Stats highlights from Evin Lewis’ 130-ball 176, and West Indies’ superb recovery after being 33 for 3 at The Oval

S Rajesh27-Sep-2017Coming into The Oval ODI, West Indies’ openers averaged 23.59 runs per dismissal in the period since the 2015 World Cup. That average was the worst among all teams in these two-and-a-half years – it was lower than the UAE (25.36), Papua New Guinea (25.58), and Hong Kong (27.00), among other teams. In one magnificent innings, Evin Lewis has lifted that average by almost two-and-a-half runs, to 26.04.Since the 2015 World Cup, there have only been two hundreds by West Indies’ openers, and Lewis has contributed both – he had also scored 148 versus Sri Lanka in Bulawayo last year. While he averages 36.50 since the World Cup, the other West Indies openers collectively average 22.49.

Evin Lewis v the other WI openers since the 2015 World Cup

Batsman Inngs Runs Ave SR 100sEvin Lewis 17 584 36.50 93.44 2The rest 47 1057 22.49 74.91 0Lewis’ unbeaten 176 is the fourth-highest ODI score for West Indies, next only to Chris Gayle’s 215, and Viv Richards’ 189 not out and 181. It wasn’t just the runs he scored, though; it was also the manner in which he lifted West Indies from a tricky 33 for 3. He played within himself till he reached his century, which still came off 94 balls but contained no six. Thereafter, he exploded, with 76 off the next 36 balls, including seven sixes and four fours.

How Lewis paced his innings

Period Runs Dots 4s 6sFirst 94 balls 100 40 13 0Last 36 balls 76 10 4 7Among the England bowlers, the only one who went at under seven an over against him was Chris Woakes, who conceded 25 from 28. Adil Rashid leaked 40 from 26.

Lewis v England’s main bowlers

Bowler Runs Balls SR 4s 6s AU Rashid 40 26 153.85 5 1MM Ali 36 24 150.00 3 2JT Ball 38 29 131.03 3 1LE Plunkett 29 23 126.09 1 2CR Woakes 28 25 112.00 4 1Lewis two hundreds in ODIs have yielded 324 runs; the only batsman with more runs from his first two ODI centuries is MS Dhoni, whose first two tons fetched 331 runs (148 and 183*). The problem for Lewis in his ODI career is his lack of consistency. His two hundreds have been big ones and fetched him 324 runs, but his other 18 innings have yielded only 326.When he does get going, though, the results are spectacular. His runs at The Oval, and the partnerships with the two Jasons – Mohammed and Holder – ensured West Indies scored 323 runs after the fall of the third wicket, the third-highest in any ODI. Of the top seven such totals, four have come in 2017.

Most runs scored after the fall of the third wicket

Match RunsAus v SL, Sydney, 2006 358Ind v Eng, Cuttack, 2017 356WI v Eng, The Oval, 2017 323NZ v Aus, Hamilton, 2007 312NZ v SL, Dunedin, 2015 300Ind v Eng, Pune, 2017 300Eng v WI, Bristol, 2017 295NZ v Zim, Bulawayo, 2011 287There were century stands for the fourth and fifth wickets, the first time West Indies have ever achieved this in ODIs, and only the ninth such instance among all teams. The net result of all that heavy hitting was a grand total of 356, West Indies’ fourth highest in ODIs.

From being on the verge of giving up the game five years ago to making a comeback on the sheer weight of his runs, the stand-in India opener has come quite some way

