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Over the years, Dhoni has passed on his wisdom to Hardik. Can he use the same to trump the old master on Friday?

Shashank Kishore30-Mar-2023The nets arena at Motera’s practice ground is quite a walk from the main practice square of the Narendra Modi Stadium. On Thursday evening, shortly before 5pm, security personnel had been stationed around the perimeter of the nets area as venue managers readied a yellow carpet at the entrance of the Chennai Super Kings dressing room.Within minutes of the Super Kings team bus arriving, there was chaos as the news spread. In the middle of the main stadium, lensmen who were trying to capture the lighting of the grand stage set up for a glitzy opening ceremony, with sunlight filtering through one of the gaps in the stands, could have given track-and-field aspirants a run for their money at that very moment.The reason behind their dash? They all wanted to get a perfect shot of MS Dhoni getting out of the team bus and walking into the nets area. What followed next was the whirr of a few hundred shutter clicks to capture Dhoni’s entry. Except Dhoni wasn’t on the team bus. He had arrived an hour earlier for the captains’ meeting and photoshoot, and was already done with some light warm-ups indoors.Related

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After the crowd had dispersed, he casually sauntered into the nets area and put his arm around Gary Kirsten, the Gujarat Giants’ mentor. Ashish Nehra soon joined them for some laughs. A few handshakes and high-fives later, Dhoni quietly went towards the main ground, where Hardik Pandya was seated beside Shivam Mavi, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Shubman Gill and Alzarri Joseph, and was having a long chat.Then as they dispersed to their respective nets on either side of the centre wicket, Hardik and Dhoni briefly crossed paths again.On one side was the fierce intensity of a captain who had led his side to the title in their very first season. On the other was the calmness of the grand old veteran, who will turn 42 in three months. His side had finished ninth last season but he was resonating vibes of someone who has seen it all but is fully comfortable in the space he is in, ahead of possibly one last dance.As Dhoni stood in the middle, crouching low and doing some lower-body drills, Hardik ran in and bowled, took outfield catches, and offered words of advice to his younger team-mates. Later, he played the role of an umpire to have a ringside view of his bowlers.Youngsters have often turned to Dhoni for advice and he too has always been there for them•PTI Then as the rain started to come down, Dhoni yelped from afar towards Hardik as they started to walk off. Watching all this from the outside, you couldn’t help but think of how Hardik has gradually stepped into Dhoni’s footsteps.When a raw Hardik made his debut in 2016, Dhoni was at the front and centre of Indian cricket. He had stood with Hardik at the top of his bowling mark to give instructions and advice ahead of that final over against Bangladesh during the 2016 T20 World Cup game in Bangalore. Just like Hardik does for his young Indian bowlers now.Dhoni was always there for his younger players, who would invariably turn to him for guidance. Ask Kuldeep Yadav or Ravindra Jadeja. Or an unheralded Mohit Sharma, who burst through to have the IPL of his life in 2013. Or Mukesh Choudhary last year.Somewhere along the way, with Hardik, this mentor-mentee relationship evolved into one between an elder and younger brothers. To the extent that Hardik would often be seeking life lessons from Dhoni. It’s said when Hardik found himself in a soup over comments made on a TV chat show, it was Dhoni who told Hardik to not become a recluse and switch off from all forms of social media.The Hardik we see today is a calmer version of the person that burst onto the scene. And it isn’t just the off-field attributes of Dhoni that he seems to be embodied. On the field, Hardik has been instinctive. But at the same time, he has also been calculative and has thrown himself into tough situations to shield younger players and give them a little bit of cushion.Like when he opened the bowling against New Zealand to allow a slightly off-rhythm Arshdeep Singh to settle in. Or promoting himself to No. 4 and doing the bulk of the heavy lifting, even if it meant having to go against his natural game of hitting sixes.0:46

