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Australian cricket has long prided itself on the independence of its curators and the quality of its pitches, but the ICC’s ‘poor’ rating for the MCG strip is a warning sign that the surfaces at the major Test centres are no longer what they used to be

Daniel Brettig03-Jan-20181:11

‘We have prepared a traditional SCG pitch’

Throughout this Ashes series, travelling English cricket correspondents have wondered at the Australian phenomenon of holding a press conference with the curator at each Test ground.It is a practice born of enormous Antipodean pride, even sanctimony, about the quality of pitches prepared in this part of the world and the independence of the curators themselves. They are free to talk, it seems, because no one is worried they might let slip about being leaned on to follow instructions for “doctoring” wickets to suit the hosts. As Ian Chappell has written on this website:”I’ve always believed that there should be a divide between players and groundsmen. Let the experts prepare the best pitch possible and then it’s up to the players to perform on that surface. As captain, if I’d asked any Australian curator for a certain type of pitch, the answer would have been: ‘Get stuffed. I’ll prepare the pitch, you play on it’.”For Cricket Australia, the assertion of the independence of ground staff around the country is tantamount to preaching the doctrine that separates church and state. A pointed contrast, as well, with the experience of Australian touring teams in other parts of the world, where pitch preparation is shrouded in greater secrecy, and visiting players and journalists are often kept in the dark as to what exactly is being done with the surface on which a match is to be played.Australian touring teams have long whinged about the sorts of pitches laid out for them in Asia in particular, looking down their noses at the way surfaces are seemingly prepared according to the precise wishes of the home dressing room. In England, too, they have been angered by pitches and harboured conspiratorial thoughts at regular intervals ever since the 1972 Headingley pitch was afflicted by a bout of “fusarium” limited exclusively to the cut strip and helped Derek Underwood confound Australia and decide the fate of the Ashes.One member of that side, Rod Marsh, was the selector on duty when in 2016 Steven Smith’s team staggered through a 3-0 defeat in Sri Lanka. After heavy losses on slow, spinning surfaces in the first two Tests, Marsh made a show of taking touring journalists out to the middle of the ground in Colombo to let them get a close look at the the pitch for the final match. The underlying message was to show everyone back home what the team has to put up with – symptomatic of a “complaint culture” that did not help Smith’s side as they lost once again on a surface that actually played far better than expected.Australia’s players have since come a long way in terms of improving their mental approach to tackling difficult assignments overseas, as evidenced by improved showings in India and Bangladesh in 2017, but the high-minded attitude to pitches has remained, even as numerous spot fires suggested a major problem was looming. In Sydney the SCG had a Sheffield Shield match abandoned due to an unsafe infield in 2015, before a new drop-in square at North Sydney Oval produced a below average surface for this summer’s women’s Ashes Test.Elsewhere the WACA Ground has faded both in terms of its pitch and its facilities, now eclipsed by a new stadium with another drop-in surface. Brisbane’s Gabba, long vaunted for its pace and bounce and inhospitable welcome for touring teams, has now spent several seasons creating furrowed brows for Australia’s players as they have witnessed its slowing. Adelaide has stood out as a beacon of progress and quality, but its lessons went unheeded by the MCG right up until a bungled preparation for the Boxing Day Ashes Test – coinciding with a changeover in curators – led to the ICC’s “poor” rating and an abrupt wake-up call for Australian cricket.Given the vast amounts of money and excellent climate available in contrast to many other parts of the world, the state of the MCG pitch was little short of disgraceful, and a definitive indicator that Australian cricket cannot afford to look down on any other nation so far as pitches are concerned. “As I said after the game, I thought it was a pretty poor wicket,” Smith said of the MCG. “They’ve got to do something there to get the bowlers into the game because it was just hard to get anyone out.”So it is a wake-up call to them and we’ll see what they come up with next year. Obviously they can’t afford to have another poor rating – I don’t know next year if they’ll leave some grass on it or – I don’t know, do something to rough it up. They’ve tried that before though and it hasn’t worked, so I dare say they’ll go down the path of leaving some grass on the wicket.”While the outgoing Cricket Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide has suggested that the MCG’s pitches need to be dug up and replanted, the fact of the matter is that the biggest ground in Australia has been dealing in outdated drop-in technology for quite some time. The individual pitch trays do not allow for moisture underneath the top to escape into other pitches, in contrast to Adelaide’s more porous trays, while the pitches themselves lie on a bed of concrete that has always led players to remark that the “tinny” sound of the ball striking the pitch is different to anywhere else they’ve played.Getty ImagesAdelaide’s drop-in pitches have gone on their own journey since first being installed in 2013, starting with a drier and more traditional preparation plan before the curator Damian Hough settled on using thicker grass coverage to reach the right conclusion. The ground is an example that drop-in pitches in themselves are not the problem, so long as they are done well. Equally, the Gabba, the WACA Ground and the SCG have shown that a natural wicket block is far from a cure-all, if variables of soil, clay and moisture are not carefully modulated.”Look at the Gabba this year, I thought that was a reasonably disappointing wicket as well, it started a bit slow and didn’t quicken up as much as it normally does,” Smith said. “But it’s nice to go there and have the pace and bounce, the WACA Ground normally has pace and bounce. Adelaide is a bit different with the pink ball, you know I think that’s probably the best wicket in the country in terms of everyone being in the game. Quicks, spinners and batters if you apply yourself.”In Sydney, the SCG has been subject to criticism from New South Wales this summer for being unable to host even a single Sheffield Shield fixture due to the relaying of the turf across the outfield. Justin Groves, the new grounds manager who worked at the Adelaide Oval in both its traditional and drop-in iterations, said he wanted to ensure that the SCG returned to a far more expansive place in the Australian season.”The reason why there was no cricket here earlier was that the outfield was redone,” he said. “So the early games were scheduled off the ground. We were happy to take a couple of games, but they did get moved away, Cricket Australia made those decisions. Red-ball cricket is what we want to do, we love four- and five-day cricket, so we want to have as much of that at the SCG as we can.”In moving from Adelaide to Sydney, Groves epitomised the open network that exists in Australia, with plenty of recent movement between venues. Matthew Page has moved from the WACA Ground to the MCG, David Sandurski from the MCG to the Gabba, and most famously Nathan Lyon moved from the Adelaide Oval’s ground staff – where he worked under Groves – to the Australian Test team. As such, the MCG’s poor rating has left a mark on the entire fraternity.”It certainly does [reverberate],” Groves said. “We feel very compassionate about all our curators around Australia, so to see some comments like that for the MCG it doesn’t sit well with our team. We like to pride ourselves on our work and we do the best we can in all conditions. We’re very happy as a team moving forward and we do communicate. We do the best we can.”I have worked with drop-in pitches in Adelaide. It’s different. The way you make pitches is very different, but you’ve got to know your own surface. It’s all about your soil base and your turf type and every pitch in the country is different. It’s definitely different the way you make your pitches. All the curators around Australia we talk to each other quite a lot. It’s part of what we do because we’re good friends and we’re in that community of curating pitches. It’s great that we can share stories and ideas with each other.”That sharing will surely now need to be increased, as Adelaide in particular becomes an example for the rest to follow in terms of transition from one season to another. A conspicuous figure in the middle of the MCG at the end of Melbourne’s Test and the SCG before Sydney’s has been the CA team performance manager Pat Howard, in conversations that Groves described as making sure the ground staff had all the support they needed, “but nothing towards how we’re going to prepare the pitch”.The independence implicit in that exchange was part of what had made Australian pitches so great and varied in the first place. After the problems of Melbourne it is time that CA, and Australian cricket as a whole, stopped to reconsider exactly what made that possible. If they do not, those curator press conferences are going to start to veer into some pretty embarrassing territory.

