Trent Rockets stick to Andy Flower blueprint to cap strong season with Hundred silverware

Matt Roller03-Sep-2022Lewis Gregory pierced the gap in the covers and raised his arm in the air. Luke Wood sprinted through towards the pavilion, throwing his bat, then helmet into the night sky. Their team-mates raced onto the Lord’s outfield, engulfing the ninth-wicket pair that had dragged Trent Rockets across the line in a nip-and-tuck final, one that played out more like a 40-over slow-burner than a 100-ball thrash.Rockets had lift-off, and their head coach Andy Flower stood up in the dugout to breathe a sigh of relief. They had made life difficult for themselves in pursuit of 121 on a sticky, two-paced pitch but the squad that he had constructed and polished over the last 16 months had come good just when it needed to.Most of Rockets’ success in 2022 had owed to their opening partnership, Alex Hales and Dawid Malan, who finished the season with 48.7% of the team’s runs off the bat between them. But in the final, they managed a combined 27 off 26 balls.Related

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Hales miscued Josh Little to cover looking for a fast start, and Malan was reminded why he decided to avoid playing his home games on this ground when he left Middlesex for Yorkshire three years ago, struggling for fluency on an end-of-season pitch before falling to a leading edge off Paul Walter.Instead, this victory relied on Rockets’ depth and versatility. Throughout this tournament, they have fielded a side featuring six frontline bowling options and a batting line-up with Wood, a man with two first-class hundreds to his name, coming in at No. 10. In the field against Originals, Rockets used six bowlers, each of whom bowled at least two sets of five; in the chase, six batters reached double figures, but nobody made as many as 20.A wealth of allrounders has been a key feature of Flower’s sides since his first forays into the franchise circuit. “The ideal is to bat deep,” he explained to ESPNcricinfo. “There’s no doubt that when a batting unit looks down the order and sees that you bat to No. 9 or 10, you feel a greater sense of freedom to attack. And the ideal is to have six bowling options… it gives the captain maximum flexibility with his tactical game.”Flower’s teams invariably have variety in their bowling options. Rockets are no different: on Saturday night, they picked two left-arm seamers including one out-and-out quick in Wood, two right-arm seamers, a left-arm spinner and an offspinner. Unusually, they were without a wristspinner, with Rashid Khan (Asia Cup) and Tabraiz Shamsi (CPL) both unavailable, but Gregory’s smart, simple captaincy made things work.Sam Cook, whose 4 for 18 won him the match award, said: “The number of allrounders we’ve got is unique. We’ve lost a couple of players – Rash and Shamsi – but the depth of squad that we’ve got means that someone like Matt Carter, who probably slid under the radar tonight, has come into the biggest game in the tournament and nailed his skills.”That’s been the biggest strength of our squad this tournament, the depth. It’s testament to the squad and the recruitment done before the tournament: we had Lewis walking in at No. 8, a bloke with the ability to hit the best bowlers in the world out of the park. That’s quite a luxury.”Samit Patel gleefully celebrates a wicket•Getty ImagesThere is a simplicity that has underpins most of Rockets’ decision-making. Whenever possible, they look to create a left-right partnership between their batters – Colin Munro has batted as low as No. 6 – and with the ball, they ensure their spinners bowl to favourable match-ups whenever possible. In the final, Carter bowled 15 of his 20 balls to left-handers, with Samit Patel bowling 10 of his 15 to right-handers.Coaches and analysts are regularly criticised for an apparent obsession with those principles, but Flower’s success – his teams invariably reach the knockout stages of whichever competition they are playing in, from CPL to IPL, PSL to T10 – suggests they are rest on sound logic: Gregory’s game-changing six off Richard Gleeson, turning an equation of 11 off 5 into 5 off 4, was whipped over the short leg-side boundary.The reputation of being an intense coach that Flower earned during his England tenure has been hard to shake despite his success on the franchise circuit; shortly after the winning runs were struck, he found himself stood next to Kevin Pietersen on Sky Sports with a microphone in his hand, gently being ribbed by Eoin Morgan about his penchant for team meetings.But it is clear that Flower has evolved. “He’s chilled out in his old age, you see,” Gregory said, laughing. “You guys got him when he was a taskmaster.” Cook said he had become “a bit of a comedian” during the Hundred. “He’s had the boys laughing a lot. He doesn’t say a lot, but when he speaks, you know to listen.”Flower admitted to some doubts after the final. “I thought we might have thrown it away,” he said. “Those guys [Hales and Malan] have been brilliant up top… with them not scoring big runs and some of the other guys chipping in, it’s quite pleasing that it was a team effort.”In the franchise era, the profile of coaches has never been higher. This was primarily a triumph for Rockets, the best team in the men’s Hundred with seven wins out of nine – but it was also a victory for Flowerball.

