This was always going to be a hugely challenging tour, but it didn’t have to be so shambolic

Andrew Fidel Fernando13-Mar-20221:53

Jaffer: Sri Lanka will learn a lot from this India tour

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne thought fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera would be available for this match. In fact, Karunaratne said Chameera would be rested for the Mohali Test, specifically so that he would be ready for Bengaluru.It made some sense. Chameera had played eight T20Is in a row (five in Australia, three in India) and had picked up an ankle injury, which is unsurprising for a bowler of his pace. Give him a break. Keep that powder dry. Have him steam in with the pink ball, under lights.

Jasprit Bumrah’s day-two comments

On his 5/24 in the first innings: “When you play all three formats you have to look after your body and you sometimes miss out on the home Tests. This is the time when I got the opportunity and to be able to contribute towards the team’s success is always a great feeling.”
On the pitch: “If there is some help for the bowlers when you score runs on such a wicket gives you a lot of confidence. You will not get flat wickets everywhere you play, so whenever it’s a challenge, you are always looking forward to that challenge. Nobody is complaining about the wicket, yes everybody is finding a way and looking forward to contribute because they know if they score good runs on a tough wicket then that will give them a lot of confidence and when they play on a relatively flat wicket that will give them strength. So that is the mood in our camp.

But in the days before the Bengaluru Test, it came to light that Chameera’s injury might need long-term management. He still have played in Bengaluru, but the team’s focus this year is the T20 World Cup, and they absolutely could not risk losing their pace spearhead in that format.So what ended up happening is that a team that had already lost one of their fast bowlers, after Lahiru Kumara strained a hamstring in Mohali, carried Chameera in the squad right through the series, for no good reason, taking up the place of someone else, such as Asitha Fernando.It doesn’t seem like there was much of a plan.

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In this series, Sri Lanka have Charith Asalanka batting at No. 5. He lit up Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup, and has largely been excellent at No. 5 in the ODI set-up, so that he is a talented player with a potentially long trajectory is clear. But is he a Test No. 5 at the moment? In 70 first-class innings, he has a single century.His selection might be palatable if Sri Lanka had no others to fill his place, but in this squad, this very squad, is an experienced Test batter, who, if history is anything to go by, relishes playing India. Perhaps you’ll say Dinesh Chandimal averaging 50 against this opposition is skewed by that once-in-a-lifetime 162* he hit in Galle, way back in 2015. But its not. His body of work against India, and particularly India, is impressive.In 2017, when Sri Lanka last toured here, Chandimal hit 366 runs at an average of 61, which was second only to Virat Kohli’s. In that series he hit twin fifties in a big loss in Nagpur, and then a vital first-innings 164 in the (trigger warning) “pollution Test” in Delhi, which Sri Lanka went on to draw. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja played all those matches, and Mohammed Shami two of them.There is no tougher assignment in Test cricket than a series in India. To succeed here, against this attack, against the SG ball, requires skill, application, and, vitally, experience. Chandimal has had a couple of modest pandemic years in the Test side, but despite that has 11 Test tons, and a career average touching 40. He was left out for a batter averaging less than 28 in first-class cricket. Sri Lanka’s multi-day competitions have been some of the softest in the full-member cricket world over the past decade.If there was a plan, it doesn’t seem like much of one.

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In the first innings in Bengaluru, Kusal Mendis opened the innings with Karunaratne. The thinking, probably was that Mendis is a decent starter against spin, and can also better counter the offspin of R Ashwin, who was likely to open the innings. Mendis was out to Jasprit Bumrah, having faced zero deliveries of spin.On day two, Sri Lanka burned two reviews in the space of 10 overs, then missed one they should have taken soon after. Having served his six-month disciplinary suspension, Niroshan Dickwella has promptly reclaimed his role as one of the worst review-advisors in Test cricket.Have Sri Lanka put their best possible XI on the field?•BCCIAnd in this match, the bowlers have sprayed the ball around on a track that should suit them, batters have played muddled little innings, wafting at balls away from their body, not committing to defence or attack. And they have caught exceedingly poorly, having dropped at least six catches across their two innings.Sri Lanka were never really going to challenge this India team, perhaps, but as sublime as the hosts have been, Sri Lanka have also generously provided their own shambles.They have played, in short, like a team that hasn’t had a head coach since December, and are still scrambling to find one. Like a side with many high-profile and well-meaning advisors, but no cohesive vision. (Tom Moody, Aravinda de Silva, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan are all now part of the set-up, but three of them have big IPL jobs, and Murali and de Silva have businesses; none are on the ground with the team full-time.)They have made decisions on the fly, thrown underprepared players into the toughest possible Test-match situations, and have made startling selection calls. And they may end up losing their second successive Test inside three days.

