Their margin of victory has heaped pressure on England and given Richie Berrington’s team the chance of a famous progression

Vithushan Ehantharajah09-Jun-2024A lot of things can get sorted over a drink. A business deal, a second date – even an end to dating altogether. Over a couple of chugs of water and isotonic formula, Brandon McMullen and Matthew Cross decided to sort something among themselves. Why not blow this Group B wide open?It was during the drinks break after 10 overs of the chase, with Scotland just 41 away from overhauling Oman’s par score of 150 for 7, that the license for the kill officially came through from captain Richie Berrington. Granted, 60 runs had come from the four overs that followed the powerplay. But for the first time in the innings, the conversation out in the middle turned to the prospect of pumping up that net run rate.”The priority was to win and get the points, but at drinks we said, ‘we should get this done’,” revealed McMullen later. And how.Just 3.1 overs were needed to dust off what remained: 34 of them in boundaries, three of them sixes. McMullen finished on 61 not out, Cross unbeaten on 15. The wicketkeeper-batter even went as far as chastising himself for missing out on a cut shot off Ayaan Khan at the end of a 13th over that had already gone for 20 because it could have finished the job a ball earlier. Scotland even overshot their target by two, finishing on 153 for 3.That’s how serious they were about notching a statement win that now forms the backdrop of the next seven days. The column showing Scotland’s five points to put them top of Group B is now rivalled for relevance by the adjacent one reading “2.164”. Scotland’s NRR is currently 3.964 better than England’s – their likeliest challengers for a Super Eight spot – who can now only equal their points tally.The onus is on Jos Buttler’s men who will have to thrash Oman and Namibia in their next two games. And even that might not be enough. Enter the tantalising prospect of England rooting for Australia to inflict enough damage on Scotland in the final match of Group B to reduce the run-rate figure.The defending champions relying on favours from their enemy. Perhaps nothing sums up just how well Scotland have done in this World Cup more than that sentence right there.Comparisons are flimsy at this juncture, given skewed sample sizes (Scotland’s two-and-a-half matches to England’s one-and-a-half) and differing opponents. But there’s a serenity to Scotland that England are missing and might not find. A control of their own destiny. Heck, even something as simple as comfort. The kind that should come more naturally to three-time World Cup winners across formats than a team who usually arrive at ICC events having to qualify to be let in having already qualified to be let in.The first half of this match was by no means crisp. George Munsey dropped Pratik Athavale over the fence for six to take Oman batter to fifty. Cross missed the chance to stump Ayaan on 14, allowing him to bat through to the end, finishing unbeaten on 41.The chase should not have been as high as it was. And there were portents for awkwardness against a side that had Australia fretting. Scotland responded with 50 for 1 in the first six overs, their most productive powerplay yet. At that stage, Australia had only managed 37 for the loss of Travis Head against a combination of Bilal Khan, Kaleemullah and Mehran Khan.Much like Bridgetown, Antigua’s North Sound had itself a short boundary and an assisting breeze. Before McMullen and Cross utilised it for a quick finish, the early going was made straight and true or with the odd shuffle down the pitch to pierce the infield. Then Munsey dipped into his bag of sweeps once the fielding restrictions had been lifted – notably with back-to-back reverse swept sixes off opposition captain Aqib Ilyas – and the rest piled in.In a tournament that has largely played out on slower, grippier surfaces so far, Scotland’s malleable top six can lay claim to being the most in form, with the receipts to prove it. Munsey and Michael Jones started with an unbroken 90 against England. Berrington and Michael Leask stunned Namibia with an expertly rescued second innings, before McMullen – the team’s first half-centurion on this trip – and Cross did their bits here. All are striking above 130 through attacking whenever possible, buying into a broader team edict of aggression while encouraging batters to find their best ways of achieving that. McMullen’s wristy hockey strikes through a V of mid-on to forward square leg was a shining example of that.This is already shaping up as the best of Scotland’s nine appearances at global ICC events. It will be confirmed outright if they make it through to the next stage. Of course, they do not need to beat Australia on Sunday to do that. Losing in style works just as well. Not that they’re entertaining the latter. Why would they given how things have run for them thus far?”We’re just going to have to be the quickest team to adapt when we get there and assess out the conditions first,” said McMullen, reciting from a well-worn but effective playbook. “And then just go and play our brand of cricket.”It is hard to remember a time when Scotland had such a clear brand of cricket, so instep with modern trends and yet equally adaptable. It will face its strongest test next weekend. That glory sits on either side of the result is more a condition of their excellence than the whims of weather and scheduling. Most of all, it has been earned.

There was a Maxwell scare, and Cummins also had his moment, but this time Afghanistan would not be denied

Andrew McGlashan23-Jun-2024The memories of Mumbai. What role would they play? As Glenn Maxwell was finding his stride, depositing Rashid Khan over long-on, when both the spin of the ball and direction of the wind were against him, the “scars” that he had talked of from a game Rashid admitted kept him awake at night, looked like they were there for Afghanistan.Another six, straight down the ground off Gulbadin Naib, took Maxwell to his fifty and as Naib began his next over, the 15th of the innings, Australia needed 44 from 36 balls with five wickets in hand.

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When the third ball of the match from Ashton Agar spun past the bat of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and flew through the vacant slip for four byes, there was a sense of a fascinating contest brewing on a pitch that had been all the talk in the lead-up. After three overs there had been two scoring shots off the bat, one an inside edge by Gurbaz off Josh Hazlewood, and Australia’s quicks were also extracting awkward, inconsistent bounce. But Afghanistan’s openers played it superbly; they waited and did not panic.Related

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The scoreboard read 11 for 0 off 3.5 overs when Gurbaz launched Pat Cummins straight down the ground for six. The next over from Hazlewood went for 12, including another Gurbaz six, and in the end, the powerplay registered a healthy 40 without loss. The running between the wickets by Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran was superb, something later Rashid singled out.The century stand, their third of the T20 World Cup 2024 and a new record, came up in the 14th over and their individual fifties followed in consecutive overs. Australia had never waited so long to take a wicket in a T20I when Marcus Stoinis eventually had Gurbaz taken in the deep – that was a rivalry which appeared to have a little bit of feeling.

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Australia’s poor fielding display against Scotland was put down to a team who knew they were safely in the Super Eight. Saturday’s may have cost them a chance of a semi-final.Agar bowled tidily after being recalled in place of Mitchell Starc to provide another spin option, but he had a day to forget in the field. He let through a boundary at deep square leg, over-ran another at long off, and dropped a difficult, but catchable chance in the penultimate over. He wasn’t alone, although none of the chances were sitters.Ashton Agar had a forgettable day on the field•Associated PressAdam Zampa can be excused for his flying attempt at deep third when Zadran upper-cut Cummins and a return catch to Stoinis by the same batter wasn’t easy. But Matthew Wade could have stumped Gurbaz on 41 and Travis Head reached a running catch that then burst through his hands, although Rashid fell without addition.Australia were able to finish the innings on a high when Cummins claimed his second hat-trick in three days – he was denied four in four when David Warner spilled another catch in the deep – although a last-ball boundary from Mohammad Nabi took Afghanistan to 149 which always felt competitive. Mitchell Marsh later rated it 20 above par.

