All posts by h716a5.icu

Joe Root has become the top run-scorer in international matches in a calendar year in England, going past Graham Gooch’s 1277 runs in 1990

S Rajesh24-Sep-2017Off the fourth ball of the tenth over of England’s innings, Joe Root worked a pretty uneventful single off Jason Holder, for the 20th run of his 79-ball 84. The run was mundane, but it had much significance: it was his 1278th international run of the home season, making him the most prolific run-getter in international matches in an English summer.Root, in having scored that single, went past Graham Gooch, who played only 15 innings in 10 matches in 1990, when he scored 1277, compared to Root’s 24 this season. Gooch’s body of work that season included the mammoth 333 against India at Lord’s, which remains the third-highest Test score in England.The top ten on the list of most runs in England during an international season consists entirely of England batsmen, with the only overseas player in the top 17 being Sir Viv Richards, who scored 1045 runs from only 10 innings in a sensational 1976 season.The top ten is also made up almost entirely of specialist batsmen; the only exception being Andrew Flintoff, in fifth place. Flintoff had a terrific year in 2004, scoring 1115 runs from only 20 innings, including 512 in nine ODIs.

Player Mat Inns Runs Ave 100s/ 50s Season JE Root 20 24 1342 61.00 3/ 9 2017GA Gooch 10 15 1277 91.21 5/ 4 1990AN Cook 17 20 1205 66.94 4/ 5 2011ME Trescothick 18 23 1196 59.8 4/ 4 2005A Flintoff 16 20 1115 65.58 4/ 7 2004KP Pietersen 19 25 1097 47.69 4/ 3 2007AJ Strauss 19 23 1086 49.36 2/ 8 2010JE Root 18 21 1069 59.38 4/ 3 2014JE Root 18 22 1050 52.5 1/ 8 2016IR Bell 17 19 1046 69.73 4/ 3 2011IVA Richards 7 10 1045 116.11 4/ 3 1976Root’s strength this home season has been his consistency in both Tests and ODIs. In 12 innings in Tests, he averages 60.75, with seven 50-plus scores, while in ODIs he has done even better, averaging 66.22 in 11 innings, with five 50-plus knocks. Root’s 12 fifty-plus scores is also a record in England, bettering Flintoff’s 11 in 2004.Joe Root averages more than 60 in both Tests and ODIs in 2017•ESPNcricinfo LtdRoot has also become only the second player, after Marcus Trescothick, to go past 1000 international runs three times in an English season. Root had previously scored 1069 runs in 2014, and 1050 runs in 2016. Trescothick went past 1000 in each of the three years from 2003 to 2005. Given Root’s age, form, consistency, and the packed cricket calendar these days, expect him to achieve this feat many more times through the remainder of his international career.

He was singing from the stands seven years ago but, despite injury problems of his own, Tom Helm could be next in line for an England Ashes call

David Hopps09-Nov-2017Tom Helm can claim to have been involved in a winning Ashes series – but only in the middle of the Barmy Army fan club.Any experience is useful when you look around at England’s gathering injury crisis and realise to your surprise that you might be one injury away from an Ashes call up.Seven years ago, Helm was on a supporters’ tour, singing songs about Andrew Strauss to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Sloop John B” as England took the series 3-1.Fortunately, considering the song was about the man who is now the most powerful figure in English cricket, the lyrics were tasteful.Helm, the 23-year-old Middlesex seamer, is a veteran of only 17 first-class matches, but if Jake Ball’s ankle trouble proves terminal or disaster strikes elsewhere, England’s Ashes pace-bowling shortage will rival the time that supermarkets couldn’t find a decent iceberg lettuce for love or money because of freak weather in Spain.The cover will soon be in place as England Lions fly out to Australia on Tuesday before two weeks of red-ball practice in Brisbane and another fortnight, this time with the white ball, in Perth.”I would be lying if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind,” Helm said as he took a break from Lions preparations at Loughborough. “But my hopes aren’t particularly high for that as there are a lot of guys in the queue.”I am not saying never. I don’t think I am miles off. There is Liam Plunkett, there is Mark Wood, and a handful of other guys there or thereabouts. But with the relatively inexperienced squad they have already got out there I would probably add to that inexperience.”Personally, I don’t think it’s too soon. I think if I did get the call I would be ready to go but I am not naively thinking I am next in line.”The problem with Helm’s diagnosis is that Plunkett is at the Bangladesh Premier League with Sylhet Sixers and, as far as is known, is not excitedly waiting for his phone to ring.And Wood, potentially destructive, is yet to bowl off his full run at Loughborough as he tries to fight back from his latest injury woes and England have no intention of risking him in a Test until they are absolutely convinced of his resilience. Nobody, not even Wood, can be confident that day will ever come.If Helm wins an Ashes call up he can rest assured that Australia will dub him as the latest “no-name”. But Kevin Shine, the ECB’s lead fast bowling coach, is just one good judge who is impressed by the insistent line he bowls and the bounce he gains from a slender 6ft 4in frame would suit Australian pitches.

