequences. If he gets out blocking a ball he could have hit, it will be tougher to live with it. That’s batting for him.In Sydney, and in Brisbane, Pant just batted. In a 16-Test career — 14 of them played away from home, three as the third-choice keeper and three as the second choice — Pant is already among the top-15 six-hitters from India, with 23 such hits. Nineteen of them have come off spinners, including his first runs in Test cricket. He can get out playing any of those shots, and people wouldn’t be talking of the mature Pant then, but he knows the percentages are with him. He knows he is that good.Just imagine being the Australia captain and bowling unit. What do you do when a man simply refuses to care the way you want him to? A man who just bats. Doesn’t think of win, draw, loss on the final day of an epic series. This is not the beat Test cricket is played to. There are cracks on the pitch, you are up against a tiring but excellent attack, you know wickets can fall quickly, you know one shot can undo 17 days of incredibly hard work that has brought you this far, within a shot of history. You know what happened in Adelaide in 2014-15. You know what happened at The Oval in 2018.You should take a draw that is greater than a win, but you just want to bat. You want to back yourself. You are a madman. You are on the verge of securing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy if you just bat out 12 overs. It is going to be the greatest comeback ever, but you risk it all by playing a reverse-sweep? You see, it is not a risk for Pant. He backs his reverse-sweep with that field set. He knows all these incredible chases over the last two-three years – Ben Stokes, Kusal Perera, Jermaine Blackwood – have been sealed by batsmen just batting the way they do. And you can’t bat if you are clouded by consequence.After it was all done, Pant was hugged by every Indian team member, from teammates to coaches to the other support staff. The batting coach and the coach held on to him, the throw-down expert probably received a big thank you with the hug, R Ashwin was like a big brother, but as Pant reached Cheteshwar Pujara, everything went into slow motion. Pujara didn’t want too strong a hug. He had worn so many blows – head, side of the neck, forearm, ribs, gloves, all told 10 in one innings on a pitch increasingly uneven in bounce – that a half-decent squeeze from Pant would surely have hurt him.Shubman Gill batted with calmness and poise•Getty ImagesIf Australia couldn’t force Pant to care enough to doubt himself, they couldn’t get Pujara to care less than enough to make a mistake. Session after session, day after day, match after match, Pujara makes them bowl their best ball to get him out. If it is not good enough, it will not get Pujara out. And it takes Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. Not even Mitchell Starc.And when Cummins bowls that unplayable ball to get him lbw by the barest of margins on the tracker, he is bowling his 157th over of the series, more than he has ever bowled in a series of four matches or fewer. Pujara has faced 42.5 overs of those from this incredible bowler who hardly gives a freebie and has a habit of bowling unplayable deliveries. Overall he faced 928 balls, close to a fourth of the balls faced by India in the series. And yet everyday he must get to hear how he doesn’t hurt the bowlers no matter how long he plays, how he is responsible for others getting out, how the game needs to keep moving.Despite all that is happening around him, Pujara does so almost in trance. Even when he is getting hit, the hands holding the bat are always going down. Even when he is hit on the bottom glove, it is in the process of going off the handle. This is survival batting but Pant and Shubman Gill can keep attacking because they know Pujara is there. If someone needs to shut shop, Pujara can do so even if he is staggering and stumbling. And no amount of blows can push him back to a ball he should be forward to. In fact he goes on to target Starc and upper-cut him, unsurprisingly so. In doing that Pujara is lending a hand to the new one. This old road is not rapidly agin’.One of the new ones is Gill, representing the depth in Indian cricket. Debuting after 36 all out, at a position where batting has never been tougher in the history of the sport, Gill has announced himself regally. In him and Mohammed Siraj lie the riches of Indian cricket. Just as Siraj, Gill has shown he has come ready for the highest level and format of the game. Siraj lost his father during the tour, Gill must be worried about his, given the farmers’ protests in the biting cold of northern India. The personal challenges these players are facing can’t be overlooked.Can you imagine a tougher initiation into Test cricket than the first two overs Gill spent in the middle? From the non-striker’s, he saw Starc swinging it back in to Mayank Agarwal at 145-plus, seam one away, and then rip the pad off with the inswinger. At the striker’s, he saw Cummins continuously seam it this way and that. Yet he never looked out of place, never late, never rushed into playing a shot he doesn’t want to play.All the series’ hard work – for returns of 45, 31*, 50, 31, 7 – finally, for a change, brought him easier batting conditions on the final morning. No one deserved the harvest more than Gill. The morning session was perhaps the easiest for batting all series, likely because of the moisture from the overnight rain, which can tend to re-bind the surface. You need someone to cash in on these conditions without getting out and thus nullifying the advantage of the conditions.Gill has the game for it. He batted with a control percentage of 95, which is scarcely believable for this series. So good is his stroke-play he scored at a strike rate of 62 without taking risks. Batting is an imperfect art. It yo-yos from Pant to Pujara, who bring their own unconventional survival tools, but Gill gets as close to perfection as might be possible when accounting for all the vagaries you have to deal with in Test cricket. Foot movement is precise, defence is solid, the shots are all there, and the eye is quick. If you are a batting enthusiast, this is what you dream of watching on a mildly cold Sunday morning.Even when the ball started to misbehave around lunch and Australia went short, Gill moved his guard towards off, and didn’t give up hooking. He knew he couldn’t control them all, but scored 34 runs off 26 short balls.Between them, Gill, Pujara and Pant represent the might of Indian batting. This is a side that was bowled out for 36 a month ago. Now it has breached Fortress Gabba with a chase of 328. These are chases that will come off only once in a while, but if the batting riches of India find a way to just go out and bat the way they know best, India will keep putting them in positions to pull them off. Tim Paine and Justin Langer perhaps knew it all along or they would have declared sooner.

