New Zealand have reached the T20 World Cup semis as underdogs, and emotions are already running high for two of the team’s most celebrated players

Valkerie Baynes16-Oct-2024Sophie Devine struggled to keep it together.The emotions had already spilled over after reaching the T20 World Cup semi-finals as probably the biggest underdogs until West Indies did it 24 hours later. Now her focus turned to sharing that moment with fellow White Ferns stalwart Suzie Bates and it was almost too much.”Jeez, you’re going to make me cry again, get the tissues ready,” Devine said before taking a long pause and a deep breath to ensure she could get the rest of her words out.”Sometimes I forget how lucky I’ve been to play with Suze. I forget how lucky I am that not everyone gets to play with Suzie Bates and that’s not just what she does on the field, it’s what she does off the park.”You talk to any cricketer that’s had the joy of playing alongside her, playing against her, and they’ll say that she’s one of the greatest humans ever. For us to be here in this tournament, it might be our last, who knows?”But to be able to have a little moment there and just connect with one another, it is really special because we’ve been through a lot together. We’ve grown up together. She’s probably grown up a bit more than me, but she’s just such a special human, not only to me, but to New Zealand cricket and to world cricket.”She’ll go down as one of the absolute legends of the women’s game and to think that I’ve been so lucky to spend my whole career playing alongside her… she’s taught me so much, not only as a leader but just as a person and to always want to be better for yourself and for the group.”Related

• 'We are breaking barriers every day' – Bates proud to fly the flag against ageism

• Eden Carson – NZ's reel sensation who clicked at the biggest stage

• West Indies knock England out, join South Africa in semi-finals

• Time for India to reboot after group-stage exit from Women's T20 World Cup?

• Hope, grit, resolve: emotions overflow amid New Zealand's revival

Bates made her debut in an ODI against India in 2006 aged 19, just a few months before a 17-year-old Devine made her first appearance for the White Ferns on their tour of Australia. Devine also made her T20I debut on that trip while Bates had to wait until the following year.Back then, Bates was still maintaining a elite-level basketball career, representing New Zealand at the 2008 Beijing Olympics before switching her focus to cricket.She has now played 169 T20Is and 163 ODIs with more than 10,000 runs and 136 wickets across the two formats, while Devine has 7,233 runs and 208 wickets from a career punctuated by a brief mental health break in 2021.New Zealand hadn’t reached the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup in eight years so, with both approaching the end of their careers, this meant a lot.”She was a bit emotional, Soph,” Bates told ESPNcricinfo’s Powerplay podcast. “It just makes all those hard times when perhaps you’ve doubted yourself, you’ve doubted where the group’s heading and as leaders you’re trying to rack your brain about how to move forward, there’s some good times but there’s some dark times as well when you don’t quite achieve what you want to achieve.”Moments out there when you take that final wicket and realise we’ve made it to the semi-final for the first time in eight years, it makes all those tough times worth it.”Devine had said before the tournament that it would be her last assignment as T20I captain. She will continue to lead the side in ODIs but wanted to clear a path for the next generation.”Her leadership this tournament after announcing she was going to step down has just been absolutely brilliant,” Bates said. “She wears her heart on her sleeve and I know as a leader she takes the losses pretty hard so to be able to get that one for her in her last tour as captain, everyone was a bit emotional and she’s been such a great leader of this squad so it’s nice for her to have this feeling.”It wasn’t the first time Devine had been reduced to tears at a T20 World Cup but, unlike in South Africa 20 months ago, she was happy. Back then, the White Ferns’ campaign was in tatters following heavy back-to-back defeats at the hands of Australia and South Africa and the road ahead looked so very long.Even earlier this year, Devine had spoken of a lack of depth coming through the New Zealand system because of a small population, competing sports and a need to bridge the gap between elite and development pathways.Things didn’t look to be improving immediately before the World Cup either as New Zealand entered the tournament having lost 10 T20Is in a row to England and Australia. They even lost a warm-up game against England two days beforehand.But a comprehensive win over South Africa in another warm-up just before that, followed by their upset of India in their opening World Cup game gave the White Ferns confidence.Devine performed well in both those victories, but throughout the tournament she has been impressed by youngsters like spinners Eden Carson and Fran Jonas and 20-year-old wicketkeeper Isabella Gaze.On the bench for New Zealand’s final group game against Pakistan, whom they thrashed by 54 runs to seal their place in the last four, were young seamer Molly Penfold, and experienced bowlers Jess Kerr, Hannah Rowe and Leigh Kasperek, which Devine saw as a promising sign for the future, which had looked bleak not so long ago.”Well, one thing’s still the same, I seem to be crying,” Devine said. “It’s really important that we reflect on where we’ve come from in terms of that South Africa World Cup. We learnt a lot about ourselves not only from that World Cup but the following 12-18 months.”It’s going to take time to build depth, especially in a country as small as New Zealand, it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s really positive signs, but we know that this is just part of the journey. We’re moving in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go.”Sophie Devine on her relationship with Suzie Bates: “We genuinely just love each other and love seeing each other succeed”•Getty ImagesWhile a T20 captain won’t be chosen until next year, a logical choice could be Amelia Kerr. She has acted as stand-in captain before and is often seen talking tactics and moving fielders with Devine and Bates, representing the blend of experience and youth between the squad’s newcomers and the old heads.At just 24, Kerr has played 83 T20Is and 74 ODIs and has been a fixture on the global franchise circuit. Heading into the semi-finals, she is the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 10 at an average of 7.20 and economy rate of 4.90.”That was probably one of my earliest learnings when I stepped into the leadership and captaincy role, I thought I could be everything to everyone and it’s just not possible,” Devine said.”I want to fix things and I want to help people and I want to make sure everyone’s okay, but I’m also not that person for everyone. So, to be able to call on the likes of Suzie and Melie as well, I feel really fortunate that I’ve got that support around me.”It’s taught me a lot around leadership. It’s not managing people, it’s just relationships and caring about people. That’s one of our greatest values in this White Ferns group, is we speak a lot about caring for one another as people before cricketers.”I hope that you can see that out there with the way that we celebrate one another’s successes. We genuinely just love each other and love seeing each other succeed.”

