In the 2000s, the fall of Australia’s fifth wicket would mean the fun was just beginning. It looks like those days might be back again

Alex Malcolm22-Mar-2022There was once a time in Australia’s golden age at the start of the new millennium when their fifth wicket fell, the fun would begin.No matter how many or how few the much-vaunted top order had compiled, Adam Gilchrist waltzed out to join Damien Martyn, as Australia’s Nos. 6 and 7 produced either a fearsome counterattack, or mercilessly piled on the pain. Four times they piled up century sixth-wicket stands, including a double and a triple.But it has been a while since a lower-order pairing has been so prolific. Leading into Lahore, Australia had produced just two century stands for the sixth wicket since the 2019 Ashes, and just two away from home in the last decade.Related

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The last time Australia had a century stand for the sixth wicket in Asia was in Chennai in 2013 between Michael Clarke and Moises Henriques, when Cameron Green was barely in high school and Alex Carey was making his first-class debut for South Australia.All that changed on Tuesday, and this Australia side looks far stronger for it. Green and Carey combined for an eye-catching 135-run stand that not only dug the visitors out of a precarious position at 206 for 5 prior to stumps on day one, but also pushed the game forward at a pace that has rarely been seen in this series to date.Australia’s first foray into Asia in four years is not only a fact-finding mission, but also a sink-or-swim exercise for the likes of Green and Carey, who had each never played a red-ball game in Asia prior to the first Test of this series against Pakistan. But both have proven themselves as fast learners, and are swimming proficiently by the third Test, albeit on surfaces that have not been technically demanding for batters.”Over in the subcontinent you don’t get caught behind as much,” Green said. “The main learning curve I’ve had to do was to bat on leg stump – and learn to feel comfortable with that. Obviously, if you do that in Australia, you probably can nick off a lot more and you’re not too worried about getting lbw because it’s probably going over.”But over here, everything goes underground. So the main learning curve is trying to get used to batting on leg stump – and then obviously with the spin bowlers, how you play them with the ball keeping a bit lower and turning a bit more.”The pair looked every bit as assured as Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith had on day one. They took advantage of the second new ball’s hardness and prospered.Alex Carey played a mix of slog sweeps, reverse sweeps and cover drives against the turn•AFP/Getty ImagesGreen’s patented early nerves were nowhere to be seen. He sent hearts fluttering with one of the shots of the series off Shaheen Shah Afridi. Standing tall, using all of his 200cm, he crunched the left-armer off the back foot through cover-point. It was a shot his batting coach Beau Casson had been encouraging him to play on slower pitches, and he unfurled it in a statement of intent.Carey, meanwhile, produced some stunning cover drives on the up to continue with the form he showed in Karachi.The pair was not bogged down against spin too. Green was light on his feet and more decisive than he had been in the previous two Tests, while Carey took to Nauman Ali and Sajid Khan with a mix of slog sweeps, reverse sweeps and cover drives against the turn, as they raced to fifty apiece and a century stand inside the first session. Green gave a unique insight as to why the pair had worked so well together.”It’s something I’ve found recently that I look at the partnership score instead of my own score,” he said. “Firstly, it takes a bit of pressure off myself when I look up the scoreboard and I’m only on 12 – let’s say – but if the partnership is on 30, you feel a lot calmer.”So that’s kind of what I’ve been trying to do recently to focus on the partnerships and then your own score will obviously gradually increase. So that’s kind of what me and Alex did. Obviously, at the time we needed a big partnership. Kez batted awesome.”

“Unfortunately, just lack of concentration… I thought I saw the ball go away from me, but it came back in”Green on how reverse swing made him miss out on a century

But the game changed after lunch. Carey had a lapse in concentration and was trapped lbw to Nauman for 67, leaving Green with the tail as the ball was starting to reverse. Green had negotiated Hasan Ali well with the ball tailing in, striking two boundaries in one over. But Babar Azam turned back to Naseem Shah, who made the ball talk at 140kph.”He bowled really well all day, Naseem,” Green said. “He was getting the ball to reverse pretty largely both ways. Basically what I’ve been doing is obviously a bit different to what Smudge [Steven Smith] does. Smudge tries to get really far across and negate lbw, where I’m trying to get my legs out of the way and just play with my hands basically.”It worked for four balls against Naseem in the 125th over, but not for the fifth, as a 140.9kph length ball veered back through the gate to clatter into Green’s middle stump.”Unfortunately, just lack of concentration when you’ve been batting out there for a while,” Green said. “I thought I saw the ball go away from me, but it came back in.”It is a steep learning curve for Green, as he fell between 74 and a coveted Test century for the fourth time in his short career.”Unfortunately, I keep having thoughts go through my head when I’m out in the middle,” Green said. “It’s starting to get a bit of an issue now because it keeps popping in so I’ve got to keep working on that, feeling comfortable when you get close to it and hopefully it comes one day.”If he and Carey keep their minds on the partnership, their day will come.

