Celtic completed a huge deal in the January transfer window as it was revealed that they had agreed a pre-contract with Arsenal left-back Kieran Tierney.

The Scotland international’s contract with the Premier League side is set to expire at the end of the season, which is when the defender will officially sign for the Hoops to start his second spell at Parkhead.

Tierney, as you can see in the graphic above, enjoyed an incredibly successful time with Celtic after he came up through the academy system, winning five Scottish Premiership titles and providing a big threat at the top end of the pitch.

It will very interesting to see what the left-back situation does look like when the experienced Gunners defender eventually makes the move to Celtic in the summer window.

Celtic's current left-back situation

Greg Taylor is currently the first-choice left-back in Glasgow after seeing off a challenge from Alex Valle, whose loan from Barcelona was cut short in the January transfer window.

The Scottish full-back has started 18 of his 20 appearances in the Premiership so far this season, but Sportnet recently reported that he has signed a pre-contract agreement with Dinamo Zagreb ahead of a free transfer to Croatia in the summer.

Appearances

20

Big chances created

7

Assists

6

Tackles + interceptions per game

2.3

Duel success rate

53%

As you can see in the table above, Taylor has offered a big creative threat from left-back and has been solid defensively, winning more than half of his duels.

Jeffrey Schlupp, meanwhile, was brought in on loan from Crystal Palace on deadline day to provide cover and competition in the left-back position.

The Ghana international won 100% (3/3) of his aerial duels in 18 minutes on his debut against Dundee, before starting the 5-0 win over Raith Rovers on Saturday.

Schlupp, at 32 and only on loan, is not the long-term answer to the left-back problem looming at Parkhead, with Taylor on his way to Dinamo Zagreb, and Brendan Rodgers could instantly replace him by unearthing the club’s new Tierney in Matthew Anderson.

Why Matthew Anderson could be Kieran Tierney 2.0

The Scotland U21 international has spent the past 18 months or so on loan at Austrian side Admira Wacker and has shown potential to be a future star for the Hoops.

He spent the 2023/24 campaign on loan in Austria and caught the eye with a return of one goal and six assists in 21 appearances as a left-back, which shows that the 20-year-old starlet has the potential to be a Tierney-esque figure who can provide a big threat in the final third from that role.

Anderson, who managed four goals and four assists in 25 matches for Celtic’s B team, did have a chance to impress with three appearances pre-season tour of the USA last summer and Rodgers described him as an “attacking threat” from left-back.

The Scottish youngster has produced one goal and one assist in nine league matches during the current campaign and the Celtic boss should provide the defender with an opportunity to stake a claim for a first-team spot next season, with Schlupp and Taylor set to be on their way.

Anderson, who still has plenty of time left to develop and improve, is a Hoops academy graduate with an attacking mindset and quality in the final third, which is why he could end up being Tierney 2.0 for the club.

And who better to learn from than the man himself next season? Rodgers could bring the Admira Wacker star into the first-team group next season and use him as Tierney’s understudy at first, with a view to him being the long-term option in that position.

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Therefore, the Scottish giants could instantly replace Schlupp, who is due to return to Palace in the summer, by bringing the loanee, who is 12 years younger than him, into the fold.

Arsenal’s season continues to be full of ups and downs this year.

It looked like Mikel Arteta’s side were set to drop more points in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon when Myles Lewis-Skelly’s controversial red card saw them reduced to ten men.

However, the North Londoners rallied and came out in the second half as the better side, and when Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Joao Gomes’ was also sent off, they took advantage and all three points thanks to a goal from the returning Ricardo Calafiori.

Now, while it was an example of the Gunners’ impressive resilience, it was also another game in which Kai Havertz missed a couple of really good chances in front of goal, which has only further fueled discussions about the team’s need for a new number nine.

Fortunately, recent reports have touted one of the continent’s most informed marksmen for a move to the Emirates this month, although such a move would undoubtedly be bad news for the former Chelsea ace.

Arsenal offered in form striker

According to a recent report from journalist Graeme Bailey, Arsenal are keen to add another striker to the squad this month and have been offered several potential options.

One of the options is Atalanta star Mateo Retegui, who has been in sensational form for the Bergamo-based side this season.

A potential price that the Gunners may have to pay for the Italian international is not mentioned in Bailey’s report, but stories from late last month revealed that offers in the region of €55m, which is about £46m, would be enough to get the Serie A side to come to the table.

It could be a rather costly transfer to get over the line this month, but given Arsenal’s acute need for goalscorers and Retegui’s impressive form this season, it’s one worth pursuing, even if that is bad news for Havertz.

How Retegui compares to Havertz

So, if Arsenal do stump up the cash and are able to get their hands on Retegui this month, then it seems unlikely that he would be joining just to sit on the bench and play the odd minutes here and there.

Instead, he’d almost certainly join with the intention of competing with Havertz for a starting berth up top, but who would come ahead?

Well, if we are judging them off their output this season, which is what matters most for a centre-forward, then it is a relatively comfortable win for the Italian ace.

For example, in just 29 appearances, totalling 1621 minutes, the “lethal” sharpshooter, as dubbed by Italian manager Luciano Spalletti, has scored 19 goals and provided four assists, which comes to an average of a goal involvement every 1.26 games, or every 70.47 minutes, which is an absurdly impressive rate of return.

In contrast, the Gunners’ number 29 has scored 14 goals and provided four assists in 31 appearances, totalling 2576 minutes, which comes to an average of a goal involvement every 1.72 games, or every 143.11 minutes, which is still impressive, but significantly less so than his potential competitor’s average.

Unfortunately for the Aachen-born forward, the one-sided nature of this comparison only continues when we take a look under the hood at their underlying numbers from this season.

For example, the Atalanta star comes out on top in practically every relevant metric, including, but not limited to, actual and expected non-penalty goals plus assists, progressive passes received, shots and shots on target, goals per shot and shot on target, shot and goal-creating actions, key passes and more, all per 90.

Retegui vs Havertz
Statistics per 90	Retegui	Havertz
Non-Penalty Expected G+As	0.72	0.58
Actual Non-Penalty G+As	1.34	0.51
Progressive Passes	1.42	2.78
Progressive Passes Received	8.11	5.31
Shots	4.18	2.47
Goals per Shot	0.26	0.17
Shots on Target	1.65	0.98
Goals per Shot on Target	0.67	0.42
Passing Accuracy	75.6%	77.6%
Key Passes	1.42	0.77
Shot-Creating Actions	2.76	2.06
Goal-Creating Actions	0.63	0.10
All Stats via FBref for the 24/25 League Season

Ultimately, be it through raw output or their underlying numbers, it is clear that Retegui is the more dangerous striker, at least this season.

Therefore, Arsenal should do what they can to bring him to the Emirates this month, as his prowess in front of goal could be the key to catching Liverpool.

