Father died soon after the Indian team landed in Australia, couldn’t see his son play in Tests

Sidharth Monga18-Jan-2021There is a lovely Instagram video posted by Mohammed Siraj from Virat Kohli’s birthday during this IPL. On a yacht party, he has got the DJ to play “”, a Hyderabadi song, and he is doing the most joyful uninhibited Marfa that nobody in the side can keep up with. There are team-mates leaving literally exhausted but Siraj keeps going.The Marfa dance is popular among the Hyderabadi Muslims, and has roots in Afro-Arab music. is an eponymous song performed by the then 18-year-old Ruhaan Arshad, also known as Miya Bhai. It glorifies the already celebrated lifestyle of the Hyderabadi Muslims while also having a laugh at himself and his community.Among his team-mates Siraj is known as Miya Bhai. It is a term of respect and endearment put together. is sir, is brother. The song just talks of the qualities – or, a “flex” in today’s language – of the Hyderabadi Muslims, one of which is “”. Which is, to smoke away the family wealth as a flex.Siraj wasn’t born into any family wealth. Not in the conventional sense. The wealth he inherited from his family was the strength and athleticism that he has honed tirelessly to become a fast bowler at the top level. That is not wealth you blow away.The wealth Siraj has to blow away is the raw emotion he feels when playing the cricket. It is for everyone to bask in: the joy at doing the improvised dab upon taking a wicket, the energy of his dance, the pain at being abused racially, the tears at taking a five-for. Life is too short to keep it bottled in. Or to not use the conventional wealth generated from this game to give his parents a better life, to end his father’s life as a rickshaw-driver, to buy them a house, get them to Haj, the biggest wish for a practising Muslim.It is just as well that this Miya Bhai did all that because his father didn’t live long enough to see his other dream come true: to watch his son play Test cricket for India. Life is too short. That’s what drove him to tears during the national anthem in Sydney. The kind of “good Muslim” comments that it attracted, or some of the vitriol his Instagram post generated, tells you Miya Bhai is not an identity to wear lightly in today’s India, but Siraj does it so effortlessly, as he does most other things on a cricket field.Marnus Labuschange was one of Siraj’s five wickets•Getty Images and Cricket AustraliaIn just his third Test, Siraj is the leader of the attack and now has a five-for on his first tour to Australia. It was a fraught debut because apart from Jasprit Bumrah, Indian bowlers’ recent debuts away from home haven’t led to long careers. Before Bumrah these came out of desperation either before time – Jaydev Unadkat, for example – or too late – Pankaj Singh perhaps.Bumrah was a freak who found himself at home in Test cricket despite having not played any first-class cricket in the year leading into that debut. Siraj’s case was different: he is a more conventional bowler who doesn’t have the gifts of Bumrah, which frankly very few have. He was good enough, though, to be identified as the next fast bowler, given enough A matches as experience, including in Australia. He was coming back to the coach under whom he excelled when he started playing for Hyderabad, Bharat Arun, who is actually more an angel, a , to Siraj than coach.Siraj was a nets bowler when Royal Challengers Bangalore were playing in Hyderabad. Arun was with RCB at the time. He was so impressed he pushed for Siraj where he could, and as fate would have it, he was the Hyderabad coach in the Ranji Trophy next year. Siraj was the third-highest wicket-taker in the tournament that year. Whenever he is tense about something, Arun calms him down by just telling him good he is.Siraj played the whole IPL worried about his father’s health, who had a lungs condition and was in and out of the hospital. Siraj told RCB’s YouTube channel that he would break down every time he called home. If his father was out of the hospital, he would feel lighter that day and enjoy his cricket more. It was in this state that he chose to tour Australia. Then he missed his father’s funeral because going back would mean another hard quarantine upon coming back. And that would delay what his father wanted him to do: play Test cricket.1:41

Moody: Siraj has responded to adversity in the most mature way

In Test cricket, as early as his first two wickets, Siraj showed he understood what it was mostly about. And when someone so skilled and fit talks about it, it sounds ridiculously simple. Keep bowling to your field at your best pace – that got him Marnus Labuschagne caught at leg gully – and change up after you have got the batsman used to one kind of delivery – which brought him Cameron Green with an inswinger after a series of outswingers.And now some of the Miya Bhai flex comes in. “Arun sir told me, ‘.'” Basically Arun told him he just needs to repeat what he has done in domestic cricket and A cricket, and that experience is nothing.In three Tests, Siraj has lived up to all of Arun’s expectations and the reward is in the five-for and the eyes that welled up as he walked back holding the ball aloft and likely thought of his father and their struggles. Only two men have had had a better series when making their debut in Australia, and both played more Tests than Siraj’s three. Not too unlike in his Instagram comments section, there were some in the crowd who called him names, but Siraj had introduced himself to everyone, “.”Do yourself a favour, and take the ride along with him: this Miya Bhai has the skill and the endurance, and also the willingness to take you along.

The possible return of David Warner should provide the batsmen with an ideal exemplar of proactive Test-match batting

Daniel Brettig06-Jan-2021As a Test-match debutant with an exhaustively documented history of struggle against short-pitched bowling, Will Pucovski’s problem this week will be a more acute version of the difficulty facing Australia’s entire top six, after their collective failure to fire in either Adelaide or Melbourne against India’s precision. The batsmen concerned will more or less know what is coming, having dealt with it previously and shown enough evidence of susceptibility. The Indian bowlers will have plenty of reason to take the same tack once more.In the instances of Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith and Matthew Wade, the successful corralling of scoring zones, whether they be boundaries or singles, has reaped rich rewards for an Indian team that knew before the tour that the traditional fifth-stump lines of attack had been proven faulty against Australia’s Nos. 3 and 4 in particular.The scenario, rightly pointed out by Ricky Ponting, has become one where the Australians are simply trying to survive after having their usual strike rotation zones blocked off. Against good enough bowling on a sporting enough pitch, this has primarily served to make them, in Ponting’s carefully chosen words, “sitting ducks”. The captain, Tim Paine, was of similar mind on match eve as he pondered how to escape India’s stranglehold.Related

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“We’ve just spoken about mindset. We think we’ve actually got some decent plans, it’s just a matter of going out and having the courage to execute them,” Paine said. “So if you’re a guy who wants to take them on and hit over the top, or if you’re a guy or wants to sweep or reverse-sweep the spinners when they’re bowling – then we’ve just been encouraging guys to do that. To have the courage to take the game on and play the way you want to play.”At times, we’ve just let them dictate to us a little bit, let them build pressure. Then, with pressure, you get wickets at times. It’s about being really clear in your plans and now having the courage to execute it and do it in your way.”Being clear was missing when Pucovski plonked forward to Kartik Tyagi during the Indians’ tour game at Drummoyne Oval a month ago, and seemed to be both ducking and trying to play the bouncer that dented his helmet and caused the latest in a series of concussions. It was clearly also somewhat elusive until Pucovski received a second expert neurological opinion about the potential for his concussions to have long-term effects: the verdict, if not completely cut and dried, was favourable enough to have him in line to play.Will Pucovski stayed down after ducking into a short ball from Kartik Tyagi in the tour game•Getty ImagesWhat Pucovski will be seeking to remind himself, as undoubtedly the coaches and team-mates around him will too, is that on days when he has a clear mind and a focused approach – making early decisions on whether to evade or hit the short ball – he plays it as well as most. His state coach, Chris Rogers, was at Drummoyne and contrasted that incident with what he had seen before and during Pucovski’s two double-centuries in the Sheffield Shield to begin the season.”When I first turned up as coach of Victoria, him and Sammy Harper, they do a lot of work with tennis balls, getting in really close with a tennis racquet and firing them in at each other. Will’s done a heap of work where he wants to stand up and roll the ball down to fine leg. You’ll see that shot from him quite a bit,” Rogers told RSN Radio. “Then it came to the matches and we played SA early on and Wes Agar came on first change and went straight to bouncers at Will, and he pretty much ducked them for the whole first session.”Then after lunch he played one of these rolling pull shots and from there he never looked back. They targeted him with the short ball for prettymuch the whole game and then WA did it from about the ninth over onwards as well. He would have faced a heap of short balls and he looked comfortable doing it and the way he stood up and played it, he made it look easy. So when that happened on day three at Drummoyne, it was an awkward situation where there was nothing to gain and he probably just got caught in two minds, so hopefully he’ll learn from that.”

