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A World Cup semi-final is the kind of thing he had dreamed about while playing backyard games with his brother Dale, who is also a first-class cricketer

Alagappan Muthu and Deivarayan Muthu14-Nov-2023Glenn Phillips wasn’t going to make it.He began life as a professional cricketer batting right at the top of the order but, by his own admission, he wasn’t doing enough to dislodge the openers New Zealand already had. Very few could match up to what Martin Guptill provided at the time, which is why in 340 of the 367 times he put on the Black Cap, he was also out there dealing with the first ball.”I wasn’t playing nearly consistently enough to push somebody out of their position,” Phillips told ESPNcricinfo on Monday as he reflected on the path that has brought him to a World Cup semi-final.Glenn’s brother Dale, currently watching from afar, still can’t believe any of this is real. They used to be absolute menaces, pretending the cutlery they had in their hands at the dinner table were cricket bats instead. They played together for New Zealand at the Under-19 level and they hope to play together again, following in the footsteps of the McCullums and the Marshalls.Related

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“We were always very competitive in the backyard when we were growing up,” Dale said. “The goal was always there to play big games at a World Cup. Especially for Glenn to be where he has got to now… It was more of a dream as opposed to thinking it would become a reality. I don’t think either of us imagined where he would be right now. It’s pretty cool to see that one of those dreams has come true.”

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They have done it before but will have to do it with a shuffling batting order finding its feet

Karthik Krishnaswamy12-Feb-20241:33

Can the Vizag pitch be replicated in other Indian venues?

R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav.Jack Leach, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, Joe Root.One of these spin attacks began this India-England series with 849 wickets at a combined average of 23.35, and the other with 191 wickets at 36.83.Two Tests into the series, one of them has taken 33 wickets at 33.90, and the other 23 at 38.39.It’s one thing that the averages are as close to each other as they are, given how brutally India’s spinners had outperformed their opposite numbers over their decade of home dominance leading into this series. It’s another thing entirely that those averages are the wrong way round.There’s reason to believe, too, that luck has contributed significantly to England’s returns so far. Where India’s batters have achieved a significantly better control percentage against spin than their England counterparts, their errors have cost them a lot more often. Roughly one in eight false shots from India’s batters has cost them their wicket, while England’s batters have survived 12 false shots per dismissal on average.Luck tends to even out over long series, but so far in this one, it has felt like India have contributed to their own misfortune, failing to turn their control into dominant positions.On day two in Hyderabad, a string of their batters were out to attacking shots against spin, with none of their top five falling to the traditional modes of dismissal: bowled, lbw, caught by keeper, slips or bat-pad. It was a passage of play that Rahul Dravid, India’s head coach, singled out as critical to their failure to convert a dominant position into one from which they could not lose. India’s first-innings lead of 190 was a tall order to overturn, but not one immune to a once-in-a-lifetime innings from Ollie Pope.Related

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“I thought we left probably 70 runs on the board in the first innings,” Dravid said. “You know, I think in our first innings, when conditions were pretty good to bat in on day two, I thought in the kinds of situations we got ourselves into, some good starts and we didn’t really capitalise. We didn’t get a hundred, you know, we didn’t get somebody getting a really big hundred for us. So, in some ways, in India, I just felt we left those 70-80 runs back in the hut in the first innings.”The feeling that India were leaving scorable runs unscored persisted into the second Test in Visakhapatnam. Five of their top six got past 20 in their first innings, and one of them scored a double-hundred, but their total fell just short of 400. In the second innings, India were at one point 354 ahead with six wickets in hand, but the target they set England fell, once again, just short of 400.Both innings were peppered with strange, hard-to-diagnose dismissals. In the first innings, Rohit Sharma glanced an offbreak straight into the lap of leg slip, and Axar and KS Bharat hit uppish square cuts straight to backward point. Shubman Gill gloved a reverse-sweep soon after reaching his hundred in the second innings, and Bharat pulled a long-hop straight into midwicket’s hands. On that Visakhapatnam pitch, spinners occasionally got the ball to stop and bounce awkwardly, so all those shots came with a certain amount of room for things to go wrong. Individually, it was hard to say whether the batters chose the wrong shot or executed the right shot poorly or happened to get that one ball that turned or bounced just that little bit more. Collectively, they added up to a picture of a line-up failing to cash in against a not-particularly-threatening attack, and failing to bat their opposition out of the game, for the second time in a row.1:13