The Madhya Pradesh and Mumbai Indians bowler talks about how he developed his craft to become a jack of all spin trades

Shashank Kishore01-Jul-20225:17

Kumar Kartikeya: ‘One big thing I’ve learnt is: when bowling, don’t go by the batter’s reputation’

“It was on April 1, 2013, that I left my home in Kanpur. That’s nine years, two months, and some days. I can’t wait to go home and give my parents a hug.”It’s as if Kumar Kartikeya has a counter in his head reminding him of his self-imposed exile: he vowed to go back home only “after becoming something in life”. It’s unlikely he will have imagined he would accomplish that goal as quickly as he has, though.”Whatever I expected, I’ve achieved somewhat,” he says. “I’ve not yet reached where I ultimately want to, but I’ve come to a certain point, where people recognise me now.”Related

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He made his first-class debut in 2018, bowling traditional left-arm spin, but it wasn’t until Mumbai Indians signed him midway through IPL 2022 and he switched to bowling left-arm wristspin with an array of variations, that his career hit another gear. In the four games he played in the tournament, Kartikeya’s confidence and skill, much of it self-taught, stood out.When he returned to Bhopal, where he lives, from the IPL, an airline official recognised him and gave him a ride home. It was a small validation of the notion that he had indeed become “something”.The IPL might have brought Kartikeya recognition, but the pinnacle of his career so far came last week in first-class cricket, when he scripted a fairy tale, bowling Madhya Pradesh to their maiden Ranji Trophy title with his left-arm spin. He ended up taking 32 wickets in the season, finishing in second place on the wicket-takers’ table.The red-ball success was massive because it proved he isn’t a one-trick pony.Kartikeya with his coach Sanjay Bharadwaj: “Where he stands for me, nobody else does. He is everything for me,” Kartikeya says•Sanjay BhardwajNext up on the agenda is a tour of England with his IPL franchise, where he will be pitched against top T20 club sides.But while his homecoming will have to wait, his family has been in his thoughts. In his hour of glory, as he lifted the Ranji Trophy, he missed his grandmother most.”My grandmother didn’t like my [father’s older brother] naming me Kartikeya,” he says. “She asked him if he knew who Kartikeya was. He said, ‘Yes, I know, he’s Lord Shiva’s son.’ She said, ‘Not that. Kartikeya always stayed far from his father. If you give him such a name, he’ll have the same characteristic.'”My grandmother kept telling that it was because of the name he gave me that my life turned out in such a way that I needed to be away from home.”She always wanted to watch me on TV. She did see me in a Ranji match but passed away last year.

****

Kartikeya’s dreams first took wing when he was a 16-year-old new to Delhi, under Sanjay Bhardwaj, the Dronacharya Award-winning cricket coach who runs the famous LB Shastri Cricket Club in the city. Bhardwaj was convinced of the boy’s talent after one net session. And when he learned about how Kartikeya travelled 80km a day to train, while holding down a day job as a mechanic at a tyre factory, he was struck by his dedication and offered to train him for free and to take care of his day-to-day needs.Imitation game: Kartikeya built up his repertoire of spin deliveries watching clips of the world’s top spinners on YouTube•BCCI”The first day I met him, he told me that whatever expenses I had, shoes, clothes, whatever is needed for your cricket, I will provide,” Kartikeya says. “I started weeping. Who does this in Delhi? He said, ‘Just think that I’m like your father.’ I got very emotional then. Since I had come to Delhi, everyone just wanted to take from me. ‘Give me this much and I’ll do this for you.’ He spoke only about giving. I felt so nice. Even now, where he stands for me, nobody else does. He is everything for me.I was not the only one – he did it for a lot of players. Some 70 players have played with him, of whom 30-35 have played the Ranji Trophy, 10-12 have played in the IPL, and a few have played for India, like Gautam Gambhir, Amit Mishra, Joginder Sharma. Among the women, Reema Malhotra. Whichever player he thought was hard-working and honest in his work, he helped them with everything he had.”When Kartikeya had put aside some savings from his cricket earnings, he wrote a cheque out to Bhardwaj – who refused to take it. “I had told him that whatever I earn throughout my life, I’ll give you 30%,” Kartikeya says. “When I first offered it to him, he didn’t accept it,” he says. Then I said, ‘Sir, there are many kids like me who come to you. This will help them.’ That is when he accepted the money.”It was Bhardwaj who impressed upon Kartikeya the need to be different to stand out. That drove his transition from left-arm orthodox to left-arm everything, especially in T20 cricket.”In the T20 game, if I bowl normal left-arm spin, there is a greater chance of being hit,” Kartikeya says. “But if I bowl deliveries that batsmen can’t read which way it’s turning, then it’s not so easy to hit.”He learned by spending hours and hours on YouTube, picking up the mechanics of the carrom ball from watching Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and developing his googly off what he saw Akila Dananjaya and Rashid Khan bowl. Likewise, Yuzvendra Chahal and Adam Zampa were the templates for his left-arm wristspin. The flipper was taught to him by former India and Madhya Pradesh bowler and one-time national selector Narendra Hirwani.Against Punjab, Kartikeya picked up six wickets in the second innings to see MP through to the knockouts of this year’s Ranji Trophy•ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I studied their grips and fitted them to my action with the same grip,” he says, demonstrating. “I can bowl with the normal grip but that will be easy for batsmen to pick. So now I bowl left-arm spin, legspin, googlies, carrom balls, all with the same grip.”I have one thing, with regards to bowling – my mind is sharp. I can pick some things up very quickly.”After watching his role models intently, he put what he picked up into practice, bowling marathon sessions in the nets. “I’ve practised for this a lot. I mean, I over-practised,” he says. “When the IPL started, I had done six months of practice with legspin and carrom balls. I used to do single-wicket practice for three-four hours daily. I would bowl six variations in six balls and continue that for three-four hours.””I spoke to my coach also several times, because at the back of my mind I did have doubts that if I try these variations, it could spoil my left-arm spin. But he told me, ‘Left-arm spin is in your blood. You’ve been bowling it for ten years. If you bowl legspin for a couple of months, nothing will change. So if you think you can bowl it, do it.'”When he told me that, I felt more secure. Earlier when I used to practise this on the ground, several people told me not to do it, that my left-arm spin will get ruined. They said I was established in the Ranji Trophy team, and asked why I wanted to try this.”I kept all this to one side and kept the belief in myself that I can do it. I used to speak to my coach, and he told me that there’s nothing that I cannot do. If I decide to do something, I will do it. So whenever I thought it’s not happening, I would speak to him for ten minutes. It would give me a kick.”Kartikeya played four games for Mumbai Indians in the 2022 IPL, having made the side as a late addition after the season got underway•Mumbai IndiansKartikeya takes great joy in narrating his experiences, and he writes about them as well – in journals he keeps. Chances are, even this interview might find its way into an entry. “If I fumble, we can retake, right?” he asks with endearing earnestness, before talking about his writing habit.”If someone tells me something, I write it down in a diary. I have three-four diaries, and one of them is for noting down who has told me what. In one of them, I note down the good things people tell me – if there’s something motivational that I want to always remember. Then there is one diary in which I write down what happens in my life. Everything that has happened to me so far is written there.”I don’t write every day but at intervals.”Has he written about particular challenges he has overcome?”Of course,” he says, and gives the example of facing MP team-mate Venkatesh Iyer in their first meeting in the IPL.A few days before the game, Iyer ribbed him with, “Pray to God that I don’t play the match.” “I told him, ‘It’s fine,'” Kartikeya says, laughing. “‘I’ve got my planning done for you.’ He said he wouldn’t spare me, and I said, ‘We’ll see.'””I’ve always felt that on a good wicket, he can easily hit me. So I had it in my mind that I can’t let him smash me, and I need to bowl a delivery he wouldn’t understand. I bowled legspin to him. The first ball was a carrom ball and it went for four from the outer edge. Next ball, I bowled a googly and he hit me for six. Then I bowled a legspinner. He thought it would be a googly and he got a top edge and got caught.”So long, bro: Kartikeya celebrates the wicket of friend Venkatesh Iyer in the IPL•BCCIIyer and he get along well, Kartikeya says. “When I did well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali [domestic T20s] this year, he told me that I’m such a bowler that I can play at a higher level anytime, but I need to concentrate on my fitness and diet.” Iyer said that he needed to stop giving in to his sweet tooth if he wanted to play top-level cricket.”I don’t eat sweets now,” Kartikeya says. “When I go home now, I’ll tell my mother in advance that I can’t eat , because right now it’s more important that I play! As long as I’m playing I won’t eat sweets. Yes, it will be difficult to tell her, of course. But if she insists on making it, I’ll tell her to make it sugar-free.”Does his diary include entries about tongue-lashings endured from his MP coach Chandrakant Pandit? You bet.On the last day of their Ranji season opener against Gujarat, MP were defending just 196. Pandit thought Kartikeya had been overconfident and conveyed as much without mincing his words. Kartikeya took it in his stride but left the meeting saying, “Sir, don’t be tense. I will win this game for you. If I don’t, you can leave me out of the side.” He picked up 5 for 34 in his side’s 106-run win, which set the tone for their campaign.Kartikeya is clear he has miles to go before he can dream of resting on his laurels. Bhardwaj’s first message when he returned from his first IPL season was, “You have one blue jersey [Mumbai Indians] now. The main blue jersey [India] is still left. Don’t think you have achieved something big. This is just the start. You have a ladder, climb it. Always respect the game.”Recently a Bollywood film-maker approached Kartikeya with an offer to make a film about his life and career, much like the recent Pravin Tambe biopic. Kartikeya politely refused. “There is so much to achieve still,” he said. “Let’s see after I become ‘something’.”

