At 17, he had Ashwin going “Wow, look at this boy”! Four years later, he had many others reacting the same way to his knock in the IPL final

Deivarayan Muthu31-May-20231:05

Sudharsan: ‘After having to retire out, I realised it’s best to be calm’

Baby Malinga Matheesha Pathirana marginally misses a wide yorker. B Sai Sudharsan stretches out, extends his hands, and laces Pathirana over the extra-cover boundary. Ravi Shastri, on commentary, describes it as the “shot of the match so far”. Sudharsan then immediately betters that shot by launching a 147kph fuller delivery over the bigger long-on boundary. MS Dhoni keeps his poker face and follows the trajectory of the ball. Sudharsan’s captain Hardik Pandya is so impressed that he walks up to Sudharsan, puts his left arm on Sudharsan’s shoulder, and wraps him up in a hug.Sudharsan’s parents Bharadwaj, a former athlete, and Usha, a former volleyball player who has also worked as a strength and conditioning coach with the Tamil Nadu cricket team, had travelled from Chennai to Ahmedabad for a three-day T20 final for these special moments. Sudharsan’s elder brother Sairam, who is pursuing Masters in supply chain and logistics management at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, had originally planned to fly from Australia to Ahmedabad for the final, but he couldn’t get tickets in the end.Related

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Sudharsan and Gujarat Titans didn’t get the fairytale ending that Ravindra Jadeja and Chennai Super Kings did, but once he returned to his hotel room in the wee hours of Tuesday, he watched the highlights of his shots against Pathirana and savoured them.”In the last over, the shot over extra-cover off Pathirana was my favourite,” Sudharsan tells ESPNcricinfo. “On such a big stage, on such an occasion, I didn’t expect to perform like this. But I was very happy. The trust that GT management gave [me]; in between I didn’t play a few games, but the management always had trust in me. I was ready to play any game. I was definitely very happy; I came back to my room, and I was seeing [highlights] of my shots. It took a long time for me to process it.”For Sairam, who had stayed up until 8am AEST in Melbourne for the IPL final, that extra-cover six made everything worth it. “I’ve always been a big fan of his extra-cover shot,” Sairam gushes. “We worked on it for months along with our parents during the Covid lockdown in Chennai. And the next shot I loved was his slog sweeps [off Maheesh Theekshana and Ravindra Jadeja]. I get nervous and start sweating whenever Sai bats, even during his [Chennai] league games. I feel sad that I couldn’t watch it live this time. Being in Australia and following IPL is one of the toughest things. But I’m very happy that his hard work is slowly reaping the benefits.”B Sai Sudharsan with his elder brother B Sairam, who followed Sudharsan’s sensational innings from Melbourne•B SairamSudharsan was even more emotional when asked about the standing ovation he had elicited from Titans’ dugout after he fell for 96 off 46 balls – the third-highest individual score in an IPL final. Rashid Khan tapped Sudharsan’s gloves as he walked in. Shubman Gill, David Miller, Jayant Yadav, Mohit Sharma and the support staff were all were on their feet. Sairam couldn’t make it to Ahmedabad, but Sudharsan’s ‘big brother’ in the Titans and Tamil Nadu dressing room, Vijay Shankar, welcomed him back with a bear hug. R Sai Kishore, also one of Sudharsan’s closest friends, kept clapping for him until his hands hurt.”I still get goosebumps when I think about the reception from the dugout,” Sudharsan says. “The amount of confidence or the amount of support from my team-mates or support staff… Obviously me, Vijay (brother)… Sai Ki (Sai Kishore) are very close and share everything together. Vijay gave me my first TN cap. We speak a lot about cricket and life as well. To contribute in a big final and put the team in a superb position gives me a sense of satisfaction. Obviously, I didn’t score a hundred, but I felt a sense of satisfaction when I walked back to the dugout.”Sudharsan also received a message from Kane Williamson whose role he had slotted into after the New Zealand captain returned home with a knee injury.”My role was to take the game deep – same as Kane’s role,” Sudharsan says. “Even a few weeks back, after he had left for New Zealand, I was having a conversation with him over the phone. He’s sweet. How sweet? He himself messaged me saying I could call him anytime and have a conversation over cricket anytime. Even last night, Kane texted me: “Very happy. You’ve done a great job!” I feel very happy that I tried my best to fill in Kane’s role. Our roles were fixed during the preparatory camp before the start of the IPL. With that role, I tried to enhance my game and it worked out I feel.”At the innings break, Sudharsan was subbed out for left-arm quick Josh Little. He perhaps thought that he could just put his feet up and chill, but a tense finish left him anxious.”Actually, I didn’t have dinner after the innings,” Sudharsan recalls. “Around the first strategic time-out, I went upstairs [from the dugout to the dressing room] and then in the next over, we got the wickets of both Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway. So, I didn’t even move from that place and so I watched the entire game from that place (laughs) on TV. But, yeah, mixed feelings. I finished the first innings on a happy note, but the end was a little upsetting. But I feel we can learn from that and get better next year.”Wow, look at this boy: The Gujarat Titans dugout welcomes B Sai Sudharsan back after a stunning knock•Associated PressDespite the defeat, this was an incredible turnaround from Sudharsan, who had been retired out by Titans in the second qualifier against Mumbai Indians after he struggled to find a higher gear. It might have dented the confidence of most 21-year-olds. But Sudharsan is not most 21-year-olds. He took that strategic move in his stride and spoke about the significance of emotional detachment in T20 cricket.”I had mixed feelings during that game too,” Sudharsan says. “I think the first 20-25 balls went well for me. After a matter of a few dots, we had to make that strategic move, but that’s 100% accepted and I took it in my stride. Because the way our batters were playing – Nos. 4,5,6,7 were explosive this year and also last year. I also felt, instead of me, it would be more fruitful for the team if those power-hitters were there in the middle at that point. I take it as an opportunity to learn because if I want to be there with the best, in terms of skill, I have to get better. In a way, I’m happy that it happened on such a big stage because it is now known to me that I’ve to get better in certain aspects of the game.”I also had a chat with Vijay about retiring out after the MI match. If you’re emotionally connected to the match, it becomes difficult because the IPL happens very quickly. They come thick and fast. It’s about forgetting the previous game and moving onto the next game. If you do that, your season will be better. That was our conversation.”After being bought for his base price in the IPL 2022 auction, B Sai Sudharsan became the highest-paid player at the inaugural TNPL auction in 2023•ESPNcricinfo LtdSudharsan started slowly against CSK in the final, too – he was on 36 off 27 balls at one point – but he cranked up the tempo to smash 60 off his last 20 balls. Against Pathirana alone, he scored 34 off 14 balls. In the second qualifier against Mumbai, Sudharsan had tried to over-hit the ball and kept losing his shape. Against Pathirana, he sussed out that his balls were skidding on from the Ahmedabad pitch and focussed on maintaining his shape while meeting the ball.”Pathirana is a very skiddy bowler. If you go too hard at him, you find there’s less time,” Sudharsan says. “If you try to time it rather than over-hit it, you can hit the right spot on the bat. The more side-arm [darts] you face, you might get used to that speed too and you can develop the habit to time the ball.”As a batter, you have less exposure to such actions from a different release. I’d say I have a bit of an advantage facing slingers like R Silambarasan (net bowler at SRH) and G Periyaswamy (net bowler at RR) in the TNPL. I think subconsciously it might have been a little bit easier to face Pathirana.”The Junior CSK side during their tour of Yorkshire in 2018. Sai Sudharsan is seated to the left of Ambati Rayudu (second from right, middle row); S Sharath is to Rayudu’s right•Chennai Super KingsSudharsan also had a plan against R Ashwin when he was just 17. He had stayed back to defend balls, forcing the spinner to overpitch. Ashwin had left midwicket open, as he often does against left-handers, but Sudharsan stayed deep in his crease until he got a ball full enough to hit against the spin. He then played a cover drive, forcing Ashwin to adjust his line. Sudharsan then stepped out to hit Ashwin over midwicket for four. Recalling that Chennai league battle on his Youtube channel, Ashwin marvelled at Sudharsan: (Wow, look at this boy!)This boy has since won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, TNPL, IPL and helped Titans defend their title this season. Sudharsan has been rated highly in the Tamil Nadu cricket circles since his age-group cricket days. Also, around the time he was 17, he was picked in Junior Super Kings’ side, CSK’s grassroots programme, for a tour of Yorkshire under the mentorship of Ambati Rayudu. How strange was it to go up against Rayudu in his last game in Indian cricket?”More than being strange, I enjoyed playing against CSK,” Sudharsan says. ” (Chennai is CSK). (Chennai is Thala). It was a great opportunity to represent CSK’s Junior team. Reading the game was something I learnt from the Yorkshire tour. The conditions were cold, and it was new for me to play cricket there. I remember I used to ask Rayudu how he bats in the IPL, how he tackles bowlers in the IPL, and I used to ask him questions.”Sudharsan just has a two-day break in Chennai before he travels to Coimbatore to join Shahrukh Khan’s Lyca Kovai Kings for TNPL 2023. His TNPL contract (INR 21.6 lakh) is worth higher than his IPL contract (INR 20 lakh). If he keeps levelling up, the rest of the world will also go: “Wow, look at this boy!”

