And India bring their win-loss record in Test cricket to 178-all

Sampath Bandarupalli09-Mar-2024178-178 – India’s win-loss record in Test cricket after the Dharamsala Test. This is the first instance in India’s Test history of their wins not being fewer than their losses. Currently, four other teams have a positive win-loss record in Test cricket: Australia (1.780), England (1.209), South Africa (1.105) and Pakistan (1.042).36 – Five-wicket Test hauls for R Ashwin – the most by an India bowler, surpassing Anil Kumble’s 35. Ashwin is now ranked joint-third for the most five-fors in Tests, alongside Richard Hadlee (36), with only Muthiah Muralidaran (67) and Shane Warne (37) ahead.9 for 128 – Ashwin’s bowling figures in Dharamsala, the best for any player in their 100th Test. Muralidaran’s match figures of 9 for 141 against Bangladesh in 2006 were the previous best in a 100th Test. Ashwin also became the first player to take two hauls of four-plus in their 100th Test match.700 – Wickets for James Anderson in Test cricket. He is the first pacer to register 700 Test wickets, and only the third player overall to achieve this milestone, after Muralidaran (800) and Shane Warne (708).ESPNcricinfo Ltd100 – Test wickets for Ashwin at home against England. He is only the third bowler to bag 100-plus wickets against an opponent at home. Stuart Broad took 106 wickets against Australia at home, while Anderson has 105 against India in England.Ashwin now has eight five-fors against England at home, the joint-most for a bowler against an opponent at home. Muralidaran also took eight five-fors at home against Bangladesh and South Africa.14 – Number of five-fors for Ashwin in 39 Test innings at home where he opened the bowling. Only two bowlers have taken more five-fors when opening the bowling at home – 24 by Anderson and 16 by Dale Steyn.24.6 – Bowling strike rate of India’s spinners in Dharamsala. Only once before have India’s spinners take 18 or more wickets in a Test match at a better strike rate: 21.5 against England in Ahmedabad in 2021.118 – Test wins for India in India. These are the third-most home Test wins for any team, moving ahead of South Africa’s 117. Only Australia (259) and England (233) are ahead of India on the list.3 – Instances of India winning as many as four matches in a Test series, including this latest series win against England. Previously, they whitewashed Australia in a four-match series at home in 2013, and defeated England by 4-0 in a five-match home series in 2016.

The five-time champions have further strengthened by adding Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell to the squad

Deivarayan Muthu16-Mar-2024 • Updated on 21-Mar-2024

Where CSK finished last season

MS Dhoni’s men won their fifth IPL title on the third day of a T20 final against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad to draw level with Mumbai Indians.

CSK squad for IPL 2024

MS Dhoni (wk), Aravelly Avanish (wk), Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Nishant Sindhu, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Choudhary, Mustafizur Rahman, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Prashant Solanki, Shardul Thakur, Maheesh Theekshana, Sameer RizviRelated

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Player availability – Conway sidelined until May

Devon Conway, the New Zealand wicketkeeper-opener, has been ruled out of the IPL until May with a thumb injury. Shivam Dube, who missed the Ranji Trophy knockouts with a side strain, has been undergoing rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. It remains to be seen if he is fit to start the tournament for CSK on March 22.Matheesha Pathirana will miss the initial stages of the tournament with a hamstring injury. ESPNcricinfo has learned that Pathirana is likely to be unavailable for at least two weeks and will travel to the IPL only after getting clearance from SLC medical staff.Mustafizur Rahman has been permitted by the BCB to play IPL 2024 between March 22 and May 11. He might leave the league early to prepare for the T20 World Cup with Bangladesh’s tour of the USA.

What’s new with CSK this year – New captain and more NZ flavour

On the eve of the season opener, Ruturaj Gaikwad was unveiled as CSK’s new captain, with MS Dhoni handing over the keys to the kingdom.After having released Ben Stokes and Dwaine Pretorius, CSK added New Zealand’s ODI World Cup heroes, Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell, to their side. Ravindra can directly slot in at the top, in place of the injured Conway, and bowl quickish left-arm fingerspin, which gives CSK the option to also include Mitchell in the XI ahead of Moeen Ali. CSK also broke the bank to acquire Sameer Rizvi, who was strong against spin in the UP T20 league and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.At the auction in December last year, CSK also snapped up Mustafizur as a back-up for Sri Lanka slinger Pathirana. Plus, Shardul Thakur returns to CSK after two seasons.The acquisition of Rachin Ravindra could be a crucial one for CSK•ICC via Getty Images

The good – Spin-bowling depth and spin-hitters

Considering the potentially slow pitches at Chepauk, Dhoni and Stephen Fleming have built another squad that has a number of spin-hitters, spin bowlers, and batting depth all the way down to No.10 or No.11 Remember, Tushar Deshpande scored a career-best 123 from No.11 for Mumbai in the Ranji quarter-final against Baroda?Even the CSK newbies, Ravindra and Mitchell, have the game and temperament to counter spin, like they showed during the ODI World Cup in India last year. Maheesh Theekshana (mystery spin), Moeen Ali (offspin), Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Nishant Sindhu, Ajay Mandal (left-arm fingerspin), and Prashant Solanki (legspin) tick off most varieties of spin in the attack. Mustafizur’s offcutters could also prove effective, especially if the pitches wear on.

