Also, who was the fastest bowler to 300 Test wickets by time?

Steven Lynch29-Oct-2024New Zealand have just won a Test series in India. Have they ever done that before, and how often have India been whitewashed at home? asked Michael O’Sullivan from New Zealand

New Zealand had never previously won any of their 12 Test series in India, and indeed had won only two previous Tests there – in Nagpur in October 1969, and in Mumbai in November 1988. That first win enabled them to draw the series 1-1, and a two-match rubber in 2003-04 was drawn 0-0; India won the other ten. New Zealand have done much better at home, winning six series (and ten Tests overall).India might have lost the series after their defeat in Pune, but there’s still another Test to come so it’s too early to talk about a whitewash. The only time they have ever lost every match of a series (more than one Test) at home was in 1999-2000, when South Africa won both matches. They did lose three-match series 2-0 to England in 1933-34 (the first Tests in India), Australia in 1956-57 and West Indies in 1966-67. As this list shows, India have lost three matches in five longer series at home, which included 3-0 defeats to West Indies in 1958-59 (five Tests) and 1983-84 (six).I saw that Kagiso Rabada was the fastest to reach 300 Test wickets in terms of balls bowled, but who got there fastest by time? asked Andy Johnson from England

You’re right that Kagiso Rabada was the fastest to reach 300 Test wickets by balls bowled – he got there when he dismissed Mushfiqur Rahim during South Africa’s recent Test against Bangladesh in Mirpur. That wicket came with Rabada’s 11,817th legal delivery in a Test, 132.3 overs quicker than Waqar Younis (12,602), who himself was three balls quicker than Dale Steyn.The fastest in terms of time was Shane Warne, who got there in six years and three days from his debut against India in Sydney in January 1992. R Ashwin ran Warne close, reaching 300 in November 2017, six years and 21 days after his debut. Rabada played his first Test in November 2015, so is well down this particular list, in 15th place.Was Zimbabwe’s 344 the other day a T20 international record? asked Burton Mugambwa from Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe ran up 344 for 4 in their match against Gambia in Nairobi last week, during the African qualifying tournament for the next T20 World Cup. It was not only the highest in a T20 international, but the biggest in any senior men’s T20 match, beating Nepal’s 314 for 3 against Mongolia in the Asian Games in Hangzhou (China) in September 2023. As mentioned two weeks ago in this column, there have been higher totals in women’s T20 internationals.Zimbabwe won by 290 runs, another record for men’s T20s, beating Nepal’s 273 in the match mentioned above. Argentina’s women won successive games against Chile in October 2023 by 364, 281 and 311 runs.Sikandar Raza reached his century – Zimbabwe’s first in T20s – against Gambia in just 33 balls, putting him joint-second in men’s T20 internationals behind Sahil Chauhan’s 27-ball onslaught for Estonia against Cyprus in Episkopi in June 2024. That’s also the fastest in all men’s T20 matches.Sydney Barnes’ 189 wickets came in just 27 Tests, an average of seven wickets a Test•PA PhotosPrabath Jayasuriya currently has 97 wickets in 16 Tests – that’s more than six a match. Has anyone else had a higher average? asked Nishantha de Silva from Sri Lanka

Slow left-armer Prabath Jayasuriya currently averages 6.06 wickets per Test, a rate he’ll have to sustain for a long time to stay ahead of Muthiah Muralidaran, who took 800 wickets in his 133-Test career, at the rate of 6.01 per match.Leading the way is the great England bowler Sydney Barnes, who took 189 wickets in just 27 Tests, an average of exactly seven per match. Among those who took 50 or more Test wickets, the only others above six are three 19th-century bowlers in Jack Ferris (6.77 wickets per Test), Tom Richardson (6.28) and George Lohmann (6.22). Lohmann is the only man to have more wickets after 16 Tests (101) than Jayasuriya’s 97.The only other current bowler who averages more than five wickets per Test is R Ashwin, who stood at 5.12 per match after the second Test against New Zealand in Pune.Saim Ayub opened the batting and the bowling in Rawalpindi. How often has this happened in a Test? asked Abdul Hameed Majeed from Pakistan