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George Dobell observes a ball tampering beat-up at the MCG and not for the first time in this Ashes series doesn’t like what he sees

George Dobell in Melbourne29-Dec-2017Perhaps, on a busier day – a day when almost half the overs had not been lost to rain – the “ball tampering” narrative would have been buried by more worthwhile content.But, on a day which featured only five boundaries and saw the run-rate crawl along at 2.34 an over, an angle had to be found. And, with Australia struggling to save a game for the first time in the series, that angle turned out to be a thinly-disguised suggestion that England had engaged in ball-tampering in an attempt to gain reverse swing.It’s hard to interpret headlines such as “England in ball-tampering furore” (wwos.nine.com.au) and “England in the spotlight over ball treatment” (cricket.com.au; the website owned by Cricket Australia) any other way. Sure, there are some caveats in the articles. But the clickbait nature of modern journalism throws the mud before those caveats satisfy the lawyers. And it’s the mud that sticks.Maybe, on first viewing, the footage of James Anderson holding the ball might have raised some eyebrows. And maybe, by some interpretations, England’s tactic of throwing the ball in on the bounce to ensure one side is worn is stretching legality to the limit. It is true that they were warned not to over-do it by the umpires. It is also true that Australia were.

“Kumar just said, don’t worry, there is absolutely nothing in it. His words were: it was a beat up – it’s made up.”

But anyone looking closely – or doing some research – might have seen the England bowlers were standing next to the umpires when the ‘incident’ occurred. They might also have noticed that any alleged scratching was to the shiny side of the ball; an action that would counter the attempts to gain reverse swing.Furthermore, they might then have checked with the match-referee before making any allegation. Had they done so, they would have been told that no complaint had been made. An England team spokesman subsequently said they had received apologies from a couple of broadcasters, an acknowledgement that checks should have been made before publication and an understanding the relevant articles would either be amended or deleted.Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, described the story as “a beat up” subsequently suggesting that was also the expression used by the umpires. Asked to explain what that meant he said: “it’s made up.””As soon as I saw the headlines I raced into the umpires’ room and that was their words: it’s a beat-up, nothing to worry about, absolutely fine,” Bayliss said. “You are allowed to clean the ball. [Umpire] Kumar Dharmasena had said to our guys – well both sides – that there is no problem but he would like them to do it in front of the umpires so they can see and there is nothing untoward.”Kumar said there is a bit of dirt and mud out there. It does get on the ball and in some of the seams. You are allowed to clean it off. Watching the footage, if he was scratching it, it was the wrong side to get it to reverse. I’m quite sure that wasn’t the case.”Kumar just said, don’t worry, there is absolutely nothing in it. His words were: it was a beat up – it’s made up.”

This latest non-story sustained what appears to be a pretty conscious campaign of sledging against the touring team that extends beyond the pitch and into the newspapers and broadcasts

Maybe England only have themselves to blame. In the days when they used to be bowled out by the likes of Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram, allegations of ball tampering were never far from the surface – both from the media and the dressing room – while in the days when they were bowled out by Muttiah Muralitharan and Saeed Ajmal, whispers of suspect actions proliferated. On both occasions, there was a failure to appreciate the skill of the players. It’s not so long since a UK paper published a match-fixing expose that exposed nothing, too.And maybe, in the longer-term, broadcasters may seek to recalibrate commentary teams that are strong on cricketing experience – which is clearly a tremendous asset – but lacking in journalistic rigour. There are times when the Channel 9 commentary, predominantly staffed as it is by cricketers who have served Australia with distinction, becomes as partial as any broadcaster anywhere in the world. And yes, that includes the North Korean channel that only shows Kim Jong-un hitting holes in one on the golf course. While sitting on a unicorn.But this latest non-story sustained what appears to be a pretty conscious campaign of sledging against the touring team that extends beyond the pitch and into the newspapers and broadcasts. Had the boot been on the other foot, talk would have been of “whingeing Poms” (surely a pejorative expression used to describe a nationality; you wonder if it will be in circulation in 20 years) and a “doctored” pitch. Recall the reactions to England winning the Ashes in 2013 and 2015? Was it more ‘well played, England’ or ‘doctored Pom pitches define the series’? You decide.In the last couple of days, Michael Hussey – who was also vocal on the ball-tampering issue – had somehow misconstrued Stuart Broad’s concession that he “wasn’t competitive” in Perth into an admission that he hadn’t tried.Under the headline ‘Amazing ‘Broad didn’t try” (foxsports.com.au), Hussey said it was “unbelievable” that Broad was “almost saying he wasn’t trying hard enough in Perth”, which “you find amazing in an Ashes series”. Hussey signed off by wondering why Broad “hadn’t been working this hard in the lead-up to Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth”.England players sing the national anthem while the Australian media sings a different tune•Getty ImagesWhat Broad actually said was this: “I thought I bowled pretty well at Brisbane, okay at Adelaide, but very poorly in Perth. I didn’t find a good rhythm and that probably showed. All you can do as a top-flight sportsman is make sure your work ethic is always at the top level, that you are looking to improve and that you are competitive. I was not as competitive as I should have been in Perth. I wanted to improve that.”But why would we expect any better?When England scored at a run-rate of 2.58 in Brisbane, they were dubbed the “Bore-me Army” but when Australia scored at a rate of 2.51 they were praised for their determination.When Mike Atherton – a man who stood up to Allan Donald at his best in a particularly thrilling encounter – wrote a considered, nuanced piece suggesting some tailenders (whatever country they might be from) might need greater protection from the short ball to avoid serious injury, he was lampooned as a “whingeing Pom”.

It is relentless, it is cheap and, most of all, it is really, really boring

When Anderson suggested there wasn’t a huge amount of depth in Australia’s pace resources – a suggestion that has largely been vindicated by Jackson Bird’s attempt to stand in for Mitchell Starc (no bird has had a worse Christmas and plenty of turkeys have had a rough time of things) – it was dismissed as abusive and disrespectful.When the Jonny Bairstow buttgate incident was first reported, one newspaper’s page lead called it a “nightclub attack” while Moeen Ali – that’s the Muslim Moeen Ali – was recently asked if he was going “to be able to keep out of the pub” for a few days. It is relentless, it is cheap, it is hysterical, it is parochial and, most of all, it is really, really boring.Cricket is sinking into the mire of its own hogwash. If the Ashes, of all contests, needs this sort of tosh to remain of interest to the general public, we are in real trouble.