Pandya: I took all the tips from Dhoni when we played together

Last year, for example, Hardik’s strike rate of 152.54 in the last four overs was the third-lowest for him in any IPL season. But that was because he was playing the role of an anchor, allowing the likes of Tewatia and David Miller to do the finishing.”I don’t mind playing the role that, somewhere down the line, Mahi used to play,” Hardik had said in February, during the white-ball series against New Zealand. “When he was around, I was young and hitting all around the park. But since he is gone, all of a sudden, that responsibility is on me. I don’t mind that. We are getting the results. It’s okay if I have to play a little slow.”I’ve always enjoyed hitting sixes. But that’s life; I’ve to evolve. I’ve believed in partnerships and want to give my batting partner and team some assurance and calmness that I’m there. I’ve played more games than any of these guys; I’ve learned how to accept and swallow pressure and make sure everything is calm.”It’s this calmness from their captain that Titans are feeding off. “Hardik isn’t closed-off, available to all the players at all times during the season,” Vikram Solanki, Titans’ team director, said. “He was a very mature captain last year, he took to captaincy very naturally. It was apparent he is a deep thinker of the game. You think of him as a character and personality, it plays through in the way he plays. He led with a lot of positivity and energy, and had a lot of time for people.”When Hardik steps onto the field to lead Titans in the opening game, he will know Dhoni will have a trick or two up his sleeve. The Hardik of a few years ago may have been consumed by that very thought. This version of Hardik is likely to soak it in with a smile and simply make plans on the fly to give Dhoni the slip, just like Dhoni did to the big crowd and lensmen who had made a beeline for him earlier in the evening.

Malan’s form and Brook’s promise leave selectors with no option but to squeeze out 2019 star

Matt Roller18-Sep-2023It was Jos Buttler who rang Jason Roy to let him know that he had been left out of England’s final World Cup squad – just as it was for last year’s T20 World Cup. Buttler considers Roy a close friend and the pair have been international team-mates for nearly a decade, but twice in 13 months he has delivered a clinical, cruel blow.His omission could mark the end of his international career. Luke Wright, England’s national selector, said on Monday morning that Roy is likely to be a non-travelling reserve for the World Cup and insisted that they “certainly haven’t ruled him out” of future selection. He could yet play the second and third ODIs against Ireland.But Roy signalled in newspaper interviews after the Hundred that he expected this World Cup to be his England swansong. He said that, at 33, he anticipates “a changing of the guard” in 50-over cricket and acknowledged that, 14 months after his most recent T20I appearance, he is unlikely to feature in next year’s T20 World Cup.Five weeks ago, when England’s selectors met in Nottingham to pick their provisional squad, Roy was pencilled in as half of their first-choice opening partnership, alongside Jonny Bairstow. After a solid IPL season with Kolkata Knight Riders, Roy had hardly played in the English summer due to a calf injury but had credit in the bank.Harry Brook slammed a 41-ball hundred for Northern Superchargers, shortly after his omission from England’s provisional World Cup squad•Getty ImagesThis year, he had scored hundreds in two of his six ODI innings in the contrasting conditions of Bloemfontein and Mirpur, and he was the player that England had selected more than any other in 50-over cricket between World Cups. Even if his returns had dipped across the four-year cycle, he still boasted an average of 39.91 and a strike rate of 105.53 in 116 ODIs overall.Yet as Wright pithily expressed: “Things happen in sport”. The things which cost Roy were Dawid Malan’s scores of 54, 96 and 127 against New Zealand to leapfrog Roy as Bairstow’s opening partner; Harry Brook’s form after his initial omission in late August – 259 runs from 129 balls in his next four innings for Northern Superchargers and England – which Matthew Mott described as the response of a great player; and Roy’s own fitness issues, with back spasms on the morning of the first and third ODIs ruling him out of the series.Related

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Malan, Wright said, was “absolutely outstanding” against New Zealand, finishing the series as the leading run-scorer on either side despite missing the second ODI for the birth of his son. When the selectors reconvened, “we realised things had slightly changed and Dawid would be the one opening the batting with Jonny in the World Cup.”That meant a decision over who was better suited to being the lone spare batter in the squad. “From Jason’s point of view, he probably only covers us for an opener,” Wright explained. “Harry gives us that cover from Nos. 1-6 and has obviously been in great form as well. It’s been an incredibly tough decision but it shows where we’re at in English cricket, that there are so many tough decisions.”Based on ODI records alone, replacing Roy with Brook might look like a strange decision: Brook has scored 123 runs in his six appearances in the format, while Roy has more than 4000 and played a significant role in England’s World Cup win four years ago, with five 50-plus scores in his seven innings. But Wright said that, in context, the selectors did not see it as a gamble.”One thing you can’t disagree with on Harry is that whenever he gets an opportunity – whether that’s in Test cricket, T20 and hopefully now in 50-over cricket – he takes it with both hands. When we left him out of the original squad, we knew we were leaving out someone who is potentially a world-beater. In any selection, there’s always a risk with whoever you pick.”Does it make it harder to leave out someone who has played so many games in Jason? Absolutely. It’s hard to leave someone out with that pedigree. But also, it was so hard to leave out someone with Harry Brook’s talent. We think he’s a fantastic player who gives us those options from Nos. 1-6 which, from a tactical point of view and if there are any short-term injuries out there, gives us that cover we need.”Dawid Malan’s case for incontrovertible was irresistible after the New Zealand ODIs•PA Photos/Getty ImagesButtler and Mott spoke to Roy in turn at the weekend to explain England’s decision. “The feedback was that he is very disappointed,” Wright said. “I’m sure he’s hurt – but also, Jason knows what professional sport is like.” They have also given him the option of playing against Ireland, but told him it would not affect his World Cup chances.Roy has also been earmarked as a reserve top-order batter, in the event of an injury to Malan or Bairstow, but will not travel with the squad to India. At this stage, England intend to take Jofra Archer as their only travelling reserve to continue his rehabilitation in the hope that he will be fit enough to play a role at the end of the tournament.”As a reserve batter at the top of the order, we’ve made it very clear we see him [Roy] as the man to do that and I don’t think there’s any reason why we wouldn’t,” Wright said. “We’ve spoken to him about that. He’s got time to reflect now over the next few days. The early response was that he’s still available for England; unless that’s changed, that’s how we see it.”There was a time when England’s selection decisions in the build-up to World Cups felt panicked; this one was cold and calculated. Roy’s international career may not yet be over – as Wright would tell him, things happen in sport – but if this really is the end, it is a ruthless way for an England white-ball great to go.

