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All-new line-up presents opportunities for host players but question marks for visitors

Andrew Miller07-Jul-2021

Big Picture

Well, that escalated quickly. It’s only been a matter of days since the soggy denouement to England’s third and final ODI against Sri Lanka – a match that had begun amid rumours of a few fresh faces in the ranks, but had continued with a solitary change to the line-up and another win-toss-and-bowl display, as Eoin Morgan targeted a full hand of World Cup Super League points before the heavens opened to rain on his run-chase.Changes are afoot now, all right. Eighteen of them to be precise, following the scrambling scenes on Tuesday morning, as seven positive Covid cases in the England camp led to the self-isolation of the other close contacts therein. You thought it was extraordinary when Gareth Southgate reeled off three substitutions with England 4-0 up against Ukraine on Saturday? Chris Silverwood just phoned and wants you to hold his beer…And so, all bets are off for the coming contest – which was always expected to be a stiffer challenge than Sri Lanka were ever able to pose, though these new circumstances are rather taking the Mickey (as Mickey Arthur himself has acknowledged). Pakistan are currently third on the Super League table, having played half as many games as England, and though they didn’t play ODIs on last year’s bio-secure tour, they emerged with a share of the T20I series with a thrilling defence of 191 in the decider at Old Trafford. The lack of jeopardy was palpable throughout the Sri Lanka leg, particularly for England’s fans, returning to the stands, but sometimes you really do have to be careful what you wish for.Nevertheless, what an opportunity these coming games present for England’s hastily-assembled stand-ins. There are players in this emergency party who may well find themselves playing their first and only international matches in the coming days – men such as Gloucestershire’s David Payne, who admitted he couldn’t stop smiling after getting the call from Silverwood while on red-ball duty in Cheltenham, and Middlesex’s John Simpson, one of the most accomplished wicketkeepers in the country, and now the only specialist on parade.John Simpson received a surprise call-up•Getty Images

But there are players too for whom this is a massive opportunity to restate credentials that, for one reason or another, have been marginalised in the intervening seasons (step forward James Vince and Ben Duckett) or simply to fast-track their own standings as ones to watch for the future – Surrey’s Will Jacks being a particularly prime example. Others, such as Somerset’s Lewis Gregory, have found it hard to gain traction in their limited opportunities to date. His eight T20Is have so far offered little opportunity to show off his range as a No.7, fifth-change bowler. A 50-over outing gives far more scope for meaningful contributions across the board.And then there’s the skipper. Ben Stokes was meant to be easing back to match fitness at Durham after breaking his finger at the IPL and saving his energies for an intense second half of the year – starting with the five Tests against India (not to mention his vital status as a drawcard for the Hundred), then morphing into the World T20 and the Ashes over Christmas and New Year. Now he’s answered the call as if it’s the final day at Headingley or Cape Town all over again – “help us Ben Kenobi, you’re our only hope”.A penny for Pakistan’s thoughts amid all this chaos. They’ve been holed up in their Derby Travelodge, a familiar base-camp following last year’s Test preparations, no doubt plotting their strategies for tackling the new-ball threat of Sam Curran, Chris Woakes and David Willey, and undermining the Bairstow-Roy-Root axis at the top of England’s World Cup-winning batting order. Instead they’ll now be cobbling together some hasty plans for the likes of Phil Salt and Brydon Carse. The county streams may help them in that regard, but despite England’s undignified departure, it’s unlikely that their outgoing management forgot to leave their own scouting reports pinned to the dressing-room fridge.

Form Guide

England WWLWL
Pakistan WLWTW

In the spotlight

One player that Pakistan won’t need to make many plans for is Saqib Mahmood. They saw signs of his potential in the T20I series last summer, but moreover, they watched him grow into his role as one of only two overseas seamers at the first leg of this year’s postponed PSL – the other was no less an icon than Dale Steyn. With 12 wickets in 18.1 overs across five appearances, he was the tournament’s leading wicket-taker at the time of the bubble breach in March, having thrived on the strike-bowling responsibility handed to him by his Peshawar Zalmi captain, Wahab Riaz. He translated that attacking threat into red-ball cricket this summer too, with a thrilling five-for to seal the Roses match for Lancashire in May, and of all the reserves drafted into England’s emergency squad, he’s among the closest to making a proper push for first-team honours.Related

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Shadab Khan is Pakistan’s designated vice-captain, and he’ll hope that that responsibility rubs off on his performance after a fallow few months for his country. He’s not taken a wicket in six matches since August, the second match of last summer’s England tour, while his batting remains promising rather than fulfilling – he made the last of his three ODI half-centuries way back in January 2018. With Usman Qadir offering an alternative legspinning option, and Mohammad Nawaz waiting in the wings as an allrounder, he’ll need to step up sooner rather than later.Shadab Khan has had a fallow few months•AFP/Getty Images

Pitch and conditions

Cardiff served up a dog of a pitch for the T20I against Sri Lanka last month – tacky, two-paced, with occasionally savage lift, and resulting in a match strike-rate of barely a run a ball as England laboured to hunt down a paltry target of 112. With abject weather to boot, it was not exactly the spectacle the BBC might have ordered for their first live match of the English summer. But at least the sun is expected to shine on Sophia Gardens on Thursday. The rest is in the lap of the groundstaff.