All the big numbers from Australia’s breathtaking chase against Scotland in Edinburgh

Sampath Bandarupalli04-Sep-202462 Balls remaining when Australia achieved their target of 155 against Scotland. This is the biggest win margin by balls in successful 150-plus chases in men’s T20Is. The previous-biggest margin was 43 balls, when Romania chased down 158 in 12.5 overs against Greece in 2021.Australia’s 62-ball win is also the joint-biggest in a 150-plus chase in all men’s T20s, equaling Sunrisers Hyderabad’s win against Lucknow Super Giants earlier this year while chasing 166.Related

Travis Head's 80 off 25 blows Scotland away

The 155-run chase by Australia is also the highest to be achieved inside ten overs in men’s T20Is. Only two teams have successfully chased higher targets in ten or fewer overs in all men’s T20s.113 for 1 Australia’s total in the powerplay, the second-highest by any team in men’s T20Is where ball-by-ball data is available. The highest is Romania’s 116 for 0 in only 5.4 overs against Serbia in 2021.73* Travis Head’s score in the powerplay is the highest by any batter in men’s T20Is where ball-by-ball data is available. The previous highest was 67* by Paul Stirling against West Indies in 2020.16 Boundaries struck by Head during the powerplay, the most by a batter in men’s T20Is. He went past Colin Munro’s 14 boundaries against West Indies in 2018.Mitchell Marsh added 113 with Head at a run rate of 19.94•AFP/Getty Images97.5 Percentage of Head’s runs scored in boundaries (78 runs out of 80, with 12 fours and 5 sixes). It is the second-highest percentage of runs scored through boundaries in a 50-plus score in men’s T20Is. The highest is 98.04% by Mirza Ahsan, whose 51* for Austria against Luxembourg in 2019 included 50 boundary runs.24 Boundaries hit by Australia in the powerplay, including 14 in a row off the last 2.2 overs. These are the most boundaries hit by a team in a powerplay in men’s T20Is, surpassing the 21 by Romania against Serbia in 2021.The 24 boundary hits by Australia are also joint-most in men’s T20s, equalling Sunrisers Hyderabad’s feat against Delhi Capitals earlier this year.19.94 Run rate of the 113-run partnership between Head and Mitchell Marsh for the second wicket, which came in only 5.4 overs. It is the second-highest run-rate for a century stand in men’s T20Is, behind the 20.47 by Ramesh Satheesan and Taranjeet Singh, who put on an unbeaten 116 for the first wicket for Romania against Serbia in 5.4 overs.17 Balls Head needed for his fifty, the joint-fastest for Australia in men’s T20Is. Marcus Stoinis scored a 17-ball fifty against Sri Lanka in the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Fit, adaptable and supremely confident, England’s Test team continue to walk the talk

Matt Roller11-Oct-20241:26

Miller: England have found perfect tempo to be ruthless

It was a collapse that could only be explained by its context. Pakistan lost this Test on the fourth evening when they slipped first to 41 for 4 then 59 for 5 and 82 for 6 in the third innings. Impressive as England’s bowlers were across the match, these were unexpectedly easy wickets to come by on a blameless pitch.But Pakistan’s batters were beaten by the time they had even reached the crease, run down by the dual burdens of their recent struggles and 150 overs being run ragged in the field. Saim Ayub spooning Brydon Carse’s first ball to mid-off was the worst of a series of grim dismissals, which were the culmination of mental and physical exhaustion.It is one thing to spend around 150 overs in the field, as both sides did in their first bowling innings. It is another for them to be spread across three days, and to spend them chasing after the ball as the opposition score at more than five runs per over: England scored 478 non-boundary runs in their first innings, compared to Pakistan’s 276.Related

