How the big-hitting teenager built a career in sport with her father’s help despite the conservatism around her

Annesha Ghosh04-Mar-20201:12

Shafali brings happiness, positivity to the team – Harmanpreet

Last year, on the sidelines of the Women’s T20 Challenge in Jaipur, Shafali Verma told ESPNcricinfo her immediate personal goal: “To make papa proud when I start playing for India and, hopefully, he will be there for the first World Cup I play.”She was 15 years old at the time, hadn’t yet played a single match for India and the T20 World Cup would, for any other teenager, have seemed a world away. Yet here she is in Sydney, the world’s No. 1-ranked batter in T20Is, two matches away from that world title. And her father will be there to watch her.A little over five-feet tall, so remarkably belligerent has the teenager been as an opener for India that her team go into the knockouts undefeated in the tournament and with the most – and quickest – runs in the powerplay across teams.ESPNcricinfo LtdDespite the dearth of runs from Verma’s opening partner, the usually consistent Smriti Mandhana, and India’s premier big-hitting match-winner and captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, India have racked up a competitive 130-plus total in all three matches batting first, and chased 114 in the last game with ease. This has been, to a great degree, down to Verma’s fearless energy. Her scores have got better – 29, 39, 46, and 47 – and she has nine sixes, the most in the tournament’s group stage; Verma has injected an urgency that, for years, India’s limited-overs sides, especially the T20I team, has been chasing.”I used to score a lot of our runs in the last two or three years, especially in the powerplay, but now with Shafali coming in, she’s getting the runs in the way I do,” Mandhana said ahead of the group-stage match against New Zealand last week. “She’s made a huge impact and the team has become more balanced thanks to her.””But she still has one more promise to fulfil,” Verma’s father, Sanjeev, told ESPNcricinfo, as he prepared to board his first international flight on Tuesday night. “Before she left for the World Cup, she told me, ‘Papa, century [I must hit at least one century].”I’m not being unrealistic; I know her potential, perhaps the world has seen it too. Maybe that first World Cup fifty will also be her first World Cup hundred. Maybe it’s meant to happen when I get there.”A jewellery repairer in Rohtak, a conservative district in the north Indian state of Haryana, Sanjeev has gathered the money he needs to be able to watch his daughter live with the help of well-wishers and the Haryana Cricket Association. He is going to watch his daughter taking another decisive step to “proving conservatism wrong”.”Since the start of the World Cup, during my morning walks or on my way to my shop, strangers, neighbours, random passers-by have stopped me to say, ‘ Sanjeev [Your daughter has forced us to follow women’s cricket],” Sanjeev says. “There was a time when people used to say I’m ruining my daughter’s life by making her play because they don’t expect girls to be in sports. [Just make them work at home, then you are a good father, otherwise you are spoiling your daughter].”

“There was a time when people used to say I’m ruining my daughter’s life by making her play because they don’t expect girls to be in sports”Shafali Verma’s father, Sanjeev

In Haryana, a state that for long has held the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of female foeticide in the country, raising a world No. 1 women’s cricketer has required immense steadfastness on Sanjeev’s part. For starters, he didn’t object when a six-year-old Verma wanted to have her hair cropped – a no-no in conservative Indian quarters – upon seeing a group of girls play at a local ground.”Papa being the huge cricket fan he’s always been, he used to take me and my brother to these local tournaments,” said Verma. “Had he not done so, maybe I would not have watched Sachin [Tendulkar] sir play so early in my life.”Verma fell in love with batting watching Tendulkar play his last Ranji Trophy first-class match in 2013 at the Bansi Lal Stadium in Lahli, Rohtak, in 2013. “Papa used to talk a lot about Sachin Tendulkar. When I first saw him bat, I knew I had to try this,” she recalls.During that tournament, Tendulkar’s guesthouse in town would turn into something of a pilgrimage spot for the father-daughter duo, every elusive glimpse of the batting ace spurring her on to learn more about the basics of batting under her father’s tutelage.”When I first picked up the bat, I thought the only way to play was to whack the ball with zero technique,” Verma laughs. “Since I was five-six, I had just been watching my brother bat and bowl legspin, or just used to be at his training sessions to collect the balls. When I actually started training, it felt different but it certainly felt good. Papa, too, started working very hard on me [day in and day out]. He made sure at practice that he never treated me like a ‘girl’.”A few months later, when Verma’s brother Sahil, the oldest of the three siblings, fell ill during an Under-12 all-boys local tournament in Panipat, Verma, 10 at the time, floated the idea to her father that she could fill in for her brother. “She said, ‘My hair makes me look like a boy anyway, so let me just put on a shirt and go play,'” Sanjeev says. “I thought it made sense because girls do not get to play much in our part of the town anyway, so why not just let her do what she wants to do.”Verma ended up winning the “Man-of-the-Match” award and was named “Man of the Series” too. “I felt she’s got this gift, just timing the ball and hitting it a long way,” recalls Sanjeev. “Not many girls had that relatively, so I had to try to give her the best chance to develop it.” This episode has now been turned into a promo for the tournament by the broadcasters in India.Getty ImagesA training set-up for police recruits close to the Verma home soon became the space for Sanjeev to help his son and his daughter build up their strength, especially in their upper bodies. Flipping tractor tyres 20-30 times in a session, turning the handle of a chaff cutter, tying heavy balls around their wrists and flexing them all became a daily routine for the two siblings.”Since my early days of cricket, my strength had been to hit the ball straight. So once I am able to loft one over the bowler’s head or drill one down the ground, I know [things are fine],” Verma says. “I get a lot of confidence in general when I hit a four, and it keeps increasing with every boundary I hit. Shoulder [“My shoulder has power, that’s why I can do it”].That strength lay at the heart of her performance at the U-16, U-19, and U-23 levels for her state, Haryana, starting from 2013. A breakout domestic season five years later, including a 56-ball 128 against Nagaland in a prolific run at the 2018-19 inter-state T20 tournament, put her on the selectors’ radar for the three-team Women’s T20 Challenge, a domestic competition seen as a prelude to an IPL-style league for women.”She stood out for me in the nets from day one,” England batter Danni Wyatt, Verma’s team-mate in the competition, said after her debut. “I didn’t think she was that young, and then when I heard she was only 15, I was like: ‘Wow.'”In four months’ time, the retirement of Mithali Raj from the shortest format coincided with Verma’s maiden India call-up and debut in the home T20I series against South Africa. Although consistently troubled by Shabnim Ismail’s pace and bounce, Verma showed enterprise in a 40-plus knock.ALSO READ: Shafali Verma, Sophie Ecclestone top T20I rankingsThe following month, on her maiden overseas tour, she bested the highest T20I score by a visiting Indian in the Caribbean. Her 73 was part of a stand of 143 with Mandhana, a record for India in T20Is.An even more resounding statement of intent came in the opening game of the A series against hosts Australia in December last year. Verma, 15 at the time and visibly fitter and stronger, scored 124 runs off 78 balls against an attack that featured bowlers with experience of multiple WBBL seasons, some of them even playing for Australia.”I did get into fan mode for a while there,” Australia A coach Leah Poulton told cricket.com.au after that knock. “She’s not your typical Indian opening bat. Over the years they’ve produced these opening bats with these amazing techniques and they’re really crafty, whereas she walked out there and she was just pure power.”At the T20 World Cup, Verma’s approach to building an innings hasn’t altered one bit.

