Batter has shown management he’s more than ready to slot into expansive, free-wheeling England machine

Vithushan Ehantharajah07-Sep-2022″This is the big league now,” chewed Dean Elgar. The South Africa skipper had a wry smile across his face, unwilling to pump up the tyres of England’s newest Test cricketer, but courteous enough to warn him to expect a unique challenge from Thursday onwards. One Elgar will ensure is uncomfortable as possible.Harry Brook will make his debut at the Kia Oval in the third and final Test of this series against the Proteas. A match which carries its own pressure of a decider will also hold great expectation on Test cap No. 707 as a replacement for Jonny Bairstow, who has arguably been the player of this first summer of the Stokes-McCullum era.Brook is averaging 107.44 against the red ball this season from eight Championship matches, and has spent enough time with the squad to show the management he is more than ready to slot into this expansive, free-wheeling machine. “At the start of the summer, when we picked the squads, we wanted to have the top six sorted and then it was ‘who are the next guys in?’,” Stokes said on Wednesday. “And we all thought Harry was definitely going to be the next batter in.”Naturally, the skipper talked up the talented young Yorkshireman, who for the longest time has been spoken of as a future multi-format international and already has four T20I caps to his name. “There’s just things that stand out about certain players, like the time they have at the crease, the shots they play,” Stokes said. “There’s just something that stands out that puts them above other people you see playing.” And, of course, when the prospect of Brook’s debut was put to Elgar, it was only right for him to go the other way.Related

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• Dean Elgar shrugs off injury scare as Ryan Rickelton prepares to take his chance

• Harry Brook prepares to take his chance, as Ollie Pope hopes his Test life begins at 30 caps

• Hundred done but Test series decider could yet satisfy short-form thrill seekers

• Third Test 'like a World Cup final' – Dean Elgar

“There’ s a lot of things that put a stop to you as a player,” Elgar said, with the insight of someone whose entire persona and legend has been quarried from Test cricket. “Whether its crowds, the cameras … Brooky, I’ve played quite a few games against him.”Good player, no doubt. Got a bit of runs against us but again …” he said, referencing Brook’s 140 for England Lions at Canterbury. “We’ve got our fast bowlers who didn’t bowl against him in Kent [Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi] so I am not reading too much into that.”This is Test cricket. It will humble you as a player and a person.”It was fitting that both captains should have their say on Brook on the eve of the final Test of the English summer. Even with so much cricket being played over the last five months, he has perhaps been the most talked-about batter going, as much for his work in the middle as the time away from it – notably the times he had to forgo playing for carrying drinks. Something the man himself says irked him more than anyone else.”Absolutely,” he answered when asked of the frustration at spending the summer in squads for seven Tests, starting with New Zealand and India before finally getting a go in this last one against South Africa. “But that is part of it. It’s not all plain sailing. I probably would have struggled a bit more if it was (biosecure) bubbles and I wasn’t able to get away and play cricket. But I’ve been allowed to go away and have a bat to keep the momentum up, which made it a bit easier.”The occasion of this debut has a degree of fortune to it, albeit rooted in the misfortune of Bairstow breaking his leg at a golf course, who he met with yesterday. Bairstow was in London seeing a specialist ahead of an operation next week.Brook was originally preparing to take part in the first two days of Yorkshire’s Division One match against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford before managing director Rob Key sent him a text him soon after those plans were being discussed, telling him to cancel them. Once he heard of Bairstow’s injury, Brook figured his time had come.Stokes’ announcing of the XI on Wednesday was merely public confirmation of the news all expected, albeit only confirmed privately on Tuesday. Brook took the news with something of a shrug, albeit a happy one. “It’s just another game isn’t it?” he said. “I’m just hitting a ball. I’m already living the dream – I’m looking forward to it.”That disposition is one of the reasons why England are very much all in on Brook. He takes plenty in his stride, right down to the fact it was only a few weeks ago he was putting himself forward to open if that’s where the management wanted to try him. Even now, as he prepares to nestle into a preferred position, with three Tests in Pakistan at the end of the year also on offer for a clear run at No. 5, he reiterated that sentiment: “I’m easy. I’ll bat wherever the team needs me. I’ve been trying to be a match winner as long as I’ve been playing so if I can make a match-winning contribution then happy days.”He is not thinking too much beyond this week, though has admitted he is already anticipating his first ball. Given Elgar’s comments, it’ll likely be sharp and directed around his neck from one of the three quicks he didn’t face in Canterbury.Expect something just as aggressive in response. Brook, though still wet behind the ears, fits the mould of this new, aggressive style of English Test cricket. “I’m not just out there to survive,” he confirmed. “I’m there to score.”You could say he has drunk the Kool-Aid. As with most his age, there is an affinity for the white ball which has seen him, among franchise appearances this winter, notch the second-fastest century in the Pakistan Super League. Domestic viewers will also be familiar with this side of his game following his exploits with Yorkshire and Northern Superchargers over the last two summers. But truth be told it is a frame of mind he has always adopted, rooted in his preference when it comes to the longest format. And in many ways, Brook’s presence is another ingredient in what promises to be an engaging climax to the Test summer.”When I was younger I wouldn’t have paid to watch a draw in Test cricket. I’d have definitely preferred to watch a result so it probably fits my cricket a bit more. It’s exciting isn’t it? People are wanting to come and watch England and the way they’ve come about it this year has been really good.”

