England’s greatest bowler avoids a fuss as Gus Atkinson takes over on centre stage

Andrew Miller10-Jul-2024They came to praise James Anderson. And to bury him. In their thousands, marching down the Wellington Road for one final curtain-call at the venue where it all began, 21 years earlier, and in the midst of an entirely different epoch.How many ways do you want to dice the differences between that Test match and this? Anderson’s debut, against Zimbabwe in 2003, came in a time before smartphones, before social media. Before Twenty20 cricket and the fragmentation of the international game. Before exactly 100 subsequent England Test debutants: two of whom had not even been born when he bowled his first ball (or, in Rehan Ahmed’s case, his first 1,658 balls), and the last two of whom (the day’s other main man, Gus Atkinson, included) were conferred before the start of play today.It was a time, too, before the onset of mawkish multi-media montages, such as the one voiced by Anderson’s first Test captain, Nasser Hussain. Entitled “Dear Jimmy”, it was pumped out over the big screens at Lord’s, moments before the national anthems, as the man to whom it was addressed chewed his bottom lip at the top of the pavilion steps, visibly yearning for his safe space out in the middle of the pitch.”You were there at our greatest and there at our lowest, so it’s time to thank you,” Hussain intoned, as snippets of an indomitable career danced out on a still-gloomy morning, in a bid to transform Lord’s into the sort of hub of sentimentality that Centre Court had been for Andy Murray only six days earlier. “Now and for ever, you are England cricket.” It’s perhaps not surprising, in the circumstances, that his personal contribution to the occasion could not come out on top.”I don’t particularly like fuss,” Anderson admitted in his pre-Test press conference, when explicitly asked how “awkward” he was about to find this week – the subtext of the exchange being that the answer could already be taken as read. With his family lined up on the northern-most wing of the pavilion, up popped another opportunity for Anderson’s Adam’s Apple to wobble as his daughters rang the five-minute bell. Needless to say, neither Lola nor Ruby had been around for his debut either.And so to the action itself. It was pretty, it was safe. It contained, within a tidy 10.4-3-26-1 analysis, echoes of Anderson’s greatness, in particular that economy of effort in his sparse, pared-down action. But not for the first time in recent months, there was a sense too of a lack of danger – a retreat from enterprise even, as he dragged his length back after a nine-run opening over and buzzed unthreateningly around the splices of Kraigg Brathwaite and Mikyle Louis, whose status as the first West Indian Test cricketer from the island of St Kitts marked a beginning of history, even as the end of history lined up against him.Related

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But that over in itself had been a weird old vibe. Whereas Edgbaston or Headingley would have been climbing the walls in anticipation of Anderson revving up his motor for one last push, the Lord’s response was almost a surfeit of reverence. Centre Court was channelled once more as pin-drop silence greeted his first ball, then a deflated exhale of commiseration as Louis fenced the third ball of his own Test career down through the gully for four, before blazing his fourth with contemptuous poise through the covers. Brathwaite’s advice before their entanglement had been to watch the ball closely, and “stay still”. His partner could scarcely have heeded him more acutely.It was, in fact, the most expensive first over of a Lord’s Test since 2006, and dimly reminiscent of Anderson’s own misleadingly profligate display three years before that, when Hussain had placed too much faith in the outswinger that had so impressed him at the 2003 World Cup, and forgot to offer him protection on the leg-side for a 17-run opening gambit.Anderson pulled it back then, as he did now – both figuratively and literally – leaking just two more runs in his next four overs, one of them to a jabbed inside-edge from Louis. But his response smacked of a familiar and involuntary reflex, honed by years of survival on the sort of unforgiving deck that Lord’s, self-evidently, has become in recent years.Each of Anderson’s 109 England team-mates, from Lord’s 2003 to Lord’s 2024•ESPNcricinfo LtdIn their final flourishing as a partnership, Anderson and Stuart Broad had gone out of their way to suppress that urge to avoid being driven. In the first iteration of Bazball, against New Zealand two summers ago, Anderson had grabbed two wickets in the space of his first 15 balls and had six slips in situ before half-an-hour of the match had elapsed.Now, he and Chris Woakes – another safe selection, even if last summer’s Ashes heroics arguably meant he ‘owned the shirt’, at least in home conditions – found themselves pootling around at 80mph/130kph, waiting for the Dukes’ fabled lacquer to disperse and generally conveying a rare sense of stasis for a team that had been in such a hurry to succeed over the past couple of years.In the wider circumstances, therefore, to suggest that Atkinson had somehow “stolen” Anderson’s thunder would be a misnomer. The baton, and the burden, seemed to be handed over with visible gratitude as Atkinson replaced him from the Pavilion End and struck two balls later with an injection of slippery pace that seemed to dislodge Brathwaite precisely because of the lull that had preceded it.It was notable, however, that Anderson had not been asked to perform a more ceremonial baton-passing in the team huddle prior to play. It might have been a bit on-the-nose for Atkinson to be anointed as Anderson’s actual successor through the handing-over of his Test cap. So he did the honours instead for Jamie Smith, the latest and last protégé of the man who had himself kept wicket for Anderson in that debut 21 years before. Alec Stewart not only bowed out of Test cricket that 2003 summer as another England forty-something, he is about to retire from cricket administration too, as the end of his mighty Surrey stint draws nigh.Anderson’s family – including daughters Lola and Ruby – ring the bell ahead of play alongside parents Michael and Catherine and wife Daniella•Getty ImagesLeaving aside the effortlessness of England’s dominance, however, other aspects of this first day contributed to the sense that Anderson’s exit is coming at the right time. There was the return of Ben Stokes as a bowler for starters, into the attack early for his first non-emergency spell in nigh on two years, serving up hooping outswingers that were almost unsubtle in their extravagance – not unlike Anderson Mk.1 in fact, especially when he flipped the shiny side and fired a fierce inducker past Louis’ hard-handed flash.And though the magnificence of his latter years cannot be diminished by a slight tailing-off of the past 12 months, there’s an oddity emerging in Anderson’s home-and-away record. Though he did finally pick off Jayden Seales to bring an end to West Indies’ innings, it was just the second wicket he had claimed in the course of his first three spells of a home innings since the start of 2023, at a cost of 316 runs apiece. And that other scalp hadn’t exactly been in keeping with the stash of worldies that his reputation has been built upon. It was, in fact, a wide long-hop in last summer’s Lord’s Test, that Marnus Labuschagne slapped carelessly to point.Overseas, incidentally, there’s been less concern about his returns. Across 11 innings away to New Zealand and India, Anderson had harvested 14 wickets at a perfectly serviceable average of 24.71, even if his strike rate (52.93) arguably indicates the sparseness with which he has been used.As the man himself admitted on Monday, he’s at peace with the reasoning as England’s thoughts turn – a touch presumptively but, on today’s evidence, with justification too – towards the 2025-26 Ashes. He’s probably at peace too with the fact that the beginning of his end is now over. The stage is perfectly set for England’s greatest bowler to bowl out without that fuss.

