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Graeme Labrooy, Sri Lanka’s chief selector, said the panel “didn’t want to throw Kusal Mendis to the deep end or take him to India and leave him on the bench”

Andrew Fidel Fernando07-Nov-20175:29

Break for Mendis might be best way forward – Arnold

Sri Lanka’s selectors dropped Kusal Mendis from the Test squad for the India tour in order to protect him from a further potential loss of form and confidence in India.Mendis endured a modest Test series against Pakistan, in which his contributions were 10, 18, 1 and 29. Although he made an excellent century against India in August, he had only crossed fifty in two of his last 14 innings.Mendis’ omission from the squad has caused some consternation, especially as he has been repeatedly talked up by coaches and management as the batsman on whom the top order might hinge in coming years. Earlier in the year, against Bangladesh, Mendis’ 194 also turned out to be a match-winning innings.However, according to chief selector Graeme Labrooy, it is precisely because the selectors are mindful of Mendis’ potential, that they left him out of the squad.”We don’t want a situation where he plays two more innings, gets two low scores and then drop him and destroy his confidence further,” he told . “He has got age on his side and we want him to go on to become one of the greats of the game. We want him to play for another ten years.”Not only were Sri Lanka comfortably whitewashed by India in the three-Test series in July and August, they have also struggled in India historically, having never won a Test there. The tour is likely to challenge even the most experienced Sri Lanka batsmen, with India’s bowlers in outstanding form at home.”We didn’t want to throw him to the deep end or take him to India and leave him on the bench,” Labrooy said. “What we tried to do was to let him play some domestic cricket, work on his game and regain his confidence. He is a confidence player. For him confidence is everything, and he has got everything in his armoury.”That Lahiru Thirimanne was preferred to Mendis has been a particular bone of contention, given Thirimanne’s very modest Test record. He averages 23.1 across 52 Test innings, and has crossed fifty only five times in his career.However, while Thirimanne has been picked in the squad, his place in the top order is not completely assured. Dhananjaya de Silva, who has returned to form with scores of 104, 73 and 64 for Sri Lanka A on the West Indies tour, could enter the top order. Though de Silva had made a successful entry into Test cricket from the lower middle order, it is as an opener that he regularly plays for his domestic club side, Tamil Union.”The No.3 position is a toss up between Thirimanne and Dhananjaya,” Labrooy said. “We are glad that Dhananjaya made some runs for Sri Lanka A in the Caribbean. He will be considered as an opener or No. 3 batsman in the future and we don’t want to drop him to the middle order.”With Kaushal Silva – who opened unsuccessfully for Sri Lanka in the UAE – left out of the squad to India, de Silva and 22-year-old batsman Sadeera Samarawickrama become the primary candidates to open the innings alongside Dimuth Karunaratne. Samarawickrama is often a middle-order batsman and wicketkeeper in first-class cricket, but does open the innings in limited-overs cricket for his club side.He had showcased substantial attacking flair in his maiden Test innings in Abu Dhabi, and it is the style and rate of his run-making that appears to have struck the selectors.”Sadeera is a player for the future. This is the correct time that we should bring him in. Now is the time for him to bite the bullet and take up that challenge against world’s number one ranked team. He will put pressure back on the bowlers by putting the loose balls away. We are very impressed with his game.”

Northamptonshire’s seamers embraced the role of wreckers, intent on ending Kent’s hopes of promotion back to Division One

Tim Wigmore at Beckenham06-Sep-2016
ScorecardSean Dickson made a steady fifty but Kent were dismissed for 230•Getty Images

