Liam Livingstone’s side suffer batting implosion as Bulls charge into T10 final

Aadam Patel03-Dec-2021Halfway into the Abu Dhabi T10, with five wins out of five, Team Abu Dhabi were looking like the team to beat with their imposing brand of cricket, instilled by Paul Farbrace, and the aggressive manner in which they were taking the game to the opposition.Captain Liam Livingstone said they would commit to that fearless style and strategy, knowing that one day they would get bowled out for 50 or 60. He just wished that day wouldn’t come when it really mattered.For much of the tournament, that approach worked – they became the first side to reach the play-offs and with last-ball sixes to seal victories against Deccan Gladiators and Delhi Bulls, the trophy looked destined to be theirs. Everything was going their way. But as so often happens in these competitions, it is about peaking at the right time.As the T10 journeyed towards its business end, their insistence on that identity remained; perhaps ultimately, it was the cause of their demise.It was at this very stage that Team Abu Dhabi fell in the last edition of this tournament, and as they were bowled out for 60 by Bulls in the second qualifier here, driven on by a determined Dominic Drakes who will no doubt be a man you will hear much more of in years to come, their inability to adapt proved to be the reason as to why it will be Gladiators and Bulls who will instead contest Saturday’s final at the Zayed Cricket Ground.After Gladiators had earlier beaten Bulls in the first qualifier to secure their place in the final, the Abu Dhabi outfit hammered Bangla Tigers to eliminate Faf du Plessis’ side. The final act of Friday’s triple-header thus saw sides led by Livingstone and Dwayne Bravo go head to head for a place in the final.Earlier in the day, Wanindu Hasaranga’s crucial removal of Rahmanullah Gurbaz – the star of the tournament – for just 19 offered a different challenge for the Bulls batters. Suddenly, they needed someone other than Gurbaz to step upDespite Eoin Morgan briefly threatening to pull off something special when he went after Andre Russell with three consecutive sixes, he hit a full toss the very next ball straight to Odean Smith and that was the end of that.Wahab Riaz stated how despite Gurbaz hitting the Sri Lankan for six in the first over after the powerplay, he continued with that match-up knowing that Hasaranga was his key wicket-taker. That decision worked as Gurbaz sent the first ball of Hasaranga’s next over straight to Tom Kohler-Cadmore at long-on and it was Gladiators, instead of Bulls, who would get Friday night off.A few hours later, Livingstone handed the ball to Sheldon Cottrell to open the bowling against Gurbaz. Cottrell started with a wide, but his first legitimate delivery was simply too good for Gurbaz. With a hint of extra bounce and a fraction of movement, the ball beat the youngster’s inside edge and crashed into his stumps.Related

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Livingstone again showed his quality with the ball, removing his England captain, Morgan, for the second night in succession and finishing with figures of 2 for 7 in his two overs.At the interval, needing 110 to reach their first ever Abu Dhabi T10 final, Team Abu Dhabi would have been quietly confident with the wealth of batting that they possessed – in Livingstone himself, accompanied by the likes of Chris Gayle, Phil Salt, Paul Stirling and Colin Ingram – yet, with an element of concern knowing that the night before they had struggled to 86 for 8 against the same opposition, largely thanks to an Adil Rashid hat-trick and three wickets for Drakes.When Salt and Stirling smashed 23 off the first over from Chandrapaul Hemraj, it looked like this was going to be their night.Instead, Bravo turned to his trump card in Drakes for the second over and the 23-year-old responded in style, getting the in-form Salt, before removing the powerful Livingstone for a golden duck as he edged through to Gurbaz. Sparked by a spirited celebration from Gurbaz, the Bulls players went wild – they sensed blood.And they didn’t take their foot off the gas. The wickets kept coming. Fazalhaq Farooqi had gone for 41 runs in his two overs earlier in the day, but with his first over, he dismissed both Stirling and Ingram. In the very next over, Gayle hit one from Romario Shepherd straight to Bravo at long-off and Danny Briggs was gone first ball as Gurbaz pulled off a brilliant one-handed catch. The wicketkeeper set about celebrating in style, knowing that the Bulls had one foot in the final.At 44 for 6 at the halfway stage, the game was all but done. Bravo turned again to the man from Barbados to make it a certainty and with his second over, he got rid of both Jamie Overton and Marchant de Lange. Drakes finished with stunning figures of 4 for 13 and joined Hasaranga with 19 wickets at the top of the tally. He has been a revelation this year and will no doubt make his West Indies debut on their tour to Pakistan. In the son of Vasbert Drakes they have a star in the making.As Cottrell heaved one out to Morgan to conclude the final rites, Team Abu Dhabi were all out for 60 with nine balls to spare. For Livingstone and co, that dreaded moment had come at exactly the wrong time. Their wait for a first ever T10 title goes on.Instead, it will be either Wahab or Bravo who lifts the trophy come Saturday evening.

We all know he can do no wrong. Ever stopped to think just why that might be the case?

