Five ways in which Morgan the maverick revolutionised England’s white-ball cricket

Matt Roller29-Jun-20221:47

Roller: White-ball revolution will be Morgan’s lasting legacy

All-out attack
At the 2015 50-over World Cup, England played a style of ODI cricket that had long passed its sell-by date: their batters scored at 5.48 per over across the tournament, compared to champions Australia’s 6.82. The rule changes introduced in early 2013 – two new balls, and shifts in fielding restrictions – had altered the way the format was played but England did not seem to have noticed.Morgan was in charge for that World Cup but had been appointed so close to the tournament that he had scant opportunity to change England’s philosophy. In their first game of the 2015-19 cycle, they reached 400 for the first time in an ODI with a new-look, ultra-attacking side built on the principle that batting strength was a clear predictor of success in World Cups.Related

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Crucially, Morgan stuck with his all-guns-blazing approach even in choppy waters. In the third ODI of the new era, against New Zealand in 2015, England were bowled out for 302 in 45.2 overs. “It doesn’t disappoint me,” he said. “I want the guys to continue with that [attacking] mindset and not worry about batting 50 overs: I think that makes guys hesitate and question their natural way of playing and I don’t want that to happen.”At the 2019 World Cup, England were the tournament’s fastest-scoring team by a distance and lifted the trophy at Lord’s.Building experience
Andrew Strauss commissioned a review into England’s white-ball cricket when he was appointed as managing director in 2015. One of its key findings was that ODI experience was a key contributor to success in World Cups, as measured by the number of caps in the squad: to win in 2019, Morgan and England would have to back a core of players over a sustained period of time.In the 2015-19 cycle, England gave at least 40 caps to 13 different players and backed their long-term planning rather than over-reacting to form. Jason Roy, for example, didn’t reach 40 against New Zealand in his first full ODI series, “but because he kept attacking, kept playing in the right way for his role in the team, he was kept in,” Paul Farbrace has recalled. “He started to get his runs later that summer, and has never really looked back.”Adaptability
Morgan recognised that England’s attacking style suited the flat pitches and short boundaries they normally found on home soil but left them vulnerable on slower surfaces. “The wickets are going to be slow, low, they will wear – that’s the nature of ICC events,” he said during the 2019 World Cup.England were tested on those pitches, losing to Sri Lanka at Headingley and to Australia at Lord’s, but faced with consecutive must-win games at the end of the group stages, they doubled down on their style, racking up 337 for 7 and 305 for 8 against India and New Zealand. In the final, they were bogged down by Colin de Grandhomme in the middle overs but scrapped their way to 241 thanks to Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes’ measured restraint, enough to force a Super Over.England were also adaptable when it came to selection, as shown by two major calls on the eve of the World Cup. When Jofra Archer, one of the world’s leading T20 bowlers, became available, he was selected at short notice ahead of David Willey. He was their leading wicket-taker in the tournament and sealed their win in the final, holding his nerve in the Super Over.The other was the decision to remove Alex Hales from the squad after news of a second failed drugs test came to light shortly before the tournament. Only six months earlier, Morgan – along with Joe Root, the then Test captain – had outlined a mantra of “courage, unity and respect” for England players to follow during a tour of Sri Lanka. Hales’ actions were deemed to have fallen short, and he was axed. It was a risk – not least because James Vince, his replacement, struggled in the World Cup – but it was ultimately vindicated by the trophy.Building depth
The clarity of Morgan’s message quickly filtered down into county cricket: scoring rates in the domestic 50-over competition, the Royal London Cup, climbed from 5.38 in 2015 to 5.99 in 2019. And players increasingly took opportunities to travel the world in the off-season and play franchise cricket in order to become more versatile and develop their skills overseas.Morgan embodied his belief that more England players should play franchise cricket, missing the first ODI after the 2015 World Cup – a washout in his native Ireland – in order to stay with Sunrisers Hyderabad at the IPL. By 2021, every member of the team England fielded in the T20 World Cup semi-final had played at least one game at the IPL in their career and most said the tournament had played a significant role in their development.Last summer, England’s first-choice ODI squad were forced to self-isolate following a Covid-19 outbreak, but a hastily assembled second-string side then whitewashed a full-strength Pakistan, playing in the same attacking style that Morgan had pioneered. By 2022, there were so many talented batters that Morgan could not command a place in the side based on his batting alone; the depth he had engineered rendered him surplus to requirement.Embracing diversity
Perhaps Morgan’s greatest legacy will be the extent to which he has championed diversity in his side. “I spoke to Adil [Rashid] and he said Allah was definitely with us. I said we had the rub of the green,” Morgan said after the 2019 final. “It actually epitomises our team.”In his final series in the role, Morgan was consulted about Rashid’s desire to skip fixtures against India in order to make the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. “There were no questions asked,” Rashid told ESPNcricinfo. “That’s a big credit to Morgs for making that environment… it’s been like that with England for the past seven years since 2015.”

He scored heaps of runs in age-group cricket, but had only 55 runs to show for his five Ranji Trophy matches before this season