Mendis, Karunaratne, Mathews, Chandimal and de Silva refused to buckle, and that’s not happened often

Andrew Fidel Fernando09-Mar-2023Sometimes you need only describe the scene at a cricket ground to know what is about to happen.The skies monochrome and heavy like a wet blanket that is about to be applied to the series at the first opportunity. The pitch so flush with vegetation, woodland creatures have taken residence. The outfield damp, as a cold drizzle descends occasionally on biting winds. And while the local bowlers – all tall and strapping – are lithe and powerful in their warm-up overs on the practice pitches, Sri Lanka batters swaddled in woollen sweaters face throwdowns, bearing the air of soon-to-be human sacrifices on an altar of seam bowling.Win the toss. Put Sri Lanka in. Watch the ball leap gleefully off bat edges into a pair of hands in the slip cordon, batter after batter clunking off like marionettes, the scoreboard showing 45 for 3, then 67 for 5, tail-end swipes pushing the total just beyond 100. Here are the familiar beats of a day one story for Sri Lanka at a ground such as Hagley Oval.Related

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Last time they were here, they didn’t have to bat first, but were nevertheless 104 all out. The previous time, they had the likes of Kumar Sangakkara in the XI, and were blitzed for 138. Barring second-innings near-miracles, which Sri Lanka do occasionally produce, these are match-defining mires. (And then New Zealand will go out to bat and put on half a million for six, wearing polite smiles that serve only to underscore the incompetence that had preceded.)And then, this. Four years after they had last played a Test in New Zealand (megaspanked by 423 runs, at this very venue), here was a day of astoundingly non-trash batting. Of gloriously semi-decent defensive play, of gobsmackingly okayish technique. Had Sri Lanka’s batters done the work to figure out the whereabouts of their off stump they started a Test on foreign soil? The mere thought should bring a tear of pure pride to the eyes of any Sri Lanka fan.Kusal Mendis, perhaps the form man in the XI, led the way. Key to his 87 off 83 was his judgment of length on a somewhat bouncy surface. When it was on a good length, he defended close to his body, almost always with soft hands, so that on the occasions the ball seamed and took the edge, the ball bounced short of the slips. Mostly, though, he defended inside the line, using his bat largely as an obstacle to deliveries that might pin him in front of the stumps, or sneak through to the wickets.When New Zealand’s bowlers bowled fuller, pressing hard for that catchable edge, Mendis committed fully to his front-foot strokes, sometimes driving imperiously, other times sending it squirting off the face of the bat through backward point, otherwise flicking deliciously off his pads.Angelo Mathews scored 38 of his 47 runs through the leg side, but looked gorgeous when driving down the ground•Getty ImagesHe hit 50 off 40 balls, as New Zealand’s bowlers had a modest morning themselves – 44 of those runs coming in boundaries. He and Dimuth Karunaratne, who was equally compact, but less aggressive against the hittable deliveries, put on a 137-run second-wicket partnership that formed the bedrock of Sri Lanka’s day-one progress. They would get out in successive overs, but their departure was unusually followed by further batting competence.Angelo Mathews waited for the shorter deliveries, scoring 38 of his 47 runs through the leg side, having also clipped a couple of boundaries off his pads. Dinesh Chandimal preferred the off side, hitting each of his six boundaries in that direction. Dhananjaya de Silva manufactured boundaries wherever he could, as he batted in the company of Kasun Rajitha towards the end of the day.Their scoring areas were diverse, but almost all of Sri Lanka’s top-seven batters covered the stumps, declined to lunge at balls until they were set, were unperturbed by the deliveries that beat their bats, and did not follow seaming balls outside their stumps. Collectively, they refused to collapse even in the face of probing bowling (mostly from Tim Southee and Matt Henry), as they often have in seaming conditions.Given the long tail, and the lack of experience in Sri Lanka’s attack (which New Zealand are very capable of exploiting), 305 for 6 is not an outstanding first-day score. New Zealand may well go on to dominate the match. But under the circumstances, Sri Lanka were passable. And you do not often say that of a Sri Lanka side on day one in New Zealand.

There was always something a little titillating about Broad’s best spells, a slightly guilty pleasure

Osman Samiuddin01-Aug-2023Most of us thought it would be Jimmy first, right? That made sense. Older, more miles in the legs, more grump in the soul. But the unexpectedness of Stuart Broad’s exit is a neat motif to his entire career in one sense, always not being what you thought he would be, or was becoming. And he may have emerged as teenaged prodigy but who could’ve expected Broad to build the career he has done while playing it entirely alongside the greatest fast bowler England has produced?Only a couple of days ago Ben Stokes went further and called James Anderson the greatest fast bowler to play the game. That’s a big call but when he is your weapon, it’s not a crazy call. At the least, Anderson is in those conversations. Nobody will call Broad the greatest fast bowler, though it is worth noting that in 2016, he – and not Anderson – was the first England Test fast bowler to be ranked No. 1 in the world since Steve Harmison in 2004.Anderson replaced him that year, which seemed not a correction but a bend towards a natural order. Anderson has since been back to that spot several times, most recently earlier this year; Broad has not.Related

