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Spinner Sai Kishore and batter Sai Sudharsan are both with Gujarat TItans now, with a chance to play against Dhoni and Co

Deivarayan Muthu14-May-2022R Sai Kishore and B Sai Sudharsan, two Chennai boys and former Super Kings, will run into their one-time team this Sunday at the Wankhede Stadium.Sai Kishore used to be a net bowler with CSK and was part of one of their title-winning squads but didn’t get a game over three seasons despite his sustained brilliance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India’s domestic T20 competition, during that time. As for Sai Sudharsan, he was part of Junior Super Kings, the CSK youth team that is part of their grassroots programme. In this, he followed in the footsteps of his seniors in the Tamil Nadu side, Washington Sundar and M Shahrukh Khan.In 2018, Sai Sudharsan was in the Junior Super Kings group that toured Yorkshire to face Pro Coach Yorkshire Academy, HDS Academy from Brisbane, and California Cricket Academy in 20-over and 50-over tournaments. His all-round effort in the final – a half-century followed by a double strike with his legspin – led his side to the 50-over title on that tour, and they also won the 20-over tournament.Related

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The side’s mentor on that trip was Ambati Rayudu, who, after playing a significant hand in Chennai Super Kings’ IPL win in 2018 was recalled into India’s squad for an ODI tour to England but then cut from the side after he failed a mandatory fitness test. The CSK management wanted to keep him engaged, which resulted in the mentor gig on the juniors’ tour.A chubby Sai Sudharsan worked with Rayudu and S Sharath, the former Tamil Nadu batter, on the tour, his first outside of India. Now 20 and much fitter, he is with Gujarat Titans in his first IPL stint. Rayudu is still in the yellow corner, featuring in his fifth IPL season for CSK. Titans have already qualified for the playoffs but they will be looking to seal their top-two spot and keep the already ousted Super Kings down.Sai Sudharsan, who was the breakout star of the 2021 Tamil Nadu Premier League, had a fairly smooth initiation into the IPL when he hooked Kagiso Rabada for four during his 35 on debut, against Punjab Kings. He then made a stronger impression when he hit an unbeaten 65 in the return fixture against Kings while wickets tumbled around him.Sai Sudharsan’s mother Usha Bharadwaj, a former volleyball player for Tamil Nadu and currently a strength-and-conditioning coach, attributes his success to his improved fitness.Sai Sudharsan during his 65 not out against Punjab Kings•PTI “Mentally, I groom him, and physically he has started training with me over the last two years and he has started to believe in my training,” she says. “S&C training I take care of, his father works with him on agility training – speed, quick movement and running between the wickets. Compared to before, he now runs quicker between the wickets and it’s because of his father.” Sai Sudharsan’s father, Bharadwaj, is also a former athlete, who represented India at the South Asian Games.”A lot of young kids have this mindset, ‘I just want to get my turn to bat,'” Usha says. “Sai was similar during his early years and then he changed himself. He watched a lot of videos of Virat Kohli. Kohli said that his fitness gives him a lot of confidence. After that, he started training seriously with me. During the pandemic, he worked hard on his fitness, and during these two years, he used to chew my ear off, asking, ‘Why do we train like this? Why don’t we train that way? What benefit does it bring?’ He used to ask a lot of questions.”When asked about the prospect of Sai Sudharsan going up against Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, she says: “It is not a strange coincidence for us because there are so many Chennai boys spread across various IPL teams. That’s how the IPL is. We’re proud to see so many of his Tamil Nadu team-mates do well across teams.”

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With the pitches slowing down and starting to turn, it is the other Sai, Kishore, the left-arm spinner, who is more likely to find a spot in Titans’ XI that will face Super Kings.One of India’s best domestic T20 fingerspinners, on his IPL debut he combined with Rashid Khan, one of the best T20 spinners in the world, taking 2 for 7 to Rashid’s 4 for 24, to trample Lucknow Super Giants. That win made Titans the first franchise to make the playoffs. Sai Kishore’s first wicket – Ayush Badoni stumped for 8 off 11 balls – was a testimony to his game awareness, which he says he improved during his stint with CSK.A bit like a left-arm version of Washington, he bowls quick and into the pitch without offering width. After Deepak Hooda and Badoni got only three runs off Sai Kishore’s first four balls, the bowler knew Badoni would give him the charge next ball. So he tossed it up liberally, shortened his length and found dip to create enough room between the bat and the pitch of the ball, after which the turn took it past the bat and into the gloves of Wriddhiman Saha, who did the rest.”In the last two years my game has gone up, having been part of CSK, though I didn’t get a game,” Sai Kishore said during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. “I would have learned, but it would have taken more time had I not been at CSK. I’m more confident in my game and my game-reading skills have improved.”The Junior CSK side during their tour of Yorkshire in 2018. Sai Sudharsan is seated to the left of Ambati Rayudu (second from right, middle row); S Sharath is to Rayudu’s right•Chennai Super KingsHe celebrated that first IPL wicket with a cathartic roar, for he had waited long enough for the moment. His first taste of the league came through a net-bowling role at Super Kings in 2019. When MS Dhoni smashed him all over Chepauk on the third day of that camp, it was a reality check; Sai Kishore came home wondering whether he belonged at that level. He then tightened up at the camp, tempting the franchise into snapping him up for his base price of Rs 20 lakh (about US$27,400) at the 2020 auction.Though he only warmed the bench for two seasons, he made the most of the net sessions in the UAE and India, working with Mitchell Santner and sizing himself up against Super Kings’ power-hitters. “To be an international cricketer with such a record and be this humble…” Sai Kishore said of Santner. “As fingerspinners we are all on the same page – more or less. [The discussions are] about subtle aspects like the speed on the ball, angle of release, playing with the field. We discussed more about analysing and reading the game. Those chats with Mitch have been helpful to me”Sai Kishore even used a trick from the Dhoni playbook in trapping Vivek Raj in the TNPL 2021 qualifier upon returning from a stint as a reserve bowler for India in Sri Lanka. He stationed a straight long-on for the big-hitting Vivek at Chepauk and had him caught there after floating one up.He also upgraded his batting, often fronting up as Tamil Nadu’s pinch-anchor in white-ball cricket, akin to R Ashwin’s current role at Rajasthan Royals, to go with his spin. He became such an attractive T20 package that as many as six franchises bid for him at the auction earlier this year, with Titans ultimately forking out Rs 3 crore ($400,000) for him. However, with the tracks in both Mumbai and Pune offering some juice for the seamers in the early exchanges and mid-season, Titans couldn’t quite fit Sai Kishore into their XI.Speaking to Star Sports, the host broadcaster, after his IPL debut, Sai Kishore said he had been working harder on his fielding during his time on the Titans bench to make sure he was ready when he got the chance as a substitute. Now, no longer a substitute or reserve bowler, he is ready for the CSK challenge.