Zimbabwe, who failed to qualify for the World Cup, last played an international match in January

Mohammad Isam02-May-2024Will it be competitive?Zimbabwe won their last bilateral T20I series against Bangladesh, in 2022. It doesn’t necessarily make them favourites in this series, but it is a strong reminder that Bangladesh can’t treat Zimbabwe as pushovers. The fans’ theory that the BCB organises a series against Zimbabwe only when Bangladesh are in trouble is a strange one. But it has grown arms and legs in Bangladesh over the years, which dilutes the Zimbabwe-Bangladesh contests.Zimbabwe, meanwhile, will hope to play the way they did at home in 2022, when they beat Bangladesh for the first time in a T20I series. They beat Bangladesh in the ODIs series as well but are yet to win a white-ball series in Bangladesh since 2001.T20 World Cup preparations afoot for hostsThe hosts will be without Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman for the first three matches. The selectors gave Shakib time to recover from a long journey from the US, and the chance to prepare himself in the Dhaka Premier League. Mustafizur, meanwhile, returns to Bangladesh from the IPL on Thursday, where he has transformed his bowling form.Among those in the squad, Litton Das will be desperate for runs after a dry spell against Sri Lanka. Tanzid Hasan, a newcomer in the T20I squad, will also look to fill one of the opening spots with Soumya Sarkar still on the recovery table. Jaker Ali will be keen to add more to his one big knock against Sri Lanka.Mohammad Saifuddin will also be on his toes on his return to the senior fold after a year and a half due to his back injury. Mahedi Hasan and Tanvir Islam are vying for T20 World Cup slots as the second spinner behind Shakib, while Rishad Hossain will hope to continue his impressive season.Zimbabwe missed out on the T20 World Cup qualification•AFP/Getty ImagesTime to bounce backBangladesh’s improved T20I run from 2023 halted when Sri Lanka stung them in March this year. They lost the opening game by a slim margin before bouncing back in the second game. While Nuwan Thushara’s top-order hat-trick blew them away in the third match, Sri Lanka also exposed mental frailties within the Bangladesh side. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto have to ensure that his team-mates are up for it in the big moments, and have far better concentration than what they showed against Sri Lanka. What are Zimbabwe up to, lately?After missing out on the T20 World Cup qualification in November last year, Zimbabwe have also lost series to Ireland and Sri Lanka. Most of their players from the current squad took part in the domestic T20 competition before some of them, playing for the Zimbabwe Emerging side, won the gold medal in the African Games. Zimbabwe have generally been on the down-low in international cricket, although after the Bangladesh series, they play a five-match T20I series against India at home from July 6 to 14. They also play a one-off Test against Ireland in Stormont from July 25.Pitches and weatherMost of Bangladesh is in the middle of a severe heatwave. Though rain in the coming week is good news for the suffering millions, it could interrupt parts of this T20I series. There’s rain in the forecast in Dhaka too next weekend when the two sides play the last two T20Is.

Raw pace wasn’t on the agenda at Lord’s, but gritty determination was to the fore

Vithushan Ehantharajah01-Sep-2024It was back in March, following a 4-1 defeat away to India that brought the 2025-26 Ashes into stark focus, that Rob Key put the word out to the pace bowlers of English cricket that speed was more valuable than wickets.Six months on, with a four-man attack made up exclusively of right-armers – and no real tearaway among them – England turned over Sri Lanka in the second Test to seal their second series of the summer. With day five now for resting, it is likely this same quartet will line up once more at the Kia Oval on Friday. A foursome whose speeds rarely breached the mid-80s mph will be charged with preserving a 100 percent summer record for the first time in 20 years.This being Lord’s at the back end of a comically rammed schedule, the pitch was no friend to speed. England needed 66.4 overs on Sunday to force a 190-run win, and it did not look like a whole lot of fun. They’d been given just 55.4 overs of rest after bowling Sri Lanka out for 196 in the first innings, and that was starting to show in the joints of a full-hearted attack.You could throw a towel over England’s average speeds for this second innings. Olly Stone, drafted in as Mark Wood’s replacement – a comparison he downplayed before the match by warning that Wood’s mid-90s consistency was beyond him – clocked the highest at 83.6mph. Chris Woakes, the leader of the attack, brought up the rear with 80.1mph. Key has had the shotgun out for county bowlers operating at those numbers.Of course, average speeds by their nature do not give the full picture. Stone’s qualities as a difference-maker were clear to see when he persuaded a 47-over-old ball to catch the glove of Dimuth Karunaratne, with the opener on 55 and looking at ease in his partnership with Angelo Mathews. A bit of extra mayo – 87mph – found what remaining life there was on a length to end a 122-ball stand that was beginning to irk the hosts.As for Woakes, his operating speed suits his work. His manipulation of the seam and use of the crease – reflected in the fact he was the most economical quick across both teams – is all the more necessary in a post-James Anderson world. Sure, a gondola is never going to win the America’s Cup, but the canals of Venice require a precision that a speed boat does not possess.We can apply all that and more to Gus Atkinson. His latest inscription into the honours board came across 16 overs in which he averaged 83.3mph. Not that it showed.”He has pace,” Dhananjaya de Silva acknowledged at the close of play. Sri Lanka’s captain was on the wrong end of Atkinson’s extra oomph as he failed to manage sharp bounce effectively – despite having a half-century to his name – and played onto his own stumps. “He is able to move the ball both ways. He has troubled us. We knew what to expect from him when we came from Colombo. We haven’t done well against him.”Related