Offspinner Saim Ayub took the new ball for Pakistan in the third Test against England in Rawalpindi – a one-over spell before Noman Ali returned! He’d earlier opened the batting, and became the 70th man to do both in the same Test. There are now 154 instances in all, and two Indian allrounders lead the way: Manoj Prabhakar did it no fewer than 22 times, and ML Jaisimha 13. Next come Pakistan’s Mudassar Nazar (nine times) and Abid Ali of India (six).The most recent instance before Saim Ayub was by Solomon Mire, for Zimbabwe against West Indies in Bulawayo late in 2017; the previous year Dilruwan Perera did it for Sri Lanka against Australia in Colombo. Perhaps the most surprising name on the list is another Indian, Budhi Kunderan, against England at Edgbaston in July 1967 – he was usually a wicketkeeper!Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

All the stats highlights from the Wellington Test in which Root, Brook and Atkinson broke records

Sampath Bandarupalli08-Dec-20244 – Consecutive Test defeats for New Zealand at home. They lost the two-match series against Australia 2-0 before their back-to-back defeats to England. It had happened only once before, when New Zealand suffered five consecutive Test defeats at home between 1955 and 1956.2008 – England’s previous Test series win in New Zealand when they beat the hosts by a 2-1 margin in the three-match series. England have played four series in New Zealand in these 15 years, losing two and drawing the other two.323 – The margin of New Zealand’s defeat in Wellington is their worst in terms of runs at home. The previous biggest was by 299 runs against Pakistan in Auckland in 2001. The 323-run defeat is also New Zealand’s third-biggest by runs in Tests.3 – The 323-run win is England’s fourth-biggest win, away from home, by runs in Tests. It is also their second-biggest win outside of home since 1934, just behind the 329-run win against Bangladesh in Chattogram in 2003.ESPNcricinfo Ltd36 – Hundreds by Joe Root in Tests are the joint-fifth-most by any batter, alongside Rahul Dravid.Root did go past Dravid in the list of the most 50-plus scores in Tests. He is now only one of the four batters with 100 or more 50-plus scores.7 – Hundreds for Harry Brook in 10 Tests away from home. These are the most by any batter in his first 10 Tests on foreign soil. Don Bradman and Ken Barrington stand next with six centuries apiece.10 – Matches Gus Atkinson took to complete the treble of a century, a 10-wicket match haul, and a hat-trick. He is the quickest among the seven men with this treble, with the previous fastest being Johnny Briggs in 18 Tests.ESPNcricinfo Ltd140 – Runs aggregated by New Zealand’s top five batters across both innings in the Wellington Test. It is the lowest by them in a Test match at home since the 2000 Auckland Test against Australia, where they aggregated only 109 runs.82.3 – Overs batted by England in their second innings without playing out a maiden. It is the second-longest Test innings not to feature a maiden, behind England’s 88.5 eight-ball overs against South Africa in Durban in 1939.

The West Indies batter has had an extraordinary year in the format, and looks set to go further, faster

Philip Spooner14-Nov-2024Nicholas Pooran arrived at Kensington Oval on Sunday afternoon fully prepped for the second T20I against England, his 100th international in the format. He gave thanks for another day to showcase his flamboyant batting, knowing there was a time when it seemed like he might never play again.”It’s what I love to do. I just love playing cricket, it’s what I wanted to do from a child and I get to live my dream,” he said.”Everyone knows my story: when I had the accident [in 2015], when many people felt I would never play cricket again. At the time I felt playing cricket again was impossible. When I recovered in the hospital the first thing I asked was if I would be able to play cricket again.”Now I’m on both feet and I enjoy everything I do for West Indies cricket and for the fans who come to see me play. I play for them. When the fans are around that is when the magic happens. There was a time during the pandemic when we had no fans [in the stands]… that felt strange. I always give thanks for my blessings. Having represented West Indies in my 100th T20I is a special feeling… I feel like I can play a hundred more.”Hearing the West Indies anthem and seeing the fans celebrating West Indies cricket is what makes me happy. As a little boy growing up, I used to love to see Brian Lara and hearing Ian Bishop’s voice on TV, that’s what I enjoyed as a young fan… so that inspired me.”Related

• Pooran: 'One bad season is not going to change the player I am' (2022)

