The India No. 3 talks about his partnership with Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant in Brisbane, and looks ahead to the England series

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi30-Jan-2021The 21-year-old Shubman Gill was playing a totally different brand of cricket from you at the Gabba, scoring freely and confidently. Can you tell us more about Gill’s batting style?
He is one of the best timers of the ball. He has a natural ability to react to the ball a little earlier. He gets that extra fraction of time to judge the length, the line, and then play his shots, whether it be the pull or a cover drive. He has quick hands and his downswing is so good that even when he defends the ball, with that timing, sometimes, it goes for two or three runs. Sometimes it feels like he is playing with hard hands, but he is so good at his timing.If I speak about his batting technically, it is a double-edged sword. If you remember, he was out a few times against Pat Cummins earlier in the series, caught at gully or slip, but at the same time Gill can play the same ball for two or three. He is managing it really well. He is very talented and I hope he continues to improve because we need good openers. We have been getting good starts in the last couple of Tests matches and that is a big advantage. The way Rohit [Sharma] and Shubman started in Sydney and Brisbane laid a good foundation.Related

• Headingley showed Cheteshwar Pujara is back to focusing on what's important

• 'I worried that T20 would affect my Test technique, but I'm over that now'

• Vikram Rathour, India's batting coach: 'Failure teaches you that nothing stops. That liberates you, actually'

• Gill, Pujara, Pant showcase India's batting riches

• 'Overcome with emotion and filled with pride' – Cheteshwar Pujara

In a recent conversation with R Ashwin, Vikram Rathour, India’s batting coach, said the same – that both Rohit and Gill look for runs. Did it bother you that despite your experience, you were finding it hard to score runs while a youngster like Gill was scoring freely the other end?
Gill’s strength lies in the way he plays and that is why he is successful. If he tries to bat time or tries to defend for longer periods, it could pose a challenge for him. I can take the bowlers on too, but if I feel I need to hang back a little, I can do that as well. I can bat according to the situation. At that time, I felt it wasn’t wise to take the bowlers on because Gill was already doing that.It is important to understand what your partner is doing, as a batting unit, how the team is going forward. There could be occasions where both batsmen are playing their shots, but most of the time, if one is going well, the other has to bat normally and not do anything extraordinary. That is what I was trying to do. That is my strength.From one end you need to make sure there is a lot of assurance, a lot stability, which allows the other guy freedom to play their shots. What ended up happening in that first session was I ended up getting too many balls from the tougher end ().”[James] Anderson is very familiar with the conditions in England and can accordingly set up a batsman. However, when it comes to bowling in India, we have a little bit of an advantage”•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesJoe Root will reach the 100-Test milestone during the first Test in Chennai. What do you like about Root’s batting?
His work ethic. I have seen him bat for long periods of time as a team-mate during my stint with Yorkshire and as an opponent from the time he played against us on England’s 2012 tour of India. As a batsman, he is clear about his game plans, knows his scoring areas, is clear about his strengths, understands his game very well, and all that shows in the success he has had in Test cricket.Having faced the best of fast bowling in Australia, you now have to prepare to have another master quick – James Anderson. He has got you seven times and your average against him is 26.85. What’s the key difference between facing Anderson in England and in India?
The pace and bounce are different, firstly. Then the balls are different. There is some swing with the SG ball, but it doesn’t last and swing as much as the Dukes ball in England. Anderson is very familiar with the conditions and the bowling areas in England and can accordingly plan and set up a batsman. However, when it comes to bowling in India, we have a little bit of an advantage – not just me, but the entire Indian batting unit. We know our strengths and game plans well. When you are familiar with the conditions, it does help.Rishabh Pant was one of the key pillars, a catalyst for India in Sydney and Brisbane. You batted with him on the final days of both Tests. Can you talk about his growth?
He is fearless, not afraid to play his shots. Also, being a left-hander gives him an advantage. It frustrated the opposition bowling when there is a right-left combination. They seemed to struggle with the length. His knock in Brisbane was much, much better than what he did in Sydney. He played a brilliant innings in Sydney, too, when he scored 97 – I am not trying to take away any credit – but I felt this innings was under pressure and he handled it pretty well.I especially liked the way he handled Lyon just before and after tea [on the final day] in Brisbane. During the partnership, unlike his usual approach, where he looks to score runs, he defended in one phase – that was very impressive for me. You need to understand the situation. You need understand the game, whether you have to move away from your usual approach, it is very important.”The most impressive part about Rishabh [Pant] was the way he held himself back when it was needed in the last Test”•Jason McCawley/Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesDid you need to temper his approach?
Not in particular, but I always try and communicate to young batsmen that you just need to understand the situation. If he [Pant] is at the crease, the opposition is under pressure. He is so destructive. Even if he is looking to defend, he will end up getting at least one boundary in two or three overs. So I was just telling him to try and make sure you make the right decision. Even if you want to play your shots, make sure you are clear in your mind. I will say this again: the most impressive part, for me, about Rishabh this time was the way he held himself back when it was needed in the last Test.Do you think India-Australia Test series could have five Tests in the future, like the Ashes?
It can be, no doubt about that. But five-Test series in Covid times is not easy. I think it becomes too long, especially because players need to be part of a biosecure bubble. Mentally, it is very frustrating, especially when you are away from home.Sometimes you are with the family, sometimes you are not. It’s not easy. But if it can be scheduled with enough breaks, then I wouldn’t mind it at all.You didn’t score as many runs on this Australia tour as you did in 2018-19, but you got three half-centuries. The last one, in Brisbane, was the slowest of your Test career, but was it also the most important one?
Yes, it is one of the most important fifties I have scored. The other one I remember was also against Australia, in Bangalore in 2016-17 series where I scored 92. The other was Jo’burg [50], which came on one of the toughest pitches I have played on.”Five-Test series in Covid times is not easy. Mentally, it is very frustrating, especially when you are away from home”•Getty ImagesSo Test cricket is the ultimate format?
Without a doubt. It challenges you physically, mentally, emotionally, and in multiple ways. That can’t happen in any other format. If you ask any white-ball player, even in death overs, I don’t think anyone will say they feel more pressure than in Test cricket. This is the toughest format of the game.Every session is different. You can win or lose a game in an hour – like we lost in the first Test in Adelaide. We played really well for the first two days. We were ahead with a 50-run lead and yet we lost the Test because we did not bat well in that one hour.A day after the Brisbane victory, you told the Indian Express that your two-year-old daughter, Aditi, watching you getting hit repeatedly at the Gabba, said: “When he comes home, I will kiss where he is hurt, he will be fine.” Did she do that?
She actually did that – kissed me on my hand. Forget about the injuries, when I returned home, the best part was she was so, so excited. She hugged me for almost a minute or two and she wasn’t letting go of me. I was really, really happy to hold her and be back with my family.Read part one of this interview with Cheteshwar Pujara.