“I didn’t have a bad red-ball season but to be brutally honest I was over the moon to get out the end without being in a cast of some sort”Tom Helm

Perhaps his mum, Jacqui, knows something. The Helm family follows his career avidly. Helm raised an eyebrow: “My mum has been pestering me all week. I have told her to calm down. Naturally she’s got very excited but she’s been like that since I was 14.”Two of his Middlesex colleagues have already had a demoralising Ashes experience before the Brisbane Test even arrives. Toby Roland-Jones was a certain pick until a back stress fracture ruled him out shortly before the squad was announced and Steve Finn – an emergency stand in after Ben Stokes’ dead-of-night pugilism – tore knee cartilage while batting in the nets in Perth.Even Helm has been taking it easy after a minor hamstring injury disrupted his Championship season. No wonder. His own career has also been plagued by injury, to the extent that he completed an England Lions one-day tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year by saying he was just grateful he had got through in one piece.”I played a four-day game against Warwickshire, then we went straight to Bristol to play a Twenty20 on the Friday and I just felt my hamstring running around the outfield. It didn’t ping or anything, it was probably over-use because I was pretty tired. I have had a number of injections and a good rehab plan going.”I ran in off the full run-up for the first time today since the back end of last season. I had a little hamstring issue. I’m fit.”England would want to see further proof of that.Helm’s 2017 county summer was one of gradual progress, nothing more exciting than that. He played only five of Middlesex’s 14 Championship games – selection issues, not injuries – taking 19 wickets at 31.68, and actually progressed faster in Twenty20 where his stats were excellent.”I didn’t have a bad red-ball season but it would have been nice to have done a bit better than I did,” he said. “But to be brutally honest it was my first full season and I was over the moon to get out the end without being in a cast of some sort.”Life must have felt simpler seven years ago as he joined in the Ashes sing-songs:He says that, at 15, he never once looked down at the outfield and imagined that he might one day play in the Ashes. But the Barmy Army still selected him for a game against The Fanatics – their Australian counterparts.Perhaps they knew something England are yet to discover.

South Africa’s plan of bowling short to bridge the gap between India’s experienced, confident batsmen and their own struggles went awry when their inexperienced bowlers erred in line

Sidharth Monga in Johannesburg18-Feb-2018In Twenty20 cricket, it is often the last few overs of each innings that change games, and are hence more analysed. It is less frequent that wickets in the Powerplay seal a game’s fate. Runs scored in a Powerplay that decide a match is even rarer. India scored 125 runs in their last 14 overs, South Africa 134 in theirs, and they did so despite losing wickets in desperate attempts to score quickly. And yet South Africa lost by a big margin.It was a match decided in the period of play when South Africa’s least experienced players went up against India’s most experienced ones. Debutant Junior Dala and Dane Paterson, playing only in his sixth T20I, wouldn’t even have been part of a full-strength South Africa side.Be that as it may, South Africa won the toss and asked for this contest upfront. Two newcomers against a top four that has individually led their batting units in the IPL. What you hope for at these times is well-set plans and spot-on execution. In ran Paterson to start the game with two men back on the leg side and no third man. Rohit Sharma saw one ball, and crunched the second – short and wide outside off – right where third man would have been. Later in the first over, Rohit showed those two men on the hook make no difference on a small ground, comfortably clearing them with a short-arm jab. The next ball he bunted over the infielders on the off side, knowing that’s all he had to do to get four.Dala, with the novelty of his wrong-footed action wearing off, bowled short and wide second ball, and Rohit accepted the same offer to third man. Dala did get a wicket with a straight short ball, primarily because Rohit tried to manufacture something out of the ordinary. In came Raina, and for one ball South Africa had a third man for him. Right after, South Africa went back to bowling short without a third man in place. Raina saw it coming, it was not express pace, and it was deposited over midwicket.Thirty-nine of the 78 runs in India’s Powerplay, with three sixes and four fours, came behind square on the off side. As a plan, you could understand why South Africa did. They were the weakened side, they needed to do something exceptional to take early wickets. “The plan was to try and take wickets,” JP Duminy said. “I felt if we were in that position, we were in a strong position, especially at a venue like this. I wasn’t too unhappy, the mindset and plan was an aggressive one which was to try and take wickets and with that, there are going to be times when you leak a few boundaries.”Associated PressIn the end, India scored 78, and had lost a wicket lesser than the minimum South Africa wanted. It is easy to think South Africa didn’t get the memo that India are currently playing the short ball well. It is not the case. A well-executed bouncer can be difficult for any batsman in the world. It is slightly higher risk but South Africa felt they needed to take the risk to bridge the gap between the two sides. Just that Paterson and Dala kept providing them the width required to exploit the absence of a third man.”To be honest I don’t think they have played it very well,” Duminy said. “It is going to come down to the execution of our skill. If we execute a plan well, it’s potentially going to work, but unfortunately with our plans in place, we didn’t execute as well as we’d have liked. I still believe and feel the plans are good, but especially when it’s a shorter format you have to execute well. Unfortunately there were few missed opportunities throughout the innings. But we’ll definitely come back stronger. I firmly believe that.”Were they asking too much of their young bowlers to bowl short and give no room to the batsmen? “They are inexperienced in terms of international cricket, but they are very experienced in terms of domestic cricket and what they have done at domestic level,” Duminy said. “They have a high standard in terms of their execution, but I’m not blaming that.”At the end of the day the batting has been our main Achilles heel throughout the series and that’s something we have to take on board. You will leak runs in this format, so even though we went for 200, from the way we started to the way we came back there are lots of positives to take.”South Africa could have asked Chris Morris to open the bowling for this plan, and used Paterson towards the end, a role he is more accustomed to. T20 is a format which bridges the gap between sides: South Africa were not behind in the last 14 overs of either innings. It will be interesting to see, in this light, if South Africa persist with the plan or tamper it.

There was a collective failure from England’s batsmen on the second day at Trent Bridge, but issues start at the top

George Dobell19-Aug-20185:37

#PoliteEnquiries: Why can’t England convert 10s into 20s?