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Matthew Potts – just 0.2mph off Atkinson in a wicketless second innings – was a far more consistent version of himself compared to his outing in the first Test in Manchester. On Friday, his 2 for 19 from 11 overs – including a pearler that turned Mathews inside-out – spoke of a player steadily re-acclimatising to the rigours of Test cricket after a year out of the side. There is a sense he will be a truer version of himself at The Oval.Despite their unique traits – Woakes’ craft, Atkinson’s height, Stone’s catapult-like release and Potts’ relentlessness – there is an obvious similarity of angle and, to a degree, pace, that matches each of the England attacks that has been found wanting in three winless Ashes tours since 2010-11. But even against a poor visiting batting line-up, that homogeny felt like a strength.As a collective, they hammered the pitch just short of a good length, to the tune of 40.16 percent of their deliveries across 104.1 overs, thereby starving Sri Lanka’s batters of their favoured drives.When it came to England’s bumper routine, all the quicks pitched in. What was particularly instructive was how and when Ollie Pope cycled through each of the four when employing the tactic. Because while it was largely predicated on the red Dukes no longer playing ball, every man entrusted to administer the ploy did so with renewed enthusiasm. The job of injecting some extra thrill into proceedings was not limited to one man, and was relished by all.Chris Woakes claimed the first wicket of the fourth day•Getty Images”It’s amazing when you feel like the game’s just plodding along, then you go to that plan and give them a few,” Stone said when reflecting on his role in the barrage that accounted for Karunaratne. “How the game changes, and the atmosphere, and I feel like, yeah, to get that wicket there… was massive.”There is a level of fluidity here that did not exist in previous eras. Under Alastair Cook and Joe Root, there were times when bowlers other than Anderson and Stuart Broad were pigeonholed as bumper specialists (generally the fastest ones, like Wood, Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes) or older-ball containers (Woakes’ previous gig, which Stokes also filled).Perhaps, then, it is no surprise that this current shift in attitude was set in motion by Stokes. When he took over at the start of the 2022 summer, he instigated a unilateral decision that all bowlers must be capable – and willing – to do every possible job. It was something he convinced Anderson and Broad to buy into, and it has become even more evident in their absence. Even Stokes’ own absence, as Ollie Pope carried that over on the field here at Lord’s.Naturally, the likes of Wood, Archer, Stone and, perhaps down the line, Josh Hull – bowlers who fly closest to the sun – will have their own set of parameters. It would be foolish not to acknowledge scarce commodities and offer them a degree of protection from the thankless rigours of Test pitches such as this one. But even Wood this summer, and Stone in this match, have assumed many different guises.If Key’s message before the summer was the need for speed, the message as we enter the final week of the Test season is that it needs to be underpinned by the ability and willingness to perform any task, and every role with the ball.

Santner kept hitting the dry patch with cunning pace variations and came away with 7 for 53, which included the wicket of Kohli with a full-toss

Deivarayan Muthu25-Oct-20244:08

Santner: ‘It was a shock getting Kohli out to a full toss’

Mitchell Santner earned the nickname “Flatline” at Northern Districts, his domestic team, for his cool and relaxed demeanour. On the eve of the second Test against India in Pune, he stayed true to his nickname and warmed up with a casual kickabout before wheeling away with his left-arm fingerspin at the nets. There was an air of calmness around him even when he was engaging in some violent T20-style range-hitting towards the end of New Zealand’s training session.There were strong hints that Santner would replace one of New Zealand’s seamers on a slow, dry pitch in Pune. He would’ve been expected to do a job, even though he is only a sporadic presence in the Test team, pushed to the sidelines at home where conditions limit his skill. It might be fair to say now that he exceeded those expectations. “Flatline” peaked on Friday with a seven-wicket haul, which included a clean bowled of Virat Kohli (with a low full-toss).After going wide of the crease from left-arm around, Santner, who had originally started the second day by darting the ball into the surface, slowed his pace down to 82.6kph and had Kohli missing a swipe across the line. Kohli was shocked, as were Santner and more than 20,000 fans in Pune.Related

