With every passing game, Sunrisers’ opening pair seems to be pushing the envelope further and further

Shashank Kishore21-Apr-20241:56

What has given the Sunrisers batters so much freedom?

You couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought that Delhi Capitals decided to move away from their home ground for the first part of IPL 2024 because they wanted to give pitches time to recover from the WPL games in March.Sunday night must have felt like returning home to see their fortress broken into, the safe ransacked and their CCTV network expertly dismantled. Such was the carnage Sunrisers Hyderabad caused. And Capitals could do nothing about it, except wonder if embracing the “tired pitches” would have been the better option.Perhaps Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma might have adopted a different approach then. Or, maybe, they would have been just as effective – given the form they are in, they seem capable of taking the pitch out of the equation.Related

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There’s been so much written and spoken about Head’s reinvention over the past year. Still, it is sometimes astonishing how he has been able to push the boundaries of the batting powerplay with every passing game this IPL. There’s no slogging, but just proper trust in his methods that he believes will help him unfailingly deliver most times. There’s also the small matter of receiving that backing from the captain and coach.His opening partner, Abhishek, is much younger, but being around the senior circuit for six years now has given him a firm grip on what he needs to do. Sunrisers had raced to 83 without loss in four overs. Head had already brought up a barnstorming half-century and it would have seemed prudent enough to play Kuldeep Yadav out. Abhishek, though, is cut from a different cloth.He welcomed him with three sixes, the last of them bringing up Sunrisers’ 100 inside five overs. This may seem like a bit of daredevilry on the surface, but there’s been a proper mindset change that can only come with maturity because the approach comes with the inherent risk of more failure than success.Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma put on a blazing show in the powerplay•Associated PressThis approach by Abhishek, of going hard in the powerplay may have been stamped and sealed at the IPL, but has taken flight away from the arc lights when he had identified this was the method he had to master to be different. Abhishek spoke about it candidly during the domestic season, touching upon how amid the Gills and the Gaikwads he needed to reinvent himself to be different.At the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s, Abhishek put all of it into practice. He was the second-highest run-scorer. His 485 runs came at a strike rate of 192.46. Abhishek’s runs, more importantly, helped Punjab win their first T20 crown. It’s rare enough to have a few impactful performances when your propensity for risk is that high, but Abhishek had proved he wasn’t just a risk-taker for the heck of it. The consistency since then is merely a by-product of clarity and putting it into practice.Head has been playing outrageous shots every ball, or so it seems, making jaws drop with the approach that has redefined his game across formats. To not just match that but strike better takes something special. Abhishek could’ve been forgiven for rotating strike and watching the best show from the other end, but here he was showcasing himself to the world.Not only did he strike them clean, but he did so with a calm head, superb balance and impeccable timing, bringing a certain insouciance to his stroke play that made it amply clear that this was the handiwork of a proper batter, not a powerplay slogger. And it’s this partnership that has helped the Sunrisers thrive.”I just feel like Abhi’s probably been the standout for me,” Head said at a media round-table a night before Sunday’s fixture. “I know he has come through a really good Under-19 program and that he’s really close with a couple of guys who have excelled and gone on and played [Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw]. The way he learns and adapts, he’s confident and trains all those things that I guess you see a lot of now.”Abhishek himself can’t believe he has been able to learn off Head the way he has over the past few weeks. His three sixes in his first over off Kuldeep was just a proper demonstration of not just picking angles but also lengths and the bowler, both in the air and off the pitch.1:58

Rapid Fire review – ‘Head, Abhishek bat as if 260-270 is par score’

In the very first over, Head had given him a blueprint against Khaleel Ahmed, who may have perhaps seen how RCB’s bowlers saw their length balls disappear down the ground at the Chinnaswamy last week. So he went short, but Head was equally effective in transferring the weight back in a jiffy to access the square boundaries with the pull.”We’ve been talking a lot off the field,” Abhishek said of his partnership with Head. “It’s joyful to watch him bat. Our chats are helping. He’s someone I’m looking forward to batting with for the rest of the season. All the Punjab boys know I admire Travis for the way he bats in all three formats. Luckily we got him here [at Sunrisers].”I’m very clear about my mindset and goal. I had a very clear plan in my mind before the IPL. I was clear about my batting style and performance and how I was going to do it. I’m executing well, all the hard work in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s is really helping me a lot.”Remember that Kuldeep takedown?It was not just a result of a pre-game chat Head and Abhishek had about the endless possibilities against spin in the powerplay, especially on a fresh surface at a venue with short square boundaries as the Kotla offers. It was also down to their planning before the game that involved facing left-arm wrist spinners in the nets.”Personally, I try and plan really well for the spinners as they’re the main bowlers for teams,” Abhishek said. “This match also, I was very careful [in his planning] for Kuldeep. He’s their main bowler. I watched his videos, I try to play similar bowlers a day prior, it could be any net bowler or local bowler, but [the idea is to] try to make sure they’re similar to the bowlers we’re going to face. That helps me a lot.”It’s hard to imagine now that this opening partnership was discovered by accident. Mayank Agarwal’s illness ahead of their fourth game against Chennai Super Kings allowed them the option of pairing Abhishek with Head, who incidentally sat out of the tournament opener. Now it is impossible to imagine them being separated in the near future.