Manjrekar: ‘India can’t expect Bumrah to bail them out’

It cost India a Test match in Hyderabad, and without Jasprit Bumrah doing Jasprit Bumrah things, who knows what could have happened in Visakhapatnam.It can happen when a batting line-up loses experienced heads. Virat Kohli is out of the entire series, and India seem to have moved on fully from Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. They began the series with a top six of whom only three had played more than 30 Tests, and two of these three – KL Rahul and Jadeja – missed the second Test with injuries. Even the more experienced batters who have featured in this series are getting used to new roles: Gill and Rahul are still new to the middle order, and Axar in Visakhapatnam was designated to bat in the top six for the first timeMost of these players, meanwhile, are white-ball regulars, so the only red-ball cricket they have played in recent months is the Test series at the turn of the year in South Africa – a series played on extravagantly seam-friendly pitches where they didn’t face a single ball of spin. It isn’t surprising then, that these batters have seemed a little rusty when it’s come to milking inexperienced spinners for session after session, keeping the runs flowing steadily while keeping certain risks – hitting the ball in the air, sweeping from the line of the stumps – to a minimum.It’s a skill that viewers often take for granted when they watch Indian batters, but it needs constant polishing like every other skill. India are no doubt working assiduously on it in the lead-up to the third Test in Rajkot, hoping that their batters can do their bit to restore the balance of power between the two spin attacks.

He had moved to the country to pursue a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, but has now become part of USA cricket’s folklore

Shashank Kishore07-Jun-20241:19

Jaffer: Saurabh Netravalkar’s got a great story

In 2010, Saurabh Netravalkar endured heartbreak against Pakistan in the quarter-final of the Under-19 World Cup in Christchurch. Babar Azam was in the opponent’s camp that day, as Pakistan pipped India by two wickets in a rain-affected thriller.Fourteen years later, he had the opportunity to win for his new country, the USA, a T20 World Cup game against Pakistan. Tasked to bowl the Super Over, Netravalkar defended 18 as USA recorded a famous win that gives them a great chance of securing an entry into the Super Eights.If they do – they still have two more games against Ireland and India – Netravalkar may have to extend his official leave at his day job, which is set to end on June 17, by a couple of weeks at the very least. It’s likely he will never have to explain to his American colleagues the reason for it.Related

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All he will need to do is direct them to one of the many Instagram reels that have already popped up about this geeky Indian guy who moved to the USA to pursue a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering but has now become part of USA cricket’s folklore.Netravalkar, 32, harboured the dream of playing for India for the longest time. He was a bristling left-arm quick who rattled Yuvraj Singh’s stumps at the NCA in Bengaluru way back in 2009 while on Air India’s sports scholarship. The next thing he knew was that delivery had earned him a ticket to play in the then-prestigious BCCI Corporate Trophy.He was suddenly sharing a dressing room with Yuvraj, Suresh Raina and Robin Uthappa, all India stars by then. A certain Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni were among those in the opponent camp. Netravalkar, not yet 18 then, finished the tournament as the joint-highest wicket-taker and was on the plane with the Indian team for the Under-19 World Cup, alongside the likes of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Jaydev Unadkat, Mandeep Singh and Harshal Patel.Playing in that tournament meant missing the entire first semester exams of his Computer Engineering degree that he had enrolled for six months earlier. That was the first big call he had needed to make in his cricket career.Netravalkar had hoped his performance in the World Cup – he was India’s highest wicket-taker in the competition – would pave the way for a berth in the senior Mumbai set-up, and perhaps even an IPL contract. The opportunities for Mumbai were few and far between, with Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Aavishkar Salvi and a young Dhawal Kulkarni making it difficult for the youngster to break in.Netravalkar finally made his Ranji Trophy debut in 2013. Incidentally, he had just made another tough call only a few months earlier. He had given up a job as a software testing engineer in Pune to go all-in on cricket for the next two years.But being in and out of the set-up even after two years pushed him to make another call when he received an offer for admission from Cornell University in New York in August 2015. His strong academic credentials and keen interest in cricket, which helped him develop a player-analysis app CricDecode, had earned him a scholarship.As he finished graduate school, Netravalkar was offered a job by Oracle in San Francisco. Having moved to the country without his cricket kit, Netravalkar began playing recreational cricket on the weekends as a way to “fit in with the Indian community”.In 2016, he represented the North West Region at the USACA National Championship. He kicked his efforts into high gear, seeking out as many opportunities to play as possible when the ICC lowered their minimum residency for eligibility from four years to three.Saurabh Netravalkar and his family are delighted after USA’s historic win•ICC/Getty ImagesA sensational spell for Southern California Cricket Association XI against a USA XI in a national-team warm-up match in the summer of 2017 impressed then-coach Pubudu Dassanayake. In January 2018, he made his List A debut for USA, taking 2 for 45 against Leeward Islands. It was as if the life had come full circle.Today, Netravalkar is among a few USA national team players who are regulars in Major League Cricket. Last year, he was the third-highest wicket-taker for Washington Freedom at the inaugural edition, which included a sensational 6 for 9 against a San Francisco Unicorns side boasting the likes of Matthew Wade, Marcus Stoinis and Shadab Khan. He would soon bowl to Shadab again: the final ball of the Super Over on Thursday to clinch the win for USA.Next week, Netravalkar will play against Rohit Sharma, his senior in Mumbai cricket at one point. He will also renew rivalries with Kohli, who he tussled with all those years ago. He wouldn’t need to prove to anybody anymore what playing cricket means. He will have videos of him bowling to cricketing royalty to show for it.