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“Yeah, I think I was in more of a shock getting Kohli out with a full-toss, he doesn’t usually miss those,” Santner said. “I think it was slightly slower through the air, I just tried to change it up a little bit but usually if you bowl those they go for six so, but yeah, I think there was obviously a little bit there which was nice and I think the change in pace was key today and the Indian spinners bowled pretty good areas with the change in pace.”There’s a chance that Santner might not have played this game had offspin-bowling allrounder Michael Bracewell been available for selection. Before the Pune Test, Santner had a bowling average of 42.16 and a strike rate of 91.6. He had taken some tap in the Tests against Sri Lanka in Galle and had never picked up a four-wicket haul in Test cricket, let alone a five-for. However, with a dry spot to work with, Santner kept hitting it with cunning pace variations and let the Pune pitch do the rest. He came away with 7 for 53, helping New Zealand earn a decisive first-innings lead of 103.In one over, Santner was able to hike it up to 95kph from around 75kph. Among current fingerspinners, hardly anyone varies their pace as much as he does.Virat Kohli was beaten by Mitchell Santner’s dip and drift•BCCI”I tend to do that a lot in white-ball cricket – change the pace,” Santner said. “I think today we kind of spoke about that kind of just under 90 kph [speed]. [It] looked like it was spinning and then for a period there when you went over the top it was actually bouncing a lot so we spoke about maybe going a little bit slower. But I just think at the start it was [about] kind of [bowling] fast into it and then it [the pace] kind of changed as the day went on with the pitch and I think Washi [Washington Sundar] did that as well; he did that very well.”Santner kept attacking the stumps in India’s first innings – six of his seven wickets were bowled or lbw – and he hopes to keep it just as simple in the final innings when the conditions could be even more extreme.”So, going into the next innings…trying to keep the stumps in play and hope for something similar and I think the India will probably come out maybe more aggressive and try and put us on the back foot but, you know, there’s still a job to do with the bat. Obviously the more runs we get now it makes our job with the ball a little bit easier.”Santner also credited Rangana Herath, the former Sri Lanka left-arm fingerspinner who is currently New Zealand’s spin-bowling coach, for sharing his inside knowledge on subcontinent conditions.”Yeah, Rangana been really good,” Santner said. “Obviously in Sri Lanka and now here he’s. He took wickets all over the place and yeah he was a master of that kind of change of pace and guile and working with him as a spin-bowling unit has been good, especially in conditions which are not too similar to back home.”After Santner bagged seven on Friday, he had his team-mates ruffling his hair in joy. He could give his mates and New Zealand more joy on Saturday by wrapping up their first-ever Test series win in India.

All the gains from a year of positivity came crashing down in 13.5 overs of witheringly poor judgement

Andrew Fidel Fernando28-Nov-2024When Sri Lanka’s men were about to begin their first innings in Durban, there was a sense that something unusual was happening. It was happening in many little ways. It was happening in some difficult big ones.On the smaller end of the scale, Sri Lanka had sent the Test specialists to Durban two weeks early. Someone in the coaching staff, or perhaps at the High Performance Centre, had noticed this golden chance to get the guys acclimatised and facing hundreds of balls on bouncy South African pitches ahead of schedule. Emails were sent. Meetings were called. Managers were looped in. Operational staff booked flights, hotels, transport.Yet more stones were being turned, and bright ideas had. Neil McKenzie, a dour South Africa batter who could stroke his metaphorical beard and call upon timeless South Africa batting wisdom, was hired as consultant. When the ODI team took an unassailable 2-0 lead in a three-match series against New Zealand, Sri Lanka immediately released four Test players from that squad to give these players an extra day to recover from white-ball labours.Related

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In the medium term, they’d won five Tests this year. Three of those wins had come away from home. One of those victories had featured a four-man seam attack, and only four overs of spin – remarkable for a Sri Lanka side of any era.Their broader achievements are even more impressive. Since 2018, a National Super League domestic competition had significantly improved the standard of cricket at the first-class level. To raise that tournament up, a group of Sri Lanka’s former players, and administrators, had had to wrangle the support of a fractious club system, solve substantial facilities-related dilemmas, and work out quibbles such as player transfers.Improvements such as this have led to 2024’s advances, and why Sri Lanka now have a pace battery, for example, that can deck an opposition in two sessions. It is improvements such as this that have inspired in fans the sense that for once Sri Lankan cricket is doing that thing it almost never does: systematically building to something.When South Africa were all out for 191, you could almost see the path to the World Test Championship final. A decent lead. A good second innings. Sri Lanka being regarded as one of the best teams in the world again.But not if Sri Lanka’s batters were to have anything to do with it. In 13.5 overs of witheringly poor judgement, they crashed like they’ve never crashed before. They hit the snooze button on destiny.Dimuth Karunaratne was out in single digits for the fourth time in his last six Test innings•Associated PressSo much of this innings was an affront. It was an affront to all wisdom of batting on spicy pitches – wisdom accrued over hundreds of years. “Play close to the body when the ball is moving off the surface”, say the batting manuals. “Wait till the ball gets older before venturing the big shots.” Here, instead, Sri Lanka were pushing out to feel ball on bat, driving at deliveries that were both seaming and bouncing, and poking like a drunk camper at a bear.From among the top seven Pathum Nissanka, Kamindu Mendis, and Dhananjaya de Silva all got out to balls they could have left. Angelo Mathews steered a ball well outside off stump beautifully to second slip. It’s not as if they had been pinned. It’s not as if they’d hunkered down, defended, shown fight, and only then run out of patience and fight. The longest of these innings lasted 20 balls.The tail, taking cues from the top order, went down in a hail of big shots themselves. At one point in the innings, it felt as if Sri Lanka had decided they were only going to play shots that sent the ball in the general direction of the slip cordon.This 42 not out was not just record-making in its incompetence, but looks like it will define this match, and has the potential to define the series. It’s like Sri Lanka had built the rocket that would take them to the moon, and on morning of the launch, the chief astronaut got his arm permanently stuck in a vending machine. It’s like they’d just finished replanting an entire forest, then lit up a cigar and set the whole thing ablaze. They’d studied all term and prepared meticulously, and on the day of the exam, got drunk and fell down some stairs.If this 42 all out was the result of Sri Lanka’s batters getting a little ahead of themselves, then it was a reminder to fans that they shouldn’t either. There is a sense that although so many things in Sri Lanka have changed over the last three years, Sri Lanka batters can still unite the nation in bringing palms to faces.In 78 minutes of madness, Sri Lanka’s batters went some way to undoing so much of what they had worked towards.