“She is just a kid, she is having a good time, she is enjoying herself, but she is on a journey to find herself both as a cricketer and as an individual”India head coach WV Raman

“I am aware powerplay is where I have to dominate,” she had explained in Jaipur, during the Women’s T20 Challenge. “Whether it’s a domestic innings or somewhere else, I don’t think much or tell myself, ‘You need to stay, be watchful and all that.’ The focus remains to get some runs up top.”A major part of the success Verma has had in the T20 World Cup is also down to the support she’s got from senior team-mates like captain Kaur and vice-captain Mandhana as well as head coach WV Raman. In the lead-up to the tournament, Raman told ESPNcricinfo that India “have everything to gain when she comes off”. Kaur echoed Raman after India topped Group A, saying that “Shafali is someone who loves to play big shots, and we don’t want to stop her”.Raman had made a plea to the media in the build-up to the T20 World Cup to “not to go gaga over her, because she is barely 16, and too much attention is not good for her at this stage”. On the eve of India’s semi-final against England at the SCG, he spoke of how the tournament has been a voyage of self-discovery for the teenager who is still very much a kid – she still likes being “naughty” in the dressing room, Kaur had said.”There is absolutely no baggage in her head, the kid that she is…,” Raman said. “On the other hand she’s also a very intelligent kid. She is at a stage where she is still trying to find herself, as to who she is as a person. She is just a kid, she is having a good time, she is enjoying herself, but she is on a journey to find herself both as a cricketer and as an individual. That’s what it is.”Last year, Verma had spoken to this writer about the film , a biopic of wrestler sisters from Haryana who achieve success thanks to their father’s relentless training and grooming (and battling with the system). The ending is fictionalised – the father is locked up by the team coach and can’t watch his daughter win the Commonwealth Games gold medal.Still in her pre-teens at the time she first watched the movie, that climax is etched on Verma’s mind. ” [They locked him out], so he couldn’t be at that final, but she made sure she implemented the tactics he had taught her and won that medal.”With Sanjeev in the stands, you can be sure that Verma will do everything to fulfil her promise to him.

Out of the 27 balls he bowled, seven were over 150kmh in his first match of the tournament

Vishal Dikshit18-Oct-2020″I always wanted to be fast, whatever I was doing – sprinting, bowling. Whatever it might be, I’ve always been very keen to do it fast.” You know who said those words, don’t you, if you watched the Kolkata Knight Riders’ Super Over win against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.Lockie Ferguson not only wanted to be fast at everything but also wanted to emulate the way New Zealand rugby player Christian Cullen would ride around on his Harley Davidson. Ferguson arrived like a Harley himself – figuratively – in the desert of the UAE’s dry lands on Sunday with his tearaway pace and precision to spectacularly run through the Sunrisers line-up, especially in the Super Over. He ran in with steam, like a nicely revved up engine, nailed the yorkers, targeted the stumps from wide of the crease, and used some clever slower deliveries to deceive batsmen in the 27 deliveries he bowled – four overs in the match and three more in the Super Over.Pace has already been the flavour of this IPL, but it took the Knight Riders nine games to give get Ferguson in the XI, while the Delhi Capitals have been benefiting the most from the pace combination of Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada. Their 31 wickets together are the primary reason the Capitals have been among the top two sides this season, fighting closely for the top spot with the Mumbai Indians, whose pace attack featuring Jasprit Bumrah, James Pattinson and Trent Boult have taken 36 wickets combined. The Mumbai attack doesn’t have the express pace like the Capitals – although Pattinson (who has been replaced for the last two games by Nathan Coulter-Nile) has breached the 150kmh mark once this IPL – but it’s the use of that pace along with the uncomfortable lengths and variations that makes these fast bowlers unplayable even on surfaces that aren’t traditionally helpful for them.The Knight Riders head coach Brendon McCullum told the TV commentators during the match on Sunday that the way he saw the Capitals and Mumbai lead the table with their pace attack, he thought it was time to unleash Ferguson’s speed from their ranks too.Ferguson struck with his very first ball, with the wicket of Kane Williamson who upper cut a short delivery to third man. That was 137kmh, Ferguson’s engines are just warming up. Now bowling to Jonny Bairstow and 19-year-old Priyam Garg, Ferguson picked up his pace and the two batsmen weren’t able to middle their shots. Edges were flying off Garg’s bat, Bairstow was finding the toe-end of his bat, and they were being beaten by pace anyway.In his next over, Ferguson slipped in a clever slower legcutter to Garg at the stumps, beating the batsman with lack of pace and hitting the top of off. By his third over, all of Ferguson’s cylinders were firing. After a leg-stump yorker hit Warner’s shin for a leg bye, Ferguson sent another yorker down right at the base of the stumps which Manish Pandey missed because of the express pace and looked back at the stumps in disbelief while also checking how the bottom of his bat didn’t block the ball? Because…148.3kmh. After 2.3 overs Ferguson had conceded just five runs and picked up three wickets.”Where was he all this time this season?” exclaimed Ian Bishop on commentary at the end of the over.Ferguson could have also had a fourth wicket in the 18th over had a diving Andre Russell held on to a catch at point of Abdul Samad, and Ferguson ended with 4-0-15-3. Ferguson’s sixth gear was saved for the Super Over though.BCCIHis first ball carried such pace that when Warner missed the outside edge, the ball crashed into the stumps. Two balls later it was Samad at the receiving end…fire it in quick or the slower one? He unleashed a slower legcutter right in the block hole which Samad swung for and missed, and the Sunrisers Super Over lasted all of three deliveries. Out of the 27 balls Ferguson bowled, seven were over 150kmh with a fastest delivery of 152.38kmh.”I’ve been training quote a lot, but obviously I haven’t played in a while so I was pretty nervous,” Ferguson told Shubman Gill in a chat on IPLT20.com after the match.”There’s a slightly bigger side [of the boundary] so I was trying to get them to hit out there [in the death], back my yorker, back my slower ball, and then fortunately got the wickets which is always nice at that stage.”Playing a match after over seven months, it’s never easy for an express pace bowler to deliver like Ferguson did. To keep his body in shape and ready to bowl such overs, he had been training all through the lockdown, doing his strength and conditioning, and running from Monday to Friday every week. Ferguson stays with two other cricketers – Ben Horne and Henry Cooper – in what he calls an “athletic house” that helps him keep fit, and he had been training for the IPL in May itself, when rumours started floating of the tournament being played in September.With Sunil Narine injured and Pat Cummins not picking up too many wickets of late, Ferguson could very well play most of Knight Riders’ remaining matches. All he needs to do is keep shining that Harley he has inside of himself.

Also: which players have scored the most runs and taken the most wickets in England-Australia ODIs?