Northamptonshire are easily branded a team of white-ball specialists. Yet for all their excellence in the limited overs games – T20 champions twice in four seasons, and denied a Royal London Cup semi-final berth only by the majesty of Kumar Sangakkara – the club feel that they have not given the best of themselves in the County Championship.Chances of a tilt at promotion went in the dying embers of spring, never mind the onset of autumn. But an evisceration of Glamorgan last week hinted at Northants’ potential over four days, especially when the end of their white-ball season means that David Ripley does not have to preserve his side’s vitality for limited-overs.The return of the schools in September feels like no time for outground cricket. For Northants, this sepulchral day allowed their seamers to embrace the role of wreckers, intent on ending Kent’s hopes of promotion back to Division One.Jokes about Rory Kleinveldt’s girth are trotted out often, yet Kent would have felt in no mood for them after his skilful swing with the second new ball prevented a score more substantial than 230. Ben Sanderson was relentlessly accurate, and Steven Crook in unyielding mood too.Yet it was Azharullah who left the greatest mark on Kent. First, Sam Northeast, the totem of his side’s batting all season, was induced to give an outside edge behind. Next ball, Darren Stevens’ edge found Rob Keogh at third slip, a dismissal for which the batsman could not be considered culpable.An odd feature of Beckenham is the Kent team analyst occupies the same tent as the media. As a result, batsmen often pop in to watch how they were dismissed. When he did so, Stevens could only rue his bad luck: the delivery had swung in, seamed away and squared him up, the sort of ball to render his outstanding form meaningless.After the end Sean Dickson’s austere 63, an innings in keeping with the sombre mood of the day, Kent slipped to 122 for 6, a position from which they feared not even gaining a single batting point. That they did so owed everything to a contrasting pair of half-centuries.It is only two years since Will Gidman was one of the most sought-after county cricketers in the land. Yet he has spent much of the intervening period marooned in 2nd XI cricket, seemingly a man too good for Division Two but not good enough for Division One. Kent still reckoned that he could assist their attempt to return to Division One for the first since 2010, and in July enlisted him on loan from Nottinghamshire.Gidman’s reputation in Division Two was built on his parsimonious seam bowling, but it is as an unobtrusive middle-order batsman that he has been most valuable for Kent. He plays the ball late, prefers to hit along the ground, and is skilled in working the ball around adroitly – so much so that, when Gidman chipped Graeme White to midwicket for 51, where Kleinveldt took a neat catch, it was the first time that he had been dismissed for Kent in the County Championship. Four innings have brought four half-centuries, an average of 283 and enough, surely, for Kent to be keen to sign him permanently should Gidman be released from the final year of his contract at Trent Bridge.Matt Coles, who could be considered the anti-Gidman, is not the sort to escape notice in anything he does. On this gloomy day, Coles briefly restored a little of the festival feeling that is supposed to be inherent to outgrounds with a sparkling 41-ball half century that was a distillation of Coles’ power, bravado and considerable skill. All were in evidence in an astonishing reverse-sweep for six over midwicket off Rob Keogh’s offspin, the sort of shot to startle any indulging in a late-afternoon nap.Yet when Coles failed to take a wicket in his opening burst, memories of this bravado were overtaken by Kent’s frustration with their opening-day batting. “Wish it was this easy when we batted,” chuntered a Kent member as the evening session meandered to a conclusion with Kent’s promotion ambitions cooling – at least for now.

England will play a Test in Sharjah for the first time after the schedule for their tour of UAE to face Pakistan in October and November was confirmed

Andrew McGlashan23-Jul-2015England will play a Test in Sharjah for the first time after the schedule for their tour of UAE to face Pakistan in October and November was confirmed. The team will fly out to the Middle East just two weeks after the one-day series against Australia concludes.The trip will include three Tests, which begins on October 13 in Abu Dhabi, followed by matches in Dubai and Sharjah. The Tests will be followed by four ODIs from November 11 to 20, before the tour concludes with a three-match T20 series held between November 26 and 30.The confirmation of the tour schedule had faced delay due to tensions created by the links between Ten Sports, the host broadcaster, and the Essel Group, which has threatened to form a breakaway international league. ESPNcricinfo understands that pressure had been applied by the BCCI on other cricket boards not to play any series in which Ten Sports are the host broadcaster after the PCB recently signed a five-year deal with them.On England’s previous visit to UAE to play Pakistan – during which Pakistan whitewashed the Test series 3-0 but lost both the ODI and T20 contests – the internationals were split between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but Sharjah returned as a Test venue in November 2011, nine years after it had previously hosted matches, and has since hosted matches involving Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

England tour of UAE

September 30, England depart
Oct 5-6, Pakistan A, Sharjah
Oct 8-9, Pakistan A, Sharjah
Oct 13-17, 1st Test, Abu Dhabi
Oct 22-26, 2nd Test, Dubai
Nov 1-5, 3rd Test, Sharjah
Nov 8, one-day practice match, Abu Dhabi
Nov 11, 1st ODI, Abu Dhabi
Nov 13, 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi
Nov 17, 3rd ODI, Sharjah
Nov 20, 4th ODI, Dubai
Nov 23, T20 v UAE XI, Abu Dhabi
Nov 26, 1st T20, Dubai
Nov 27, 2nd T20, Dubai
Nov 30, 3rd T20, Sharjah