Pakistan rode a wave of sentiment to the MCG, echos of 1992 reverberating all around, but England’s cold, hard pragmatism proved an insurmountable breakwater

Danyal Rasool13-Nov-20222:34

Mumtaz: Shaheen’s injury tilted the contest dramatically in England’s favour

Mohammad Rizwan faces the first ball of the Men’s T20 World Cup final at the MCG, a sea of green roaring him on. His innings ends up being the sort that fuels his critics’ arguments rather than dousing them, a scratchy 15 off 14 before Sam Curran – whose phenomenal night matches his phenomenal tournament – cleans him up.Less than two years ago, Rizwan found himself on the brink in T20 cricket, batting to save his white-ball career in a nondescript T20I in New Zealand. If you had told him then he would be disappointed to spearhead a team that finished runners-up at a T20 World Cup in Australia, he might have given you a funny look.Mohammad Haris comes in to replace him. Less than two weeks ago, he wasn’t even part of this World Cup squad, with little name recognition outside of the more ardent followers of the Pakistan Super League. He is now suddenly the most exciting power-hitter of his side. But he is still young, and England are canny. Curran ties him in knots, before Adil Rashid, sensing his frustration, draws him into a slog to finish him off. Eight off 12 is not the innings Pakistan needed from him but, then again, he is part of the reason there is an innings that needs playing in this World Cup final in the first place. It’ll be a bitter memory for him, but till very recently he would have never imagined he would be here to experience it.

****

Such stories are sprinkled throughout this Pakistan side, an extension of the utter implausibility of the very idea that Pakistan would play this final. But having got here on a tidal wave of sentiment they rode all the way through the Sydney semi-final, the belief that surges through them is intoxicating, and has infected a whole nation. The overwhelmingly Pakistani crowd at the MCG is caught up in it, too, just like they were at the SCG.Related

Shan Masood 'takes blame' for Pakistan not finishing strongly

'England have created a new set of rules in white-ball cricket'

'Hurt' Babar rues Shaheen injury, admits Pakistan '20 runs short with the bat'

Match report – Curran, Stokes the heroes of the final

Fleming: Pakistan batters made 'massive mistake' at death

They face, in England, an all-time great white-ball side. They have Jos Buttler and Alex Hales – two of the most explosive batters to open the innings – while Pakistan have Babar Azam and Rizwan, openers so classical they might actually have looked at home in 1992. They beat eventual semi-finalists New Zealand and Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka to get through the group stages, while Pakistan relied on a Dutch upset of South Africa. They are likely to be found talking about match-ups and analytics, while Pakistan speak of and 1992.England duly set about methodically stripping away the emotion of the occasion. Chris Woakes is England’s most economical bowler in the powerplay, and he bowls three while the field is up. Shan Masood, who is in after Haris falls, scores at less than a run-a-ball against Chris Jordan. And it’s Jordan who has been called up to bowl the very next over.In the pressure cooker that is the MCG, Pakistan, meanwhile, slip back into the comfort blanket of familiarity. Shadab Khan’s fifty against South Africa from No. 7 was one of Pakistan’s most dynamic innings this tournament, but his usefulness to the side almost counts against him when Haris falls. Deployed shrewdly on occasion as a lower-value wicket who can bring quick runs, today, Pakistan need his runs so badly after their slow start that he becomes much more than that and Pakistan can’t bring themselves to bravely frontload. Even though Rashid’s got five balls to go in the over, and it’s the phase of the game England like to squeeze in a few overs from Liam Livingstone.Why did Pakistan not gamble with Shadab Khan up the order when they needed his runs oh so dearly?•Associated PressWhen England overplay their hand, looking to sneak in an over from Livingstone just after the drinks break, Masood pounces, plundering 16 off him. Babar falls off the first ball of the following Rashid over, but Pakistan are superbly placed – 84 for 3 in 11.1, well set for a big finish that should make them favourites given the freak of nature that is their bowling attack. It feels like Shadab was put on earth for this moment, but… Iftikhar Ahmed is walking out to bat.There is reward to be had for courage, and in the minutes that follow, Pakistan are forced to come to terms with the penalty to be paid for timidity. Rashid toys with Iftikhar, flighting the ball and taking pace off it. It’s hard to imagine he would have been allowed that luxury against Shadab. Six (dot) balls later, Iftikhar has fallen for a duck.Shadab walks out now, but England will only need to bowl one more over of spin. They have Curran and Jordan to bowl the final four overs, and as England hit their heights at the death, Pakistan’s death batting – thin as it looks – is stripped to the bone. Curran’s tortuous variations see him snare Masood and Mohammad Nawaz – another man Pakistan decided against promoting despite recent success. Jordan, from the other end, dismisses Shadab and Mohammad Wasim – who Pakistan call a T20 allrounder for perhaps no other reason than it makes them feel better. Just 18 come off the final four as Pakistan hobble to 137 – the joint second-lowest first-innings total in a Men’s T20 World Cup final.Pakistan’s batters and bowlers seem to find themselves in that stereotypical South Asian parent-child relationship, where all achievements are immediately invalidated by the parent promptly setting their child an even stiffer task. Pakistan’s batters seem to be cruelly adept at this staircase to impossibility exercise. You can reduce India to 31 for 4 just outside the powerplay? Well, first you have to get all the runs at the death too. You can restrict Zimbabwe to 130? Afraid it’s not quite low enough. You’ll keep Bangladesh to 127? Not bad, but see how hard we need to work to chase these down? You want to win a World Cup final? Defend 137 against the greatest T20I batting line-up there has ever been.Pakistan’s bowlers did what Pakistan’s bowlers usually do, but tonight it was not enough•ICC via Getty ImagesAnd with the sheer ludicrousness of the challenge that faces them, Pakistan’s bowlers set about trying. Shaheen Shah Afridi gets Hales first over. Haris Rauf is too good for Phil Salt, and even too quick for Buttler. Naseem Shah bowls the spell of his life, one to invalidate any specious scorecard evaluation of his figures. Afridi dives to dismiss Harry Brook, and a knee that was so recently mended seems to have come undone once more.But Stokes and England are much too cold, much too calculated, not to realise what’s really going on. Stokes may be 24 off 34 at one point, but he knows Pakistan’s bowlers are roaring in defence of a paper tiger of a target, doing so with a bowling line-up that’s lost its leader to injury. The performance has caught the mood of the crowd, not because the match situation favours them, but because belief is the drug Pakistan cricket thrives on, and the fast bowlers have just given them another hit.The elixir of 1992 might give Pakistan life, but Pakistan don’t have Imran Khan on this pitch, while England do have Ben Stokes. He will hit the shot that takes this England side to white-ball immortality, once and for all putting paid to Pakistan’s hopes. It seemed unbelievable that Pakistan would be here, and yet, their fans can’t quite believe they haven’t lifted the trophy. It just about sums up Pakistan cricket.A week ago, Pakistan would have imagined they would be on a flight home very soon. Then, the stars aligned. They gave their fans that surreal afternoon at the Adelaide Oval, before taking them on a starry journey in Sydney. They had hoped for magic in Melbourne but pitted against England’s method, they ended up short. It might sting for a while, but the last week just about encapsulates why Pakistan fill out stadiums from Melbourne to Manchester, London to Lahore.And while the mystique of 1992 may live on, on a clinical night in Melbourne in 2022, England found the most prosaic way to kill it off.