The batting faltered, the fast bowlers were not tried enough, and while Harmanpreet was impressive, Mandhana’s low returns hampered India

S Sudarshanan23-Jul-2023Question marks over the lower-middle orderWithout Richa Ghosh in the mix, the Bangladesh tour was an opportunity for India to find someone to contribute with the bat in the lower order. However, on slow burners in Dhaka in the T20Is, India’s Nos. 5 to 8 averaged a mere 8.75 as India failed to post substantial totals batting first. India tried out Yastika Bhatia, Amanjot Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Harleen Deol and Pooja Vastrakar in these positions in the T20Is, and all of them found it tough to get the scoreboard ticking against the spinners.Related

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The one change India made in the ODIs was to push Yastika to No. 3 and Jemimah Rodrigues to the middle order. While Rodrigues shone in the second game with a career-best 86 – and followed it with an unbeaten 33 in the tied final ODI, Yastika returned scores of 15, 15 and 5 in the three matches. Deol also came good in the third ODI with her second half-century, from No. 4.India’s use of Vastrakar with the bat in the ODI series sent confusing signals. She was pushed to as low as No. 10 in the opening ODI before being left out for the final two games. Even Sneh Rana, picked only for the ODIs, was used above Vastrakar in that game. While Rana can be quite handy with the bat, she is not quite the power-hitter that Vastrakar can be.Harmanpreet, Mani impress; low returns for MandhanaIn recent times, India have looked up to Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur to drive stiff run-chases, and Deepti Sharma to bail them out – with ball and bat – from tough situations.While Harmanpreet scored fifties in the first T20I and the second ODI, Deepti picked up 3 for 12 to help skittle Bangladesh for 87 in their 96-run chase in a low-scoring second T20I. Her batting, though left much to be desired, with 20 being her top score of the tour. Mandhana had low returns, managing only one half-century in the entire tour – in the final ODI.However, debutant Minnu Mani’s show in the T20Is should make India happy. While her batting capability was not fully utilised, she picked up five wickets in the three games at 11.60, primarily bowling with the new ball. B Anusha and Rashi Kanojiya, both of whom made their debuts during the tour, failed to make much of an impact.In helpful conditions, Rana and Devika Vaidya got purchase from the surface with the ball, but their batting needs more work. That put a spanner in India’s works as the two had been preferred over Kanojiya and Anusha for their better batting skills.Minnu Mani was India’s leading wicket-taker in the T20Is•BCBDoing away with paceA mere two years after former head coach Ramesh Powar had called for widening the fast-bowling pool, India seem to have ditched the plan and gone back to their traditional strength – spin.Though, of course, the conditions did dictate the call to an extent, it has to be pointed out that Marufa Akter, the Bangladesh quick, was the top wicket-taker across sides in the ODIs, with four, one, and two wickets in the three games.In the absence of the injured Renuka Singh, India had left-armers Anjali Sarvani and Monica Patel, apart from right-arm seamer Meghna Singh and allrounders Vastrakar and Amanjot to choose from.Only Vastrakar, Meghna and Amanjot got a run in the series. Out of the 128.1 overs India bowled across the six games, only 42 overs were delivered by the seamers. In fact, Harmanpreet used only one over of pace at the death each in the T20I and ODI series – Vastrakar in the opening T20I and Meghna in the last ODI. Shafali Verma and Rodrigues’ offspin services were pressed into action on spin-conducive tracks at the Shere Bangla National Stadium at crucial junctures. Once again, it showed the lack of patience India tend to have with their seamers.Consistency, be it in selection matters – Ghosh and Rajeshwari Gayakwad returning for the Asian Games while Vastrakar being relegated to reserves – or on-field performances, will only help the Harmanpreet-led outfit that, not long ago, was challenging the world’s best.

