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Australia have shown an indication to bowl, while England, too, love a run chase. Could we be in for a bowl-first Ashes?

Andrew McGlashan12-Jun-20231:40

Test mace in the bag, Ashes up next

It did not look good for Rohit Sharma when Australia finished the opening day of the World Test Championship final on 327 for 3 having been put in to bat. But he had been badly let down by his bowlers, as Pat Cummins confirmed he would have done the same and bowled first.In fact, Australia head coach Andrew McDonald called The Oval surface “a clear bowl-first wicket” given the covering of grass and cloudy skies, although that had burned off by early after when Travis Head and Steven Smith took charge.There is a quote attributed to WG Grace about bowling first: “When you win the toss, bat. If you are in doubt, think about it, then bat. If you have very big doubts, consult a colleague, then bat.”Clearly the game has moved on since Grace’s time, but by and large Test cricket has remained led by the bat-first mantra unless conditions are hugely persuasive the other way. One notable exception came at The Oval in 1998 when Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga, knowing that Muthiah Muralidaran was his trump card and not wanting the prospect of the follow-on which wouldn’t have allowed Muralidaran a break, stuck England in. They made 445. Sri Lanka made 591 and Muralidaran bowled them to victory.Related

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On the flip side, a year earlier in 1997, Mark Taylor made what is regarded as one of his best calls at a toss when he batted first on a damp Old Trafford pitch knowing it would help Shane Warne later on. Steve Waugh made twin hundreds. Warne bowled Australia to victory.Waugh’s great side of the 1999-2001 era went through a period of bowling first reasonably regularly including four times in 2001 which all brought victories. Of course the game is littered with times it hasn’t worked. One of Australia’s most famous occasions when it went wrong was 2005 at Edgbaston, the venue for the first Test on Friday, when Ricky Ponting said “we’ll bowl” after Glenn McGrath rolled his ankle. England rollicked to 407 in 79 overs (there’s a word for that) and it changed the Ashes.To bring things back to the current time there is a chance we could be in for a bowl-first Ashes this year. Ben Stokes loves a run chase, already stating when the coin goes up that’s the way he wants to shape the game. Meanwhile, Australia have shown an inclination to bowl in recent times, doing it on three occasions in the last WTC cycle including in consecutive Tests last season against South Africa in Brisbane and Melbourne. Had the coin fallen Cummins’ way at The Oval, it would have been four.An area that Australia are better stocked than England for the Ashes, is the strength of their spinner•Getty Images”We’ve been more prepared to bowl in recent times and don’t think that is going to change,” McDonald said.Whereas Stokes might fancy a chase, McDonald said the key factor is wicket-taking. “Think you consider how difficult 10 wickets will be in the fourth innings verses what happens up front.”Cummins, a rare fast-bowling captain, believes the view around putting the opposition in has changed. “If there’s a bit in it on day one and you feel like you’re going to take 10 wickets, you just go for it,” he said. “I think the stigma around bowling first and not bowling them out [cheaply] has gone a bit as opposed to in the past.”However, something always in Australia’s mind, and an area they are clearly better stocked than England for the Ashes, is the strength of their spinner.”Is the wicket going to deteriorate, will reverse swing come into it, will spin come into? That’s the other thing to recognise,” McDonald said. “We’ve got an all-time great spinner in Nathan Lyon and the fourth innings is when he gets the work and conditions are in his favour.”Regardless, though, of what stage the Australians are bowling, they are prepared for England’s batters to come after them and that may require a shift in attitude.Who’s the No. 1 team in Test cricket currently? The ICC rankings might not quite say it, but Nathan Lyon knows the answer•Getty ImagesAgainst India, Australia conceded 3.97 runs per over across the game, equalling the rate Sri Lanka scored against them at Galle in the first Test last year as the most expensive they have been since 2016. It was a likely a taste of what is to come, although England will try to add a run-an-over to that.”We felt that both batting groups did an incredible job to prosper on the wicket that had enough in it for the bowling units,” McDonald said. “But every time you missed it was a boundary so one thing that we’ve got to factor into England is how we deny them those boundaries. There’s a couple of things that we can potentially tidy up and take from this game into the next one.”Most of our bowlers went at above what they’d usually go, and we’ve just got to get our heads around that the tempo will be slightly different. We’re a team that usually goes at that high two runs per over, here we’ve got to get our heads around the fact that we could go at four runs an over.”Another element that Australia have been putting a lot of work into is their field placements and it may be those, rather than specific bowling plans, where the most obvious changes are noticed in the Ashes.”Their batters hit balls in different areas so our planning and prep will take that into consideration,” McDonald said. “You saw even today [Sunday against India], some people may have been critiquing our sweepers out, [but] we wanted to control the tempo of the game. Think in England that’s something most teams do. Think England will employ similar tactics when wickets are flat, and we’ll do the same.”