With the T20 World Cup looming, the performances of Hendricks, Stubbs, Ngidi and others have made the selectors’ job exceedingly tricky

Firdose Moonda01-Aug-2022South Africa have five more T20Is to play before the World Cup, but just two more in which to finalise their squad (their three in India in October come just before the tournament) and there’s no better place to assess themselves from than the perch of a series win. From Rilee Rossouw’s comeback from Kolpak to Andile Phehlukwayo’s comeback from concussion, South Africa demonstrated what stand-in captain David Miller gleefully referred to as “great bouncebackability and character”, and found match-winners in different individuals.Only 15 can go to the T20 World Cup, though, and performances over the last 12 months mean South Africa will find themselves with several selection conundrums, though Miller doesn’t mind. “Its a great healthy space to be in,” he said. “We’d rather have those headaches than having no options.”With matches to play against Ireland in Bristol next week, we take a look at the main talking points ahead of the World Cup squad selection and some of those who’ve made strong cases to be included.Reeza Hendricks’ hot streak
In an opening partnership so often headlined by Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks does not often get to stand out but in his series, he has. Hendricks reeled off three successive half-centuries to finish as the leading run-scorer in the series ahead of much more well-known names on either side including the returning Rossouw and England’s man of the summer Jonny Bairstow. And he did it without much bludgeoning but with plenty of class. Hendricks is a smooth timer of the ball, has quick wrists, and is speedy between the wickets. He brings a sense of calm to the crease and allows the bigger hitters, like Rossouw, to bat around him, and on form should be part of the T20 World Cup group. Bur the reality is that Hendricks has often been a reserve. It’s only the ninth time in South Africa’s 18 series since 2018 that Hendricks has had the opportunity to play in all the matches in a series, and South Africa may need to start asking themselves why. The answer lies in the top-order bottleneck in the squad, and that will only become more complicated when Temba Bavuma returns from injury.Stubbs a shoo-in for the World Cup