The batter scored his fourth Ranji ton this season, once again rescuing Mumbai to keep their dream of No. 42 alive

Shashank Kishore23-Jun-2022A slap of the thigh. Fingers pointing to the sky. Hand on his heart accompanied by a fist pump and a roar towards the dressing room. Sarfaraz Khan’s celebration was every bit as colourful as his hundred, his fourth of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season.The latest, his eighth in first-class cricket, was only his second one below 150. However, it may be his most important yet, having come in a final against a strong Madhya Pradesh attack after Mumbai’s middle order had an uncharacteristic collapse.Related

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• Muzumdar: Mumbai's players 'have bought into the future'

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• 'When an attacking player develops patience, he can become dangerous'

In the previous season, in 2019-20, Sarfaraz had made 928 runs in nine innings. The pandemic-induced break only reinvigorated his desire for runs. This season, he has already made 937 in eight innings at an average of 133.85, with one more innings potentially left. Overall, among batters to have made at least 2000 first-class runs, his average of 82 is second-best to Sir Donald Bradman.Ahead of the season, his impressed upon Sarfaraz the need to have another ‘Mayank-like season’. The essence of Naushad’s message was to make daddy hundreds, and break down the selection door as Mayank Agarwal did during a record-breaking 2017-18 season that eventually earned him a Test cap. This has been as Mayank-like as it can get.It’s even more incredible because, unlike Agarwal, Sarfaraz bats in the middle order. It’s not that he isn’t good enough to be in the top four. No. 5 has been his designated position only because his improved game smarts and situational awareness complement each other, especially while having to rally with the lower middle order.In a grand finale, with Mumbai slightly on the back foot at 248 for 5, which became 248 for 6 two balls into the second day, this was yet another validation of the team management’s faith in Sarfaraz’s ability to carry the lower order.When Sarfaraz broke through eight seasons ago as a boy wonder, the punch in his strokes was unmistakable, but his inability to temper down would lead to his downfall often. Inconsistency in run-making was one thing; lack of fitness and a lifestyle that paid little heed to diet and rest let him down.Sarfaraz says he took the easy way out and moved states. This, he soon realised, was a mistake because he wasn’t tackling the root cause. Ahead of the 2019 season, he decided to transform himself physically. Not just become “muscle fit” but “cricket fit”.Sarfaraz Khan’s second fifty came in 38 balls on Thursday•PTI In essence, he wanted to bat longer, wear down attacks and not just provide sparks of brilliance, concentrate better, and have the same intensity, and focus in the final session as he would with the new ball. He did all this and much more during his 134 that set up Mumbai’s strong first-innings total of 374 on a slightly dry Bengaluru deck.Sarfaraz had ended the opening day on 40, firmly intent on crease occupation. He had already batted 125 deliveries at stumps and had a clear understanding of how the surface was playing. When he lost Shams Mulani off the second ball on Thursday, the onus was even more on Sarfaraz to bail Mumbai out from a precarious 248 for 6. Would he attempt a jailbreak, or would he milk the runs?The first eight overs produced just 10 runs. Sarfaraz wasn’t allowed to get away. Madhya Pradesh’s fast bowlers tried everything. Setting him up to drive with a packed cordon, attack the stumps trying to get him lbw, frustrate him by cutting off the point boundary and at times bowling short into the body with a man right under his nose. Sarfaraz seemed to have it all under control.It wasn’t until he got to his half-century off 152 balls that Sarfaraz started to open up. By then Mumbai were seven down, yet he was in no hurry to break free. This comes with unmistakable confidence in his own abilities as it does of his mates. When the spinners came on after an excellent opening burst from Gaurav Yadav, Sarfaraz quickly jumped on to play some ferocious sweeps against Kumar Kartikeya’s left-arm spin.Against pace, especially off Yadav who was nipping it around both ways, Sarfaraz stood a foot or two outside the crease to negate the late movement. Within an hour, the packed cordon has been reduced to a lone slip, with cover and midwicket the only men inside the ring to try and get Sarfaraz off the strike. It helped massively that Sarfaraz found a stonewaller in No. 9 Dhawal Kulkarni, as he batted out 35 deliveries for 1. This gave him some time and space at the other end to plan a calculated late assault.Sarfaraz marched into the 90s with a ramp over the slips, a shot he plays so late that bowlers are often tricked into believing he’s scooping it over short fine. While the half-century had taken 152 balls, the next fifty took him all of 38 balls.He was the last man out, to an ugly hoick, on 134, but by then, the transformation from a Mumbai batter to the next-gen big-hitter was complete. He had once again rescued Mumbai and kept their dream of No. 42 well and truly alive.