Sidharth Monga in Galle28-Jul-20172:19

Agarkar: India could have had another crack at Sri Lanka on day three

On what was largely a pointless day of Test cricket – India furthered their advantage against a prone host team with no needle left in the contest – an otherwise similarly mundane arithmetical calculation assumed significance. As you saw Abhinav Mukund try to cash in and score a hundred that wouldn’t tell you a lot about his future, and as you saw a smile at the end of the day even though he didn’t get the hundred, you realised eight years ago he was a bubbling 19-year-old. And what the subsequent eight years have brought him.”Baby” they used to call him in the Tamil Nadu side captained by Dinesh Karthik and coached by WV Raman. Abhinav was one half of the best opening partnership in Ranji Trophy – Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were opening for India – and Karthik reckoned Abhinav and M Vijay were not just the best opening combination but individually too the best openers outside the India Test XI.That year, Vijay replaced Gambhir, who had been banned after making physical contact with Shane Watson on the field, and immediately felt at home. Abhinav soon followed Vijay into the India Test side as Sehwag and Gambhir both pushed their injury treatments post-IPL and into the Test tours of the West Indies and England. It was a tough initiation, especially the tour of England, where India lost all four Tests. Abhinav scored 49 against a red-hot England attack at Lord’s, but played only one more Test in the next six years.These were years of hell. He would score runs in domestic cricket, but that wouldn’t matter. Sadly, even when he didn’t score runs in domestic, even that wouldn’t matter. He told ESPNcricinfo last year how he wanted to give up on cricket in the season just after his brief tryst with the Test side, how he didn’t even want to watch cricket. Then there was a time when he wanted to play and didn’t have a side.”I was just raring to even put on whites,” Abhinav said of this period after he fell on 81 in India’s second innings. “I wasn’t part of any team, I wasn’t part of any first-class team. There was a time when I was dropped from my own first-class team. To have this opportunity to be part of the Indian team is such a huge bonus. I take every game as an opportunity, that’s all. If I am part of the team, not part of the team, again, I will try to do my best wherever I am.”It was clearly a dark period for him. “I had a lot of time to think about it,” Abhinav said when asked if he felt unlucky to be dropped when he was. “I had six years to think about it. I think you [the media] had too. I don’t want to talk about it. I have gone through my ups and downs, and that is a long long time back. I don’t even want to get there. I am happy I am back in the squad.”Abhinav did put on the whites in style in the seasons leading up to his comeback to the Test side, scoring runs in Ranji Trophy, and in Duleep Trophy, with the pink ball. Unfortunately, he was now the No. 3 opener in the squad, and had to wait for his chance. As he waited, he dropped – as a substitute – Steven Smith in the Pune Test that India lost. He dealt with the frustration a little differently to how he did earlier.”I felt really bad,” Abhinav said. “Once you drop a catch, it is not like you can go back and do something. It wasn’t a difficult chance either. It was quite a sitter. Ninety-nine times out of 100, I would have caught it. Haunted me a couple of times. Again I knew my opportunity would come where I could take something, I could prove that I was a good fielder at that position.”The opportunity came in Galle where he ran Upul Tharanga out from silly point when the batsman had barely stepped out, following it up with a stunning catch at the same position to send Niroshan Dickwella back.”Hopefully two more-three more come tomorrow and I can prove myself better,” Abhinav said. “I wanted to be a specialist somewhere. In the Indian team, it is very important that you be a specialist fielder somewhere. I have worked a lot with [R] Sridhar [the fielding coach]. He has been a great asset for me. He has made it mandatory that we take a certain number of catches every day. Also the fitness aspect as well. It is important that you are fit to stand under the helmet for 70-80 overs. So a lot of credit to Mr Basu [Shankar, the trainer].”It would have been nice for Abhinav to get a Test century, just get the maiden one out of the way, but he fell to what turned out to be the last ball of the day. A century, though, should not be the point. As it is, even if he had got the century, he would possibly would be left out for Colombo, with KL Rahul now fit: Shikhar Dhawan, who was behind Abhinav in the queue, played a better innings when it meant more.If Abhinav is left out, though, he is likely to deal with it much better than he used to deal with disappointments. He is better equipped now. Life has equipped him better. His smile when admitting he dropped a “sitter” tells you that. He was a bubbling 19-year-old “baby” eight years ago, but Abhinav Mukund is a man at peace with himself now.

Playing his second U-19 World Cup, Rachin Ravindra is benefting from a lot of efforts his father has put in too, by founding a cricket club in Wellington and making his son play across South India