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Which is just fine. Not all fast bowlers are – or must be – great. It’s enough for them to create a great spell or two which aren’t spells of great bowling so much as total life events, occasions you will remember forever but will never quite be able to make complete sense of (see: childbirth, weddings, funerals and the day Elon Musk took over Twitter); days when the world was a little tipsy and so life moved fast very slowly.A great spell or two, but with Broad we were spoilt. Entire mornings, afternoons and days lost entirely, unexpectedly and indisputably, to Broad, ones that he had conjured from scratch and, lucky us, let us in.There was always something a little titillating about his best spells, a slightly guilty pleasure. You knew you should be sitting stroking your chin at the cant of Anderson’s wrist and his reverse-reverse wobble, but all you wanted to do was to be an absolute lout watching Broad wreck stuff. Anderson satisfied the intellect, an arthouse spectacle scaled up for mass consumption like a Chris Nolan film. Broad, for all his evolution over the years, for all the roles he took on, for all his smarts, remained at heart, an out and out big-action banger, all breath-taking, set-piece stunts stitched together to make the movie.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhich is why, as tempting as it is to treat with due deference the sheer gargantuan nature of the headline numbers of his career – only four bowlers, one fast bowler, with more wickets, only one bowler with more Tests played – Broad’s best self will always live in his brief, sharp jags of anarchy into an otherwise perfectly civil day’s play.Like the two Test hat-tricks, the second of which he didn’t even realise he’d taken and the first of which (against India) came with bonus and massive DRS schadenfreude; his breakthrough at The Oval, four wickets in 21 balls; eight in 9.3 overs at his home ground; six in 7.3 overs in Durham; seven in 11 at Lord’s; the smallness of these numbers, the compression, speaks to the truer magnitude of his work. In them is a distinct mood: Broad, full lengths, nibbling away at an edge, nipping into a pad, smashing stumps, careening away in celebration, total upheaval in his trail.Is it sacrilege to say there was a little bit of Warne in Broad’s theatre around a delivery, enough that watching him was as compelling as the bowling itself, that a spell could be measured and experienced purely through his expressions? The arms flung in the air at repeated play-and-misses, the frowns and eyebrow shrugs and wry smiles, the wide-eyed disbelief and cupped-hand-over-mouth shock and, of course, the teapots. Broad’s last day will always be memorable for clapping Zak Crawley when he spilled a catch off his bowling, a sure sign that this was the end, of Broad, and, perhaps, of times.The most endearing was when, after beating a batter, or even being hit for a boundary, he would stop in his follow-through, fold one arm across the chest and hold his chin with the other, absorbing what had happened professorially. It was an unusual pose for the occupation, though in hindsight it works alongside a visualisation of one of his great early quotes, in a interview from 2010: “Tea just helps me fight”. Tea? For fighting?Which was your favourite Stuart Broad reaction?•ECB via Getty ImagesThere was always some game within the game, especially when there wasn’t, the bail-switching last week an absolute Broad classic. Is it the imagination or did umpires have to be the most switched-on bodies on the field when Broad was on one, turning him down, answering a hundred queries, humouring him, regularly being proved wrong by him, admonishing him. Parents will recognise and sympathise.After all of it, the walk back to the mark, with the intent, form and purpose of a self-important civil servant. Some days his knees pumped more on that walk back than in the run-up.He was not the first celebrappealer but there’s never been a better one and it captured something central in him. The sense of entitlement in dispensing with the need for the umpire’s adjudication that his critics loved to hate, but also the rakish hustle that his fans loved. Some of that manifested itself in a mid-career trait of wasting reviews while batting, prompting an irritated Mike Selvey to coin the L’Oreal referral (because he’s worth it).If there’s an absence of an appreciation so far of the nuts and bolts of his bowling, it is only because, 17 years from his international debut, what is not known about it? Once you have taken as many wickets as he has, it kind of stands as monument to the career by itself. Of course, he’s a giant, because you don’t get that many wickets otherwise.2:10

Broad: I wanted to finish playing at the very top

Some might argue he got that many because he played so many Tests, like it’s some sort of a caveat. Well one, taking 604 wickets is in no way an inevitable consequence of playing 167 Tests. No wicket comes easy in Tests. Two, he played as many as 167 Tests because he was good enough. And three, staying fit enough to play that many is a feat on its own. None of this was inevitable.The other thing is that once we’re slicing up that many wickets and Tests, of course there will be skews, to home conditions, to specific opponents, to bits of stats padding. That is inevitable. It applies to every player with a long career. All of that is what makes a career, it doesn’t take from it.And Broad’s has been as rich as it is long, sustained by a thirst for self-improvement. He was never still, forever learning, adapting, tinkering, experimenting, right up to the start of this, his final series. One of the by-products of that, and what sets him apart from Anderson perhaps, is the suspicion that, had he really wanted, he could still cut it amidst the helter skelter of white-ball cricket.The end came as a career had gone, with proof of his durability. When Alex Carey nicked behind, it was the fourth ball of Broad’s seventh over in that spell. At the end of day five. Of a five-Test series. In which he played every single game. In which he bowled nearly 26 more overs than any other bowler. During which he turned 37.That was overshadowed by the set-piece moment to sign-off, the last two wickets to seal an Ashes win, a wicket off his last ball and hugs with Jimmy at mid-off. It’s a shame there weren’t more wickets left because with two in 13 balls, one dropped catch and numerous plays and misses to balls he was shaping in and swinging away as much as ever, we all had that sense, one last time, that Stuart Broad is about to get on one and we best be there.

Tectonic shifts in the game have marginalised ODIs severely. Still, the 50-over World Cup is the sport’s apex event – and it will be this year as well

Osman Samiuddin03-Oct-20232:08

What will this World Cup be remembered for?

In a way the arrival of Pakistan in India, and the heartwarming little reception in Hyderabad, is the moment the 2023 ODI World Cup really began. A World Cup does not happen every day. It is a special occasion, where we anticipate wonderful and rare and unexpected things to occur. Pakistan were always going to make it, of course, but we’re in a moment where all the bitter politicking over their participation over the last year was more reflective of the state of international cricket than of whether they would actually participate or not.So for Pakistan to finally arrive in India is one of those big-picture moments we crave from a World Cup. It’s the first time they’ve visited India in seven years and nearly two World Cup cycles. When they were last here, Shahid Afridi was captain of the side, not father-in-law to its biggest star – that’s how long ago it was. Only two members of their squad have ever been here before, and they are the only team at this World Cup, other than Netherlands, to not have toured India in those seven years. The IPL brings the world to India every year, the Asia Cup brings Pakistan and India together every year, but Pakistan in India is a sign – perhaps the surest sign – that a World Cup is upon us.And no sooner is it upon us than thoughts turn to the end, not of this particular edition, but of the larger idea of an ODI World Cup. To be clear, the World Cup is not going anywhere for now. All of cricket has signed on for two more tournaments over the next eight years (although, just saying, it’s not like all of cricket has never flip-flopped over its events). But given how swiftly the game’s calendar is changing, how the priorities are shifting for its players, how international cricket is being edged out, this may well be the last time a World Cup is as big a deal in the game as it is now, the last time it is the World Cup as we have known and loved it over the last 40 years.Related

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It's a pity the ODI has been allowed to wither as a format