“We’re not playing for what we wanted to be playing for, but a really vital match for us in the grand scheme of things,” the captain Jos Buttler said

Matt Roller08-Nov-20231:32

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Paul van Meekeren charged down the pitch, swung, and missed. Jos Buttler gathered Moeen Ali’s flat offbreak, moved his hands past the stumps as if to toy with van Meekeren, then dragged them back to knock the bails off. As England’s players gathered in the middle there were high-fives, pats on backs, and even a few smiles.So this was how it felt. 29 days after their first win at this World Cup, a breeze past Bangladesh in Dharamsala, England finally had their second. In those 29 days, they stayed in seven different hotels across seven different cities, travelled nearly 5,500km spanning six different flights, lost five consecutive games and were bowled out in all five.In most sports, World Cups have mercy on losing teams, sending them home after two or three defeats. Not cricket. England’s beleaguered players have been stuck halfway across the world for the last two weeks with their semi-final prospects long gone, waiting aimlessly for someone, anyone to strike the killer blow.Australia delivered it, but even that wasn’t enough. The mid-tournament revelation that a Champions Trophy spot was on the line left England with no choice but to treat a low-key fixture against the Netherlands, a side they took for a world-record total of 498 last year but one with more points than them in their first seven games, as a must-win.Related

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And so, to Pune – or more accurately, a vast, empty stadium an hour outside Pune, nestled somewhere near the Mumbai-Pune expressway on the edge of sprawling suburbia and overlooked by an incomplete housing project. The sparse crowd, reported at 9,217 by the ICC, rattled around in this 42,700-seater concrete bowl.England took 39 runs from the first four overs and overcame the loss of Jonny Bairstow for 15. Dawid Malan brought up a 36-ball half-century, and Joe Root finally made it out of the first Powerplay. But then came a familiar stumble: Root was nutmegged by Logan van Beek, losing his middle stump reverse-scooping, and panic set in.Malan was run out after being sent back by Ben Stokes, looking for a single that was never there, Harry Brook – finally recalled for Liam Livingstone – hit two sumptuous boundaries then hooked Bas de Leede to deep square leg, and Buttler chipped tamely to mid-off, by this stage utterly bereft of his usual self-assurance.1:24

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The stadium DJ was impervious to the banks of empty seats, blaring out Canadian rap between overs. Moeen Ali half-heartedly lofted Aryan Dutt straight down de Leede’s throat at long-off for 4 off 15 balls. In the stands, one older England fan held up a sign which self-effacingly declared: “We beat Bangladesh”.Chris Woakes nudged a single off Dutt, then resolutely blocked the final ball of his over. “Alright Pune, let’s raise the energy!” implored the DJ. “Hands up, hands up, dance, dance, dance, let’s go!” Nobody danced. England’s double world champions scrapped to keep their legacy intact.It was left to Stokes to bail them out. He was given a life on 41, when Dutt put down a tough chance at fine leg off van Beek, then started to grind through the gears. He reached a 58-ball half-century, his second in a row, when he launched de Leede over midwicket, then marmalised Dutt after surviving an inconclusive review for lbw.Stokes’ second fifty took only 20 balls as he brought up a century by reverse-slapping van Meekeren for four. It was his first in World Cups, a fact which served only to underline that some players’ influence will never be measured by milestones, in light of his 2019 heroics.But this was a strange sight: here was England’s man for the big moments, 25km outside Pune, in a battle for Champions Trophy qualification. Stokes will surely not play in that tournament, but his innings at least dragged them to the lofty heights of seventh in the World Cup group stage heading into the final round of fixtures.This, then, was the reason that Stokes had stayed in India, rather than heading home and moving his knee operation forwards by a week. “That’s not his style at all,” Buttler said. “He’s here to play in the World Cup and he wants to be here.” The pair did not even discuss the possibility of Stokes leaving early.As England wrapped up a 160-run win with another solid bowling performance – their third in a row, after bowling India and Australia out – Buttler’s overriding emotion was relief. “It’s not enjoyable losing,” he said. “It’s been a frustrating time… Any game I play, I’m competitive, I want to win – whether it’s a game of cards or a game of cricket.”Finally, the losing streak was broken. “It’s nice to end that sequence and we go to Kolkata,” Buttler said. “We’re not playing for what we wanted to be playing for, but a really vital match for us in the grand scheme of things. It’s great to be heading there with something on the line.”England now fly east to play Pakistan on Saturday, where they can at least expect a much grander spectacle at Eden Gardens against a team vying for a semi-final berth – and against India, no less. Then at last, after one final sequence of travel-train-play, they will be able to consign this dismal title defence to history.