Legspinning allrounder has only just turned 18 but ECB already keen to nurture his talent

Matt Roller29-Oct-2022Rehan Ahmed, the teenaged legspinning allrounder, took everything in his stride during a breakthrough 2022 season. He has already impressed in county cricket – last month, he recorded his maiden first-class hundred and five-for in the same Championship game – and played in the Hundred and for England Lions; Mo Bobat, the ECB’s performance director, says Ahmed has already been “inundated” with opportunities from franchises around the world.But next week, he expects to feel starstruck when he boards a plane to the UAE along with James Anderson for a training camp which will present him with an opportunity to break into England’s Test squad for their tour to Pakistan. “He’s played international cricket longer than I’ve been alive,” Ahmed, who was born in August 2004, says with a grin. “It’s crazy.”Ahmed is only 18 years old but is one of three spinners in the Lions training group that will spend November in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, along with Jack Carson and Liam Patterson-White. He will play against an England XI in a three-day friendly at the end of the camp, and a successful month could see him taken to Pakistan as a net bowler, or even a back-up spinner.Related

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“I am trying to stay in the present, not thinking too far ahead,” he says. “If they take me along to train with them, great; if not I will come back and train with Leicester. Personally, I feel mentally ready. They have not said ‘we are taking you’ or this or that, but I feel like I always have to be ready for that moment.”Ahmed has caught the eye with his quick, modern style of legspin, particularly in short-form cricket, but describes himself as “more of a batsman” and wants to become “a proper allrounder”. He spent the summer asking Paul Nixon and Claude Henderson, Leicestershire’s coach and director of cricket, to move up the order; in the final round of Championship game, he hit 122 off 113 from No. 5.He admits that he is cricket-obsessed. “I can’t go a day without picking up a bat or a ball,” he says. “It’s not possible.” During the Hundred, his Southern Brave coach Mahela Jayawardene told him to take a day off after seeing his insatiable appetite for training; he snuck in an early-morning session in the indoor school while Jayawardene wasn’t looking.He is also a keen cricket watcher, and thinks that England’s ultra-positivity suits his own game. “It’s the only thing I’m interested in, in my life,” Ahmed says. “I watched most of the Test matches this summer. It’s a great entertaining style and it’s not reckless either – just a very fun way to play cricket.

“My dad is from Pakistan and I have family there. It would mean the world to represent England in Pakistan. It would be great”

“I just never get sick of it, really. Even on a bad day, I’m like, so what? I just keep shadow-batting. I keep thinking about the game. People say sometimes it can get you mentally drained but as much as I try to not to, I just keep thinking about it. I just think it’s the best thing ever. I don’t really think of studies, movies, anything like that. It’s just cricket.”Perhaps that is no surprise: his father Naeem was an allrounder growing up in Pakistan but moved to the Midlands to work as a taxi driver. “He couldn’t really play cricket when he wanted to, so he wanted his sons to do it. He’d work long hours in the night and then take us to games in the morning. He sacrificed a lot for us, and my mum has been behind us the whole time.”Ahmed is one of three brothers and insists that Raheem, a left-arm seamer who has played for Leicestershire’s second XI and the eldest at 19, is the best player in the family, though his progress has stalled due to injury. Farhan, the youngest, is only 14, but bowled offspin for Nottinghamshire’s seconds this summer, with Luke Wood among his victims.Ahmed, who views himself as more of a batter, scored his maiden first-class hundred last month•Getty Images”He’s a proper cricketer,” he says of Farhan. “I don’t know why he’s an offspinner but you don’t want two legspinners in the same team. If we want to play for England, we’re going to have to do two different things. We have all had dreams about all three of us playing.”Clearly, England will have to take good care of him. “He’s someone we have a really high opinion of,” Bobat says. “He hasn’t played a huge number of games but he’s someone I’ve been speaking to quite a lot, trying to map out his winter. He’s in that category of player where he’s young, high-potential, and has done some things on TV that people get excited about.”Bobat is keen to find a balance between finding him opportunities in franchise cricket and ensuring he develops as a red-ball player. “I’ve already spent time with Leicestershire trying to map out a medium-to-long-term plan for him. English cricket has a real responsibility to manage him carefully.”Ahmed adds: “The ECB will try to do what’s best for me. I have a lot of trust in them.”If he does get an opportunity in Pakistan – in December, or in 2024 when England return for another three-Test series – it would be a special moment. “My dad is from Pakistan and I have family there, so I’ve been a few times,” he explains. “We’re from a place called Mirpur. Whenever I’ve been, I’ll go to the stadium and train and you’ll have a load of bowlers ready to bowl to you, and a load of batters ready to bat.”Every time I’ve been, it’s always been great: the way they look after you there is crazy. It would mean the world to represent England in Pakistan. It would be great.”