Srinidhi Ramanujam17-Jun-2022Armaan Jaffer has always had an appetite for runs and long innings. At the school level, at the Under-19 level, at the Under-25 level. And now, it was visible at the senior level too, when he scored his second century of the Ranji Trophy season, on day four of the semi-final and blunted Uttar Pradesh with centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal to take Mumbai close to their first final in five years. Mumbai now lead by 662 runs.After a long gap, this hunger for runs reflected in tangible terms only recently. Having started his age-group cricket alongside Sarfaraz Khan and Prithvi Shaw, he was tipped to be the next big thing with them from Mumbai.But it was a stop-start career for Jaffer after his first-class debut in the 2016-17 season. He missed the following season due to a knee surgery but made his way back into the Mumbai squad in the 2018-19 edition after an unbeaten 300 off 367 against Saurashtra in the Under-23 CK Nayudu Trophy.However, his career never really took off at the senior level as he would have wanted it to.Before this Ranji season, Jaffer had played five first-class matches and had scored a mere 55 runs.Self-doubt started to creep in and “people also started doubting” him. It was because of the reputation he had earned and the expectations he had set after being prolific in age-group cricket. The ‘Jaffer’ tag also had its own share of pressure.Jaffer first hogged the limelight with a record 498 runs in the Under-14 Giles Shield tournament – the highest individual score in Indian school cricket in 2010. He was then picked for the 2016 Under-19 World Cup on the back of three consecutive double-centuries in the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy. In the same year, he was added to the Kings XI Punjab squad for INR 10 lakh.But this drive to play long innings was rekindled by Abhishek Nayar, former India and Mumbai batter, post his 2019 ACL surgery.”I didn’t want to take any innings for granted,” he said of his changed mindset.During his rehabilitation in Mumbai, Jaffer trained with Nayar for six months and those interactions helped him get into a better mental state and “not focus on personal goals.” That was a bit of a “different preparation,” he would say.”Talking to him, him sharing his experiences…that motivated me a lot.”On my chat with Nayar, I came to know that it was his dream to hit a six off the first ball on debut like Vinod Kambli did, but that could not happen because he was under so much pressure. Then he could not string good performances, he got out for consecutive zeroes, and he was left out of the team. But he did not lose his hunger of coming back into the team and playing Ranji Trophy for Bombay for many years. Eventually, he made a comeback and went on to play for India as well. That was quite motivating for me.”For me, there was a time when I played five [Ranji] matches, and post that, I did not do anything.”I had scored so many runs in age-group tournaments that there was so much expectation from everyone, and that could not be fulfilled. So there was a lot of self-doubt, but when I spoke to him [Nayar], my dad, then my mindset changed a bit. This season I think my mindset has been better. There has definitely been hard work, but I think my mindset has been better. And that is paying off through my performances.”This clarity was visible in all the three Ranji games he has played so far. In his first match this season, against Odisha in the group stage, coming in at No. 3 and witnessing Mumbai slip from 73 for 0 to 76 for 3, Jaffer cracked a 223-ball 125 and stitched 277 runs with Sarfaraz to help Mumbai take a big lead. The next opportunity came a few months after the IPL, in the quarter-final against Uttarakhand and he scored 60 and an unbeaten 17.On Friday, in the semi-final, Jaffer scored a breezy 127 in the second innings on a flat pitch at the Just Cricket Academy and put on 286 runs with Jaiswal for the second wicket to further close in on the final spot. Mumbai ended the day at 449 for 4 with another massive lead. Jaiswal made his career-best first-class score of 181, his third consecutive century in the format.”The match was on our side, especially after they got out in the first innings,” Jaffer said. “But personally, I did not want to take any innings for granted. Regardless of the match situation, I did not want to take any innings for granted and did not want to waste any innings. My focus was to score runs. That would have helped the team and me.”In general, I haven’t made too many changes to my preparation. What I was doing at the time, I am continuing with the same now. Maybe, it was not destined to happen at the time, but now it is happening. The hard work that I have put in these years is paying off now. My preparation has been normal, I train with my father.”Mumbai might be closing in on a final spot, but Jaffer still has some unfinished business.”Before the season, the message from our coach [Amol Muzumdar] was that Bombay has won the trophy 41 times, so we have to win the Ranji Trophy anyhow. That was the goal right from the beginning,” he added.The senior Jaffer – Armaan’s uncle – has won 10 Ranji titles in his career. The junior may not be far from adding one to his name.

He credits Julian Wood for improving his power-hitting and maintains an underwhelming IPL hasn’t shaken his confidence

Deivarayan Muthu25-Jul-2022M Shahrukh Khan’s patchy form with Punjab Kings in IPL 2022, where he managed only 117 runs in eight innings at an average of 16.71 and strike rate of 108.33, and the lack of consistent opportunities at the franchise, have not shaken his confidence, he says.”Results might come and might not come, but I always bank on the process a lot,” Shahrukh said. “I spoke to Abhinav Mukund [during IPL], and it hasn’t affected my mind at all because I think I’m in my process and doing everything right. Sometimes it might come [off], sometimes it won’t. The most important thing for me is whether I’m practicing well, training well and whether I’m in a correct mind space.Related

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“Whatever team I play for, I try and do my best, irrespective of whether I get an opportunity or not. I just want to be the best version of myself whenever I go in – whether it’s a practice session or the match. Today [at TNPL 2022] we had a practice session; I just wanted to be the best at that practice session. Opportunities come and go; the most important thing is to sharpen your skills at the right time. That’s what I’ve been focusing on.”Shahrukh credited Julian Wood, a former Hampshire and Berkshire batter who was part of Kings’ support staff as a power-hitting coach, for helping him fine-tune his skills by training with heavy balls as well as heavy bats.”He uses heavy balls and bats to get some power and the bat-swing and to develop some strength in the forearm as well,” Shahrukh said. “Power-hitting is something that comes naturally to me, so I don’t want to work too much on that, and I have my technique when I power it.”So, I’m good on my own in terms of power-hitting, but Julian Wood helped me in holding my shape and stuff. The balls that he uses are heavy. [They are] much, much heavier than cricket balls and you can’t imagine the weight of that, and when you hit a ball it won’t travel. I took a few points, and that helped me.””Jonny Bairstow and Livingstone have helped me a lot in the nets in terms of how to keep hitting consistently”•BCCIShahrukh said he also benefitted from chats with England batters Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone about big-hitting.”Punjab Kings this year was definitely a power-hitting team from top to bottom, till [Kagiso] Rabada. Being amongst these guys, [you pick up] a lot of points at the nets, the way they bat and the way they talk to you,” Shahrukh said. “Jonny Bairstow and Livingstone have helped me a lot in the nets in terms of how to keep hitting consistently. The talks they have had with me, I am definitely carrying it along for a long time in my cricketing career.”While power-hitting continues to be Shahrukh’s stronger suit, he has been working equally hard on his offspin in the past year. He used to be a regular bowling option during his Under-19 days, but a shoulder injury has limited that skill until recently. Shahrukh, who is leading Lyca Kovai Kings in the ongoing TNPL, is the most prolific spinner in the tournament with ten strikes in seven games at an average of 14.80 and an economy rate of 8.29.”Bowling for me is natural as well,” Shahrukh said. “I was bowling well in Under-19s and Under-23s and right from age-group cricket, but somewhere in the middle, I had a shoulder injury, so I couldn’t roll my arm so often. Now that everything is on par, I’m working on my bowling…just working on conventional offspin. You know nothing different and just working on one stock ball – whether it’s white-ball cricket or red-ball cricket. I just want to go and spin the ball as much as possible. If I can spin the ball nicely out of my hand, I think the ball and the wicket will do the rest for me.”M Shahrukh Khan has taken 10 wickets so far in the ongoing TNPL•TNPLShahrukh was added to the India squad for the home ODI series against West Indies in February earlier this year but has since slipped down the pecking order. Deepak Hooda aside, India don’t have batters in the top six who can bowl. So, does Shahrukh see a way back into the national side with his all-round skills?”When you have two skills, it’s always an advantage, and I’m not thinking [like] only if I work on my bowling, I’ll be there [in the national team],” Shahrukh said. “Bowling and batting [are both] really important and I’m not thinking whether they pick me or do not pick me. I just want to be at it and do what I do best wherever I’m playing. I’m at the TNPL now, so I want to do what I can do for my team now.”Shahrukh also talked up Kovai Kings mystery spinner B Surya who had bowled at the Royal Challengers Bangalore nets in IPL 2022 even before he made his TNPL debut. The 25-year-old has multiple variations in his repertoire, including a back-spinning carrom ball, and his economy rate of 5.86 this season is the third best among bowlers who have bowled at least 20 overs this season.”Surya has been doing really good for us,” Shahrukh said. “Initially the first match he played, he didn’t come out good. Obviously, it was his first TNPL game, but later on in the tournament as his nerves settled down… he has always been a bowler who can give us tight overs and the way he’s gripping the ball he’s able to land it on the right spot at the right moment. He has been putting pressure on the opposition, new batsmen that come on strike. His progress has been very good and hope he can deliver for us [in the knockouts too].”