Steven Lynch15-Sep-2020Stuart Law scored 54 not out in his only Test innings. Does he hold the record for most runs in Tests without being dismissed? asked Keith McKenzie from Australia
Stuart Law made 54 not out in his only Test innings, against Sri Lanka in Perth in 1995-96. The unfortunate Law never won another cap, while Australia’s other debutant in that match, who scored 96, went on to play 168 Tests – Ricky Ponting.However, there is one man who made more runs in Tests than Law without being dismissed: offspinner Afaq Hussain played twice for Pakistan in the early 1960s, and scored 10, 35, 8 and 13 – all not out – for a total of 66 runs. The only man to have five innings in Tests and not be dismissed in any of them is another Pakistani, the recent seamer Aizaz Cheema, who actually won seven caps – but managed only a single run.Aaron Finch has a highest score of 172 in T20Is, 153 not out in ODIs, and 62 in Tests. Does anyone else have this back-to-front sequence? asked Aiden Holt from Australia
My first thought was that Australia’s Aaron Finch might be the only batsman with such a lopsided arrangement. He made 172 – the highest score in all T20Is – against Zimbabwe in Harare in July 2018, 153 not out in a one-day international against Pakistan in Sharjah in March 2019, and 62 on his Test debut, against Pakistan in Dubai in 2018-19.However, there is someone else, from among the ranks of batsmen who have scored at least one international century. New Zealand’s Colin Munro has a highest score of 109 not out – one of his three centuries in T20Is – against India in Rajkot in 2017-18. In ODIs he has twice scored 87 – against Bangladesh in Christchurch on Boxing Day 2016, and against Sri Lanka in Mount Maunganui in January 2019. Munro has played only one Test, against his native South Africa in Port Elizabeth in 2012-13, and scored 15 and 0.Whose international career amounted to ten Tests and 25 one-day internationals – all in the same calendar year? asked David Howe from New Zealand
The man with this brief but busy international career was the tall Indian fast bowler Abey Kuruvilla, who played 35 separate international matches in 1997, ten of them Tests, starting on March 6 and finishing on December 14. He took 50 wickets in all, 25 in each format. However, the rise of Ajit Agarkar meant Kuruvilla was jettisoned, never to return. For a recent article which explored Kuruvilla’s strange experience, click here.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team has unearthed some other players with single-year careers but several international appearances: The old Australian fast bowler Ted McDonald played all his 11 Tests in 1921 (no ODIs back then). The flame-haired Kevin Wright kept wicket for Australia in ten Tests and five ODIs, all in 1979. And two England wicketkeepers had concentrated one-day careers: Ian Gould played 18 ODIs in 1983, including several in that year’s World Cup, while Paul Nixon played 19 (and one T20 international), all in just four months in 2007, a spell that also included a World Cup.Eoin Morgan is the leading run scorer in England-Australia ODIs with 1887 runs, ahead of Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke•Getty ImagesWith England currently playing Australia, I wondered who had scored the most runs and taken the most wickets in “Ashes” ODIs? I’m not sure such stats are regularly talked about, asked Michael Keenan from England
You’re probably right that figures from bilateral series are not widely known. It was therefore a slight surprise to me to discover that the leading scorer in England-Australia one-day internationals is none other than Eoin Morgan, who had 1887 runs after the first match of the current series. He’s well clear of Ricky Ponting (1598) and Michael Clarke (1430), the leading Australians. Six others, including Morgan’s current opposite number, Aaron Finch (1269), have scored more than 1000 runs in ODIs between England and Australia. Finch leads the way for centuries (seven), while Morgan has hit the most sixes (48, well clear of Shane Watson with 27).Turning to the bowlers, Brett Lee leads the way with 65 wickets, with Glenn McGrath second on 53. Next, with 40 wickets after the recent opening game, is Adil Rashid.Which great West Indian fast bowler played first-class cricket for Queensland in Australia? asked Jamie Stewart from Canada
This was the legendary Barbadian speedster Wes Hall, one of the stars of the 1960-61 Australia-West Indies series that started with the historic tied Test in Brisbane, in which he bowled the nerve-shredding final over. Hall, who ended up with 192 wickets in 48 Tests, returned to Queensland the following season, taking 43 wickets, and added 33 in 1962-63.Hall shook up a fair few batsmen – and Queensland’s Test wicketkeeper, Wally Grout, whose jaw he broke with a wayward delivery in the match against the MCC tourists at the Gabba which preceded the first Test of the 1962-63 season. Richie Benaud wrote: “Hall bowled a head-high full-toss at tremendous pace… The batsman ducked but Grout did not pick up the flight of the ball till fairly late. He moved to it on the leg side but the ball, having passed the batsman on the full, struck the ground immediately in front of Grout and flew straight at his face. Wally’s jaw was fractured in two places.” The unlucky Grout missed the first three matches of that Ashes series, being replaced by South Australia’s Barry Jarman.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

In outlining plans for future and in fielding the Jaffna-bred Viyaskanth, the franchise has indicated a seriousness to their intentions

Andrew Fidel Fernando12-Dec-2020In January 2018, Sri Lanka Cricket’s then-president visited a large plot of vacant land near Sri Lanka’s northern city of Jaffna, and pledged to build a cricket stadium there. Among the headline-grabbing proposals tossed into the sky at this media-whirlwind was the notion that Jaffna could be developed into a “sports city”.Jaffna is no stranger to grand pronouncements, of course. It was the largest urban centre to have been ensnared in Sri Lanka’s civil war, and suffered untold privations through almost 30 years. Because of this history, it has more recently become fashionable to speak of it as a place that must be developed, if not quite appeased. SLC, which may be viewed as an offshoot of Sri Lanka’s politics, has tended to treat the city as a good-PR factory, announcing various schemes to uplift cricket in the region while cameras are turned on, before largely forgetting the north exists when they are not. Ten years after the end of the war, SLC’s sporadic bursts of attention have had little tangible benefit. There is only one ground with a turf pitch in the entire northern province. In a city whose zeal for cricket had survived a decades-long war and has a history stretching more than 100 years, many cricketers continue to play on inferior surfaces, with sub-standard equipment.Thisara on Stallions giving 19-year-old Viyaskanth an opportunity

“Viyaskanth is a young player and a cricketer who has a lot of talent. Right now, Wanindu Hasaranga is the best legspinner, and these two have been working together closely at trainings – I’ve seen that numerous times. Wanindu teaches him what he knows. That’s Wanindu’s character.

We don’t think about categories – whether you’re Jaffna, or Colombo, or Dambulla or whatever. We are all playing for Sri Lanka as one – or at least that’s our hope. As a cricketer and as someone who has represented Sri Lanka, I’m really happy we were able to give Viyaskanth that opportunity. I’m thankful to the team owners for bringing a player from Jaffna and putting him into a match as big as this. We should all be pleased about that.”

