Rangers are now on red alert in the transfer race to sign Shea Charles from Southampton, who are set to make their decision on selling the Manchester City graduate, according to reports.

Danny Rohl has settled well at Ibrox, much to the 49ers’ relief, and for the first time this season there is reason to be optimistic at Rangers. Their recent victory over Dundee made it three league wins from three for the new manager, who has already earned more points than predecessor Russell Martin in the Scottish Premiership.

Any talks about a potential title comeback are still incredibly premature, but the Gers are at least up to fourth and now just five points behind Celtic in second. For the first time in forever, both Old Firm sides have the task of catching alternative leaders Hearts in the Scottish Premiership.

There will be no one more relieved than Kevin Thelwell after Rohl’s solid start. The transfer chief has come under fire for his decisions over the summer and the role he played in hiring Martin.

There’s no doubt that he’s got plenty of making-up to do and that may well start in the January transfer window. On that front, Rangers are already reportedly interested in signing Lennon Miller from Udinese and Mujaid Sadick.

Ferguson 2.0: Rangers' "best player" is now more important than Tavernier

Rangers’ “best player” who is reminiscent of Barry Ferguson has emerged under Danny Röhl and it is not captain James Tavernier.

By
Ben Gray

Nov 14, 2025

A move for Miller would particularly make sense. He’s struggled since leaving Motherwell in the summer and a return to Scotland would certainly help turn his recent fortunes around.

He’s not the only name on Rangers’ reported shortlist, however. The Scottish giants have also set their sights on reuniting Rohl with former Sheffield Wednesday star Charles.

Rangers on red alert in Shea Charles race

According to Sports Boom, Rangers are now on red alert in the race to sign Charles from Southampton, who could look to sell the Man City academy graduate as part of a winter clear-out.

The Northern Ireland international has started 12 of Southampton’s 15 Championship games so far this season, but has failed to prevent a slump which has featured just four wins.

If an exit is now on the cards for the 22-year-old, then Rangers should take full advantage of their Rohl connection. The German manager worked with Charles at Sheffield Wednesday last season as he proved his worth in England’s second tier. Full of praise for his midfielder at the time, the Rangers boss described him as “fantastic”.

If Rangers want to hand Rohl an instant show of confidence in the winter window, then they should go all out to reunite him with a player who he rates so highly and worked so well with just one season ago.

"Huge potential" Rangers star can become the new Sima & Cerny under Rohl

It was a series to remember for him, and not just with the ball: he had the best batting average on either side, and the fourth-highest runs tally

Danyal Rasool28-Jan-2025If you ask ChatGPT, or its newly ascendant competitor DeepSeek, what the perfect Test series looked like, the responses are lengthy, vague, and non-committal. Perhaps one day, when they learn how to limit them to four words or fewer, “Jomel Warrican in Pakistan” would suffice as the perfectly succinct response.Warrican’s dominance of this series has been uniquely legendary. He’s taken the most wickets, of course, more than every other West Indian bowler combined. The best bowling figures in an innings, and in a match, belong to him. No one with more than two wickets could boast a better bowling average this his single-digit 9, none managed an economy rate as miserly as his 2.38. For good measure, he also has the highest batting average on either side across the series, the highest strike rate for anyone over 25 runs, and the fourth-highest run tally.The smattering of Tests he has played in the subcontinent over the past decade have demonstrated his value on spin tracks. But nothing could quite prepare Warrican for what he found in Multan, where, ahead of the series, his captain Kraigg Brathwaite had said he had never seen cracks appear this early in his 96-match Test career anywhere else. It gave the spinners more opportunities, but also greater responsibility.Related

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It was a responsibility that Warrican and his little band of spinners failed to live up to early on in the first Test. In the first 57 overs of the game, Pakistan had put up 187 runs, with spin managing just one wicket when Gudakesh Motie – who Pakistan believed was a greater threat than Warrican before the series – squeezed Shan Masood down the leg side.By the time the West Indies spinners made their presence felt, Pakistan already had enough runs, and then never fell behind in the game. Warrican kept trying to find extra rip doing the same thing over and over, but ended the innings with just three wickets, two of them of tailenders.The intelligence Warrican deployed over the remainder of the series, though, has been anything but artificial. “Speed’s very important,” he said at the post-match presentation after the second Test, where he was awarded both the Player of the Match and Series. “We worked out that the slower you bowled, the more effective you would be on these wickets. Once I got more information, I used it to my advantage.”From the second innings of the first Test onwards, Warrican was doing things slightly differently. The lines or lengths he was landing the balls at barely changed. But through the air, it was a different story. He fizzed some balls through, held others longer in his hand, and tossed some up. To the right-hander, there was always the danger of the ones that carried on with the arm, making the most instinctively safe shot – the front foot forward defensive – feel uncomfortably perilous. Mohammad Hurraira and Babar Azam were the first two to fall this way in Pakistan’s second innings, and Warrican never looked back.