Did the game against Sunrisers bring the best out of Warner? Everybody thinks so, except him

Vishal Dikshit06-May-20222:27

Daniel Vettori is all praise for the Delhi Capitals opener

“My thoughts are like every other game,” David Warner said a day before playing for the first time against his former team Sunrisers Hyderabad, “just keep going through your processes till you have to do it, training and just get ready for the game.”Warner made match 50 of IPL 2022 sound like any other game, posted as much on his Instagram handle, and a few days later the match might even get buried in the heap of IPL scorecards. But knowing the magnitude of the occasion, some fans replied saying, “it’s revenge time”, some put up couplets of settling scores with Sunrisers, and one Sunrisers fan club said, “go easy on us, Davey.”It was almost as if Warner scoring big against Sunrisers was inevitable, and the reasons were also out there, except that Warner himself didn’t say as much. Warner scored a scintillating 92 not out off 58 balls to lead Delhi Capitals to their third 200-plus total this IPL and a 21-run win against Sunrisers with a Player-of-the-Match performance.The manner in which Warner was ousted from the Sunrisers camp last season, the way he was left behind in the hotel room for some matches and elbowed out of the team management, it snowballed into a controversy and became “a bitter pill to swallow” for Warner.Only a few weeks later, Warner turned his form around to help Australia lift their maiden T20 World Cup by being the second-highest scorer and took home the Player-of-the-Series award. He went on to say, “When you are dropped from the team you have loved the most for years without any real fault of yours and stripped of captaincy without being given a reason, it hurts.”How can his first game against Sunrisers be just another game then? Have all the scars healed?Broadcaster Harsha Bhogle poked Warner at the presentation on Thursday by asking, “was there something about today’s innings? The fluency, the strokeplay, everything was just perfect.”Warner only referred to the batting-friendly conditions, but nothing about the past.”I think when you rock up here and look at that wicket, it’s a really nice wicket, and it doesn’t matter if you bat or second,” Warner replied. “You know it’s going to be nice and true and I’ve obviously had some success here and played my strokes, didn’t think about hitting gaps and just watch the ball and hit the ball. It was going to come off and fortunate that it did.”Bhogle prodded again. “But there seemed a little bit more today especially when Rovman Powell was batting, he is hitting sixes, you are screaming louder, was there a little bit more today?”Warner this time deflected towards the challenging weather. “Obviously it’s challenging here with the humidity in Mumbai. I was cooked there towards the back end, I’m getting older and having Rovi at the other end, he’s got some serious power to clear the fence, it was amazing strike. I was glad he was at the other end.”Bhogle nudged him once again, and this time more directly. “You didn’t need motivation today. I look at you and I still think Sunrisers sometimes, to be honest.”Warner also replied more directly but didn’t reveal much. “I didn’t need extra motivation. We’ve all seen what’s happened before in the past and it was just to get a win on the board and get back in this contest.”The truth ultimately came out after the presentation when home broadcaster Star Sports got hold of Capitals’ assistant coach and Warner’s former Australia team-mate Shane Watson. He was asked if there was “just a little bit more against his old side?””It was a little bit more than just a little bit more,” Watson said with a laugh. “He was certainly up and about in the team meeting all game, which in the end is the intensity you need to be at your best and Davey certainly brought that tonight. And everyone else fed off that energy as well. You see the way Rovman came in and he sort of thrived off that energy. Dave just drove the train with his energy, with his desperation to really prove a point. He certainly did that tonight.”You could see the intensity he had tonight and he wanted to make sure that he did everything he possibly could, leave no stone unturned for tonight’s game and he stepped up beautifully.””This is a grudge match for David Warner,” Kevin Pietersen said on commentary but Warner didn’t take it too far and ensured the team’s needs were above his. He was on 92 after 19 overs but not on strike for the final over. He could have easily reached a century against his former side had he planned it so with Powell, but when the two batters met mid-pitch before the final over, Warner told Powell to go for the big shots and not think about giving him strike.”At the start of the last over I asked him if he wanted a single to try and hit a hundred but he said, ‘listen, that’s not how cricket is played,’ and that I should try to smack it as hard as I can and I did that,” Powell had said on broadcast after Capitals’ innings.When Warner was asked about not going for a century, he said: “100%. And I said to him I’m running two, no matter what and I don’t care if I get run-out. If we get 200-plus…I thought 190 was a par score but anything over 200 [was good] and I said to him if he was there at the end, we could get 210-220. So I’m just glad he cleared the fence [in the last over].”On a chat for , Watson then teased Warner by asking, “Do you think you’ll have the same fire in your belly for the next couple of games as well?””I’ve always got fire in my belly, you know that Shane,” Warner replied with a grin while scratching his head and Watson had a hearty laugh standing next to him.

Everything you need to know about the tournament, arranged alphabetically. Includes J for jinx and R for running out a non-striker

