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Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc who beat Saqlain Mushtaq’s 19-year record to become the fastest ever to 100 ODI wickets has played down the landmark

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Aug-2016Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who beat Saqlain Mushtaq’s 19-year record to become the fastest ever to 100 ODI wickets, played down the landmark and described it as “something he could sit back and reflect later”.Starc achieved the feat in his 52nd ODI when he had Dhananjaya de Silva skewing a catch to midwicket off a deceptive slower delivery in Colombo on Sunday. Starc did not concede a boundary and finished with figures of 3 for 32, which laid the foundation for Australia’s first win of the Sri Lanka tour.”I guess it’s [being the fastest to 100 ODI wickets] something I could sit back and reflect on later on,” Starc said following Australia’s three-wicket win. “Quite frankly I’m glad it’s finished now, I don’t have to hear about it or talk about it anymore. I was just glad I could contribute to a win tonight. I guess it was a scrappy game, and once the series is finished or later down the track I could reflect on.”Starc was Australia’s lone bright spot during the 0-3 defeat in the Test series in Sri Lanka, taking 24 wickets at an average and strike rate of 15.16 and 25.80. No other bowler has picked up 20 or more wickets in a Test series in Asia at a better strike rate than Starc’s. He generated reverse swing from over the wicket as well as from around the wicket, which affirmed his status as one of the fiercest fast bowlers. Starc said the presence of former South Africa fast bowler Allan Donald as the side’s bowling coach was “fantastic”.”I have enjoyed working with AD through this tour,” Starc said. Obviously worked with AD in the IPL [with Royal Challengers Bangalore] in the last couple of years and hopefully will in the years to come. Through this tour, he has been fantastic for us, his knowledge of playing in Sri Lanka, talking about reverse swing, it has been fantastic.”Starc also credited Donald’s predecessor Craig McDermott for setting him on track for the 2015 World Cup, where he returned 22 wickets at 10.18, the best average in a World Cup for a bowler who took at least 15 wickets. Starc ultimately bagged the Man-of-the-tournament award.”It [the turnaround in white-ball cricket] was work done before the World Cup with Craig McDermott especially, maybe 12 months prior to the World Cup and tinkering on a few things – my wrist [position] and swinging the ball and a tri-series [against India and England] before the World Cup,” he said. “I think everything started to click and it all felt really good. Then obviously the World Cup was a pretty special period for the whole group and for me it was nice just to get the ball in the right areas more often than I probably had in the past. The one little period that will always stand out was the World Cup. That was very special not just for myself but for the whole squad and the staff. That is probably going to be a hard one to top.”

Joe Clarke won a controversial umpiring reprieve and then struck a century to bring Worcestershire victory in an exciting run chase against Leicestershire

ECB Reporters Network06-Jul-2016
ScorecardJoe Claake made the most of his second chance•Getty Images