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In November, at the Wankhede, Naveen-ul-Haq had Head caught behind second ball from around the wicket. In Kingstown on Saturday, it took him one ball more, and he did it all by himself as the stumps were splayed. In that game he then had Marsh lbw after he had cantered to 24 off 11 balls. This time a superb slower ball had the low-on-runs captain lofting a drive to mid-off after a couple of boundaries had suggested things may have turned for him.Warner, who has been in excellent touch this tournament, was starved of the strike in the powerplay and top-edged a sweep off Nabi. Australia were 32 for 3. It had been something of a surprise to see Afghanistan wait until the sixth over to use spin, it was also a surprise to see left-arm spinner Nangeyalia Kharote, playing his first game of the tournament, bowl the seventh. Fourth ball, Maxwell reverse swept him for four and two deliveries later launched him over deep midwicket for six. Rashid’s first over only went for three, but Noor Ahmad’s cost 11. In the over before drinks, Maxwell drove Rashid through the covers with calculated precision.

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Naib, who had been the eighth bowler handed the ball, all by the 11th over, had already removed the in-form Stoinis with a delivery that climbed off a length and trapped expert-finisher Tim David lbw with a stump-trimmer. But one figure still loomed in front of Afghanistan. Maxwell was on 59 off 39 balls.Three balls into his third over, Naib claimed one of the most significant wickets of a career which goes back to the very earliest days of Afghanistan’s evolution as a cricket nation. As Maxwell so often likes to do he, went to slice the ball through backward point but couldn’t keep it down and 19-year-old Noor, who had not been given another over, took a brilliant low catch. Maxwell let out a scream of anguish. Naib roared and flexed his muscles.Gulbadin Naib flexes his biceps after getting the big wicket of Glenn Maxwell•ICC/Getty ImagesTwo balls into the next over, Rashid removed the last specialist batter in Wade. But off the last ball of the over, the final one of Rashid’s spell, Cummins – the other half of the nightmare in Mumbai – was able to scamper a single from a misfield by Noor. Rashid made his frustrations clear. Maxwell wasn’t there, but the tension still was.Naib, who bowled his four overs straight in what will go down as one of the great T20 spells, put them a step closer when he defeated Cummins with a slower one. On the boundary Afghanistan’s bowling consultant Dwayne Bravo, who played 573 T20 matches, lived and breathed every moment. Head coach Jonathan Trott outwardly betrayed few emotions, much like when he batted, barring an occasional wrinkle of his nose.Naib had one more moment in him, diving full length to his left at cover to remove Agar. Afghanistan were one wicket away. Somehow they managed not to have enough fielders in the ring for the last ball of the 19th over so gave up a no-ball and free hit, but this one wasn’t going to slip away.Two balls into the last over, Zampa swiped Azmatullah Omarzai in the air to long-on where underneath it was Nabi, who like Naib has been there from the start. Australia were the 45th side he has won against in international cricket, and none will have been sweeter. Bravo, with a turn of pace, led the surge onto the outfield in celebration. Naib was given a piggyback off the field.

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A defeat to Australia and Afghanistan’s ODI World Cup was over. Now a win over Bangladesh could be enough for a semi-final. At the very least, they will know the sums of what they will need to do as they play second, again in St Vincent, after the Australia-India match. Their storied cricket journey has another chapter, and more could yet follow.”I think I can sleep better now,” Rashid a few minutes after the historic moment. “I didn’t sleep the whole night [in Mumbai]. I feel like tonight because of the happiness I won’t be able to sleep.”

“Personally it feels really good because the fans, they know I’m Deepti Sharma. It’s difficult to go out in the mall or walking down some streets”

Valkerie Baynes26-Sep-2024India aren’t under pressure to win their first senior women’s World Cup title; instead, they are taking inspiration from the success of the Indian men’s team earlier this year as they head into the Women’s T20 World Cup, according to allrounder Deepti Sharma.India Women have never lifted World Cup silverware at the senior level, their Under-19 counterparts making history when they won the inaugural age-group women’s T20 title in South Africa in 2023. That was the curtain-raiser to the Women’s T20 World Cup 2023, also held in South Africa, where India lost their semi-final to eventual sixth-time champions Australia.”I wouldn’t say pressure because the World Cup is a big event for each and every player, but personally I’m motivated with the men’s World Cup they took home,” Deepti told ESPNcricinfo. “We are doing a really good job throughout each and every series and every tournament and I won’t say it’s a pressure, but we will do our best.”Related

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India were runners-up at the 2020 edition in Australia and have twice reached the final of the ODI World Cup, in 2005 and 2017. It was the latter that Deepti highlighted as a watershed moment for women’s cricket in India. There, England clinched a nine-run victory before an ecstatic home crowd at Lord’s.”How we played the finals in 2017, suddenly everything was changed,” said Deepti, who was still only 19 at the time but already had 30 ODIs and three T20Is to her name. “Personally it feels really good because the fans, they know I’m Deepti Sharma. It’s difficult to go out in the mall or walking down some streets.”It’s a great feeling from the 2017 World Cup final and obviously if we win the World Cup things will really change from every perspective and each woman will want to play cricket after that, so I’m hoping for the best.”From reflecting on how her sport has changed since then, Deepti was also struck by how much progress had been made in just the past couple of years as the women’s global franchise circuit has flourished. She was speaking at The Oval last month while preparing for the Women’s Hundred eliminator with London Spirit, who went on to win the final.Deepti Sharma won the Women’s Hundred 2024 with the Heather Knight-led London Spirit•Getty ImagesHaving called international rivals Charlie Dean, Heather Knight and Sarah Glenn team-mates through the campaign, and played with Alyssa Healy, Chamari Athapaththu and Sophie Ecclestone in her second season with UP Warriorz at the WPL where she was the MVP in 2024, any mystique surrounding World Cup opponents is all but gone.Having come into the Spirit squad as a replacement for the injured Grace Harris, Deepti played eight matches, scoring 212 runs at a strike rate of 132.50 and going unbeaten five times in her six innings. She also took eight wickets at an economy rate of 6.85. Deepti was the fifth-highest run-scorer at this year’s WPL with 295 runs at a strike rate of 136.57 and she took 10 wickets at an average of 21.70 and economy rate of 7.23.And while India’s players have become even bigger stars at home, whether it be from reaching the closing stages of World Cups or their franchise appearances, it may well have made them easier for fans to identify with. Deepti felt as much when India hosted South Africa in June and July this year. Then, India suffered an early scare with a 12-run defeat in the opening T20I in Chennai having swept their ODI series in Bengaluru 3-0.Those matches were India’s last before the Women’s Asia Cup, where they were upset in the final by T20 World Cup qualifiers Sri Lanka.

“I wouldn’t say pressure because the World Cup is a big event for each and every player, but personally I’m motivated with the men’s [T20] World Cup they took home”Deepti Sharma

“The World Cup gives lot of confidence that we can do our best and small girls when they come to watch our series in India – in Bangalore, we played the South Africa series – and they were like, ‘I want autographs’ and ‘I want pictures’, so it’s great to watch them,” Deepti said. “And they said, ‘I also started playing cricket.'”We just told them, ‘don’t give up, just play your best and don’t think about the result, results will come, just express yourself’.”Despite those hiccups against South Africa and Sri Lanka, Deepti was confident heading into the World Cup, where India will start their campaign against New Zealand on October 4.”We’re quite positive as a team,” she said. “We are doing really well and we are thinking that each and every game is important, so whether we are playing any team, we are quite focused.”Should India finally triumph in Dubai on October 20, just imagine the focus on them.