In a difficult season, the franchise has backed the same players to deliver even if they hadn’t quite done that earlier

Shashank Kishore20-May-20232:21

Should Jitesh be India’s next T20I wicketkeeper?

The more things change, the more they remain the same. This common refrain perhaps best sums up Punjab Kings season after season; IPL 2023 was no different.Take the last six seasons for example. They’ve had four designated captains – R Ashwin, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and now Shikhar Dhawan – and four head coaches – Brad Hodge, Mike Hesson, Anil Kumble and now Trevor Bayliss.This merry-go-round at the top can be unsettling for the players, at least the young Indian uncapped lot. But in what has been an anomaly, there’s been a growing sign of the team backing the same players to deliver even if they hadn’t quite done that earlier. Now, as they reflect on another season gone by, there’s an opportunity for them to build on these investments as they begin to bear fruit.Related

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Prabhsimran Singh joined the franchise ahead of 2019 but had only played six games across four seasons. This year, he had the role clarity. To give them explosive starts and allow Dhawan to anchor the innings. It wasn’t a blockbuster season, but his 358 runs in 14 innings at a strike rate of 150.42 provided more than glimpses of his ability.His 65-ball 103 on a Kotla deck against Delhi Capitals where most batters struggled on the two-paced nature of the surface told you of a special player who is capable of taking pitches out of the equation when in his element. Prabhsimran’s backing is unlike what the Kings have done, but here’s is a chance for them to help elevate his game.”I think the talent was always there with him, the maturity has changed,” Kings’ bowling coach Sunil Joshi said. “He started thinking about the game. He started thinking and respecting the bowlers also. That has helped him a lot, staying calm in different situations.”Then there’s Shahrukh Khan who has been branded a finisher for years now and has been with Kings for three seasons. The raw numbers will tell you he doesn’t have a T20 fifty across 33 innings in the IPL.He has failed more than he’s succeeded, and perhaps that’s simply down to the nature of his role, but the one common factor has been the team’s faith in him. This year, he featured in all 14 games but only once batted over 20 balls in an innings.On Friday night, he delivered, albeit belatedly. His 23-ball 41 not out at No. 7 gave Kings a total they didn’t look like getting at one point. In doing so, he gave more than a glimpse into his methods.It wasn’t like he was blindly swinging at every delivery. He came into bat in the 14th over and saw out Yuzvendra Chahal’s threat, fully knowing he could inflict damage later on a small ground. And against a wonky attack that has struggled in the death overs, he unleashed those big hits in the end.Shahrukh doesn’t premeditate; instead, he reacts to the ball and trains for it the same way. “I think my practice is paying off. I am reacting properly at practice to each and every ball I play. That’s the reason it’s paying off here,” he said during the season. “If I go too cheeky, I don’t think it will work for me. So, I just have one thing on my mind. I look to play straight. If anything is here and there, I try and adjust.”Jitesh Sharma ended the season with 309 runs at a strike rate of 156.06•BCCISuch clarity isn’t rare, but the ability to stick to methods that work for him and to have the belief that it will pay dividends, is.Then there’s Jitesh Sharma, whose rise has perhaps been a direct byproduct of the faith and opportunities the franchise has given him. He broke through last year after being scouted by Kumble and has shown a quality few Indian batters have – a no-holds barred approach, the ability to get go right from the outset with a fair degree of success.His power game and calmness at the same time have come in for plaudits. Like it did on Friday night, when he walked in with Kings 50 for 4 in the seventh over. Now, this can cause a few doubts to a few. Jitesh was clear the scorecard wasn’t a reflection of the surface and tried to pick his spots almost immediately.Sure, it didn’t come off, but the intent to go for it was unmissable. He somewhat made up for his relatively slow beginning – 30 off 23 – by taking apart Navdeep Saini for a sequence of 4,6,4 with each of the hits peppering different parts of the ground. In going for a fourth, he was out. But you could see he backed himself to go big once set. He ended the season with 309 runs at a strike rate of 156.06.It’s as much credit to Dhawan as it is to the team management that they’ve been willing to back players in roles they thrive at, even if it hasn’t always paid off. Dhawan himself has had a tough first full season with the Kings, and their history is replete with constant chopping and changing.Now is an opportunity for them to nip that in the bud and punt on this core that has given them an inkling of what is to come in the future with some backing and plenty of opportunities.