Joe Clarke scored his third Specsavers County Championship hundred of the season after benefiting from an umpires reprieve as Worcestershire gained a three wicket success over Leicestershire at New Road.The England Lions player went to three figures off 146 balls with 15 fours as Worcestershire chased down a 366 target in 75 overs after being 73 for 4 and triumphed with 10 balls to spare.The Foxes thought they dismissed the 20-year-old when he was given out lbw by Jeremy Lloyds on 31 with the total on 147 in pursuit of a 366 target in 75 overs.Clarke walked off, although he appeared unhappy at his dismissal, but after Jeremy Lloyds and square leg umpire Graham Lloyd conferred the England Lions player was recalled to the middle.Leicestershire skipper Mark Cosgrove was clearly unhappy and remonstrated with the umpires. But Clarke continued his innings and later went to his century with a cover drive for four off Neil Dexter.Worcestershire’s director of cricket Steve Rhodes said: “In many ways we got out of jail. Leicestershire were ahead of us for a period of time but what I was really impressed with was the spirit we showed when it really mattered.”Joe Clarke’s innings was a match winning innings. I have seen something like that before. George Sharp once gave Daryl Mitchell out and realised he’d made a mistake and reversed the decision and there have been other occasions it has been done.”I think you have to take that sort of thing on the chin. I know it is going to upset Leicestershire but if the umpire thinks he has made the wrong decision then he has a right to change his decision and you just get on with it.”Cosgrove did not protest too loudly after the match. “We played pretty well all game. We knew there wasn’t much in the game so with the declaration we had to leave a little bit of a carrot there and they batted really well. The umpire made his decision, he changed his mind and brought him back. It is just one of those things. You don’t see it very often.”Clarke shared in a fifth wicket stand of 142 in 34 overs with Ross Whiteley who survived three chances to equal his best score of the season – 71. Then Joe Leach accompanied Clarke in a sixth wicket partnership of 108 in 17 overs.Clarke was eventually run out for a chanceless 123 from 172 balls with 17 fours by Leicestershire keeper Ned Eckersley’s direct hit at the non-striker’s end after Leach had called his partner through for a quick single.But Leach’s second major contribution with the bat of the game – 64 not out from 51 balls – saw Worcestershire over the finishing line. It was their second Championship success of the campaign and rekindled their promotion challenge.Daryl Mitchell and Brett D’Oliveira safely negotiated eight overs before lunch when Worcestershire began their reply in a mattch rekindled by Leicestershiree’s declaration but then four wickets went down in the same period immediately after the interval.Clint McKay removed the openers, having Mitchell (32) caught behind and D’Oliveira (16) at gulley after he fended off a lifting delivery.Tom Fell (10) then nicked a Charlie Shreck through to the keeper and the same bowler held onto a return catch from Tom Kohler-Cadmore (5) to leave Worcestershire on 73-4 with 59 overs still remaining.Cosgrove and Paul Horton had earlier scored centuries and rewrote the record books as Leicestershire added 135 in 29 overs this morning before the declaration.The pair created a new third wicket record for Leicestershire in matches against Worcestershire by adding 264 in 57.3 overs before Cosgrove declared at 307-3 after his dismissal for 148.It surpassed the previous best stand of 194 by Chris Balderstone and Brian Davison at Grace Road in 1975.
Horton was the first to three figures off 198 balls with 11 fours after Leicestershire resumed on 172-2 and the former Lancashire player also completed 10,000 first class runs in his career.Cosgrove, who survived a chance on 66 off Joe Leach, went to his hundred off 165 deliveries with 16 boundaries and the Australian and ex Glamorgan batsman chalked up 12,000 first class runs.He cut loose after reaching three figures, clubbing 6-4-4 and 4-6-4 off successive balls in back to back overs from D’Oliveira and Jack Shantry.Cosgrove was eventually bowled by Jack Shantry and immediately declared to leave Horton unbeaten on 117.

Central Sparks bowled out for 83 en route to eight-wicket loss

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jun-2021Southern Vipers 85 for 2 (Wyatt 45) beat Central Sparks 83 (Dean 5-19) by eight wicketsA confident Southern Vipers side ignited their Charlotte Edwards Cup campaign with an eight-wicket victory over Central Sparks, who were bowled out for 83 in a double-header at Edgbaston.
Charlotte Dean took five wickets for just 19 runs in an impressive restrictive bowling performance by the Vipers which sealed Sparks’ fate, despite the best efforts of Marie Kelly and Emily Arlott in their 39-run partnership.Vipers chased down the total in 13 overs, with Danni Wyatt stamping her mark on the competition, scoring 45 off 33 balls in an excellent innings to see her side to their first win.The visitors won the toss and chose to bowl and made the most of putting Sparks into bat. It was a tight start by Vipers, as Sparks reached 24 for 3 in the first seven overs. Eve Jones fell in the second over, bowled by Tara Norris, then Thea Brookes was Dean’s first victim, caught for 2 and Gwen Davies was dismissed without scoring by Georgia Elwiss.A crucial partnership between Kelly and Arlott did steady proceedings for Sparks, as they began to open up the attack and find the boundary. Although the partnership came to an end after 39 runs, with Kelly being caught for 36 as Sparks collapsed from 63 for 3 to 83 all out in the space of five overs.Elwiss took two wickets in an over, dismissing Issy Wong and Ria Fackrell, both without scoring, followed by Dean taking four wickets in 10 balls to conclude the Sparks innings. Arlott’s vital innings came to an end, caught for 22, followed by Chloe Hill trapped lbw for 14 as Clare Boycott and Hannah Baker were dismissed quickly to give Dean match winning figures of 5 for 19.Southern Vipers chased down the total of 83 in comfortable fashion, as a 66-run partnership between Wyatt and Maia Bouchier guided them to victory. Sparks looked to be off to the ideal start, as Arlott dismissed Georgia Adams in the first over, but Vipers controlled the chase to emerge victorious.