No other swing bowler has been as lethal at the highest level for as long as Anderson has

Ian Chappell14-Jul-2024Jimmy Anderson retired as the greatest swing bowler the game has seen.There have been many other fine swing bowlers but none have plied their skill for such a long period at the highest level. Anderson had that rare ability to swing the ball both ways with very little change to his action. Where other good bowlers gave the batter a clue with their change of arm slot, Anderson was able to produce swing both ways minus the early warning signal.This is a remarkable skill and it made Anderson an extremely tough opponent.Twenty-one years at the top is a tribute to his fitness, skill and ability to learn. There was also his desire to keep playing when big life changes, like having a wife and kids, could easily have surpassed the priority of Test cricket.His subtle skills became more obvious as he continued to run in with the same smooth rhythm and produce a probing delivery on a testing line. He continued to do so no matter whether he was bowling to a right- or left-handed batter. That was another skill that set him apart from many swing bowlers – it made little difference what type of batter he was facing.Related

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At the 2009 Lord’s Test, along with Andrew Flintoff, Anderson produced a wonderfully consistent spell of bowling.
There wasn’t a bad ball from either bowler and Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin played brilliantly just to stay in the fight against such a prolonged examination.It’s difficult to explain how tough it is to maintain a high standard of swing bowling for an extended period.I had the good fortune to captain the prodigious swing bowling of Bob Massie at Lord’s in 1972. Massie claimed 16 wickets in a miraculous debut which involved sustained swing bowling where he made the ball swerve both ways with unerring accuracy.This wasn’t a one-off performance as Massie took four wickets in the first innings of the next match at Trent Bridge and claimed 23 for the series in four Tests. He won a place in the Australian side by bowling Bill Lawry twice – no mean feat – in a Western Australia vs Victoria Shield match at the MCG.

Where other good bowlers gave the batter a clue with their change of arm slot, Anderson was able to produce swing both ways minus the early warning signal

Massie then played against the World XI at the SCG in early 1972 and took seven first-innings wickets, including the prized scalps of Garfield Sobers, Sunil Gavaskar and Graeme Pollock. Massie was no one-match wonder as a swing bowler, but his Test career lasted just 234 days.Anderson’s sustained swing bowling performance spanned 21 years and 188 Tests. That is a remarkable achievement involving skill and resilience.On the 2010-11 Ashes tour, Anderson produced another of his sublime outswingers to dismiss Ricky Ponting at the Adelaide Oval. That was Anderson’s best tour of Australia with 24 wickets, but by claiming captain Ponting for a duck and sending the scoreboard into a two for nought frenzy, it put England well on the way to victory.Despite Australia winning the next Test, by claiming the captain’s scalp in Adelaide, Anderson commenced England’s charge to a rare Ashes victory away from home.The tributes for Anderson have been many, touching not just on his undoubted bowling skill but also his grumpiness, the changes of hairdo and his stubbornness with the bat. It’s not surprising that he was occasionally grumpy, which resulted in the odd terse comment. Most people’s patience would be severely tested if they regularly charged in to bowl only to beat the bat and receive no reward.Despite the occasional outburst Anderson retained his patience, which was partly responsible for his amazing success.As retirement loomed, the thing that stood out most in Anderson’s often reluctant comments was his desire to win. This was a crucial motivating factor in his success.England will miss Anderson as it’s difficult to replace his rare skill. Importantly, though, Anderson’s career is now a celebrated one where he’s recognised as the best swing bowler the game has produced.

As England begin search for new white-ball coach, they should examine what support captain needs

Vithushan Ehantharajah30-Jul-2024″That didn’t interest me because the team is flying,” Brendon McCullum told New Zealand’s SENZ radio back in May 2022 after being appointed as England Men’s Test coach. “I wasn’t interested in a cushy kind of gig.”The “gig” in question was the England white-ball job, one McCullum was touted for but neither applied for nor was offered. It was instead given to Matthew Mott. And as Mott leaves his post on Tuesday, two years into a four-year contract, he will be the first to tell you it has been anything but “cushy”.When Mott took the reins, England were indeed flying – to a point – in limited-overs cricket. They held the ODI World Cup and finished the 2021 T20 edition as disappointed semi-finalists. Mott would add the 2022 men’s T20 World Cup to a crowded mantlepiece after a hugely successful time leading Australia Women. But the sands were shifting as Test cricket became England’s outright priority after years of underperformance in whites.That manifested itself in different ways. Mott rarely had access to his full squad, meaning continuity and defining roles were left to the eve of major tournaments at a time when personnel shifts should have been constant given the age profiles and trajectories of established and establishing talent. A dire defence of the ODI title last winter showed that did not happen fast enough.Related

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On three occasions – his first engagement in the Netherlands, a ludicrous series against Australia a week after the 2022 T20 World Cup and an inconvenient three matches against Ireland at the end of the 2023 summer – he was essentially working with a second/third-string hybrid squad. Even when he did have a full deck, external awkwardness brought its own challenges.The contract stand-off at the end of last summer, as the ECB introducing new multi-year deals spilt over into the start of the 50-over World Cup, created an awkward mood in the England camp. While the conversations with players began during the summer, by the time the contracts were officially announced at the end of October, the defending champions had lost three of their first four group matches. David Willey, one of the few players to perform in the first four weeks of that tournament, was the only member of the squad without one of the 26 deals. Announcing his retirement while voicing his displeasure at the decision was indicative of a sour atmosphere.Managing director Rob Key is right to state the team “needs a new direction”. But Mott certainly did not have full control of the wheel or the pedals. The key event of his tenure, one which will also influence the question of who takes charge after Marcus Trescothick sees out the summer as interim, was set in motion on June 20, 2022.That Monday morning, Eoin Morgan woke up in the WestCord Fashion Hotel, Amsterdam, and decided to retire, 33 days after Mott had singled out his “astute leadership” as a key reason for becoming white-ball coach. Mott was intended as a facilitator as Morgan continued to drive the agenda. With Jos Buttler taking over, the job spec had changed dramatically.Individually, Mott and Buttler worked well. Mott maintained calm within the dressing room, most notably during the recent T20 World Cup when rain and a defeat to Australia put England on the brink of another failure. Buttler has long emboldened those around him, both as a conscientious person and one of the best limited-overs batters on the planet. But as a combination, blindspots emerged.1:57