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.

Despite all the data suggesting length deliveries have more margin for error at the death, the yorker remains the go-to option for most teams

Matt Roller08-May-20233:37

Moody, Dasgupta question Royals’ “baffling” tactics

In T20 cricket, the yorker is a win-or-bust delivery. When landed, it is the hardest delivery for any batter to hit; when missed, it is one of the easiest.In IPL 2023, successful yorkers by seamers at the death have cost 6.2 runs per over, according to ESPNcricinfo’s data. But slot balls and full tosses by seamers at the death have both cost 13.1 runs per over – and even the best yorker bowlers in the league miss more than they hit.On Sunday night in Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals were on the cusp of ending a run of four defeats in five games; a run which has seen them slip from pace-setters to mere play-off contenders. But Jos Buttler was back in the runs, Yuzvendra Chahal among the wickets, and fans dressed in pink considered slipping off early to beat the traffic, with the points in the bag.Related

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With 12 balls left, Sunrisers Hyderabad needed 41 to win. At the crease were Abdul Samad, a 21-year-old who is still learning how to play the format’s most difficult role, and Glenn Phillips, playing his second game of the season and his first since April 2. They had faced three balls between them.This should have been an easy game to close out. Sandeep Sharma, their leading death bowler this season, had an over left. So did Obed McCoy, who had bizarrely bowled a solitary over since being brought into the game as an Impact Player two-thirds of the way through the run chase.Yet, Sanju Samson saw things differently: he threw the ball to Kuldip Yadav, who had bowled tidily but has played precious little senior cricket, let alone in such a high-stakes role. Sunrisers’ batting coach Hemang Badani later said he “found it a wee bit surprising that they went towards Kuldip, and not to McCoy”.Royals have used their Impact Player differently from every other IPL team this season. Regardless of what happens at the toss, they name a starting XI with six frontline batters and five frontline bowlers. They have sacrificed depth when they bat first and limited their options when they bowl first.Perhaps they have seen something that nobody else has, but the results suggest otherwise. With Trent Boult unavailable because of a niggle, they named McCoy, Jason Holder and Adam Zampa among their substitutes on Sunday night, who bowled a single over between them while their uncapped domestic bowlers went around the park.ESPNcricinfo LtdAs he prepared to bowl the penultimate over, Kuldip’s plan was simple: land his yorkers. But in the closing moments of any T20 match, let alone an IPL game that your side desperately needs to win, simple things can become difficult. He missed his first yorker, which Phillips sent back over his head for six; he missed his second, and Phillips duly obliged once more.Now, Kuldip’s faith in his yorker was gone. He went for a slower ball, into the pitch, which disappeared into the stands over midwicket. After a chat with Samson, who ran from behind the stumps to put his arm around him, Kuldip bowled a wide, good-length ball, and Phillips was running hot: his outside edge skewed away past short third for four.The next ball, Kuldip struck. He hit a good length, angling the ball across Phillips, and his miscue looped up into the covers, where Hetmyer took a steepling chance, running back. His final ball, another overpitched yorker, was chipped for two by Marco Jansen.It was an over straight out of Kuldip’s nightmares. Plenty of young bowlers in the IPL must have woken up in cold sweats over the last month after watching Yash Dayal’s experience at the death against Rinku Singh, but with 17 still needed off the final over and Phillips out, Royals were at least still ahead of the game.Sandeep, as he has throughout this season, backed his yorker. Bowling from around the wicket with a slingy release, he has a decent margin for error; even his full tosses and slot balls can be hard to pick. He went wide and full with his first ball, which Samad top edged to short third; somehow, McCoy failed even to get a hand on the relatively comfortable chance.His second ball encapsulated how fine the margins are in this brutal format. His yorker was near-perfect, but just short enough for Samad to get underneath it. Samad swung it down the ground towards Joe Root at long-on, who leapt at full stretch but could only palm it over the rope.Sandeep Sharma’s over-step proved costly for Royals•BCCISandeep’s next three balls? Yorker, low full toss, low full toss. His yorker was squeezed out for two, just about the best result that Samad could have hoped for, and the full tosses were both low enough that they were toe-ended out to the deep. The game was back in Royals’ control, with five needed off the final ball.Once again, this wide-yorker attempt was near-perfect. Samad tried to get underneath it, powering the ball down the ground, but could only find Buttler at long-off. Sandeep closed his eyes, grinned, and pointed to the sky – then heard the no-ball siren. Near-perfect, but not.There was no way that Sandeep’s plan would change, and Samad knew it. This time, Sandeep missed the yorker on the short side, and by the time he had let the ball go, Samad had stepped so far across to the off side that his off stump was visible behind his pads. Down on one knee, he muscled Sandeep back over his head for six.At the death, balls that pitch on a good length, or just shorter, have more margin for error than yorkers. The data suggests that there is a much smaller chance that they will yield a wicket or a dot, but they also have less chance of being hit for six. There is nothing sexy about hitting a hard length at the death – no scope for shattered stumps or crushed bootcaps, but perhaps it is a better option than conventional wisdom suggests.And yet, even with T20 cricket several years into its data age, the yorker remains the go-to option for the vast majority of teams. It is a win-or-bust ball – but Royals have forgotten how to win.