Because it is very cricket to have come to a situation where its showcase event is played in the one format whose future is so uncertain. The two opinions on what to do with ODIs these days stand at opposite ends from each other. Either they are totally dispensable and not worth playing at all until a World Cup year (a great idea because it frees up calendar bandwidth). Or the Super League ought to come back (a great idea because it gives context to bilateral ODIs). Meanwhile, nobody’s mentioned the next World Cup, back to its expansionist avatar, with 14 teams. More teams should mean more, not fewer, ODIs in the intervening years, to make Associates more competitive. But more teams also mean that a Super League becomes redundant, because narrowing it down to eight teams from 13 (and then two from a qualifier) carries the necessary jeopardy, but how do you retain that fairly when 14 have to qualify?Cricket, why you do this?The game has been confronted by such existential choices – mostly choices it has forced upon itself – almost non-stop since the last World Cup. Members want leagues all over the calendar, members want international cricket all over the calendar. Players want to be in all those leagues, players also want to play international cricket, and players also want some R&R. How much longer should we keep playing formats that we think are dying? No wonder cricket feels so fatigued by itself: these conversations are exhausting.Thankfully, that fatigue will wear off as soon as the first ball is bowled in Ahmedabad on Thursday. Cricket will no longer be one long doomscroll, or the disparate, siloed experience of following it now, where watching one game or series or league means you’re missing out on ten elsewhere at the same time. For the next seven weeks we’re all watching one and the same thing. In spite and love, with cheers and boos, and yes, in outrage, we will be, for once, united.Pakistan arrive in Hyderabad, their first time in India in seven years•Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty ImagesIt will, hopefully, also be a reminder of the virtues of the 50-over game, that it is more than the Fredo Corleone of formats (the modern choice would have been Connor Roy, except, one, he was the oldest sibling, though with middle-child vibes, and two, he didn’t die). That at its best it can provide naturally both the slow-burn satisfaction of long-form cricket as well as the instant rush of the shortest formats.Until that first ball is delivered, we exist in the vast, beautiful but unlit unknown; in the exquisite moment where we don’t know what is possible except that everything is. New stars, old stagers, fresh ideas, old thinking, rivalries, ball meet bat, life meet sport, all of it coiled before us, ready to be sprung.Going into 2019, we thought we knew what to expect. The game’s trajectory was unmissable. Between 2015 and 2019, England rewrote batting and other sides were catching up. They were playing on English pitches, where a lot of the rewriting had taken place. The World Cup was going to showcase the evolution of batting, and it was hard to look beyond England. It didn’t quite play out that way – delightfully – but expectations going in were clear.This time, as Nathan Leamon, England’s full time data guru and sometime zen philosopher, notes, nothing is quite so obvious or straightforward. ODIs were the biggest casualties of the pandemic, and even though the Super League eventually played itself out, the dishevelled, haphazard nature of it and the ensuing bilaterals has meant no pattern or outright trend has emerged over the last four years.Rashid Khan meets a young fan at one of the warm-ups•ICC/Getty ImagesInstead, T20s have land-grabbed the terrain. Since the last World Cup, there have been two T20 World Cups, four seasons of all the established T20 leagues, a season each of three new T20 leagues, four seasons of the Abu Dhabi T10, and three seasons of the Hundred. Chuck in two cycles of the World Test Championship and no wonder the middle overs of ODIs started to feel so long this year.It’s reasonable to assume that some of the early energy at this tournament might be spent working out the tempo of ODIs all over again, or at least in recalibrating to the needs of the format: when to go hard, when to go harder; when to pull back; when to chase; how to extract wickets in the middle and not just save runs. And given the large number of late and high-profile injuries – a direct result of the crush of this calendar – many sides will first be working out how to cope without key names.Maybe for most it all will simply fall back into place. After all, nearly half of the players in this World Cup took part in the last World Cup (across the nine sides that played both). And though the format may have faded, it isn’t gone yet. This is still, by and large, an era in which players have grown up watching and then playing ODIs.Unlike in 2019, when England began as clear favourites, there is little real form to draw on. Most people are happier to predict only a final four this time. England themselves arrive with an unusual confidence, having oscillated for much of the intervening four years between indifference to the format and a monstrous mastery of it. On paper, that is reflected in a 7-7 win-loss record (with two washouts) over the last 12-odd months, but such is the assuredness and depth of their white-ball cricket that the latter end of that scale is a truer setting.India have a powerful line-up, and the good wishes of over a billion if they need those•Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty ImagesIndia are at home, which would ordinarily be enough of an endorsement. But they have a truly formidable side, a batting order that, to be honest, is straining at the leash to be let loose, and a bowling attack that covers most situations and conditions. Opponents might have only the hope that they peaked at the Asia Cup to draw from.Australia are quirkier than usual, first with a captain who feels slightly stop-gap for the format, and a squad that is a retro tribute to England’s 1992 side (and almost every South Africa side of the ’90s). Full of allrounders who give them batting depth, but without compromising much on the bowling. They may rue not having enough spin options, though.Pakistan’s campaign is already accompanied by the rhythms that so often get them and their supporters going. They’re on the back foot simply by virtue of being in unfamiliar territory, part entertainers, part diplomats treading a geopolitical tightrope. They’ve lost the services of an electric young fast bowler. They’re coming off the back of a couple of big, bruising defeats at the Asia Cup; administrative turmoil is rumbling in the background. Forget that they have a pedigreed, if not complete, ODI side; a familiar narrative is peeping out over the horizon.South Africa are not as starry now as some of their recent World Cup sides were, so expectations are lower. But that might not be such a bad thing given their history at these events. New Zealand have a proper last-dance vibe going – as many as nine players from the 2019 squad and five from 2015. Throw in a couple of upgrades and a settled bowling attack (three of whom were together in 2015) and nobody can claim to be surprised if they do make the knockouts.Strap in now. And soak it up over the next month and a half because who knows if we will see a World Cup like this again.

Australia are annoying teacher’s pets again, India get gold stars for effort, England look for a place to hide their report cards

Andrew Fidel Fernando21-Nov-2023Gather round children. World Cup term is out. Hey, Sri Lanka and Pakistan! How many times do I have to tell you to keep quiet in the back? Do you to be suspended? Sri Lanka, don’t you dare answer that.Where was I? Yes, you’ve played all your matches. Some of you I’m very proud of. Some of you must already know you can do better. Come up one by one in alphabetical order and get your report cards.AfghanistanPlace: SixthTeacher’s remarks: You cuties. You did so well! And you did so well without upsetting the regular balance of things, by which I mean not winning against India and Australia and thereby putting earnings at risk. Your plucky run through the tournament was as inspiring as watching the rebels in . That is, if the rebels did not have Princess Leia or any other female generals or women fighters involved in any way.Related

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Advance Australia, inevitably

Best work: Beating England to not only set your campaign on a good run, but also trip them down a set of stairs they would continue to tumble down to the amusement of many.Worst work: Giving away 201 runs to Glenn Maxwell, whose body was so lifeless it looked like every shot was a spasm powered by defibrillator shock.AustraliaPlace: FirstRemarks: You did your best to sabotage yourselves. You lost your first two games and were bottom of the table. You fell off golf carts and gave yourself concussion. One of you had a broken hand for half the tournament. And then you came first, yet again. No one can figure out how you keep doing this.Best work: Your captain getting the wicket of Virat Kohli and turning that final.Worst work: Your captain saying he was “sad to see” England’s downfall at this World Cup, when we all know he very much was not sad.Next time maybe just give Australia the trophy at the start of the tournament•ICC/Getty ImagesBangladeshPlace: EighthRemarks: Never got close to the top spots, as usual. But created a lot of drama, as usual. Full marks for consistency.Best work: Your captain delivering a consoling shoulder tap to the batter he’d just appealed to have timed-out, then going on to win that game and acting like the whole thing was nothing.Worst work: Everything else.EnglandPlace: SeventhRemarks: Strutted in like big dogs, with big attitudes and major expectations. Then proceeded to crap your pants pretty much all the way through the competition. Gross. Don’t see me after class.Best work: Beating Netherlands by 160. You rock stars.Worst work: Choosing to bat first when you won the toss against Pakistan, when they had a tiny chance of qualifying for the semis but only if batted first. As if tanking your campaign wasn’t enough.IndiaPlace: Second
Remarks: The best student through the course of the term, ticking all the achievement boxes, sometimes embarrassing the other students with how much better you are than them across all subjects. There were times when it felt like your dad was doing your homework for you, but he’s the main donor to this school, and who am I to dock points? Yes, you stumbled in the final, but note that I am still giving you a special 10/10 perfect score. Actually 100/10. And all the stickers you want from the gold star sticker book. Plus free fruit juices for all of next term. If it were up to me, you’d be first place forever. I would have redone the final. Please tell your dad I don’t want to lose my job.Best work: Beating Pakistan in a stadium of 250,000 at least, surely. Jai Hind.Worst work: If you’d had Hardik Pandya you’d have smashed the final too, wow what a shame, don’t be sad, here are more stickers.Déja boo: South Africa have seen this somewhere before•ICC/Getty ImagesNetherlandsPlace: TenthRemarks: You did not just make up the numbers. You were a valued member of this class. It doesn’t matter to us that you’re from humble backgrounds. The memories you created will stay with all of those who watched this World… See you when we see you and good luck with your life otherwise.Best work: Beating South Africa.Worst work: Would have been really fun if you beat England too, but you didn’t quite manage it.New ZealandPlace: FourthRemarks: Yes, you’re all so glad for the opportunity to be here, and this country is such a wonderful place to play cricket, plus the fans are so passionate, and the sky is such a beautiful colour today, but would it kill you to have more to your collective personality beyond being nice?Best work: Rachin Ravindra’s hair.Worst work: Rachin Ravindra telling the world his first name was a mix of Rahul (Dravid) and Sachin (Tendulkar), until his dad said it was “nothing of the sort”, proving that if you’re of South Asian descent it doesn’t matter if you’ve made the most runs ever for a World Cup debutant, your parents are still going to somehow find a way to shame you in public.PakistanPlace: FifthRemarks: You really need to stop living in 1992. We went through this in the last World Cup. Sometimes losing a lot is not a prerequisite to not losing, and is just a sign that more losing is about to come.Best work: Announcing your major captaincy reshuffle while the rest of the world was focused on the World Cup knockouts.Worst work: Some of your World Cup showings didn’t cover themselves in glory.Tissues are now a mandatory kit-bag item for South Africa in World Cups•Getty ImagesSouth AfricaPlace: Third (kinda)Remarks: You didn’t do what everyone expected you to do. But you also didn’t quite blow those expectations out of the water. But, okay, sure. In four more years. I agree, for sure, you have some young players with promise. Next World Cup, absolutely. You’re gonna crush it then. Not a doubt in my mind. Keep believing, etc.Best work: Not choking in the semi-final and just losing it despite your best efforts.Worst work: Not being good enough to even get into a position in the semi-final for choking to be an option.Sri LankaPlace: NinthRemarks: No matter how bad your playing XI is, it will never be as bad as your administration. But man, has your playing XI sucked.Best work: Beating England. Very least you could do. But nice.Worst work: Your administrators asking for the ICC to suspend their own board after the Sri Lankan courts gave a stay order ousting the interim committee that replaced the board for roughly 24 hours, off the back of you crashing out of the World Cup and out of the 2024 Champions Trophy.