• Pakistan, a graveyard for Test bowlers – in numbers

• Abrar in hospital after falling ill during Multan Test

• Stats – Rare England innings win in Asia, Pakistan losing streak continues

• Leach four-for consigns Pakistan to historic innings defeat

• England further expose Pakistan's mental and tactical fragility

Joe Root and Harry Brook’s partnership ground them down, a 454-run epic spread across 86.3 overs. Brook’s gear change after lunch on the fourth day – he hit 99 off 65 balls in the second session – compounded Pakistan’s weariness, and left them floundering in the mid-afternoon heat. “It had a massive effect, which is what Test cricket is about,” Chris Woakes said.”Here in the subcontinent, you can have three supposedly dull days and then the game can happen quickly. That was always the plan: once we were able to get ahead and run them ragged in the field, it was always going to be hard for them, even on that surface. We know how much it takes out of you.”Root and Zak Crawley’s partnership across the final 18.4 overs of the second day was a vital phase in the match – not least after Aamer Jamal’s spectacular catch to dismiss Ollie Pope. It enabled Brook to start his innings fresh on the third day, and gave Ben Duckett’s thumb time to heal before he came out to bat at No. 4.”The way that Ducky and Creeps [Crawley] go about their business has such a good impact on the changing room,” Brook said. “Watching them go out there and put immense amounts of pressure on their two best bowlers in Shaheen [Afridi] and Naseem [Shah]… it gives you comfort going out there, thinking that the pitch is probably better than what it is.”Touring the subcontinent as an England cricketer in 2024 is completely unrecognisable to what it once was: the team are travelling with their own chef, and are staying on a luxury hotel with a neighbouring golf course. There is still a mental adjustment to make from playing in front of full houses back home to the banks of empty seats this week, which England made impressively quickly.Harry Brook and Joe Root laid the platform for England’s innings win•Getty ImagesThis win was testament to their players’ fitness, and their ability to adjust from the start after coming from a wet, cold autumn back home to the stifling heat of Multan. England insisted in the build-up that three tough training sessions would be enough for them to acclimatise and so it proved, as they coped far better than Pakistan with the oppressive conditions.Brook worked tirelessly on his fitness in the early months of this year, when he missed England’s tour to India and the IPL to be with his grandmother on her deathbed. By his own admission, this was not an innings he could have played without that dedication: “If I hadn’t done that, I’d have probably got to 150 and just slogged one up in the air.”None of England’s seamers had played a Test match in Pakistan before but Woakes, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse comprehensively outbowled Afridi and Naseem. Carse was particularly compelling on debut, bowling at high pace and finding some reverse-swing: England have moved on from James Anderson and Stuart Broad with impressive speed.The Test match run has lost its value almost as quickly as the rupee in Pakistan, but even in the context of a high-scoring match on a lifeless surface, England’s total of 823 for 7 declared was remarkable. There were seven sessions between them losing Pope to his second ball in response to Pakistan’s 556 and their winning moment on the final morning.But just as Pakistan’s third-innings failure carried an air of inevitability after their recent results, England’s players were not intimidated by a big score. This was the third time since Brendon McCullum took over as coach two-and-a-half years ago that they had conceded more than 500 in an innings: they have now won all three.”You take confidence from those previous performances, when you’re that far behind in the game,” Pope said. “We try not to think about the end result too much during the game, especially if we’re behind… That’s allowed us to go and put together these performances and good wins in situations where potentially, in the past, we wouldn’t have got over the line.”England’s series results under McCullum have been a mixed bag: they have beaten teams they would expect to, drawn with Australia, and lost heavily in India earlier this year. But it is their style and approach that has made them such a compelling team to watch: asked if this was his favourite Test win, Pope claimed it was “definitely top three” – and then named three others.Along with their victories in Rawalpindi two years ago and in Hyderabad in January, England have won three Tests in Asia that few other sides could hope to. McCullum has dismissed the idea that Bazball has been “refined” in any way beyond personnel but this was a reminder of its central tenet: that athletes perform at their best when imbued with immense self-belief.It is not totally foolproof, and there are times when England’s tactical approach has overstretched. But they have now won 20 of their last 30 Tests – and there remains an intoxicating sense that the best is yet to come.

Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland have no pathway to break into the league of nine teams and play few Tests. What does their future in Test cricket look like?

Ekanth03-Feb-2025The sky was blue, Afghanistan were in whites, ready to re-acquaint themselves with the red ball. They were back in Greater Noida, their old home outside Delhi, for their first Test against New Zealand. New Zealand would likely have been excited by a new opponent, but they were probably looking at the game more as prep for their forthcoming Tests in Sri Lanka and India.On the surface, there were uncontrollable reasons – mainly rain – for the Test being abandoned without even the toss having taken place. Still, the first two days being washed out due to the after effects of rain outside the hours of play was hard to explain.Gary Stead and Jonathan Trott, New Zealand’s and Afghanistan’s respective coaches, expressed their disappointment and acknowledged the compromises involved in the organisation of the Test. And so a rare opportunity for Afghanistan to play a Test match went almost literally down the drain.

****

When the ICC first approved the idea of a World Test Championship in 2010, Zimbabwe were supposed to be among the ten participating teams in the league when it kicked off three years later. However, it was postponed and only actually approved in 2017.Related

• From poverty to plenty: 2025 is a bumper Test year for Zimbabwe like none before

• Slushy patches, wet weather prevent Test from starting in Greater Noida

• Ireland government approves permanent cricket stadium in Dublin

• Women's cricket in Afghanistan: Lack of progress 'a concern' for ICC

• Full members to play more international cricket in ICC's new FTP cycle

When the WTC was finally launched in 2019, only nine Full Members were included. Zimbabwe, as well as the latest Full Members, Afghanistan and Ireland (who were awarded that status in 2017) missed out. No specific reasons were given for their exclusion, but it was thought to be because both the latter two members were newly inducted and Zimbabwe had lost their way because of the political interference in their cricket in the 2000s.Those three teams (with the major ones) got spots in the ODI Super League, which did provide regular opportunities to lower-ranked sides, and an Associate team, to play against Full Members. But that league was discontinued after the 2023 ODI World Cup, with just one cycle completed. The Intercontinental Cup, once a steady source of red-ball exposure for Associate teams between 2004 and 2017, had also been scrapped by then.Three cycles into the WTC, there still is no pathway for a new team to enter the championship. There is no system of promotion and relegation, or any other meritocratic provision to challenge the positions of the existing teams.”For you to be a Full Member, you need to play all three formats. That’s an eligibility criteria,” Tavengwa Mukuhlani, Zimbabwe Cricket’s chair, says, “So every member must have an equal and fair opportunity to play the three formats, without discrimination. The current set-up defeats the purpose of being a Test-playing Full Member.”

