Iyer and Rahul would have been odds-on to start the World Cup at Nos. 4 and 5, but with Suryakumar’s form, that could change

Karthik Krishnaswamy24-Sep-20230:53

Chawla: Suryakumar gives India a good headache

The last time India went into an ODI World Cup, they had problems in their middle order. They had a fading great at No. 5, a batting allrounder whose bowling they seemed to have lost trust in at No. 6, and a revolving door of No. 4 options, none of whom got a proper run in the side in the lead-up to the tournament.They have a problem this time too, but it’s a problem of plenty. A problem so acute that one of their middle-order options may possibly have slipped out of India’s first-choice World Cup XI on a day he scored a century of breathtaking skill, in the second ODI against Australia in Indore.Only four India batters have scored over 1000 ODI runs at a 40-plus average and a 90-plus strike rate while occupying Nos. 4 to 6. That small group includes both Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul.Related

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Iyer 105, Gill 104, Suryakumar 72* hand India 2-0 series win

A month ago, before the start of the Asia Cup, they would have been odds-on to start the World Cup at Nos. 4 and 5.Now? Rahul almost certainly makes the starting XI. He’s probably India’s first-choice keeper even though Ishan Kishan took the big gloves on Sunday, and his ODI average this year is only a few decimal points short of Shubman Gill’s, which is quite a feat in 2023. His last five innings include a century, two fifties, and a knock that may well have been even better than those three, a 44-ball 39 on a raging Colombo turner against a rampant Dunith Wellalage.Iyer? Not so straightforward. He has struggled with back injuries over recent months, and in the time he’s spent in and out of the side, other batters have come in and shown what they can do. Even so, Iyer was probably still ahead of Kishan in the middle-order queue when he went in to bat on Sunday. And over the course of a breezy, 90-ball 105, he probably built himself a significant cushion.Until Suryakumar Yadav happened.Suryakumar was always going to be a compelling option because he has a one-of-a-kind skillset. He probably has no equal in T20s in picking an area of the field and hitting the ball there, no matter its line and length, against pace and spin.In T20 cricket, Suryakumar mostly bats after the powerplay, when the bowling team is allowed five fielders outside the 30-yard circle. In ODIs, Suryakumar would expect to do a lot of his batting in overs 11-40, when teams are only allowed four fielders outside the ring. In theory, this would mean more vacant areas to target while having more time to get his eye in and more room to be selective with his shot choices.To go from theory to practice isn’t always straightforward, though, as Suryakumar discovered while scoring only two fifties and averaging 24.40 over his first 25 ODI innings.0:51

Chawla: Iyer was totally in control

But India had no doubts over his ability. On the eve of the first ODI against Australia, their coach Rahul Dravid gave him as big a vote of confidence as any you’ll hear in a press conference. “We’ve picked our team for the World Cup,” he said, “and Surya is in it.”At that stage Dravid was answering a question about Suryakumar’s place in India’s 15. Since then, in the space of two ODIs played over three days, Suryakumar may have moved the needle considerably.The 49-ball 50 in Mohali, an innings of pared-down stroke production in a chase of 278, was Suryakumar’s reminder – to himself as much as anyone else – that he can bat like an ODI No. 6. The unbeaten 37-ball 72 in Indore was a revelation of what only Suryakumar, among India’s batters, can do as an ODI No. 6.There are others in India’s squad capable of hitting four successive sixes off a tall, fast-medium bowler like Cameron Green. But can they hit them as Suryakumar did, in chronological order, over backward square leg, fine leg, extra-cover and forward square leg? Can they stretch across to the off side and flick-sweep a seventh-stump ball over square leg, as Suryakumar did off Sean Abbott, and two balls later slice open their bat face to direct an off-stump yorker between keeper and short third?There aren’t too many others anywhere in the world who can do these things, or by any other means hit the same ball to multiple parts of the field. Jos Buttler and Glenn Maxwell are two names that come to mind.On potential, Suryakumar could raise India’s ceiling in much the same way Buttler and Maxwell do with England and Australia. And while you have a point if you argue that two innings aren’t enough fuel to merit the comparison, go back to the early ODI careers of Buttler and Maxwell. Buttler didn’t lift his ODI average above 30, once and for all, until his 26th innings. Maxwell didn’t manage it until his 39th innings. Suryakumar is going through a similar journey.These early struggles only show how difficult it is to bat in the manner of these mavericks. They take more risks than most batters, and they’re intimately acquainted with failure. When they get it right, though, they broaden their teams’ range of possibilities. The SKY, if you will, is the limit.These, then, may be the two options India will weigh as the World Cup draws ever closer.A top six of Rohit Sharma, Gill, Virat Kohli, Iyer, Rahul and Hardik Pandya has a formidable look to it, but there’s a certain sameness to what Nos. 3, 4 and 5 bring to the table. Even Hardik is at a stage where he’s perhaps at his best when he has time to build an innings.Compare that to Option B: Rohit, Gill, Kohli, Rahul, Hardik, Suryakumar; a top six that potentially covers every base other than left-handedness.Rohit, Kohli and Hardik will be back in India’s squad for the third ODI against Australia, India’s last proper match before the World Cup. How they line up in that match, in Rajkot, may well point to how they line up in Chennai on October 8.