Also watch out for Sandeep vs Kohli, and how big an impact the toss will have

Nagraj Gollapudi and Gaurav Sundararaman05-Nov-2020Remove the obstacle called PadikkalThe Sunrisers’ attention will no doubt be on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers whose batting fortunes continue to dictate the success for the Royal Challengers. However, one man who has played a big role in the seven wins for the Royal Challengers this IPL is Devdutt Padikkal, who has made the most runs in a season by a debutant in the history of the tournament.Padikkal, an attractive left-hand batsman, has scored 298 runs at a strike rate of 125.20 in the seven wins while making 174 runs at nearly 129 in the seven defeats. To counter Padikkal, the Sunrisers have Sandeep Sharma, one of the best bowlers in the powerplay this IPL.Sharma has picked nine wickets in the first six overs this season, with four of them of left-hand batsmen, conceding just 57 runs in 54 deliveries to them. The away swing and the slower ball will remain his attacking options and will challenge both Royal Challengers openers – Padikkal and one of the two Australians: Josh Philippe or Aaron Finch.Padikkal’s weak point has been the short delivery; he has scored just 46 runs off 48 short balls while getting out twice. Jason Holder, who is likely to bowl with the new ball, has the pace and height to trouble Padikkal with short-pitched deliveries.Attack Sandeep earlySharma’s modus operandi has been to bowl three out of his four overs in the powerplay. So far he has bowled seven overs in the middle phase at an economy rate of 6.85 and nine overs at the death where he has leaked runs at 10.44 per over. If the Royals Challengers top order can attack Sharma early on, it can disrupt the Sunrisers’ bowling plans. The openers could charge at Sharma to try and negate his swing, and unsettle him by making him bowl to their strengths rather than letting him to dominate.Can Kohli break the Sandeep jinx?Seven times Sharma has got the Royal Challengers captain in the IPL, the most by any bowler. If Sharma pitches the ball a bit too full or short, Kohli picks him for runs. But it’s the good-length deliveries from Sharma that have troubled Kohli the most, dismissing him as many as five times in the IPL, while conceding only 17 runs off 23 balls.Should Kohli just wait for the loose deliveries or walk to the other end and exercise patience? With Kohli having tough match-ups against Rashid Khan and Sharma, he needs to maximise against the other three or four Sunrisers bowlers.ESPNcricinfo LtdRashid v Kohli and de Villiers – the heavyweight title in the middle oversThe pressure will be on both batsmen, who bat in the middle overs, the phase where Khan prowls like a proud lion. Kohli has often been a suspect against the googly in the IPL, which is one of Khan’s stealth weapons. Kohli has managed only 18 runs off 19 deliveries against Khan in the IPL, with one dismissal. The Sunrisers strike bowler has also got de Villiers twice in the IPL, allowing only 25 runs off as many balls.Clearly then both batsmen will remain watchful against Khan who has delivered three of his most economical spells in the IPL this edition. The challenge, though, for both Kohli and de Villiers will be to provide a push in the middle phase where the Royal Challengers’ run rate is the worst. In overs seven through 16, the Royal Challengers have the weakest scoring rate of 7.28, which has contributed heavily in their batting failures.ESPNcricinfo LtdALSO READ: Royal Challengers Bangalore ‘could be more brave with the bat’ – KohliIf the Royal Challengers have to raise a big target or chase one successfully, both Kohli and de Villiers will need to bat deep. That is why it is important their openers take the gamble and attack the Sunrisers’ new-ball unit of Sharma, Holder and T Natarajan.Beware of Warner-Saha partnership The Sunrisers’ run rate of 9.50 in the powerplay in the last seven matches of the league phase is the best this IPL. David Warner has regained his ruthless touch in this period and in their wins in the last three matches, Wriddhiman Saha has played a massive hand with two quickfire half-centuries while opening. Both batsmen have also been key performers in IPL playoffs in the past, so the Royal Challengers bowlers would want to be at their absolute best in order to keep them in check.ESPNcricinfo LtdHow to stop Warner?Bowl Washington Sundar in the powerplay. In the last contest between these two teams, Warner paid for his greed. Having hit Sundar for a six on the first delivery the offspinner bowled in the match, Warner went for another big hit and was caught promptly at midwicket. It was the first time Warner had lost his wicket inside the powerplay to a spinner, since 2016 against Sunil Narine.The importance of removing the prized wicket of the best batsman early on cannot be overstated. In the 22 instances Warner has been out inside the powerplay, the Sunrisers have lost 12 times in the IPL.ESPNcricinfo LtdSundar has strong numbers in the powerplay: 115 runs off 120 deliveries at an economy rate of 5.75, which is second only to Jofra Archer so far this tournament. Sundar has kept Warner in check so far during their one-on-one contests too. On the three occasions he has bowled against Warner so far, Sundar has given away just 28 runs off 24 deliveries, including 11 dot balls while picking his wicket once. So this will be one of the most important match-ups in the contest.Win toss – say ‘chase’!The last five matches played in Abu Dhabi have been won by teams chasing. It’s a no-brainer then that both Kohli and Warner will want to field after winning the toss. Overall, too, teams chasing have won 12 out of 20 matches at this venue, which has seen a lot of dew in recent games.Kohli will also hope that his luck at the toss changes: he got the toss in his favour six out of the 14 matches in the league phase. Warner, meanwhile, has had a better record of winning 10 out of his 14 tosses.The Royal Challengers have also lost two of their four matches in Abu Dhabi and both those defeats happened in the last week, including their last league match, against the Delhi Capitals. The Sunrisers have played three matches at the venue, winning just once. One of their two defeats came in the Super Over against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