Joe Root fronts up, but ECB is to blame for end to seven-year home record

George Dobell13-Jun-2021There was to be no miracle. Even before the clock on the Thwaite scoreboard at Edgbaston had ticked round to 11 o’clock, England’s second innings had been ended. And a target of 38 in a minimum of 177 overs was never likely to test New Zealand.Before noon, they had completed their first Test series win in England since 1999 (and their third in all) and England had succumbed to their first home Test series defeat since 2014. New Zealand were, indisputably, the better side. India and Australia will be, figuratively at least, licking their lips.It is inevitable at such a moment that we will look for quick fixes. And it’s true that the form of senior players such as Joe Root (whose top-score was 42) and James Anderson (who took three wickets in the series; none of them with a new ball) did nothing to help. Equally, a well-balanced side would no doubt have included a spinner. But that’s not what cost England in this match.No, England’s problems are more substantial than that. And they basically come down to this: if you take one brick out of a dam it will probably hold. If you take two, three or even four it might well hold. But when you start removing foundations, you risk the viability of the entire structure. Eventually, the dam breaks.That’s what’s happened in England cricket. Instead of nurturing and protecting our County Championship, we have squeezed it into the margins of the season and robbed it of many of its best players. We have played it in conditions which bear little relation to Test cricket in the rest of the world and in circumstances where spinners and fast bowlers become close to irrelevant.Meanwhile, we have pushed a generation of experienced county performers into premature retirement by introducing incentives for young players; we have encouraged the government to end the Kolpak influence and we have made it ever more difficult to make overseas signings. Our best Test players have been encouraged to pursue opportunities in T20 cricket ahead of sharing their wisdom in county cricket or working at their games against the red, moving ballAt the same time, we’ve given the prime weeks of summer to limited-overs tournaments and prioritised white-ball success. Young batters have been encouraged to learn short-format skills and excel at performing in conditions where the pitches are perfect and the white-ball hardly leaves the straight. They can afford to be mediocre in the first-class game. Attack has been prioritised over defence.Joe Root has fronted up for England’s failures on and off the field, but the ECB has been silent•PA Photos/Getty ImagesTechnical coaching has been replaced by something very close to cheerleading – correcting a player’s technique is believed to undermine their confidence, though less than failing at international level, you would have thought – and a scouting system has been introduced which has led to such gems as Jason Roy opening and James Bracey keeping in Test cricket. Really, whoever thought those were good ideas needs to be in a different line of work.English cricket might have been able to withstand one or two of these errors. But in combination, they have decimated the competition which develops Test players. For it’s not one or two top-order batters who have failed. It’s a generation of them. And when that happens, you have to look at the system. Finally, the dam has broken.England has, in the past, masked some of these issues with an ability to utilise home advantage. For just as only very fine teams win Test series away in India or Australia, it has tended to be only very fine teams who win away in England.But the current management have decided to try to do things differently. In an attempt, essentially, to prepare for the Ashes, they have challenged their players to perform in conditions where they can expect far less assistance from the Dukes ball and seaming surfaces. They have basically unpicked something that works in the hope of building back better.That is not by any means an unreasonable tactic. It may even be viewed as brave and ambitious. But there is not another country in the world who would spurn home advantage in the same way. England are becoming terrifically generous hosts.Related

• Does Ashwin hold the key to the World Test Championship final?

• England have the fast bowlers to win in Australia. Do they have the captaincy?

• New Zealand romp to series victory as Tom Latham seals 38-run chase

• New Zealand demonstrate bench strength ahead of World Test Championship final

• Joe Root: England were 'outplayed in all three departments' by New Zealand

It was telling that it was Root who appeared before the media after this defeat. Just as it was telling that it has been Root (or other members of the playing and coaching staff) who has been obliged to answer questions about the Ollie Robinson affair, a rest-and-rotation policy over which he has little control, or a million other issues.Root was in an impossible position here, really. But he defended his team, he took responsibility for underperforming personally and he refused to hide behind excuses. Some will never take to Root’s style – his soft voice, his refusal to roar and his inclination towards consensus- but there are different ways to lead. Root really wasn’t dealt a fistful of aces with this team.And that’s relevant. For while Eoin Morgan is about to have his strongest squad – injuries permitting – for a second successive T20I series, Root has probably not had his strongest squad available to him since the first Test of the series against Pakistan at the start of August. That’s 11 Tests ago. England’s priorities are very clear.In contrast to Root, Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, hasn’t given an open press conference this year. For any National Governing Body, that seems odd. For one which is currently introducing a new format of the game; contesting allegations of institutional racism, and wrestling with the issue of historic social media posts which demonstrate the sexist and racist attitudes which pervaded in the past, it feels inappropriate. Now is the time for some accountability in English cricket.So let us not quibble over whether Jack Leach should have played at Edgbaston or whether England’s slip cordon is standing at the correct angle. The problems go far deeper than that.

Gujarat Giants head coach opens up about WPL auction strategies, transitioning into coaching, working with Mithali Raj, and more

Ashish Pant25-Feb-20235:16

Haynes: ‘Mithali has certainly given me a lot of guidance’

February 3, 2023 – Rachael Haynes joins Adani Sportsline-owned Gujarat Giants as head coach.February 13, 2023 – The inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction is held in Mumbai.Ten days! That is all the time Haynes, the former Australia captain, had to put together an 18-member squad for Gujarat Giants ahead of the inaugural WPL. At a time when IPL teams have elaborate mock auctions, scouting and round-the-year player trials, Haynes, alongside Giants mentor and advisor Mithali Raj and bowling coach Nooshin Al Khadeer, had the challenge to set up a WPL team from scratch in just over a week. All this, in her first assignment as the head coach of a professional team.It might sound a lot of pressure, but what is pressure for a player who has won six world titles and a Commonwealth Games gold medal as part of the Australian team? That might be a reason why Raj, who played against Haynes a number of times, reached out to her for a coaching role with the Giants.”Given the time that everything came together, how little time there was, we sort of just had to get rolling straight away,” Haynes told ESPNcricinfo. “We had to have open and forthright conversations with each other to make sure that we were on the same page and could move forward and make decisions when they needed to be made.Related

WPL stars to look out for – Mandhana, Shafali, Harmanpreet, Mooney and more

Beth Mooney named captain of WPL side Gujarat Giants

Rachael Haynes joins Gujarat Giants as head coach

Hello WPL ladies, welcome aboard the money train

Tata bags title rights for the Women's Premier League

“I leant on Mithali and Noosh [Nooshin] a lot for the local players. They know the game in India very well so we spoke a lot about the local talent and who they thought could really fill valuable roles for us in our side. That’s really how we went about putting our squad together; thinking about the roles that we needed to be filled in our team and then who the players were that we could target to do that.”Giants bought a good blend of Indian and overseas players. There is an obvious Australian influence in the overseas contingent, with four of the six spots going to Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney, Georgia Wareham and Annabel Sutherland. Deandra Dottin and Sophia Dunkley are the other two overseas players in the side. Among the Indian names, Giants have Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, S Meghana and Sushma Verma among others.