It’s a welcome development, but is it enough? Also, doesn’t the format suggest it’s been squeezed into the calendar without much planning?

Srinidhi Ramanujam28-Mar-2024Thursday marks the return of women’s red-ball cricket in India’s domestic calendar after a gap of six years, with the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal Multi-Day Trophy commencing in Pune. It was added to the calendar only in March, after India won one-off Tests against Australia and England at home last December. And while women cricketers past and present are happy to get what they have, Saba Karim, the former BCCI women’s cricket head, feels it’s “just the beginning” and there will be more.”It’s a step in the right direction because India has started to play Tests; it makes sense to have a very robust red-ball competition at home,” Karim told ESPNcricinfo. “I think this is just the beginning because this year, due to paucity of time, it’s conducted at the inter-zonal level. But I am sure that going forward we may see some inter-state red-ball cricket also.”If we can draw an analogy from men’s cricket: India men’s domestic is the most robust and competitive among all cricket-playing nations. That’s the reason team India now is the superpower at international cricket. That’s the kind of lead which women’s cricket needs to take. I think that’s what BCCI is looking to do at this stage. If you have a strong domestic cricket, that includes the red ball as well, then we will see similar kind of results from women’s team also at the international level.”In terms of women’s Test cricket, there is the Ashes series, which is a regular fixture, but overall, there have been only 26 women’s Tests in the last ten years. And India – one of four teams, the others being Australia, England and South Africa, that do play women’s Tests – have played just six in the last ten years, four of them between 2021 and now. Last August, Harmanpreet Kaur had called for the resumption of long-form domestic cricket for women, and more recently, Meg Lanning said it like it is when she said, “It’s either more or you sort of don’t go there at all”.

“We haven’t gotten much time to practice as such but, what we need is a mindset change. The main thing about playing the long format is being able to switch on and switch off. You might have to bat for a long time and then immediately come back to bowl. We have to be ready all the time”Devika Vaidya

Former India captain and coach Purnima Rau echoed Karim, saying younger players “wouldn’t have known the essence” of the game at all had they played only white-ball cricket.The inter-zonal tournament had begun in the 2014-15 season as a two-day competition, with the three subsequent seasons played in a three-day format before it was scrapped. This time, the BCCI has made it a six-team tournament, with North East Zone added to North Zone, East Zone, West Zone, South Zone and Central Zone. A total of five matches will be played. Thursday will see East Zone vs North East Zone and West Zone vs Central Zone in action in the two quarter-finals. North Zone and South Zone were placed in the semi-finals directly following a draw of lots. They will meet the winners of the first two games from April 3, with the title match starting April 9.”It [multi-day games for women at domestic level] started when we came into the [BCCI’s] fold in 2006, two-day games for all the states. When we played cricket, our semi-final was for two days, and the final was three days. The kind of experience in planning an innings, batting in the middle for a longer time, the art of bowling, the art of batting, the art of captaincy is always there in the multi-day game,” Rau, who represented India between 1993 and 2000 in five Tests and 33 ODIs, pointed out.”Somewhere down the line, the orthodox game, a game of basics, is going to work here. Girls think T20 and slam-bang cricket is going to help us in this format; it might help them, but after playing a lot of multi-day games, they will decipher on their own whether that kind of game will suit them. To start off with, just leave it to the orthodox way of playing – occupation of the crease, working on your singles and twos. These are the things that are going to help them.”The Test-match wins [in December] have spurred them [the BCCI] to do something. It’s good it’s happening for the younger generation.”