They knew bowling first in Chennai would offer no help so they shifted their plans to do their best to contain England

Varun Shetty06-Feb-2021A lesser known facet of home advantage is how quickly you can gauge that you might be in trouble. After losing the toss on a pitch where they were also looking to bat first, it was clear that India were already looking to be conservative with their bowling plans.Ishant Sharma began on Friday with two slips and a gully, not the customary combination of three, and Jasprit Bumrah was already moving catchers from the off side into the leg side a few balls into his first over. It was clear from the first session of the match – there wouldn’t be too much assistance, and the edges weren’t likely to carry. Even R Ashwin, who will be India’s primary line of attack in this series, had to switch between plans in that early session.Related

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It is, quite simply, what you must do as a bowling team in the first few days on pitches like these, and in conditions like these. On the balance of it, India could feel relatively happy at England’s scoring rate: 263 on the first day, 292 on the second, and with an intention to bat at least an hour into day three.”The plan on such wickets should be to bowl with discipline,” left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem said at the end of day two. “If you try to look for wickets on this pitch, you tend to give runs. So the plan was to stay as disciplined as possible and if the batsman becomes adventurous, then you might create some chances. As a team, and for myself, that was the plan.”1:23

Nadeem explains the difficulties of bowling in Chennai

Joe Root had said at the end of the first day that England were looking to score in the region of 600, a total that is still within their sights. And one, to go by Ben Stokes’ post-day comments, that they weren’t necessarily looking to score by the end of day two.”No. Before anyone asks – there was no thought whatsoever of a declaration tonight.,” Stokes said. “That would be stupid, if we won the toss and batted first. You just get as many runs as you can out here in India. If we can bat for another hour in the morning we’ll be very happy with that.”That is the flip side: England’s argument is that the worst of this pitch will come when India bats; an argument that is the basis of them being, by quite a way, in pole position in this Test.”Generally wickets don’t get any better here in India, especially when the heat blazes on it and you put 90 overs on it a day,” Stokes said. “It’s going to get drier, break up, deteriorate. Just because we’ve got big first-innings runs, it doesn’t give us the right to bowl them out twice as we hope to do. We’ve still got a lot of hard work to do as a bowling unit. It’s tough to take 20 wickets anywhere. But out here 20 can be hard to come by. We know we have a big challenge ahead.”To stay No. 1 on the Test Championship table, India need to win this four-match series by a two-game margin; while staying alive in this Test will take a herculean batting response, defeat would only occur if England are able to bowl them out twice. It is a patience game they were willing to play, as Nadeem pointed out, and one that they executed with relative success given how the day, and Stokes’ innings in particular, had begun.India are certainly under the pump in Chennai, but they are not out of the Test match•BCCIHaving come out on the better side of a couple of half-chances, Stokes’ decision to use attack as a form of defence – “decided I’d rather get caught at deep square than spooning one up to short leg” – not only bore quick runs, but only added merit to the theory that the surface bore no batting demons. With an increasingly confident Root at the other end, and the enterprise that England’s lower order is known to provide, things could have been a lot worse for India than 555 for 8 at 3.08 – a scoring rate that nearly matches their first-innings rate when they lost in Chennai in 2016.”[Root’s] recent form is really good and he’s been sweeping really well. To bowl to him you need plans, to stay tight on the stumps and not provide width,” Nadeem said. “Every spinner has problems when a batsman starts sweeping you, but at the same time you have to stick with your line and length and wait for your time. Wait for the batsman to make a mistake. That’s what we were doing.”England’s innings tapered off following Root’s dismissal, from which point their scoring rate until stumps was exactly 3. The wickets of Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer, England’s two lower-order enforcers, off consecutive Ishant deliveries played a significant role in that.”They were crucial because he dismissed Buttler and Archer, back-to-back. On a pitch like this, you get uplifted as a team when that happens. They were important wickets because they might still have been six-down and had a frontline batsman at stumps. Now we’re bowling to two bowlers, so in some ways that’s an upper hand,” Nadeem said.And that is the other thing with knowing you’re in trouble – any sort of upper hand you see can only be relative. At this point in the Test, England have done everything they wanted to do, and are continuing to set the tone. But India won’t mind too much that it is not a rapid one.