Sidharth Monga14-Oct-2022A for Australia: Defending champions for the first time, and also staging the T20 World Cup for the first time. Seven Australian grounds will host 45 matches and 16 teams over 28 days. One of the teams that qualifies into Group 2 will play Pakistan in Perth on October 27 and then take a four-and-a-half hour flight to Brisbane to cover the road distance of 4310km (or 3606km as the crow flies) for their next match, against Bangladesh on October 30.If that makes you worry about jet lag, keep in mind this is a tournament that will be played in four different time zones, but the eastern-most venue, Brisbane, is not the one that is the farthest ahead of UTC because it doesn’t take part in daylight savings time. Perth is eight hours ahead of UTC, Brisbane ten, Adelaide ten and a half, and Melbourne and Sydney 11.So where the bloody hell are you?B for bounce: It is unmissable, even to the naked eye. It is the first thing you notice. The bounce is steeper in Australia than elsewhere. It is not always bad news for limited-overs batting. The ball can be easier to time if the bounce is good and true, but equally, the really good bowlers can use the bounce to their advantage.C for captains: Quite a few captains go into the tournament with a big selection headache: do they drop themselves? Kane Williamson and Temba Bavuma are going at under a run a ball in all T20 cricket since the last World Cup. Aaron Finch hasn’t been in the best touch, has given up ODIs, and went down the order to let Cameron Green, who is not even in the World Cup squad (yet), open in the same month as the World Cup. Babar Azam will carry the strike-rate cross, and even Jos Buttler might have cause to doubt himself, what with injuries and meagre returns in T20Is leading up to the World Cup.D for Djilang: The indigenous name of Geelong, the only non-Test venue in the World Cup. Adelaide is Tarndanya, Brisbane is Meeanjin, Hobart is nipaluna, Melbourne is Naarm, Perth is Boorloo, and Sydney Warrane. Australia will be wearing an indigenous-themed kit (see K) for this World Cup. Only four indigenous men and two indigenous women have played international cricket for the country.We won’t be seeing most of West Indies’ 2016 title-winning side at this World Cup•Getty ImagesE for Eliminator: As in, the one-over eliminator. Or, more colloquially, the Super Over. Ever since the boundary-countback fiasco in the 2019 World Cup final, the provision is that teams will play Super Overs until there is a winner. However, there are time constraints and double headers. Only 30 minutes of extra time is available for all the matches (except for when the reserve day kicks in for the knockouts – an extra two hours are available on reserve days). If the full quota of overs in a match is bowled before the scheduled close, the minutes saved are added to the time provisioned for Super Overs. A minimum of 20 minutes will be made available for Super Overs, even if the actual match goes into overtime. The changeover time of five minutes between the match and the first Super Over is not counted in the time available.If we don’t have a winner in the time available, the match ends in a tie. If there is no winner in a semi-final, the team that finished higher in the Super 12s will progress. A final without a winner even after Super Over(s) will result in joint champions being crowned. Semi-finals and finals have a reserve day, but every attempt will be made to finish the match on the actual day with the match continuing from the point at which it was truncated, should the reserve day be used.F for first round: Not to be confused with Qualifiers (see Q). Four teams from the two groups in the first round will make it through to the second round. UAE, Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Namibia are in Group A in the first round; Ireland, Zimbabwe, West Indies and Scotland in Group B. The top two teams from each group will go into the two groups in the Super 12s. The top two teams from each of those Super 12 groups will make it to the semi-finals.G for Gayle: This is the first T20 World Cup without Chris Gayle. And the first without Dwayne Bravo. Also missing for West Indies are Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. That’s a massive load of T20 experience and genius they have lost in recent times. Add to it Shimron Hetmyer, who was replaced after he could not make both his original and his rescheduled flights to Australia. It’s the first time that West Indies have to qualify for the Super 12s, and there is a realistic chance that the two-time champions might not make it.H for Hazlewood: Josh Hazlewood is a category unto himself. Previously written off as a Test specialist, he has made a roaring comeback into limited-overs cricket, T20s in particular. He is not the word that Rahul Dravid is too shy to speak in public, but he rarely goes for more than the going rate in the match. He is a banker you can expect to bowl four overs pretty much all the time. In the IPL at least, R Ashwin became that kind of bowler, although in T20Is he might still rely on match-ups. Keshav Maharaj is also getting there.Australia will wear an indigenous-themed jersey at this World Cup•AFP/Getty ImagesI for injuries: Jasprit Bumrah, Jonny Bairstow and Jofra Archer are three exciting T20 players out with injuries. South Africa allrounder Dwaine Pretorius too has been withdrawn. Also on the injury watchlist is Shaheen Afridi, who is coming back from a knee injury but has been named in Pakistan’s squad.Thanks to the freak injury to Bairstow, Alex Hales, who last played in a T20 World Cup in 2016, gets to make a comeback. Dinesh Karthik has waited much longer since last appearing in a T20 World Cup, in 2010.J for jinx: No side has successfully defended its T20 World Cup. No host side has won the title either. Then again, no side has had a chance to defend at home. And Australia are the favourites, with most bases covered. There: we have reverse-jinxed a reverse-jinx.K for kits: Australia have their indigenous-based jersey, Sri Lanka are drawing attention to climate change, Zimbabwe’s yellow top to go with red trousers looks fresh, England are vowing to play with freedom in collarless red, India have managed to find another shade of light blue, and New Zealand again have everybody beat with a mix of grey and black punctuated with white horizontal stripes and the fern.L for luck: It is not the opposite of skill or strategy or fitness, but the shorter a match of cricket gets, the bigger the role luck plays. Other luck factors are difficult to imagine ahead of the start of the tournament, but not the toss. Matches in the UAE, the hosts of the last World Cup, were heavily loaded in favour of the chasing side, making the toss crucial. The coin is less likely to play a role in Australia. While chasing still remains the way to go in T20 cricket, it is confounding that over the last two years Australia has been the second-worst country for chasing sides, who have won 43% of the time. Still, expect teams to prefer chasing but also expect possible closer contests.M for MCB: Mini collapse breakers. The discussion around anchors in T20 is quickly moving to those who can arrest a collapse. Dawid Malan and Virat Kohli are examples: they bat high when a wicket falls early, but if the opening partnership has lasted close to or over ten overs, the batting order is reconsidered, to see if bigger hitters need to be promoted. Malan and Kohli are now efficient in this role, a skill Williamson, Bavuma and Steven Smith will aspire to developing.Get ready to be Rauf-ed