“The more Test matches that Afghanistan play, the better, the more first-class cricket they play, the better they’ll be”Jonathan Trott, Afghanistan coach

Since the start of 2018, the year Afghanistan and Ireland played their first Tests, the three non-WTC teams have played 28 Tests collectively. That’s an average of under four Tests between the three of them per year.Last year, which offered the three sides six Tests between them was kind to them. Ireland won both their matches and hosted one for the first time in six years – although that needs to be weighed against the cost of giving up the chance to host the Australia men’s side for the first time. The Boxing Day Test, Zimbabwe hope, could grow into a tradition. Afghanistan played three Tests in three different countries.Trott hopes that the Test team can follow in the footsteps of their high-achieving white-ball team which beat England, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan in the last ODI World Cup and made the T20 World Cup semi-final last year. But that seems a lofty ambition.The abundant talent they are blessed with has helped Afghanistan progress farther and faster than their non-WTC counterparts. However, they are more affected by the proliferation of franchise leagues, where their players are in demand. Rashid Khan, for instance, Afghanistan’s captain and go-to match-winner, is a mainstay across multiple T20 leagues.Afghanistan are scheduled to play 21 Tests between 2023 and 2027, Zimbabwe 20 and Ireland 12 apiece under the ICC’s men’s Future Tours Programme (FTP). However, Afghanistan have played only five so far (New Zealand Test included) about halfway into that four-year period.The cost of one lost Test is magnified when you factor in other changes to their calendar. Afghanistan were set to play two Tests against Bangladesh in June 2023 but only played one, due to scheduling issues. They then had a multi-format series against Zimbabwe in July 2023, where too a Test was dropped (scheduling issues again). Their multi-format series against Bangladesh in 2024 was initially postponed and then turned into a three-match ODI series.Andy Balbirnie of Ireland: “A lot of the top nations are picking [players] on first-class records, whereas we can’t do that”•Michael Steele/Getty Images”It’s the FTP,” Trott says. “You deal with it as and when it happens, and when Test matches come up and first-class cricket comes up, you want players to perform.”Trott says Afghanistan’s high-performance centre looks after player development across age groups and formats in the country, and that the team has access to very good facilities in the UAE. However, only regular participation in first-class cricket and Test wins against the top teams can make for a pathway into the WTC, he says.”It’s just that white-ball cricket is more what they’re used to, and they’ve played a lot more of it. And that’s the only reason why I think the more Test matches that Afghanistan play, the better, the more first-class cricket they play, the better they’ll be.”While Afghanistan have had the Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament, a multi-day competition running since 2011, which gained first-class status in 2017, the number of teams participating in it has come down from six to four. To its credit, the competition survived Covid.But the ability to fine-tune players for Test cricket – on demand – is still not within their grasp, as perhaps reflected in their loss to Ireland in Abu Dhabi in a close Test in March 2024. “We could’ve easily won that one if we’d played a little bit better,” Trott says.Ireland registered their first home Test win when they beat Zimbabwe in July, in another seesawing Test.

“The current set-up defeats the purpose of being a Test-playing Full Member”Tavengwa Mukuhlani, Zimbabwe Cricket chair

“The more that we play international cricket,” Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland’s CEO, says, “the more the players get used to the rhythms of international cricket. The wins show that our players are learning very quickly, and our players are very talented, and I think you ask any player, they love playing Test cricket.”Not that he thinks putting a large amount of Test cricket into the crowded international calendar is the best thing to do. “I think we would prefer to potentially increase it gradually, over a period of time. I don’t subscribe to the theory that more content automatically makes for a better FTP.”The Emerald Challenge match was Ireland’s only domestic first-class game in 2024, and that was washed out. For the Test they played against Afghanistan, Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie says they spent about a week or so in Dubai just practising with the red ball to get used to it.Having to rely on instinct for selection is also a problem, because of the lack of data. “We’ve had selection meetings that have been based on how the person has performed in the nets, in the build-up to a Test match,” Balbirnie says. “We can’t go on anything else. A lot of the top nations are picking [players] on first-class records, whereas we just don’t do that. We can’t do that.”Do we have a hunch? Is someone looking like they could do something in Test cricket? So we have some very interesting selection meetings where a lot of names are thrown around.”Be that as it may, Balbirnie and many of his team-mates have demonstrated that regular exposure to the longer format can lead to a sustainable career. “My international game was developed by playing nations like Scotland, Netherlands, Oman, Namibia, all these teams [in the Intercontinental Cup],” he says. “And there was nothing between the teams, it was always close cricket. And then, from nowhere, [Ireland] got out of it into the next level, for whatever reason – I don’t know if it was [because of] a good salesperson in the meetings, a good CEO, someone who could sell us as a team.Players train at Afghanistan’s high-performance centre in Kabul. The team also has access to top-of-the-line facilities in the UAE, but lack of actual Test match play hobbles their development•Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images”Obviously we’ve put in good performances, but it didn’t seem that fair that we just went up above and left everyone low below us, because even now, when we play Scotland and Netherlands, there’s not a lot between the teams. There are bowlers in the Netherlands team, the Scotland team, that are as great as these [Ireland] guys. If you put them on the Test stage, you’ll see good cricket.”I feel like there’s a place in Test cricket for Associate Nations. I can’t see it happening before I finish playing, but hopefully in time, as the game develops, that will be the only way it can go.””Six-seven years, eight years” is how long Trott hopes it will take for Afghanistan to become part of the WTC. “Look at Bangladesh and their development.”Bangladesh, who played their first Test in 2000, had to wait 34 Tests over 17 series for their first Test-match win (against Zimbabwe). Despite having taken large strides, they are in the bottom triad of the WTC club a quarter of a century into their life as a Test side. Glacial progress in Test cricket isn’t a new or unique problem.”A lot of the Afghan players played probably 30 first-class games” Trott says, “and [about] ten of those have been Test matches. So, experience-wise, they don’t play enough four-day cricket. That’s where you’ll learn, out in the middle.”