It often feels like no one in the history of cricket leading up to Pujara has batted quite like Pujara

Karthik Krishnaswamy15-Feb-20234:28

25 Questions: What makes Cheteshwar Pujara angry?

R Ashwin has 100 lbws in Test cricket, and he has had several times as many appeals turned down. Seldom, however, can he have appealed as loudly, or for as long, or as beseechingly in a Test match as he did when he hit Cheteshwar Pujara’s front pad in the Delhi nets on Wednesday.Bowling from around the wicket, Ashwin had drifted one across Pujara, whose response was to thrust his pad at the ball and offer no shot.Ashwin appealed, paused, and appealed again. Sairaj Bahutule, the spin-bowling consultant at the National Cricket Academy and occasional umpire, gestured to suggest, so it seemed, that the ball hadn’t straightened enough to hit the stumps.Related

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Some two minutes later, another appeal split the air. This time it was Axar Patel, pleading with Bahutule to give Pujara out after he had stepped out of his crease and thrust his bat and pad, so close to each other that they were almost one entity, at the ball.Bahutule shook his head. Not out.Those two balls contained so much of the essence of Pujara, and what Ashwin – in an appreciation he penned ahead of his colleague’s 100th Test match – refers to as his greatness “at playing percentages against spin”.Nathan Lyon, who has bowled more balls to Pujara than anyone else in Test cricket, would testify to that. In series after series against Australia, Pujara has used his feet to Lyon, and on numerous occasions when he has been beaten in the air, thrust his pad at the ball with bat tucked by its side or often just behind it.Each time Lyon has appealed in his theatrical manner, sinking to his knees with arms spread wide, and almost every time the verdict has been not out. Pujara has almost always been far enough out of his crease to put doubt in the umpire’s mind, while almost always ensuring that his pad is outside the line of off stump, and while almost always giving the impression that he has made a genuine effort to play the ball with his bat.Few batters play percentages against spin better than Pujara•Getty ImagesLyon has bowled 1158 balls to Pujara in Test cricket, and roared out what has seemed like hundreds of lbw appeals. He has dismissed Pujara ten times, but lbw only once.Playing the percentages. Few have done it better, or more adroitly, or more watchably.For a batter who often scores runs at a glacial pace, and for one whose style isn’t conventionally attractive, Pujara has somehow always been riveting to watch. It’s perhaps because his methods are so different to those of his contemporaries.Pujara is a throwback in some respects. In an almost entirely bat-up era, his stance is resolutely bat-down, even against pace. At a time when nearly every other batter defends against spin with bat in front of pad, he defends with bat next to pad. In the age of DRS, he’s often happy to trust his judgment and offer his pad to offspinners if he thinks the ball isn’t going to hit the stumps. And he uses his feet not just to attack but defend too.But he isn’t just a throwback. In some ways, he is a proper one-off, a batter with no stylistic forebearers, beating a classical rhythm with an autodidact’s technique. It often feels like no one in the history of cricket leading up to Pujara has batted quite like Pujara, with that low grip, top hand twisted so far around the handle that the bowler can almost see the back of his glove.That grip allows him to defend later and closer to his body than pretty much anyone in world cricket, and it has given him a repertoire of strokes all his own: a drive through mid-off that’s a flick by strict definition; a twirling, elaborate leg-side flick that ends with the toe of his bat pointing to square leg; a rasping square-cut, often played with both feet off the ground, that he can play even when he doesn’t have a lot of width to work with; and a swivelling, seemingly off-balance hook that makes you feel you’re watching footage from a 1940s newsreel.Over his 99 Tests, he has rationed his shots judiciously, to be brought out when the bowling and conditions permit their use. He will go months without pulling or hooking fast bowlers, and out of nowhere play the shot four times in a session. The area behind the wicket on the off side is a heavy scoring zone for him, usually, but on two-paced pitches he will go hours without opening his bat face to play in that direction.Over all the innings he has played over all these years, Pujara’s methods have grown familiar not just to viewers mesmerised by his methods but to his opponents as well.A Pujara special – rasping square-cut with both feet off the ground•Chris Hyde/Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesFast bowlers now routinely put an extra fielder on the leg side – often at leg gully – and attack Pujara’s stumps. Spinners bowl to him with a straight short midwicket, narrowing the gap between that fielder and mid-on, a gap Pujara loves to target with his dancing on-drive. Lyon stations a silly point most times when Pujara comes to the crease now, hoping to get him caught pad-bat, or at least to dissuade his prancing bat-pad thrusts with the risk of run-out now magnified.Where other batters have changed their game in dramatic ways to counter these plans, Pujara has trusted stubbornly in the soundness of his methods. Barring small adjustments every batter makes from innings to innings, like changing their guard by a few inches or opening up their stance, Pujara simply bats like Pujara.It’s why you feel a shock of familiarity when you watch highlights of his old innings. The Virat Kohli of 2012 looked like an entirely different person and batted in an entirely different way to the Virat Kohli of 2023. Watch this video, and the Pujara of 2012 is, well, just Pujara – yes, he ramped short balls over the slip cordon even then.Without that link, you would have needed to search long and hard on the official BCCI site to find any footage of what remains one of Pujara’s greatest hundreds, a first-innings 135 on a Wankhede Stadium track with generous turn and bounce against the only bowling attack that’s won a Test series in India since 2004. The video is a short and unsatisfying one, containing mostly boundaries against England’s fast bowlers, and nothing of his brilliant defence against their spinners.That it’s a struggle to find even that is perhaps the biggest misfortune of Pujara’s career, and the careers of his long-time team-mates, who have combined to pull off some of India’s greatest triumphs overseas while turning them near-invincible at home. The away highlights of their careers are easier to find than the home highlights, adding to the feeling that India’s home successes are taken for granted, and that the contributions of their bowlers and batters to these successes are hugely underappreciated.It wasn’t always so. Sachin Tendulkar’s career was defined as much by the 136 as the 114, and Rahul Dravid’s as much by the 180 as the 148, to the extent that if you’re an Indian fan of a certain generation, the scores are enough to know what’s being referred to. You can find footage, extended footage in some cases, of all these innings.Not so with Pujara. At a time when it should be easier than ever for cricket fans to summon up their favourite spells and innings, the recent past of India’s home Tests has become a no-go zone.But fans of Pujara, though not as vocal or numerous as fans of Kohli or Rohit Sharma, watch their man closely, almost transfixed by his one-of-a-kind methods. Their memories are a storehouse of Pujara moments, and they are hoping there is plenty more to add, from his 100th Test and beyond.