There is no home advantage, no ready replacements for underperforming batters and the pace battery isn’t what it used to be. Is there hope?

Danyal Rasool28-Aug-2024Of course Pakistan should have been able to find a way to beat Bangladesh at home in the first Test, but that would only have papered over the cracks. They may yet level the series next week, and paper over at least some of them. Cheap momentary thrills and short memories often serve as an acceptable substitute for good policy in Pakistan cricket; it has only been too happy to market itself as the most entertaining, least predictable side. Nasser Hussain’s immortal proclamation of Pakistan cricket at its best being “one minute up, next minute down” may as well be Pakistan’s motto at this point; a rollercoaster ride, after all, may end up in the same place, but it is much more memorable than the buggy that takes you around the theme park.You might just be tempted to write off Pakistan’s first ever Test defeat against Bangladesh as one of those routine downward swings. Perhaps Pakistan’s defeat to USA at the T20 World Cup, and the failure to chase 120 against India, were a couple more of those. Maybe the defeat to Afghanistan and the thrashing against an enfeebled England that saw them exit the ODI World Cup at the earliest hurdle could also be attributed to those pendular swings.But, as Pakistan hurtle towards earth in the cheery belief the upswing is on its way, have they checked the parachute that pulls them back up is still there? In Test cricket at home, the foundation of any elite cricket side, Pakistan have forgotten what it takes to win entirely. The defeat to Bangladesh extended their winless run in their own backyard to nine Tests and three-and-a-half years. They don’t know how to prepare a pitch to their advantage, and seemingly don’t even know what team to play to get the best use of the surface that’s actually there.Related

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• How Pakistan avoided the Pindi draw they feared

