They’ve been the lynchpins in Australia’s Test and ODI global titles, and every team will be fearful of what the triumvirate can do in T20Is

Melinda Farrell08-Jun-20246:22

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Cricket has always had iconic fast-bowling double-acts. Lillee and Thomson, Anderson and Broad, Wasim and Waqar, Marshall and Garner. There’s a particular thrill in watching a batter under the most fearsome examination from both ends. No respite, no way out. Sometimes the heat-wielding duo thrives with the red ball, sometimes with the white. Rarer and more precious are those who can intimidate with both.But has there ever been a trio of quicks quite like Australia’s Big Three? You don’t even need to name them; we all know who they are.There have been better, faster, more skilled individual bowlers. There have been more potent opening bowling partnerships. But three? In one team? In all three formats?Related

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If Mitchell Marsh’s men are triumphant in the Caribbean, Australia will hold every ICC title apart from the Champions Trophy – that campaign must wait until next year. And central to their success are the Big Three, oh alright, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.They keep coming at you, opponents will say. See off Starc’s potent swing in one over and Hazlewood is there to nag away. Survive that and then try not to be blown away by Cummins’ pace or crafty cutters. A rotating carousel of pressure.But this triumvirate did not emerge fully formed. In the early years of their respective careers, there were even doubts all three would ever play together. A mix of injury, rotation or suitability always kept one or the other out of any given side.Starc’s prowess as a white-ball genius was never in doubt; his first ball to Brendon McCullum in the 2015 World Cup final dismissed any that might have existed. But some still felt he was too wayward or too expensive for Test cricket until his value, only heightened by the presence of his cartel bros, was truly understood.Hazlewood, conversely, seemed a natural for Tests. His metronomic lines and length – gifts within that format – were considered a weakness in the shortest form, in which unpredictability and possession of a swag of variations were more enticing. But on the West Indies tour in 2021, he kickstarted a run of impressive performances, developed a few tricks, and found a way to shape his Test strengths into T20 weapons.Cummins 1.0 was always injured and it was feared his first Test could be his last. There were a smattering of white-ball games in green and gold but it was only after the more durable Cummins 2.0 arrived in 2017 that he prospered as an all-format genius.After the 2023 ODI World Cup: Australia’s three quicks celebrate another silverware•Getty ImagesAll three were there when Australia won the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE. They were there again in Ahmedabad last year when captain Cummins lifted the ODI World Cup. Hazlewood was left out of the XI that triumphed in the World Test Championship final at The Oval but his contributions in the series that led them there cannot be overlooked. And let’s not forget the bilateral victories they have collected along the way.Between the 2022 T20 World Cup and the start of the current edition they have played just eight T20Is between them; Hazlewood four and two apiece for the others. Only once have all three bowled together in T20Is during that period, during Australia’s tour of New Zealand earlier this year.While England have more clearly delineated their overall white and red-ball set-ups, from coach to captain to players, Australia have taken a more fluid approach. Nathan Ellis is one of several white-ball specialists to have played since the 2022 campaign, but there was never any doubt which three quicks would be first in that column for Mission ‘Caribbean 2024.’ And who needs succession planning when they can be brought in for the big show, not having to worry about those pesky bilaterals that don’t determine world champions.Cummins was rested for Australia’s opening victory over Oman; they wanted him ‘cherry-ripe’ for the match against England. Instead, Ellis stepped in. His T20 repertoire of skiddy pace, deceptive slower balls and pinpoint yorkers at the death is highly respected by team-mates and opposition alike and has made a solid case for retention.There’s a chance Ellis could play at Kensington Oval against England for the first time should conditions and match-ups align. A day out from the game that could have huge implications for Group B, Marsh all but confirmed Cummins’ selection. So if Ellis is in, it will be Hazlewood or Starc who drops out.But if Australia find themselves needing to punch their way out of a corner in this tournament, the jab-jab-cross combination that has felled so many contenders stands ready, winning key moments on the biggest stage, whatever the format, now a muscle memory.After all, who wouldn’t bring the band back together, when collectively they land the biggest hits.

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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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.

A big loss to New Zealand and a narrow win over Pakistan have left India’s World Cup campaign needing a major overhaul in terms of approach

Shashank Kishore07-Oct-2024It was the 16th over of India’s chase against Pakistan. They had just lost the wickets of Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh off consecutive deliveries to Fatima Sana. India were four down, but there was no imminent danger of losing, even though the equation had turned into a slightly tricky 26 off 27 balls.Having not even threatened to get out of second gear, this was India’s opportunity to be braver. They had brought in the big-hitting S Sajana to replace Pooja Vastrakar – who was carrying a niggle – in the XI. It made sense.While Sajana can offer two-three overs with the ball, it’s her big-hitting, like in the WPL 2024 opener when she hit a last-ball six to win a thriller, that had gotten her the World Cup ticket.Related