Three cycles into the WTC, there still is no pathway for a new team to enter the championship. There is no system of promotion and relegation to challenge the positions of the existing teams

An additional wrinkle for Afghanistan is the issue of women’s participation – the lack of which, thanks to Taliban rule, has been a point of contention over the last few years, leading to the team’s status as a Full Member being questioned (the ICC constitution requires all Full Members to have a women’s team). It is why the Australia men’s team currently do not play bilateral cricket against Afghanistan. There is no long-term resolution in sight. So far the ICC board has resisted taking away Afghanistan’s Test status, arguing that the ACB is bound to follow the Taliban’s edicts, regressive as they may be.Zimbabwe for their part have a talent-drain issue, as well as the lingering spectre of corruption and political interference. Mukuhlani says he recognises the importance of structures and transparency in the running of the board, which received an unqualified or clean audit opinion for their financial statements in 2023. He also knows the importance of maintaining a solid first-class structure.”Our Logan Cup, which we run with five sides, is improving every season and is bringing in foreign players,” he said. “But the biggest challenge, one which we have experienced in the past too, is that all our good players we have an opportunity [to bring into the Zimbabwe national set-up] will end up in England [mainly but also other foreign countries].”Tom Curran (England), Gary Ballance (who played for England and then returned to represent Zimbabwe), and Colin de Grandhomme (New Zealand) are examples, among others. While Mukuhlani appreciates that players are free to migrate, he says it can’t be at the expense of Zimbabwe’s development programme.”I think if a player has played for a nation in Under-19s, particularly if they’ve played in a World Cup team, [and] if they are to switch citizenship, the receiving board must pay us for development. It can’t be for free.”While Ireland are trying to create systems for cricket in the country, they are far from being immune to existential threats. They offer players casual and retainer contracts to build their talent pool but are arguably better off having players play county cricket or franchise leagues as part of their development.Warren Deutrom of Cricket Ireland says the World Test Championship needs to evolve into a format based on divisions or conferences – which will not happen without a lot of political will from those involved•Sportsfile via Getty ImagesFor Ireland, playing a Test at home is more expensive than doing so at a neutral venue, because real estate is expensive in the country. In recent days it has been driven home just how resource-intensive building a stadium can be. Given they took big strides in the 2010s in ODIs, they are perhaps the team hit hardest by the previous two ODI World Cups being reduced to ten teams.What does their ideal future in Tests look like?”Ultimately, I believe all international cricket should be played with context,” Deutrom says. “That being the World Test Championship. When that needs to happen, how the World Test Championship needs to evolve, whether it’s divisions, whether it’s conferences [splitting the 12 teams into two equally weighted groups], I don’t know.”Deutrom points out that these potential configurations pose their own tough questions. “Is there going to be a conference in which you’re not going to have icon series taking place? Can you envisage any environment where England, India or Australia won’t be playing each other in Test cricket? So it’s very difficult to understand or to see how it could happen without very, very significant political will.”A recent newspaper column by Ravi Shastri advocating a two-tier Test system has reignited discourse around the topic, but political will is lacking, as seen in the remarks of the exiting ICC chair, Greg Barclay, who stepped down after four years in charge late last year.”Why are Ireland playing Test cricket?” he said to the Telegraph during a conversation where he suggested structural changes to cricket in lower-ranked countries and regions.

Ultimately, a quarter of the Full Members do not know what they need to do to be part of the whole

So should Ireland and similarly placed teams just focus on white-ball cricket and international tournaments instead?”We became a Test member seven years ago,” Deutrom, who spoke for this article before Barclay’made his comments, says. “Just because we’re not in the World Test Championship, it doesn’t mean that we’re not playing the format or improving at the format, winning at the format. I don’t see a need for us to have to relinquish it.”There’s no burning platform that says, ‘Well, unless Cricket Ireland makes a decision tomorrow about what the next ten years of Test cricket looks like, we should give it up.'”Yes, we’re not in the World Test Championship. And yes, we’re not playing ten Test matches a year, but so what? I can’t see that us not doing that is somehow negatively impacting the world game, negatively impact[ing] our players, [or] is somehow diminishing the credibility of world cricket. So I don’t understand why, just because we don’t have a definitive road map, based on our current requirements, whether it be in terms of money or permanent infrastructure, we have to make a definitive decision. We don’t.”Most Full Members find the current system the most effective. And so, Test cricket’s context-free era – albeit not as context-free as in the past – continues to linger. Ultimately, a quarter of the Full Members do not know what they need to do to be part of the whole. There are no definitive answers. Not yet.