After trying hard but getting nowhere, and being let go by CSK, the keeper-batter decided it was time free himself up and has since been an unstoppable force on the domestic circuit

Deivarayan Muthu09-Apr-20232:21

N Jagadeesan: Was a reality check when CSK released me

In a strange way, N Jagadeesan’s life has come full circle. After struggling to make an impact at Chennai Super Kings – well, which wicketkeeper could thrive in the shadow of MS Dhoni? – Jagadeesan is ready to carve out his own identity at Kolkata Knight Riders, and here he has the help of one of his old coaches.When Jagadeesan was about ten years old, he got an opportunity to train with Chandrakant Pandit at Andheri, in Mumbai, which formed the foundation stone for his cricketing career. His father CJ Narayan, who played cricket for Tata Electric in Mumbai before shifting to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, had managed to get him to work with Pandit at the time. More than a decade-and-a-half later, Jagadeesan has reunited with Pandit at Knight Riders in the IPL following a record-breaking domestic season with Tamil Nadu.”Definitely I think it [reuniting with Chandrakant Pandit] is very special,” Jagadeesan tells ESPNcricinfo. “When I was in my Under-13 days, my dad always made sure every summer I went to Mumbai since he was a cricketer himself and he knew a lot of people there. For example, Chandu sir and all were his team-mates. He was able to set me up with a camp where Chandu sir was also the coach over there and you know I think it was of immense help to my cricketing journey. At a very young age when you experience red-soil wickets in Mumbai, it’s something that’s different and every time you play, you start learning things and it’s more exposure as well.Related

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“Obviously right now, I’m very happy to be with Chandu sir at KKR. It’s a special feeling because he saw me when I was 11 years old and now I’m at KKR, where he is the coach, and I’m truly excited. We all know the kind of heroics he has done in the domestic circuit where he has won almost all the trophies with different teams. I’m excited to learn how to win.”Having been released by Super Kings, Jagadeesan didn’t expect to be picked at the IPL 2023 auction last December. So, around this time of the year, he had originally planned to play league cricket abroad. But, after a remarkable turnaround, he could well be opening the batting and keeping wicket regularly for Knight Riders.In the domestic-season-opening T20 competition, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Jagadeesan had managed only 118 runs in six innings at an average of 29.50 and strike rate of 131.11 and towards the end of the tournament, he was even pushed down the order. The runs didn’t flow in the one-dayers against a touring Bangladeshi side, which included a number of BPL players, at Chepauk in November either, and in the same month, he was let go by Super Kings.Jagadeesan did some soul searching and with nothing to lose now, he felt liberated from the fear of failure. He always had a wide range of strokes in his repertoire – he once switch-hit Shane Watson during an IPL trial at Royal Challengers Bangalore and stunned him – but a safety-first approach often held him back during match scenarios. He let go of that approach during the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy and became the first batter in history to hit five successive List A centuries. The tally included 277 off 141 balls against Arunachal Pradesh, the highest-ever score in List A cricket.A young N Jagadeesan with Chandrakant Pandit, with whom he will reunite at Knight Riders•CJ Narayan/N Jagadeesan”The first thing I had to do was to not have any expectations out of my own game,” Jagadeesan says. “I’ve always had this expectation where I’ve always been this guy who wants to achieve something. Every time I go somewhere I want to go higher and higher. Every time I kept thinking about it, I didn’t realise that it was adding a lot more pressure on me. I’m someone who is a free-flowing batsman, but I kept adding this pressure on me and I somehow had the feeling that I wasn’t able to express my game. Every time I wanted to play a shot – because of all these goals I had in my head – it curbed me.”I had that fear and there was one thing I told myself this year: for all these years, I’ve tried to achieve something, and I’ve gone nowhere and just been stagnant. For now, let me not think about anything and it is okay to get dropped. That was not going to be the end of the road. So, that kind of shift in my mental state was something which gave me a lot of freedom inside and every time I stepped onto the field, it made me express myself.”Jagadeesan wasn’t desperate to impress the IPL scouts and make his way back into the IPL either. He was just at peace with his new-found freedom in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and took the release from Super Kings in his stride.”It was definitely a reality check when they released me and I didn’t want to keep clustering my head saying ‘okay I need to get picked by an IPL team’, but I just faced the reality, looking at the numbers and the way they released me,” Jagadeesan says. “I was very sure that I was not going to get picked for the next IPL and I had other options.”One thing I was sure of was that I will be part of the Chennai league, which is one of the best in the country, so I was keen on playing those matches and once the season got over, I would get a short break where I could play somewhere else. So, it just made me realise that it was not the end of the road if I get dropped in the current side. I can still go to other places and play cricket and I can learn a lot and it can be a different experience. Since then, I’ve just tried to stay in the present and just kept options open without expectations.”

“I think the knowledge that I’ve gained from Michael Hussey is immense. I just can’t put it in words because a player of his stature and the way he talks to me about the game, it just feels like: ‘My god, how can a guy be like him’.”N Jagadeesan on his former Super Kings team-mate