Shashank Kishore15-Jan-2018″I tried to get my daughter into cricket and she didn’t. With Rachin, I didn’t try, and he did.” Ravi Krishnamurthy, the proud father of New Zealand Under-19’s most-promising allrounder, tells ESPNcricinfo, even as his son prepares for a second crack at junior cricket’s biggest prize.Krishnamurthy couldn’t help but notice the passion when little Rachin would keep tucking at his Slazenger bats and then spend hours together hitting plastic balls spread across their backyard as a five-year old. It was this initiation into cricket that eventually took proper shape in the form of schools cricket, inter-districts, where he earned the reputation of being an elegant strokemaker who was hard to dismiss.At 16, Rachin Ravindra was the youngest New Zealander to feature in the 2016 World Cup in Bangladesh, where he impressed with his left-arm spin, but couldn’t quite replicate his success with the bat. He has started the 2018 tournament well, picking up three wickets that set the base for New Zealand’s eight-wicket win over West Indies. In home conditions, Krishnamurthy hopes the two years of hard work since will pay off.A software system architect, Krishnamurthy played a decent level of cricket in his hometown Bengaluru, before he left India to settle down in New Zealand after stints in England, Singapore and Australia. He, however, continued to remain in touch with some of his club team-mates like Javagal Srinath and J Arunkumar.Srinath, who Rachin fondly calls as “Sri uncle” turned out to become a close family friend, who they often visit in Bengaluru whenever Krishnamurthy is down meet his extended family during summer holidays. Srinath also often visits the Krishnamurthy household if in Wellington on match referee duty.”He’s my gym buddy, but I can’t lift the kind of weights he does,” Rachin laughs. “He is always happy to chat cricket with me whenever he’s here. He’s been very kind to spend time with me and talk about experiences that shaped him in his cricket career. How India’s outlook is towards cricket, cricketers and stuff like that. I’ve been fortunate to have been able to spend time with some former cricketers.”Until 2010, a trip to India meant family holidays. Since 2011, the annual India holidays have been intercepted with plenty of day’s cricket across Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Anantpur, courtesy the Hutt Hawks Cricket Club, which Krishnamurthy founded in 2011 to give “serious cricketers” an opportunity to play day’s cricket and not just 30-overs cricket, as is the norm in New Zealand at the junior levels.NZC”The age-group limited-overs format wasn’t going to teach resilience. It was more participation than anything,” Krishnamurthy, a Level 3 certified coach by New Zealand Cricket, explains. “I kind of knew, unless Rachin went out and got good number of games as match practice, he won’t progress. The number of dropouts in cricket is staggering in New Zealand. We started Hutt Hawks, named after our suburb in Wellington, with a few like-minded guys. The idea was also to get these boys to enjoy travel on the road, the journey, the team spirit and mateship. The fun you have with all the boys on and off the field is what defines Hutt Hawks.”The club’s aim was to play teams from across New Zealand’s districts and across different countries, largely India.”Playing in different conditions in India has helped my overall game,” Rachin says. “It’s allowed me to work a lot more on my batting, especially on turning pitches which our climate and soil doesn’t allow us to prepare. Also bowling on turners has been a tough experience, because as a spinner, you are in the game a lot more, and not just playing a holding role that you’re invariably asked to do back home.”The exposure over the last two years for a lot of age-group cricketers has been particularly significant because New Zealand haven’t played too much Under-19 cricket bilaterally. In fact, since the conclusion of the 2016 World Cup in Bangladesh, the team hadn’t played a single international in the build-up to the edition they are now hosting.Last year, Bruce Edgar, the former New Zealand opener, asked to be included in Hutt’s touring party after a number of first-class cricketers from Wellington Firebirds were part of the India tour. Krishnamurthy, who also runs a cricket sports shop in Wellington outside of his day job, partially funds these trips, of which Rachin has been a part every year except the current one, since he’s a part of the World Cup squad.Krishnamurthy was incidentally in India until a couple of days ago, coaching a Hutt Hawks team and simultaneously working on his “billion-dollar proposals and corporate presentations” while his boys were on the field. The huge time difference between India and New Zealand didn’t leave him too stressed about his son.Krishnamurthy has a trusted ally in Ivan Tissera, who has been Rachin’s childhood coach and now trains the Wellington Under-19s. Tissera, a Sri Lankan born New Zealander, played for the Bloomfield Cricket Club in Colombo and migrated to Wellington around the same time as Krishnamurthy. The two became close friends, a bond that has naturally extended to their families too, so much that Tissera took Ravindra under his wings immediately and would train him alongside another teenaged prodigy Amelia Kerr, who represented New Zealand at the Women’s World Cup in June last year at the age of 16.ICC/Getty Images”He is such a humble boy. He never has any ego in terms of ‘I’m doing well.’ I keep telling him as long as you don’t let that get to you, you’re fine,” Tissera says. “His priorities are clear. He has the support from his father in every way possible, without the pressure that he has to play cricket.”Rachin clearly knows what he wants, and is looking to play club cricket in England to further strengthen his game. But that would mean carrying his books along and study to cover up for his exams that he must appear for to pursue a law degree which he wants to after his Grade 12. “I have had no problems balancing cricket and studies,” he says. “I want to either do law or computer engineering. My parents have always encouraged me to do what I want. It’s just coincidence that my passion coincides with my dad’s passion.”Krishnamurthy resonates that view. “His favourite pass-time is cricket. No cellphones, girlfriends just yet. He trains crazy. Honestly, I wouldn’t do what he does to himself, but I won’t tell him that. He’s also very aware of nutrition, body anatomy and biomechanics. It’s quite crazy.”But my wife Deepa and I always said to him to do a lot of things in life, education is important for everyone. He’s been a very good student. He doesn’t necessarily put in the effort like my daughter does, 95%, but as long as he gets good marks, we’re all good,” he says. “We have all the comforts, more than we’d asked for, but we don’t want him to be comfortable. He has to work for what he gets.The crazy routines, Krishnamurthy believes, will go a long way towards Rachin becoming a better person, even if he doesn’t become a great cricketer. The systems Rachin has meticulously followed, he hopes, would help him emerge a better cricketer. Along the way, he hopes Rachin can also pick Rahul Dravid’s brains during the course of the tournament.”I’m sure Rahul will have some plans for him, whenever India and New Zealand play,” Krishnamurthy laughs. “After the tournament or our game, I’m sure he’ll be kind enough to have a chat with Rachin. If he can learn from them and continue to get better, sky is the limit. If not a better cricket, he’ll surely emerge a better person.”

Aakash Chopra also throws the spotlight on Colin de Grandhomme’s intent against spin, and India’s rolling No. 4 spot