Team news

Ha! Your guess is as good as ours. With nine new caps in England’s makeshift ranks, there will be an element of lucky dip to the final XI that takes the field – Stokes admitted on the eve of the game that the squad hasn’t yet managed to meet in person. However, a handful of building blocks are sure to be in place, namely the top-order trio of James Vince, Dawid Malan and Stokes himself – when you’re rummaging through the back of that dressing-room fridge, seeking some left-overs to make a team, two World Cup winners and a No.1 T20I batter aren’t such bad ingredients to fall back on. Mahmood, likewise, seems assured of a role, and so too Matt Parkinson – England couldn’t be so cruel as to overlook him again, surely? That leaves Phil Salt and Ben Duckett to squabble over the second opener’s role – Salt may win that, seeing as Duckett is probably the likely keeper, despite Simpson’s claims – then we need to consider the balance of batting depth and bowling penetration required at Nos. 6-9. Jacks, bruising batter and handy offspinner, looks well equipped in that regard, and so too does Gregory at No.7. Craig Overton and Brydon Carse can also wield a bat to good effect while serving up some muscular seam – Stokes likened Carse’s potential role to that of Liam Plunkett – although with left-armers very much in vogue, there may be a temptation to take a closer look at Payne. He may be a long way behind the likes of Curran, Willey, George Garton, Reece Topley and Tymal Mills in the T20 World Cup stakes, but as England have suddenly discovered, you can never have too many options …England (possible): 1 Phil Salt, 2 James Vince, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Ben Stokes (capt), 5 Ben Duckett (wk), 6 Will Jacks, 7 Lewis Gregory, 8 Craig Overton / David Payne, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Saqib Mahmood, 11 Matt ParkinsonRare are the occasions when Pakistan are outdone in the team selection drama stakes, but such is the poise of their current line-up that few surprises are in store. Saud Shakeel is set to make his ODI debut, after missing the chance earlier this year in South Africa after suffering a quadriceps tear prior to the team’s departure.Pakistan (possible): 1 Fakhar Zaman, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Babar Azam (capt), 4 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Shadab Khan, 7 Faheem Ashraf, 8 Hasan Ali, 9 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Mohammad Hasnain.

Stats and trivia

• If Babar Azam continues the form he showed in South Africa earlier this year, where he made 228 runs at 76.00 in three matches, he could become the fastest batter to reach 4000 ODI runs. Hashim Amla holds the record, reaching the mark in his 81st innings in 2013. Babar currently has 3808 runs from 78.
• Should Danny Briggs feature in any of these three matches, he will be playing his first ODI since his one-off appearance against Pakistan in the UAE in February 2012, almost a decade ago. His last England appearance in any format came at Hobart in January 2014, the last of his seven T20Is.
• Ben Stokes will be playing his first home England match for 11 months – he last featured against Pakistan in the first Test at Old Trafford in August 2020, prior to a spell of compassionate leave. He has played 15 overseas matches since then, three in South Africa and the rest in India.

Quotes

“I’ve captained because Joe [Root] was having a baby, and I’ve captained because of a Covid outbreak. They are obviously strange situations to be involved in, but it’s a huge honour to lead your country out onto a sporting field and I’m looking forward to it.”

Ben Stokes is once again at the helm for England in unusual circumstances.

Derbyshire suffered their first complete wash-out in the County Championship in 35 years after no play was possible for the third day running against Northamptonshire at Chesterfield

ECB Reporters Network06-Jul-2016Derbyshire v Northamptonshire – match abandoned without a ball being bowled
There wasn’t too much danger of flying balls at Chesterfield on another washed out day•Getty Images

Derbyshire suffered their first complete wash-out in the County Championship in 35 years after no play was possible for the third day running against Northamptonshire at Chesterfield.Play was abandoned after umpires Neil Mallender and Ian Blackwell decided the bowler’s run-ups were still unsafe and the match was officially called off in mid-afternoon following an inspection by umpires, captain and coaches.Although no rain has fallen during the hours of play in recent days, the Queen’s Park ground is still saturated from heavy rainfall through June.Northamptonshire captain Alex Wakely said: “It’s one of the most bizarre games of cricket I’ve ever been involved in.”It’s a great ground and great place to play cricket but unfortunately the weather had taken its toll from the previous week with the heavy rain completely saturating the run-ups and they’re still unstable.”I think if you bowled on them for four or five overs you would be churning up mud. We got bowlers to run in but they didn’t feel confident and with our injury issues we had to be pretty careful.”But it wasn’t our decision, the umpires deemed it unfit and although it’s frustrating, there’s nothing we can do about it.”The washout is a major setback for the Chesterfield festival, which has also lost the chance to host Sunday’s NatWest T20 Blast fixture against Yorkshire after the club made the decision to shift the fixture to Derby.Chief Executive, Simon Storey said: “Chesterfield is a special venue and everyone puts a huge amount of time, planning and preparation into delivering a successful festival each year.”Unfortunately, following the recent bad weather over the last few weeks, the outfield has taken on a huge amount of water and is still saturated despite the recent sunshine. In the interest of player safety, no play has been possible.”It’s clearly very disappointing that the weather has beaten us this year but we remain committed to bringing county cricket to Queen’s Park.”The Festival is so much more than just cricket and helps put Chesterfield on the map. Since county cricket returned to Chesterfield in 2006, we have been able to build strong partnerships with Chesterfield Cricket Club and Chesterfield Borough Council.”