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Two boundaries at that stage could have killed off the game, accelerating India’s push for victory to somewhat help their net run-rate. It was the time to unleash Sajana. Instead, it was Deepti Sharma who walked out at No. 6 to join Harmanpreet Kaur.Deepti milked four singles and a two off seven deliveries. Even with three runs needed off 11 balls, she employed her tried-and-tested half-sweep/nudge with two fielders back to pick up a single. Sajana did come in and whacked her first ball to the cover boundary to close out the game, a ball after Harmanpreet had retired hurt with a sprained neck.This safety-first approach wasn’t just down to India losing a clutch of wickets. It was the overarching theme of their small run chase. India didn’t hit a single boundary in the powerplay; in fact, they only attempted three aggressive responses in the first six overs. Were they cautious because their barnstorming approach had caused much distress against New Zealand? Or was the surface playing tricks?Fair, the heat will make pitches drier than usual, but that’s a given. And the absence of dew – whether at training or in their first night game – has largely negated the win-toss-win-match scenario that had made the men’s T20 World Cup in 2021, also played here, utterly predictable. And on Sunday evening, shortly after India scrapped home, West Indies razed down Scotland’s 99 with 50 balls to spare.Smriti Mandhana admitted India could have approached the chase differently. “A better start with the bat would have been good, but we will take that win,” she said at the post-match presentation. “We did think about it [NRR].”Me and Shafali [Verma] could not time the ball [in the powerplay]. We didn’t want to end up losing a lot of wickets. We were a little calculative. The net run-rate is in our head. Sri Lanka [who India play next] have been playing good cricket, but this game will give us the momentum.”Momentum is very subjective. India’s 58-run defeat against New Zealand and their second- and third-gear approach against Pakistan, even though they got two points, have put them in a precarious position. And making up for lost ground against Sri Lanka, who they lost to at the Women’s Asia Cup final, is far from a given.But, even if they do beat Sri Lanka, India will be left tempting fate.As if playing Australia in a knockout isn’t tough enough, India might face a scenario of having to beat them by a certain margin to qualify. Unless New Zealand do India a favour by beating Australia on Tuesday, hoping for that halfway into their group-stage campaign isn’t a great position to be in. But it’s one India have brought upon themselves.If Harmanpreet Kaur isn’t fit for the Sri Lanka game, it will create a new headache for India•ICC/Getty ImagesRun rates aside, India’s catching and batting order, especially over the No. 3 spot, have been under sharp scrutiny. Harmanpreet, who was all but confirmed for the No. 3 role prior to India’s campaign by head coach Amol Muzumdar, was replaced by Rodrigues against Pakistan.And now Harmanpreet has a neck spasm. If they need to bring in a new batter, Yastika Bhatia is the obvious replacement. The only issue around Yastika, though, is the lack of match time recently. She is coming off a long injury layoff and wasn’t part of the shadow tour of Australia nor the first two warm-ups. To suddenly throw her in at the deep end could mean a massive shake-up.How they bring out their A game while grappling with a number of niggling issues will make for interesting viewing. This much is sure: they are not looking like a champion team at all.Harmanpreet has spoken of wanting to emulate Rohit Sharma’s team. After India’s semi-final exit at the 2022 T20 World Cup, Rohit had banished the notion of converting middling chases into tricky ones, like India did on Sunday.Rohit laid down the marker with an intent-laden approach that the entire team bought into, culminating in their inspired run to the 2023 ODI World Cup final, and later to the T20 World Cup title this June.How much of that has been discussed by Harmanpreet & Co, we don’t know, but it’s an approach they would do well to adopt before it is too late. And for that, the captain will need to lead from the front. Like Rohit.

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.”

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also want to “work on batting” after below-par performances at the T20 World Cup

Firdose Moonda15-Oct-2024Pakistan will seek new batting talent in the aftermath of the T20 World Cup, where they once again failed to make it out of the group stage. Their exit was confirmed after they were dismissed for 56 by New Zealand to add to a string of poor performances at the event.”Our problem area is batting, our line-up, and I think it’s about time we move forward,” Mohammad Wasim, their coach, said after the last group-stage match. “We need to change the mindset of this team, especially in batting.”We have seen glimpses of that but we haven’t seen it consistently. If we talk about the next World Cup, we will have to go for fresh blood, and we will have to do some new inductions in the team. The seniors in the team have to step up. Unfortunately, the seniors have not stepped up in the crunch batting moments. So that’s why I said that we need to move on and bring some new faces.”Related