Alan Gardner15-Apr-2022Is there anything that Pat Cummins can’t do? Okay, so he’s yet to be offered the throne of Albania, and we don’t currently have evidence that he can jump from a stationary position to standing upright on the mantelpiece – but then CB Fry probably wouldn’t have been that much use on the farm either.Let’s look at the evidence. In the past month or so, Cummins has: led Australia to a famous Test series win on their long-awaited return to Pakistan, where his ability to bowl 90mph reverse-swinging bombs transcended some of the most inhospitable surfaces this side of Mars; rocked up at the IPL and opened a can of whup-ass with the bat, smoking the joint-fastest fifty in the tournament’s history; and solved the climate emergency (okay, so maybe that’s an exaggeration – but he working on it.Of course, if you’ve got anything like the same corroded world view as the Light Roller, instinctively your first response is one of deep, deep suspicion. How did this chiselled blue-eyed boy, one of the world’s leading fast bowlers and the rare Australia captain who wouldn’t deliberately offend your grandma, not to mention a UNICEF ambassador, business degree graduate, sportsman with a statesman’s mien, all-round good egg – how did he come by all these gifts without doing something diabolical in return?And that’s when you realise. He absolutely have done something diabolical in return. Maybe that missing fingertip wasn’t just the result of a childhood accident – perfectly plausible cover story – but the initial down payment on Pat’s Faustian pact.The signs were there, of course, if only we could see past the winsome smile and immaculate length. Daniel Sams knows it – just look at his face after he was torched by Cummins the other night; you can actually pinpoint the second when his heart rips in half. Justin Langer, meanwhile, had to cop it sweet during his whole contract wrangle with CA. And who was it that first posted a video of Alex Carey walking into a swimming pool while in Pakistan? Yep, lovable Patty C.(We’re not suggesting he had anything to do with “Sandpapergate”, by the way. That was clearly the work of a real evil genius. Or Cameron Bancroft.)”The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” So said Charles Baudelaire, the 19th century French poet who had a good nose for something fishy going on – and he would doubtless have been right on the scent here. Basically, folks, it’s important not to get seduced by the story. From now on, look at it this way: every gold-plated, spine-tingling, joy-sparking act of wonder that Cummins produces, on the cricket field or off – that’s 100% incontrovertible evidence of his deal with Satan.

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Let’s take a moment to warm our hands at the dumpster fire that is English Test cricket. Lo and behold, turns out sacking the management (but not the captain) and binning your two greatest fast bowlers wasn’t a recipe for succeeding in the Caribbean after all – though Joe Root did at least come up with a new spin on their latest series defeat, saying his team played “brilliant cricket”. You might have felt you missed that, after two dull draws and a ten-wicket defeat, but perhaps Root was just displaying his full range of linguistic shot-making. After all, England’s batting in Grenada was dazzlingly, blindingly – you could say brilliantly – bad. “I think we’ve shown what we’re capable of as a group,” Root added, which was perhaps not so far from the truth.

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These are heady times for Bangladesh. Their first ever win away to New Zealand, a famous Test smash-and-grab in Mount Maunganui. Their first-ever win away to South Africa, followed up by their second in a 2-1 ODI series romp – a result that consolidated their position at the top of the World Cup Super League. And now, further signs that they are ready for the big time. Okay, so they had their pants pulled down in the two Tests against South Africa… but before you could even say “bowled out by two spinners??”, the Bangladesh board moved into action, throwing shade at the local umpiring standards and calling out the opposition for sledging. Now Mominul Haque just needs to start yelling abuse into stumps mics and Bangladesh will have gone what’s known in the business as “Full BCCI”.

Dravid, Jayawardene, Bell, Lara, Younis, Tendulkar and Kirsten recall the time they had to pit their skills against the greatest legspinner of all time

Nagraj Gollapudi29-Mar-2022’For him every ball was a contest’ – Rahul DravidOne of the things that always stood out playing against Warnie was that it felt like he was always setting you up for something, like a cat-and-mouse game was always on. Just when you felt, ‘I am going to go inside out,’ he would bowl the flipper. Or the moment you thought he’s tied me down and maybe I need to play the sweep or use my feet, he would bowl just the ball that would make that particular shot risky. Like he almost knew what you were going to do. It felt like a set-up.And that was always the challenge. It didn’t feel like someone was just wheeling away at one end, bowling good balls and dot balls and trying to create pressure and then get you out. It always felt like he had a plan. There was something going on in his head where it felt like he was out-thinking you. As much as you were in a contest of bat and ball, you were also in a mental duel with him.Personally, the challenge of playing Warnie was greater in Australia than in India because of the bounce there and the drift he got due to the wind. Both those factors accentuated his strengths in some ways. The other challenge was he was always getting me to play around my pad. As a batter you pick a line and then commit to it, but as you committed the ball would drift and I always felt I played around it.So, I made a conscious effort to try and ensure that I was not playing around my pad and that I didn’t commit that early to the line, that I waited a fraction of a second more than any other legspinner I played. It didn’t always work and he got me out a few times. He is not the only spinner that I played who got drift but Warnie was the most consistent.He could also bowl these big spinning legbreaks, pitching on off stump spinning away. He would do that for an over or two sometimes. He had you committed to that line and suddenly he’d bowl this ball which started on the off-stump, would go towards middle, and because you had played so many balls going towards off he has got you playing around the pad and is spinning across you. That was the hallmark of Warnie. We saw it with the [Mike] Gatting ball. We saw it with the [VVS] Laxman ball [in Bangalore in 2004]. And so many other such balls. However good you were, even towards the end of his career, when Warnie got that drift right, it was a challenge to play him.4:34

Dravid: ‘What amazed me was the amount of time he spent discussing cricket’