“It’s not like he doesn’t practice this, he does a heap of work. So they will bowl short at him, and hopefully he’ll be prepared”Chris Rogers on Will Pucovski

Paine, himself no stranger to being targeted by short stuff in the wake of the serious finger injuries and subsequent mental hurdles that threatened to prematurely end his cricket career, noted that in Test cricket, Pucovski needed to be capable of dealing with spells like the one hurled down by Mitchell Starc at the Indian tail at the MCG, where 24 of 30 deliveries were short. As much as the Australians have Pucovski’s welfare at heart, they also know that Test matches are played more uncompromisingly than any other form of the game.”Playing Test cricket is difficult and playing the short ball at that pace is uncomfortable,” Paine said. “I think if you’re someone who is perceived to have a weakness in that area, or even if you’re not, it’s part of the game. It’s how teams test your mettle, test what you’re made of, until you show otherwise. I think the short ball is a great option and it’s going to continue to happen. It’s a tactic that we’ve used so we expect to get plenty back as well.”I think it’s a tactic we use pretty consistently, particularly to the lower order. I think lower order batsmen are getting better and better as well so the fast bowlers’ pact of not bowling bouncers to each other is well and truly dead by the looks of it. They love peppering each other these days. I think it’s a tactic that’s already in the minds of batsmen when they come to Australia to play against our attack. We don’t have to show it in the first game. They know it’s coming; we know it’s coming and we know it’s going to come back so we’re also planning and thinking about it.”David Warner’s presence should help the other batsmen•Getty ImagesLike tailenders waiting for the short ball without total confidence as to how they might play it, Pucovski will need to put any thoughts about concussions and his unfortunate history to the back of his mind once he walks out to bat if given the opportunity as seems likely. A clear mind and an instinctive response to the ball coming down tend to work in symbiosis, with any hesitation at such high speeds likely to result in a wicket, an injury or both.”The worry is I think with him, when he does get hit, the effects linger for a bit longer than perhaps other people,” Rogers said. “It’s never nice, you just worry about him, but he’s the one who gets to make the decisions. He’s gone and sought expert advice, and good on him for doing that.”You just hope if it does happen again he’ll be fine, but that’s his choice and it’s up to him and if he does get this opportunity hopefully he can play well and get out of the way of them. The other thing about it is he’s done a lot of work on this as well. It’s not like he doesn’t practice this, he does a heap of work. So they will bowl short at him, and hopefully he’ll be prepared.”As for Smith, Labuschagne and the rest, the return of David Warner from a groin injury should provide them with an ideal exemplar of proactive Test-match batting, where no bowler is given the chance to settle entirely, even if the left-handed opener is judicious about which balls to attack. Success at the crease often depends upon how a player’s natural game can best be married to the challenges being presented by a particular opponent and the set of conditions in which they meet one another, and Warner has mastered this balance more often than most in Australia.”We want to be batting for long periods of time but how you do that is very much on the player,” Paine said. “Davey is known as a dashing opening batter, but if he goes out tomorrow and they bowl to him well then he’ll respect that and get through it.”He likes to be aggressive, no doubt about that, but he’ll play the ball as it comes and he’s got great hand-eye and great skill so he can often score a bit quicker than others, but I don’t think he goes out there with the intent of just taking it down. He goes out and plays what comes at him, and if they bowl well then he’ll respect that.”

Their one-day batting seems to be evolving with each game, and could soon leave the rest of the pack behind

Andrew McGlashan29-Nov-20201:40

Gambhir: Smith not that far away from Kohli in ODIs

Steven Smith’s innings at the SCG on Sunday felt like a highlights package and at the same time, it a highlights package.We might as well have been watching his spectacular display two days ago when he scorched a 62-ball hundred (that premise could have applied to most of Australia’s innings). Instead, we were watching it produced all over again: another 62-ball century, which if not for a slip of Marnus Labuschagne’s feet, would have been 61 deliveries.On both these occasions he could not have wished for a better situation: the ideal foundation provided by David Warner and Aaron Finch, a flat pitch and a bowling attack struggling for any consistency and control. However, even though Smith’s batting feats have been mind-boggling in the past, it has been a particularly notable 72 hours for him.Were we watching another evolution of Smith the batsman? This isn’t to say he was doing things that he hasn’t done before – he has a T20 century off 54 balls and has dissected many a bowling attack in the one-day format – but the sustained nature of the onslaughts felt different.What the one-day game gives Smith is that one thing he loves: time at the crease. While Test cricket offers him his ultimate indulgence, the 50-over game allows him to evolve an innings.Another day, another ton for Steven Smith•Getty ImagesHe has not been slow at any point of these centuries, but in the first of them he was 30 off 30 balls and today was 21 at a run-a-ball. Then, the hands have really gotten to work. On Friday, he scored 75 off his remaining 36 balls and on Sunday he cracked 83 off 43 from the same position.As is often the case with Smith’s batting, the standout feature has been the placement. The run towards his second century showed how he can work the field at will. A slower ball from Jasprit Bumrah was driven through backward point. In the next delivery, the most delicate of late cuts beat short third man. The final ball of the over was taken from around fourth stump to fine leg.Facing Yuzvendra Chahal in the next over, there was a brace of scampered twos with perfectly paced shots either side of a straight six. The ball after reaching his hundred he played the most astonishing stroke of the innings, stepping right across outside off and scooping Hardik Pandya over fine leg, while ending up rolling in the crease. Next ball, Smith toe-ended a wide delivery to short third man. Despite everything he had done, he was still furious with himself.Scores of 350-plus won’t be needed all the time, but on flat pitches like this, a team needs the ability to do it. Smith’s displays have been part of two hugely convincing Australia batting performances – this was their third-highest total, and Friday’s is also in the top 10. A longer run of matches, in a variety of conditions, and against some better bowling needs to be viewed before any significant conclusions are drawn, but there are signs that Australia’s one-day batting is undertaking the evolution it needed to remain with the leading pack.The ODI series in England last year was won by a brilliant stand of 212 between Glenn Maxwell and Alex Carey and now the top order has filled their boots in these two games. Warner, who limped off with a serious-looking groin injury early in India’s chase, and captain Finch form a formidable opening pair: this year alone they have four century stands (three in three matches at the SCG) and during this partnership of 142, they went past David Boon and Geoff Marsh into third in Australia’s all-time list. Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh are just over 200 runs ahead of them, then there is work to do to catch Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden.Glenn Maxwell switch-hits during his half-century•Getty ImagesThen you have the engine room of Smith and Labuschagne at No. 3 and 4. The latter is still evolving as a one-day cricketer, but his 70 off 61 balls in this match, while not as dynamic as Smith, ensured things did not stall. And if Smith is bringing a new gear to his ODI batting, it will take the pressure off Labuschagne.They are followed by a combination of allrounders, the central figure of which is Maxwell. His last five ODI innings have brought 294 runs at 73.50 and a strike-rate of 143.41 (and in this series it’s 108 runs off 48 balls). If Maxwell has found his home in the one-day side, so many of Australia’s plans will come together.Given the uncertainty over the cricket calendar in a post-Covid world, it is not yet entirely certain when Australia’s next ODIs will be after this tour. Currently, it is scheduled to be a short tour to West Indies in the middle of 2021, but the match in Canberra on Wednesday will be the last on home soil until next season. Can Smith make it a hat-trick of hundreds? You wouldn’t put it past him.