“There are lots of different elements that hopefully can come together through the WPL and hopefully, Indian cricket can be richer for it.”Rachael Haynes

They went into the auction with one clear strategy: to not get overly attached to any player. Barring Gardner and Mooney – two of the three most expensive overseas buys in the auction – there was not a lot of incessant bidding from the Giants table.”We didn’t get too attached to one particular player, I think that can sometimes end in a little bit of heartbreak if you want one player and you are sort of holding off for them in the auction and then potentially you miss out on them,” Haynes said while explaining their auction strategy. “We honestly went in with the philosophy of making sure we were clear on the roles we wanted filled in the side. Who we thought could open the batting, bat through the middle order, who those allrounders could be to fill different roles in the side as well.”It was obvious that we wanted Ash Gardner given how aggressive we were in bidding for her and getting her over the line.”First-hand knowledge is another important aspect that Haynes brings to the table. As someone who retired less than six months ago, the 36-year-old shared the Australian dressing room with Sutherland, Mooney, Wareham and Gardner. She has also watched a lot of the players who had registered at the auction from close quarters.Haynes played with Mooney and Wareham for Australia•Cricket Australia via Getty ImagesGiants bought Wareham for INR 75 lakh (US$ 91,000 approx) and at the time of the auction, she had not played a T20I in over a year having undergone a knee construction surgery after rupturing her ACL in the WBBL in October 2021.”I had the benefit of having seen her first hand in Australia and just seeing how well she completed her rehab and how well she has presented since,” Haynes said on Wareham’s selection. “The tough thing being out of that international spotlight in terms of an international player, you are relying on a little bit more first-hand local knowledge in that respect. To draw people back to the player she was when she was playing before that injury, she was very much a core part of that Australian line-up, she was a fantastic player in big moments too if I think of the occasions she stood up under pressure and took key wickets for Australia.”Haynes’ transition from a player to coach is a natural one. She finished her Level 3 coaching accreditation – the highest in Australia – last year, alongside former team-mates Elyse Villani and Meg Lanning. By the time Haynes hung up her boots in September 2022, drawing the curtains on a 13-year-long international career, she was ready to enter the next phase of her professional life.She credits Matthew Mott, the former Australia women’s head coach and current white-ball coach of the England men’s side, for being the driving force behind her taking up coaching.”Matthew Mott certainly was really instrumental in making sure that particularly us senior players completed our coaching accreditation while we were still in the game,” Haynes said. “He was instrumental in really encouraging us to do that but also providing us opportunities in the Australian programme to create sessions, to run and lead different scenarios around the teams.”It [coaching role] is going to be a challenge, certainly a change of gear from playing and being a player in an environment to being a coach and trying to create a really positive space for our players to perform and also learn. I am looking forward to that challenge and, yeah, we can bring it together at the right time in the WPL.”Mithali Raj, Nooshin Al Khadeer and Rachael Haynes at the Gujarat Giants auction table•BCCIThe WPL is expected to be the next big thing for women’s cricket. The tournament has already been in the spotlight for being the most lucrative in the women’s game. In January, Viacom18 won the media rights for the WPL for a whopping INR 951 crore (US$ 116.7 million approx.) for a period of five years and a few days later the BCCI sold the five franchises for INR 4669.99 crore (US$ 572.78 million approx).Then at the auction, a number of players had massive paydays. Gardner was the most expensive overseas buy alongside Nat Sciver-Brunt (Mumbai Indians) fetching INR 3.2 crore (US$ 390,000 approx.). Mooney was bought by Giants for INR 2 crore (US$ 244,000 approx.).While the influx of money is a huge part of it, Haynes also expects the tournament to bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket for Indian players, like it has for the Australian players at the WBBL and the England players through the Hundred.”First and foremost, it [WPL] is going to draw so many different people to the game, hopefully, who will get to experience and come to know some of the female players which we’ve all known for some time,” Haynes said. “It will also create really good opportunities for the domestic players in India. We’ve seen how positive that is in terms of creating depth in international sides around the world. If I think of the Australian system in the WBBL and what’s that done for Australian cricket, the same happens in the Hundred as well, albeit in a different format.”There are lots of different elements that hopefully can come together through the WPL and hopefully, Indian cricket can be richer for it.”So, did she at any stage think of coming out of retirement to try her hand at playing in the WPL?”I got to that point where I knew I was ready to step away and experience a new challenge. I just knew that I probably got the most out of myself and I was happy with where I’d got to and had the sense of fulfilment,” Haynes said. “I certainly wasn’t sitting there in envy wishing that I was playing or anything like that. I am very happily retired.”

A fixture that was once dominated by Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo is now being reinvigorated with younger, fresher blood

Matt Roller07-Apr-2023Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings are Indian cricket’s versions of Real Madrid and Barcelona, the biggest and best teams in the IPL’s history. Even after propping up the table in 2022, they are the rivals whose meetings still attract more interest than any other fixture in the tournament.But Saturday night’s marks a changing of the guard, one that could be detected in their most recent meeting at the Wankhede. That night, with both teams languishing at the wrong end of the table, Dwayne Bravo played his 116th and final match for Chennai, bowling two wicketless overs; Kieron Pollard, a Mumbai stalwart since 2010, was dropped from their side, never to return.For all the brilliance of MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, those two men, who grew up 10 miles apart from one another in North-West Trinidad, have defined this rivalry. At least one of Bravo and Pollard has featured in each and every one of Mumbai and Chennai’s 36 previous encounters, 34 of them in the IPL and two in the Champions League T20. In those games, nobody has taken more wickets than Bravo, and nobody has hit as many sixes as Pollard.Related

Mumbai Indians look for first points as CSK travel to high-scoring Wankhede

T20's new superstar arrives in England after IPL breakthrough

This weekend, they will sit in their respective teams’ dugouts as bowling and batting coach. Both men still play around the world, and lined up together for one of Mumbai’s team in the UAE’s ILT20 earlier this year, but announced their retirements from the IPL in late 2022 and have taken up roles on the support staff.”I look forward to my batters coming up against DJ and his bowlers,” Pollard said on Friday evening. “Hopefully we can see how that goes, and who can be singing at the end of it – or who will be singing, and who will be crying.” History is on his side: Mumbai have won 21 times and lost 15 against their rivals.If Chennai have not yet identified a long-term successor to Bravo, Mumbai’s replacement for Pollard is clear. The end of last season’s basement battle offered a glimpse of the fixture’s future: Mumbai’s low-key victory was sealed by a 6ft 5in power-hitter, who faced seven balls and swung two of them over midwicket for towering sixes; this time, it was not Pollard but Tim David who clinched the points.The pair worked closely last year. As Pollard’s own form fell away, David became Mumbai’s designated finisher, after unexpectedly finding himself out of the side during the middle of the season.Confronted with the realisation that he was no longer in the franchise’s strongest XI, Pollard took it upon himself to act as David’s mentor.Kieron Pollard has slipped into a new role, as batting coach, at Mumbai Indians•Mumbai Indians”Polly did the role for 12 years for Mumbai Indians, and did an unbelievable job – but Tim has got a very similar skillset,” Aaron Finch, who as Australia captain played a role in the selection of David ahead of Steve Smith at the start of last year’s T20 World Cup, told ESPNcricinfo. “They can chip in with the ball and are always in the hotspots in the field, and with the power that they’ve got, you feel as though the game’s never out of reach when you’ve got guys like that in your side.”Mumbai shelled out INR 8.25 crore (A$ 1.5 million approx.) to sign David in 2022 and while they only picked him eight times last season, his strike rate of 216.27 was enough to earn him a retention for 2023. David made a false start at the Chinnaswamy on Sunday night with a 7-ball 4, but on Saturday he returns to a ground where he faced 36 balls across last season, and hit ten of them for six.”Over a 14-game IPL season, you’re backing those guys to win you two or three games,” Finch added. “I don’t think Tim will ever be a guy that you’re banking on to consistently get 500 runs in a tournament – but you don’t buy him for that. You buy him to have a huge impact, a huge strike rate.”The similarities between the pair extend beyond the field of play. David attended Scotch College, a prestigious private school in Perth’s western suburbs. But unlike Cameron Green, three years his junior at the same school, he was not a childhood prodigy who had been marked out as a future international.Instead, he forced his way on to the franchise circuit by taking up every opportunity that came his way during the pandemic and becoming a freelancer – just as Pollard had, more than a decade ago. David is an outlier in the Australian system, playing for the national team without a central contract, or even a state one.2:22