Hailing from Bengal, she talks about learning from Jhulan Goswami and rising up the ranks to play for India

S Sudarshanan06-Jan-20242:33

Titas Sadhu: ‘Jhulan Goswami has been a big part of my life’

Titas Sadhu had a smile on her face as she walked to deep backward square leg during the opening T20I against Australia at the DY Patil Stadium. If she was a tad dejected, it did not show. Only moments earlier, she was denied her maiden five-wicket haul in international cricket but the damage was already done.Her T20I best of 4 for 17 helped India bounce back from the 3-0 loss in the ODIs and thrash Australia by nine wickets on Friday. In the process, she became the youngest woman to pick up a four-for for India in T20Is.It was a late decision to play Sadhu in the XI instead of a third spinner in Saika Ishaque. She was brought on as first change in the fourth over and troubled the Australia batters with her seam movement and hard lengths in the powerplay. Sadhu struck with her fifth ball by dismissing Beth Mooney, and in her second over, she had Tahlia McGrath edge one that fell just short of slip. A ball later, she eventually dismissed her – a hard slash flying straight to deep third.Related

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On the next ball, Sadhu had Ashleigh Gardner caught and bowled for a first-ball duck with her in-between length. She could have had a fourth wicket in her next over had Richa Ghosh managed to hang on to a tough chance – an inside edge off Phoebe Litchfield’s attempted scoop.Sadhu then returned for her final over in the death – the 18th – and had Annabel Sutherland caught at mid-off a ball after she had been hit for a six. She also had Georgia Wareham given out lbw for her five-for, only for the DRS to deny her. Not even a Shafali Verma half-century in a stunning chase was to deny her the Player-of-the-Match honours, though.”I was really excited [to play] because I had been sitting out for a while now,” Sadhu said at the press conference. “I get really excited while playing a match and I was waiting for my turn to bowl. I just wanted to hit my lengths and make the ball move a little.”Her hard work with bowling coach Troy Cooley did not go unnoticed. Despite making the XI in only two of India’s home white-ball games against England recently, Sadhu kept at it during the nets and each session would have a single-wicket bowling stint with Cooley standing at the striker’s end a la a batter, but without a bat, and move at the crease.”What Troy does essentially is stand there [at the stumps] and move as the batter would move,” Sadhu explained about the drill. “I get a real-time feel of what the batter would do and keep following her. That helps as it gives a good simulation of what you have to do in the match.”Titas Sadhu had a near-perfect day picking four wickets for just 17 runs•BCCIFor someone who initially did not take an interest in the sport, Sadhu has come a long way. She was used to watching a lot of cricket in Chinsurah, a city 50 kilometres to the north of Kolkata. Sadhu used to score for the matches at the Chinsurah Rajendra Smriti Sangha, a club where her father was the secretary, and run drinks for the players before a rainy day gave her father a chance to get her to bowl. There was no looking back.”I was not interested in cricket before; I was not interested in sports per se,” Sadhu had told this writer after a T20 between India Under-19 girls and New Zealand Women’s Development side in December 2022 in Mumbai, a month before she played the Under-19 World Cup and won India the final with a Player-of-the-Match performance. “I was like proper (go to play in the evening and come back) and sit to study.”She started playing as a 13-year-old but then missed the 2018-19 season due to her 10th standard exams – needless to say, she was good in academics. The following cricket season was affected by Covid-19 and in 2020-21, she made her debut for Bengal’s senior women’s team.”Initially I used to only bowl, but then especially in Bengal, getting into the team as a pace bowler is very difficult,” she had said. “When I started Jhulan Goswami was playing, Rumi [Rumeli Dhar] was playing, Suku [Sukanya Parida] was playing. So, I had the conscious thing I will have to bat as well to get into the first XI.”A fast bowler from Bengal can perhaps never escape the glowing shadow of Goswami, which is not necessarily a bad thing. And the former India fast bowler, who retired in 2022, has been a big part of Sadhu’s life.”The first conversation I had with Jhulan , she had said, ‘stop thinking about everything else and just bowl fast. If you are a fast bowler, you have to bowl fast’. I first saw her when I was 13 and since then she has been a constant presence. Working with her is a great opportunity not a lot of people have. You get that experience. How many players have played more than 100 matches for India, for 20 years? I am not even 20 years old!”Titas Sadhu made her India debut at the Asian Games•AFP/Getty ImagesSadhu was picked by Delhi Capitals in the inaugural WPL auction but she did not get a game. It was a learning curve for her. “Coming from that U-19 high to sit [out] for the whole tournament was rough. After the first couple of matches, it was clear that I probably won’t get a chance until very late [in the competition]. But I had this conversation with our trainer Wayne.”In men’s IPL there are 25 players. Greats sit out for two-and-a-half months. Any opportunity you get, you have to make the best out of it. I think that became the key. After the first two weeks, I just went in every practice thinking I will learn as much as I can.”Sadhu made her India debut at the Asian Games last September and also had a couple of wicketless outings against England last month. But in her first match against Australia she put on a near-perfect show. The wise one that Sadhu is, she is quick to give herself a reality check.”Cricket is a very humbling game. Today’s high can be tomorrow’s low. Whoever you are, you always come back to the ground and the next match is a new match. What you have done yesterday is gone.”

The lack of T20Is after the World Cup played a key part in shaping the list while Jhye Richardson still has the selectors’ backing

Andrew McGlashan and Alex Malcolm28-Mar-20240:41

Is Steven Smith’s best cricket behind him?