And yet, could there be an inkling of renewed optimism? Among the Lanka Premier League’s pleasant surprises has been the Jaffna Stallions franchise’s stated commitment to improving cricketing infrastructure in Jaffna. They have plans, they’ve said, not merely to throw money in or showcase Jaffna’s talent by picking Jaffna’s cricketers in their XI, but to get down to the longer-term administrative work to bring Jaffna cricket more fully into the Colombo-based cricket system’s fold. Their CEO Anandan Arnold, who grew up in Jaffna and now runs an accounting firm largely based in the UK, said the franchise is initiating the process of setting up a small academy in Jaffna, with turf pitches, and at least one dedicated coach. An old-boy of St. John’s College Jaffna, Arnold had previously been instrumental in the laying of a turf side net at his school.”We’ve earmarked some land at very low rent, and we’d like to get the academy going sometime in the next two months,” Arnold told ESPNcricinfo. “What we are also envisaging is to have equipment that we will buy and keep, so that kids from very poor schools can come and have a go. People in Jaffna are still playing cricket mainly with tennis or rubber balls. Not many have access to a leather ball. We will provide equipment so raw talents can come through.”Although details about where exactly the academy will be based have not been worked out – the franchise is on the lookout for land with longer-term potential – Stallions do have a Jaffna-based coach in mind for the project. Ganeshan “Harry” Vaheesan, who has level three qualifications from the ECB and has 14 years’ experience as a coach in England, moved to Jaffna late last year, and is currently working as the Stallions’ manager.Wanindu Hasaranga celebrates a wicket•LPL”The facilities in Jaffna now are very primitive – they are mostly playing on concrete wickets,” Vaheesan said. “For batsmen especially, when you play on concrete wickets, the pace and the movement is different. If you’re not familiar with turf wickets you might do alright on a dry pitch, but struggle on a wet pitch. And apart from that the actual equipment itself that they are using is unbelievably inferior to the Colombo boys or even the other boys.”These disparities were evident even during the Stallions’ pre-tournament training camp, when the ’emerging’ norther players who had been picked in the franchise, netted with domestic and international players from the south. “There were two players from the squad got to bat, and the No. 1 issue was the bat itself, which was of poor quality and even the gloves are poor quality,” Vaheesan said. “One of the players didn’t have a helmet, and I saw that he kept adjusting it. When I went closer, I could see it was too big and it was falling over his eyes. He had actually borrowed that helmet because he didn’t have one.”Beyond the setting up of the academy, and provided the LPL sticks around for longer than a season, Stallions have laid out a roadmap for a more meaningful link to the country’s cricket hub in Colombo than presently exists. Sri Lanka’s domestic structure is club-based, and there is no northern side whom promising cricketers can represent in the larger system.Related

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The lost boys of Jaffna

“The next stage for us would be to apply to the Sri Lankan cricket board to have Jaffna Stallions Cricket Club accredited to the Sri Lankan national cricket league,” Arnold said. “Whichever division they place us in, we will enter the pool and come through the ranks.”And we would like SLC to give us some support. They already have cricket authorities in the northern province and in Jaffna, and they also have the Jaffna district coach. Hitherto their services have been hindered because of a lack of facilities. We will open our facilities up to them to collaborate with us and deliver their services as best they can. We have also asked our franchise head coach Thilina Kandamby, and he is saying he’s committed to going to Jaffna at least once a month to give his expertise. That’s also why we chose a Sri Lankan head coach.”Broader even than Stallions’ cricketing ambitions, are those being pushed by co-founder Rahul Sood – the highest-profile member of the consortium that owns the franchise. Sood is an influential figure in the US tech world, as the General Manager and Creator of Microsoft Ventures. He joined the Stallions’ ownership after learning of the franchise through a business associate of Arnold’s.”Once I heard the vision that Arnold had, I was on board straightaway,” Sood said. “Using sport for reconciliation in a post-war setting, and giving young kids who literally grew up in a war to play at a high level – who wouldn’t want to get involved?”Sood has been following his team’s fortunes intently, waking up at 2am to catch Stallions’ afternoon matches, and has been impressed with the talent on show. With plans now afoot for US tech investors with roots in South Asia to become involved in Major League Cricket (the US’ own T20 league), Sood sees a future in which Stallions’ cricketers gain opportunities further afield than the LPL. “To have a kid from Jaffna playing in the US league – that would be amazing.”Like so many promises to Jaffna, however, Stallions’ plans remain unfulfilled, for now. Although the first edition of the LPL has largely been successful so far, it is some distance from becoming a fixture on Sri Lanka’s cricket calendar, and the scale of Stallions’ broader work is likely contingent on the league’s success. But in outlining a workable mission (at odds with the kinds of grand proclamations Jaffna has previously attracted), and in fielding the Jaffna-bred teenager Vijayakanth Viyaskanth during the league stage, Stallions have indicated a seriousness to their intentions.

His success in the middle order has opened up possibilities for KKR in how to deploy Narine, the batsman

Karthik Krishnaswamy24-Oct-2020Leave, leave, leave.The middle one was a wide, sure, but how many T20 innings begin with three back-to-back leaves?Sunil Narine would have left every other ball of that Kagiso Rabada over too, if he could have. All he wanted was to survive it, mark his guard at the other end, and hopefully face some spin.Narine played his first match of IPL 2020 on September 23. It was now October 24. Over an entire month, before this game, he had faced just five balls of spin. He had only faced 40 balls in all, yes, but it was still an unusually low percentage of spin.There were three reasons for this. One, this IPL was in the UAE, and the pitches, especially in the early part of the tournament, had encouraged teams to bowl mostly pace though the powerplay.Two, teams were able to bowl pace and pretty much nothing else to Narine because Chris Lynn was no longer partnering him at the top of the order. Though everyone’s known for a while that Narine’s ability to demolish spin bowling is counterbalanced by a vulnerability against quality fast bowling, especially when it’s short and at the body, oppositions until last season also had to factor in the pace-loving, spin-detesting Lynn at the other end.Three, and most obviously, Narine hadn’t been surviving long enough to get any taste of spin.This was probably why the Kolkata Knight Riders had moved Narine into the middle order, after four games. It’s harder for teams to use their first-choice match-ups against middle-order batsmen, because you can’t predict when they’ll arrive at the crease, and in what sort of situation.On Saturday, Narine walked into a situation – 42 for 3 in 7.2 overs – that would traditionally ask the new pair to bat with caution initially, especially in the case of a team like the Knight Riders, who, with Pat Cummins at No. 7, do not bat particularly deep. Narine, whose career as a T20 pinch-hitter is largely built on his willingness to be dismissed in search of quick runs, seemed the unlikeliest of candidates for such a role.Perhaps this was why Narine got to face spin as soon as he made it through that Rabada over. The Capitals had used their seamers for seven of the first eight overs, and only had two overs each left from their two main quicks, Rabada and Anrich Nortje. They hadn’t yet bowled R Ashwin, possibly because they wanted to keep him away from Nitish Rana, who had scored 55 off 22 balls in all T20 meetings against him before this game, without being dismissed.Rana was still at the crease, however, and the Capitals couldn’t have gone on delaying Ashwin’s introduction. They may well have felt this was the ideal time for it, even if the new man, Narine, also boasted an excellent head-to-head against Ashwin: 28 off 10 balls, without being dismissed.Given the situation, there was a chance Rana and Narine would choose to play Ashwin a little more watchfully than usual, which would have suited the Capitals nicely. They may have even felt it was worth Rana or Narine taking Ashwin on and risking their wickets, particularly with Abu Dhabi’s long boundaries in mind.

Ashwin’s second ball to Narine, he cleared his front leg, freed his arms, and cleared long-off with a hit measuring 85m. There would be no hesitation, no second-guessing. Narine would simply bat the Narine way.