• PCB chairman questions depth of Pakistan's talent pool

• Rawalpindi road prompts Naseem to vent pitch frustrations

It is easy to call for an overhaul of the whole side or, as PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi somewhat tastelessly put it on Monday, to “slit the throats” of players who weren’t performing. Sticking to that operative theme, he had earlier been attributed as saying the Pakistan team needed “surgery” after their first-round exit at the T20 World Cup. By now, though, the high of the bombast was replaced by the sobriety of reality as he admitted there was nothing coming through the feeder system to replace the players who were struggling, acknowledging the somewhat obvious point that bringing through players who weren’t as good as the current ones would be unlikely to yield positive results.Pakistan fans have grown up on fairytales about how its chaotic, frenetic system managed to bring talent through simply because the country was brimming with it. It allowed them to be profligate with players in the belief new ones would just turn up to replace them. Fast bowlers, in particular, were handled like a spoilt rich child might treat their latest toy. Even if it breaks, they’ll simply get a new one.It also meant, more crucially, that the domestic structure was left to the whims and expediencies of political self-interest. The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, the premier domestic red-ball competition in Pakistan, has been tweaked and overhauled more times than anyone recalls. It has been bloated to accommodate departments, and shrunk to get rid of them. The pitches at all major centres in the country have often been overused, and prepared according to the whims of the day – green tops some seasons, rank turners in others.Bangladesh showed in Rawalpindi they read the conditions much better than the hosts•Associated PressIt is unsurprising, then, that, under the burden of the beating the domestic structure has taken, the system has finally begun to creak. Since Yasir Shah’s prominence has faded, Pakistan have raided the domestic system for a spinner of that ilk, and come up comprehensively empty-handed. Since December 2019 – when Test cricket returned to Pakistan – eight Asian spinners have taken over 50 Test wickets, three each from India and Sri Lanka, and two from Bangladesh, with Noman Ali’s 47 as good as it gets for Pakistan. Pakistan’s best averaging spinner at home in this time is Abrar Ahmed at 33.64; 12 spinners from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can better that in this period.Couple that with pressing issues in the current team, and the bind Pakistan’s Test side are in begins to appear intractable. A loss of faith in Babar Azam’s captaincy ability saw them turn to Shan Masood. Pakistan captains lack authority because power, by its very structure, is consolidated at board level, but Masood’s struggle to score big runs since taking on the armband has only exacerbated those concerns.Babar’s own nosedive during this time is rather more alarming, while Abdullah Shafique, viewed as the most talented Pakistan top-order batter of his generation, averages just 27 in his last 19 innings, with 201 of his 513 runs coming in one innings. In last season’s Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Asad Shafiq were among the top three scorers, with no batter under the age of 25 in the top five. Twenty-two-year-old Muhammad Hurraira, who has been a consistent performer at that level in the past, is part of the squad, and may be expected to fill in, but with a domestic system as feeble as Pakistan’s how he copes with that step up is anybody’s guess.At this point, in desperate search of good news, the chatter is magnetically drawn to Pakistan’s fast bowling. When things get too dark, they keep the lights on in Pakistan cricket, so why don’t we talk about how that limitless supply of precocious talent should tide Pakistan over in tough times?Well, let’s. Ever since the days of Azhar Ali’s captaincy, when he spoke of how Yasir’s role in the Pakistan side would have to change as Test cricket returned home and catered more to fast bowling, Pakistan have tried to brand themselves as the home of pace-friendly pitches in Asia. It worked for a while, when a 16-year-old Naseem Shah famously took a hat-trick in Rawalpindi’s twilight, or during an absorbing Test series against South Africa where seamers from both sides were prolific.Shaheen Shah Afridi is not the bowler he used to be•AFP/Getty ImagesBut since Australia arrived on Pakistani shores in 2022, no nation has proved more inhospitable to fast bowling. Among all teams participating in the World Test Championship, seam bowlers in Pakistan average nearly five runs per wicket more than in any other country, getting a batter out for every 40.59 runs they concede. It prompted Naseem during the first Test to vent his frustrations at Pakistan’s inability to produce pitches that helped seamers; in his first Test innings since a long-term injury, he and his fast bowling counterparts sent down 117.3 overs.Meanwhile, Shaheen Shah Afridi, the jewel in Pakistan’s all-format pace-bowling crown, is now a shadow of his former self, especially in the longest format. Repetitive injuries have limited him to just nine Test matches since 2022, with his average pace rarely touching the 140km/h mark that was so routine in his earlier career. Even while his Australian counterparts made hay on pace-friendly surfaces in Perth and Melbourne, he averaged over 41 for his eight wickets, taking 2 for 96 in an equally indifferent showing last week.Add to that Haris Rauf’s reluctance to play the longer format, and Ihsanullah and Mohammad Hasnain’s persistent injury problems. Pakistan have instead turned to the medium fast pace of Khurram Shahzad and Mohammad Ali, unlikely to get much purchase on the lifeless pitches Pakistan seem to offer at present. With little by way of genuine red-ball quicks coming through, a quick fix appears elusive.It brings us to the nub of the problem: Pakistan’s defeat last week was only surprising in that it illustrated how quickly the rot has taken hold, and how far it has spread. Treating it as a shock understates the depth of a problem Pakistan perhaps haven’t yet even begun to acknowledge. There may indeed be no short-term fixes, but the PCB hasn’t exactly provided evidence they are working towards a long-term solution either. While there may be light at the end of the tunnel, it is hard to know, in the pitch black, if Pakistan are even walking towards it.