Aakash Chopra25-Oct-2017India’s plan against Latham
Tom Latham’s innings in Mumbai was one of the finest played by an overseas player in India. The way he swept the Indian spinners reminded one of Matthew Hayden and Andy Flower. The only place that he didn’t target against spin was the long-off region (he had scored only one run towards long-off on Sunday) and it felt that the hosts fielded with only eight men. The Indian bowlers and captain Virat Kohli learnt from that experience, prepared a plan and executed it well. The spinners bowled only a couple of balls within the stumps and constantly had both fine-leg and square-leg inside the circle. The line and the field placement meant the option of padding a single from outside off was cut off, and the only way to find the fence was to go aerial. In addition to that, even after Latham was well set, India had six men inside the circle, which included a fielder at mid-off instead of long-off. The outside-off line forced Latham to walk across all the time and that’s where the change of angle from Axar Patel worked. That was the only time Axar went around the wicket and instead of throwing it outside off, he pitched it towards leg and Latham played down the wrong line.Bhuvneshwar’s tight lines
It’s a little difficult for a swing bowler to maintain tight lines but Bhuvneshwar Kumar has shown that he’s capable of doing so without comprising on his ability to swing the ball bowl both ways. His beehive from today’s match was a testament to his accuracy; most bowling coaches tell you to bowl the length that will make the ball hit the top off stump, and he did that consistently. He dismissed Martin Guptill with a ball that was too close to leave but still a little wide to play at and it moved away after pitching. Against Colin Munro he went around the stumps to bowl bouncers and came back over the stumps with a his knuckle ball that tends to float into the left-hand batsman, which accounted for an inside edge. Even for Henry Nicholls, he used the angle from around the stumps and hit the top of the wicket after going through the gate.How spinners bowled to Colin de Grandhomme•ESPNcricinfo LtdDe Grandhomme v spin
The arrival of Colin de Grandhomme at No. 7 for New Zealand dispelled any thoughts about the quality of the pitch, for till his arrival India’s spinners had a vice-like grip on things. He came out with a positive intent and challenged India’s strategy of having more fielders inside the 30-yard circle than was necessary. Two shots that he played against Yuzvendra Chahal and Kedar Jadhav showed his range of shots against spin. Both balls landed at the identical spot but against Chahal he went aerial down the ground and against Jadhav, he whipped the same ball over midwicket. He is also one of the few batsmen who can hit the long ball against spin without leaving the crease and thereby giving no advance notice of his intentions. The ball that dismissed him might have shown the way for Indian spinners to tackle his threat in the future. The ball he got out to was the only one thrown wide, challenging him to go over extra cover while the ball was turning away. The same had plan worked against Glenn Maxwell and it won’t be surprising if the same continues to be the plan against de Grandhomme after today’s dismissal.Dhawan’s technical adjustments
Tim Southee and Trent Boult present different kinds of challenges and demand a radically different response. Southee brings the ball back into the left-hand batsmen while Boult takes it away. In Mumbai, Shikhar Dhawan stood on the leg stump and didn’t shuffle against Southee, keeping his front pad out of harm’s way. But the same tactic brought about his downfall against Boult, as he ended up going towards the ball with his hands. In Pune, while he stood on the leg stump for Southee, he stood on middle and off against Boult. In addition to that, he played extremely close to his body with soft hands to the fuller balls, ensuring that the edge didn’t carry.India’s No. 4 spot still up for grabs
Since the 2015 World Cup, India have tried more players (11) at No. 4 than any other team in the world. Among them, only Yuvraj Singh has got eight consecutive chances to bat at that position while the rest have got no more than three chances on the trot before the next man in. Manish Pandey had failed twice at No. 4 against Australia, and was pushed down the order for the remaining games in which he got runs. But he is no longer a part of the playing XI now. Kedar Jadhav started at No. 4 in this series but Karthik was sent at that position in the second ODI. Selection isn’t only about having faith in a player’s ability but, also, faith in your own eye for talent.

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

Daniel Brettig03-Jan-20181:11

‘We have prepared a traditional SCG pitch’

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

The month of November was all about the stars of yet another glorious Ashes series