Ben Stokes, the England allrounder, has put his name up for next month’s IPL auction in an attempt to use the experience of playing in overseas T20 leagues to expand his game

Arun Venugopal in Pune13-Jan-20173:26

Morgan the driving point of our ODI goal – Stokes

Ben Stokes, the England allrounder, has put his name up for next month’s IPL auction in an attempt to use the experience of playing in overseas T20 leagues to expand his game. Should he land a deal, he will become the third player from the current English side, after captain Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler, to feature in the lucrative eight-team tournament.Stokes’ only tryst with a foreign league came in 2014-15, when he was left out of England’s World Cup squad following a prolonged slump in form, and was instead signed by Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash as a replacement for the injured Jesse Ryder. He made an immediate impact by smashing a 37-ball 77 in his opening match against Hobart Hurricanes, and finished the season as Renegades’ third-highest run-getter with 128 runs from four innings.Stokes’ stock in India soared during last year’s World T20, when he was one of the stars of England’s inspired run to the final (albeit he bore the brunt of Carlos Brathwaite’s unforgettable onslaught in the decisive over in Kolkata), and his aptitude in Asian conditions was again demonstrated before Christmas when he starred with bat and ball in the Tests and ODIs against Bangladesh, before carrying some of that form into an otherwise tough Test series against India.”This year’s IPL is a chance, not just for myself, but a few of the other English guys to go ahead and experience what it’s like. Get a different side of T20 cricket, rather than just play in England,” Stokes said in Pune, in the lead-up to the first ODI against India on Sunday. “I won’t say I am lucky, but in terms of the English summer, it is quite hard to get away and go and experience what it is like to play in these foreign T20 leagues.”Stokes’ enthusiasm for foreign leagues comes at a time when the ECB is keen to launch a high-profile T20 league of its own from 2020. An ECB delegation recently met with Big Bash authorities to study the successful BBL model and absorb the right lessons while, at a playing level, Trevor Bayliss’s tenure as coach has enhanced the sense that white-ball cricket is at last being treated as an equal priority.”It’s one of the things that we want to happen in England… to become like a franchise sort of thing,” Stokes said. “Many of the countries are doing it, so we’re looking forward to seeing if I get a chance to go and see what it’s all about.”Referring to the positive appraisals of players who have been part of the Big Bash or the IPL, Stokes said English players, and as an extension, the team would be better for the experience. “You end up playing against the best players in the world, albeit in T20 cricket. But, look at the guys who’ve gone away and played franchise cricket in Australia and India as well, they’ve all come back and said very, very good things – said it has massively helped their cricket,” he said.”The guys you get to work with as well, not just players but coaches as well. They’ve all come away with really good experience and they’ve all said they think they’ve become better players from doing that. The more chances that we get, I think that is going to do us a world of good.”England have a packed season of white-ball cricket leading up to the Champions Trophy, with three ODIs in the Caribbean in March, a two-match ODI series against Ireland in the first week of May, followed by three ODIs against South Africa. There is also a training camp planned in mid-May. In the event of Stokes securing an IPL contract, he said he was comfortable with being asked to cut short his league commitments to report for the ODIs.”I am an England player. So the decision will get made on what would happen then,” he said. “I’ll just go with whatever… if they feel that it is best for the English guys who go out there to stay over there, then we’ll follow that. And if they want us to come back to represent England, which is what our job is to do, then we’ll come back and have no complaints.”