Legspinner goes from bowling to Joe Root in nets, to being signed by Yorkshire and a first England call-up

Matt Roller28-Oct-2024Jafer Chohan flew to the Caribbean on Monday as England’s latest wildcard selection in their white-ball squads. A young legspinner with only 23 professional appearances, Chohan did not have a professional contract two years ago but has thrived under the guidance of Adil Rashid and his brother Amar, and has now been fast-tracked into the national set-up.He could easily have been lost to the game altogether: Chohan spent his teenage years in the Middlesex system but was let go at 17 and had fallen out of love with cricket. He started his first summer at Loughborough University playing for the third XI, but was making his debut for Yorkshire in a televised T20 Blast game barely a year later.There are a few different strands to unpick in the story of Chohan’s rise but the central thread is the impact of the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA), a scheme launched in late 2021 to stop talented young players dropping out of the English professional game.Chohan was playing National Counties cricket for Berkshire in 2022 – where he encountered Shoaib Bashir – when he was recommended to SACA’s founder Tom Brown. He quickly became part of the set-up, playing some of their first-ever fixtures against county second XIs and impressing county scouts at an open trial at the Adil Rashid Cricket Centre in Bradford.Related

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He had also played club cricket against the son of Darren Gough, then Yorkshire’s managing director, while their bowling coach Kabir Ali was heavily involved at SACA. By that stage, Chohan had broken into the UCCE set-up at Loughborough and in late 2022, an opportunity arose to bowl to England’s batters in the nets ahead of their Test tour to Pakistan.”I bowled to Rooty for a quite a while at one of the sessions, and at the end of that he was like, ‘Do you play for a team?'” Chohan told ESPNcricinfo. “I said no – and at this moment, I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, Joe Root is speaking to me. This is the coolest thing ever.’ Then he was like, ‘Okay, leave me your number somewhere and I’ll get in contact with Yorkshire.'”By January 2023, he had signed a professional contract and with Rashid injured at the IPL, he became Yorkshire’s main spinner for the Blast. He has continued to work closely with the Rashids – both Adil and Amar – since: “They’ve done so much for me. They’re like having two big brothers. They’ve properly looked after me.”After a quiet first Blast season, Chohan took 17 wickets in 10 games this year including a five-for on his 22nd birthday, defying medical advice to play through the pain of a broken thumb. That injury caused him to miss the rest of the season – including ruling him out of contention for a replacement deal in the Hundred – but at the start of October, England called.Chohan took 17 wickets in this year’s Vitality Blast•Getty Images”I woke up and saw that I had a missed call,” Chohan recalled. “Then I got a call again, and as soon as I heard, ‘It’s Luke Wright, you’ve been selected to go to the West Indies,’ I ran into the office. I was in my boxers still. My dad’s just started this Zoom meeting – I’m just freaking out a bit over the phone, not saying anything – and then he figured out what was happening.”Rashid had hinted to Chohan that he was on England’s radar. “A couple of weeks before, he said, ‘Just don’t be surprised if you get called up to that squad’… even last year, during the Hundred, we went out for dinner and he said, ‘There’s a chance in 12-18 months that you could get a call-up.’ Rash has always told me that, but I’ve never actually believed him.”Chohan describes himself as a “good blend” between the traditional legspinner and the modern version. “I have that longer run-up, which was inspired by Shahid Afridi when I was young. I’ve always bowled a little bit quicker than most spinners, but I’m not as quick and flat as a Rashid Khan… watching Rash bowl has definitely made me want to still be able to have that traditional legspin side, where I can bowl it slower.”And he believes that his inexperience could play to his advantage. “I think the West Indian players will be like, ‘Who is this guy?’ And there won’t be a huge amount of footage of me. I’ve got to make the most of that opportunity where I’m a bit more unknown… You don’t know how many chances you’re going to get to put an England shirt on, so it would be a really special feeling if I can get a game.”Chohan may find it tough to break into the side on this tour: England have no shortage of spin options, with Rehan Ahmed, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Dan Mousley and Will Jacks joining Rashid. If a debut does come, it is more likely to be in the five-match T20I series than in the ODIs, given he is yet to play a List A game.But regardless, his status as the first SACA graduate named in an England squad marks a landmark moment. “SACA helped me a hell of a lot,” he said. “I felt like my game was in a pretty good place, but there’s no real way in, once I got out of the system. It was really tough to think, ‘OK, I want to become a pro cricketer, how can I actually do it?’ And SACA provided that opportunity for me.”