The not-so-good – Injury concerns

Deepak Chahar will rock up cold, having not played a competitive game since December 2023. Mukesh Choudhary and Simarjeet Singh are on a longer road back from injury and rehab. Neither seamer has played a competitive match since December 2022.Opener Gaikwad, meanwhile, has just recovered from a finger injury. He has played only one competitive game so far this year. Dhoni himself is coming off a knee surgery.Ajinkya Rahane’s recent form is patchy: he managed only 214 runs in 13 innings in the Ranji Trophy at an average of 17.83. His numbers weren’t flash either in the Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali tournaments.

Schedule insights

CSK will start their season with back-to-back home games at Chepauk, against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Titans. They will then travel to Vizag to face Delhi Capitals on March 31 and Hyderabad to meet Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 5. The schedule for the second half of the tournament is expected once the Election Commission of India reveals the dates of the national elections, which are expected to take place in the months of April and May.

The big question

GMT 11.10am This story was updated after Gaikwad was announced as CSK’s new captain, replacing MS Dhoni

Captain calls for improvement as five wins in 13 Tests paints the Bazball era in a less flattering light

Vithushan Ehantharajah09-Mar-2024Arriving in Dharamsala, England’s message was consistent, clear, and, ultimately, simple: 3-2 is a better way to lose the series than 4-1. By succumbing to an innings defeat in just over two and a half days, they somehow found a worse way to lose 4-1.The scoreline reflects the gulf between the two sides, because that’s how scorelines work, as much as England might protest. They have had moments since victory in the first Test, namely in Ranchi and Rajkot, that could have given this game a little more meaning. And yet the scale of this defeat ladles on the unwelcome context for a team that has gone beyond winning, flattering to deceive in defeat, and is now just losing.The caveat is that no visiting team has won a series here in almost 12 years. But India, for all their quality, did not have to be at their very best for most of this series. Since defeat at Hyderabad, they have not needed to seize all the 50-50 moments that presented themselves to restate their dominance, even with superstars absent and debutants in each of the last four Tests.That was until these last three days at the HPCA stadium. Their skill and superiority dwarfed even the Himalayas. Most damning for England is that the last 48.1 overs of the series was a gross mismatch. They were bullied, roughed up and, at their most vulnerable, several individuals were forced to hand over a few of the principles they have tried so desperately to hold dear these last eight weeks.Ben Duckett, who had not come down the pitch to the spinners all series, and had never done so against Ashwin in any previous meeting, decided the second over was the time to break the habit out of desperation. He charged, yorked himself, bat swishing past the outside of the ball, which rattled his off stump.Zak Crawley, in the midst of a Jasprit Bumrah-enforced scoreless stop, could not produce the sort of counterattacking burst that had made him England’s most reliable run-scorer on this trip. A tentative push around the corner to backward short leg – brilliantly taken by Sarfaraz Khan – gave him a 16-ball duck.Ollie Pope, praised by Rahul Dravid for the best “exhibition of sweeping and reverse-sweeping ever” after his 196 in the victorious first Test, then produced the worst example of either. A steady decline since that innings culminated in a panicked reaction to a claustrophobic close-in field, as he took on a delivery that may have bounced more with Ashwin’s over-spin but was certainly too short to be swept.Ben Foakes was one of several players whose dismissal went against type•Associated PressJust like that, England’s top three runscorers coming into this final innings were done and dusted within 56 deliveries for just 36 runs. From then on, an under-firing middle order played to type, with some additional bum notes.Jonny Bairstow peppered long-on before being trapped in front by Kuldeep Yadav, though not before starting an argument with Shubman Gill. It led to the now 100-cap batter asking Gill how many centuries he had made “full stop”. Four is the answer, with eight more needed in the next 10 years to match the 34-year-old’s tally.Ben Stokes wasn’t trapped on the crease this time, but was still turned inside-out by Ashwin’s drift from around the wicket. The captain’s average of 19.90 is the lowest of his 16 away tours and comes with the ignominy of having faced just 367 deliveries – just five more than Kuldeep, who has batted in four fewer innings. Ben Foakes lost his usually ironclad sense of self, bowled attempting a slog-sweep, handing Ashwin a ninth dismissal to mark his century of caps.The end, in particular, carried a unique sadness. Two veritable English greats in Joe Root, defiant for 84, and James Anderson, hours after notching 700 Test wickets, together as the final pair. The two survivors from 2012 in Nagpur, when Root, then on debut, was instrumental in fashioning a draw in the fourth Test to seal India’s last home series defeat.Ever since that success, Root and Anderson’s experience over in India has been a succession of physically wearing, emotionally taxing tours. Ones that have not just made English teams reconsider what they are about, but put their entire professional system in the dock.The difference this time is that the County Championship has not yet been served its papers. But an ethos that, for a period, brought the fun times back to English Test cricket, has now gone three series without a win. A style that lends itself to entertaining play has, since the start of 2023, entertained opponents more, winning just five of 13 Tests.India celebrate their 4-1 win over England, a scoreline that looks very similar to most other recent visits•Getty ImagesWhile positivity has radiated in press conferences, much to the bemusement of local journalists unfamiliar with the “everything is awesome” tact, and the building frustration of England fans, Stokes finally let the shutters up on Saturday afternoon. The introspection and annoyance behind closed doors was brought into the public domain: “If we weren’t disappointed, if we weren’t frustrated at how the series has ended up, I don’t really know what other emotions you could have.”With no next match to move on to until July 10 against West Indies at Lord’s, the England captain asked his players to channel the pain that they are currently feeling – both from grafting for so long and coming away with nothing and, worst of all, having to wear the ignominy of crumbling in precisely the manner that they had set out avoid. He certainly will.”Use it as fuel,” Stokes urged. “I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs–that’s what playing 100 Test matches throws at you. I’m making sure that I use those down moments that I have had to maybe work even harder than I thought I was.”It has been a damning 13 months for English cricket. Since the last six months of 2022, which began with Stokes and McCullum coming together in such spectacular fashion, and included that winter’s T20 World Cup win, things have taken a turn. The Test side fumbled a first series win in New Zealand since 2008, then a shot at reclaiming the Ashes for the first time since 2015, and now nurse a defeat against India that looks on paper to be no different to their previous dud efforts. In between whiles, too, there was a humiliating defence of the white-ball team’s 50-over title.Related