The second week of the TNPL witnessed Sai Sudharsan pile on the runs and Shahrukh Khan flex his bowling muscle

Deivarayan Muthu26-Jun-20234:52

Watch – Sai Sudharsan blasts 41-ball 83

Natarajan’s emotional homecoming

After becoming Sunrisers Hyderabad’s yorker specialist in the IPL, and after having played for India in all three formats, T Natarajan played his first TNPL game in his hometown of Salem, with around 15 members of his family in attendance. It was also the first time that his parents watched him live in a competitive fixture.Related

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Natarajan, who was representing Ba11sy Trichy, swung the new ball sharply in the powerplay before nailing his yorkers and bouncers at the death to come away with figures of 1 for 34 in his four overs.The lead-up to the game was emotional for Natarajan, who finally realised his dream of opening a cricket ground with training facilities at his village, which is about 30 km away from Salem city. Two days out of the game, Natarajan formally opened his ground in the presence of his Tamil Nadu team-mates. On the day of the match, the locals thronged the Salem cricket foundation ground, welcoming Natarajan with the kind of cheers that are usually reserved for Ashwin, the biggest star in Tamil Nadu cricket.T Natarajan’s Tamil Nadu team-mates at the opening of the Natarajan Cricket Ground•ESPNcricinfo LtdThough Natarajan and the Trichy franchise lost to Tiruppur Tamizhans on Sunday, he must’ve been proud of his protégé G Periyaswamy, who closed out the match for the opposition. Periyaswamy also hails from Salem and was recently part of Rajasthan Royals as a net bowler in IPL 2023.

Sai & Sai sparkle

B Sai Sudharsan notched up his fifth half-century in six T20 innings, stretching back to the IPL final against Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad. His latest fifty was especially vital to Kovai displacing Dindigul from the top of the standings.Varun Chakravarthy has been unhittable across seasons in the TNPL, but on Sunday, Sudharsan tonked the mystery spinner for three sixes and two fours. Sudharsan was more circumspect against Ashwin and finished with 83 off 41 balls against one of the best bowling attacks in the TNPL. Another day, another Sudharsan half-century, and another victory for Kovai.Later in the evening, Tiruppur’s R Sai Kishore struck a 23-ball half-century – the fastest in this TNPL – as a pinch-hitting No.3. He had a favourable match-up against left-arm spinners R Alexander, who was with Chennai Super Kings as a net bowler in IPL 2023, and K Monish, who has previously played the Ranji Trophy for Kerala, and aced it. Then, in a more familiar role as a defensive spinner with the ball, Sai Kishore returned 0 for 21 in his four overs.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Ashwin’s funky fields

The red-soil pitch in Dindigul offered extra bounce and zip to the seamers. Ashwin sussed out the conditions and precisely placed a fine deep third for a top-edged slog in a tense finish against defending champions Chepauk Super Gillies.With Chepauk needing three off the last ball, P Saravana Kumar dug the ball into the Dindigul deck and drew a top-edged slog that was intercepted at that fine deep third. Had Sarath Kumar been placed squarer in the deep, the ball might have travelled to the boundary. Job well done from Ashwin, B Indrajith, the keeper, and Dindigul.Then in Dindigul’s next match against Kovai, they came up against Shahrukh, who is particularly powerful down the ground. So, Ashwin posted a straight long-on, a field that MS Dhoni often deployed for Kieron Pollard in the IPL.Lyca Kovai Kings’ M Siddharth was a net bowler with CSK in IPL 2023•TNPL/TNCA

Emerging player: M Siddharth

M Siddharth, the left-arm fingerspinner, has been a consistent performer in the TNPL for a while, but he often played in the shadows of Sai Kishore, Tamil Nadu’s premier left-arm spinner, at Chepauk in the past. In this season, Siddharth has led Kovai’s attack, fronting up to bowl the tough overs in the powerplay. His fizzing arm ball has posed a threat to both right-handers and left-handers. Siddharth has managed only six wickets in five matches so far, but his economy rate of 5.25 is the best among bowlers who have bowled at least 15 overs this season.Siddharth was born in Chennai and then he grew up in Indonesia, where his father worked and also played a bit of cricket. Siddharth then returned to Chennai to play cricket professionally. More recently in IPL 2023, he was a net bowler for CSK and prior to that, he had a stint as a net bowler with Mumbai Indians.If Siddharth could keep up his form in the TNPL and carry it to the domestic season, he could potentially pique the interest of IPL scouts.

Shahrukh out to prove himself as a bowler

The most prolific spinner, in terms of wickets, in this TNPL is not Varun or the Ashwins. Shahrukh, whose primary role in T20 cricket is that of a finisher, has sprung a surprise with the ball, picking up nine wickets in 12 overs at an average of 8.00 and economy rate of 6.00. Overall, only Tiruppur’s rookie seamer P Bhuveswaran has more wickets than Shahrukh this season.Shahrukh isn’t a big turner of the ball but gets just enough and works with the dimensions of the field to draw mis-hits. With Shahrukh pitching in with his offspin to complement the wristspin of Jhatavedh Subramanyan and left-arm orthodox of Siddharth, Kovai cover almost all bases on the spin front.At a post-match interview, Shahrukh said that the ball was coming out nicely from his hand and that more overs at this level could help him be ready to bowl in the IPL as well.

As India’s greatest sportsman since Tendulkar goes where no cricketer has gone before, he’s done it in a way that’s uniquely, inimitably his own

Anirudh Menon15-Nov-2023Fifty now. The big five-oh. Virat Kohli has just cemented himself in sporting history by going past one of the great no-way-this-can-be-touched records of cricket at breakneck speed, zooming past Sachin Tendulkar’s 49 ODI centuries in just over half the time it took the great man. For a generation that grew up on Tendulkar carrying India on his shoulders and leading them to the forefront of the world game, this seems such a ludicrous, unfathomable feat.Ask Kohli, who is of that generation, and he’ll tell you that he’s nothing without his predecessor, that Tendulkar’s feat remains unmatched whatever the numbers tell you, that Tendulkar laid the road upon which Kohli has driven his F1 car of a career on. But he has done it in a style that’s his own.Where Tendulkar was the quintessential ’90s hero: soft-spoken, unassuming, someone your parents would look at and go “Why can’t you be more like him?”, Kohli DGAF.Related