“Having collapses every now and then is not a good thing, and that’s something we need to analyse and correct”

Saurabh Somani14-Jan-20227:09

Kohli: ‘We did not apply enough pressure on South Africa’

Virat Kohli has admitted that that there is “no running away” from the fact that India’s batting needs to be looked into, after the team lost a closely fought Test series 2-1 to South Africa.India had won the first Test in Centurion, but South Africa ended up chasing 200-plus totals in both Johannesburg and Cape Town to surge to victory, sealing it with a seven-wicket triumph at Newlands on Friday, the fourth day of the third Test.Related

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“It is definitely batting. I don’t think we can pinpoint any other aspect of our game as a team,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation when speaking of what led to the defeat. “Yes, the batting obviously has to be looked into. There’s no running away from that. Having collapses every now and then is not a good thing. And that’s something we need to analyse and correct, moving forward.”All of Mayank Agarwal, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara averaged in the low 20s in the series, having played all three Tests. The tour continued a lean run for Pujara and Rahane, India’s regular No.3 and No.5 for a long time now, but whose form has come under increasing scrutiny in recent times. Since the start of 2020, Pujara has averaged 26.29 from 20 Tests, while Rahane has averaged 24.08 from 19 games.While India have played against top-quality attacks in bowling-friendly conditions in the last two years, Pujara and Rahane’s averages are at the bottom for those who have batted at least ten innings in the top order (from No.1 to No.6).At the press conference after the game, Kohli elaborated specifically on Pujara and Rahane, when asked about their immediate Test futures.”Honestly, I cannot sit here and talk about what’s going to happen in the future,” Kohli said. “That’s not for me to sit here and discuss, you probably have to speak to the selectors, what they have in mind, because this is not my job. As I said before and I will say again, we have continued to back Cheteshwar and Ajinkya because of the kind of players they are, what they have done in Test cricket for India over the years, and playing crucial knocks in the second Test as well.”You saw that important partnership in the second innings [of the second Test], which got us to a total that we could fight for, so these are the kind of performances that we recognise as a team. What the selectors have in mind and what they decide to do, I obviously cannot comment at this moment sitting here.”Kohli continued to back Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane despite their lean run of form•AFP/Getty Images

Both Rahane and Pujara hit one fifty each in the series, during India’s second innings in Johannesburg, where their stand of 111 propped India up. However, both failed in the second innings of the third Test in Cape Town, getting out within the first two overs on day three, taking India from a reasonable position to a wobbly one.Reflecting more broadly on the defeat, Kohli said the team needed to come back better, to try and win a series in a country that no Indian team has so far.”Obviously very disappointed. We know how far we’ve come as a team,” Kohli said. “The fact that we come to South Africa and people expect us to beat the South African team in their own conditions is testimony to what we’ve done in the past. But that doesn’t guarantee you any results. We still have to come out here and play hard cricket, which we failed to do this time around.”I’m not going to stand here and say, ‘Oh but we won in Australia, we won in England’. You have to turn up to every series and try to win that series, and we haven’t done it in South Africa and that’s the reality of the situation. We need to accept it, get better, move forward, and come back better cricketers. You give credit to the opposition when it’s due and definitely this time around, as the case was the last time as well [in 2018 where India also lost 2-1], South Africa were much better than us in their own conditions.”Alongside the bowling – both Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were consistently unrelenting with lines, length and movement – one of the bright spots for India was Rishabh Pant’s swashbuckling century at Newlands. Pant made 100 not out in India’s total of 198 in the second innings, where the next highest score was Kohli’s 29.On the positives to take from this series, Kohli praised the bowlers, and in particularly KL Rahul’s returns as an opener along with Rishabh Pant’s swashbuckling century in the third Test. It came a game after Pant had been pilloried for trying to smash Kagiso Rabada and getting out for a duck. Kohli later said that Pant was someone who would learn from his mistakes, and reiterated that point after the third Test.”Definitely I think it was a high-quality knock given the conditions and the situation and the kind of bowling that was on display, and that’s the talent he possesses,” Kohli said. “Hence I said it’s up to him to keep learning from the mistakes that happen, because we understand what he can do for the team on a regular basis and the quality that he has as a wicketkeeper and a batsman, he can surely keep doing it as a regular occurrence for India and that is only going to help the team to be in match-winning positions, because he’s a special talent and he can do some special things. Tremendous knock, one of the better hundreds that I have seen.”