Playing against his former team, he silenced the Chinnaswamy with a spell of 3 for 19

Shashank Kishore03-Apr-20251:30

‘A bit more fire in the belly for Siraj after Champions Trophy snub’

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fans need no reminding of two things. First, the seemingly harmless slogan that has become an albatross around their necks. Second, a long list of players they let go of only to watch them flourish elsewhere and, at times, haunt them.KL Rahul, Travis Head, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shane Watson, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube – enough heartbreaks? On Wednesday night, another name was added in bold to that illustrious list – Mohammed Siraj, the one they let go of before the IPL 2025 mega auction.Siraj now plays for Gujarat Titans (GT) but RCB was his IPL home for seven seasons, where he rose from a rookie to their pace spearhead. Yet, being overlooked in favour of Yash Dayal – an uncapped signing – for retention must have stung, especially after finishing as their joint-highest wicket-taker in 2024. He claimed 15 wickets in 14 games, though his economy rate, at 9.18, was on the higher side.Related

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At the time, the rumblings within the camp pointed to Siraj’s underwhelming record at the Chinnaswamy, and that his prolific years with the franchise had come when the IPL moved to the UAE during the Covid years. A look at his record, however, suggests there’s very little to choose from. His economy for RCB at the Chinnaswamy (8.81) was only marginally higher than elsewhere (8.53), while his average at home was significantly better (26.84 as opposed to 33.54 away).How poetic, then, that one of his best IPL spells – 3 for 19 off four overs, a fine follow-up to the one against Mumbai Indians in Ahmedabad last week – came at the very ground where he was once deemed to have fallen short. His execution was just as impressive as his pace and zip on a surface that, as RCB coach Andy Flower noted, “wasn’t a typical Chinnaswamy pitch”.Mohammed Siraj thought he had dismissed Phil Salt but Jos Buttler ended up dropping the catch•BCCIThe evening began with warmth – plenty of bonhomie and backslaps with former team-mates. But the competitive fire took over quickly, igniting further when Virat Kohli elegantly drove him through extra cover for a boundary off his second ball.The Chinnaswamy erupts at the slightest spark when RCB play, and it takes something extraordinary to silence it – and that’s exactly what Siraj did. After sending Devdutt Padikkal’s stumps cartwheeling, he sprinted the length of the pitch before unleashing his trademark Cristiano Ronaldo celebration. The silence in the stadium that followed was telling.”I was a little emotional, because I played here for seven years in the red jersey,” Siraj said later, after being named Player of the Match. “Now it’s a different colour. I was a little nervous and a little emotional, too. But as soon as I got the ball in my hand, I was full on.”Siraj’s full-on avatar truly sparked life into the GT camp when he dismissed the in-form Phil Salt. Siraj should have had him in the very first over when he edged a pull but Jos Buttler put it down. It seemed Siraj and GT had done their homework: In the IPL, Salt strikes significantly better (227.36) against full deliveries than he does against deliveries bowled on a good length or just short of it (146.64).

“I was a little emotional, because I played here for seven years in the red jersey… But as soon as I got the ball in my hand, I was full on”

GT’s plan was evident from the outset when Salt mistimed a pull on the very first ball, the delivery from Siraj thudding near his bat sticker. The struggle against those lengths nearly led to Salt’s downfall. He was on 7 off ten when he had a mix-up with Rajat Patidar as he attempted a tight single to get off strike. But Siraj, despite all three stumps in sight, missed the direct hit at the non-striker’s end.Much to Siraj’s frustration, Salt countered with a monstrous 105-metre pulled six that sailed into the adjacent metro sheds – a premeditated response to a 144kph bouncer. Such a blow can dent a bowler’s confidence, even shake his resolve. But not Siraj’s. Unfazed, he struck back in style, landing the ball on a good length, getting it to nip away off the seam, and splattering Salt’s stumps as the batter attempted an ambitious golf swing. It was as if Siraj was engulfed by a mystical power that stayed with him all night.He didn’t need to push the speed gun to its limits to be RCB’s wrecking ball. It was all about skill, a deep understanding of his craft, and the unwavering belief that his body would respond exactly as he intended. This was Siraj at his peak – far removed from the bowler who ran out of steam in the latter stages of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, only to return home and find himself sidelined from India’s white-ball plans.Siraj roars after eventually getting Salt•BCCI”I was playing matches consistently, so, I wasn’t realising the mistakes I was making,” he said when asked about his rhythm. “I took a break and focused on my fitness and bowling. It also helped mentally. Then when I joined GT, I spoke to Ashu [Ashish Nehra, coach] . So it’s coming out well and I am confident. Ashu tells me to go out and have fun. There’s no bigger confidence-booster than that.”Siraj’s first two wickets came from his potent mix of hard lengths and sharp movement off the pitch, his third – dismissing half-centurion Liam Livingstone – was just as crucial, potentially denying RCB vital runs at the death. More than the runs, though, it took the momentum away from RCB just as Livingstone was igniting a late surge. His brutal assault on Rashid Khan – who registered 0 for 54, his joint-second-most expensive T20 spell – had begun to turn the tide, only for Siraj to snatch it back.”I have only one mindset that as a bowler, it is very important to have belief,” he said. “If you don’t have belief, then obviously you will panic from inside. Then when you hit a six, then you tend to try something else. So, the most important thing is to have the belief that I can do it. No matter which wicket I am bowling on, I have belief. That is my mindset that I can do it.”Bowling the way he did, Siraj looked unshackled, free from the mental cobwebs that may have weighed him down in recent times. His fiery start to IPL 2025 could well mark the beginning of a happy chapter with GT.