Stats highlights from the second day’s play of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne

Sampath Bandarupalli27-Dec-202410 Steven Smith’s centuries in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the most for any batter, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.11 Test hundreds for Smith against India – the most by any batter, overtaking Joe Root’s ten centuries against India.201 Number of innings Smith took to score his 34th Test hundred. Only Sachin Tendulkar (192 innings) and Ricky Ponting (193 innings) were quicker among the 11 batters with 34 Test centuries.ESPNcricinfo Ltd99 Runs conceded by Jasprit Bumrah in Australia’s first innings, the most he has conceded in a Test innings .The 84 innings by Bumrah are the most for any bowler without conceding 100-plus runs in an innings (Among specialists and bowling all-rounders). Former England fast bowler Mike Hendrick is second with 54 innings.11.07 Rohit Sharma’s batting average in Tests in the 2024-25 season – the second lowest for an Indian batter in a season (minimum of ten innings in the top six). The lowest is 10.00 by Chandu Sarwate in 1947-48.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2 Number of 100-plus partnerships for India in their first innings in nine Tests in the 2024-25 season. Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin had a 199-run stand against Bangladesh in Chennai, while Yashasvi Jaiswal added 102 with Virat Kohli in Melbourne.4 Four-wicket hauls for Bumrah in Australia’s first innings in four Tests this series – the first time a bowler has achieved this since Shane Warne in the 2005 Ashes.

Coach Daniel Vettori doesn’t think so but there are some interesting statistics to consider

S Sudarshanan16-Apr-20251:54

Jaffer: Abhishek has given SRH a new lease of life

A few bowlers awaiting their turn at the Mumbai Indians (MI) nets on Wednesday peered over to their right. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) were into their training and two key batters were doing their thing. A mellow version of Travis Head went through several of his shots, just not with the free-flowing bat swing. In the adjacent net, Abhishek Sharma had a longish bowling stint with plenty of laughs – at one point he was adamant Abhinav Manohar was caught by one of the imaginary boundary riders.No team has been as reliant on their opening pair as SRH lately. Travishek has batted together 21 times since the start of last IPL, and in 11 matches that SRH have won, they have scored almost one-third of the team’s runs at an average of 80.1 and a run rate of 14.65. In the 10 matches that SRH have lost, those numbers dip to 14.5 and 8.78 respectively.In SRH’s first game of IPL 2025, against Rajasthan Royals (RR), Head and Abhishek added 45 in 19 balls, with Head scoring a 31-ball 67. That, followed by Ishan Kishan’s century meant SRH posted 286 for 6. But in the four games after that, SRH’s opening partnerships read 15, 11, 4 and 9 before the mammoth 171 stand that helped them achieve the second-highest successful chase in the IPL. While head coach Daniel Vettori agreed SRH’s success depended on the opening pair coming good, he dismissed talks that their batting has been “reckless”.Related

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“When you look at what we’ve been successful at in the powerplay, I feel like that Abhi and Travis have just been able to play their shots and deal with any ball,” Vettori said. “Because it’s a reputation of aggressive play and all-out attack, when the dismissals do come, people surmise that it could be slightly reckless, but that’s not the way I view it. It’s like bowlers bowl well and you can’t succeed all the time.”I know how much thought Abhi and Trav put into their batting and how much they assess conditions, how much they assess bowlers. They know that when the ball’s there, they obviously want to hit it, but at no stage do I feel like they’re being reckless or anything like that, I think they’re just very good players who have all the shots.”This season, Travishek has scored over 40% of SRH’s runs in wins (at 13.93 rpo) and only 6.2% in defeats (at 9 rpo). No team in the last two IPLs has a higher variance in the average of its opening pair in wins (77.80) and losses (19.54) than SRH. The style of play Head and Abhishek adopt has a lot to do with it.Since IPL 2024, no team has been as reliant on their opening pair as SRH have been on Travishek•BCCITake Head’s dismissal against Gujarat Titans as an example. In a bid to score a boundary off a full ball on his pads, he flicked it aerially to midwicket. Or even in Abhishek’s case against Lucknow Super Giants in Hyderabad. He pulled a short ball from Shardul Thakur in the air, fully knowing there was a fielder at deep backward square leg. A safer option would have been to play it along the ground, but Travishek wouldn’t have had the success it did over the last year thinking like that.”People have done some good research around the amount of false shots they’ve had leading to wickets and it’s a very high rate,” Vettori said. “Normally batsmen get away with those sorts of things. I think there’s an element of luck. I mean Abhishek got run-out early on. There’s an element of teams scouting very well. There’s an element of understanding of how those two are going to go about it.”All that combines to a couple of performances where we didn’t get the runs that we used to get from them. And our opening partnership has been critical to our success and the two games that we won so far, they’ve been big contributors. So I think there’s two sides to it, obviously we want them to do well, but if they don’t, then there’s responsibilities on others to step up.”