Our XI also features, along the way, a Chin, a Butt, a Back and a Knee

Harigovind S29-Jun-2023Michael ChinA right-hand opening batter from Berbice who played a solitary first-class match for Guyana in 1983, scoring 57 and 0 not out. If you’re mulling whether a single first-class match should secure entry to this club, Chin would point to the fact that it was not his fault that the league stages of the Jones Cup (later renamed the Guystac Trophy) were not granted first-class status.Salman ButtHis elegant left-hand batting and supple wrists drew comparisons with the legendary Saeed Anwar, but he’ll be remembered most of all for his role, as Pakistan captain, in the Lord’s spot-fixing scandal of 2009.Travis HeadA match-defining 163 in the first innings of the recent World Test Championship final may or may not etch his name in history, nor might his 96-ball 92 against South Africa in the second-shortest Test since World War II, on a bowler-friendly Gabba pitch, but what will eternalise Head’s memory is his prized possession: arguably the coolest moustache in 21st century cricket.Look, Travis, that’s you in the Headline•ICC/Getty ImagesDoug InsoleA fine batter with over 50 first-class centuries, Insole had a modest Test career of nine matches spread over seven years. He was the vice-captain when England visited South Africa in 1956, and topped the England Test batting averages. He would later go on to be the Test and County Cricket Board (precursor to the ECB) chairman and the MCC president.Graeme BeardAn allrounder who batted in the middle order and could bowl both medium-pace and offspin, Beard played three Tests for Australia, all on the 1979-80 tour of Pakistan, scoring 39 and 49 in the drawn third Test in Lahore. That was to be his last appearance in Test cricket; he was a non-playing member of the touring party for the 1981 Ashes, and retired a year later to focus on his job with the Australian Workers’ Union. Beard, disappointingly, appears to be clean-shaven in most of his photographs.Miriam KneeMiriam Knee was the heart and soul of Australia Women’s attack between 1961 and 1973. A right-arm bowler from Victoria who could bowl both seam and spin, Knee took 35 Test wickets in eight matches at an average of 16.28 – the eighth lowest in women’s Test history (minimum 1000 balls).William BackA first-class record spanning two matches with 12 runs at an average of 3.00 may cause you to turn your back on him, but William Back featured in Western Australia’s inaugural first-class match back in 1893. He was at the forefront of leading Western Australia to the first-class scene, opening the batting for them. Later, ironically, Back went on to work as a forwarding agent.David BrainTall and fast – the perfect combination to go with his daredevilish brain, which he used to spearhead Zimbabwe’s attack in Pakistan in 1993-94, and to produce numerous cameos with the bat. Eventually, the conflict between cricket and profession – the family hardware business in which he was heavily involved – ended his professional career.Give me a Hand, will ya?•Getty ImagesHenry Foot, Charles Foot, or Anthony FootCricket has a long history of Foots (Feet?). There was, of course, David Foot, the cricket writer who wrote, among other things, the acclaimed biography , and the . There were also the cricketers Henry, Charles and Anthony, born in 1805, 1855 and 1957 respectively, who played one first-class game each. Owing to that sample size, we leave to you, reader, the choice of which of the three to pick in our XI.Josh TongueTongue is many things at once – Smith’s marked nemesis, Lord’s specialist, and capable – in Ben Stokes’ words – of being two different kinds of third seamer. But his battle with David Warner on the first day of the second Ashes Test may have settled his identity as the man who gave Australia a tongue-lashing that no other England bowler seemed capable of.Fionn HandHailing from Dublin, Hand’s best moment on the cricket field probably came against eventual champions England, when he bowled Ben Stokes with what was widely described as the ball of the 2022 T20 World Cup. But there was perhaps even more debate among cricket fans when he debuted opposite Tongue in Ireland’s one-off Test against England in June: who else, they wondered, would join this duo in the All Time Anatomical XI?