up: the World Cup is missing some key fast bowlers, but Pakistan’s Haris Rauf and Co will bring plenty of zing to it•Gareth Copley/ICC/Getty ImagesN for net run rate: It’s not uncommon in such tournaments for more than two teams to end up on the same number of points. Then it often comes down to net run rate, though only comes into the reckoning if the teams can’t be separated by number of wins. If two teams are tied on net run rates too, the next tiebreaker parameter is the number of wins in matches between them and then the net run rate in those matches. If that still doesn’t resolve the tie, the sides higher in the pre-tournament seeding will progress. The pre-tournament seeding order is: England, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Scotland, Namibia, Zimbabwe, UAE, Netherlands, Ireland.O for over rates: Over rates are not overrated anymore. For the first time since 1999, a cricket World Cup will have an in-game over-rate penalty. It means extra work for the third umpire, who will have to pause the clock every time there is a stoppage beyond the control of the fielding side. Any over that begins outside the stipulated time limit of 85 minutes for an innings has to be bowled with at least five fielders inside the ring, as opposed to four at other times. Any wicket after the fifth earns the fielding team one minute of time (there is no such time allowance for wickets one through four). In innings shortened by three or more overs, the fielding side must be ready to bowl the penultimate over inside the proportionately reduced time limit. No such penalties apply to innings of ten overs or shorter.P for pace: In the 2019 50-over World Cup we had only five men who regularly went over 145kph, which roughly classifies as extreme pace. Archer is not available, but we have Pakistan fast bowlers Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah and Afridi joining Mitchell Starc, Lockie Ferguson, Mark Wood, Kagiso Rabada, and the seriously fast Anrich Nortje.Extreme pace is one point of difference teams look for, left-arm pace is another. All eight teams that have qualified for the Super 12s already have at least one left-arm quick each.Q for Qualifiers: Two qualifying tournaments featuring eight teams each took place to decide who the final four teams in the World Cup would be. All four finalists – UAE and Ireland from Qualifier A, and Zimbabwe and Netherlands from Qualifier B – made it to Australia.R for running-out a non-striker: The practice is being normalised, though some sections still think of it as being underhanded. The MCC has moved its ruling on such run outs from the law on unfair play to the one on run outs, so watch out for more non-strikers being caught outside their crease before the ball is bowled.A total of 405 sixes were scored in the 2021 T20 World Cup. How many will be hit on the big Australian grounds in this year’s tournament?•Daniel Pockett/CA/Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesS for sixes: Since the start of 2020, a six in Australia has been hit every 22 balls. Only in South Africa has six-hitting been less frequent. The South African pitches probably make it difficult to hit sixes, but in Australia, it’s more likely a case of #mcgsobig.The boundaries for this World Cup can’t be bigger than 82.29 metres, but in order to maximise the use of available field of play, they can’t be pulled in more than ten metres in from the perimeter fence. The threshold for the shortest boundary has been reduced from 59.43 m to 52.12 m, in all likelihood to accommodate Geelong, which is primarily a footie ground and is quite narrow. The pitch is dropped in at an angle to get around the size limitation, but since the ground hosts six matches in five days, it might need a bit of elbow room when the game is not played on the centre pitch.T for triple-headers: There are three days in the tournament on which three matches will be played, to go with 14 double headers, but no match will be played simultaneously with another. That makes for another multi-team tournament where the teams playing the last match get the advantage of knowing what to do if their prospects of progressing come down to net run rate (see N). Namibia, UAE, Scotland, Zimbabwe, India and England stand to benefit from this schedule.U for umpires: Remember, they know the laws better than us and know how to judge and apply them better than us. But they also make mistakes, a lot of which are corrected these days. The same 16 umpires who stood in the last World Cup will stand this time around. With this tournament, Aleem Dar, Marais Erasmus and Rod Tucker will have officiated in six of seven men’s T20 World Cups. This will be second World Cup of the year for Langton Rusere of Zimbabwe, after the women’s World Cup. The four match referees will be Ranjan Madugalle, David Boon, Chris Broad and Andy Pycroft.V for venues: If Australia make it to the semi-finals, they will play their match in Sydney no matter where they finish on the table. If they don’t, the winners of Group 1 and runners-up of Group 2 will play the first semi-final in Sydney; the winners of Group 2 and runners-up of Group 1 will play in Adelaide.W for weather: Climate change is upon us, and this World Cup could be affected directly. Victoria this week braced for the “worst weather event” of the year in the form of very heavy untimely rain in what normally would have been spring, the season of sunny days, cool nights, colourful jacarandas and wildflowers. There was flooding in South Melbourne and flash-flood warnings in Victoria the week before the event, and there is already talk of rain-affected games.Sixteen-year-old Aayan Afzal Khan of UAE is the youngest player at this World Cup•Ashley Allen/ICC/Getty ImagesX for cross(over): Finally, we can put the confusion to rest. T20 leagues adopted a regulation saying that the incoming batter would be on strike irrespective of whether the batters had crossed during a dismissal (except if the dismissal was off the last ball of the over) before international cricket did on October 1, but now, at long last, the not-out batter will stay at the end they were at even if the two batters cross each other while a catch is taken. It is a crucial little bit of help for bowlers, especially when they are up against lower-order batters.Y for youngest: Aayan Afzal Khan of UAE, born in Goa, brought up in Sharjah, is 16 years old, comfortably younger than any other player in the tournament. In the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year, Ayaan starred in what was possibly UAE’s biggest triumph on the world stage. He scored 93, taking his side from 26 for 4 to a total that was enough to beat West Indies by 82 runs. He is actually a left-arm spinner first and then a batter. UAE went on to win the Plate final. Mohammad Amir, who started the 2009 World Cup at 17 years and 55 days, remains the youngest player in all T20 World Cups.At 38 years and 230 days on the day Netherlands play their first match, opener Stephan Myburgh will be the oldest in the tournament. Hong Kong’s Ryan Campbell played in the 2016 World Cup when he was 44 years and 33 days old.Z for Zampa: And other wristspinners who are no longer part of XIs by right. Fingerspinners are making a comeback, especially if they can be as good as Maharaj and Ashwin, or if they have match-ups working for them. Apart from Rashid Khan and Adil Rashid, Zampa is the one non-allrounder wristspinner who gets picked no matter what. If the Australian pitches have the bounce they are famous for, this tournament could signal a comeback for his breed.