Risking an early end to his career, the fast bowler declined knee surgery to play through the 1993 Ashes series

Daniel Brettig02-Feb-2021Imagine a fast bowler in 2020, halfway through an Ashes tour, facing the fact that a degenerative knee problem was likely to contribute to an early end to their career unless they went home to face surgery. In this day and age of sports science and data-driven decisions, it would barely be a debate – off to Heathrow.Twenty-seven years ago, Merv Hughes faced just such a dilemma in the midst of an Ashes campaign where he was the manful spearhead of an Australian attack that, while blessed with the abundant talents of a young Shane Warne, was also down to its final four bowlers for long stretches of a tour that began in April and stretched into early September. Fortunately for Australia, but damagingly for the remainder of Hughes’ playing days, he says now that never considered accepting the offer of an early flight home and the attendant career-lengthening rehab.At the end of the third Test, Hughes had knee trouble as well as a groin strain, and spent nine days on his own in London with the team physio Errol Alcott, working assiduously to improve his fitness in order to play the final three Tests. When the knee began playing up again over the final two Tests, putting Hughes in agony when he climbed stairs and forcing him into a limp whenever he wasn’t actually bowling, team-mates began to realise the cost. Hughes had, in the words of his biographer Patrick Keane, “given more than anyone had a right to expect.”It was not as though Hughes’ early exit from the series could not be covered: the likes of Jo Angel, Damien Fleming and Joe Scuderi were all in England at the time to play league cricket, and Mike Whitney was working as both a commentator for Channel Nine and a more-than-occasional net bowler to the tourists. Hughes, though, was committed to leading the bowling attack and paying back his captain Allan Border for the faith he had shown in him over the years before.Perhaps only Ryan Harris since then has come close to the extremes Hughes went through in carrying his troublesome knee through the six Tests, scooping 31 wickets and playing a huge hand in a 4-1 series victory. Undoubtedly, Hughes paid a personal price for his commitment to the team and the tour, playing only two more Tests thereafter, in South Africa the following year. This selflessness was key to why Hughes was an integral part of the Australian side of the Border era, and a worthy inductee to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.”I had a bit of knee trouble, I think it was made out to be a lot worse than it actually was,” Hughes said, self-effacingly, on Tuesday. “Errol Alcott was the team physio and I trusted every word he said, he was one of my best mates when I played to be honest, but when he said you’re going to have a little bit of pain but it’s not going to get any worse, that’s where it was. I had the option to go home, yes, halfway through it, and if I had to make the same decision again I wouldn’t change it. To be on that tour from start to finish was very rewarding.Bowling with a bad knee, Merv Hughes took 31 wickets to help Australia claim a 4-1 Ashes victory in 1993•Getty Images”I think ’94 in South Africa was reward for contribution to Australian cricket. I thank the Australian selectors for that. But I’d come off an injury, there were some young guys coming through and I was very fortunate to get on that tour and by the end of that tour you had blokes like Glenn McGrath and Paul Reiffel coming through, and when they’re 10 years younger, the writing’s on the wall. Ultimately I don’t think things would’ve changed – probably the only thing that may have changed is I may have played a few more years of first-class cricket, but that didn’t eventuate.”The guys coming through were putting pressure on the old fella in the team and the old fella in the team couldn’t cope that well.”Repeatedly over his time in the Australian side, Hughes came through with big performances and big wickets, particularly in Ashes series and over several increasingly competitive bouts with the great West Indies teams of the period. After an initial phase when Hughes’ qualities were doubted by some, his quirky hat-trick over three overs at the WACA in 1988, and then heroic match figures of 13 for 217 either side of Geoff Lawson having his jaw broken by Curtly Ambrose, dispelled all reservations about whether there was real substance beneath his caricature moustache and beer belly.The crowds loved Hughes’ caricature moustache and his on-field antics, but there was genuine cricketing substance to go with it•Patrick Eagar/Getty Images”That’s where you really get measured, isn’t it, you don’t get measured by doing well against weaker teams,” Hughes said. “So to come up against that West Indies team having lost the first Test match … it was a great personal achievement but I think we lost that Test match by about 200 runs [169 runs], so the disappointment of the loss of the Test match overrode the emotion of a great personal achievement.”But the hat-trick, you try to explain to people that you didn’t know you were on a hat-trick, and people look you and go ‘mate, a hat-trick’s three wickets in three balls’, I know that, but when it’s over three overs, over two days and two innings and Tim May takes a wicket in between your first and second wicket, you tend to lose it. Plus with the emotion about Geoff Lawson being hit late on the day when we went back into bowling on the third day, to bowl for 20 minutes, I think you’re going to get fired up as a fast bowler anyway.”When you’ve seen one of your team-mates being hit, there’s just a little bit of extra spice to it. The eight-for was against a very good side, but ultimately if Geoff Lawson hadn’t been injured, I probably would’ve bowled half the overs and if you bowl half the overs you take half the wickets.”A spray of invective at the third of his hat-trick victims, Gordon Greenidge, was an example of the aggressive and often ugly way in which Hughes expressed himself on the field, the archetypal angry fast bowler who would use the short ball and his vocabulary to get under an opponent’s skin. Between these tendencies and constant battles with his waistline – at one point he infamously stomped on and shattered a new set of scales when asked to weigh himself – Hughes was a cricketer of his time, but with determination and courage to stand up in any era.Hughes, Dean Jones and David Boon were among the core group of players who revived Australia’s fortunes under Allan Border•Graham Chadwick/PA PhotosHughes drew immense personal satisfaction from the fact that the Australian team was constantly improving during his time in it, from the depths of the mid-1980s when the rebel tours of Apartheid South Africa had stripped the national cricket system of many of its established players, to the time when Hughes played his last Test in 1994 as part of an XI about to finally topple the West Indies and become the world’s best the following year. Later a national selector, Hughes has remained a consistent presence whether through tour groups or occasional commentary.”It was a tough time and people talk about that ’85 rebel tour to South Africa, and that came on top of just rebuilding from World Series Cricket in the late ’70s, so as Australia started to get back on their feet, that rebel tour came along,” Hughes said. “Fortunately for Australia Allan Border was appointed captain, Bob Simpson look over as coach and Laurie Sawle was appointed chairman of selectors. Those three blokes deserve a lot of credit for where Australian cricket got to.”They had a game plan and it was short-term pain for long-term gain and they picked a heap of young blokes and identified some young talent, picked a couple of guys who had the reputation of being tough and uncompromising and they had that senior core of players that led the way. The thing I look back on most satisfied with is that I played in an ever-improving Australian team. We didn’t quite get to the top of the tree when I was playing, but I look back at it with great satisfaction that we pushed the West Indies.”We pushed them in ’91 and the thing I probably hold closest is I think we were the first team to beat the West Indies in Antigua. They hadn’t lost in Antigua, it was Viv Richards’ last Test match on his home ground, and we got up and had a win there. I firmly believe at that stage was when we as a collective group of Australian players started to think we could match it with the West Indies.”As for what team-mates thought of Hughes, the following words from Steve Waugh of his efforts in England in 1993 are a fitting summary of both admiration and occasional exasperation. “He didn’t use his brain at all because it was all heart and that cost him in the long run,” Waugh told Keane in . “It put an end to his career in my opinion. I think he thought that ‘every Test I miss is one I can never play again’ and we were on a huge winning roll and he wanted to be part of it.”