There was also this sense of theatre. For him every ball was a contest. It was not just a game of patience. A lot of times you hear that: let’s bowl dot balls, let’s bowl maidens, let’s just put the pressure on. That did not mean Warnie was not good at doing that. In fact, he had the ability to bowl defensively, as in that 2004 series in India when the Australian seamers were bowling really well and Warnie needed to block up one end. That was probably the difference between the 2004 and 2001 series in India: in 2004, he bowled more defensively and learned to be just boring, which maybe was against his nature a little because he wanted to do things, he wanted to set you up all time. But probably, and this is conjecture on my part, Warnie realised that he could bowl 30 overs in a day and dry up one end so that the fast bowlers could be rotated.But, for a large part, you were in a contest with a guy who was trying to out-skill and out-think you. Warnie had that ability to get you out and not rely only on your mistakes. Both of us played a lot against each other and he got me out a few times and I might have had a little bit of success against him, but it never felt like you were in absolute control of that contest. I knew he had the skills, nous and tactics to get me out.Warnie changed the whole theatre of Test cricket with his personality, his presence, his performance. He changed the way Test cricket was being watched from the 90s when it was all about watching fast bowlers at a time when a lot of attritional cricket was on display. Warnie just made legspin and spin-bowling more attacking. Not that there were not great spinners before him, but Warnie’s growth coincided with the expansion of the influence of television and technology in the game. That brought Warnie to the fore.He changed the narrative around Test cricket: from being all about fast bowling to spin bowling. That spin bowling is match-winning. And there was no better example than Warnie: he became man in a bowling attack with McGrath, Gillespie and Lee. I can’t pay a greater compliment to Warnie.’His presence was extraordinary and more powerful than anyone’ – Ian BellGrowing up, when playing cricket in the garden with my brother, I would often pretend to be Shane Warne. As he was to so many others, Warnie was one of my heroes. You can therefore imagine how surreal and nerve-wracking it was to face him for England in 2005.I was 22 (23) years old, playing my first Ashes, and I had no idea what was going to hit me. Until you step into a high-profile series like the Ashes you don’t understand its magnitude. I felt I was equipped and had plans to deal with occasion, but in truth it got the better of me and I ended up playing the man and not the ball.All of a sudden, I was facing Shane Warne, this guy I’d idolised for so many years and who was rightly considered one of the best players in the world.Getty ImagesLooking back, I probably paid him too much respect in that series and never really found a way to relieve the pressure and put it back on him. His presence in the middle was extraordinary and certainly more powerful than anyone I’d so far encountered. While the wickets were quite flat, with not a huge amount of spin, he still found a way of making it difficult for us by changing the fields, slowing the tempo down, and generally asking questions of the batter. Being the very good poker player he was, it was like he was double bluffing us in certain ways. That was a massive skill of his. He made sure everyone was geared to his tempo and what he wanted to do.Whether he was attacking or defending, he made young players like me start to think more about what he was thinking, than simply watching the ball and reacting to what comes down. In 2005 I certainly overthought it and consequently couldn’t take advantage when that bad ball did finally come.Ironically though, I always felt I was a good player of spin. I loved using my feet. When you are playing against the very best spinners, like Murali and Warnie, you can’t just sit there and survive. You have to be proactive. You have to find a way of putting their lengths under pressure. You have to find a way of moving the fielder and being a bit brave. In that 2005 Ashes, I was not brave enough.My average against Warnie in that series was 19, who got me out three times. Interestingly though, in my second Ashes, on the 2006-07 trip to Australia, I had an average of 61 against him. What changed? Basically, I had grown as a Test match player, having played against the great Pakistan and India teams. I had learnt a huge amount and was in a far better place with my game by the time we landed down under. Australia isn’t actually the easiest place for spinners – there is nice consistent bounce so you can play off the back foot, and you can come down the wicket and hit through the line of the ball. That shows just what a superstar Warnie was. He did it everywhere.Related

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And he never gave up. A lot has been said about the whole ‘Sherminator’ sledge and it became a lot bigger than it actually was, but it was just an example of Warnie using all the tricks in his locker. In Adelaide I had started scoring runs against him and we had raised a big first-innings total. It was not frustration on his part. Far from it, in fact. He was just utilising all the rich resources he had at his disposal. He was not shy at coming at me a bit harder and I don’t blame him one bit. He was quite simply a competitor who did what he needed to help his team.We ended up losing that Adelaide Test and it was down to Warnie’s magic. The wicket was particularly flat and we should have never lost having scored 500-plus in the first innings. But again it was Warnie who created the belief in his own team that they could win that game. He was an absolute genius.Many will have opinions about what was Warnie’s strongest attribute, and all of them will be right because he had so many, but for me it was his natural variation that I found hardest to combat. Because of his accuracy and his grip, and his ability to put so many revs on the ball, he could get one to hit the seam and really spin, and the next one would just slide on. That, of course, and his ability to hit great areas consistently more than any other leg spinner.Shane Warne was the best bowler I played against in my Test career and for me the greatest player ever to play the game. His ability to control the environment, that big stage, whether Lord’s, the MCG, wherever, was truly remarkable. As an opposing batter it always felt like he was the conductor and more often than not we were just playing his tune. It was a privilege to have shared the field with the King and the whole cricketing world will miss him enormously.’He was always trying to figure out how he could dismiss you’ – Sachin TendulkarAustralia’s tour of India in 1998 was my first proper Test series against Shane. Everyone had tagged that series as Tendulkar vs Shane Warne. I had to remind people that it was India vs Australia, but such was the following. Obviously, that is going to put you under pressure – you are playing a world class bowler like Shane Warne so you can’t turn up and hope that things are going to be okay. One had to prepare properly, not just being out there in the nets, but also when you are sitting in the room you have to try and be a step ahead of what he would be thinking, because he was extremely good at putting pressure and playing mind games and trying to plan your dismissal.1:16

Tendulkar: ‘Warne could spin the ball from day one on Australian surfaces’