The NZ allrounder talks about her break from cricket, her return, and how the team is shaping up under a new leadership

S Sudarshanan19-Sep-20223:25

Amelia Kerr: ‘Wanted to learn as much possible’ from Satterthwaite, Bates when I got into team

New Zealand allrounder Amelia Kerr describes the past year as “massive” for her “personal growth”, having come through a roller-coaster 2021.Before New Zealand’s tour of England in August 2021, she opted for a break to focus on mental health and then skipped the Women’s Big Bash League. She returned to competitive cricket in November 2021 in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield (50 overs) competition and the Super Smash (20 overs) before staging a comeback in New Zealand colours for the series against India this year ahead of the Women’s World Cup.”I am so glad I took the break I did,” Kerr tells ESPNcricinfo from Antigua, where New Zealand prepare to take on West Indies in a three-match ODI series that is part of the Women’s Championship. “It was not necessarily a break from cricket as I was still training. But in terms of not going to England and getting the help I needed, I think it was so important to do. Your mind is a muscle, and you have to look after it like you look after physical injuries. I hope, moving forward, people know you can talk about mental health more openly. I hope people know that there is help out there and there is hope as well when you are going through these tough times.”While Kerr played the Women’s T20 World Cup in West Indies in 2018, this is the first time she is in the Caribbean for a bilateral series, starting with the postponed first ODI on Monday. But having trained a bit in the lead-up to the series, she is aware that the pitch at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound could help her bowling and also aid spin.Kerr sisters Jess and Amelia are both in the squad for the Caribbean tour•Getty Images”It feels like we have been here for a while without much training and playing as we would have thought,” Kerr says. “But we have come here on the back of a lot of cricket, so we are prepared well. These conditions should suit my bowling and I see that as an advantage.”Fortunately we have had a few training sessions where we were able to use the wicket in the middle and then in the nets. The reality is that [the conditions] are not going to be as quick and then might get a bit more turn and be a bit lower and slower as the tour goes on.””The thing about being an allrounder is that if I am bowling, I can think about what I’d be thinking as a batter and what shots would be harder to play and what shots would be easier and then vice versa. I have had some really good chats with [head coach] Ben Sawyer, [spin bowling coach] Craig Howard, [batting coach] Sara McGlashan during training on what works and what doesn’t.”It will be Sawyer’s first bilateral series as the head coach of New Zealand, having been brought in ahead of their bronze-medal finish at the Commonwealth Games.”Ben’s an incredible coach and we have been very fortunate to have him on board,” Kerr says. “He’s come from a winning environment with Australia [as the former assistant coach]. He is just a quiet encourager and there won’t be any pages left unturned in our preparations. He brings the best out of all of us and gets us to play to our strengths. It’s only going to help us be successful.”She may just be 21, but Kerr is without a doubt a senior in the New Zealand set-up•ICC via Getty ImagesWith teenagers Isabella Gaze, Georgia Plimmer and Fran Jonas, and youngsters like Eden Carson and Molly Penfold, New Zealand have a plethora of youngsters in their squad. Kerr, 21, has been around the national side for close to six years now and is aware of her elevation to their leadership group, especially with Amy Satterthwaite retiring earlier this year.”The young girls have taken their opportunities,” Kerr says, “and the way they train and turn up and compete, they just want to get better, which has been awesome to see. Fran Jonas and Eden Carson have taken up more responsibility. We have got a young spin attack.”For us to learn as much as possible and bowl together as much as possible and use the coaches around and set some goals as a collective as well. I have been so impressed with the young girls that have just come in and wanted to compete and train hard. They are going to have long and successful careers.”It’s not something I think about too much,” she says unfazed about being tagged as one of the ‘seniors’. “I enjoy seeing the younger faces around that come through the programme. Now with more new faces, it’s about taking the leadership role, having been with the team for a while.”When I first got into the team, I just followed around Suzie [Bates], Amy and all of those and just wanted to learn as much possible. For me, it is about helping everyone around when they need but also I think they can help me out the way they go about with their stuff. I love competing and being competitive. It’s nice to bowl alongside Fran and Eden knowing that we are all competitive and want the best, which helps getting the best out of each other.”

“The thing about being an allrounder is that if I am bowling, I can think about what I’d be thinking as a batter and what shots would be harder to play and what shots would be easier”

Kerr is coming on the back of a successful, maiden stint at women’s Hundred, where she had the most wickets for London Spirit and second-most runs for them behind Beth Mooney, her former Brisbane Heat team-mate. Although Spirit finished seventh among eight teams, Kerr’s experience was an enriching one.”I think that I really enjoyed the format. It’s just doing everything a little bit quicker – be it with the bat and then with the ball your plan is a bit shorter because you have just five balls to set up a batter,” Kerr says. “Dots are so valuable in the format especially when there’s ten balls in a row and if you can keep certain batters off strike that is what I learnt a lot.””To get to play with [Mooney] again at London Spirit was awesome. She is obviously a world-class player. But I think her cricket knowledge and brain is changing with her. The way she constructs her innings I learnt a lot. It’s low risk and she does it on a consistent basis. She is a world-class player and is someone you want in your team.”Kerr has been among the top scorers in ODIs in 2022 and heads into the West Indies series as the leading ODI wicket-taker for New Zealand this year. Having seen off a tough year and come out on the bright side of it with form behind her, it can only translate to good things on the field.