India’s defeat at the MCG made 2024-25 one of their worst seasons in Test cricket

Sampath Bandarupalli30-Dec-20245 – Test defeats for India in 2024-25, equalling their record (from 1999-2000) for most losses in a season. Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma are the only India captains with five Test defeats in a season.6 – Number of innings in 2024 in which India have been dismissed for less than 160, the joint-most for them in a calendar year after 1952 and 1959.2014-15 – The last time Australia won more than one match in a Test series against India. Since then, Australia have lost four bilateral series against India 2-1.3 – Players with 40-plus scores and three or more wickets in both innings of a Test for Australia: George Giffen in the 1894 Sydney Test against England, Alan Davidson in the 1960 Brisbane Test against West Indies, and now Pat Cummins against India at the MCG. Only 14 players have pulled off this all-round feat in Test cricket.1007 – Number of balls faced by the two teams in Melbourne after the fall of the sixth wicket. This has happened just one other time since 1998 – 1066 by England and India in the 2014 Nottingham Test (complete data for fall-of-wicket is available only since 1998).

It’s quite a radical upgrade for the team’s players, who haven’t ever had this much opportunity thrown at them before

Firdose Moonda17-May-2025In 2025, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan will play five Tests each; Bangladesh six; West Indies seven; South Africa eight; India and England ten each; and Australia 11. Only one other team will play as many matches as the last of those: Zimbabwe.Despite not being part of the World Test Championship, Zimbabwe have actively sought out Test fixtures, which they see as their responsibility as an ICC Full Member, even if they have no one holding them to that. “I believe that every Full Member must play all three formats. It’s part of our eligibility criteria,” Tavengwa Mukhulani, Zimbabwe Cricket chairman says. “We are a country that has played over 100 Tests [123 to date] so we are a Test nation.”This staunch commitment has recently been boosted a notch. Since making their Test comeback in 2011, Zimbabwe have played 40 matches in 14 years: an average of just under three Tests a year. In some years, like 2015 and 2019, they did not play any. Before this year, the most Tests they had played in a calendar year since the comeback was six in 2013.Related

• Zimbabwe cricket boss Mukuhlani elected Africa Cricket Association chair

• RCB bring in Muzarabani as Ngidi's temporary replacement

• Zimbabwe seal Sylhet thriller to complete first away Test win since 2021

• Zimbabwe to receive touring fee from ECB for 2025 visit

• What does Test cricket mean to the Test teams outside the World Test Championship?

Zimbabwe have already played two home Tests this year, and are due to host six more. They’ve also played two away, and have another such scheduled in England this month, which is historically significant. It is the first time Zimbabwe will play there since 2004, and the first time they will play against England in any format, since 2007.That statistic alone says how starved Zimbabwe are of cricket against the top nations. They haven’t played a Test against Australia since 2003, against India since 2005, and against neighbours South Africa since 2017. Mukuhlani calls it an “informal segregation”, one that “should have no place in sport” because of how it entrenches inequalities.He wants to see an equal spread of fixtures, in which all Full Member teams play each other. “Every one of the 12 Full Members must be given an opportunity to play against each other in all the three formats. If you look at football, which has grown phenomenally globally, Brazil plays Honduras, England plays Malta. This story that there are those who are playing on one side of the aisle and those playing on [the other] has no place in sport,” he says. “We need a bare minimum home-and-away schedule and over and above that, countries can then organise their bilaterals [as] suits their commercial needs.”Mukuhlani is also against a two-tier Test system because he thinks it will leave the smaller nations even further behind. “If you’ve got a two-tier system, the question is, what do you want to achieve? Do you want to formalise segregation?

With Rohit and Kohli retired, India’s selectors face a series of tricky calls ahead of the five-Test tour of England

Nagraj Gollapudi16-May-20254:11

‘Captaincy will not bear heavily on Gill’s shoulders’