If you looked at his body language one didn’t know whether Warne had picked four wickets, five wickets or was wicketless. Every delivery he bowled, he was a fierce competitor. So even if facing the second-last or last over of the day, one had to keep his eyes open because he was always up to something and trying to figure out how he could dismiss you.In my career, I played a number of good spinners, but Shane was different. He was one of those very, very few bowlers, against whom you could not hit the ball on the rise. There were a number of spinners against whom you could go and play on the rise when you are batting well, but Shane was someone, if you didn’t get to the pitch of the ball, there was no way one was expected to drive on the rise.I felt that was his class, the way he got the ball to drift. And that can only happen if you have strong shoulders and you are giving it a rip – the ball drifts down leg and then it is leaving you, spinning away from you. Not many bowlers could do that in world cricket. There were some great spinners around, but Shane was without any doubt different.I had to also practise differently because till then nobody had bowled round the wicket in the rough, trying to get you out. Round the wicket in the rough or left-arm over the wicket in the rough was usually bowled to keep things under control if the batter was scoring runs quickly. But Shane was actually looking to get the batter out. So I had to prepare what were my defensive options and what were my attacking options.’Even in white-ball cricket Warnie was the king’ – Mahela JayawardeneWhen it came to creating pressure, Warnie was a master. I first played him in 1999 during our home series against Australia. As a 20-something facing Warnie, at his peak, for the first time was definitely a challenge. Straightway you could gauge his intelligence in how he set up his fields, getting batters to hit certain gaps so he could look at getting them out. And in conditions he couldn’t control, he would manoeuvre fielders around. For a batter it was a constant battle.I remember in that Kandy Test how he opened up the midwicket gap when I was in my 40s and that tempted me to charge Warnie – the leading edge went straight to the fielder. He understood that the young cricketer has an ego and thinks: “I’m going to hit Warnie through the gap”. On a turning wicket, for a right-hander, that was risky, but that was the kind of mindset Warnie possessed.3:30

Lara: ‘Warne never gave up, he always produced that miracle delivery’

It was fascinating to watch from the outside how Warnie made his plans and went about a Test. He would put his head down and do his job, play the defensive role on the first day wicket, but come the latter half of the Test – days four and five – he would take control and be the man to do the job, take the pressure on. He had skills that you rarely saw, along with temperament and intelligence.Even in white-ball cricket Warnie was the king. He enjoyed the challenge because batters came at him and it was easier for him. He never backed off. He knew he could get a wicket when the team needed it – take the 1999 World Cup semi-finals. He loved those big matches.He started to play T20 cricket towards the backend of his career when he was taking wickets not with his skills, but with his head. That might have been a far better and enjoyable challenge for him because he would talk to you and troll you on the field. Whether you heard him or not, he was trying to create a situation for the batter to trap him.For me, more than the skills, Warnie the person was important. He was an entertainer. He taught us to enjoy being who you are. Yes, he was a target (for the tabloid media), but he did not want to change; he enjoyed life on and off the field and that was what he was. I don’t think you would see Shane Warne the entertainer on the field if he did not enjoy life outside and be the person that he was.The image that will stay with me is from last year’s Hundred in England where he was head coach at London Spirit. Not just his team, but he was helping spinners from all other franchises. He genuinely loved cricket. He contributed to the game tremendously, in a very positive way, both when he ruled on the field, and even after retirement. That is what we all should remember Warnie for.’He didn’t need to be a captain to be a leader’ – Younis KhanThe thing about Shane Warne was that he knew he was a match-winner. That kind of character that he didn’t need to be a captain to be a leader. He led Rajasthan Royals to the title in that first IPL and as I was there, I saw up close what his captaincy was about.As a bowler he had this great ability to create something from nothing, to play with the batter’s psyche when there wasn’t much happening. He didn’t just stick to one plan or style, he was always creating things, doing different things with the ball, trying fields. Talking about his bowling is like [like holding a candle to the sun – stating the obvious]. Everyone knows how great he was.If anything helped it was that I began myself as a leggie and so I understood the psyche a little. But he was such a great bowler that it wasn’t as if it was easy to play him and whenever I did score runs, I didn’t play freely against him.Getty ImagesI remember the Colombo Test (in 2002-03), I knew he would come at me from different angles. During practice, whenever I got a chance I would make a rough patch in different areas on the pitch and then get Danish Kaneria to bowl at me there. Whenever I had any free time, I would practice only against legspin, not fast bowling. That was his presence that you would practice like that. From round the wicket, from over, from out of the rough, from out of somewhere else. I knew on these surfaces Shane Warne would make us struggle.Sweeping Warne, or playing across the line, was never easy. His floater (the one that went straight) I can say confidently, was one of the best ever. He finished the careers of top batters with it. When you sweep a spinner, he gets annoyed. As a batter, the one tactic against someone like Warne, when you want to play a sweep, if you saw the line of the ball outside off, you knew, ok I can sweep this. When he again came to a conventional line I could revert. But as a top bowler, you have to have plans, you have to think tactically always. And Shane Warne, wherever he went, he always had plans, and more plans beyond that.Of course, to be as dominant as he was, it’s not just skills but you have to be a total package. And Warne was that, not just a bowler, or a leader, but the total package. He was the kind of guy, whenever you thought you had worked something out about him, you realised there was another page, and then another, and then another. He was a book, with many pages and whenever you turned a page, you were surprised by what you saw on that page.It was an honour to play against him and we knew that whenever we did, we would learn plenty from the experience. All of Pakistan, the world was a fan of Shane Warne and all cricket lovers around the world will miss him.’He was unpacking your technique while you were batting’ – Gary KirstenWhat made it difficult to score runs off Warnie was his consistency. He was able to bowl at a good pace, at a good trajectory because he was such a strong guy. It made it difficult to use your feet against him. He just had a great ability, especially when there was a little bit more on the match or when the game was on the line, to deliver his best balls under pressure.Getty ImagesThat was what probably separated him from other bowlers. That’s why I say he was the toughest competitor I came across. What he also did well was when you were in the contest with him, and you could almost sense this and feel it as it was happening, that he was always looking for ways that he could get you out. It was almost like he was unpacking your technique while you were batting there. He was working out different ways to end your time at the crease.He never just allowed the game to drift. He was always looking for a creative way at getting batters out. That was a real strength. He hated it when the game was allowed to drift or individuals just allowed the game to flow and wait for the batter to make the mistake. It wasn’t part of his DNA. You always felt when you were batting against him that you were never in. It wasn’t like there was a period of time when you felt you were on top of him. There were moments where I felt I was doing okay, but he would always come back stronger.Naturally it was also dependent on the pitch. When the wicket got really worn out, in the third and fourth innings, that was when his artistry really took over because he knew that he could exploit the conditions with his accuracy and make it really tough for batters to defend especially in Tests. And equally he liked an aggressive approach which some batters would use to unsettle him, which almost got him going a little more. So, it was about trying to find the balance between defending well against him and trying to score. But Warnie was always competing and looking to get you out.