We need to talk about Alastair Cook.We know he is England’s most prolific batsman. We know his place in England’s Test history is assured. We even know he was the top-scorer in England’s top six at Trent Bridge on Sunday and that, aged 33, there should be some miles left in the tank.But Cook is starting to look like the gym subscription you forget to cancel; the mobile phone contract that ties you in long after the screen is broken; the much-loved family pet whose next trip to the vet may not involve a return journey. It’s starting to become hard to deny that he is in an inexorable decline. That he is being retained long after England should have moved on.Wait there, you might say. It’s only a few Tests since he scored a double-century in Australia. And, not long before that, he scored another double against West Indies. And, even in this game, he has taken an outstanding slip catch.All that’s true. But between those double-centuries – a five-Test span which saw the Ashes decided – he averaged just 14.40. And, since the double in Melbourne – seven-and-a-half Tests that saw England defeated by New Zealand and held to a draw by Pakistan – he is averaging just 19.38. And, while it’s true he held a fine catch in the first innings, he missed a pretty straightforward one in the second and has taken around 70 percent of chances since the start of 2016. That’s about 10 percent below the rate of South Africa and Australia in the slips over the same period.What we see now is an opening batsman uncertain where his off stump is. An opening batsman uncertain whether to play or leave. Who, in going straight back rather than back and across, seems to be stretching to play deliveries only slightly outside off stump. An opening batsmen who is stuck in the crease and often looks hurried. And bowling attacks who are on to him and know exactly where to bowl.Those double-centuries have something in common. They were made on slow surfaces providing the bowlers little assistance. The first one, against West Indies in August 2017, was also made against a pink ball that refused to swing while the second one, at Melbourne, was on a pitch so absent of assistance for bowlers that it was subsequently rated “poor” by the ICC.That’s a pattern that extends a long way further back. If we reflect on Cook’s most recent Test centuries, we find evidence that suggests he has become something approaching the ultimate flat-track bully. Before those two doubles, we have to go back to November 2016 for a Cook century. That one, in Rajkot, was made on a surface so slow and flat that England passed 500 in their first innings – he was one of four England players to make a century in the drawn match – while the previous one (in July 2016) came at Old Trafford on a surface upon which Joe Root made a career-best 235 and England declared just short of 600. Before that, he made another double against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi (in October 2015) on a surface on which England again declared just short of 600.You have to go back a long, long way to find a century made in demanding batting conditions or even on a quick pitch.Those vast scores distort Cook’s record. For example, he finished the Ashes with a series average of 47, which sounds pretty good. But he passed 50 only once in the series – in the unbeaten 244 – and the rest of the time contributed just 132 in eight innings at an average of 16.50. He has long since stopped offering any sense of assurance at the top of the order. Instead, he is doing just enough to preserve his place but nowhere near enough to shape the course of a game except on the very flattest surfaces. Besides, if you give any good county batsman enough opportunities, they will register the occasional high score. It’s consistency that marks out the really good players.Getty ImagesEngland can’t afford Cook’s failures, either. Their middle order, for all its entertainment value, needs protecting from the ball at its newest and the bowlers at their freshest. They have already pushed Joe Root up to No. 3 and Ollie Pope – who had never come to the crease in a first-class innings before the 20th over – up to No. 4. On Test debut he was in before the ball was 10 overs old.Then you have Jonny Bairstow, whose reaction to every situation appears to be to try to hit the ball harder, in at No. 5, the aggressive Ben Stokes at No. 6, and a man at No. 7 who is 23 Tests into his career but has yet to make a century. All the recipes for collapse are there. Which is why they have now lost all ten wickets in a single session three times in the last two years. Between 1936 and 2016 that never happened. England need Cook to provide the old-fashioned grit to complement the rest of the team’s new-world flair.There are a couple of factors strongly in Cook’s favour. The first is that Ed Smith, the national selector, is clearly a believer in his strengths. Smith was, after all, still advocating the retention of Cook in England’s ODI team when he was sacked just ahead of the 2015 World Cup.But Cook’s greatest asset at present is not so much his record as the record of those vying to replace him. For all his current problems, with Keaton Jennings averaging 23.76 after nine-and-a-half Tests and 22 in three-and-a-half since his recall, Cook is not even the most worrying opener in the side.In a perfect world – a world where the domestic structure is designed to develop Test players – there should be a queue of candidates knocking at the door to replace both Cook and Jennings. In reality, however, we know England have tried a dozen options to partner Cook without success. There aren’t too many options left.Haseeb Hameed, who left the India tour at the end of 2016 looking every inch a Test batsman, has not made a century since. Indeed, he’s averaged just 20.07 in first-class cricket since with three half-centuries in 44 innings.Ben Duckett, who was good enough to score more than 1,300 runs in the 2016 season, is averaging 26.78 in Division Two this year.And while Nick Gubbins is averaging almost 60 in the Championship season, he is playing only his fourth game having suffered injury and has a modest record against spin bowling. Bearing in mind England’s winter plans – tours to Sri Lanka and the Caribbean – that does him few favours.Rory Burns acknowledges his third hundred of the season•Getty ImagesThen there’s Rory Burns. He has almost 881 Division One runs this season – that’s 181 more than anyone else in the division – at an average of 67.76 (almost 30 more than Cook for Essex) and recently won praise from Dale Steyn for his temperament and technique. He is not an especially pretty batsman – he has an odd habit of peering to midwicket just ahead of delivery as if the fielder has just whispered something appalling about him – but he is effective, hungry, bright and determined. England’s batting collapses are none too pretty, either.It might not help his opening partners that Cook is at the other end. With his own struggles to worry about, he is in no position to take the pressure off them by either hitting a bowler off their length or even giving the sense of permanence that might dispirit them. Instead, the novice openers see the scoreboard going nowhere and bowlers allowed to settle into spells. There’s no slipstream to benefit from.Cook has had a great career. And he is going to have every opportunity to bat for a day or two in the second innings of this game. But all the evidence suggests the old lion is limping and the hyenas are circling.