Adam Zampa might be Australia’s specialist white-ball spinner at the moment, but he hopes to use the upcoming summer to prove that his skills can be transferred to the longer form of the game

Brydon Coverdale12-Aug-2016Adam Zampa might be Australia’s specialist white-ball spinner at the moment, but he hopes to use the upcoming summer to prove that his skills can be transferred to the longer form of the game. Zampa made his ODI and T20 debuts for Australia earlier this year and immediately impressed with his poise under pressure, a trait that has brought him success, particularly in T20 cricket.He was the leading wicket-taker among spinners during the recent Caribbean Premier League, in which he claimed 15 victims at 18.46 for the Guyana Amazon Warriors, and is about to join Australia’s squad in Sri Lanka for the limited-overs leg of their tour. The axing of Glenn Maxwell from the ODI squad should create plenty of chances for Zampa, named alongside Nathan Lyon in the squad.”It’s a big opportunity for me,” Zampa told reporters in Adelaide during a brief trip home between the CPL and the Sri Lanka series. “Looking at the next six months or so coming up too, there’s quite a lot of white-ball cricket. There’s probably three or four tours this summer. It’s a good opportunity for me to cement my spot even more in that one-day and T20 side.”However, Zampa also knows that opportunities are presenting themselves for spinners in the Test side, with Steve O’Keefe and Jon Holland both having played alongside Lyon during the ongoing Test series in Sri Lanka. In order to make himself a candidate for a Test call-up, Zampa will need to make the most of his opportunities at the Sheffield Shield level during the gaps between his white-ball commitments.Last summer, Zampa played five Shield games for South Australia and collected 10 wickets at 45.20, but he was far from alone in terms of spinners being overshadowed during that season. The top 10 wicket-takers in the previous Shield summer were all fast bowlers, including three from Zampa’s own state – Joe Mennie, Daniel Worrall and Chadd Sayers – who dominated the wickets tally.”It’s been made pretty obvious that I’m predominantly white-ball cricket at the moment,” Zampa said. “I want to try and show that I’ve actually improved as a bowler in the last 12 months. I haven’t had a great opportunity, but in Shield cricket last year, I actually felt like I bowled really well.”With our bowling attack and the way the wickets were going last year, I actually didn’t get too much opportunity. I’m hoping to get some suitable conditions this year, and I want to try and win some games for South Australia before I’m ready to play for Australia.”If Zampa can show his red-ball skills during whatever Shield games he plays this summer, the reward could be significant. A Test tour of India in February-March will require Australia to take at least two, and possibly, three spinners.”I’ve got to get quite a few more games under my belt,” Zampa said. “I’ve only played three or four four-dayers in the last 12 months. This year is going to be a great opportunity for me. There’s some opportunities coming up, you’ve seen with O’Keefe, Lyon, Holland… there’s an India tour coming up, so Shield cricket this year is going to be big for me.”