With India about to embark on a long Test season, a crowded list of fringe players will hope to catch the selectors’ eye during the Duleep Trophy

Shashank Kishore03-Sep-2024The Duleep Trophy, which opens India’s 2024-25 domestic season, is set to kick off on September 5 in Bengaluru and Anantapur, with a number of big names featuring. With the Test squad for the home series against Bangladesh set to be picked later this week, there’s an opportunity for those on the fringes to impress the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel as they look to shortlist players for India A tour of Australia in November, which shadows the senior team’s five-Test tour of the country.Here are a few things to look forward to.Who is the next reserve opener?Barring injury and illness, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal are likely to be India’s first-choice opening combination for the moment. Shubman Gill currently occupies the No. 3 spot, while KL Rahul has expressed his preference to bat in the middle order. Both have opened in the past, however, and can slot back in at the top if temporarily needed.But there’s plenty at stake for the domestic openers on the fringes. On top of the list are Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran and Karnataka’s Devdutt Padikkal, who made his debut against England earlier this year in Dharamsala, albeit in the middle order.Related

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Easwaran is largely old-school and copybook and has scored 7006 first-class runs at an average of 47.65 in a decade-long career so far. He’s been on tours with the national team previously and has led India A, but the Test cap has been elusive.Padikkal, meanwhile, started off as an opener but has carved a niche at No. 3 over the past year. But with R Samarth having left Karnataka, it’s likely Padikkal will be back at the top of the order for his state side. Padikkal scored 556 runs in six Ranji Trophy innings at 92.66 in 2023-24, including three hundreds. A strong follow-up to start 2024-25 will keep him in the mix.Another contender who has impressed the selection committee with his temperament is Tamil Nadu’s B Sai Sudharsan. While the left-hand batter plays at No. 3 or 4 for his state side, he is open to batting at the top. He began his ODI career with back-to-back half-centuries as an opener late last year in South Africa.Sudharsan will come into the Duleep Trophy fresh off a century for Surrey in the County Championship.A crowded list of middle-order candidatesThe Test series against England earlier this year featured a number of impressive performances from new faces in the middle order, particularly Sarfaraz Khan, who made three half-centuries in his first five Test innings, and Dhruv Jurel, who won the Player of the Match award with a pair of brilliant knocks in only his second Test. But they could find themselves crowded out by the imminent returns of Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant, who both missed the series. Rahul, who missed the last four Tests with injury, is likely to slot right back too.Is Sai Kishore ready for the step up to Test cricket?•PTI If all of them are fit, India could opt for a top seven of Rohit, Jaiswal, Gill, Kohli, Rahul, Pant and Ravindra Jadeja in the first Test against Bangladesh in Chennai. Jurel will likely be the reserve wicketkeeper, which leaves Sarfaraz and Shreyas Iyer – who was dropped after the first two Tests against England – in a fight to squeeze into the squad.All this adds extra spice to the opening-round Duleep fixtures. Apart from Sarfaraz, Jurel and Iyer, other middle-order candidates who could be in action include Rajat Patidar, who endured a difficult Test initiation against England, and B Indrajith, who has been knocking for a few seasons now. Earlier this year, after being left out of the Tamil Nadu squad initially, he was instrumental in the team’s stirring run to the semi-final. Across 111 first-class innings, he averages 53.85 with 16 hundreds.The search for India’s next set of spinnersFor more than a decade now, R Ashwin and Jadeja have been constants in the Test set-up. Over the past couple of years, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel have pushed themselves ahead of the chasing pack to establish themselves as the next spinners in line.Beneath the cream, there’s a healthy crop of upcoming left-arm spinners. R Sai Kishore, the highest wicket-taker of the 2023-24 Ranji season (53), and Saurabh Kumar are high up in the pecking order. But the selectors are also looking keenly at the old-school Manav Suthar from Rajasthan who finds himself in the NCA’s targeted pool of players.The 22-year-old Suthar has picked up 55 wickets over the past two Ranji seasons and has been part of the India Emerging (for the Asia Cup) and India A (against England Lions) squads.Yash Dayal is among the left-arm quicks jostling for the selectors’ attention•Manoj Bookanakere/KSCAAmong the offspinners, Washington Sundar is the frontrunner, having already shown his utility as an allrounder in his brief but impressive spell in the Test side in 2020-21. He’s made a splash in white-ball cricket more recently, having been named Player of the Series in the T20I series in Zimbabwe for his eight wickets in five games at an average of 11.62, and following that up with decent returns during the limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka. He’ll hope to translate that form into red-ball cricket.The other offspinner the selectors have been keen on looking at is Delhi’s Hrithik Shokeen. The 24-year-old is only two seasons old in first-class cricket and has so far picked up 30 wickets in 10 games at 33.93. He, like Washington, is more than useful with the bat as well, as he has shown with two fifties and an average of 32.16 so far in his first-class career. He has also been to the UK on an exchange program with Mumbai Indians.The fast-bowling reservesIndia’s search for a left-arm fast bowler post Zaheer Khan hasn’t yet yielded a long-term solution, at least in Test cricket. Arshdeep Singh is a T20I regular now, but his challenge is to show he can sustain the intensity of red-ball cricket: he has only played 16 first-class games so far, and averages 31.97. Khaleel Ahmed, who has endured a stop-start career thanks to injury, has also played very little first-class cricket: just 12 games in seven years, while averaging 35.00.These two are set to feature in the Duleep Trophy, as is Uttar Pradesh’s Yash Dayal, who can swing the new ball both ways and has impressed India’s team management with his skills. He has picked up 72 wickets in 23 first-class games at 29.26, and has come into the limelight on the back of a stellar IPL 2024 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru.Among right-arm quicks, the Bengal pair of Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar will hope to build on their impressive Test initiations, while Avesh Khan, who has an excellent first-class record – 165 wickets in 43 games at 22.49 – will hope he can find a way to break into the Test side having been in and around the white-ball set-up for a while. Prasidh Krishna, meanwhile, is finally fit again after two years of run-ins with injuries either side of a lacklustre debut Test series in South Africa.With a long Test season about to begin, India will want to make sure they have the right back-ups in place for the lead Test trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj.