Moody: ‘There are too many holes amongst the Mumbai team’

There is mutual admiration between them. “Polly has been a pioneer with his career, David told this website last year. “I definitely look up to him and I love the brand of attacking cricket that he plays.”Pollard passed on not only specific batting advice, but also tips as to how David could stay “fresh throughout a two or three-month tournament – and also when you’re playing all year round”.”Tim is a very, very intelligent young man, who knows what he wants to do,” Pollard said. “He has taken a different path as an Australian. He’s gone around the world, trying to get experience in different conditions. Now he’s entrusted with a job here at Mumbai Indians, and he’s doing it.”As I know, batting at that number, sometimes it’s not the greatest position to be in,” Pollard added with a smile. “If things don’t happen, they blame you; if things go well, you go dormant and no-one praises you. He has great power. He can hit the ball, he’s a strong guy, and it’s just a matter of trying to do that consistently whenever the team needs him.”The nature of the position means that there is no guarantee David will succeed on Saturday, as the Wankhede welcomes back a capacity crowd for an IPL game for the first time since 2019. But if he does, he could become the new poster boy of a fixture that is evolving in front of our eyes.

They may not force their way in this season against England but opportunity could come next year

Andrew McGlashan19-Nov-2021

Henry Hunt

The South Australia opener has made a big impression over the last two seasons to vault himself into national consideration at the age of 24. He scored his maiden century in his fourth first-class match in 2019 and this season he has made two hundreds, including a superb 134 against Tasmania in bowler-dominated conditions out of a total of 220. It matches the two he made last summer when he was the standout performer in another poor season for South Australia and the four centuries have come in his last 13 first-class innings.”I think Henry’s form over the last couple of weeks has been fantastic, but in many respects it’s backed up what we’ve been seeing from him,” national selector George Bailey said. “He’s well organised, his game’s in really good order, he’s got a lot of fight in the way he goes about it, he’s determined and he’s a gun fielder.Related

• Pat Cummins won't ask for rest 'unless I've got something going wrong'

• Khawaja or Head? Bailey has an answer but he isn't telling

• Jhye Richardson confident for Test chance after weathering injury challenges

Bryce Street

The left hander has made a name for himself at the top of Queensland’s order with his stickability at the crease but this season he has also worked on expanding his stroke range as witness during his century against Tasmania which included the first sixes of his first-class career. Three of his four hundreds have come from more than 300 deliveries while the other took 281. He also stood up to New South Wales’ Test-strength attack in last season’s Sheffield Shield final with 46 off 203 deliveries which allowed Marnus Labuschagne to take charge. In recent weeks his form has tailed a little – a top score of 23 in his last five innings – but Street’s qualities remain sought-after in this era.”For a young guy, Streety is bloody difficult to dismiss and that’s a great trait as an opening batsman,” Bailey said. “And the flow-on benefits of how hard it is to get him out is that his teammates are often the beneficiaries of his hard work, so we love the determination, we love the grit he brings.”Which of Nic Maddinson, Bryce Street, Matt Renshaw and Henry Hunt could break into the Test side?•Getty Images

Matt Renshaw

Renshaw made a terrific start to his Test career including a big century against Pakistan at the SCG in 2017, but has not played since being hastily called into the Johannesburg Test in early 2018 following the fallout from the ball-tampering scandal. He was in line to play against Pakistan in the UAE but suffered a concussion. A difficult couple of seasons followed and he was dropped from the Queensland side then took a break from the game. He has returned and reinvented himself into a middle-order batter with considerable success averaging 55.92 since the start of last season. The selectors have an eye on his skill against spin with the subcontinent tours scheduled for next year.”I think he’s worked his way really nicely into the start of this season, he looks really at home in that number five role and he’s an excellent player of spin,” Bailey said.However, speaking this week, former captain Steve Waugh said he thought Renshaw should return as an opening batter. “I don’t know why he is batting in the lower order because he did a great job for Australia opening He’s got a good technique but for some reason he is not the flavour of the day. But I thought he made an amazing Test debut under lights in Adelaide in difficult conditions. He scored slowly but survived. He hasn’t got the credits he deserves while playing. I wouldn’t rule him out.”

Nic Maddinson

Maddinson’s career has been rejuvenated by his move to Victoria where he has averaged 63.41 to put himself firmly in the frame for a Test recall having struggled during his first opportunity in 2016 (he made his debut in the same match as Renshaw). He was the closest of the Australia A group of batters to earning a place in the main squad. Chris Rogers, the Victoria coach, has spoken of the maturity Maddinson has brought to his game on and off the field, something further emphasised by his recent promotion to captain of Melbourne Renegades in the BBL. His innings of 87 against New South Wales earlier this season came in for significant acclaim in a match where few other batters could score as freely and he followed that with a century at the MCG. He has been troubled by the short ball during his career but has worked on that aspect of his game.”It’s one of those things, you get to the second half of your career and you start to probably look at things differently,” Rogers said this week. “You think more about your game, how you’re structuring your innings, all those kind of things. You probably balance your personal life out a bit as well. He just seems really calm, that’s the thing that stands out for me. From the innings I’ve seen this year he’s been completely calm from ball one, and he’s looked like a senior player, an old pro, and that doesn’t come easily.”