Jagadeesan’s improved power-hitting was also on bright display during the first-class Ranji Trophy, where he and his opening partner B Sai Sudharsan nearly mowed down 144 in 11 overs against Hyderabad before bad light intervened and the game ended in a draw. The boundaries at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, where that game was being played, are bigger than the ones at Chepauk, but Jagadeesan kept clearing them, despite the presence of a number of outfielders. He attributes his recent power-hitting success to a stint with RX Murali, Mayank Agarwal’s personal coach, in Bengaluru.”I definitely felt a difference when I went there because, at that point of time, I was in a state where nothing was happening for me,” Jagadeesan says. “I was putting in the hard yards, but it wasn’t quite reflecting in the way I was batting. But I just had the feeling that I need to do something different and that’s when I came to train with RX [Murali] sir and worked with him for a week or so in Bengaluru.”That’s when I actually learned a bit more of power-hitting and that just came in very handy; once I got to know what I needed to do for power, I’ve been practicing since. I’ve taken the ingredients that he gave me and was trying to get better each and every day. Power-hitting is something that is very important in modern cricket. So I feel that has helped me a lot.”During his stint with Super Kings, Michael Hussey was Jagadeesan’s sounding board and go-to man. They used to spend a lot of time together at the nets, and even during the IPL off-season Hussey often tracked Jagadeesan’s domestic progress. Though Jagadeesan got just seven games across five seasons with Super Kings, he believes that his training sessions and conversations with Hussey have helped him problem-solve challenges that have come his way.”I think the knowledge that I’ve gained from Michael Hussey is immense. I just can’t put it in words because a player of his stature and the way he talks to me about the game, it just feels like: ‘My god, how can a guy be like him’. He has told me a lot of stuff that he has been through. It’s not like he was always scoring runs and he kept telling me that he made his debut for Australia when he was 30 years old.N Jagadeesan raked in a number of records during his 277 off 141 balls in the Vijay Hazare Trophy•ESPNcricinfo/Daya Sagar”He had to go through a long grind before entering the Australian side and I’ve always spoken to him about how his mindset was and what were the kind of things that he did to not lose motivation – those are the kind of conversations we had. Mentally, the kind of person he is… he is always so strong and told me what has worked for him and how I can prepare before the game. Obviously, some things he has told me I’ve never experienced before and as soon as he told me all this stuff, it was like a different dimension.”As the only frontline Indian keeper in Knight Riders’ side, Jagadeesan is likely to get a decent run in IPL 2023. Knight Riders’ assistant coach Abhishek Nayar acknowledged that Jagadeesan will be a key member of the side after buying him at the auction for INR 90 lakh (USD 109,000 approx).Jagadeesan is excited about playing for a new franchise, but he believes that success or failure in the coming weeks will not define him. He will just play like he has nothing to lose, since he didn’t even expect to be part of IPL 2023 in the first place.

Takeaways: Fringe players make a mark, Mandhana doesn’t, fans have their say… there is change in the air all right

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Mar-2023More than just the cricket
India’s women cricketers now know what it is like to play with a fan base in place, or how it feels to play in front of packed stands, or have your social media notifications blowing up. This wasn’t new for the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur or Smriti Mandhana, but certainly a different experience for the D Hemalathas and the Shreyanka Patils.India’s domestic structure is still a little old school, where coaches are taught to go by a rule book that players follow. So it was refreshing to see not-too-experienced players challenged by top-level coaches or elite players.Someone like Jammu & Kashmir’s Jasia Akhtar learnt to deal with success and failure from Meg Lanning. Anjali Sarvani improved the mechanics of her bowling action thanks to Ashley Noffke.From Alyssa Healy saying she was at the WPL to develop Indian talent, to World-Cup winning captain Heather Knight picking Richa Ghosh as the team-mate she wanted to get to know, the WPL threw up a variety of intangibles that players will benefit from.2:47

Healy: I like to lead from within the group and empower players

Fringe players make a splash
Shreyanka Patil, on debut, walked out with Royal Challengers Bangalore six down against a rampaging Mumbai Indians, and crunched a pull for four first ball. She found the boundary three more times in an enterprising 15-ball stay.In the next game, against Gujarat Giants, she didn’t shy from tossing it up in her first over to an all-guns-blazing Sophia Dunkley and prised out her first WPL wicket; later, she bowled a nerveless 20th over where she accounted for Harleen Deol – the game’s top scorer – and conceded just nine runs.In the reverse fixture against Giants, she got the ball for the first time with the scoreboard reading 135 for 2 after 16 overs, and Laura Wolvaardt and Ashleigh Gardner in full flow. She dismissed both and gave away only 17 from her two overs.Two days later, Parshavi Chopra – just 16 and playing only her second game – too was tasked with bowling the 17th and 19th overs with D Hemalatha and Gardner threatening to take Giants towards 200. Unafraid to flight the ball, Chopra got both of them out – with Gardner fooled by a legspinner’s dream delivery.Hemalatha herself, through the tournament, was handed the thankless role for a specialist batter, almost exclusively walking out either with her top order having collapsed or with less than five overs remaining. Sample some of her scores: 29* off 23, 21* off 13, 16 off 7, 16* off 6. The one time she entered at a better stage, with Gujarat 50 for 3 in six overs in their last outing, against UP Warriorz, she smashed 57 off 33.Three players, at different stages of their careers, with different storylines. The common thread? None of them was too well known to the wider audience. Given difficult roles, they showed signs of blossoming. And they weren’t alone. Long may it continue.3:29

Meg Lanning: WPL made it easier for young girls to see what is possible

A learning experience for Mandhana

Mandhana had a most forgettable WPL. Five losses to start the campaign as captain of Royal Challengers, finishing nearly at the bottom of the table, and for a change, struggling to get into a free-flowing rhythm at the top. That is one of the purposes of tournaments like the WPL: provide such learning experiences even for some of the established names.Apart from in domestic cricket, Mandhana had led India and Trailblazers in the past. But not like this. The WPL was a different deal because it gave her the captaincy for an entire tournament. It came with a lot more limelight and pressure compared to the Women’s T20 Challenge and might have put some price-tag pressure on her (she was the most expensive player at the auction). It may have also put her under constant scrutiny as captain and player, like every time she batted against an offspinner. She was also, for the first time, leading several stars in her team, such as Sophie Devine and world champions Ellyse Perry and Heather Knight.At the end of it, Mandhana will likely emerge as a much stronger player and captain, and could be more at ease in high-pressure situations to serve Indian cricket in the future. She is just 26, after all.1:32

Harmanpreet Kaur: Real benefits of WPL will be visible only in two or three years

Fans embrace the WPL, and how!
When the WPL began, there was a bit of uncertainty about in-stadium attendance.The hope was that free entry for women and nominal ticket prices on the whole would sell out tickets, but that was no guarantee of footfalls. To expect Mumbaikars to travel to far-flung venues daily for women’s cricket was an ask irrespective of ticket rates.Related