There’s been plenty of hype around Tristan Stubbs – that’s what an IPL contract will do for you – and he lived up to it in this series. Stubbs is a big hitter in the truest sense of the words and has the power and the shots to clear the boundary. He is fearless against spin – long considered a weakness among South African batters – and earned the praise of Moeen Ali for being a “very, very good player”. With David Miller and Stubbs in the middle order, South Africa could have a threatening pair of finishers for the T20 World Cup, with the potential of more to come. They’ve so far resisted the urge to pick Under-19 World Cup record-breaker Dewald Brevis (who has yet to play a domestic first-class or List A game) but Dale Steyn reckons that in Stubbs and Brevis, the next decade of South Africa’s batting is safe.Tabraiz Shamsi overcame a difficult start to the series to end it as its highest wicket-taker•Getty ImagesThe case for Phehlukwayo
Dwaine Pretorius has proved his ability when there’s seam movement on offer but Phehlukwayo offers South Africa a point of difference when it comes to selecting one seam-bowling allrounder in their T20I XI. Given the pace of South Africa’s other specialist quicks, Phehlukwayo’s testing length – back of a good length but not short enough to be short – and his cutters are good variations to have in the attack. His challenge is consistency and he will want to to be able to string together several solid performances to secure the allrounder spot He didn’t get much opportunity to bat in this series but has shown he has big-match temperament in the past and a good return against Ireland could help him seal a spot in the T20 World Cup squad.Ngidi to lead the attack?
It seems impossible that Lungi Ngidi will warm the bench at this T20 World Cup, as he did in the previous one, after the way he has performed in the last few months. He only played in two of the five T20Is in India, and only bowled 4.3 overs, but was the leading wicket-taker among the fast bowlers in the England series. Ngidi, like Phehlukwayo, has a mix of slower balls at his disposal but can also turn up the heat to 140kph-plus, and has proved particularly difficult to get away, boasting an economy rate of 6.53 and an average of 7.81 this year. He is noticeably more agile in the field now, has been installed at backward point on occasion, and took two fabulous catches to dismiss Jonny Bairstow in the second T20I and Jos Buttler in the third. With Kagiso Rabada having two quiet series, Ngidi has stepped up and could be the bowler to lead South Africa’s quicks over the next few months.Shamsi still has it
After being spooked by short, straight boundaries in Bristol, Tabraiz Shamsi stormed back to finish as the series’ leading wicket-taker by trusting in his own game. Instead of rushing through deliveries and bowling quickly and flat, Shamsi returned to the fuller, slower approach that has worked for him in the past and it paid off. Shamsi grew more confident as the series went on, after he was reminded of what he was capable of by his team-mates.Miller said there were no major discussions over what went wrong in the first game but emphasis was placed on how Shamsi has elevated himself to the best in the world. “There were one or two pointers to remind him what he can do and what he is capable of, to build up his confidence rather than tell him what to do,” Miller said. “He knows what to do. You don’t want to harp too much on the negative but mention what his strengths are and remind him what he is capable of.”Shamsi remains focused on the dual role of wicket-taking and holding the game, as South Africa’s attack evolves from all-out pace to greater variety. “There was a big talk about Immi [Imran Tahir] retiring and I was expected to fill his shoes but I don’t see things that way,” Shamsi said. “Sometimes the captain wants me to hold the game. I don’t see it as a disappointing game if I don’t take wickets. We are all capable of taking wickets. We are also all capable of holding the game.” The return to Bristol will be a great test to see how he does.

Allrounder’s success vindicates backing of Manoj Tiwary and management

Himanshu Agrawal16-Jun-2022″That was the best match I have ever played for Bengal so far.”Shahbaz Ahmed smiles as he jogs back to a memorable game from earlier this Ranji Trophy season. In their opening match against Baroda, Bengal were shot out for 88 in the first innings and were later set a daunting 349.A loss would have most certainly thrown a dagger on their qualification chances, given there were only three group games. Shahbaz walked in at 176 for 5. He had rookie Abishek Porel, straight out of the Under-19s, for company.The pair added 108 in just over 22 overs on the final day as Bengal scripted a historic win. It was their highest-ever first-class chase, and the sixth best in Ranji history. Shahbaz ended with 71 priceless runs; Porel made a half-century.On Thursday, Shahbaz added another milestone in his nascent first-class career, when he hit a backs-to-the-wall century, his first in Ranji Trophy, to keep Bengal alive. His 167-run stand with fellow centurion Manoj Tiwary helped rescue the team from a precarious 54 for 5.”IPL is all about hard-hitting and shot-making; in Ranji, you have to play an entirely different game,” Shahbaz says of the switch, in a chat prior to the semi-final. “One major change for me is having to play a lot later in red-ball cricket, since the red ball swings a lot more than the white one. Another requirement [of the longer format] is to keep leaving a lot of the balls, both of which I have been trying to do in net sessions which I have had.”Shahbaz was always a competent batter, but perception was that he was a left-arm spinner who could bat. So, while many outside the fringes expressed surprise at his spunky batting contributions for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, his team-mates and coaches knew it was Shahbaz excelling at his primary skill.Within two days of finishing his IPL stint, he landed in Bengaluru for the Ranji knockouts. And in his first red-ball outing in three months, Shahbaz made 78 as Bengal declared after piling up 773 for 7 against Jharkhand. He has followed that up now with a maiden first-class century.One of the hallmarks of his knock was the situational awareness. He curbed the drives and pulls early on, seemingly intent on leaving deliveries to ensure he didn’t give the Madhya Pradesh pacers an opportunity to break in. Having done so knowing fully well he was the last-recognised batter with Tiwary brought out his maturity. His partnership with Tiwary was poetic in a way because the former Bengal captain was among the first to push for Shahbaz’s inclusion in the team four years earlier. Tiwary was impressed with Shahbaz’s consistency in domestic cricket but faced opposition when he was told they can’t field an “outsider.”Like his senior Bengal team-mate Mohammed Shami, Shahbaz isn’t a local. He grew up in Mewat, Haryana, and only came to Kolkata in 2013. Having started with club cricket, Shahbaz directly made it to the domestic level, completely bypassing the age-group circuit.Related