Andrew Fidel Fernando02-Dec-2017If the planet has lacked for anything in 2017 it is hyperbole and media histrionics, so we can all be thankful that the Ashes series has finally got under way in Australia. In honour of one of cricket’s most storied and prestigious traditions of ritual mudslinging, we dedicate to the Ashes this month’s edition of the Briefing.The fantasy
England, it is fair to say, are desperate to have Ben Stokes join the Ashes squad, and are seemingly willing to go to incredible lengths to get him there at the earliest possible instance. At first suggesting that Stokes’ trip to New Zealand was merely a visit with his parents, it later emerged that the ECB had packed Stokes off with a no-objection certificate to play domestic cricket in his country of birth, had mostly brokered a deal with the Canterbury provincial side, and had probably also packed Stokes a nutritious lunch to enjoy at his first List A game in Rangiora, on Sunday.In facilitating his cricket in New Zealand, there appears to be substantial optimism that Stokes will be cleared to play, and that a best-case scenario may pan out. In the ECB’s fantasy sequence, the moment police confirm Stokes will not be charged, a klaxon sounds across New Zealand, and Stokes, in the middle of bowling an over in the Ford Trophy, veers rapidly away from his run-up, tears off his Canterbury uniform mid-sprint to reveal an England Test kit beneath, dives headlong into the Boeing 777 that had been idling just outside the boundary, throws himself off the plane once it is over Adelaide, lands in mattresses arranged in the shape of a target he is sure to hit (such as the middle of Carlos Brathwaite’s bat), rides piggyback on a support-staff member into a stunned Adelaide Oval, begins swearing immediately at the Australia team, and finds they have all lavishly wet themselves, for all is now lost and their red-headed reckoning is come.The warpath
Nathan Lyon, over the course of two press conferences, took it upon himself to insult virtually everyone who came to mind. Joe Root’s modest form on that previous tour was invoked. Lyon spoke of wanting to end opposition players’ careers. Matt Prior was accused of being so scared of Mitchell Johnson’s bowling in the 2013-14 Ashes. (Prior, at least, responded to the accusation, tweeting: “I hope the first Test goes well for Nathan”, by which he meant he hoped it didn’t go well). Then, when Lyon was later asked if he stood by those comments, basically bragged that he had tricked the media into covering his news instead of putting scrutiny on two inexperienced team-mates.James Anderson calling out a team for bad behaviour? Surely that’s the type of fake news you can spot a mile away?•Getty ImagesThe team-culture problem
Sections of the Australian press have accused England of a problematic drinking culture within the side. That this is the very same allegation that some British media flung at Australia in 2013 when David Warner had taken a swing at Joe Root need not be mentioned since this Ashes is apparently impervious to irony. Nevertheless, England director Andrew Strauss has imposed a curfew on his side, and suggested they needed to be “smarter”. More specific advice, given that one England player was involved in an incident where a man fractured his eye socket and the recent fracas over Jonny Bairstow, might be that England need to develop a team values system where they ask for consent before making contact with someone else’s head.The inspiration
That tours in Australia often find themselves mired in sledging controversies is no surprise, since Australia has a great wealth of the main ingredient believed to foster sledging: Australians. This, apparently, has not escaped James Anderson. He wrote last week in a newspaper column: “A bully waits until they are in the ascendancy to pounce on people – that is what Australian teams do.” Adding: “We are not interested in getting involved in any verbal or slanging match with them.”If a tally of over 500 Test wickets despite his not possessing the perfect swing bowler’s action has not already made Anderson one of the most wonderfully ambitious men in modern cricket, then this surely seals it. Here he reaches for the moral high ground on sledging even though he is among the most abusive players in the game, and in doing so, reminds us not to let our circumstances hold us back.If England set their morning wake-up calls to the sound of Steven Smith’s laugh, what can stop them from winning the Ashes?•Getty ImagesThe motivational guffaws
According to Joe Root, if Steven Smith’s laughter at the press conference following the Brisbane match “is not motivation [for England], I don’t know what is”. Now, it is likely that Smith was not laughing England per se, and was in fact merely amused by Cameron Bancroft’s attempts to describe the incident involving Jonny Bairstow. Still, England have an opportunity here. If nothing motivates them like the laughter of the opposition captain, then for the remainder of the tour, do they not, as professional adults, owe it to themselves to place cardboard cutouts of a cackling Smith everywhere – at training sessions, team meetings, and official functions? Maybe even above the changing room urinals?The laptop wielders
Finally, the Briefing would like to pay tribute to the series’ unsung heroes. Where would the Ashes be without those particular journalists, who – holding impartiality and diligence to be unshakeable virtues of their profession – fearlessly report on the series in more or less exactly the manner that best suits the requirements of their home team?

Pieter Malan has had a tedious journey over the last decade, but is grateful to have hit the form of his life and make the trip to India

Saurabh Somani in Bengaluru30-Jul-2018There is one thing about Pieter Malan that ‘everybody’ who knows him is aware of – because he’s told them repeatedly. In 2008, in what was Virat Kohli’s biggest match in his life till then, he sliced Malan’s slower one to point in the Under-19 World Cup final, and was out caught for 19.India would still go on to beat South Africa by 12 runs in a rain-affected match, but Malan had a memory to cherish.”I started my spell and he (Kohli) hit me over cover for a six,” he remembers. “Then I took a bit of pace off and he got out at point, it was really a good catch. Now I tell everybody that I got him out. Everybody who knows me knows that I got him out. (laughs)”We played him a couple of months before the World Cup, they had come to South Africa as part of their preparation before the World Cup. We could see [how good he was] even back then, specially the way he played against spin, I have never seen anyone play spin the way he did. He hit bowlers effortlessly, wherever he wanted to. I don’t think we could have known how good he was going to become, but you could see that there was definitely something [special] there.”It might make for an even better after-dinner story than the fact that Malan is the eldest of three brothers who are all first-class players in South Africa, but have never played in the same side. Pieter will be 29 in a fortnight, Andre is 27 and the 22-year-old Janneman is the ‘most talented’ of the lot.Back in 2008, Pieter was among the rising talents in the Under-19 side that had the likes of Wayne Parnell, Rilee Rossouw, JJ Smuts and Reeza Hendricks among future internationals. In a tri-nation one-day series before the Under-19 World Cup, Malan had hit 71 and 57 against India. Things went a bit pear-shaped thereafter, and Malan’s expected rise never materialised. He was in a self-admittedly “dark place”, but didn’t give up on cricket. And though a national call-up is still distant, Malan has racked up 128 first-class games, to go with 84 List A appearances and 33 T20s.Two consecutive seasons with more than 1,000 first-class runs have given Malan a spot in the South Africa A side that is touring India, and he began with 51 against the Board President’s XI on Monday, sharing in an opening stand of 161 in Bangalore.”After that World Cup, things came little bit easy for me. I sorted of expected it to just continue that way,” Malan says. “But cricket tends to teach you some hard lessons if you take it too easy. I had to learn those lessons, work through it and become a better player than if that hadn’t happened.”It’s taken hard work but I feel it’s been worth it to get on this tour. Batting will never be a job for me, I love batting. It was dark times because you see that the guys you have played with go through the levels and you don’t go through at the same pace, but then everyone is on their own journey. I think once you realise that and try to focus on how good you can become – and not on somebody that you maybe played Under-19 with is now playing for South Africa – once you figure that out, you just put your head down and work and hope that the right things will happen.”Amongst those ‘right things’ could be the fact that the three Malan brothers will finally all play for the same side. So far, Pieter has played only against Andre and Janneman. “They never got the opportunities in Pretoria, so they went to study in Potchefstroom,” explains the oldest brother. “That’s when they started playing for NorthWest. But now I’ve managed to get both of them to Cape Town. Hopefully from this season, we’ll all play together. It’s tough playing against them. You want them to do well, but you don’t want them to beat you. You’re not happy that they’re out, but you’re also not happy that they’re beating you.”I’d say the youngest (Janneman) is the most talented. He just seems to score runs easily. Andre has the talent, but hasn’t got the opportunities that myself and the youngest have. But I’ve been told I’m the worst batsman in the family. My dad never played cricket. He left all the talent for us.”But while Pieter may well be the ‘worst’ batsman in the family, he can always have the bowling honours over his brothers because of his illustrious scalp a decade back. He hasn’t bowled much, or met Kohli since, but if he does, he knows what he’ll say. “If I had a chance I will definitely remind him of the dismissal,” he smiles. “But he won’t probably remember.”