All to play for among Test batting reservesWhen Matt Renshaw was recalled to the Test squad earlier this year it was made clear he was considered the next best batter in Australia. That no longer seems to be the case. By the time Renshaw toured New Zealand he was averaging 24.93 in the Sheffield Shield and has since not received a CA contract. It is highly likely that the XI that played in Christchurch will be the same which starts at Perth against India in November, but the spare batting position is now wide open which leaves much to play for early in next season’s Shield and a likely Australia A-India A red-ball series.Related

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“Think it’s open for anyone to jump up and grab the opportunity,” George Bailey, the chair of selectors, said. “We were really clear with Matt, and not only Matt, the guys who missed out as well, it was a really close decision to take him on that New Zealand tour. I guess a blank page is a good way of describing it. I know Marcus Harris is one who has come off contract but he’s firmly in that mix as well, Cam Bancroft, Nathan McSweeney has had a wonderful season as well.”It is not the first time Bailey has name-checked McSweeney, who averaged 40.10 for South Australia in a bowler-dominated season and also captained Australia A, while Aaron Hardie (a new inclusion on the contract list) was also given another mention along with Beau Webster and Josh Inglis’ credentials as a specialist batter.Matt Renshaw was Australia’s spare batter over the last few months, but a host of players could now be in the mix•Getty ImagesNext full-time opener will likely be an openerThe big selection call this season was to promote Steven Smith to open the batting so that Cameron Green could return at No. 4. Though it was an uncertain start for Smith, who averages 28.50 after four Tests in the position, a major shift would have to occur for him not to retain the role against India. But Bailey indicated that when a permanent opening vacancy next comes up it is highly likely to be a specialist who takes the role.”Not saying it won’t happen [promoting a middle-order player] but think there’s probably less chance of that happening,” Bailey said. “That’s something I hope I’ve made clear in chatting to the opening batters who missed out, it’s not that we don’t value the position, it was a unique situation and I would say it’s probably likely that the next opportunity goes to a top-order player.Australia men’s contracts 2024-25

Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Jhye Richardson, Matt Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa
In: Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Matt Short, Aaron Hardie
Out: Michael Neser, Marcus Harris, David Warner, Ashton Agar, Marcus Stoinis
Extensions not retained: Matthew Wade, Tim David, Tanveer Sangha, Jason Behrendorff, Spencer Johnson

Horses for coursesBut there are still times when Australia may get creative. Aside from the five-match series against India, the other Tests that fall in the next contract period are two games in Sri Lanka from late January 2025, which will be Australia’s final qualifying matches of the current WTC cycle.Travis Head could be an option to open in those Tests, while Glenn Maxwell, who was close to playing on the 2022 tour of Sri Lanka, remains firmly in consideration having been ruled out of last year’s India series due to a broken leg. Inglis’ dexterity against spin is highly regarded and could work in his favour purely for a batting role.”I think we’ve shown in the past that we have other options in terms of throwing guys up in subcontinent conditions if we think that suits,” Bailey said.Ashton Agar has had a difficult 18 months but could yet feature in the T20 World Cup•Getty ImagesAgar a good chance for T20 World CupThe omission of Ashton Agar and Marcus Stoinis from the list prior to the T20 World Cup was always set to grab attention but it is a case of looking at the fine print. The 2024-25 contracts do not come into effect until July 1 so the T20 World Cup falls in the current contracting period with both players a strong chance of featuring. Bailey indicated it was highly likely the squad would include a second frontline spinner.”Those guys have both obviously got contracts this year and are firmly a part of our planning around that T20 World Cup,” Bailey said. “The balance of the squad think will probably lend itself to having that second spinner there…Glenn Maxwell is a pretty handy white-ball spinner and we don’t necessarily consider him a part-time option, so he’s one that we consider a frontline option in that space. Zamps [Adam Zampa] will clearly be there and I think there will be opportunities potentially for one more.”What it means for the future of those two players beyond the World Cup is interesting. Agar is only 30, but he missed out on selection in the ODI World Cup last year due to injury having also missed out on the XI for the T20 World Cup win in the UAE in 2021. He has lost his way in red-ball cricket having slipped down the pecking order as the reserve Test spinner and was not selected as WA’s main Sheffield Shield spinner in the second half of the season due to Corey Rocchiccioli’s rise. There is still a possibility he could be in the mix for the Sri Lanka Test tour but at present, he will head back onto WA’s list as a domestic white-ball player only.Marcus Stoinis could be heading towards a freelance career•Getty ImagesStoinis, 34, is in a different phase. He has already spoken with the selectors about where his international career is headed. A freelance career likely beckons beyond the T20 World Cup but he has not closed the door on ODI cricket and still has desires to play in the 2025 Champions Trophy. However, the elevation of Hardie and Matt Short as well as the continued development of Green in 50-over cricket, will make it hard for him to reach Pakistan.Tim David is another who is in an interesting spot. He qualified for a contract upgrade in this 2023-24 period and is going to be a key member of the T20 World Cup side. Bailey noted there are only six T20Is in the next contract period, which is why David was omitted.”Tim’s really enjoyed his time with the T20 side and hopefully he feels like a really important member of that team,” Bailey said.Injury-prone Richardson remains a key investment along with BartlettThe selectors are willing to continue investing time in Jhye Richardson•Getty ImagesJhye Richardson has not played an international since June 2022 yet he remains on the contract list for a second straight year despite a horror domestic summer where he played in just two Marsh Cup games, one Sheffield Shield match and eight BBL matches due to another shoulder dislocation and a severe side strain.He has gone to the IPL with Delhi Capitals after a long and deliberate rehabilitation period with WA but has yet to play. Bailey confirmed that despite all his issues, Richardson remains in the frame for the upcoming T20 World Cup.”Some of those injuries have been incredibly unfortunate and there’s a few things we can continue to work with Jhye and with WA on how we try and map out Jhye’s next 12 months and hopefully see him on the park for longer,” Bailey said. “There’s a high skillset there and he doesn’t need a great deal of cricket to be able to get his skills back on track. We’re excited that he’s over in India. Hopefully he gets a couple of opportunities in the IPL and he’s another one who is in the mix for that T20 World Cup as well.”The addition of Xavier Bartlett is a rapid rise given he was not playing for Queensland at the start of the recent home summer due to a back injury and seemed a long way off international selection. But a stand-out BBL saw him vault into the ODI and T20I sides. He has seemingly jumped Spencer Johnson. They are different bowlers in some ways but both are great white-ball prospects.However, 2024-25 features a Champions Trophy and very little T20I cricket. Bartlett’s durability across the three formats, but particularly in 50-over cricket where he swings the new ball in a format that features two new white balls and a 10-over powerplay, has seen him contracted ahead of Johnson.”We certainly like the skillset across all three formats.” Bailey said. “Ongoing it will just be that challenge of prioritising what he’s available for and when and keeping his body trending in the right direction. Hopefully another huge 12 months ahead for him.”In terms of Test cricket, Bailey said that Michael Neser’s omission from the list did not mean his standing in that format had reduced and remained in the mix alongside contracted duo Scott Boland and Lance Morris.

The offspinner showed her versatility with the ball but it was not enough to take RCB past Capitals

S Sudarshanan11-Mar-20242:53

Perry wants RCB to win the ‘little moments’ moving forward

If a picture could capture agony and ecstasy in one frame, it was that final moment of the match between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday night.Richa Ghosh was down at the non-striker’s end after a sprawling dive. She had willed every ounce of power from her body, but fell inches short. Shreyanka Patil was at the other end of the pitch, with the stumps disturbed and the ball lying close by. She did not want that moment to happen. Both had their heads buried on the ground, tears flowing uncontrollably.And not too far off from the two were the Capitals players – relieved and full of smiles. They were hugging each other, sharing high-fives and jumping with joy. They had managed to secure a playoffs spot for the second successive season, this time with a one-run win against RCB, who are still in contention.Capitals were faced with yet another thrilling contest – twice in two games now. They had come out at the wrong end the last time, but not this time, despite RCB being in command for the last half hour. So they knew what Ghosh and Patil were going through.Ghosh’s heroics helped RCB get close after they needed 40 from 18 balls. She exhibited her power and big-hitting chops to score a 29-ball 51 – skills that make her indispensable in India’s T20I set-up as a finisher. That RCB got so close was also down to Patil’s spell earlier in the evening.Related