When 146 off 111 balls somehow feels no-frills, no-frolics, you know something special is going on

Osman Samiuddin01-Jul-2022In life there are short straws and writing about a Sensible Rishabh Pant innings is one of those short straws. I’m not being ungrateful. A Sensible Rishabh Pant innings is still worth more than, say, all of Sir Alastair Cook’s most un-boring (the laptop is not allowing me to type “entertaining”) innings. A Sensible Rishabh Pant innings is still more fun than an entire career’s worth of innings by… (no, I’m not going to name Dom Sibley, Azhar Ali, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dean Elgar, Kraigg Brathwaite or Geoffrey Boycott here).It’s not like he didn’t do Rishabh Pant things or have a Rishabh Pant effect on the match. He came in at 64 for 3 in the 23rd over, the run rate dropping to under three. When Virat Kohli fell a couple of overs later, it had dropped a little more and India were in even more trouble. By the end of his innings, in the 67th over, the run rate was near-enough five per over and these days, round these parts, that’s being sold as a wholesale cultural revolution.He ended up with 146 off 111 balls, the second-fastest 100 by an Indian in England, neither of which are necessarily facts from a sensible innings. And yes, he did start the innings by charging at the first ball he faced from James Anderson. He inside-edged it for a single, probably the least-sensible-but-most-entertaining single you will see in Tests this year. And his first boundary was another charge at Anderson and a drive straight past him. For which apologies – in the subcontinent we’re taught from a very young age to show utmost respect to elders and Pant let us down there.Rishabh Pant plays a reverse scoop – but a sensible one•Associated PressOh, also he did try to sweep Ben Stokes one ball but missed. Most batters might show some contrition and double down on defending the next ball; Pant tried to reach a ball so wide he wouldn’t have reached it if he was using Mohammad Irfan as a bat. He ended that over with this one shot, this curious blend of a chop, dab and cut that slipped through point and looked like no shot that had ever been played before. Joe Root was talking about rewriting the coaching manual after reverse-scooping some sixes a couple of weeks ago: meanwhile, Pant’s bashing out a fresh manual every time he comes out to bat.He even tried to reverse-scoop Anderson but by only getting two for it, it felt apposite for the kind of innings this was turning out to be. In a Not-Sensible Rishabh Pant innings, this would’ve for sure landed in someone’s beer cup in the stands (and would have done so via time travel so that he became the first man to do it this summer and not Daryl Mitchell).Jack Leach came on, which, given his record against Pant before this Test – 88 runs off 59 balls – was a sign that even England were also finding this innings a little too sensible. In succession, four, four, six; in sum 59 runs off 32 balls; in between a charge and loft that left Pant flat on his back; also in between, a six with one hand off the handle in an over that cost 22. By then England had blinked and put a man out at long-on and he was still hitting sixes over them. But, I mean, give a four-year old a can of soda at 8pm on a weeknight and see how sensible that leaves them?But when he got to fifty with this unassuming clip off his thighs that looked like it might fetch a single, then two because it was timed well but then the fielder at the deep square leg boundary’s sprawling to stop and can’t because it’s timed so well, that too felt apposite. It was a sensible, no-frills, no-frolics shot. Even at nearly a run-a-ball, this fifty was like here, take this Les Paul guitar, this Marshall amp and just turn the volume down to one when you jam okay?Related

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I swear this really was sensible Pant. Picking his battles, picking his areas, picking his shots (okay, not all the time), running eagerly, not forgetting the easy runs, all the things you can tune out from. In between deliveries he’d walk away with the bat over his left shoulder and to some minds he might have been carrying it like an axe, but really it made more sense to think of it as him carrying a boombox. With the volume down.It took him four scoring shots to get from 92 to 100, when basically he’s the one batter in world cricket who might one day hit an eight. And when he got to the century, he was diving back for the second like he was Steve Waugh, straining like the run’s the most important thing in the world and not at all like a batter who’s been out in the 90s five times. It was percentages cricket.Even after tea when the numbers are telling us this was not a Sensible Rishabh Pant innings but a Pure Rishabh Pant innings (he was 53 off 52 at tea and then scored 93 off 59), Pant wasn’t doing Pant things. He took apart Matthew Potts in a way that was positively well-mannered: a stand-and-admire cover drive, two smart back cuts, a couple of well-behaved pulls, a whip through midwicket. No risks taken, nothing not sensible about any of those shots and yet six boundaries in 17 balls and England’s best bowler this summer had been seen off.When Joe Root bowled him a bouncer and he pulled it for four, it was Root who was not being sensible. Pant played the most sensible shot he could to it. Which is around the point, not long before he got out, that I realised that this wasn’t the short straw at all. Pant’s sensible is just not other people’s sensible.