“For now, it’s about identifying the how. In certain conditions – how are we going to play?” – White-ball coach JP Duminy on South Africa’s plans to stay positive despite the slide against India

Firdose Moonda18-Dec-2023Scoring runs in challenging conditions is the next hurdle for South Africa’s batters as they continue to develop their style of play under a fairly new coaching staff.That was the assessment white-ball coach JP Duminy offered after the Wanderers ODI, where South Africa were dismissed for 116 – their lowest total at home.It came in the third game after they were shot out by India for 83 at the World Cup, which was Duminy and head coach Rob Walter’s first major tournament after they were appointed in February. At that point, the bulk of South Africa’s World Cup Super League campaign had been run and they were on the verge of missing out on automatic qualification to the 2023 World Cup but scrapped their way in when they beat Netherlands at home. From that point, they appeared to be a team transformed.Related

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At the World Cup, they topped 350 four times in seven matches and broke the record for the highest World Cup score in their tournament opener against Sri Lanka, before being humbled by India and losing in the semi-final. So how do South Africa veer from dominating attacks to being dominated from match to match? If you believe Duminy, it’s because they’re still figuring things out under a management that has only overseen them in two series (West Indies and Australia) and the World Cup so far.”When you are trying to build a brand and a style of play, you are potentially going to have those contrasting experiences,” he said at the post-match press conference. “That’s where the learning happens. Part of how you find consistency is actually experiencing either or and then understanding why things are happening. That’s the journey for us. When it’s good, we are really good. When conditions are good, we can score 400 but how do we still find our way to 280 on a tough wicket? That’s the question for us.”It’s not only about the pitch but also about the quality of the bowling. At the World Cup, South Africa (and they were not the only ones) could not get Mohammed Siraj or Jasprit Bumrah away in the early stages of their reply to India’s 326 and were 35 for 3 in the Powerplay. In the semi-final, sensational opening spells from Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood left them on 32 for 4 after 13 overs. Then, David Miller, with assistance from Heinrich Klaasen, showed the temperament to haul them over 200. But a match later, Mukesh Kumar (though he did not take any wickets), Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan kept them to 116 and there was no-one to absorb or transfer pressure.

“Tony has all the attributes to be consistent. What I really enjoyed was still finding a way of scoring above 100 strike rate under those difficult circumstances and the conviction in his movement, the conviction in his options and his clarity and commitment to his shots.”JP Duminy on Tony de Zorzi

Duminy identified the relentlessness in the disciplines of Indian attack juxtaposed with reticence from his own line-up to take the game forward as the root cause of the issue. “The thing that stands out for me is consistency. If you assess conditions and understand where the biggest threat is, you have to land the ball there consistently. Think of Arshdeep [Singh] and his ability to swing the ball up front as well as nibble it. He was asking those questions consistently, so you were always under pressure and when you don’t have those answers, today happens,” he said. “It’s about coming up against the conditions and the opposition and finding the right formula.”In essence, it sounds as though South Africa’s problem is that they’re being moulded into an outfit that plays aggressive cricket, as is the way of the modern game, but if they are put on the back foot, they don’t always know how to recover.One player who showed glimpses of that was new opener Tony de Zorzi. After Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen were dismissed for ducks, de Zorzi took the fight to India when he hit Mukesh over point for six and through extra cover in the same over, then drove him through the off side for two boundaries in the next over and even short-arm pulled Arshdeep for six. He misjudged his next pull and top-edged to end his innings on 28 but ended up scoring at greater than a run a ball and rebuilding some momentum.”Tony has all the attributes to be consistent,” Duminy said. “What I really enjoyed was still finding a way of scoring above 100 strike rate under those difficult circumstances and the conviction in his movement, the conviction in his options and his clarity and commitment to his shots. He is aggressive in nature, particularly in how he wants to play the game so it’s exciting to see.”De Zorzi will play the rest of the series alongside Reeza Hendricks and is likely to come into South Africa’s long-term plans, especially after Quinton de Kock’s ODI retirement. Luckily for him, and Duminy, they have time to fine-tune the way they want the batters to go about things. “If you think where do we go from here – the Champions Trophy and the 2027 World Cup – it may be far away but understanding that brand is important,” Duminy said. “For now, it’s about identifying the how. In certain conditions – how are we going to play?”The short answer is: hopefully not the way they did at the Wanderers.

