The trophy unveiled for the Pakistan-Australia T20I series caught the attention of many. But does it take the biscuit when it comes to cricket trophies?

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-2018
Is there a gem of a trophy that we failed to spot? Mail us at [email protected].

Getting back into the zone is never easy, not even if you’re returning to the Ranji Trophy after compiling one of the greatest overseas performances by an Indian batsman

Hemant Brar in Lucknow16-Jan-2019A meditation instructor once told me the most difficult thing in the world is to do nothing at all. Later, I came to know it was actually a quote from Oscar Wilde, but that did drive his point home: meditation is essentially achieving a state where one is not thinking about anything.”I don’t have any thoughts when I am batting,” Cheteshwar Pujara told after his 193 against Australia in Sydney earlier this month. “For me, batting is like meditation. I try and keep my mind blank. If you have any thoughts in the middle, then you can’t concentrate for long periods.”At the end of the series, Pujara said he would be playing first-class cricket after going back home.

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Monday, January 14, Ekana International Stadium, Lucknow.11.30amSaurashtra are practising ahead of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Uttar Pradesh, but Pujara is nowhere to be seen. It’s learnt that his flight from Delhi is delayed.One hour has passed and there are murmurs that he may not turn up for training.12.45pmSomeone appears near the boundary. At the pavilion end. In jeans and a striped t-shirt. Dragging a suitcase. Beaming. Smiling ear to ear. Looking so fresh he could have come out of a spa. It’s Pujara.He waves excitedly to his team-mates who are practising in the middle. They wave back. And then Pujara disappears again.12.56pmHe appears again. This time in his training gear. T-shirt, shorts, spikes. A bit of warm-up. A banana. And he’s ready. He takes throwdowns before batting in the nets. The journalists at the ground are talking this up as Pujara vs UP. “We want his wicket, we’ll go all out for it,” UP coach Mansur Ali Khan says.

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On Tuesday, UP captain Akshdeep Nath opts to bat. The day belongs to Rinku Singh, who counter-attacks to make 150 off 181 balls.On the second morning, UP’s lower order frustrates Saurashtra for almost an hour before the visitors bat. In the 11th over of Saurashtra’s innings, Ankit Rajpoot breaks through to remove Snell Patel.A fair sprinkling of spectators stand up in anticipation of Pujara walking out. The official photographer has been instructed to capture his every step to the crease. On video.But it isn’t Pujara who walks out. It’s Vishvaraj Jadeja, who has occupied the No. 3 spot in Pujara’s absence this season, scoring 282 runs in three innings at 56.40. Vishvaraj lasts only one ball, though, nicking Rajpoot behind and leaving Saurashtra 35 for 2.There’s anticipation again. And here comes the moment everyone has been waiting for. Finally, it’s time for Pujara vs UP.Cheteshwar Pujara gets ready for nets•Ekana Cricket Media/ Randhir DevPujara walks to the crease, fist-bumps Harvik Desai, the 20-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman. He seems to ask Desai about the last dismissal. Desai gestures, seeming to suggest Vishvaraj was done in by an outswinger.Now, Pujara is ready to face. He stretches, arches back, looks at the sticker on the back of his bat.”Where do I focus while concentrating?” makes it to the FAQs of most meditation manuals. Focusing on one’s breathing is a common answer. For Pujara, that focus point seems to be the back of his bat. He looks at it before every ball he faces.When you meditate, your immediate concern is the first thought that crosses your mind. For Pujara, it is Rajpoot’s hat-trick ball. There are four slips in place and he edges it to the fourth. The fielder gets his fingertips to it but fails to grab on.Pujara survives the first stray thought. He gets to the other end with a single.”Whenever I am at the non-striker’s end, I try not to think about anything, just enjoy the moment and still be aware of what is happening around me,” Pujara said in that interview. At the other end, Pujara is trying to re-focus – by looking at the sticker on the back of his bat.Rajpoot is bowling a tight line, in the corridor outside off stump. Pujara is trying to survive. Leaving outside off. Playing out dots. He’s getting beaten as well. In Rajpoot’s next over, he is distracted by something near the sightscreen. He’s definitely not in that zone where a batsman sees only the ball and everything else is a blur.He survives until lunch. Ten minutes before the start of the second session, he comes out to take throwdowns near the boundary.When play resumes, it looks like he’s getting there. Into that zone, or near it. Rajpoot pitches one short and he cracks it past point for four. Then Shivam Mavi pitches one right up, and he caresses it through the covers.Perhaps the 50 or so spectators who have gathered here will now get to watch the Pujara of Australia. The Pujara who blunted Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins and Lyon. The Pujara who amassed 521 runs at 74.42. The Pujara who looked invincible.Today he’s batting at a level below Test cricket, in Indian conditions. But Pujara knows more than anyone else that nothing is easy. There’s a bit of help for the fast bowlers, and Rajpoot and Mavi are making the most of it. Rajpoot is moving it away, Mavi is swinging it in. One of those inswingers has already nearly breached his defence.And whether you’re in Perth or Lucknow, one thing remains the same: it only takes one ball. Two balls after that cover drive, Pujara fends at a short one near his rib cage, and is caught at square leg.. For 11. His meditation has lasted 28 balls, 49 minutes.Normal life resumes. UP’s fast bowlers share seven wickets, and despite Desai’s 84, Saurashtra end the day 170 for 7 in reply to the hosts’ 385.