“I just back my game plan. Once the ball is in my zone, I back myself to play it to the boundary. I also trust my defence, and try to rotate the strike.”Jomel Warrican on his batting

“The variation in pace is effective when you’re consistent,” he said. “You vary the pace, and hit the same length over and over. The consistency is the key thing to everything in life.”Those were the first two of seven wickets Warrican took that innings, and started a run where he bagged 16 of the 30 Pakistan wickets that fell in the series since. But it wasn’t just with the ball that he contributed significantly. Before this series, no side in Test history ever had Nos. 9-11 in their line-up contributing the three highest scores of an innings. In little over four days of cricket, West Indies managed it twice. Warrican was the top-scorer on one occasion, and the second-highest another time.It wasn’t exactly technically soundproof, but he ended up preying on any bowler who viewed him like a classic tailender. He smeared Sajid Khan and Noman Ali away when they pitched the ball up and full; no one hit more sixes than him all series. Warrican’s signature shot, though, was the reverse sweep with the back of the bat, one he used like a bludgeon rather than a surgical tool.Sajid ill-advisedly decided to taunt him on the penultimate day when he missed one of these heaves, getting up close and giving him the “you can’t see me” gesture. Warrican appeared unfazed.Jomel Warrican also had the highest batting average on either side across the series•Pakistan Cricket Board”I just back my game plan,” he said. “Once the ball is in my zone, I back myself to play it to the boundary. I also trust my defence, and try to rotate the strike. I had belief. I backed us to win the [second] game. The fightback we showed in the second innings, bowling out Pakistan for a cheap total. We knew once we batted well, we were in with a chance to win the game.”In a final twist of fate, it was Sajid who stood at the batter’s end when Warrican, and West Indies, needed one more wicket to seal victory. Sajid had tentatively tried to push the ball into the on side, but, just like Babar and Hurraira in the first Test, didn’t account for the arm ball. It pierced through the gap between bat and pad, and made a mess of his stumps.Warrican gave him the same gesture, before raising his right leg and thumping his hand to his thigh: Sajid’s own signature celebration. Right to the last moment of the series, it appeared, he had been gaining more information, picking up everything he saw in Multan, and ensuring he left with the last laugh.

In his capacity as a Fox Sports analyst, Alex Rodriguez had a front-row seat to the magical World Series that the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays pushed to, and beyond, its limits. In the end it was the defending champions who were able to secure back-to-back titles by outlasting their Canadian hosts last Saturday night in a game that brought more eyeballs to baseball than any in the previous eight years. So he had plenty of time to take in the energy and atmosphere that only added to the drama fans at home were able to enjoy. And to compare it to all previous versions of the Fall Classic.

Asked by if we just watched the greatest World Series every played, Rodriguez explained why he believes so.

"Yes," he said. "Well, in my lifetime, I've never. You know, that's obviously very subjective, but in my lifetime, I've never seen a better one. It had all the elements of just the juiciest, most delicious, World Series."

Rodriguez is not alone in his assessment, as many have wondered if the sport just enjoyed a high-water mark that will be difficult, if not impossible to match. The way he processed the seven-game greatness, however, is unique. Seated next to David Ortiz, Derek Jeter and Kevin Burkhardt, the former player was able to witness all the ingredients that went into making things buzz.

"It had three S’s, right?" Rodriguez said. "It had, it had superstars, it had strategy and it had incredible storylines. And what's great about baseball."

Rodriguez also spoke about the episodic nature of a baseball playoff series as opposed to the immediacy and one-and-doneness of other sports.

"Super Bowl has one like Tom Cruise movie. Over 100 million people will watch. What's different and what I think more compelling about a seven-game World Series, which are very rare—we only had two prior to this one in the last eight years—is that is like a mini docuseries and there's seven episodes.

"And just like , if you watch all six now, you're invested. You're hooked. You're hooked in the characters, the storyline, the strategy. And then you must watch game seven. So it was just awesome. I'm so proud of the game."

MLB trades are beginning to pick up as the offseason continues, with the latest significant move coming between the Orioles and the Angels on Tuesday night. Los Angeles is sending outfielder Taylor Ward to Baltimore in return for right handed pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, the Orioles announced.

Ward has spent the entirety of his eight-year career in Los Angeles. The Orioles were searching for a strong hitting outfielder this offseason, and Ward might be their answer to that gap.

Rodriguez didn’t play at all during the 2025 season because of multiple injuries, including undergoing a season-ending elbow debridement surgery. He’s played just two seasons prior to this year, both with the Orioles.

Ward may be a short-term solution for Baltimore as he’s set to become a free agent after the 2026 season, his final year under arbitration. On the other hand, Rodriguez isn’t set to become a free agent until 2029. The Orioles also are keeping their eye out for starting pitchers, so it’s interesting they traded one of theirs away before locking down another. But, Rodriguez’s health for next season is still up in the air as he hasn’t pitched in a game since July 31, 2024.

During the 2025 season, Ward averaged .228/.317/.475 with 132 hits, and recorded career highs with 36 home runs, 103 RBIs and 86 runs scored—an impressive year for the veteran outfielder.

In 20 game starts in 2024 when Rodriguez last competed, the pitcher posted a 3.86 ERA and 130 strikeouts over 116.2 innings pitched.

And what is the highest individual repeat score in Tests at the same venue?