The last time England played an international at the venue was during a triangular series in 1999 which formed an odd build-up to that year’s World Cup, which was held in England. On this tour, they will also play an ODI and a T20 at the ground.The tour will be Trevor Bayliss’ first overseas assignment with England and one of his main challenges will be to try and ensure his team do not flounder against spin as they did on the previous trip in early 2012. England, who were the No. 1 ranked Test team at the time, were flummoxed by the spin of Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman as the pair shared 43 wickets across the three Tests.England may not face either on this trip – Ajmal has not played Test cricket since returning from remodelling his bowling action and is currently not involved in any format for Pakistan, while Rehman has not played internationals for a year – but the current spinners, legspinner Yasir Shah and left-armer Zulfiqar Babar, have enjoyed considerable success.The pair caused Australia significant problems in the series in the UAE last year. Yasir, in particular, has 61 wickets in 10 Tests after claiming 24 at 19.33 in the recent series in Sri Lanka.Following the conclusion of the tour, England will return home for a short period before leaving for South Africa – another full tour which includes four Tests, five ODIs and two T20s. That will be followed by the World Twenty20 in India during March.England’s red-ball and white-ball teams have now diverged to such a point that there are very few players that appear in all formats, but the likes of Joe Root, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and perhaps Moeen Ali could be expected to be first choice for Tests, ODIs and T20s, and may require careful handling from the management.

Fast bowlers Mohammad Irfan and Ehsan Adil are among five players who have been called up to the Pakistan Test squad for the tour of South Africa

Umar Farooq11-Jan-2013Fast bowlers Mohammad Irfan and Ehsan Adil are among five players who have been called up to the Pakistan Test squad for the tour of South Africa, which begins at the end of the month. Batsmen Nasir Jamshed and Haris Sohail, and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed were the other inclusions who were not on the Test tour of Sri Lanka in June and July 2012.The players left out were wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal, fast bowlers Aizaz Cheema and Mohammad Sami, batsman Mohammad Ayub and Afaq Raheem.Asad Shafiq, who had missed the limited-overs tour to India due to a finger injury, has recovered and is back in the national team. Left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman, who was banned by the ECB during last year’s county season for failing a dope Test, also returns to the squad.Irfan and Jamshed performed impressively in the ODI series in India. Irfan made an impact because of his height, using his seven-foot frame to generate pace and bounce, Jamshed scored two hundreds in three matches and was the Player of the Series. Haris Sohail was part of the ODI squad to India but did not get a game.Adnan, who has been Pakistan’s specialist wicketkeeper and has played 16 Test matches between 2010 and 2012, was reportedly dropped for being unfit. However, Adnan is currently playing the ongoing first-class tournament and has scored 243 runs at 121.50. Interestingly, none of the Akmal brothers – Kamran, Umar and Adnan – feature in the squad.Adil was part of Pakistan’s Under-19 team at the 2012 World Cup Australia, where they made the quarterfinals. Sarfraz last played a Test for Pakistan in 2010, in Hobart. His last ODI was in Colombo in June 2012. He was out of action due to finger injury, but in the ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy he is the leading wicketkeeper with 13 dismissals.Pakistan play three Tests in South Africa, in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Centurion. The first Test begins on February 1.Test squad: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Azhar Ali, Umar Gul, Asad Shafiq, Younis Khan, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Ehsan Adil, Saeed Ajmal, Adbur Rehman, Haris Sohail, Faisal Iqbal, Taufeeq Umar, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk).

Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, has admitted that his board could have taken “a more strategic decision” in implementing the Test championship and a ten-team World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Dec-2011Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, has admitted that his board could have taken “a more strategic decision” in implementing the Test championship and a ten-team World Cup. He said the Test Championship is on track for 2017, while the ICC, as a whole, would benefit from fewer weak member boards and independent directorship. He also revealed that there was a threatened elite breakaway of India, Australia, South Africa and England over the Future Tours Programme.”We got the balance incorrect [on the Test championship and ten-team World Cup]. There was a strategic choice that had to be made, it was an investment to be made and the leadership chose not to do it,” Lorgat told the Abu Dhabi-based . “It will happen eventually. I hope it doesn’t happen when it’s too late. It’s a new cycle. There’s absolutely no reason why it would not be in the schedule of events. We missed a golden opportunity in 2013 because Test cricket was starting to go on an upward trend.”While Lorgat conceded that the commercialisation of the cricket played some role in the decisions, he said it was not solely based on broadcast rights and profits. “The broadcaster [ESPN STAR Sports*] is but one party to the discussion,” he said. “It’s a board decision.”He said the ICC have not under-prioritised Test cricket, but that, on occasion, specific member boards are guilty of doing that. “There was a two-Test series in South Africa recently. People were desperate for a third Test. That is an example where it [the boards] has not leaned towards Tests,” he said referring to last month’s series between South Africa and Australia that was drawn 1-1.During that series, players such as Graeme Smith had voiced their disappointment at missing the chance of participating in a Test championship and Lorgat sympathised with them. “We have some seriously good players at the moment, shining in Tests. The chances of them being around in 2017 is zero. That is a particular disappointment.”To avoid such setbacks in future, Lorgat said he hoped the ICC’s leadership would form a strong enough collective to make decisions in the “best interests of the game”. Currently, the BCCI is a dominant presence, but Lorgat’s worry is that other member boards have not shown a strong enough hand. “What concerns me is the weakness of other boards. They need to find ways and means of generating revenue, of sustaining the game. They cannot operate on a dependency mentality.”India’ reluctance and ultimately refusal to use DRS is an example of what Lorgat called weak leadership by other members. “It’s up to others to stand firm, to have the courage of their convictions, to show leadership, to oppose that process. That’s more a reflection of weak leadership on other boards.”If the dissenting voice cannot come from within, Lorgat suggested that it may have to be from outside. He described his ideal vision of an ICC board as one that would have some form of independent directorship so that “there’s at least a balance of debate or a voice spoken without self-interest”.He indicated that an external hand, coupled with stronger member boards would help prevent problems such as the one that occurred during the drafting of the most recent FTP. Lorgat said he led the movement to reach a solution after the threatened elite breakaway. “There was a risk of that [a breakaway]. The initial drafts were leaning in favour of that. It was not agreed to. It was a role I led from the front.”Fortunately, we’ve got a better balance in the FTP. That is a reflection on the leadership of each of the boards. So whether you are Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka, you’ve got to have the right people leading your cricket, because you require stronger leadership in view of the challenges such countries face.”*ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.), the parent company of ESPNcricinfo, and News Corporation Limited (STAR)

Andrew Strauss’s first senior hundred in Australia ensured that England began their Ashes campaign with a win against Western Australia, but he chose to focus on the achievements of his bowlers

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Nov-2010Andrew Strauss’s first senior hundred in Australia ensured that England began their Ashes campaign with a win against Western Australia, but he chose to focus on the achievements of his bowlers in getting the team back into the game after their opponents had started the day in the strong position of 1 for 109.”We’re very pleased, especially because of the position of the game at start of play,” he said. “It was looking like a tough ask to force a result from there. But we had two choices. We could have come here and gone through the motions today – but what we did was come in and hit the ground running.”Steven Finn’s early dismissal of Michael Swart exposed Western Australia’s middle order and sparked their collapse to Graeme Swann’s spin and Stuart Broad’s seam, and Strauss credited the young bowler’s turnaround after he had struggled to find the right length in the first innings.”Steven bowled an outstanding spell right from the start, and we got some momentum. We’re delighted with the way the bowlers bowled, and it was a good effort from the batters to chase down that score. Steven was rusty in the first innings, but got better as it went on.”Anderson and Broad were spot on in that first innings, but Finny really set the tone today. He was consistent length-wise and caused all the batsmen some trouble. That was really encouraging, as was the way the bowlers bowled in partnerships and applied pressure. That’s what you’ve got to do out here.”At one stage of their second-innings capitulation, Western Australia lost four wickets for 12 runs and one of those dismissals – that of captain Marcus North – arrived via an inspired piece of fielding from Eoin Morgan. Morgan had only been on the field for one over so that Strauss could take a bathroom break, and the England captain joked after the game: “I was in the loo actually. It was an inspired bit of captaincy on my part.”Even more inspired was Strauss’s aggressive ton, as he did more than simply anchor England’s pursuit of 243 in 52 overs. Strauss insisted that time at the crease was vital to his batsmen’s acclimatisation, but conceded that they were likely to face much sterner challenges from Australia’s Test attack.”It’s important we play well and win as many of these games as possible. It’s also important that batsmen get used to the conditions. The best way to do that is by spending a lot of time in the middle. It was satisfying to get a hundred and see the guys home. But I’m sure there are sterner tests ahead. It’s always good to get runs early in the tour, but it doesn’t count for anything come the first Test match.”Strauss was particularly pleased with England’s increasing intensity in the field as the match wore on. “None of us have played any cricket for a few weeks,” he added. “In the first innings, I thought we got stuck in net mode a little bit and probably didn’t react as well to the conditions as we could have done.”We were better second time round, and I hope we should get better with every innings we play. These conditions are different to England, so your shot selection has to be slightly different and the balls you score off are slightly different. There are times you’ve got to be patient, probably more so than in England.”