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He wants the spotlight, revels in it, and doesn’t care what you or your parents think about that. Where “Saaachin! Saaaachin!” would have been met with a gentle wave of the hand and that melt-your-heart, why-is-he-so-cute smile, Kohli will break into the bhangra. He’ll play master conductor to the orchestra that is the Indian cricket crowd. He’ll imitate Shah Rukh Khan’s signature moves. He’ll joke with the opposition, he’ll swear at them (Ben Stokes, anyone?), he’ll hug them. He’s effusive in his praise – telling anyone who’ll listen that AB de Villiers is the GOAT, bowing to Chris Gayle’s T20 magnificence – but doesn’t blush when he is praised in turn.”Yeah, obviously, I’m great.” In every sense of the phrase, it reflects modern India’s take on itself. Everyone here wants to be Kohli.In a time of hyper-nationalism, Kohli understands the import of public displays of friendship•AFP/Getty ImagesHe is the third most followed sportsperson on Instagram (something that always seems to take the average American podcaster by surprise). He commands the highest price for endorsements in Indian sport: BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover claimed earlier this year that he had signed 11 national team cricketers for half the price of Kohli. Any promotional material from any broadcaster in any country that does cricket will feature Kohli. Australia calls him “King”. Popularity, cojones, respect from outside the country, and material wealth – Virat Kohli has it all in spades. This is an über alpha male in a country that worships alpha males.And yet, he’s different.The angry young brat who wanted to pick a fight with anything and everything has been replaced with a wholly different kind of energy… and it’s kinda cool.Kohli now is an alpha male who’s unafraid to tell the world that at one point he had been suffering, that he had felt alone. One who admitted that his game needed working on, then worked on it, and broke out laughing when he scored a drought-ending century. The laughter was self-deprecating, aimed at himself: “Is this why I was whining for two years?” Alpha males, Indian ones in particular, do not laugh at themselves. Kohli does.He celebrates his team-mates’ triumphs much more than he does his own, and defends them loudly, louder than he does himself. He may love the spotlight, but he loves sharing it even more.His obsession is the stuff of legend, sacrificing favourite foods and applying every waking hour to honing his body and his craft in his chase for greatness, but he lets this unending quest for glory go (and what’s more glorious than a Test series victory against Australia down under?) so he can be there for his wife and the birth of their child. He is as much Mr Anushka Sharma as she is Mrs Virat Kohli: and he loves normalising that in a society that doesn’t.Online and offline abuse has followed Kohli for much of his career, but he is inured to it now•Associated PressHe gets this generation but doesn’t necessarily pander to them, and that somehow makes him even more popular. He is the pinnacle of masculinity single-handedly trying to redefine what that term means in this country.Well, almost single-handedly. Neeraj Chopra is arguably the only other sportsman in the country who is on the same alpha-male plane as Kohli is. And much like Kohli, Chopra is different. The javelin thrower is an apex predator on the field, but the moment he steps off it, he has all the energy of a lovable puppy. He thanks people for staying up and watching him, when he could just as easily have used the screen time to shout about his own success. He embraces his competitors and does not stand for any nationalistic toxicity.He is, like Kohli, a serial winner: they are the best at what they do, and they do it under some of the most intense pressure in world sport. Chopra comes out to throw with a country expecting him to win every time, and he wins every time. Kohli comes out to bat with a billion eyes on him, and bats like he’s in his backyard, having a throwdown with his kid. Pressure is to them what it is to carbon: the heavier it is, the more they turn into things that sparkle.Where Kohli is suave and urbane, Chopra is delightfully desi, a country boy at heart regardless of where he is, but they are both relatable. Neither is Tendulkar, but Tendulkar was never them either.Tendulkar and Kohli inspire the same kind of awe for what they did on the 22 yards. Kohli’s takedown of Lasith Malinga and Sri Lanka in Hobart was as audacious as Tendulkar’s disassembling of Shane Warne and Australia in Sharjah, Kohli’s physics-defying six off Haris Rauf was treated with the same open-mouthed shock as Tendulkar upper-cutting Shoaib Akhtar, Kohli chasing GOAT-ness is as undisputed as Tendulkar’s target-setting was. But off those 22 yards, they carry two distinct auras.

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The Perth Test at Optus Stadium has been rebranded the ‘West Test’ with innovations in a bid to boost crowds after lacklustre attendances in recent years

Tristan Lavalette07-Dec-2023Under the warm late spring sun, Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist waited patiently in the middle of Perth’s Optus Stadium as photographers readied for the perfect snap.Once advertising ticked over on the ground’s giant scoreboard screen, supposedly the largest in the southern hemisphere, the clicking of the cameras began. The resulting image – the smiling West Australian cricket legends waving their bats and positioned neatly so that the screen could be in the frame. The advertising read: There’s Nothing Like the West Test.With the first Test of the summer between Australia and Pakistan at Optus Stadium not until December 14, marketing of the event started especially early in the first week of November.Related

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The Perth sports focus at the time was saturated with the Australian Football League draft as Harley Reid, the top prospect selected by local club West Coast, occupied the back page of the city’s only major newspaper for more than 10 straight days.But the big media event at Optus Stadium, held 38 days before the first Test, did start an awareness campaign in what looms as an important Test match for WA Cricket.After Perth missed hosting lucrative Tests against India and England over consecutive summers due to strict Covid-19 border rules, just a tick over 40,000 fans attended the first Test between Australia and West Indies at Optus Stadium a year ago.The underwhelming turnout for Perth’s first Test match since 2019 was due to a myriad of reasons, including the fallout of Langer’s messy exit as Australia coach and West Indies’ lack of marketability.”It came on the back of a couple of hard years after Covid,” WA Cricket chief executive Christina Matthews said. “The Test match came after a T20 World Cup where the West Indies didn’t qualify and cricket was in overload at that moment. It was probably a glitch in our Test cricket history.”The eyesore of a mostly empty 60,000-capacity venue amid a somewhat strained relationship between parochial West Australians and the national Australia team resulted in a rebrand of a match to be now known as the ‘West Test’.”It’ll give [the Perth Test] its own signature…like the Boxing Day Test and the Pink Test – people don’t think of them necessarily as Melbourne and Sydney,” Matthews, who announced her resignation from the role on Wednesday after 12 years as CEO, said. “It’s all about how you market and promote….and make people want to come here.”This marks just the fourth Test match at Optus Stadium located on the opposite bank of the Swan River to the iconic WACA ground. Opened in 2018 to an ODI between Australia and England, the grandiose Burswood stadium – like a mini but modern MCG – quickly reeled in the punters who had grown tired of the aged infrastructure at the WACA and Subiaco Oval, where AFL games were once played.