“Joy to watch you bowl,” tweets Sachin Tendulkar as cricket community lavishes praise on the second-quickest 400-wicket man in Tests

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Feb-2021

Well done @ashwinravi99 on reaching 400 wickets .Phenomenal! Congratulations on a fantastic achievement. Great going, keep it up!

— Anil Kumble (@anilkumble1074) February 25, 2021

“It’s better to move one step at a time than to have a big thing and it flops and it closes”

Annesha Ghosh06-Mar-2021Diana Edulji has put her weight behind an expanded Women’s T20 Challenge for the 2021 season, saying she would “definitely have a fourth team” on her wishlist. But Edulji, the former India captain who was also a member of the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators between 2017 and 2019, feels the idea of a full-fledged IPL-style women’s league is “ambitious” at present.”This year, if it [the Challenge] is in India, given the Australian, England, New Zealand players will be available if the tournament runs in this season, maybe a fourth team will come in,” Edulji told ESPNcricinfo ahead of India’s return to international cricket after a 364-day hiatus. “Players from those teams, the big guns, will give us a wider range, that will help us and the girls will get extra matches. I would definitely have a fourth team on my wishlist for this year. A fourth team is not a bad idea.Related

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“It may be that the BCCI is thinking of a four-team tournament this year. I’m not sure because I’m not in touch with anybody. But last year, before the tournament got postponed in March because of Covid, they were planning on having four teams.”Debates around a women’s IPL have been on for some time. From Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy to India’s senior core – Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana – all have insisted that a women’s T20 competition modelled on the men’s IPL is the big step-up awaiting female cricketers. In December 2019, though, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said that a seven- or eight-team women’s competition was at least “four years away”.In February last year, while India were carving out their run to the T20 World Cup final in Australia, the BCCI announced that the 2020 edition of the T20 Challenge would comprise four teams and seven matches. But though the tournament, along with the IPL, eventually went ahead in the UAE amid the pandemic, the length of T20 Challenge and the number of teams remained the same – three teams and four games – as the 2019 edition. No Australian players participated in it owing to a clash in scheduling with the WBBL, and several prominent stars from New Zealand, England, South Africa and West Indies also missed out.

“I feel the BCCI is taking it [the resumption of women’s cricket] slowly because they don’t want problems with Covid hitting the women’s team completely because, see, we don’t have a wide range of players”Diana Edulji

Edulji said a full-fledged women’s IPL ran the risk of being a flop and closing down.”Look, I think we are trying to be a little more ambitious in saying we should have a separate IPL for women. It’s not that easy,” she said. “We will have to first build up our domestic sector again because of this gap. We’ll know what’s our domestic scene and know how the players are doing in the 50-overs format.”It’s better to move one step at a time than to have a big thing and it flops and it closes. I wouldn’t love that. It’s definitely not that there should be no Women’s IPL. Even if it takes another year or two it’s better. Waiting for it, slowly expanding the tournament – from three to four teams. If they have a chance to do it this year – it’s better.”Since last year’s T20 Challenge, while a few India players have participated in club-level invitational tournaments organised in different pockets of the country, none were involved in any international cricket. The national team is due to begin an eight-match assignment against South Africa in Lucknow on Sunday, their first international match since the T20 World Cup final on March 8 last year. By contrast, though, Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and West Indies, as well as Austria and Germany have all played at least one series this past year, after international cricket resumed in July following a four-month Covid-19-enforced hiatus.Diana Edulji takes part in an IPL auction during her time with the Committee of Administrators•Sportzpics”I feel the BCCI is taking it [the resumption of international cricket for its women] slowly because they don’t want problems with Covid hitting the women’s team completely because, see, we don’t have a wide range of players, so we have to be extra careful because of the bench strength not being there and, god forbid, if something happens,” she said.Edulji explained that not losing perspective in the pandemic-affected world was vitally important when reviewing India’s lack of cricket in the year gone by and the choice of South Africa as the opposition to kick off preparations for the 2022 ODI World Cup.”Looking at the Covid situation, I would give the benefit of doubt to, you know, don’t go by 365 days. As and when the women got a chance, they played. They played in Dubai [Sharjah, the T20 Challenge] and the series [against South Africa] that’s starting now,” Edulji said. “This series is just right at the moment, for the simple reason that we shouldn’t play England or Australia right away till we get into a little form or something. New Zealand has not suffered so much during the pandemic. They’ve been, touch wood, okay and even Australia – only certain places were affected. England and Australia – obviously, the players are ahead; they have played the Big Bash.”I would at the moment, therefore, start with a level-playing field for the women because South Africa is a good series to start with. They are not that good or not that bad either. So, slowly and steadily, we can take it, and then play the big guns, so we can get the confidence and go into the World Cup.”If we start losing the series with the top guns, it could upset our morale. One step at a time is the need of the hour. Players have to be a little patient, and I am sure the BCCI office-bearers and the management do consider – I know that they will not ignore women’s cricket.”