Amelia Kerr, Devon Conway also pick up top honours at the New Zealand Cricket Awards

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Apr-2021New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has been awarded the Sir Richard Hadlee medal for the fourth time in six years, while women’s allrounder Amelia Kerr and rising star Devon Conway also claimed top honours at the New Zealand Cricket Awards for the 2020-21 season.Williamson was given the award on the back of his impressive run in Tests during the summer, where he scored a career-best 251 against the West Indies in Hamilton, followed by a century on his home ground in Tauranga during the Boxing Day Test. He also made a double-century against Pakistan in Christchurch, which helped New Zealand book their place in the ICC World Test Championship final. Overall, New Zealand won 17 out of 20 matches they played during the summer, and claimed all seven series.Related

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Williamson, the highest ranked Test batsman, was also named the International Test Player of the Year and awarded the Redpath Cup for first-class batting, after he amassed 639 runs in just four innings at an average of 159.”Going into the Test summer – there was that Championship final carrot and there was a real drive there for the guys,” Williamson told Richard Hadlee on a phone call, upon receiving the news of the award. “Although it seemed a long way off, winning four Tests before you’ve started one is a pretty lofty goal. To spend some time at the crease personally and make contributions towards that … certainly proud as a leader and a player in this side that we were able to achieve some of those things and we’re looking forward to that final.”In the women’s category, Kerr won the Super Smash and the International T20 awards. The legspinning allrounder played a key role in the White Ferns’ wins over Australia in Brisbane last December and in Napier last month. She averaged 51 with the bat, striking at 134 in the Super Smash T20s. She also took 14 wickets, including a hat-trick for Wellington Blaze in the final.Conway, meanwhile, was named the men’s player of the year in both ODIs as well as T20Is. He had smashed 473 T20I runs at a strike rate of 151 during the season, including four half-centuries, to edge out Glenn Phillips (366 runs at 40.6) and bowlers Tim Southee (21 wickets at 16.7) and Ish Sodhi (20 wickets at 15.4) for the award. He was equally dominant in the ODIs, hitting 225 runs, including his maiden century, in the three-match series against Bangladesh in March.Finn Allen, the 21-year-old opener who recently made his international debut, was named the Super Smash Player of the Year in the men’s category after scoring 512 runs at an average of 56 and a strike-rate of 193.Kyle Jamieson, a key member of New Zealand’s Test attack, was given the Windsor Cup for first-class bowling, his first NZC award. Jamieson had picked up 27 wickets during the season, including a haul of 11 in the final Test against Pakistan in Christchurch. In the Plunket Shield, he picked up 20 wickets in just three matches for Auckland, including a hat-trick at Eden Park Outer Oval.Stand-in captain Amy Satterthwaite was named the women’s ODI Player of the Year, courtesy 304 runs in six matches on her comeback trail.Former batsman Jeff Crowe was honoured with the Bert Sutcliffe Medal for outstanding services to cricket. Crowe represented New Zealand in 39 Tests and 75 ODIs between 1983 and 1990, captaining the side on 22 occasions. He was later appointed manager of the national team. Since 2004, Crowe has been an ICC match referee, overseeing 103 Tests, 301 ODIs and 137 T20s.

Pollard’s unbeaten 35 off 22 gave Mumbai a respectable total

Sidharth Monga17-Apr-20212:16

Bishop: Pollard always a more dangerous batter when he has more time

Taking inspiration from two successive successful defences of middling totals at Chepauk, Mumbai Indians became the first team in this IPL to choose to bat and defend successfully. Their 150 for 5 landed in the middle of the 152 and 149 defended in the two previous matches, but Jonny Bairstow, opening this time, threatened to run away with the game taking three of the powerplay overs for 52 runs. However, the crafty Mumbai Indians bowling rallied around Jasprit Bumrah, who went without a boundary in his four overs for the fourth time in the history of the IPL.Rahul Chahar broke the back of the Sunrisers Hyderabad with three wickets in the middle overs, and then Trent Boult came back to wipe off any resistance, with a little help from Bumrah again. For the Sunrisers, it was another case of Warner-Bairstow or bust, and not for the first time since the start of the last IPL. Bairstow left the scene with 84 to get in 82 balls, which became 61 off 51 balls when Warner ran himself out, a fourth captain getting run out taking a quick single this IPL.Vijay Shankar, who had taken two wickets but dropped Kieron Pollard in the 19th over before Pollard caused the damage, kept the Sunrisers alive with 28 off 25 but Bumrah and Boult were too good in the end on a slow pitch.Powerplay tussle
On this pitch, you do all your scoring in the powerplay, but also be mindful you don’t lose too many wickets trying to do so. With Quinton de Kock struggling for his touch, Rohit Sharma took on the onus of scoring, scoring 31 off 23 in the powerplay. At 53 for 0, however, no side could claim the honours.Shankar, Rashid squeeze on
As soon as the field spread, the game changed completely. Shankar used the slowness in the surface to have Rohit caught at deep midwicket, and did the catching himself for the dangerous-looking Suryakumar Yadav. The Sunrisers didn’t mind that Rashid Khan enjoys a great match-up against Pollard and Hardik Pandya. They used him from overs eight through 12 for just 17 runs. When Mujeeb Ur Rahman came on to replace Khan, he removed de Kock, caught at deep midwicket for a 39-ball 40. Mumbai 98 for 3 in 14 overs.Mumbai win at the death, only just
It was now down to the best lower-middle order of the last IPL to drag Mumbai to a total they might feel comfortable with. However, Khaleel Ahmed, Khan and Mujeeb stifled them. Mujeeb got Ishan Kishan caught down the leg side by the wicketkeeper, and Ahmed got Hardik. Leading up to the last two balls of the innings, no sixes had come in the last 27 balls. Between them, three of the four new players, Shankar, Ahmed and Abhishek Sharma bowled eight overs for 48 runs and three wickets.Pollard, dropped in the 19th over and so far shanking everything to midwicket because of the slowness of the surface, finally found a Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery in his slot and hit it for a six. The last ball wasn’t in the slot but had enough pace on it for Pollard to send it over deep midwicket. On a rare off night, Kumar ended up with figures of 4-0-45-0. Their 43 in the last four overs were the joint-highest effort at Chepauk this IPL.Jonny Bairstow got out hit wicket•BCCI/IPL