While Virat Kohli said the liberal amount of grass on the Rajkot track was a factor in India’s lack of dominance in the Test, SCA secretary Niranjan Shah called it a pitch fit for five days of Test cricket

Nagraj Gollapudi14-Nov-2016Disagreeing with Indian captain Virat Kohli’s assessment that there was too much grass on the pitch in the first Test in Rajkot, Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) secretary Niranjan Shah has said it was a “perfect” strip.”I was quite surprised to see that much grass on it, to be honest,” Kohli had said after the Test, going on to make his displeasure clear. “Shouldn’t have been the case.” Kohli was responding to a question if the long England batting line-up had prompted him to play five bowlers. Kohli said it was the “surface as well” before talking about the grass.The pitch offered turn beginning late on the third day, but the ball turned from the rough – not from the centre of the pitch, which makes spinners lethal. The Test ended in a draw, with India having to hang in on the final day after England scored 537 in the first innings. This was the first time India had conceded 300 in an innings since the start of the last season, which is when India began to play on tracks that turn from day one. England batsmen scored four centuries, the first by any team against India in India since early 2013.Kohli said the ball did spin, but only in the last hour of each of the last three days. He said the first two days were good for batting while the rest of the time the spinners had to be accurate “to get some purchase”. Kohli said, “Day three onwards it slowed down a little bit, but no demons as such.”Defending the pitch, Shah pointed to the interest generated by the Test, till deep into its final session. “It is a perfect Test wicket,” Shah told ESPNcricinfo. “After a long time you can see a Test match completely for five days. I don’t think the grass on that wicket prevented the ball from turning.”Generally, soil on Indian pitches is loose, and they start to crumble late on day three. Shah, a former first-class cricketer for Saurashtra – where he has served as an administrator for more than three decades – said this pitch did not “crumble” even though conditions remained dry throughout the five afternoons because it was “hard and stable”.India players spoke about the pitch during the Test too. When asked which of the three first-innings centurions took the game away from India, left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja had said it was the toss that took the game away from them. This was the first toss India had lost under Virat Kohli in India. Jadeja, who plays for Saurashtra in domestic cricket, said he didn’t expect spinners to be as dominant on the remaining three days as spinners generally are in later stages in first-class matches in Rajkot. “After two days whatever foot marks are there on both ends, the ball can turn from there,” Jadeja had said. “The middle of the wicket, though, has not changed at either end.”A BCCI official agreed with Jadeja about the toss, but said India have grown used to batting first and having their spinners performing well on a wearing pitch. The official pointed out, out of the last seven Test matches before Rajkot, India won all the tosses and went on to win the six matches they batted first in. The one time they decided to field, in Bangalore, the match was eventually washed out. The official said that although it was fair for Kohli to expect home advantage, SCA obviously wanted its debut Test to go the distance. “The wicket was under preparation much, much earlier,” the official said. “It was hard like a stone, and had grass covering.”Moisture and grass on the first day is usually a norm in Test matches. Subsequently the grass wears off with every passing session. However, in Rajkot the grass cover remained even throughout the Test, surprising not just Kohli, but many others. In his pitch report on the second day, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar said the grass on the pitch was greener than on the first morning. “The grass kept on coming back every morning due to overnight rest. The official said, “Though the pitch was mowed, the grass cover still remained in the morning.”A local ground expert said that nothing could have been done to prevent the growth of the grass overnight. The reason, he pointed out, was the nature of the black cotton soil that forms the base of the pitch. “This black cotton soil in Rajkot has an in-built fertile nature,” the expert said. “Rajkot is also close to the coast. There is sea breeze in the morning and evening. So the pitch does not need watering. If it gets the moisture the grass will grow back. Another reason is, when you cover the pitch overnight, the moisture makes the grass grows back once again due to the in-built fertile soil.”The expert said the groundsmen do understand that the home team should be offered a certain advantage, but it was difficult to do so in Rajkot. It is understood that the Indian team management did have an informal word with the SCA officials, just to understand the nature of the pitch. The team officials were told that the grass could not be cut lower than 2mm. “All the needs of the Indian team [historically] are exact,” the expert said. “It is very, very difficult for a groundsman to fulfil those requests. But I think it was a good Test match.”Shah said grass has never affected the spinners here before. He also pointed out another reason for the draw: “You can’t always blame the wicket. India dropped few catches early. Grass on the pitch was not that important for the turning of the ball. That is what I have known in Rajkot.”

With AB de Villiers nearing a return to fitness, there’s an obvious candidate to make way in South Africa’s Test middle order. But, inevitably, there’s a catch

Firdose Moonda at Johannesburg13-Jan-2017Never mind the elephant in the room, there is a mouse in this one. Let’s call him Temba Bavuma.South Africa’s smallest player has managed to accumulate the least number of runs among the specialist batsmen and the lower-order allrounders in this series and so we have to have this discussion. Will he be the one to make way when AB de Villiers returns to fitness after elbow surgery?First, let’s look at the numbers side of it. You won’t be surprised to hear they don’t support Bavuma. In five innings this series, Bavuma has collected 21 runs, including four scores in single figures and two ducks. It is less than the number of runs scored by Keshav Maharaj (52), Vernon Philander (48) and even Wayne Parnell, who is playing in his first match of the rubber and made 23.Second, let’s scrutinise the technical side of things. Anyone can get a few good balls or play a few bad shots but it’s those who keep making the same mistakes that international cricket tends to move on from. Bavuma has played two poor strokes – the hook shot in the first innings in Cape Town and the poke here at the Wanderers – but he has also had his fair share of bad fortune. He was given out off the inside-edge in Port Elizabeth and didn’t review but, if he had, replays would have shown he did not hit the ball. He was also run out in Cape Town.Finally, let’s consider the bigger picture. South Africa’s middle-order has space for three specialist batsmen after Hashim Amla and before Quinton de Kock. Captain Faf du Plessis occupies one of those spots. At the moment JP Duminy and Bavuma hold the other two. Logic suggests that, at some point in the future, de Villiers will displace one of them.Duminy, whose age matches his batting average of 32, was always expected to be the man under pressure because of his inconsistency. He thought so himself. “I would be silly to say that I didn’t think about AB coming back and where would he fit in and is my spot up for grabs,” he said.But now he has found some consistency. His 155 in this match makes him South Africa’s second-highest run-scorer after Dean Elgar and it could have been the innings that saves his career. It was his second hundred in as many series – previously he had gone five series without a century – and it showed a distinct change in approach as he embraces the promotion to No.4.”I came into this season with a lot more of a positive mindset and looking to score runs rather than try and survive. When there are a lot of nerves, you try and survive certain periods. I have gone the opposite way now and try to be expansive in my body language and my approach and it’s worked really well for me,” Duminy said.The same has not worked for Bavuma. The more he has looked for runs, the fewer he has found and so, on form alone, he should be the player to make way for de Villiers. However, there is some sensitivity surrounding Bavuma’s place and we cannot complete this analysis without touching on it.Bavuma is South Africa’s first black African batsman and one of only two black African players in the Test XI. South Africa’s transformation targets dictate that, over the course of a season, the national side must field a minimum average of six players of colour including at least two black Africans in their XI. That this is only calculated on average means that they do not need to have this composition every time they take the field but, if they fall short on occasion, they need to make it up in other matches.If Bavuma is left out, that may be possible because South Africa play more limited-overs matches than they do Tests, but his omission would still be glaring. There are no other black African players contending for a Test spot at the moment although Andile Phehlukwayo, Khaya Zondo and Lungi Ngidi may change that in the near future. Dropping Bavuma requires more careful thought than it may seem.This is not suggesting Bavuma has only been picked because he meets the target, because he has an excellent and deserving first-class record. The season before he made his Test debut, 2012-13, was a particularly lean one for batsman on the domestic scene, but Bavuma was fifth on the first-class run charts with 537 runs at 31.58. The following summer, he played in only seven of the 10 matches and averaged 69.37, an effort that included two hundreds and four fifties.Bavuma’s capability to step up to Test level was evident in Australia, where he scored fifties under pressure and starred in a match-winning partnership with Quinton de Kock in Hobart. He definitely has a future at the highest level but he is struggling right now and right now(ish) is when South Africa have to start thinking about de Villiers’ comeback.De Villiers, along with Morne Morkel (who is recovering from a back injury), is set to play for provincial side Northerns in a List A match on January 22. If all goes well, the pair will be included in South Africa’s squad for the third T20 against Sri Lanka on January 25, then the five-match ODI series that follows, then the limited-overs’ matches in New Zealand and then the three Tests there. All of which means that, unless South Africa bat again at the Wanderers, Bavuma may have already had his last chance, for now, even though no-one is going to say so just yet.From inside the dressing room, Bavuma has the same support any other player going through a lean patch would enjoy. Duminy’s advice to him was to shut out the noise and trust in his own ability. “Keep it simple. Know that your team-mates back you. A big score is around the corner. It’s just a matter of time before things turn around. Everybody goes through dips. We back him, he is a great player and he has shown that many times and we support him,” Duminy said.From outside, there will be a few more questions but there are no easy answers. Perhaps a mouse in the room is more tricky to deal with than an elephant.