• Pooran: 'The complete T20 batsman can bat at 135, 140 and 200 SR'

• How Nicholas Pooran came back from the brink (2017)

Off the cricket field, Pooran is soft-spoken, mild-mannered and engaging. On it, he is vocal and demonstrative behind the stumps with the gloves on and sensational in front of the stumps with bat in hand.Ahead of the England series, he had scored 2251 T20 runs at an average of 45 and a strike rate of 161 in 67 innings in 2024 – a record for most T20 runs in a calendar year. His 165 sixes is also 65 more than the next highest batter on the 2024 list.”In the last 14 months I have been playing really well and winning games. Everything is happening nicely. I’m still pretty young and I believe I still have a lot of cricket left in me.”There is a still a lot I want to accomplish, there is still a lot to win. I believe this is the start for me… I will remain humble, and I will remain grounded and be the best version of myself. I want to continue to put smiles on the faces of my fans.”Sunday was a bit of a blip on this otherwise stellar year of performances. As far as landmarks go, this one was not marked by anything memorable or marvellous. There was no signature special edition “Pooran” jersey with “100” emblazoned on his back, and he did not send the colourful crowd into a frenzy with his 14 off 23 balls in an seven-wicket defeat to England, which put West Indies on the back foot, trailing 0-2 in the five-match series.Eight years ago in the UAE, Pooran made a slow start to his career and recorded scores of 5, 4 and 16 against a potent Pakistan attack. He was the rookie in the camp, but he was surrounded by a wealth of experience, including Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine — and he learned the ropes quickly.”It was my first match, and I was delighted to get my first cap from the team manager, Joel Garner. Everyone made me feel at home in the West Indies dressing room, and I felt that my journey started.”I wanted to be a household name. I wanted people to want to watch me bat. Whether it’s 7 o’clock in the night or 4 o’clock in the morning. I wanted to put smiles on people’s faces. I want to continue to share the talent I have been blessed with from my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

A look at the key records from the nine seasons so far, with the tenth edition upon us

Sampath Bandarupalli10-Apr-2025

Transition of dominance from bowlers to batters

The PSL was once known as a bowler-dominant league, with the UAE hosting most of the games. But the batters have taken the lead ever since the tournament moved completely to Pakistan. Across 124 matches held in the UAE, the average batting strike rate was 123.36. That has gone up to 138.79 in the 158 games hosted by Pakistan.The balls per wicket are more or less the same – 18.21 in the UAE, and 18.39 in Pakistan – but the average has gone up by three runs, from 22.25 to 25.52. The boundary frequency has also increased, from 6.40 balls per boundary to 5.35, and the balls-per-six ratio has improved from 20.23 to 17.63.

Rawalpindi’s run feasts

The Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium has the best run rate among all the venues that have hosted PSL games. The run rate here is 9.71 across 25 matches, one run higher than the second-placed National Stadium in Karachi.Across 18 matches in the last two seasons, Rawalpindi saw 16 totals of 200 or more. In seven matches, both teams breached 200. Four of the top five match aggregates in the PSL, including the top three, have come in Rawalpindi.Peshawar Zalmi have made the knockouts, or playoffs, every single season•PSL

Finishing in top four every year

Peshawar Zalmi are the only team in the PSL to have made it to the knockouts, or playoffs, in all nine editions. Although they have won the title only once (in 2017), they have qualified for the final four times and finished as runners-up three times (2018, 2019 and 2021).Multan Sultans have also reached the final in four different seasons – 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Islamabad United, the most successful team in the league with three titles, has failed to make the playoffs only once, in 2020.

Multan Sultans’ fortress

Sultans have an impressive record when playing at their home ground, the Multan Cricket Stadium. They have a win-loss ratio of 5.5 at this venue, the best among all teams at any venue in the PSL. Sultans have won 11 of the 13 matches they played here, losing only two – by margins of one run and five runs.Five of their 11 wins came by a margin of 30-plus runs, including four by 50 or more. Twice, they won chasing with five or more overs to spare. In those 13 matches in Multan, their batters averaged 39.36 and scored at 9.07 runs per over. Their opponents averaged 18.35 at a scoring rate of 7.89.