A look back at February in cricket tells us everything we need to know about the near future

Andrew Fidel Fernando01-Mar-2019The chaos harnessers
Sri Lanka’s greatest results have largely been unexpected. They won the 1996 World Cup as rank outsiders, at a time when their cricket board had less than US$6000 at its disposal. In 2014 they won a World T20 after dropping their captain halfway through the tournament, while simultaneously in the midst of a contracts standoff with their board. This month, arguably their greatest Test series victory ever was achieved despite such a gigantic list of handicaps that it would take the entire word count of this column to list them all.To just dip our toes, though: captain Dinesh Chandimal had been dropped, their best batsman (Angelo Mathews) and three of their top four fast bowlers were injured, and their coach was convinced his bosses were trying to fire him, largely due to a series of humiliating losses.Three months out from the World Cup, Sri Lanka are ranked eighth in ODIs and haven’t won a series in that format since the Triassic, so on the surface it would seem they don’t have much of a chance, right? But what if the selectors and board worked proactively to create as much chaos as possible – something they are already pretty good at? Come the World Cup in June, Chandimal should be repeatedly appointed captain, only to be sacked just before every toss, SLC officials should start fist fights in the president’s boxes, and the coach should be dangled by the feet from the dressing-room balcony for the duration of all of Sri Lanka’s games.ALSO READ: The briefing: How to apologise: a primer for cricketersThese pros ain’t loyal
As if suffering one of the great upsets of all time wasn’t enough for South Africa, they have also now been stabbed in the back by one of their promising talents. Fast bowler Duanne Olivier, who has 48 Test wickets at 19.25, has signed a Kolpak deal with Yorkshire, and will no longer be available for South Africa despite Cricket South Africa having offered him a two-year contract.Olivier seems to have been keen to get a county deal during the UK’s ongoing going-out-of-business sale (aka Brexit), but there is also a beautiful story here. The last time Sri Lanka toured South Africa, it was Kyle Abbott’s Kolpak deal that was revealed mid-series, and it was only then that a spot was freed up in the XI for Olivier to make his Test debut in the match. Could it be that somewhere in South Africa’s domestic system there are other young players busting their guts, week in week out, just yearning for the chance to wear that protea on their chests, just so they can very quickly turn around and deface it as soon as they start getting noticed?South African team: a stepping stone to make it to the big leagues of county cricket•Getty ImagesStrong Yorkshire, strong England
“Strong Yorkshire, strong England,” is an adage that has been more or less incessantly on the lips of generations of Yorkshire fans. It is difficult to tell if this is actually true, but now, as Yorkshire are strengthening themselves by stealing players from other international sides, no one can deny they are at least making England stronger by comparison.That good game lovin’
Spare a thought for Sanath Jayasuriya, who has been banned for two years on the back of corruption-related charges, which he says he accepted “for the love of the sport of cricket”, because fighting the case would have used up valuable ICC resources. It is great to see that he is taking such a principled stance here. Sure, he was accused of making political selections to the national team during two stints as chief selector, was booed out of that job in 2017, and failed to hand over his phone to the ICC’s anti-corruption unit, then got his story mixed up until eventually he was forced to use the “I had sex tapes on that device” defence, but at least he is not the kind of monster who would drive up the ICC’s legal costs.The question
Ahead of England’s first ODI in India, a reporter asked captain Heather Knight “how much confidence [her team] took from the England men” who had won an ODI in Barbados the previous day. Having essentially been asked if her team had a higher chance of winning because a completely separate team won on a different continent, Knight answered: “None at all. We’re here to answer questions about women’s cricket.” Which begs the further question – when can women cricketers expect just the same media treatment as the men? When can they, for example, expect to not have to face insensitive questions, but merely the stupid ones their male counterparts face all the time, such as “Are you disappointed to lose?” and “What do you want to do in this series – win, lose or draw?”Next month on the Briefing
– A county updates its motto. “Strong South Africa. Strong Yorkshire.”- SLC hires arsonist to set dressing room alight during games. “Will really fire up the boys.”