India opener Smriti Mandhana talks about changing her batting technique, and what she expects from herself in South Africa

Annesha Ghosh03-Feb-2018Smriti Mandhana sure does love repartee.Sample this reply from June 29, 2017, during the post-match presser following her 106 not out against West Indies at the World Cup:Reporter: “Do you think India can win the tournament?”Mandhana: “What? You don’t?”Cut to January 21, 2018:Reporter: “Let me start off with…”Mandhana: “The same question, right?”Reporter: “What do you think I’m going to begin with?”Mandhana: “How has life changed after the World Cup?”In the seven months between those quips, Mandhana’s cricketing journey has seen more ups and downs than in the near-five-year period since she made her India debut at age 16.She now has 61 international caps, 1438 runs across formats, two hundreds outside the subcontinent, a place in the inaugural ICC Women’s Team of the Year, a WBBL season under her belt, over 1.4 million followers on social media, and the tag of World Cup runner-up attached to her.That last distinction came on the back of a run of form – innings of 90, 106 not out, followed by six single-digit scores and a 13 – that tapered off as the team’s campaign took flight. It is a fact not lost on 21-year-old Mandhana in the face of the “how has life changed after the World Cup?” refrain from the media back home.”Consistency,” she says, when asked what she expects of herself on her maiden tour of South Africa. “I expect to be consistent through the tour and give a good start to the team and play 50 overs if I’m set. Simple.”Things were not straightforward, though, when her form fell away last year. Back then Mandhana was reluctant to forego the security of her comfort zone and to iron out imperfections red-flagged by those close to her: India’s head coach, Tushar Arothe, and her father, Shriniwas, hadn’t been wholly approving of her technique for some time.Mandhana concedes her father had advised her for two years to consider opening up her stance a bit, to no avail. “When you get results in your comfort zone, you don’t bother going against those set of plans or techniques, [in case] it will reverse the results you had been getting.”I had never been through a patch [the World Cup] like that in my life before. In domestic cricket, I used to get out [cheaply] in one or two matches but then score in the third game. Even in the international circuit, it was never that long a phase for me. I used to think, ‘Everything’s okay, or will be. I’ll go on with this stance.’ But after the World Cup, I was open to everything: if someone suggested a change in my technique I felt could work for me, I was willing to give it a try.”The first thing she did after returning home to Sangli was to work with her personal coach, Anant Tambavekar, and dissect her batting with her father and her brother Shravan.Mandhana scored a hundred and four half-centuries this domestic season•Annesha Ghosh/Annesha Ghosh/ESPNcricinfo Ltd”Whenever I go home, I have a healthy discussion with and about my performances. They have played cricket, they know cricket. Even during domestic series, say after the Challengers, my father would say things like, ‘Your footwork was much better than what I saw the last time’, or he would hold me to account for keeping a fielder in a particular area [when the situation didn’t call for one]. It’s a great thing that the closest people in my life can get me out of any cricketing problem I face.”After a ten-day break, amid increased attention from media and fans, she devoted two to three days to fitness work before letting herself “get into the batting groove”. A month and a half at the National Cricket Academy followed in mid-August, where she resumed rehab for a knee injury she had picked up at the WBBL last season. She worked on her strength and agility, capping it with a week-long fitness camp in November, in the company of other members of the World Cup squad.Among the adjustments she implemented in the domestic season that followed was opening up the stance – from elbow to the shoulder, which had previously pointed in the direction between the umpire and mid-off. The tweak, Mandhana says, has widened her “range of shots” through the course of a domestic season in which she captained India Blue to a Challenger Trophy title and scored an unbeaten hundred and four half-centuries.”The things I worked on after the World Cup went pretty well for me in the domestic matches. In fact, Tushar sir was also surprised I could cope with the open stance easily.”I just got four one-dayers [in the Senior Women’s One-Day League] as we [Maharashtra] didn’t qualify [for the Super League]. I thought it was pretty good for me and even the T20s, especially the knock [a 52-ball 67] against Railways. Even the failures I had in the domestic games, I’ve been able to learn from them.”There’s a refreshing honesty and self-awareness in Mandhana’s assessment of her “failures”. It echoes her evaluation of her maiden WBBL stint, brought to a premature end because of an anterior cruciate ligament injury. She says Brisbane Heat not renewing her contract might not have been too big a letdown in retrospect.”This season, I wanted to come back to the domestic circuit and get some game time. I had directly played the World Cup after the injury, so I needed to see how my knee reacts, how my body goes.”When I went to the WBBL last season, I realised, yes, you learn a lot, but you don’t get to play that many matches during that period. It’s like 50 days of a long tour and you just get to play, say, two matches in two weeks. Glad I got some match time here in India this season, but if I perform well and get a contract next time, I could definitely think about it.”By her own admission, much of the making of Mandhana, the pensive, mature batsman consumed by her craft, can be traced back to the Maharashtra captaincy she was handed at age 17, and the expectation to excel, in leadership and batting, that came with it.”Every time I enter the field, it’s like, ‘Smriti, you have to score.’ And I love that responsibility. If I don’t feel that [onus on myself], I don’t get that [motivation], something doesn’t feel right within.Mandhana kicked off her World Cup campaign with a near run-a-ball century but then her form sputtered•Getty Images”I’m mostly a quiet person by nature and don’t like letting my emotions come out on the field. That’s very much the opposite what I’m off the field, when I’m around my close ones. When I step onto the field, it’s more about bat and ball and less about me and my emotions.”Appointed deputy to Harmanpreet Kaur, the captain of India’s T20I side, in October 2016, Mandhana recalls how a few experiences as a 12- or 13-year-old in the Maharashtra Under-19 side helped shape much of her approach to captaincy.”I remember how nerve-wracking it used to be every time my captain shouted at me after a misfield. The next ball, I’d think to myself, ‘!’ [Now I’m going to miss the next one too.] Had the approach [of my captain] been milder, I could have become a better fielder, I think. Those were the moments when I made up my mind, ‘If I ever grow up to lead a side, player [I will never shout at any player]. I’ll talk to them and make them understand.’ That’s one thing young Smriti had been very particular about, and is trying to implement now.”I ask her how she feels about sledging. Mandhana says she mostly remains “conveniently oblivious” to it. “That’s not because I’m too focused on my batting. When I concentrate too much, I invariably get out, which is why I speak a lot with my partner, and at times even bully them if they play a [false] stroke. But one thing I do when at the non-striker’s end is observe the seats and the spectators. That helps me block out unwanted thoughts – and voices on the outside.”When the focus of our conversation shifts to her team-mates, Mandhana sinks slightly into her chair in the lobby outside the change rooms at the MCA, her eyes following a few players trudging past us after practice.”I hate comparisons, just as I hated being compared to my brother and vice-versa,” she says to a question about whether she sees a reflection of herself in the youngest member of the squad, Jemimah Rodrigues, who appears almost as if on cue.As Rodrigues hauls her kit bag past us, aiming a playful half-taunt at her senior, Mandhana says that despite the similarities – both precocious teenagers fast-tracked into the national squad, and double-centurions in U-19 cricket, who were handed captaincy of their respective senior sides (Maharashtra and Mumbai) at 17 – she hopes her team-mate, and room-mate, is seen as the first Jemimah Rodrigues and not the next Smriti Mandhana or Mithali Raj.”Every youngster carves their own journey. I’ve been doing mine and she hers. I don’t see her needing to follow anybody’s footsteps, let alone mine.”Mandhana says the professional nature of the sport doesn’t often allow much scope for players to engage with each other “beyond their own world”, but she has forged bonds with some of her team-mates. She spends considerable time over meals with fellow eggetarian Shikha Pandey, and has developed a mentor-cum-confidante relationship with Jhulan Goswami, her “first room-mate in the Indian side”.Her injury layoff let her spend time with Harmanpreet, who too was recuperating from injuries sustained at the World Cup, at the NCA, helping them develop a sense of camaraderie that they didn’t have despite having toured together.Rehab mates: Harmanpreet and Mandhana, captain and vice-captain of India’s T20I team, spent quality time with each other while recovering from injuries at NCA•Annesha Ghosh/Annesha Ghosh/ESPNcricinfo Ltd”You don’t get to spend much time with one person when you’re travelling. Earlier that may have been the case with me and Harry over a masala omlette.”Food used to make me instantly happy. I remember I’d tell my mom, ‘ round extra .” [Give me another helping, I’ll do two extra laps of running].”I like food. I used to love cooking and had aspirations of becoming a chef. After the injury, I realised the importance of nutrition and gym. We’ve had to cut down on a lot of [food] stuff to maintain our fitness.”For someone known to conduct herself with a sage-like detachment on the field, Mandhana speaks fluently, and at times unceasingly. Her responses are routinely followed by uninhibited peals of laughter as she recalls moments with her family, how clueless she was about playing Test cricket at first, the joys of fielding at short leg, and scoring a half-century in India’s historic Test win at Wormsley in 2014.”I’m not someone who gets excited at the prospect of celebrating or gets carried away by the highs of success. But that Test, it was something special. When I was a kid, I used to stand in front of the mirror and visualise myself taking a single and getting to a hundred and raising my bat. Though I had only made a fifty [because we were chasing 180-odd], I got really excited. One of the first thoughts that came to my mind was, ‘ [I had dreamt of this as a child!].”The combination of composure and combative intensity, of self-awareness and modesty seems to indicate how much Mandhana has grown, inside and outside the field.”My cricket, my batting – there will be good things said about that and not-so-good stuff too. All of that may remain the same or keep changing with time. That’s part of the game. But if there’s one thing I’d want to be remembered for in the long run, it should be my humility. When people hear my name, I hope they will say, ‘Oh, Smriti? She was one humble girl.'”Humble, and open – in conversations, and to change.