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By Sunday, March 26, it felt like Brabourne Stadium didn’t have enough seats. But what stood out most was the diversity of the fans. Though predominantly male, there was a good mix.There were men in the old Mumbai Indians men’s jerseys, middle-aged women purchasing knock-off kits outside the venues, parents with little children headed to the venues in trains and buses, young girls in their club-cricket uniforms, housewives who play recreationally, students who have travelled from neighbouring towns like Pune and Kolhapur, and even stragglers in the hope of an unwanted, or unbought, ticket.The atmosphere the fans created was rare for women’s cricket in India and it was special to see packed stands even on weekdays. There were traditional Mumbai stadium chants and new, innovative ones. In Royal Challengers games, you would know where Ellyse Perry was fielding just by the cheer in that section. Delhi Capitals’ Shafali Verma was as good as a home player.So there is an audience. And the BCCI has been able to build on their pilot project of ticketing attendances during the India vs Australia series in December. Now for the next step.The atmosphere the fans created was rare for women’s cricket in India and it was special to see packed stands even on weekdays•BCCI2013 to 2023 – the change couldn’t be starker
It’s a little embarrassing to think of it now, but for long, cricket boards the world over marketed the women’s game like a buy-one-get-one-free scheme with the men’s game.During the 2013 Women’s World Cup, the ICC sent out nearly 10,000 invites to as many as 50 schools in Mumbai for the opening game, held at Brabourne, and when not even 2000 seats were occupied, it left the ICC and the BCCI red-faced.A decade later, the contrast is stark. Both WPL venues – Brabourne and DY Patil Stadium – were sold to capacity several times over. Sure, women were awarded the privilege of watching games for free, but that the BCCI earned from gate receipts, even if it may cobble up to be a minuscule portion of their overall WPL earnings, was a heartening sign.It was also equally heartening to see media attendance reach unprecedented levels. There have been several instances over the past decade where thin attendances have forced organisers to instruct players to look left and right while answering questions from the same source, making it appear as if they were fielding questions from different corners of the room. But this time, when it was announced loud and clear that only one question would be allowed per journalist, it was bittersweet.Women umpires get a taste of the big time too
Like it was for the players, the WPL was also a platform for less-experienced umpires to get a taste of cricket played under intense scrutiny. There were a number of women umpires in action, too – N Janani and Vrinda Rathi stood in the final. Of them, Rathi was part of the Commonwealth Games last year too.The level-up was not all hunky-dory. There were some errors that led to an increased level of scrutiny on the officials. But all said, the experience they gained is a good start which the BCCI should try and build on by having them officiate more regularly, perhaps even in senior men’s domestic matches, in the Ranji Trophy and other big-ticket competitions.

Six wickets has been a stunning return for a player who thought his Test career could be over

Vithushan Ehantharajah08-Jul-2023The skies are “Stranger Things” dark above Headingley. The moisture in the air has combined with the beaming floodlights to create some kind of anti-batter alchemy in a pitch that has, so far, given everyone a bit of something. Now it is skewed towards the bowlers. England’s, to be precise.Fans had packed together under what little shelter there was in the concourses for the morning and afternoon rains. Some ventured onto the high street. Some even back into Leeds proper. Most had returned to the ground by the 4.45pm restart, and all were in their seats and strapped in for the evening by the time play recommenced at 5.04pm after a brief shower. Judging by the noise in the ground, not just the Western Terrace, it was clear how they passed the time.The context of England needing to beat the elements and then Australia to begin an outlandish overturning of a 2-0 scoreline crystal clear. And here was the stage, set for demonic acts. Perhaps a devilish allrounder who gives his all for the team might provide them. In he walked, chest pumped, eyes focussed, arms bristling with tat… hold on, is that Chris Woakes?Related

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Yep, it was. And how. In England’s most important session of the series so far, corresponding with the most crucial two hours of Woakes’ career, the 34-year-old summoned a display equal parts guile and guts to drag England towards victory in this third Test. There is still much to do, of course, but the hosts rest on Saturday night with 27 chipped off their target of 251 without loss. Where they would want to be.There have been five chases greater than 250 on this ground (insert mention of 2019) and this team under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have managed bigger successful fourth-innings shifts on five occasions. What optimism there is of what is to come tomorrow is because of what Woakes did today.The wickets of first-innings centurion Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey opened up the tail, both undone with surprise bounce off the surface. Marsh gloved through to Jonny Bairstow just as it looked like he was accessing his day one form, before, and not for the first time this week, Carey’s glove took out the stumps at the striker’s end.All that came during a nine-over spell largely out of necessity. Neither Stokes nor Ollie Robinson were able to bowl, and despite Moeen Ali’s prudence on Friday evening, turning to spin would have been a risk and a waste given runs needed to be capped and the clouds still reigned up above. The wane at the end was understandable, as he found himself in the firing line of Travis Head’s one-man army with 17 taken from his final two overs.Tagged on to his first innings 3 for 73 from 17 overs, it has been a remarkable return to action for a player who thought he might never don Test whites again. The entirety of the 2022 summer was missed with a knee injury that eventually required surgery. He only returned to red ball action this summer with three County Championship matches for Warwickshire, sending down 76 overs. The last of those came against Hampshire on May 7, and yet he has been able to summon the accuracy and nibble of old. This, by the way, was his first Test at home since September 2021. The consistent pace, the fact he swung the ball more than any bowler in the match so far, was a testament to his skills given the gap and the injury.Chris Woakes has had an outstanding return to the Test side•Getty ImagesMaybe that should not come as a surprise. Woakes has a steel masked far too well by a geniality that constantly has him ranked as “the nicest man in English cricket”. Even if you did not know him, there’s a good chance if you called him up to ask for a lift to the airport, he’d oblige and probably offer to water your plants while you’re away. Even the end he bowled from today – running in with the Rugby Ground behind him – was seemingly out of politeness to Mark Wood, who had gravity on his side from the Pavilion End, dismissing Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins with searing pace.”It’s not actually an end I particularly like having bowled quite a bit here for Warwickshire and England,” Woakes said. “I much prefer to come down the hill, but I found a bit of rhythm from that end and actually it makes you snap into the wicket a little bit harder, whereas coming down the hill you can kind of go with it a bit.”The “good guy” tag undersells the spirit and commitment to England across all formats. It’s worth noting that following last summer’s surgery, he went and won the T20 World Cup, becoming a dual World Champion in the process.Woakes seems to suffer from the drawbacks of “Good Blokeism” rather than its benefits of nepotism and longer grace periods. It has seen him exist largely in this unfortunate limbo as a Test cricketer; one who is both easy to drop and easy to chuck a hospital pass.Only nine of his previous 45 caps have come in a row, back in 2016, partly because Stokes only made two Test appearances that summer. The last of Woakes’ Test appearances, in March 2022, looked like being the end of him. Broken after a draining Ashes series, he was sent to the Caribbean to operate as the leader of the attack after James Anderson and Stuart Broad were dropped. After a month of lifeless pitches, he returned more broken than before.Of the wickets taken in this match, not a bunny among them in Marnus Labuschagne, Marsh twice, Head and Khawaja, it was the first on the list that elicited the biggest reaction from a usually measured individual.”It’s just emotions, isn’t it?” said Woakes, almost apologetically. “The emotion of a Test match and with it being an Ashes Test match. Being on the sidelines watching for the last few weeks. And then getting the call, it shows that backing from the coach and the captain and a little bit of a relief that you’ve been able to get a big scalp like Marnus and put your faith in the decision to play.”Also the gap in the fact I haven’t played in front of a crowd in England for a couple of years. You realise when you hear that roar it brings out that emotion in you which is easy to kind of forget how good it is when you haven’t played for a while.”Saturday ticked Woakes over to 100 wickets in England, which feels significant given the conversation throughout his career is his ineffectiveness overseas. Especially in Australia, where he has a bowling average of 51.68 and batting average of 20.00. At this stage of his career, it is something he will have to stomach. The broader away bowling average of 51.88 and 21.90 with the bat, along with the perception of him as an allrounder are too far gone.And yet here he is, answering a mayday call from a captain who happens to be the greatest allrounder English cricket has produced, to help his country in their hour of need as the Ashes threaten to slip away. The players rate Woakes as high as anyone and, while he may have a part to play with the bat on day four, even the brief amount of play on day three underlined that to everyone else.