The Test against Ireland has posed some familiar questions for Pakistan which they need to answer before facing England

Melinda Farrell at Malahide14-May-20181:03

‘I’m a human being, not a machine’ – Amir

Amir’s fitness (just get the correct knee)The most scrutinised body part at Malahide from late on the third day was undoubtedly Mohammad Amir’s knee. Once we had established which knee, that is. Originally, the official word was that it was the left knee requiring treatment for a chronic knee problem but, unless there was referred pain, the PCB soon confirmed it was the right. On television commentary it was described as patella tendinitis. Whatever it’s called, it seemed to get worse.Amir looked fine when he bowled, moved the ball dangerously and took wickets (including his 100th Test scalp), but in between overs he flexed his knee, gingerly tested it, left the field for periods and his limp became ever more pronounced. The first Test against England is just ten days away and Pakistan need their precious weapon locked and loaded.There is growing discussion about his workload management and his durability across three formats. Pakistan want him leading the attack in Tests but this tour may be the one that forces a decision, one way or another. Not an easy one either, with a World Cup just one year away for the current Champions Trophy holders. The good news? It’s only a two-Test series. The bad news? At times, Amir walked as though his right – yes, right – knee had been replaced by a meringue.Pace-bowling depthAmir’s fitness is even more crucial when you consider the rest of Pakistan’s fast bowling options. Mohammad Abbas has emerged as a genuine Test strike bowler with a remarkable economy rate. He’s taken more wickets than Amir in the period since he received his cap and his economy rate is also superior. The Mohammads form a formidable new-ball partnership but the third seamer role is not so clear cut. When playing on spin-friendly pitches in the UAE, Pakistan often don’t need three fast bowlers.Other bowlers to have filled that role on tour in the past couple of years – Wahab Riaz, Imran Khan and Sohail Khan – were not wanted. Of the two men in the current squad, Hasan Ali has just two Tests to his name while Rahat Ali has hardly been convincing in Malahide. Perhaps that’s partly to do with rustiness: he hadn’t played a first-class match since December 2016 before this tour, which raises the question of what form – and in which format – was he selected on.Pakistan may give Hasan a run in their warm-up match against Leicester, or rest Amir and set up a bowl-off with an appearance at Lord’s the prize. One thing in Pakistan’s favour is that Faheem Ashraf’s bowling has emerged as an unexpected bonus – even if he can pull off a holding role, the rare presence of a seaming allrounder gives them more flexibility than they have had in quite some time.Rahat Ali toiled•Getty ImagesCatch them if you canIt’s hardly a new or earth-shattering observation that, at times, Pakistan’s fielding leaves much to be desired. After enforcing the follow-on they held open the door and ushered Ireland back into the game by dropping both the openers and in the process denied Amir two wickets, something to which he has become wearily accustomed. While there have been some bright moments – think Faheem’s direct hit to dismiss Ed Joyce – there have also been outfield fumbles that allowed the ball to trickle over the boundary rope, catches put down in the slips, a run-out gone begging and, most drearily, one ball fumbled twice.But perhaps the most worrying aspect has been the three catches put down by Sarfraz Ahmed. One was a difficult chance, diving low to his left, but Pakistan fans won’t want to be reminded of his predecessor, Kamran Akmal, who had a horror tour of England in 2006 and a forgettable one in 2010. Sarfraz’s role as captain and the absence a back-up wicketkeeper in the Pakistan squad means his form with the gloves is of huge importance. It’s worth noting that this will be Steve Rixon’s final tour as Pakistan’s fielding coach. The Australian’s contract is coming to an end and, after successfully overseeing Pakistan’s improvement in fifty-over fielding, he will want to leave the red ball fielding in safe… errr… hands.Top order wobblesOne of the most interesting match ups in the upcoming series against England is the battle of the tottery top orders. England’s well chronicled search for an opening partner for Alastair Cook following Andrew Strauss’ retirement and assorted other departures have led to a carousel of batsmen in recent years. Pakistan no longer have their press-up talismen Misbah-ul-haq and Younis Khan and their quest for an opening partnership that can withstand the Dukes ball on a cloudy English morning almost predates the one for the Holy Grail. Both sides lose