Whether his demotion to No. 7 was down to his own poor form, or an opponent-specific tactic, it has raised more questions than answers

Karthik Krishnaswamy22-Apr-20255:51

Knight on Pant batting at No. 7: It is ‘bizarre’

What were Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) thinking, on Tuesday night against Delhi Capitals (DC), when they pushed Rishabh Pant so far down the order that he batted outside the top six for the first time in the IPL since his debut season in 2016? What was Pant’s role in making this decision, as LSG’s captain?In a short, post-match interview with the broadcaster after LSG had lost the IPL 2025 match by eight wickets in Lucknow, Pant’s explanation was a terse one: “[The] idea was to capitalise. We sent [Abdul] Samad to capitalise on a wicket like that, but after that [David] Miller came in, and we just really got stuck in the wicket, but eventually these are the things we’ve got to figure out and try to find our best combination going forward.”That statement calls for a little bit of unpacking. First, it was Samad who walked in at No. 4, Pant’s usual position, when LSG lost their second wicket in the 12th over. Perhaps what Pant meant by “capitalise” was that LSG were looking for quick runs, and felt that Samad – who had scored 20 off 11 balls and an unbeaten 30 off 10 in LSG’s last two games – could provide them some of those at that stage.Related

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There were signs already that this was an old-ball pitch, with the extent of reverse swing and grip for slower balls increasing as LSG’s innings progressed. With that in mind, LSG may have been looking to send Samad in when there was still a good chance of the ball coming on to the bat.The move didn’t come off on the day, with Samad caught and bowled by Mukesh Kumar for two off eight balls. Pant didn’t come out at the fall of Samad’s wicket either, or at the fall of the next wicket later in the same over, the 14th of LSG’s innings, when Mukesh bowled Mitchell Marsh with a yorker.David Miller walked in at No. 5, and he was followed to the crease by Ayush Badoni, who came off the substitutes’ bench for the second match running. It was also the second match in a row where LSG had used a batter as their Impact Player even though they batted first. Typically, teams name a batting-heavy starting XI if they bat first and replace one of their batters with a bowler.Badoni had come off the bench to score a crucial 34-ball 50 in LSG’s previous game against Rajasthan Royals (RR). In that game, he batted at No. 5 when LSG lost their third wicket – of Pant – in their eighth over. LSG may have felt then that they needed someone to come in and steady their innings and give their end-overs hitters more favourable entry points.In this match, Badoni came in with just six overs remaining. As it happened, he made a strong contribution, his 21-ball 36 giving LSG a bit of impetus at the death even as Miller – who made an unbeaten 14 off 15 balls – struggled at the other end.With the Miller-Badoni partnership stretching into the final over, Pant finally came to the crease with just two balls remaining. He tried to manufacture boundaries off both balls, but didn’t put bat to ball against either, with Mukesh bowling him as he attempted a reverse-scoop off the final ball.Pant has endured a difficult IPL 2025, and came into Tuesday’s game having scored just 106 runs in 108 balls across seven innings. This, perhaps, may have led him to demote himself – if he took the decision – behind batters in better form.His long-time Test-match team-mate Cheteshwar Pujara, however, was having none of it. “I genuinely don’t know what the thought process was,” he said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut. “There’s no doubt he should be batting up the order. He’s trying to do what MS Dhoni does, but he’s nowhere near [Dhoni’s age].5:50

‘An under-pressure captain affects the whole team’

“I still feel he’s someone who should be batting in the middle overs, between [overs] six and 15. He’s not a finisher, and he shouldn’t be doing the job of a finisher.”Pujara’s co-panelist Nick Knight, the former England opener, felt he could accept the reasons for the move, but didn’t like the optics.”I’ve not really a problem with Badoni batting at four-five,” Knight said. “I see some rationale in that, because I think he’s playing well, and I think he’s more likely to score runs than Rishabh Pant. There’s the problem. Samad you could probably say the same, he’s more likely to score runs than Rishabh Pant. David Miller, you could say the same.”When you look at the decision-making, perhaps in rationale it makes some sense. Where I don’t like it at all is it just doesn’t look very good. There is your captain, sliding, going backwards in the batting order when you really need him to step up. He’s the one that’s going to be standing up and talking in front of your team, he’s the one who’s leading you out there. He’s your leader, and it just doesn’t look great when the leader is going the other way.”From that perspective that’s my problem, because I would agree – Badoni is probably more likely to score runs, etc etc. It doesn’t look right.”A second-order glance at Pant’s IPL 2025 numbers throws up a more specific reason for his demotion: a tactical retreat against spin. Coming into Tuesday’s game, he had struggled against both styles of bowling, but while he had managed a strike rate of 117.46 against pace, he had gone at just 71.11 against spin.2:29

Why is Rishabh Pant more successful in Tests than T20s?