All you need to know about the 24-year-old middle-order batsman with the best first-class average among all contemporary cricketers

Shashank Kishore22-Aug-2018Did you know?Vihari is at the summit of a very elite list. Among all contemporary cricketers, Vihari has the world’s best ‘s first-class average of 59.45. Steven Smith, the next best, is at 57.27.What has he done to merit selection?The first sign of Vihari being on the selection radar came in June, when he was one of just four players to be picked in both the 50-overs and four-day squads for India A’s tour of England. He made the opportunity count by finishing as the third-highest run-getter in the one-day tri-series (253 runs in three innings with a best of 147 against West Indies A). In his most recent first-class game against South Africa A in Bengaluru, he struck a match-winning 148. He now has two fifties and a century in his last five first-class innings.Has he played overseas outside of his stints with India A?Vihari isn’t an IPL regular; he last featured in 2015. He has spent his recent summers either in England or Bangladesh playing league cricket. In England, he played two seasons (2014 and 2015) for Hutton CC in the Shephered Neame Essex First Division League, where he’s made six centuries. That aside, he’s been part of preparatory tours to Sri Lanka with Andhra, the state he now plays for after shifting from Hyderabad in 2016.What are his strengths?Sanath Kumar, now part of the India Under-19 and India A set-ups as bowling coach, has had a ringside view of Vihari the batsman in a two-year term as Andhra coach. “He is very strong square of the wicket on both sides, and that is a direct sign of good back-foot play,” Sanath told ESPNcricinfo. “His picking of lengths is a great strength; it gives him more time to play his shots.”In the 2017-18 red-ball season, he worked a lot on his bat-swing, playing straight and close to the body, in tough conditions. His discipline to leave and eliminate those extravagant drives got him the runs. If you purely go by the numbers, many others may have outscored him, but in terms of quality, he was right up there. In the shorter versions, there was some reluctance to bat higher initially, but his strike rates have improved tremendously without making a compromise on his methods.”What did the “good qualities” fetch him during the 2017-18 domestic season?He finished the Ranji Trophy season with 752 runs in six matches at 94.00, including a career-best 302 not out, his maiden triple-century, against Odisha. The highlight, though, came in the Irani Cup in March against Ranji Trophy champions Vidarbha. He top scored for Rest of India with a 327-ball 183, a stonewalling effort against a pace attack consisting Umesh Yadav and Rajneesh Gurbani, the leading wicket-taker in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy season. He battled his way through with the lower order for company, and shared a 216-run seventh-wicket partnership with Jayant Yadav.What has he done in junior cricket?Vihari was an Under-19 World Cup winner in 2012. He wasn’t initially part of the squad, but was picked after Manan Vohra, the opening batsman, fractured his thumb a day before the team’s departure to Australia. In the subsequent year, he played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL and even dismissed Chris Gayle, after being asked to bowl his fastish offbreaks with the new ball.

Dilruwan Perera claimed another five-wicket haul to cap a successful series with the ball – not that you’d know it