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Just over ten days after the completion of the second season of the Women’s Premier League on March 17, India stars such as Harmanpreet, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Yastika Bhatia will be in action in the red-ball tournament. As far as preparation goes, teams had to make do with just a few days of practice since this was somewhat squeezed into the calendar.Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur, among other top players, will be in action in Pune•PTI It might be more about “mindset change”, though, especially for players who were involved in the WPL and are not out of touch.”We haven’t gotten much time to practice as such but, what we need is a mindset change,” Devika Vaidya, the India allrounder who is representing West Zone and had also played in the 2015-2016 tournament, told ESPNcricinfo. “The main thing about playing the long format is being able to switch on and switch off. You might have to bat for a long time and then immediately come back to bowl. We have to be ready all the time.”That patience, to build the partnerships or trap the batter, you need skills to do that. All this comes with time when you play more matches and get experience. And then it gets a bit easy to change the mindset. If the Tests happen regularly, then we need to practice bringing in the mindset change as well. Our skills are actually going to be tested. That’s the fun part of this format.”Vaidya didn’t find a team in this edition of the WPL after playing for UP Warriorz in 2023. In the time off, she changed her fitness routines, her training consisted of certain workouts to gain muscle mass and improve endurance, precisely what a player preparing for multi-day cricket would work on.”Luckily, I had already made changes in my training,” she said. “So I was on the same track, and then they announced [the new tournament]. So for me, it’s quite simple to continue what I was already doing. Before any T20 tournament, we tend to do a lot of power training. In cricket, we don’t have to run for a long time. But we do need that endurance to play 100 overs in one day.”When we play a tournament in March, it’s going to be hot. When you play for a long time, there are chances that you may lose body mass. We need to sustain in this heat. We train more in the gym, build our muscle mass enough and focus on endurance.”There are many players, prominent now, who haven’t had any red-ball experience at the senior level coming into this competition. The likes of S Anusha, Tamil Nadu captain and a part of the South Zone team, falls in this category. With no zonal-level camps organised before the tournament, Anusha turned to Niranjana Nagarajan, the fast bowler who played two Tests in 2014, and current spin-bowling allrounder D Hemalatha, who had also been a part of the zonal red-ball tournament when it was last played.Young Indian cricketers can only benefit by playing long-form cricket regularly•BCCI”I have played with the red ball at the Under-19 level, but ahead of this tournament, I did a lot of spot bowling and worked on being consistent with line and length without trying too many variations, which I would do in short formats,” Anusha told ESPNcricinfo. “I spoke to Hemalatha and Niranjana to understand the mindset needed for this format. Niranjana and I have bowled together for the state, and she knows about my bowling style well. She said: ‘You need to be patient, and show character.'”It’s easy to lose focus when you play cricket all day long, so she was giving me tips about how to stay focussed and be determined to pick up wickets.”

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It’s a start and there could be more, or so one hopes. The benefits are likely to be wide-reaching.The format of the tournament, though, could do with some thinking and tinkering. Just five games. Five teams, potentially, could end up playing just one match, and two teams, possibly, will get to play three. Is that fair? And are the players from the north-east ready for cricket at this level?”The competition should be a regular feature, not just with zones, but with also [played among] the state teams. Especially the north-east players, who are yet to find their feet,” Rau argued. “I think the north-east players need to play more number of longer duration matches. We have to unearth talent there. I feel state teams should start playing [multi-day cricket], and there should be another group for north-east and not mix them with the big players.”Maybe things will get better with time.

By design, as well as some strokes of luck, he might have found just the right spot in the starting XI that he can thrive in

Sidharth Monga08-Jun-20241:30

Pant: ‘Get goosebumps just wearing Indian jersey again’

The pitches at the nets in Hicksville, New York are just as spicy as the ones in the ground at Westbury, New York. Over the last few days, the South African batters have been practical and have faced little of Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada, who have been asked to bowl in an empty net. On Friday, Rohit Sharma was hit by one that reared off a length and after a while went to the other end to take throwdowns. Virat Kohli has been showing his class against some tough bowling before trying to hit out in the second half of his nets sessions.Amid all this, one batter has been fighting it out relentlessly. Rishabh Pant has perhaps taken the most blows in the Cantiague Park nets, but he has continued to bat despite the pain. He was also the only one from the main XI that turned up for India’s optional nets a day before their first match of this T20 World Cup. Despite all the blows, he is just having fun. He started today’s session batting right-hand against the spinners before the rest of the team joined in. He went back to his left-hand stance for the nets, but that didn’t stop him from turning into a right-hand batter and play outrageous shots. Just like the one he played to end the last match: a reverse ramp to a fast bowler straight over the keeper’s head for a six.You watch Pant swinging the bat so hard, generating such bat speed that sometimes he ends up sweeping himself off his feet, and you can’t help but feel the gratitude he must be feeling that he is able to do all these outrageous things again after his horrific accident a year and a half ago. To do so for India in a World Cup is no less than a miracle. On top of that, in both of India’s matches – a warm-up game against Bangladesh and their first match in the tournament proper – Pant has been the best batter on view.Related