They were sloppy on the field and with the bat, but got away with a last-ball win

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Apr-2018Sunrisers miscalculate against MarkandeAt 56 for 0 after six overs chasing 148, Sunrisers Hyderabad looked like they would coast to victory. They had no reason to attack young legspinner Mayank Markande. Their own leggie, Rashid Khan, had conceded 13 runs in his four overs but had taken just one wicket because the Mumbai Indians batsmen chose to play him out, attempting only four attacking shots in his four overs.Sunrisers adopted a different strategy against Markande. They attempted four attacking shots off his first five balls, and the fourth of these saw Wriddhiman Saha out lbw while well down the wicket. Surprisingly, the rest of the batsmen continued to attack Markande, and in total Sunrisers attempted 11 attacking shots off him. Shikhar Dhawan and Manish Pandey both fell playing big shots and let Mumbai back into the game.Mumbai outfield Sunrisers Sunrisers had kept Mumbai to a low total thanks to some clinical bowling by an experienced Twenty20 attack, but their fielders did not match those efforts. Two simple catches were put down. In contrast, Mumbai Indians held some tough chances. Jasprit Bumrah judged a skier from Dhawan perfectly, and then Rohit Sharma pulled off a stunner when Markande left a similar skier to him. Ben Cutting saved five runs when he plucked a Yusuf Pathan lofted drive out of the air at long-on and threw it back in before going over the rope. And in the final over, Kieron Pollard kept Deepak Hooda down to a single off the third legitimate delivery with some sharp work at long-off. That gave Mumbai a crack at the No.11, Billy Stanlake, but they couldn’t seal the win.Mumbai’s Cutting risk doesn’t pay offMumbai left out Mitchell McClenaghan for Ben Cutting, hoping Cutting’s experience of playing for Sunrisers would help him on the Hyderabad pitch. Rohit bowled out death specialists Jasprit Bumrah and Mustafizur Rahman before the final over in an attempt to take wickets and bring Mumbai back into the game. It worked, and Cutting was left with 11 to defend off the 20th over, but more importantly just one wicket to take. He could not hold his nerve. He started with a full toss, which Deepak Hooda hit for six, then bowled a wide, and attempted slower balls when No.11 Stanlake was on strike, conceding a single and a four. With McClenaghan leaking runs in their first game, Mumbai are still looking for a third seamer to support Bumrah and Mustafizur.