“There’s the real sense of calm out there when you know you’ve got someone that good,” says Australia captain Pat Cummins

Alex Malcolm03-Mar-20242:12

Cummins: Green as sharp as I have seen him

You couldn’t see the glint in Nathan Lyon’s eye behind his trademark tinted sunglasses, but you could tell it was there.It was there during his press conference after day three when he spoke with overwhelming confidence that Australia would create the seven chances necessary to win the Test match.It was there on the morning of day one when he ran his hand over the verdant Basin Reserve pitch and felt a dryness and hardness underneath that suggested sharp spin and bounce was on offer.Related

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He was right on both fronts, and he and Cameron Green were the chief architects of Australia’s 172-run win.Lyon put on a masterclass of offspin bowling on the fourth and final day, becoming just the 10th spinner to take 10 wickets in a match in New Zealand and only the third to do so in the long history of the Basin Reserve, behind two spin bowling luminaries in Muthiah Muralidaran and Australia’s current bowling coach Daniel Vettori.He also achieved the rare air of becoming just the third Test bowler to take five-wicket hauls in nine different countries behind Muralidaran and Shane Warne.You could not wipe the smile off Pat Cummins’ face after Lyon had spun his side to victory yet again.”Captain’s dream really,” Cummins said. “There’s the real sense of calm out there when you know you’ve got someone that good on a wicket that’s giving him a little bit of help.”You can get creative with some of the field placements knowing he’s going to land it exactly where you want it to. I thought he was brilliant over the last couple of days bouncing through a few different plans but just always felt like he was in control and always felt like we had Plan B, C, D that we could go to as well but never really felt like we had to. Yeah, an absolute dream.”Rachin Ravindra walks back disappointed after falling in Nathan Lyon’s trap•Getty ImagesThey tried plan B very briefly on the fourth morning with Lyon switching to the R.A. Vance stand end first up despite his first six wickets, and Glenn Phillips’ five, falling from the Southern end. The idea was to give Mitchell Starc a chance from the Southern end to see if he could swing the 41-over old ball with the help of a south-westerly breeze. But Starc was unable to find much movement, and Lyon was not extracting as much spin and bounce from the R.A Vance end and after two overs Cummins went back to plan A.It took Lyon three balls to break the game open from his preferred end. He found some extra bounce and Rachin Ravindra miscued a cut straight to point. Three balls later he had Tom Blundell caught at short leg for the second time in the match and the game was all but over.Lyon had forecast his plans in his press conference the night before. There was no secret sauce. He would bowl around the wicket with overspin and try and challenge the sticker of the bat with short leg and leg slip in place.ESPNcricinfo LtdNew Zealand knew the plan. They just could not throw him off it. Two balls into Lyon’s next over Phillips glanced one inches short of leg slip. Two balls later Phillips played back again to a quicker ball that spun sharply and was pinned plumb lbw.It had taken Lyon all of 22 balls on the fourth morning to take three wickets and get into New Zealand’s tail. He would pick up a sixth of the innings when Tim Southee holed out to long-on after deciding his defence was not good enough to withstand the pressure.It was a meek end from New Zealand. But it was a credit to the irrepressible and ageless Lyon. He has made no secret of the fact that he wants to keep playing until the end of the 2027 Ashes and his captain said he will continue in the job as long as Lyon is still going.”I’d love for him to keep going until 2027,” Cummins said. “I think the only barrier I think really is his body.”If he looks after his body and makes sure he’s right for whatever it is, 10 Test matches a year, I’d absolutely love if he was playing until 2027.”I don’t think there’s much that’s going to get in his way. I’ve already told him the day he retires I’m definitely giving up the captaincy because it makes my life a hell of a lot easier.”

Reactions from social media after Punjab Kings chased down 262 against KKR with eight balls to spare

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Apr-2024.

It’s run a ball for the last 2 overs of a T 20 game in a chase of 260 +.

Let that sink in. #IPL2024 #KKRvsPBKS

— Ashwin (@ashwinravi99) April 26, 2024