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RCB get Mandhana, Perry; Mumbai pick Harmanpreet; Deepti goes to UP Warriorz

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Feb-2023

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Number of players bought: 18
Money spent: INR 11.9 crore
Key players: They love building their brand around certain key players. Think Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle with the men’s team. Similarly at the WPL, they’ve lined up a fearsome trio of Smriti Mandhana, four-time T20 World Cup winner Ellyse Perry and South Africa’s Dane van Niekerk, a value pick at INR 30 lakh.Related

• Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians in a power-packed contest to kick off the WPL

• WPL – the start of something unusually usual for women's cricket in India

• WPL: Sania Mirza joins Royal Challengers Bangalore as team mentor

• Parth Jindal: 'People spent a lot on marquee players, didn't have much money for others'

• Mandhana gets the biggest bid at WPL auction, goes to RCB for INR 3.4 crore

Strengths: Their overseas contingent is star-studded and full of multi-skilled cricketers. Perry, Sophie Devine, van Niekerk, Heather Knight – all of them can bat and bowl. The team management may have to rack their brains on whom to leave out and that isn’t a bad place to be in, given the quality they have. Throw in the firepower of Mandhana, Richa Ghosh and Renuka Singh, all high-profile India internationals, and they’ve got all the makings of a tournament-winning squad.Weaknesses: The absence of a quality Indian wristspinner on red-soil surfaces of Mumbai, which will aid bounce, may be a bit of a miss.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Mumbai Indians

Number of players bought: 17
Money spent: INR 12 crore (entire purse)
Key players: Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Pooja Vastrakar will undoubtedly be among the first names on the scorecard. It was in Mumbai where Harmanpreet announced herself with a maiden World Cup hundred in 2013, and it’s here that she will begin a new era in Indian women’s cricket, possibly as captain of the Mumbai Indians. Sciver-Brunt’s batting versatility against pace and spin, as well as her quality medium pace, and Vastrakar’s X-factor as a big hitter lower down, in addition to being able to bowl a heavy ball in the middle overs make them vital cogs.Strengths: Back-ups for every position is something Mumbai pride themselves on having thanks to a robust scouting network. And they’ve managed to create just that. They have also built a decent pool of India Under-19s, whom they would hope to nurture over time.Weakness: The absence of a back-up wicketkeeper to Yastika Bhatia could be a bit of a hindrance. Beyond Vastrakar, they’re also thin on Indian seam bowling options.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Gujarat Giants

No of players bought: 18
Money spent: INR 11.5 crore
Key players: Given Sneh Rana’s vast experience in the domestic circuit, she could be a potent force for Giants in the inaugural WPL. She has reunited with Nooshin Al Khadeer, who, as the head coach of Railways, has had a massive influence in the second coming of Rana in the national set-up. Given that two venues will host all 22 games, her flight and dip with the ball could come into play.Australia’s Ashleigh Gardner became the joint-most expensive overseas buy in the auction at INR 3.2 crore (USD 390,000 approx), just days after after she picked up her career-best bowling figures in T20Is. Gardner had spoken about how the surfaces at DY Patil Stadium as well as the Brabourne Stadium were conducive to good strokeplay – something that would benefit her as a hitter – and how they gripped and turned too. Expect her to make an impact with the ball too.Strengths: Specialists overseas options to choose from plus a couple of bankable seam-bowling allrounders in Deandra Dottin and Annabel Sutherland.Weaknesses: A bit thin on Indian experience. Save for Harleen Deol, S Meghana and D Hemalatha, they don’t have a back-up local batter who can be relied upon in crunch situation or some unforeseen injury issues.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

UP Warriorz

Number of players bought: 16, including six overseas
Money spent: INR 12 crore
Key players: Alyssa Healy will be a vital cog in Warriorz’s top order and in the squad, bringing with her vast international experience. One of the most destructive batters in the world, the Australian strikes at 128.26 in T20Is and can single-handedly steer her team to victory.Deepti Sharma was the second-most expensive Indian player at INR 2.6 crore, behind Smriti Mandhana. Her talent with both ball – especially in spin-friendly conditions in Mumbai – and bat makes her a crucial figure in the line-up.Strengths: Warriorz seem to have a balanced squad, well stocked with allrounders in Deepti, Devika Vaidya, Parshavi Chopra, Tahlia McGrath and Grace Harris, who can change the momentum of the game with the bat and ball. With Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sophie Ecclestone and Deepti forming the core spin trio, the inclusion of Shabnim Ismail and Anjali Sarvani lend the perfect balance in the pace department. They also have a solid top order in Healy, the Under-19 India opener Shweta Sehrawat and McGrath.Weaknesses: Kiran Navgire and the lesser-known Laxmi Yadav are the only specialist batters in the middle order. They do not have many players who can play the anchor role if a few wickets fall early in the innings.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Delhi Capitals

No. of players bought: 18, including 6 overseas
Money spent: INR 11.65 crore
Key players:: In Meg Lanning, they have a multiple World Cup-winning captain from Australia. Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma and Marizanne Kapp’s form, and experience, will also be key for the team’s campaign in the inaugural edition.Strengths: Shafali, Rodrigues and Lanning form a strong top order for Capitals. The core of their bowling group also has good international experience in Poonam Yadav, Jess Jonassen, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Arundhati Reddy and Marizanne Kapp.Weaknesses: No perceived weakness on paper as such, but both their wicketkeepers, Taniya Bhatia and Aparna Mondal, not being attacking batters might slow things down in the lower-middle order.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

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.”