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Transitions are incoming across both formats. The difference is, while the white-ball side faces an overhaul of youth after this summer’s T20 World Cup, the red-ball side must embark on an evolution with many of the same faces. Thus the onus is on those involved over the last two months, many of whom have been ever-presents of the Stokes-McCullum regime, to dig deeper.It was fitting that, after all the critiquing of how England have gone about things on this tour, Stokes grabbed the nettle on a topic that has been a nuisance to many.”The media name Bazball – everyone says ‘what is it?’ In my opinion it’s wanting to be a better player. In the face of defeat and failure, Bazball will hopefully inspire people to become better players and become even better than what we are.”Of all the definitions ascribed to a term that had previously been rejected by the England dressing-room since its inception, this is the one they must embrace.

Vanuatu women will become the first cricket team – male or female – from the country to play in a World Cup qualifier, in Abu Dhabi next week

Firdose Moonda19-Apr-2024When the Vanuatu women’s team walk out to play in their distinctive emerald green kit, with characteristic red and yellow hibiscus flowers – mirroring the colours of their country’s flag – they would normally also be sporting playing gear that is donated, borrowed or shared amongst the squad. But no more.The plan ahead of next week’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, which will be played in Abu Dhabi, was that the players would use part of their tour bonus to purchase their own equipment. Now, thanks to a crowd-funding campaign that raised 750,000 Vatu (the equivalent of USD 6,317 or AUD 9,865), not only will each member of the squad team receive their full tour payments, but they will also have a new player-grade kit; a bat, two pairs of gloves, pads and thigh guard.”I have been blown away by the interest, over the last week especially,” Tim Cutler, CEO of Vanuatu Cricket Association, told ESPNcricinfo from Australia, from where the squad will depart to the UAE. “I had thought of crowd-funding previously but might’ve discounted or de-prioritised it. It is definitely worth investigating more broadly. Honestly, I’m overwhelmed by the response.”The idea to start a public fundraiser was led by VCA operations manager Jamal Vira and marketing manager Hermione Vira and in part, likened to Iceland’s efforts in the recent past to raise £3000 to fund their national team. It was also driven by need. Vanuatu is a small country with a population of just over 300,000 and an economy driven by agriculture, tourism and a golden visa scheme. The VCA receives just under USD 500,000 from the ICC annually, which pays for “everything,” according to Cutler.That includes staff across four regions of the country, all the equipment used in schools and junior cricket, the upkeep of five owned or leased grounds and the running of all cricket programs from community participation to High Performance squads and international tours. It also pays for the 14 contracted men’s and four contracted women’s players, who now benefit from a scheme in Australia that allows them to work seasonally while playing and training there. Eight of the women’s squad of 15 that will participate in the T20 Qualifiers have spent the last six months earning money by picking fruit in Australia.The Vanuatu women’s team captain Selina Solman•Vanuatu Cricket AssociationTheir cricket gear is mostly all donated, either by companies or international players. “Bat repair Peter Duffy donates dozens of repaired player bats to Vanuatu every year,” Cutler said. “And for example, Hannah Darlington left one of her bats behind after the Indigenous Tour to Vanuatu in May 2023. Beyond that, usually, the VCA purchases the gear for the players to use.”But the team members have never before each had their own set of equipment. Now, a decade since they made their official international debut at an ICC East Asia Pacific (EAP) trophy in Japan in 2014, everyone in the touring group will have a tangible piece of memorabilia from a landmark tournament and gear they can use for future events.This is the first time a cricket team from Vanuatu – male or female – will play in a World Cup qualifier. Their men’s team finished third (out of four teams) at the EAP qualifier last July which was won by Papua New Guinea, who will play at the men’s T20 World Cup. The Vanuatu women’s team fared much better and secured their spots at the World Cup qualifier after winning all six matches in the East Asia Pacific Region Qualifier last September, including beating Papua New Guinea for the first time. The victory was significant not only because PNG are the dominant team in that area but because they are 11th on the ICC’s T20I rankings and Vanuatu are 30th. That means they will be the lowest-ranked team at the Qualifiers and understand they will compete “very much as underdogs,” Cutler said.But, having seen the power of their fundraising campaign and the interest the sport is generating in their country, their global standing is just a number. “Our women are the country’s highest-ranked sporting team – something I know they take a lot of pride in – and I fully expect them to surprise a lot of people in Abu Dhabi. We have a few players who I think are talented enough to play in any franchise league in the world, and knowing how close the team is, I am very excited to see them out there in front of the world.”Vanuatu have been drawn to play against Ireland, Zimbabwe, Netherlands and the UAE in Group B of the 10-team event. Group A includes Sri Lanka, Scotland, Thailand, Uganda and the USA. Each team will play the others in their group, with the top two advancing to the semi-finals. The two finalists will qualify for the T20 World Cup, which will be held in Bangladesh later this year.