Six players for whom the tournament could have a massive bearing on their immediate future

Deivarayan Muthu and Shashank Kishore11-Nov-2022With the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s behind us, the focus shifts to the 50-overs format as the Vijay Hazare Trophy begins on November 12. Compelling performances here will help players make a case for themselves for higher honours. That can be in the form of a call-up to India A, an IPL contract, or even the doorstep of the national team. Here’s a look at six players for whom the upcoming tournament could have a massive bearing on their immediate future.Ishant Sharma (Delhi)
With the national selectors leaning towards Prasidh Krishna as a tall, hit-the-deck option, it seems like Ishant Sharma is no longer part of India’s Test set-up. He was also unsold at the IPL 2022 auction, but that hasn’t dimmed his enthusiasm to play domestic cricket.Ishant fared decently in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy this year, picking up five wickets in four matches at an economy rate of 6.60. He has even added the knuckle ball to his repertoire. But if he is to force his way back into the IPL, he needs to back up his numbers in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with stronger performances in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The Vijay Hazare Trophy games will be his first in List A cricket in more than four years.M Shahrukh Khan (Tamil Nadu)
M Shahrukh Khan triggered a bidding war for a second successive auction in February earlier this year, but in IPL 2022, he managed only 117 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of less than 110. Midway through the season, he was relegated to the bench, with Jitesh Sharma taking over the role of the finisher. Shahrukh’s form was also patchy in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he scored 45 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 93.75. The pitches in Lucknow weren’t conducive to strokeplay and with Dinesh Karthik also away on national duty, Tamil Nadu, who began the tournament as defending champions, failed to make it out of the first round.Shahrukh, though, hit form in the one-dayers against a touring Bangladesh side that featured a number of international players at Chepauk, in the lead-up to the Vijay Hazare Trophy. In the second one-dayer, Shahrukh muscled his way to a 69-ball century and was particularly fluent against the left-arm fingerspin of Taijul Islam. If Shahrukh can keep up his form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, he can potentially create another stir at the upcoming auction if Punjab Kings release him. He has also been working on his secondary skill – offspin – and fronted up to bowl regularly in the TNPL and against the Bangladeshis.Padikkal’s biggest drawback has been his inability to ace the middle overs in T20s•Maharaja T20Devdutt Padikkal (Karnataka)
After being almost unstoppable in his first two domestic seasons, Devdutt Padikkal’s stocks have somewhat dipped. From being talked of as a fast-track material for the opening slot in the national team, he has fallen out of favour even as far as selection for India A goes.As a T20 batter, Padikkal’s biggest drawback has been his inability to ace the middle-overs game. With Rajasthan Royals using Yashasvi Jaiswal to partner Jos Buttler at the top, Padikkal had to largely bat at No. 4. Whether that’s a formula they will continue with in 2023 remains to be seen, and if they don’t, Padikkal will need runs under his belt to once again elicit bidding wars at the auction.There’s another issue. For Karnataka, Padikkal is largely an opener. And in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he let scouts take note with a bruising, unbeaten 62-ball 124 against Maharashtra, but that was his only substantial score in the tournament. He will want to finish with better returns in the 50-over format, not least because the selectors will now turn their eye towards creating a pool of players for next year’s ODI World Cup. With Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul and Ruturaj Gaikwad all competing for slots, Padikkal needs a standout season to come into the selection radar.Shaik Rasheed (Andhra)
A steady batter who hails from Guntur, Shaik Rasheed was not part of the IPL 2022 auction. He made his first-class debut just days after the auction in February and five months later emerged as one of the highest scorers in the 20-over Andhra Premier League, with 159 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 121.37.After having missed the early exchanges of the 2021 Under-19 World Cup with Covid-19, he stepped up brilliantly in the semi-final and final with scores of 94 and 50 respectively. The 18-year-old can also pitch in with some legspin, and the Vijay Hazare Trophy will offer him another chance to showcase his skills at a higher level.Shaik Rasheed was impressive in the semi-final and final of the 2021 U-19 World Cup•ICC/Getty ImagesPrerak Mankad (Saurashtra)
Seam-bowling allrounders in India are rare. Beyond Hardik Pandya, you would struggle to find many who can bowl upwards of 130 and hit the long ball. Worry not, Saurashtra have been grooming one for a few years now. At 28, Prerak Mankad is seven years into his domestic cricket career and perhaps nearing his peak as an allrounder.He showed glimpses of his power-hitting skills at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy by smashing an unbeaten 25-ball 61 against Mumbai to keep Saurashtra in the hunt for the semi-finals. With the ball, he can hustle batters, as well as deceive them with his slower ones. But given his skills, he would have hoped for a better outing in the tournament.It is these all-round qualities that made Punjab Kings bid for him at the 2022 auction, but game-time remained elusive. But under a new captain, Shikhar Dhawan, and a new coach, Trevor Bayliss, Mankad will have an opportunity to firmly be in the team’s plans should he have a terrific 50-overs tournament to make up for his misses at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.Yash Thakur (Vidarbha)
In the same boat as Yash Dayal and Mohsin Khan is Vidarbha’s Yash Thakur. Except, he is a right-arm quick capable of bowling in the early 140s and can move the ball around both ways. And his numbers at the T20 level are superb. In 37 T20s, He has 55 wickets at an economy of 6.68. Thakur is coming off a stunning Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, having picked up 15 wickets in ten games at an economy of 7.17.His biggest strength is adaptability. Having started as a new ball bowler, he is working his way up to be a designated death bowler. Thakur’s emergence has given Vidarbha’s pace stocks a much-needed lift, especially with Umesh Yadav away for long periods on national duty and Rajneesh Gurbani falling away after a swift rise. Thakur had had multiple IPL stints as a net bowler and was most recently part of Punjab Kings contingent.

Australia thought they could not be faulted for preparation, but it seemed to make no difference to the outcome

Alex Malcolm11-Feb-20233:17

Chopra: ‘Australia just couldn’t play against spin’

What now for Australia? They came here with a plan. A plan to pick horses-for-courses at the cost of the in-form Travis Head. A plan to be proactive with the bat and stick to their individual methods. A plan to bowl dry and control the tempo of the game and attack with two spinners and reverse swing.In the end, nothing went to plan. As Mike Tyson famously said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Australia got punched in the mouth not once, not twice but three times with India throwing a 1-2-3 combination from Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin to knock Australia down and score the first points in this heavyweight Border-Gavaskar fight.It leaves Australia staggered and wondering what to do next. Australia have had a habit of making fast starts on tours to India. They won the opening Test in 2001, 2004, and 2017 and went close in 2010. But in Nagpur in 2023 they have been annihilated in two days and two sessions.Related

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For all the pre-match worry about a made-to-order pitch that would rag square from specifically curated rough patches outside the left-hander’s off stump, Australia’s batters were beaten on the good part of the pitch. The same pitch where Rohit compiled a sublime 120. The same pitch where India’s No.9 Axar Patel made his highest Test score of 84. The same pitch where India’s No.10 Mohammed Shami made 37. Australia’s only score higher in the Test match was Marnus Labuschagne’s 49 in the first innings.”I think everyone came with pretty clear plans,” Australia captain Pat Cummins said in the aftermath. “I think the challenge is under the furnace to be brave enough to be proactive at the time. They will be the conversations over the next couple of days. We faced some pretty tough bowlers at times.”Each player had prepared their own individual method. But the plans simply didn’t work. For all the preparation against spin, Usman Khawaja and David Warner both fell to pace against the new ball in the first innings.In the second, Khawaja edged a very full delivery trying to drive Ashwin out of the rough while Warner went completely into his shell. He defended for his life for 41 balls and it yielded just 10 runs. His crease-bound defence meant he was a sitting duck to Ashwin. He was dropped at slip by Virat Kohli off the outside edge by one that gripped, before being beaten on the inside edge by one that skidded and pinned lbw. He now has just three half-centuries in 18 innings in India, averaging 22.16, and had the look of a defeated man as he trudged off.2:53

Can Warner overcome the Ashwin challenge?

Labuschagne was beaten trying to play forward and trying to play back. His 49 in the first innings was Australia’s best innings of the match. He played some glorious shots, including driving Ashwin inside-out through cover against the turn and clipping Jadeja wide of mid-on against the turn. But after looking near flawless in two hours of batting he was lured out to drive Jadeja and was beaten by flight and spin to be stumped. It wasn’t dissimilar to his dismissal to Sri Lanka’s Prabath Jayasuriya in Galle in Australia’s innings defeat last year. Having been burnt using his feet in the first innings, he was trapped on the back foot in the second to Jadeja and pinned lbw to a fuller length.Steve Smith looked outstanding in both innings. He played some sublime lofted drives off the left-arm spinners. But having worked so diligently not to be beaten on the inside edge by left-arm orthodox in India in 2017 to great reward, he was beaten on the inside by Jadeja in both innings. He was bowled twice through the gate by balls that skidded on. He was only reprieved in the second thanks to a no-ball.Matt Renshaw was preferred over Head as the better horse for the course against spin, yet he was pinned on the crease lbw in both innings trying to defend for 0 and 2. He did not unfurl any of the sweeps, reverse sweeps, or powerful drives he possesses.Peter Handscomb defended as well as any Australian in the first innings and looked impressive for his 31. But he too was pinned twice lbw while trying to defend from the crease.Alex Carey’s plan to sweep and reverse sweep everything was clear for all to see and he was prepared to do it from ball one. He found the boundary with a reverse sweep first ball in the first innings and a conventional sweep in the second. His proactivity caused India’s bowlers to rethink their fields in both innings and he looked as free-flowing as any Australia batter in the game. But he lived by the sword and died by the sword, out attempting premeditated reverse sweeps from the line of stumps in both innings.Alex Carey’s positive knock in the first innings was ended when he dragged on a reverse sweep•Getty ImagesAustralia’s bowlers contributed 18 runs across two innings of the Test match, while India’s last four batters compiled 130 between them in one innings.Cummins believes that both Smith and Carey’s proactivity was still the way to go despite their limited success in the Test match.”You saw Smithy and Alex Carey at times put the pressure back on the bowlers,” Cummins said. “I think it takes a bit of bravery, it’s easier said than done. If you’re just facing ball after ball and the bowler’s pretty good, you’re going to get one with your name on it. Again, that will be the conversation this week. If we get the same conditions, the same bowlers, what are we going to do differently? I think at times probably being more proactive.”Do Australia’s batters now stick or twist? Do the selectors stick or twist? All the advice coming to India was for Australia’s batters to find a method and stick to it. But as Cummins notes, that is easy to say and harder to do. How do you stick to a plan when you’ve been punched in the mouth?