Bairstow hits the ground running
The other change in Sunrisers’ line-up was the dropping of Wriddhiman Saha and the promotion of Bairstow to the top of the order. It nearly proved right as he laid into the New Zealanders, Boult and Adam Milne. He hit three fours and four sixes in 15 balls in the first five overs. At 55 for 0 in five overs, the Sunrisers were possibly a good final powerplay over from practically sealing the chase.Mumbai claw back
Which is probably why Rohit went to Bumrah to close the powerplay out. He nearly got Bairstow out with a slower ball, but a two-run over meant the Sunrisers still had work to do now with the field spread out. There was no reason, though, for Bairstow to change his tempo. Unfortunately, though, his back foot slipped onto the base of his wicket as he looked to ramp Krunal Pandya, making him the fifth Sunrisers victim out of 13 hit-wicket dismissals in the IPL.Chahar, coming off a star hand in Mumbai’s win in the last match, then turned the screw in. Manish Pandey, for a change, eschewed his anchor game, but with no luck as he hit straight to long-off for a seven-ball two. Then Warner went off for the fateful single with the ball hit straight to point.Rohit smartly snuck in two Pollard overs to exploit the slowness of the surface and provide insurance should either Boult or Milne not be able to bowl out. From the end of the fifth over to the end of the 14th, only one boundary came for the Sunrisers, that too off a top edge. The pressure was too much for an inexperienced middle order, and Virat Singh and Abhishek holed out in Chahar’s last over.Shankar tries but in vain

With 47 required in five overs and the fifth bowler’s quota done, Rohit still went to Krunal to avoid bowling Milne at the end. Shankar hit two big sixes to keep the Sunrisers breathing, but Bumrah’s mix of slower balls and yorkers on the slow pitch raised the asking rate high enough for Boult to take advantage of the batters who had no option but to hit out at him.

Batsman set to enter IPL auction as international exile continues

Matt Roller22-Jan-2021Alex Hales’ prospects of an England recall remain unchanged, despite his rich vein of form for Sydney Thunder which has propelled him to the top of the Big Bash League’s run-scoring charts.Hales’ innings of 110 off 56 balls against cross-town rivals Sydney Sixers on Friday night was enough to take him past Josh Philippe in the race for the ‘golden bat’, but he said after the game that he had received no contact from the England selectors ahead of the white-ball tour to India in March which comprises three ODIs and five T20Is.”No, nothing at all – nothing from that end,” Hales told Fox Sports when asked if he had heard anything from the England management. “At the moment, I’m just enjoying my cricket and I’m going to keep trying to score as many runs as I can, enjoying myself, and see what happens.Related

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“Obviously that’s the peak of cricket, playing for your country. At the moment, I’m just going to focus on the process of scoring runs and enjoying my cricket, and if that’s the end result then brilliant.”Hales was de-selected from England’s 2019 World Cup squad immediately before the tournament after it came to light that he had returned a second positive test for recreational drugs, and he has not been part of a squad since.Eoin Morgan, England’s white-ball captain, has repeatedly stressed that Hales’ actions had caused a “breakdown in trust” and demonstrated a “complete disregard” for the team’s values. While he has never officially drawn a line under Hales’ England career, 22 months have passed since his last international appearance.Hales overtook Josh Philippe in the race for the Golden Bat on Friday night•Getty Images

Hales’ case is not helped by the fact that England are overflowing with top-order options, particularly in T20 cricket. Jonny Bairstow shifted into the middle order in their most recent series with Jason Roy, Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan forming the top three, while players like Tom Banton, Phil Salt and Liam Livingstone missed out on the squad altogether.And his prospects of a recall were dealt a further blow on Thursday when Ed Smith, the national selector, said that he did not anticipate the situation changing in time for Hales to win a recall for the squads to tour India, leaving his chances of a comeback before the T20 World Cup in India looking slim.”I think at the moment, I would expect things to stay as they are,” Smith said. “No doors are closed – there’s been no final decision. It’s not that it’s going to be the same indefinitely, but at the moment, if I had to make a prediction, I would say we would stay as we are.”Smith said that it was an “unfair inference” to suggest Hales would not be picked again under Morgan’s leadership, but stressed the importance of captains’ opinions in the decision-making process.”I would say every captain is very important for selection, and that goes for Joe Root, too,” he said. “But in terms of responsibility, selectors take responsibility for a selection of squads, while working closely with all the coaches, and especially the captain. We all work together, and we all take responsibility for our decisions.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Instead, Hales is set to play for Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League from February to March, following the conclusion of the BBL season. His runs helped Karachi Kings to the title in November, but he has been traded back to the franchise he represented in 2018 and 2019 ahead of the 2021 edition.It is understood that he will enter next month’s IPL auction, and he will hope that his form over the last two years will be enough for a team to pick him up. A handful of overseas openers, including Banton, Roy and Aaron Finch, were released by their franchises this week, boosting his chances of being signed.Hales is the leading run-scorer around the world in T20 cricket since the start of the 2019 Vitality Blast, averaging 32.21 with a strike rate of 147.93 in that period. He has played more innings than anyone else in that time, across five different leagues, and demonstrated his skill and experience in his belligerent innings on Friday. His hundred – his fourth in T20 cricket – included nine fours and eight sixes, helping the Thunder to break their losing streak as they piled on the highest total in BBL history.”The last few games hadn’t quite gone to plan so for us to turn up in the Sydney derby was really good,” he said. “It’s about trying to find that balance between which bowlers and which ends to attack, and what stage of the partnership to go at. It’s finding that balance between having that positive intent and not throwing your wicket away, which I’d done a few times this year in the 40s, so to go on and get that big score was really pleasing.”