There were notable performances from Ben Foakes, Moeen Ali and Keaton Jennings but almost everyone contributed to England’s first away Test win in two years

George Dobell in Galle10-Nov-2018For all its imposing ramparts, ownership of the fort in Galle has changed hands often over the years.At one stage the Dutch, struggling with the attentions of the French closer to home, invited the British to look after it for a while in the expectation they would retake control when resources allowed. It was a bit like asking the fox to mind your chickens while you have a snooze.Sri Lanka were almost as obliging at moments during the second Test as the Dutch had been at the end of the 18th century. To see Kusal Mendis slice to mid-off, Angelo Mathews pull to midwicket (where the chance was spurned), Kaushal Silva playing against the spin or Dhananjaya de Silva attempting to thrash a wide ball for seven was to see a side lacking the discipline or determination required at this level.The Sri Lanka coach, Chandika Hathurusingha, compared his batsmen to “school kids”, which seems about right. It is a side that could learn much from the scrupulous professionalism and commitment for which Rangana Herath was known.For that reason, this was not quite an England victory to rate with similar subcontinental Test triumphs in India in 2012, Pakistan in 2000 or those here in 2001.It was significant, though. Given England’s away record – they were, remember, in the midst of their longest winless streak away from home in their history – and their record against spin, in particular, any victory in Asia is worthy of respect. It was Joe Root’s first win overseas as captain and England’s first win with a Kookaburra ball since Stuart Broad’s inspired spell in Johannesburg in January 2016.This Sri Lanka side, flawed though it may be, had some decent scalps, too. Pakistan in the UAE, for example, and Bangladesh in Bangladesh. England couldn’t manage either of those results.The most pleasing thing from an England perspective was that just about everyone contributed. James Anderson and Sam Curran only took a wicket apiece but, by striking with the new ball in the first innings, they played their part. Ben Stokes only took one wicket, but the hostility he generated – remarkable given the docile surface – unsettled the Sri Lanka middle order. And while Adil Rashid bowled well below his best, he did make the vital breakthrough in the first innings, breaking the partnership between Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal, and was an affordable luxury in a three-man spin attack.But more than that, it may have marked something of a changing of the guard. There was no Alastair Cook and no Stuart Broad – England had only won Test without either of them since the 2005 Ashes and that was in Mumbai in March 2006 – and, such was Ben Foakes’ excellence, it raised the possibility that neither Jos Buttler or Jonny Bairstow will ever again keep in a Test. Keaton Jennings provided grounds for belief that he may yet develop into a reliable Test opener and Buttler provided two key supporting contributions.Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler celebrate the fall of Angelo Mathews•Getty ImagesEngland used their one unique selling point – the remarkable number of allrounders they currently have – to ensure they had a deep batting order and both variation and contingency plans in the attack. So Curran, at No. 8, and Rashid, at No. 9, produced valuable runs while the presence of six bowlers seemed to take the pressure off Moeen Ali. He has never had better match figures in an overseas Test and rarely bowled better in a fourth innings.And then there’s Foakes. It is naive to pretend we can ever return to a time when keepers could hardly bat, but it’s also foolish to suggest the value of a keeper’s run can offset a missed chance. In Foakes England have a batsman good enough to bat at No. 7, at least, and a better keeper than they have had since the days of James Foster. Matt Prior, who watched this match in his role as a commentator, suggested Foakes may already be better than Foster, who was once rated the best there has ever been by Jack Russell.They are strong words and time will tell, but there is huge value in having such a skilful keeper. While there may be a temptation to classify his first Test dismissals as routine, it’s worth remembering that, between November 2012 and December 2015, England didn’t take a single wicket by a stumping in Test cricket. The best tend to make things look easy.There is a lesson to learn from Galle, though. While the instinct of most batsmen on both sides is to counterattack in almost all circumstances, the key innings in this match were old-school, patient affairs. England remain insistent that their first-morning batting was appropriate – Root suggested his side could have been “50 for 5 if we had sat in our bunker and waited for a good ball” – but the fact is they were dug out of trouble by Foakes’ century, while Jennings shut Sri Lanka out of the game in the second. Neither tried to take the attack to bowlers as much as they sought to defy them and accumulate steadily.If England want to go the next step, from being an attractive and dangerous side to one of the very best, they need to tailor their aggression just a little more. Three-session centuries might not be as much fun as 60-ball 50s, but Tests are still won more by the former than the latter. Root, in particular, will get more out of his substantial talent if he realises that.England need to develop their defensive game – there’s no way they should be 50 for 5 if they trust their defensive techniques – and remember the old adage about allowing bowlers the first session of a Test. This match ended more than a day early; there’s plenty of time to defend, or even leave, a few more balls. Even Lewis Hamilton slows down for corners.