The OG and her successor came together beautifully in the final T20I to put together yet another dominating batting show for Australia

S Sudarshanan21-Dec-2022″I don’t like to run between the wickets!”

Grace Harris would rather do the six-hitting for fun than run. She was candid in her admission while being mic’d up in the fifth women’s T20I against India. She is the OG when it comes to hitting prowess in the Women’s Big Bash League – she is the first to hit a century in the competition – and the domestic circuit. But an injury in 2016 saw lose her place in the side.Ashleigh Gardner then came in and made that spot and the role – quick middle-order runs and some handy offspin overs – her own. Harris couldn’t force her way back despite consistent, shattering performances in the domestic circuit. Such is the competition for spots in the Australian side that it took a fractured jaw for Beth Mooney earlier this year for Harris to return.Harris showed glimpses of her ability in the third and fourth T20Is. Gardner came into her own with bat and ball in the fourth match. And on Tuesday, the sparse crowd at the Brabourne Stadium was treated to stroke-making of a different kind. One you would have only imagined while watching both Harris and Gardner do their thing for different sides in the WBBL.Related

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The pair got together when Australia were losing their way at 67 for 4 when in-form Ellyse Perry fell in the tenth over. India’s spinners were finding enough purchase on a pitch that was seeing a second successive game played on it. A thick outside edge to deep third saw Harris open her account.Harris and Gardner then bookended Shafali Verma’s second over with a four each before the latter tore into Anjali Sarvani hitting her for four successive fours in a 19-run 13th over. From 84 for 4 after 12 overs, Australia had rocketed to 144 for 4 in the next four overs. Fire it short, you’ll be pulled; toss it up, you’ll get walloped in the arc between long-on and deep midwicket; give width and extra cover will be a mere spectator – it would’ve been tough being a bowler with the attack coming on from both ends.Come the death overs, India turned to one of the regulars in offspinner Deepti Sharma. Admittedly, Australia haven’t found the going easy against the wily allrounder. “Deepti, throughout the entire series, has gone slow and wide or full and wide with pace,” Harris said on-air while fielding. “We thought if she did the same, we got plans for that to step in the line and baseball-bat it.”While Bazball seems to be the mantra for the England men’s team, baseball came to Harris and Gardner’s aid on Tuesday. Deepti stuck to her line outside off, and, to her disbelief, saw it being swung away to deep midwicket.’A one-off,’ she must’ve thought and bowled another one full delivery outside off. This time Gardner walked across and swept it aerially just out of reach of a diving Renuka Singh, running to her right from deep square leg. Gardner played the ferocious sweep again in Deepti’s last over before Harris pummelled one past the non-striker leaving the straightish long-on and long-off fielders spellbound.”Tonight they bowled at the stumps, straighter and flatter. So we thought if we are to get boundaries here we’ve got to hit it straight back past them,” Harris said. “Because of the inconsistency of the bounce – the slower one actually held on the wicket and popped up and turned while pace on [the ball] just shot through – we had to be very careful.”If you stayed at the back foot and played a cut shot, you had to pick your ball [carefully] and also the sweep shot, you had to be certain of it. We mainly tried to hit back under the bowler’s feet early while we had ten overs still to bat, and not give up a wicket. Then towards the back end just free up and have some fun, swing back through the line of it and see where it goes.”A wristy flick that Harris hit off Renuka – picking the low full toss from outside off and swatting it over deep square leg – brought up her maiden fifty in T20Is off just 28 balls. Two balls later, Gardner got to her half-century in 25 balls by bludgeoning one to beat long-on.The duo added an unbroken 129 for the fifth wicket – a record in women’s T20Is – and it was also the fastest hundred-run stand in the format. It helped Australia amass 112 in the last eight overs and almost out-bat India from the contest.In T20Is this year, Australia’s middle order [nos. 4 to 7] have scored at a strike rate of 156.32 and average 54.40, with the next best Full Member team being India with 121.52 and 23.50 as corresponding figures. Harris and Gardner are quite the prototype for such a rapid acceleration. Does it really matter, then, if Harris – or even a Gardner, or any batter with power-hitting skills – likes or dislikes sprinting between the wickets?

Also: how many players have scored a hundred and taken a hat-trick on the same day in first-class cricket?