A sense of togetherness off the field translated into stellar performances on it, and Gujarat was rewarded with a maiden Ranji Trophy title

Shashank Kishore in Indore14-Jan-20172:03

‘This won’t be our last title win’ – Manprit Juneja

After the 2015-16 Vijay Hazare Trophy in Bangalore, Axar Patel was asked if their title win was his best moment in his career outside of him getting the India cap. A 50-overs title was theirs for the first time. In the preceding season, they were winners of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the national T20 championship. “Not till we win the Ranji Trophy,” he said.On Wednesday, Axar, not part of the Gujarat squad for the final but a key member in their rise over the previous three seasons, was in Indore to celebrate the Ranji Trophy title with his team. He flew in three days ago straight from a check-up for a fractured thumb at a Mumbai hospital. It was there that he received a message on Whatsapp that Gujarat had taken the lead. After the day’s play, he phoned up Vijay Patel, the coach, and asked if he could join the team.Axar drove to the airport and arrived in Indore later that evening. This was going to be an occasion to remember if they won. He had dreamt of it for a year. No Gujarat side had even challenged for the title previously. This would have been all the more special, because it was against Mumbai. He had to be there and celebrate with his mates. When the moment came, he was standing in the side, when Parthiv Patel, the captain, had to pull him into the team photograph.Moments later, they got Jasprit Bumrah on the telephone, before there was song and dance. The trophy was passed around from one person to the other. This was unadulterated joy from a side that had finally graduated from being contenders to champions. You had to be around their dressing room to understand how much the trophy meant to them. This was a sign of team-spirit at its very best, a sentiment this side embodies.Priyank Panchal was the season’s highest run-scorer with 1310 runs at an average of 87.33•Sunny Shinde”Lot of us have played junior cricket together, so this in a way is the coming together of a core group who have graduated together,” Manprit Juneja told ESPNcricinfo. “It just feels like an extension of the junior days. There are no insecurities, because Parthiv would have it no other way. Everyone celebrates the other’s success.”Unlike many others, Juneja says, team bonding has come naturally. “Anyway, we all catch up together as a group on tours,” he said. “The team watches movies together, dine together. When you are away for three months, it’s these small things that define you. Away from family, this has to be our family. We have carefully ensured no one feels out of place.”After their game in Hubballi against Mumbai, the team drove to Goa for a short getaway to re-energise towards the end of the season. Players were given the freedom to do what they liked, but they travelled together as a group. Parthiv, who was unavailable for three games, was in constant touch with the team and the head coach, on how the team was progressing, but he also ensured he wasn’t too much in the ears of the new captain.It’s this independence as individuals and a collective vision that he wanted his mates to develop without being told what to do. Their collective hymn was ’11 matches.’ Unlike the previous seasons, the goal wasn’t to simply qualify for the knockouts. “I think mindset was the key. We were playing well for seven matches and stumbling in the eighth,” Priyank Panchal, the season’s highest run-getter, said. “We had to correct that. It was not a question of mental fatigue or pressure, but we were giving more importance to the eighth match. This year we thought we should aim to qualify before the seventh or eighth round so that we can play the last two matches more easily.”Parthiv, a veteran in his 16th season, said experience of leadership over time has gradually broadened his horizon. He has been at the helm for close to a decade now, but the results have started coming only recently. In 2012-13, they won the domestic T20 title, a feat they repeated in 2014-15. This year, the key was to impress upon the need for consistency and not just have a middling season to guarantee a place for the next, a theory endorsed by the coach.”The belief was there, but to move to the next level, we had to make choices as individuals. Are we happy with just making 600-700 runs and keeping our place for the next season? That sort of mentality, you can’t have for long. Over the last two-three seasons, that has changed,” Vijay said.’Every person who is not playing is told why, so that they know where they stand. We have been as transparent as possible’ – Parthiv Patel•ESPNcricinfo LtdParthiv added: “Before this season, we said we needed guys to make it big, push past the 1000 barrier. Set examples, something like what Panchal and Samit Gohel have done. We rely on our batting, and so we need runs to support the bowlers. If you see, we don’t have bowlers with 40-45 wickets, but even the 20-25 wickets that a few of the guys have been picked up have all been at vital times.”Parthiv, who has seen enough ups and downs to advice his team, has drawn from personal experience and has often been the side’s mentor and advisor. “The door is open,” he said. “Every person who is not playing is told why, so that they know where they stand. That way we have tried to be fair with our calls. We didn’t want a situation where players find out of their selection or non-selection from outside the camp. We have been as transparent as possible.”Transparency in selection is one thing. Picking the right personnel is the other. Parthiv admits there was a time where they didn’t have too many choices outside the 30 probables. Today, he says there are different people knocking on the door for one berth, the example being Chintan Gaja, who had picked up just one wicket in two first-class games prior to the final. Chances are he may have not been selected for the final had Jasprit Bumrah been available. Here he was on the biggest stage, and delivered telling spells to finish with eight wickets.”Basically, we have made a very good plan back in Gujarat,” Parthiv said. “Five years ago when we weren’t getting results, there was temptation to rejig our squad. We had to make a choice, but something prevented us from doing that. The likes of Panchal and Gohel were all there, scoring runs but it wasn’t like they were making big runs. The talent was there, no doubt. That decision is paying off now.”Young players need to feel they belong. Once you tick these boxes, you are rolling straightaway. The side of six-seven years ago wouldn’t have stood a chance. They would have wilted. This group is different. Now will be the real test, if we can sustain this. Once you start winning, you have a reputation. How you perform when expectations are completely different will define this team.”

Australia aren’t quite equipped to save Tests in Asia, but Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb pulled off an improbable result in Ranchi