And how often have Sri Lanka been whitewashed at home in a Test series?

Steven Lynch27-Nov-2018How often have Sri Lanka been whitewashed at home in a Test series? asked Chandra de Silva from Sri Lanka

England’s 3-0 victory, which they completed yesterday by winning at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, was only the third time Sri Lanka had been on the wrong end of a whitewash at home.The first such setback was in March 2004, when Australia won 3-0 even though Sri Lanka claimed a first-innings lead in all three matches. Then India repeated the dose in 2017, winning 3-0 on a tour in which they won all nine international matches played.Sri Lanka have pulled off four whitewashes at home themselves. They beat West Indies 3-0 in 2001-02, despite Brian Lara piling up 688 runs, and had similar results against Zimbabwe shortly afterwards, also in 2001-02, Bangladesh in 2007 (three innings victories), and most impressively, against Australia in 2016, again despite conceding first-innings leads in two of the Tests.Kieran Powell was stumped first ball against Bangladesh. Was this a first for an opener in a Test? asked Mike Walker from England

Kieran Powell’s dismissal in the second innings in Chittagong last week was indeed a first for a Test. There had been three other instances of an opener being stumped for a duck, but none of them went first ball. Remarkably, two of those involved the same man, South Africa’s Louis Tancred, who was stumped for 0 on his 16th ball against England at Headingley in 1907, and repeated the feat – fourth ball this time – at The Oval in 1912.The first opener to be stumped for a duck in a Test was the England captain AN “Monkey” Hornby, against Australia at Old Trafford in 1884. He fell to the third ball he received, which was the 15th delivery of the match: this remains the earliest stumping in any Test.Two other openers have been dismissed in the first over, though not in the first innings of the match. England’s Archie MacLaren was stumped for 1 in Sydney in 1894-95, while Alastair Cook fell, also for 1, to the fifth ball of England’s second innings in Kolkata in 2012-13 (he had scored 190 in the first, and England needed only 41 to win).Was Nayeem Hasan the youngest man to take a five-for in a Test? asked Mithun Ahmed from Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s new offspinner Nayeem Hasan, who turns 18 next week, became the youngest from his country to take five wickets in an innings in a Test, in the course of claiming 5 for 61 against West Indies in Chittagong a few days ago. Nayeem beat, by about a month, the record of Enamul Haque Jr, who was just past 18 when he took 6 for 45 against Zimbabwe in Bangladesh’s first Test victory, at a different ground in Chittagong in 2004-05.But there are two Pakistanis on the list who took five-fors at a younger age. Mohammad Amir was 17 when he took 5 for 79 against Australia in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in 2009-10, but Nasim-ul-Ghani was just 16 when he claimed 5 for 116 against West Indies in Georgetown in 1957-58. A slow left-armer, Nasim took 6 for 67 a fortnight later in Port-of-Spain – and never managed another five-for in a Test career that stretched to 1972-73.Nayeem Hasan bagged five wickets in an innings on his debut, becoming the youngest Bangladeshi to take a five-for in a Test•Getty ImagesI noticed that six England bowlers took wickets in both innings of the final Test against India at The Oval. Has this happened before? asked Kurshid Patel from India

That’s a good spot, because that achievement by England’s bowlers at The Oval in September – James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes, Sam Curran, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid all took at least one wicket in both innings – is unique in Test history.Overall there have been more than 100 Test innings in which six bowlers took at least one wicket – but only four cases of seven. These were by England against Australia in Melbourne in 1897-98; by South Africa against England in Durban in 1922-23 (six of them took a wicket in the second innings as well); by Australia against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1966-67 (a regular bowler, offspinner Tom Veivers, also bowled 18 wicketless overs); and by New Zealand against South Africa in Centurion in 2005-06.Is it true that in an official ODI, a batsman was given out lbw by his own father, who was the umpire? (Must have led to an awkward conversation at dinner that evening!) asked Taimur Mirza from Australia

Yes, rather surprisingly it is true. The umpire in question was Kenya’s Subhash Modi, who stood in 22 one-day internationals between 2001 and 2010. Three of those featured his son, Hitesh Modi, an obdurate left-hander who had a spell as Kenya’s captain. Against Bangladesh in Nairobi in August 2006, Hitesh was rapped on the pad by Mashrafe Mortaza – but having his father at the other end didn’t save him: Modi Sr raised the finger to end his son’s innings (and, as it happened, his ODI career, after 63 matches). Subhash proudly admitted: “Yes, I gave my son out – and I gave him out in the first match too, bat and pad.”