Steven Lynch25-Apr-2023Gloucestershire’s Tom Price just scored a century and took a hat-trick – on the same day. Has anyone done this before in first-class cricket? asked Quentin Holt from England
Playing for Gloucestershire against Worcestershire at New Road last week, Tom Price followed a century – after coming at No. 9 with the score 45 for 7 – with a hat-trick (all caught by wicketkeeper James Bracey). This was the 17th time this particular double had been achieved in the same first-class match, but the first time both achievements came entirely on the same day.William Burns (Worcestershire against Gloucestershire in Worcester in 1913), Bob Wyatt (MCC vs Ceylon in Colombo in 1926-27), Learie Constantine (West Indians vs Northamptonshire in Northampton in 1928) and Mike Procter (Gloucestershire vs Essex in Westcliff-on-Sea in 1972) all completed centuries in innings they had started the previous evening, and then took a hat-trick that day. Playing for Bangladesh’s Central Zone in Savar in 2013-14, Mahmudullah ended North Zone’s innings with two wickets in two balls, then next day scored a century and completed his hat-trick when he bowled again in North’s second innings (he took four wickets in four balls in all).Procter and Sohag Gazi both did this double twice – Sohag’s second remains the only instance to date in a Test match, for Bangladesh against New Zealand in Chittagong in 2013-14.Kent’s Joe Denly scored 102 and then took a hat-trick in a T20 Blast match against Surrey at The Oval in July 2018. A month later, Andre Russell followed a hat-trick with 121 not out (from 49 balls, with 13 sixes, having come in at 41 for 5) in a CPL match for Jamaica Tallawahs against Trinbago Knight Riders in Port-of-Spain.I noticed that Taijul Islam has now played Tests against 11 different countries. Has anyone else done this? asked Mithun Mukhtar from Bangladesh
Playing in Bangladesh’s Test against Ireland in Mirpur earlier this month did mean that left-arm spinner Taijul Islam had faced all 11 possible current opponents. He completed the set in his 41st Test. But four of his team-mates were also playing against their 11th opponent, and one of them was quicker to the mark: Mushfiqur Rahim (85 Tests), Shakib Al Hasan (66), Mominul Haque (56) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (38).In ODIs, the Scotland pair of Richie Berrington and Kyle Coetzer have played against 20 different opponents. In T20I, Ireland’s Paul Stirling has chalked up an impressive 26 different oppositions; the UAE pair of Ahmed Raza and Rohan Mustafa have faced 25 (both have played fewer than 60 such matches).Someone else noticed that in the match at Mirpur, Taijul dismissed Peter Moor, who was playing for Ireland, having already done so when Moor played for Zimbabwe. They asked whether anyone else had dismissed the same batter for two different countries, and there had been two previous cases: Alec Bedser dismissed Abdul Hafeez Kardar, who played for India and Pakistan, and Courtney Walsh accounted for Kepler Wessels while he was playing for Australia and South Africa.Ireland used four different wicketkeepers in their first four Tests – has any other country done this? asked Chris O’Donnell from Ireland
Ireland’s wicketkeeper in their inaugural Test, against Pakistan in Malahide in May 2018, was Niall O’Brien, who retired almost immediately afterwards. Stuart Poynter took the gloves for their next match, against Afghanistan in Dehradun in March 2019, but he hasn’t played again; Gary Wilson took over for the match against England at Lord’s three months later, bagged a pair (as did England’s keeper Jonny Bairstow), and retired not long afterwards. Ireland didn’t play a Test for more than three years, but earlier this month Lorcan Tucker made his debut against Bangladesh in Mirpur and scored a century, which ensured he kept the gloves for the ongoing series in Sri Lanka.No other country has fielded four different wicketkeepers in their first four Tests, but India (twice, in 1952-53 and from 1952-53 to 1954-55), West Indies (1961-62 to 1963) and Zimbabwe (2011-12 to 2012-13) also chose four different keepers in the space of four consecutive matches. In the 1952-53 home series against Pakistan, India tried Khokan Sen, Nana Joshi, Vijay Rajindernath and Ebrahim Maka, before reverting to Sen for the final Test. The unfortunate Rajindernath made four stumpings, and was never selected again.But Sri Lanka lead the way here. In five successive Tests between April 1987 and December 1989, their wicketkeepers were Brendon Kuruppu (against New Zealand in Colombo), Guy de Alwis (vs Australia in Perth), Amal Silva (vs England at Lord’s), Gamini Wickremasinghe (vs Australia in Brisbane) and Hashan Tillakaratne (vs Australia in Hobart). Note that all these statistics refer to the designated wicketkeeper for the match, and exclude any temporary replacements.Dinesh Karthik is tied with Mandeep Singh and Sunil Narine for the most ducks in IPL history•BCCIDinesh Karthik has bagged two ducks in this season’s IPL already, and I heard he had 15 overall in his IPL career. Is this the most? asked Mahesh Bhasin from India
Dinesh Karthik’s two ducks for RCB so far this season – against Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals – have taken him up to share the top spot on this particular list. Also on 15 as I write are Sunil Narine and Mandeep Singh, from less than half the number of innings Karthik has had. Rohit Sharma is close behind with 14 ducks.I know Jim Laker did it, but how many others have taken the wicket of all 11 batters in a Test? asked Tim Westcott from England
During the course of his record-breaking 19 for 90 at Old Trafford in 1956, the England offspinner Jim Laker did indeed dismiss all 11 Australians he came up against. Laker was the first to do this in a Test – but it has now been done five more times.The next to achieve it was another offspinner, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, for India against New Zealand in Delhi in 1964-65. He has been followed by Geoff Dymock (Australia vs India in Kanpur in 1979-80), Abdul Qadir (Pakistan vs England in Lahore in 1987-88), Waqar Younis (Pakistan vs New Zealand in Faisalabad in 1990-91), and Muthiah Muralidaran (Sri Lanka vs South Africa in Galle in 2000). Venkat, Dymock and Waqar took only 12 wickets in the match overall, the others 13.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Mitchell Starc goes level with Brett Lee as the Australian with the most five-fors in ODI cricket

Sampath Bandarupalli19-Mar-2023117 India’s total against Australia in Visakhapatnam is their fourth-lowest in ODIs at home. Their lowest is 78 all out against Sri Lanka in Kanpur 1986, followed by 100 all out against West Indies in Ahmedabad 1993 and 112 all out against Sri Lanka in Dharamsala 2017.ESPNcricinfo Ltd234 Balls remaining when Australia reached the target, making it the biggest margin of victory – in this category – for any team against India. New Zealand had recorded the previous best when they beat India with 212 balls remaining in Hamilton 2019. This is also the third-biggest ODI win for Australia in balls remaining.3 This is India’s third-lowest total against Australia in ODIs behind their 63 all out in Sydney 1981 and 100 all out at the same ground in 2000. India’s previous lowest ODI total at home against Australia was 148 all out in Vadodara 2007.26 Overs that India batted before being bowled out, making it their fifth-shortest all-out innings in all ODIs and second-shortest all-out innings at home, behind the 24.1-over collapse against Sri Lanka in 1986.9 Five-wicket hauls for Mitchell Starc in ODI cricket, the joint-most by any bowler for Australia, alongside Brett Lee. Starc’s nine five-fors are also the joint-third most for any bowler in this format. He is now only behind Waqar Younis (13) and Muthiah Muralidaran (10), and level with Shahid Afridi (9).Mitchell Starc rattled India again•ESPNcricinfo Ltd222 Balls bowled in Visakhapatnam, the second-fewest in a completed men’s ODI hosted by India (excluding shortened games). The shortest was between Kenya and New Zealand during the 2011 World Cup in Chennai, which lasted only 191 balls.10 Indian wickets shared by the Australian pacers in this match, only the second instance of India losing all their wickets to pace bowlers in a home ODI. Australia’s pacers took all ten wickets in the Guwahati ODI in 2009 while bowling out the hosts for 170.4 Wickets for Starc in the first ten overs of the Indian innings. It is only the second time a bowler has taken four or more wickets for Australia in the first ten overs of an ODI innings in the last 15 years. The other instance was also provided by Starc, who took four wickets against West Indies in the 2013 Perth ODI.4 Indian batters dismissed for a duck during their 117 all out, the joint-most for them in an ODI innings. There have been five previous instances of four ducks in the same ODI innings for India, with the last of them coming against Sri Lanka in 2017.