They owe it to coach Pandit for instilling confidence in them and pushing them out of their comfort zone

Nikhil Sharma01-Jul-2022The foundation of Madhya Pradesh’s maiden Ranji Trophy title was laid by a partnership between Yash Dubey and Shubham Sharma in the final. In a chat with ESPNcricinfo, the duo talk about their partnership throughout the season, their batting approach, and how coach Chandrakant Pandit pushed them out of their comfort zone to get the best out of them.From an MBA degree to a Ranji Trophy title
Shubham comes from a family where education has always been a priority. His father Shyam Sundar is a retired principal, mother Sarvesh still teaches and his brother is an IIT graduate. But they never asked Shubham to give up on his cricket dreams to pursue academics. If anything, Shubham himself was drawn to studies – like his state team-mate Venkatesh Iyer, he happens to have an MBA degree in human resources – but an interest in taking up cricket as a career meant he didn’t sit for placements in college.Related

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He has no regrets but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Shubham in cricket. He didn’t get as many chances as he might have liked in his early years. In this year’s Vijay Hazare Trophy, he scored 418 runs at an average of 69.6, with one century and four half-centuries. Having finished fourth on the run-scorers’ list, he hoped he would land an IPL contract. But he never got one.”It is disappointing [to miss out] but I have never let that linger on,” Shubham says. “If not this year, then surely the next. I draw inspiration from the fact that my mates Venkatesh, Avesh [Khan] and Rajat [Patidar] have been in the IPL and done well. They have all spent time in the dressing rooms and they share some of that knowledge with the others. After the Vijay Hazare [Trophy], I did get some calls from Punjab Kings, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. Kings and Super Kings even talked about taking me into their teams, but that didn’t work out.”Shubham owes his confidence to Pandit who gave him a pep talk before the Vijay Hazare Trophy. It was also Pandit who had suggested he moved up the order in Ranji Trophy – a move that massively helped Shubham as well as his team.”When he first came on board, Chandu sir [Pandit] took personal interviews to understand us all better and figure out how best to employ the players,” Shubham says. “Getting me to bat at three and Yash to open were his plans. As was drafting in Akshat [Raghuvanshi], since normally Under-19 players don’t get that kind of responsibility so early. He also reasoned that Rajat Patidar’s batting was ideally suited for No. 4. I was used to batting at six or seven, but he put me in at three. None of the players questioned any of his decisions. We just focused on the process and not on any outcomes.”I remember during the one-dayers, he once told me that if I really put my head down and batted, it was impossible for any bowler to dismiss me. I drew a lot of confidence from that statement, since he must have made it after observing my game.”Shubham struck 608 runs at an average of 76 this Ranji season, with four centuries and a half-century. Not surprisingly, he rates the hundred in the final as his favourite.”The Gujarat game was critical too, but I would rate this hundred as the best because it came under the pressure of a final. It was fun batting with Yash because we have known each other for a long time and spent a lot of time playing together. We are good friends and when we bat, we discuss what the bowlers are doing and where we can score our runs. When we dismissed Mumbai for 374, Chandu sir simply said that the way we had been batting this season, it was likely we would get to 480 as a minimum. All he asked of us was to treat each ball on its merit.”When MP needed seven on the final day to win the match, Shubham perished while attempting a slog-sweep. He had to face Pandit’s ire when he returned to the dressing room.”I normally don’t play that kind of stroke, but then I thought of doing it since we only needed seven. I was just removing my pads in the dressing room and didn’t realise Chandu sir was in the dugout. He called out my name and asked me to come sit next to him. His point simply was that if I had to hit a big shot, I should stuck to my game and played it straight. I could have still picked up six, he felt.”The bookworm from BhopalUnlike Shubham, Dubey wasn’t too keen on getting a college degree. But Dubey did spend most of his career batting in the middle order, just like Shubham, and was sent up the order by Pandit to face the new ball during the league stages this season. Suddenly he was required to bide his time and blunt the opposition’s new-ball attack, and handle seam and swing for longer than what he may have been used to.Shubham Sharma and Yash Dubey put on a double-century stand•PTI “Ahead of the Kerala game, he asked me if I was prepared to open,” Dubey says. “I told him I was ready. This was about three or four days ahead of the actual game. I took those few days to have a few chats about opening with the coach and other players. Once that was done, I didn’t stop to think too much about it.”He got comfortable in his new role quickly and came out successful – he scored 289 in the first innings against Kerala, helping post a mammoth total of 585 for 9. Dubey sought some tips from his opening partner Himanshu Mantri, and constant feedback from coach Pandit also helped him break patterns.”Himanshu’s philosophy was simple – he said that there were eight or nine batters to follow us,” Dubey says. “So we just had to approach our job with positivity. He also suggested that my patient batting style was perfectly suited to opening. I just had to focus on a few things like playing close to my body. I needed my hands to be close to me so I could retain control when I was hitting the ball. I just focused on these basics.””He [Pandit] told me, ‘you have gotten out for a low score against Punjab, but you have already done what was expected of you as opener. You have batted for 90 balls and made the ball older for the batters to follow. You worked hard for the team but didn’t get the reward for it, but that’s alright. I am less concerned about the runs you make and more about the number of balls you have faced'”I got out to average decisions in both innings of the semi-final, but Chandu sir told me that if I had gotten out to a bad shot in the previous match, here I had fallen to two bad decisions. He asked me to repent the poor shot in the Punjab game and promise never to do that again. I promised him I would bat with greater discipline in the final, and he said he was confident I would score heavily in that match. All he said was to not play a false shot, or even god wouldn’t forgive me this time.”Keeping all this advice in mind, he set out to make a big score during the final, against Mumbai, where he stitched up a 222-run second-wicket stand with his ‘idol’ Shubham: “He [Shubham] has been an idol of mine from my U-19 days, because of his technical proficiency. We had numerous chats right through this season. We were also room partners for a long time. Even against Mumbai, we constantly chatted about what the wicket was doing and how much seam their bowlers were able to extract.”Dubey grew up around chat about MP’s inadequacy to be contenders for the Ranji title. “Everybody would say MP aren’t capable of doing well in the Ranji Trophy. To have done that under Chandu sir was extra special. We know we lost under his captaincy in 1999, but it feels good that we have been able to realise the dream that he once had.”Did his idol Shubham also influence him to get back to his studies? For now, he just sticks to reading books at leisure, Dubey says. “You get to learn a lot when you read extensively,” he says. “I have seen others spend a lot of time on YouTube and on OTT platforms, but in the meantime I have become more used to reading. You will often find me with a book and a cup of coffee on me. I always get to breakfast ahead of time and then unwind with a book and some coffee.”