With Yastika Bhatia, D Hemalatha, Priya Punia and Richa Ghosh all in the mix, it might just be a good headache for the team to have

Srinidhi Ramanujam24-Jun-2024Who really is India’s No.3 in ODIs?At the moment, they may not have zeroed in on this key position with one year remaining for the home World Cup.Until Amol Muzumdar took over the reins as India’s head coach in October 2023, Yastika Bhatia was the No.3 since the start of the Women’s Championship cycle 2022-25. But things have changed since last year.In this cycle, India have tried four players at this position, with D Hemalatha and Priya Punia their latest experiments, in the recently concluded series against South Africa at home.Related

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This was after Muzumdar, in his first assignment with the women’s national team, rejigged the batting line-up and sent in Richa Ghosh – predominantly a finisher in both ODIs and T20Is – at No.3 against Australia at home, last December. It seemed the move wouldn’t be a short-term experiment after Muzumdar had clarified “that’s the best spot for her” and “we believe that she can be a good top-order player.” During that series, which was not part of the Championship, the left-handed Yastika opened the batting in all three games and Shafali Verma was dropped after the first ODI due to her poor run of scores in this format.Fast forward to June 2024. Six months later, or in other words, in India’s next ODI assignment, when India lined up for the national anthem on June 16 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Ghosh was not padded up and that added to the element of intrigue. Yastika was ruled out due to a niggle that she had suffered during the Bangladesh series. Following Shafali’s dismissal after 20 balls, Hemalatha, who had come back into the ODI set-up after convincing performances at the WPL and then during the T20I tour of Bangladesh, walked in.”The brilliant thing with Richa is that she can adapt to any situation and play. We saw what she did at No.3. I am not ruling out [the possibility of] her at No.3,” India vice-captain Mandhana explained the decision after the first ODI.”But the way Hema was batting in the Bangladesh series, and the nets and wherever we saw, she always looked good. She had a brilliant domestic season, so also [in] the WPL, she was pretty good. The best thing about our middle order is that they can adapt and play according to the situation, which is great. I am not saying Richa won’t be [our] no.3, it depends on who fits best at what place. We are all ready to do whatever is needed for the team. There are no complaints about batting at a certain position, everyone’s really happy. In the end, we want to get the win for India.”Hemalatha had not batted in this position in ODIs before the series opener. All of her previous five ODI innings had come in the middle order. But playing for Gujarat Giants in WPL 2024 and Railways at the domestic level showed that a strong bottom-handed player Hemalatha could thrive up the order. However, against South Africa, she scored a total of 36 runs in the two games after coming in at 15 for 1 and 38 for 1. The sample size is small here and nothing concrete can be made out of this because in the final ODI, when the series had already been sealed 2-0, India decided to give Priya Punia a chance at No.3.Before Sunday, Priya Punia last played an international game in July 2023•BCCIPerhaps a little confusing? Maybe.Punia made her ODI debut in 2019, and played nine matches as an opener in the next four years and scored 242 runs, including two half-centuries. Her last international game before Sunday came against Bangladesh in Mirpur, in July 2023. But she made her way back into the national setup following excellent domestic performances. Playing for Delhi, she finished as the second-highest run-getter in the senior women’s one-day trophy with 494 runs in eight innings, including one hundred and five half-centuries.On Sunday, Punia showed the intent and skill to score from the word go and stitched a 50-run stand with Mandhana in a small chase of 216. Her three fours and a six to long-on looked solid and confident. But her stay was short-lived as she sliced one to backward point after a 40-ball 28.In all three matches at home, Ghosh played in the middle order, after Harmanpreet and Jemimah Rodrigues, back to her finisher’s role.It can also be noted that India played under four different coaches since the last ODI World Cup in 2022. Their first assignment in this Championship cycle was a tour of Sri Lanka in July 2022. Ramesh Powar was the coach then, and he wanted Yastika at No.3 and even said “we are on the right track as far as batting is concerned.”Then in December 2022, he was abruptly removed as part of BCCI’s “restructuring module” two months ahead of the T20 World Cup in South Africa. Hrishikesh Kanitkar was in the top job in an interim capacity briefly. For India’s third assignment in this cycle, a tour of Bangladesh in July 2023, former India offspinner Nooshin Al Khadeer was named the interim coach and under her too, Yastika batted at no.3. Then came Muzumdar as full-time coach.D Hemalatha has played two matches at No.3 since the 2022 World Cup•BCCIOverall, since the last ODI World Cup in 2022, Yastika has played nine matches at No.3, Ghosh three times, Hemalatha twice and Punia once. India do not know when they will play their next ODI with the immediate focus shifting to the T20 World Cup slated for October in Bangladesh.So what happens when Yastika comes back fit?India were able to have Yastika open with Mandhana when Shafali was dropped after a game in the Australia series. Shafali was provided an opportunity in Bengaluru to get her mojo back with the hope that she would translate the T20 success into the 50-over format. But she didn’t find her feet against South Africa also, accumulating a total of 52 runs in three games.If India are going to persist with Shafali, Yastika has to bat at No.3 to maximise her potential, but that also means Ghosh will go back to being a finisher at No.6. What happens to Hemalatha and Punia then?For Muzumdar, it might just be a good headache to have.