Andrew Fidel Fernando at the SSC25-Nov-2018If you do not know much about Sri Lanka offspinner Dilruwan Perera, please acquaint yourself with some 100% accurate, rock-solid, absolutely-not-made-up facts about the man. As a reserve firefighter he routinely runs into blazes no one else dares go near. He has rescued nine infants, five cats and – though he hates to admit it – three members of parliament. As a teenager, angered by his school’s continued refusal to fix leaks in the classroom roof, Dilruwan broke in at night and set up the class furniture on the roof, as a protest. He was chaired around town by fellow students for his heroism and enterprise. Once, coming across an abandoned nest of baby birds, he ate a whole tree’s worth of mangoes and regurgitated them in order to raise the chicks to adulthood. He has a keenly developed eye for the human anatomy, and has helped police arrest dozens of public nudity offenders by looking at grainy social media photos and then picking out the culprits’ backsides from a crowd.Before you start preparing a libel lawsuit, I will confess immediately that all of the above are totally false, but there is a good reason for having made things up, and that is to somehow raise Dilruwan Perera awareness, even by peddling aggrandising lies. Some truths now. Did you know he has now appeared in 34 Tests? That’s 11 more than Mohammad Asif. Were you aware he now has 147 Test wickets? That’s 34 more than Ryan Harris.And are you aware that in this ongoing Test series against England, he is the highest wicket-taker, with 22 dismissals, and has very little chance of being caught? You’re not, are you? Completely unintentionally, for whom amongst us does not crave recognition, this is just how Dilruwan rolls. Forever overshadowed, perennially underappreciated.As a cricketer, over the past five years, it is difficult to think of anyone, anywhere who has been more incognito. When he gets a five-wicket haul, which he had done on seven occasions before day three in Colombo, there is always a tastier narrative. Maybe Rangana Herath took four at the other end and broke a record. Or was there a controversy about the quality of the pitch? Someone tampered with the ball, maybe. Someone else was called for a suspicious action. Wonder of wonders, Sri Lanka got their reviews right.Or maybe, as is most often the case for a Sri Lanka bowler, Dilruwan took a five-for, led the team off the field holding the ball aloft, then the batsmen came out and proceeded to put on one of their show-stopping, history-making, miss-an-over-and-they-are-nine-down collapses. Dilruwan has taken eight wickets in this game, but no one cares, because his team have produced passages in which they have lost 9 for 67, and then 4 for 37.Even when Sri Lanka were bowling, there was a bigger story – Lakshan Sandakan’s two reprieves of Ben Stokes, who was first caught at cover, then at slip, only to be recalled on both occasions because Sandakan had overstepped.Dilruwan Perera celebrates a breakthrough•Associated PressDilruwan has now been called upon to step into Herath’s shoes and lead this spin attack, but in so many ways he is more Herath than Herath himself. Where Herath was kept in the shadows by Muttiah Muralitharan until he was 31, Dilruwan was 36 before he received the spin-leader mantle. Only now does he stand a chance of playing on tracks where Sri Lanka field just one spinner. If Herath’s action was a throwback, Dilruwan’s is straight out of the 1920s – a brief straight-on amble, a gentle pivot, a velvet delivery.Dilruwan is not tall enough for it to be an obvious advantage, not short enough for there to be an against-the-odds angle, not slim enough to look athletic, not pudgy enough to be made fun of, and too quiet to deliver newsworthy lines. Herath is a banker, but even that seems too sexy for our guy. He’s more like a banker’s accountant. Or a banker’s accountant’s accountant.His strengths, as a bowler, which are substantial, are plain to see, of course. He bowls an accurate line, keeps it on a good length, reads batsmen well, mixes up his pace, turns some and slides others on to the pad.If all that sounds too boring to contemplate, perhaps it is worth contemplating Dilruwan anyway, even if in the form of a fabricated fantasy. There Dilruwan stands on a deserted island, shirtless, pecs glistening, spearing a fish from 20 metres. There he sits, an adoring crowd gasping at a feat of strength, as he cracks coconut after coconut between his thighs.Give him a few seconds of thought on a day on which he took another five-wicket haul. Because next time he does it, there might be a flood, or a brawl, or a hornet attack. In addition, obviously, to another Sri Lanka batting collapse.

With the team using 26 players over 11 matches in the last three series, stability is not the first word that comes to mind for the defending champions

Andrew McGlashan05-Jan-20195:53

Martyn: Like Lyon’s selection in ODI squad, not Siddle’s

The Australian selection meetings would make a fascinating fly-on-the-wall documentary. They certainly aren’t dull (and this isn’t even about Marnus Labuschagne).For example, here’s a quick recap of the last three ODI squads:England – June 2018:Tim Paine, Aaron Finch, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Travis Head, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew TyeSouth Africa – November 2018:Aaron Finch, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, D’Arcy Short, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Adam ZampaIndia – January 2019:Aaron Finch, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Peter Siddle, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Adam ZampaThat’s potentially 26 players over 11 matches in those three series. Even taking into account the absence of The Duo (Australia’s one-day slump began well before the ball-tampering fallout), the inevitable injuries that occur, and wanting to look at bench strength, that is a lot. Less than five months from the World Cup, where they are defending champions, stability is not the word that springs to mind. Chaos perhaps does.”We believe the squad we have selected will give us a great opportunity to not only be competitive at home this summer, but it also allows us to start to build continuity leading into next year’s tournament” – National selector Trevor Hohns after naming the squad to face South Africa in November.”After a disappointing period in ODI cricket, the National Selection Panel along with team coaches have reviewed our performances across this format and we’ve identified a number of key areas that we feel we need to improve in order to help put this team in the best possible position to turn this period around. With this in mind and the World Cup looming, we’ve selected players we feel provide us with the flexibility to play a variety of roles at different stages of a match.” – Hohns after naming the squad to face India in January.Also see: Australia make wholesale changes, bring back Siddle and Lyon for ODIsThere are some caveats to the vast number of changes: the main three quicks – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins – have been rested/rotated/managed while Nathan Coulter-Nile has experienced some back pain. It is to be assumed that the big three come straight back for the World Cup, although they are far from the magic bullet as their presence has not helped arrest the one-day slide.Although Peter Siddle’s recall stands out – he last played an ODI in 2010 – it is perhaps a little less left-field than it looks given his reinvention as a fine T20 bowler in the BBL. All the other bowlers selected make some sense as well – or at least can be argued one way or another – although the selectors continue to go round in circles about whether Nathan Lyon is an ODI cricketer.The most interesting u-turn has been in the batting personnel. Steven Smith and David Warner remain on the outer and are all-but certain to be in the World Cup squad, but that doesn’t hide the shift that has taken place. The selectors don’t seem to know what they want or, perhaps, they know what they want but don’t know to get it.A year ago, (with, it should be noted, Warner and Smith in the XI) Australia couldn’t find the top-order tempo to match England. On the tour of England a few months later, a hotch-potch side was comfortably overpowered. So at the start of this Australian season, the focus was on power as Chris Lynn was recalled to much fanfare.David Warner and Steven Smith look on before the start of the match•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesLynn made 57 in three matches against South Africa. One of those innings brought 44 at a run-a-ball, then he was asked to open and made a first-ball duck. It’s not much of a sample size. Usman Khawaja (last ODI January 2017) and Peter Handscomb (last ODI October 2017) are now back in the fold, Travis Head has gone from a one-day cricketer to a Test cricketer in the space of six months, and four ODIs have been enough to make a judgement on Short.Here’s Hohns again: “Usman is a batsman we know can put vital runs on the board at the top of the order, and Peter is not only a fine player of spin bowling, he’s also a batsman we know can hold an innings together while keeping the scoreboard ticking over.”Neither Khawaja or Handscomb were deemed the right men for the job previously. Khawaja’s List A numbers are very solid – an average of 45.76 – but it feels like clutching at straws if he is suddenly going to be the answer to revive the top order. Handscomb averaged 51.57 in the JLT, a much derided competition, but then Lynn averaged 75.33 with two centuries to Handscomb’s none. If Australia still believe totals of 280-300 will suffice, it’s putting an awful lot on the bowlers.We are in strange times. So much about Australia’s selections is a cross between a holding pattern and just hoping the next idea works. It might be, somehow, that it all comes together in England: Smith and Warner make the difference to the top order, Glenn Maxwell provides an x-factor, Alex Carey becomes a finisher, they work out what role the spinner should play, Starc rediscovers his swing and the juggling of the fast bowlers come out with a combination that can dismantle any opposition.It might, but don’t count on it.