Jarrod Kimber in Ranchi20-Mar-20171:45

Chappell: Australia’s batting more than Smith and Warner now

Matt Renshaw saw the shadow people. They hadn’t been there for four days, but someone had opened a door and now there they were, right in his vision, running, walking, swaying from side to side. Once he saw them he couldn’t concentrate. He had to pull away as the bowler ran in.This enraged Ishant Sharma, who threw the ball down in anger and started a fight with Steven Smith before being moved away. Angry Ishant, too rarely seen, is by far the best Ishant.He roars in next ball and follows right through to Renshaw to let him know how he’s feeling. Soon he hits Renshaw on the hip. Another ball gets stuck in Renshaw’s helmet after rattling around his face for a second. Then there is a bouncer that Renshaw barely avoids.When Ishant goes straight and gets one to skid a bit, Renshaw is trapped plumb in front. He shrugs his shoulders and leaves the ground, practising the shot he should have played as the shadow people dance and rejoice.A few minutes later, the shadow people dance again. Smith didn’t make many bad decisions in his first innings of 127 overs, or even when he was in the field for 210 overs. But this one is bad, and Australia have spent all tour doing the right thing.Australia have made a collection of decisions so far in this series. It started when S Sriram went from a development coach into the change room for this tour. He coached the batsmen on how to survive, and at times thrive, in India. But perhaps his greatest work was making Steve O’Keefe believe in himself. It was playing inside the line as Sriram had suggested and his constant mentoring of O’Keefe meant the weakest team to tour India, according to Harbhajan Singh, won a Test with a spinner who was fourth best , according to Shane Warne.They were supposed to be embarrassed. Instead they had done the thing that teams had been trying to do all season in India.In Bengaluru, Nathan Lyon got them off to a great start, and then it was the batmen’s turn to step up. On a day when India were outstanding, Australia tried to just get far enough in front to win the game. As good as Shaun Marsh had been, it was his wicket at the close on day two that ultimately kept India in it. When Smith dropped Pujara, India battled to a lead big enough that Australia with a team of their very best players of spin would have struggled to get over the line. The chase and pitch was set up for an Australian collapse.Australia have also been clever at little things. After O’Keefe’s 12-wicket haul in Pune it would have been easy to think he would be a strike bowler in India, but Australia went straight back to using him as their stock bowler. It allowed Hazlewood more rest, it allowed Starc (Cummins) to be Starc (Cummins), and when Lyon’s callous opened up, for O’Keefe to at least stop India getting away. They also got the ball to reverse while using their bowlers far better than Kohli used his. They played spin better over the first two Tests, they fielded and caught better, and they came up with intelligent plans and stuck to them well.It’s perhaps the most unAustralian they have been in India.Shaun Marsh stood tall and blunted India•Associated PressAn hour into this match, on a pitch so doctored that the Ranchi rolled mud was supposed to swallow the Australians whole, they looked completely at home. But then their first real problem on this pitch had nothing to do with this pitch: Warner failed again and they were leaving their fate in the hands of Glenn Maxwell.Maxwell was a bizarre choice, as Australia had barely used Mitchell Marsh’s allrounded-ness, and perhaps the more sensible thing to do was bring in Usman Khawaja. Very rarely is Maxwell a sensible thing to do, and when Australia needed someone to play very long innings, him coming out to bat at 140 for 4 with Australia at least 300 behind where they would need to be, few would have been confident. But Maxwell played either the best innings of his life, or the one that sets up the rest of it. But as good as he was, and as just phenomenally good as Smith continued to be, 451 never quite felt enough.When they had India at 328 for 6, with Pat Cummins defying pretty much everything to storm through the crease, it did seem like it might be enough. Australia had tried all the tricks they had. Bowling dry with interesting fields designed to stop batsmen scoring efficiently, short quick spells of reverse from Hazlewood, and short quick cutters from Cummins.India crawled past them, but no matter how good Cheteshwar Pujara looked, or how well Wriddhiman Saha timed the ball, Smith refused to concede a single run. Pujara made a double-hundred that was essentially a three-day arm wrestle with Smith’s fields. They let him stay in; they rarely let him score. They were tired, and never looked like getting a wicket, but they never rolled over, they never let India score. If India was going to score, it was going to be out of the footholes or with significant risk.Forget the part-timers, forget taking chances. There were no easy runs for India, and that took time, which turned out to be very important.Even with the restriction of India’s lead, and how long it took them to get there, there were problems for Australia. They had only faced more than 100 overs in the fourth innings of an Asian Test once, against Bangladesh, in 2006. The last time Australia batted an extended period to draw a game was six years ago in Sri Lanka. They hadn’t won a series since then either. They had only batted 100 overs in their second innings in Asia 16 times.This is a team that doesn’t win series in Asia, doesn’t bat out draws. Going into a final day with two wickets down, against the two best spinners in the world for these conditions, and a pit of despair outside the left-handers’ off stump, this team was not equipped to draw this match. Not that Australia were the team that should have won in Pune, or stayed in the game in Bengaluru for as long as they did.What makes this series more remarkable is that this isn’t a great time for Australian cricket. It’s hard to praise the selectors too much, when part of their plan was replacing Peter Nevill with Matthew Wade as wicketkeeper. Wade has averaged less with the bat since coming back into the team than Nevill did when he was axed. And it was Wade’s drop that ultimately cost them a chance of winning this Test.Then there is Mitchell Marsh, who even if he wasn’t injured – even if he had never been injured – was an odd choice for a team with an underperforming No. 7. He became odder when he barely bowled a charity over in two Tests.Then there was the fact that about five minutes ago, Callum Ferguson was playing. Or that the selectors seemed to pick Renshaw on a whim, and then started to second guess themselves when they realised the India tour was coming up. And they also threw Nic Maddinson into Test matches while they publicly slated the man who has now replaced him.But there was some method to their madness. Australian selections are still based on things like grit, youth, and aesthetic wonders that are apparently natural talent. However, when they turned their team around after the debacle in Hobart, they made three interesting calls with their batting. They went for a young kid who would become a star, the guy with the best recent first-class record, and the most naturally talented player they had.That got them two players who have been important since, Renshaw and Handscomb, and to be fair, Maxwell was out of favour, and Chris Lynn was injured, so Maddinson was probably third choice anyway.They continued to make big calls for this tour. At times it seemed like almost everyone did not rate Shaun Marsh outside of people who know his father, Western Australians, and Australian selectors. There is sometimes an overlap in those categories.Marsh is not a great batsman. If he was, with all the advantages he has had, he would have played a lot more than 22 Tests by the age of 33. He certainly would have averaged a hell of a lot more than 40 in first-class cricket and he would have averaged over 40 in more than one country. It just so happened that one country was Sri Lanka, and he also has a huge average in the IPL. So it made sense to see him as an Asian specialist.But it was still a risk. Marsh might know his game, he might be better in Asia than most Australian players, and he might also be one of Australia’s best players of spin – averaging 62, double his average against pace. While that might seem enough, in India you need big scores as well, and Marsh doesn’t do that. He can score, but he doesn’t score big daddy runs. His highest in first-class cricket is 182, and that is part of the reason he doesn’t average more.Matthew Wade and Virat Kohli shook hands and called it a draw after Australia had batted out 100 overs•Associated PressThat hasn’t been a big problem on this tour as Marsh has never gone past 70, and yet both of his fifties have been very good knocks. His 66 in Bengaluru ended up being remembered for its limp end, but in the context of the game it was a terrific knock. The incredible part was how he found a way to survive on that pitch. And that is what he needed to do today.The thing is, unlike in Bengaluru, Marsh had some help in Ranchi. Peter Handscomb has made three hundreds in each of the last three Sheffield Shield seasons. He played IPL and county cricket, and for someone still pretty young, he is a well-rounded and experienced. But he’s also weird. That’s okay if you’re chosen as a kid on a whim because you have something special about you. When you’re 25, and you’ve never played for Australia, and your batting technique looks like a drunk guy trying to imitate Steve Smith, getting into the Australian team is not a sure thing.Had there not been a crisis of faith after losing to South Africa, Handscomb might have had to wait a couple of years for a spot. Instead he was thrust in, and runs followed. Even in India, where he hasn’t gone on with it, he has almost always looked better than most of the other batsmen. In Bengaluru, on a pitch where to survive you had to cobble together three or four ideas and hope for the best, he was the one player who looked like he could have chased down the total.It was that cricket brain that shone again today. For 28 straight balls Marsh, who had fought hard against Jadeja in the rough, didn’t have to face Jadeja in the rough. When India finally got Jadeja back at Marsh, it was halfway through the day, the ball was softer, Jadeja wasn’t in rhythm, and the spit and fire were long gone.For the rest of the day, the two played so incredibly smart. Marsh made sure to get outside the line, Handscomb took 13 runs off a poor over from Ashwin, so India would have to take him off and change their plans. They looked for runs, turned the strike over when it suited them, and played the kind of cricket Australians don’t play in India that often.While India might have looked flat and out of ideas, and could blame the soft ball and the fact the pitch didn’t fall apart as they wanted, they also had to credit this partnership because both players were in control of over 90% of the balls they faced. That would be incredible on day one, but for the fifth day, with one guy still proving himself at 33 and another in his first Tests outside home, it was a tremendous effort. When the new ball did start to play up again, and Marsh struggled before getting out, it was Handscomb who remained.Had those two got out, the Test could have ended poorly for Australia. Wade could have got a ball from the rough, and then the tail would have not only had to handle the spinners and the pitch, but also the crowd.Instead, the crowd was quiet. Handscomb had silenced them and they were a shadow of how it had been the evening before.It even turned out that it wasn’t the shadow people distracting Renshaw. It was M Vijay on the field. The only shadows Australia saw at the end of the day were those of disappointed Indian fielders, as they knew a win was slipping away.When Handscomb knocked a ball gently through the covers, the shadows went to collect it, but Handscomb stood still. He could have run, but if he did there was a chance that Wade would have to face Jadeja out of the rough, so he refused the runs. While it probably wouldn’t have mattered much – the game was drawn shortly after – Hanscomb had made another sensible decision.Australia have no Starc, a barely functioning David Warner, and with one Test to play the score is 1-1. They haven’t been jumping at shadows like they usually do in India. They are determined to do the right thing. And more often than not, they have.