Fresh off a double-century in the Ranji Trophy, the Mumbai captain says, ‘I don’t want to run after anything… just want to back my game’

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Dec-2022In December 2020, Ajinkya Rahane celebrated what many believed was a seminal Test hundred at the MCG, helping India overcome the ghosts of 36 all out and level the four-match series against Australia 1-1. In Virat Kohli’s absence, Rahane then went on to lead India to a historic 2-1 series win.Two years on, Rahane finds himself out of India’s Test squad. He has played a Test match in January this year, but he isn’t giving up hope of a comeback, however tough it may be. With Australia set to tour India in February for four Tests early next year, Rahane is keeping himself in the fray by doing the next best thing: score runs in domestic cricket.Related

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Currently leading Mumbai in the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy, Rahane has been part of two big wins to start the tournament. In his most-recent outing, against Hyderabad in Mumbai, Rahane scored a 261-ball 204 in a massive batting performance that helped his team record a bonus-point victory.With the first Test against Australia slated for February 9, Rahane will possibly have five full red-ball fixtures to make a case for a Test recall. What works for him is that he’s been match fit and a constant feature for Mumbai across formats this season. He also led them to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title in November.”I don’t want to prove anything to anyone,” Rahane said, when asked about where he thinks his career is at. “I think my competition is with myself. If I stick to that, things will fall into place. I don’t want to run after anything… just want to back my game.”

“You always have a memory of good things you have done…how you used to play, what was your style, how much did you shuffle, what was the initial movement. Over the years the changes creep into the game…I think these changes are for good as well as we play matches in different countries. But if I have to score runs consistently, I thought I will refer to old Ajinkya’s batting and try to implement it.”Ajinkya Rahane

Rahane’s place in the Indian Test team is currently being occupied by Shreyas Iyer, who has had an excellent initiation in the longer format. In 10 innings, Shreyas averages 50.08, with one century and four half-centuries. With Shubman Gill also making a strong case to bat in the middle order once a slot frees up, the competition is intense, but Rahane isn’t stressing over it.”There is no point in being disappointed as things are not in my control,” he said. “For me, my attitude matters the most. Because of my attitude and my work ethic, I have managed to reach this stage of my life and now I don’t want to change anything.”For someone who is seemingly at peace, Rahane believes his mindset while batting now is similar to what it was many years ago, when a “fearless” young batter broke through the ranks for Mumbai.”You always have a memory of good things you have done…how you used to play, what was your style, how much did you shuffle, what was the initial movement,” he explained. “Over the years the changes creep into the game…I think these changes are for good as well as we play matches in different countries. But if I have to score runs consistently, I thought I will refer to old Ajinkya’s batting and try to implement it.”Rahane disagreed with the view that issues that had crept into his game leading to his loss of form. Instead, he cited challenging home pitches for the dip in his average and runs. In 28 innings since the MCG ton, Rahane managed just three half-centuries.”If we look at the averages, they have gone down because of the wickets, because as a batter it is always challenging,” he said. “For openers, it is easy, especially in India when the ball is hard. When batters get out, we always think about what mistakes they are committing. But then No. 3-4-5 – [Cheteshwar] Pujara, Virat and me… all of our averages have gone down.”So, I don’t think I was committing any mistakes. Yes, as a player I always focus on where to improve but every time we don’t commit mistakes, sometimes the wickets are such…it’s not an excuse but that’s the reality. Everyone was watching so they know what kind of wickets were prepared in India.”

Also: does Bruce Reid hold the record for most Test wickets without ever taking one in England?

Steven Lynch22-Nov-2022Going into the T20 World Cup final, Adil Rashid had played 91 matches, scored 91 runs and taken 91 wickets. Was this the highest such coincidence? asked Michael Clayton from England

That’s a good spot: before the World Cup final in Melbourne earlier this month, Adil Rashid had played 91 T20Is for England, and amassed 91 runs and 91 wickets. He rather spoiled things in the final by taking two wickets and not batting, so is now on 92-91-93.Rashid is easily the leader when it comes to these three figures being the same: next comes the Sri Lankan spinner Maheesh Theekshana who, after his penultimate game in the year’s World Cup, had played 31 matches, scored 31 runs and taken 31 wickets. He didn’t bat or take a wicket in Sri Lanka’s last game, so is now on 32-31-31.The Kenyan seamer Elijah Otieno stood at 27-27-27 at one point, but has failed to register a run or a wicket in his last four T20Is, so currently stands at 31-27-27. And the Afghanistan seamer Shapoor Zadran had 25 runs and 25 wickets after 25 matches, and neatly collected a run and a wicket in his next game to make it 26-26-26. After his most recent T20I, in March 2020, Zadran stood at 36-27-37.How many batters have scored hundreds in both innings of a first-class match against James Anderson? asked Will Gubbins from England

Four men have scored a century in each innings in a Test match with James Anderson in the opposition: Peter Fulton for New Zealand in Auckland in 2012-13, Shai Hope for West Indies at Headingley in 2017, and the Australian pair of Steve Smith (at Edgbaston in 2019) and Usman Khawaja (in Sydney in 2021-22). Smith didn’t actually face Anderson in that match in 2019, as he limped off (and out of the series) after bowling only four overs.In addition to his 175 Test matches Anderson has also played 105 other first-class games so far, most of them for Lancashire, so I expected a few more cases. But there’s only one, and it happened earlier this year in Southampton, when the Hampshire left-hander Nick Gubbins scored 101 not out and 130. Anderson took three wickets in each innings, but Gubbins escaped his clutches.There have been eight other instances of an opposition player scoring two centuries in a match against Lancashire since Anderson made his debut in 2002 – but he wasn’t playing in any of those games. So that’s a feather in the batter’s cap… and another for our questioner, who turns out to be Nick Gubbins’ brother. As I’ve said before, it’s always nice to get a question from the horse’s mouth (or a close relative’s!), so if there are any other players out there who think they might have done something unique or unusual, please let me know.Apparently two events on the European golf tour in the last couple of years were won by the sons of Test cricketers. Who were they? asked Phillip Bacon from England

The two European (DP World) Tour golf winners with illustrious cricket-playing parents were Dean Burmester, who won the Tenerife Open in May 2021, and Sean Crocker, who came out on top by one stroke in the Hero Open on the Torrance Course at Fairmont St Andrews in Scotland in July 2022. Burmester now represents South Africa, and Crocker the United States – but both of them were born in Zimbabwe, and their fathers, Mark Burmester and Gary Crocker, both appeared in Zimbabwe’s inaugural Test, against India in Harare in October 1992. Actually, they were the first two bowlers to take Test wickets for Zimbabwe: Burmester had Ravi Shastri caught, and later Crocker bowled WV Raman to make it 77 for 2.Litton Das (right) scored his half-century and took Bangladesh to 50 off the same delivery against India, one of only two instances of this happening in T20Is•Getty ImagesWhen Litton Das reached his half-century against India in the World Cup, the team score was just 54. Was this a record? asked Raquibul Ahmad from Bangladesh

During his onslaught in Adelaide, which put Bangladesh in a strong position in their T20 World Cup group game against India, Litton Das reached 51 with a six off his 21st ball, which took the team total to 54 (fellow opener Najmul Hossain Shanto had scored the other three).Given the proviso that we don’t have full details of all T20Is, the only performance that is known to shade Litton’s onslaught came from Vanuatu’s Patrick Matautaava, against Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in October 2019. Coming in at No. 3 in the first over, he hurtled to 50 out of 53 in 18 balls, with his fourth six; batting partner Joshua Rasu scored two singles, and there was also a wide. These are the only known instances in T20Is of an individual and the team reaching 50 off the same delivery.The nearest approach in a match involving Test-playing nations came when Australia’s Cameron Green reached 50 (from 19 balls) out of 58 for 1 against India in Hyderabad in September 2022.Does Bruce Reid hold the record for most Test wickets without ever taking one in England? asked Julien Benney from Australia

The beanpole left-arm seamer Bruce Reid took 113 Test wickets, but none of them came in England. The record at the time was held by his fellow Western Australian and near-contemporary Bruce Yardley (126). They have since been overtaken by another Australian, Stuart MacGill, none of whose 208 Test wickets came in England.The other bowlers to have taken 100 or more Test wickets without any in England are Dilruwan Perera of Sri Lanka (161), the Bangladesh pair of Taijul Islam (158) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (135), the West Indian fast bowler Merv Dillon (131), the Indian spinners Pragyan Ojha (113) and Shivlal Yadav (102), and Nicky Boje of South Africa and Irfan Pathan of India (both 100).Looking briefly at other countries, Bangladesh’s leading wicket-taker Shakib Al Hasan has so far taken 225 in Tests without any in Australia (Taijul is next with 158). Subhash Gupte of India (149 Test wickets) and Pakistan’s Fazal Mahmood (139) never played a Test in Australia either. The England pair of Alec Bedser and Darren Gough took 236 and 229 Test wickets respectively without any in the West Indies; none of Pat Cummins’ current haul of 199 has come in the Caribbean either. Curtly Ambrose took 405 Test wickets, but none in India, where Dennis Lillee (355) and Fred Trueman (307) never played either.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

“Honestly speaking, these are the kind of pitches we want to play on,” captain Rohit Sharma says

Karthik Krishnaswamy03-Mar-20238:21

Rohit Sharma: We focus too much on the pitch here in India

India have lost only three home Tests in the last decade: Pune 2017, Chennai 2021, and now Indore 2023.The Pune and Indore defeats have a lot in common. Australia won both times, Steven Smith captained them both times, and on both occasions, their spinners prevailed over India’s on pitches that turned square.No pitch can guarantee victory to a home side, not even a side as good in their own conditions as India have been over this last decade. And pitches that favour bowlers in extreme ways – whether via seam movement, turn, or uneven bounce – can give a strong away team a clear route to victory.Related

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India know this. They know that turning tracks can leave them vulnerable to results like Pune or Indore. Even last week’s Test match in Delhi could have ended in an India defeat, were it not for a first-innings fightback from their lower order and a second-innings collapse from Australia.India know all this. But it’s unlikely they’ll stop asking curators for pitches that turn from day one. They believe turning pitches give them their best chance to win Test matches, because they maximise their strengths – the very strengths, in fact that, helped them win the Delhi Test from a perilous position: their spin attack, and the allrounders in their lower order.”Honestly speaking, these are the kind of pitches we want to play on,” India captain Rohit Sharma said after Australia wrapped up a nine-wicket win in Indore. “This is our strength, so when you’re playing at your home, you always play to your strength, not worry about what people outside are talking about.”We want to play to our strength, and that strength is spin bowling and that batting depth. And everyone uses that advantage outside [India], so what’s wrong in that? We’ve got to do that as well, especially when we’re getting results. If we were not getting the results, I would think otherwise, but I think we are playing well, we are getting the results that we want.”Before the setback in Indore, India had won eight of their nine previous home Tests. It could very nearly have been nine out of nine, if not for New Zealand’s last-wicket pair hanging on for a draw in fading light in Kanpur. Most of these nine Tests were played on pitches where the ball turned from the first day.It’s not always been the case that India have played on these sorts of pitches, however. In the 2016-19 period, most of their home Tests – apart from the odd anomaly such as Pune – were played on pitches that started off relatively flat before wear and tear brought the spinners into the game in the second innings. In 2019-20, India whitewashed South Africa 3-0 on pitches of this kind; their batters made seven hundreds in four innings, and their fast bowlers played an even bigger role than their spinners, arguably, in taking 20 wickets in each Test.At the time, you could even make a case that India’s pitches offered the smallest degree of home advantage of any pitches anywhere in the world.Everything changed when England won the first Test of their 2020-21 tour of India, in Chennai. That pitch started out flat and began deteriorating from around the end of day two. England won the toss, batted first, and posted 578 before their bowlers took over to engineer a 227-run victory.2:19

Chappell: Getting India out cheaply in the first innings was key

The toss, India felt, had influenced the result to a significant degree. They had themselves been beneficiaries of this during the South Africa series, during which they had won all three tosses.In an effort to minimise toss advantage, the rest of the England series was played on pitches that turned sharply and early. India lost two of the remaining three tosses, but won all three Tests and completed a 3-1 series win.Such pitches have been the norm ever since, and India’s top order has gone through a rough time. Of the seven batters who have batted at least eight times in their top six in home Tests since the start of 2021, only two average over 40. Four average 25 or below.India know they can’t expect their batters to score runs consistently on these pitches. Instead, they bank on their batters to produce enough innings of value amid the low scores, and for the depth of their batting to ensure that someone or the other makes a telling contribution in any given innings. They know it may not always happen, and that a good opposition attack might occasionally hand them a defeat, but they’re prepared for it.”People will have the phase where the runs are not coming, but that doesn’t really matter, honestly,” Rohit said. “We do understand the nature of the pitch, the challenge of playing on these pitches, so consistent runs from the batters will not come, but we’re very much okay with that, as long as, as a whole, we are getting the job done. That is what I’m looking at.”We’re here to win – whether it’s two days or five days, it doesn’t really matter. We don’t want to prepare a pitch where the results are not coming. We are here to win, and we want to play to win, every game that we play. When I say that, I do understand that it can come and haunt us as well, I’m very much aware of that, but so be it.”We want to be brave enough not just with talking, we want to be brave enough in what we do out on the field, which starts with playing on challenging pitches.”Apart from negating toss advantage – the team losing the toss has won all three Tests of this Border-Gavaskar series so far – there’s one other benefit India get from pitches that turn from day one. They minimise the chances of draws, and that’s crucial when teams are looking to get as many World Test Championship points as they can from every match. India began this series needing to win at least three Tests out of four to seal a spot in the WTC final.Indore, then, will be seen as a setback by India’s team management. They may even believe the pitch went too far in the amount of variable turn, pace and bounce on offer – the surfaces in Nagpur and Delhi weren’t quite as extreme – but they’ll know pitch preparation isn’t an exact science, and acknowledge that the curators had limited time to prepare this track, given that Dharamsala was originally meant to host the Test match. The result went against them, and their batters got through another difficult game, but India will see no need to review their belief that they play their best cricket on turning tracks.

Alan Gardner is joined by Andrew Miller and Osman Samiuddin to catch up on the latest from the English season

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2023After the conclusion of the Hundred, focus switches back to England and preparation for the men’s 50-over World Cup, with New Zealand in town for T20I and ODI series. In the pod, Alan Gardner is joined by Andrew Miller and Osman Samiuddin to dig into the third season of 100-ball cricket and the tournament’s significance for the English game. They also discuss the ongoing World Cup organisation shambles, Ben Stokes’ not-so-surprise ODI comeback and selection questions for England Women as they face Sri Lanka.

The backlash has been swift and predictable, but it shouldn’t steer England away from a blueprint that has allowed them to unleash genius from the get-go

Andrew Miller22-Jun-2023It was, as the Daily Star put it, “a real kick in the Bazballs”. England’s second defeat in three Tests was only fractionally less of a cliffhanger than their one-run loss in Wellington in February, but it was so much more of a tumble into the chasm.England’s gaunt faces at Edgbaston’s post-match presentation were in stark contrast to the mutually appreciative incredulity with which Ben Stokes’ men had congratulated New Zealand at the Basin Reserve four long months ago… James Anderson, of all the curmudgeonly competitors, even dared to be seen smiling on that occasion, after becoming Neil Wagner’s fourth and final victim of an indefatigable, deck-hitting fourth-innings display.And who knows, perhaps Wagner was the inspiration behind Stokes’ questionable but clear tactics to Australia’s tail on Tuesday evening, as he abandoned any pretence of conventional new-ball pressure on a sluggish surface, and goaded Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon into a mistake that never came.Related

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• 'Losing sucks' – Execution to blame for England at Edgbaston, not Bazball

• Did England go too hard? (And is that even the right question?)

• Brendon McCullum: Edgbaston defeat 'validated our style of play'

That final hour now feels like a seminal moment in the Bazball narrative – the first time in 15 outings that Stokes, England’s brilliantly ballsy captain, has been forced to blink first when the stakes have been at their highest. And so, a mere 24 hours after Stuart Broad had insisted his team was not “results-driven in any way, shape or form”, Stokes found himself admitting to being “beat up emotionally” by the events of that final day.The cognitive dissonance that that creates in a previously bulletproof philosophy will not have gone unnoticed as Australia, the reigning World Test Champions, now look towards Lord’s and a chance to taint the ethos further with subtly corrosive doubt. Are you sure you want to play that booming first-ball drive, Zak, or that ramp up over the slips, Joe? You want to declare on a featherbed with the world’s No.1 batter in overdrive? Sure, Stokesy … you do you.And as a consequence, it’s suddenly time for some Bazball real talk. Because, if this thrilling, intoxicating philosophy is to survive its first contact with the ancient and unimpeachable truths of the Ashes rivalry – and the death by a thousand hot takes that it can entail – then England urgently need to halt the frivolous narrative that has been allowed to spread like a pandemic in the hours since the loss, and unleash instead some overdue honesty about the tactic’s hard-nosed origins.For until they manage to do so, the mockery will be legion. “England have got carried away with Bazball and seem to think entertaining is more important than winning,” wrote Geoffrey Boycott in The Telegraph, while George Dobell – formerly of this parish – pointed out in The Cricketer that this was “not the primary school egg and spoon. It’s the Ashes”.Even the reliably trenchant Nasser Hussain, speaking on Sky Sports moments after the result, reminded viewers that England had not lost a home Ashes series since 2001 by playing “the old-fashioned way”, and that they “didn’t need ‘Bazball’ to beat Australia … You can’t hide behind [wanting to entertain].”But Bazball is not simply a happy-clappy means to “inspire a generation”, as per the ECB’s tagline, just as England’s World Cup win in 2019 was not designed to “boost participation levels”, even though that that was quite literally the second question put to Eoin Morgan as he sat on his plinth at Lord’s with the trophy gleaming beside him.Joe Root’s batting at Edgbaston was both carefree and thrillingly effective•Getty ImagesThe fact that it did was a pleasing by-product of that success, and similarly, the ECB owe Stokes’ men a separate debt of gratitude for playing in a style that has packed out the grounds and even drew a Sky Sports-record 2.1 million viewers for Edgbaston’s epic day five. And it’s gratifying to know that the players have a social conscience, particularly at a dicey time for English cricket when, with the impending publication of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) review, the game forever feels one press release away from being plunged back into crisis.But for the sake of the players’ credibility, and that of a tactic that – privately at least – will have earned more respect within the Australia dressing-room than they’ll ever need to declare in public, England now need to draw a line under the proselyting and the mission creep, and turn the focus back onto the madness at the heart of their method.For everyone loves a good origin story, and if properly expressed, Bazball’s could give Batman’s a run for his money. Forget for a moment the 24/7 laughter and the sight of Harry Brook bowling dobblers on the second morning of an Ashes series. At its core, Bazball is a cold-blooded self-preservation tactic that Brendon McCullum inadvertently hit upon in the midst of tragedy eight years ago, which in turn is quite possibly the reason why he has expressed such an active distaste for the term. To embrace it might draw attention to a time of his life that he’d much rather forget.New Zealand were midway through a Test match against Pakistan in Sharjah in November 2014 when news reached the squad of the tragic death of Phillip Hughes during a Sheffield Shield match in Sydney. The players lost all appetite for the game at hand, but the show had to go on – and so McCullum walked out to bat with a brain emptied of every care, and proceeded to smoke 202 from 188 balls.Somehow, amidst his grief, he bottled that unthinking mindset and, in passing it on through his team during a famously rampant autumn of his career, it was picked up on by his opponents too – not least a young Stokes, whose 85-ball hundred in the 2015 Lord’s Test against New Zealand remains the fastest ever scored at the old ground. And when, seven years later, the chance arose for the pair to work together as captain and coach, their alchemy was instant – not least because Stokes himself was emerging from his own well-documented mental turmoil, which included the death of his father from brain cancer in December 2020, the existential futility of playing on through Covid bio-bubbles, and the fears for his career after a badly broken finger at the 2021 IPL. The joy of the past 12 months, as expressed through the squad’s complete buy-in, has been the joy of release, and the unquestioning knowledge that nothing is better than having no cares in the world.The point of all this is that Bazball’s backstory (as Stokes and McCullum clearly won’t be calling it just yet) is as real and bleak as the prevailing narrative makes it out to be phony and frivolous, but the resulting strategy has already been proven to be the single best means for this particular group of players to achieve their potential. Instead of endlessly being bailed out by miracles – be it Stokes’ Headingley opus in 2019 or Root’s annus mirablis of 2021 – the team is now configured to unleash genius from the get-go. And while Stokes is right to acknowledge that “losing sucks”, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong to continue to be unafraid of losing per se.And yet, it was notable to how superficial McCullum was determined to keep his chat with the media after England’s Edgbaston defeat. He skimmed quickly through the personnel issues facing the side ahead of Lord’s, from Moeen Ali’s finger to Jonny Bairstow’s glovework, and though he reiterated his persistent belief that the team’s current ethos is the best way to win, his punchline once again was to digress into how entertained everyone had been this past week.He is well within his rights, of course, to remain implacable as he leans back on the balcony, feet up on the sofa, yawning while the drama plays out before him. But just as Trevor Bayliss, his similarly laid-back predecessor, was famously likened (by our friend George again) to a yucca plant and whale music for his focus on creating a good dressing-room ambience, so you suspect that McCullum will have to earn his corn this week – probably on a golf course somewhere remote, while England’s women fill the Ashes void during an important week of regrouping.Bazball has brought England victory in 11 of their 14 Tests in the McCullum-Stokes era•Getty ImagesBayliss’s most famous intervention during his time as head coach was to kibosh England’s victory celebrations in the semi-final of the World Cup, against Australia at Edgbaston no less, with a short sharp warning that they’d won nothing yet and if they carried on like this they’d finish the tournament with nothing too.You suspect McCullum’s intervention will be more subtle, more laidback, but it will need to be no less to the point. If you think this is bad, he might wish to remind his charges, just remember what true bleakness is like.True bleakness is bio-bubbles, true bleakness was the void of the last Ashes tour. True bleakness is not a narrow loss in front of a crowd in utter thrall of the spectacle you are putting on, but the treadmill existence that was endured during Covid, endlessly playing the same game with no adulation other than the dressing-room cheers that, to this day, remain England’s most important support structure – both in spite of, and more importantly because of, the very fervour their antics have whipped up.Poignantly, the final word on Bazball’s viability would surely have been delivered by the one man who would have loved it more than any other onlooker.When, in the latter years of his tragically all-too-short life, the late great Shane Warne turned his hand to poker to replicate the competitive thrill that had powered his mighty Test career, he used to talk of the need to project a table image, to ensure that – as often as possible – you were playing the man, not the cards, as the action unfolded in front of you.It’s counterinituitive in terms of conventional sporting strategy, but in poker terms, it’s designed to bypass the vagaries of luck that will inevitably clean your stack out every once in a while. If you keep making the right choices against the right opponents, in the manner that matches the hand you are representing, you will surely end up winning more than you will lose.It’s only under such conditions that Root, for instance, could correctly surmise that Pat Cummins’ opening gambit on day four of an Ashes series would be to hit that channel outside off, and therefore a pre-emptive reverse-ramp makes for an entirely logical and correct response. And only a captain who knows the nihilism at Bazball’s core could possibly declare at 393 for 8 after 78 overs on the opening day of the series – a move designed, as he said, to throw his opponents clean off their game.On this occasion, it did not work. But that’s not quite the same as it being a wrong option. For the sake of the rest of a now short-stacked series, Stokes has no option but to buy back in, and go again. Warnie, for one, would approve.

In 2015, wristspinners bowled a fourth of all spin bowled in ODIs, but since 2021, the fingerspinners have made a comeback

Sidharth Monga10-Oct-2023After June 18, 2017, India seemed to have drawn a line in sand. Having failed to defend 321 against Sri Lanka in a league game of the Champions Trophy, and having conceded 338 against Pakistan in the final, they decided to make a clean break without expressly saying so. One of the three sides without a wristspinner in that tournament, they went on to leave out two legends of the game – R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja – in favour of two rookie wristspinners who vindicated the decision by making India the most-threatening bowling side in the middle overs.India were a little late to catch on, but when they did they bought into it more than any other side. Six years later, India incredibly started the World Cup with both Ashwin and Jadeja in the XI, who bowled 20 overs for 62 runs and four wickets between them.Whatever has happened has not happened to India alone. Playing more wristspinners was a global reaction to the new field restrictions of one fewer fielder on the fence, outlawing of “suspect” actions, and two new balls. In 2015, wristspinners bowled a fourth of all spin bowled in ODIs, but it kept increasing from 2016 inwards to a point where two of every ball of spin were wrist spun. Since 2021, though, the fingerspinners have made a comeback with the share of wristpin going back to one in every four balls.Related

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To those who have been keeping a close eye – and admittedly it is difficult to keep a close eye on ODIs in the years between World Cups – it came as no surprise that Ish Sodhi and Tabraiz Shamsi missed out on the first XI of their teams in the opening exchanges of this World Cup. Or that India didn’t pick Yuzvendra Chahal in the squad or didn’t even invest in developing Ravi Bishnoi and Rahul Chahar as ODI bowlers.There is an on-the-surface explanation for this trend. It is that wristspin has perhaps lost the novelty factor over the years, and now it is back to the best spinner who can also bat. When New Zealand lost Lockie Ferguson, the wisdom gained from 2017 to 2020 would tell you they should have played Sodhi for wickets in the middle overs, but they went for a combination of Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips because they needed batting depth.Which is why it should be no surprise that India have brought Ashwin back no matter how regressive it might seem to the naked eye: the man who got injured to open the door for him, Axar Patel, also got in because he provided batting depth.On the surface, wristspin doesn’t seem to have become any less effective, but fingerspinners have become more effective than they were. After averaging in the 40s in 2019 and 2020, they are back to hovering around 30. Their strike rate from an aggressive length of 4-5 metres has come down from a wicket every 52 balls from 2017 to 2020 to a wicket every 38 balls from 2020 to 2023. The wristspinners, on the other hand, are bowling less on that length, going shorter and more defensive.One of the reasons wristspin is such a hit in T20s is that they have an extra fielder outside, which in the famous words of Ashwin, allows bowlers to bowl “well-constructed bad balls”.Fingerspin is a more exact and repeatable skill, which allows you to have more control of where you land the ball but less mystery after that. It is incredibly difficult to release wristspun deliveries perfectly; apart from the wrong’un, that imperfect release creates a mystery of its own. As a batter, you have less time to react to that imperfect release, and the bowler is able to protect the boundaries with an extra fielder out. That doesn’t work in ODIs.Left-arm spinners like Mitchell Santner extracted more average turn in 2021-23 than in 2017-20•ICC via Getty ImagesEven at the height of the wrist-spin fad, left-arm spinners stood their own because there are more right-hand batters in the world and they take the ball away from them. Jadeja, Mitchell Santner and Keshav Maharaj are examples of that. These bowlers have actually got better at attacking the batters since 2020. They are the only kind of spinners who extracted more average turn in 2021-23 than in 2017-20. It could be because they have bowled slightly slower on an average.However, the average spin tells you the pitches have not contributed to the resurgence of offspinners; if anything, pitches have turned less since 2020. In a discussion on ODI bowling recently for The Cricket Monthly, Tom Moody spoke about the defensive role of the offspinner, by bowling into the hip of the right-hand batter, which is a sound tactic. However, they have subtly moved left, ending up from middle-off to top of off and just outside if you compare beehives from 2017-20 with those from 2021-23.The control percentages have come down against fingerspin, and their strike has improved appreciably when they have batters defending. It is definitely a credit to their improvement in order to stay relevant in the game. Ashwin has come back with variations, for example. Mehidy Hasan Miraz has improved his control.That control is becoming a valuable commodity once again. Most importantly captains are recognising the importance of spinners who can put the ball where they want because increasingly the point-of-difference bowlers are the quicks. That is why 0 for 58 is not unequivocally worse than 2 for 76, which would have been the belief three years ago.Having said all that, a good spinner is still a good spinner. Kuldeep Yadav doesn’t offer runs with the bat, but he gets in because he is that good. The only difference now is that teams want more depth, and when push comes to shove, it is the wristspinner who gets the boot and not the fast bowler, provided they have equal batting skills. For us it is a new trend; for those on the inside, it is one of those cyclical things.It takes one big wave to delete lines in the sand.

He was off the field on day two because of a chest infection and when he was back on the third morning, the playing conditions didn’t allow him to bowl

Karthik Krishnaswamy14-Jul-2023For three sessions amounting to 97 overs of India’s first innings, West Indies were unable to use their most dangerous bowler on a slow turner in Dominica. This was partly because Rahkeem Cornwall was off the field, nursing a chest infection, during the second and third sessions of day two, and partly because he wasn’t allowed to bowl during the first session of day three even though he was back on the field.Cornwall couldn’t bowl on Friday morning because the ICC’s playing conditions for Test cricket require players to spend as much time back on the field (capped at 120 minutes) as they spent off it before they are allowed to bowl again. One exception to this rule is if a player suffers an “external injury” resulting from a blow suffered on the field. In this case the player can bowl as soon as they return to the field.The umpires can also waive the requirement of penalty time if they feel the player was off the field “for other wholly acceptable reasons, which shall not include illness or internal injury.”Related

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Illness was Cornwall’s reason of absence, which meant he had to serve out his 120-minute penalty time before he was able to resume bowling.Cornwall’s absence had a significant impact on West Indies’ fortunes in Dominica. At the time he went out of their attack on day two, he had bowled 11 of India’s first 46 overs, during which time they had scored 128 for no loss in response to West Indies’ 150 all out.For one, they were forced to use part-time bowlers for a total of 31 overs. India only scored 94 runs in those part-timer overs, thanks to the slowness of the surface, but they only lost one wicket. Cornwall resumed bowling soon after lunch on day three, and made an almost immediate impact, getting the first ball of his second over to kick at Virat Kohli to have him caught at leg gully. By this time, though, India’s lead had already passed 250.All of West Indies’ bowlers were wicketless at that point, but Cornwall had looked their biggest threat, troubling both openers with sharp turn and steep bounce. Over those first 46 overs, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal had managed a control percentage of 78.5 against Cornwall – they had gone at 83.3% against both Kemar Roach and Alzarri Joseph, and at over 90% against Jason Holder and Jomel Warrican.9:15

Is it time to introduce injury substitutions in Test cricket?

India eventually built a first-innings lead of 271 before declaring on the third afternoon. West Indies were always at a disadvantage after being bowled out so cheaply on day one; Cornwall’s prolonged absence from the bowling crease probably took away most of their hopes of fighting back.If the playing conditions hadn’t forced Cornwall to wait those two extra hours before he could bowl again, he could have been operating at the start of day three, when India’s lead was 162. Cornwall’s illness had already put West Indies at a disadvantage; it was an extra dose of punishment that they couldn’t use him even when he was available to bowl.At a wider level, the Cornwall situation highlights the peculiar distinction that the playing conditions make between external injury, internal injury and illness. Thanks to this distinction, a player who has suffered a bruised finger in his non-bowling hand while effecting a stop on the field would be exempt from serving penalty time while a player who has strained a hamstring would not, even if both spent the same amount of time off the field.This distinction possibly stems from the fact that umpires are immediate eyewitnesses to injuries arising from blows suffered on the field, while they may not be able to confirm or refute claims that a player has a muscular injury or a stomach bug. By not exempting internal injuries and illnesses from penalty time, the playing conditions deny teams a loophole to exploit if they want to rest a bowler on a tiring day.It’s possible to do away with this distinction, though, by having an independent medical authority present at the ground to assist the match officials. It would ensure that teams do not suffer doubly for losing bowlers to unexpected injuries or illnesses. It would ensure that teams are able to use their best bowlers when they are fit and available, which would help safeguard the competitive balance of Test matches as well as their lustre as a spectacle.There’s a case to go even further here, and call for cricket to have a serious think about injury substitutions. At present, teams can bring on a like-for-like substitute for players who have suffered concussions. Why not allow substitutes if, say, a key bowler is seriously incapacitated by a calf injury sustained on day two of a Test match, as Nathan Lyon recently was at Lord’s. It may be a discussion for another day, but that day can’t be too far in the future.