“Traditions have to start somewhere. It’s up to the people of Perth… and people interstate… to say ‘I want to experience the West Test’ and vote with their feet.”Adam Gilchrist

But crowds have yet to flock in numbers to an Optus Stadium Test match. A riveting Test between Australia and India in December 2018 attracted around 20,000 fans on each of the first three days. The following year’s day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand had similar crowd numbers.There were several factors behind those lacklustre numbers. The lingering effects of the sandpaper scandal and Australia being shorthanded without Steven Smith and David Warner contributed to a somewhat low-key match against India. Oppressive heat across both those Test matches was also undoubtedly a turnoff with chunks of seating at Optus Stadium not covered by shade.But there has been a sense that fans have never quite warmed to the shift of Test matches away from the more intimate WACA, an iconic cricket ground due to its fast and bouncy pitch.In an effort to woo fans and create a link to WACA lore, a new three-tiered hill holding up to 500 fans will be part of the Pakistan Test match. A portion of seats at Optus Stadium will be taken out in a bid to mimic the famous grass banks on either side of the WACA ground, which is under redevelopment but is likely to still hold Test matches in the future involving smaller nations.”Bringing part of that history and heritage to this modern facility is really exciting,” Gilchrist said. “These opportunities to bring some of that old heritage into the new [stadium] is a great starting point to build tradition and history.”The big screen at Perth Stadium replicates the famous WACA scoreboard•Getty ImagesOnce again mimicking the WACA, every effort has been made to ensure a spicy surface is produced after a lifeless pitch in last year’s dreary Test that went well into the fifth day.The drop-in pitches were recently moved into the stadium’s playing surface having been curated at Optus Stadium since February. It contains the same local clay and grass species as the surfaces at the WACA.Expectations are high for this Test match with hopes of around 25,000 fans for day one. It is being played at WA Cricket’s preferred timeslot of mid-December after Perth emerged victorious in a bidding war to host Pakistan with Adelaide and Brisbane left with West Indies later in the summer.But there remains an unknown over whether West Australians, whose one-eyed fervour spills over passionately supporting their local teams, are truly invested in the national team. It very much feels like WA cricket fans care more for Perth Scorchers, underlined by the team’s comprehensive coverage in the local media in a notable contrast to the rest of the year where cricket can feel invisible.WA greats are hopeful people will turn out to Perth Stadium for Test cricket•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesThe parochialism has again been evident with adopted West Australian Mitchell Johnson using his column in the metro newspaper to launch a scathing attack on Warner and national selector George Bailey. It’s led to WA cricket fans largely siding with Johnson and venting frustration that in-form WA opener Cameron Bancroft has been supposedly ignored as a Warner replacement by those on the east coast – or “over east” as per the local vernacular.Even Smith has felt the wrath of WA fans having been jeered during the BBL at Optus Stadium last season. Despite this strange dynamic, it’s hoped the inaugural ‘West Test’ can create a fresh start ahead of Optus Stadium hosting blockbuster Tests against India and England over the next couple of summers.”Traditions have to start somewhere,” Gilchrist said. “It’s up to the people of Perth… and people interstate… to say ‘I want to experience the West Test’ and vote with their feet.”

Australia spinner talks about her return from injury, her expectations from the Bangladesh tour, and her dream WPL run

Mohammad Isam03-Apr-2024On her ODI comeback against Bangladesh, Sophie Molineux took 3 for 10 in one of the most economical bowling spells in the format’s history. But go back to 2022, and Molineux was battling her toughest phase as a cricket – out of action, injured for 12 months with a knee injury. It needed her to start all over again.First came the ACL surgery. Then her rehab. And lastly, watching cricket on TV knowing she cannot be there. It is excruciating for sportspersons to watch sports on TV when they are out of the game, but Molineux said she found comfort there too.Related

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“Once you are injured like that, you have to start from the start again,” Molineux says. “After surgery I was probably overwhelmed with what was to come. I knew it was going to be close to twelve months, if not more, for me to play cricket again. That first part was probably tricky mentally. I suppose once you get into it, there are so many new things that you can do in rehab.””There was amazing support around me at Cricket Victoria. Richard Johnson [head physical performance coach at Cricket Victoria women] and Brendan Goonan [physiotherapist] were there by my side the whole time. Kept things fun and interesting. The support I had from family, friends and teammates, I will be forever grateful. It was a long 12 months but also it was an opportunity to learn new things. I watched a lot of cricket so hopefully it will help in the long run. It was a rewarding and tough experience at the same time.”In particular, Molineux was grateful to her two best mates, Georgia Wareham and Tayla Vlaeminck. The trio has been through a lot. Whenever one of them got injured in the last two years, the other two rushed to her. They have been in Bangladesh in both the ODI and T20I squad together.”Tay, Georgia and I played a lot of cricket together. We were all very similar in age. We also grew up in country Victoria. We played age-group cricket together. We lived together when we first moved to Melbourne, so they are two of my closest mates. It is just another experience when you are on your own,” Molineux said.