With the T20 World Cup in four months’ time, the think tank will want to iron out all the kinks as soon as possible

Firdose Moonda20-Jun-20225:24

Dale Steyn: ‘Four games don’t make Temba Bavuma a bad player’

What to do about Temba Bavuma?There is no doubt he is an astute captain and an articulate speaker, but neither of those things are what is needed from an opening batter in T20 cricket. There, it is purely about numbers – and particularly strike rate. Bavuma’s is 120.60 in T20Is, which, since June 2021, has fallen further to 115.94 – the lowest among openers from the top six teams at the previous T20 World Cup. Moreover, if Quinton de Kock doesn’t fire, that strike rate might become a liability for South Africa.Bavuma isn’t the biggest hitter, but in this series he was also kept quiet by the outstanding skill of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, which limited his ability to rotate strike. Coach Mark Boucher recognised the problem: “Bhuvi was exceptional. He put us under pressure in the Powerplays. That’s an area that India dominated us in, and that’s something we will definitely look into and try and improve”.Related

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But how? On this tour, they responded to sluggish starts by promoting Dwaine Pretorius to a pinch-hitting role at No. 3, which worked once in four matches, and probably won’t be a long-term solution. Perhaps there is an argument to move Bavuma down the order – easier said than done, read on to find out why – or to ask him to make use of the retired outs we have seen in this format of late.Either way, a quick survey of other openers – David Warner, Jason Roy, Martin Guptill and Rohit Sharma – says that striking at around 140 is more acceptable, and Bavuma has to get up there to make sure South Africa get off to more aggressive opening passages of play.Who fits in the middle order?Rassie van der Dussen won a game, Heinrich Klaasen won a game, David Miller was with both of them as they did so, Tristan Stubbs got two matches but didn’t bat, and it sounds like Aiden Markram – who missed this series after contracting Covid-19 – will slot straight back in. But is there space for all of them?It is likely that South Africa can only fit three, or at a push, four of these five players into Nos. 3 to 6 or 7 in the batting order, and it may be tricky to decide between them. Markram offers a part-time bowling option, Klaasen can keep wicket if he needs to, and van der Dussen and Miller have experience on their side.David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen offer experience to South Africa’s middle order•Gallo ImagesIf the last of those holds sway, that may mean Stubbs sits out for the time being, but his form in the most recent domestic competitions suggests that South Africa should give him an opportunity sooner rather than later. A problem of plenty in the middle order is one selectors don’t mind having. Besides, the openers’ issue is way bigger than this.Seven batters or two allrounders?On the evidence of the XI picked for the last match, South Africa can’t have both. They played the combination of Pretorius and Wayne Parnell – who Marco Jansen replaced in the fourth match – and six specialist batters in the first three games, but had to leave Jansen out in the fifth to play the seventh batter.With two allrounders, they also created room for two specialist spinners, which gave them six bowling options; but the batting looked a bit light. With seven batters – allrounder included – they only have five bowling options and space for just one specialist spinner, which can be limiting, unless the allrounder is also a spinner. And that is what they wanted from the outset.”We wanted to play six batters with Aiden being our sixth bowling option, but we couldn’t do that,” Boucher said, further opening the door for Markram’s immediate return.It is likely that in Australian conditions – where the T20 World Cup will be held in four months’ time – South Africa will revert to one specialist spinner and three quicks. Their choice, then, will mostly be between seven batters or six and an allrounder, with Markram doing some bowling too.Lungi Ngidi can reach 140kph-plus, and has also developed a well-disguised slower ball•BCCILungi Ngidi over Anrich Nortje?Ngidi had not played a T20I for almost a year before this series, while Nortje had not played any format of international cricket in more than six months. They both made their returns, and on the early evidence, there is a case to be made