With close to 30,000 people attending the four games in Jaipur, we wonder what a few sensible tweaks can do for the women’s game in India

Annesha Ghosh in Jaipur13-May-2019She has only ever played T20 cricket internationally, and has a batting average of 4.75 there from nine innings. But two-two-two-four off the last four balls from Amelia Kerr in the Women’s T20 Challenge final to clinch victory for Supernovas, and Radha Yadav is a star in the making now. Exactly what a platform like a kind-of-IPL is meant to do for women’s cricket in India.All told, it was a success. Four matches. Largely with good turnouts (13,000-odd were at the final). Three of the four games were played under lights, there was some excellent action and close finishes, Velocity choosing to play for qualification to the final instead of going for a win against Supernovas perhaps the only negative.Lots to celebrate then, but there are a couple of things to think about for the organisers and powers that be.Let there be light, as much as possibleIndia haven’t played a day-night or night-only home international fixture since March 2016. The first non-day match they played, at home or away, since that World T20 game in Mohali was at the 2018 World T20, in the semi-final, which they lost to England. Failing to account for the dew factor and the lack of an idea of the intricacies of fielding under lights – apart from other things – abetted their loss.ALSO READ: A high-quality advertisement for women’s cricket in IndiaAt the Women’s T20 Challenge, nearly a dozen catches were shelled – by Indian and overseas players, young and experienced. The swirling ball against the backdrop of the night sky posed all three teams a challenge. At the T20 World Cup next year, in Australia, two of India’s four league-stage games will begin at 7pm local time, the remaining two at 2pm. The 2021 ODI World Cup, too, will have a sprinkling of day-night and night games.With two world tournaments in the next two years, there is a case for the BCCI to consider hosting a few games under lights during the home series against South Africa later this year, and ensure a few night fixtures across all domestic tournaments, including the age-group competitions, in the upcoming season.”Playing under lights is actually challenging because the whole atmosphere changes, the way the wind blows, with the light and the way the ball travels on the field,” said India and Velocity batsman Veda Krishnamurthy, who took most catches (and, more importantly, dropped none) in the tournament. “So, at least if we start playing T20s in the evening [that will help] and also help bring in more crowd.”Around 13,000 people turned up for the final•BCCIThere’s no blockbuster without the publicityA standalone identity, in a non-metro city, held on the sidelines of the men’s IPL were all vital when it came to testing the waters for a possible women’s IPL, or a short three-team event to start with. If the response to the four-match competition – on social media and at the ground – is anything to go by, the Women’s T20 Challenge was more than a sleeper hit.Scheduling the final on the weekend, with a 7.30pm start, allowed appreciable prime-time viewership, the high-quality cricket in the final-ball thriller only bolstering the case for women’s cricket in India to have a bigger, a more expanded T20 league of its own.As crowd turnout goes, the attendance at Sawai Mansingh Stadium grew with each night fixture – from roughly 4,000 in the opening match to 7,000-plus in the second, to over 13,000 for the final. Even the only match with a 3.30pm start, in the sweltering Jaipur heat, had nearly 3,500 people in attendance at the stadium.Be informed, these are numbers for a tournament that didn’t even have much advertisement around the stadium premises. Locals – cab drivers, store owners, hotel owners, children and women – who came to watch the matches said that TV commercials, though sporadic, carried by the host broadcaster during the closing stages of the IPL’s league phase played a part in piquing their interest.Stick to the non-metrosImagine, then, what Women’s T20 Challenge signage at the airport (which had many Rajasthan Royals hoardings well after the team had been eliminated), the railway station, and in the immediate vicinity of the stadium could have done. No reason, then, for the BCCI to doubt the cricket-watching appetite – for women’s games – among Indians, right?”Smaller cities could work, because of the curiosity factor…,” Mithali Raj, who also called for an expanded competition, said. “We could add one or two more teams, but [making] it a double-leg [competition], where we could play each team twice, will make it more interesting because any team can beat any team in the league. That gives every player and team a few more games.”Back in the day, to promote the sport under WCAI [the now-defunct Women’s Cricket Association of India], we tried to play at smaller places where a lot of people came to watch maybe because of the curiosity factor, but we used to attract a lot of people. So that isn’t a bad idea.”Worth thinking about.