Alex Carey also remains in Australia’s Test plans, while Matthew Wade may yet play the T20 World Cup

Andrew McGlashan23-Apr-2021Earn promotion
This was the over-riding message, especially when it comes to the Test batting line-up. Standout candidates are not obvious for a couple of positions, so the race will be on ahead of the Ashes next season. That means there are vacancies yet for an opening partner for David Warner – although you could argue that despite another injury, Will Pucovski couldn’t have done much more to be first-choice opener – and the No. 5 spot while assuming Cameron Green has locked himself in at No. 6, which him being given a contract suggests.Travis Head can probably feel a little hard done by despite being dropped against India. He had been in the squad for the originally scheduled South Africa tour although he wasn’t a certainty to make the XI, and scored 893 Shield runs for South Australia. But the move to clearly say batting positions are open should give the start of next season an edge.Related

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Wade made an irresistible case for a Test recall – which came for the 2019 Ashes – but did not make an irresistible case to be retained. In the two Australia seasons prior to his return, he averaged 52.34 with part of that coming when the Test side was shorn of Warner and Steven Smith. There was a school of thought that the recall could have come earlier. And when it did, he made two centuries against England and has played every Test since, but an overall return of 31.60 – with just one other score over fifty – was not enough. The writing was on the wall when he was left out of the squad for the postponed South Africa tour, with a loss of contract confirming the slide.And although Burns is two years younger than Wade but will need a very big start to the next season to push himself back into the frame, especially if Pucovski’s recovery goes to plan. However, as he showed with his brilliant 171 against Tasmania, at his best he remains a very fine opening batter.Matthew Wade captained Australia in a T20I during the 2020-21 home season•Getty ImagesAustralia will need far more than 17 players
Despite not being on today’s list, Wade is among a number of players who we are still very likely to see in Australia squads over the coming months. Touring parties are going to need to remain large due to Covid-19 restrictions and along with Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis, Wade is an incumbent in the T20I side where he has been vice-captain – and briefly captain – in Pat Cummins’ absence.All three stand a very good chance of being in the squad for the West Indies tour in July. There could also be plenty of others: the likes of Josh Philippe, Daniel Sams and Riley Meredith, who were all in New Zealand, will be pushing for T20I spots even when the first-choice players who missed that trip are available.Rotation back on the agenda
Australia fielded the same bowling attack throughout the four Tests against India and although the loads were relatively light in the first two games, by the end of the Gabba Test, there were some tired bodies. With six Tests likely in less than two months next season – one against Afghanistan and five against England – chief selector Trevor Hohns suggested another look at workload.”That comes back to the management of our fast bowlers and we’ve seriously got to have a look at it,” he said. “Sure, they may feel okay in themselves but we’ve really got to monitor that a little bit harder I think.”Mitchell Swepson has made a strong case for a chance at Test cricket•Getty ImagesOn the fringe
Two players who featured in the recent Sheffield Shield final will wonder what next season holds. Michael Neser and Mitchell Swepson were always unlikely to gain central contracts, but they have certainly made strong cases for a chance at Test cricket. Neser has been an ever-present in Test squads over the last two years, while Swepson has just completed the season of his life. Hohns indicated that James Pattinson remains the next in line of the quicks – so Neser may need a couple of players to make way, especially if and when they are rested or rotated – but he had a strong endorsement of Swepson.”He can certainly challenge Nathan [Lyon], whether he’ll ever take his place while Nathan is fit who knows,” Hohns exclaimed. “Mitch is going very nicely and it’s quite exciting to see a legspinner emerge and someone with the talent Mitch has, I can certainly see a bright future for him. He’s still only 27, and as far as a spin bowler goes, is coming into his best years.”Alex Carey’s standing
Carey is only in possession of a place in one of the three formats for Australia – the ODI side – but retains a contract. He lost his spot in the T20I side to Wade against England last year and wasn’t able to reclaim it against India. Carey then missed out on the New Zealand tour after being included in the Test squad for South Africa.That latter position confirmed he is next-in-line behind Tim Paine, but it is an interesting year coming up for Carey if, in 12 months’ time, Paine will have brought the curtain down on his career. No doubt he will be eager to get back into the mix for the T20 World Cup, but it could work in his favour if he stays out of the set-up because it would allow him a run of Sheffield Shield cricket early next season. Watch out for Josh Inglis coming up on the inside as well.

Young New Zealand star leaning on tips from Maxwell and de Villiers in RCB nets

Matt Roller07-Jun-2021In the era of comprehensive video analysis and advanced data, there is nowhere for young T20 batters to hide. After a brief honeymoon period, in which teams have limited access to footage of a player and have to work plans out on the spot, analysts and coaches can get to work by poring over every shot in their career to come up with a strategy to counter them.Finn Allen knows he is no different. After hitting a competition-high 512 runs for Wellington in this year’s Super Smash (averaging 56.88 and striking at 193.93) and earning a New Zealand T20I debut and a deal with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, Allen has arrived in Manchester ahead of a T20 Blast stint with Lancashire as a marked man, with teams scrambling to work out how to limit the damage he can cause.Related

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That much was apparent in his only warm-up innings, against Nottinghamshire’s last week in a 2nd XI T20. Notts threw the new ball to Samit Patel, the veteran left-arm spinner, and Allen whipped the first ball he faced through midwicket for four. To his second, he charged down the pitch, only to see Patel rip one past his outside edge to have him stumped. North Group teams, take note.”Teams will potentially see that as a way in,” Allen admits, speaking via Zoom from his room in the on-site hotel at Emirates Old Trafford. “I think my strike rate is a little bit lower against spin [181.81 across his T20 career, compared to an eye-watering 204.69 against seam] but I’d like to think I’m a good player of spin and that it will give me a chance to play my array of shots and think about planning my innings differently.”I have thought a little bit about it. I did some work before going to India [for the IPL] around being less one-dimensional. I’ve obviously had a very aggressive approach and still do, but for me, it’s about being able to hit similar balls in different areas, or moving around so I can access different areas of the ground, especially if one side is closed off by the bowler. That’s what I’ve been working on the most, trying to manipulate the ball a bit better – still playing strong shots, but potentially being a bit harder to bowl at.”ESPNcricinfo LtdLancashire have bowled more overs of spin than anyone else in the Blast over the past three seasons, pushing the boundaries back at Old Trafford and playing on used pitches in a concerted effort to play to their own strengths, and for Allen – whose success to date has largely been on postage-stamp grounds in New Zealand on flat surfaces – that provides a fresh challenge, for which his time with RCB in the IPL served as ideal preparation.”I have heard that Old Trafford tends to spin, especially when pitches are used, [but after] India, I’ve had a lot of experience playing a lot more spin that I was used to, and on turning wickets as well. My main focus over there was being able to get close to the ball when it’s spinning. I like to sweep and reverse-sweep, so [was] working on those when it’s spinning and bouncing which I’ve already experienced out here in the nets and in the middle.”It’s a little bit different over there: when it’s spinning a bit more, you have to get close to the ball so you can have a bit more control. It’ll be interesting to see what it’s like out here when pitches are a little bit used. I was learning off [Glenn] Maxwell and AB [de Villiers] – they’re pretty good players of spin, so pretty useful to talk to about how they go about it, as you can imagine.”

“He had long blond hair, he didn’t really drink, he didn’t score a hundred in the league, but he was a good lad. Snapchat and was about all we got from him.”James Overy, Allen’s opening partner at Brondesbury CC in 2017

This will be Allen’s first season in the UK since 2017, when he used his British passport to travel over as a teenager and spend the summer playing for the MCC Young Cricketers and for Brondesbury in the Middlesex Premier Division. He arrived for his club stint with glowing recommendations from Glenn Phillips – who had played for both teams the previous summer – and Bob Carter, then New Zealand’s batting coach, but it was not until an innings of 275 off 124 balls in a 40-over friendly that they realised they had a special player on their hands.”We were pretty excited when we heard he was coming over,” James Overy, the club’s current captain, says. “We knew his pedigree was pretty high but then in one of his first friendlies he got 275 – I was blocking it up the other end while he just went ballistic, hitting every ball for six towards the back end.”His best knock was 90 not out off 56 balls in the league in our record run-chase. He didn’t consistently score runs, but he probably won us four games single-handedly, and when he scored runs, we won, which is kind of what you’re after. He had long blond hair, he didn’t really drink, he didn’t score a hundred in the league, but he was a good lad. Snapchat and was about all we got from him.””It was my first year out of school,” Allen recalls. “I was in a different stage of my career, and was playing a lot more three-day cricket in terms of the red-ball stuff and that was how I’d seen my career going at that stage, but this season, moving [from Auckland] to Wellington and getting the confidence boost from the coach to express myself against the white ball was pretty good. Playing that amount of cricket at that age was really good for me.”He is still part of Brondesbury’s WhatsApp chat, and remains in touch with Lulu Lytle – the designer behind the controversial renovation of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat – and her family, who hosted him for six months. “I’d like to think I’d grown up a little bit since then,” Allen laughs, “but I’m still looking forward to the new coming out in a few weeks’ time.”Allen faces stiff competition at the top of the order•Allan McKenzie/SWpixAllen is expected to open the batting against Derbyshire in Lancashire’s opening game on Wednesday afternoon, but with Jos Buttler available for the first six games and Alex Davies and Liam Livingstone also in the squad, there is a logjam of options at the top of the order in what looks like one of the North Group’s strongest squads.And he is already eyeing up the two Roses fixtures, after watching Lancashire’s raucous celebrations following their four-day win over Yorkshire from his balcony while quarantining last weekend. “You could see how passionate they all were to win the game. I’ve heard a lot of chat about the rivalry: Maxi shed a bit of light on it over in India, and what it’s like playing in the away games and getting a bit of stick from the crowd, which will be nice.”I’ve watched a lot of [the Blast] back home on TV, and can already tell it’s quite a good standard… With all the overseas players, it’s probably a bit of a step up from what I’ve come from in the Super Smash. I’m hoping to be tested and learn from that. It was a no-brainer for me coming over: it’s a step forward in my career, an opportunity to win titles, learn and play in different conditions, and to put my name up there and show people what I can do.”