for Ngidi’s inclusion over Nortje’s if South Africa have to choose only one of them.Ngidi was benched for the entire IPL but spent the time working on his conditioning and skills, and looks leaner and fitter than at any point in his career while also being more in control of his craft. He can still reach 140kph-plus, and has also developed a well-disguised slower ball and his change-ups brought wickets, especially in the final match.Nortje, who regained full fitness following a persistent hip and back injury at the IPL, was more wayward, struggling to find his lengths on occasions. By his own admission, he is not quite where he was before the injury, and wants more time to bowl longer spells and find his rhythm.That will come in the next few months, with a full tour of England looming, and his progression could set up an intriguing contest with Ngidi and perhaps even Jansen in South Africa’s XIs at the T20 World Cup.

At 18 years, she is already just the fifth Indian woman to 1000 T20I runs, and the youngest to do so in all of women’s cricket

S Sudarshanan08-Oct-2022Is it easy being Shafali Verma?She burst into the international scene in T20Is as a teenager in 2019, bringing with her a fresh, big-hitting ability unlike many in Indian women’s cricket. She made people sit up and take note every time she walked out to bat and almost single-handedly took India to the final of the T20 World Cup in 2020. After a longish break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, she resumed from where she left off in the three-match T20Is against South Africa, smashing a 26-ball half-century in the final match.In the 20 T20I knocks since then, Shafali has crossed 20 only five times – four of which were scores in the forties. The phase also saw her make her Test and ODI debut, including playing her maiden 50-overs Women’s World Cup earlier this year. She endured a tough tour of England last month, where she was dismissed in single digits four times out of six innings, including being castled in back-to-back ODIs by Kate Cross’ nipbackers.Related

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• India head coach Powar defends batting reshuffle after Pakistan defeat

• Harmanpreet backs Shafali to turn her form around during Asia Cup

Did playing in multiple formats take a toll on Shafali? Was she torn between out-and-out attack and constructing a long innings? Did that dilemma creep into her T20 game and mess with her head?Ahead of the Women’s T20 Asia Cup, Shafali received the unequivocal backing of India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and she repaid the faith with an all-round show against Bangladesh.Shafali’s love for boundaries is an open secret; a wristily-flicked six over deep midwicket off left-arm fast bowler Fariha Trisna – who picked up a hat-trick during her T20I debut – truly saw her get going. With the deep midwicket fielder moving squarer following the shot, she heaved one to the left of the fielder for a one-bounce four before a cross-batted wallop beat long-on to her right. Soon after, she slinked down the track to belt left-arm spinner Nahida Akter over wide mid-off to end the powerplay on 26 off just 15 balls.Shafali was unafraid to move across the stumps and explore the arc between square leg and long-on. Deliveries like the juicy full toss from medium pacer Ritu Moni on the hips – which was nonchalantly flicked over deep square leg – also helped. It was not a flawless knock by any means; she faced 16 dots through her knock and had a tough time getting the experienced offspinner Salma Khatun and legspinner Fahima Khatun away.But that did not prevent her from getting to just to her fourth T20I half-century off 40 balls, the slowest of her career. She then followed it with her career-best T20I figures of 2 for 10, including the wicket of an on-song Nigar Sultana. It was another feather in her ever-growing, impressive cap, having stood in as a substitute wicket-keeper for Richa Ghosh on at least two occasions in the competition.At all of 18 years, Shafali is already only the fifth Indian woman to 1000 T20I runs, and the youngest to do so in all women’s matches. She also has hit the third-most sixes in T20Is for India and is only one behind Smriti Mandhana’s tally of 42.Being consistent is perhaps not her strongest suit. But she substitutes it with impactful knocks. She may get to scoring runs regularly. Or maybe not. And that’s why, perhaps it is not easy being Shafali Verma. But from the looks of it, it is quite fun being Shafali Verma.