In October, 35 young cricketers from 16 Commonwealth countries travelled to NCA for a month-long training camp

Sruthi Ravindranath in Bengaluru30-Oct-2019Shafina Mahesh, the Singapore women’s team captain, cannot stop pinching herself. With childlike enthusiasm, she has been taking advantage of the golden ticket that has brought her to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, where she has been given the opportunity to train under one of the legends of the game: Rahul Dravid.Shafina is one of 35 young cricketers from 16 Commonwealth countries who have travelled to NCA as part of a month-long training camp initiated by the Indian government and facilitated by the BCCI. The group comprises players of varied age groups: while Shafina is one of the older players – she is 20 – there are trainees as young as 12, coming from countries like Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, Malaysia, and Jamaica, to name a few.”Just seeing him (Dravid) around here every day is inspiring,” Shafina says excitedly. While it has been an overwhelming experience for her, Shafina is not losing sight of her goal, something she reckons this short stint in India has already started helping her with: “I want to be like MS Dhoni. I’m a wicketkeeper. Wicketkeeping is what I’ve been focusing on here at this camp too.”Luckily, Shafina has been able to get a more focused coaching experience because she is one of the two women wicketkeepers in the group.”There’s a lot we have learnt about our stance, how we get up with the ball, stumping, foot movement, reaction time and other things,” she says. “But for me as a batsman, it’s been more about going back to basics here. Getting the foundation right and strong because that is the only way to move forward, I’ve learnt.”Alexander Volschenk poses with Rahul Dravid•Alexander VolschenkAlthough the programme is supervised by Dravid, other NCA coaches including Apurva Desai, Kalpana Venkatachar, T Dilip and Ragini Malhotra have worked with the group, helping the youngsters understand their skillsets better and widen their knowledge.Coming from countries where the infrastructure is sparse and, in many cases, the game itself is still developing, the challenges are manifold for all these players. The other big challenge is most players in the group are inexperienced, or too young. And that, Dravid points out, is something he himself was uncertain about when the programme commenced.”The passion and enthusiasm has been terrific,” Dravid told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s not easy for some of these boys and girls. Some are 12 and 13, most of them are under 16 years, they’re leaving their country and coming for the first time to spend a month here. They probably didn’t even know what to expect. Initially, I thought they might struggle but they have the enthusiasm, passion and the desire to play the game.”This enthusiasm has helped Dravid and the coaches to quickly find a connect with the youngsters. “They’re always in the indoors [facility], throwing a tennis ball or something. It’s been heartening. All the coaches have mentioned that they’re happy with the response they’ve got from these boys and girls, which is all you can expect.”The BCCI has been involved in exchange programmes for a long time with major cricketing countries like Australia and England, which has paved the way for players to upgrade their skills in a professional set-up. The NCA has been key in the BCCI’s vision of developing such programmes, especially with Dravid’s recent appointment as the academy’s head.The young trainees acknowledge that the state-of-the-art NCA facilities have been eye-opening.”It’s a new experience to train here and learn,” 14-year-old Namibian batsman Alexander Volschenk says. “In my country, we practice on concrete pitches and not on turf. So when we actually go and play in South Africa or somewhere else, we’re not used to any of that. When we bowl, we end up bowling wides, and we bat inconsistently. But here it’s not that way. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”Our national teams have brought in some professional guys but in India they groom players from Under-16 itself. In our country, the focus is more on national players. In India, you have Virat Kohli and four-five other Virat Kohlis in the making, waiting to go. But that’s not the case in places where cricket is still coming up.”To smoothen the understanding, Dravid has kept the programme simple and personalised it for each participant, based on his/her background, age, skills, level of cricketing competence, and experience.Shafina Mahesh”In other camps, most of them have similar abilities, similar sort of experiences of having played the game,” Dravid says. “Here you have some people who have more experience, people who haven’t played the game, some with very little experience. So we had to tailor-make these things based on every individual’s requirements, both on skill side of things and the physical fitness side.”What each one ends up achieving might be different because they come with different skillsets. In the end, the idea was to give them all a good experience. It was a challenge for our coaches that way. It’s been a good exposure for some of the players because they’ve never had a chance to experience some of these facilities. They’ve hopefully benefited from it.”While the trainees’ visible enthusiasm suggested that the camp was nothing short of a hit, one wonders whether a one-off camp like this one can actually have a long-lasting impact.”We [at the NCA] would like to be in a position where we can make the maximum impact,” Dravid says. “We believe we have the facilities and the know-how to make a real impact on young boys and girls. With better planning, better things can definitely be done.”Just like Shafina, Volschenk wants to go home with new tricks that would serve him well in the future. “I was standing too much on my heels, too upright, they told me how to play by putting more weight in the middle of my feet so that became easy for me,” Volschenk says. “But the biggest takeaway would be my bowling, which has improved.”The camp ended on October 30, a bit too soon for teenaged Malaysian quick bowler Dhanusri Muhunan, who says, “To be honest I want this camp to be longer. But I hope they have another camp like this so the ones who’ve missed out also get a chance.”When they had landed in Bengaluru for the camp starting on October 1, the group was uncertain and anxious: being in a completely new place and learning from people whom they have never met before. But the nerves vanished when they started training alongside some of the best names in Indian cricket.They met openers Shikhar Dhawan and Smriti Mandhana, and fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Some wished they would run into India captain Virat Kohli, who, unsurprisingly, is who most of them aspire to be like.”I would like to play for West Indies one day and I want to bat like Kohli,” 14-year-old Adrian Mahase from Trinidad and Tobago says. “I want to make use of this opportunity to become like him in the future.”As far as Dravid is concerned, though, the best thing would be for the youngsters to return with more of what they came to the camp with: love for the game.”I just want them to take back the love for the game,” he says. “Different people will take different things. Some of them might have had great facilities here but go back to no facilities or matches, but we can’t control that. What we can control is for them to get a taste of what’s it like to play cricket with such facilities and some improvement in some skills – be it fitness or anything.”We’d be happy if there’s some improvement somewhere. And hopefully some real love for the game, some friendships and good memories.”