The Jharkhand wicketkeeper-batter was expecting to be picked up at the IPL auction but not prepared for just how much his life was about to change

Shashank Kishore and Rajan Raj22-Dec-2023Last week, Kumar Kushagra wouldn’t have answered calls from unknown numbers, dismissing them as telemarketing scams. But over the past couple of days, he has tried to respond to as many of them as possible. Some of these have been from people in the set-up at Delhi Capitals, who signed him for Rs 7.2 crores (abiut US$867,000) at the IPL auction. Others have been from journalists, local news channels, and people known to him and the family.”It’s been overwhelming,” Kushagra admits the evening after the life-changing bid. “It’s one thing knowing you’re going to get picked, but honestly, I wasn’t prepared for this kind of attention. At one point as the bids kept going higher, I stopped watching. We were at a Ranji Trophy camp in Ranchi and my team-mates were continuously knocking on the door. I couldn’t not watch after they stormed in.”Capitals staved off fierce competition from Gujarat Titans. Chennai Super Kings too seemed keen initially but withdrew from the race at the Rs 60 lakh mark. For the next five minutes or so, Kushagra sat stunned. After the hammer went down one final time against his name, he rang his parents back in Jamshedpur.”I started crying, I’d become a little emotional,” he says with a chuckle. At the other end, Shashikant, his father, was equally lost for words. Only a few seconds earlier, he had been the toast of his workplace’s WhatsApp group.”Everyone was demanding a big party,” says Shashikant. “It felt like a big celebration. Honestly, we were watching it on TV at home. We just didn’t know how to react, because we weren’t prepared for this. We would’ve been happy to see him just get selected. It didn’t matter which team he went to.”Kushagra’s father is a district commissioner at the Goods and Services Tax department in Jamshedpur and his mother a home-maker. His two younger sisters are academically inclined; one wants to become a doctor. Kushagra was himself a keen student, and didn’t compromise on his studies until he was in middle school. But once he got into the Jharkhand Under-16s as a 12-year-old, cricket took over completely.That feels like long ago, but he is still only 19. Until four years ago, when was in contention for India Under-19s on the back of a sensational run in the CK Nayudu Trophy in 2019-20, Shashikant was his de facto trainer and Bob Woolmer’s his coaching manual.”I would carefully make notes from Woolmer’s book and have a local coach, Deepak Dey, break it down for Kumar to implement at the nets,” Shashikant says.”I wasn’t too convinced about him spending a lot of time travelling to and from school, the cricket academy and home. I somehow managed to arrange nets behind our home. We had a pitch made and Deepak would spend hours throwing balls at him or giving him catching practice. These notes and practical lessons were Kumar’s early teachers. But once he was in the India Under-19 camp, I knew he was in the safe hands of Rahul Dravid and the NCA team.”Kushagra (left) made a gritty fifty from No. 6 against Tamil Nadu in the 2022 Ranji Trophy, an innings that put him on the radar of scouts•PTI At Capitals, Kushagra will be in the hands of Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly first saw Kushagra in August, when he organised a conditioning camp for local Indian players.He had been impressed with Kushagra’s temperament in the Deodhar Trophy around then, in which he represented East Zone. Kushagra was East Zone’s second-highest scorer in that tournament, with 227 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 109.13. All these runs came mostly at No. 7.Kushagra is glad that his most impactful knock at the Vijay Hazare Trophy, 67 off 36 balls against Maharashtra, happened to be livestreamed.”Ganguly was massively supportive of Kumar even at the trials,” Shashikant says. “He was called for three camps by DC. So somewhere we felt he had a chance.”Kushagra made a mark early as a teenager, but breaking into teams as the first-choice wicketkeeper was tough. He was part of India’s Under-19 World Cup squad in 2020, but he was mainly in the reserves; the team management preferred Dhruv Jurel as their first choice. Kushagra got just one game, against Japan, in which he remained not out, but it wasn’t even a footnote in the tournament.Then Covid struck and cricket came to a grinding halt, but once it resumed, Kushagra got his big break. Ishan Kishan was on the fringes of the Indian team and wasn’t always a regular for Jharkhand. Kushagra went from being a reserve to first choice. In a way, it’s this change that has brought him much game time over the past two seasons.He first displayed his calibre in a Ranji Trophy game against Tamil Nadu in the 2021-22 season, when he made a fighting half-century to rescue Jharkhand in a tottering chase on a rank turner. At 49 for 4, their target of 212 seemed unattainable. Kushagra dug in to make 50 off 121 balls to lay the foundation for a two-wicket win.Then in the pre-quarter-finals against Nagaland, he made 266. En route to that score, he broke Javed Miandad’s record to become the youngest player to score 250 or more in a first-class innings. Those two performances gave him belief, and a long chat with Kishan before the start of this season changed things.Kushagra with his parents and siblings. Dad Shashikant turned to Bob Woolmer’s book for his son’s training•Kumar Kushagra”I met Ishan [Kishan] in Ranchi. We had a long chat. One of the things he asked me at that camp was if I was happy with the batting time I was getting,” Kushagra remembers. “He told me how as a youngster, you can’t be satisfied batting for 20 minutes daily. He used to come an hour early and then do a batting session late. I followed that. We always had net bowlers, so the onus is always on you to drive things. After that chat, I kind of realised how I had to put in more effort to make things happen.”The change in regimen brought about more confidence and an improved sense of understanding of his own game. Kushagra was now growing more comfortable adapting to different batting roles within the team. He’d always been a good wicketkeeper, and now that his batting was coming along well, there was a renewed sense of hope that a call-up wasn’t far away.As for Capitals, they struggled to pick replacements mid-season this year for the injured Rishabh Pant. They had a look at four wicketkeepers and eventually picked Bengal’s Abishek Porel, who was excellent behind the stumps in the matches he played, but couldn’t quite give them batting muscle. This time around, they decided to earmark a budget to acquire another keeper in case Pant isn’t able fill the role as he continues to recover from a car crash last December.”I see this as an opportunity to learn and get better,” Kushagra says. “I mean, who doesn’t dream of playing in the IPL? I’ve grown up with the league.”We’ve all grown up watching our heroes, trying to mimic them. Like sometimes, I’ve tried imagining and replaying the way MS Dhoni pulls off those stumpings in one single motion. And then you quietly realise from within why he is what he is and how long a way I still have to go.”Kushagra comes from the same state, but hasn’t yet been able to meet Dhoni. Maybe it’s meant to be in 2024. “He’s a hero to us not because he’s from the same state, but because he’s MS Dhoni. Meeting him will be an unreal feeling.”Shashikant has only one piece of advice for his son, and it has been a constant over the years. Kushagra has it on a piece of paper, pasted on the door of his room.”Seekhna bandh, toh jeetna bandh.” (When learning stops, winning stops)