After record-breaking Lions knock, Smith is hoping to push for higher recognition

Matt Roller07-Mar-2023For the last decade, England have been blessed with an abundance of wicketkeeper-batters. Jos Buttler has over 300 international caps, while Jonny Bairstow has 250. Ben Foakes is the incumbent in the Test team, and Sam Billings has spent much of his career as the world’s most overqualified 12th man.Collectively, their stock is high. Buttler is England’s white-ball captain, and one of the best T20 batters in the world; Bairstow was the standout Test player of 2022; Foakes is generally considered one of the best pure wicketkeepers in the world; Billings has slipped down England’s pecking order, but his services remain in high demand on the franchise circuit.Foakes, the youngest of the four, turned 30 last month, a landmark birthday which prompted some deliberation. At some stage in the not-too-distant future, England will need to replace this golden generation of wicketkeepers. Most of the options in their mid-20s are either predominantly batters – think Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett – or have a clear preference for the white-ball game, like Joe Clarke and Phil Salt.You do not have to look far to find the long-term solution. At 22, Jamie Smith has already spent two winters on tour with the England Lions; last month, he blazed the fastest-ever hundred by a Lions batter in a four-day game, taking 71 balls to reach his century against Sri Lanka in Galle.Related

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Jamie Smith's 71-ball century gives England Lions a victory glimmer