Roller: Buttler captaincy a bigger issue than the coach

By and large, Buttler’s instincts are sound, but they could be stronger. At times, he was too rigid in the field, sticking too long to plans even as they started to unravel. His decision to field first against South Africa in the sweltering Mumbai heat at the 2023 World Cup was followed at the T20 World Cup by bowling Will Jacks to Australia’s left-handed top order, with a short leg-side hit made to seem even shorter by the wind blowing across the Kensington Oval.Unlike Morgan, Buttler wears disappointment visibly. A byproduct of always being locked into the game as wicketkeeper? Buttler continues to insist the all-compassing nature of his work behind the stumps does not affect his captaincy. But at times, he could have done with a stronger, disagreeing voice in his ear. Mott was never that.Ultimately, Mott makes way because it is easier to replace a coach than a captain, particularly with a leadership void in the white ball set-up. Key’s priority is finding a seasoned coach with strong franchise and international groundings, with no desire to restrict the search to identifying an English candidate. But working with Buttler means there are parameters to instill. Whoever comes in needs to be a counterpoint to a captain who, at 33, is entering his endgame.England will not opt for a contrarian – Key dislikes the idea of “good cop, bad cop” pairings believing it only promotes disagreements, which is hardly conducive to a healthy dressing room – but they do need a firm hand.Of the names linked so far, Kumar Sangakkara could offer that given his pre-existing relationship with Buttler as Rajasthan Royals head coach, and wealth of experience as Sri Lanka captain. Ricky Ponting, let go last week by Delhi Capitals, also fits that bill. Andy Flower has gone on to be regarded as one of the best short-form minds on the circuit without totally losing the strict demeanour that oversaw the kind of success with the England Test team that McCullum is desperate to replicate.England ran out of road at the T20 World Cup against India in Guyana•CREIMASMahela Jayawardene is arguably the most standout candidate, encompassing every facet of playing experience and franchise success. But he would take some turning to depart Mumbai Indians, where he is head of global cricket with further expansion of the Ambani family’s reach – notably into the Hundred – on the horizon.Though lacking coaching experience, Mike Hussey impressed while on deck with England for the 2022 World Cup win, unafraid to challenge batters while also offering reassurance by way of insight. If a lack of international playing experience is no barrier, Mike Hesson is another name to consider – one who does not seek the limelight but has no problem pulling up those in it.Undoutedly a few will have spotted the scrutiny Mott faced and wonder if it’s worth the hassle. It would take a lot for them to turn their back on whatever plum gigs they have, particularly as franchise owners seek greater loyalty from their employees.The ECB is willing to exercise a degree of flexibility, appreciating the very best coaches are ones in demand in world cricket’s ever-changing landscape. Mott was understood to be on around £200,000 a year – a figure not set in stone and likely to be greater for a higher profile applicant – and there will be chunks in the calendar available for other opportunities.The risk here is if a coach does not give as much of themselves to it, that ‘England white-ball coach’ just becomes another job on their docket. It could also lend itself to conflicts of interest, though that is not restricted to this particular avenue, or cricket as a whole. Morgan, who dismissed talk of replacing Mott last week but is still thought of as a great option, is close to Buttler. Andrew Flintoff, popular with this group of players and currently in his first head coach role with Northern Superchargers, is a long-time friend of Key, but is unlikely to be considered this time around.There is much to consider, though time for consideration. The new coach will ideally begin from the end of the summer onwards, with a white-ball series in the Caribbean followed by the 2025 Champions Trophy in February. It is an ideal opportunity to start again, albeit with the same captain and similar challenges in the immediacy given that West Indies series is sandwiched by Test tours of Pakistan and New Zealand.If the “gig” seemed “cushy” back in 2022, it certainly is not in 2024. Nor is the job of identifying and convincing Mott’s replacement.

There were some positives, but the form of their pacers and their batting against spin have left India with plenty to ponder

Shashank Kishore08-Aug-20245:05

Rohit breaks down his batting method in the powerplay

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Washington, Parag show bowling spark

The sample size is small, but there are signs India are veering towards multi-skilled cricketers. In all three ODIs, India’s top six had at least one bowling option. They also lengthened their batting to play at least eight batters.Among them, Washington Sundar perhaps made the biggest gain, picking up five wickets in 27 overs across three games at an economy rate of 3.88. With the bat, his defiance against Sri Lanka’s spinners to revive their flagging hopes in the second ODI was impressive. In the third ODI, he counter-attacked to make a 25-ball 30 after the middle order was sent on a tailspin. That Washington was able to build on the gains he made from the T20Is in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, where he was Player of the Series, will greatly encourage the team management.Related

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Riyan Parag is another middle-order batter who proved he can be more than a handful with the ball. With the ability to bowl both offbreaks and legbreaks, Parag delivered nine overs on ODI debut, returning with 3 for 54. His lone intent-laden knock against the turning ball yielded 15 runs. Parag also impressed with the ball in the T20I series, the slow pace and liberal flight of his deliveries harking back to the good old days.Shivam Dube, however, missed out on a chance to make an impact in Hardik Pandya’s absence. In the first ODI, he had the opportunity to see off the game. In the second and third, he was out cheaply to Jeffrey Vandersay’s ripping legbreaks.5:39

India’s batting (except Rohit’s) against spin a sign of concern

Arshdeep, Siraj go off the boil

If the team management was looking for fast-bowling options to back up the rested Jasprit Bumrah and the recuperating Mohammed Shami, they would’ve left Sri Lanka a bit disappointed.On surfaces where 240 was above par, with the ball gripping and turning, India’s seamers struggled for rhythm and consistency. In the decider, they went in with one specialist fast bowler in Mohammed Siraj, with Dube sharing the new ball. With no swing on offer, Siraj lacked his usual bite and was carted for 78 in nine overs in the third ODI. Arshdeep Singh’s nine wicketless overs in the second ODI cost 58 runs. Harshit Rana and Khaleel Ahmed didn’t get a look-in.