The Bangladesh quick seems to have realised where he was going wrong, and is desperate to make amends

Mohammad Isam19-Mar-2021A smile flashed across Taskin Ahmed’s face after he took the last West Indies wicket in the Chattogram ODI in January this year. Bangladesh had won by 120 runs and clinched the series 3-0. Ahmed, bowling with a more stable action than before and hitting decent lengths consistently, topped 140kph for the most part in his 8.2 overs. That smile, albeit fleeting, might have been an expression of relief more than anything else, after three years of torment.It was a phase during which he said he “felt like I was in depression”. So much so that Ahmed, still only 25, had to consult a mental-health expert. But that’s not all he did.’He is done, he is finished’Ahmed’s last international appearance before that was a wretched one, as he went for 40 runs in three overs. The Sri Lanka batsmen feasted on his mild, hit-me pace and inconsistent lines. That was the last straw for the team management, which dropped him for the rest of the Nidahas Trophy. The national selectors then didn’t turn his way for the next three years.From the poster boy of Bangladesh’s pace attack, Ahmed was reduced to a cautionary tale. His domestic performances were being ignored too, as the men who matter focused on other bowlers. Bangladesh’s spin-based approach in home Tests didn’t help either.Then came the pandemic, and Ahmed grew desperate.Related

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Ahmed cajoled a trainer into opening his gym for a couple of hours every day. He contacted real-estate company owners to let him run in their dusty and sandy under-construction plots of land. He called up his bowling coach and mentor for help, contacted a nutritionist to find a better diet, and, when he realised the problem might really be between his ears, he sought a mental health expert.”People said things like ‘he’s done, he’s finished’. They said that I have nothing more to offer, that I have a bad lifestyle and am always injured. You know, the usual things people say when you are not successful,” Ahmed told ESPNcricinfo. “At one stage, I felt like I was in depression. Speaking to a mental-health expert definitely helped me. It really cleared my mind up. I was motivated to do more in terms of fitness and my bowling. I am still in touch with him, and the rest of the people who helped me get fitter and bowl better.”The time away from the Bangladesh team made him realise what he was missing, and it hurt. More than what was being said or written about him. The solution was to make sure he did his best, not look back years later with regret at what he could have done better.”I think more than what anyone around me is saying, the most disappointing aspect is not being able to play for your country. I achieved my dream to play at the top level in 2014, but I lasted only three years. It is never a good feeling to be left out of contention, and I don’t want it to happen again. I want to become the main bowler in our pace attack, be consistent. For that, I will have to keep working hard.”A photograph of Ahmed running in the sand with two tyres tied to his body surfaced. It was a welcome sight – he was trying. He was among the first to return to full-time training when the Shere Bangla National Stadium opened for use in June last year. Then, Ahmed was among the top wicket-takers in two domestic tournaments during the pandemic, enough to earn selection for the ODI series against West Indies at home, and he is now among seven pace bowlers in New Zealand.Taskin Ahmed had gone from a bowler with an ODI hat-trick to one that couldn’t be trusted to bowl four overs in a T20I•AFP/Getty ImagesComplacence, or something like itAround the time he had been dropped, Ahmed was struggling to be taken seriously. He had lost much of his pace; he chugged in off a long run-up, but didn’t seem capable of making it to the end. In the space of a year, from March 2017 to March 2018, he had gone from a bowler with an ODI hat-trick to one that couldn’t be trusted to bowl four overs in a T20I.”At the start of my career, everything was happening for me – I was playing well, I was becoming famous. Things like following up on fitness and skill work never crossed my mind. I assumed everything will go well, I wouldn’t get injured. But when a player relaxes even for a moment in international cricket, this is what happens, they get to the back of the queue.”After he took only two wickets in the 2017 Champions Trophy, Ahmed had a torrid tour of South Africa. He took only two wickets in six matches, averaging 188.50. He was dropped for the ODI tri-series at home a few months later. Once he bombed in the Nidahas Trophy, where he was picked to provide extra pace, that was it. For Ahmed, the good things might have been that he finally had an opportunity to look hard at himself.”When a cricketer is with the national team, the trainers take care of everything. But I think it’s critical what we are doing at home and during our off-time,” he explained. “Every fast bowler should have a personal trainer, bowling coach, mind trainer and nutritionist to maintain their standards at the highest level. A young player who hires these people is going to be in better shape when he is not training with the national team.”Taskin Ahmed bowls during a practice session as Ottis Gibson looks on•AFP/Getty ImagesBig decisions, three of themThe uncertainty caused by the pandemic last year pushed Ahmed into taking three crucial decisions.First, he decided to improve his fitness, for which he requested Debashish Ghosh, a reputed trainer in Dhaka, to open his gym for a few hours every day during last year’s Ramadan. Struggling to find a ground where he could run, Ahmed called up a couple of people he knew, people who owned land. And he went back to the basics in terms of his bowling.”I was struggling for fitness and form. During the early days of the lockdown, I called the trainer Debashish Ghosh and convinced him to open his gym, which had shut because of the pandemic. He was kind enough to open it for couple of hours every evening after Iftaar. After Eid ul Fitr, I started running on sand twice a week for agility and to strengthen the lower part of my body. I used to go to one of the real estate projects in the western outskirts of Dhaka.”For technical help, Ahmed called up his childhood mentor, Mahbub Ali Zaki, a BCB bowling coach with a growing reputation, and former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud, the BCB director who is also a coach.”Zaki sir was my coach since the Under-15s, while Sujon sir [Mahmud] had been giving me opportunities since I was a kid. They gave me a few technical pointers, on which I started to work in my garage. Cricket grounds were still not available then, due to the pandemic, so I used to call up everyone to tell me where I could bowl with a full run-up.”In an interview with ESPNcricinfo in January, Zaki had pointed out that to become a more explosive bowler, Ahmed needed more balance at the crease. For that, he needed improved muscle-build and a leaner physique.Ahmed followed Zaki’s advice to the last letter. “To improve my fitness, I was also strict on my diet. I don’t do cheat days. I sacrificed my favourite biriyani. My mother and my wife now prepare my food separately at home. I also spoke to a mental-health expert. Being out of the national team for close to three years was weighing me down.”‘My pace is back’, but that’s not allAlong with Ahmed’s personal transformation, another interesting development was taking place: fast bowlers were leading the wicket charts in the BCB President’s Cup, a three-team one-day tournament to kick off cricket after the lockdown, and the Bangabandhu T20 Cup that followed. It was explained as a result of unused pitches and batsmen being out of cricket for a long time, but pace bowlers like Ahmed, Rubel Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman were among the top wicket-takers in both tournaments. It was a massive change than the last two decades when left-arm spinners ruled the roost.Ahmed and newcomers Shoriful Islam and Hasan Mahmud were picked in the Bangladesh ODI side. That, however, didn’t change Ahmed’s mindset.”No matter how tired I am these days – and national team training can be quite tough – I keep doing my personal drills. I haven’t reached Mushfiq ‘s [Mushfiqur Rahim] level of discipline, he is a role model, but among the fast bowlers, I believe that if I maintain myself properly, I can stay ahead.”By Allah’s grace, my pace is back. I touched 146kph during the Chattogram ODI. I can’t be Brett Lee in one day, but I want to deliver on the potential that Allah has given me. I have to be fit, and stick to my process. I don’t want to have any regrets that I didn’t give my best.”But pace isn’t everything. “In this day and age, a bowler cannot just rely on his pace. The wickets are batting-friendly even in countries like Australia, England and South Africa. There will be times when I have to bowl a lot of slower balls and then there will be times when I have to rely on pace. By playing more matches, I can be ready for every situation.”Ahmed is a young cricketer who has learned an important lesson at an early stage of his life and his career, and is better for it; he isn’t taking anything for granted anymore. And he is fully aware that if he shells this chance, there may not be another one.