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Before the IPL started, when Pant started his comeback, India didn’t even have Pant in their plans. You can’t blame them. Once he showed his form, though, and once Jitesh Sharma lost form, Pant was back in. By accident or design, Pant has solved one structural problem, and also found himself his best batting slot.India came into this World Cup having to sacrifice the left-hand opener Yashasvi Jaiswal in order to accommodate Shivam Dube’s disruptive hitting in the middle. That did leave India susceptible to a slow start against left-arm spin. Having batted in the top three only 11 times out of 66 for India, Pant was not the natural option to open. Even for Delhi Capitals in his comeback year, Pant hardly batted in the top three.India, though, came up with the most practical solution. They picked the left-hand keeper from the two available, and pushed Suryakumar Yadav down to throw in a left-hand batter in the top three. The plan seems to be this: Rohit plays aggressively even against less-than-ideal match-ups, and Pant takes over should Rohit perish trying to do that.Rishabh Pant has been relentless at practice sessions•ICC via Getty ImagesBatting coach Vikram Rathour was asked if Pant was thrown in there because he is a left-hand batter. “He has been batting really well,” Rathour said. “The two games he has played, he has looked really, really good. So yes, at the moment he is our No. 3, and it helps that he is the left-hander.”By accident, it opens up an avenue for Pant, who started out as an opener and prefers to take a little bit of time before he starts attacking. Batting at No. 3 gives him that semi-luxury. Also, the conditions so far haven’t called for ultra-aggressive batting, and it seems it will be the case for the rest of the tournament.If you watch Pant’s interview about his comeback on Star Sports, you can sense the frustration and the desperation he went through in the period that he was out. With such accidents, you always start out being thankful you are still alive but that anger soon kicks in when you need assistance even to get up. Then once you start being self-dependent, you feel frustrated you can’t do what you used to do. And you have to repeat the same boring steps to recovery every day.Pant has managed to conquer all that, and has beaten every clock to come back on the international cricket field so quickly. He deserves these small strokes of luck that have produced just the spot in the starting XI that he can thrive in.

Fast bowler’s brilliant spell shows his powers have not been diminished by two back injuries

Vithushan Ehantharajah18-Aug-2024It was during the 2023 summer that Saqib Mahmood decided to keep a low profile. No interviews. No franchise cricket at the turn of the year, however tempting. No Instagram reels charting progress and courting well-wishes. Mahmood needed to go dark. A second back stress fracture, a year after his first and in the same spot, had knocked him. But there was a clarity this time around. He knew what he had to do. Stick to the recovery work, no matter how soul-sapping it would be. Bide his time regardless of how much time had been taken from him. Ease himself back into competitive cricket despite the fact a nightmarish two years had begun almost immediately after his first taste of Test cricket in March 2022.And so here he was at Lord’s, floodlights bouncing off his Oval Invincibles green get-up in front of 28,860 punters who had given up their Sunday evening to be here, countless others consuming from afar, turning in a player-of-the-match performance. A reintroduction on a grand stage. A comeback for a player who has been here for years.A devastating 3 for 17 ripped the heart out of an excellent Southern Brave side as Oval Invincibles went back-to-back. It was really more of a 3 for 1 across seven deliveries contained within 10 – the second time this season Mahmood has been asked for an extended set. If that speaks of a robustness off the back of those injury-plagued years, the quality within it showed why patience has not been exclusive to Mahmood.”He’s probably not going to admit it,” Sam Billings said, “but not many people bowl like that.” The Invincibles captain was referring to his upright, slingy action, which serves up late movement at high pace. Movement which, here, was exacerbated by a scuff to the ball administered by a Laurie Evans six off Adam Zampa which landed in the stands at midwicket.Leus du Plooy was the first to be disadvantaged by that. The scale of Mahmood’s reverse-swing was evident in the loss of shape in what the left-hander had hoped would be a booming drive through the off side, only to find his hands turned inside-out and his leg stump snapped back.In walked Kieron Pollard, the state of the game in those famous bucket hands with Brave needing 49 from 28. He started with an inside-edge, before being beaten on the outside, then skewered by a length delivery that shot through at hip height and somehow missed his gloves.At that point, a timeout was called. But any sense the heat had been taken out of the occasion was put to bed by an inswinger that – after a hopeful review – confirmed a four-ball duck. Mahmood has waited long enough for nights like these. What’s another five minutes? Just like that, the competition’s most feared finisher was finished.Related