No clear winner in Rahul vs Pant

This was to be one of the key decisions facing the Indian team management in ODI cricket. KL Rahul started the series, but found himself out of the final ODI after scores of 31 and 0. Rishabh Pant, who replaced him to play his first ODI since a career-threatening car accident in December 2022, managed just 6 while also having an off day with the gloves.Virat Kohli was out to spin in all three ODIs•AFP/Getty Images

India’s spin struggle

Virat Kohli was out lbw to spin all three times. On each occasion, he reviewed but DRS would only confirm the obvious. Rahul too struggled, bowled for a two-ball duck, attempting to drive after being done in by the drift by Vandersay in the second ODI. Shreyas Iyer, like Kohli, was out playing down the wrong line. In the third ODI, Axar Patel shaped to cut, only to realise he had erred in judgment, as the ball spun back in to crash into the stumps.Barring the odd occasion, like in the second ODI when Shubman Gill was out driving to a magnificent catch in the slips, or on Wednesday when Rohit top-edged a slog, India’s batters were largely out defending. In Parag’s case, he offered no shot and was bowled by a delivery that skidded through and didn’t turn like he had anticipated. India lost 27 wickets to spin overall, the most a team has lost against this variety in a bilateral series. Rohit felt the team’s application and shot selection could’ve been better.Among those who missed out is Iyer. After beginning with a run-a-ball 23, he was out twice to sharp turn. With India slated to play 10 Tests and three T20Is over the next few months, Iyer is now looking at a six-month hiatus from international cricket, unless he breaks back into the squad in those formats. It’s likely domestic form for Mumbai could dictate his standing in the scheme of things, when India play ODIs next in January.

Offbreaks pitching on the straight, and whizzing past a batter’s ears, on occasion – that’s not just tricky, these are serious warning signs. It’s about to get mad

Andrew Fidel Fernando06-Feb-2025It comes out of the southwest, rustles the canopies of the big banyan trees in the fort, and flutters the flags beneath the clocktower.The weather has been scorching for days. There has been barely a cloud above. And now the hottest ocean on the planet is blowing its breath across the cricket ground at Galle, so it’s happening. This is how you know drama is about to go down. Signs are, this Test gets spicy.Daniel Vettori, veteran of 113 Tests, including two in Galle (it would have been more, but this ground lost a few years to the 2004 tsunami), had this to say at the end of the day: “First innings runs are going to play a huge role in whoever wins this game.” We could extrapolate and figure that what he means is that batting conditions are going to get substantially worse over the next couple of days. But he clarifies anyway, in the sanitised language of a post-day press conference: “I just think it’s going to be a tricky wicket the whole way along.”Related

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“Tricky”, for most of us, is a key that doesn’t quite fit into the keyhole at first attempt but if you yank the door towards you, and lift it up off the ground a little bit, you can shove the thing open. Offbreaks pitching on the straight, and whizzing past a batter’s ears, on occasion – that’s not just tricky, these are serious warning signs. It’s about to get mad, and Sri Lanka have 229 for 9 on the board.Sri Lanka’s own batting coach Thilina Kandamby thinks his batters should have aimed for a total of around 350, and put his team in a position to dominate the Test. These are very batting coach requests, always wanting a pile of first-innings runs from which the team can dictate. But Sri Lanka’s batters were still the same people they were last week. Having been modest in six innings on the trot, it’s not as if, realistically, an earth-shattering batting display is on the cards here.There are, instead, some scrappy fifties, and some useful 30-odds. Dinesh Chandimal flays bowlers through the offside when they have strayed out there. Though generally an outstanding sweeper, this is a shot he almost never plays on this surface. In fact, for a bottom-hand dominant player, only 18 of his 74 runs have even come on the legside.Dimuth Karunaratne was defeated by Nathan Lyon’s variations•Getty ImagesWhen the top scorer on day one of a Test puts some of his most productive shots against spin away, on a ground on which he has played several match-winning innings, we are straying into the realms of seriously menacing Test-match conditions. Kusal Mendis, who is even more reliant on the sweep, did score runs with the shot, but even he hit almost exclusively with the spin. Australia have two left-arm finger spinners in Matthew Kuhnemannan and Cooper Connolly. Almost every run Mendis scored into the legside was off a ball that they played the spin.While the first Test at this same ground Australia made 654 for 7 etc we are now about to see a very different Test match unfold. Where in the morning session, the hardness of a rolled pitch did not allow for huge amounts of spin, by the evening, it had begun to take the kind of turn that scrambles the minds of batters.Is a sweep now too big of a risk, given the bounce spinners can get from a surface such as this, with a little overspin? Is this why Sri Lanka have played three finger spinners in this Test, to exploit the natural variation a track like this offers? Wristspinners are weapons on most surfaces, but Sri Lanka have left out Jeffrey Vandersay here. Does control and persistence take over when surfaces are this dry? And if cross-bat shots like the sweep and the reverse are too risky, then how else do you score runs on tracks such as this?As batters navigate what is obviously the kind of surface that Australia would label “extreme”, there will be doubts, as to whether what worked for the men who scored runs in the first Test, will work again here. The track they are playing on now is only about ten metres from the one Australia’s top order had prospered on only several days ago, and yet it feels like it could be from another galaxy.And when the wind blows, and the footmarks from the quicks are heavy and dark, and every delivery raises an explosion of dust, there may be drama around the corner. Signs are, this Test gets spicy.

He has come in to bat in tough situations and played some eye-catching shots. Now he needs to build on it.