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It was a statement innings – and word travelled quickly throughout the English game. Smith spent some time around the Test squad during the Lions’ pre-Christmas training camp in the UAE and his admirers include Rob Key. Ben Stokes has taken notice, too: “Jamie Smith is someone who’s been talked about a lot,” he said before the first Test in New Zealand.His record-breaking innings encapsulated the extent to which England’s style and philosophy under Stokes and Brendon McCullum has quickly disseminated through the English game. “Being in an environment where he’s been able to go out and express himself, and feel confident enough to go and do that, you see the performances coming,” Stokes said. “It’s great to see that filtering from us at the top, down to the Lions – and hopefully into county cricket as well.”Smith started his innings slowly from No. 5, reaching 10 off 19 balls as the Lions responded to Sri Lanka A’s 332 all out. At the drinks break, he spoke to Alex Lees, unbeaten on 58 off 59 balls and the senior player in the side. “I said to him: ‘I don’t feel like I can take them on here,'” Smith recalls. “‘I don’t really feel like I’m set.'”He just said: ‘You definitely can. Back yourself, be positive.'” Three balls later, Smith slog-swept Lasith Embuldeniya – one of four members of Sri Lanka’s attack with a Test cap – over midwicket for six. “From there, I was just like a different person,” he says. At stumps, he had reached 86 off 56 balls; he was eventually dismissed for 126 off 82 the following morning.”Jamie, for a young English player, has a fantastic technique against spin,” Ian Bell, the Lions’ batting coach, says. “When we see world-class players like Joe Root, with his footwork, it’s about getting forward and back, and picking length very quickly. He does that.”He’s got a very good, solid defence against spin. But also, he has the ability to take people down as well – and we saw that in his hundred. He could flick a switch, hit over the top, sweep, and go to another gear. When you’re looking at the way the England Test side are playing at the moment, I would have thought that fits very nicely, in terms of how he puts pressure back on bowlers.”

[Smith] did himself no harm at all with what he achieved for the Lions. For all these guys, it’s about going back and dominating county cricketIan Bell

Six months ago, Smith did not anticipate spending the winter overseas with the Lions. “I had a poor year with the bat,” he reflects. “I didn’t have the stats on the board to warrant being included. I’m very thankful for that backing and that definitely did give me a slight boost. Come that first week in October, I was pretty low on confidence.”Smith’s third Championship innings of 2022 was an unbeaten 234 against Gloucestershire, but he managed only 121 more in his next eight innings, even as Surrey won the title. In the T20 Blast, he batted as low as No. 9 when Surrey had their full complement of star names available, and he spent August running drinks for London Spirit rather than playing in the One-Day Cup.But a conversation with Mo Bobat, the ECB’s performance director, at Loughborough before flying to the UAE “gave me a massive confidence boost going into the winter”, Smith says, tripping over himself to remain modest: “We just chatted a few things through about where they sort of saw me – and how much, maybe, they do sort of believe in me, a little bit.”England see him as a natural fit to their new style, and Smith found the training camp had a liberating effect on his batting. “I’ve always been a person who likes to take the positive option,” he says. “I felt like last year, back in the county system, I probably lost that. I didn’t put bowlers under anywhere near the amount of pressure that I know I can and have the ability to – especially against spin.”I’ve always felt like I want to be