Steven Lynch30-Jun-2020I see from his player page that Don Bradman hit only six sixes in Tests. Who were the unfortunate bowlers? asked Paritosh Bhatt from India

You’re right in thinking that only 36 of the 6996 runs Don Bradman made in Tests came from sixes – he preferred to keep the ball on the ground, and hit well over 600 fours. A statistical oddity is that all six sixes came from left-arm bowlers, three off England’s Hedley Verity.Bradman’s first six in a Test came during the 1932-33 Bodyline series, in Adelaide, when he on-drove Verity over the boundary: he was caught and bowled next ball for 66, as Australia slid to a heavy defeat in a bad-tempered game.Two-thirds of the Don’s Test sixes came in the next Ashes series, in England in 1934. During his 304 in the fourth Test at Headingley he hit two sixes late on the second day – another off Verity to reach 244, and one off the medium-pace cutters of Len Hopwood to advance to 268. He added three more runs that night before the close, giving him 102 runs in all in the final session: such was his dominance of the England bowlers that a wag in the crowd shouted “Put on Dolphin!” – Arthur Dolphin, the old Yorkshire wicketkeeper, was one of the umpires.Then in the final Test at The Oval, Bradman hit Verity for six again to reach 234 of his eventual 244 in the first innings – he was out before the end of a first day on which Australia amassed 475 for 2 – and hooked left-arm seamer Nobby Clark, who was bowling with something like a Bodyline leg-side field, into the crowd when he had nine of his second-innings 77.Bradman did not hit another six in Tests for nearly 14 years, before tucking in to another slow left-armer, India’s Vinoo Mankad, in Adelaide in 1947-48. Bradman’s sixth Test six took him to 144, and he was out around an hour later for 201, the last of his dozen Test double-centuries: more than 70 years later, no one has matched this number.Herbert Sutcliffe scored 161 against Australia at The Oval in 1926, and again in 1930 – is this the highest repeat score at the same venue? asked Daren Fawkes from Australia

There are actually two higher such doubles than Herbert Sutcliffe’s twin 161s for England in Ashes Tests at The Oval in 1926 and in 1930. Mahela Jayawardene scored 167 twice in Galle – for Sri Lanka against New Zealand in 1998 and against South Africa in 2000. But on top of the list is Greg Chappell, who made 182 not out for Australia against West Indies in Sydney in 1975-76, and added 182 in his final Test, against Pakistan at the SCG in 1983-84.The highest repeat score in Tests, not at the same venue, is 203 not out, which, remarkably, was achieved by two different batsmen. Shivnarine Chanderpaul did it for West Indies against South Africa in Georgetown in 2004-05, and against Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2012-13. This mirrored the feat of Pakistan’s Shoaib Mohammad, who made 203 not out against India in Lahore in 1989-90, and repeated that score against West Indies in Karachi the following season. Shoaib’s father, Hanif Mohammad, scored 203 not out against New Zealand in Lahore in 1964-65.Gundappa Viswanath is the only batsman to make a double-century on first-class debut and follow it up with a century on Test debut•Getty ImagesWho scored a double-century on first-class debut and a hundred in his first Test? asked Gordon Brine from South Africa

The only man to complete this notable double is the stylish Indian batsman Gundappa Viswanath, who made 230 on his first-class debut, for Mysore against Andhra in Vijayawada in 1967-68, then two years later, in the first of his 91 Tests, made 137 against Australia in Kanpur. He received a little bit of help: “I committed another of my costly fielding errors, this time acting as fairy godmother to GR Viswanath in his Test debut,” remembered Australia’s opener Keith Stackpole. “Following a duck in the first innings, he was on 98 when I stopped a shot from him at point. He took off, and I threw the ball too high, giving him his hundred.”Who has played the most Test matches without taking a catch? asked Jeremy Nicholson from Australia

There are four men who have played ten Tests without holding on to a catch. The first to do so was the unorthodox Australia left-arm spinner Chuck Fleetwood-Smith in the 1930s. He has since been joined by the Sri Lankan spinner Jayananda Warnaweera, the tall Indian seamer Abey Kuruvilla, and the Pakistan paceman Mohammad Imran Khan, who played his most recent Test in November 2019, so may yet get off this list (or rise to the top of it).Tendai Chatara, the Zimbabwe seamer, has so far played nine Tests without taking a catch. Pakistan fast bowler Ata-ur-Rehman made no fewer than 30 one-day international appearances without taking a catch. Another seamer, West Indies’ Oshane Thomas, has so far played 20 (and a record 32 internationals all told). The Afghanistan spinner Amir Hamza Hotak played 31 T20Is without taking a catch.Bangladesh won their recent Test against Zimbabwe by an innings. Was this their first innings victory in Tests? asked Craig Marshall from England

Bangladesh’s win, by an innings and 106 runs, over Zimbabwe in Mirpur in February was their 14th Test victory overall – but the second by an innings. Their previous win, over West Indies in Mirpur in November 2018, was by an innings and 184 runs. They still have a fair bit of ground to make up: Bangladesh have so far lost 89 Tests, 43 of them by an innings.Use our
feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

And who has the highest batting average at No. 4?