Unlike other fast bowlers in Australia, Bumrah can target the stumps as well as threaten both the edges with his swing. How does one prepare for it?

Alex Malcolm03-Dec-20243:01

Pujara: Bumrah is a team-man and has the ability to lead the team

Australia have a Jasprit Bumrah problem. They’re not the first team to run into said problem, and they won’t be the last.There is also evidence to suggest that Bumrah isn’t their only problem. Aamer Jamal, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mir Hamza, Shamar Joseph, Alzarri Joseph, Matt Henry and Ben Sears have all scythed through Australia’s top order in the last seven Test matches with bags of four or more in an innings.But the issue with Bumrah appears to be particularly acute. The only top-eight batter Bumrah failed to dismiss in Perth was Mitchell Marsh. He took five of the first seven wickets in Australia’s first innings and three of the first six in the second.Related

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He did most of his damage with the new ball, but he knocked over Travis Head in the fourth innings on 89 with a ball that was 38.5 overs old. He knocked over right-hand batters from over the wicket and left-hand batters from around. He tattooed red cherries on pads and outside edges alike with both inswingers and outswingers. The only thing he didn’t do was rattle anyone’s stumps, but that was only because four sets of pads got in the way.So how do Australia’s batters solve a problem like Bumrah ahead of Adelaide?

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In 2005, Adam Gilchrist had an Andrew Flintoff problem. Specifically, a Flintoff problem from around the wicket. Flintoff dismissed him six times in all forms in the 2005 tour of England, including four times in the Ashes. His angle in from wide around the wicket and late movement away had Gilchrist consistently following and nicking outside off stump.Ahead of the 2006-07 Ashes, Gilchrist turned to his batting coach Bob Meuleman for a solution. Meuleman, the brain behind the famous squash ball in the glove, came up with another inventive way for Gilchrist to prepare. At Meuleman’s indoor cricket nets in South Perth, he set up a bowling machine on an angle so wide from around the wicket that the machine’s legs were nearly touching the side net. With brand new bowling machine balls, pulled straight from the packaging, he peppered Gilchrist with deliveries angled in and swinging away at high speed.Gilchrist didn’t get out to Flintoff that summer, albeit Flintoff was certainly not the same bowler as he had been in 2005. He didn’t face him in the first Test. He survived 28 Flintoff deliveries of the 79 balls he saw in the second in Adelaide on his way to scoring 64. Flintoff brought himself onto Gilchrist straightaway in the third innings of the third Test after Monty Panesar had dismissed him for a four-ball duck in the first, and Gilchrist went at Flintoff without fear on his way to a stunning 57-ball century.