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“My friend Pramod Chandila, who played for Bengal at the time, was the one who brought me to play club cricket in Kolkata,” Shahbaz recalls. “I consistently kept playing there, though I had never really come thinking that I wanted to play for Bengal in domestic cricket. I just wanted to play since club cricket in Kolkata is the best you would get anywhere in India.”It’s during a club tournament that Tiwary first noticed Shahbaz. “I always wanted a spinner who can bat, because to win the Ranji Trophy you have to have a spinner who can bat as well,” Tiwary says. “So, I was looking for one. During the team selection they used to have that proper data of who was scoring runs and picking wickets in club cricket. Shahbaz was one of them who was always picking up more than 50-odd wickets and scoring 1200-1500 runs. I always wanted him to be in the side.”Whatever norms the CAB has of outstation players coming and playing club cricket, as far as my knowledge goes, he fulfilled that criterion to be selected in the senior team. So, there was no question about ‘he is playing as an outsider’ or whatever it is. But yes, there were lot of questions raised. And results are there to be seen now. He’s justified his selection over a period.”Shahbaz couldn’t be more thankful to Tiwary’s support from back in the day. In 2018-19, he managed just two games but had a breakout season in 2019-20, which coincided with Bengal’s march to the Ranji Trophy final.Shahbaz Ahmed scored over 500 runs and picked up 35 wickets in Ranji Trophy 2019-20•PTI “When I had just about started playing in Kolkata, it was Manoj Tiwary who spotted me first, and I ended up making my debut [for Bengal] under him,” Shahbaz says. “It is tough for someone to directly get a chance at the highest level in domestic cricket if he hasn’t played U-19 or any other [age-group] cricket, but he gave me a chance to play for Bengal directly from club cricket.”What stands out about Manoj is the way he dominates spinners. When you look at him while batting, he gives you the impression that he always has a lot of options against spin. And the way he looks at a match situation is also very helpful. He is a long-term thinker too. At the same time, he also breaks it up into sessions.”These traits were evident when they carried on keeping Madhya Pradesh at bay in the ongoing Ranji Trophy semi-final in Alur.Another person instrumental in Shahbaz’s success has been Arun Lal, the current head coach. Lal’s coaching philosophy borders on being frank and to say things as it is. Shahbaz has embraced this openly and admits this has helped him become a better thinker of the game.

“During the team selection they used to have that proper data of who was scoring runs and picking wickets club cricket. Shahbaz was one of them who was always picking up more than 50-odd wickets and scoring 1200-1500 runs. I always wanted him to be in the side.”Manoj Tiwary on Shahbaz Ahmed

“I was dropped after playing my first two [first-class] matches for Bengal. At the time, I had a very wide-open stance while taking strike,” he recalls. “So, Arun Lal sir said that scoring runs with that [technique] would be very difficult because of the pitches in domestic cricket in India. And so, after getting dropped, the first thing he asked me was to change the stance. So ever since I have done that, I have started getting the results with the bat – especially in Ranji.”For all the adulation and success of the IPL, Shahbaz hopes he can win the Ranji Trophy for Lal now. “He is a very positive person who keeps motivating us by saying that we can even play for India soon,” Shahbaz says. “We get a lot of good vibes from him, and that boosts our confidence too.”He isn’t even looking beyond the Ranji Trophy. “At this moment, I need to improve a lot,” he says when asked of his India aspirations. “It is only then that I can hope for a chance in the national team. I need to keep maintaining my form and keep winning matches for my side – especially with the bat. I must keep performing consistently to get that chance.”In an interaction with ESPNcricinfo in 2020, Shahbaz had said that he aspired to be Bengal’s own Ben Stokes. So how far has he reached in his goal?”I want to be a good finisher for my team,” he keeps on repeating, “and so I look up to Stokes, since he has won the World Cup, and single-handedly won the Headingley Test for England. His body language stands out for me. So, I just want to finish games off for Bengal and in the IPL, just like he does it for England.”

It’s not only his performances but also his data-driven approach that has played a part in Pakistan getting to the final

Osman Samiuddin12-Nov-20222:03

What makes Shadab so successful in Australia?

Before the start of this tournament, Shadab Khan was asked to rate Pakistan’s reliance on data analytics in T20 on a scale of 1 to 10. He answered with words, not numbers, but if ever words represented a solid five, this was it. Difficult to say. Franchises are different. International cricket is different. Hmmm. Haww. Not reliant on it. Not disregarding it.Shadab is a poster boy of the Islamabad United data dynasty. He gets it. He applies it. He believes in it. He is also the vice-captain of a Pakistan team where the captain is not a great believer in match-ups, where a religious philosopher doubles as a coach and a mentor who is a man of words that don’t always make sense. At the last T20 World Cup, almost the same Pakistan side were mostly ignoring – politely – data-based tactical advice they were getting from analysts, and they reached the semi-finals unbeaten. Shadab gets this too. He believes in this too.Related

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But this happy accommodation – Shadab of the Pakistan ethos, Pakistan of Shadab – captures something intrinsic about this latest Pakistan ride, of which Shadab has been the absolute beating heart. A ride fuelled by a little bit of data, a little bit of (prayer) and a whole lot of Pakistan.