Most of India’s World Cup squad has been firmed up, but the competition for the remaining places throws up the familiar question of the No. 4 slot and the second allrounder’s position

Nagraj Gollapudi14-Apr-20199:50

Gloves off: Prithvi Shaw for the World Cup, yay or nay?

The biggest buzz in India right now is over the ongoing general elections but, for a few hours on Monday, cricket fans will be focused on selection – the selection of India’s World Cup squad, which will be announced on Monday afternoon. Here’s your guide to the key questions facing the five-man selection committee, led by former India wicketkeeper MSK Prasad.First, who are the certain picks?
There’s no debate over 11 of the 15-man squad. Based on a combination of consistent selection over an extended period, form, seniority and skillsets, the certs are captain Virat Kohli and (in no particular order): Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami.So the debate is about the remaining four places?
Yes. And the four are likely to be picked from a pack of six players comprising Ambati Rayudu, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Vijay Shankar and Ravindra Jadeja.So the best four players will be picked?
Well, that’s the simple interpretation. But Prasad and Kohli have (separately) stressed that the selectors and the team management are clear about the combinations and it is just the one spot that needs to be filled: the No. 4 slot. And in the past six months more than one contender has emerged.Wait, wasn’t Kohli clear about Rayudu being their chosen No. 4?
Yes. Last October, a month after Rayudu made a strong impression in the Asia Cup (where he batted No.3), Kohli said the Hyderabad batsman was the “right” choice for the No. 4 slot. Rayudu had returned to the Indian dressing room after a successful IPL last year where he had piloted Chennai Super Kings’ run to the title as an opening batsman. Since his return, India have played 24 ODIs, with Rayudu missing three matches.So Rayudu should be the No. 4?
True. However, a couple of statements from Kohli and his deputy Rohit Sharma earlier this year during the ODI series in Australia and New Zealand revealed the state of confusion in the Indian dressing room, and reopened the No. 4 debate.After the defeat in the first ODI in Sydney, where Dhoni scored 51 off 96 balls – his first fifty since December 2017 – at No. 5, Rohit said the No. 4 slot was ideal for India’s seniormost player, but that was his personal opinion. Then, mid-way through the New Zealand series, Kohli said India were looking to “solidify” the No. 4 position.Why has Rayudu’s position become vulnerable?
In the 20 innings, he has played since the start of Asia Cup, Rayudu batted 14 times at No. 4, scoring 464 runs including one century and two 50s, at an average of 42.18 and strike rate of 85.60. He also opened the batting once and played at No. 3 on a handful of occasions. These are not standout numbers – and the stats, as well as the manner in which he has been defeated by bowlers, has left Kohli and the coaching team, led by Ravi Shastri, thinking about alternatives.Getty ImagesSo who are the other contenders?
Dhoni and Pandya have been tried out at No. 4. Even Kohli can slide down, but he prefers to bat one-down. The other contenders are Rahul, Karthik and Pant. Rahul has played 14 ODIs for India but has received the backing of seasoned pundits like former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, who believes the Karnataka player can bat at No. 4. However, the three times Rahul has batted in that position, he has scored 17, 9 not out and 0. The last two scores came during the ODI series in England last year, where Rahul endured a terrible tour, barring a century each in the Manchester T20I, and in the Oval Test.Karthik is vastly experienced but has never managed to cement his slot in the middle order. He is known mostly for cameos in the lower order but has rarely provided the confidence batting higher up. Since the 2015 World Cup Karthik played at No. 4 on nine occasions with four not outs. The 264 runs he scored came at 52.80, at a strike rate of 71.35 and included two half-centuries.And Pant?
The Pant question is the raging debate. While his glovework remains work in progress, his fearless batting could be an X-factor, as seen during the Test series in England and Australia. One advantage Pant has over the other contenders is he is left-handed, which is considered to be an advantage. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina proved that during India’s successful campaign in the 2011 World Cup.But can Pant be flexible in his mind, be mindful of the situation and bat accordingly? Can you put the pressure on a 21-year-old, who has played just five ODIs, and ask him to bat in a position that, according to Kohli, demands a balance of caution and aggression? All three – Rahul, Karthik, Pant – have the skillset. The selectors have a headache.What about Vijay Shankar?
Yes, Prasad did point out recently that Vijay had added a “new dimension” to the selections. But Vijay is likely to fight more with Ravindra Jadeja for the allrounder’s spot.And does Vijay hold the upper hand?
It is not so straightforward, with Jadeja’s considerable experience being a factor. Vijay has shown he can handle tough situations with the bat, can float in the middle order and has the ability to play the big shots. But he has played only a few ODIs. As a bowler, he is slow-medium, which might not pose a challenge to opposing batsmen in the middle overs, especially with teams upping the ante in that period of play. If Vijay fails to tie up one end, it will add pressure on the spinner at the other end, as was the case during the home ODI series against Australia in March where Kuldeep struggled to dominate.Getty ImagesJadeja has always been used by captains as a defensive bowler, who can execute well most times. He can pair off with Jadhav to bowl the middle overs quickly, and he remains India’s best fielder. The key question for the selectors would then be which player among the two would be more effective on what are likely to be slow pitches during the World Cup.Is there scope for a fourth specialist fast bowler?
It does not fit the combinations Kohli has tried in his captaincy. He prefers having a bowling unit that includes at least one specialist spinner along with three fast bowlers and at least one allrounder.Any dark horses?
Prasad’s team had already shortlisted a pool of 18-20 players from which the 15 will be picked. Some of those darkhorses include Delhi fast bowler Navdeep Saini and Mumbai batsman Prithvi Shaw.Will IPL form be considered?
Kohli and Prasad have been clear that the IPL form of only those players that have been shortlisted in the World Cup pool will be followed.Who are the five selectors?
The five-member selection panel comprises Prasad, Sarandeep Singh, Debang Gandhi, Jatin Paranjpe and Gagan Khoda.Anything else?
The ICC has allowed teams to make changes to the final squads until May 23.Between the one-month window – April 23 to May 23 – changes can be made to the squads without needing to provide a reason. After May 23, through the tournament, the tournament technical committee will process any requests for squad changes.ESPNcricinfo understands that April 23 is the deadline because that allows the ICC to start the logistical processes of booking rooms, travel, etc, but the 30-day allowance lets teams that are playing series in that period to get their squads up to full strength.