Led by novice coaches, both teams have made encouraging progress in recent months, and will be keen to bring back the glory days

Madushka Balasuriya12-Oct-2024West Indies and Sri Lanka have long had an affinity of sorts for each other – particularly the latter during its cricketing infancy, when the mighty West Indian juggernaut was for most fans their second team. It also helped that they were fellow island nations – or in the case of the West Indies, a nation of islands. And in the lead up to West Indies’ first white-ball tour of Sri Lanka since 2020, these parallels have only grown stronger.Underwhelming World Cups? Check. Novice head coaches? Check. A strong desire to rediscover the glories of old? You bet. They even both missed out on qualifying for the 2025 Champions Trophy and toured England over the summer.They both also enter this series on the back of some promising white-ball results. West Indies have clean swept both South Africa and India at home in T20Is in 2024, while Sri Lanka have a home ODI series win against India as well as white-ball series wins against Zimbabwe and Afghanistan.But what makes this upcoming tour so enticing is that, these are two sides which are pretty evenly matched. The last time West Indies toured Sri Lanka for a white-ball series, they swept the T20Is and were swept in the ODIs, and in 15 T20Is between the two, West Indies have won seven and Sri Lanka eight. Here we look at some of the key talking points surrounding the upcoming series.Related

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A tale of two coachesSticking to theme of parallels, there’s no better point to begin with than Daren Sammy and Sanath Jayasuriya. Jayasuriya’s had a fairly impressive start to his career as head coach, but if ever there were questions over how his man-management- centric approach to coaching could translate over a longer period, perhaps Sammy holds the answers.While Sammy’s franchise coaching background brought with it more experience when taking over the reins as West Indies head coach in March 2023, the similarities in his approach to Jayasuriya’s is hard to miss.Sammy has spoken about honesty and clarity being key pillars in his coaching style; for Jayasuriya, it’s instilling confidence and gaining the trust of the players. These could be seen as two sides of the same motivational coin, as both rely on solid foundations of rapport with players and administrators alike to push forward their plans.And a quick look at West Indies T20I record since Sammy took over speaks volumes towards his impact – six combined bilateral series against South Africa, India, England and Australia has yielded five series wins. The only blips were a 2-1 series defeat in Australia and an unsuccessful World Cup campaign, which still saw them come out with five wins and two defeats.This run of results has seen the West Indies surge up the ICC T20I rankings, up from seventh to third. With Sri Lanka languishing currently in eighth place in those same rankings, Jayasuriya will no doubt be eyeing similar upward momentum.Sri Lanka players tune up for the T20I series against West Indies•AFP/Getty ImagesWest Indies vs spin One area in which the West Indies have improved drastically during Sammy’s tenure has been in their approach to spin bowling. From once being a primarily six-hitting side that could be efficiently countered by simply cutting off boundaries, there is now a growing focus on running between the wickets while data analytics increasingly informs their strategies – such as maintaining right-left combinations to better deal with legspin, and drafting in strong batters against spin such as Shai Hope.”The improvement in our run rate against spin from five-point something to six and a half to eight runs an over between the seventh to 15th overs…we were the best team in the last five overs in the last year,” Sammy said in an interview with this past week.But in Sri Lanka, they will likely come across their stiffest spin challenge yet, with the likes of Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jeffrey Vandersay and Dunith Wellalage offering a varied array of threats. Though in the limited sample size of T20Is in Dambulla, it has generally been the seamers that have proved more of a threat.Sammy has spoken about honesty and clarity being key pillars in his coaching style•ICC via Getty ImagesBattle of the quicksWhile T20 cricket is known for its relentless onslaught of power-hitting, where T20 games – and series – are generally won is in the bowling. Even on the most placid of surfaces, a potent and varied attack – particularly when it comes to pace – can make all the difference.The hosts boast two slingers – with differing trajectories, pace and skillsets – in Matheesha Pathirana and Nuwan Thushara, while Binura Fernando and his 6’4″ frame offers less pace but makes up for it in guile and cunning, which makes him a threat both in the powerplay and at the death.West Indies meanwhile boast talents such as Shamar Joseph and Alzarri Joseph – both clocking above 140kph regularly and capable of unsettling bounce – while Jayden Seales excelled for the Jaffna Kings in the 2021 Lanka Premier League.Visiting pacers have also had a fair bit of success when touring Sri Lanka – in venues other than the Khettarama in Colombo, where spin dominates. In Afghanistan’s three T20Is earlier this year in Dambulla, 13 of the 20 wickets they took in the series were by seamers, while even Zimbabwe’s modest seam contingent accounted for eight scalps across three T20Is to go with the 13 they picked up in three ODIs.How both sets of seamers profit from the conditions could go a fair way in deciding this series.Eye on DambullaThe Rangiri Dambulla Stadium has hosted just three men’s T20Is – all in the past year – when Sri Lanka took on Afghanistan. There a 200-plus total was chased down once, while scores of 187 and 160 were defended successfully. If you include data from women’s T20Is played there, Sri Lanka most recently chased down a target of 166 in the 2024 Asia Cup final, while the top four high scores from that tournament – all played in Dambulla – read: 201, 191, 184 and 178. Safe to say, the batters have found it quite enjoyable.This is also down to Sri Lanka Cricket making a concerted effort to curate more batter friendly tracks so as to nurture more aggressive cricket from their batters. The only outlier in this new initiative was the recent ODI series against India at the Khettarama in Colombo, where surfaces were geared towards spin – this though has the caveat of Khettarama traditionally being on the slower side, while the series also immediately followed the LPL which meant the pitches were already fairly worn down.Dambulla should not have any such issues, so the expectation is a surface tailor-made for some big-hitting T20 cricket.

Vote for the best individual Border-Gavaskar Trophy performance by an Indian in Australia since 2000

Shashank Kishore21-Oct-2024Update: This poll has ended. Sachin Tendulkar’s performance goes into the quarter-finals. Check the other polls here.ESPNcricinfo LtdSachin Tendulkar celebrates his double-century at the SCG in 2004•William West/AFP via Getty Images

Sachin Tendulkar – 241* & 60* in Sydney, 2004

Match drawn, series drawn 1-1Sachin Tendulkar’s form with the series level 1-1 hadn’t been reassuring. His cover driving had caused three dismissals in the first three Tests, and he was determined not to fall for the bait at the SCG. His 241* in the first innings – his highest Test score at the time – was a remarkable example of his discipline and ability to find a way.Tendulkar did not play the cover drive, even when the Australian bowlers offered easy temptation, and entirely cut out a faulty part of his game. He batted for more than ten hours and helped India amass 705, shutting down Australia’s hopes of a series win. His unbeaten 60 off 89 balls in the second innings was compiled with more freedom, as India pushed towards a declaration. However, a setting a target of 443 left them with too little time to take ten wickets and achieve what would have been a historic series win.Watch the highlights of these performances on the Star Sports network at 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm IST, from October 22 onwards.Virender Sehwag saved the Adelaide Test for India in 2008•AFP

Virender Sehwag – 63 & 151 in Adelaide, 2008

Match drawn, India lost the series 2-1After winning in Perth, India began the final Test in Adelaide 2-1 down and Virender Sehwag gave them a cracking start, his 63 off 90 balls laying the platform for a first-innings total of 526. But Australia responded with 563 and the visitors were under fire to save the game.Sehwag was in Australia only on his captain Anil Kumble’s insistence, and he wasn’t known to be a second-innings performer. He ended up batting for nearly six hours, doing un-Sehwag things like going an entire session without a boundary, and scored his 13th century – his first in the second innings of a Test. He went through his gears, ensuring runs came despite wickets falling, to put India’s lead well out of Australia’s reach. Sehwag finished on 151; the next highest score in India’s total of 269 for 7 declared was MS Dhoni’s 20.