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History repeats itself, the saying should go, first as Pakistan cricket, then as a meme. The 1992 parallels have long gone viral, but there’s a more compelling one from an individual performance from Pakistan’s second world title. Trent Bridge, 2009 and you know where this is headed: the coronation of Shahid Afridi, 13 years into his career. A fifty first, the blown kiss for Jacques Kallis and then the iconic castling of Herschelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers in four balls to set up Pakistan for the final.In Sydney, a little over a week ago, against South Africa, in another must-win game, Shadab dismissed Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram in the space of three balls to unhinge the chase. Earlier he had rescued Pakistan with a 22-ball 52, like Afridi in 2009, his first fifty in an ICC event. No kisses were blown.Memory says the Shadab ball to dismiss Markram might have resembled Afridi’s to de Villiers but Youtube proves otherwise. Afridi was getting so much drift in those days, each ball was like a fully formed character out of a Kerouac novel. But the Markram delivery was almost identical to Shadab’s own dismissal of Markram from the only other time he’s bowled to him, in a World Cup game three years ago. A flipper maybe, or a toppie, a goodie definitely: across nine balls, it’s bowled Markram twice.Shadab Khan is a big draw in this Pakistan team•ICC via Getty ImagesThis isn’t a coronation, not yet anyway, more an arrival. Shadab’s been a gun for a while, but he’s now stamped his presence all over a global event. He’s a genuine shot for player of the tournament though if it’s just a fan vote, only one guy is winning that (You don’t even have to scroll down. He’s right there).Shadab still considers himself a legspinner first, though his batting has come on so sharply in recent years soon it might not be so easy to agree. But it’s perhaps the highest compliment to his bowling in this tournament that it has made the central issue of his batting – to be higher up the order more often – redundant.He’s offered Pakistan essential control in those middle overs, foremost with 10 wickets – the most by any bowler in that phase at the tournament (to have bowled at least 30 balls). That’s one wicket less than Rashid Khan, Adil Rashid and Adam Zampa combined. Among spinners, his economy rate of 6.59 is the fifth best, and he’s basically as good as the most economical spinners because only 0.22 per over separates him from top spot.That fifty against South Africa was no fluke though. Since 2020, he’s one of just three players in all T20s to have scored over 1000 runs and taken 100 wickets (Samit Patel and Jason Holder are the other two). Dig a bit more into that period* and he’s the only player alongside Mohammad Nabi to have at least 10 scores of 30+ at a strike rate above 150 as well as at least 10 innings where he’s bowled his full quota of four overs and conceded less than six per over. Most teams would love to have a player tick one of those boxes: Shadab ticks both. No surprise either that ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats has him as the fifth-most impactful T20 player in the world since 2020.So he might call himself a legspinner, but he’s as all-round as they come, not least when his fielding is factored in. He’s the best fielder in the best fielding side Pakistan has ever put out at a global event. The run-out of Devon Conway in the semi-final was an electric and pivotal moment, but in the canon of Shadab run-outs, hardly spectacular. All three stumps, nice and easy bounce for the pick-up – if he’d missed it, it would’ve been surprising.

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Shadab Khan might call himself a legspinner, but he’s as all-round as they come•Getty ImagesIn his first season as captain, Shadab’s Islamabad were chasing 183 against Lahore Qalandars at Gaddafi Stadium. They were 5-2 at the end of the second, both openers gone. Until that point Shadab had mostly batted lower down, usually at seven.The story goes that he reasoned to coach Misbah-ul-Haq that he should go in at four. The chase was a tall one and going in himself was a way of maximising resources. He would go hard from ball one and if he failed, it would hardly be a dent on batting resources with Colin Ingram, Asif Ali and Hussain Talat to come.As it turns out, his 29-ball 52 helped Islamabad win a raucous game, but more than the potential of his batting, the story reflects his grasp of the format’s demands. The phrase low-value wicket wasn’t as in vogue then, but that is exactly what he was.That game awareness, built off some homespun instinct and enabled by the environment at Islamabad, is something that few in the Pakistan side can match. That is what filters through to the national side. It’s been said, for instance, that it was his input that led to the recent tactical flexibility in Pakistan’s batting order. There’s a suggestion Shadab had a fingerprint on the early introduction of Mohammad Nawaz against Glenn Phillips in the semi-final. High pace is usually a good way to go against Phillips but Shadab was aware that Phillips’ can struggle early against left-arm spin. Nawaz took his wicket sixth ball, bowled one more economical over and was done.None of this is to exaggerate Shadab’s role, merely to highlight that Pakistan have come upon, in him and Babar Azam, a valuable complementariness in on-field leadership. Babar’s a more orthodox captain, albeit with sound instincts. Shadab’s approach bounces nicely off this and they get on far too well for it to be any more complicated than that.Not that the last bit matters at this moment. The last Pakistan captain and vice-captain to feature in a world final at the MCG had, you might recall, an infamously complicated relationship. You might also recall where that got them that day.

India scored 48 from final three overs in pursuit of the 160-run target against Pakistan, as Kohli finished on 82*

Sampath Bandarupalli23-Oct-20225 Instances of a team completing a successful run chase on the last ball in the men’s T20 World Cup, including India in Melbourne. The previous occasion was by Zimbabwe against Netherlands in 2014, only two days after they were themselves on the receiving end against Ireland. Sunday is the fourth time where India won a T20I chase on the last ball, which the joint-most alongside Sri Lanka.48 Runs scored by India in the last three overs, the joint-most target runs chased by any team in the final three overs at the men’s T20 World Cup. Australia also won against Pakistan in the 2010 edition, needing exactly as many with three overs remaining. The 48 runs by India are the joint-second most target runs chased in the last three overs in men’s T20Is, behind the 59 by Sri Lanka against Australia earlier this year in Pallekele.ESPNcricinfo Ltd129 Runs scored by India after the fall of the fourth wicket. These are the fifth-highest runs scored by any team after the fall of the fifth wicket in a successful run chase in men’s T20Is. India’s 31 for 4 is the lowest total at the fall of the fourth wicket from which any team has won in a run chase in the men’s T20 World Cup.81.33 Virat Kohli’s batting average in T20Is against Pakistan is the highest for any player against an opponent in the format with a minimum of ten innings batted. Kohli has scored 488 runs in ten innings against Pakistan – including five half-centuries – and won the Player-of-the-Match award four times.ESPNcricinfo Ltd3794 Runs by Kohli in his T20I career, thus becoming the leading run-getter in the format by leapfrogging his team-mate Rohit Sharma’s 3741 runs. Out of those, 927 runs have come in the T20 World Cup, the third-highest by a batter in the competition.113 Partnership runs between Kohli and Hardik Pandya, the fifth-highest stand for the fifth or lower wicket in men’s T20Is. It is also the highest for India, surpassing the 102* between MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh against Australia in 2013.

