Delayed Test hundred only asserts cricket’s unhealthy obsession with numbers but Gill is here to stay

Sidharth Monga16-Dec-20222:34

Jaffer: Gill will be India’s next big batter after Kohli

It’s folly to try to sum up an innings through one shot, but Shubman Gill’s reverse-sweep on 95 might come pretty close. Not quite the innings, but the situation Gill’s career was in, and his attitude towards batting.This was the first time Gill had been on 95 in Test cricket. Despite looking at home in Test cricket, Gill came into the game with only 11 matches and an average of 30.47 to his name. The other time he reached the 90s was an under-rated innings that set up India’s historic chase at the Gabba 2020-21.Related

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There has since been realisation that Gill’s best station might be the middle order, but India haven’t yet been able to accommodate him there. The one time he might have played in the middle order, an opener got injured and he had to open again. Shreyas Iyer grabbed the middle-order slot with both hands.Teams try to if they can, but they generally don’t exist to accommodate players. It is players who have to make themselves useful for teams. And you get rare chances to make yourself useful to this Indian team if you are a batter. For one, India play only five of them. They also like to give incumbents a decent run. That is where Gill would have known this Test – thanks probably to the injury to Rohit Sharma – could perhaps be that one last opening for a while.India won the toss, got off to a good start, Gill again looked a million dollars, but then ended up top-edging a paddle sweep – a shot he plays well. It wasn’t quite a loose shot or anything, but it was still his 11th score of 20 or more without a hundred.Gill was conscious of the missing big scores. He told the host broadcaster he was talking to Virat Kohli before the match about how he hasn’t yet scored a Test hundred. It seemed like he might have missed out on that chance but the Bangladesh tail hung in long enough into the third morning to discourage India from enforcing the follow-on.After he came good in some really testing conditions in Australia in his first series, you wouldn’t probably begrudge Gill a chance to get one on the board against a dispirited attack who are 254 behind already and are carrying two injured bowlers.”Once the field was up, I knew a ball in my area, I will hit it over the top,” Gill said about his shot to get to the hundred•Associated PressStill, no hundred is an easy hundred. Every Test innings deserves some respect. Gill accorded this one the required respect by starting off watchfully. He was 17 off 54 when he hit his first boundary. Once the runs started coming, though, they flowed. He scored 93 off the next 98 balls.”When lunch happened, my first 50 balls I was batting at around 13,” Gill said. “By the time I had faced 100 balls, I was about 70. It was all about pacing the innings and knowing when to attack. Because the bowlers are going to get tired after a particular period of time. As a batter you have to know when is the right time to attack.”The 90s wasn’t probably the time to attack. Watchfully he took five singles to move from 90 to 95 in 14 balls. This is when probably Bangladesh sensed some nerves or signs of play that went against Gill’s nature. So Mehidy Hasan Miraz went round the wicket to see if he could draw a mistake. Immediately Gill pulled the reverse-sweep, the first of his innings, because of the big gap at point. It is a shot he has played only eight times in all his T20 cricket, only three times in Tests.Gill is a classic batter, but he is also a modern batter. You can’t tie him down for long by bowling one side of the wicket. It didn’t look like a reverse-sweep of a reluctant reverse-sweeper. It went clean through point for four to take him to 99.”There weren’t too many different thoughts [in the 90s],” Gill said. “It was all about how I can get to my hundred. For me it was all about how I can play according to the field. See where they are trying to bowl to me, and to be able to score runs from there.”It was very instinctive when the bowler went round the wicket, and I saw a gap between point and third man. And I went for the reverse sweep, which was quite unconventional. I didn’t play a reverse-sweep in the whole innings and then I thought I will play the reverse sweep because the fielders weren’t there.”And then once the field was up, I knew a ball in my area, I will hit it over the top.”Now that Gill has got his first Test hundred – always a matter of when and not if – it is time to acknowledge cricket’s unhealthy obsession with hundreds. It should not be such a big psychological barrier for talented young batters. If Gill had got there in Brisbane and had followed up with similar numbers, would the estimation of his batting prowess change? Or if he hadn’t got the hundred in Chattogram and had got out on 95, would it have been any easier to decide who will make way if Rohit returns for the second Test?

Could Scott Boland be forced out of the team? Where does Marcus Harris stand after a summer as a reserve?

Alex Malcolm01-Jan-20233:27

McDonald on Green: ‘Challenge will be to be creative in the way that he trains’