This pattern had held true even during his one sizeable innings of the season, a 49-ball 63 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). In that innings, he had scored 18 off 23 balls against the spinners and 45 off 26 against the faster bowlers. The bulk of the damage he had done against the quicks had come late in LSG’s innings. Batting on 40 off 39 at the start of the 18th over, Pant had hit three sixes in his next ten balls, off the pace of Matheesha Pathirana and Khaleel Ahmed.And so, like a number of batters have done before him in the IPL – including fellow keeper-batters Dinesh Karthik and Dhoni – Pant on Tuesday may have been looking to hold himself back with match-ups in mind, with DC still having two overs of Kuldeep Yadav left when Badoni joined Miller. That Pant ended up getting to face just two balls wasn’t in his control; the partnership between Miller and Badoni ended up consuming 34 balls.For all that, though, there’s one major difference between the cases of Karthik or Dhoni for a delayed entry point and that of Pant. Karthik and Dhoni have been finishers for most of their T20 careers, and for large parts of those careers were deemed to be pace-hitting specialists. Pant has mostly batted through the middle overs, and for much of his career has been a brilliant, unconventional hitter of spin.Of late, though, his output against spin has dwindled. Pant had strike rates of 147 or more against that style of bowling in each of his first four IPL seasons. Since 2020, he has gone at sub-120 strike rates in four out of five seasons, including the current one.Pant is just 27, though, and may yet have time on his side to reverse this downturn against spin; Karthik and Dhoni were in their mid-to-late 30s by the time they became pigeonholed as pace-hitters. It’s unlikely Pant sees himself in the finisher’s role in the long term anyway, given the damage his style of play – involving manipulation of fields and hitting the ball in unusual areas – can cause through the middle overs.A top-order role, in fact, is perhaps better suited to Pant’s strengths if he’s looking to avoid a confrontation with spin, or to face it on slightly easier terms, with powerplay field restrictions on his side. But with LSG boasting one of the most in-form opening partnerships of IPL 2025 in Marsh and Aiden Markram, and with their No. 3 Nicholas Pooran in exceptional form and sitting second on the Orange Cap standings, there perhaps isn’t a top-order slot for Pant to occupy without causing what he and the team management may feel is unnecessary disruption.Rishabh Pant came in at No. 7, and was bowled second ball•Associated PressSo the move down to a finisher’s role may be an entirely temporary one tailored to the circumstances LSG and Pant are currently in. It may even just be opponent-specific. In this match against DC, Pant may have felt he was likelier to contribute meaningfully if he avoided a showdown with one of the tournament’s best spinners in Kuldeep. It’s instructive that the one other time he demoted himself in this manner – in LSG’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on April 8, when he eventually didn’t bat at all – was against another of the IPL’s better spin-bowling teams.There may have been enough reasons, then, for Pant to have held himself back as he did on Tuesday, but one puzzling question still remains: why use Badoni as Impact sub when he could have been part of the starting XI, and allowed LSG to bring in a bowler later in the game? This question has carried a particular sense of urgency in LSG’s last two games, when their bench has included the exciting, 150kph-breaching Mayank Yadav, who is nearing a highly anticipated return from back and toe injuries that have kept him out of action since October 2024.The answer, perhaps, is that LSG don’t feel Mayank is as yet fit to bowl his full four-over quota, and that they have started their last two games with a five-bowler XI with the idea of potentially bringing Mayank on for a one- or two-over burst if they got through the first half of their match without needing to bolster their batting. That, however, didn’t happen either against RR or DC.

The allrounder smashed the second fastest ODI hundred for Australia, off 47 balls, in the final ODI against South Africa

Andrew McGlashan24-Aug-20252:14

Green: ‘I was told I was next one ball before Heady got out’

Ask Cameron Green to do a job over the last couple of months and he’s generally made a success of it. Batting No. 3 in Australia’s Test side had a tricky start but he came good during the West Indies tour; then given the No. 4 role in T20Is he earned Player of the Series honours. It was very much in that T20 style that he surged to a maiden ODI hundred from just 47 balls in the third match against South Africa in Mackay.While his promotion to No. 3 from No. 4 had started to be discussed around the 30-over mark, as Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh forged their double-century opening stand, Green had one ball’s notice that it would actually happen before Head was dismissed for 142. “I think it always happens like that,” he said after the game. “You make a decision that doesn’t effect on-field, but for some reason it does. The next ball I was in, so it took me a while to get ready.”He was off the mark second ball, skipping down the pitch at Keshav Maharaj, Australia’s nemesis from the opening game of the series, and hammering a drive wide of long-off. From then on Green was always above a run-a-ball, and the gap quickly grew wider”I think it is that mindset of when you switch positions, kind of your role does change,” he said. “Instead of maybe nudging it around, maybe getting Bison [Marsh] on strike, I think it was just get out there, get on with it straight away.”Related

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One of the most eye-catching moments of Green’s innings came when he faced left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy in the 45th over and turned down a single to keep the strike with an eye on the match-up. It was a continuation of the tactic Tim David had used in recent T20Is and Green responded by depositing the next three balls for six.”We were discussing it before Tim David did it in West Indies,” Green said. “If you get a really good match-up I think the bowler likes when a single gets hit, for example. Try and make the most of the short boundary.”Another curiosity in Green’s innings was that one of his eight sixes came courtesy of the amended boundary-fielding laws that prevent a player from “bunny-hopping” outside the playing area to field the ball mid-air. Green had launched Wiaan Mulder to long-on where Dewald Brevis couldn’t keep himself in the field of play and palmed the ball back having leapt in the air outside the boundary. Previously he would have prevented the boundary, but now it was six.Green’s century came in the next over, putting him between two of Glenn Maxwell’s finest hours in the list of fastest hundreds for Australia. Maxwell is one of the lynchpin ODI figures Australia need to replace ahead of the World Cup in 2027, alongside Steven Smith, with the batting performances in the first two games of this series raising a few questions about the health of the one-day side.It would be unwise to draw too many conclusions from the 431 for 2 in a dead rubber against a weakened South Africa attack and where batting first proved a distinct advantage. But it was an emphatic response, with timely runs for Head and Marsh’s continuing increase in output being the other encouraging signs.Cameron Green high-fives Alex Carey as he completes his hundred in Mackay•Getty Images”It’s been a while since we played one-day cricket so it just took a while to find our groove,” Green, who before this series had also not played an ODI since last September, said. “Shame it was a bit late for this series, but good signs moving forward.”I think you can normally work your way back from Test cricket. I think that’s a reasonably easy way [to go] because your technique’s normally in a good place and then you can open up and expand your game. Potentially going the other way is a bit tougher. You’re really looking to attack and then you have to kind of rein it in a little bit, pick and choose your times when to go.”Australia’s next ODIs are in mid-October against India, the No.1-ranked side, but Green could miss that series as he uses the Sheffield Shield to return to bowling ahead of the Ashes. If so, it will be another lengthy gap in the format for him.There remain some interesting questions for the selectors to ponder. Green’s performance in this match raises the possibility as to whether he could be Australia’s long-term ODI No. 3 or if that role stays with Marnus Labuschagne, who didn’t get the chance to bat after two scores of 1 in the first two matches of the series.Matt Short and Mitchell Owen were initially due to be part of this squad before injury and will likely feature against India. Aaron Hardie, a late call-up, struggled in two outings and his stock may have fallen although time remains on his side. Xavier Bartlett, however, will have done his cause no harm with new-ball wickets.Cooper Connolly, someone the selectors have been keen to expose at the top level, ended the series as an unlikely holder of the best ODI figures by an Australia spinner. He had Labuschagne’s brilliant out cricket to thank for a couple of wickets, and a stream of South African batters swinging in a lost cause, but if he grows into a genuine all-round option then he would be a valuable addition to the next generation of Australia’s 50-over cricketers. A team in which Green will be one of the most important figures.