their first three wickets before passing 100 approximately 60%of the time.But consider this: the last time Pakistan had an opening partnership of more than one hundred runs in England was in the second Test of the 1996 series, when Aamer Sohail and Saeed Anwar put on 106 for the first wicket at The Oval. In the ensuing 22 years and 32 Test innings in Old Blighty, Pakistan’s opening partnership has passed 35 on just four occasions. With so little experience in the top five, this would be an opportune moment for Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq to lead the way.Running between the wicketsThe first ball of this Test said it all. Bearing in mind the previous point, Pakistan’s opening partnerships are fragile enough without the two batsmen haring off for a, frankly, bonkers single that ended with Imam-ul-Haq flat on his back after he tangled with Tyrone Kane and then slammed his head on Niall O’Brien’s hip. So it’s fair to assume his hip bone bruised Imam almost as much as the inevitable comparisons to Uncle Inzi. You’d think the lesson would have been learned by ball two but there were more hairy moments of misjudgment to come. Ireland were sometimes scrappy in the field which saved a few blushes and meant there were no run out dismissals on Pakistan’s scorecard but a little calm will go a long way when the likes of Ben Stokes are prowling in the circle.

James Faulkner missed out on IPL and no longer has an Australia contract, but it would be a very risky business to suggest that The Finisher is finished

Paul Edwards12-Jul-2018It is over three years since James Faulkner’s three wickets against New Zealand earned him the Man of the Match award at the World Cup Final. It seems longer. Since that game at the MCG, his stock has fallen, a fact aptly illustrated by his not being picked up in the latest IPL auction. It gets worse. Faulkner no longer has a central contract with Cricket Australia and few people think that was a poor call.His return to Lancashire Lightning for the Vitality Blast is the next stage in the process to put that right. No one would call Lancashire County Cricket Club a backwater (well, no one west of the Pennines, anyway), but it is comfortable and familiar territory, just the place to put his game back together again.Some cricket followers may reckon the all-rounder has had his 15 overs of fame. But his supporters still treasure the memory of his 47-ball 69 not out against England at the Gabba in 2014, an innings that secured a wonderful one-wicket victory for his country. It is difficult not to reflect on that and believe that his talents will flower again.Faulkner points out that if the decline was sharp, so was the pain in his right knee, the joint which takes much of the strain when a left-arm seamer bowls the ball. An unpleasant spiral set in: Faulkner played when he probably needed to rest and underperformed because he was not fully fit; his response to criticism was to play again. And so it went on.The easy tabloid headline claimed the all-rounder dubbed “the Finisher” was, himself, “finished” The initial remedy for all this woe had three components: stop playing cricket, get fit and go home.So Faulkner returned to Tasmania, to the environment and the coaches he knew. He has left the Melbourne Stars and gone back to the Hobart Hurricanes for the next Big Bash. And this English summer he will be treading another of his paths to former glory when he plays for Lancashire in the Blast, a competition he helped the side to win in 2015.Faulkner arrived at Old Trafford having hardly bowled a ball for five months. In Tasmania he began a careful programme of exercise in the gym and enjoyed living at home, reacquainting himself with the importance of family and friends. In particular, he enjoyed leaping out of bed and not being in immediate pain when he put any pressure on his knee.And now he is in another place where he knows everybody and feels welcome. But the move to Lancashire also marks an important stage in his recovery. He has signed a two-year contract and knows he will be expected to make a major contribution.”I’ve been over here for four weeks and it’s been pretty much as though I haven’t left,” he said. “There are still a lot of familiar faces in the changing room so I’m sure we’re going to have a good year. This is my second Blast. It was fantastic last time and I’m expecting the same thing this year, especially with the Roses games and the fantastic crowds they get for those. I enjoy the heckling, the banter, the singing.”So far, Faulkner’s return has been low-key. He has taken three wickets for 88 runs in 11 overs and made four runs in his only innings. The heatwave in England has extended to the north-west and the pitches are dry and inviting for Lancashire’s medley of spinners; to date others have attracted attention.