Australia need England to level the series 2-2 in Ahmedabad to qualify to play New Zealand

Andrew McGlashan02-Mar-2021England will have some unusual support in their final Test against India with Australia, perhaps through gritted teeth, hoping their arch rivals can secure victory to give them a place in the World Test Championship final.Australia have needed favours from England throughout the series since their tour of South Africa was postponed due to Covid-19, taking it out of their hands whether they will qualify to play New Zealand in the late-June encounter.There were a variety of series outcomes that would have put Australia through, but the only one left is for England to level the scoreline at 2-2 in Ahmedabad. England’s two-day defeat in the third Test put England themselves out of the running for the final.Related

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“[There’s a] bit of self-interest there for us. We’ll be hoping they can do the job there,” Andrew McDonald, Australia’s assistant coach who is in charge of the team in New Zealand, said.”It’s going to be difficult for them, no doubt, some of the surfaces have been conducive to spin bowling and probably India’s strengths in their ability to play spin as well. We wish them well. See what unfolds, it’s out of our hands but we’ll be watching along with interest.”Think most people have been watching that series with some great interest in terms of the conditions and the short nature of the Tests has been very interesting to watch from afar.”However, David Warner won’t be able to bring himself to support England although would gladly take a spot in the final. “I won’t be barracking for England,” he said. “From a cricket perspective we’d like to see a draw [in the series]. It would be ideal for us to make the World Test Championship final and if that happens it’s a great result for us.”If it had not been for points docked for a slow over-rate against India in Melbourne, Australia would have qualified for the final once their South Africa tour was called off. If they do not sneak through with England’s help it will mean their next Test cricket will not be until late this year with the Ashes or potentially a one-off match against Afghanistan beforehand.For his part, Joe Root, the England captain, said he wouldn’t see beating India as doing Australia a favour.”I would see it as us ending the series as a drawn series and us doing something special here in India,” Root said. “Unfortunately we can’t qualify for that final, but it would be a fantastic achievement for us to have drawn this series and as an England captain that is about as much as I can say.”New Zealand, meanwhile, can watch it all unfold having booked their spot in the final weeks ago, and they weren’t stating a preference of opponent. “It’s out of my hands,” coach Gary Stead said. “I know it’s either going to be India or Australia, we’ve put England to side, but it doesn’t really worry me.”

Bangladesh suffered an abysmal collapse of 9 for 49 in their first innings but then removed three England wickets before rain brought an early finished to the first day of the Dhaka Test

The Report by Alan Gardner28-Oct-2016
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThis was a day of Test cricket in two halves. During the first 41 overs, with Tamim Iqbal in imperious form, 171 runs were scored and just one wicket fell; from the 35.2 bowled thereafter, the corresponding returns were 99 and 12. By the time rain arrived to cut the evening session short, with England three-down in their reply to 220, it was unclear quite where the balance of power resided.Bangladesh’s innings had lurched from the serene to the tremulous. An astonishing collapse either side of the tea interval resulted in a nausea-inducing slide of 9 for 49, a seemingly dominant position reduced to rubble. Moeen Ali was the main catalyst and beneficiary for England, although Ben Stokes’ steadfast spell of 6-2-7-2 before tea deserved high praise, his mastery of reverse swing once again causing the sorts of problems that spin – initially at least – had failed to achieve.Momentum was certainly with England as they began their innings, having fought back from one of their worst bowling performances of recent memory, but once again a fragile top-order was exposed by spinners more confident in their craft. Ben Duckett fell in the second over, before Mehedi Hasan removed Alastair Cook – lbw via the latest review in a series stuffed with them – and Gary Ballance to leave England 42 for 3 and looking anxiously to Joe Root for the required innings of substance.Despite losing a wicket in the third over of the day, Tamim’s third Test hundred against England had given Bangladesh a solid foundation and left Cook frantically shuffling through his bowling options. Mominul Haque scored a crisp half-century as he and Tamim inflicted fresh psychological blows on an already beleaguered spin cohort during a stand of 170 – Bangladesh’s highest for the second wicket against England – which came at a rate comfortably above four an over.Tamim bestrode the morning and early afternoon during a regal innings full of judicious stroke-making that culminated in two full-blooded drives through the covers to go to three figures, though he did not add many more having unwisely chosen to pad up to Moeen’s arm ball. Mominul’s first significant contribution of the series was also an accomplished knock but he was then bowled for 66 playing back to a similar delivery. That over, the 46th of the innings, was the first maiden bowled by a spinner, a measure of how England had been unable to contain the pair.The twist, when it came, was a sharp one and all the more surprising after England’s subcontinental weak spot had been exposed again. Following on from Tamim and Monimul, the next-highest score was 13, as Stokes once more exerted his will on proceedings by providing both control and penetration, while Moeen located a groove to finish with 5 for 57 – only his second five-for in Tests.Stokes’ threat was also physical, as Mushfiqur Rahim could attest. With the ball reversing, Stokes had Mahmudullah taken at slip and he then roughed up Mushfiqur with a snorting bouncer that struck the Bangladesh captain on the back of the helmet as he turned away. He got up to carry on after treatment by the physio but was back in the changing room minutes later after a brilliant catch from Cook at leg slip, who clung on at the second attempt after Mushfiqur had inside-edged a glance off Moeen through his legs.Sabbir Rahman, so nearly the hero of Chittagong, fell meekly to Stokes with the tea interval approaching; Chris Woakes struck twice straight after, having Shuvagata Hom and Shakib Al Hasan caught behind; and England successfully turned to the DRS to have Mehedi lbw before Moeen rounded things up when Kamrul Islam Rabbi was taken at slip.Mushfiqur’s head must have been spinning twice over. He had had better luck at the start of his 50th Test, having won the toss and decided to bat first – just the sort of good fortune he must have hoped for after electing to go in with a fourth spinner on a cracked surface that was expected to turn.It could yet prove decisive, after Tamim rammed home the initial advantage. His eighth fifty-plus score against England in 11 innings came after Woakes had picked up a wicket in his second over and helped Bangladesh respond emphatically during a rousing stand with Mominul. Tamim motored to 60-ball fifty, having failed to score off his first 19 deliveries during a watchful opening, and also successfully utilised the review system – such a feature of the first Test – by overturning a caught-behind decision on 66, shortly before the lunch break.Cook struggled for control throughout the morning session, with only Stokes going at less than three runs an over. Zafar Ansari, into the side as one of two changes from England’s victory in Chittagong, suffered a chastening introduction to Test cricket as his first six overs were taxed to the tune of 36 runs. The debutant left-armer was not seen again.England had found success after being put into the field, throttling the scoring and removing Imrul Kayes, and after four overs the card had gone nowhere at 1 for 1. Mominul eased the pressure with a brace of boundaries off Woakes; Tamim, meanwhile, was content to bide his time against the new ball.Cook turned to Moeen in the seventh over but the sight of spin encouraged Tamim to kick into gear as he stepped out to drive his first boundary. Three fours off Woakes – leg-side flick, back-foot drive and a meaty pull – confirmed that he had hit his stride and another brace came in the next over, as Tamim welcomed Ansari by crunching him through the covers and down the ground. Ansari did succeed in drawing an edge with his second delivery, though it scuttled wide of slip for three, and his opening over cost 13 runs, England still no nearer to finding a spinner who could offer control.Mominul happily ceded the impetus to his partner, as Bangladesh reached the top of the hour in a much more comfortable position at 67 for 1, with England also wasting a review against Tamim when he padded up to a Moeen delivery that was shown to be bouncing over the stumps. Tamim’s fifty came up via a sweep off Ansari and it took a vigorous spell from Stokes to ensure Bangladesh’s progress would not be completely unfettered.It was Stokes who thought he had broken through, too, when Kumar Dharmasena raised his finger for a catch down the leg side. However, DRS quickly confirmed that the ball had flicked Tamim’s thigh pad rather than glove, the procession of successful reviews growing longer. Tamim then took a blow to the ribs from a Stokes short ball before Mominul stroked the 15th boundary of the morning sessions to ensure Bangladesh went in to lunch far the happier of the two sides. Then things got a lot more complicated.

Matt Quinn took seven wickets – including six in one spell – to give Essex control on the opening day against Gloucestershire

Paul Edwards at Cheltenham13-Jul-2016
ScorecardMatt Quinn burst through Gloucestershire’s middle order•Getty Images

Even on a milk-sun morning the College Ground retains its grandeur. There is Prothero’s famous chapel, of course, its proportions unsullied by the angular excrescence beyond it; there is also that long pavilion where, in 1992, the Marquess of Reading won the Cheltenham Gold Racquet; and there are the marquees, 10 of them this year, plus assorted gazebos and even the odd tent.Prime Ministers resign and Prime Ministers are appointed but Cheltenham smiles indulgently on such occasional changes. Gladstone was in charge when Gloucestershire played their first county match here and it is to be hoped that the ground sees off several dozen more First Lords of the Treasury before it is done. Never mind Brexit, old boy, on afternoons such as this it was difficult to believe we’d ever lost India.Matt Quinn’s recollections of Cheltenham will be equally fond but rather fresher. For after play had been interrupted for over two hours by ferocious westerly showers the New Zealand-born seamer took six wickets in a ten-over spell from the Chapel End which may go a long way towards determining the shape of this game.In 75 minutes Quinn tore out the heart of the Gloucestershire batting, sending the home side spinning from 99 for 1 to 140 for 7, at one stage taking four wickets for seven runs for 17 balls. He had never taken more than four wickets in a completed innings before. In 1930 Agatha Christie published ; Gloucestershire certainly found the eponymous sleuth’s near-namesake a puzzle on a pitch freshened by the stoppage and warmed under the covers.What was particularly impressive about Quinn’s bowling was the number of good batsmen he got out when they were playing defensively. Rather like say, Stuart Broad or Kyle Jarvis, he is not lightning-fast but he gets it down at a tidy old lick. And while he does not swing the ball vast distances, he hoops it enough. Graeme van Buuren being pinned on the back foot with the third ball after the resumption was mundane enough but six overs later Quinn snaked one back between bat and pad to bowl Michael Klinger for 5.  And, rather like the glass-in-hand brigade enjoying corporate hospitality at the College Lawn End, he was only warming up.Twenty minutes later Gareth Roderick prodded forward but only his pad made contact with the ball. Umpire Billy Taylor assessed the justice of the appeal and, slightly echoing the famous line in decided he could not reprieve Roderick. Two overs after Gloucestershire skipper had departed for a pleasant 61, Hamish Marshall joined him when his tentative push gave a catch to Tom Westley at second slip.Kieran Noema-Barnett played on and was much more culpable. His rather wild cover-drive was a gin-and-tonic stroke where mineral water was required. And when Jack Taylor was bowled next over for 3, Quinn’s excellent afternoon’s work was done. He received a standing ovation when he came in for tea, Gloucestershire’s not-out batsmen, Craig Miles and David Payne, courteously waiting for him to make his way in.Miles and Payne then batted with simple good sense to add 65 for the eighth wicket by blocking straight balls and giving half-volleys a rare malleting. Still, though, Quinn was not finished. After a brief break for rain and bad light, he had Payne brilliantly caught in the gully, Jaik Mickleburgh diving to his right to complete a one-handed catch. Quinn trooped off to more applause with 7 for 61; his best analysis for a match is 8 for 107.  Gloucestershire had a batting bonus point they may not have expected and Miles is 45 not out but Essex have the advantage in this game.”The wicket didn’t offer much but it swung a bit all day,” said Quinn. “We put it down to the overhead conditions after it rained. The ball was shaping nicely and if you bowl on off stump and it swings, it’s always going to difficult to play. I don’t think we bowled very well early on but the margin of error is quite small on that wicket. The rain break made us regroup as a team and think about our plans.”The piquant thing is that Quinn has not been an automatic pick this season, for Essex are decently placed for seamers. Jamie Porter and Graham Napier are bowling well and the visitors could afford to rest David Masters for this game. One wondered how they would get on without their venerable linchpin. Essex had certainly shown more disregard for Masters than would be permitted in this place during term-time.And all this drama followed a morning in which Gloucestershire’s batsmen had made Ryan ten Doeschate’s decision to bowl first look unwise at best. Batting on a surface they knew they could trust, Roderick and Chris Dent had driven confidently in the wide arc between extra cover at midwicket, adding 77 in 80 minutes before Dent edged Porter to Westley.It made good watching for the chattering schoolchildren, who, still in uniform, sat patiently in the stand opposite the great pavilion. Arranged in rows of scarlet, navy blue and cyan, they offered a colour-chart of innocence and promise. More adult matters were being discussed in the pavilion: a chap was spotted carrying an early glass of fortifying cordial. “It’s a bit early for Holy Communion, isn’t it?” asked a friend.Less than ten minutes before lunch the rain swept in and sent spectators scurrying. Scorecards gusted across the outfield. Cleeve Hill was shrouded in mist, and before long its ancient companion, Nottingham Hill, disappeared completely. A couple of hours later Gloucestershire’s middle order did so as well.

“We have really got to get to the bottom of this once and for all now and make sure the debate is answering the questions we are asking”

Andrew Miller14-Jan-2022Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, has acknowledged the need to “reset” England’s red-ball fortunes in the wake of an “exceptionally difficult” Ashes campaign, after insisting that “our priority is Test cricket”.Speaking to reporters in Hobart, Harrison echoed the sentiments of England’s Test captain, Joe Root, who had called on the ECB to match the efforts they put into white-ball cricket in the wake of the 2015 World Cup – a focus that, four years later, delivered victory on home soil in the 2019 event.And while England continue to excel across one-day formats – despite falling in the semi-finals at the T20 World Cup, they are the No. 1-ranked side in that format and No. 2 in ODIs – they are currently rock-bottom in the World Test Championship, and have won just one of their last 13 matches, with nine defeats.Related

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England’s draw in Sydney last week was only their second non-defeat in 14 Tests in Australia, dating back to the 2013-14 whitewash, and came after a humiliating innings defeat in Melbourne in which England had surrendered the Ashes in just 12 days.”Our priority is Test cricket,” Harrison said. “We want to be successful at white-ball cricket, of course we do, but we absolutely need to be successful at Test cricket.”It feels like this is a moment to reset the importance of red-ball cricket in our domestic schedule, for us to recalibrate how we play first-class cricket in the UK. It’s a brilliant opportunity for us to come together as a game and really sort that once and for all.”A review of the series is due to be compiled by Ashley Giles, the managing director of men’s cricket, and Mo Bobat, the performance director, and Harrison will take the recommendations to the board, after it has been ratified by Andrew Strauss, the chairman of ECB’s cricket committee.With Giles having hinted that cosmetic changes will not resolve the game’s deep-seated issues, the recommendations are likely to include the retention of Root at Test captain, even though he has now overseen consecutive defeats on Ashes tours – the first England captain to do so in more than a century.Harrison’s tenure began in the wake of the 2015 World Cup, and he has since staked his reputation on the establishment of the Hundred – a competition that runs at the height of the English summer and which has caused the County Championship to be pushed ever further to the margins of the season.And despite some attempts to reposition red-ball cricket in the 2022 domestic schedule – which is due to be published next week – England’s failure to compete on equal terms at any stage of the Ashes has underlined how critical the Test team’s fortunes have become.Speaking earlier in the week, Zak Crawley blamed the standard of county pitches for England’s batting struggles in the course of this series, while the use of the Dukes ball, with its propensity to swing for longer periods than Australia’s Kookaburra, is another factor that Harrison said would have to come into consideration.”Sometimes the ability to effect change on something as complicated as our schedule is when you have a performance-related issue, and we have one now,” Harrison said. “This has been an exceptionally difficult tour. I don’t think we can get away from the fact that it has been another very disappointing episode in our ongoing attempt to win the Ashes in Australia.”We have really got to get to the bottom of this once and for all now and make sure the debate is answering the questions we are asking. We must not be afraid of some of these questions. Let’s have the right balance of red and white ball, let’s look at when we play red-ball cricket, the pitches we play on, the ball we use.”England’s recent problems have been exacerbated by factors beyond the ECB’s direct control – most particularly the onset of Covid-19 and the need to operate in bio-secure environments – but the crammed international schedule is an aspect of the modern game that Harrison acknowledged would have to be reviewed, even if a reduction in fixtures comes with a financial hit.Tom Harrison: “We have the opportunity to come out of this crisis with a roadmap that demonstrates that we are absolutely serious about tackling discrimination in our sport”•Getty Images

“We do have to look at the schedule – everyone knows that,” Harrison said. “The way we manage player workloads is clearly going to be a matter of premium concern as we go forward in 2022. Internationally, when we get out of the immediate aftermath in the wake of Covid, we’ve got to look at how we manage fixture workloads.”This is something that the chief executives’ committee at ICC need to tackle. It is a difficult challenge for world cricket.”The ECB is also dealing with the fallouts of the racism inquiry at Yorkshire, with the department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee concluding that the sport has a “deep-seated” problem, and warning that it needs to “clean up its act” if it is to qualify for future government funding.”We welcome the scrutiny,” Harrison said. “It’s been a difficult few months for us. We have the opportunity to come out of this crisis with a roadmap that demonstrates that we are absolutely serious about tackling discrimination in our sport, not just racism.”Despite the heightened scrutiny on his tenure, Harrison would not be drawn on the issue of the £2.1 million bonus pool that the ECB’s senior management are set to share among themselves after the launching of the Hundred.”That is a question about an employment contract,” he said. “The board set the criteria on which we are judged and that’s a matter for them.”