Steven Lynch02-Jun-2020Sachin Tendulkar had 194 when India declared in Multan in 2004. Has anyone else been stranded in the 190s by a declaration in a Test? asked Sarv Kothandaraman from the United States
There have so far been eight undefeated innings of between 190 and 199 in Tests, including two unlucky cases of 199 not out – by Andy Flower, for Zimbabwe against South Africa in Harare in 2001-02, and Kumar Sangakkara, for Sri Lanka v Pakistan in Galle in 2012.Sachin Tendulkar had 194 when Rahul Dravid declared at 675 for 5 against Pakistan in Multan in 2003-04. Dravid did it to have an hour’s bowling at Pakistan on the second evening – and although no wickets went down that night, India did win by an innings in the end. The only higher score in this bracket was achieved by Frank Worrell, against England in Bridgetown in 1959-60. He had scored 197 – in more than 11 hours – when his captain, Gerry Alexander, declared midway through the final day. There was little prospect of a result: England batted again and pottered to 71 without loss in 42 overs. The watching English journalist Alan Ross wrote: “Alexander several times signalled to Worrell for more action but Worrell, off on some pipedream of his own, chose to ignore him. Nelson at the Nile could not have been more disdainful.” And EW Swanton noted: “When Scarlett, by repute something of a hitter, was lbw, Alexander brought Worrell in, three short of his double hundred. It was significant that Alexander’s timing did not produce a dissenting voice.”It was Worrell’s second undefeated score in the 190s in Tests – against England at Trent Bridge in 1957 he had carried his bat for 191.Australia’s Brian Taber made eight dismissals on his Test debut – is that the record for a wicketkeeper? asked Ronald Garside from Australia
The New South Wales wicketkeeper Brian Taber collected seven catches and a stumping in his first Test, against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1966-67, and his mark was equalled by Chris Read, who made seven catches and a stumping too, on his debut, for England against New Zealand at Edgbaston in 1999.Eight remains the record for a player’s overall debut, but South Africa’s Quinton de Kock made nine dismissals – eight catches and a stumping – in his first match as the designated wicketkeeper, against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2014, having made his Test debut as a batsman earlier in the year. Some years ago I came across the comment that Graham Yallop had the highest average of any Australian batsman when batting in the No. 4 position. What is the highest average at No. 4 for other countries? asked Mike Larkin from Australia
I was always an admirer of Graham Yallop, who I thought was an underrated batsman. But this, for once, is overrating him: Yallop averaged 36.76 when batting at No. 4 in Tests, which is solid rather than spectacular. He did better at No. 3, where he averaged 52.42.Leading the way for No. 4s in Tests is none other than Frank Worrell, who by coincidence is mentioned in the question above. He averaged 76.22 in ten innings in this position (I imposed a qualification of ten innings, to exclude any anomalies). Next comes Steve Smith, who so far averages 74.02 from 57 innings at No. 4.Sachin Tendulkar made the most Test runs at No. 4 – 13,492 at 54.40) – while Mahela Jayawardene (9509 at 52.24) and Jacques Kallis (9033 at 61.86) both made more than 9000.Frank Worrell has the highest average for a minimum of 10 innings at No. 4 – 76.22•Getty ImagesWho scored two hundreds in a Test without being dismissed? asked Shanthy Noronha from New Zealand
There have now been 86 instances of a batsman scoring two hundreds in the same Test, 37 of them in the current century. But there remains only one case where the man concerned was not dismissed in either innings: Sri Lanka’s Aravinda de Silva followed 138 not out against Pakistan in Colombo in April 1997 with 103 not out in the second innings.The West Indian Krishmar Santokie has figured in 12 T20Is without scoring a run. Who holds the corresponding record in Tests and ODIs? asked Ricky Dooley from Scotland
The Jamaican left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie shares top spot on this list with Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi, who has also played a dozen T20Is so far without troubling the scorers (both have batted once; Santokie did not receive a ball, but Afridi faced two without scoring). Three other current players have appeared in 11 T20Is without scoring a run: Ben Shikongo of Namibia, Hamza Tahir of Scotland, and Mohammed Shami of India. Shikongo was dismissed by the only ball he has faced, while the others have not made it to the crease.There’s a runaway leader in one-day internationals: the South African left-arm wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi has so far played no fewer than 22 ODIs without scoring a run (he’s faced two balls in three innings). Next is another current player, the Sri Lankan seamer Kasun Rajitha with nine matches – he’s actually faced ten deliveries without scoring a run. Next come the West Indian spinner Dave Mohammed and Indian seamer Jaydeep Unadkat, who both played seven matches without scoring.Three players have appeared in three Test matches without scoring a run. The old Worcestershire seamer Fred Root never even got to bat in his three Tests, while an even older fast bowler, Lancashire’s Arthur Mold, got in three times but failed to score. More recently, the South African fast bowler Mfuneko “Chewing” Ngam played three Tests in 2000-01 without getting off the mark.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

The BCB even fired couple of coaches as legspinners kept getting ignored from the set-up