One of the weakest batting line-ups fielded for years left England facing embarrassment

George Dobell12-Jun-2021Had the England team barged into a wedding, knocked over the cake and shouted “she’s a goat!” they could hardly have pooped the party any more.The Saturday of the Edgbaston Test was meant to be a celebration. A chance for England supporters to rejoice in the company of their fellow fan and revel in the chance to watch the national side at the ground they call their “fortress” for the first time in almost two years.Instead, it became something approaching a wake. As England subsided to the brink of their first home Test series defeat since 2014 and their first against New Zealand this century, the dancing and chanting that filled the ground for the first couple of hours of the day gave way to shocked muttering and disgusted tutting.It surely wasn’t the party the throng of punters in fancy dress had anticipated. Instead we were treated to the surreal sight of a superfluity of nuns (presumably in fancy dress, it seems high risk to ask) sipping their pints in quiet reflection with some subdued lobsters (again, presumably fancy dress, though you do see some odd things floating about in Birmingham’s canals). Still, nobody’s fancy dress was less convincing than the England team. Some of them came as batters, after all.Related

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There is some mitigation for England. It’s not so much that they are without three first-choice players – New Zealand made six changes for this match, remember – or that this is an unusually young batting line-up. The side at Lord’s included England’s youngest top seven ever assembled for a home Test.It’s more that they are up against opponents who are simply better than them. New Zealand are terrific. They have enviable depth in their seam bowling, they put a high price on their wickets and they can catch the wind in the slip cordon. It is no disgrace to be beaten by them.So, those in the Eric Hollies Stand chanting “Who are you?” as the New Zealand players not required for this game made their way back and forth to the training ground (yes, England have been thrashed by something approaching an A side), will hopefully know by now: they’re a top side who, with a fraction of the resources available to England, have just given them a lesson in how to play Test cricket.It’s the hubris that’s most grating with England. The hubris that thinks they can compete – and sell tickets, of course – with one of the best Test teams in the world while resting players having prioritised limited-overs cricket. The hubris that talks of their scouting system as if every eventuality has been considered and then picks a keeper who looks faintly astonished each time he manages to cling on to the ball. The hubris of a coaching system that, these days, allows batters to “work it out for themselves” and has resulted in some of the most technically deficient players to ever bat together in an England team.There’s a touch of hubris about having a coach for every discipline, too. That includes a spin-bowling coach for a side without a spinner and a fielding coach for a side that can hardly catch the bus. Statistics shown by Sky midway through the afternoon session showed that no Test team has a lower percentage of chances taken in the slips over the last three years. Given that England’s keeper and fine leg fielder also dropped chances on Saturday and a picture emerges of a side that has been consistently poor in this regard.You feel for England’s bowlers. While for an hour or so on Saturday morning, even they lost the plot for a while – the first hour of the day was arguably England’s most ragged in the field for a couple of years – they are generally admirably threatening and consistent.But they are being given no chance by a batting line-up as fragile as poppadoms and, to bowling attacks around the world, just as easy to gobble up. It gives no time for James Anderson and co to recover between innings and no reasonable totals to try to defend. This England side contains two of the greatest seamers the country has ever produced and also perhaps its fastest ever bowler. Their efforts are being wasted by what may be the weakest batting line-up England have put out in many, many years.Dom Sibley edges one to slip•Getty ImagesIf that sounds like an exaggeration, take a look at the career averages and compare it to other low points in their Test history. Apart from Joe Root, the one undisputed world-class batter in the side, nobody else averages as much as 34. Even when England were being thrashed 5-0 by West Indies in 1984, or Australia in 2006-07 and 2013-14, their line-ups contained several fine batters. Even when they lost to New Zealand in 1999 it looks stronger than this. You can take a look at the scorecards and names to make up your own mind.The ECB knows the reasons for the fragility of the batting. Everyone one reading this knows the reasons. While the board continues to disrespect domestic first-class cricket – be it with the schedules, the regulations or the prioritisation of the limited-overs games – they will continue to struggle to produce batters with the skills and discipline for Test cricket. This is not rocket science; the ECB will reap what it sows.There is no future in England