Also, who takes the No.3 and No.4 slots?

Karthik Krishnaswamy24-Jun-20221:17

Lara – ‘Rahul Tripathi can be a tremendous asset for SRH and India’

India have just gone through an entire five-match T20I series without making a single change to their XI. Now they begin a series in Ireland with a squad that looks similar in many respects, but is different in a couple of major ways. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer are absent, having joined India’s Test squad in England, and Hardik Pandya will captain the side. Rahul Dravid is also away in England, so VVS Laxman will take over coaching duties. How will India’s XI shape up under Hardik and Laxman?Who bats at Nos. 3 and 4?

India’s most difficult selection could be who fills the No. 3 and 4 slots vacated by Shreyas and Pant, with their squad containing five candidates for those two roles. Of the five, Deepak Hooda and Venkatesh Iyer are incumbents who spent the entire South Africa series on the bench, while Suryakumar Yadav and Sanju Samson are making comebacks.Related

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Suryakumar will probably slot straight back into the side at No. 3, having only missed the South Africa series because he was nursing a forearm injury. Given what he’s done in his brief international career so far – he averages 39.00 and has a strike rate of 165.56 after 12 T20I innings – he’s probably ahead of Shreyas in the queue for middle-order spots in a full-strength India side.It’s harder to choose between the remaining four for the other slot. Samson and the uncapped Tripathi bring similar attributes. Both are known for their ability, and willingness, to go hard at the bowling early in their innings, and both are equally good at home against pace and spin, with Samson boasting particularly impressive strike-rate numbers.Hooda, meanwhile, earned his call-up thanks to a consistent run of form at No. 3 for Lucknow Super Giants, and apart from clean striking over extra-cover also brings the ability to bowl offspin. India might find this useful, with their other spinners turning their stock ball in the other direction (though that only holds true if you consider the legbreak to be Ravi Bishnoi’s stock ball and not the wrong’un).3:43

Can Umran Malik be a part of India’s T20 World Cup plans?

Venkatesh seems the unlikeliest of the five to bat at Nos. 3 or 4, given that he’s usually been used either as opener or finisher, but his left-handedness – an ingredient India otherwise lack in the middle order in Pant’s absence – gives him a valuable point of difference.The team management, however, probably views Venkatesh as a back-up to Hardik rather than a top-four option. With Hardik captaining the side, Venkatesh may only get his chance if India decide to go with two seam-bowling allrounders in Irish conditions and leave out Axar Patel, the spin-bowling allrounder.Who’s the wicketkeeper?

India’s squad contains three keepers in Dinesh Karthik, Ishan Kishan and Samson. With regular keeper Pant absent, the choice of who takes the big gloves will probably hinge less on pure keeping skills than on who of the three contenders is likeliest to have a settled place in the XI. This probably rules out Samson, who wasn’t part of the squad for the series against South Africa, and who is one of numerous contenders vying for limited space in the upper middle order.When all the regulars return to the T20I set-up, Karthik is probably the only one of the three who will remain in the first-choice XI, given how he’s pushed himself to the front of the queue to play the finisher’s role. Kishan will probably remain the back-up opener behind Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, even though he scored more runs than anyone else on either side during the South Africa series.The clearest clue to the identity of India’s wicketkeeper in Ireland came in the BCCI release that announced the squad for the tour. There may have been three keepers in the squad, but only Karthik had “(wicket-keeper)” next to his name.1:28

Jaffer: Arshdeep should be considered for selection against Ireland

Will Arshdeep and Malik finally get their chance?

The call-ups of the left-arm death-bowling specialist Arshdeep Singh and the scarily fast middle-overs enforcer Umran Malik were the most headline-worthy selections when India announced their squad to face South Africa, but neither got a game in that series. It made sense for the team management to stick to their first-choice bowling attack given the way the series went, with India having to come back from 2-0 down, but now, perhaps, could be the time for a few experiments.Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel are probably already sure-shot selections for the T20 World Cup later this year, fitness permitting, as is Yuzvendra Chahal on the spin front. India could perhaps rest the three of them at different points during the series, and test out Arshdeep, Malik and Bishnoi. This series might represent India’s best opportunity to test out their skills in unfamiliar conditions, with both quicks uncapped and Bishnoi yet to play international cricket away from home.