“I got flogged a bit for three or four years on the road and my body struggled”

But he has got through the games and settled in easily at a club he knows and among people he likes. Only the ground has changed.”Old Trafford looks completely different, it looks like a real stadium now,” he said “We just played solid cricket throughout 2015. It was just one of those years when everything falls into place. We had last ball finishes in the quarter- and semi- finals. Everything clicked. It’s easy to get on a streak in T20, whether it’s winning or losing.”This year Lancashire have won two out of their three games in the Blast – Derbyshire are the next in line at Old Trafford on Saturday – and Faulkner has his eyes set on a return to Edgbaston for Finals Day in mid-September. Such an occasion would help his memories of the last three tough years to fade and would also be perfect preparation for his new season with Tasmania.”I haven’t played cricket for about five months and it’s probably been a bit of a blessing in disguise,” he said. “I got flogged a bit for three or four years on the road and my body struggled. It was tough and a lot of it was physical with the pain in my knee, but that affects you mentally as well because you can’t perform as 100%.”I came back from that but in the last twelve months I’ve had some serious time to put the bat and ball down and hit the gym. I’ve also been able to get away from the game mentally and I feel like I’m in a good place. It’s good to kick things off here before the summer back home. I’m looking forward to having a couple of years here and winning some silverware.”But Faulkner is also taking things very steadily. He hasn’t put a line through four-day cricket but there is no question of him playing County Championship games for Lancashire. He will play in the Blast, however long that lasts for Lancashire, and take it from there.James Faulkner wants to relive this sort of excitement with Australia•Associated Press”It’s just a case of being able to play the game without discomfort so that I’m not getting out of bed in the morning and leaping around the bathroom,” he said. “I want to be able to perform and not disappoint both the fans and myself.”There have been some tough times when my body hasn’t behaved as I might have wished but I don’t regret any of it. It’s got me where I am today and I definitely aspire to play for Australia again. If I can put some good performances on the board, you never know what can happen.Ah yes, Australia. It has not escaped Faulkner’s notice Old Trafford will host a World Cup semi-final in 2019. He knows he cannot take things too quickly – that how things were messed up last time – but admits he has a “100% burning ambition” to play for his country again.”I was a part of the last World Cup and that was very special,” he said. Now I want to be a part of the next one. It would be fantastic to play in a World Cup semi-final at Old Trafford but I just want to play as well as I can and to do so in a winning team.”Over the last week, that road back to Old Trafford in a year’s time has included the dismissals of Worcestershire’s Joe Clarke (an England player in waiting), Gary Wilson and Brett Hutton. Faulkner has come through his games well. The Finisher has made a start. And for the moment, that is all he can do.

Their current approach to ODI cricket has taken them to No. 1 in the world but if they want a trophy to go along with that ranking in 2019, they need to mind match situations better

George Dobell at The Oval14-Jun-20181:20

Winning ugly an important skill for England – Morgan

In the same way the ice bergs didn’t “put any doubt” in the mind of the captain of Titanic, some of England’s batsmen seem determined not to allow “any doubt” – or even reason – to be put in their minds when they bat in limited-overs cricket.That’s how it seemed as they stumbled over the line at The Oval, anyway. Thanks to David Willey’s highest – and probably best – ODI innings, England may be able to paper over (sandpaper over, if you will) the cracks in this performance. But there were, once again, a few warning signs they would be best to heed ahead of the World Cup in a year’s time.The problem – not for the first time – is that England seem unable to harness the welcome aggression with which they now play limited-overs cricket with just a modicum of common sense.Take the dismissal of Moeen Ali. By the time he was out at The Oval, England required only 18 to win and they had 69 balls in which to score them. All he needed to do – as the last senior batsman – was keep the strike and pick off the runs when the opportunity arose.Instead he went for the big stroke. And, after he was taken at deep midwicket, England were forced to rely on two bowlers – albeit bowlers who can bat – to see them over the line. On another day, against a more incisive attack, it is a mistake that will cost them. They haveto learn to play more sophisticated cricket.It wasn’t the first time Moeen had made this error. Just a few days previously, in Edinburgh, he had done something similar: with 25 required from the final 28 balls of the match, he had tried to hit a six and been caught on the long-on boundary. It seemed an unnecessary risk. He was the eighth-wicket to fall and England subsequently lost.In between the games, Moeen defended the approach by saying it was best “not to have any sort of doubt.” He insisted he would “stay true” to himself and continue to take such an approach. And, a few days later, he showed he was true to his word.Moeen wasn’t the only one, either. While Jos Buttler, caught at mid-on, was probably the victim of a fine slower-ball, it again seemed unnecessarily aggressive to try to hit over the infield in the match situation. And while Jonny Bairstow may well feel his pull was so well struck that he deserved a boundary, the fact is he hit it almost straight to the man placed for the shot on the leg-side boundary. It was a naive stroke.David Willey and Liam Plunkett celebrate the moment of victory•Getty ImagesThere’s a context here. So keen were England to embrace a new mindset in their ODI cricket following the debacle of the 2015 World Cup that it was, for a while, essentially they played uncompromising, unmitigated, undiluted, aggressive limited-overs cricket. They neededthat approach to take root. They needed it to become the norm.But we’ve moved on from that now. And while the general approach is still welcome, it seems fair to add a little sophistication to it. So while nobody is asking them to play the percentage cricket that was the hallmark of earlier generations of England teams, it does seem fair to expect them to temper their aggression to cater for the match situation or even bowler-friendly conditions. Even Lewis Hamilton slows down for corners.There was lots to admire about England’s performance at The Oval. Their two main spinners – who claimed 5 for 79 in 20 overs between them – were especially impressive, with Adil Rashid not conceding a boundary until his ninth over and Moeen going into his tenthhaving conceded only a four and a six. Equally, Eoin Morgan and Joe Root batted with calm common to break the back of the run chase.It is true, too, that, with both bat and ball, England are missing Chris Woakes. Not only is Woakes their highest-rated ODI bowler, but he has increasingly gained a reputation as a calm head in the batting order. His worth to this side has been best demonstrated by his absence.But just as England were knocked out of the ICC Champions Trophy last year through an inability to adapt to conditions, so Morgan will know his side have to add some wisdom to their flair if they are to win the World Cup next year.”We were below par with the bat,” he admitted, “but we found a way to get over the line. Finding a way to get over the line was important.”Morgan will know, however, that England got away with it at The Oval. And he will know that they won’t get away with it against better sides. Or sides which are not shorn of at least five first choice players, as this Australia side was.By the time the World Cup comes around, England still need to be playing this type of aggressive, fearless cricket. But if they are to win it, they will surely need to complement it with the ability to adapt, adjust and temper their wonderful aggression with just a little nous.

He’s a destructive force in T20 cricket but hasn’t yet translated that ability into ODIs – how can India get the best out of him?

Shashank Kishore in Dubai22-Sep-2018With the World Cup less than a year away, the Asia Cup was an opportunity for India to answer a few important white-ball questions. Three matches into the tournament, the most glaring questions center around KL Rahul.Rahul came to the UAE on the back of an interesting white-ball summer. His T20 form was imperious. Fourteen IPL innings brought him 659 runs – all of them as an opener – at an average of 54.91 and a strike rate of 158.41. He made a 36-ball 70 in his only innings in Ireland, and followed that up with an unbeaten 54-ball 101 at No. 3 in the first T20I against England in Manchester.Given that run of 20-over scores, Rahul might have expected a run in the ODI side too. But after scoring 9 not out – he came in towards the end of a successful chase – and 0 in the first two ODIs against England, he was left out of the series decider. And now, in the Asia Cup, he has sat out of India’s three matches so far – this despite an extra middle-order slot becoming available with the selectors resting Virat Kohli.This in-today, out-tomorrow sequence is fairly typical of Rahul’s ODI career. Since his debut in 2016, Rahul has only played in 12 out of India’s 47 ODIs. And since last year’s tour of Sri Lanka, when the team management first tried him in the middle order, he has only featured in six out of 28 ODIs.The team management gave Rahul an extended red-ball run in England, despite his averaging 14.12 in the first four Test matches. With the series lost, there were plenty of voices calling for the inclusion of Prithvi Shaw, but Rahul kept his place for the fifth Test at The Oval and scored a morale-boosting hundred on the final day of the tour.Rahul has never quite enjoyed the same kind of run in the side in ODIs. His longest uninterrupted sequence so far is four matches, in Sri Lanka last year, when he was given a chance in the middle order after Ajinkya Rahane had claimed the back-up opener’s role by scoring 306 runs at 67.20 in five matches in the West Indies.Rahul only got to bat three times in those four matches, and each time he batted in a different position – No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5. He didn’t really grab the chance, scoring 4, 17 and 7, and struggled to read the mystery spin of Akila Dananjaya, who dismissed him in all three innings.While the situation – not having a long run of matches or a settled slot in the batting order – isn’t ideal, it’s the reality for anyone looking to break into India’s middle order. There’s just too much competition.Ambati Rayudu, who is far from a regular in the side, averages 50.39 after 33 ODI innings. He came back into the ODI side after an IPL season as good as Rahul’s. He top-scored for Chennai Super Kings – 602 in 16 innings at an average of 43.00 and a strike rate of 149.75 – while showing a lot more adaptability – opening, batting in the middle order, and even finishing innings.There’s Kedar Jadhav, who has come close to nailing the No. 6 spot with his innovative batting and invaluable part-time spin. There’s Dinesh Karthik, who averages 53.80 since his ODI comeback last year. There’s Manish Pandey, who can’t break into the XI despite smashing 366 runs without being dismissed in a Quadrangular tournament where he batted against Australia A, South Africa A and India A.Outside the squad there is Shreyas Iyer, who’s made two fifties in five ODI innings, and has just scored a List A hundred for Mumbai in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. And there’s still Rahane, who made 148 in Mumbai’s previous match.Given all the other options India have, batsman simply have to grab every opportunity. And while his opportunities have been scattered and seldom in one batting slot, Rahul hasn’t yet grabbed them: after scoring 100*, 33 and 63* in his debut series against Zimbabwe, he has a highest score of 17 in eight ODI innings.AFPBut while some of the other middle-order contenders may have made better use of their opportunities, Rahul is perhaps more lavishly gifted than all of them, and capable of batting at a jaw-dropping tempo in white-ball cricket. He’s only shown it in T20 so far – in his most recent IPL season, and while scoring international hundreds against West Indies and England – but he’s surely capable of translating that ability into 50-overs cricket too.The difficulty for Rahul is that a slot at the top of the order, which is where he’s batted all his life, is probably out of bounds, with Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan firmly established as one of the great opening pairs in ODI history. Virat Kohli, one of the all-time-great No. 3s, follows them to the crease. Rahul’s opportunities are only likely to come at Nos. 4 or 5, positions that demand a certain amount of flexibility from batsmen, who from one match to another could be called on to maintain momentum, rebuild, change gears gradually, or explode upon arrival.Does Rahul have the game yet to adapt? Does he still need to learn the more workmanlike aspects of middle-order batting, which the likes of Rayudu and Karthik are adept at? Can he tone down the impulsiveness that sometimes consumes him before the bowler gets him? Will making these changes take away from the very qualities that make him such a dangerous batsman?There is possibly one solution, a case for India to look at Rahul as a No. 3 batsman and have Kohli bat at No. 4. This might not need Rahul to temper his flamboyance too much, at least on flat surfaces where he can trust his eye – such pitches are quite likely to be the norm at the World Cup next year. This could allow India to retain a formidable top three, in theory, with Kohli controlling the second half of the innings, and MS Dhoni perhaps gaining a little more freedom to go after the bowling and bat like he did in the IPL this year.It would mean a change of role for Kohli, but not a massive one. And his record at No. 4 is more than impressive. In 37 innings there, he has made 1744 runs – with seven hundreds and eight fifties – at an average of 58.13 and a strike rate of 90.40, which isn’t too far off his record at No. 3, where he averages 61.48 and strikes at 93.23.To adopt this plan, however, the team management would need to weigh up Rahul’s explosive potential, with the inherent risk of early dismissals that comes with his natural style, against the middle-order methods of Rayudu or Karthik, who have fewer frills but perhaps a little more know-how in adapting to different situations.

How important is luck in a T20 match, or a T20 tournament? Luck Index tells us

ESPNCricinfo Stats20-Mar-20191:18

ESPNcricinfo Luck Index

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Herschelle Gibbs had caught Steve Waugh during the 1999 World Cup? Or if R Ashwin and Hardik Pandya hadn’t bowled no-balls in the 2016 World T20 semi-final? We’ll never know if South Africa or India would have gone on to win those tournaments, but for all such events in future tournaments, ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index will have the answers.ALSO READ: All you wanted to know about Luck Index and ForecasterLuck Index is a metric that, for the first time in cricket, puts a number to the luck factor. Every dropped catch, missed chance and umpiring error is identified and put through a complex algorithm, which identifies the impact of that event on the game. Thus, Luck Index will also tell which events would have changed the outcome of a match.ESPNCricinfo ran the algorithm for IPL 2018 to find out who was the luckiest player, which the luckiest team was, and what was the luckiest event of the season. Luckiest break The impact of a lucky event can be defined in different ways, but this list reveals the top three events which changed the result of a match. That is, the team that benefited from the event ended up winning a game that they would otherwise have lost.The most impactful such event in IPL 2018 was in the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils. Here is ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary of that event:Hyderabad required 31 from 15 balls with seven wickets in hand at that stage. Yusuf Pathan had just walked in and was on 2 when he was dropped by Vijay Shankar. With hardly any aggressive batsmen left after him, Pathan’s drop proved costly. Pathan went on to score 27 from 11 balls to help his team get over the line in a tense chase. That dropped catch by Vijay cost his team 15 runs, and given the closeness of the result – SRH won with only one ball to spare – was found to be the most impactful match-changing event of IPL 2018.The next two lucky events both belonged to last year’s champions Chennai Super Kings, who were good enough to capitalise on the breaks. In fact, those two events happened in their first two matches of the season. Kedar Jadhav’s LBW reprieve against Mumbai Indians in the first game of the season and Robin Uthappa’s drop of Sam Billings on 9 in their first home game were detrimental to the result for Mumbai and Kolkata. While Jadhav returned after retiring hurt to hit the winning runs, Billings went on to score 49 from 17 deliveries after the drop to take his team home.Here are the ball-by-ball commentaries from those two events: Luckiest team of IPL 2018 In a tournament like the IPL, when teams play 14 league matches, luck is bound to play a role. Even the most skilled team is likely to get lucky breaks: a crucial dropped catch or an umpiring error or a bad no-ball call. Some are in the team’s control and some are beyond theirs. Three of four play-off teams in the 2018 edition were also among the luckier teams. KKR were the luckiest team in IPL 2018 with 349 Luck Runs and champions CSK a close second with 315 Luck Runs. While Kings XI Punjab did capitalise on their luck, they still failed to close matches, and Rajasthan Royals were the least lucky side with just 163 Luck Runs but just about managed to make the play-offs.Luckiest Team of the IPL•ESPNcricinfo LtdThe above graphic depicted whether teams capitalised on the Luck Events or not while the other measure is purely on how many lucky and unlucky events the teams actually got. KKR continue to top the list with Net Lucky Events score of eight, while Rajasthan were at the opposite end with a Net Lucky Events score of minus 11.Luckiest team by eventsNet Luck run by Events•ESPNcricinfo LtdWhat if the Lucky Events had not taken place? How would the IPL 2018 leaderboard look like? CSK and SRH still top the table but there would be a very close fight between four teams (KKR, MI, RCB and DD) for the remaining two spots. The last one was the most closely fought IPL among all the 11 seasons so far and the alternate points table shows pretty much the same. Teams such as KKR used the luck in their favour while RR overcame all the bad luck to still clinch a spot in the play-offs.Alternate Points Table•ESPNcricinfo Ltd Luckiest batsmen of IPL 2018Luckiest Batsmen in the IPL•ESPNcricinfo LtdIf a batsman has to score 500 runs in an IPL season, which involves risky attacking stroke play, you expect them to have some luck. The Luck Index numbers for the luckiest batsmen reveals exactly that. Three batsmen among the top five run-getters of the season made the most of their luck. When the 2018 IPL started, Shane Watson was one of the under-the-radar players to perform. With his bowling skills on the wane, Watson was under a lot of pressure to perform with the bat. On more than two occasions, Watson was lucky to be dropped or escape a run-out chance. Both the centuries that Watson scored in the 2018 season had some elements of luck in it. Watson was good enough to make his luck count. The second and third luckiest players were Kane Williamson (167 runs) and KL Rahul (159) respectively. On the other side of the spectrum, Aaron Finch was the unluckiest batsmen (minus 29 runs) with a few bad decisions going his way Luckiest bowler of IPL 2018 Luckiest and Unluckiest Bowlers•ESPNcricinfo LtdMost of the time, the bowlers find themselves at the wrong side of Luck. Dropped catches, wrong umpiring decisions, poor no-ball calls, the works. The T20 format does not have any sympathy for the bowlers. So who were the luckiest and unluckiest bowlers of IPL 2018?Interestingly, Rashid Khan finds himself at the top of the unlucky bowlers. In spite of his bad luck, Rashid still was the second highest wicket-taker of the tournament and also very impactful and economical. CSK’s Shardul Thakur and KKR’s Shivam Mavi find themselves in second and third position. New-ball specialists Deepak Chahar and Umesh Yadav were the luckiest bowlers in IPL 2018. Both had 14 and 8 Luck Runs on their side and that possibly helped them to top of the charts when it came to Powerplay numbers.

Forget the rules, just enjoy watching athletes smash balls out of the park, soar and dive to take catches, and live out some of the most dramatic stories in all of sport

Text by Dustin Silgardo and Illustrations by Ishita Mazumder29-May-2019The game is more explosive than ever beforeHave you heard cricket is slow? That a bunch of guys stand around on a field not doing much and then break for tea? Well, this is the new age of cricket, and the game is now all about sixes. That’s when the batsman hits the ball out of the field, like a home run, except you get six runs instead of one. Take that, baseball!ESPNcricinfo LtdSixes used to be a bit of a rarity in cricket, but these days, thanks to a bunch of changes in the game, they’re flying all over the place. And this World Cup is expected to be the World Cup of sixes.The best part about sixes: you can hit them anywhere and in all sorts of ways. You can switch from right-handed to left-handed mid-shot and hit one. You can play something called the ramp shot. You can get down on your knees and hit a six straight over your head, like this guy…Getty ImagesYou can even hit a six while falling over, like this…2:08

WATCH – What happened after Najibullah Zadran lost his footing?