pretending that the return of Ben Stokes will cure all ills. Of course he is a fine player who would boost any side. But the Top five England fielded here was the top five they have pencilled in to take-on India and Australia. It is unreasonable to expect Stokes to keep producing the miracles we saw at Leeds and Lord’s to mask the deficiencies of his team-mates.To be fair to England’s selection, you can understand why they felt they needed an extra batter. They probably needed a dozen extra batters. And you can see why they didn’t feel they needed a spinner on the fourth or fifth day. There’s hardly going to be any play.But there are very few positives to take from this performance. Not only is a proud home record about to be lost, but the arrival of India provides a real challenge in the next series. Australia won’t be looking on with a chuckle any more; they’ll be looking on worried that the Ashes is going to be uncompetitive. And if there’s one thing English cricket hates more than Australian derision, it is Australian sympathy.

A recap of some of those needing to impress the selectors over the five matches against Bangladesh

Andrew McGlashan03-Aug-2021Josh Philippe
It’s still early days for Philippe, but after passing 40 twice in his first three innings against New Zealand earlier this year, it has been more of a struggle with scores of 13, 2, 1, 13 and 0. In the West Indies, he battled to adapt to the slower surfaces compared to how the ball largely comes onto the bat in the Big Bash League. He was also used in the middle order as Australia assessed their options, but it felt like another square-peg, round-hole situation. In his favour, there will need to be another wicketkeeper in the World Cup squad and he could well travel as a utility player although it feels next year’s tournament in Australia could really be his time to shine.Ben McDermott
A stop-start international career has yet to get off the ground with his T20I strike rate still at under a run-a-ball. Like many, he is more comfortable in the top order but was used at No. 6 in the two matches he played against West Indies with scores of 2 and 7 before he picked up a quad injury. He then suffered another injury scare when he crashed through the boundary boards during the second ODI but has recovered to be available for this series and could have a chance to open in place of the absent Aaron Finch. Like Philippe, he could provide a back-up wicketkeeping option in a World Cup squad.Related

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Moises Henriques
Henriques earned his recall against India last year on the back of strong returns for the Sydney Sixers in the BBL, but against West Indies couldn’t make the most of his starts with four scores between 16 and 33. At times he also struggled to up the tempo with that 33 taking 29 balls in the third match. His leadership qualities and experience are valued around the squad but he may need a substantial score in this series to stay in contention. It has been surprising not to see him used with the ball.Ashton Turner
Having toured New Zealand without playing before returning home early for the birth of his child, he was a late addition to these two trips after a number of players withdrew having not been part of the original enlarged squad. However, it was still odd, given the middle-order role he plays in the BBL for Perth Scorchers, not to see him selected in the T20I side from the start. When he did get included midway through he made 24 and 6. It feels as though he needs a longer run this series to make a judgement. His offspin adds a useful extra string to the bow.Josh Philippe, Moises Henriques and Andrew Tye are among those hoping for more chances in Bangladesh•AFPDan Christian
It was a feel-good story when Christian was recalled to this squad amid the mass withdrawals after becoming a globe-trotting T20 star. The jury remains out whether the tale continues all the way to the World Cup. He had the perfect chance to finish a game in the first match against West Indies but became part of Australia’s hectic collapse. However, his unbeaten 22 off 14 balls in the fourth match gave a glimpse of what he can do when the innings had threatened to come off the rails. Australia won by four runs. He was only given five overs across four matches, the last of which went for 23.Andrew Tye
Tye is Australia’s fourth-leading wicket-taker in T20Is but has not had much opportunity since returning from an elbow injury. He played two matches against India last year, toured New Zealand without getting a game and then was finally brought in for the final match against West Indies last month. He stood up pretty well to a strong batting performance that threatened to storm over 200 before Tye’s three wickets pulled them back. He is likely to be jostling for one of the back-up pace bowling positions.Jason Behrendorff
The Perth Scorchers left-armer had two outings against West Indies with mixed results. He did not take a wicket in either game, but bowled a couple of good overs in Australia’s only victory and showed a few of the slower-ball variations he has been working to add to his white-ball game. In the last match, he was taken to by Evin Lewis when he was asked to bowl three overs inside the powerplay that went for 46 and included consecutive no-balls.