Sri Lanka captain pledges to carry on after young team fails in spirited bid for semi-finals

Firdose Moonda19-Feb-2023It started with a sensational win over South Africa in the tournament opener and ended with a whimper as they were dismissed for their third-lowest total in T20Is. It’s fair to say Sri Lanka came, saw, conquered and then crashed out. For Chamari Athapaththu, it’s not a calamity.”The world has not ended. The sun will come up tomorrow. I want to build a good team for the future. Today the feeling is not good but my focus is the next tour,” she said, still smiling, afterwards.That Athapaththu can even talk about the next tour is a win for Sri Lanka. They went without fixtures between March 2020 and January 2022 and know what the effects of a prolonged absence from the game can do for a team’s momentum. Now, thanks to the first ever women’s FTP, they have visits from Bangladesh (which did not take place prior to the World Cup as initially scheduled) and New Zealand to look forward to, as well as a tour of England later this year. “The youngsters need some experience. They need to play more cricket in future,” Chamari said. “We have to play a lot of cricket against the top four teams.”Chamari’s youngsters include under-19 captain Vishmi Gunaratne, who is only 16, offspinner Kavisha Dilhari, who has 10 more T20I caps to her name than her age of 22, and her opening partner, 24-year-old Harshitha Samarawickrama. All of them were excited about the prospect of reaching the semi-finals and anxious about beating New Zealand after losing to Australia, even if that result had been somewhat priced in.”I’m not worried about the Australia games but I’m a little bit worried about today’s game,” she said. “It was a very crucial game for us and I felt some of the girls in my team put too much pressure on their shoulders. I think they didn’t handle that pressure very well.”Sri Lanka’s nerves showed almost immediately. They missed a run-out chance that would have seen Bernadine Bezuidenhout dismissed for 7 and then dropped her on 19. She went on to score 32 and share in a 46-run opening stand with Suzie Bates that set up New Zealand’s innings. They also dropped Bates, on 37, as her 56 off 49 balls propelled New Zealand to a score above 160. In response, Sri Lanka were completely shell-shocked. They played their big shots too early and picked out fielders and once Athapaththu was dismissed, it became a procession as the last five wickets fell for 25 runs.Their opposition knows exactly what that feels like. It was less than a week ago that New Zealand were bundled out for 67 – the second-lowest T20I total – two days after Australia had dismissed them for 76 to all but end their hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals. They were particularly distressed after their 65-run defeat to South Africa – a match that had the weight of a quarter-final attached to it – and captain Sophie Devine emphasised the need to figure out and discuss where things were going wrong. Athapaththu may be tempted to do the same but Amelia Kerr, who was part of Devine’s team’s talks, had some advice. “When there is emotion involved, sometimes you don’t know what to say and it’s better to review it the next day.”When New Zealand did that, they came up with a mantra for their last two games: “be tougher when things get tough,” Kerr explained. “There was nothing wrong with the talent we have in this room, it was just to have that belief and be tough.”That may work for New Zealand, who have a fairly developed professional structure as opposed to Sri Lanka, whom FICA’s annual global employment report said had “not professional structures”, and both Athapaththu and Kerr acknowledged the gap is growing.Unsurprisingly, they both cited Australia as the benchmark and while Athapaththu zoned in on the domestic structure, Kerr looked at T20 franchise leagues that have made the difference. “Australia has a good domestic structure. They play a lot of cricket – domestic tournaments and schools tournaments,” Athapaththu said, while Kerr described the resources the Australian players have as “outstanding”.Related

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But they also pointed to the growing prowess of India as a signal to the rest to speed up their development. “In terms of what we are seeing around the world, with the Hundred in England, the WBBL in Australia and now the WPL, it’s going to strengthen those countries a lot,” Kerr said. “We are heading in the right direction: our match fees being equal to the men, and it allows us to earn more money so we can train more. Most of us do cricket full-time which is only going to help our game. We are behind those countries but if all countries can get that opportunity it is going to help grow the women’s game.”And for Athapaththu, that is especially significant for the other teams on the subcontinent, which could have just one representative – India – in the final four. “India has a good structure but in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, we have to develop our structure,” she said.Because she wants to be part of that process, Athapaththu herself has committed to at least another T20 World Cup – the next tournament is in Bangladesh in September/October 2024 – and perhaps even another 50-over tournament.”I want to build a good team for Sri Lanka for the future, so that’s my goal,” she said. “I want to encourage the youngsters and be a role model. I always try to lead them from the front, so my target is playing another one or two years for Sri Lanka. That’s what I want to do.”

Who will they pick as the third spinner? And will Ishan Kishan or KS Bharat keep wicket?