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In 2024, the bowling machine is a relic of the past for modern-day batters. Despite being a staple in preparation for the likes of Gilchrist and his team-mates, even in the days leading into a Test match, modern batters have shunned it completely citing the repetition and predictability of the machine as detrimental despite the ability to position it for very specific challenges like Gilchrist did.How do you prepare for this kind of action?•Getty ImagesIn trying to solve the Bumrah problem while preparing in the nets, Australia’s batters rely on the coaches throwing with the aid of the side-arm/dog thrower, along with net bowlers.The problem is replicating Bumrah’s release. It’s near-on impossible to do. He is a freak of nature. One of a kind. Much has been made of the stuttered run up and the hyper-extended elbow but none of that actually matters to the guys facing him. What matters only is how the ball comes out of the fingers and how it arrives to them.”I’m best when I look for the cues, when I’m just preparing to watch the ball hard and staying fresh mentally,” Travis Head said on Monday. “I think I’m lucky that I’ve faced him a few times and came across him a fair bit. So I just go back over recent times, and times I’ve faced him.”The problem is there are very few cues from Bumrah. The batters say the uniqueness of his action makes it difficult to differentiate his inswinger and his outswinger. The seam presentation is virtually the same, and he doesn’t fall or lean excessively for his inswinger like other bowlers tend to.Top-order Test batters face high-quality bowlers for a living. Often they have to pick a poison in terms of defending against the most likely dismissal, trying to stack the odds in their favour.In Australia, a batter’s outside edge is the biggest vulnerability. The excessive bounce and seam movement of nearly all of Australia’s pitches now, bar the SCG, and the height of most fast bowlers means that it is very difficult for bowlers to hit the stumps from a good 5-6m length.Australian batters are traditionally very good at leaving on length. Australia’s tall fast bowlers often complain about how hard it is to hit the stumps in Australia. If a batter is leaving well, it forces a quick to push much fuller to hit the stumps, which reduces the ability of the ball to move sideways, and batters can profit with scoring opportunities.Batters might then make a decision to take their guard and eyeline closer to off stump in Australia, in order to make better decisions on what to leave and what to play, and back themselves not to miss anything full or straight given the lbw threat is reduced by the added bounce.They would do the opposite in slower and lower conditions in India. Nicking off in India to the quicks is nowhere near as large a concern as getting pinned lbw. So batters might choose in those conditions to take guard closer to leg stump to take lbw out of play and hope any edge falls short of any small waiting cordon.The problem against Bumrah in Perth was that the threat of lbw and nicking off was equally high given his skiddy nature and his ability to swing the ball both ways at high speed from a close release point. While Australia’s bowlers find it hard to hit the stumps from a 5m length, Bumrah can.

“To me, it’s about how are you scoring runs off Jasprit Bumrah? The art of putting pressure back onto him and knowing where you’re going to score off him, that’s our definition of method.”Australia coach Andrew McDonald

There were five lbws in the Perth Test and Bumrah had four of them. Four players also nicked off. It would have been five had Marnus Labuschagne been held second ball of his first innings at second slip by Virat Kohli.The threat of the nick again no doubt played a part in Labuschagne’s torturous 52-ball 2, where he refused to play a shot, and a part in his second innings dismissal where he tried to leave on length and was pinned lbw.The issue for Australia is how to recalibrate their plans with both threats in play, and how to rehearse them in the nets.Australia’s coaches have been going wide on the crease to replicate Bumrah’s wide release and angle in while attempting to swing it both ways at pace. They did something similar when preparing for West Indies quick Kemar Roach last summer, who also releases the ball from past the perpendicular.The issue with the side-arm device though is the height. The distance between the handle and where the ball is released from is up to 50cm. Coach Andrew McDonald already stands at approximately 6 foot 3 inches. So does bowling coach Daniel Vettori who is a left-armer. Batting coach Michael Di Venuto is a lot closer to Bumrah’s height while fielding coach Andre Borovec is shorter.Jasprit Bumrah trapped Steven Smith lbw first ball in the first innings in Perth•Getty ImagesAustralia had coaching consultants Michael Hussey and Lachlan Stevens, another left-hander, in Perth as well who are Bumrah’s height or shorter. But even then, adding 50cm of stick to the release point means a good length delivery in the nets is unlikely to hit the stumps. The decision-making in terms of footwork and shot selection changes with the trajectory and the bounce.It was a problem past Australian players encountered when preparing for Sri Lankan quick Lasith Malinga, and some tried to get coaches to throw without the side-arm device, instead throwing by hand with a low round-arm release point from in front of the umpire’s chest to replicate the angle.Facing Australia’s bowlers in the nets won’t help either. One international player told ESPNcricinfo that the closest comparison Australia had in terms of Bumrah’s skillset and trajectory was Jhye Richardson. But even Richardson is significantly different to Bumrah and is not with Australia in Adelaide.Ultimately, every player who has ever played knows that what happens in the nets is completely different to the middle, no matter how hard you tried to replicate what you will face.And survival is one thing, scoring is another, as McDonald noted in the aftermath of the Perth loss.”To me, it’s about how are you scoring runs off Jasprit Bumrah,” McDonald said. “It’s one thing sitting there and going, ‘how am I going to defend the good balls?’ But the art of putting pressure back on to him and knowing where you’re going to score off him, that’s our definition of method, how you are going to score your runs against a certain type of bowler.”The boys, they were clear coming in. There’s one thing being clear coming in and then obviously, once you get into the heat of battle, maintaining your mindset around all of that, and that’s going to be our challenge.”