Despite a relatively low control percentage among elite top-order batters, he has made 2021 his own with limited resources

Andrew Fidel Fernando24-Nov-2021The first ball he faced in the second innings, Dimuth Karunaratne makes a mistake. He doesn’t quite account for the turn Rahkeem Cornwall would get from his offbreak and edges it. But the ball falls short of gully.Luck? Maybe. This guy’s always lucky. What’s he got on his side? A rabbit’s foot? Witchcraft?In Cornwall’s next over, the first ball, he makes another error. He tries to hit Cornwall inside out, but is through the shot early, and just chips it over short cover. It begins to seem like another one of those Karunaratne innings, in which he isn’t batting so well, because not long after that, he’s hit on the pad by a straighter Cornwall delivery, and because he has played no shot, West Indies review the not out decision. The ball’s going on with the arm, but it’s not turning in, and as such, not hitting the stumps. Karunaratne survives again.Related

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A few overs after that, Cornwall beats Karunaratne’s outside edge with a ball that leaps off the surface. And then, Karunaratne misses a sweep, is hit in line with the stumps, and although West Indies appeal, they don’t review. This time, they should have. Wait. This is uncanny. Was this guy a Mandela-level human rights champion in a former life? Did he save orphans from a burning building in his teenage years? Why does the universe have such a hard-on for him?But take a step back, and you begin to see that this is the pattern that so many Karunaratne innings take. In the first innings, he was dropped at slip on 14 and scratched around desperately – particularly against Cornwall – in the first session. Even on day two, when he was already batting on more than a hundred, he seemed a supremely uncomfortable starter. On day four, he made a worse start than Oshada Fernando and Angelo Mathews – the only other Sri Lanka batters to last more than 30 deliveries. But then, he outscored both of them (Mathews was not out). There’s been a lot of that lately.In 2021, Karunaratne has now hit 854 runs, which puts him at No. 3 on the year’s run-chart, behind Joe Root and Rohit Sharma. What is special about his record this year, however, is his average of 77.63; no one else with more than 400 runs is close (Root’s average – the closest – is 66.13). And yet, if you look at the control percentages, Karunaratne doesn’t fare especially well. Root has been in control of 86.9% of the balls he has faced this year. Mominul Haque, the only other batter to have hit more than 400 runs and averaged over 60 in 2021, has been in control of 86.6% of his strokes. Karunaratne, meanwhile, has a control percentage of 82.1. This doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but among elite top-order batters, 4.5% in control is substantial.And yet, there are the runs. All those runs. His last five Test innings are basically a fantasy. A 75 when Sri Lanka were trying to draw a match in Antigua. A 244 in a drawn Test on a flat Pallekele track, followed by 118 and 66 in a Test that Sri Lanka won. And then, here, 147 off 300 in the first innings, and now, 83 off 104 in the second. Note the difference in those strike rates (49 in the first innings, 80 in the second).

“When he started off, he was a good player, but now he’s turned into a great player”Angleo Mathews on Dimuth Karunaratne

When Sri Lanka were trying to get a foothold in the game, Karunaratne was watchful and conscientious. When they needed to race to a big lead in the second dig after losing much of day three to rain, he was proactive. You expect a captain to always do what is right for the side, but in 2021, he has also been good at doing what is right. Besides this recent run of scores, Karunaratne had also hit a January hundred in the second innings in Johannesburg, when Sri Lanka were trying to save a Test.Mathews, who has played with him since Karunaratne earned a cricket scholarship for the same Colombo school, after having excelled for a smaller school, put it this way: “I’ve been with him since he started playing for college as well. We go back a long way. He’s improved tremendously. When he started off, he was a good player, but now he’s turned into a great player. He’ll definitely end up in the top three or four run-scorers for Sri Lanka. He’s found his rhythm, and he’s not been complacent. He’s hungry for runs. The way he applies himself on a wicket like this is amazing.”Karunaratne is perhaps not the kind of batter whose innings you’d ever call “masterful”. Those adjectives are reserved for the Kane Williamsons of the world, or the Virat Kohlis, Joe Roots, Babar Azams, and Steve Smiths. No one is suggesting he has that kind of talent. No one is saying his name should be taken in the same breath.But despite what the control percentages say, regardless of the nerviness of his starts, although he frequently looks like he doesn’t belong, in 2021, you can’t argue with those numbers. Karunaratne has had the kind of year in which he has put his arms around a modest top order, lifted them onto his back, and carried them to competence, when they have so often seemed clueless without him, such as in that terrible home series against England.Is he lucky, or does he make his own? Does he squeeze every run out of a limited technique, and by international batting standards, pretty average hand-eye coordination.He was a caretaker captain in ODI cricket for a while, and Sri Lanka kind of did alright. They are not a world-beating Test side, but in the series he’s been in charge, they’ve suggested they aren’t terrible either. Getting the most out of limited resources kind of seems like his thing.