Familiar failings held the team back once again, chiefly the lack of big hitters and the failure of talented longer-format players to adapt to T20

Mohammad Isam08-Jun-2018″We will [next] be playing T20s almost 50 days from now, so by the time we play our next T20, everyone will forget about it.”As an extremely busy professional cricketer, Shakib Al Hasan has sometimes been accused of being disconnected from Bangladesh’s everyday reality. But with this statement, which he made after Bangladesh’s one-run loss to Afghanistan on Thursday night, Shakib showed he is perfectly in tune with the pulse of the cricket-mad nation.He knows all too well that a win in the West Indies in the Tests or ODIs next month will push the Afghanistan nightmare in Dehradun into the distant past. Every big loss is forgiven and forgotten in the minimal-attention-span world of Bangladesh cricket. It makes post-match analysis, debriefings and accountability almost non-existent.While Shakib suggested that the fans forget quickly, the statement rang true for his teammates and bosses too. The shift from one extreme to the other is a chronic problem in the Bangladesh cricket team where the players know by heart that winning a match forgives every mistake and winning a bilateral series is the jackpot.While a potential jackpot is still weeks away, the T20s against Afghanistan have given enough proof that while Bangladesh may be good at ODIs and progressing at home in Tests, they are nowhere in T20. They are the least improving cricket team in this format. Only Nazmul Islam, the left-arm spinner, has been picked exclusively for his domestic T20 performances, and he has slowly caught up to the demands of T20 internationals too.But someone like Mehidy Hasan, who burst on to the Test arena in 2016, hasn’t found ways to adapt his lines, lengths and trajectories to adapt to T20. He is picked mainly because he is a talented bowler and is expected to become a more mature all-round cricketer. He doesn’t possess, at least so far, any real T20 attributes. In the spin department, Bangladesh were crushed by Afghanistan’s trio of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.The Mehidy-Nazmul example is instructive of where Bangladesh stand overall in their understanding of T20, with ball and bat. Bangladesh’s top seven in this series featured the best batsmen in the country, but not necessarily the best T20 batsmen. The ability to find the boundary regularly isn’t evenly distributed across the line-up. Which is why the pattern of the third match in Dehradun was typical: Mushfiqur Rahim picked Karim Janat apart clinically to pick up five successive fours in the 19th over, but once he departed, Bangladesh couldn’t find a way to score eight runs off the last over.Mahmudullah is the team’s designated hitter and while he has credibly turned himself into an efficient finisher, it is not his original job. He transformed himself into a big hitter only in 2016, and the lack of other similar players around him means he has to be the team’s Carlos Brathwaite or Dinesh Karthik on a regular basis.Associated PressThis is where the comparison with Afghanistan comes to the fore. Afghanistan’s big hitting starts at the top with Mohammad Shahzad, and by the time the likes of Mohammad Nabi, Samiullah Shenwari, Najibullah Zadran, Shafiqullah and Rashid Khan come to the crease, regular six-hitting is almost guaranteed. It is a line-up that can, and often does, turn a modest 15-over score into a competitive 20-over total.Bangladesh doesn’t have that luxury. They only have Mahmudullah and, if he is set, Mushfiqur. Sabbir Rahman and Soumya Sarkar are at best good-looking batsmen who will make the odd half-century, but their overall stagnation as cricketers has meant they can’t be relied upon to be consistent, certainly not in the last five overs.Shakib admitted that it wasn’t just end-overs batting that hurt his side in the third T20 but other factors too, including two run-outs in the same over.”Even against the best bowler in the world, you’d expect two set batsmen to score nine runs off the last over,” Shakib said. “But it doesn’t mean we lost because of the last over. There are many reasons. We lost the match in many small phases.”Our fifth bowler ended up giving more than 50 runs, which affected us. We had two run outs, which created the biggest difference in this game. There are many more.”Hopefully, Shakib will address these issues after the short Eid break next week, as Bangladesh prepare for the West Indies tour. There is enough time for a fresh start, and a new coach is already in place. Steve Rhodes is a reputed figure in English cricket whose energy and fresh eyes can only help the Bangladesh team.But beyond all that, the players will themselves have to put in the effort to build their T20 skills and know-how. They cannot continue to forget and forgive inconsistent bowling, sluggish batting and poor body language. They can perhaps take a leaf from Mahmudullah’s book, and understand how he transformed himself into a genuine hitter, and also learn from Nazmul how he has carved a niche for himself as a T20 bowler.