Sometimes you feel like it is a long way away. Other weeks, you feel that it is pretty close. I suppose you ride those waves throughout the extended period of timeSophie Molineux on her journey back from injury

“The three of us are all very different people but there’s a special bond between us all. When we were home together, we rode the wave with each other. Whenever one of us got injured, the other two would drop everything to look after each other. It is now nice to be away to do what we love to do, to be here in Bangladesh at the moment.”Molineux, who returned to international cricket in the Test match against South Africa at the WACA, said that Bangladesh challenged the Australian team to change their ways since these are very different conditions than what they are familiar with. Molineux has had a successful time with 10 wickets in four matches across the two formats.”We knew coming here, it was going to be completely different conditions than what we are used to,” she said. “The first thing was to completely adjust our games. Get used to the pitches over here. I think both spin and pace has had really good moments in the one-dayers. There’s been a lot of learning here, which is great. Our batting unit is getting better and better. They are more comfortable over here.”Australia are also using this tour to collect intelligence for the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later this year. “I think that’s the other positive to come out of touring Bangladesh in a World Cup year. I think we all have, in the back of our minds, that something big is around the corner. Hopefully we can put all these experiences in our back pocket, and use that knowledge in six or seven months, when the World Cup is on,” she said.Sophie Molineux impressed in the WPL too as champion with RCB•BCCIBefore heading to Bangladesh, Molineux won the WPL title with the Royal Challengers Bangalore. She had a major say in the final when she took three wickets in the eighth over. It completely derailed Delhi Capitals.”It was an incredible night, not just for RCB but for women’s cricket,” she said. “It was a packed stadium. It was amazing throughout the tournaments. We were definitely under the pump after the powerplay [in the WPL final]. I was lucky to bowl that over. The bowlers that came on afterwards kept applying pressure. It was a pretty good performance.She however had gone into the tournament with little expectations. She had a few known faces on the team, and expected her bowling would be smashed around a little.”I was very grateful for them to pick me after having not played much cricket. There was a lot of experience in the team so I was really excited to play alongside Smriti Mandhana, Shreyank Patel, Sophie Devine and Pez [Ellyse Perry].”They are close mates of mine. I knew it was going to be tough but like any tournament, you have to rebound after tough matches. Crack on pretty quickly. The coaching staff was wonderful in helping us do that,” she said.On her comeback to competitive cricket too, her friends surrounded Molineux. It was comforting for her as she had got used to having company during her injury layoff.”I think [what helped to get over low moments] were the people around me. The good friends I have. The support staff were incredible. You have always got your family as well. I will forever be appreciative of people around me. I always knew I was going to come back, and play cricket again. Sometimes you feel like it is a long way away. Other weeks, you feel that it is pretty close. I suppose you ride those waves throughout the extended period of time.”

Rinku Singh also sparkled on a banner day for India in Bengaluru

Sampath Bandarupalli17-Jan-20241 The match between India and Afghanistan became the first in international cricket to feature two Super Overs. It is only the second T20 match to have two super overs – Mumbai Indians vs Kings XI Punjab in the IPL in 2020 was the first.424 Runs aggregated by India and Afghanistan in Bengaluru are the second most in a T20I to have ended in a tie. Four-hundred-and-twenty-eight runs in the 2010 Christchurch T20I between New Zealand and Australia are the highest, with both teams scoring 214.5 Hundreds for Rohit Sharma in T20I cricket are the most for any batter in the format, going one ahead of Glenn Maxwell and Suryakumar Yadav. The unbeaten 121 off 69 balls on Wednesday was his highest T20I score and the fourth-highest individual score for India in T20Is.ESPNcricinfo LtdRohit had set the record for most T20I hundreds in November 2018, with his fourth century to surpass Colin Munro (3). That record was equalled recently by Maxwell (in November 2023) and Suryakumar (in Dec 2023) before Rohit claimed it back.190* Partnership runs between Rohit and Rinku Singh. It is now the highest for India in T20Is, surpassing the 176-run stand between Deepak Hooda and Sanju Samson for the second wicket against Ireland in 2022.ESPNcricinfo Ltd58 Runs were added by India in the last two overs of their innings. These are the most by any team across 19th and 20th overs in all men’s T20s, overhauling Nepal’s 55 runs against Mongolia in last year’s Asian games (where ball-by-ball data is available).1 The 36 runs conceded by Karim Janat in the 20th over of India’s innings against Rohit and Rinku are the joint most in an over in men’s T20Is. Yuvraj Singh off Stuart Broad in 2007 and Kieron Pollard off Akila Danajaya in 2021 scored 36 runs off an over, with sixes off all six balls.103 Runs scored by India in their last five overs. Only one other team has amassed 100-plus runs between the 16th and 20th overs of a men’s T20I innings – 108 by Nepal against Mongolia in 2023 (where ball-by-ball data is available).ESPNcricinfo Ltd8 Number of partnerships higher than the 190* by Rohit and Rinku in men’s T20Is. Seven of those eight have been for the opening wicket. The unbroken 190-run stand between Rohit and Rinku is the highest for the fourth wicket or lower in T20Is.2 The partnership of 190* between Rohit and Rinku is also the second highest in all T20s for the fifth wicket or lower. Iftikhar Ahmed and Shakib Al Hasan shared an unbroken 192-run stand for the fifth wicket in last year’s BPL game.3 out of Rohit’s five T20I hundreds have come while captaining India. He has now equalled Babar Azam for most T20I tons as captain. Babar also had hit three centuries during his captaincy tenure.69* Rinku’s score against Afghanistan is the highest by an Indian while batting at No.6 or lower in T20Is. The previous highest was 65 by Axar Patel while batting at No.7 against Sri Lanka in Pune in 2023.36y 262d Rohit’s age on Wednesday makes him the oldest player from a Test-playing nation to score a century in T20Is. Chris Gayle was the previous oldest – 36 years and 117 days old when he scored an unbeaten 100 against England in 2016.5 Fifty-plus scores in Bengaluru – Rohit and Rinku for India and half-centuries by Afghanistan’s top three in the chase. It is only the second T20I game with five fifty-plus scores. The 2020 Auckland T20I between New Zealand and India was the first.