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Patil showed why she is rated highly in T20 cricket by picking up 4 for 26. She had an economy rate of 6.50 when the opposition scored at just over nine – a creditable feat in itself.A niggle had kept her out of RCB’s first two games of the Delhi leg. She was “fighting it out to be match fit” in the past few days, according to her captain Smriti Mandhana, and returned to the XI on Sunday. The match was not played on the centre wicket, which meant one square boundary was shorter (46m) than the other (63m), and Capitals had raced along to 55 for 1 in seven overs when she was brought into the attack.Patil had switched to being an offspiner – having tried her hand at fast bowling, legspin and wicketkeeping – after seeing there weren’t too many of those in the Karnataka Under-14 trials, and one of her strengths right from those days was her pace. Earlier, most spinners in the women’s game focussed on slowing the pace down. But Arjun Dev, Patil’s coach and mentor, made her understand how she can use it effectively.3:14

Takeaways: Jemimah Rodrigues 2.0 powers Delhi Capitals

That Patil is one of the smartest spinners in the Indian circuit is an open secret. She provided an early glimpse of those smarts with her first wicket, when she varied her pace to catch the batter, Meg Lanning, no less, off guard. With the shorter boundary to the off side, she started from around the stumps, but erred by tossing one up outside off at 73kph. Lanning, who came into the game on the back of three successive fifties, duly lofted it over mid-off to pull the first punch. Patil responded by using pace to her advantage and slipped in the next one at 84.7kph on a length while getting it to spin in a touch. Lanning went back for the pull but missed it and was hit on the back leg, adjacent to middle.Most of Patil’s wickets on the evening were about dangling the carrot with a flighted ball before slipping in the quicker one to outsmart the batter. That Mandhana always bowled her with the longer boundary to the leg side made her job a little easier, allowing her to concentrate on one-upping the batter. Like she did when Jemimah Rodrigues backed away to go over the off side and was met instead by a yorker that she couldn’t get under.A ball later, Rodrigues tried to move towards off to sweep one past short fine leg. But Patil slipped in a very full ball, catching her by surprise. Rodrigues could only drag it back onto her stumps. That dismissal helped RCB end the 97-run stand between Rodrigues and Alice Capsey for the third wicket.Patil then struck twice in the last over. Capsey was on 48 and was in a belligerent mood at the start of the over. Her first instinct was to charge down the track to attack the spinners, and if not, just stand and loft them over the infield. With the field up on the off side, Capsey backed away to a length ball that landed outside off. But it kept coming in and she couldn’t make any contact and was bowled. Patil had fired it in quicker at 86.5kph.Three balls later, she enticed Jess Jonassen out of the crease with a flighted one to have her stumped. Thanks to Patil’s three wickets in two overs, RCB only gave away 38 runs in the last four overs and kept Capitals to 181 for 5.Patil earned special praise from her captain after the game: “Sometimes when you lose, you don’t credit it enough, but Shreyanka’s last two overs were brilliant, the way she bowled, especially the last over,” Mandhana said. “She was not dropped but she had a niggle. A player of her quality, there is no choice of dropping her. She showed a lot of character after the niggle she had.”Patil was inconsolable after the finish. The tears didn’t stop even when she shook hands with the players and walked towards the dugout. Patil and RCB still endure an agonising wait for playoffs qualification.

Family connections run deep for England’s next generation in their series with Sri Lanka

Andrew Miller29-Jun-2024The transient nature of age-group cricket means it is both part of the journey and the destination in itself. For some of the players on show in Chelmsford on Friday afternoon, their experience of playing for their country at Under-19 level will, in a few years’ time, be just another treasured memory – an interesting anecdote to slip into conversation from time to time, to remind those around them that they, too, were contenders once.For a select handful, however, by the time their careers have reached full bloom, this first ODI between England and Sri Lanka will be looked back on as just another stepping stone in what might come across as an inevitable rise to the top. Some kids, the pundits are bound to tell you in glorious hindsight, just looked the part from the very start.Never mind that such sweeping judgements are sure to gloss over all manner of pitfalls along the way. Loss of form and injury are common to even the most established of sports stars, but loss of mojo, motivation … mentors even. Who knows what obstacles will be sent to try this latest crop of talented teenagers, but you only have to click on a random scorecard from the long and illustrious history of Under-19 Internationals, to realise that the players who reach the game’s true heights are not just the exception, but exceptional.Related

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Which brings us to Rocky Flintoff, the 16-year-old son of a man who made his own England Under-19 debut in the Caribbean in January 1995, before going on to greater things, to put it mildly.The family connections within the current England U19 set-up are something to behold. Flintoff’s team-mates in his maiden international appearance included Haydon Mustard, son of former England keeper Phil, and Farhan Ahmed, brother of current England legspinner Rehan, as well as the captain Luc Benkenstein, whose father Dale captained Durham to their maiden County Championship triumph in 2008. “None of us see it as a burden,” Benkenstein insisted, when asked about the pressures of living up to such standards. “We’re all pretty grateful to have family members involved in the game and I think we have all used it to our advantage. It’s cool that we’re all in the same boat.”But no matter what sort of hot-housing and expectation management has gone into this latest crop of prodigies, there’s been something especially compelling about Rocky Flintoff’s brief explosion into the public consciousness.In part this can be explained by his father’s incredible profile – not simply because he was the hero of the 2005 Ashes, but because of what happened next: the injury-enforced retirement in 2010, followed by a brief T20 comeback, and the sense in the subsequent decade that he had left cricket behind to move onto shinier media opportunities.But if, in 2022, Flintoff’s acclaimed Field of Dreams documentary was the first inkling that his love of the sport had not been diminished by his absence from it, then that feeling was shown to be entirely mutual last summer, when – after being invited to get involved with England’s backroom staff – he was able to reveal the scars of his horrific Top Gear accident, safe in the knowledge that cricket fans would never dream of judging him by the same superficial standards that might have existed elsewhere in his public life.Flintoff made 22 off 25 balls•Getty ImagesAnd now, in the midst of this maelstrom, a mini-me has emerged. Footage of Rocky’s second XI exploits for Lancashire started doing the rounds in April, and not simply because of the novelty factor of seeing another Flintoff in action (or two in fact, with his elder brother Corey making his twos debut in the same match against Yorkshire).Moreover it was Rocky’s mannerisms that stopped the live-streamers in their tracks. That indefinable economy of power in his most formidable strokes, whether lofted down the ground or picked up off the hips; the extra split-second that he seems to have to assess the ball’s length and thump it right beneath his eyeline. Everything, including the down-swing of his pull shot, coupled with that coy saunter down the pitch even as the ball was still sailing over the ropes, could have been grafted from his father’s glory years of two decades earlier.None of which guarantees anything like the same levels of success as Rocky’s career develops – particularly, dare one say it, because of the scrutiny that is already built into his performances. But if his maiden England innings of 22 from 25 balls is anything to go by, he’s got the gumption to roll with the expectations. In an already losing cause, he held his own with three confident boundaries and a third straight drive that smashed the non-striker’s stumps, before taking one liberty too many and holing out to mid-off.In the end, though, the details matter not at this stage of the journey. For the record, England were unpicked by a typically canny, hard-edged Sri Lanka team whose skills were just that little bit more rounded – as is often the case for Asian teams at age-group level, unrestricted as they are by bowling limits and equipment prerogatives, and other ECB regulations that safeguard on the one hand but throttle spontaneity on the other.And they too have a host of heroes, of whom imitation will forever be the sincerest form of flattery. The enduring influence of Lasith Malinga, and latterly his original clone Matheesha Pathirana, is abundantly clear in the splay-stanced slingers of Dumindu Sewmina, armed with the new ball. Then, through the middle overs comes a conveyor-belt of wicket-to-wicket spinners, in particular Thisara Ekanayake and Vihas Thewmika, who hustle through their overs, backed up by raucous support in the field, to claim five wickets between them.At times while the match was slipping inexorably away, it was not unlike watching the fate of England’s senior team in Guyana the previous day – trial by spin clearly remains a national shortcoming, even if a gutsy stand of 90 in 16 overs between Benkenstein and his fellow Essex rookie, Noah Thain, at least guarded against a more comprehensive margin.Harry Moore bore more than a passing resemblance to Steven Harmison•Getty ImagesBut the rich promise on display could not be diminished by the scoreline. Among the most eye-catching was another of England’s four debutants, Harry Moore, who was born on April 26, 2007 – two days before that year’s World Cup final in Barbados, for those who really like to feel old.Despite having only just turned 17, Moore is a sky-scraping 6ft 5in already, and there were clear shades of Steve Harmison in his gangly-limbed approach and fierce lift from back of a length. Last summer he became Derbyshire’s youngest-ever debutant in the Metro Bank Cup; the prospect of him and Leicestershire’s own bean-pole Josh Hull leading the line into England’s future is a tantalising one.The class act of England’s top-order, meanwhile, was at the other end of the growth charts. Keshana Fonseka is barely 5ft tall in his little stockinged feet, but armed with a crunchy cover-drive, he launched England’s chase with a fluent 25 from 27 balls. The glee with which he was extracted, via a loose cut to gully, betrayed the extent to which Sri Lanka rated his game.Who knows how far any of this kids can take their games, but they are surrounded by inspiration wherever they turn in this formative stage of their development. Among those who have been assisting the team’s preparations for the Sri Lanka series are Graeme Swann, who played in England’s only Under-19 World Cup winning team in 1998, and Ian Bell, who was famously described by Dayle Hadlee as the best 16-year-old he had ever seen.It is arguable that Bell’s greatest achievement, over and above his 22 Test centuries, 13,331 international runs and four Ashes victories, is the fact that he lived up to those expectations of his precocious youth. He stands as proof that it has been done, and can be done again.