“That call I’ll take once the IPL is over or in-between [the tournament].” says India’s No. 3 in Test cricket

Shashank Kishore20-Feb-2021Cheteshwar Pujara isn’t ruling out the possibility of a short county stint this summer, as preparation for India’s tour of England in August, while also insisting he’s keen to prove himself in the shortest format after finding an IPL team in Chennai Super Kings after a gap of seven years. Pujara was picked up at his base price (INR 50 lakhs) at the IPL auction on Thursday, which means he’ll once again play under his first India captain, MS Dhoni.”First of all, I’m really glad to be part of the IPL. It’s good to be back again and I’d like to thank CSK for picking me,” he said after India’s training session in Ahmedabad on Saturday. “At the same time, with regards to county cricket we still have enough time before we play the England Test series. Once the IPL will be over, there is a window where I can play a few county games. That call I’ll take once the IPL is over or in-between [the tournament].”There will be enough time to play some county games. We also have a couple of practice games [against India A] before the Test series. But yes, it’s good to be back in the IPL. I haven’t spoken to them [CSK management] yet but I always want to play the shorter formats. But for now, my focus once this series is over will be on the IPL and after that, I’ll think about county cricket and the big series against England in August. Hopefully, we will play the World Test Championship final as well. I want to focus now on the next two Tests, both of them are important for us to qualify.”In a way, a return to Ahmedabad is a little like life coming full circle for Pujara. The last time he played here was way back in November 2012, when he was just setting out to make a mark at No. 3 in the post-Dravid era. On a turner, India utilised the toss to their advantage by setting up an imposing first-innings total, with Pujara making 206 not out against an England attack of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann and Samit Patel.The surroundings and the surface, though, are starkly different this time around. The stadium has now been redeveloped to accommodate 110,000 spectators – although only half of those can be in attendance for the third Test – and the surface they’ll encounter here could be much different to the one from 2012, because they’ll be playing a day-night Test with the pink ball. The pandemic has meant Ahmedabad has only hosted a handful of T20 games – the Syed Mushtaq Ali knockouts – before this big match. Pujara was posed a question on the uncertainty of the challenges of playing on an untested surface, but it’s not something he’s too worried about.”We have three-four days [for the Test] and a lot could change,” Pujara said. “It looks a decent pitch but it’s difficult to predict anything, considering we’re playing with a pink ball. With the red ball, it’d be a different ball game, but with the pink ball, it’s difficult to assess. You expect something, but it could turn out to be something else. I want to just try and keep things simple and not worry too much about the pitch.”‘As a batsman, what is in my control – my practice, preparation, process – it’s been wonderful. I’m confident of getting a big score very soon’ – Cheteshwar Pujara•BCCI

The one thing India do expect is dew, which could potentially mean they’ll play three seamers, even though Pujara steered away from any talks over team combination. “Yes, there maybe dew,” he said. “Looking at the weather, there’s a possibility of dew in the final session. The guys have played a lot of cricket with the white ball here, and the bowlers are used to it. As batters, we’ve played with the pink ball. It could [affect] in the third session, although how much we don’t know yet. We will have a better idea [over the coming days] but we are expecting dew.”Pujara was also reminded about India’s previous pink-ball Test – the infamous 36 all out in Adelaide two months ago. He swatted it away with a chuckle, insisting there’s going to be no baggage from that game, and instead chose to draw positives from how well India batted in the first innings of that Test, where they even claimed a slender lead over Australia.”I’ve played so many Tests but with the pink ball, even I don’t have enough experience,” he said. “I don’t think it matters a lot when you play one-off pink-ball Tests, we will get used to it as we keep playing more. We’ll have to just play normal cricket, have similar game plans like we had in the previous Test match, depending on the pitch. We’ll just stick to that. In Adelaide, the ball was swinging around and we had one bad session of poor batting that led to that disaster, but overall if you look at the first innings, we were in a dominating position.”‘Chennai pitch not dangerous at all’Pujara was asked for his verdict on the Chepauk surface for the second Test, in which England folded cheaply in both innings. India’s spinners ran amok, picking up 17 of the 20 wickets to fall, with none of the visiting batsmen going beyond the 43 Moeen Ali made in the dying moments of the match which India won by 317 runs on the fourth day.”Sometimes, if you’re playing on a turner, you find it difficult, but it wasn’t a dangerous pitch at all,” he said. “When the ball spins, people find it difficult to score runs. When we go overseas, we also play on seaming tracks where games finish in three or four days. We still have to play on pitches with grass and seam movement. When it comes to turning tracks, you can’t define how much it should turn. There’s a thin line, but I don’t think it was a bad pitch. Yes, it always becomes difficult in the second innings, but even when we play in Australia on fourth or fifth-day tracks, balls can hit the cracks and take off. As a team, I don’t think we had an issue, am sure England once they’re used to it and play more matches, they’ll also figure out a way.”It’s not often Pujara goes through an entire press conference without questions about his batting. And while he’s made key contributions right through the summer, the one thing he’s looking to tick off is getting to three-figures, something he last did in Tests in Sydney in January 2019.”I started well, got off to starts but got out unfortunately [in the second Test],” he said. Pujara was out to a pull shot that deflected off short leg to the midwicket fielder in the first innings. In the second, he was run out after his bat got stuck in the turf while trying to get back into the crease.”The way I am batting, although the three-figures haven’t come, I am hoping it wont’ be too far away. As a batsman, what is in my control – my practice, preparation, process – it’s been wonderful. I’m confident of getting a big score very soon.”