The 19-year old has built a record so good that he’s about to become an international cricketer one year after making his first-class debut

Saurabh Somani13-Jan-2019Shubman Gill was about to turn in when he was woken up by “a storm of messages” in the wee hours of the night. “Then I saw that I have been selected with Vijay Shankar for the Indian team,” he told ESPNcricinfo on Sunday. Gill will join the team in New Zealand for the ODIs and T20Is, starting from January 23.His first act was to go to the next room, where his parents were sleeping. “I woke my father up to tell him. He was up as soon as I told him.”Gill’s first call-up to the national squad may have come in unexpected circumstances – with India forced to replace Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul – but it’s something Indian cricket watchers had expected would happen, sooner rather than later. Yuvraj Singh, his Punjab team-mate, had said last week, “He (Gill) is a special talent. After a long time there is a young guy whose batting I like to watch. He is very exciting. After the 2019 World Cup, he can make it to the (Indian) side.”The sudden vacancies in the squad have meant Gill could make Yuvraj’s prediction come much sooner. He makes an attractive package – a classical batsman who has all the shots and can also adapt his game to all formats without changing his style of play. Plus he has recent experience of touring New Zealand. “Yes, I think that will be an advantage,” he says. “I am familiar with the conditions because I have just travelled there [with the India A squad]. I also played the Under-19 World Cup there last year.”Naturally, Gill is looking forward to joining the team: “My only goal is that I don’t want to let the opportunity go if I get selected in the XI”. And he is eager to be a part of the dressing room alongside Virat Kohli, among others. “I’ll just see how he practises, the way he does his fitness work. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone in the team.”Shubman Gill in Ranji Trophy 2018-19•ESPNcricinfo LtdThe 19-year-old also draws confidence from how Prithvi Shaw, his Under-19 captain, made a spectacular debut for the senior team with a Test century. “It felt really nice to see him. He batted really well, a century in your very first innings, that too in international cricket… We used to sit and think or discuss ‘How will international cricket be?’ And he has played with us, so watching him succeed we also get the confidence that we can do it as well.”This time last year, Gill was on his way to becoming Man of the Tournament in India’s victorious Under-19 World Cup run. Between that and his imminent trip to New Zealand as part of the senior team, the top-order batsman showed he could also play finisher, even on a stage as big as the IPL, and has built a first-class record so good that he’s about to become an international cricketer nearly 14 months after making his first-class debut.He’s only played nine matches but there hasn’t been a one in which he’s failed to score at least fifty. He went past 1,000 runs in just his 15th innings, and averages 77.78. Further evidence of his dominance is a strike-rate of 77.28.

I think batting at No. 7 [for KKR] was new to me, and I learnt a lot of things. Our coaches and seniors really helped me. They all told me that I don’t have to hit every ball, but I should know certain areas that are my strength and keep those

Gill’s first innings upon return from India A’s tour of New Zealand in December was a monumental 268 against Tamil Nadu. In the next match, he made 148 as Punjab nearly pulled off a chase of 338 in the fourth innings. They finished 324 for 8 in 57 overs. While Gill agrees that the century against Hyderabad was his “best innings ever in the Ranji Trophy”, he knows that it is not because of one knock that he is on the cusp of achieving his childhood dream of playing for India.That fact may also have to do with the new dimension to his game that he added during the season with Kolkata Knight Riders. “I think batting at No. 7 was new to me, and I learnt a lot of things,” Gill says. “Our coaches and seniors really helped me. They all told me that I don’t have to hit every ball, but I should know certain areas that are my strength and keep those. First when we were having nets with KKR, and it was the first big T20 tournament I was playing, I used to hit every ball. Then after observing me for two-three sessions, Robin [Uthappa] came and told me, ‘You have to pick your areas, and the ball which you think are good balls, just try to rotate the strike, or you can defend it’.”4:14

Who is Shubman Gill?

Gill’s maturity in handling the back-end of T20 innings after having been a top-order player could prove handy considering India are looking for options there. He attributes his adaptability to a childhood spent playing with older kids who often used their seniority to bat ahead of him. “I don’t think I worked on this, it’s something that comes to me very naturally because I started playing when I was quite young,” Gill says. “When you are younger and play with people who are four or five years older, it comes with that. I used to play Under-14s when I was ten, then Under-16s when I was 13-14.”Gill has the potential to have a very long career for India, according to KKR’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar. “When I look at him, I always get the feeling that he’s someone who play for India for eight to ten years at least,” Nayar says. “I feel he is ready to play for India right now. I’ve spent a lot of time with young cricketers, but the understanding that he has about his game, his technique, what he does when he’s batting well, what he does when he’s not batting well – it’s tremendous. You sit and watch a video with him, he can tell you exactly what he’s done.”A lot of maturity, with a good mix of youth and exuberance – that’s the feeling I get in terms of how much time he has when he bats, his attitude towards training. Kudos to his father and family for the kind of support and effort they put in his development. Not everyone is that fortunate, his father has sacrificed a lot for him. And to credit Shubman, he understands that. As children sometimes we don’t understand what our parents have done for us, but he does. He has gratitude for his parents and upbringing, so I feel he’s a well-balanced kid with a very, very bright future ahead of him.”