Decades before India dominated world cricket, Gavaskar gave them an identity in the game

Sambit Bal10-Jul-2024I was not 20 when I was forced to confront a future of sporting darkness. Sunil Gavaskar had just retired, out of nowhere, without a warning, without saying goodbye. Just like that, he would be gone. Never in a skull cap again.Cricket is the only sport I really knew, and cricket to me – apologies to Kapil Dev and the 1983 heroes – began with, and I feared then would end with, Gavaskar. No exaggeration, contemplating watching cricket without him was impossible. His leaving felt like a betrayal.Only a few months before, he had played one of greatest Test innings I had ever seen. On a turning, spitting, and viciously treacherous pitch in Bangalore, on which the second-highest score was 50 from Dilip Vengsarkar, and on which Pakistan had been bowled out for 116 on the first day, Gavaskar summoned his greatest virtues for a fourth-innings masterpiece after India were set a target of 221.A few years before that, Gavaskar had helped India nearly overhaul 438 with a double-hundred full of dazzling strokes. But on a snake pit of a surface here, his surviving each ball felt like a feat.Related

Gavaskar, who? And other stories

Sunny, Gramps and me (2019)

When Sunny made 438 look gettable (2015)

The Gavaskar lesson (2013)

The gift of pride (2010)

Imran Khan, who had been persuaded by the wily Javed Miandad to choose two fingerspinners over Abdul Qadir, the leggie, on the premise that all that mattered on such a pitch was accuracy, didn’t even bother to bowl an over himself in the second innings. Iqbal Qasim, the left-arm spinner, opened with Wasim Akram, who was soon replaced by Tauseef Ahmed, the offspinner, and Qasim and Tauseef would go on to bowl 83 of the 94-odd overs bowled in the innings.Only three of Gavaskar’s team-mates reached double figures and only Mohammad Azharuddin managed to go past 20. But Gavaskar remained in his own bubble of excellence, combining technical virtuosity – immaculate judgement of length, precise footwork, playing late, close to the body and with the softest of hands – and fierce focus. Balls exploded off a length, some went past the bat, some hit the glove, and team-mates departed routinely. But it was like he was in a trance, dealing in moments, and keeping his team alive in a contest in which doom loomed a ball away.It was on 96 that he finally fell, to a ball that rose sharply from a length that it was impossible to get forward to, and spun enough to brush the rising hand, ballooning up for a catch off the glove. Gavaskar removed his gloves and walked off briskly the moment the umpire began to raise his finger. Who would have known then that he would never be seen in a Test match again?In fact, we did not know for a while. He would soon go on to accomplish a couple of things that had eluded him all his life: a century at Lord’s, turning out for the Rest of the World against an MCC XI; and an ODI hundred, with blazing hits over cow corner against New Zealand in the home World Cup. It wasn’t until later, when my heart had gone past the ache and desolation, that I was able to grasp the significance of his going on a high, when the world wondered why now, and not why not.Years later, when cricket journalism imposed on me a rational and more enquiring relationship with sport, it became natural to question Indian fans’ devotion to individuals rather than the team – a devotion that sometimes had a shackling impact on Indian cricket. But then, in those times what did we have? Gandhi and Nehru were long gone, adorning currency notes, postage stamps and walls as framed photos. Politics was shabby and chaotic, the economy was in the doldrums. Shortwave radio was our window to the world, and as television screens began to turn colour, cinema fuelled our fantasies and cricket our hopes and aspirations. Hell, we needed our heroes.On Gavaskar rested the aspirations of Indians who had little to aspire to elsewhere•PA Photos/Getty ImagesOn celluloid, there was the brooding, simmering rage of Amitabh Bachchan, whose towering presence and baritone voice filled the screen, and on the field, there was Sunil Gavaskar, a small man in flesh and blood, taking on the most fearsome bowlers of the world without a helmet. The victories of 1971 I only read about, and India didn’t win much away from home during my initial years as a cricket fan, but there was always Gavaskar, with a defence so immaculate that it was a thing of beauty, a cover drive of geometric precision that left no half-volley unpunished, and a minimalistic, no-fuss straight drive that told the bowler he had been had.For a nation unsure then of its place in the world, Gavaskar was the picture-perfect embodiment of valour and accomplishment, and a constant source of hope and pride. The year 1977 was when cricket captured my imagination. With a transistor radio stuck to my ear under a blanket, I spent winter mornings following India’s tour of Australia, which see-sawed thrillingly to end 3-2 in Australia’s favour. And there was Gavaskar, who my aunt had told me so much about, with three hundreds.India’s next tour, to Pakistan in 1978, would end the golden age of Indian spin bowling (and herald a rising star in Kapil Dev), but it had Gavaskar standing amidst the wreckage, scoring 447 runs with a couple of hundreds. However inappropriate it may seem now, that’s how we counted India’s gains in cricket in those days, in terms of hundreds.It was perhaps ordained that Bombay would become my home. But long before I moved there, I adopted Bombay as my Ranji Trophy team, and Shivaji Park would be my first pilgrimage when I arrived. My fandom gradually dimmed as professional training took hold, but it was a high to have Gavaskar as a guest for the launch of the first cricket magazine I edited, and because my daughter shares his birthday, I rarely forget to wish him on email. He unfailingly replies.And because we inhabit the same professional landscape now, there has been the odd disagreement over the years, but the first hero remains forever. Behind my work desk is a collage of sportspeople as I would like to remember them. At the centre of this arrangement is the photograph of Gavaskar at the top of this article: bareheaded, down the pitch, weight on the front foot. The bat has completed its arc and finished above the head, the gaze is fixed straight ahead, presumably following the path of the ball that has raced down the ground. It’s a picture of symmetry and batting perfection, and a reminder of an age when irrespective of clouds or storms, it was always sunny days as long he remained at the crease.Happy 75th. Let the memories never fade.