very proactive against spin, hitting over the top. Last year, I’d lost that completely; lost that intent. I don’t know why, if it’s a lack of confidence, but when you’re not scoring runs, it seems to be the first thing you do: to protect your wicket a bit more. It was a turning point for me in Dubai, having that freedom. Luckily, that came back and I was really able to show what I could do.”In particular, he feels as though he benefitted from “clear messaging” which enabled him to stop worrying about his technique and focus on his strengths. “You’re just not worried about what your feet are doing, what your hands are doing. You’re watching the ball, and looking to put pressure back on bowlers. That simplicity really helps me.England present and England future? Smith and Ben Foakes are team-mates at Surrey•Getty Images”When I do inevitably get a few low scores during the summer – as everyone does – I feel like I can just go back to the real simplistic approach of just watching the ball, having fun, trusting myself. I think that was the main thing: knowing you have the confidence of an innings like that in the bank, where you can always look and think, you know what? I can do it.”Smith’s progression has been a familiar story in English cricket: he was educated at Whitgift School, and first played for Surrey’s age-group teams aged 10. But even those players with the most traditional backgrounds have had to look at things differently in the Stokes-McCullum era.”You always used to be taught that to score a hundred, you need to face 200 balls,” he says. “But it doesn’t have to be like that. The way the England guys are playing is definitely inspiring people not to set their own ceilings.”At this stage, Smith is seen as a long-term investment by the ECB – but a strong start to the Championship season could see him pushing for Test selection as a specialist batter before long. Bell cites the case of Harry Brook, who he worked with at Hobart Hurricanes just over a year ago. Brook averaged 6.28 in the 2021-22 Big Bash; now, he is England’s best young batter across formats.”Harry is a great example: it’s amazing how quickly things can change,” Bell says. “Jamie looking at that can think, ‘actually, if I do start well for Surrey, then it’s not a million miles away.’ He did himself no harm at all with what he achieved for the Lions. For all these guys, it’s about going back and dominating county cricket; he’s in a fantastic place to do that.”Of England selection, Smith says: “It’s why you play the game, isn’t it? Everyone wants to play for England. Just to be having your name thrown around with some of those people is a bit ridiculous at times but it’s something to strive for. The main thing is just enjoying playing. Being out there in Sri Lanka definitely brought that enjoyment, and hopefully I can take that into the English summer.”You never know. You’re always closer than you feel you are. A couple of good summers or whatever, and you push your name right in the frame. But I’ve just got to keep working hard on all aspects of my game. You never know how far it can take you.”His first task will be securing his spot in Surrey’s team. Hashim Amla has retired but Dom Sibley is back after a spell at Warwickshire, and as defending champions, they have a strong, deep squad. For Smith, that has occasionally meant running the drinks or playing for the seconds.But he insists: “I don’t see it as a detriment anymore. For example, if Popey [Ollie Pope] is lucky enough to be picked in the Ashes – which I’m sure he will – there’s a chance for some games there to put your hand up, and go and score his runs. Which won’t be easy, because he scores a lot of them – but why can’t you?”That question has informed much of England’s thinking in the last nine months, shifting the focus from what players can’t do to what they can. As Smith showed in Sri Lanka, he can do almost anything.