How the offspinner has maximised his skillset to stay in contention to make India’s World Cup squad

Alagappan Muthu05-Aug-2022Though he was playing his very first match in St Kitts, R Ashwin knew about the wind. He went around the wicket to right-hand batters, not to stifle them, or to entice their outside edge with the angle across them. He did it so that if they had to hit with the turn, they would be going against, well, nature.These are the kinds of little things that once made Ashwin the Mona Lisa of modern-day fingerspinners. Only there was a blemish in the picture. His batting. And, soon enough, that’s all anyone ever saw. The fact that he wasn’t a natural six-hitter.Between June 2017 and the start of last year’s T20 World Cup in November 2021, Ashwin played a grand total of one white-ball game for India. That is as emphatic as proof can be that two out of three formats of cricket are only willing to tolerate right-arm offbreak as a secondary skill.Ashwin needed to find a way to fit in. So a player who has hit Test centuries relying only on touch finally gave in and embraced the cross-bat stuff.”I’ve been playing the slog sweep for some time,” he told Star Sports Tamil in May. “I’ve been trusting the sweeps more regularly since the Chennai Test match [in February 2021, when he scored a century against England]. I feel that’s an important shot. I’m someone who times the ball well, so if I play the slog sweep I feel I can make the bowler bowl to my lengths. I’ve worked hard [on my batting]. I read the game well and I know the ebbs and flows of the game; I always back myself on that front. Unfortunately, I’m not so blessed with a lot of power. So, consciously I’ve worked on my batting and my technique.”T20 moves at vicious pace. It leaves people behind. Especially those with limitations. Ashwin had a big one. But he also had the will and the smarts to do something about it. That’s how a player who made his IPL debut in 2009 had his best year as a batter in 2022: facing over 100 balls for the first time, scoring a half-century for the first time, and hitting almost half his career tally (21) of IPL sixes in just one season (nine).A sizable part of that upswing is down to his hyper awareness of the conditions. A few months ago, Ashwin attempted to exploit the bounce and the small boundaries on offer at the DY Patil Stadium by crouching extra low in his stance all in effort to get under the ball and give it the required elevation. This week, in St Kitts, he knew enough about the place to realise he had an ally – the wind – which could help him be even more of a nuisance to the batter, and really, in T20s, that is all a bowler can hope for.R Ashwin batted at No. 3 three times in IPL 2022 and changed his stance a number of times•BCCIAshwin had seen this coming, way back in 2016, and has since then been doing everything he can to stay ahead of the curve. The result of that is now he knows he doesn’t have to be the guy who can run through a batting line-up. He can be just as effective by picking off the opposition’s best player, because that one wicket can turn the whole game around.April 18, 2022. Kolkata Knight Riders are bossing a chase of 218. Andre Russell walks in. The equation is 70 off 42. Ashwin has the ball. Only, he is doing something weird. He is bowing from wide of the crease. The ball is slanted into the batter and pitches on a length, pinning him to his crease and forcing him to play. And then it turns the wrong way and crashes into the stumps. Russell out for a duck. Ashwin sets off in celebration. Rajasthan Royals go on to win by seven runs.”I’d only begun working on that carrom ball yesterday, to get it to turn against the angle like that,” Ashwin told the broadcaster at the end of the game. “So being able to execute that in a match, it was a reaffirmation. It’s just an example of the battle that I always have with myself to keep getting better.”There are other instances too – dismissing Rajat Patidar in the second qualifier, which played a huge part in Royal Challengers Bangalore making only 27 runs off the last 33 balls of a playoff game – that all add up to a delightful little stat.Ashwin dismissed more right-hand batters (seven) than left-hand batters (five) in IPL 2022, defying the convention that spin is only effective when it turns away from the bat. In fact, in eight T20Is since his comeback to the Indian team last November, he has bowled 97 balls to right-hand batters and conceded only five boundaries. That’s a ratio of one in 19.4, which is a marked improvement on what it was at the time he was dropped (one in 7.6). The man has spent half his career railing against perception in sport. Now all he has to do is point to his numbers.Ashwin has always been willing to evolve. To do better; to be better. It’s the reason he is still in contention to make India’s T20 World Cup squad and while a big shiny trophy will certainly add weight to his commitment, it can still be appreciated without one.

How the eight teams stack up ahead of the T20 World Cup qualifying event to be held in Bulawayo