The Test retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have not only opened vacancies for their batting slots, but also given India an opportunity to address questions of critical importance, including the captaincy. The upcoming five-match Test series against England, from June 20 to August 4, then, is hugely significant. ESPNcricinfo looks at the questions the Ajit-Agarkar-led selection panel, which is expected to meet on May 24, will discuss as Indian cricket enters a new era.Who will be the captain?Shubman Gill is the frontrunner, but Jasprit Bumrah is in the race as well. Some even believe that KL Rahul is a wildcard. Gill, 25, has received favourable assessments from his peers, the selectors and India’s coaching staff, who collectively believe he is growing into a composed and assured player. Even if his batting overseas is still in its development phase, everyone agrees Gill has all the attributes to grow and become a long-term leader.Bumrah, on the other hand, has proved he can lead by example and gain respect from his players. He first captained India in the fifth Test against England in 2022, and then in the first and fifth Tests of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Bumrah, though, doesn’t have his own back (pun intended), with stress-related issues in the lower back forcing him to undergo surgery two years ago, and, in January, end his Australia tour early, on day two of the Sydney Test. He returned to action in the IPL after missing the Champions Trophy, and the medical advice for Bumrah is not to play every match in a long Test series like the one in England.There is also a left-field option available to the selectors: appoint Bumrah as the captain with Gill as his deputy, with Gill taking over the captaincy each time Bumrah doesn’t play.Who will Jaiswal’s opening partner be?Rahul’s success in Australia, which forced Rohit to bat in the middle order, means the former is set to be the frontrunner to open alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal. In Australia, Rahul was originally picked as an extra batter for a middle-order role. While it is likely that he remains an option for both opening and middle-order roles again, Rahul has good numbers as an opener in England.Among the batters expected to tour England, Rahul is the most experienced. He has played nine Tests there over two series – first in 2018 and then in 2021-22 – and has opened in all but one of them, scoring 597 runs, including two centuries, at an average of 37.31.Abhimanyu Easwaran and B Sai Sudharsan are likely to be the other favourites for the opening slot, or go on tour as reserve openers. Vastly experienced and successful at domestic level, with over 100 first-class matches, Easwaran, 29, plays for Bengal, and has travelled as a reserve opener on several Test tours in the past. That includes replacing Mayank Agarwal on the 2021 tour of England. He is, however, yet to make his Test debut.Sai Sudharsan, the Tamil Nadu left-hand batter, has also impressed the selectors since scoring a century on first-class debut in 2022, and continuing to develop as an opener. Sai Sudharsan has also been among the best young top-order batters in the IPL, where he plays for Gujarat Titans. He has also represented Surrey in county cricket, and scored a century for them, although he had batted in the middle order then. Overall, as an opener in first-class cricket, Sai Sudharsan has scored 1397 runs in 33 innings at an average of 42.33 with four centuries.Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan are both part of the India A squad that will tour England for two first-class matches before the Test series, with Easwaran named as captain.Who takes over Kohli’s No. 4 spot?As Cheteshwar Pujara told ESPNcricinfo, there is no ready replacement to take up the No. 4 slot, which Kohli took over from Sachin Tendulkar in 2013. Kohli had never batted at No. 4 in Tests before that, but made the slot his own. Kohli proved, then, that experience of batting at that position really doesn’t matter as long as you have the pedigree. Currently, Rahul and Gill could be the top contenders for that position.After Kohli pulled out of the home series against England last year, Rahul batted at No. 4 in the first Test in Hyderabad, and made 86 and 22, before missing the remainder of the series due to injury.As for Gill, while he has never batted at No. 4 in Tests, he has strong numbers there for India A: in three innings, he has scored 287 runs, including a 204*, at an average of 143.50. However, in case Rahul opens and Gill moves down from his usual No. 3 slot to No. 4, then Sai Sudharsan could be looked at as the No. 3.In his debut series, Nitish Kumar Reddy scored a hundred at the MCG last year•Associated PressIs there room for Nitish Reddy?Nitish Kumar Reddy was the fourth-leading run-scorer in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and scored a memorable maiden Test century in front of a nearly-full MCG. Reddy, Easwaran and Harshit Rana were the three uncapped picks on that tour.Picked as an allrounder, Reddy grabbed headlines for his belligerent batting even as he admitted he did not stand up to the task as a bowler. However, in England, if Reddy could find some purchase in seaming conditions, he becomes an attractive choice to bat in the lower order and double up as the fifth bowling option.Meanwhile, Shardul Thakur, showed his prowess with both ball and bat in a strong finish to the Ranji Trophy just before the start of the IPL. He could be another option the selectors might ponder over as a bowling allrounder or even as a travelling reserve. Thakur, 33, has played four of his 11 Tests in England, including the World Test Championship final defeat to Australia at The Oval in 2023. Thakur, though, would retain better memories of the venue during India’s win in 2021, where his half-centuries in both innings proved vital.Reddy and Thakur have both found places in the India A squad touring England.What about the fast bowlers?A five-match Test series calls for a bigger fast-bowling pool. That becomes even more crucial because of the fitness issues of Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, which makes it unlikely that either of them features in all five Tests. Apart from those two and Mohammed Siraj, the contenders among the fast bowlers are M Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar, Rana, and the left-arm trio of Khaleel Ahmed, Arshdeep Singh and Yash Dayal.Kuldeep Yadav was a key figure in India’s 4-1 home-series win over England last year•Getty ImagesIs there room for Kuldeep?The England tour will be India’s first full Test series after R Ashwin’s retirement midway through the Australia tour. With the selectors likely to include at least one spinner other than Ravindra Jadeja, in the squad, they could have an interesting choice to make. One option is Washington Sundar, who was recalled midway through the home series against New Zealand last year, and who featured in three of the five Tests in Australia, though he played more as a batting allrounder.Will the selectors, though, consider Kuldeep Yadav, who missed the tour of Australia after undergoing hernia surgery? Kuldeep achieved significant success in India’s 4-1 win against England at home in 2023-24, and was the joint-third-highest wicket-taker with 19 wickets at a strike rate of 36.05.That was only marginally better than Ashwin (36.11), but much better than Jadeja (46.26). While Kuldeep had a forgettable experience in the Lord’s Test in 2018 – only his second overseas Test – he has shown he can be a match-winner in all conditions, picking up a five-for in the Sydney Test of 2019 – and that was before he tightened his lengths, added a yard of pace, and became the rounded wristspinner of the last two years or so. Kuldeep has 56 wickets in 13 Tests at an average of 22.16 and, most impressively, a strike rate of 37.3 – the best among all spinners in Test history with at least 50 wickets.