Over-reliance on Sciver-Brunt, and continued fielding concerns, hamper preparations for main event in India

Valkerie Baynes23-Jul-2025

Reliance on Sciver-Brunt leaves England exposed

After England were thumped by 97 runs in the opening match of India’s visit, the first T20I at Trent Bridge, Sciver-Brunt wearily set out the truth after her innings of 66 limited a damaging scoreline: “One person can’t win a game, so it is all about partnerships with the bat and showing our physicality as well, making sure that we’re coming back for twos and keeping that energy high.”Her words rang true once more when she and Emma Lamb staged a third-wicket partnership of 162 to briefly give England hope of staging a record run-chase to win the final ODI and that series. Their next-best stand, between sixth-wicket pair Alice Davidson-Richards and Charlie Dean, was only worth 36, which was telling as India won by 13 runs, a margin which flattered the hosts. Even Sciver-Brunt and Lamb struggled to get going, chewing up 41 dot-balls in a powerplay of 22 for 2.When Sophia Dunkley and Davidson-Richards combined for a fifth-wicket century stand in the first ODI in Southampton followed by 71 between Sciver-Brunt and Lamb and 55 between Dunkley and Sophie Ecclestone, it still wasn’t enough to win, although their performance pushed India harder in their four-wicket win than their latest outing in Durham. If former captain Heather Knight recovers from injury in time for the World Cup, she promises to add reliability to the batting lineup.”The positives have been around our batting,” Edwards said. “I think how we’ve performed with the bat over this series has followed on from the West Indies series and India have been exceptional.”They’ve been really disciplined with the ball and it’s something we can really, really learn from. They’ve outfielded us, hence why they’re probably lifting the trophy today. We’ve certainly learned a lot about our squad over the last two, three weeks.”Sciver-Brunt and Emma Lamb produced a century stand that raised hopes of a record chase at Chester-le-Street•Getty Images

Fielding remains a worry

India had amassed 318 for 5 in Durham amid some sloppy fielding and, with the exception of Sophie Ecclestone, an expensive bowling attack. England clearly missed Sciver-Brunt’s ability to provide an option while she recovers from a long-standing foot injury. She is still hoping to bowl at the World Cup, even if fulfilling a ten-overs-per-game allocation looks unrealistic.Sciver-Brunt also took a superb catch to remove centurion Harmanpreet Kaur, further highlighting her all-round importance. And while England only dropped one catch – Lauren Filer putting down a sharp chance off Richa Ghosh – their ground fielding cost valuable runs.Related

• Goud's emergence and Harmanpreet's century the big plusses for in-form India

• Nat Sciver-Brunt defends England after wife Katherine questions attitude

• Harmanpreet: India hoping to 'pass that benchmark' in time for ODI World Cup

• Ecclestone considered quitting cricket in wake of Ashes row

• How Goud's need for speed found her a place with UP Warriorz

Any errors in the field are bound to come under the spotlight after that abject showing at the T20 World Cup, and the marked gap between England and reigning World Cup champions Australia during the Ashes. Both captain and coach admit it remains the biggest area for improvement.Sciver-Brunt told the BBC: “We do work very hard on it. The engagement that we have and the effort in training is excellent, so translating that into a game is where we are missing a little bit. Some people maybe seem surprised that the ball is coming to them.”Edwards said fielding ability would come into consideration when picking her World Cup squad.”It is going to be a selection point, isn’t it?” she said. “That will certainly be an element, the athleticism piece and how people field, it’s not just going to be who’s the best batter. It will be, who’s the best fielder?”We are certainly doing a lot of work getting round to the counties, providing them with support around fitness and fielding. I think they come hand-in-hand in many ways. There is definitely talent ID being done as well.”England’s fielding has been under scrutiny since their dreadful display at the T20 World Cup in Dubai•ICC/Getty Images