From Jos Buttler to Dom Sibley, we take a look at whose star has risen and which players missed out

Andrew Miller10-Oct-2021

Winners

Jos Buttler
More than anyone, Buttler epitomises the stand-off that England and Australia have endured in the run-in to this Ashes squad announcement. Of all the players who were uneasy about the quarantine restrictions in store, no one felt it more than England’s vice-captain – an integral member of the T20 World Cup squad, and also the father of two young daughters, the second of whom was born last month. With the prospect of three months on the road, his apparent refusal to travel unless the players’ families were factored into the plans was critical to a number of concessions being granted – even if a few “critical” details remain to be resolved. In a purely playing capacity, Buttler’s recent Test form is not a lot to write home about. He has passed fifty once in 10 innings in 2021 so far, although when he made his return to the Test team in 2018, you suspect that England’s Ashes tour was always the endgame. Rather like the absent Stokes, some characters are just the sort you need for the toughest assignments.Dom Bess
It’s been a rocky road for Bess in the past year. His anguish in India in the spring was palpable, as he became a rather unfortunate fall guy for England’s wider failings on spinning surfaces at Chennai and Ahmedabad – despite never looking at his best, he had fronted up with 17 wickets in England’s three consecutive wins in Asia, after all, including a five-for at Galle in his first outing of the winter. He never came close to a recall this summer despite being included in a handful of squads later in the summer, but then neither did his former Somerset spin-twin Jack Leach, as England chose to field a seam-only attack for their first three Tests, until an abortive return for Moeen Ali against India. But now, with Moeen retired, Bess has an unlikely chance to reassert his status as England’s No. 1 spinner – Australia is an unforgiving venue for such a comeback, particularly as a fingerspinner. But England admire his all-round package, including a compact and combative batting technique in the lower-middle order. In the absence of Stokes, Moeen, Sam Curran et al, the need for de facto allrounders may yet tip the scales in his favour.Dom Bess won a place in England’s Ashes squad•PA Images/GettyJoe Root
Talking of anguish, you could see it in Root’s features when he spoke to the media at the height of the Ashes impasse a fortnight ago. As England’s captain, his desire to present a united front on behalf of his players was visibly at odds with his “desperation” to take his sensational batting form back to the most notable country in which he has yet to make a Test hundred, and set about making amends for England’s 4-0 beating in 2017-18 – a tour which ended with him retiring with exhaustion during his final unbeaten half-century of the campaign in Sydney. At the age of 30, and with the World No. 1 batting ranking under his belt, Root travels as England’s best prospect of upsetting the odds – and as the Barmy Army have helpfully pointed out, he does so with more Test runs this year than his opposite number Tim Paine has amassed in his entire career. There’s nothing perfect about the circumstances of this tour, but for Root himself, this may be his greatest shot yet at Ashes glory.

Losers

Ben Stokes
For the second time in the pomp of his career, Stokes looks set to miss an Ashes tour of Australia, one of the ultimate highlights for any England cricketer. In 2017-18, his availability – or lack thereof – was the subject of an intense and destabilising period of speculation in the wake of his arrest outside a Bristol nightclub, and so England have nipped all doubt in the bud this time round with a very to-the-point statement that he is “not available for selection”, given his ongoing break on mental health grounds. Nevertheless, after an apparently successful follow-up operation on his injured left finger, the ECB did state that he would undergo “intensive” rehabilitation “for the next four weeks” – an oddly specific timeframe given England’s departure date in early November.Dom Sibley
Eighteen months ago, Sibley looked like the coming man in England’s Test ranks. At a time when Chris Silverwood, newly promoted to head coach, was re-emphasing the virtues of batting time and posting 400-run first-innings scores, his bloodless crease occupation was just the ticket for a team whose middle order was still pumped with post-World Cup adrenalin and were rather grateful for the chill he brought to their tempo. A gutsy maiden hundred in Cape Town helped turned the tide on a thrilling South Africa tour in January 2020, and six months later he added another against West Indies – again enabling his team to come back from a first Test loss. This summer, however, his strokelessness became his undoing – in particular his inability to rotate the strike and release the pressure on his batting partners. He was ditched after two Tests of the India series, and despite a return to form in Warwickshire’s County Championship victory, he’s not yet being trusted for a return. Zak Crawley, in particular, can be grateful for the perceived higher ceiling to his talent, after his year from hell with the bat.James Vince made a memorable half-century in opening Test of the 2017-18 Ashes•Getty ImagesJames Vince
Let’s face it, it’s the one name we all secretly thought might be in with a shout on this tour. Dawid Malan is back in favour, after all, having proven relatively successful on the 2017-18 tour with a century in Perth, but without having featured in Test cricket since the subsequent summer. Similarly, Vince has been lying in abeyance ever since that trip too – and who knows how different history might have been had he not been run out for 83 on the first day of the series at Brisbane? After an innings of such pure and unfettered strokeplay, you wonder if he might still be batting now but for that direct hit. His most recent Test innings was 76 against New Zealand at Christchurch four months later, and he played a walk-on part in the World Cup win since then too. But despite some flickers of destructive intent for Hampshire this summer, including a lacerating innings of 231 from 220 balls against Leicestershire, and a maiden international hundred in the ODI series against Pakistan, it seems that Vince’s return, at the age of 30, would have been just a little bit too back to the future.

From his early days as an anchor, he is now an enforcer, and well on his way to becoming a household name in Chennai

Deivarayan Muthu20-May-20232:34

How Gaikwad thrives in T20 despite being a conventional batter

In the lead-up to the match between Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings, Aaron Finch suggested that the Delhi pitch resembled a “dry riverbed with jigsaw-puzzle-type cracks”. The ball didn’t turn that much, but it stopped on the batters regularly. Deepak Chahar later said it was a “160 wicket”. But Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway, like they have often done this season, put up a batting clinic to propel CSK to 223 for 3 and seal their spot in the playoffs, perhaps even the second spot on the table.Let’s talk about Gaikwad. He had started his IPL career as an anchor who would allow others around him to bat at higher strike rates. In the past, he would only take the lead if he made it to the second half of the innings. His powerplay strike rates in his first three seasons were 100, 113.41 and 112.03.In IPL 2023, Gaikwad has shelved the caution and gone harder in the early exchanges, as his powerplay strike rate of 147.17 indicates. Only Ishan Kishan (147.57), Faf du Plessis (167.83) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (175.24) have better powerplay strike rates than Gaikwad this IPL among batters who have faced at least 150 balls during this phase.Related

Gaikwad, Conway script CSK's big win

At spin-friendly Chepauk, where Gaikwad had never played an IPL game before this season, that strike rate has jumped to 158.71. The ability to adapt to conditions on the fly against both pace and spin has even vaulted him back into the national reckoning.It was on show in what was a must-win game for CSK on Saturday afternoon. When Axar Patel pushed out a full ball – by no means a wide half-volley – outside off, Gaikwad stretched out, opened the face of the bat and pumped him over extra cover with the intended turn. When Khaheel Ahmed and Anrich Nortje tried to tuck him up with short balls, he dealt with them as confidently.Even after the powerplay, Gaikwad continued to attack. The passage of play against Kuldeep Yadav, in particular, highlighted Gaikwad’s evolution as a T20 batter. Kuldeep had just found some grip with his wrong’un, drawing a toe-ended mis-hit over extra-cover. When the left-arm wristspinner tried to find more grip by tossing the ball up, other batters, including the previous version of Gaikwad, might have sat back and just tapped it. But this version of Gaikwad brought both brawn and brain to launch Kuldeep for three successive sixes down the ground – the long-on and long-off boundaries are smaller than the square boundaries in Delhi.

“T20 can cater to different types of players. It can cater to brute force, the Andre Russell types, and the beautiful classical players like Ruturaj, who can still score at a very high strike rate as well by playing good cricket shots all around the ground”Mike Hussey on Ruturaj Gaikwad

“Playing the 50th game for this franchise, [it] couldn’t get better,” Gaikwad said after collecting the Player-of-the-Match award. “Really grateful and thankful for this wonderful franchise for backing me throughout. I think the wicket was holding up a little bit, but it was a bit difficult to hit the fast bowlers.”With the spinners, we have a chance because the straight boundaries are slightly shorter. In Chennai, there are always big boundaries, so you have to rotate the strike. Here you can take that extra risk of hitting it for six, and once we set a platform, with Shivam Dube to come in, Mahi [MS Dhoni] to come in, Jaddu [Ravindra Jadeja] to come in, we have that power. So back yourself and just go for it.”CSK’s batting coach Mike Hussey had spoken glowingly of Gaikwad’s evolution last month.”It’s been amazing to watch him develop since he was first here at CSK to where he is,” Hussey said. Now he’s such a self-aware player. He has a great understanding about his game and what he wants to improve. He has a beautiful all-round game, and he plays good cricket shots, and he is slowly adding more power to his game. He is making it very difficult for bowlers to bowl to him because he can hit even good balls for fours or sixes as well.”He is a brilliant player. T20 can cater to different types of players. It can cater to brute force, the Andre Russell types, and the beautiful classical players like Ruturaj, who can still score at a very high strike rate as well by playing good cricket shots all around the ground.”The CSK management takes a lot of pride in the progress of Gaikwad. When they snapped him up for his base price of INR 20 lakh in the IPL 2019 auction, Gaikwad was only in his second full season at Maharashtra and had played just five T20s. He is now one of the mainstays in the CSK batting line-up and perhaps a future captaincy candidate.”In cricket, you say you can play your way, but he can play according to what the demand of the game is,” Dhoni recently said of Gaikwad at an event in Chennai. “Over the years he has evolved and as Mo [Moeen Ali] said, he’s very calm and he doesn’t speak a lot. So, at times, initially it was difficult to assess whether he was under pressure or he’s not under pressure because he was quite the same .”Once, another Gaikwad with Maharashtrian roots, a certain Shivaji Rao, went on to become a household name in Chennai. That’s some way away, but if this Gaikwad continues to expand his range even further, he could soon become a huge name in Chennai, too. He is certainly headed that way.

The seamer looks back at his epic stand with Kusal Perera, his bowling, and his sudden call-up to Sri Lanka’s Test side

Interview by Andrew Fidel Fernando18-Feb-2019You were in Sri Lanka playing domestic cricket, and there were five seamers with the Sri Lanka squad. They suddenly started getting injured and you got a call-up to Australia. Was it unexpected?I didn’t think I’d have a comeback into the national team this quickly, to be honest. I had had a lot of injuries, and I was playing the domestic season. I was training hard. I only came for the second Test in Australia, and I wasn’t thinking of any further tours. I was able to get a few wickets there. So, I’m happy to even be here in South Africa.You’d been bowling an average of less than six overs an innings in domestic first-class this season. Were you worried you’d pick up an injury with the Test workload in Australia?I was a bit nervous before the game, just because I hadn’t bowled much. But then when the match started, that fear disappeared. All I was thinking was: how do I get the ball off the captain and into my hands? There are reasons why fast bowlers don’t get to bowl much in Sri Lankan first-class cricket, but on Australian pitches, I knew I’d have to bowl a lot.What did you learn from that Test that helped you in South Africa?Playing a Test for the first time in one-and-a-half years gave me a lot of confidence. I got a couple of wickets with the new ball as well. So, I was feeling good. But it was also important to realise how to bowl after 15-20 overs have gone. I didn’t do well with the older ball there, so that was the biggest lesson. Once the shine goes, you’ve got to bowl really tight to keep Test batsmen quiet. Our line and length wasn’t great in Australia.You got four wickets in the first innings at Kingsmead. What did you do right?I’d known that South Africa pitches helped quicks. I hadn’t come here even on a Sri Lanka A tour, but we did watch videos of previous Durban Tests. I had belief that I could do something with the new ball. In the first over itself, I knew that it was helping me out. They had some of the best batsmen in the world in their top order, so it’s a big thing that I was able to get them out. I got the wicket of Dean Elgar in the first over itself, and I think that confidence carried me right through the Test. Then Hashim Amla should have been out in the same over, but the umpires didn’t allow our review.Having been the most successful bowler in the first innings, you must have gone into the second innings with a lot of belief?I did. But because we were almost 50 runs behind after the first innings, we had to both take wickets, and cut down the runs. Thankfully we were able to do that.When South Africa were almost 300 runs ahead with five wickets in hand, it looked like they were well in control. But then you and Lasith Ambuldeniya managed to shake things up, and get Sri Lanka back in the game. What were you thinking when you came in for that spell?I’d leaked a few runs in the first couple of overs I’d bowled that day. There was a ball that went through the slips as well. When I came back in the afternoon, I thought that would be my final effort. If they were going to get 350 or 400 runs ahead, we knew we were dead. I didn’t know if it would be my last spell in the game. I was able to bowl really well there. I do come around the wicket to the right-hander with the old ball. I’d been practicing that in the nets, and it worked in the match.Vishwa Fernando traps Faf du Plessis lbw•AFPSo you’d taken eight wickets in the match, and once their innings was over. Did you think your job for the game was complete?I was pretty happy with my eight wickets, but there was also a feeling that I shouldn’t have given away so many runs (his match figures were 8 for 133), and should have done a little bit more. But in the end I’m happy with the performance because we did end up winning.You’re in the dressing room now, and you’re watching the tailenders get out quickly, one after another. What’s going through your mindI didn’t have my pads on when Dhananjaya [de Silva] and Kusal [Perera] were batting. When they were batting together, I had a lot of hope we could win. Their quicks had stopped bowling, and South Africa had gone to spin. But then Dhananjaya got out, and Suranga Lakmal went out and got out first ball, unfortunately, and I had to start putting my pads on. I was pretty sad, to be honest. I felt like we had too many runs to get, and too few wickets. They had a 75-80% chance to win. But then I got to the middle, I felt differently. I told Kusal straight away that I wasn’t going to give away my wicket.Kusal said you’d told him you’d hit the ball with your body if nothing else. Did you say that?(Laughs) Yes I did. My job was to protect my wicket, not to score runs. So I told Kusal you score the runs. Let’s get 10 runs closer, and another 10 runs closer, and take it from there.South Africa weren’t that interested in getting Kusal’s wicket, and they were really targeting you. Were you afraid?I wasn’t afraid. Well, I wasn’t afraid that I would get hit, at least. I was afraid that I would lose my wicket. Kusal can’t play the whole over. I had to bat one or two balls at least. There was a lot of pressure. The fast bowlers were having a go at me, and the close fielders were having a go at me. I did say a few things back.Sometimes when a bowler bowls, he’ll come and give you a stare. I’ve done that plenty of times to batsmen, and they’ve looked away. I didn’t want to give the South Africa bowlers that satisfaction. I stared at them back. I didn’t want to show that I was afraid. I wanted them to know I wouldn’t throw away my wicket.Do you usually have a good technique against fast bowling?(Laughs) I’m not going to even talk about technique! I can hang on to my wicket. I don’t have very good technique, but I can hit a ball with my bat.You ducked a lot of balls. Is that something you do well?I do it a lot at club level. But there were about two times in domestic cricket when I was in the same situation and had to play a lot of balls, but I wasn’t able to do it on those occasions. This is the first time I was able to do it. This was the fastest bowling unit that I’d faced. And they swung it a lot as well.Were they reversing the old ball?Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada were reversing the old ball a bit. Duanne Olivier was trying to bounce me out. I played a couple of overs of Keshav Maharaj as well, and that was a different challenge. He was the guy who’d just taken a lot of wickets.Early on in your innings, did you think there was a chance of victory?My first goal was to hang on until Kusal got his hundred, because he was on about 80 when I walked in. But even after he got there, we still had another 50-odd to get. So we just broke it down, and said let’s take it 10 runs at a time. We’ve got all the time in the world. I told him I’d somehow play the two or three balls an over I had to face.When did you feel you could actually win it?Kusal is someone who can hit 15-20 runs in one over if he has to, so we were trying to slowly get it down to roughly that amount. So when it got down that low, that’s when I really started thinking that we can’t get it to this stage and end up with a loss. But then it was around then that South Africa took the second new ball. Still, I thought: I’m not going to give away my wicket.Was there more pressure when a win actually became possible?There was crazy pressure. I can’t put that into words. I’m a bowler, not a batsman, so I was massively worried. But I was intent that I wasn’t going to throw it away. If I’d played a dumb shot, or backed away from the wicket and got out, then that would have been wrong. But if I got out defending, and they nicked me off or something, I could live with myself. Once they took the second new ball, Kusal and I didn’t even talk about it, because there’s nothing to do. Though I think that although he was earlier happy to let me bat two balls in an over, he tried to give me only one ball.Vishwa Fernando in action•AFPThere was one over when Rabada bowled two bouncers to Kusal to finish an over, and he ducked both balls. It seems like he did actually trust you a bit?Kusal did trust me from the start. Aftar that Rabada over, Steyn bowled a few balls at me and luckily I was able to get a run away in the middle of the over. I edged it and it fell short of the slips. I saw Kusal running at me, and I ran to the other end as well.You had to dive once to make your crease as well…Yeah, we had to get two runs off that shot for Kusal to keep the strike, but we decided late that we were going to run. So that’s why there was a run-out chance. I dived from very far away from the crease. (Laughs.)So they’ve got the second new ball now. Were they swinging it?They were. And there was definitely enough swing to get a batsman out. But I knew as a bowler, that after they take the second new ball, they’d be trying to get me out with the fuller ones – either bowled, lbw, or caught behind – rather than with a bouncer. So that’s what I was expecting.Around about then, Kusal hit two incredible sixes off Steyn. How did you feel at the other end?I’ve got no words to describe them. If you can hit those sixes off bowlers of that stature, then you’re a great batsman. Sanath Jayasuriya is the only other batsman I’ve seen who can hit those shots off those balls. That’s incredible talent. When I saw that, it helped me keep going. I thought as long as I stay here, he will win it.Describe what you felt when Kusal hit the winning run.It’s hard to describe. It’s one of the happiest days of my life. We had been wanting a win so badly, so it was big for us.A couple of days later, how do you reflect on it?I’m so happy to have been a part of a win like that. Hopefully, a lot of people in Sri Lanka enjoyed it as well. I hope that like they are with us after a win, that they will be with us if we lose as well. You do win and lose in cricket. There’s luck involved as well as talent.Any personal goals for the second match?I had a chance to get five wickets in both innings in Durban, but couldn’t get there. I don’t have a Test five-wicket haul yet. So That’s my big target, as long as the team wins.