Phoenix victories and success of home-grown stars are helping to draw in new fans

Matt Roller16-Aug-2022There is a huge cheer as Moeen Ali walks towards the South Stand at Edgbaston. A sprawling queue has formed at the end of Birmingham Phoenix’s seven-wicket win against Trent Rockets, all desperate for an autograph or a selfie with the captain and talisman. “Super, super Mo, Super Moeen Ali,” has been ringing out around the ground all evening.Half an hour earlier, Moeen’s devastating assault on Lewis Gregory – whose third set of five cost 23 runs – had removed any scoring pressure from Phoenix’s chase as the men closed out their sixth win from six at Edgbaston. The result completed a Phoenix double after Amy Jones – like Moeen, born and raised in the West Midlands – closed out the women’s chase alongside Ellyse Perry.”It’s something that we thrive off and buzz off,” Moeen says, after being pulled away from his fans to speak to the media. “It gives you a lift as a team. When the crowd is chanting your name and you get that support, it is awesome.”The reason we’re playing the Hundred is to attract a new audience and to make it simple for them to understand and enjoy games like this. Our jobs are not just about trying to win games – it’s about trying to inspire the next generation.”The West Midlands is home to a number of the UK’s bellwether political constituencies, where local results over a number of general elections have been mirrored by the outcome at a national level. Nuneaton, 25 miles east of Birmingham, has voted in line with the country as a whole since 1997; Worcester, 40 miles south-west, has done so since 1979.In a similar vein, the West Midlands might be seen as a bellwether for the Hundred. A short-form competition at the height of summer was always going to work in London, where there is always a huge demand for tickets, but Birmingham is a different kettle of fish. Edgbaston has hosted – and sold out – T20 Finals Day every year since 2013 but the Blast’s group stages have proved a harder sell.In 2019, the final pre-Hundred season with full crowds permitted, their average attendance across seven home games was around 9,500. “It’s a very diverse, industrial city,” Stuart Cain, Warwickshire’s chief executive, says. “You have to work hard to get people to spend money. Not because they’re tight, but it’s well-earned money. You have to give them a good day out.”The kids at Edgbaston get into the action during the Men’s Hundred•PA Images via Getty ImagesIn its first season, the Hundred came to life at Edgbaston. Phoenix’s women came from nowhere to qualify for the knockout stages, while the men were unbeaten at home on their way to top spot in the group stages. The second season has started brightly, too: Will Smeed hit the Hundred’s first hundred last week and so far the home teams have won three out of three.Crowds last year were significantly higher than in the Blast, with an average attendance of 15,500, and the Hundred managed to draw significantly more interest from Birmingham’s South Asian communities than the Blast ever had. “The new concept and the freshness has appealed to everyone,” Cain says, “so by default, if 40% of your city is South Asian, you’re going to get more people coming in from those communities.”Whether by chance or design, Phoenix’s squads have featured several British Asian players who have become an integral part of the new teams’ attempts to create an identity: Moeen, Issy Wong and Abtaha Maqsood. “Moeen is a local lad and Issy has come up through the ranks from the age of 10 or 11,” Cain says. “Abtaha was recommended to us and it has been awesome to send out the message that you can be a practising Muslim, wear the hijab, and be a professional cricketer.”Warwickshire have taken significant steps to make Edgbaston a more inclusive ground, particularly in its attempts to crack down on crowd abuse. “I think that’s the best way to give any community faith that it’s OK to come here,” Cain says.The Edgbaston app has been updated to allow quick, anonymous reports if fans experience any issues, while the installation of a high-definition camera facing the Eric Hollies Stand facilitated an arrest after allegations of racist abuse during the England-India Test earlier this summer. A man has since been charged with a racially-aggravated public order offence.The attendances for Monday’s double-header were impressive – 9,859 for the women’s game (on a weekday afternoon) and 15,800 for the men’s – not least given the numbers of events Edgbsaton has hosted this year: a Test, a T20I, seven Blast group games, Finals Day, and the Commonwealth Games. The swathe of bright-orange merchandise in the crowd suggested an affinity with Phoenix, even at an early stage of their existence.Related

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Crucially, some of the Hundred’s audience appear to have become hooked. Blast crowds this season were “slightly ahead” of 2019 figures despite the tournament being played earlier in the summer, and Edgbaston sold over 1,000 white-ball season tickets, granting access to every Blast and Hundred matchday.”This debate about ‘is the Hundred going to kill the Blast?’ is the wrong one: the genie is out of the bottle,” Cain says. “”I don’t agree that the Blast is for one audience and the Hundred is for a different one. There are people that love cricket and are coming to both, but there are some that love the Blast and will never come to the Hundred, and some that will come to the Hundred and will never come to the Blast.”Any new concept that brings in new crowds, new sponsors, free-to-air broadcast – I can’t see what there is to dislike. If you look at other sports – golf, tennis, hockey – they must be sitting there now in absolute envy about what cricket has done, to find a format that the BBC, Sky, fans and sponsors are all engaged in.”You’ve got to respect members’ opinions. Our job is to make sure we don’t lose the history and tradition of red-ball cricket but, at the same time, try and move the game on in a way that acknowledges the world is changing. We’re not trying to downgrade Championship cricket. We’re trying to find new ways of reaching audiences in a world where time, money and attention spans are tight.”The Hundred and its knock-on effects on the rest of the summer schedule remain hugely divisive, but it is clear that in its bellwether region, it is doing something right. As Cain summarises: “the second the sport stops criticising itself and doing itself down, the better off we’ll be.”

No other batter in T20I cricket has combined consistency (batting average) and aggression (strike rate) like Suryakumar

Shiva Jayaraman26-Jan-2023Suryakumar Yadav has lit up the T20I format like no other batter before him. While Suryakumar’s three hundreds and 13 fifties – in just 43 innings – is impressive, what’s more incredible is that he has an average of 46.4 while striking at 180.3. strike rate is too high to be accompanied by the consistency which that average represents. T20 batters are either attacking or consistent. They are very rarely both at the same time; even if they are, they aren’t for as long as Suryakumar has managed to be.Let’s put those numbers in perspective. Andre Russell scored 627 runs at a strike rate of 168.1 in 43 innings from 2014 to 2021. This was the highest strike rate achieved by a batter before Suryakumar over a period as long as his, in terms of innings. But Russell averaged only 21.6.Suryakumar has benefited from playing a lot of T20Is within two years of his debut, though, that too while being in prime form. Most other batters have had T20I appearances spread over longer periods. So the vagaries of time are likely to have affected the form of batters such as Russell.A fairer comparison would be with Jos Buttler. In his last 43 innings, Buttler has averaged 45.1 striking at 151.5. That is the highest strike rate for any batter other than Suryakumar who averages 45+ across 43 innings in T20Is. Suryakumar’s strike rate is nearly 19% better than Buttler’s in this time frame. That’s how rare it is to pair an average of 45+ with a strike rate of 180+ over an extended period.ESPNcricinfo LtdImportantly, this incredible run of form hasn’t come scoring easy runs. Suryakumar has bailed India’s batting out on a few occasions now, scoring in conditions and against attacks that the other India batters have struggled to score off.Take the 2022 T20 World Cup match against South Africa. On a fast, bouncy pitch in Perth, and against some of the fastest pacers in the game, Suryakumar hit 68 from 40 balls. The other India batters managed just 57 runs off the other 80 balls. Suryakumar struck runs at 170, while the other India batters had a combined strike rate of just 71.25.Since 2018, batters from Full-Member teams have averaged a little more than 23.5 and scored at a strike rate of 128.7. Based on these numbers, we could possibly assume an average of 25 and a strike rate of 130 is par for the course in T20Is in the last-five years.Since Suryakumar’s debut, there have been seven occasions when India’s batting – excluding him – has underperformed on both counts of average and strike rate (averaged below 25 and scored at a rate below 130) in T20Is. He has scored 441 runs at an average of 88.2 and a strike rate of 196 in these matches, inclusive of two of his three hundreds. His contribution to India’s totals (runs off the bat only) in these games has been a whopping 40.5%.In 15 matches when India’s top order has underperformed in terms of average only, Suryakumar has scored 770 runs at an average of 64.2 and a strike rate of 184.2. His contribution has been 31.9%. In another 15 matches when India’s top order has underperformed in terms of strike rate only, he has scored 852 runs at an average of 77.5 and a strike rate of 186.4. His contribution in these matches has been 36.7%.