Time is tight

With ten weeks to go until the World Cup, England have played the last of their scheduled ODIs in preparation and it is still only July. With a training camp in Abu Dhabi and possible warm-up games to come, England’s lead-up closely mirrors that of the T20 World Cup a year ago, in which they didn’t make the knockouts. But Edwards believes she has time to make her side contenders.”We’re going there to win it, clearly,” Edwards said. “Getting to the final would be a real success for us. That’s a long way off but we are certainly going there to really compete and we believe we’ve got a team that can really compete.”We know up in our dressing room what we are doing and how we are progressing, and that’s the most important thing to me, if I’m honest, that we are really progressing, we’re really improving.”I think there is enough time. We’ll take a lot of the learnings from this series… we’ve got to keep learning really quickly. At times, I don’t think we’ve learned and done things as quickly as I’d like throughout this series. But the more we keep getting in these situations, the greater the learning is.”I feel really fortunate that we’ve had this series leading into a World Cup, where clearly India are going to be one of the favourites, because they’re playing some absolutely amazing cricket at the moment. We know we are not far off, which gives us a lot of confidence.”

Ireland will welcome the experience of Josh Little and Mark Adair and search for a change in fortunes after losing the Test series

Mohammad Isam26-Nov-2025

Bangladesh’s busiest year in T20Is

When Bangladesh enter the field on Thursday, they will play their 28th T20I in 2025, making this their busiest year in the format. They go into this series without their main fast bowler, Taskin Ahmed, with the BCB having given him an NOC to play the Abu Dhabi T10 till November 30.Bangladesh’s fast bowling stocks have reached a level of quality that the team management is comfortable enough to give someone like Taskin a break. The current squad includes Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Shoriful Islam and Mohammad Saifuddin in the fast-bowling department. They also have their best spinners in the format – Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain and Nasum Ahmed – all available for selection.Related

• Left in the dark, T20I captain Litton calls out selectors over Shamim's axing

• 'The players need rest' – Litton points to crowded calendar for T20I series defeat

• Saifuddin returns but no Taskin for first two T20Is against Ireland

Ireland look for sub-continent comfort

Ireland have played just six T20Is this year, which leaves them with a bit of a gap in form and experience. Chattogram has Bangladesh’s best batting conditions, which is good news for Ireland, who couldn’t quite get enough runs in the Dhaka and Sylhet Tests.Captain Paul Stirling will have to lead from the front, as he often does in Ireland colours. The likes of Ross Adair, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker and Curtis Campher provide the middle-order punch. Ireland will also hope to see runs from allrounders George Dockrell and Gareth Delany, while newcomers Ben Calitz and Tim Tector will no doubt look to soak in as much experience as possible.

Consistency eludes Bangladesh

Bangladesh captain Litton Das has to step up in the run-making as the batters look for consistency in T20Is. They haven’t had the best of times in 2025, particularly against West Indies last month, when they couldn’t chase modest targets in Chattogram.Saif Hassan is the man in form, as he fights for a position in the top order with Tanzid Hasan and Parvez Hossain Emon. Bangladesh’s top order is exciting but they don’t often click together. The likes of Towhid Hridoy and Jaker Ali will mind the middle order, while Nurul Hasan has attempted plenty of shots in his return to the T20I side recently. The selectors have picked Mahidul Islam Ankon ahead of Shamim Hossain, in an attempt to rejig the No. 4 or 5 positions.Josh Little is back for Ireland in the T20I setup•ACB

Ireland bowlers know better

Having played a role in the Test series, the likes of Matthew Humphreys, Barry McCarthy and Craig Young would have gained good knowledge and understanding of Bangladesh conditions. Seamers McCarthy and Young didn’t play the Dhaka Test but left-arm spinner Humphreys has looked far better as the tour has progressed.They will also welcome the addition of experienced bowlers like Mark Adair and Josh Little, who have past experience of playing in these conditions. Legspinner Ben White, too, has played in Bangladesh before, so Ireland can feel confident of possessing a handy bowling attack.

Batting first more viable in Chattogram

West Indies found out last month that the Chattogram pitches have better bounce and movement in the second half of night games, despite the onset of dew after 8.00pm. They defended middling totals like 165 and 149, and later chased down 151 in the third game. Teams batting first will look to beat the average total of 155 from the October series. Bangladesh will also feel that they must end the year well, particularly this being their last T20I series ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup.