Turnaround triumph in Hyderabad combines defiance, class, risk, pluck and joy

Vithushan Ehantharajah28-Jan-2024Welcome, Hyderabad 2024, step right this way. I believe you know Adelaide 2010 and Karachi 2000? Pull up a chair next to Port of Spain 1974 and Kingston 1990. Hope you’re hungry – Brisbane 1986 is making pancakes.The ‘Best Away Wins by an England Men’s Test Team’ club has a new member. And as the dust settles on either end of the central pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, it is worth considering this as the greatest of them all. Pass the syrup, Sydney 1894.England bested an India who had lost just three Tests at home since the start of 2013. World number ones of the modern era, only lacking the World Test Championship mace to prove it, beaten by 28 runs in one of the most remarkable come-from-behind wins. The brilliance lies in its absurdity, like most of what this team do under Ben Stokes’ captaincy and Brendon McCullum’s guidance.India were 190 ahead going into the second innings, and the biggest first-innings lead they had previously squandered at home was 65 against Australia in 1964. They had looked far more controlled than England’s first effort of 246 housed within 65 overs on day one, which now looks oddly prescient given how rushed it seemed at the time.They responded to that deficit by putting together the ninth 400-plus score in a second innings against India on their patch. And it was Ollie Pope, who averaged 19.12 here on the 2021 tour, and began the match with 1 off 11, that drove them to it. Now bolstered by a positive result, the vice-captain’s 196, a pulsating Russian Roulette affair, need not be so shy pushing its case as England’s greatest one-man assault.Ollie Pope acknowledges the crowd after his 196•Getty ImagesThe way Pope blitzed the world-class spin trio of R Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja and Axar Patel was previously unfathomable. India coach Rahul Dravid, a generational great whom Kevin Pietersen once emailed for tips on how to play spin ahead of his own Indian epic in 2012, put Pope in a league of his own. “I haven’t seen a better exhibition of sweeping and reverse-sweeping ever, you know, in these conditions against that quality of bowling.”Setting their hosts 231 to win, England stomped all over India’s line-up despite the fact their primary spinner, Jack Leach, was unable to fully straighten or bend his left knee after suffering a deep bruise in the field on day one. Limited to four-over spells at most, Leach prised out the last ‘full-time’ batter in Shreyas Iyer to make it 119 for 7. Iyer is regarded as the best player of the turning ball in this India team. And here he was: this silky, Mumbai-reared savant, pressing forward and snicking to first slip off a one-legged man from Taunton.Even with Leach limited to one in each innings, 18 Indian wickets fell to spin. The missing two were run outs, including a charging, diving, back-handing direct hit from Stokes, who two months ago was on crutches following left knee surgery, to remove Jadeja, the fastest thing on earth with a vaudeville moustache.

“We’ve had some incredible victories. But considering where we are, and who we playing against, the position we found ourselves going into our second innings of batting… this is our best victory since I’ve been captain.”Ben Stokes‘ verdict on England’s 28-run win in Hyderabad

Perhaps most remarkable of all was the hero of the final day. With 7 for 62, Tom Hartley becomes the first England spinner to take as many on debut since Jim Laker, a Mount Rushmore cricketer as far as the English game is concerned.That Hartley is even here is its own unique chapter of this broader epic. He had just one five-wicket haul in 20 first-class matches for Lancashire – against a Surrey team who were pre-occupied with their extra-curricular activities over those four days, having sealed the 2022 County Championship the week before. Across 10 red-ball matches last summer, Hartley’s 19 wickets came at 44.84 apiece.Selectors picked on dating-app whims, opting for Hartley’s six-foot-four frame over squatter options with better profiles. His first date with destiny was a car crash: the first (and fourth) ball of his Test career smashed for six by Yashasvi Jaiswal.Sitting in the dressing room at the end of day one, figures of none for 63 from nine overs, the magnitude of it all dawned on him. Hartley offered Jeetan Patel, England’s assistant coach, an honest, “that was hard work”, cheeks still scorned by the harsh welcome. Fellow left-arm spinner Leach offered consolation before the rest of the group hyped up his six off Ashwin earlier in the day to pump up a deflated ego.Related

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72 hours on, having bowled in a fourth innings for just the seventh time in his career, he might have an altogether different take on playing cricket this level. Following a vital 34 in an 80-run stand with Pope that took England one away from the 420 they would end up with, Hartley set about etching some better history.Jaiswal pressed forward with too much vigour and nudged a sharp catch to Pope in close. Shubman Gill did the same two balls later. Having stepped into shots with relish a few days ago, Rohit Sharma put his best foot forward in the wrong place and found himself squared up for a plumb LBW. Then Axar, promoted up the order to combat the left-arm spin with the left-hand bat, misjudged the pitch of the ball and drove back to Hartley four balls after tea.That was the beginning of an eight-over spell – for 10 runs, featuring three maidens – brimming with threat and, crucially, control. The high release point pushed as the main reason for his selection that was ridiculed online was now being glorified. It was not quite the bounce, but the late dip from the balls on high that turned seasoned vets into pets.Resistance came from Srikar Bharat, but was soon broken by a slowed-down delivery that pitched on middle and took off stump. And he rounded out what will probably remain the most memorable day of his career with two stumpings, both caused by the tension he created.Hartley joins Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed as the third spinner under Stokes to start their career with a five-wicket haul. It speaks to the environment that all three came into Test cricket with no first-class record to speak of and now have memories for a lifetime. Maybe that is how this result should be remembered. Not as the first of five matches, but one of one.1:03

Ben Stokes reflects on England’s ‘best victory’ since becoming captain

There will be a response from India, on several fronts. The opening win in 2021 elicited a swing in manufactured conditions and personnel, and England did not have the wares to copy or contend with them. The only thing more dangerous than a rampant India is a wounded India.Before the series began, Stokes discussed the glory of the previous two years, and the need to press on in exactly the same manner. To evolve. Winning 13 out 18 was great and all, but such a record should be built upon rather than preserved.”One thing I asked for this series, and stuff beyond that, was, ‘Can we stay committed to our process without becoming emotionally attached to the outcome?'” And now here they are, with what Stokes ranks as the greatest triumph of his tenure.”We’ve had some incredible victories,” he said. “But considering where we are, and who we playing against, the position we found ourselves going into our second innings of batting… just sitting here now and saying we’re 1-0 up, it’s a big reason as to why I feel this is our best victory since I’ve been captain.”The new cycle has begun with the most evocative of wins, borne out of defiance, class, risk, pluck and, ultimately, joy. England started quickly, fell way behind, clawed back into the contest, set a new tone and then grafted, with old and new side by side, to triumph over a juggernaut.Of all the stunning wins travelling English Test teams have accomplished, few, if any, have contained it all.

They have waited a long time to strut their stuff on the world stage; now their chance has come

Firdose Moonda01-Jun-2024Forty-three year-old Frank Nsubuga, the oldest player at this year’s T20 World Cup, has been playing high-level cricket for around 27 years, and he’s willing to share the secret to his longevity.”Every morning, I wake up and do my own jogging, maybe above 10km. Then I stretch and we train together [as a team] from about 10am.”He stays away from alcohol, and thinks that keeps him going. “I am happy with my cup of tea or coffee or juice,” he says.Nsubuga made his debut in 1997 at an ICC Zone 6 tournament as a teenager and he remembers a time when Afghanistan were still battling in the lower rungs of the international game.In fact, Nsubuga played the decisive hand in a Division Three match between Uganda and Afghanistan in 2009. Batting at No. 7, he scored 62 off 44 balls and took 1 for 29. Uganda won by 14 runs. They and Afghanistan ended the tournament tied on points, but Afghanistan’s higher net run rate allowed them to advance further and eventually join the big boys at the top of cricket’s pyramid.Related

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43-year-old Frank Nsubuga in Uganda squad for 2024 T20 World Cup

Uganda had to wait another 15 years for their chance to compete on the global stage. Finally, their time has come. And though they may be an unknown quantity to many in the cricketing world, they have a rich history in the game, full of characters. Nsubuga is just one example.Circa 1940, when Uganda was a British colony, some cricket was played in the country, between the settlers and a growing Asian trading community, but it really took off after Prince George Mawanda, a member of the royal Buganda tribal household, who was exposed to cricket during his education in the UK and at Trinity College in Sri Lanka, founded the African Cricket Club.The club gave the local black population an opportunity to compete against members of other communities, and throughout the 1950s and ’60s, a pentangular tournament, organised on ethnic and religious lines, was played in Uganda among the British, the “Indians” (mostly Hindus who had come to work on the East Africa Railway), the Goans (Catholic settlers from western India), the “Moslems” (who were largely traders), and the locals.The different teams also played in exhibition matches, including a famous one between an All-African XI and a Uganda Police side in 1959 to inaugurate the Lugogo Cricket Oval in Kampala. That game was attended by Britain’s Queen Mother. Mawanda was the star of the match, taking 6 for 21 and then hitting a six to win for his team.

To win the game, Prince George Mawanda hit a landing of the stadium onto Jinja road totalling the score of 106, beating the Police 11s by 3 wickets. (Newspaper article added below)

: @CricketUganda through Mr. Bessel, who was a part of Uganda Police Team. #BATBALL pic.twitter.com/Iny1g2B14o

— BATBALL Global (@BatballO) July 23, 2022

Despite a poor winter, Jonny Bairstow remains integral to England’s hopes of defending their 2022 title

Matt Roller22-Apr-2024Trevor Bayliss declined to take the easy way out when explaining Jonny Bairstow’s absence when his Punjab Kings side played Mumbai Indians on Thursday night.Asked in a pitchside interview whether Bairstow had “done a Glenn Maxwell” and asked to be left out of the side, Bayliss was unequivocal: “No, that was our call,” he said. “We just had to change things up. It was that time of the competition that we needed to do something a little bit better… just a little bit of a change to try and invigorate things.”It was an honest statement in an era when coaches often sugarcoat difficult decisions. Modern players are rarely dropped – rather rotated, rested or managed due to niggles. Kings opened with Sam Curran, their stand-in captain, instead of Bairstow and brought Rilee Rossouw into the side in his place.Related

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Bayliss also made clear that Bairstow was not best pleased with the management’s decision. “Jonny, over my right shoulder here, thinks he probably should have got a bit longer… it’s a difficult one. We want to try and give guys as much of an opportunity as we can but with the situation we find ourselves in, we had to make a bit of a change.”It has been a long offseason for Bairstow, who first flew to India in late September ahead of the World Cup and will have spent the best part of six months there by the time he arrives home after the IPL. He is the only England player who has been involved in the 50-over World Cup, the Test series earlier this year and the IPL, and has struggled to make an impact in all three.He has batted 25 times in India this winter across three formats and has hit only two half-centuries, against Bangladesh and Pakistan in the World Cup. His averages in the World Cup (23.88) and in the Test series (23.80) were almost identical, and in the IPL he has managed 96 runs in six innings, averaging 16.00 with a strike rate of 131.50. It has been tough going.Bayliss stressed Bairstow’s tournament is not necessarily over and Rossouw, his replacement, has made 10 runs in his first two innings. “There’s a couple of guys missing out at the top of the order from this game, but that’s not necessarily the end of it for those guys,” Bayliss said. “We know they’re quality players.”But there is an argument that it would be in Bairstow’s – and England’s – best interests for him to return home for a short break before the T20 World Cup. He is likely to be part of the squad that faces Pakistan in four T20Is at the end of May, and ending his IPL early would give him the chance to refresh mentally and physically ahead of an intense tournament in June.England’s selectors will meet in the next few days to pick a provisional squad for the World Cup, which will be released next week before the ICC’s May 1 deadline. They can make changes before May 25, but after the debacle of Harry Brook’s initial and Jason Roy’s eventual exclusions last year, clear communication is essential.The ODI World Cup, a five-Test series and the IPL – Bairstow has spent close to six months in India this winter•Getty ImagesThere has been no indication that Bairstow is about to be dropped. He has hardly played T20 cricket since returning from his horrific leg injury – just 15 games in the last 12 months – but was player of the series in his most recent T20Is against New Zealand in September, which provided a reminder of how destructive he can be when he is anywhere near his best.Rob Key, England’s managing director, chairs selection meetings and told Sky’s Cricket Podcast last week: “… we need to balance out some of the younger guys, like Will Jacks and Phil Salt coming into it and adding a bit of life. It’s not about all young [players], it’s about having a balance. That’s where we’re seeing the T20 World Cup.”With Ben Stokes making himself unavailable, Alex Hales retired from international cricket and Dawid Malan out of favour, England will need Bairstow – a senior player at 34 – to achieve that balance. He is likely to be carded at No. 4 in a middle order that will have to be flexible: in Stokes’ absence, they are short on left-handed batters, but Bairstow’s versatility has always been a strength.England believe that T20 in the Caribbean rewards power over touch and will set their side up accordingly. Ben Duckett lasted one match in their 3-2 series defeat to West Indies in December before he was deemed surplus to requirements. Bairstow should fit effortlessly into a line-up of six hitters alongside Jos Buttler, Salt, Jacks, Brook and Liam Livingstone.Bairstow has a clear preference to open the batting and generally does so in franchise T20, but England have always valued his ability to hit sixes against spin through the middle overs. Since December 2020, the majority of his T20I appearances have been as a middle-order batter and he can set games up for Brook and Livingstone as finishers.Key often frames selection as making decisions based on what players are like at their best, not their worst. The question for England now is how they can help Bairstow get back to being the best version of himself. The answer? Bring him home from India, give him three weeks off and help him refresh before a shot at the World Cup.

With a limited time left in the game, Marizanne Kapp is focusing on how much she can still do and not how much she shouldn’t

Firdose Moonda03-Oct-2024If you, like me, have wondered what the point of women playing one-off Tests – often with no red-ball domestic structure to help them prepare – is, Marizanne Kapp has the answer.”That 150 against England, when we were in so much trouble, changed the way I approached batting,” she told ESPNcricinfo. “Just prior to that, I started working a lot with [former New Zealand men’s international] Kruger van Wyk, who is our fielding coach. We just worked on a few mental things and upped my game. I used to be someone that had to hit and bowl a million balls before games and I really worked hard to taper down on that so that by match day I am not so fatigued. I’ve also really worked on just being a little bit more aggressive and if it’s in my area going after the bowlers.”The match Kapp is referring to took place in June 2022 in Taunton and was South Africa’s first Test in more than seven years. They were put in to bat and found themselves 47 for 4 when Kapp got to the crease. She batted for most of the rest of innings – four hours and 26 minutes in total – and faced 213 balls for her 150, and then everything changed.Related

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In 20 ODIs after that knock, Kapp scored a staggering 836 runs at an average of 59.71 (compared to a career-average of 34.33) including two of her three hundreds. In 23 T20Is, she scored 486 runs at 27.00 (up from an overall average of 20.98), improved her strike rate from 103.58 to 130.99 and decreased her balls-per-boundary rate to 5.62 from 11.73 in the three years prior to that.That means Kapp has gone from scoring a boundary every two overs, to one every over, which in the shortest format makes a massive difference, and proves she has joined the women’s power-hitting revolution. “I’ve really started to back myself in hitting the ball, whether it’s my first three balls or whether I’ve faced 30 balls,” she said. “These days you have to adapt, be more aggressive, and keep on working on your game. I feel like in T20 cricket or even in ODI cricket if you look, the girls are starting to reach scores of 280, 300 and above. It’s not the same as years ago where you [could] just take your time.”Kapp’s own role is also not the same as it was a few years ago, where she slotted into South Africa’s middle order after the likes of Lizelle Lee, Dane van Niekerk and Mignon du Preez. All three are now retired, which presented South Africa with the opportunity to play Kapp up the order at No. 3, where she has been since January last year. And that wasn’t the first time she found herself in such a key batting position. She was initially put there in 2017 by Surrey Stars in the Women’s Super League in England. Kapp was the competition’s fourth-highest run-scorer, behind Rachel Priest, Suzie Bates and Ellyse Perry, and later had some games in the same position in the WBBL and WPL.”I’m a big believer in the leagues even though it takes so much out of me. I feel like the leagues are probably the reason that I’ve really started to put in big performances in international cricket,” Kapp said. “The leagues bring a different level of competitiveness. You bowl and bat in different areas in a game in these leagues. You get used to playing in semi-finals and finals with massive crowds. I’ve learned how to finish games in leagues. If you look at our international schedule, even if you play all the games, how many times will you find yourself in a situation where you have to finish off a game? It doesn’t always work out that way. In the leagues, I’ve been in that situation a lot.”

“I take most of my wickets in the powerplay and we need me to strike and almost protect those younger bowlers a little bit more, so that they can come in after the powerplay, where they can have their four fielders and bowl to their plans”Marizanne Kapp

Though Kapp is an advocate of prioritising leagues in the schedule, like most cricketers she still thinks there is “nothing better than playing for your country and playing in World Cups”, especially as South Africa continue to improve.Last year, they reached a final for the first time even though “we probably didn’t play our best cricket” but “managed to rock up on the day of the semi-final and performed”.This year, there’s expectation growing at home that they can go one better, even though they are without a key member of their last squad, Shabnim Ismail, who has retired. Without her, South Africa have lost significant bowling experience and quality and Kapp, once again, finds herself in a position of increased responsibility.Along with her higher batting role, she also expects to continue opening the bowling. “I still believe I have a massive role to play with the ball. Experience is something you can’t buy and we saw that with Shabnim leaving, it leaves a big hole in our bowling line-up,” Kapp said. “Our bowling line-up has always been world-class but we’ve had a few changes. I take most of my wickets in the powerplay and we need me to strike and almost protect those younger bowlers a little bit more, so that they can come in after the powerplay, where they can have their four fielders and bowl to their plans.”Kapp’s understanding of her new-ball job is spot on. Since the start of 2023, she has taken 70% of her total wickets in the first six overs – 48 at an average of 16.31 – and it is also where she is most difficult to get away. She goes at 5.36 runs per over in the powerplay, and 7.94 from overs seven to 20. Her ability to find swing upfront continues to make her a big threat and in T20s, she is open to bowling her full complement of overs early. “If it’s going well and it’s my day, we’ve been letting me bowl three or even four overs sometimes. If you can get one of those big sides on the back foot, you’re halfway there.””It just took me one or two knocks against the big sides and my confidence just doubled”•BCCIBut that doesn’t mean Kapp hasn’t taken stock of what she’s putting herself through. “If you have to look at allrounders at the moment, your big allrounders all over the world, none of them really still opens the bowling and bats top order like what I’m doing currently,” she said. “So even if I was younger, it’s a big ask and a tough ask in international cricket.”Especially for someone like her, who has also had health struggles. Kapp had Covid-19 four times and has also missed matches with other illnesses. She thinks some of it is down to her diet as a vegetarian, but has seen improvement since the team added a doctor to the permanent support staff.”We’ve had the doctor for quite a while and she’s been guiding me and helping me and making sure that my food is sorted,” Kapp said. “I’m getting older and my body is getting older in the sense that if you look at the amount of cricket I play, for example. This is going to be my tenth year of Big Bash and it can be tough to do both skills full out.”It can also be rewarding and with a limited time left in the game – Kapp is thought to be eyeing next year’s 50-over World Cup as a swansong of sorts – she’s focusing on how much she can still do and not how much she shouldn’t. “It just took me one or two knocks against the big sides and my confidence just doubled. Now, I believe I can do it as a batter as well, not only as a bowler.”

Alan is joined by Miller and Fidel to discuss England’s victory at Lord’s and a promotion for Brendon McCullum

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Sep-2024England sewed up another series win, as well as a fifth consecutive Test victory, beating Sri Lanka by 190 runs at Lord’s. The ECB then announced two days later that Brendon McCullum would add the white-ball remit to his job as head coach. On this week’s Switch Hit, Alan Gardner was joined by Andrew Miller and Andrew Fidel Fernando go over the talking points – from Dhananjaya de Silva’s decision at the toss, the outstanding performances of Joe Root and Gus Atkinson, what to expect at The Oval, and whether adding to McCullum’s workload makes sense.

Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland have no pathway to break into the league of nine teams and play few Tests. What does their future in Test cricket look like?

Ekanth03-Feb-2025The sky was blue, Afghanistan were in whites, ready to re-acquaint themselves with the red ball. They were back in Greater Noida, their old home outside Delhi, for their first Test against New Zealand. New Zealand would likely have been excited by a new opponent, but they were probably looking at the game more as prep for their forthcoming Tests in Sri Lanka and India.On the surface, there were uncontrollable reasons – mainly rain – for the Test being abandoned without even the toss having taken place. Still, the first two days being washed out due to the after effects of rain outside the hours of play was hard to explain.Gary Stead and Jonathan Trott, New Zealand’s and Afghanistan’s respective coaches, expressed their disappointment and acknowledged the compromises involved in the organisation of the Test. And so a rare opportunity for Afghanistan to play a Test match went almost literally down the drain.

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When the ICC first approved the idea of a World Test Championship in 2010, Zimbabwe were supposed to be among the ten participating teams in the league when it kicked off three years later. However, it was postponed and only actually approved in 2017.Related

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When the WTC was finally launched in 2019, only nine Full Members were included. Zimbabwe, as well as the latest Full Members, Afghanistan and Ireland (who were awarded that status in 2017) missed out. No specific reasons were given for their exclusion, but it was thought to be because both the latter two members were newly inducted and Zimbabwe had lost their way because of the political interference in their cricket in the 2000s.Those three teams (with the major ones) got spots in the ODI Super League, which did provide regular opportunities to lower-ranked sides, and an Associate team, to play against Full Members. But that league was discontinued after the 2023 ODI World Cup, with just one cycle completed. The Intercontinental Cup, once a steady source of red-ball exposure for Associate teams between 2004 and 2017, had also been scrapped by then.Three cycles into the WTC, there still is no pathway for a new team to enter the championship. There is no system of promotion and relegation, or any other meritocratic provision to challenge the positions of the existing teams.”For you to be a Full Member, you need to play all three formats. That’s an eligibility criteria,” Tavengwa Mukuhlani, Zimbabwe Cricket’s chair, says, “So every member must have an equal and fair opportunity to play the three formats, without discrimination. The current set-up defeats the purpose of being a Test-playing Full Member.”

“The more Test matches that Afghanistan play, the better, the more first-class cricket they play, the better they’ll be”Jonathan Trott, Afghanistan coach

Since the start of 2018, the year Afghanistan and Ireland played their first Tests, the three non-WTC teams have played 28 Tests collectively. That’s an average of under four Tests between the three of them per year.Last year, which offered the three sides six Tests between them was kind to them. Ireland won both their matches and hosted one for the first time in six years – although that needs to be weighed against the cost of giving up the chance to host the Australia men’s side for the first time. The Boxing Day Test, Zimbabwe hope, could grow into a tradition. Afghanistan played three Tests in three different countries.Trott hopes that the Test team can follow in the footsteps of their high-achieving white-ball team which beat England, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan in the last ODI World Cup and made the T20 World Cup semi-final last year. But that seems a lofty ambition.The abundant talent they are blessed with has helped Afghanistan progress farther and faster than their non-WTC counterparts. However, they are more affected by the proliferation of franchise leagues, where their players are in demand. Rashid Khan, for instance, Afghanistan’s captain and go-to match-winner, is a mainstay across multiple T20 leagues.Afghanistan are scheduled to play 21 Tests between 2023 and 2027, Zimbabwe 20 and Ireland 12 apiece under the ICC’s men’s Future Tours Programme (FTP). However, Afghanistan have played only five so far (New Zealand Test included) about halfway into that four-year period.The cost of one lost Test is magnified when you factor in other changes to their calendar. Afghanistan were set to play two Tests against Bangladesh in June 2023 but only played one, due to scheduling issues. They then had a multi-format series against Zimbabwe in July 2023, where too a Test was dropped (scheduling issues again). Their multi-format series against Bangladesh in 2024 was initially postponed and then turned into a three-match ODI series.Andy Balbirnie of Ireland: “A lot of the top nations are picking [players] on first-class records, whereas we can’t do that”•Michael Steele/Getty Images”It’s the FTP,” Trott says. “You deal with it as and when it happens, and when Test matches come up and first-class cricket comes up, you want players to perform.”Trott says Afghanistan’s high-performance centre looks after player development across age groups and formats in the country, and that the team has access to very good facilities in the UAE. However, only regular participation in first-class cricket and Test wins against the top teams can make for a pathway into the WTC, he says.”It’s just that white-ball cricket is more what they’re used to, and they’ve played a lot more of it. And that’s the only reason why I think the more Test matches that Afghanistan play, the better, the more first-class cricket they play, the better they’ll be.”While Afghanistan have had the Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament, a multi-day competition running since 2011, which gained first-class status in 2017, the number of teams participating in it has come down from six to four. To its credit, the competition survived Covid.But the ability to fine-tune players for Test cricket – on demand – is still not within their grasp, as perhaps reflected in their loss to Ireland in Abu Dhabi in a close Test in March 2024. “We could’ve easily won that one if we’d played a little bit better,” Trott says.Ireland registered their first home Test win when they beat Zimbabwe in July, in another seesawing Test.

“The current set-up defeats the purpose of being a Test-playing Full Member”Tavengwa Mukuhlani, Zimbabwe Cricket chair

“The more that we play international cricket,” Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland’s CEO, says, “the more the players get used to the rhythms of international cricket. The wins show that our players are learning very quickly, and our players are very talented, and I think you ask any player, they love playing Test cricket.”Not that he thinks putting a large amount of Test cricket into the crowded international calendar is the best thing to do. “I think we would prefer to potentially increase it gradually, over a period of time. I don’t subscribe to the theory that more content automatically makes for a better FTP.”The Emerald Challenge match was Ireland’s only domestic first-class game in 2024, and that was washed out. For the Test they played against Afghanistan, Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie says they spent about a week or so in Dubai just practising with the red ball to get used to it.Having to rely on instinct for selection is also a problem, because of the lack of data. “We’ve had selection meetings that have been based on how the person has performed in the nets, in the build-up to a Test match,” Balbirnie says. “We can’t go on anything else. A lot of the top nations are picking [players] on first-class records, whereas we just don’t do that. We can’t do that.”Do we have a hunch? Is someone looking like they could do something in Test cricket? So we have some very interesting selection meetings where a lot of names are thrown around.”Be that as it may, Balbirnie and many of his team-mates have demonstrated that regular exposure to the longer format can lead to a sustainable career. “My international game was developed by playing nations like Scotland, Netherlands, Oman, Namibia, all these teams [in the Intercontinental Cup],” he says. “And there was nothing between the teams, it was always close cricket. And then, from nowhere, [Ireland] got out of it into the next level, for whatever reason – I don’t know if it was [because of] a good salesperson in the meetings, a good CEO, someone who could sell us as a team.Players train at Afghanistan’s high-performance centre in Kabul. The team also has access to top-of-the-line facilities in the UAE, but lack of actual Test match play hobbles their development•Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images”Obviously we’ve put in good performances, but it didn’t seem that fair that we just went up above and left everyone low below us, because even now, when we play Scotland and Netherlands, there’s not a lot between the teams. There are bowlers in the Netherlands team, the Scotland team, that are as great as these [Ireland] guys. If you put them on the Test stage, you’ll see good cricket.”I feel like there’s a place in Test cricket for Associate Nations. I can’t see it happening before I finish playing, but hopefully in time, as the game develops, that will be the only way it can go.””Six-seven years, eight years” is how long Trott hopes it will take for Afghanistan to become part of the WTC. “Look at Bangladesh and their development.”Bangladesh, who played their first Test in 2000, had to wait 34 Tests over 17 series for their first Test-match win (against Zimbabwe). Despite having taken large strides, they are in the bottom triad of the WTC club a quarter of a century into their life as a Test side. Glacial progress in Test cricket isn’t a new or unique problem.”A lot of the Afghan players played probably 30 first-class games” Trott says, “and [about] ten of those have been Test matches. So, experience-wise, they don’t play enough four-day cricket. That’s where you’ll learn, out in the middle.”

Three cycles into the WTC, there still is no pathway for a new team to enter the championship. There is no system of promotion and relegation to challenge the positions of the existing teams

An additional wrinkle for Afghanistan is the issue of women’s participation – the lack of which, thanks to Taliban rule, has been a point of contention over the last few years, leading to the team’s status as a Full Member being questioned (the ICC constitution requires all Full Members to have a women’s team). It is why the Australia men’s team currently do not play bilateral cricket against Afghanistan. There is no long-term resolution in sight. So far the ICC board has resisted taking away Afghanistan’s Test status, arguing that the ACB is bound to follow the Taliban’s edicts, regressive as they may be.Zimbabwe for their part have a talent-drain issue, as well as the lingering spectre of corruption and political interference. Mukuhlani says he recognises the importance of structures and transparency in the running of the board, which received an unqualified or clean audit opinion for their financial statements in 2023. He also knows the importance of maintaining a solid first-class structure.”Our Logan Cup, which we run with five sides, is improving every season and is bringing in foreign players,” he said. “But the biggest challenge, one which we have experienced in the past too, is that all our good players we have an opportunity [to bring into the Zimbabwe national set-up] will end up in England [mainly but also other foreign countries].”Tom Curran (England), Gary Ballance (who played for England and then returned to represent Zimbabwe), and Colin de Grandhomme (New Zealand) are examples, among others. While Mukuhlani appreciates that players are free to migrate, he says it can’t be at the expense of Zimbabwe’s development programme.”I think if a player has played for a nation in Under-19s, particularly if they’ve played in a World Cup team, [and] if they are to switch citizenship, the receiving board must pay us for development. It can’t be for free.”While Ireland are trying to create systems for cricket in the country, they are far from being immune to existential threats. They offer players casual and retainer contracts to build their talent pool but are arguably better off having players play county cricket or franchise leagues as part of their development.Warren Deutrom of Cricket Ireland says the World Test Championship needs to evolve into a format based on divisions or conferences – which will not happen without a lot of political will from those involved•Sportsfile via Getty ImagesFor Ireland, playing a Test at home is more expensive than doing so at a neutral venue, because real estate is expensive in the country. In recent days it has been driven home just how resource-intensive building a stadium can be. Given they took big strides in the 2010s in ODIs, they are perhaps the team hit hardest by the previous two ODI World Cups being reduced to ten teams.What does their ideal future in Tests look like?”Ultimately, I believe all international cricket should be played with context,” Deutrom says. “That being the World Test Championship. When that needs to happen, how the World Test Championship needs to evolve, whether it’s divisions, whether it’s conferences [splitting the 12 teams into two equally weighted groups], I don’t know.”Deutrom points out that these potential configurations pose their own tough questions. “Is there going to be a conference in which you’re not going to have icon series taking place? Can you envisage any environment where England, India or Australia won’t be playing each other in Test cricket? So it’s very difficult to understand or to see how it could happen without very, very significant political will.”A recent newspaper column by Ravi Shastri advocating a two-tier Test system has reignited discourse around the topic, but political will is lacking, as seen in the remarks of the exiting ICC chair, Greg Barclay, who stepped down after four years in charge late last year.”Why are Ireland playing Test cricket?” he said to the Telegraph during a conversation where he suggested structural changes to cricket in lower-ranked countries and regions.

Ultimately, a quarter of the Full Members do not know what they need to do to be part of the whole

So should Ireland and similarly placed teams just focus on white-ball cricket and international tournaments instead?”We became a Test member seven years ago,” Deutrom, who spoke for this article before Barclay’made his comments, says. “Just because we’re not in the World Test Championship, it doesn’t mean that we’re not playing the format or improving at the format, winning at the format. I don’t see a need for us to have to relinquish it.”There’s no burning platform that says, ‘Well, unless Cricket Ireland makes a decision tomorrow about what the next ten years of Test cricket looks like, we should give it up.'”Yes, we’re not in the World Test Championship. And yes, we’re not playing ten Test matches a year, but so what? I can’t see that us not doing that is somehow negatively impacting the world game, negatively impact[ing] our players, [or] is somehow diminishing the credibility of world cricket. So I don’t understand why, just because we don’t have a definitive road map, based on our current requirements, whether it be in terms of money or permanent infrastructure, we have to make a definitive decision. We don’t.”Most Full Members find the current system the most effective. And so, Test cricket’s context-free era – albeit not as context-free as in the past – continues to linger. Ultimately, a quarter of the Full Members do not know what they need to do to be part of the whole. There are no definitive answers. Not yet.

His old IPL franchise told him to “play his natural game”, and he has not looked back since. Mumbai will be hoping for more of the same come the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final on Sunday

Himanshu Agrawal13-Dec-2024Until IPL 2023, Ajinkya Rahane’s strike rate in the powerplay in T20s was 115.31. In 23 such innings since then, it has jumped up to 156.83. Rahane believes it was the freedom to go out and express himself, allowed to him by his former IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK), which helped unlock his potential in the shortest format.”The message from them was clear: go out there and play your natural game,” Rahane said after smashing 98 off 56 balls against Baroda to put Mumbai in the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). “It was never about, ‘You play an anchor role and others will play around you’. [From] other teams, the message for me was, ‘Play till 15-16 overs and others will play around you’. That’s why I was playing with a strike rate of 120-130. But the last two years have really helped me a lot in the shorter format.”That simple message from CSK seems to have worked its magic beyond IPL 2023 too. Rahane had finished that tournament with a strike rate of 172.48, and at the SMAT this season, he has 432 runs – the most among all batters – at 169.41.Related

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• Rahane and Shedge help Mumbai knock off 222 to make semis

• Rahane's 98 helps Mumbai storm into Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final

Rahane has had that impact even while mostly playing conventional shots, like effortlessly lofting over the in-field on both sides of the ground, or powerfully pulling the short balls away.Before today’s 98, he had crashed 95 off 54 balls against Andhra in a SMAT record chase of 230 and followed that up with 84 from 45 deliveries against Vidarbha in the quarter-final in another massive chase of 222. He showed his range of shots in the latter innings, which also featured a six to remember, the ball flying over fine leg off medium-pacer Darshan Nalkande as Rahane stayed deep in the crease and played a pick-up shot in Suryakumar-Yadav fashion.After three Player-of-the-Match performances in a row, Rahane says he wants to “keep it simple”. “I’m not too strong, [and] it’s not about power hitting,” he said. “For me, it’s always about timing the ball. But at the same time, having that intent from ball number one. And it’s always about the extension of my defence – all the shots. So I’m just focusing on that.”[I’m] not trying to play too hard or, trying to play a big shot. It’s always about the timing of the ball, and maintaining my shape all the time.”

“[I’m] not trying to play too hard or, trying to play a big shot. It’s always about the timing of the ball, and maintaining my shape all the time”

Against Baroda, chasing 159, Rahane started the second over by dispatching the first three balls he faced for 4, 6, 4, the first of those a non-Rahane-like heave across the line to deep square leg. Perhaps an attempt to put the bowler under pressure straightaway?”I knew how Lukman Meriwala was going to bowl. So I wanted him to change his length,” Rahane said. “So that’s why the intent was to, first ball, go and attack him so that he could change his length. And the next two balls, he actually pitched short. So that’s what I wanted.”Meriwala went short, and Rahane hooked for six and punched for four. And so his “fearless attitude” helped set up Mumbai for another shot at the SMAT title, a title they had won under Rahane in 2022-23. If he can continue this same form, not only Mumbai but IPL’s defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders, who bagged Rahane at his base price of INR 1.5 crore at last month’s auction, will be that much harder to beat.

Also: a remarkable outing for MI’s Mitchell Santner, conceding the joint-fewest runs by an IPL spinner bowling his full quota at the Wankhede

Sampath Bandarupalli22-May-20251:51

Moody: Santner a nightmare on pitches like this   

A statistical review after Mumbai Indians (MI) beat Delhi Capitals (DC) in match 63 of the IPL 2025 season, securing both teams’ playoff fates.11 Number of IPL seasons where MI qualified for the playoffs (or semi-finals). They had qualified previously in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2023. Only Chennai Super Kings (CSK) – 12 times – made it to the top four in the IPL more often than MI.1 DC became the first team in the IPL to not finish in the top four despite starting the season with four successive wins. MI halted DC’s four-match winning streak in Delhi, and Wednesday’s game against MI at the Wankhede confirmed DC’s elimination.6 of MI’s eight wins in IPL 2025 have been by a margin of 40-plus runs or 25-plus balls to spare. These are the joint-most such wins for any team in an IPL season. MI also had six big wins in 2020, including a win in the playoffs.MI’s win against DC was their third by a margin of 50-plus runs in IPL 2025. MI had three such wins in 2010 and 2013, as did the Gujarat Titans (GT) in 2023.5 Number of times MI have bowled out their opponents in IPL 2025. All other teams combined bundled out their opponents only seven times in this season so far. Only one team bowled their opponents out more times in an IPL season – six by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2024.

South Africa, meanwhile, have now lost five successive ODIs

Deep Gadhia10-Feb-2025150 Matthew Breetzke’s score against New Zealand in Lahore is the highest by a batter on ODI debut, breaking Desmond Haynes’ 47-year-old record of 148 against Australia in 1978.Breetzke is only the fourth South Africa batter after Colin Ingram, Temba Bavuma and Reeza Hendricks to score a century on ODI debut.ESPNcricinfo Ltd7000 – Kane Williamson became the second-fastest batter to complete 7000 ODI runs, getting there in 159 innings. Only Hashim Amla has got there quicker than Williamson, in 150 innings.305 – New Zealand’s target of 305 was the second biggest they had chased down away from home. Their chase of 307 against Scotland in Edinburgh in 2022 remains their highest successful chase away from home.This is also their highest successful chase in multi-team tournaments, with the previous best being the chase of 298 against the same opponents in a memorable World Cup semi-final in 2015.5 – Losses on the trot for South Africa in ODIs, after their 3-0 loss to Pakistan at home and defeat in the last ODI against Ireland in Abu Dhabi. This is their third-biggest losing streak in the format. They have lost ten consecutive matches twice – in 1994 and 2004.187 – Partnership between Devon Conway and Kane Williamson for the second wicket, New Zealand’s highest for any wicket against South Africa, as well as in Pakistan.It is also the third-highest second-wicket partnership for New Zealand in ODIs, bettered only by Conway and Rachin Ravindra’s mammoth 273-run stand in the 2023 World Cup opener against England, and Martin Guptill and Will Young’s 203 against Netherlands in 2022.133* – Williamson’s unbeaten knock of 133 was the second-highest individual score for New Zealand in a successful 300-plus chase. Ross Taylors 181* against England in a chase of 336 in 2018 remains at the top of the pile.Williamson needed 72 balls to get to his century, his second fastest by balls faced in ODIs, bettered only by his 69-ball ton against Zimbabwe in 2011.ESPNcricinfo Ltd5 – Tom Latham became only the fifth New Zealand batter to have three consecutive ducks to his name in ODI cricket. He is also the first New Zealand batter to bag a duck in three consecutive ODI innings while batting in the top seven.Latham’s 13 ducks as a wicketkeeper are now the second-most for New Zealand going past Brendon McCullum’s 12. Adam Parore is the only New Zealand keeper ahead of Latham now, with 16 ODI ducks.