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.

Shanaka is no one’s idea of a world-class bowler but he makes it work against Bangladesh with his 3 for 28

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Sep-20231:51

Maharoof: Shanaka brings balance to the team when he bowls

When your last seven scores are 5, 14*, 1, 5, 0, 5 and 1, these things tend to happen. Like a man rifling frantically through all his pockets for a misplaced key, Dasun Shanaka is reaching for deliveries he doesn’t usually reach for, lunging when he doesn’t usually lunge, and mis-hitting almost every shot in an anxious 32-ball 24 that sets Sri Lanka on track for another fizzling finish.It has been almost nine months since Shanaka struck 108 not out off 88 against India in Guwahati. Since then, he has played 14 ODI innings, averaged 10.69, and struck at a truly abysmal 73.15.Such has been the extent of his batting misery, and so desperate a figure does he cut with bat in hand, you wonder if he thinks he will ever find his old self again. Whether he still believes the thing big-hitting batters such as himself are supposed to believe: that the shot that thumps him back into rhythm – like an old TV screen that comes right when you hit it hard enough – is just around the corner.Related

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But this is not your run-of-the-mill plunge into despair. There are other statistics. Under Shanaka’s leadership, Sri Lanka have now won 13 consecutive ODIs, something only the greatest ODI team of all time has ever done before. They’ve bowled out their opposition in all 13 of those matches, despite their best fast bowler – Dushmantha Chameera – having been injured for most of that run. Wanindu Hasaranga has played no part in their three Asia Cup victories so far. Promising left-armer Dilshan Madushanka has not been available in this tournament either.There are huge caveats to these numbers, of course. Of the teams playing in this year’s World Cup, Sri Lanka have defeated only Afghanistan (three times), Bangladesh (twice), and Netherlands (twice) during this stretch. None of these sides are what you would call long-standing cricketing powers. But still, Sri Lanka have won 22 matches and lost only 13 under Shanaka. In ODIs since 2016 in which he was not captain, Sri Lanka won just 28 and lost 63.A quick vibe check, as we can’t be all about numbers: it doesn’t feel as depressing to be a follower of Sri Lankan cricket since Shanaka took over the white-ball teams. Even if he himself barely looks like he can hold a bat right now.What Shanaka can do, however, is contribute with the ball. It is, by a distance, his second skill. Maybe even his third, given his fielding in the circle is routinely outstanding. On Saturday, having seen Bangladesh’s batters go after Maheesh Theekshana early, and sensing that perhaps this was a plan they had hatched, Shanaka brought himself on to bowl the fourth over and, however gentle his pace, began making the ball curve late enough through the air to trouble batters.He raised a mild lbw appeal in his first over, conceded just five runs across his next three overs, and eventually created the pressure that yielded two wickets. Mehidy Hasan Miraz pulled a shortish ball straight to midwicket. Mohammad Naim top-edged what in Shanaka’s world is a bouncer, which eventually settled in the gloves of the wicketkeeper. By the end of his first spell, Shanaka had given away 15 from six overs. It was, in effect, a tone-setting effort.Dasun Shanaka dismissed Bangladesh’s openers in his back-to-back overs•Associated PressBangladesh never truly recovered from these six overs, delivered by a captain who does not usually operate in the early stages of an innings but, perhaps because so much else was going wrong for him, felt he needed to find responsibilities elsewhere.Shanaka is no one’s idea of a world-class bowler. Just as Sri Lanka is no one’s idea of a world-class ODI team, at present. But together, for now, they are making it work. Kind of. In their previous win, against Afghanistan, they had kind of tumbled into like a drunk crashing into a soft haystack.And his problems will persist beyond this match. There are lots of things a captain can’t really do when they’re in this much of a personal chasm. They can’t comfortably make the kinds of tough selection calls on match day that are sometimes required. They can’t twist arms and draft players that are not on the selectors’ radar. They can’t talk tough within the team, and certainly not in public. They can’t take strong stands, which is a thing you often need to do when your board is Sri Lanka Cricket.You suspect Shanaka is not a natural arm-twister/tough talker/stand-taker anyway. But in men’s elite sport, which even in 2023 rewards the more brusque expressions of masculinity, it would be nice to have the option of being a generalissimo, even just occasionally.That ODIs have been Sri Lanka’s worst format since their batting Valar (TM Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardana etc) retired is pretty well understood. But right now, it feels like a side that is spinning like a top – beautiful in its current motion, but susceptible to collapsing with the lightest gust, a glancing touch of a finger.Shanaka is at least partly responsible for this revival. On Saturday, his batting failed again. But he took 3 for 28 from nine overs, and led Sri Lanka to another victory.

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)

Hardik taking over from Rohit Sharma as Mumbai Indians captain wasn’t a surprise, but speed with which things moved was unexpected

Nagraj Gollapudi16-Dec-20238:59

Jaffer: Surprised that Mumbai Indians moved on from Rohit so quickly

When Mumbai Indians pulled off the coup of bringing back Hardik Pandya from Gujarat Titans during the IPL trading window, their big plan was clear.It wasn’t a surprise that Hardik was named captain for the 2024 season, replacing Rohit Sharma, the most successful leader in the history of the IPL along with MS Dhoni. What was a surprise, though, is how quickly it happened, a mere 20 days after Hardik was unveiled as a Mumbai Indian again.The question, then, was whether Rohit himself was surprised by the pace of change, just over three months before the 2024 season starts.Related