Alagappan Muthu10-Dec-20241:01

Manjrekar: Reddy is an exceptional batting talent

Fifteen yards out from the boundary line in Canberra, Dhruv Jurel had rocked onto his back foot, opening up his hips to get power into the shot. He found it and the ball was hurtling away in front of square… exactly where Nitish Kumar Reddy was taking his throwdowns.Someone cried out in warning. They needn’t have. Reddy shifted seamlessly from checking what he could do better with India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate to whack this ball away too. He has got himself a nice little highlight reel in this Border-Gavaskar Trophy.It began in Perth when he was alert to the possibility of some quick runs. Nathan Lyon had come on and after sussing up that there was no real turn on offer, in addition to knowing that facing the fast bowlers had been really hard work, Reddy reeled off three fours in eight balls. One went down the ground, the next over cover, hit inside out, and the last was a reverse sweep. Shots seem to be his thing.Related

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According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, Travis Head, that phenom who has left Ricky Ponting in awe of how hard he hits the ball, is on top of the list for most runs made in this series through aggressive shots, or attempts made to find the boundary: 156 in 54 balls. Picking the ball early and committing to shots fully are hallmarks of Head’s batting and it helps that he has such great hands too. Reddy shares that strength. He is No. 2 on the list: 114 in 36 balls.In the second Test, when Mitchell Starc presented him with just the slightest bit of width – the length was still fine – there was an opportunity to free the arms and the young India allrounder took it with glee. The host broadcast had calculated that ball had come to him at 116kph (after pitching) and was sent away at 116kph too. Reddy hit Scott Boland for a reverse swept six as well and since that shot is a little more unorthodox it tends to stick out. But the square boundaries are shorter at the Adelaide Oval. To hit Starc – who is deadly almost every time he pitches the ball up – over cover – so no slogging – and have enough on it to go sailing into the crowd is a pretty special effort. His bat speed on that lofted drive was recorded to be 60kph. Whirlwind hands.”[Reddy] has done everything a young player could do in a very short space of time and we think he has a very high ceiling,” ten Doeschate said on Friday.At the time he was picked to play in Australia, he had played only 21 first-class matches, and his better discipline, batting, had fetched him one century and two fifties. Obviously, as an allrounder he plays down the order so he doesn’t always have the chance to score big runs but those numbers are still not the break-the-door-down type that the selectors often ask for. Reddy struggled in the early part of the tour, playing for India A. In four innings, he made 0, 17, 16 and 38 and picked up only one wicket.Nitish Kumar Reddy made 42 runs in each innings in Adelaide•Getty ImagesPlayers with raw talent like Reddy need this kind of exposure. Back when he was making his way up the Andhra age-group system, he was scoring double and triple-centuries for fun. So when he levelled up and had a poor season, he thought it was nothing. Then he had another blip and that’s when he realised where he stood.India have taken a big punt on him. He wasn’t dominating the Ranji Trophy. He only began playing professional cricket four years ago. His rise is a little bit out of nowhere, helped by his exploits in the IPL, and a little bit out of necessity. India need a seam-bowling allrounder. There is another big Test tour of England coming up next year. Someone like Shardul Thakur has done well in this role in the past but at 33 he might not be a good fit for the future. Reddy could. He has top-scored for India in three out of four innings in Australia. But given those scores were 41, 42 and 42, there is clear understanding that he is very much a work in progress.Take his singular strength once again, the one with which he has caught the eye and come up through the ranks – his attacking shots. When Head has played them this series, he averages 156, which means he has got out to them only once, which means he is choosing his moments to be aggressive quite carefully. Reddy’s average when playing attacking shots is 38. They have got him out in three of his four innings.”From the prep week in Perth, where he looked like he still needed to figure things out,” ten Doeschate said, “the way it worked in Perth and the game plans he implemented in Perth to get crucial runs there, I think to get us to 150 in that first game was amazing.”Still a little bit of work to do, he’s very raw. But for a young kid, a 21-year-old to come out like that and play three innings and the quality he has, it is super exciting.”In places like Australia, where the new ball poses immense threat, there is every chance a visiting team finds itself at 100 for 5 over and over. Runs thereon from people down the order can be the difference between winning and losing, and runs are possible from there because the ball goes soft and does considerably less. In that regard, Reddy, at No. 7, is a crucial piece of India’s puzzle and considering he is the team’s second highest run-scorer, he is coping pretty well. He had grown up watching the stars in this team. Now he is holding his own with them.

Quetta Gladiators have a strong top order as well as bowling, but new captain Saud Shakeel is untested

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Apr-2025

Multan Sultans

If consistency was the prize, Multan Sultans would be the PSL’s most successful and lauded franchise. They’ve made the final for four seasons in a row now, built on low-risk, unsexy and repeatable methods and planning. It’s much in the mould of their captain Mohammad Rizwan, though his approach at national level is being questioned. Still, since April 2021, Sultans have the highest win-loss ratio for any T20 side in league across the world.Related

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Michael Bracewell seems to be the right pick at the right time; Akif Javed, meanwhile, is breaking through internationally. Expect Sultans to be in the playoffs mix. As always.Best result: Champions (2021)2024 finish: Runners-upStrengths

• A diverse bowling attack that covers every angle and genre: slow left-arm (Gudakesh Motie), left-arm wristspin (Faisal Akram), left-arm fast-medium (Akif, Josh Little and David Willey), right-arm fast (Mohammad Hasnain), right-arm wristspin (Usama Mir), and offbreak (Bracewell)
• Potentially deep batting line with all-round options in Willey, Iftikhar Ahmed and Bracewell

ESPNcricinfo LtdWeaknesses

• The top-order anchor approach, favoured by Rizwan, which feels increasingly at odds with the world’s batting trends.
• Perhaps it matters less these days, but there are eight players in the squad who are over 30 years old, and two more on the verge.

Islamabad United

The actual most successful team of the PSL, with three titles, sits on the other side of the great philosophical divide in Pakistan’s T20 cricket. Not for Islamabad United is the low-risk, tactical rigidity that has defined Sultans. No, Islamabad have always been much more in line with modern T20 trends, bringing together high batting intent, all-round depth, and data sensibilities. Providing both Salman Agha and Shadab Khan, the captain and vice-captain to the national side currently, perhaps that approach is in the ascendant in this moment.Best result: Champions (2016, 2018, 2024)2024 finish: WinnersESPNcricinfo LtdStrengths

• A batting order that, potentially, hits a very high ceiling. From Matthew Short through (the partially-available) Rassie van der Dussen to the evolving Agha to the very in-form late addition Sahibzada Farhan to the Khans – Shadab, their captain, and Azam – Islambad have the potential to go very big.
• Jason Holder adds quality all-round depth to a side that isn’t lacking in all-round options.

