Sunil Narine meanwhile slammed his career-best T20 score, in his 501st game

Sampath Bandarupalli03-Apr-2024272 for 7 – Kolkata Knight Riders’ total against Delhi Capitals in Visakhapatnam is the second-highest total in the IPL. The highest is 277 for 3 by Sunrisers Hyderabad, just last week against Mumbai Indians.The previous highest total by Knight Riders was 245 for 6 against Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in 2018 in Indore, while the previous highest against Capitals was 223 for 3 by Chennai Super Kings in Delhi last year.18 – Sixes hit by Knight Riders in Visakhapatnam – the most by them in an IPL innings. Their previous highest was 17 against Super Kings in 2018 and against Kings XI Punjab in 2019.3 – Number of times Sunil Narine has completed a fifty inside the powerplay in the IPL. Only David Warner (6) has more fifties inside the powerplay in the IPL. Chris Gayle also has three such fifties.88 – Knight Riders’ total in the powerplay is their second-highest in the IPL, behind the 105 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2017. It is also the highest powerplay total against Capitals and the highest by any team in IPL 2024.135 – Knight Riders’ total at the halfway stage of their innings. It is the third-highest first-ten-overs total in the IPL, behind the 148 by Sunrisers Hyderabad and 141 by Mumbai Indians during last week’s big bash.19y, 303d* – Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s age coming into the match. He is the second-youngest of the 23 players with a fifty-plus score in their maiden IPL innings behind Shreevats Goswami, who scored 52 on his IPL debut in 2008, a day after turning 19.25 – Balls Raghuvanshi needed to bring up his fifty. It is the second-fastest fifty scored in a maiden IPL innings, behind James Hopes’ 24-ball fifty on his debut in 2008.85 – Narine’s score against Capitals is the highest of his T20 career of 501 matches. Narine’s previous highest T20 score was 79 against Barbados Tridents in 2017.*Correction: A previous version of this article said Raghuvanshi was the youngest to score a half-century in his first IPL innings. He was, in fact, 19y 303d, and not 18y 303d, when he played his first IPL innings, and therefore was the second-youngest. These details have been updated in the headline and body of the article.

Rohit Sharma has led inspiringly and with tactical skill. Stokes is aggressive but has a task on his hands

Ian Chappell24-Feb-2024Despite the absence from the India-England series of star players Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami, very good cricketers KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja missing Tests through injury, and the resting of elite pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah, India are still a very good team.They’ve unearthed talented players in opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and middle-order batter Sarfaraz Khan. Shubman Gill is a skilful batter and more responsibility on his shoulders should eventually pay dividends.While the spin bowling has been in the capable hands of R Ashwin and Jadeja for a long time, the realisation that Kuldeep Yadav is a reliable wicket-taking option is a bonus for India.Related

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One area of concern is fast bowling and the future support for the crucial trio of Bumrah, Shami and the feisty Mohamed Siraj. However, debutant Akash Deep quickly answered some of those questions, producing some skiddy fast bowling with the new ball in the fourth Test.In the sudden shuffling of the Indian side after a prolonged period of selection stability, the leadership of Rohit Sharma is often overlooked. Rohit, in his quiet but efficient way, is a very different leader from the aggressive and highly visible Ben Stokes. His capable handling of the many changes to personnel and the tough loss of the first Test shows his resilience. He also produced a masterful century when the Indian team needed it, at the start of the third Test, to confirm he wasn’t a ceremonial captain.Rohit has a pedigree of leadership success and his reputation helped him guide a fluid Indian line-up in the right direction. Any failure in his leadership could easily have led this Indian team to faltering when the going got tough. Thanks to Rohit’s strength under fire, it is now England who look to Stokes to provide the leadership to ensure there isn’t a serious letdown after two consecutive Test losses, the second of which was a flogging. There is no doubt the elite skill of Bumrah and the talent of Jaiswal and the other inexperienced players India introduced to the team is helpful. However, it required the leadership guidance and the tactical nous of Rohit to ensure that a changing team retained belief in their cricket.His clever use of Kuldeep during the third Test in the absence of Ashwin was a masterstroke in turning a potential disaster to the team’s advantage. Rohit’s ability to remain unyielding and calculating after a depressing loss in the first Test has helped his side bounce back against a competitive English team.

The elite skill of Bumrah and the talent of Jaiswal and the other inexperienced players India have introduced is helpful. However, it required the leadership guidance and the tactical nous of Rohit Sharma to ensure that a changing team retained belief in their cricket.

The outstanding success of Jaiswal at the top of the order has been crucial to India’s new-look team finding success. Jaiswal will no doubt have down periods but he has the shots and all-round skill to be an overall success in any format. His tremendous success has been symptomatic of the evolution of the Indian team under Rohit.By meekly capitulating against spin in the second innings of their devastating loss in the third Test, England left themselves vulnerable to another trial by slow bowling in the fourth match. This became pretty obvious once talk of Bumrah being rested reached a crescendo.Part of the task for Stokes was convincing the batters – mainly Joe Root – to be more judicious if they must employ any “fancy” shots. Root was a mammoth and quick scorer batting traditionally and I’m not sure why he wanted to employ any premeditated and therefore risky shots. Whether he personally decided it or Stokes prompted some introspection, the talented batter returned to his roots to produce a telling century on an engaging first day, dragging England out of a perilous situation to ensure the visitors provided a challenging first-day total in Ranchi.Captaincy didn’t suit Root but sensible batting does.Whatever the result, England have displayed their resilience under Stokes and the ability to not fold like a tent after a debilitating loss. Ranchi is shaping as yet another highly competitive Test featuring two very good Test captains.

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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Daren Sammy: 'I have a dream that I'll be part of another World Cup title in the near future'

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.