Mohammad Isam18-Oct-2020Soumya Sarkar ran back to short third-man from the slips as soon as legspinner Rishad Hossain bowled a short ball. The batsman Sabbir Rahman couldn’t put it away and though it was his first ball, a slip was already missing.Next delivery, Rishad produced a peach of a leg-break that spun just enough after pitching to take Rahman’s outside edge, slipped past wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim and went unharmed through the vacant slip region for a couple of runs. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto immediately brought back the slip for the next ball and a decent leg-break from Rishad followed, only for Rahman to defend it back to the bowler.This, in a practice one-day tournament where the young legspinner Rishad was bowling at a stage when his side captained by Shanto was in control of the match against senior Bangladesh allrounder Mahmudullah’s side. But this lack of patience by the captain isn’t just Hossain or any other inexperienced spinner’s fault. It is a sharp example of Bangladesh cricket’s inherent caginess about legspinners. Whether it was Shanto or any of the senior captains, they would do no such thing if a young left-arm spinner or an offspinner would bowl a short ball first up.Young Rishad ended up with respectable figures of 2 for 26 from his six overs in the game, and went back to the hotel BDT 25,000 (approx. $US 295) richer. Surprisingly though, he was adjudged the best bowler of the match despite the left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed getting Liton Das and Mahmudullah among his three wickets and Abu Jayed also finishing with as many wickets. Hossain being given the award was a little patronising, but perhaps that’s the least that can be done to promote legspin in Bangladesh. Time, however, is running out for Bangladesh’s legspinners – all three of them.Legspinners Rishad, Aminul Islam and Minhajul Abedin Afridi – all part of the High Performance programme – were each assigned to the three teams in the BCB President’s Cup, a one-day tournament designed to ease Bangladesh’s top cricketers back into competitiveness after the long pandemic break.But none of the three has bowled their full quota of ten overs yet. Afridi, who was plucked out of a net session in Chittagong two years ago by chief selector Minhajul Abedin, has only bowled one over in the tournament so far. Islam and Hossain too have bowled just 27.1 overs between them, taking seven wickets. That has left them with at most two or three remaining opportunities to remain viable options before the 2020-21 domestic season proper begins. While the BCB President’s Cup has the Bangladesh team management in control of selection, the subsequent domestic tournaments will not.The BCB President’s Cup will be followed by a T20 tournament next month, with the remainder of the 2019-20 Dhaka Premier League likely to be held just after that. There’s no certainty if even one from the trio would be chosen in the T20s, with Islam having played only one DPL match. Moreover, there’s no assurance if any team in the upcoming tournaments would select a legspinner in their playing XI even if any of them bowl well in the ongoing practice matches.The debutant Jubair Hossain struck in his second over•AFPThere is, of course, precedence to such a thing. Back in 2014, after Jubair Hossain impressed in his first international series, he was largely ignored in domestic cricket. Even after he got Virat Kohli bowled with a googly in the Fatullah Test the following season, he could break into neither club cricket nor first-class sides. Some say that Jubair lacked the hunger after that early success, but the overwhelming theory is that without enough competitive cricket, a delicate art like legspin cannot produce elite resultsJubair was marked as a Chandika Hathurusingha favourite because the then Bangladesh head coach had championed his cause to the point that he got into a public spat with Faruque Ahmed, the chief selector at the time, for not selecting Jubair in the 2015 World Cup squad.The Russell Domingo-led team management too wants a legspinner, as would any coach who wants to have attacking bowlers in their line-up. The BCB tried to support him last season by instructing the National Cricket League (NCL) and the BPL teams to pick legspinners. They even fired couple of coaches for not listening to the instruction but largely, legspinners kept getting ignored.One man who also has a lot of interest in bringing in legspinners into the picture is the incumbent chief selector Abedin. He even selected 21-year-old Afridi in a practice match against Zimbabwe two years ago after seeing him in the nets in Chittagong. Abedin also advised Islam to become a full-time legspinner when he was in the High Performance programme last year.Abedin believes that such practice matches are the only place where these bowlers will be given a fair go in match situations, and also feels that they should be given more chances in major domestic tournaments.ALSO READ: Bangladesh’s steep legspin learning curve”Rishad [Hossain] bowled well in this tournament while [Aminul Islam] Biplob will need a bit of time and [Minhajul Abedin] Afridi is injured,” Abedin told ESPNcricinfo. “We want to closely observe their ability. We haven’t been able to arrange these type of matches in the last two years.”They have to play under different managements once they go into competitive cricket, but those don’t usually select legspinners. I have always advised them to give legspinners the opportunities to play but our [DPL] club culture is different. But we will try to ensure that the legspinners get to play first-class matches this season.”Abedin said that they have plans for each one of them, but all depends on how the domestic clubs and first-class sides treat them in the remainder of the season. “Biplob is more of a shorter-version bowler, but I think we can work with Rishad in the longer version. Afridi has to be played in both formats. I think all three must play a lot of matches which will improve their skills. There’s no point in telling them to practice all year if they are not picked in matches,” he said.The other ramification of not having legspinners in domestic cricket is the batsmen not having any practice playing such bowling regularly. Apart from the Afghanistan legspinner Rashid Khan’s 33 wickets at 12.87 across all three formats against Bangladesh in the last five years, even Graeme Cremer, Adil Rashid, Yuzevendra Chahal and Ish Sodhi have done well against them. The lack of legspinners in the circuit is not the only reason for Bangladesh’s batsmen struggling against the best ones, but quality bowling at home is always of help.The main issue, however, remains Bangladesh’s struggle to take 20 wickets in a Test match and attacking batting line-ups in T20Is. It is widely believed that the inclusion of a skilled legspinner can make a big difference, as Bangladesh are over-reliant on left-arm spin in Tests and besides Mustafizur Rahman, remain unsure about their bowling attack in T20Is.But as Abedin pointed out, a wider cultural shift is required, and the way the Dhaka clubs are run, it may take years. Back in the 1990s, Mohammad Rafique changed the thinking about left-arm orthodox spin and a decade later, Mashrafe Mortaza did it with pace bowling. A legspinner making it that big would require a lot of hard work but the good news is that if they can become regulars in domestic cricket, they are likely to be picked more quickly in the national setup.