Weaknesses

• A good spinner would be useful, because Mohammad Nawaz, Agha, Imad Wasim and Shadab himself don’t shout wickets or impact.
• Shadab’s value to, and leadership of, Islamabad remains unquestioned. But his return to Pakistan colours has been mixed, and it’s not clear whether he has rediscovered his best self.

Quetta Gladiators

Once consistently one of the best teams in the PSL, Quetta Gladiators’ sole triumph in 2019 heralded only the unravelling of that legacy. They failed to make it out of the group stages for four seasons in a row after that win, breaking that run with a playoff place last season. But 2025 promises to bring a change in approach and personnel. Gladiators have appointed Saud Shakeel as their new captain and former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed as the team director. They’re hoping that brings a change in fortune as well.Best result: Champions (2019)2024 finish: FourthESPNcricinfo LtdStrengths

• With Finn Allen and Hasan Nawaz at the top of the order, Gladiators are shedding the conservatism that has dogged their top-order approach. Allen could be a game-changing addition.
• The arrivals of Kyle Jamieson, Sean Abbott and a proven PSL allrounder in Faheem Ashraf add much-needed nous to the bowling.

Weaknesses

• The captain Shakeel remains a relatively untested T20 option, having played only ten PSL games in his entire career.
• Since the departure of Naseem Shah and Mohammad Hasnain, Gladiators have struggled to bring in a fast bowler with proven PSL pedigree. Mohammad Wasim Jr had a tough time last year, and Gladiators haven’t brought in anyone else to fulfill that role.

Rather than the pace of Jofra Archer, it was Chris Woakes with the keeper up to the stumps that did for India’s captain

Matt Roller11-Jul-20251:23

Manjrekar: Can’t find fault with Gill for his dismissal

“He’s out,” read the banner headline in the London evening newspaper , such was the sense of relief in England when Don Bradman was finally dismissed for 230 at The Oval in the final Test of the 1930 Ashes. In the absence of a modern equivalent, it was Chris Woakes’ face that evoked the same sentiment when he had Shubman Gill caught behind at Lord’s.Gill arrived in England averaging 35 and with plenty to prove away from home but his name has been mentioned in the same breath as Bradman’s ever since his 430-run match at Edgbaston. With 585 runs in the first two Tests of this tour, Gill could put Bradman’s record tally for a five-match series – 974 – under genuine threat before he heads home in August.While Gill was out in both innings in Birmingham, his dismissals hardly felt repeatable: his tired pull to square leg on 269, and skying a caught-and-bowled to Shoaib Bashir on 161 were simply the results of mental and physical exhaustion. Ben Stokes would not be drawn on England’s plans for the Lord’s Test, beyond saying: “We’ve got plans for all the Indian batters.”Related

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Stokes and England would not admit as much, but the timing of Jofra Archer’s comeback seemed like a direct response to Gill’s dominance. There remains a suspicion that Gill’s main vulnerability is genuine, express pace; within four balls of his first Test spell in four-and-a-half years, Archer had bowled the fastest delivery of this series.As soon as Gill walked in at No. 4, Archer returned for a second spell. His first ball to him was right on the money, at 88mph/141kph, and he had Gill flinching and dropping his hands to avoid his short deliveries. Archer has an excellent record against Gill – two dismissals in 28 balls in Tests, three in 19 in the IPL – and was desperate to extend it.With the ball becoming gradually softer, Stokes turned to his familiar short-ball ploy and set an extraordinary six-three leg-side field for Archer: long leg, backward square leg, deep square leg, square leg, forward square leg and midwicket. Gill was untroubled, even shimmying outside leg stump to forehand-swat a short ball into the covers.But Stokes had another plan up his sleeve. As soon as Gill walked in, a helmet came out so that Jamie Smith could stand up to the stumps with Woakes bowling. When Gill whipped his first ball from Woakes into the leg side for one, Smith took it straight back off and stood back when KL Rahul took strike.

“On a wicket where you’re working with a slope, if you can put someone further back in the crease, there’s more time for the ball to deviate one way or the other. You feel like you’re bringing more modes of dismissal into the game”Joe Root on the shubman Gill dismissal

Gill batted well out of his crease at both Headingley and Edgbaston, where he made Woakes look like a medium pacer: their head-to-head for the series read 153 balls, 102 runs, zero dismissals. But Smith’s proximity forced Gill back, giving the ball a greater chance to move off-straight – his average interception point against Woakes was half-a-metre deeper than it had been at Edgbaston.Woakes drew a false shot three balls into the plan, Gill pressing forward and edging him through past second slip for four. He looked comfortable enough when pushing a half-volley down the ground with a pristine straight drive, but when Woakes went a fraction wider on the crease, he caught the outside edge and Smith gleefully gobbled up a tough chance.England’s celebrations told the story of a plan coming together even if, at 80mph, the wicket ball was significantly slower than one Stokes might have imagined when calling on Archer. Woakes beamed as he ran away with arms outstretched, aeroplane-style. “I’ve seen a lot of him bat already – as we all have – so it was nice to take that wicket,” Joe Root said later, with a relieved grin.2:19

Manjrekar: Day two a learning curve for Gill

The long-term implications of England’s attack leader bowling with the keeper up were less than ideal, but with the series level and the match in the balance, it was the here and now that mattered. “It was a good bit of bowling – clever, as well,” Root added. “Sometimes as a bowler, you’ve got to take your ego out of it, and I think it was smart.”On a wicket where you’re working with a slope, if you can put someone further back in the crease, there’s more time for the ball to deviate one way or the other. You feel like you’re bringing more modes of dismissal into the game, and it stops them batting out of the crease and cuts the angles down… It was good thinking, good skill to be able to execute it as well.”Root seemed to have finished his answer when he realised that he should mention Smith’s “unbelievable catch” too, and this was an important moment for England’s wicketkeeper. Smith may not be as natural with the gloves as his predecessor and Surrey team-mate Ben Foakes, but this dismissal would not have been possible without his ability to stand up to a seamer. Added to another counterattacking half-century, Smith’s catch completed a fine day for him.It left Gill trudging off having scored 16, only his second failure of a sparkling maiden series as captain. If he can add another 373 runs in his five remaining innings of the tour to go clear of Bradman’s benchmark, then England will be buoyed that after a week of chasing leather in Birmingham, a ploy to get him out finally worked.