The Automatic Ball and Strike System (ABS) will be in use for the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday, and could potentially serve as a preview for the new technology to make its way to MLB as soon as next season.

ABS has been in use in the minor leagues for several seasons and was recently brought to spring training. It will now be used in the All-Star Game as MLB continues to test the technology before bringing it to the majors. Ahead of Tuesday's game, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred even indicated that the All-Star Game will serve as a major test for whether the ABS system is officially implemented next season.

There are varying opinions across MLB on the ABS technology getting implemented to the majors. Star New York Yankees outfielder and two-time American League MVP Aaron Judge is one player that appreciates the human element an umpire brings.

"I think it's just new," Judge said on . "Anything that's new, people are gonna have their opinions, gonna hate on a little bit. I still love the human element of the game. That's kind of been my thing growing up. I don't know if it's old school or not, but I just love having the umpire back there, the human feel. I know it's coming in the next couple years, so we just gotta get used to it."

Though Judge seems to prefer umpires, he is cognizant that he and other players will simply have to get used to the new system.

Manfred did say that even with the ABS, the role of umpires will be "preserved" in the game. Regardless, their roles won't be the same with the new technology in use, and the shift will be a major change for the league's players over the coming seasons.

The Seattle Mariners will retire franchise legend Randy Johnson's No. 51 jersey during the 2026 season, the team announced on Monday.

In a moment that is long overdue, Johnson will become the sixth number retired in Mariners franchise history. The announcement was made on Monday as a way to commemorate the 35-year anniversary of throwing the team's first no-hitter.

"Randy is both one of the greatest pitchers in Major League Baseball history, and one of the most important figures in our organization’s history,” Mariners chairman John Stanton said in a release.. “During the 1995 season that changed the future of this franchise, his 18-2 record (in a 145-game season) was properly recognized with his first Cy Young Award.

"More importantly, and somewhat lost to history, the Mariners were an amazing 27-3 in his 30 starts that season, an incredible 24 games over .500, compared to a record of 52-63 when any other starter took to the hill for the club. His domination that year carried the Mariners to our first-ever postseason, which led directly to the construction of T-Mobile Park and the Mariners remaining safely in Seattle forever."

Johnson recorded a 130-74 record with the Mariners, posting a 3.42 ERA, 51 complete games and 2,162 strikeouts. Johnson's '95 season ended with a Cy Young award after going 18-2 with a 2.48 ERA and 294 strikeouts.

Johnson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015 as a first-ballot selection, garnering 97.3% of the vote.

Aston Villa have now made contact to sign Real Madrid forward Gonzalo Garcia on loan in the January transfer window, but there could be competition from a plethora of rival Premier League clubs.

Villa’s interest in signing Garcia is nothing new, with claims they had even submitted an offer and wanted to get a deal over the line as quickly as possible, amid a lack of game time for the forward at Real Madrid.

The 21-year-old has appeared for just 96 minutes in La Liga this season, which will be a concern, given that he is now at an age where receiving consistent game time is important, otherwise his development could be hampered.

The Villans’ interest in signing a new forward also comes amid Evann Guessand making a slow start to life in the Premier League, having failed to register a goal or an assist, meaning Unai Emery may need a fresh injection of quality this winter if his side are going to push for the European places.

Aston Villa make contact to sign Gonzalo Garcia on loan

According to a report from Football Insider, Aston Villa have now made contact to sign Real Madrid forward Garcia on loan in the January transfer window, having registered their interest, but the Spanish heavyweights are yet to come to a final decision on his future.

Xabi Alonso’s side have concerns about a lack of depth in attack, meaning it could be worth keeping the Madrid-born starlet as a back-up option, especially considering Endrick is also set to go out on loan this winter.

Should the La Liga side sanction a departure, there may be stiff competition for the youngster’s signature, with Brighton & Hove Albion, Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers also being named as potential suitors by journalist Pete O’Rourke.

Although the young Spaniard has been unable to force his way into Alonso’s plans in La Liga, he certainly made a name for himself at the Club World Cup in the summer, receiving high praise from scout Jacek Kulig.

Not only that, but the centre-forward has also impressed at international level for Spain U21s, scoring in each of his last three matches, while also captaining his side during two of his five international caps.

With Ollie Watkins arguably not the player he once was, having scored just one Premier League goal this term, Aston Villa could do with bringing in a young striker with high potential, and Garcia has proven he could be a future star.

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By
Dominic Lund

Nov 19, 2025