Peter Della Penna10-Jul-2022A T20 World Cup qualifying process that began in October with regional pathway events is set to conclude this month in Zimbabwe as eight teams duke it out for the last two spots up for grabs in this year’s ICC showpiece event in Australia.Though this event features both champion and runners-up of the 2019 T20 World Cup Qualifier held in the UAE – Netherlands and Papua New Guinea respectively – it is anything but a foregone conclusion that either side will make a second straight trip to the T20 World Cup. Among the other six challengers, there is far more parity than was evident at the corresponding eight-team global qualifier held last February in Oman. And as Oman can attest, being the tournament hosts for the qualifier does not portend a cakewalk for Zimbabwe by any stretch of the imagination in this short format.The eight teams in the qualifying process have been split into two groups of four. Each team plays three round-robin matches, after which the top two teams in each group pair off in crossover semi-final matches. Unlike the knockout structure of most T20 franchise leagues, there is no second chance for the teams that top their respective groups. When it comes to the playoff stage of this qualifier, win the semi-final and you’re in the World Cup. Lose and you get nothing. Here’s a look at each team in this month’s event in Bulawayo.Group AZimbabwe
An ICC suspension because of governance issues meant Zimbabwe’s players were denied an opportunity to take part in the qualifying process for the most recent T20 World Cup, held last year in the UAE. But Zimbabwe have been given an opportunity to get back into the T20 World Cup field by being able to play this event in home conditions. In order to do that, though, they will need to get out of the form rut they have experienced in the format in 2022, having lost six of eight T20Is, all of them at home. That includes not only a three-match loss against Afghanistan last month in Harare, but more ominously going down 3-2 to Namibia in a series held in Bulawayo in May.However, Zimbabwe were missing some key players for the series against Namibia, none more than the pace duo of Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava, and allrounder Sean Williams. Each possesses assets that are hard to find at the Associate level and their return will help ease the burden on star allrounder Sikandar Raza and captain Craig Ervine. Zimbabwe’s talent depth might not seem deep on paper compared to other Full Members, but it still has the quality that most Associates would dream of and it would be a shock to not see them advance to the semi-finals.United States of America
The champion from the Americas regional qualifier turned heads in December when they beat Ireland in a T20I in Florida by 26 runs despite having numerous key players ruled out because of Covid. They also notched a victory on July 6 over the Netherlands in a tournament tune-up match in Zimbabwe, chasing a target of 145 with six wickets and four balls to spare. But Netherlands restored order a day later by holding USA to 130 before knocking off the runs with 28 balls remaining in a seven-wicket win. Like Zimbabwe, USA also fell to Namibia twice in the lead-up to this event, including an inability to defend a total of 194 followed by a nine-wicket mauling 24 hours later in Windhoek when the hosts dusted off a target of 137 with four overs to spare.USA have risen to the occasion at past T20 World Cup Qualifier tournaments to register wins over Scotland in 2010 and 2012, as well as a pair of wins over Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea in Dublin in 2015 when both had ODI status. And they did all of those feats without a trump card like pace star Ali Khan. But USA is far from a one-man band. Captain Monank Patel has been in sizzling form while Gajanand Singh, who scored a half-century in the win over Ireland, has quickly become one of the best finishers on the Associate circuit since his debut in September 2021. However, the absence of Hampshire allrounder Ian Holland, who was their leading wicket-taker at the regional final in November, leaves a significant void that will require creative solutions to overcome.Tim David is unavailable for Singapore because of T20 Blast commitments with Lancashire•Lancashire CricketSingapore
They raised eyebrows on the opening day of the 2019 T20 World Cup Qualifier when they ambushed Scotland to win a thriller at the ICC Academy in Dubai by two runs. It’s hard to imagine anyone taking them lightly now, even if Tim David is unavailable because of T20 Blast commitments with Lancashire.Even without him, Singapore still pose a threat. Opener Surendran Chandramohan scored a century in Singapore’s final T20I ahead of the qualifier against Papua New Guinea on July 3. Longtime middle-order stalwart Arjun Mutreja has been scoring consistently as well in the lead-up to the first match in Zimbabwe. On the bowling side, captain Amjad Mahboob’s array of slower balls and yorkers at the death gave Scotland a headache in Singapore’s victory at the previous qualifier and showcased the experience they will be able to draw upon to give USA and Zimbabwe a serious challenge for a semi-final spot.Jersey
Jersey won three of their six matches in the group stage three years ago at the qualifier, missing out on a playoff berth on net run rate. Those victories included wins over both UAE, who made the playoff stage, and Oman, who went to the T20 World Cup for a second consecutive time. A population of about 100,000 people may lead many people to think the odds are stacked against them in terms of a talent pool to draw upon, but the island has some of the best turf wicket facilities in the Associate world to help neutralise any disparity they face.Despite losing four straight T20s in the buildup to this event on tour in Namibia to both the hosts and USA, Jersey showed signs that they would be far from pushovers in Zimbabwe. Left-arm spin allrounder Ben Stevens made an unbeaten 98 in the final warm-up against USA on July 3. Though his form has been patchy recently, former Sussex player Jonty Jenner has the sort of dynamic strokeplay capable of being a disruptor. On the bowling side, Jersey do not have anybody express in the pace department and instead will rely on their spinners to tie teams down – led by Elliot Miles, Rhys Palmer and allrounders Harrison Carlyon and Stevens – to give them the best chance of springing a few upsets.Netherlands’ qualification chances may be dented by the absence of some of their County-contracted players•Michael Bradley/AFP/Getty ImagesGroup BNetherlands
The reigning tournament champions have gone through a series of shake-ups in the lead-up to the event, most recently with the abrupt retirement of captain Pieter Seelaar because of chronic back issues. After dominating the global qualifier three years ago, the team put in an underwhelming display at the tournament in the UAE last year and will be looking to atone for that display under new captain Scott Edwards.Though their qualification chances may be dented by the absence of some of their County-contracted players – Colin Ackermann, Timm van der Gugten and Roelof van der Merwe – Netherlands have enviable depth, best showcased by the frontline pace options of Brandon Glover, Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren and Logan van Beek. They have also received a serious boost from the return of Tom Cooper, who ended a six-year hiatus from the side while focusing on Australian domestic cricket and returned for the recent ODI series against England. Along with the experienced hand of Stephan Myburgh at the top of the order, it would take a calamitous display for them not to advance to the semi-finals.Papua New Guinea
They were red-hot at this event in 2019, but it increasingly has looked like an anomaly sandwiched around some horrendous results across formats over the last several years. Like Netherlands, they went winless at the T20 World Cup in the UAE – including a pair of lopsided results against Oman and Bangladesh – after running rampant through the qualifying field.PNG have always been one of the elite fielding sites over the years, but their lack of consistency in the batting department has held them back in recent times. That is best showcased by a three-wicket win over Singapore in the build-up to this tournament where Tony Ura scored an unbeaten 93 off 40 balls at No. 5 as part of a 115-run sixth-wicket stand alongside the devastating finisher Norman Vanua’s 71 off 37. But the rest of the batting line-up made single digits in that match. PNG will need something far more significant out of captain Assad Vala and vice-captain Charles Amini if they’re going to make it back to the knockout stage.Hong Kong
They nearly made it three trips in a row to the T20 World Cup but fell short in the knockout stage of the qualifier in 2019 after being in the crosshairs of an extraordinary yorker barrage from Oman’s Bilal Khan. That they were able to get that close without longtime batting mainstays Babar Hayat and Anshy Rath is even more impressive.Babar Hayat has returned to the Hong Kong squad for this qualifier.•Peter Della PennaThough Rath continues to try to carve out a professional career in the Indian domestic system, Hayat has returned to the Hong Kong squad for this qualifier. The team’s form as a whole has been a reprisal of their best years from 2014 through 2018. They won four of five matches in the recent tour of Uganda for the CWC Challenge League as Hayat and Kinchit Shah produced centuries during the event. If captain Nizakat Khan can turn back the clock as well to the explosive top-order displays of his youth, there’s no reason why Hong Kong cannot contend not just for a semi-final berth but take one of the two spots left for the main event.Uganda
The African regional champions are a side that like Papua New Guinea do not demonstrate consistency from event to event. But beware of catching them on a bad day, especially in spin-friendly conditions. Under the captaincy of Brian Masaba, Uganda also mirror PNG in their athletic and energetic fielding.There are few weak links in that regard as 41-year-old offspinner Frank Nsubuga took arguably the catch of the tournament at the Challenge League event last month. Henry Ssenyondo gives them a potent left-arm spin option in tandem with Nsubuga. On the batting side, Ronak Patel and Dinesh Nakrani pack a stiff punch in the middle order with the best chances of success depending on their level of run production throughout the tournament.