In our second batch of team report cards for 2024: India, Australia, South Africa, Bangladesh, West Indies, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe

02-Jan-2025Indiaby Sidharth Monga
It was almost like India used up a year’s worth of luck on one afternoon in Barbados. It brought the country immense joy. What the T20 World Cup, their first ICC title in 11 years, meant to India really hit home when parts of the financial capital of the country came to a standstill for the victorious team’s trophy tour. It was as though not just the players but the entire country let themselves release their emotions after the heartbreak of the defeat in the last year’s ODI World Cup final.However, the tears of joy soon turned into anguish when India ended their dominant home run of 18 unbeaten series with not just any series defeat but their first-ever whitewash at home.As after the ODI World Cup in 2011, India hurtled towards a transition, with R Ashwin announcing retirement and pressure building on some others. Only the relentless genius of Jasprit Bumrah kept the men’s team from resembling the side that sleepwalked to eight straight Test defeats in England and Australia in 2011 and 2012.At the end of the year, needing a win in Sydney to stay alive in the World Test Championship, the memories of the T20 World Cup win and the home series win against England seemed so distant they might as well have been nostalgia.You can’t take away from those victories, though. Especially the T20I one, where the younger batters kept going from strength to strength. India scored at 9.55 an over in 2024, the third-fastest by any Full Member side in a calendar year in T20Is. Their batters made seven centuries in the format, and they lost just two games out of 26 all year, truly entering the modern T20 age.That they lost three times as many Tests should tell you which format needs their leadership’s utmost attention.The year was much more temperate for the women, lacking dramatic ups and downs. While they won the only Test they played, they kept losing to Australia. The surprise defeat to Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup T20 final will remain a disappointment.High point
When Heinrich Klaasen hit Axar Patel out of Kensington Oval during a 24-run over, South Africa were left needing just 30 off 30 balls in the World Cup final. The replacement ball, though, began to reverse, and all of a sudden, everything started to go India’s way. Everything needed to be inch perfect to be able to pull off that defence, and that is exactly what it turned out to be, ending years of agony for a trophy-starved nation.Low point
Later in the year, everything started going against India to result in the snapping of their 12-year unbeaten run in Test series at home. Unseasonal rain in Bengaluru created a seaming track that helped New Zealand, and a Rishabh Pant six hit out of the Chinnaswamy brought out a ball that started seaming afresh. In a panic, India demanded extreme turners for the remaining Tests, lost the tosses, and for once, their spin-bowling allrounders failed to bail them out. The streak was ended by the unlikeliest of opponents, who last won a Test in India in 1988, and ended up more than doubling their tally of wins in India.ResultsMen
Tests: P15 W8 L6 D1
ODIs: P3 W0 L2 T1
T20Is: P26 W24 L2Women
Tests: P1 W1
ODIs: P13 W8 L5
T20Is: P23 W15 L7 NR1After disappointment in the World Cup, Australia found redemption with a 2-1 series lead over India•Getty ImagesAustraliaby Andrew McGlashan
Australia’s men saved their best for last, taking a 2-1 lead over India with a race-against-time victory at the MCG in a Test that saw record attendances. It was a significant turnaround after a crushing defeat in Perth to start the series. They will head into 2025 with hopes of a first series win over India in a decade and a good chance of defending their World Test Championship title.There was a sense of renewal, too, after the sparkling debut of 19-year-old Sam Konstas amid what had become a churn of openers following David Warner’s retirement at the start of the year – first Steven Smith and then Nathan McSweeney were tried at the top of the order. Regardless of how Konstas’ career pans out, it will be fascinating to watch.The shock defeat to West Indies at the Gabba (against an inspired Shamar Joseph) and a Super Eight exit at the T20 World Cup meant it wasn’t quite a year to match the highs of 2023.The women’s team, too, fell below their usual heights – although they had set a bar very hard to stay above forever. Going out in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup was a surprise, and doubts grew over the future of captain Alyssa Healy, who has been beset by injury, but the question was also about how to make the best use of the abundance of talent available in the likes of Phoebe Litchfield, Annabel Sutherland, and latterly Georgia Voll.High point
The MCG on the penultimate day of the year. Pat Cummins and many of his team-mates termed the victory against India as among their greatest. A game that began with the thrilling debut of Konstas, who took the attack to Jasprit Bumrah, came down to Australia needing seven wickets at the start of the final session and surging over the line with 12 overs to spare. Cummins, as so often, led from the front with an immense all-round performance.Low point
Both Australia teams were eliminated from their respective T20 World Cups early, but given their legacy it was the women’s exit in Dubai that was the more surprising. They were bundled out by eight wickets against South Africa, missing injured captain Healy, and it ended a run of seven consecutive finals for them in the competition. Was it a sign of a decline, or a defeat that was inevitable at some point? With an Ashes early in 2025 and an ODI World Cup later in the year, the coming 12 months will tell us a lot.ResultsMen
Tests: P9 W6 L2 D1
ODIs: P11 W7 L4
T20Is: P21 W17 L4Women
Tests: P1 W1
ODIs: P12 W11 L1
T20Is: P17 W14 L3South Africa men rode a very bumpy, unpredictable path to their first WTC final•AFP/Getty ImagesSouth AfricaBy Firdose Moonda
Three finals in one year screams success (even if two were lost and one has yet to be played) and points to a consistent upward trajectory for the South African game. But there is a caveat: 2024 was a year where South Africa won when it mattered and lost, often badly, when it didn’t.Their Test year started poorly, with a defeat to India in a 107-over aberration at Newlands and a first series loss to New Zealand, where they were forced to take a second-string sidebecause the first-choice players were committed to the SA20. But they roared back for series wins against West Indies and Bangladesh away, and Sri Lanka at home to put themselves on the brink of the World Test Championship final. Before the year was out, South Africa secured their spots for that match in a nerve-shredding two wicket win in the Boxing Day Test. A feature of their performances has been the upturn in century-scoring. In 2024, eight South Africa Test batters reached hundreds; Tristan Stubbs and Kyle Verreynne twice each.Their white-ball performances peaked when they reeled off eight successive wins to reach the T20 World Cup final – a first for the men’s team – but a narrow loss by seven runs to India left the trophy cabinet bare.In ODIs, South Africa lost series to Afghanistan in Sharjah and Pakistan at home, the latter the first time any team has whitewashed South Africa in their own backyard. They also lost their first four T20I bilateral series in 2024 – and were blanked 3-0 by West Indies either side of the World Cup – before beating Pakistan in December. It is difficult to assess these results on numbers alone because South Africa played most of their bilateral white-ball cricket without first-choice players due to various factors.The women’s team reached a second successive T20 World Cup final, after losing series to Australia away and Sri Lanka at home, but against expectation, thrashed defending champions Australia in the semi-final. They then they took on much less fancied New Zealand in the final but it wasn’t to be, again.An all-format visit by England in the summer brought more misery: South Africa won only one out of seven matches and were dismissed for their lowest Test total, 64. But there are signs things are steadying. In the last three weeks of the year, the South African women’s team finally got a new head coach, Mandla Mashimbyi, who has promised to advocate for red-ball cricket at domestic level. In 2025 the focus will be on the ODI World Cup, for which South Africa have qualified after ending the women’s championship in fourth place.High point
Reaching the WTC final is a testament to consistent high performances. South Africa recovered from early lows to peak in the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan, which they won by two wickets. A thrilling fourth day also saw South Africa do what they’ve rarely managed before – hold their nerve in a chase.Low Point