Andrew Strauss took a leaf out of Dale Steyn’s batting textbook, and launched England’s innings in the same aggressive manner with which South Africa’s No. 10 had closed that of his own team

The Bulletin by Andrew Miller27-Dec-2009Close England 103 for 1 (Trott 17*, Cook 31*) trail South Africa 343 (Kallis 75, Smith 75) by 240 runs

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDale Steyn climbed into England’s bowlers, but Andrew Strauss hit back in style•Getty Images

Andrew Strauss took a leaf out of Dale Steyn’s batting textbook, and launched England’s innings with a 49-ball half-century – his fastest in Tests – as the second Test at Durban produced yet more dramatic momentum shifts on an eventful second day. By the time bad light brought another early end to proceedings, England had recovered from the indignity of watching South Africa’s last pair, Steyn and Makhaya Ntini, add 58 carefree runs to their eventual total of 343, and reached the close in a promising position on 103 for 1.Strauss, however, was that one England wicket to fall, bowled for 54 in the fifth over after tea by the one man to have troubled him consistently throughout this tour, Morne Morkel. Strauss had already enjoyed one massive slice of good fortune when the third umpire, Steve Davis, overturned an lbw appeal in Morkel’s first over of the same session, despite inconclusive evidence of an inside-edge onto the pads, but second time around no replays were needed. Morkel’s height, pace and off-stump accuracy combined to blast through Strauss’s defences, and bring to an end the brightest of a series of cameos that lit up an otherwise piecemeal day’s cricket.Strauss has been in the form of his life in the past 12 months, and such was his dominance in the early part of his innings that his opening partner, Alastair Cook, was feeding on scraps at the other end, with 8 from 36 balls at the interval. Strauss crashed nine fours in his innings, including four in eight balls against a toiling Ntini, whose medium-paced offerings fed all three of Strauss’s strengths – the pull, the cut and the drive. Steyn, bubbly after his 58-ball 47, provided some hairy moments with late swing from a tight new-ball line, and Morkel also found Strauss’s edge with a lifter on off stump, but Jacques Kallis’s rusty swingers were no match for a man in Strauss’s mood, as he was drilled for two fours in consecutive balls.Strauss’s surge of intent eventually rubbed off on Cook, whose confidence began to grow before the close as he produced a succession of cathartic pulls and slog-sweeps to move to 31 not out, his best start of the series, while Jonathan Trott overcame a hostile welcome from crowd and opponents alike to reach stumps unbeaten on 17. The combined effect was to leave England handily placed after a tough day in the field, in which they were made to toil for their breakthroughs in conditions that ought to have favoured their seam attack.South Africa had resumed their innings on 175 for 5, still shaken following the loss of three wickets in the space of five overs in a dramatic mini-session on the first evening, and when James Anderson launched an extended two-and-a-half hour session with a series of sharp inswingers in muggy conditions, England were hopeful of a swift denouement.Instead they were thwarted by a succession of counterattacks, starting with Mark Boucher who was South Africa’s principal source of momentum for the first hour of the day. Resuming on 1 not out, he clipped the first ball of the day, from Anderson, through midwicket for four, and the leg-side remained his principal scoring area throughout an aggressive 50-ball stay.In total, Boucher scored 38 of South Africa’s first fifty runs of the day, including a premeditated slog-sweep to knock Graeme Swann off his length as he entered the attack midway through the first hour. But it was eventually Swann who ended his cameo via a referred lbw, as England finally extracted some good news from the review system, after squandering all four of their attempts during last week’s Centurion Test.Boucher’s departure, however, was the cue for de Villiers to step out of the shadows and take up the cudgels for his team. With sweet timing, especially off the back foot, he rode his luck to the occasional delivery that reared outside off, but cashed in on the regular occasions that England lost their length. He eventually fell for an even 50, caught behind off the second ball of Stuart Broad’s new spell, having just completed his half-century from 96 balls.Swann then set about whittling through the tail. Paul Harris attempted a sweep and was adjudged lbw for 2, a decision that was upheld on review despite protestations that the ball had brushed glove before it hit the pads, and though Morkel struck some lusty blows in a useful 23, he was extracted in the first over after tea, pinned lbw from the sixth ball of a Swann over in which every delivery had looked likely to end his stay.That, however, was the end of Swann’s fun for the day. With his eyes on his second five-wicket haul of the series, he was instead repelled by a staggeringly composed onslaught from Steyn, who farmed the strike to keep Ntini as far from the firing line as possible, while cashing in with three fours and three sixes, each in consecutive Swann overs as he opened his shoulders to clear the ropes at long-off and long-on.England’s bowlers lost their direction in the course of his onslaught, with several deliveries speared into the pads and away for four byes, but the pick of Steyn’s shots was a stand-and-deliver back-foot cover-drive off Anderson that would have made de Villiers proud. But with his second Test fifty there for the taking, Anderson straightened his line and grazed a lifter off his outside edge, to give his team some welcome relief, and set the stage for Strauss’s spirited, if shortlived, response.