For years now, he has sent mixed messages about his availability for South Africa while turning out for T20 leagues all around the world

Firdose Moonda07-Jun-2019This did not start on the eve of South Africa’s World Cup squad announcement. It did not start at the IPL, when AB de Villiers is supposed to have approached Faf du Plessis with the suggestion of returning to the national side. It did not start with the fallout after the Champions Trophy two years ago, when de Villiers reluctantly let go of the ODI captaincy after du Plessis emerged as a better captaincy option, or even when he took a year-long sabbatical from Test cricket that year. This started seven years ago, in the UK.In Taunton, hours after Mark Boucher suffered the eye injury that ended his career and without consultation with the selectors or anyone else in an administrative capacity back home, the South Africa team camp announced that de Villiers would keep wicket. This seemed a reasonable response to an emergency situation; also South Africa were fortunate that they had someone with de Villiers’ varied skill set to call on. But it was a rushed call and its repercussions are still being felt.ALSO READ: AB de Villiers sought World Cup recall, SA team management said noThe two main learnings that emerged from that decision were about the presence and power of a clique of senior players – which Herschelle Gibbs identified in a biography no one took seriously – and a disregard for the importance of transformation. Thami Tsolekile had been contracted as Boucher’s successor in the lead-up to the tour and arrived eventually, but only to carry drinks. We can analyse the statistical merit of de Villiers over Tsolekile (and it will be a no-contest in de Villiers’ favour) but we also have to look at the bigger picture. In the years after that, South African cricket was forced by its administrators to adhere to targets, most notably in a World Cup semi-final (which affected de Villiers’ deeply) as well as by the country’s government, which could have been avoided had the need to change been embraced earlier.Ultimately, both those events contributed to how de Villiers’ situation with the national team turned out in the years that followed.Some days he wanted to be the next Adam Gilchrist – and he had the ability to be that and more. On others, a chronic back problem prevented him from crouching behind the stumps. Between 2012 and late 2015, when Quinton de Kock took a firm grip on the gloves, de Villiers swayed between wanting to play the dual role of wicketkeeper and key batsman to complaining that he was overburdened and would contemplate early retirement (a story that broke during the Boxing Day Test against England in December 2015). When de Villiers did both jobs, he thrived. He averaged 57.41 when keeping wicket, compared to 50.66 overall. That he could do it was never in doubt; whether he wanted to, whether he felt he needed to, or was forced to, is.Then, there were some days he wanted to captain the side, while on others he was happy being led. De Villiers first threw his unequivocal support behind Hashim Amla when Amla was made Test captain following Graeme Smith’s retirement, and later said in an interview that he had wanted the job. When Amla stepped down a year and a half later and de Villiers was made captain, injury prevented him from leading at first but then he willingly took that sabbatical from Test cricket, which meant he never served as the official, permanently appointed captain. But to his credit, when he saw how du Plessis led the team in Australia in late 2016, he stepped aside, though his desire to be part of a senior group never dimmed.Eventually, there were some days when de Villiers wanted to play and others when he didn’t. Like many players, when he started a family, de Villiers wanted more time off, which was understandable. He also wanted more money, so the IPL was an obvious choice. But then he used some of his rest period to dabble in the CPL while still playing for South Africa in 2016, which sent confusing messages about where his priorities lay.ALSO READ: ‘Decision based on principle; had to be fair to the team’ – CSA selector on turning down de VilliersPlaying international sport at the highest level for more than ten years is tough and de Villiers said so many times. What he never explained was why he found it so much easier to travel to T20 