It was a day on which India’s luck kept them interested, teased them all along, and then disappeared

Sidharth Monga15-Jan-20212:16

Aakash Chopra: T Natarajan has lifted his game to another level

T Natarajan first picked up the cricket ball less than ten years ago. His unbelievable rise in the IPL lifted his family out of poverty. Towards the end of the latest IPL, his daughter was born, but he picked a net bowler’s duty in Australia over going back home to see her. Then an injury to Varun Chakravarthy meant a late call-up into the squad. ODI and T20I debuts followed. Though a limited-overs specialist, he still chose to hang around as a net bowler for the Test matches. Now he is one of only 301 men to have played Test cricket for India.Natarajan has two wickets on his first day of Test cricket. This is no less than a fairy tale, scenarios of dreams for young boys and girls who don’t know the actual route to representing India. It is a great story, but Test cricket doesn’t care for great stories. Stories are incidental.T Natarajan sent back Matthew Wade and Marnus Labuschagne in quick succession•AFP via Getty ImagesThrough an unprecedented combination of the pandemic and a spate of injuries, some of which might be related, India were reduced to playing Natarajan and Washington Sundar in a Test match. They perhaps even had information through their sophisticated tracking devices that an in-game injury couldn’t be ruled out. Which is why they picked four quicks to cover both for the conditioning and the inexperience, and went ultra-defensive with their spinner ahead of Kuldeep Yadav to cover a batting base. With Navdeep Saini getting injured during the day’s play, the selection stood vindicated.Related

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Stats – Australia with 1033 wickets in the XI, India 13

Navdeep Saini taken for scans after suffering groin strain

This is what you do with severely limited units, and yet India are not what you might call “blown away” by an Australia side at home, a team that decided to bat first after winning the toss. In years from now, teams will have reasonably and justifiably bad days in the field even at full strength, but this Indian team seems have to have ruined it for them. You will be giving logical reasons for a 3 for 300 day, but at the same time thinking of the time when an attack with a joint experience of four Tests had Australia at 17 for 2, and were a simple catch away from making it 94 for 4. That on a tour in which they were, by this Test, missing seven first-choice players, one certain replacement, one possible replacement, and were still somehow alive coming into the decider.With this attack, which was soon reduced to a total experience of three caps, to come out with the scoreboard showing 274 for 5 after losing the toss is a reasonable return. With some luck with the new ball on the second morning, India could still be in the match, but this was a day on which India’s luck kept them interested, teased them all along, and then disappeared.Washington Sundar bowls with the leg trap lying in wait•Getty ImagesIndia tried to get the better of their limitations with their field sets. The leg trap was in, and it worked for Sundar, who had a wicket – that of a set Steven Smith – even before he had conceded a run. Shardul Thakur had one with a leg-stump half-volley the first time he bowled in a Test since his first ended with injury after ten balls. Matthew Wade and Marnus Labuschagne got out in ways that suggest no planning or build-up.The lack of control began to show in the Labuschagne-Wade partnership with regular leg-side half-volleys for Wade without a leg trap in place. Thakur kept trying to bowl full outside off, which is noble, but he did so without protection, suggesting non-adherence to a plan. Siraj, India’s first-choice replacement for the three quicks they brought to Australia, continued to show the control that has brought him this far. Saini showed improvement from his first outing before his groin strain took him off. Sundar stuck to his middle-and-leg line, but it was soon apparent it is no good if you can’t do the batsmen in the air.The scoreline was better than expected for such an inexperienced attack, but India could have probably done without the teasing thought of what if Ajinkya Rahane had not dropped Labuschagne with Australia still under 100. That’s how Test cricket is, though. You have to be good enough to be at it for hours.Even when Wade and Labuschagne gave India another look-in, it needed accurate and skilful spells to go through Australia’s lower order. That was too much to ask of a bowling unit in which three are not used to long days in the field because of their limited-overs specialisation. It will likely be down to batsmen hanging in for dear life, but it won’t be their fault either if they can’t: the Australia attack has much better experience, conditioning and skill.

How often did India and Australia produce uncertain responses from the opposition batsmen, and how often did that uncertainty result in a wicket?