Their contrasting methods, both utterly devastating, gave India a glimpse of an exhilarating ODI future

Saurabh Somani19-Jul-20215:10

Muralidaran: India’s ‘fearless’ batters went after ‘not very good’ SL attack

“They were bowling some good balls which I converted into boundaries.” That was Prithvi Shaw at the post-match presentation, after India had romped to a seven-wicket win with 80 balls to spare against Sri Lanka.Shaw had jump-started a chase of 263 as if India had to get them in 20 overs and not 50. Ishan Kishan, on debut, made more runs and wasn’t tardy either, with a 42-ball 59. Shikhar Dhawan top-scored, anchoring the chase smoothly with 86 not out off 95. And yet, it didn’t feel out of place that the Player-of-the-Match award went to Shaw for his 43 off 24 balls. The remarkable aspect of India’s chase was, it would have felt just as right if it had gone to Kishan.A right-hand opener from Mumbai with a Test century on debut, Dhawan, and a left-hand batter earmarked for bigger things since his days as Under-19 captain. That was India’s top three. Not Rohit Sharma, Dhawan and Virat Kohli – this was Shaw, Dhawan and Kishan.Shaw and Kishan might never fill the big boots their batting positions have been occupied by for so long and with such success. But that isn’t the expectation placed on them either, anyway. They came with license to thrill, and delivered on that promise spectacularly.India’s chase was done in 36.4 overs, and both Shaw and Kishan were out less than halfway through it, but the memories of this game will be formed by their batting. Shaw was all pristine timing, seemingly finding the boundary without even trying to. Kishan, on the other hand, was very visibly trying to find the boundary, and succeeding.When Shaw gets his bat flowing smoothly, the runs come almost effortlessly. One of his checked drives to a Dushmantha Chameera slower ball raced to the long-off boundary. He didn’t have pace on the ball to work with, he had virtually no follow-through, and yet he found the boundary. Pure timing. In his first 22 balls, Shaw hit nine fours. And it would be ten in 23 balls if you attribute the bouncer that rattled his helmet and went for leg-byes to him too.It was glorious, I-don’t-care-what-the-target-is-I’m-having-a-net batting. Within five overs, Shaw had driven India to 57 without loss. An outstanding score in a T20 start. The kind of ODI start you want when your team is chasing 350-plus. A ridiculous shutting out of the opposition when the target is 263.No follow-through, no problem for Prithvi Shaw•AFP/Getty ImagesWith Sri Lanka already pounded by Shaw, Kishan came out and enjoyed the most glorious first two balls anyone could have wished for. Skip, dance, swing, six. Lunge, transfer weight, lash, four. He might be the only player in ODI history to have seen his career strike rate dip by a 100 points, from 600.00 to 500.00, in one ball, despite hitting it to the boundary.Where Shaw’s economy of movement caught the eye, Kishan’s extravagance was the kind you couldn’t tear your gaze away from. He seemed to be operating in a crease that was twice the normal size, twinkling down the track as frequently as he stayed put, swishing his bat in arcs well away from his body. If Sri Lanka had only a glimmer of still making a contest of this game post-Shaw, Kishan stomped on those hopes forcefully.Shaw might have got runs without going looking for them. Kishan went looking, and was just as successful.It was exhilarating batting because this has not been India’s start-of-innings template for the most part in ODIs. Not that they have been slow – they couldn’t have been and had so much success in the format – but the prototype of an Indian innings is one that gathers steam. This one began with an explosion.The lull that followed Kishan’s wicket was brief, the pace picking up again when Suryakumar Yadav – also on ODI debut – walked in at the fall of the third wicket.”I was telling them to take it easy actually,” a beaming Dhawan would say after his captaincy career got off the blocks with an emphatic win. “The way these young boys play in the IPL, they get lots of exposure and they just finished the game in the first 15 overs only. I thought about my hundred but there were not many runs left. When Surya came out to bat, I thought I need to improve my skills!”All said with a guffaw and disarming candor. Taking it easy is not the natural style of Shaw or Kishan. Or Suryakumar for that matter. In a year that will have the T20 World Cup, this frenetic approach in ODIs might not be a bad idea.

Covid-19-related issues have hurt most teams, but the tournament could return to being the party it usually is after a quiet 2020

Deivarayan Muthu25-Aug-2021Trinbago Knight RidersCoach: Imran Jan (replacing Brendon McCullum, who is unavailable because of Covid-19-related travel restrictions)
Captain: Kieron Pollard
Overseas players: Colin Munro and Tim Seifert (both New Zealand), Yasir Shah (Pakistan), Isuru Udana (Sri Lanka)
Local hero Dwayne Bravo has moved to St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, but the rest of the Knight Riders’ core remains intact, with wicketkeeper-batters Denesh Ramdin and Tim Seifert back in the mix. Colin Munro, who was sidelined from the CPL 2020 knockouts with a finger injury, returns to bolster the side. Munro believes he is done with international cricket, for New Zealand, after being left out for the forthcoming T20 World Cup, but he still has a lot to offer in T20 franchise cricket. At the CPL, he is the most prolific overseas batter ever, with 1753 runs in 53 innings at an average of nearly 40 and strike rate of 137.38.On the bowling front, Jayden Seales now has international experience, while the trio of Sunil Narine, Akeal Hosein and Yasir Shah, who has replaced Sandeep Lamichhane, take care of the spin attack. The Knight Riders will look to Isuru Udana to bowl the tough overs in the death, something that Bravo did expertly. The Knight Riders are currently on a 12-match winning streak and they have a strong chance to move further up this list.Trinbago Knight Riders won CPL 2020 after winning 12 matches out of 12•Getty ImagesVerdict: Pollard’s men have most bases covered once again and are favourites to win their fourth title in five years, although they won’t have the home advantage they enjoyed last season.Possible XI: 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Tim Seifert, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Colin Munro, 5 Kieron Pollard (capt), 6 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 7 Isuru Udana, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Akeal Hosein/Khary Pierre, 10 Jayden Seales, 11 Ali Khan/Yasir ShahSt Lucia KingsCoach: Andy Flower
Captain: Faf du Plessis
Overseas players: Faf du Plessis (South Africa), Wahab Riaz and Usman Qadir (both Pakistan), Tim David (Singapore), Samit Patel (England)
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Daren Sammy has relinquished the captaincy and joined coach Andy Flower in the Kings backroom after marshalling the franchise to their first-ever final last year, which they lost to the Knight Riders. Faf du Plessis has taken over the captaincy from Sammy, and is likely to start the tournament, according to Flower, after having suffered a concussion at the PSL two months ago. The Kings will, however, be without the Afghanistan trio of Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran and Zahir Khan, who were central to their success last season. However, they will be bolstered by the Pakistan pair of Usman Qadir and Wahab Riaz. Singapore-born batter Tim David, who has become a hot pick in T20 leagues around the world, could potentially be their finisher. Obed McCoy and Kesrick Williams, who both have a variety of slower balls in their repertoire, could make a formidable death-bowling pair.Verdict: If du Plessis doesn’t recover in time or doesn’t hit form, their batting will appear light at Warner Park, which is more batting-friendly than the Queen’s Park Oval or the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.Possible XI: 1 Rahkeem Cornwall, 2 Andre Fletcher (wk), 3 Faf du Plessis (capt), 4 Roston Chase, 5 Tim David, 6 Mark Deyal/Keemo Paul, 7 Samit Patel, 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Usman Qadir, 10 Obed McCoy, 11 Kesrick WilliamsESPNcricinfo LtdGuyana Amazon WarriorsCoach: Rayon Griffith
Captain: Nicholas Pooran
Overseas players: Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez (both Pakistan), Imran Tahir (South Africa), Naveen-ul-Haq and Waqar Salamkheil (both Afghanistan)
The Amazon Warriors have made five finals, but are still searching for their first title. After being shot out for 55 in the second semi-final last season, they have revamped their side, jettisoning their captain Chris Green, who has now got a late gig with the Jamaica Tallawahs, coach Johan Botha, Ross Taylor and Keemo Paul. Spin will be their stronger suit once again, with Imran Tahir, Kevin Sinclair and Ashmead Nedd leading the attack. But, while Afghanistan quick Naveen-ul-Haq brings with him rich recent form, having been the top wicket-taker in the Vitality Blast, the rest of the seam attack appears a bit iffy. Brandon King, who struggled on the turners in Trinidad, will likely enjoy the ball coming on to the bat at Warner Park in the early exchanges, while usual suspects Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer and Shoaib Malik lend muscle and experience to the middle order.Verdict: Sixth-time lucky? Well, if the batters click in unison, they do stand a good chance of breaking the hoodoo.Possible XI: 1 Brandon King, 2 Chandrapaul Hemraj, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Nicholas Pooran (capt & wk), 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Kevin Sinclair, 9 Odean Smith/Nial Smith, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Imran TahirJamaica Tallawahs’ batting either side of Andre Russell doesn’t have a lot of T20 pedigree or experience•Randy Brooks – CPL T20 / GettyJamaica TallawahsCoach: Floyd Reifer
Captain: Rovman Powell
Overseas players: Chris Green (Australia), Haider Ali (Pakistan), Qais Ahmad (Afghanistan), Migael Pretorius (South Africa)
The Tallawahs’ right-hander-heavy batting line-up last year left them vulnerable to bowlers who take the ball away from them. The inclusion of Kirk McKenzie, who played for West Indies in the most recent Under-19 World Cup in 2020, could break up the sequence of right-handers, but the batting either side of Andre Russell doesn’t have a lot of T20 pedigree or experience. The middle-order quartet of Russell, Powell, Asif Ali and Carlos Brathwaite (who might miss the start of the tournament because of a Covid-19-related incident) was more bust than boom in CPL 2020, and they bizarrely sent Mujeeb Ur Rahman in at No. 3 in the semi-final, where he bagged a three-ball duck against the Knight Riders. Qais Ahmad has followed in Rashid Khan’s footsteps in becoming a sought-after T20 player, while South Africa’s Migael Pretorius is a promising seamer, who can also pitch in with the bat.Verdict: Once again the pressure will be on Russell to carry the team – both with bat and ball.Possible XI: 1 Chadwick Walton (wk), 2 Haider Ali, 3 Jason Mohammed/Kirk Mckenzie, 4 Rovman Powell (capt), 5 Andre Russell, 6 Kennar Lewis/Carlos Brathwaite, 7 Migael Pretorius, 8 Chris Green, 9 Fidel Edwards, 10 Qais Ahmad, 11 Veerasamy PermaulBarbados RoyalsCoach: Daniel Vettori
Captain: Jason Holder
Overseas players: Glenn Phillips (New Zealand), Thisara Perera (Sri Lanka), Mohammad Amir and Azam Khan (both Pakistan), Jake Lintott (England)
Chris Morris, the first pick in the draft, has pulled out of the tournament for personal reasons, and Glenn Phillips has been signed on as his replacement. Phillips has been the Tallawahs’ top scorer for the past three seasons and, more recently, he was in fine form in the Hundred. He is also set to turn out for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. They have also roped in Azam Khan, the son of former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Moin Khan. Azam can decimate spin as his strike rate of 165.27 against them suggests; against pace it drops to 133.84. Oshane Thomas has moved from the Tallawahs, while left-arm wristspinner Jake Lintott, who was the highest wicket-taker for the Southern Brave in their run to the inaugural men’s Hundred title, is another player to watch out for.Verdict: The Royals have quite a few in-form and X-factor players who could take them to the knockouts.Possible XI: 1 Johnson Charles (wk), 2 Glenn Phillips, 3 Kyle Mayers, 4 Shai Hope, 5 Jason Holder (capt), 6 Azam Khan, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Hayden Walsh Jr, 9 Jake Lintott/Mohammad Amir, 10 Raymon Reiffer/Ashley Nurse, 11 Oshane ThomasChris Gayle spent the 2019 CPL with Jamaica Tallawahs and missed the 2020 edition for personal reasons•Ashley Allen – CPL T20 / GettySt Kitts & Nevis PatriotsCoach: Simon Helmot
Captain: Dwayne Bravo
Overseas players: Ravi Bopara (England), Paul van Meekeren (Netherlands), Fawad Ahmed (Australia), Asif Ali (Pakistan)The Patriots were the worst-hit team by the Covid-19 pandemic and the last-minute reshuffle in CPL 2020. Coach Simon Helmot, who had missed that season after testing positive, will reunite with Dwayne Bravo, with whom he had won the title, representing Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel in 2015. Chris Gayle, too, returns to the Patriots after missing the last season for personal reasons. Allrounder Fabian Allen is back as well, having been ruled out of CPL 2020 after missing his flight from Jamaica to Barbados. He’s turning the ball a lot more these days and has shown glimpses of elite power-hitting, which could make him a future superstar in T20 cricket.The South African pair of Anrich Nortje and Rassie van der Dussen and Sri Lanka legspin-bowling allrounder Wanindu Hasaranga, however, will be unavailable due to national commitments. The absence of Nortje, in particular, has weakened the seam attack, although Netherlands’ Paul van Meekeren’s recent form is encouraging. He was Durham’s second highest wicket-taker in the Royal London One-day Cup with 14 strikes in seven games at an economy rate of 5.53.Verdict: With their sensational batting line-up and steady bowling attack, the Patriots could seriously challenge the Knight Riders for the title this year.Possible XI: 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Joshua da Silva (wk), 4 Sherfane Rutherford, 5 Asif Ali/Ravi Bopara, 6 Fabian Allen, 7 Dwayne Bravo (capt), 8 Rayad Emrit, 9 Fawad Ahmed, 10 Sheldon Cottrell, 11 Paul van Meekeren

For some batters there hasn’t been much cricket, but one of the incumbents has filled his boots over the winter and wants to be back at the Gabba

Alex Malcolm26-Oct-2021One of Australia’s incumbent Test openers has scored more runs in first-class cricket since the team last played a Test match than any of his countrymen. He’s made 995 runs in 14 matches, averaging 49.75, with four centuries.It’s not David Warner, who has played just one first-class match since the Gabba Test against India. It’s not Will Pucovski, who has not played a single game of cricket since he dislocated his shoulder in the new year’s Test in Sydney and won’t play in Victoria’s first Sheffield Shield game this season due to another concussion.It’s not Joe Burns, who was dropped for the Sydney Test and has played just six matches since. It’s not Matthew Wade, who opened in the first two Tests of the series despite never opening before in his 14-year 156-game first-class career.And it’s not Usman Khawaja, who is being discussed as an option to open in the first Test of the upcoming Ashes, having opened just three times in his last 28 first-class innings since the 2019 Ashes tour, for scores of 30, 4 and 2.Related

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Marcus Harris hasn’t yet played a game this summer, but his deeds in England this winter for Leicestershire seem not to be at the forefront of minds, and he chuckled when he was reminded that he is in fact one of Australia’s incumbent openers.”It was a difficult summer last year just with the way that the opening position kept rotating so there’s always going to be speculation,” Harris told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s good to talk about from a media point of view. Personally, and privately in speaking to selectors, I know what they think and I know they probably have looked back on my work over the last period of time and I think that will hold me in good stead going forward. I know I’ve been a consistent performer for probably five or six years now in Shield cricket so I’m confident if I get the opportunity I’ll be fine.Marcus Harris enjoyed a very consistent season for Leicestershire•Getty Images”But that’s the tough thing about playing for Australia. The opportunities are limited. You’ve got to take them when you get them so that’s what’s been hard, as I’ve sort of been in and out a little bit. But I think the people and the powers that be understand and they sort of know how hard it can be.”Going to England was a big part of my vision for going forward, being able to play a lot of cricket and putting numbers on the board.”Harris has been in regular contact with coach Justin Langer over the winter but more importantly had a fruitful conversation with Australia’s chairman of selectors George Bailey last Friday. He was reassured by Bailey that despite the annual media rumblings of a “bat-off for places” in the lead-up to the Ashes, that his larger body of work will carry more weight, particularly as Victoria and New South Wales have not played a single match so far this summer due to the Covid lockdowns, while other states have already played two each.”It is really good [to hear that]. I think it’s like with any sport, it’s good for stories and stuff like that,” Harris said. “But you know that at the end of the day the people that are picking the team are looking at the bigger picture rather than a smaller bit of work.”

When you come in and out of a team you can put a lot of pressure on yourself knowing that this might be your only chance so that can be hard to play with that pressure

Harris made 655 runs in eight games for Leicestershire, scoring three centuries including a stunning 185 not out in a successful fourth-innings chase of 378 against Middlesex. Harris loved the experience so much he signed a two-year deal with Gloucestershire to play all three formats over the next two seasons after only playing two with Leicestershire.”The best thing for my development was to go and play over there in the winter and keep playing cricket rather than playing home seasons here then not doing much for a couple of months,” he said. “I think at this stage of my career I’ve got to keep playing all the time so it’s been beneficial no matter which way the season goes here, just for me as a cricketer to be able to play over there in different conditions.”Harris’ experience in the 2019 Ashes in England, where he made just 58 runs in six innings, could have easily scarred him. But he viewed it as a pivotal learning moment.”It wouldn’t have seemed like it at the time, but it was such a good learning experience playing in that series,” he said. “Sort of knowing that you might be able to play one way in Australia but that might not always suit the way you’re going to have to play in England.”I think the good thing as well being in Leicester and being by myself with different coaches, is you work everything out for yourself and you have to work it out on the run a little bit. And equally as the pressure of being the overseas player, you’re expected to do well so you have that pressure on you. But I enjoyed that.Marcus Harris was bounced out in the second innings against India after starting promisingly•Getty Images”County cricket is very different to Shield cricket. The bowlers are different, the batters are different. They’re very good in their conditions and so you’ve got to try and find a way to make your game suit that, which I enjoyed.”The key now is for Harris to convert those experiences at Test level if he can get a consistent run at it. He has shown glimpses, including his second-innings 38 at the Gabba, that he is capable of being Australia’s long-term solution at the top of the order.”When you come in and out of a team you can put a lot of pressure on yourself knowing that this might be your only chance so that can be hard to play with that pressure,” Harris said. “I enjoyed in that second innings that we had to score quite quickly, that sort of suited me a little bit, so I learned from that.”If I get another opportunity, I can try and take that pressure off myself, which is easier said than done, but just go out there and look to score and put runs on the board will probably suit me.”I sort of feel like in first-class cricket it took me a little while, it probably took me 20 or 30 games, probably more, 40, to understand and believe in myself. But as I’ve got older, I sort of know that if I can get a good run, a few games, I feel like I could do the same thing in Test cricket.”That’s all it is really, a bit of self-belief and proving to yourself and proving to people that you can do it.”

“Not a team to set your watch by but almost always worth watching for glorious or abysmal cricket”

Jarrod Kimber15-Dec-20211:00

Bell hoping England can ‘bounce back quickly’ in second Test

England are the most innovative team in the world. That’s not a joke.Depending on your age, you’re now processing this in vastly different ways. Some of you will be nodding, others laughing hysterically. If you are under 35, you most likely grew up with the 2005 Ashes, England’s 2010-14 reign as the No. 1 Test side, or the bit where England dominated white-ball cricket. This England are dynamic, fearless and always innovating.If you’re over 35, you grew up in an era when English cricket was a punchline. There is an entire industry around English cricket’s good ol’ bad days in the ’80s and ’90s. Quiz questions about how many captains they had, jokes about waistlines, and David’ Bumble’ Lloyd’s “we flippin’ murdered ’em”. That England was stale, broken and sad.You could see the dynamic of the two kinds of English fans playing out during the Gabba Test. Those from the older generation saw doom and gloom in every critical moment as a sign of the Apocalypse. And a newer generation that couldn’t help but notice that Australia had a good run with a flawed side and England batted out nearly an entire day for only two wickets.Related

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Most of us aren’t English fans; this is less about emotion and how the cricket world sees England. They were once Mother Cricket, and then the doddering old aunt who’s been collecting ceramic owls for a long time. Now they’re that fun older sister, showing you all the stuff adults won’t.England cricket has become brilliant and bonkers.But by the start of the 2000s, this was a broken cricket culture.The first professional structure in cricket – however half-hearted it was – was already looking decades behind Australia. The Asian boom had occurred with Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka all producing champions and winning World Cups. The West Indies had been more dominant than England in a tougher era, and would then work out T20 quicker than anyone else. South Africa played a more disciplined and conservative cricket, and with better results.The most important cricket nation was suddenly just another team. England looked ancient in a way that Australia did not. The county game still produced some interesting trends: home to Franklyn Stephenson’s slower ball, and off the field it gave us the T20. But in the ’90s, cricket was becoming a colourful global game, and England were still wearing whites.And there was no real reason for this. England were still a rich cricket nation. The professionalism may have only been for six months every year for county cricketers, but at least they paid their first-class players, which is something New Zealand were not doing at that point. But there were also divisions within cricket, like the county dressing rooms in which players from the same side sat in different walled-off spaces within the room based on their seniority within the side. This was happening until the mid-90s and it showed that English cricket was stuck in another era.English cricket tried to give us something new on the field from time to time, but even when they had success with it, cricket wasn’t always paying attention. They were perhaps the first team to really pick batters who could keep, over keeper-batters in the ’80s. In fact, it started with Jim Parks in the 1960s. But by the ’80s players like Ian ‘Gunner’ Gould were being manufactured into wicketkeepers because of their batting. Other teams had tried it as a one-off to see if it worked, but England had it as a selection mantra in ODIs before finally committing with Alec Stewart.Alec Stewart practices his keeping•PA PhotosIn the 1992 World Cup England are now remembered as a team who got Wasim Akram-ed in the final. But this was an early prototype for all-round white-ball cricket. They had Derek Pringle – list A average of nearly 26 – batting at No. 9 and Ian Botham as a slogging opener; multiple bowling options and a long batting line-up. South Africa would be renowned for this, but only years later. That same decade, England appointed Adam Hollioake as their ODI captain; the following decade they were opening with Mal Loye who was sweeping super-fast bowlers for six.These were still rare one-offs, and none of them worked enough to change the direction of the game. England’s control on cricket was fading from an administrative perspective, but their effect on how the game was played had fallen off completely.And then, little by little from Duncan Fletcher through to Eoin Morgan the most straight-laced, beige team in cricket became – to use a Warneism – funky. If you follow trends in cricket, then England is currently the style icon, for most probably the first time since the ’60s.No matter what the format, they are doing something interesting and trying to change the game. They’ve had success in every format, but also failed a lot; interesting rather than successful, but almost always fun.In T20s they unlocked their young batting talent by letting them go out and hit a bunch of boundaries. It differed from the West Indies’ dot-or-six method. It was freer, and often lasted longer. Their T20 batting line-ups were as deep as cricket has seen, so it allowed their top to swing away consistently.These methods took them within a Carlos Brathwaite mishit of winning the World Cup in 2016, and this year they looked like the best team in the competition even with a weakened first XI. By the time they got to the semi-finals they were missing five players, and still it took some luck for Jimmy Neesham and incredible hitting from the Kiwis to get over the line.Considering how good England has looked in both the 2016 and 2021 tournaments, missing one or two editions in the middle has probably cost them a fair chance of winning the title.There are other T20 trends they are associated with. Morgan and his chief analyst Nathan Leamon have a dugout code they exchange when England are fielding, to ensure that Morgan is making data-led decisions – successfully transplanted to Multan Sultans in the PSL.In T20s outside the international level, Worcestershire have played without a wicketkeeper in order to have an extra fielder. County cricket has also provided two extraordinary bowlers: Benny Howell would ordinarily be considered a medium-pacer and Pat Brown fast-medium. But when you look at what both of them do, they are like spinners at varying speeds. They’re beyond just change-up bowlers with cutters. Even Harry Gurney was, in a way, one of a kind – a slow left-am change-up death bowler is not exactly what teams even knew they wanted until it existed.In ODI cricket England completely smashed the boring middle overs, turning themselves from an idiosyncratic team into enforcers. They took lessons from their T20 side, and were also willing to lose early wickets. They unleashed their openers in a way that would make 1996 Sri Lanka blush.They became the quickest-scoring team in ODI history, the first to score run-a-ball for a four-year period. But it wasn’t their openers who made the biggest impact. It was in the middle with Joe Root, Morgan and Jos Buttler where they turned the boring middle overs into 180 runs a match without losing wickets. It was like the difference between hand milking a cow and using a machine. And you could, if you wanted, trace this approach back to the ECB’s decision in 2010 to switch to a 40-over domestic tournament when everyone was playing 50-over tournaments; automatically the format made the middle overs a more attacking phase.They also had a bowler like Liam Plunkett, whose key skill was taking a collection of the ugliest wickets you’ve ever seen. England helped turn him from a standard fast bowler into a cross-seam spoiler. And that worked because Plunkett and many other bowlers could bat or hit big. So opposition batters would push the game, and try and score off Plunkett, which usually ended up with mishits to a legside sweeper.Yet, when they lost the 2017 Champions Trophy semi-final, people doubted them. No team had ever been that good at ODIs and yet less respected coming into a World Cup, as England were in 2019. And in that World Cup, they gave us the greatest final, and they won in the weirdest way possible, after Trent Boult stepped on the ropes while taking a catch, after an umpiring error and after a tied Super Over.Even if they had lost, they had still changed one-day cricket.And then there are Tests. If they’ve been dominant in the other two formats, they’ve been mixed in Tests. Over the last five years they have 27 wins and 24 losses. They are the worst of the best teams. They can be incredible, but they can be truly awful.The 2019 Ashes might be the best example. They lost the first game. They were on their way to losing the second until Ben Stokes played the second-best innings that year. Then they lost and won one more Test to end the series 2-2, but with Australia keeping the Ashes. They are not a team you can set your watch by, but they’re almost always worth watching for glorious or abysmal cricket.England has a decision to make on which bowlers to choose in Adelaide•AFP/Getty ImagesTheir results have been like that for a while; they strolled into India this year and won the first Test, and then barely made a run to finish the series. They lost a Test in Bangladesh, and allowed West Indies to chase over 300 at Headingley.But even in being unsuccessful in Tests, they’ve been trying stuff. First they copied their own limited-overs formula, relying on their allrounders and deploying incredible batting depth. My favourite might be the Bridgetown Test where Adil Rashid batted at No. 10 and Sam Curran was at No. 9.Rashid has ten first-class hundreds. And Curran has batted at seven in Tests – and won Tests. They’ve had Stokes, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, and even Craig Overton. This doesn’t even include their wicketkeeping allrounders in Ben Foakes, Jonny Bairstow, Buttler, and Ollie Pope. This is an abnormally flexible team. There were signs of this in the Flintoff/Swann/Broad (before Varun Aaron hit him in the head) era, but this is a whole new level.Having a team of this many allrounders means they either look fantastic or like boiled sick.It hasn’t worked, mostly because they haven’t had strong batters up the order to make sure that Stokes, Moeen, Buttler, Woakes and Curran could come in when there were fun runs to be scored. Most of these players have been forced higher than you would want; Woakes has even been discussed as a potential top-order stopgap.They’ve been quite interesting with their top order as well. Jason Roy and Alex Hales have opened for England, even though neither were successful openers at first-class level. And that is because they were both good white-ball players. Buttler’s return to England was also on the back of white-ball form, England backing him even though there’s rarely been a long-term consistent Test player who is a gun white-ball player but hasn’t made runs in first-class cricket.And when England stopped trying their best T20 hitters as openers, they went completely the other way and found the most turgid. England players hate when you talk about the 100-ball innings, or as it became known, the Dentury. But the story goes that when England’s team management realised they didn’t have good enough top-order players, they just asked them to try and bat 100 balls each innings. Joe Denly has said this didn’t happen, but it is possible that England just enforced the 100-ball thinking simply by not dropping anyone.Players were clearly rewarded for batting time rather than making runs for a long period. Dom Sibley averaged 29 with the bat, but he was out in the middle for 12 balls longer than the average for an opener during his career. At this point, England were also talking about weighted averages – anything not to mention that their top-order just couldn’t score runs. Blunting the new ball isn’t reinventing anything; but doing it with three players from whom you’re not expecting masses of runs is something else.Also noticeable about England’s top-orders is their techniques. For a long time England players – Graham Gooch aside – batted in a very staid English way. Now the MCC manual has been burnt and snorted, and you get Rory Burns’ over-the-shoulder gaze and Sibley’s one-sided play. It’s not just the defensive batters. Buttler’s just as much an outlier in the other direction. England batters were encouraged for generations to follow their natural techniques and while the jury is still out on how that has gone, there are some fascinating methods out there in county cricket.With the ball James Anderson has perhaps been the main reason the wobble ball has become the most important delivery in the world. While it might be Mohammad Asif’s creation, Anderson’s wrist has elevated it to a global trend. And England are also all-in on platooning fast bowlers, which is not quite cricket’s horses-for-courses selection policy. Essentially England’s plan – which injuries have thwarted – is to have three or four genuinely fast bowlers drop in for a Test at a time, bowl as fast as possible, then rest up for their next chance. It is similar to how baseball pitchers are used.James Anderson warms up•AFP/Getty ImagesAnd how do England make these decisions on selection? Without a selector as such but with a head coach and captain backed up by James Taylor as head scout. In fact, England employs plenty of scouts to go out and look at players based on their speciality – so wicketkeepers are scouting wicketkeepers, spinners are on spinners and so on. They’ve taken crack old selection committees into the future.It’s worth noting again that innovation doesn’t always lead to good results – and it hasn’t. No one is saying that this English team is the best in the world. It’s just the most interesting.On their own, some of these just sound quirky, but England has leaned in on the weird and extreme like never before. This is England, the team that really hasn’t been part of the conversation in pioneering cricket since perhaps the 1970s. Almost all the major teams have been more important to how the game has been played on the field since. India’s spin quartet. Pakistan’s reverse swing/sweep, doosra and attacking middle-overs bowling. West Indies’ four fast men and six-hitting in T20s. Australia’s professionalism, early ODI cricket and scoring at four an over in Tests. Plus, Sri Lanka’s use of the Powerplay and unorthodox bowling actions.These were all sizeable shifts in how cricket was played.England were just stuck, through a combination of poor cricket and negativity at the national team level. But modern English cricket is suddenly the most fast-moving. If there is a freaky new tactic or a way of bowling the ball, there’s a good chance right now it will come from England. There is science in the dietary plans, and creativity in their analysis. That the team doing this is England makes it all the more bizarre, like finding out your grandma likes Grime.England are on their way to fun second-team status. That’s so weird, from the team that everyone hated because of the whole empire thing through to the side that kids like because they’re doing cool things.England are an innovative team. That’s a fact.