Ronchi, the boundary hitter

Luke Ronchi, who last played the PSL in 2020, has hit a boundary every 3.7 balls – the best among those with 500-plus runs in the PSL. Among the active players, Mohammad Haris has the best ratio: 3.92 balls per boundary.Tim David is at the top when it comes to six hitting, with a ratio of 7.84 balls per six. He has hit 42 sixes off 337 balls across 22 matches. Asif Ali is the best among those who will be playing this year, with 8.53 balls per six. Only Fakhar Zaman (104) has hit more sixes in the PSL than Asif’s 90.Shaheen Shah Afridi is different gravy in the first over of the innings•AFP/Getty Images

Can Gladiators get their mojo back?

Quetta Gladiators finished in the top four in each of the first four editions, and played the final the first three times – in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Till 2019, when they won their maiden title, Gladiators had the best win-loss ratio among all teams – 1.625; they won 26 matches, and lost 16. But since then, they have won 18 and lost 31, and their win-loss ratio of 0.580 is the worst among six teams.Till 2019, Gladiators’ scoring rate of 7.98 and economy rate of 7.66 was the best in the league. Since then, they are worst on both metrics, with a run rate of 8.31 and an economy rate of 9.23. In the last five seasons, they have made the playoffs only once, in 2024.

Shaheen’s first-over strikes

Shaheen Shah Afridi is one of only three bowlers to take 100-plus wickets in the PSL. But when it comes to striking in the first over, he is a clear leader. He has struck 19 times in the first over of the innings, seven times more than the second-best Hasan Ali.

Three hundreds in seven innings

Sultans’ Usman Khan came under limelight when, in PSL 2023, he smashed a 36-ball century, the fastest in the league’s history. He returned in 2024 with back-to-back unbeaten tons, becoming the first player to score hundreds in successive innings in the PSL. Usman’s three centuries came in a span of seven innings; no one else has even two in seven innings.Usman Khan has three hundreds in just 17 innings•PCB/PSLUsman is currently tied with Kamran Akmal for the most PSL tons. Usman has played only 17 games while Kamran played 74.

An unlikely record-holder

Predominantly a batter, Ravi Bopara has only one five-for in his 21-year T20 career. And only once did he take six wickets in an innings in his 1000-plus match professional career.That came in the PSL when Bopara took 6 for 16 against Lahore Qalandars in the inaugural 2016 season. Three others have taken six-fors in the PSL since then, but none have managed to better Bopara’s figures.

Team hundred in the powerplay on cards?

No team in the PSL has scored 100 runs inside the powerplay. The highest powerplay total is 97 for 0 by Islamabad against Gladiators in 2021. They reached the 100-run mark in 6.2 overs, the fastest team hundred in the PSL. With the increasing scoring rates in the past couple of years, PSL 2025 could see the 100-run barrier breached in the powerplay for the first time.

England crashed out of the Champions Trophy and Jos Buttler quit the captaincy. Alan Gardner, Matt Roller and Vish Ehantharajah pick through it all

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Mar-2025England were dumped out of the Champions Trophy at the group stage, losing three from three to bring an inglorious end to Jos Buttler’s captaincy. On this week’s Switch Hit, Alan Gardner was joined by Matt Roller and Vish Ehantharajah to discuss the fallout. Who should succeed Buttler? Can England find a better balance between formats? And where will the next generation of ODI players come from?

Zimbabwe bowling coach Langeveldt was all smiles, saying it “was a great day” for the visitors

Mohammad Isam20-Apr-2025Shortly after the lunch break in Sylhet, Zimbabwe seamer Blessing Muzarabani broke Bangladesh’s back.He gave the Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto a thorough working-over, hammering him with one short ball after another. When Shanto meekly struck one to point, Zimbabwe could sense a chance at a comeback. By the time Muzarabani removed the Bangladesh deputy Mehidy Hasan Miraz with another superb bouncer, the home side were left reeling on the opening day of the Test series.Starting with Shanto’s dismissal, Bangladesh lost five wickets for 48 runs and were eventually bowled out 191 runs, handing Zimbabwe a big advantage. Muzarabani finished with three wickets, Victor Nyauchi had earlier removed both openers, while Wellington Masakadza and Madhevere shared the other five.Related

• Bangladesh and Zimbabwe hope for fresh start in Test cricket

• Muzarabani, Masakadza lead Zimbabwe's dominant opening day

The advantage was grabbed after lunch. Shanto lasted just nine balls post-lunch after tackling Muzarabani successfully before the break. Mehidy lasted just four balls before getting into a tangle against Muzarabani.Charl Langeveldt, Zimbabwe’s bowling coach, hailed his side for adapting to new lengths and using the bouncy conditions in Sylhet to their advantage.”It was a great day for Zimbabwe cricket,” Langeveldt said. “I think the bowlers were too short in the first session. They didn’t make the batters play enough. I told them to string a few overs together without giving away runs. We eventually removed Shanto, which led us to a mini-collapse. It was great for us. The spinners cleaned up the tail. It was a good, disciplined day.”Langeveldt said Nyauchi’s early breakthroughs happened because he bowled to the team’s plans of going slightly wide and full to the openers. “Got the two nicks,” he said, while describing the plan. “Blessing’s aggression and bounce caught them off guard. He has bowled well for us in the last few Tests. Aggression and hitting the right areas is important as the wicket has bounce and carry.”Bangladesh’s assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin felt that openers Shadman Islam and Mahmudul Hasan Joy were complacent against Nyauchi after seeing off the initial threat with the new ball. He also pointed at a technical issue with Joy’s standing position while saying Mehidy’s game against the short ball needed more work.”After playing out their good bowlers, they [the openers] crossed the tough time. When they saw a bowler with less pace, they took it easy. I think that was the big mistake,” Salahuddin said. “Joy stands on off-stump so he is defending a ball on the sixth stump. I think there’s a technical fault here, which we have to fix quickly,” said Salahuddin.”Shanto admitted it wasn’t a delivery to go after, but I think for Miraz to play better at this level, he has to improve against the short ball. West Indies attacked him there. Other teams will do the same.”Bangladesh’s bowlers bowled with “good heat” during a “challenging” final session, according to Langeveldt, when Zimbabwe batted in response to the hosts’ 191. But Zimbabwe openers Ben Curran and Brian Bennett finished at 67 for no loss in 14.1 overs – a near-perfect first day for any visiting side – asked to field first in Bangladesh – moving into day two of a Test.

Having quietly contributed towards South Africa’s qualification for the semi-final, he could have a far bigger role to play in the knockouts

Danyal Rasool01-Mar-2025

Keshav Maharaj picked up 2 for 35 against England•Getty Images

Harry Brook slogged one to wide long-on. It wasn’t middled, but along the vast expanses of the on-side boundary, there was enough acreage for it to land safely. It was England’s best period of the game, having put on 62 for the fourth wicket after Marco Jansen had ripped out three early wickets. As Jansen sprinted towards the ball, Ramiz Raja said on commentary that the ball had landed safely. The sentence wasn’t yet complete before Jansen put in a slide, letting the ball nestle in his hands as he broke out into a full dive.Twenty minutes later, with England knee-deep into another collapse, Liam Livingstone charged out of his crease. Brendon McCullum said yesterday, perhaps incongruously, that part of England’s ODI malaise was down to the players caring “too much” about the result, but it didn’t seem the correct diagnosis at this moment. Livingstone got nowhere near a wide one but swung at it anyway. For a man who might have played his last ODI, that may not be too far off what his epitaph reads. The only person who seemed irrelevant to those dismissals was the man whom the record books will allot them to: Keshav Maharaj.There are invariably reasons to look past Maharaj, and he is far from the main story from a game where England plumbed new depths as they produced a performance to remind their outgoing captain why he had resigned from the job. Making it as a spinner in South Africa is a bit like pursuing alpine skiing in Ibiza; you could be very good at it, but you will never be the main attraction. With Jansen blowing a hole in England’s top order as well as competing with Lungi Ngidi for the catch of the day, and Wiaan Mulder finding a yard of extra pace to knock back Joe Root’s middle stump, Maharaj would do well to sneak into a sidebar.Related

South Africa decimate England to march into semi-finals

Klaasen scores fifth successive fifty, wants to be 'the best in the world'

Maharaj had let the fast bowlers pick up the load against Afghanistan nine days earlier on a surface, registering ostensibly nondescript figures of 1 for 46 from his ten. However, it was a surface Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said offered “no turn” for the spinners; Noor Ahmed, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi were more expensive, combining for 3 for 175 in 29.Going the distance in ICC events tends to require an ensemble cast, and South Africa understand the value of Maharaj in these conditions. Maharaj’s contribution may not have been instrumental to the last two results, but it was indicative of his reliability.Thrown the ball after drinks as England began to find their way back into the game, this was the ideal situation for him. Brook fell to spin in each innings this tournament, and England had ten right-hand batters in their side. Unlike Mitchell Santner – the most obvious comparison in this tournament – Maharaj doesn’t seem to have a preference for right-hand batters; his strike rate and economy rate are largely identical for both sets of batters. But 43 of his 58 wickets have come against right-hand batters, and with his use of the wider line and the slower speed, it is an angle batters have struggled to handle in these conditions.Maharaj treated this like a game of chicken. England were enjoying their best passage, and with large gaps on the on side, he fed one right into Brook’s arc. “I tried to lure him into playing a false shot,” Maharaj said afterwards. “I think at that stage, with England three wickets down, you’re trying to get the breakthrough. I don’t think he played the shot as well as he would have liked to but kudos to Marco Jansen for taking such a brilliant catch.”With nothing appearing to work for England’s ODI team at present, it’s more tempting to put that miscue down to the form of England’s batters, but you have to earn the right to bowl into the arc of the world’s most explosive batters, and in these conditions, Maharaj has paid his dues. Fifteen months ago, he played a key role in South Africa’s run to the semi-final in the ODI World Cup in India; he took 15 wickets from ten games at an economy of 4.15. Among those who took at least ten wickets in the tournament, only Jasprit Bumrah had a better economy. In five of nine innings where he bowled at least nine overs, he conceded 32 or fewer, including standout performances against New Zealand, India and twice against Australia – the three opponents left standing alongside South Africa in this tournament.1:39

Do South Africa have the best attack in the tournament?

This role of situational cicada is one Maharaj has almost perfected. With the wickets in Karachi playing “a little bit slow”, he was happy to give credit to the fast bowlers for “making his life easier”. “It’s just about bowling as many dot balls as I can and trying to understand what the batter’s trying to do and being one step ahead in the analysis work we do, and allow the fast bowlers to strike from the other end.”Maharaj is, perhaps characteristically, being uncharitable to his own contribution and the role his two wickets played in derailing England’s middle order, which slumped from 99 for 3 to 129 for 7. His spell today included 36 dot balls; only two bowlers – Michael Bracewell (twice) and Will O’Rourke – have produced more in a single game in the tournament. But with those performances coming against Pakistan and Bangladesh, who do not remotely share England’s attacking ethos, Maharaj’s success in squeezing down the middle is hard to overstate; only two bowlers have sent down more dot deliveries against England in an ODI since the start of 2024.He might be the perfect piece that slots inconspicuously into this ICC tournament jigsaw South Africa will feel they’re getting closer and closer to completing, but it has not dimmed Maharaj’s hunger for a more prominent role. With South Africa potentially playing the semi-final or final in Dubai, he remains a star performer only temporarily reduced to supporting cast.”I’m sure there will be a time in the last two games in this competition where I’m allowed to hold the attacking role,” Maharaj said. “Looking forward to that when it does come about, but for now I’m just trying to bowl my balls as consistently as possible.”And while he does, it may be easy to overlook him. Yet, as Afghanistan and England found out to their cost, actually working out how to play him is another story altogether.

Bowling through heartbreak and hardship, he rose from life’s roughest pitches to script a spell of unforgettable highs

Sidharth Monga07-Jul-20252:38

Aaron: Akash Deep has been through so much turmoil

In another timeline, one in which India fail to win at Edgbaston or win it through someone else’s heroics, Akash Deep wouldn’t have been interviewed, he wouldn’t have been overcome with emotion, we wouldn’t have discovered the ordeal life has put him through yet again, and he would have quietly just gone on with his ill fortune, as he has done much of his life.It was a poignant moment, with ecstatic scenes of a Test win around him: Akash Deep telling Cheteshwar Pujara he wanted to dedicate the win to his sister, who had been diagnosed with cancer two months ago. One match-winner to another, who is now a broadcaster, somebody who lost his mother to cancer as a young boy. Veterans of hard knocks in life, well aware of what it is to be a common person in India and the desperation needed to come out of that commonness through cricket, one of the rare legal routes to upward mobility in India.Eight or so years ago, Akash Deep lost his father after a stroke and consequent paralysis. A couple of months after that, one of his brothers caught a cold, a common cold. In his small town, he wasn’t diagnosed properly and died on the way to the nearest city, Varanasi.Related

• Akash Deep joins nightwatch lore with Oval knock to remember

• Akash Deep ten-for seals statement win for India

• Shubman Gill: Akash bowled with so much heart

• Breaking Baz – India cook up the perfect new-ball formula

Akash Deep was born an ordinary Indian with an ordinary build into an ordinary Indian family in an ordinary small town of an ordinary state that didn’t have a cricket association. He was given more than his fair share of misfortune, but also the rare gift to endure it with equanimity and find the heart to keep moving on, to to be happy after experiencing all kinds of trauma.His happiness was cricket. Even when his father was alive and disapproving of the game, Akash Deep left home on the pretext of looking for a job but kept at cricket and started to send home a part of the stipend he was making playing for small-time clubs.We wondered if he was on a hiding to nothing when asked to replace Jasprit Bumrah in what has been carrying an image of being a Bumrah-or-nothing team. Such thoughts would have entered his mind only if he had ever got anything easy in life. The flat pitch minus Bumrah in the attack was a challenge but it must have paled in front of the ones he had overcome.While doing so, Akash Deep developed a bowling style that gave him a chance.
Incidentally, a meeting with Mohammed Shami when Akash Deep was still an erratic newcomer in the Bengal team turned it around for him. Shami told him what he needed to stay fit to be able to sustain the intensity and the accuracy.Akash Deep produced a lion-hearted performance at Edgbaston•Getty ImagesAkash Deep came to the India team as the closest resemblance to Shami in world cricket. The release is perhaps not as pristine as Shami’s, but he runs through the crease, extracts any seam movement that there might be, and always appears to hurry batters up. All these things happen because Akash Deep has a high release and quick arm action.Of all the fast bowlers India have in England, only Prasidh Krishna has a higher release point, but only slightly. Their average release height is only 0.013 metres apart despite a 0.03m difference in height. Akash Deep releases the ball from a higher point than Josh Tongue and Ben Stokes. A higher release point and the near-perfect upright seam on release are what help him draw seam movement from the surface. It is possible that when the ball seams, it makes the batter react in a hurry, which gives the impression that he is a skiddy bowler.Akash Deep also taught a lesson or two to the host bowlers on how to bowl on a designer flat pitch. He repeatedly kept going wide on the crease to target the channel around the off stump. When he wanted the ball to seam away, he went wider on the crease and really full. It doesn’t always work. You can only aim for it. When it does, it becomes memorable as in the wickets of Ollie Pope in the first innings and Joe Root in the second. Between the two innings, Tongue used the same ploy to get KL Rahul out.2:12

What makes Akash Deep stand out?

Like Shami, Akash Deep kept going when on a roll. On the final morning, Shubman Gill gave an over to Prasidh to execute a change of ends to bring Akash Deep to his desired end. However, Gill saw that Prasidh was in good rhythm and gave him a spell.It didn’t bother Akash Deep at all – he bowled a spell of 6-1-22-2 from the “wrong” end to kickstart India’s final push for victory.This was nothing but Akash Deep putting his head down quietly expecting his poor luck in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 – when he kept going past the bat without success, drawing special praise from Steven Smith, and then getting injured – to continue. In between Tests, he perhaps spent more time in hospitals meeting specialists than on the cricket field. During IPL 2025, where he represented Lucknow Super Giants and played six matches, he would visit his sister in the hospital almost every night that he was in Lucknow.An unlikely hero in Birmingham, Akash Deep is the first India fast bowler to take a ten-wicket match haul since Umesh Yadav. Even Bumrah doesn’t have one. He told Pujara he just wanted to see a smile on his sister’s face. There are many more smiling, Akash Deep, and marvelling at your ability to keep going without complaining.