leagues, leaving his young family at home. For that answer, we need to turn to the 2015 World Cup semi-final, where de Villiers was forced to pick a half-fit Vernon Philander in his XI. Of all the players who were let down that day, de Villiers seemed to take it the hardest. That was the World Cup he thought South Africa would win, and he was the one to lead them there.After that incident, de Villiers picked and chose more regularly. After headline-grabbing his way through the England Tests at home in the 2015-16 summer, he opted out of the 2017 Test series against New Zealand and England, which South Africa lost. He came back for a home series against India in 2017-18, and then was the major contributor to a victory in a Test series over Australia, South Africa’s first at home. They may never have achieved that if not for de Villiers.Some days de Villers wanted to lead, other days he was happy to be led•AFPThe combination of frustration with de Villiers for choosing when he wanted to play, and fascination at his ability to justify his choices by performing when he did play became confusing. Should South Africa be angry with him for being selective? Grateful to him for turning up when he did? Accommodating to his needs?It’s difficult to know the right answer because in the middle of all this CSA have also been putting out other fires. The combination of the country’s frail economy and the pressures of their transformation targets took its toll on other players, and a Kolpak exodus saw them lose men who could also be in the World Cup squad today.One of them, Kyle Abbott, walked away, having just established a regular place in the squad. He was at the Hampshire Bowl to greet them before their match against India this week, on the same day Dale Steyn was ruled out of the tournament. Abbott laughed when jokes were made about whether he could be called up (he can’t) but these things are not so funny anymore. South African cricket can’t afford more crises, especially in the face of a T20 competition that has not quite set the world alight, and financial losses that are erasing vast amounts of their cash reserves. On the whole, confidence in the way CSA runs the game is at all-time low, and de Villiers was one of the people who felt that earliest.ALSO WATCH: AB de Villiers: country v club (2016)Considering that the South African Cricketers’ Association is taking CSA to court over its decision to restructure the domestic system, de Villiers is not the only player with concerns, but he is one of the few who can do something about it.In May 2018, he took the most drastic route he could and retired, saying so via an Instagram video. He also revealed that the World Cup was no longer a burning ambition, but the whispers that he still wanted the trophy never went away.In October last year, when the first rumours that de Villiers was considering a comeback surfaced, he quashed them. “That is not true,” de Villiers replied to a message I sent asking him if the World Cup was in his sights. He reiterated that shortly after, when preparing for South Africa’s Mzansi Super League. “There is no comeback. I’m very, very happy with where I’m at in my life. I don’t want to confuse anybody, especially not the [Proteas] team. It will be very selfish and arrogant of me to throw statements around that I’m keen to play a World Cup.”So de Villiers knew, more than six months before the World Cup, that changing his mind would be disruptive. But still, he could not resist.Now there is disruption when the team is at its lowest, one defeat away from an almost certain early exit from the tournament, one senior bowler on the plane home, one junior bowler still nursing injury, and now with one major sideshow on their hands that could lead to a complete unravelling.In some ways, you can’t blame de Villiers for wanting to be involved, especially given the state of the current side. But you can only wonder how he managed to misread the team dynamic so spectacularly that he thought the door was still open for him. In the end, his numbers will ensure he remains a cricketing great. But his legacy will be defined not only by his excellence but also his indecisiveness. It’s worth remembering that both of those were a long time in the making.

Ahead of Sunday’s meeting to pick the India squads for the West Indies tour, we look at all the issues that might occupy the selectors’ minds

Deivarayan Muthu19-Jul-2019It might still be July 14 for you, but, hey, the World Cup is over. After being bested by New Zealand in the semi-finals, India will get back on the international grind when they tour the Caribbean for six limited-overs games and two Tests, starting with the first T20I on August 3.The MSK Prasad-led selection committee will meet on Sunday to pick the squads, and they will deliberate over a number of issues. On the Test front, there could be a toss-up between a fit-again Wriddhiman Saha and Rishabh Pant. There’s also the question of life after MS Dhoni, and the eternal issue of the ODI middle order. ESPNcricinfo runs its eye over these and other pressing issues likely to be discussed at the selection meeting.The Dhoni debate: will he or won’t he?
He no longer has the explosive power he once had. Although he made a fifty in the semi-final against New Zealand, Kane Williamson kept him on a leash by unleashing tearaway Lockie Ferguson and left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner at him. There were some uncharacteristic fumbles from Dhoni behind the stumps, too. Pant has been earmarked as India’s next limited-overs wicketkeeper. But the big question is, with the selectors likely to rest Virat Kohli for the limited-overs leg, will Dhoni be around to mentor Pant and help him bed into his role? Or is the great finisher indeed ?Contenders for No. 4
Head coach Ravi Shastri admitted that the absence of a “solid” middle-order batsman hurt India’s World Cup campaign. Vijay Shankar, the designated No. 4 for the World Cup, exited the tournament midway because of a toe injury and is undergoing rehab at the NCA in Bengaluru along with opener Shikhar Dhawan. ESPNcricinfo understands that Vijay hasn’t been passed fit yet, and Pant, who flickered briefly in the World Cup semi-final, might get a longer stint at No. 4. A fresh set of players is likely to enter the race in the Caribbean, including current India A captain Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill.Getty ImagesA few days before the selectors get together to pick the squad, Pandey made a statement with an 87-ball hundred in North Sound that fashioned a series-clinching 148-run victory for India A. Prior to his India A stint, Pandey was among the runs in the middle order for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL and Karnataka in the 20-overs Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.Iyer, who is adept at rotating the strike in the middle overs, is also in the mix. He opened the India A tour with 77 in Coolidge and narrowly fell short of another half-century in the third one-dayer. Then, there’s the exciting Gill, who was part of India’s limited-overs squad in New Zealand earlier this year. If Dhawan isn’t fit enough, Gill can open, too, something he is doing for India A in the West Indies with two consecutive half-centuries.Identifying the next line of seamers
India’s gun fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are likely to be rested for the limited-overs leg of the tour. This gives the selectors and team management the opportunity to identify the next line of fast bowlers. Left-arm quick Khaleel Ahmed, who fell out of favour with the national selectors after the New Zealand tour, is back in contention after impressing with his hard lengths and variations in the IPL. He followed it up with the wickets of John Campbell, Shane Dowrich and Roston Chase in the first one-dayer against West Indies A.Delhi fast bowler Navdeep Saini, who hit speeds north of 145kph in the IPL where he plays for Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore, might get his first crack at international cricket. Khaleel and Saini bowled in the nets during India’s World Cup journey before heading to the Caribbean to play for India A, which means the selectors have had ample time to consider their worth.BCCIDeepak Chahar, who was among the standbys for the World Cup, along with Saini and Ishant Sharma, is also on the radar. Chahar was impressive in the IPL where he plays for Chennai Super Kings and the selectors could want him in the T20I squad keeping in mind the T20 World Cup next year.Who will be the Test openers?
KL Rahul and his childhood friend Mayank Agarwal are set to be India’s first-choice Test openers. Prithvi Shaw is currently recovering from a hip injury he sustained during the Mumbai T20 league in May. Dhawan and M Vijay are no longer in frame for Test selection, and the selectors are now keen to keen to test out the fringe players. Gujarat’s Priyank Panchal and Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran have been pushing their cases for the third opener’s position with strong performances in Ranji Trophy as well as for India A. Panchal was the fourth-highest scorer in the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy, averaging nearly 60 with 898 runs in 17 innings, ushering Gujarat to the quarter-finals.After making an unbeaten 201 against Punjab in Ranji Trophy in January this year, Easwaran produced another double-century against an international-quality Sri Lanka attack comprising Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Akila Dananjaya and Lakshan Sandakan in Belgaum in May. Or you never know, Hanuma Vihari, who has a tight technique, could be bumped up to the top again. He did blunt the new ball in last year’s Boxing Day Test at the MCG.Can Saha find a spot as the second wicketkeeper?Saha had established himself as India’s first-choice Test wicketkeeper during the 2016 tour to the Caribbean, but a spate of injuries has kept him out of international action for more than a year. He has not played a first-class game since the Cape Town Test in January 2018, and his absence has coincided with Pant’s rise in overseas Tests. Pant enjoyed a breakout tour of Australia and subsequently bagged a Grade A contract. The selectors are likely to pick both the keepers for the upcoming tour, but who will be No. 1 when the first Test begins in North Sound on August 22?