He was coming back from injury, but Hazlewood simply blew Punjab Kings away by taking out two of their key players in the space of seven balls

Karthik Krishnaswamy29-May-20250:43

Moody: Hazlewood would have ‘welcomed the New Chandigarh surface’

They call him Hazlegod. Fans of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) call him that, but so do Indian cricket fans of other stripes, for few can elude the grip of awe and terror that this 6’5″ metronome can induce when he does his thing. Seldom does a social-media nickname feel as apt as this one does when a ball delivered by Josh Hazlewood rears at an unsuspecting batter like an instrument of god’s wrath.This is a man who can turn any pitch into a trampoline. Give him one with a bit of bounce in it, and he turns into, well, Hazlegod. Think back to April 24, when he conceded just one run in a double-wicket 19th over that began with RCB’s opponents needing 18 off 12 balls. The Hazlegodliest ball of that over wasn’t even a wicket ball; it was too good to edge, leaping at Wanindu Hasaranga like a ball bowled by the Under-19s’ spearhead to the Under-12s’ wicketkeeper.When Thursday dawned, however, a bit of uncertainty surrounded Hazlewood’s powers. He hadn’t played in more than a month, had come back to India later than most overseas players when IPL 2025 resumed after its mid-tournament suspension, and had only just recovered from a shoulder injury. And there would be no easing in; he was about to be thrust straight into Qualifier 1.Related

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But Hazlewood is used to coming back from injury layoffs, and the world is used to seeing him come back, approach the bowling crease with that deceptively effortless run-up, and land his first ball on that exacting length like he has never been away.And so it was on Thursday against Punjab Kings (PBKS). The first ball Hazlewood bowled to Shreyas Iyer was his second ball, so he was sufficiently warmed up, and this ball was a reminder of every other ball he had bowled to the PBKS captain up to that point. Before this game, Hazlewood had bowled 19 balls to Iyer in all T20s, and dismissed him three times while conceding nine runs. It could have been four times in 20 balls; this one straightened from that trademark Hazlewood length and beat the outside edge as Iyer felt for it with an open-faced bat.Soon enough, it was four dismissals in 22 balls, with a stereotypically Hazlewood kind of strike. This is putting it a little crudely, because Hazlewood probably makes dozens of micro-adjustments in every spell, but on the whole, no matter what the format, conditions and opposition may be, all he probably tells himself at the top of his mark is: “I’ll hit a hard length, and we’ll see how it goes.”This was hard length, in the corridor, with a scrambled seam, and it nipped away ever so slightly from the batter. Iyer may have pushed at it with a vertical bat in a longer-format game; here he attempted a cross-bat swipe. Neither response was guaranteed to avoid an edge, and Jitesh Sharma’s gloves, as keepers’ gloves usually do when Hazlewood is bowling, pointed up when he caught this top edge above his left shoulder.2:10

Moody: Iyer totally misread the game situation

It was an ugly-looking dismissal, but you can’t divorce the batter’s shot from the context of the match as it stood. This was the fourth over, and PBKS were two down, but it wasn’t yet clear what a par total on this New Chandigarh pitch would look like. PBKS had come into this game with a line-up of extreme depth, but it had left them light on bowling – it seemed imperative, then, that they continued to back the aggressive style that had brought them this far in the tournament.And instinct, especially when it’s fine-tuned over two months of rigorous, T20-specific training, is hard to fight.The first ball of Hazlewood’s second over needed no putting in context. It was simply a brute. It was short and angled into Josh Inglis’ body, and it sprang off the surface with minimal loss of pace. It grabbed at Inglis’ throat, constricting him severely for room, and the miscued pull ballooned to long leg with the fielder barely needing to move. PBKS were 38 for 4.It was becoming increasingly clear that PBKS weren’t just facing the normal Hazlewood – a hard enough task – but Hazlewood bowling on a pitch with seam movement and inconsistent bounce. They were facing, in short, Hazlegod. There were balls climbing to the throat, and the odd one was going the other way too. Two balls after the Inglis dismissal, Marcus Stoinis bottom-edged an attempted pull off one that kept low, and was lucky not to play on.According to ball-tracking data, there were 0.6 degrees of seam movement during the two powerplays on Thursday, compared to 0.5 degrees on average in IPL 2025. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but couple that with the bounce, and the degree of difficulty becomes apparent: the average bounce during the PBKS innings was 3cm higher than the average bounce on previous New Chandigarh pitches this season. There was even more bounce (5cm more than the venue average) in the second innings, but RCB knew their target, and PBKS had been bowled out well short of setting them a challenging one.And PBKS didn’t know how the surface would play before they went out to bat. They were still finding out by the time Hazlewood came on. Where other bowlers may have given the batters a little more space and time to come to grips with the threat they were dealing with, Hazlewood simply blew them away, taking out two of their key players in the space of seven balls.3:05