Based on their showing against Pakistan, it’ll take a brave man to predict a better fate for the top four in New Zealand

Mohammad Isam08-Dec-2021Shaheen Afridi toyed with Shadman Islam. He got him to jump around the crease and then sent him out with a full delivery that rammed into his pads.Hasan Ali got one to scissor between debutant Mahmudul Hasan Joy’s defence. Then, he had Bangladesh’s captain Mominul Haque, with a full and fast delivery he couldn’t get bat to.Having roughed Bangladesh up with full deliveries, Afridi then adopted the short-ball trick to great effect as Najmul Hossain Shanto lobbed a simple catch to one of the two gullies stationed for just that.Related

• Bangladesh's crumbling home advantage

• Stats – Pakistan and Sajid Khan set new benchmarks in Dhaka

On the fifth morning of the second Test, Bangladesh’s top four were dismissed in no time after they had been asked to follow-on. And it’s Pakistan’s takedown of their brittle line-up in each of the four innings this series that was crucial to the 2-0 sweep.The 7.62 Bangladesh’s top-four batters averaged is the worst when they have batted in at least 16 innings in a Test series. Yet, all considered, they were about 20 minutes away from securing a draw, mainly due to Shakib Al Hasan and the lower-order resistance – and all the time lost to the weather earlier. But when the top four cave in as easily as they have, it doesn’t help.What contributed most to the top four’s meltdown was Mominul having his worst Test series to date. He made only 14 runs, the least he has scored in any series in which he batted at least four innings. His previous lowest across four innings was the 94 he made against England in 2016.

Shadman, Mahmudul, the uncapped Mohammed Naim and Fazle Mahmud are the opening options in New Zealand. Can they cope with the green in New Zealand? Against Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner? It will be tough, that’s for sure.

While the top four have been poor, it’s also important to factor in their inexperience. Shadman and Shanto are playing their tenth and 11th Tests respectively, while Saif Hassan, who missed the Dhaka Test because of a fever, is just working his way up having made his debut last year. Mahmudul, meanwhile, is an absolute rookie.They are all considered to be in the list of the country’s next-in-line batters, who have all made at least one century in the season’s first-class tournament. But how much is that really worth?In Chattogram, Russell Domingo had said that the domestic structure doesn’t prepare young players to make the transition to the highest level. It was a bold statement from a coach, who himself has often found himself at odds with the board bigwigs. “There’s some exciting young players coming through but they are a long way off from where they need to be as international batsmen and bowlers,” Domingo had said. “The more cricket they play at the domestic level or ‘A’ team tours, the better will be for the national side.It’s clear that Bangladesh aren’t the same side without Tamim Iqbal, but he is still some way from match fitness•AFP/Getty Images”Right now, the step up from domestic to international cricket is a massive step. It is something BCB needs to look at to make sure they impact the game and not take a long time to find their feet.”What would be most worrying for Domingo – and other stakeholders of the game in Bangladesh – going into the New Zealand series is the number of balls that the top four have faced in this series. It is the lowest for Bangladesh when they have batted at least 16 innings in a Test series, roughly one-third of the 854 balls that they face on average in a home series.It’s clear they aren’t the same side without Tamim Iqbal, who scored four Test half-centuries in a row this year. His attacking salvo derailed Sri Lanka a couple of times in the Test series in April. Since his debut in 2008, Tamim is the fourth-highest scorer among Test openers. It’s an understatement when we say Saif, Shadman and the new lot of batters coming in have big boots to fill.Tamim is still a while away from returning to competitive cricket – he has multiple fractures in his thumb – which means Shadman, Mahmudul, the uncapped Mohammed Naim and Fazle Mahmud are the opening options in New Zealand. Can they cope with the green in New Zealand? Against Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner? It will be tough, that’s for sure.