It was not just the runs he scored – 525 – but how whenever he was at the crease the opposition wilted

Saurabh Somani26-Oct-2019″I’m sad I didn’t get to bat in the last couple of matches, where I was very eager to bat.” The twinkle in Manish Pandey’s eyes when he said that matched that in his footwork all through this season’s Vijay Hazare Trophy.Pandey is now the captain who has led Karnataka to a major domestic triumph on home ground, a privilege not given to many. He has also been the tournament’s best batsman. There may be four players above him on the run-scorers list – Devdutt Padikkal, Abhinav Mukund, KL Rahul and B Aparajith – but the only real rival he’s had over the past few weeks was Mumbai’s teenage double-centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal. And here’s why.The score Pandey has been dismissed for in the entire tournament was 48. It came against Hyderabad, the only game Karnataka lost in the whole Vijay Hazare Trophy. For a team that boasted a batting line-up of Rahul, Padikkal and Karun Nair besides Pandey, that Hyderabad match showed just how vital their captain was.It was not just the quantum of runs, of which Pandey scored 525 at an average of 105. It was not just his pace of scoring – a tournament strike-rate of 108.02 and 22 sixes, the third highest in the tournament. It was not just that after that Hyderabad game, Pandey ensured he stayed unbeaten in all subsequent chases. It was all this and the ability to look completely the master of the situation every time he batted.Karnataka had Rahul at the top of the order, and though he was coming off a poor tour of West Indies, he was facing bowlers who were a notch lower in pace and quality. Still, he played well within himself, always focused on seeing out the early spells, and opening up only when he was well entrenched. Padikkal was similar in his approach, while Nair – who had begun the season with a glut of runs in the Duleep Trophy – suddenly found them hard to come by in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.Manish Pandey takes on the short ball•Associated PressSo Karnataka turned to Pandey, who looked like he had more than one shot to every ball most times. His dismissals always came against the run of play. It wasn’t as if the bowlers had built up pressure, or started troubling him. When he stayed the course, as he did against Chhattisgarh in the league stages after coming in at 25 for 2 in eight overs, he ended up with 142* off 118 balls that completely shut the opposition out. He looked, in short, like a batsman who belonged to a higher level than the one he was playing at.”It was a good season for me,” Pandey said. “I thought, batting at No.4, I had to be there at the end, taking that extra responsibility for the team’s cause.”That Pandey can do it at the highest level, against tough opposition is not in doubt. His stunning century at Sydney in early 2016 to salvage a win for India was evidence of his batting chops. His ‘one step forwards, two steps back’ international career is more a product of bad luck combined with bad timing than a reflection of his skills.So perhaps he can take inspiration from his team-mate, who flew down specially to take part in the semi-final and final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. That Pandey didn’t get to bat in those two games was also down to how well Mayank Agarwal played. In the semi-final against Chhattisgarh, he sauntered to 47 not out in 33 balls, almost casually dismantling the bowling attack. In the final, he was even better. A century seemed there for the taking, but rain meant he had to be content with 69* off 55, an innings that was almost exclusively composed of stunning shots one after another.”Oh look, when an Indian cricketer who has done so well against a nation like South Africa… and he’s played the top bowlers, he comes and plays at this level, obviously it looks far more easy than what actually is happening,” Tamil Nadu captain Dinesh Karthik said about Agarwal’s knock. “You can plan (for the batsman), but at the end of the day you’ve got to give credit where it’s due. He kept us at bay with whatever we could try and throw at him, and made sure he had answers for it.”Karthik could have well been describing any of Pandey’s innings through the tournament. Now all that remains for Pandey is to replicate how Agarwal has transitioned domestic dominance into sustained international success.

The perennial back-up man has an opportunity to build his resume in the T20Is against Sri Lanka

Deivarayan Muthu03-Jan-2020Shardul Thakur has been desperate for game-time in top-fight cricket for a while, and might finally be getting somewhere with that wish.After getting a solitary IPL game during his three-season stint at Kings XI Punjab, Thakur was released from the squad midway through the 2016 season. A frustrated Thakur took to Twitter and posted: “Will play a semifinal t20 game tomorrow for my club payyade sc..playing a game after 2 months..ipl has done wonders .. Certainly”.Thakur then became a semi-regular at Rising Pune Supergiant and Chennai Super Kings, but hasn’t got enough games to prove himself in international cricket since breaking into India’s Test squad in May 2016. This is partly down to his history of injuries and the incredible depth on India’s pace front.He wasn’t initially supposed to be part of India’s most recent ODI series against West Indies, but an injury to Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the eve of the opener in Chennai paved a way back for the 28-year old.ALSO READ: Spotlight on returning Bumrah, Sri Lankan young ‘unsThakur got in for the second and third ODIs and although he travelled for runs in both games, he showed he could surprise batsmen with his pace – or the lack of it. He broke a fiery 135-run stand between Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard by fooling Pooran with a slower offcutter. In addition to the offcutter, Thakur has a variety of bouncers and the knuckle ball in his repertoire.Plus, Thakur can bat, like he showed in that tight chase in the ODI series decider in Cuttack. With an Ajit Agarkar-esque bat-swing, Thakur rattled off 17 from six balls and even had his captain Virat Kohli off his seat, celebrating wildly in the dressing room. Earlier, in the 2014 Ranji Trophy, Thakur had cracked 87 off 100 balls on a seaming track in Kanpur to win the game for Mumbai.”I was part of the team before, somehow I couldn’t fit into the playing XI,” Thakur had told the . “I played a game in South Africa, later played two games in Sri Lanka. [In] Asia Cup I played one game, I have got breaks between games. [The] positive thing is that I was part of the winning cause. Hopefully, I will get more chances in future. Every cricketer waits for a day like this. This doesn’t happen overnight, a lot of hardwork goes into this. This time it was batting, I hope next time it is bowling.”Thakur had been part of India’s limited-overs plans in the Asia Cup in September 2018, but a groin strain sidelined him from that tournament. He managed to recover in time to make his Test debut against West Indies in Hyderabad the next month. However, that was limited to a mere ten balls after his front leg buckled upon landing in his second over, and sent him for a lengthy rehab.Shardul Thakur took a superb catch off his own bowling to send back Krunal Pandya•BCCIThakur’s injury-enforced absence coincided with the rapid emergence of Deepak Chahar and re-emergence of Mohammed Shami in white-ball cricket. Thakur isn’t really in consideration for the Test side now, but with both Chahar (injured) and Shami (rested) missing from India’s limited-overs squads for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka and Australia, he could get a chance to make a name for himself.He is a name already, of course. Apart from stellar performances for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, most recently in the IPL 2019 final he bounced out both Quinton de Kock and Krunal Pandya for Super Kings with slippery short deliveries. While de Kock was caught behind by MS Dhoni, Thakur himself tore to his left and completed a sprawling return catch near the square-leg region to get rid of Pandya. It ended in heartbreak, though. With the final coming down to two needed off the last ball, Thakur was trapped by a vintage slower dipping yorker from Lasith Malinga.A surgery on his troublesome foot and warming the bench for the T20Is at home against Bangladesh followed, but Thakur was back in the mix for the ODIs against West Indies.Chahar has more tricks up his sleeve – and reportedly Stephen Fleming had picked him as a batting allrounder for Rising Pune for IPL 2016. But, now, he is likely to be out of action till March-April 2020, according to chief selector MSK Prasad.Navdeep Saini can crank it up to speeds north of 140kph, but he’s a proper tail-ender, who bats at No. 11 for Delhi. So, Thakur comes the closest to being a like-for-like swap for Chahar. Well, who knows if Thakur can chalk up a few match-winning spells here, and land a few blows with the bat there, he can even be in contention for the New Zealand tour.Thakur, however, is no stranger to this stop-gap role, having done it for Mumbai in domestic cricket. He had said as much, when he was filling in for the rested seniors in the Nidahas T20I tri-series in 2018.”If other senior bowlers are missing from the team, then I have to step up,” Thakur had said in Sri Lanka. “I have done this previously for other teams that I have played for. I have come in place of Zaheer Khan, Dhawal Kulkarni and Ajit Agarkar while playing for Mumbai. I had to step up in that role. When senior bowlers are rested, I have to step up and fill that role to lead the pace attack.”Thakur is now likely to get the game-time against Sri Lanka that he has been searching for, but whether he can turn the Cuttack cameo into a substantial role remains to be seen.

Bangladesh keeper-batsman Liton Das talks about how he has come to understand his batting better over the last year

Interview by Mohammad Isam16-Jan-2020There’s no doubt about Liton Das’ batting talent, but after four years of representing Bangladesh (he was dropped for nearly two of those), he still averages under 25 in every format and has only one international hundred to his name. He dazzled with a 69-ball unbeaten 94 against West Indies at the 2019 World Cup, but the big scores have been few and far between. In this interview, conducted during the Bangladesh Premier League, where he has made three fifties in 13 matches for Rajshahi Royals, Das talks about how his approach to batting has changed over the last year.Do you feel you are batting better in this season of the BPL?
I think I’m slightly more consistent in this BPL than in previous editions, but I can’t convert the big scores. I struggled to make big scores in the past but I had been hoping to play better cricket this time around. If I take calculated risks, be a little more patient, I will have more chance to be successful.You have forged the tournament’s best partnership, opening with Afif Hossain.
I am enjoying the partnership with Afif. He starts off in an attacking mode, which eases the pressure off me. I may get ten off ten balls while Afif reaches 15, 17 or 22 off his first ten. I can catch up from that point. When he struggles, I try to cover the scoring. It’s important in partnerships that both of us are reading the situation perfectly.Have you made any significant adjustment to your T20 batting style?
In the last three BPL seasons, I thought the only thing to do in T20s is to hit out. I’d end up taking 17 or 18 runs in an over but also get out in the same over. I think my maturity is better now. I have figured out that I can score runs even if I bat normally. I can have more scoring opportunities in the Powerplay if I just time the ball properly.