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It has been learned that Rohit was informed by the franchise about Hardik’s impending return immediately after IPL 2023, where Mumbai Indians made the playoffs, after two dismal seasons in 2021 and 2022, but finished fourth. Rohit’s captaincy was not the concern for the owners and team management led by Mahela Jayawardene. If there was a concern, it was Rohit’s batting stats: in the last two seasons (2022 and 2023) his average hovered around 20.Also, Rohit will turn 37 next April and his age would have been factored into the deliberations to identify and secure a successor to ensure a smooth transition. Mumbai Indians have been fairly unsentimental about transitions in the past. They moved on from Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga and Kieron Pollard – all pillars of their IPL legacy – and found ways to keep them involved with the team wherever possible. Even John Wright, who coached them to the title in 2013, was moved to a behind-the-scenes scouting role fairly swiftly, with tremendous results. Mumbai Indians’ leadership group, which is led directly by the owners, ensured that each of these decisions was handled efficiently.While some might have thought Hardik would take over the captaincy just before or during the 2024 season, Mumbai perhaps wanted to avoid the scenario when Rohit was suddenly elevated to captaincy in 2013. Ponting, who was bought by Mumbai Indians at the auction for US$400,000 and appointed captain, stepped down after six matches, having scored just 52 runs. When Ponting became mentor, and soon head coach of Mumbai Indians, he guided Rohit in his early years of captaincy, playing a role in the title wins in 2013 and 2015.They are all together again•Mumbai IndiansCommunication and tactical acumen did the trick for RohitOne of the things that worked for Rohit at Mumbai Indians was his ability to extract the best from his players. His team-mates credit Rohit for giving them confidence and security so they could perform at the best – at the IPL or for India. That is a result of Rohit being a people’s person – his communication style is simple and uncomplicated, allowing him to understand his players better. And he has utilised that along with his tactical acumen to execute his plans in high-pressure moments.Rohit was the first captain to win five IPL titles. The first two came when they beat their greatest rivals Chennai Super Kings in the 2013 and 2015 finals. In 2017, they squeezed past Rising Pune Supergiant by one run to claim their third trophy, and then Rohit emulated MS Dhoni by becoming only the second captain to successfully defend the IPL title, winning in 2019 and 2020.Of course, Rohit has had a surplus of matchwinners in his teams: Pollard, Malinga, Harbhajan, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik, in the main. But in 2015, when they climbed to the summit after lying at the bottom of the table for the first two weeks, Rohit learned the value of collective effort. Since then, his players have trusted his word and plans, which more often than not have worked well.Now relieved of captaincy at Mumbai Indians, Rohit can pursue that “ultimate prize” – a global title – he so emotively spoke about earlier this week. Since the 2019 ODI World Cup, where he was the tournament’s leading run-scorer, Rohit has fervently chased the ambition of winning an ICC trophy. He got three shots at it as captain – the 2022 T20 World Cup, the 2023 World Test Championship, and the 2023 ODI World Cup – but fell short each time.It is not yet known whether he will lead India at the 2024 T20 World Cup in June, but relieved of the Mumbai captaincy and playing the IPL as a batter allows Rohit to bat with freedom. There is no doubt that both Rohit and Mumbai Indians, as well as India, would want him to dictate terms in the opening verse of the T20 World Cup – the first six overs – just as he did at the ODI World Cup powerplays. Rohit unshackled is a game changer.Rohit Sharma poses with the five IPL trophies he has won as Mumbai Indians captain•Mumbai IndiansA homecoming and a massive challenge for HardikAs for Rohit’s relationship with Hardik, it has always been strong. It was under Rohit’s captaincy that Hardik made his IPL debut in 2015 and went on to develop into India’s best allrounder. While Hardik has admitted to being a Dhoni admirer, he has enough respect for Rohit too.At Titans, Hardik was the seniormost player with pretty much full control. He could bat where he wanted to and bowl, or not bowl, as he chose, as was the case in the 2023 season when he played as captain and batter.Hardik now returns to a familiar environment – he called it a homecoming – but the challenge will be bigger. Not only will he need to perform on the field, but his primary job will be to ensure his team is one unit and that he has the trust, confidence and respect of the seniors: Rohit, Bumrah and Suryakumar. Those last two, Hardik will be aware, harboured leadership dreams too. He could be challenged on and off the field.Mumbai have not won the IPL trophy for three seasons. This leadership change suggests that the management and the owners are now impatient for another title-winning run. As captain of one of the most high-profile IPL teams, the pressure on Hardik will be high. And then there’s the priority of staying fit to play the T20 World Cup for India, and possibly captain the national side in the future.The challenge for Mumbai will be to ensure Rohit and Hardik join hands in the short term and lay the groundwork for long-term gains.