Karthik Krishnaswamy07-Feb-20234:24

Ravi Shastri wants India to select Kuldeep and the better wicketkeeper

Rohit Sharma, ______, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, ______, Ravindra Jadeja, ______, ______, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, ______.Six players seem to be near certainties in India’s XI for the first Test against Australia in Nagpur. The other five slots, however, could cause raging debates, with compelling options available to fill all of them. Here are the choices facing India’s team management.Who takes Shreyas Iyer’s place?Iyer has only played seven Tests, but he’s become a key middle-order player on turning tracks. With both him and Rishabh Pant – who along with Ravindra Jadeja are the only three India batters (minimum 5 innings) to average above 50 in Asia since the start of 2021 – absent, India have a big hole to fill in the middle order.Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav are the prime candidates to replace Iyer, and both make persuasive cases for selection. Gill has four hundreds, including an ODI double-ton, in his last seven innings for India, and even if he made all those runs in white-ball cricket, he made them in the manner of a special, once-in-a-generation talent announcing his coming of age. It’s hard to keep out someone in that kind of form.Related

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Suryakumar hasn’t played Test cricket, and his selection in the squad came largely on the back of what he’s done in T20s. Where batters who typically get picked to play Test cricket for India break through with first-class averages in the high 50s or 60s, Suryakumar only averages 45.93 after 74 matches. But his is a wildcard selection, with India probably looking at him as a potential gamechanger in low-scoring Tests on turning pitches. In the last Ranji Trophy game he played, in December, Suryakumar scored a 107-ball 95 when Mumbai were bowled out for 230 by Saurashtra. Eight of the ten wickets in that innings, and 31 of the 40 in the match, fell to spin. If India reckon the Nagpur pitch will behave similarly, they could well decide to take the Suryakumar gamble.Who opens with Rohit Sharma?If India do play Suryakumar, they’ll have a seriously tricky decision to make at the top of the order. Rohit Sharma will return after missing both Tests in Bangladesh with a thumb injury, which means one of the two openers who played on that tour will either have to move down the order or sit out.One of them was Gill, who scored a maiden Test hundred in the first Test in Chattogram. The other was KL Rahul, whose four innings on the tour brought him scores of 22, 23, 10 and 2.Rahul, however, captained India in those two Tests, in Rohit’s absence, and is the designated vice-captain for the first two Tests of this series. It would be a massive call for India to leave Rahul out, but it seems like the only way they can play both Gill and Suryakumar, if they’re looking to go in that direction.Who should keep wicket?Pant’s absence is the biggest hole in India’s line-up, and neither wicketkeeper in their squad is really a like-for-like replacement. No other keeper in the world is, to be fair.Over the last two years, Pant has performed two key roles for India. He’s played game-changing innings in every kind of crisis situation, against all kinds of bowling on all kinds of pitches, and he’s done this while turning himself into a world-class keeper. India were happy to play Wriddhiman Saha ahead of Pant in home Tests when they felt he wasn’t yet good enough with the gloves, particularly to spin bowling, and he worked on that side of his game and improved it beyond recognition.When India choose their keeper for Nagpur, therefore, they’ll place a lot of emphasis on his keeping skills, and this means KS Bharat – who has been Pant’s understudy for a year now, ever since India phased out Saha – is likely to make his Test debut ahead of Ishan Kishan.Kishan’s attacking approach and left-handedness – two characteristics he shares with Pant – would make him a tempting option for India, nonetheless, and he might have pushed extremely hard for selection if he had a strong white-ball series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in January. As it happened, though, he went past 20 only once in nine ODI and T20I innings, and also gave the impression that he needed to improve his glovework.Ashwin, Jadeja and who?”It’s pretty dry. Particularly one end that I think will take a bit of spin, particularly the left-arm spinner spinning it back into our left-handers. There’s a section there that’s quite dry. Other than that, I can’t really get a good gauge on it.”I don’t think there will be a heap of bounce in the wicket. I think for the seamers it will be quite skiddy and maybe a bit of up-and-down movement as the game goes on. The cracks felt quite loose. We’ll wait and see when we get out there.”These were the thoughts Steven Smith voiced on Tuesday about the Nagpur pitch.Who’s the first bowler you’d pick on a dry pitch promising sharp turn, with a particularly dry section made for left-arm orthodox spinners to aim at outside the left-hand batters’ off stump, against a top order packed with left-handers?You might say Ravindra Jadeja, but if you had Axar Patel in your squad, you’d probably pick him too.It feels almost certain that India will pick Axar alongside Jadeja and R Ashwin, even if their ex-coach Ravi Shastri feels Kuldeep Yadav should get a go instead. Shastri’s reason for backing Kuldeep, however, is sound – if India happen to bowl first, and if there doesn’t turn out to be a great deal of help for the spinners on day one, Kuldeep would be likelier than any of the three finger-spinners to get something out of the pitch.It’s exactly what Kuldeep did in his most recent Test match, getting significantly more turn out of a flat Chattogram pitch than any of the five other spinners – all fingerspinners – playing that game, and picking up five wickets in Bangladesh’s first innings to give India a 254-run lead.The decision could, in the end, hinge on India’s reading of the pitch – given what Smith said, Axar seems likelier to play. There’s a small chance that they could pick both, and play four spinners and just the one quick, but that might be overkill even on a square turner.Which fast bowlers should play?Mohammed Shami is almost certain to start, if fit. He has a phenomenal record in India – 67 wickets in 18 Tests at an average of 21.28 – and his skiddiness could be a major wicket-taking threat if there’s low bounce to exploit.Umesh Yadav is a similar bowler with a similar record in India – 98 wickets at 25.16 – and Nagpur happens to be his home ground in domestic cricket. India, however, have preferred Mohammed Siraj to Umesh most times when they’ve had to make that choice, and it feels like they might in this match too, particularly given how good Siraj is against left-hand batters. If Australia pick both Matt Renshaw and Ashton Agar, they will have as many as six left-handers in their top eight.Jaydev Unadkat, the other seamer in India’s squad, seems unlikely to feature in Nagpur, unless illness or injury paves his way for selection. He could offer a point of difference as a left-arm quick if he plays, and also help in creating a rough outside the right-handers’ off stump for Ashwin to bowl into.