Among the many subplots, one involves Rob Walter coaching his new team against his former side

Ashish Pant13-Jul-2025After a two-Test series against South Africa, where they were blown away quite emphatically, Zimbabwe get ready to host South Africa and New Zealand for a T20I tri-series, starting July 14.T20I tri-series are not played too often. The last one involving at least one Full Member was in 2022 when New Zealand hosted Pakistan and Bangladesh. Zimbabwe will face South Africa in the first game of this series on Monday, while South Africa will then face New Zealand on July 16. Zimbabwe will take on New Zealand two days later.All the matches of the tri-series are scheduled to take place at the Harare Sports Club. Each team will face the others twice before the top two sides play the final on July 26. Here’s a lookahead to the series:Watch out for a new-look South AfricaSouth Africa are yet to play a T20I this year and will be without a lot of their first-choice players, all rested. South Africa have had a strange run in T20Is since the highs and heartbreaks of the T20 World Cup 2024. Soon after losing to India in the final, they lost 3-0 to West Indies, drew 1-1 against Ireland and lost to India 3-1 at home.They did win a home T20I series against Pakistan in December last year and with the next T20 World Cup not far away, will look to quickly get back into the scheme of things. But they will have to do without regular captain Aiden Markram, and several other first-choice players. Despite that, this is a side packed with plenty of talent.Related

Hermann wants to be 'the guy who wins games for SA'

Finn Allen out of MLC playoffs and Zimbabwe tri-series with foot injury

Jacobs' checklist: debut for NZ, 2026 T20 World Cup, return to the IPL

Nortje injured again, Van der Dussen to lead newish-looking South Africa T20I side

Rassie van der Dussen will lead the side, which has Lhuan-dré Pretorius up top. The left-hander was the top scorer in SA20 2025 and scored a Test century on debut against Zimbabwe recently. Nandre Burger and Gerald Coetzee are also making a return to the national side after being sidelined due to injuries. They will spearhead the attack alongside Kwena Maphaka. The likes of Dewald Brevis, George Linde, Nqabayomzi Peter and Rubin Hermann have all been in decent domestic form recently and will want to leave a mark.A new head coach and a return to international cricketIt will be interesting to see how the New Zealand players fare on their return to international cricket after more than two months away in the winter playing various leagues. New Zealand last played an international game on April 5 at home against Pakistan, while their last T20I was on March 26 against the same opponents. They have decent T20I form under their belt, though, having won seven of their last ten matches in the format.This will also be Rob Walter’s first stint as New Zealand’s head coach across formats. Walter was, as recently as April 2025, South Africa’s white-ball coach, where he enjoyed plenty of success but resigned two years into his four-year contract to further his career in his adopted home in New Zealand.Adam Milne showed excellent form in MLC 2025•Sportzpics for MLCChance for Conway, Milne and Jacobs to shineDevon Conway, who was initially left out of the tri-series squad and last played a T20I more than a year ago at the T20 World Cup, has got a lucky break and will want to make it count. He was only included after Finn Allen was ruled out due to a foot injury he sustained at the MLC 2025. Conway scored only 156 runs in six innings in IPL 2025 for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and recently played at MLC for Texas Super Kings (TSK), where he managed 135 runs in four innings.Adam Milne also makes a return for the first time since February 2024 and will be keen on making a mark with Lockie Ferguson rested. Milne, since undergoing an ankle surgery which kept him out of the T20 World Cup 2024, has been busy playing franchise cricket. He most recently turned out for TSK in MLC, where he picked 14 wickets in six innings with a best of 5 for 23.Bevon Jacobs is also in line for a debut against the country of his birth, now that a middle-order spot has opened up with Glenn Phillips set to miss at least the opening game of the tri-series, having been busy in the MLC final. Jacobs, an explosive middle-order batter, will want to tick off a few things on his checklist by the end of this tri-series if he gets a chance.Brian Bennett has been one of Zimbabwe’s best batters recently•Zimbabwe CricketCan Zimbabwe turn things around in the T20Is?After three back-to-back Test defeats, Zimbabwe will be glad to return to the comforts of T20I cricket. This is a format where they have been competitive in recent times. It’s also tremendous prep ahead of the Africa Qualifiers in September-October 2025 with 2026 T20 World Cup spots on the line.In T20Is, they’re coming off a 1-0 win against Ireland (two of the games were washed out) and won a T20I against Afghanistan and Pakistan in December last year.Zimbabwe will be buoyed with the return of fast bowler Richard Ngarava, who missed the two Tests against South Africa due to a lower back injury but has recovered. Top-order batter Brian Bennett, who has been Zimbabwe’s best batter in recent times, has also been cleared for the T20I series after being subbed out of the second Test against South Africa due to concussion.Zimbabwe have a good mix of fast bowlers and spinners, but it’s their batting that needs to step up. Bennett will lead the show up top while Sikandar Raza, the captain, provides stability in the middle. But the likes of Clive Madande, Dion Myers and Ryan Burl will need to score some runs to get Zimbabwe a move on.