With Narine in particular, the challenge was to do with both the outfield size and the lack of powerplay field restrictions. In 62 IPL innings before this one, he had only batted four times in the middle order – twice at No. 4, once at No. 5, and once at No. 7 – and it wasn’t clear whether he would be able to overcome both challenges consistently. In his previous middle-order innings this season, against the Chennai Super Kings, he had been caught on the long-on boundary, on this same ground, while trying to hit Karn Sharma for six.Ashwin’s second ball to Narine was just the sort of ball to test someone’s six-hitting ability. Not just the physical ability, but also the mental clarity to disregard the cocktail of match situation, ground size and lack of field restrictions, and swing as cleanly and decisively as possible. It had just a hint of flight to it, and it landed full but well short of half-volley length.Narine cleared his front leg, freed his arms, and cleared long-off with a hit measuring 85m. There would be no hesitation, no second-guessing. Narine would simply bat the Narine way.The contest against Ashwin would take centre-stage, which you’d expect, given he scored 32 – exactly half of his 64 runs – off 11 balls against him, and given that the relentlessness of his hitting forced the offspinner into going over the wicket – an exceedingly rare occurrence for him against left-hand batsmen – and bowling legspin to him. But Narine did enough against the other bowlers to remind viewers that when he’s on song, he’s far from a one-trick pony.There were times during his innings when Narine seemed to have stepped back in time to 2017 or 2018, when teams hadn’t yet fully figured out how to bowl to him. Just look at the numbers to remind yourself of that time. Across the 2017 and 2018 seasons, he averaged 22.35 against pace and struck at 169.64. Between the start of 2019 and this match, his numbers against pace had dipped significantly: his average to 13.12, his strike rate to 122.09.Now it felt like Narine had turned the clock back. Tushar Deshpande gave him width, an ingredient that’s very rarely been part of his recent diet in the IPL, and he stood almost still, save for that open front leg, and carved him over backward point. Marcus Stoinis went short to him, as fast bowlers must, but he’s not particularly quick, and Narine pulled him onto the grass banks beyond the square-leg boundary.By the end of his innings, Narine had scored 29 off 15 balls against Deshpande and Stoinis, and 3 off 6 balls – a small sample size, but consistent with the larger trend of his career – against Rabada and Anrich Nortje. A well-directed short ball from Rabada dismissed him, which you might have predicted before the game, but you probably wouldn’t have correctly predicted how much he’d score.So what did we learn from Narine’s innings? We already knew he can take spinners apart, even those as good as Ashwin, and that he can put the quicker bowlers away when they aren’t hammering away at his weaknesses. We already knew he’s less certain against the very best fast bowlers.But the Knight Riders have now learned his skills aren’t unsuited to the middle order, and that new knowledge opens up new possibilities for how and when to deploy him. Everyone watching him, meanwhile, has learned, not for the first time, to never, ever write him off.

Why England quick could be key in an away Ashes series

George Dobell03-Jun-2021There was a moment, an hour or so into the second day of this match, when Chris Silverwood could have been forgiven for wondering what he had done.For Silverwood, the England coach, has been instrumental in calling for his side to play on flatter wickets this summer. That way, he reasons, his batters will be able to put the traumas of India behind them and his bowlers will learn to perform in conditions where they cannot rely on the assistance that has become familiar in England in recent years.Sounds logical, doesn’t it?But England coaches have talked this way before. Usually, when push has come to shove and series have needed to be won, they have reverted to the sort of surfaces on which their fast-medium seamers are so devastating with the Dukes ball. At 288 for 3 – with New Zealand apparently heading for a total well over 400 – it really did appear that England’s limitations were being exposed.England hadn’t, by any means, bowled poorly. They controlled the run-rate so never allowed New Zealand to establish a match-defining position. It’s just that New Zealand, and Devon Conway in particular, had batted with admirable composure and this pitch had offered none of the devil that has assisted England so often at home in recent years. England really didn’t bowl badly during the last Ashes series in Australia, either. It’s just they didn’t have the attack to find much life from flat surfaces.But in Mark Wood they do have a point-of-difference bowler. On a slow wicket, against stubborn batters, he has the skills to unlock batting line-ups. Combined with the skills of James Anderson and Co., which we know are valuable in many circumstances, he can play a vital part in the England attack. He proved that here in a spell that may well have changed the direction of the match.It’s true that Wood’s record in England is modest. Ahead of this game he took his wickets at a cost of 44.91 in home Tests. At Lord’s the record – eight wickets in four Tests at a cost of 52.50 apiece – was even more modest. There remains a suspicion that his skills – or at least his pace – may well be neutered by the sort of slow pitches which suit the majority of English seamers.But in Australia? You’d think he would very much enjoy the harder, faster tracks. In six overseas Tests – not all of them played on quick tracks by any means – he has taken his 29 wickets at a cost of 23.93.He’s also a different bowler to the one who played his first 12 Tests. For those Tests, he operated off a short run and seemed to have an ankle made of crystal. His wickets in those games came at a cost of 41.73. Since the Caribbean tour of early 2019, though, he has bowled off a longer run, retained his fitness pretty well (for a fast bowler) and taken his wickets at a cost of 22.46.Related