ECB ‘hopeful’ about Indian involvement but awaiting BCCI approval

Matt Roller23-Feb-2021Ten Australia Women internationals have confirmed their availability for the inaugural season of the Hundred, with the ECB “hopeful” that they will be joined in the competition by a handful of India players.Nineteen of the 24 overseas slots in the women’s Hundred have now been filled, after eight new players were announced on Tuesday: Alyssa Healy, Nicola Carey (Northern Superchargers), Beth Mooney, Meg Lanning, Jess Jonassen (Welsh Fire), Sophie Molineux, Annabel Sutherland (Trent Rockets), and Rachael Haynes (Oval Invincibles).Eleven Australia, New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa players had previously been confirmed: Elyse Villani (Trent Rockets), Sophie Devine, Ashleigh Gardner (Birmingham Phoenix), Deandra Dottin, Chloe Tryon (London Spirit), Mignon du Preez, Lizelle Lee (Manchester Originals), Dane van Niekerk, Marizanne Kapp (Oval Invincibles), Amelia Kerr and Stafanie Taylor (Southern Brave).Related

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While recruitment for the men’s Hundred involved a retention stage and a player draft, the women’s competition is running on an open-market system, with players and teams allowed to negotiate contracts directly.The ECB remains optimistic that some Indian players will be involved in the competition. While the BCCI does not grant No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) for active men’s players to appear in overseas leagues, India’s leading female players have previously appeared in the Kia Super League (KSL) – which has now been discontinued to make way for the Hundred – and the Women’s Big Bash League.ESPNcricinfo understands that Indian players are keen to be involved in the competition, but that they are waiting on approval from the BCCI. Four India internationals – Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma – were involved in the KSL between 2017 and 2019.ESPNcricinfo understands that the ECB has been in discussions with the BCCI about the prospect, and a spokesperson said they were “hopeful” of Indian involvement.Charlotte Edwards, Southern Brave’s head coach, told Sky’s : “I think there are conversations happening. Clearly, they’re players we want in this competition. We’ve got most of the top Australian players, so I think the next step is to get the Indian players over the line. That’s exciting for the competition, so hopefully that will happen.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Beth Barrett-Wild, the head of the women’s Hundred, told ESPNcricinfo that the ECB was confident the “best players in the world” would feature.”Obviously there’s a level of uncertainty with the Covid situation, but we’ve got a brilliant team hooked into government who are making sure we’re on top of what’s happening,” she said. “It’s really difficult to know where we’ll be in July but those overseas players have all signed their contracts, so fingers crossed they will be over here in the summer.”It shows that these players want to play in the Hundred and see it as a big opportunity, both from a playing perspective and in terms of their personal visibility. We talk about world-class quality and the Hundred being a world-class competition, and I can categorically say that we’ve got the best players in the world coming.”Teams have also confirmed the signings of several English players. Deals for Sophie Ecclestone (Manchester Originals), Bryony Smith (Welsh Fire), Alice Davidson-Richards (Northern Superchargers), Sarah Glenn (Trent Rockets), Sophia Dunkley (Southern Brave), Mady Villiers (Oval Invincibles), Georgia Elwiss (Birmingham Phoenix) and Tammy Beaumont (London Spirit) were all announced on Tuesday.

Saha is in the Test squad for India’s upcoming tour of England, while Krishna has been named as a standby

ESPNcricinfo staff18-May-2021Wriddhiman Saha and Amit Mishra have announced their respective recoveries from Covid-19. Both players had tested positive for the virus on May 4, the same day that IPL 2021 was suspended indefinitely.ESPNcricinfo has understood that Prasidh Krishna, who tested positive on May 8, has also recovered from Covid-19.Related

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Saha is part of the India squad that is due to tour England for the World Test Championship final against New Zealand, followed by a five-Test series against the hosts. Krishna is one of the four players named as stand-bys. These two, along with KL Rahul, who has undergone surgery after being diagnosed with appendicitis, had been named in the squad subject to clearing fitness tests.The England-bound India squad is set to begin its pre-departure quarantine in Mumbai on Wednesday, but Saha is expected to join his team-mates later, having received the BCCI’s permission to spend some time with his family in Kolkata. Both Saha and Mishra announced their recoveries via Twitter on Tuesday. Mishra, the Delhi Capitals legspinner, did so while expressing his gratitude to healthcare workers.GMT 1700 The story was updated with the news of Saha and Krishna’s respective recoveries.

Sri Lanka’s bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake is pleased with the way Lahiru Kumar has embellished his natural ability to bowl quickly with control and accuracy

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Johannesburg09-Jan-2017Of young players that have emerged for Sri Lanka over the past few months, perhaps none has been as surprising as the coming forth of Lahiru Kumara.He had had an excellent run in the Under-19 team, but when Test selection came for a tour of Zimbabwe, he merely appeared a placeholder quick until the more experienced bowlers returned from injury. Then, in his first match in South Africa – and third overall – Kumara collected the best-ever figures for a Sri Lanka fast bowler in the country, and also became the second-youngest Sri Lankan to claim a five-wicket haul.Coaches and selectors are enthused by how quickly he has come on, and how much he may yet improve. He needs to work on his control, bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake said, but what Kumara has always had is pace. He was clocked at nearly 145kph at Newlands.”He’s bowling 140kph plus, you know? He’ll bowl 150 very soon,” said Ramanayake. “He’s just 19-plus and he’s learning. To get six wickets here against one of the best teams – he bowled some brilliant balls. If he can get more consistency with that length, he can be a very good bowler.”The pace has come from genetics, so he’s always had that. But if he keeps improving general fitness, strengthening and conditioning work, he will get there. Especially when you’re at 23 or 24, your body becomes fully matured. That’s the time they’ll bowl fast.”Kumara had been in Sri Lanka’s age-group teams for at least four years, touring Malaysia with the Under-15 side, before graduating to the Under-19 team in 2014, aged 17. His breakthrough series had been in England last year, where he claimed 11 for 134 in a Youth Test in Northampton.”At the age of 15 he had been identified, but when the Under-19 tours came, he was really highlighted,” Ramanayake said. “He always had the pace, but he was a bit short and wild. Young fast bowlers tend to be like that through that period. But then we worked with him on hitting that length, and he has a natural ability to bowl good inswingers. The length was short, but we’ve worked on that. Now he’s much better.”The inswing had seen Kumara put a ball through Hashim Amla’s defence in the first innings at Newlands, but later that same innings, he also got balls to leave the right-hander off the seam, after having angled it into the stumps.”Now he’s working on the away-seamer as well. Because he bowls wide of the crease, sometimes he bowls that away one, which is very difficult because of the angle. He’s always had a good short ball. I’m not worried about pace. I want him to bowl more on the right spot. He’s fast, so if he hits that length it’s on to the batsman quickly. No time for them. You can see that he’s improving.”Sri Lanka’s fast-bowling stocks are regularly ravaged by injury, however, and avoiding long layoffs is among the many challenges that Kumara now faces. This series is being played without Dhammika Prasad, who had been Sri Lanka’s best seam bowler in 2015, but has not played a Test since October of that year due to recurring shoulder trouble. Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep and Dushmantha Chameera – who are on the tour – had also been sidelined for months, at different times last year.”When you have a youngster you have to manage him,” Ramanayake said. “You never know – anytime you can get a stress fractures and all. We have to look after him. Fitness-wise, he’s still raw and we’ll have to build him up slowly.”With Kumara’s emergence, Sri Lanka now have two quicks who may potentially operate in the high 145-150kph range. Chameera, who suffered a stress fracture in May last year, had previously bowled as fast as 149kph on a tour of New Zealand. He was a long way from his best on his Test return at Port Elizabeth, but Ramanayake is confident the pace will return in time.”Dushy had a stress fracture and after a stress fracture you are always not sure about giving 100%. He was one of our best bowlers before he got injured, and he’ll come back definitely. I’m not sure whether he’s playing this Johannesburg Test or not, but in the future, if we have two bowlers who can bowl at 145kph-plus, any side will be very happy. A little bit more bowling will help him.”

Facing the media for the first time since his recent selection, Sharjeel spent a lot of time defending himself against insinuations

Danyal Rasool23-Mar-2021For most players, a meteoric comeback to the national side four years after a player’s last involvement would be cause for unbridled joy and celebration. But in the case of Sharjeel Khan, things aren’t quite as simple. This was a player who seemed to fill a niche nakedly absent in Pakistan’s T20I set-up about half a decade ago – that of a power-hitter up top – and seemed earmarked for a lucrative career in the T20 game. All of a sudden, then, things imploded, and any hopes of involvement at the highest level seemed remote.The factors counting against Sharjeel’s inclusion have been numerous, at times overwhelmingly so. He was among a slew of players found guilty of spot fixing in the PSL in 2017, and alongside Khaled Latif, handed the longest sanction: a five-year ban (half of it suspended in the left-hand batsman’s case). Upon expiry of the ban, he returned to fierce criticism from PCB CEO Wasim Khan, not normally known for singling out players, lambasting him for turning up to the PSL unfit. Now that he has finally been selected after he was the top-scorer in the truncated PSL, chief selector Mohammad Wasim’s decision to include him – purportedly in contravention to the wishes of several senior members of the PCB’s management – continues to cause rumblings of discontent.Facing the media for the first time since he was chosen for the T20I squad that will play a handful of games in South Africa and Zimbabwe, the opener was forced to spend much of it defending himself against insinuations that he was still unfit for international cricket. On more than one occasion, he pointed to the amount of cricket he had played in the last six months, insisting it vindicated him.Related

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“Fitness is not an issue for me,” he told an online media conference. “I have played the full domestic season, and missed no match in seven months because of fitness. Every player has a different kind of fitness, and the plan I have been given I am following to the hilt. I am very happy to come back into the Pakistan side. I worked very hard, played a full domestic season, the whole PSL. It made for 60 playing days during which I played with full focus. The camp is going well, the environment is great and I just want to continue the hard work.”While former head coach Mickey Arthur had taken an inflexible, uncompromising hard line of fitness using a one-size fits all approach, there have been suggestions the current heads at the PCB are more malleable in their viewpoint. Mohammad Wasim spoke last week about different attributes required of different kinds of players, and while Sharjeel claims he accepted he needed to continue working on his fitness, he appeared to suggest his skills with bat in hand were ultimately what counted.”Being a professional cricketer, I am focusing not just on fitness but also on my batting,” he said. “Fitness is not everything, though of course it is very important, but I am working on my skills to a great extent, too. I am thrilled with my comeback, though I am aware the tour will be challenging. There are the one-dayers first, so that will give me time to suss out the conditions. I want not just to give good individual performances, but those that help the side out.”Fitness is required of everyone. The fitness session I conducted yesterday was an individual session. I had been given a plan by our trainer Yasir Malik. I’m trying to improve my fitness as soon as possible. I had a training session over the day that required a 15-kilometre drill – not in one go, but over the day. I was happy with how it went, and I am continuing to improve. Nobody has set me an ultimatum to reduce weight. Nobody has set me a task, I am just trying to reach a certain standard consistent with that of my peers.”Uncomfortable questions about the past still surfaced, though Sharjeel claimed he was never once made to feel unwelcome with the national side, despite the damaging cause behind his lengthy exclusion. “These are the same group of players who have been playing each other in domestic cricket. The environment is great and I feel really good, and I feel very comfortable with the players. Nobody has come up to me and told me I should not be selected. My focus is completely on performance.”In different circumstances, Sharjeel’s inclusion might have been one of the feel-good stories of the tour. While that is very much not the case for now, Pakistan’s cricket history indicates just about everything can be forgiven as long as the performances continue to flow. In that sense, for a man who had everything taken out of his hands four years ago, Sharjeel may yet be in control of his own destiny.