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Billings post-match assessment was spot on: “You’ve got one of the best players to have ever played the game, and you’ve had him on toast there.” Evans was removed two balls later for good measure, with one that was relatively tame – pushed uppishly to cover, accompanied by an audible groan on the stump mic – but which bore the hallmarks of a batter wary of the spell he had found himself in, and the situation the bowler had concocted.That Mahmood was even here, never mind influencing matters in such a profound way, is layered. Spencer Johnson’s injury and the ECB’s decision to rest Gus Atkinson meant he knew on Friday that he’d have a part to play, which also happened to be the third anniversary of his previous appearance in the competition before this season.Invincibles picked him up in 2021 after his icon deal with Manchester Originals – his “home” club – was downgraded when Covid postponed 2020’s first season of the Hundred. At £60,000, he was not cheap and perhaps a more unforgiving organisation may have cut him loose. Contracted to Lancashire and overseen by the ECB with an array of fast bowling and development deals, Mahmood did not need Invincibles as a third parent.But in south London, they will tell you “consistency builds trust”, even for a team that is only really a team for a month a year. And they saw Mahmood’s presence on their balance sheet as no hindrance, which was as much to do with the person as the player. “The ability to reverse-swing, the skill level plus the man… it was a pretty easy decision to back him,” Billings said, a statement which Mahmood immediately thanked him for.”The boys have got two [titles], but at least I’ve got my own,” Mahmood added, emotional enough to regard the toil of the last two years as “a bit of a blur” despite the fact those periods must have felt like hell.”Watching the boys last year lift it, you want to be a part of it. When you work hard, trying to get back on the park, it’s for days like this.”Having watched that last year, and missing out on other things like England tours, World Cups and things like that. Those are the sorts of occasions you want to be a part of. And, yeah, I’m glad I was part of that today.”Unsurprisingly, Mahmood was reticent to speak of what happens next. Cricketers are superstitious types, and you can forgive a fast bowler believing in jinxes off the back of two back injuries. But as the match-hero medallion and winner’s medal clanged around his neck, underneath a broad smile and eyes doing their utmost to hold back tears, he allowed himself to wonder out loud about a return to where he once was.He expects to be playing Championship cricket later this week when Lancashire play Surrey at his adopted home ground, along with eyes on T20 Blast success, but he could not resist speaking of a return to the top. “[I’ve got] One eye on that England series against Australia, as well.”There’s every chance that will come to pass. Not just because those white ball commitments the clash with the end of England’s Test series against Sri Lanka but because, on the evidence of Sunday evening, his quality has not dimmed.At 27 years old, he is young enough to have all corners of the game open to him, yet he has enough experience to know none of them can be taken for granted. Now, having embraced the dark, Mahmood looks ready to shine brighter than ever before.

The fast bowler talks about the responsibilities of supporting his family, and being a senior seamer in the squad in the West Indies

Firdose Moonda07-Aug-2024Lungi Ngidi had just turned 22, and earned his first central contract with South Africa and his first IPL contract, when his father, Jerome, died. Life had changed forever when he returned home to his mother and three older brothers.At the time Ngidi was only a year into his international career, a true South African success story: born shortly after democracy came to the country; to parents who worked as caretaker and housekeeper at his primary school; the recipient of a scholarship to the prestigious Hilton College; and a professional sportsperson.In eight games for South Africa, he spread stardust as a speedy fast bowler and brought unprecedented joy to his parents, who were for the first time in their lives able to take a flight and stay in a hotel to watch him play.Ngidi promised to take care of them financially now that he was earning more than they ever had. And when his father, suffered complications from a back operation and passed away, Ngidi found himself taking on the role of the head of the family sooner than he might have expected.Related

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“My dad passing helped me mature a lot quicker. I realised that cricket’s not the be-all and end-all for me. Life goes on off the field,” Ngidi says from Trinidad, where South Africa will play West Indies in the first of two Tests this month.Although Ngidi is the youngest of four sons, he was the one with the best-paying job. He had already bought his parents a house with his first provincial contracts, and went on to take greater responsibility after Jerome’s death. In South Africa there is a term that relates to this: “black tax”. The phrase stands for the money that people of colour, often the first graduates and white-collar workers in their families, use to support their parents, who were denied the opportunity to work high-paying jobs because of apartheid.It’s not something that weighs on Ngidi. “I’m in the position that allows me to support my family. It’s what has been put on my plate, so I’m happy to do it,” he says. “My family is my main priority, so making sure that they’re okay is always top of my list. And cricket helps me do that.”But while sport is a means to a bigger end for him, with time he has realised he can also allow himself to enjoy it. “If I’m going to let cricket drag me down every day – and this is something I do every day – then I’m going to be a very miserable person. There’s a lot more to my life than just cricket. That helped me take things into perspective and understand that at the end of the day, it is a sport.”It has taken six years, multiple injuries, missing tournaments, and being dropped from the national team for Ngidi to get to this point.

Look who arrived to watch the final test match, 1st time in a hotel, 1st time in joburg

Parents showing support #NgidiFamily pic.twitter.com/CodjQ0rZkt

— Lungisani Ngidi (@NgidiLungi) January 23, 2018