A versatile keeper-batsman and a somewhat forgotten allrounder are among those who could be in for a big payday

Gaurav Sundararaman17-Dec-2019The IPL 2020 mini auction will have a maximum of 73 spots up for grabs. Historically, small auctions have favoured players, big and unknown, making them millionaires in a matter of minutes owing to the high demand. Pawan Negi (2016), Varun Chakravarthy (2019), Ben Stokes (2017), Tymal Mills (2017) and Ravindra Jadeja (2012) are good examples of that trend in the past. In this auction, the focus will most likely be on overseas fast bowlers, allrounders and Indian middle-order batsmen.Here are some of the players ESPNcricinfo predicts could attract a fierce bidding war.Podcast: Take all our money, Pat Cummins

Another IPL auction, another million-dollar bid for Unadkat? Which young Indian players should you watch out for? And where did that 48-year old veteran come from? The Stump Mic Crew look ahead to the IPL auction. Click here to listen.

Glenn MaxwellThe last time the Australia allrounder was part of small auction – in 2013 – Mumbai Indians bought him for USD 1 million. He’s not lived up to his name in the tournament, with just 1397 runs at 22.90 in 69 matches, but current form is what franchises pay attention to.Maxwell, who has returned after taking a break due to mental-health reasons, might go for big bucks this time too. Since the beginning of this year, he has 635 runs in 22 innings at an average of 33.42 in ODIs and scores of 56, 113* and 62 in the three T20Is he’s batted in.Apart from Mumbai, Maxwell has also been part of Delhi Capitals (as well as Daredevils) and Kings XI Punjab. While one of his original owners might want him back, three other franchises – Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore (all three have new head coaches) – are also likely to contest hard for Maxwell.Who would fancy him: While the Knight Riders could think of playing Maxwell as an opener, Royal Challengers and Sunrisers could utilise him as the designated finisher as both teams have been heavily reliant on their top three.ALSO READ: IPL 2020 auction: How the squads stand and what they needPat CumminsThe demand for overseas quicks in this auction, as various franchise officials predict, is going to very high. Barring Knight Riders and Mumbai, the other six franchises are looking for an experienced overseas quick or death bowler. With Mitchell Starc opting out of the auction, Cummins, the No.1 Test bowler, is primed to be in high demand.In addition to extreme pace, Cummins offers control, has variations, and can bowl in any phase. In the 2017 IPL, he was the leading wicket-taker for the Daredevils (now Capitals) with 15 wickets. Overall, Cummins’ T20 economy rate is 7.72 while his IPL economy rate is 8.29. Cummins has already scored a point over his rivals by listing as an allrounder, which is the second set of players in the auctions order that will come up on Thursday.Who would fancy him: Expect Kings XI and Royal Challengers to keenly contest for the Australian quick.Sheldon Cottrell brings out the salute•BCCISheldon Cottrell Cottrell has already earned a lot of fans with his signature salutesend-off. Both at the World Cup this summer, and in the ongoing limited-overs series in India, Cottrell has proved he has the pace, variations and attitude to put pressure on the top order. The West Indies left-arm fast bowler has an economy rate of 7.46 over 83 T20 matches. What could help the Jamaican is the fact that there are not too many noteworthy names who ply his trade – left-arm pace – in the auction. In the 2017 auction, Tymal Mills came into a similar situation and picked up INR 12 crores from Royal Challengers, although he did not deliver as expected.Who would fancy him: Barring Mumbai and the Knight Riders, the rest of the teams need a left-arm fast bowler so expect several teams to line up for Cottrell.Alex CareyThe Australia wicketkeeper would be a valuable buy for any team. How many players can open the innings or play as a finisher, and play spin very well and keep wickets? Carey ticks all those boxes. He impressed during the ODI series in India in 2018 and then excelled at the World Cup. Carey’s flexible role makes him a hugely attractive option because he provides balance, which franchises are always after. And if he proves a success, then he becomes an automatic bet for retention ahead of the 2021 mega auction. Carey also comes in during the first hour of the auction so expect more than one team to aggressively bid for him.Who would fancy him: Royal Challengers, Rajasthan Royals and the Capitals will be the frontrunners.Chris Morris is elated after a wicket•BCCIChris MorrisMorris was the first player to be retained ahead of the 2018 auction by the Delhi franchise but was released ahead of the auction this year. Injury concerns and his dwindling contributions with the bat did not help the South African’s cause. However, Morris’ strengths are his death-bowling skills and the ability to take wickets regularly. Morris has been in good form in T20s in 2019, taking 44 wickets at 24.86 and an economy rate of 8.42 in 36 games.Who would fancy him: Super Kings are known to value experience and familiarity. Don’t be surprised if they take back Morris, who played for them in 2013.Jaydev UnadkatUnadkat was the most expensive Indian player in the last two auctions. Will luck favour him again? Familiarity with Indian conditions is an automatic card in his favour. Plus he is a left-arm fast bowler, who has useful variations on slower pitches. If a couple of teams are looking for someone with those characteristics, then the Saurashtra captain can expect another big payday.Who would fancy him: Pitches in Delhi and Chennai are on the slower side and the franchises based out of these cities need a left-arm pacer in their squad.