Sidharth Monga29-Jan-2021This was a freak series
Two events of the sort that ought to occur not more than once in six series of four Tests apiece took place in this Australia-India series: India were bowled out for 36 in Adelaide, and then batted out 131 overs for the loss of just five wickets in the fourth innings in Sydney to draw the Test. On the surface these are rare events but look deeper and they are even rarer.ESPNcricinfo’s control factor metric judges uncertainty in batsmen’s response to bowling. Over time, in aggregate, it is an elegant measure of the potency of a bowling attack and of the luck the teams enjoyed. In the Adelaide 36 all out, their bowlers were potent, but the luck Australia enjoyed to go with it was lethal. In a series where a wicket fell for about every nine balls in which a batsman was not in control, India lost a wicket once every 3.56 such balls in that Adelaide innings. We have control data for 1214 Test innings over the last ten years in which eight or more wickets have fallen. Only four times has uncertainty produced more frequent wickets.The conditions and the Australian bowling made it far worse for India by evoking false responses every four balls. There have been 135 completed innings that have been more difficult than this, but most have featured better luck for the batting side.Related

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The pitch in the Wanderers Test of 2017-18 was treacherous, producing a false response every 3.2 and 3.3 balls in India’s first and second innings. However, in those innings, they lost a wicket every 14.3 and 14.5 such balls, thus posting a combined winning total.During the Sydney escape, on the other hand, there was just enough in the pitch, and the Australia bowlers created enough chances, but India enjoyed more luck. Not in terms of catches (because those owe to the opposition’s mistakes, and often tend to even out) but because indecisive responses did not result in enough dismissals. Australia produced indecisive responses off 135 balls for just five wickets; on the final day, 93 false responses brought just three wickets. In 193 innings played on the final day of a Test in the last ten years, only four have needed more false responses to create a wicket.Unlucky India, lucky India
India were desperately unlucky with injuries both between matches and during them. They were also part of an unlucky once-in-a-generation collapse, but overall, once the ball was in play, India were the luckier side in the series – just like they were the less lucky one in England in 2018.In Adelaide, India lost a wicket every 6.3 false responses to Australia’s 7.8, but in the remaining Tests the indecision created by India proved to be consistently more dangerous. Overall Australia created uncertainty every 6.27 balls and India every seven balls, which is a huge credit to an inexperienced attack.ESPNcricinfo LtdDuring the 4-1 loss to England in 2018, India created indecision once every 4.3 balls – more often than England, who did so once every 4.8 balls, but lost wickets to indecision more often than the hosts: every 10.7 balls of not being in control to every 14 balls for England. That should put numbers to the feeling that pundits and the Indian team had, that the games were much closer than the eventual series scoreline indicated.Australia’s (lack of) depth
On the 2018 tour of England and the one to New Zealand in 2020, India showed they had the resources to get into competitive positions, but were thwarted by the depth of the home sides – which is usually accentuated in such circumstances because the secondary skills of allrounders blossom in familiar conditions. First Sam Curran and then Kyle Jamieson thwarted India with the bat, much like R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja tend to do at home for India at times when the opposition feels they are just one push away from ascendance.On those tours of England and New Zealand, the home team’s bowling allrounders added immensely to their batting depth, but during this series, Australia’s batting allrounder, Cameron Green, couldn’t do much with the bat – except for score quick runs when setting up a declaration – let alone add depth to their bowling.Curran scored 272 runs at 38.85 and took 11 wickets at 23.54 in that England series, Jamieson averaged 46.50 with the bat and 16.33 with the ball, and Green averaged 33.71 with the bat thanks to two no-pressure declaration knocks, while taking zero wickets. That it comes down to contributions from the allrounder shows how well India have competed on recent away tours.Pat Cummins is no slouch against left-hand batsmen, but in this series Jadeja and Pant didn’t lose their wickets to him once over about 30 overs•Getty ImagesIs left right against Cummins?
India had two left-hand batsmen – both in the lower middle order but not restricted to those positions – and Cummins didn’t manage to get either of them out in the nine innings they batted between them. Close to 30 overs of bowling for 91 runs and zero wickets to Cummins is a win for the strategy, but it doesn’t mean Cummins is an easy bowler to face for left-hand batsmen. Coming into the series he averaged 19.6 against right-hand batsmen and 25.1 against left.Even in terms of creating indecision, Cummins was the second best among the Australia bowlers in the series, but while the 30 false responses induced by him brought him three wickets, none of those was of a left-hand batsman. It was a sound tactic for India to introduce left-hand batsmen into the line-up, and then manage a right-left combination, but it took some luck for Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja.Historically right-arm quicks have had to work harder for the wickets of left-hand batsmen, though not to this extent: a right-hand batsman’s wicket falls every ten balls of indecision versus 12 balls for a left-hand batsman.What do the control numbers say about England in India?
It’s not always that the luckier side wins; rather, luck becomes more crucial when two evenly matched sides face off. The last time England toured India, for example, they were luckier, losing a wicket every 12.5 balls of indecision as against India’s 11.9. However, India’s bowlers were superior: they created a false response every 5.6 balls as against England’s 7.6. That’s 25 more false responses, or two wickets, in a day’s bowling. When India toured Australia, this difference was down to nine balls in favour of the hosts. India created 13 more opportunities in a day’s bowling than England in 2018. These are close enough margins for luck to play a part. Can England come as close to the hosts as India have been doing on their recent difficult tours?