The two came together at KKR in the IPL some years ago, and Brendon McCullum played his part in shaping the Shubman Gill that’s been the star of the England vs India series so far

Matt Roller09-Jul-20251:45

Monga: Gill set the example for India’s batting success at Edgbaston

“A saying that I’ve used throughout my career is that, ‘If you can’t change a man, change the man’,” Brendon McCullum said, chewing over a defeat in the eerie setting of a massive empty stadium in Ahmedabad during IPL 2021. “We’ll probably have to make some changes and try and bring in some fresh personnel who will hopefully take the game on a bit more.”McCullum’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had just been thrashed by Delhi Capitals, and his frustrations focused on their top-order batters. “You’re not always going to be able to hit every ball for four or six, but you can have the intent to do so,” he said. “It’s very difficult if you don’t play shots to score runs, and unfortunately tonight, we didn’t play enough shots.”Both openers were in the firing line: Nitish Rana made 15 off 12 balls, but Shubman Gill’s 43 off 38 was particularly painstaking. After striking at 117.85 across the first seven games of the season, Gill was widely assumed to be the opener who would make way – until the second Covid-19 wave worsened, pausing the IPL season for five months.Related

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“There was a clear disconnect between the style of play the management wanted and what was being produced on the field in the first half of that season,” recalls one insider. McCullum and his captain Eoin Morgan made a point of giving their players free licence to play their shots, but they had overseen two wins in seven games when the league was suspended.But when it resumed in the UAE, both players kept hold of their spots. Rana was pushed down into the middle order, with Venkatesh Iyer making his debut as Gill’s opening partner, and his form – 370 runs in ten innings – was a major factor in KKR’s resurgence, winning five of their last seven group matches and eventually falling just short in the final.McCullum had been an early advocate of Gill, adding him to KKR’s leadership group as a 20-year-old; Dinesh Karthik, Morgan’s predecessor as captain, recalled on the Sky Cricket podcast this week that Gill had been sufficiently headstrong to tell him, “DK , I think it’s time I can open now,” after a run in the middle order.Brendon McCullum was Shubman Gill’s coach at KKR during IPL 2021•BCCIThe trouble was, ahead of the 2022 mega auction, KKR could only retain a maximum of four players. Keeping hold of Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy was a no-brainer; for the fourth spot, KKR decided Iyer was their man. “It was disappointing to lose Shubman Gill,” McCullum said before the auction. “But that’s the way life is sometimes.”Gill became one of the first signings for Gujarat Titans, where he has become an IPL superstar. He won the title in 2022, the Orange Cap in 2023, and became captain last year. A KKR official told ESPNcricinfo that Gill did not actively agitate for a move, and that his release owed simply to a familiar situation where the franchise wanted to retain more players than was permitted.He has rarely addressed his change of franchise publicly beyond a light-hearted comment last year. Gill was filming promotional content with British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and Indian comedian Tanmay Bhat when Sheeran mentioned his dinner plans with Shah Rukh Khan, the Bollywood superstar and KKR co-owner. “Ask him why they did not retain me,” Gill said, before bursting out laughing.McCullum only had one more season with KKR, leaving to take up the England job after the franchise missed out on the playoffs in 2022. Gill has come up against him in eight Tests and three ODIs since, and McCullum has watched the player that he helped shape consistently prove himself to be a thorn in England’s side.Gill scored 430 runs in the Birmingham Test•Getty ImagesEighteen months ago, Gill scored hundreds in Visakhapatnam and Dharamsala in India’s 4-1 series win, averaging 56.50 and winding England’s bowlers up. “I said something to him like, ‘Do you get any runs outside India?’ and he said, ‘It’s time [for you] to retire,'” James Anderson recalled; a few weeks later, McCullum told Anderson that England were moving on from him.Anderson’s comment hinted at the popular perception of Gill as a home-track bully, and before the current England tour, he averaged just 27.53 outside of India. But he has been faultless over the first two Tests, with 585 runs in four innings: “Shubman Gill was batting at an elite level,” McCullum said after his 430-run match in Birmingham last week.As captain, Gill has worked closely with two coaches who are very different to McCullum in Ashish Nehra and Gautam Gambhir. There have been small hints of McCullum’s influence when he has spoken about leadership, and his focus on “making players feel secure” in their positions with consistent selection, but he is proving to be his own man.England will have to find a way to combat him this week – not that Ben Stokes was giving much away on Wednesday. “Very good players are allowed to play well, and he has played very well in the first two games,” Stokes said. McCullum knows that all too well: now, his challenge is to cut the monster he helped create back down to size.

With just a few days to go until the start of the Ashes in Perth, Alan Gardner hears from Vithushan Ehantharajah and Alex Malcolm about the teams’ final preparations

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2025After months of talking, the Ashes are almost upon us. But there’s still time to do a bit more talking, as the teams assemble in Perth ahead of the first Test. On this week’s Switch Hit, Alan Gardner is joined by Vithushan Ehantharajah and Alex Malcolm to get all the latest from both camps, including news on Mark Wood’s fitness, a potential debut for Jake Weatherald, and whether England are a genuine chance of pulling off an upset.