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He actually bowled well on day one here. And fast. Above 93mph/150kph for much of the time. Twice he hit Conway on the body with short balls; a couple of other times he might have had him caught off the edge. Given how serenely Conway has batted, that is no mean achievement. Sure, the wickets didn’t come, but Wood’s performance was rather better than the results.It was noticeable, though, that his wicket-taking spell on day two was slower. About 10 percent slower, really. But it was still sharp. And it’s unfair to think of Wood as a fast bowler: he’s better than that. At the start of his career, he was used by Durham as something of a reverse-swing specialist and he can still gain movement in the air and off the seam. The ball that dismissed BJ Watling, for example, drew a false stroke by leaving the batter up the slope.His bouncer remains a valuable weapon, though. His relative lack of height means it doesn’t bounce as high as might be expected and renders it hard to duck. The pull that cost Henry Nicholls his wicket was a good example of a batter not knowing how else to play the ball.It was a huge moment in the game. It precipitated a decline which saw New Zealand lose four wickets – all of them decent batters – for six runs. From a position where 500 had looked possible, it suddenly took a merry final-wicket stand to take New Zealand to 350. At one stage, Wood’s figures for the spell were 6-2-7-3.Understandably, Joe Root gave him an extra over. But that was probably a mistake. Not just because it cost eight runs, but because Wood, with his fitness record and express pace, is probably not the man for long spells. He has to be used, like Mitchell Johnson at his best, in short, sharp spells of four or five overs. England have lots of good fast-medium bowlers. Very rarely have they had a bowler this fast with the skills and control to match.Short spells can be tough to accommodate in a four-man attack. But with the return of an all-rounder or two, complemented by the likes of Anderson, Stuart Broad or Ollie Robinson and rotated alongside other quick bowlers such as Jofra Archer or Olly Stone, that can work.Broad, it might be noted, has now gone five successive innings (amounting to 70 overs) without taking a wicket. While it’s a slightly misleading statistic – he only bowled six overs in one innings in Ahmedabad, nine in another in Chennai and really did bowl better than the figures suggest here – it is the first time that has happened in his career. You wonder if Ed Smith, wherever is his right now, is pointing at his TV and shouting ‘See! See!’ to anyone who will listen.Perhaps of more relevance, Broad also missed perhaps the easiest opportunity of his career in the field when Tim Southee sliced one to him at mid-on. In the grand scheme of the match it probably made little difference, but it did cost Robinson, on debut, a five-wicket haul. Broad will be mortified by that.Robinson is clearly experiencing a memorable debut. But whatever you think about him – and, more pertinently, the emergence of those Tweets on the first day of this match – he showed impressive strength of character on the second day.All eyes were on Ollie Robinson on the second morning•Getty ImagesAlone in his hotel room overnight, he will know he had let himself down. And he will have known that it will take time and effort to repair the damage he has done to his reputation. He faces awkward conversations with family and team-mates and may face sanctions and a suspension, too. He really will have had an awful night.But the manner in which he fronted up and apologised after the first day’s play was revealing. And the manner in which he turned up on day two, was able to compartmentalise those thoughts and produce another good spell of bowling was also impressive.Nobody is claiming a good performance with the ball makes everything OK – and it probably isn’t the place of a middle-aged white man to decide these things, anyway – but in terms of skill and resilience, Robinson has shown he has what it takes to make it at this level.But back to Wood. Is he the right man for all circumstances? Probably not. Even at Durham, it’s noticeable that Chris Rushworth remains at least as potent a threat in Championship cricket. On some surfaces, particularly some surfaces at home, England may have more suitable options.But on quick, flat tracks where England might otherwise look a bit toothless? Yes, he’s a role to play there. He really is the sort of bowler who could make the difference in an away Ashes series.There’s method in Silverwood’s approach. It may render England’s home cricket a little less entertaining – in the sense that wickets may fall less often – and there may be sessions when they struggle for incision. But in the long term, it could make them a better balanced, more versatile side.

All the stats from R Ashwin’s best effort with the ball in County Championship cricket

Sampath Bandarupalli14-Jul-20216 for 27 Bowling figures of R Ashwin in Somerset’s second innings, his best of seven five-plus wicket hauls in the County Championship. Ashwin previously had two six-wicket hauls in the competition, both coming against his current team Surrey in 2019. His latest figures are also his second-best in first-class cricket outside India, behind his 7 for 83 against West Indies in 2016.3 Number of five-wicket hauls for Ashwin while opening the bowling in county cricket. No other spinner has more than two five-fors in the County Championship while opening the bowling in the past 15 years. The 27 runs conceded by Ashwin during his latest six-wicket haul are also the fewest by any spinner for a five-plus wicket haul in the County Championship while opening the bowling since 2006.ESPNcricinfo Ltd1 Ashwin’s 6 for 27 is also the cheapest five-wicket haul by a Surrey spinner since Pragyan Ojha’s 6 for 8 against Northamptonshire in 2011.11.53 Difference between Ashwin’s batting and bowling averages in the County Championship. Among the 59 players with 500+ runs and 50+ wickets across the Championship and Bob Willis Trophy since Ashwin’s debut season in 2017, only Darren Stevens (13.56) has a higher difference between batting and bowling averages.ESPNcricinfo Ltd0 Instances of a spinner bowling the first over of an innings twice in a County Championship match since 2006, until Ashwin did it at The Oval. The off-spinner recorded figures of 1 for 99 in Somerset’s first innings after taking the new ball.2010 The last instance of a spinner bowling the first over in a first-class match in England, before Ashwin against Somerset. Leicestershire’s left-arm spinner Claude Henderson bowled the first over of the 2010 County Championship game against Surrey.29.1 Overs bowled by Surrey’s spin trio of Ashwin, Amar Virdi and Dan Moriarty to bowl Somerset out for 69 in the second innings. It was the first instance of a team bowling out the opponent without an over of pace in the County Championship since 2006.

The tournament had several established stars doing well, but the new talent gave it an extra sheen

Saurabh Somani17-Sep-2021CPL 2021 ended with a pulsating final in which St Kitts and Nevis Patriots beat St Lucia Kings by three wickets off the last ball of the match. The tournament had several established stars doing well, but the sparkling new talent gave it an extra sheen. Sifting those players down to the XI who would make up the team of the tournament meant leaving some performers out, as is inevitably the case. Here is ESPNCricinfo’s CPL 2021 XI:Evin Lewis – St Kitts and Nevis PatriotsQuite simply, the best batter in CPL 2021. Evin Lewis was part of the winning team, and though he had a rare failure in the final, he did plenty to drive Patriots to that position. In the semi-final against Guyana Amazon Warriors, he made light work of an imposing target of 179, reeling off 77 not out in 39 balls as Patriots won with a massive 2.1 overs to spare. That performance had come on the back of a sizzling, unbeaten 52-ball 106 against last year’s champions Trinbago Knight Riders in Patriots’ final league game to seal their semi-final spot. Lewis ended as the second-highest run-scorer in the competition with 426 runs, and allied his consistency to big-hitting as a strike-rate of 163.21 showed. As per ESPNCricinfo’s Smart Stats, he was the highest-rated batter too and ranked first on the Smart Runs tally, with 493.68 runs.Faf du Plessis – St Lucia KingsHe brings in a solidity that could nicely complement the slew of big-hitters in the XI. While Faf du Plessis had an up-and-down tournament, two innings in particular were standouts in the league phase: 120* in 60 balls against Patriots and then 84 off 54 against Barbados Royals. He picked up a groin injury in that last game and missed Kings’ last few games, and the team, no doubt, missed his batting form and leadership. The second half of the tournament was much more productive for du Plessis after a sluggish start. The balance he brings to the batting line-up meant he was picked ahead of his closest contender Kennar Lewis, who had blasted runs at a rate comparable to Evin, but got out quicker than du Plessis. It was a close contest between the two, but on the day, du Plessis won the vote.ESPNcricinfo LtdRoston Chase – St Lucia KingsWithout a doubt, the Player of the Tournament. He has still not played a T20I, but Roston Chase was selected in West Indies’ squad for the T20 World Cup on the back of his showing in this tournament. He reached double figures in 10 out of 12 innings, and was the highest run-scorer in the tournament with 446 runs. He did it all at a strike rate of 144.33, and proved to be the perfect all-round package with his more than handy offspin, picking up 10 wickets and conceding at below 7 per over. Chase was the clear MVP on ESPNCricinfo’s Smart Stats too, with a player rating of 66.75, the highest in the tournament. While his batting was a standout, his ability to strike regularly and keep the runs down meant his bowling also proved very valuable. Chase’s T20 reinvention was stark enough to make him not just a likely starter in West Indies’ first XI, but possibly one of their most crucial men in their title defence next month.Nicholas Pooran (wk) – Guyana Amazon WarriorsHe’s not the captain in this team, and there’s a lot more batting depth, which means Nicholas Pooran can bat at a position that seems more naturally fitting for him. Of the ten times Pooran batted in CPL 2021, he batted at No. 4 only twice, spending the rest of the time trying to either shore up or finish an innings from numbers five through seven. He still ended up sixth on the run-getters list and, more impressively, third in the Smart Runs tally, behind only Lewis and Chase. The situations he batted in meant his Smart Strike Rate was 214.9, the highest in the tournament among those who played at least five innings. Pooran mostly came in to bat in the second half of an innings, and had to score quickly from the start, at which he succeeded more often than not. Given the strength of the top three, he might have to do the same in this XI, but he showed with his 75* off 39 against Jamaica Tallawahs that he could grab an innings by the scruff of its neck if he comes in earlier too. Pooran will also keep wicket.Tim David – St Lucia KingsOne of the revelations of the tournament, Tim David’s hard-hitting consistency in the middle order confirmed his growing stature in T20 cricket. He had already had success in the BBL and PSL, and made 15 off 6 in the only match he got to bat in the Hundred, which was the final. In CPL 2021, he began by smashing 56 off 28 in his first game and continued to score consistently thereafter. He batted mostly at No.6 (only three out of his 11 innings were higher, at No.5) and still ended up as the third highest run-scorer with 282 runs, a testament to how little he failed.Kieron Pollard (capt) – Trinbago Knight RidersThere was no title run this time for Kieron Pollard, but he left his stamp on the tournament nonetheless. His six-hitting ability remains undiminished, as 21 sixes in 165 balls faced show, and he was just as much of a looming presence and threat with the bat as he has always been. He was the ninth-highest run-getter with 261 runs, but his true value is brought out by his Smart Runs tally of 307.68 – the fifth highest in the competition. Pollard cut down on his bowling, never bowling more than one over whenever he did opt to take the ball. His team lost in the semi-final, but his leadership was smart as ever, and he’ll be the captain of this team.Odean Smith’s all-round prowess shone through•Getty ImagesOdean Smith – Guyana Amazon WarriorsOne of the breakout stars of the tournament, Odean Smith showed he was capable of hustling batters at 140 clicks, while also being able to muscle the ball over the boundary. Warriors started CPL 2021 by pushing Smith up to No.3, and in his very first match, he turned in a Player-of-the-Match performance with useful contributions with bat and ball. Smith had batted only four times before that game in T20 cricket, never scoring more than 10, but showed his big-hitting promise in List A and first-class cricket with strike rates in excess of 100 in both. Although Warriors didn’t persist with Smith at one-down, he did show his big-hitting prowess from lower down too, in a couple of matches. His bowling was even more impressive, and he ended as joint-second on the wickets tally with 18 scalps. On pitches that were slower, his ability to hurry batters stood out. He missed selection to the T20 World Cup, but if this tournament is any indication, he’ll not be missing out for too long.Romario Shepherd – Guyana Amazon WarriorsAlongside Smith, he was the other standout all-round performer for Warriors. Shepherd took the same number of wickets as Smith did with 18, although he played only nine games. He showed incredible bowling smarts, particularly in the Super Over win against Trinbago Knight Riders early in the tournament, not only picking up 3 for 24 despite dropped catches and misfields off his bowling, but defending just 6 in the Super Over.He had shown a brief glimpse of his big-hitting in that game, which came out fully later in the tournament against Jamaica Tallawahs, when he hit 72* off 44. He made it an all-round day to remember, by also taking 3 for 31. On ESPNCricinfo’s Smart Stats too, Shepherd was remarkable, being the third-highest rated player overall, as also the third-highest rated bowler. Like Smith, Shepherd might consider himself a tad unlucky to not make West Indies’ T20 World Cup squad. But like Smith, if he carries this batting and bowling form, it’s only a matter of time.Sunil Narine was wily as ever•CPL T20/ Getty ImagesSunil Narine – Trinbago Knight RidersNone of the old skill seems to have faded for Sunil Narine. He picked up 12 wickets in 10 games, which was a good return in itself, but he did it at a staggering economy rate of 4.37. The Smart Economy, which factors in the match situation a bowler has bowled in as also the batters facing up, was a jaw-dropping 2.51, streets and avenues ahead of anyone else. The nature of the pitches made Narine’s spin more potent than ever. That oppositions were intent on playing him out rather than taking risks is borne out by his economy, but that he still picked up 12 wickets spoke to how much of a consistent threat he posed even when batters were looking not to take risks against him. Narine’s batting wasn’t nearly as effective as it had been in the past, with teams sticking to the tried-and-tested short ball strategy against him, but it was a bowling tournament for the ages.Dominic Drakes – St Kitts and Nevis PatriotsThe hero of the final, and you suspect, of many greater moments to come in a career brimming with possibilities. Dominic Drakes had more to do with the ball than bat, but even so, he passed 20 on three of the five times he went to bat, each time at a strike rate of over 180. His most telling contribution came in the final of course, with 48* off 24, a match-winning hand. While bowling, he looked sharp when in rhythm, which he was in more matches than not, as 16 wickets – joint fourth-highest – testify. Only 23-years-old, and with cricketing lineage to boot – he said after the final that father Vasbert Drakes gets more nervous than he does before a game – there is a world of possibilities open to Dominic.Ravi Rampaul – Trinbago Knight RidersBefore CPL 2021, the last time Ravi Rampaul had bowled in a T20 game was in 2019. It turned out to be a storming comeback for the veteran seamer, as he ended the tournament at the top of the wicket charts with 19 to his name. The swing, seam and zip of old were all in evidence, and it led to another comeback, this time in West Indies’ T20 World Cup squad. Rampaul’s wicket-taking in the powerplay proved crucial for Trinbago Knight Riders.

Most signs point towards India fielding four fast bowlers + Jadeja again

Nagraj Gollapudi11-Aug-20212:46

Kohli doesn’t want Pant to change his batting style

Who was the last spinner to get a Player of the Match in a men’s Test at Lord’s for his  performance? He is more than likely to play in the second Test.It was in 2017, when Moeen Ali finished with a match haul of 10 for 112 and a first-innings 87 to hand England a 221-run win. That year, spinners enjoyed their best haul in 50 years at Lord’s, picking 18 of the 20 wickets in that Test.Since then, though, spinners have picked just 12 wickets in half a dozen Tests at this storied venue. Seven of those came in the drawn second Test of the 2019 Ashes. From 2018, fast bowlers have picked 143 wickets while spinners have accounted for only 11 in five Tests. If you extend that to all first-class cricket in the same period, the fast bowlers have picked 631 wickets while spin has accounted for 62 in 22 matches. Only once has a spinner picked a five-for post-July at Lord’s in first-class cricket in the last decade.Now then, will India be tempted to bring in R Ashwin to replace the injured Shardul Thakur? After the first Test was drawn, Virat Kohli said that a five-man bowling attack, with Jadeja and Thakur as the bowling allrounders, provided the right balance, and that it would be the likely template for the remainder of the series. But with Thakur out to a hamstring strain, how will India retain that balance Kohli was talking about?As a bowling allrounder, Ashwin is the best India have. As a lower-order batter he offers a lot of promise. And then there is his aura of being one of the greatest Test spinners, which can be intimidating against a less-experienced batting like England barring Joe Root. Also with Ashwin, India retain the batting depth in the lower order which is crucial when their lower order remains brittle. This is after accounting for the resilience of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj in India taking a significant 95-run lead In the first innings at Trent Bridge.Will India still be tempted to play two spinners at a venue where spin has played a holding and receding role for such a long time? If you heard Kohli at the pre-match press conference, you would’t be faulted for believing Ashwin was unlikely to play.According to Kohli, the batting order India fielded at Trent Bridge was the “strongest”. The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul got India off to solid starts in both innings while Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja marshalled the lower order to somewhat cover up for the failures of Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in the first innings.Ishant Sharma has a chat with bowling coach B Arun•Associated Press”The good thing is Jadeja has got runs in the first game already, so he will go into the second game confident,” Kohli said when asked if they would play Ashwin or thinking about a like-for-like replacement for Thakur. “That already makes our batting a bit deeper, the lower order contributed with the bat as well. Yeah, Shardul brings in more batting ability, but having said that, from the batting point of view we are well placed because Pujara, Jinks, myself, we did not score too many.”So every game is an opportunity for the other batters to step up as well. Rohit and KL played really well. So we are very comfortable where we are placed as a batting unit. And we don’t feel that we might be a batsman short if Shardul doesn’t play. For us, yes, it is about finding that perfect balance, but if someone like Shardul is not available then we definitely will think first how to pick up 20 wickets and not try to plug in another guy who can give us some runs with the bat. We feel very comfortable how the first Test went.”Does that open the door for a fourth fast bowler again, one of Ishant Sharma or Umesh Yadav? The Nottingham Test along with Perth and Johannesburg in 2018 and Brisbane earlier this year are four instance where India have played at least four fast bowlers in the last four years. India won the final Test of the South Africa trip, but had both Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya in the pace quintet. They lost the second Test of the 2018-19 Australia tour on a WACA pitch where Nathan Lyon turned the match with eight-wicket haul. On that occasion, India played four fast bowlers and part-time spinners in Hanuma Vihari and M Vijay.Not just the bowlers, even the bowling plans, Kohli said are vastly different three years later. And so he remains confident if India were field four fast men at Lord’s.”In a four-bowler combination you have figure on the day which bowlers are most likely to give you breakthroughs and which are the ones that are going to contain,” he said. “So accordingly you put them in priority.The guy who is most likely to contain then comes in and bowls spells, which don’t leak you runs so that the others can come back and get you those breakthroughs again.”Kohli also disagreed with a query about whether playing four fast bowlers would mean the fourth seamer could potentially be under-bowled.”We definitely like playing in that kind of template and we have never felt whenever we have played four bowlers we have under-bowled anyone,” he said. “We have actually felt very, very balanced because we are constantly looking to create pressure and take wickets.” 
So should we interpret all what Kohli is saying is India are leaning towards playing four fast bowlers and Jadeja? Possibly.By the way: which was the last team to play two spinners in a Lords’ Test? Hint: it was overcast and the team hurt itself grievously in the foot.

The flat pitches in UAE suit him, as he darts the ball into the track and gets it to fizz off it, giving batters no time to adjust

Deivarayan Muthu23-Oct-2021This chant from Kolkata Knight Riders’ Dinesh Karthik has become all too familiar in the IPL, aptly summing up what Varun Chakravarthy brings: mystery. It isn’t just limited to his bowling, which we will get to later. Varun grew up wanting to be the next big wicketkeeper-batter from Tamil Nadu or in other words, he wanted to be the next Karthik. After facing multiple rejections, he ditched cricket for architecture. Around the same time, he took a crack at acting in Tamil cinema. He even edited short films and videos.He then fell in love with cricket again, so much that he gave up architecture and became a medium-pacer. Injuries, however, struck him down. So, he brought out the (carrom) ball from the streets of Chennai, and experimented with spin. He demoted himself to lower-division cricket in the city and kept adding one variation after another to his repertoire. Varun’s evolution into a mystery spinner might have been accidental, his shoulder and knees might still be creaky, but his X-factor could be central to India’s T20 World Cup plans in the UAE.Related

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You can’t play Varun off the pitch, as he darts the ball into the track and gets it to fizz off it, giving you no time to adjust. The bigger boundaries in Abu Dhabi and Dubai – and the re-laid pitches in Sharjah – will only amplify the threat posed by Varun. In 23 T20s in the UAE, he has picked up 28 wickets at an average of 20.89 and economy rate of 6.35. In comparison in India, although the sample size is much smaller, Varun has eight wickets in as many matches, with his economy rate jumping to 8.19 an over.During a recent chat with Andre Russell on IPLt20.com, Varun said: “I’m starting to like this ground [Abu Dhabi] a lot. It’s just fun bowling here and it’s a good challenge because more flat wickets kind of suit me. I don’t like the turning wickets like Chennai, I like flat wickets, so it suits me more.”Russell was surprised with Varun’s comments, saying, “you’ve the first spin bowler I’ve heard say that you don’t like turners”. Varun, however, isn’t your traditional spin bowler. He had been fed with a steady diet of 18-yard tennis ball cricket and, in a way, he’s a bit like a medium-pacer who bangs it away on an in-between length at around 100kph and subtly turns the ball both ways at that pace.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe non-turners in the UAE did suit Varun’s style of bowling to a T in the second leg of IPL 2021. He conceded less than seven an over in every game in the UAE this season until the final, when he ran into Chennai Super Kings’ Moeen Ali, one of the best spin-hitters in the world. Also: Varun can bowl at the death, unlike most other spinners. His economy rate at the death over the past two IPL seasons (8.76) is the fifth best among bowlers who have bowled at least 75 balls during this phase.In India’s most recent warm-up fixture against Australia, Varun was held back until the 16th over. He did a decent job, coming away with 23 from his two overs, despite a triptych of boundaries from Marcus Stoinis.Varun is a bit like a medium-pacer who bangs it away on an in-between length at around 100kph and subtly turns the ball both ways at that pace•Sri Lanka CricketRahul Chahar is also an in-to-the-pitch spinner who can turn the ball both ways, and R Ashwin can be a favourable option against left-hander heavy batting line-ups, but Varun’s all-sorts could prove to be a potent point of difference in India’s attack. Varun was working on an eighth variation ahead of the second chunk of the IPL, but seemingly didn’t unleash it there. Will he give it a go at this T20 World Cup?”In my experience at the IPL, the Indian players – they play mystery spin and any kind of spin the best and the overseas players not quite so much,” Carl Crowe, Knight Riders’ spin-bowling coach, had said in the lead-up to Varun’s T20I debut in Sri Lanka. “Some of them like Jos Buttler play them well individually, but not across the board; the overseas players aren’t quite as skilled against mystery spin. You think about a World Cup, where non-Indian players play against a mystery spinner… there might be a few sleepless nights for the batters, trying to see which way the ball is spinning (laughs).”Only four years ago, Varun had made his TNPL debut, as a lower-order batter, in Chennai. He had invited a gang of friends to watch him in action at Chepauk on that day, but his debut turned out to be so dreadful that they ended up ridiculing him. On Sunday, all eyes will be on Varun as he could potentially make his World Cup debut, against Pakistan, as India’s frontline spinner along with Ravindra Jadeja. That would be quite a transformation.