Lancashire legspinner eager to play after winter spent netting in England’s touring bubble

David Hopps06-Apr-2021When the next history of international cricket is written, it is fair to say that Team Buttler vs Team Root on January 8-9 in Hambantota, won’t manage a mention.But don’t knock it. Matt Parkinson’s five overs without a wicket in an England practice match, under a broiling Sri Lankan sun, represents his only competitive bowl since October. After that little outing, the only England team he was confident of forcing his way into for the next three months or so was the card school.After an inactive winter in biosecure bubbles in Sri Lanka and India, he is itching to start the Championship season, his enthusiasm not even tempered by Old Trafford fielding drills in temperatures of 7C and with driving sleet strafing across his Lancashire woolly hat.A wintry April hardly makes legspin a precious commodity for the start of the Championship season, but more inactivity in the bubble would be tantamount to an act of cruelty and Lancashire’s Championship captain, Dane Vilas, has observed Parkinson’s spell of netting in warm-weather climates and suggested that it must make him the best prepared county cricketer in the land.Will he face more weeks of enforced idleness? “If you dwell on it too much it might get you down,” Parkinson said. “I don’t want to be sat in a bubble for a couple of months and not playing. I’m looking to play in all formats. It would be quite an odd feeling to do that coming off the back of not too much cricket.”Related

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Parkinson is not the first cricketer to be surplus to requirements on an England tour, but the mental pressures are much the harder when there is no means of escape, not even the ubiquitous round of golf to alleviate three months of net practice and hotel confinement.Ashley Giles, the managing director England men’s cricket, was keenly aware of the pressures on mental health because of Covid restrictions and multi-format cricketers were given a break during the tour for their own wellbeing.Parkinson, though, a sort of multi-format non-cricketer, was a rare example of someone who remained throughout – the head coach, Chris Silverwood, being another. Parkinson’s general bonhomie, hard work and team ethic led Silverwood to call him “an absolute delight”.Giles emphasised on BBC radio last week that Parkinson was far from forgotten. “It was a great experience for him to be out there bowling day in day out. Being in hotels, being in quarantine, is hard but we keep constant mental health checks on these guys and if at any point we felt that we needed to get him out we certainly would have done. Don’t be afraid to get your hand up and we’ll get you out.”Parkinson makes light of the challenge he faced. “I just sort of cracked on with it,” he said. “The card school kept me going most nights. There was no offer on the table from the Big Bash or the Pakistan Super League so it was either the nets with England or the Lancashire indoor school.”I was disappointed that I didn’t play any games but I like to think that the work I’ve done will seep into my game and that after bowling to the likes of Joe Root and Ben Stokes in the nets all winter I’ve got better.”Those net sessions allowed him to reflect – although not too much – upon the debate about his bowling speed. He is one of the slowest spin bowlers around and, although the likes of Rob Key have advised him not to change, others believe his effectiveness at the highest level will be limited as a result.Prior to the tour had worked with two spin-bowling coaches, Carl Crowe and Richard Dawson, to try to bowl a little quicker without undermining his trajectory. “I’ve tried not to get too far away from what I do, to stick to the skills that have got me so far,” he said. “Maybe we’ll see another 3 or 4kph but I won’t know until I play a game.”Matt Parkinson, along with Mark Wood and Jake Ball, heads to the Ahmedabad nets•Getty ImagesAt least he had a close-up view in India of one of the most spin-intense Test series of modern times as R Ashwin and Axar Patel took 59 wickets between them in the four-Test series (of which Patel missed the first Test). But even then, the direct comparison for Parkinson would be to Kuldeep Yadav, as another wrist spinner, and he did not fare as well.With Eoin Morgan, England’s T20 captain, in somewhat experimental mood ahead of the T20 World Cup in India later this year, Parkinson hoped for a game in his strongest format, but even that was denied him. All England’s emphasis, when it comes to legspin, rests with Adil Rashid. He likes to think he “remains in the mix”, a back-up to Rashid, but as much as he concedes that it would be wonderful for them to play in the same side, he does not really believe it.It would have been intriguing to see him get a game, especially as the sort of modern journalism that relies upon intense checking of Twitter timelines had revealed that there was a time when the teenaged Parkinson was not exactly enamoured of India’s captain, Virat Kohli. Those papers who carried his intemperate comments of youth had to use a lot of asterisks.If he achieved anything this winter then it was to become a case study in the dangers of social media. He can expect to be on an ECB PowerPoint presentation for years to come.”I don’t do much social media as it happens,” he said. “I was just a young cricket fan and got it wrong. It was a good lesson about social media.”How does he think he would have fared if he had come up against Kohli, eager for retribution?”I think I would have struggled,” he grinned.It takes more than a winter’s confinement to knock the spirit out of Matt Parkinson.