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The places of former captain Nida Dar, who was replaced by Fatima Sana six weeks before the tournament, and others such as Sidra Amin and Iram Javed may be at risk. Dar batted at No. 5 in the first two matches, No. 4 in the third and No. 7 in the last game, and did not cross 30 in any of her innings. She last managed a 30-plus score 24 innings ago, against South Africa in September 2023, and has not scored a half-century since November 2022. Amin had a high score of 12 at the tournament and has one score over 30 in her last 12 T20Is, while Javed has recorded five ducks in her last ten T20I innings.While Wasim values the experience these players bring to a team, he also wants them to contribute more. “Consistency is the key for everything, to be honest,” he said. “But when you talk about consistency, then there’s a limit also. There’s a limit for the players also. We have changed many coaches. We have changed most of the staff. But it’s about time we need to look at the player side also.”He suggested Pakistan would look at their age-group structures as a starting point for new talent, especially as they have recently had an Under-19 tournament and another is ongoing.”If you look at this year’s domestic cricket schedule, you will see that women’s cricket is getting more importance than before,” he said. “There are U-19 matches starting, then there will be matches for seniors and different formats. So I hope we will get talent in the future. This is not an excuse that you have no talent, so carry on with the same thing.”When results are not coming, then you see what other options you have. It’s not that we don’t have talent. We are doing domestic; we will closely watch what replacements we have. Because we have time before the next event.”That next event is the ODI World Cup in India, which is exactly a year away. Pakistan have not automatically qualified, and currently sit seventh on the Women’s Championship table. India, as hosts, and the top five teams, are guaranteed a spot. Since Pakistan have played all of their matches, they have no chance to advance without finishing in the top two of a six-team qualifying tournament to ensure they make a fifth successive 50-over World Cup appearance.Bangladesh’s batting was their undoing at the T20 World Cup•ICC/Getty ImagesBangladesh, Sri Lanka also look for batting liftThat tournament will also be on the minds of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who too depart the T20 World Cup but remain in the running for one of the six automatic ODI spots. Bangladesh are in ninth place, with six matches left to play – three each against West Indies and Ireland – and must win at least five of those matches. The importance of that was not lost on their captain Nigar Sultana, who turned her attention to it as soon as their T20 World Cup campaign was over.”We want to play the ODI World Cup without qualifying, that’s why we need some points. So our eyes are on that right now,” she said after their defeat to South Africa on Saturday.Like Pakistan, Bangladesh’s batting was their undoing at this tournament, where they won their opener against Scotland, but could not get more than 106 against any of England, West Indies or South Africa. While Sultana celebrated the lone victory, she was critical of their lack of intent in run-scoring.”We’ve been waiting for a win for the last ten years, and we got that. But as a batting unit, we learnt a lot of things,” she said. “We should be more positive, and what happened is that we were behind sometimes in the middle overs. Our thought process was not working. Sometimes we went away from our thought processes, so this is what we need to work on.”Sri Lanka seemed over-reliant on their captain Chamari Athapaththu•Getty ImagesSimilarly, Sri Lanka also identified their batting as a weak spot after they were held to under 100 in their first three matches, and then made only 115 against New Zealand in their last match. Sri Lanka lost all four games, which made it the first time they have not got a win in a T20 World Cup, and their defeats stung all the more because of the expectation with which they entered the tournament: over the last 18 months, Sri Lanka have beaten England and South Africa in series away from home, won the Asia Cup, and cruised through the World Cup qualifiers.”Everybody expected us to be not the top dog but [rather] the top underdog, so to speak, as the team which would beat the best teams. I think the expectations got to the team,” Rumesh Ratnayake, their coach said after their loss to New Zealand.He blamed “poor cricket in all three departments” for their underperformance, but was also repeatedly asked about their batting over-reliance on captain Chamari Athapaththu. Ratnayake acknowledged that she is key to Sri Lanka but also pointed to other important performances, such as Harshita Samarawickrama’s 69* in the Asia Cup final, and believes there will be more players to come.”The pathways are sort of sorted out back home and those things are happening,” he said.Sri Lanka’s increased focus on development through their school and age-groups structures is welcome news after they were graded “amateur” by the global player association FICA’s (now known as WCA) 2022 Women’s Global Employment Report, released ahead of last year’s T20 World Cup. Their domestic programmes were described as “underfunded”, and that “developing a depth of talent and progression up the rankings remains a significant challenge”. But in a short space of time, that has changed.Pakistan and Bangladesh were categorised as “fledgling professional”, with the hope that a women’s PSL and more investment into the game in Bangladesh, respectively, would aid growth in these nations. The former has not yet happened, and Bangladesh has since been through civil unrest which resulted in the ongoing T20 World Cup being moved out of their country while the economy took a hit. Ultimately, the lack of structural and financial support may only explain why these countries have performed poorly at the tournament.The three teams, and subcontinental giants India, have all not progressed to the semi-finals, despite suggestions that conditions would suit them. Their bowlers, especially their slow bowlers, made batting particularly difficult for opposition line-ups but their batters were unable to respond. All four will need to go back to the drawing board and rethink their approach to tournament cricket while the ongoing World Cup concludes without them.

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.