Australia can book a spot in the World Test Championship final with a win over South Africa in Sydney. But for one of the rare times during this WTC cycle, Australia’s selection is very much an unknown. They have added Matt Renshaw and Ashton Agar to the squad in place of the injured pair Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc, but what the XI will look like will remain unclear until they see the pitch at the SCG, which is expected to offer turn.”One thing I’ve learned around wickets recently is never assume anything,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. “I think we’ll just wait and see what unfolds from the ground staff in terms of the wicket they prepare. But what I will say around that is that we feel as though we’ve got a squad for whatever that surface may be. We’ve got pretty much all bases covered.”Green’s injury is what makes the selection complex. Pat Cummins described him as irreplaceable, and Australia haven’t opted for an allrounder to replace him. They need to decide whether they pick seven batters or five bowlers.The case for Ashton Agar
Firstly, the decision to include Agar as the second spinner in the squad has raised eyebrows. Agar’s first-class average and strike-rate are significantly inferior to a host of Australia’s domestic spinners including Mitchell Swepson, Todd Murphy, Jon Holland and Matthew Kuhnemann. Even South Australia’s Ben Manenti and Western Australia understudy Corey Rocchiccioli have better records from small sample sizes. But McDonald confirmed Australia’s selectors wanted a left-arm orthodox to complement the right-arm offspin of Nathan Lyon.Related

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“We feel as though the complementing type of spinner that we’ve picked here with the left-arm orthodox is the way that we wanted to go,” McDonald said. “Sometimes the second spinner isn’t necessarily the best next spinner if that makes sense. It’s the one that complements what you have and we feel like the left-arm orthodox can be successful in Sydney and also as we venture the subcontinent.”The control of a left-arm orthodox spinner, as opposed to a right-arm legspinner, seems to be the preference. However, Agar has a higher career economy rate, average and strike-rate in first-class cricket than the other two left-arm orthodox options in Holland and Kuhnemann. Agar has been focusing on his white-ball bowling in recent years, with great success, and has only played three first-class games since October 2020 including two in the last five weeks. Crucially, though, he also averages 28 with the bat with three first-class centuries, which is a major reason why he has got the nod and it gives the selectors two ways of picking him for Sydney and India.”It could be two spinners, two quicks,” McDonald said. “It could be we could play a slightly more aggressive team with Alex Carey going into six and play five bowlers [with Agar at No.7]. We feel pretty comfortable that Ash has got that skill set and he’s a very mature player now and we feel that if he was to get that opportunity in India, or firstly here, that he’ll be able to step up.”Ashton Agar’s batting has tilted things his way in the race to be the second spinner•Getty ImagesThe case for Matt Renshaw
Renshaw has returned to opening for Queensland this year with success. He also opened for Australia A in Sri Lanka in the winter and for the Prime Minister’s XI against West Indies where he made 81 and 101 not out. However, Renshaw is clearly being looked at as a middle-order option because of his skill against both the new ball and spin bowling and his experience from Test tours of India and Bangladesh in 2017.It seems Renshaw would likely play if it was going to be an old-school big spinning pitch in Sydney, like the Sheffield Shield pitch between New South Wales and Western Australia earlier this summer, where Australia would only need four bowlers, including two spinners, and then an extra batter at six with good skill against spin who could play a vital role in a low scoring game.”We feel with Matt in particular, he’s got the flexibility to bat anywhere in the order from the top through the middle as well and we’ve seen over time his spin play has improved,” McDonald said. “We feel as though he could potentially fill that middle-order position.”McDonald noted that Peter Handscomb, one of Australia’s best players of spin and the leading Shield runscorer in the past two summers, could consider himself unlucky not to be called up for Sydney and remains in the frame for India.The case for Marcus Harris
Harris has been the spare batter in the squad all summer and last played in the Sydney Ashes Test 12 months ago. Harris’ best chance to feature is if the SCG pitch is a batting-friendly, non-spinning track, similar to the modern Test pitches in Sydney. In which case, Australia could pick seven batters, three quicks, and one spinner. Harris would come in as the next batting cab off the rank and he could open, with Usman Khawaja sliding to No. 5 as a one-off, the position he batted on his recall last year where he made twin hundreds.”With Marcus Harris, we feel he’s an opening batter or top three,” McDonald said. “We’ve seen him bat at three at times across his career. We don’t want to give too much away. The Khawaja one, yeah, he could bat in the middle. But we do like the combination of him and David [Warner] at the top and that’s probably where we’ll head in the future as well unless things shifted significantly on us.”The case for Lance Morris or Josh Hazlewood
There is a scenario where Morris, the fastest bowler in Australia, could play in front of Hazlewood, who has declared himself fit after a side strain, or even Scott Boland (Test average 12.21). It would likely come if Australia picked a five-pronged attack and felt the third quick needed to be a short-burst strike bowler with high pace, given Cummins, Boland or Hazlewood, and two spinners would be able to shoulder the majority of the overs and control the run-rate.”All scenarios are on the table,” McDonald said. “If we feel as though we need some airspeed then no doubt Lance is the obvious one. The conditions will determine that. I’d love to be able to speak in more depth around it. In two days’ time, I’ll probably be better positioned to be able to discuss and talk about that. I think that’s one that’s possible if the conditions present that way.”

The New Zealand allrounder reflects on the ways in which age can be an ally of senior athletes

S Sudarshanan07-Feb-20232:24

Bates: ‘Franchise cricket has kept me in the game longer than I thought’

Age is an ally of senior athletes. Their words are accompanied by certain wisdom, which would perhaps have helped their younger selves, too. That seniority also brings a quiet cacophony – that is louder in mind than on the outside – about being one match, or series, or tournament away from the end.Suzie Bates, the New Zealand allrounder, is the second-most capped player in women’s T20Is. Only India’s Harmanpreet Kaur has more appearances than Bates’ 139. But the retirements of former captain Amy Satterthwaite and wicketkeeper Katey Martin last year gave Bates a reality check.In her 17-year career, Bates has played a T20I without both Satterthwaite and Martin on only 19 occasions, 13 of them since July 2022. While Martin, 37, quit after last year’s home Women’s World Cup, Satterthwaite, 36, was shocked after being left out of New Zealand’s central contracts list and retired.”I’m really aware that every opportunity now could be my last, whether that’s by my own choice or by someone else’s,” Bates tells ESPNcricinfo from Pretoria, where New Zealand played three unofficial warm-ups before the Women’s T20 World Cup starting on Friday.”I found it really difficult because I believed [Satterthwaite] was still good enough to be contracted and carry on. She’s been one of the greats and someone I’ve played alongside and always looked up to and I felt I had to sort of sit back and watch that unfold. It gave me another wake-up call about how quickly this game can be taken away from you and I had a little bit of an experience with injury.Related

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“But it just reminded me once again to never take the game for granted and I promised myself from that point on that if I was going to keep playing, I was going to enjoy every game and until I stopped contributing to this team and stopped enjoying it. That’s when I know I’ve had enough, but right now I feel like I’m still doing both.”I probably reflected on the way Amy left the game and I just wanted to make sure that I carried on and made myself proud but made those players that wish they were probably still doing what I was doing proud as well. Katey Martin is another one who’s left a huge hole. There’s no one quite like her. I just feel really fortunate that Sophie [Devine] and I are still able to be leaders in this group because we’ve played so much cricket together.”A shoulder injury followed by surgery in late 2020 kept Bates out of action for much of 2021. She was finding her way back into the New Zealand side in 2022 with a World Cup and Commonwealth Games scheduled. But it wasn’t easy.”When I first came back from my shoulder surgery, I really struggled to find any kind of form in the middle,” Bates says. “I felt really good the way I was training, but just found it difficult at the middle to score runs. At that time, self-doubt crosses your mind, whether you’re still good enough to play at that level. So I had to work pretty hard not only on my game physically and my technique, but also mentally to get me back performing at that level.”After that World Cup we had some massive changes, which was hard for me to see some of my best mates leave the side. Knowing I was one of the senior players that was fortunate enough to still be playing, I probably took it upon my shoulders to be a really positive influence on the group. I know looking back, when you have those older players that are really supportive and positive, that makes a massive difference.”It’s lucky we’ve got such great young players and obviously Amelia Kerr is a pretty special talent. She’s fun to be around and the likes of Eden Carson, who grew up in Otago. It’s very easy to get around those girls and just try and help them be better players and more importantly, enjoy their cricket on and off the field.”Suzie Bates plays a shot during a warm-up match ahead of the 2023 T20 World Cup•ICC via Getty ImagesBates, though, turned her form around in fine fashion. She scored 662 runs in ODIs – the second-most for New Zealand in 2022 and the most she has scored in a calendar year – and 339 runs in T20Is, the second-most for New Zealand. Only twice in her career has she scored more T20I runs in a calendar year. She was part of New Zealand’s bronze-medal finish at the Commonwealth Games – which she terms “one of the highlights of my White Ferns career” – and then topped the batting charts for Oval Invincibles while captaining them to their second title in the women’s Hundred. She also made her presence felt in Sydney Sixers’ runners-up finish in the WBBL.What shone through was Bates’ ability to accelerate and her range of shots on both sides in front of and behind the wickets. She had a strike rate of 131.30 – the most for New Zealand – at the Commonwealth Games, and her 146.83 was only second to Smriti Mandhana among the top five run-scorers in the Hundred.”I feel like I’ve gone through a few different phases where I probably tried too many things and tried to bring too many shots into my game,” Bates says. “You talk about accessing 360 degrees, and I was accessing behind the wicket but I felt like I lost my form hitting down the ground. Therefore, you’re not really accessing 360 degrees. I went back to the basics and made sure that I’m still hitting the ball clean, up the field, and been able to stand still.”The way the game is going if you can access behind the wicket as well [it helps]. Probably the biggest work-on for me was being able to reverse and lap and all those types of things. When conditions, though, suit hitting over the top, it’s nice to be able to use the pace and bring that into my game and also manipulate the field. That’s what T20 cricket has done for me. But sometimes you can play so much and lose the basics of just a front-foot drive.”

“I haven’t made any decisions and I promised myself that I wouldn’t think about finishing until I knew that I was going to, but this could be my last World Cup; we just don’t know. Wherever I play now I just feel so grateful that I’m playing in this time where society is really getting behind female athletes and every moment I feel is special because it’s so new with people supporting so well”Suzie Bates

Despite making her international debut in 2006, it was only last year that Bates played a game for New Zealand in Dunedin, her hometown. She became nostalgic without wanting to place a comma or full-stop on the story just yet.”I haven’t made any decisions and I promised myself that I wouldn’t think about finishing until I knew that I was going to, but this could be my last World Cup; we just don’t know,” she says. “The profile of the game has changed so much over my career and for people to know that the White Ferns are playing in Dunedin and come down and watch… even playing for the [Otago] Sparks there is really special. We get crowds sitting on the bank and they’re really getting behind women’s sport.”Wherever I play now I just feel so grateful that I’m playing in this time where society is really getting behind female athletes and every moment I feel is special because it’s so new with people supporting so well… sold out crowds at the Commonwealth Games, sold out crowds at the Hundred, it’s just really exciting and with the IPL [Women’s Premier League] as well. You just see that the game is going up and up and that’s what makes me most proud and why I still want to be a part of it.”Bates is no stranger to franchise cricket, having played the WBBL, the Kia Super League, the Hundred and the Fairbreak Invitational. She is looking forward to the WPL, too, and attributed the various leagues for keeping her going for so long. She has also managed to keep herself fit and relevant to the changing needs of the sport. After her shoulder surgery, she switched from seam bowling to offspin and is still effective.”Initially there was perhaps a phase when I was in my late 20s, where the New Zealand contract may not have allowed me to keep playing,” she says. “But by playing franchise cricket around the world, I was able to earn an income.”So first and foremost, it’s probably kept me in the game longer than I ever thought. At my age, I’m kind of like, just do it. You’re not going to be doing it forever. It is a really special time to be a female cricketer.”

Ever since his run-in with Virat Kohli, the LSG quick has had to cope with fans taunting him on social media and on the field

Deivarayan Muthu25-May-20232:08

Moody: ‘Naveen has three versions of the slower offcutter’

Rashid Khan. Mohammad Nabi. Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Noor Ahmad. In recent years, Afghanistan’s spinners have been in demand at the IPL, and this season a seamer has joined them in the spotlight. After making a splash in the Caribbean Premier League, T20 Blast, Bangladesh Premier League and Lanka Premier League, Naveen-ul-Haq earned his first IPL contract this season and emerged as one of the bright spots for Lucknow Super Giants, taking 11 wickets in eight games at an average of 19.89 and economy rate of 7.82.In the Eliminator against Mumbai Indians in Chennai on Wednesday, Naveen claimed 4 for 38, but a batting collapse in a chase of 183 put Super Giants out of the tournament.”Yeah, it was an achievable target, and the wicket was playing quite well,” Naveen said after the game. “I think in between we couldn’t handle the pressure and we gave away three-four wickets in quick succession. That was the turning point in the game.Related

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“To be honest, it [my personal performance] was good. But we could have done better as a team. Individual performances don’t count. At the end of the day, our team’s goal was to win the trophy. So, my performance comes second, and it was a good season for me. I’ve learnt quite a few things from this IPL and [will] hopefully come back stronger.”While his captain Krunal Pandya and Yash Thakur kept offering pace to Mumbai’s batters in the powerplay, Naveen assessed the Chennai conditions better and slowed it up. Suryakumar Yadav and Cameron Green couldn’t manufacture pace for themselves. After tricking Suryakumar with a 107kph legcutter, Naveen went wide of the crease and snuck in an even slower offcutter (105kph) through the defences of Green.”You have to assess the conditions and see what they offer,” Naveen said. “I think the pitch was offering a bit of help. It wasn’t like we were bowling three-four slower ones in an over, but just to keep the batsmen guessing you have to vary your pace and vary your line and length. It counts in T20 cricket – it’s a fast format and you have to adjust quickly. You have to be one step ahead of the batter.”Ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE, Naveen had spoken to ESPNcricinfo about getting his slower balls to dip sharply at batters.Shutting out the noise – Naveen-ul-Haq celebrates Rohit Sharma’s wicket•BCCI”Yes, I’ve worked a lot on my slower balls,” Naveen had said. “In the [T20] Blast you play a home game and then an away game against the same opposition. Once, when I played one team, they started targeting my slower balls – they were standing back and waiting for them. This stuck in my mind and I worked it out during the tournament that if teams are standing back for my slower balls, then I will bowl fewer.”Then, at the back end of the tournament, most of my wickets were not off slower ones. Maybe, I bowled three-four slower balls in my four-over spell. Earlier, I would be bowling ten slower balls in a four-over spell. Since they were lining me up for them, I changed it up. So slower balls became like a surprise [weapon].”Tom Moody, the former Australia allrounder and an analyst for ESPNcricinfo, was impressed with Naveen’s variety.”What you find with his offcutter is he has got various levels of that offcutter as well,” Moody said on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time Out. “He’s got a very slow offcutter that dips and it’s a bit like fine spin bowlers. They spin the ball a millimetre, then they spin it an inch and then they spin it four inches.”That was the genius of [Shane] Warne. Particularly when Shane Warne had his shoulder problems he couldn’t rely on his flipper and his wrong’un as much as he did in the early parts of his career. His great skill was you didn’t know how much his legbreak was going to spin and with that beautiful curve. And the same with Naveen. In this case, it’s not just an offcutter; he has three different versions of that offcutter.”

“If my body feels well, hopefully, I’ll come and join the Afghanistan team and play in the ODI World Cup [in India]”Naveen-ul-haq

Naveen has also had to deal with pressure from off the field. Since he exchanged words with Virat Kohli during an ill-tempered game between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Super Giants, the crowd has been chanting Kohli’s name to rile Naveen up. Naveen, though, has shut out the noise and on Wednesday he celebrated each wicket with his fingers in his ears.”I enjoy it. I like the crowd chanting his [Virat Kohli’s] name or any other player’s name,” Naveen said. “It gives me passion to play well for my team.”Well, I don’t concentrate on the noise from the outside or anything else. I just focus on my own process. It’s not like if the crowd is chanting or anyone is saying something… it doesn’t affect me. As professional sportsmen, you have to take this in your stride. One day you will not do your best for the team and the fans will give it to you. On another day, you will do a special thing for your team and the same people can chant your name. So, [it’s] basically a part and parcel of the game.”Naveen is currently on a break from ODI cricket – his last game in the format was in January 2021 – but he hopes to return for the World Cup in India later this year.”For now, I’m not playing ODI cricket,” Naveen said. “I’ve taken a break since 12 months ago. I’ll see my body condition and see how I’m going. If my body feels well, hopefully, I’ll come and join the Afghanistan team and play in the ODI World Cup [in India]. So, yeah, fingers crossed. We will see.”

After finishing second to Lanning in many high-stake games over the years, Harmanpreet will want to finally get one past her

S Sudarshanan25-Mar-2023Despite a bit of festive fervour to it, both Meg Lanning and Harmanpreet Kaur were focused on the eve of the inaugural WPL final. As captains of their respective national teams, they are quite used to this routine. After all, they led Australia and India in two title clashes that played a big part in the changing landscape of women’s cricket in the last three years – the 2020 T20 World Cup final that attracted 86,174 people at the MCG, and the gold-medal match in Birmingham last year, when women’s T20 cricket featured for the first time in the Commonwealth Games.Lanning and Harmanpreet have been T20I captains for a long period now. Lanning has led Australia in 100 of the 132 T20Is she has played. Harmanpreet has done the same for India in 96 of her 151 T20I outings. But when the two teams have met each other with Lanning and Harmanpreet at the helm, Australia have often had the upper hand, winning ten T20Is to India’s three. And one needs no reminding that while Lanning’s trophy cabinet is running out of space, India Women’s recent Under-19 victory is their only global title.So, Sunday’s final is not just about Mumbai Indians taking on Delhi Capitals. Harmanpreet will want to finally get one past Lanning in a high-stakes game.Both Harmanpreet and Lanning are equally passionate leaders, but they operate in very different ways. Harmanpreet is someone who wears her heart on her sleeve. Consider Alyssa Healy’s dismissal in the Eliminator. Harmanpreet was pumped up after taking the catch to dismiss the UP Warriorz captain, making it evident through her celebration how much that wicket meant for Mumbai.Meg Lanning is the leading run-scorer in the WPL•BCCIOn the other hand, Lanning is almost inscrutable. After Capitals beat Warriorz in their last league match to confirm direct qualification to the final, all she offered was applause from the dugout and hugs.Some of Harmanpreet’s headline-grabbing knocks in international cricket have come against Australia. Her 171 not out in the semi-final of the 2017 ODI World Cup – she wasn’t the captain then – against the Lanning-led Australia was what made women’s cricket in India mainstream. She has been in the midst of it all – the high of a group-stage win over Australia in the T20 World Cup in 2018 and the lows of a narrow loss in the tri-series final in 2020, the Commonwealth Games final, and more recently, the heartbreaking loss in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup last month.Harmanpreet has been an epitome of consistency in this WPL. She kicked off the competition in grand style with an enthralling 30-ball 65, and has only twice been dismissed before reaching 20. She has been the rock that’s held Mumbai’s middle order together and has struck three half-centuries, second only to Tahlia McGrath’s four, in the tournament.Lanning has had an even better tournament. She’s been the leading run-getter for most of the WPL and is the only player among the finalists to score over 300 runs. They have come at a strike rate of 141.55 even though she hasn’t really gone hammer and tongs. With Shafali Verma, she has formed a formidable opening combination.Harmanpreet Kaur is never shy of expressing herself on the field•ICC/Getty Images”Australia have been always doing well ever since I have started playing and they always have great captains,” Harmanpreet, seated next to Lanning at the WPL final pre-match press conference, said. “With Meg, they always have a good team and it’s easy for her to make those changes and come up with a good challenge. In this WPL, they have a balanced side and she is leading from the front.”The biggest thing to learn from her is that she is not someone who is dependent on players. She is someone who leads from the front, like in this WPL. That’s something you want from a leader. When a leader takes responsibility from the front, the team does well. That’s something I always see and learn from her.”She is not someone who gives up early, we will have to fight till the end and we are ready for that.”That last line could also have been in reference to the semi-final last month, where for a large part of the chase India seemed in control before Australia wrested it back to knock them out.Just like on that day, Lanning knows she has another fight on her hands. “Coming up against Harman is always a good challenge,” she said. “She has shown that she is an excellent leader and gets results, both individually and for her team. I always look forward to challenges like that. Always a great contest to come up against a team led by Harman and I am expecting exactly the same tomorrow night.”So, once again in what is yet another landmark game in women’s cricket, Lanning and Harmanpreet are face to face. While the contest on the field will be intense, it has a celebratory feel to it as well. The smiles returned to both the captains’ faces as the presser drew to a close.” [We haven’t put the ropes. You should ask those who have],” Harmanpreet retorted when asked about the smaller size of the boundaries at this tournament, drawing laughs from the room.We are less than 24 hours from the first ever WPL final. And this time, whoever wins, whether it is Lanning or Harmanpreet, it will be a win for Indian cricket.

Their recent ODI and World Cup form has been patchy though they were ranked No.1 not too long ago

Danyal Rasool30-Sep-20232:59

Middle order and spin department a concern for Pakistan

World Cup pedigree
Pakistan went through a phase when they were among the prime contenders for deep, potential title runs, but that time has passed of late. They reached a semi-final, a final, and won a title between 1987 and 1999, but their World Cup form has been patchy since. They were eliminated in the first round at three of the past five World Cups, including in 2019, and a quarter-final win over the West Indies in 2011 remains their only knockout triumph this century.Recent form
This is a bit of a paradox. Pakistan were ranked No.1 in the world a little over a week ago, but their most recent two games have overshadowed much of the good work that went before. They beat New Zealand 4-1 in May and Afghanistan 3-0 in August, and followed it up by thrashing Nepal and Bangladesh in the Asia Cup, and giving India’s batters a bloody nose in a game that rain washed out. But the wheels came off spectacularly in the Super Fours, Pakistan succumbing to a 228-run defeat against India before a narrow loss against Sri Lanka sent them tumbling out of the tournament.Selection
The shoulder injury, which has ruled Naseem Shah out of the tournament is the biggest selection news for Pakistan, leading to a late recall for Hasan Ali, who hasn’t played ODI cricket since June 2022. Usama Mir comes in as an extra legspinner as Pakistan decide to go without a seam-bowling allrounder, omitting Faheem Ashraf altogether.Related

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• Hasan Ali replaces injured Naseem in Pakistan WC squad

Squad
Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad WasimKey player
In the absence of Naseem, Shaheen Afridi’s indispensable role as top-order destroyer becomes even more vital to Pakistan. A bit-part role in the last World Cup still saw him finish with 16 wickets in 5 games, and the best average in the top 10. Only Mohammed Siraj has more ODI wickets than Shaheen among fast bowlers who are participating in the World Cup this year, and on surfaces where spinners and batters are expected to enjoy themselves, Shaheen is a trump card few other sides can match.Rising star

He might be much too old to fit this category, but Saud Shakeel is quietly hitting his stride as the World Cup approaches. The 28-year-old wasn’t in the white-ball frame at all until a few weeks ago, but has gone about converting his red-ball grit into with ball promise of late. Much of that was on display in a sparkling 53-ball 75 against New Zealand in the warm-up game, and with Pakistan lacking real quality in that middle order, Shakeel’s arrival, like most of his shots, could be very well timed.World Cup farewells?
Good luck predicting Pakistan player retirements. It is conceivable every single player in that Pakistan squad will be knocking about in 2027, but this is probably 33-year old Fakhar Zaman’s last tilt at the biggest white-ball trophy. Viewed as Pakistan’s top-order talisman until not too long ago – he scored three successive ODI hundreds just a few weeks ago – his form has dropped dramatically. He was replaced by Abdullah Shafique at the top of the order in the warm-up, and while Fakhar will likely play his role over the course of this tournament, it may well be the last time he does it in an ODI World Cup.

Wicketkeeper-batter is back in international fold for England ODIs after shining at CPL

Matt Roller22-Sep-2023Lorcan Tucker had to pinch himself when he arrived in St Kitts for the Caribbean Premier League last month and looked around the Trinbago Knight Riders dressing room.Tucker, a softly-spoken Dubliner, was a last-minute replacement for Tim David and found himself surrounded by West Indies T20 royalty in the form of Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo. He struck up a friendship with Martin Guptill, and Phil Simmons was head coach.”It was a serious roster,” Tucker says, back in his Ireland tracksuit and speaking to ESPNcricinfo before the washed-out first ODI against England at Headingley. “Gosh, some of those lads… They are such impressive players. It opened my eyes to what’s out there in terms of cricket at the moment. It’s pretty exciting.”Related

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The move came about, in part, through Simmons’ Irish links: he was Ireland’s coach between 2007 and 2015, the year before Tucker’s international debut. “He still had so much time for Irish cricket – and Irish sport in general, wanting to know how the Rugby World Cup was going. The respect they have for him in Trinidad is pretty special.”Tucker clicked with Guptill over a shared interest in baseball. “My brother studied in America and got really into it,” Tucker says. “He’s a big LA Dodgers fan, and Martin was a big [New York] Yankees fan. As you get to know people, you can approach them and talk to them about their cricket; it was great to bounce ideas off someone so experienced.”He quickly realised that he had watched most of his team-mates on TV while growing up. “But the way they organised the team and the culture, it felt like everyone had a voice,” he says. “They were really encouraging like that. It felt like you could give your opinion if you wanted to, and everyone was really open-minded.”In Ireland’s T20 side, Tucker is an attacking No. 3. But he was asked to anchor from No. 4. “There were players all around me who were so talented and such big hitters. It was my responsibility to hold it all together through the middle, to make sure there were no big collapses.”He made 150 runs across five innings, and TKR won six of the seven games he featured in. They beat Guyana Amazon Warriors in Qualifier 1 on Wednesday night, and will play in the final on Sunday night. “It was great to be part of quite a successful campaign,” he says.A profile of Tucker in the Irish earlier this year painted a picture of a cerebral character who avoids social media and only owns a smartphone for the sake of being on the national team’s logistics chat. “Some people live a glitzier lifestyle than I do,” he says. “But there’s room for plenty of different personalities in sport.”This has been Tucker’s first year involved in franchise cricket, having only previously represented Ireland and Leinster Lightning as a pro. He played for MI Emirates in the ILT20, missing a T20I series in Zimbabwe as a result, and hopes that further opportunities will emerge this winter. “It’s so refreshing,” he says.”You spend so much time on the international circuit with the same group of lads, so to get the chance to be part of a new group and see fresh takes and angles on things – especially in T20 cricket, which moves so quickly – has been brilliant. There’s constant access to new people every couple of months in these different tournaments.”The last 12 months have marked Tucker’s breakthrough. At last year’s T20 World Cup, Tucker played a forgotten hand in helping England qualify for the semi-finals, rescuing Ireland from 25 for 5 against Australia with 71 not out off 48 balls to minimise their net-run-rate boost. He has also played his first four Tests, making a hundred on debut in Bangladesh.Tucker scored his maiden Test century earlier this year•BCBMoving forwards, Tucker will have to juggle his involvement in franchise leagues with Ireland commitments. He is not yet in a position where he is contemplating turning down a central contract but with several team-mates – including Josh Little, Paul Stirling and Harry Tector – playing in leagues, he stresses the need for clear communication.”I think cricket in general is trying to get to a place where there is more balance, and that people aren’t fighting as much for things,” Tucker says. “In general, good communication between myself and Cricket Ireland will be the most important thing: when things get lost in the post, that’s when people get hurt.”In the short term, Tucker’s focus is on a series in England that is bizarrely timed. Ireland hoped these ODIs would have represented a chance to tune up for next month’s World Cup, but a disastrous week in Bulawayo saw them miss out on qualification. After this series, they do not play again until December.”It’s a bit odd. It feels like everyone else is gearing up for a party in India next month that we’re not invited to. But that’s just the way it is: we didn’t play well enough in Zimbabwe and now we have to regroup and find our feet again on where we’re going to go for this next four-year cycle. It’s been a long year, and everyone is looking forward to a bit of headspace.”Most of the fans travelling over for this series have opted for Saturday’s second ODI, and there should be a strong Irish contingent both in the stands at Trent Bridge, and in the pubs after: Ireland play South Africa in a crunch Rugby World Cup game in Paris later that evening.”We’ve been following them pretty closely so far. There’s a strong connection in Ireland in general between rugby and cricket: [Ireland seamer] Barry McCarthy knows quite a few out of the lads playing out there. We’ll definitely be supporting and watching closely.”The plan is to try and win at Trent Bridge, then get the rugby on.” For Tucker and Ireland, that would make for a perfect sporting Saturday.

Our correspondent takes in some culture while also dealing with airport sagas (including not getting recognised by Javagal Srinath)

Sidharth Monga17-Nov-2023October 3
Heard/overheard in Ahmedabad:”Gujaratis are rich, they don’t need credit.”
– A waiter (who hails from Udaipur) while dusting off a credit card machine not used for years”Education is great, but it is greater to be able to employ educated people and tell them what to do.”
– A taxi driver, referencing self-made tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani while talking socio-economic issues”How can one get a licence to buy alcohol?”
– A British couple at the luggage carousel at the airport.October 4
A day before the World Cup, it doesn’t feel like one is about to start at all. Billboards, events, discounts on televisions, advertisement campaigns, all very lukewarm. The ICC flies in eight other captains – England and New Zealand are already here – on chartered planes to drum up some excitement. Ravi Shastri asks Babar Azam about the biryani in Hyderabad, where Pakistan have been camping. Babar gives him an inscrutable look. “We have been asked this hundreds of times,” he says.October 5
Happy World Cup Day. Things seen in Ahmedabad today:Sweet old couple riding a scooter, one in a sidecar
Schoolkids packed into a van, giggling at people from the rear window
Garba classes and billboards for garba events, which start on October 15
Gujarat Titans flags being sold outside the Motera ground
A Gujarat Cricket Association employee in the media lounge standing up instinctively when he sees Jay Shah on TV, and remaining like that as long as the camera keeps showing his bossOctober 6
Passengers aboard the Ahmedabad-Delhi flight realise how tall Javagal Srinath really is when they see him struggle in his economy seat. Now a match referee, Srinath oversaw the World Cup opener, and is on his way to the Delhi matches along with umpire Sharfuddoula Saikat. Srinath then has to take the coach from the aircraft to the terminal, leaving people a lot of time to approach him for selfies. Polite, smiling and posing for photographs. Same polite smile when I say hello. Realise he is in auto-pilot polite mode when he says to me, “Nice to meet you.” Either that or my face is so unremarkable and common that he doesn’t remember me. Can’t blame him either way.The water is free but you have to pay for the discomfort of being a spectator•Sidharth Monga/ESPNcricinfo LtdOctober 7
Looks like dystopia, feels like the BCCI keeping its promise of free drinking water at the grounds. Feroz Shah Kotla seems to also have kept its promise of clean toilets for women.South Africa keep their promise of big hitting , crossing 400 against Sri Lanka. There’s big hitting from Kusal Mendis too, as he threatens to break the record for the fastest century in a World Cup match, set earlier in the day by Aiden Markram. Eventually, though, both the record and the total are safe.October 8
Oh Delhi, why do you have to be so lovely yet so unlivable? Eat at Kake di Hatti and Giani di Hatti past Fatehpuri Masjid in Old Delhi, then walk to Mirza Ghalib’s old house in Gali Qasim Jaan. The intoxicating smell of blackboard tree flowers all around. Sit there and wonder, Granted Delhi is great to live in, but what will we breathe?Yesterday was the first day in a while that the air quality slipped into the “poor” category. Good planning to get done with the Delhi games while it is still only poor. Except, there is one match in November, between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – two teams who have suffered in the Delhi air previously as well.Dhobi ghat: your dirty laundry washed and aired in public here•Sidharth Monga/ESPNcricinfo LtdOctober 9
Credit cards with corporate deals can get you into fancy hotels, but after that you are on your own. And on your own, you can’t pay their laundry rates, which are often higher than the cost of the clothes to be laundered. The Dhobi Ghat in Delhi is located right between the bungalow of a member of parliament and an apartment complex called MP Awas, housing other, probably less important, MPs.I ask Arjun, the man who did my laundry for Rs 25 per item, about the barbed wire on top of the already high walls of MPs Awas. He says this is a recent development after a young woman from Dhobi Ghat died by suicide in the building last year. Yes, let’s not address the economic inequality that tends to lead to such incidents; let’s reinforce it with more barbed wire.October 10
An afternoon in Lajpat Nagar, home to a number of Afghan refugees in India who have built themselves restaurants, stores selling nuts (or as we in India call them, dry fruits), and pharmacies with names in Persian script. Watch with nervous amusement as a Pashtun Afghan fights a Tajik Afghan outside a restaurant. Nervous because they are big dudes this close to going bareknuckle at each other, amusement because they are cursing each other in Hindi. Side note: some of the Afghan players ate here last night.Like the Afghans have adopted Lajpat Nagar, the predominantly Punjabi population has adopted them. They have even renamed , an Afghan dumpling, as dal-momo. It is no surprise they have welcomed the Afghans because most of these Punjabi colonies in Delhi were built for and, in the process by, refugees after 1947. Who will understand their pain better?None of the other teams at the World Cup, for sure. Afghanistan has been rocked by two deadly earthquakes, but theirs is the only team wearing black armbands.Rohit Sharma: grateful for the support India receive•Alex Davidson/ICC/Getty ImagesOctober 11
Heard/overheard in Delhi:”Customs [What a big hand he has]
– A fan in the stands about Shaheen Shah Afridi.Eden Gardens lets people watch teams train, a lesson all these modern grounds in the outskirts of cities with their tall locked gates before the match should learn.” match shops, including the extra-famous Girish Chandra Dey & Nakur Chandra Nandy, which sells like it is bootleg stuff. Ghalib, who lived just around the corner, is supposed to have said, according to the biographical show written and directed by the poet Gulzar, “Bengal lives 100 years in the past as well as 100 years into the future.”November 4
Overheard/heard in Kolkata:”Look, that’s Rassie van der Dussen batting.”
– A spectator at the nets, video-calling home and showing them van der Dussen struggle against a left-arm spinner. Note to self: Ravindra Jadeja will bowl first change tomorrow.”Rohit “. [I have come here for Rohit. If I don’t get to meet him, I will stop watching cricket altogether.]
– Another spectator to a policeman, who is relaying a request to the fans from Virat Kohli to not scream during the netsNovember 5
Jadeja takes five after Kohli scores a century on his birthday to go level with Sachin Tendulkar on 49 ODI hundreds as India dispose of their final challengers, South Africa. They have beaten all comers, but there still remains the duality of this format: knockouts to follow a league in which every team has played everyone else. Knockouts are not my problem, though. Time to avoid DigiYatra counters one last time and go home.