While its understood that financial reasons compelled CSA to make room for the SA20 in the calendar (and it turned a profit again in its second year), the consequences were alarming. South Africa named a Test squad with seven uncapped players for their tour of New Zealand, and they duly lost the series 2-0l. That was the first time South Africa had lost a Test series to New Zealand, and at the time it threw their WTC hopes into disarray.ResultsMen
Tests: P10 W6 L3 D1
ODIs: P9 W3 L6
T20Is: P23 W12 L11Women
Tests: P3 L3
ODIs: P12 W3 L8 NR1
T20Is: P21 W9 L11 NR1The Shamar sizzle: the Gabba win at the start of the year was one of West Indies’ great achievements in Tests this century•Albert Perez/Getty ImagesWest Indiesby Shashank Kishore
A seminal Test win at the Gabba, West Indies’ first in Tests against Australia in 21 years and their first in Australia in 27, set the tone, but their Test year got tougher from there, with an away sweep in England and losses at home to South Africa (1-0) and Bangladesh (1-1).Though the results were a mixed bag, there were flashes of individual brilliance from time to time, like Kevin Hodge’s maiden Test hundred at Nottingham in the face of some serious heat and hostility from Mark Wood.In T20Is West Indies underachieved by crashing out of their home World Cup without making at least the semi-final. England inflicted further agony by beating them 3-1 in the T20Is in the Caribbean in November. A win in the ODI leg over England may have been a temporary balm, but it meant little, given they don’t have a Champions Trophy to look forward to, having failed to qualify for the eight-team event.The women’s team achieved far more than they were expected to, reaching their first T20 World Cup semi-final since 2018. That campaign marked the international return of superstar Deandra Dottin, who contributed wholesomely to their success.High point
The Gabba Test win, which came on the back of a ten-wicket drubbing in under three days in Adelaide.Equally massive was them knocking off tournament favourites England to qualify for the semi-final of the women’s T20 World Cup. Having last beaten England in 2018, they broke a 13-match losing streak against them. It was only the second time England failed to make a T20 World Cup semi-final since 2010.Low point
A Super Eight exit from the men’s T20 World Cup after losing to England and South Africa.Results
Men
Tests: P9 W2 L6 D1
ODIs: P12 W6 L6
T20Is: P27 W14 L12 NR1Women
ODIs: P8 W3 L5
T20Is: P16 W10 L6Bangladesh swept Pakistan at home in a Test series for the first time ever•Associated PressBangladeshby Mohammad Isam
Bangladesh men’s 3-0 win against West Indies in the T20I series capped a hot-and-cold year for them. It was hard to gauge exactly where the team stood at the end of a year in which they beat Pakistan 2-0 in a historic overseas Test series, but they were also beaten by USA 2-1 in a T20I series.They also had their share of controversies and drama. The year began with an ill-tempered multi-format home series against Sri Lanka. Then came the series defeat to USA in Houston, which caused much trepidation for the T20 World Cup, but Bangladesh made it to the tournament’s second stage for the first time in its history. Still, their exit caused controversy as they gave up a potential semi-final spot chasing just 114 runs against Afghanistan.When they beat Pakistan two months later, Bangladesh looked like a different side. However, they then had series defeats against India, South Africa and Afghanistan. They went to West Indies an injury-hit side, but ended up winning a Test in Jamaica, and then beating the home side in the T20I series in St Vincent.The women’s team, meanwhile, had a poor year, struggling in the T20 World Cup and in the format overall, culminating in a 3-0 defeat to Ireland at home in December.High point
Bangladesh’s sweep of Pakistan – their first ever – was their best performance in an away Test series in years. Mushfiqur Rahim and Litton Das starred with the bat, and the pace attack carried the side when the batters couldn’t. Mehidy Hasan Miraz was stunning with both bat and ball.Low point
USA beating Bangladesh in a T20I series was a real low, but they were also bossed at home in a Test series by an inexperienced South African side.Results
Men
Tests: P10 W3 L7
ODIs: P9 W3 L6
T20Is: P24 W12 L12Women
ODIs: P6 W3 L3
T20Is: P19 W3 L16In 2024, Afghanistan made it to their first World Cup semi-final•AFP/Getty ImagesAfghanistanby Danyal Rasool
In 2024, Afghanistan continued their inexorable rise in white-ball cricket as demonstrated by an ODI series win against South Africa and their run to the T20 World Cup semi-final. There were also T20I series wins over Ireland and Zimbabwe, which showed signs Afghanistan were building depth, slowly but surely moving on from the generation that first oversaw their emergence in international cricket.There remain bouts of inconsistency, as is perhaps inevitable for a side still early in their development. Test matches remain few and far between, and Afghanistan lost the two they played in 2024. Plus, an ODI whitewash by Sri Lanka indicated there is work they still need to do in the 50-over format as well.But the wider story of Afghanistan cricket continues to be marred by the complete absence of a women’s team, with the ruling Taliban having banned women from playing cricket. It has led to social isolation of Afghanistan cricket, most notably with Australia refusing to play them in bilateral series, though the sides have competed multiple times in ICC tournaments.High point
Afghanistan seem to improve with every ICC tournament they play, but the 2024 T20 World Cup was the real breakthrough. They blitzed New Zealand and stunned Australia to qualify for the semi-final for the first time in their history. While South Africa eased to victory in that game, it showed the progress Afghanistan have made in all these years.Low point
Test cricket is not Afghanistan’s forte, but even so, they were expected to beat Ireland in the UAE, where the conditions favoured them. They paid the price for a poor first innings and never quite recovered, as Ireland secured a six-wicket victory.Results
Men
Tests: P2 L2
ODIs: P14 W8 L5 NR 1
T20Is: P21 W11 L10 Sikandar Raza became Zimbabwe’s first T20I centurion in a record-breaking 290-run win against Gambia•International Cricket CouncilZimbabweby Firdose Moonda
A continuing sparse run of fixtures means it may be a while yet before Zimbabwe’s assessment on one of these report cards can improve, but at least 2024 was not quite as disastrous as the year before.There were no tournaments the men’s side could qualify for, though they remain in the running for the 2026 T20 World Cup after winning their sub-regional qualifier. The women’s team took part in the T20 World Cup qualifiers and recovered from an embarrassing loss to Vanuatu to beat UAE, but finished fourth in their five-team group. There was some success at continental level for both sides: a Zimbabwean men’s Emerging side won gold after beating Namibia at the Africa Games in Accra, and a full-strength women’s side also finished as champions after beating the South African Emerging side. Neither of those matches were classed as T20Is though.The games that do qualify don’t make for pretty reading. The men lost the only Test they played, in Ireland, and won only one ODI, against Pakistan. Their T20I form was slightly better: they had one-off wins over Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan but have not won a bilateral series since beating Ireland in early 2023. The women’s team had better fortunes, notching up an ODI series wins against Papua New Guinea (PNG) and USA, a T20I series win over PNG and have been included in the new women’s FTP.Off the field, Zimbabwe appointed a new men’s coach – Justin Sammons – and began work on a couple of infrastructure projects, expected to be ready in time for the 2027 men’s ODI World Cup, which Zimbabwe will co-host with South Africa and Namibia.High point
Against the run of play, Zimbabwe racked up a world record, and a good one. They have the highest score in men’s T20I cricket, 344 for 4 against Gambia, in the Africa Sub-Regional Qualifier to win by 290 runs. They topped the points table in that qualifying tournament and advance to the eight-team regional final, which will be played in 2025. The top two teams from that tournament will go through to the 2026 World Cup.Low point
Some of Zimbabwe’s batting collapses in 2024 were nothing short of spectacular. They were bowled out for 54 by Afghanistan in an ODI – their joint fourth-lowest total in that format – and lost the game by a massive 232 runs. They were also dismisssed for 57 by Pakistan in a T20I – their lowest total in the format. The women’s team lost to 32nd-ranked Vanuatu in the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier; they were bowled out for their lowest T20I score: 61 in that game.Men
Tests: P 1 L1
ODIs: P9 W1 L6 NR 2
T20Is: P24 W10 L14 Women
ODIs: P11 W6 L4 T1
T20Is: P22 W8 L14 Report cards for the other top teams
More in our look back at 2024