New Zealand see all-format potential in Hay, who comes with a reputation of being a powerful hitter who is calm under pressure

Deivarayan Muthu08-Nov-2024Mitch Hay had missed the first call from New Zealand selector Sam Wells. He was preparing to step out to bat during a Canterbury intra-squad T20 game at Hagley Oval. Just before he went out, he nervously called Wells back and got to know the news of his maiden New Zealand call-up for the white-ball series in Sri Lanka, which will begin with the first T20I in Dambulla on Saturday.When Hay broke the news to his family, his mother wondered whether it had been a prank call, but his Canterbury coach, the former New Zealand batter Peter Fulton, had certainly seen it coming.”After that intra-squad game, I spoke to Mitch and I asked him if he’d had any good news recently and he sort of smiled and said: ‘oh yeah, I’ve had some good news’. I guess as a coach, always a really cool moment when, you know, players that you coach are selected for higher honours,” Fulton told ESPNcricinfo. “Having been there myself and experienced it myself, I know it’s something that most cricketers dream of from a reasonably young age.”Related

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Hay is the latest wicketkeeper-batter from New Zealand’s assembly line that keeps churning out talent though they have a limited pool. New Zealand see all-format potential in Hay. He averages 46 after 19 first-class games and strikes at just under 149 in T20 cricket.While New Zealand coach Gary Stead has backed Tom Blundell to bounce back during the home Test season after struggling against spin in India, there’s an opening for a long-term alternative in white-ball cricket, with Devon Conway and Finn Allen both knocking back their New Zealand central contracts.Hay has been considered the next cab off the rank, thanks to his wide repertoire of shots ranging from the thump down the ground to the scoop in the other ‘V’. In June this year, he also came down to Chennai, along with Tim Robinson and Dean Foxcroft, to hone his sweep shot during a camp at the Super Kings Academy.”I wouldn’t say I’m a natural sweeper but having the exposure here is a great opportunity to learn and try to learn from the coaches,” Hay said while in Chennai. “Sri [Sriram Krishnamurthy, the former Wellington and New Zealand A coach] has been amazing with his knowledge of conditions in both India and New Zealand. So it’s been a good challenge to learn some different shots and different strategies on wickets that spin a lot more than at home. We’ve been lucky to be looked after here by the CSK academy in Chennai.”Hay had played some punchy innings in the middle order in the 2023-24 Super Smash for Canterbury, scoring 170 runs in ten innings at a strike rate of 165.04. Twenty-two batters faced more than 100 balls in that tournament and among them only Robinson (187.42), an opener, had a better strike rate than Hay. Fulton delivered a glowing appraisal of Hay’s attacking abilities and even called him a 360-degree player.”He’s got a lot of power and can strike the ball hard down the ground,” Fulton said. “He’s a good player square of the wicket, and he’s also got the ability to play the scoop shot. So I guess he can score 360 degrees around the ground. So yeah, he’s got all the attributes to bat in that position [in the middle order].ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I think probably the other thing that he’s got, he’s pretty calm under pressure. And again, if you’re going to bat in that No. 5 or No. 6 position in T20, then quite often you’re going to be in towards the end of the innings when the game gets tight. He’s got all the attributes and I’m sure he’s going to do well for New Zealand as well.”Hay had demonstrated that power during his unbeaten 73 off 31 balls batting first against Northern Districts in Christchurch and then during his 38 off 28 balls while chasing against a strong Wellington attack, which included internationals like Adam Milne, Ben Sears, Logan van Beek and Rachin Ravindra, in the Eliminator in Hamilton.”I suppose, from a selection point of view, those are the innings and pressure games, which sort of twisted the selector’s arms and they couldn’t ignore him for too much longer,” Fulton said. “It’s just been great to see him develop over the last sort of three or four years while he’s been in our set-up.”The slow pitches in Sri Lanka and their slower bowlers – Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana in particular – could seriously challenge Hay in his first international tour, but he could fall back on his experience of playing spin on the red- and black-soil pitches in Chennai earlier this year.”The biggest takeaway for me against spin is trying to get low because the bounce can be variable,” Hay said. “We’ve also been trying to use the crease, as Sri alluded to a lot of Indian batsmen are good at that – playing deep but also coming out on the front foot to get really close to the ball. For me, it’s about staying low and when the length is there, get into a strong position on the back foot to manoeuvre the ball. In New Zealand, you can potentially stand up and hit through the line easier.”Tim Robinson, Mitch Hay and Dean Foxcroft at the Super Kings Academy earlier this year•Super Kings AcademyHay is used to keeping wicket against fast bowlers, like most New Zealand keepers, but has been working behind the scenes to improve against spin. “Part of the reason why we wanted him to go to Chennai was also to become a better keeper against spin,” Fulton said. “He’s also done a lot of keeping work with Freddie Anderson, the former Canterbury keeper who is now a specialist wicketkeeping coach. I think he’s improved his work standing up to the spinners and, again, it’ll be a good test for how much work he has done keeping in Sri Lanka as well.”Fulton also believes that Hay has the tools to play as a specialist batter for New Zealand in the future across formats. At one point, Fulton even contemplated having Hay open the batting for Canterbury, but after Cam Fletcher moved to Auckland, he decided to keep Hay in the middle order.”When Mitch first made his debut for Canterbury, it was actually as a batsman,” Fulton said. “Because we had Cameron Fletcher playing for Canterbury at that stage, who obviously is another really talented wicketkeeper-batsman, so, I guess Mitch’s entry into the side was as a batsman.”And, to be honest, if Cameron Fletcher hadn’t moved back to Auckland last season, then Mitch was probably going to be our opening batsman in red-ball cricket. So that, I guess, gives you an understanding of his technique as a batter. I’ll be surprised if in the next couple of years – whether it’s as a wicketkeeper or as a batsman – if he’s not really close to that red-ball side for New Zealand as well.”For that to happen, Mitch will want to make hay in the Sri Lankan sun in white-ball cricket.