There’s even something called a helicopter shot, which is when the batsman hires a private helicopter to swoop down as the bowler releases the ball and suck it into its vortex. Okay, it’s not. But it’s pretty bloody exciting. So tune in. You don’t even need to know the rules. It’s just fun watching players whack balls into the stands repeatedly.ESPNcricinfo LtdAfghanistanAfghanistan, that’s right, Afghanistan, a team from a country that hasn’t seen anything resembling peace in forty years, are playing at this World Cup. Get this, they’ve only had an official team since 2008, and it was born out of men seeking asylum from war, in Pakistan. And now they’re in the World Cup, for the second time.It’s not like they’ve got in on a sympathy ticket either. Just ten teams have qualified for this World Cup, so Afghanistan have had to beat much more established teams to get in. Have you heard a more romantic story in all of sport? Leicester City, meh. Jamie Vardy never fixed any toilets in refugee camps. So the Chicago Cubs won a World Series after 108 years. Just 30 years ago, the Taliban were insisting no one in Afghanistan play any sport since it might involve breaking the regime’s dress code.Afghanistan have one of the best bowlers in the world, they’ve got big hitters, they play with passion, and, win or lose, they’ll probably perform their famous Attan dance.If you’re not a soulless ghoul, then find out more about Afghanistan’s incredible story through this illustrated story.ESPNcricinfo LtdIndia v PakistanEvery sport’s got rivalries. But there’s none quite like cricket’s India-Pakistan. The last time these two teams played in a World Cup, 500 million people tuned in to watch. The finale of Game of Thrones had just 19.3 million viewers. Do you really want to be 25 times less cool than people who don’t watch Game of Thrones?So why is this match such a big deal? These are two neighbouring countries that were basically one before 1947 but have since been in near-constant political conflict, and cricket is the biggest sport in both. Since 2013, tensions between the nations have increased, and the teams no longer play each other unless it’s at a world tournament. And the rarity of the derby match has only increased its popularity. The last two contests between these sides were at the Asia Cup last year in the UAE.Talk to any cricket fan about India-Pakistan and they’ll tell you about crazy matches that went all the way to the last ball, controversial moments that led to stadium riots, heated confrontations between players, ugly taunting by fans on both sides. But they’ll also tell you about touching moments involving fans from both sides of the border showing each other hospitality, and opposing fans putting aside the rivalry to show opposition players respect for incredible performances.ESPNcricinfo LtdCricketers actually look like athletes nowSo one of the things that might have put non-cricket fans off cricket in the past was that a lot of them looked like this:ESPNcricinfo LtdNot that there’s anything wrong with looking like that, and some of those guys were incredible players, by the way, but if you’re used to a sport in which muscles bulge out of jerseys and where players celebrate by baring their chiselled eight-packs, you might have found cricket a little lacking in testosterone.All that’s changed. The modern cricketer looks more like this:ESPNcricinfo LtdAnd it’s not just about the looks. These guys run, jump, slide and dive like real top-level athletes. Watch this World Cup and you’ll see players flinging themselves into the sky to take catches, bowling with javelin-thrower actions, taking catches while nearly falling over the rope but somehow chucking the ball to a team-mate, diving full-length despite wearing a helmet and padding on their legs. Just look at the guy in the photo above. Tell us he couldn’t hit home runs, or tackle running backs, or fight in a cage.ESPNcricinfo LtdEngland might actually win at a sport they inventedSo this cricket World Cup is being played in England. It’s an awesome country. Big Ben, London Bridge, One Direction. But when it comes to sport, England have sometimes been, how do we put this, a bit of a laughing stock. See, the country invented a lot of the sports that are played across the world today but have since proceeded to suck at quite a few of them. The last time they reached a big football final was more than 50 years ago, they’ve been overtaken in rugby by a country one-tenth their size, and, in tennis, they’ve been desperately trying to lay claim to a Scotsman just so they can say they have a Grand Slam winner in this century.In cricket, it’s been no different. England have never won a World Cup. They’ve lost three finals. And last time out, they didn’t even make it out of the group stage. But this time, England are actually the No.1 ranked team in the world and are favourites to win on home soil. Even more surprising, they’ve actually become the best by playing what some of them call a “F**k it” brand of cricket. No, seriously, one of their best players actually had that written on his bat during a game. Basically, they’re fearless. They try to hit sixes (remember how exciting those are?) and take risks. What a ride for the country, to watch a team go for the cup while actually playing attractively. They’ll probably mess it up in the end, but it should be a fun ride regardless.

Since 2018, Ishant has been a different bowler, and he has racked up some impressive stats too

Gaurav Sundararaman01-Oct-2019Ishant Sharma’s career started on a strong note after he got the India call-up when just 18. He troubled more than one batsman away in Australia, and was effective in home conditions as well. But it started to go downhill after that, the ride largely a bumpy one. But, ten years on, Ishant has finally hit a peak, and since 2018, he has been one of India’s premier Test bowlers.ESPNcricinfo LtdIshant 2.0Ishant’s career has had an interesting progression graph.In his first 11 Tests, he took 34 wickets at an average of 31.17 and a strike rate of 57.3. This remains Ishant’s best average to date. After a long, hard grind, his average fell back below 35 for the first time only in mid-2018. He was the second slowest to 250 Test wickets (86 Tests) and while more or less regular in the Test XI, was never quite first choice.Watch cricket on ESPN+

India v South Africa is available in the US on Hotstar and ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ and tune in to the three Tests.

Between 2010 and 2017, Ishant played 60 Tests and took 172 wickets at an average of 37.22, striking once every 68 deliveries. However, fortunes turned after that. At the start of 2018, India played Jasprit Bumrah in the first Test against South Africa in Cape Town. Ishant did get his chance in the second Test in Centurion, though, and bowled a crucial spell late on the first day to trigger a collapse by dismissing AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis. Since then, he hasn’t looked back, playing 13 Tests for 52 wickets at an outstanding average of 19.78.Ishant’s average in this period is better than that of Kagiso Rabada, James Anderson, Trent Boult, Stuart Broad and Josh Hazlewood. With all the limelight on Bumrah, Ishant has slipped under the radar somewhat, but his average, strike rate and economy rate are at par with those of Bumrah since the start of 2018. Along with Mohammed Shami, Ishant and Bumrah form a potent pace attack that has been doing exceedingly well around the world over the last two years.