Anyone could have seen this Champions Trophy imbroglio coming, but cricket’s governing body did not

Nagraj Gollapudi18-Nov-2024We are here again. Not for the first time and probably not the last.With under 100 days to go for the 2025 Champions Trophy, scheduled in Pakistan, the ICC has still not formally announced the dates for the tournament. The schedule, too, has not been finalised. Why? India, one of the eight participating countries, will not travel to Pakistan – a decision taken by the Indian government, according to the BCCI in its communication to the ICC.We have been here, not once but twice, as recently as 2023. Take your memory back to last year’s Asia Cup and ODI World Cup and you will see a similar pattern. In the first instance, the PCB was forced to loosen its stance that the event would be held solely in Pakistan after the BCCI said India did not have permission from their government to travel across the border. Eventually it was Pakistan, the hosts, who ended up boarding flights to and from Sri Lanka, where India played all their matches, including the final. At the World Cup, the PCB pushed to get the ICC to adopt the hybrid model, but Pakistan eventually travelled to India. They travelled, it has since emerged, despite deep reservations within the Pakistan government.Twelve months later we are once again in familiar territory: the BCCI has made its move, comfortably standing in one corner, arms folded. At the opposite end, the PCB stands steadfast, refusing to blink or budge. The ICC, in theory the adjudicator, remains tight-lipped. It is a shambolic situation.Related

• The resolution of the India-Pakistan Champions Trophy standoff was a win? Not by a long shot

• Outgoing ICC chair Barclay blames members' 'self-interest' for congested cricket calendar

• Champions Trophy: PCB promises to do 'what's best for Pakistan cricket'

• India withdraw from T20 Blind Cricket World Cup in Pakistan

• PCB chief on Champions Trophy: 'I still have positive expectations'

Who actually gains from this brinkmanship? That is only part of the question. The more important question, though, one that never gets asked properly is: who is responsible for this standoff? Unequivocally the answer is the ICC, the game’s governing body, which has once again escaped scrutiny. To be precise, the ICC leadership: the ICC board.In November 2021 the ICC board allocated hosting rights for various global events in the 2024-31 rights cycle to several boards. The PCB, which had bid for two events, was allocated the 2025 Champions Trophy. The ICC board approved the hosts based on recommendations drawn up by a smaller working group that included Sourav Ganguly, then the BCCI president, and Ehsan Mani, the former PCB chair and ICC head. That ICC board was headed by Greg Barclay. Ganguly, one would assume, had the backing of the Indian board, whose secretary was Jay Shah (who takes charge as ICC chairman from December 1).Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI president at the time, was part of the working group that drew up recommendations to the ICC board when it awarded Pakistan the Champions Trophy hosting rights•BCCIAs a reminder, the ICC board comprises directors who represent the 12 Full Members, along with an independent director, three directors representing the Associates, and the ICC chairman and CEO. So this was a collective call. If there was even a single voice of caution three years ago when it came to allotting the Champions Trophy to Pakistan, details of it have never emerged. Did nobody see this coming? Maybe they did but opted to look down or the other way instead?In the fraught political climate that has existed between the two neighbours since the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008, you didn’t need to be a fortune-teller to raise a red flag about whether India would actually travel to Pakistan in 2025. More than one person involved in the bids allocation process said that one reason the ICC board believed conditions might be favourable for India to visit for the Champions Trophy was if Pakistan went to India for the 2023 World Cup – which they did. And once they did, the PCB must have assumed India would reciprocate.However, in a professional environment, you need accountability instead of relying on good faith. Why did the ICC, in 2021, not attach a few conditions when it allotted the Champions Trophy to Pakistan, starting with an official timeline including deadlines, with one specifically for the BCCI: communicate well in advance to the ICC whether India would travel to Pakistan? Such a hard stop could have been put in, say, a year before the actual event. In the absence of any such cutoff, the BCCI’s first communication to the ICC that India would not travel was relayed around November 6. That is just over three months before the scheduled start of the tournament on February 19.

More than one person involved in the bids allocation process said that one reason the ICC board believed conditions might be favourable for India to visit for the Champions Trophy was if Pakistan went to India for the 2023 World Cup – which they did

But more crucially, what plan was in place to deal with the outcome that was always likely? In a perfect and equitable world, global tournaments could go ahead without teams that are unable to participate in the prescribed way, but no ICC tournament is commercially tenable without India’s participation, a fact that was emphatically underlined during the last broadcast deal. Why wasn’t a hybrid option part of the contingency plan if India failed to travel to Pakistan? Or was it assumed that the PCB would once again fall in line and acquiesce to a hybrid model?As it turns out and as was pointed out to them recently by a senior official from an overseas board, the PCB might have a little leverage by dint of their team being part of the most watched and most lucrative match in an ICC event. It might have been unacceptable to the PCB to accept the hosting rights with a hybrid option attached as a contingency. But it would have been the most pragmatic and clear-minded approach, since it is beyond the ICC to persuade the Indian government to allow the Indian team to travel to Pakistan. Instead, the ICC leadership has opted to kick the problem down the road, hoping it will somehow resolve itself.In our increasingly divided and divisive world, strong leadership is required to maintain equilibrium. The ICC board in the past has shown it is capable of doing that. Now it needs bold solutions for the future.

The exclusion hurt him, but it gave him a break that he perhaps needed after two years of carrying an intense workload. Now he’s back, and back to his best

Sidharth Monga06-Apr-20251:31

Rayudu: Siraj’s comeback since India omission has been amazing

Mohammed Siraj had been doing well for India in both limited-overs formats for some time when he was left out of their squad for the Champions Trophy. Even in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence, Siraj didn’t find a place in the 15-man squad. India wanted a left-arm quick, a tall, into-the-pitch bowler, and the expected conditions put a premium on the extra spinner. There was only one spot left for the traditional seam bowler, which went to Mohammed Shami, who was returning from injury.India were looking for someone who could run through a side when he got on a roll. Siraj had been doing this in 2023, but had gradually become a steady bowler since then. He didn’t have out-and-out bad days, but he didn’t run away with big hauls either. As any proud competitor, Siraj was upset by this exclusion coming hot on the heels of a release from his beloved IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).”To be honest, at the start, I couldn’t digest it,” Siraj said after his second straight Player-of-the-Match performance in IPL 2025, for Gujarat Titans (GT) against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Put together international cricket and the IPL, and he won two in all of 2024. Now he has two in four days.Related