The left-hand batter from Bihar heads a list of teenage debutants, some of whom have had successful careers while others faded away

Varun Shetty19-Apr-20251 Vaibhav Suryavanshi – 14 years, 23 days (vs Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2025)On Saturday, the left-hand opener came into the Rajasthan Royals (RR) XI to replace the injured captain Sanju Samson. He first made national headlines at 13 with a 58-ball century against Australia Under-19. That knock made Suryavanshi the youngest player – at 13 years and 187 days – to score a century in youth cricket. Suryavanshi was picked up by RR for INR 1.1 crore after impressing at their high-performance center in Nagpur.For India Under-19, he cracked a 58-ball century in a four-day game against Australia Under-19, while his 176 runs at an average of 44 took India to the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup in 2024. He also has a triple-century to his name – an unbeaten 332 – in the Randhir Verma Tournament, an U-19 competition in Bihar.2 Prayas Ray Barman – 16 years, 157 days (vs Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2019)He was picked by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for INR 1.5 crore after topping Bengal’s wicket charts in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Just minutes before the toss against Sunrisers Hyderabad, head coach Gary Kirsten told him he was playing. At 16 years and 157 days, he became the youngest IPL debutant at the time. Bowling to Jonny Bairstow and David Warner on a flat pitch in the afternoon sun, he conceded 56 in four overs. It remains the only IPL game of his career, and since 2022 he has played only three domestic games.ESPNcricinfo Ltd3 Mujeeb Ur Rahman – 17 years, 11 days (vs Delhi Daredevils in IPL 2018)The Afghan mystery spinner made history when he debuted for Kings XI Punjab in 2018. He made an instant impact after being introduced in the powerplay, trapping Colin Munro lbw with his first ball . His unorthodox bowling had already earned him global attention before this game, and he repaid the faith, bowling a full four-over spell for figures of 2 for 28. This season, he was a late replacement addition to the Mumbai Indians squad.4 Riyan Parag – 17 years, 152 days (vs Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2019)The first IPL appearance for the allrounder from Assam was a thriller remembered for Mitchell Santner’s last-ball six and MS Dhoni’s infamous outburst against the umpires. In his debut season, Parag also became the youngest to hit an IPL fifty. Since then, he has become a regular for RR, retained continuously over the years, and is the squad’s current vice-captain.5 Pradeep Sangwan – 17 years, 179 days (vs Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2008)Pradeep Sangwan was considered a prize catch during the inaugural season, was an U-19 World Cup winner not long before, and held the tag of the youngest debutant for nearly a decade. He went for 40 and took no wickets on his debut against CSK and had only one real season of meaningful cricket (13 games in 2009). He last played in IPL 2022 representing Gujarat Titans and has not played any cricket since the start of 2024.6 Sarfaraz Khan – 17 years, 182 days (vs Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2015)
The batter from Mumbai debuted for RCB in 2015 and seemed to be someone they were willing to invest in, long-term. He was, a few years later, one of their retentions, but was let go in 2018. Fast forward to 2025 at the peak of his red-ball form – and ten years since his IPL debut – he found no takers in the auction for a second season in a row.