The sixth edition will run from November 27 to December 23, with SLC keen to prepare batting-friendly pitches ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup

Madushka Balasuriya01-Aug-2025The Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2025 will be held from November 27 to December 23. Now in its sixth edition, the tournament will take place across three venues – Colombo, Kandy and Dambulla.This will be the fourth time in six years that the LPL is scheduled for the November-December window rather than its preferred July-August slot. The last two seasons took place during July and August, however this year, with the 2026 T20 World Cup set to begin in February, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) felt the later window better suited their needs.”The idea to conduct the LPL during this time frame is aimed at aligning the tournament with the ICC men’s T20 World Cup 2026,” LPL tournament director Samantha Dodanwela said.ESPNcricinfo also learnt that talks are underway to incorporate a sixth team into the tournament. The first five editions saw five teams representing Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Dambulla and Jaffna compete.”Potential owners for a sixth team are currently being vetted,” Dodanwela confirmed.The inclusion of a sixth team has long been discussed, though SLC’s cautious approach to introducing new ownership might be understandable. The LPL has struggled with long-term franchise ownership over the years.Earlier this year, Jaffna Kings – formerly the longest-standing franchise, having joined in the tournament’s second edition – and Colombo Strikers were terminated by SLC for “failure to uphold contractual obligations.” As a result, the LPL currently has no franchise owners with a history stretching back beyond 2024. New owners for both the Jaffna and Colombo teams are yet to be announced.Dodanwela also elaborated on SLC’s desire to curate more batting-friendly surfaces, with a view to better prepare players for the kind of wickets they are likely to play on during the T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.”We were quite happy with the wickets during the last edition, particularly in Dambulla and Kandy,” Dodanwela noted. “We saw lots of high scores and even some centuries during that portion of the tournament. It was only in Colombo where batting was a little harder.”Backing up Dodanwela’s assessment is the fact that the pitches at the R Premadasa Stadium are currently in the process of being relaid. Several national players, such as Charith Asalanka and Dhananjaya de Silva, also recently voiced the need for more batting-friendly surfaces.

Spinner channels white-ball experience after chastening welcome in first innings

Vithushan Ehantharajah29-Jan-20244:10

Carl Crowe: Hartley is used to bowling the tough overs

Few players can have experienced as many of Test cricket’s highs and lows as Tom Hartley did on debut across the four days of the first Test at Hyderabad.Hartley’s first delivery in Test cricket was carted by opener Yashasvi Jaiswal over long-on for six. His 308th and most recent spun past an on-rushing Mohammed Siraj for a ninth wicket in the match. That rounded off his epic second-innings figures of 7 for 62, the first seven-for by an England debutant spinner since Jim Laker in 1948, and sealed a famous England win by 28 runs.”He’s not the first, and he won’t be the last!” Hartley joked, as he recalled the manner in which Jaiswal had dispatched his maiden delivery.”As a spinner, people are going to come after you,” he added. “I’m fine with it if people want to come after me. I sort of have to go into a different mind-set. You look back at the ball and you think it wasn’t a bad ball. If that’s the way they want to play, you’ve just got to play with it.”It is a refreshingly phlegmatic take, no doubt helped by the fact that that chastening first ball, first day and first innings of 2 for 131 are now academic. But it is also a hardwired perspective the 24-year-old has forged from white-ball cricket.Still a relative newbie in the first-class game – this was his 21st appearance – Hartley has 82 T20 matches under his belt. All have come for either Lancashire or Manchester Originals.1:45

Harmison: Hartley showed character and resilience

His job, like most slow bowlers in the shorter formats, is to be defensive, which does not lend itself to an effective attacking role with the red ball. But it also does involve bowling up top, where the best, most destructive batters reside, and often when the odds are stacked against you.Of the overs (and sets) he’s sent down, 25.8 percent – or one in each allocation of four – have come in the Powerplay. Though opening in this Test was a red-ball novelty, he had done it many times before in limited-overs formats, most notably sending down the first ball of the inaugural men’s Hundred back in 2021. He is the competition’s third-highest wicket taker.”He bowls the tough overs for us all the time,” Carl Crowe, spin coach at Lancashire and Originals, told ESPNcricinfo. “Often to a short leg-side boundary (at Emirates Old Trafford), at the best batters – and never once questions it.”That mentality has aligned with an appetite for progression with his red-ball skills.Crowe, who came across Hartley before he had made a first-team appearance, worked on tightening up his seam position which is now as clean as it has ever been. Though he only took 19 County Championship wickets at 44.84 during the 2023 season, he impressed ECB coaches on England Lions tours either side of the summer enough to take a punt on him here.It did not take long for Hartley’s new England team-mates to see why he had been selected. He gave batters a torrid time on raked, saw-dusted practice pitches in Abu Dhabi during their pre-tour training camp. Balls were spinning, gripping or burrowing on broadly similar lengths, not too dissimilar to the surface he had before him on Sunday.Related

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Even during the Test, Hartley took on board and actioned advice. Following that nervous start, assistant coach Jeetan Patel recommended he adjust the speed of his run-up.”When you’re playing for the first time you just run up that bit quick,” Hartley said. “And you think, well, just slow things down, let your action do the work. When I run in quick, I just tend to lose my action a bit. I just slowed it down and kept it simple, and it seemed to work.”The result was a more fluid, more controlled and more incisive spell in what was only the seventh time he had bowled in the fourth innings of a match. Unsurprisingly for someone with only one previous five-wicket haul, he had never felt in such a groove before. Certainly not in a match.”Only in the nets,” he said. “It’s the only time that it really rags like that, in the nets. But it was fantastic, it’s such a nice feeling that every ball you’re going to put down is going to turn quite a lot.”You can just keep it so simple, pitch every ball on the stumps and if it skids on, perfect, and if it doesn’t, if it rags one-foot, even better. It’s just unbelievable.”The novelty of Ben Stokes’ captaincy was also something to get used to. Like many, Hartley has been transfixed by England since Stokes and Brendon McCullum got together at the start of the 2022 summer. Now he is living the dream himself, and will eventually get the hang of the constant shifts in the field.”I’ve watched a bit, and they’ve done some rogue things,” he said. “That’s just the way they are, and after being in this Test match, I’m all aboard. Even before, I was happy with it, I was all in anyway. They’re just such a great combo and they bring so much confidence and life to this team.”When you’re bowling, you look round and think ‘there was a fielder there last ball and now he’s gone somewhere else’. But you just put that out of your mind. You just concentrate on the bowling and he’ll do the fielding for you.”With different surfaces and a different India set-up to come, starting in Visakhapatnam on Friday. Hartley will have more learning and more adapting to do. But having negotiated the first bump, he is bullish about what lies ahead.”Coming out here, I was just looking to get a game or a couple of games. I might have a big role, but I’m more than ready for that. I want more of it.”

Selectors have picked an Australia A team but are looking to give a range of players opportunities across two games against West Indies and South Africa ahead of India tour

Alex Malcolm09-Nov-2022Finger spinners Ashton Agar and Todd Murphy have been named in the Prime Minister’s XI squad to play West Indies in Canberra as national selectors look to give a range of spinners Australia A opportunities ahead of next year’s tour of India.The PM XI’s match is a four-day day-night first-class fixture starting on November 23 and is being used by the touring team as a warm-up for the two-Test series which begins in Perth on November 30.Australia’s selection panel is treating the game like an Australia A fixture, selecting a very strong squad that will be led by Test understudy wicketkeeper Josh Inglis and features Test squad member Marcus Harris and fringe Test seamer Michael Neser who played in the Ashes last year.Legspinner Mitchell Swepson was a notable absentee from the squad just 24 hours after being left out of the Test squad, having played in Australia’s last four Tests in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Jhye Richardson was also a notable omission given he took five wickets in Australia’s last pink ball Test in Adelaide last year.It is the first of effectively two Australia A fixtures that will be played this summer with another against South Africa in December. ESPNcricinfo understands that a range of players will be used across the two matches with the bowlers likely to be rotated. Both Swepson and Richardson could yet play for Australia A against South Africa in December. Swepson will also have a four-day red-ball Sheffield Shield fixture to play in for Queensland against South Australia at Adelaide Oval while the PM’s XI match is going on in Canberra, where he is likely to do a lot more bowling.Related

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Jon Holland is the other spinner who has not been named in the PM’s XI squad having been drafted into both the Australia A Test squad in Sri Lanka midyear but he is currently recovering from injury. He too remains on the selectors’ radar.But it is instructive that both Agar and Murphy have been named given Australia’s Test team will tour India next year for four Tests in February and March.Swepson took 10 wickets at 45.80 and struck at 89.20 in his four recent Test appearances as the second spinner alongside Nathan Lyon. He did bowl better than those figures suggested at times, particularly in Sri Lanka, but his wrist spin was less effective at times than finger spin in those conditions.Agar was a chance to play in the most recent Test series in Sri Lanka until he suffered a significant side strain. Agar has not played Test cricket since 2017 and hasn’t played first-class cricket since April 2021 due to his commitments with Australia’s limited-overs sides. He has a middling first-class record overall averaging 41.28 and striking at 80.7. In the four Test matches he has played he has one less wicket than Swepson, averaging 45.55 and strikes at 97.1 but does have a slightly better economy rate.India’s success with finger spinners Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Axar Patel in home conditions has been noted by Australia. Left-arm orthodox Steve O’Keefe took 12 wickets in Australia’s last Test win in India in 2017 while New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel took 14 wickets including 10 in an innings in a Test in Mumbai in December last year.Chair of selectors George Bailey suggest on Wednesday, ahead of the PM’s XI squad announcement, that there could be some different names being looked at for the India tour compared to the squad picked for the home Tests against West Indies and South Africa.”I would envisage the tour to India may have some different names to it than what the tour does over the [Australian] summer, just because of the conditions,” Bailey said. “They are every chance to be very different. Because it’s an away tour you take a slightly bigger squad anyway. Plus it’s at the back of a [home] summer and there’s a reasonable amount of cricket that would have been played by then.”Glenn Maxwell hasn’t played first-class cricket since 2019•Getty Images

Glenn Maxwell could well come into contention for the India tour and may get the chance to play some first-class cricket in December for the first time since 2019. Maxwell will be available for Victoria’s last Sheffield Shield match before the BBL break against New South Wales on December 1 and possibly the Australia A game against South Africa ahead of the first Test in Brisbane on December 17, although Melbourne Stars’ first BBL match falls on December 13 which could create a scheduling conflict one way or the other.Peter Handscomb is also firmly back in the Test mix for the tour of India as he is in some of the best form of his career having scored runs consistently on a range of different surfaces around Australia over the last 18 months.”Pete remains absolutely on our radar,” Bailey said. “He was selected on the Australia A tour to Sri Lanka in the winter, [but missed it due to] having a baby at the same time. He’s started the season fantastically and finished the last Shield year fantastically.”Both he and Matt Renshaw have been named in the PM’s XI side and both played on Australia’s last tour of India in 2017. Renshaw is one of three specialist openers named in the PM’s XI alongside Harris and South Australia’s Henry Hunt. All three played in the same Australia A side in Sri Lanka midyear.Prime Minister’s XI squad vs West Indies: Josh Inglis (capt), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb, Aaron Hardie, Marcus Harris, Henry Hunt, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matt Renshaw, Mark Steketee