• Rayudu: Sai Kishore 'as good as anybody' in the Indian team

• Siraj, Gill and Washington hand Sunrisers fourth successive defeat

• Vettori: 'We understand the ramifications of losing four in a row'

• Nearly man Washington makes rare opportunity count

It will not quite be fair to call his exclusion a blessing in disguise, because there is no guarantee Siraj wouldn’t have done well in the Champions Trophy, but the break it gave him seems to have done him good. Through that break, Siraj followed the classic arc of struggling to come to terms with it before putting in the hard work to try and come back better.”I reached a point when I had to convince my mind that my cricket is not over,” Siraj said. “That I have bigger plans. Okay, this [Champions Trophy] was not in my destiny, but what can I do now? I got my mindset right, I worked on my fitness. I was playing non-stop, so I didn’t have time to reflect on what mistakes had crept into my game. So I worked on it. Now I am enjoying my bowling. The body is fresh, I am not overthinking, I am staying in the present.”It is important to remember that as Shami and Bumrah grappled with fitness issues, Siraj was the one constant in India’s team. He was perhaps denied the break that fast bowlers need to carry out running repairs. Since the start of 2023, only Ravindra Jadeja has bowled more overs for India than Siraj.Mohammed Siraj won his second Player of the Match award in a row•AFP/Getty ImagesNow Siraj already has more powerplay wickets in this IPL – six – than he managed in the entirety of the 2024 season. Again, just looking at wickets is neither accurate nor fair when it comes to T20. It’s his control that has been impressive. In this game – played on a slow and low pitch – Siraj bowled three straight overs in the powerplay. Only five deliveries went fuller than good length. Three of them were just a fact-finding mission in the first over.Once he knew there was no swing, Siraj bowled almost robotically to capitalise on the lack of pace in the pitch. There was no anxiety to go looking for wickets. The result was 11 dot balls to Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, and both their wickets.With the old ball, Siraj drew a hint of reverse swing – he acknowledged the use of saliva to maintain the ball – which has been reinstated in this IPL – helped him pick up two more wickets at the death.In his last game, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Siraj started the match with a sharp bouncer that nearly got Phil Salt out first ball. Only a handful of games in the 18 years of the IPL have started with a short ball bowled in anger. That Siraj was sharp enough from the get-go to bowl one with both venom and direction perhaps said something about his state of mind and body. There is perhaps a freshness to Siraj that makes a case for regular breaks. But now that Siraj finds himself on a roll, GT – and India? – won’t want to miss a thing.

The CSK allrounder talks about the reception he has received in the league, and his ambitions to play the Ashes and the T20 World Cup

Matt Roller24-Apr-2025Jamie Overton tends to spend April in leafy Kennington, keeping a low profile in the early weeks of the County Championship season. This year, even a 500-yard walk down the road from a hotel to a café is enough to prompt countless requests for selfies.”I don’t really get noticed in London,” Overton says from Mumbai, midway through his first IPL season with Chennai Super Kings. “Everyone just goes about their business. But cricket is just so big over here that everyone recognises who you are… You can’t go out too much without 30 or 40 people coming up to you, asking for pictures. It’s a different world.”For Chennai, doubly so. After eight group games, they sit dead last with only two wins, but their “Yellow Army” has been as visible as ever, dominating the stands even at away fixtures in Guwahati, Mullanpur and Lucknow. MS Dhoni, who has resumed the captaincy with Ruturaj Gaikwad injured, still attracts a unique following at the age of 43.Related

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“I messaged my dad and my agent after the first home game. I was like, ‘You have to come out and experience MS walking out to the middle,'” Overton says. “[Ravindra] Jadeja got run-out… and you had a home crowd cheering for someone to get run-out. I’ve watched Premier League games, plenty of other sports events, and there’s nothing else like that noise.”Until this year, Overton’s only experience of India was an England Lions tour in early 2019. But after also touring with England’s white-ball team early this year, he is growing accustomed to travelling between huge cities and spending most of his time in hotels. With games and training sessions under floodlights, he is “still on English time” despite the 4.5-hour difference.Overton has played three games to date in an unfamiliar role: a hard-hitting finisher and hard-length fast bowler elsewhere on the T20 circuit, he has only faced seven balls to date and has bowled four of his six overs in the powerplay. “I’m trying to find a way to do it,” he says. “The last three years, I’ve not bowled in the powerplay at all… It’s been a bit different.”But he is determined to make use of the opportunity to train in Indian conditions, after struggling against spin in an England shirt earlier this year. He has worked closely with Rajiv Kumar, CSK’s “batting guru”, adjusting his technique to counter the lower bounce, and has been watching Dhoni from close quarters.

“I messaged my dad and my agent after the first home game. I was like, ‘You have to come out and experience MS [Dhoni] walking out to the middle'”

“He holds the bat quite low with his hands, whereas I’m more an English or Australian version, with quite high hands,” Overton explains. “The spinners don’t get as much bounce [in India] so I’m trying to be a bit lower, with my hands a bit more relaxed, so I can keep my head really close to the ball… I feel like I’m in a good place with my batting.”Those improvements may come in particularly useful early next year, when Overton will hope to be part of England’s squad for the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. It was about 12 months ago that a stress fracture of the back denied him a place at the 2024 edition, prompting a spell on the sidelines.”I’m in a better place now for being injured,” he reflects. “It actually gave me time to reassess what I need to do with my health.” He had struggled to manage his diet during a winter on the franchise circuit and sought advice from Surrey’s nutritionist Ollie Whiteman; six months later, he had shed 10kg.It is a change that Overton believes could help him extend his career. “When I’m bowling, I put seven or eight times my body weight through my knees and my back every ball. Taking 10kg off… If you’re playing a four-day game and bowling 30 overs, that is a hell of a lot of difference in the strain you’re putting on your body.”The mention of four-day cricket underlines that Overton retains ambitions across formats – for now, at least. He turned 31 this month and concedes that he may be having “some different conversations” in two years’ time but hopes to return to red-ball cricket at some stage this year and believes he could thrive on Australian pitches if selected for the Ashes this winter.In six white-ball games for England in India earlier this year, Overton took nine wickets at an economy of 8.27•Getty Images”Ashes cricket is probably the pinnacle for English players, and I feel like I’ve got a decent record on Australian pitches,” he says. “It probably suits my game more than wickets back in England – but I’m not expecting anything. I need to play red-ball cricket to give myself a chance of being there, so we’ll just see where we get to when I’m back home.”His home season is likely to start with T20Is and ODIs against West Indies and will be dominated by white-ball cricket – including the Hundred, where he was the top pick at March’s draft. “There’s not many bowlers that play all three formats now. I’ve obviously had issues with my body, so the first thing is to make sure that’s in the right spot before going into anything.”I bowled ten overs in the Afghanistan game [at the Champions Trophy], but I’ve not bowled more than that in a day since last April. It’s going to take a lot to get the body back to those bowling workloads, and we’ll just see where we go and play it by ear. It’s a short career, so you’ve got to maximise it while keeping your body in a good place.”But those conversations will come down the line, with Overton soaking in his first IPL experience in the here and now. “Any person’s dream is to travel the world doing what they love doing and I’m fulfilling that at the moment. I’m grateful for whatever I’m doing. Hopefully, it goes on for a lot longer.”