It’s a tactic that the pacers have loved using in IPL 2022. Find out which bowlers have been the most successful, and which batters have struggled

ESPNcricinfo stats team, Illustration by Kshiraja K18-May-2022ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Fitness issues, little game time and lack of form have affected these players in recent times

Deivarayan Muthu30-Aug-2022Evin Lewis (St Kitts & Nevis Patriots)
Lewis didn’t appear for the fitness test that had been arranged for him by Cricket West Indies (CWI) during his IPL stint with Lucknow Super Giants, according to Haynes. Lewis has since got gigs in the Lanka Premier League (Jaffna Kings) and T10 league (Bangla Tigers) and on Sunday, he captained St Kitts and Nevis Patriots to the inaugural men’s 6ixty title. With Chris Gayle making himself unavailable for CPL 2022, Patriots will look up to Lewis for the opening salvos. He hasn’t played for West Indies since the 2021 T20 World Cup and needs a bumper CPL season to force his way into the T20I side for the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.Related

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• Experience gives Pollard's Knight Riders the edge, Bravo expects Patriots to build on recent gains

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Fabian Allen (Jamaica Tallawahs)
Allen has made himself available for national selection ahead of the T20 World Cup following a statement about his father’s death. He had declined a central contract with West Indies earlier this year and had taken a break during the international home season. Allen had marked his return to competitive cricket with a 33-ball 82 not out – the highest individual score in the men’s 6ixty – and finished as the tournament’s highest run-scorer. All up, Allen smashed 14 sixes in the 6ixty; only Andre Russell (15) hit more sixes. If he can press on further in the CPL, Allen has a chance to return to the T20I XI as the spin-bowling allrounder.Will Roston Chase end up being one of West Indies’ spin-bowling allrounders for the T20 World Cup?•Getty ImagesRoston Chase (St Lucia Kings)
Chase is another player vying for the spin-bowling allrounder’s spot for the T20 World Cup. He is recovering from injury, though, and has not played competitive cricket since turning out for WICB XI against the touring Bangladesh side in a three-day fixture in June.He was picked as West Indies’ anchor for the 2021 T20 World Cup, but form and fitness issues pulled him down the pecking order. With Kings letting go of Obed McCoy, Keemo Paul and Rahkeem Cornwall, they would also want more from Chase with the ball in conditions that could aid the slower bowlers.Sheldon Cottrell (St Kitts and Nevis Patriots)
Cottrell is another player who is working his way back from injury and hoping to prove his fitness in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup. Like Chase, Cottrell missed the 6ixty and has dropped down the pecking order, with McCoy establishing himself as West Indies’ frontline left-arm seamer during the home season. While McCoy can hit speeds north of 145kph and also cut it down with his collection of variations, he isn’t a genuine swing bowler like Cottrell, and not as useful in powerplays.Oshane Thomas’ fitness and form have taken a hit but he can be a handful with his height•Getty ImagesOshane Thomas (Barbados Royals)
When on song, Thomas can consistently hit speeds above 140kph and can also generate extra bounce with his tall frame. He was a potent force for West Indies when they ran through Pakistan in the 50-over World Cup in 2019, but fitness issues have since seen him fade away. Thomas has played just 15 white-ball internationals since that ODI World Cup and has not played a T20 game since December 2021. He will have to compete with Alzarri Joseph for one of the fast bowlers’ slots in the West Indies side.Andre Fletcher (St Kitts and Nevis Patriots)
The self-styled ‘Spiceman’ was a notable omission in West Indies’ recent white-ball squads, with the selectors leaning towards Shamarh Brooks, who is more of a Test and ODI batter, as the back-up opener and Devon Thomas as the back-up keeper. Fletcher is set to open with Lewis for his new franchise Patriots and recently also won a deal with Mumbai Emirates in the UAE’s ILT20. Fletcher has also had a stint in the BBL with Melbourne Stars and although that didn’t go too well, he appears to be a better option than Brooks or Devon Thomas.Hayden Walsh Jr (Barbados Royals)
Akeal Hosein has established himself as West Indies’ frontline fingerspinner – with or without Sunil Narine – but there are questions over legspinner Walsh’s potency (or the lack thereof). During the home series against India and New Zealand, Walsh struggled for control and often let the opposition batters hit with the wind. Walsh’s wrong’un, however, can be deceptive as it skids off the pitch and despite his patchy form, it is quite hard to see a side travel to Australia for the T20 World Cup without a wristspinner. In 2019, it was the CPL that propelled Walsh into the international spotlight. He now returns to the scene of his emergence in his quest to relaunch his international career.

The cricket community reacts to Virat Kohli’s first T20I hundred

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Sep-2022

When I spoke to him yesterday I knew something was brewing
Well played my friend

— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) September 8, 2022