The England fast bowler doesn’t mind playing the villain occasionally. For him, it’s all for the team’s cause

Vithushan Ehantharajah19-Jan-2024By Ollie Robinson’s estimation, he is currently in his longest stint without playing cricket since he was eight.His last competitive match was the third Ashes Test against Australia, way back at the start of July. “I reckon it got to November when I thought, ‘Hold on, this is quite bizarre,'” he says. “Then again, we’ve got, what, 17 Tests this year? So I’ll probably look back and be thankful for this time off.”A finger injury on his bowling hand meant he missed the end of Sussex’s County Championship campaign. But the break has been productive. With the help of England men’s strength and conditioning coach Peter Sim and recently appointed physiotherapist Ben Davies, he has knocked around 20 seconds off his 2km time trial.Related

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Robinson was chuffed to see “7 minutes 37” staring back at him after jumping off the treadmill, and a little relieved. “They’ve put in all this time with me the last few months – to not give it back to them I feel would be a waste. I really wanted to get fitter as well. I’ve never been someone who has excelled at distance running, but that was a bit of a milestone to tick off.”That personal best was set in November, on the eve of a training camp in the UAE that reunited him with those England Test team-mates selected for the upcoming tour of India who were not involved in the 50-over World Cup campaign. Even this small gathering, overseen by Brendon McCullum, with training sessions in the morning and – yep, you guessed it – golf in the afternoon, served as a top-up of morale, scope and vibes of the summer just gone. “It was good and relaxed,” says Robinson, “and just nice to be around some of the guys again.”It was while in Abu Dhabi he received a “weird” call. Weird because it was about something that had not been on his mind.”The ECB called, telling me the BCCI had been in contact saying a couple of teams were interested in Ollie Robinson. But I wasn’t registered for the auction. I mean, I’ve not played white-ball cricket in two years now or something.”I went into the auction and put my reserve at Rs 50 lakh. Obviously, I didn’t get picked up, but it would have been cool to experience. I’d love to do it one day.”

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England had an uncharacteristically quiet 2023 as far as Test fixtures were concerned. But with five of their eight matches housed in a frenetic Ashes series, Ben Stokes’ entertainers remained at the forefront of the year’s sporting narrative.Will Robinson stir the pot again like he did during the Ashes last year? “I just felt like that press conference [where he referred to the sledging of Ricky Ponting and others], it was the right thing to say at the time. That’s all you can do, really, is say what you feel at the time”•Getty ImagesRobinson played the first three Tests against Australia, before missing the final two after a back spasm in the first innings of the third Test, at Headingley. And while England finished with a degree of satisfaction, squaring the series 2-2 having been 2-0 down, even if Australia returned home with the urn, he carries personal regret.”Looking back, I feel like I didn’t leave it all out there,” he reflects six months on. “I feel like I missed opportunities to get things right, which is something I beat myself up about when I think back. And I’m not someone that dwells on things, but when it’s such a big Ashes series and such a big occasion in England, I felt like I didn’t do myself and the team justice.”I wish I could do it again, really. I wish I could start the summer over again. I feel like if we did play the series again, we’d beat them. Unfortunately, the rain in Manchester didn’t help. It’s a bit bittersweet, the Ashes.”Memories of the deep bone bruise in his landing foot (left), sustained in the build-up to the series, temper thoughts about what he could have done differently. “I played at Worcester, on a green seamer, got 14 wickets and felt unbelievable, I had really good rhythm, body felt great. Two weeks later I play at Hove [against Glamorgan] and my foot was sore almost straightaway.” In an ideal world, he would have played the one-off Test at Lord’s against Ireland, but the ECB decided it was not worth the risk.With ten wickets at 28.40, he was not quite the scourge of Australia’s batters. Stuart Broad secured that mantle (again), signing off with 22 dismissals in the series. But Robinson did trump Broad for Ashes villainy.There was the send-off to Usman Khawaja after dismissing him for 141 in the first Test. In his subsequent press conference, he explained it away as passion, adding that the Australians were only aggrieved “because the shoe’s on the other foot”. Comments that Australia’s line-up featured “three No. 11s” followed – riffing on a theme about their lack of lower-order runs – before another back and forth with Khawaja on the field the next time their paths crossed. All this across a few days in Birmingham.One of those “No. 11s”, Nathan Lyon, accompanied captain Pat Cummins to get Australia over the line in that first Test. The ill-feeling toward Robinson simmered throughout the 12-day lead-up to the second Test. The great and good of Australian cricket had their turn. Ricky Ponting – whom Robinson had cited in his press conference – returned serve, while Matthew Hayden labelled Robinson a “forgettable cricketer”, and introduced “nude nuts” into the game’s lexicon. Robinson also stirred the pot with a debut online column for Wisden Cricket Monthly.Robinson took 20 wickets in his three games in the County Championship last year, 14 of them in one game against Worcestershire in May•PA Images via Getty ImagesHe wore it all then and remains phlegmatic now. There is no remorse, not that his comments required any deep introspection.”Looking back, mentioning Ricky Ponting in a press conference wasn’t the smartest thing to do. But I’ve watched so much cricket, I’ve seen so many of them do the same thing to the opposition. I just thought it was so funny that they were then getting stuck into me for the same thing they used to do.”Still – what was it like being in the centre of an Ashes storm?”I remember waking up that week and people were texting me saying, ‘Oh Matt Hayden’s said this, [Adam] Gilchrist said this, Fox Sports have said this.’ Every morning, someone else would come out of the woodwork and have their 20p. But I enjoy that sort of thing, I feel like it really motivates me.”At Headingley, before I got injured, I felt really, really good. I had no inkling I was going to have a back spasm or anything, and I felt those comments really drove me on to finish the series well. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.”Even the No. 11s thing: you say something, someone snicks off for none and you look like a genius. Or they hit the winning runs and you look like a fool. But it’s one of those things – you take the risk. If it comes off, it comes off. If it doesn’t, you hold your hands up. I just felt like that press conference, it was the right thing to say at the time. That’s all you can do, really, is say what you feel at the time.”And I’ve seen a few things since, people saying, ‘He should have kept his mouth shut.’ But you can’t see what’s going to happen. I was giving my all for the team and that’s a role I’ve taken upon myself, to get stuck into the opposition and get the lads going.”There are still Australian fans keen to drag Robinson on social media. “They love getting stuck into every post, every video,” he says, like a man who really does seem to find it funny they are still after him now. He “likes” the odd negative comment, which he squares as par for the course in his self-appointed role as antagonist.Robinson got Virat Kohli out three times in the 2021 series and is looking to add to that tally. “You always want to get the best players out. Kohli is one of those”•Gareth Copley/Getty Images”It’s just part of it, isn’t it? If you take it to heart, it makes it harder on yourself. A lot of them have probably watched a lot of cricket and can have their say.”Robinson, though, does have a line – when comments get personal. It is a line that, over the past three months, he feels has been crossed. Not just by private messages from newly created Instagram accounts wishing ill on him and his family, but in the broader media too.On August 11, 2023, the Daily Mail published an article about his break-up with his ex-partner. The piece contained criticism of Robinson from an anonymous source, along with details of his new relationship with Mia Baker, a presenter and golf influencer. Robinson said there were inaccuracies within the article on social media.”What they were writing was not factual,” he says. “I had so many messages saying, ‘You’re this, you’re that’, but people don’t know the whole story. They put out an article filled with assumptions, encouraging readers to create whatever storyline fitted their narrative.”I actually looked a couple of days after at my Instagram requests and the guy that wrote the article in the had messaged me and said, “Do you want to put your say on the story?” I hadn’t seen it until the article had already come out, so I couldn’t really do anything about it. But they sent me that message at 9pm – the article came out at 8am the next morning. So they obviously didn’t want me to have my say on it either. I understand their job is to generate stories that result in clicks but for them to write this without getting my input really impacts myself and others.”That was quite tough to handle, not only for myself but those around me. I’m grateful to have had the support from people close to me who understood the situation and how tough it was.”Robinson has a daughter, who has been front and centre of his thoughts throughout this period. He sees her as often as possible and remains a full part of her life.”Technology these days is so incredible because no matter where you are in the world, a video call really does make a difference. With England, we travel all over the world for long periods of time and everyone knows how difficult missing someone can be.Robinson has had a hard time of it with the tabloid media recently, who have covered the break-up of his relationship with his ex-partner•PA Images via Getty Images”But over the Christmas period, we’ve had the chance to spend lots of time together with family and it really has been amazing, which makes being away in India that bit harder.”The last year hasn’t been easy. Dropping your daughter off, knowing you’re not going to see her for a while, is upsetting. But in myself, I now feel in a much better place both mentally and physically.”

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This will not be Robinson’s first tour of India. He travelled over in 2021 as a “reserve” in the extended squad that England took with them to mitigate any contingencies arising due to Covid.It was a gruelling experience beyond the result, which saw India win 3-1 after England triumphed in the opening Test, in Chennai. Those on the periphery spent time training, locked down in the hotel, and occasionally carrying drinks. “It’s why I’m really looking forward to this tour,” he says. “Last time we didn’t have full capacity crowds either, so it’s going to be incredible to experience.”Tests in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Rajkot and Dharamshala will offer a variety of surfaces and conditions. As is the way under McCullum, England will arrive with an open mind. Be that as it may, this will be the sternest examination of what they are about. That in itself excites Robinson.”You feel like you don’t know what you’re preparing for, which is a challenge I’ve not really had yet.”On this tour, it’ll be about being adaptable; look at the pitch a day or two before and assess how it’ll play, or try to get clues from the nets on the square. It’ll be a different challenge but one that I’m looking forward to because it’ll engage my cricket-nuffy brain.”Robinson’s nerdy side has already been at work. He has been studying footage of India’s attack in their home conditions, and workshopping those learnings.”I’ve actually been practising Mohammed Shami’s dead-straight seam,” he reveals. “He’s one of the best bowlers for India. I was looking at Ishant [Sharma] as well – he played at Sussex for a bit and he’s done really well in India for quite a while. He’s tall, similar to me.”Support act: Robinson says he’s looking to complement James Anderson, not take over from him as strike bowler•Getty ImagesAs for the batters, he has plans and fond memories of his last engagement with them in 2021. He took 21 wickets at 21.33 in the first four matches in a series that was eventually squared after England won the fifth at Edgbaston a year later. Of those dismissals, 15 were of full-fledged batters.He got Virat Kohli three times, and, unsurprisingly, the two were not short of words to each other. Robinson is relishing more of the same.”I actually saw the video of me walking out to bat at Lord’s a couple of days ago. I think [Mohammed] Siraj bowled the ball that hit length and hit me in the chest. And in the video, all the Indian players surround me and Kohli is saying… well, I can’t remember what he said.”You always want to play against the best players, don’t you? And you always want to get the best players out. Kohli is one of those. He’s got a big ego and I think playing on that, especially in India, where he is going to want to dominate and score runs, playing on the fact we’ve had battles in the past, is exciting.”The other strand to this tour is that it is Robinson’s first in a post-Broad world. There have been times in Robinson’s 19 caps to date when he has played ahead of the latter. But having ended the 2023 English season out of the XI, Robinson sees 2024 as an opportunity to restate his worth as a new-ball lock and a Test bowler outright.”Last time it happened [playing ahead of James Anderson and Broad] was before the Caribbean tour in 2022. Jimmy and Broady didn’t get selected, all the pressure was on me to lead the attack, then I go out there and get a back spasm in a warm-up game.”I prepared like I was going to be the leader of the attack for years, and probably looked too far ahead, if anything. I think now, maturing a little bit and knowing what can happen, I’m preparing like I’m playing another series and just going to do my best for England. Not looking too far ahead, not looking to be the leader of the attack or anything like that. Support Jimmy, support the spinners, and just support the team.”If I can have a big tour in India, then it should set me up for a while. If I do well, I can cement myself back in the team.”

Osman Samiuddin pays tribute to the arch-diplomat who oversaw the best of times at the PCB

Osman Samiuddin24-Mar-2024One way to reflect on Shaharyar Khan’s legacy in his two stints as chairman PCB is to digest the period in between, when he wasn’t chairman. It began with a doping scandal in late 2006; swiftly escalated to the death of their coach, which, for a time, was treated as suspicious with his own side among the suspects; plummeted with a terrorist attack on a touring team in 2009 which took the game away from Pakistan; it ended a few years later with the clownish toing and froing between Zaka Ashraf and Najam Sethi (no, not last year’s japes but those from 2013-14).In other words, the time in between was the worst of times and that was it, there were no other times.Either side, in two three-year phases of Khan, Pakistan cricket was a more serene place, a place that made more sense. And I’ll be damned if his naturally avuncular demeanour didn’t make the place seem safer, more nurturing and wholesome. And let’s not forget, a place of results. Pakistan were arguably the second-best Test side in the world for a brief period in 2005-06; they were officially the number one Test side in the world in 2016.At least that is how it seems right now, in the immediate aftermath of his passing. It’s probably too simplistic a perspective, mired in the impulse to seek out and credit the strongman, that individual authority who runs everything, be it an institution, a political party, a government or, in this case, a cricket board. He benefitted from a team of seasoned officials around him. On-field results were the results of on-field actors. The politics of the game, but also of the country, when he operated were more stable.Plus, he was hardly a strongman by nature. Indeed, one of his strengths was that he was able to work with strong executive personnel, whether it was Ramiz Raja, Saleem Altaf or Sethi. A genuine strongman would never have tolerated power residing anywhere else but within him.Inzamam-ul-Haq and Shaharyar Khan at a press conference•Getty ImagesSo, simplistic yes. But not misplaced because the bottom line is, he did preside over two periods this century which now, over six years after his last tenure ended, live in the mind undeniably like some good ol’ days.He was the kind of man – refined, gentle, erudite, careful with his words – about whom we might sigh that they don’t make them like that anymore. We might, were it not such a truism: it is precisely how time works, that as each day passes the world changes, and as it changes, the men it makes must necessarily be different and not like they used to be.Consequently, they don’t make cricket administrators like that anymore either. His love for the game was that of an older generation’s. Pristine white kits, red ball, high-elbow cover-driving, the spirit of cricket, gentlemen all round, cricket as a thing of manners.But there’s no room for romanticism in diplomacy so, for instance, although he didn’t much care for the shortest format, he knew it was the coming thing and was not one to stand in the way of progress. When the time came for Pakistan to jump in, in 2005, he didn’t hold back, enabling the birth of the suitably razzmatazz ABN-AMRO Twenty20 Cup. Back in the day, pre-IPL, it was one of the great T20 events.That’s what was beneath the cuddly old-man exterior, the hard-nosed pragmatism. He was a democrat but worked as chairman of an ad-hoc board in his first stint under the military dictatorship of the late Pervez Musharraf. He was fully committed to drawing up a long-delayed constitution for the PCB. But despite being unable to do so ultimately, he didn’t let the pursuit paralyse him from actually getting stuff done.When he returned to the PCB in 2014, he did so to a new global order run by the Big Three. He publicly opposed it but accepted that his board had signed up for it (before he took charge) and would be faithful to it. Until Shashank Manohar came along and an opportunity arose to dismantle it.He was in his element in those boardrooms of the ICC, mingling with and mediating between contemporaries from across the world, on matters that mattered. This was, after all, one of the brighter lights of his country’s foreign service, a man who had been a UN representative in Rwanda post-genocide, and written a book about it – one of six he authored. When Shaharyar Khan made a case for international cricket to return to Pakistan, people couldn’t help but listen. Dealing with player tantrums, such as the one Younis Khan once threw on the other hand, could hardly have engaged him the same way. Perhaps this perspective is why he never clung to the board job like so many of his predecessors and successors. Life, he understood, was more.Related

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Still, sometimes you wished he would have been more autocratic. In curbing the power Inzamam ul Haq accrued as captain in his first stint for example. Or being more forceful in the moments that led up to the Oval Test forfeit (It’s remarkable, by the way, to think that the culmination of that forfeit and Younis’s resignation is what compelled him to leave that first stint in late 2006. These days that constitutes a few funny tweets and memes, and that’s it.) Or in asserting greater authority over Sethi in his second stint, when the administration in Pakistan was being pulled in two different directions.But these are minor quibbles really, because ultimately, only a wariness to recency bias prevents him from being remembered as one of Pakistan’s finest cricket heads. Were AH Kardar and Nur Khan (both, incidentally, archetypal strongmen) more transformative? Maybe, though the counter as you pick through Khan’s tenures – the introduction of T20s in Pakistan and central contracts for players (now reaching down to a pool of 70 U19 female cricketers), the return of international cricket, the launch of the PSL – is that we’re not nearly done weighing the effects of the transformations wrought under his leadership.

Our data visualisations make clear Anderson’s improvement as his career has worn on

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jul-2024After more than 40,000 balls across 188 Test matches, James Anderson’s international career is over.England’s greatest-ever bowler and the leading wicket-taker in Test history among seamers bowed out with three second-innings wickets in a crushing victory over West Indies at Lord’s on Friday, 21 years after making his debut in the format against Zimbabwe at the same venue.Anderson sits third in the all-time list of leading wicket-takers in Test cricket, behind only Shane Warne and Muthiah Muralidaran. Joshua da Silva became his 704th and final wicket on Friday morning, edging an outswinger through to England’s debutant wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.Throughout his career, Anderson has been among the world’s most prolific bowlers. Since his debut in May 2003, only three other bowlers in the world – Stuart Broad, Nathan Lyon and R Ashwin – have managed to take 500 or more Test wickets, let alone 700.