The key stats from West Indies’ eight-run win over Australia at the Gabba

Sampath Bandarupalli28-Jan-20241 Australia’s eight-run defeat against West Indies was their first in a day-night Test match. Australia won each of their previous 11 day-night Test matches. In contrast, this was West Indies’ first-ever win in a day-night Test match, having lost all their previous four games.2003 West Indies’ last win against Australia in Test cricket – by three wickets at St John’s. West Indies played 20 Tests against Australia in the previous 20 years, losing in 16 while another four ended in a draw.It is also the first win for West Indies in Australia since the ten-wicket win in Perth in February 1997. West Indies lost 15 of the 17 Tests they played in Australia between the two wins.Related

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8 West Indies’ win margin in Brisbane is their second narrowest by runs in men’s Tests. They defeated Australia by one run in 1993 at the Adelaide Oval while defending a target of 186. Six of the twelve men’s Tests to be decided by less than ten runs have come against Australia.10 Test defeats for Australia at the Gabba out of the 66 they played. Sunday’s defeat was their second in four matches at the venue since 2021, where they did not lose one in the 31 played between 1989 and 2020.1 Previous instance of Australia losing a Test match after declaring in an innings at home. Australia declared their first innings on 395 for 8 despite being 54 behind West Indies in the 1988 Perth Test but lost by 169. Overall, this was only the fifth instance of Australia losing a Test match where they declared in one of their innings.West Indies team pose after their first Test win in Australia in 27 years•Getty Images5 Players, including Shamar Joseph, with a seven-wicket haul for West Indies against Australia in Test cricket. Three of the previous seven-fors by the West Indies bowlers came in Australia only.Joseph is also the first visiting bowler with a seven-plus wicket haul in Australia since Matthew Hoggard’s 7 for 109 in 2006 at the Adelaide Oval.2 Players with five-wicket hauls in their first two Test matches for West Indies. Before Joseph, only Fidel Edwards accomplished this feat, with five-fors against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in 2003.2 Bowlers with better figures for West Indies in the fourth innings than Joseph’s 7 for 68 in Brisbane. Curtley Ambrose in 1990 and Roston Chase in 2019 bagged eight-wicket hauls – against England in Bridgetown.11.5 Overs bowled by Shamar in Australia’s second innings. These are the fewest overs bowled by a player in a Test innings for West Indies while picking up seven or more wickets.216 Fourth-innings target that Australia failed to chase at the Gabba is the lowest for them at home in the last 25 years. The previous instance of Australia losing at home chasing a lower target was 175 against England at the MCG in 1998.9 Batters, including Steven Smith at the Gabba, to carry their bat in the fourth innings of a Test match. Smith is also the first opener to carry the bat in the fourth innings since Dean Elgar against India in 2018. The previous Australian to carry the bat was David Warner against New Zealand in 2011, also in an unsuccessful chase in Hobart. Smith also became the first opener to carry his bat in Tests since Tom Latham against Sri Lanka in December 2018.3 Travis Head is the third to bag a king’s pair in men’s Tests for Australia, after Adam Gilchrist against India at the Eden Gardens in 2001 and Ryan Harris against England at the Adelaide Oval in 2010.