Moody: The occasion muddled PBKS’ thinking

“The bowling unit was obviously back to the unit that bowled for most of the tournament, and again, we knew our roles really well,” Hazlewood said in his post-match press conference. “But a little bit in the wicket to be honest, there was a little bit of seam movement, the bounce was probably a little bit inconsistent, so we sort of utilised that as best as we could.”It became clear when the chase began that PBKS could have made a match of it had they successfully revisited their total they were aiming for – Hazlewood felt 150-160 may have challenged RCB.”Yeah, I think the conditions were… it was great to bowl first, I think, although we saw swing and seam throughout the whole game. Whenever a new ball was bowled there was a bit happening, so you’ve just got to utilise that.”Probably from a Kings point [of view], they probably just had to pull back a little bit and try and get a score on the board, you know, 150-160 would have been a difficult chase potentially. But I think we only let them bat as well as they could have, through our bowling.”Hazlewood exemplified that with his lengths, and it was instructive – of the conditions as well as the self-effacing nature of the man – that he went back to talking about the pitch when he was asked how he handled his return from injury.”On the injury layoff, worked really hard the last few weeks on the shoulder to get back, and got some good overs into it in the last sort of 10 days, and yeah, it’s feeling not too bad. I was happy with tonight, the wicket helped obviously, didn’t have to bowl any fast yorkers or anything like that, so yeah, it’s feeling not too bad.”If this is how Hazlewood bowls when he is feeling not too bad, RCB’s opponents in Tuesday’s final will hope he isn’t feeling any better by then.

In a year with the most 200-plus totals and the highest economy rate, Bumrah has towered over all other bowlers

Sidharth Monga31-May-20252:13

Moody: Ridiculous how far ahead of the rest Bumrah is

People on X have been calling him Josh Hazlegod since Ashes 2017-18, but it is Mumbai Indians (MI) that have got the closest to a religious experience. You can almost always neatly divide any given match of MI, any given campaign, or their entire IPL history into Before Bumrah and Anno Domini.In hindsight, MI made a mistake at the toss in the Eliminator against Gujarat Titans (GT), had to fight heavy dew and were being carted all around; GT’s run rate at the end of the 14th over was higher than the asking rate, and they had eight wickets in hand. And then appeared the lord, Jasprit Bumrah. The miracle of Bumrah created what might yet be the image of IPL 2025: Washington Sundar in a variation of the spreadeagle having failed to negate a yorker, and his stumps all over the place.In this year’s IPL, Bumrah missed the first four matches. MI won only one of those. Since Burmah’s introduction to this year’s IPL, they have won eight out of 11 matches. Basically, that is the same number of losses in the four matches Before Bumrah and 11 matches after his return.Related

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Overall, MI had zero titles in five years Before Bumrah; they are now gunning for the sixth one in 13 seasons with him in the side.There is no mistaking correlation with causation here. Even in a format with as limited agency for bowlers as T20, Bumrah creates a massive impact. The overall economy rate and average in all T20 matches involving Bumrah are 8.12 and 27.7, respectively. Bumrah, though, has gone at 6.86 and 20.09. When you are that much better than what the average bowler is doing in the same conditions, you can create a massive impact even in T20. Bumrah’s teams have to be really ordinary for him not to have an impact on the result. They usually aren’t.This year has been extra special for Bumrah. Bear in mind, it has been the year with the most 200-plus totals and the highest economy rate, and will end up with the most sixes. Among those who have bowled at least 25 balls in this IPL, Bumrah holds the best economy rate: 6.36 per over as against the overall 9.61. To turn in his most economical IPL ever in the big 2025 is phenomenal. Only three bowlers with as many or more wickets than him are still alive in the tournament.T20 is a format where batters hit you regardless, making it difficult to define what a good ball is, or to ascertain cause and effect. That’s not the case with Bumrah, though. Just one look at his pitch map, and you know why he has done well. A total of 43.41% of Bumrah’s deliveries have been full tosses, yorkers, or in the 2-4m bin. These can safely be assumed to be attempted yorkers. His unique action gives Bumrah the opposite of dip – the lift, which makes it difficult to line up any error in attempted yorkers.The miracle Bumrah created, what might yet be the image of this IPL•BCCITo have that higher margin for error because of a physical irregularity is one thing, but to hammer it home so beautifully is another. Bumrah’s full tosses have gone at just 7.42 runs per over (11.58 for all other fast bowlers), his yorkers at 5.49 per over (6.66 for others) and 2-4m deliveries at 5 per over (8.2 for others). Others have bowled only 22% of their deliveries in these three zones because if they miss their yorker, they get punished.The worst region to bowl in this year’s IPL has been 4-6m, which is the aggressive good length on a seaming pitch but just a slot ball on the T20 pancakes. Bumrah has veered into that zone only 7.75% of the time for 8.1 runs an over, while others have made the mistake nearly twice: 13.83% for an economy rate of 11.82.Bumrah has basically bowled defensive good lengths or hard lengths or attempted yorkers 36.82% of the time. This is incredible control over what you want to do. Hyperextension gives you certain benefits, but not this rate of execution and awareness of your game and the game in general.2:58

Cricinformed: Bumrah, the gold standard for a T20 bowler

Apart from the lift on his on-pace deliveries, Bumrah generates alarming dip and cut on the slower ones. He is streets ahead of the slower balls bowled by other bowlers. For others, only those slower balls that end up as yorkers have gone for under a-run-a-ball. For Bumrah, the whole band from 0-8m, plus 10-12m, is under a-run-a-ball. His slower balls in the slot have yielded a batting strike rate of just 50.Against his next opponents, Punjab Kings (PBKS), Bumrah bowled four overs for just 23 runs earlier in the season even as PBKS chased down 185. Against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who are in the final, Bumrah went for just 29 runs in his four overs even as they scored a match-winning 221.So, for MI to win the title, they have to beat the two rare sides that have risen above Bumrah in the league stages. In both those matches, both Trent Boult and Mitchell Santner went either for or above ten runs an over. That tells you the scale of heavy lifting the batters have to do off the others.In a batters’ format, in a year that belongs to batters more than any other, Bumrah has two possible shots at making this arguably the greatest IPL for a bowler despite missing the first four matches. Still, there are many things that can go wrong: the toss, the dew, bad day for others around him, or a batting failure, but Bumrah is not likely to be one of them.