A crushing victory over Pakistan gave England plenty to be pleased about but familiar concerns remain over the make-up of the side

George Dobell at Old Trafford25-Jul-2016Just as nobody wanted to ask Usain Bolt how much quicker he might have gone had he not slowed down before the line in the 2008 Olympics, so it seems churlish to pick holes in England’s performance at Old Trafford.England have, after all, just completed the fifth-largest victory – in terms of runs – in their Test history. Joe Root showed that he is continuing to develop as a batsman and has the skill and intelligence to adapt his game to the situation. Alastair Cook, whose decision not to enforce the follow-on was vindicated, continues to produce at the top of the order and Chris Woakes’ emergence as an international-quality bowler provides the strength in depth that England have been searching for in the seam department.This is a more than respectable Pakistan team and they were hammered. It is 1-1 with two to play and the Edgbaston pitch may well suit England better than any other in the series.But the fact is that England came into the summer with questions to answer about several areas in their side. Notably, they were unclear over the identity of the most suitable partner for Cook at the top of the order, unclear about at least one of the middle-order positions, unsure about their keeper, their spinner and their first-change bowler.So, five Tests later, how much progress have they made?The answer is a little. But whether they are improving as a side or being dragged along by the improvement in their best young player is open to debate. It remains entirely possible that England will go to India later this year with a new opening batsman, a new first-choice spinner and a new face in the middle order.To some extent, this is positive. If England can win against decent sides despite performing at something around 75% of potential, they clearly have the scope to develop into a fine side.And there have been positives. Woakes seems to have come of age at this level and might, before the year is out, give the selectors some interesting decisions to make if they decided to go into Tests in Asia with fewer seamers. While he does not quite ease the pain of losing Ben Stokes for Edgbaston, he does reduce it. The last time England had two such fine allrounders was arguably in the brief period in the late 1970s in which Ian Botham and Tony Grieg played together.In this match, too, Jonny Bairstow produced an admirable performance with the gloves. There were only two catches, but there were no drops, few fumbles and only two byes in total. He still has questions to answer, but this was a step in the right direction.Most of all, there was the performance of Root. If, in the first innings, he demonstrated the discipline and restraint required to succeed at No. 3, in the second he demonstrated the strokeplay and selflessness to prove he can adapt as his side requires. Afterwards Cook referred to his double-century as “a great innings” and one of the best he had ever seen while Misbah-ul-Haq described it as “amazing”. It was hard to disagree. Root really does look as if he is developing into a special player.So it is probably inevitable that England should rely upon him and Cook. Just as Sri Lanka once relied upon Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, Australia relied upon Allan Border and South Africa now rely on Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers. To some extent, that is the inevitable burden of excellence.In the end, that was the difference between this Test and the first. While at Lord’s, Root top-edged an overly aggressive slog-sweep, here he made sure he took advantage and, as Cook put it, “ground Pakistan down”. England took advantage of winning the toss, they weren’t in a rush with the bat or their tactics and they still won with more than a day to spare. There is a lesson there.The concern – or perhaps it is just a gripe – is that Root and Cook’s success is masking some pretty modest returns from the rest of the top order. Root’s move to No. 3 has opened a hole at No. 4, with Alex Hales, Gary Ballance and James Vince all struggling to supply contributions so far this series.James Vince’s woes deepened with another unconvincing innings•Getty ImagesIt is Vince’s form that is most concerning. He is not just falling for low scores – he is averaging 18.57 after seven Test innings – but failing in predictable ways. His first-innings failure here, edging a drive at a ball angled across him, came in spite of a life earlier in the innings attempting the same stroke. The failure to learn does not bode well.If Vince is dropped – and Stokes’ injury may save him – it does not mean the end for him. Many players have found their first taste of international cricket tough but have returned to county cricket with more knowledge of the standards required to succeed at this level. He has the talent to come again.Ballance has only had three innings in this series – one of them quite impressive – so probably deserves a longer run to prove himself, while Hales surely did enough in the Sri Lanka games to earn a place for the rest of this series. He is not at the stage, though, where he can be said to have secured the opening position and is clearly struggling against the swing of Mohammad Amir. How he overcomes that very specific challenge in the next two Tests may define his career in this format.Moeen Ali’s form is a worry, too. While he has the third-best strike rate of any English spinner (with more than five Test wickets) since the war, he also has the worst average of any England bowler with more than 20 Test wickets this century.He took five wickets at Old Trafford – a reflection of Pakistan’s policy of trying to destroy him as much as any particularly wonderful bowling – but seems to have developed a worrying habit of delivering a head-high full toss an innings, which betrays a man struggling for form and confidence. England deserve credit for sticking with him – Cook has developed as a captain in that regard – but Adil Rashid continues to push hard for inclusion. It could well be that both men play on an Edgbaston track that tends to turn as the game progresses.The truth is, England rather got away with their errors in Manchester. They got away with Cook’s missed slip chance on the fourth day – had Younis Khan been at a different stage of his career, he may have punished them – and they got away with a top order that offered contributions from two players. So dominant were England’s seamers and two of their top three that it made little difference that Hales, Ballance and Vince struggled.”There’s still work to do,” Cook said. “There’s still inexperience in that batting line-up. Three of the top five are pretty inexperienced. We still have a couple of years to go as a side.”But that presupposes that experience will improve players. It might, of course. But it might also show they are not quite up to the standard required. It remains a bit early to draw conclusions about a couple of this top order. As a result, it is a bit early to gauge how much improvement England have made.Selection for the next Test will be intriguing. As well as trying to find a replacement for Stokes – there is surely no way he will be fit for next Wednesday – England must also reflect on Vince’s form and decide if Moeen did enough here. Had Stokes not been injured, there was a chance that England could have picked Rashid in place of Vince for Edgbaston. But now they must decide if they also want a replacement seamer and how much batting is required. For a side who have just achieved a huge win, they have quite a lot of thinking to do.

And if it’s George Beldam’s iconic image of Victor Trumper, it speaks volumes

Paul Edwards30-Oct-2016″He had one of those natures which called to you and in whose presence you felt it was good to live.” Thus wrote Frank Iredale of Victor Trumper, his colleague on the 1899 Australian tour of England. Many contemporaries echoed Iredale’s sentiments and in the 101 years since Trumper’s death from Bright’s disease, his reputation has grown to legend. Cricket writers have strived and sometimes strained to express their admiration of his batsmanship yet none of them come close to picture in capturing the elusive magic.George Beldam’s 1905 image “Jumping out for a straight drive” is surely the most famous photograph in the history of cricket. Certainly it is the most reproduced, for it has appeared on the covers of countless books and on letterheads and posters; it has been sculpted, etched, reprinted and woven; it has even been the symbol for an internet chat room.And in 1975 it appeared on page 89 of Great Australian Cricket Pictures, where it first came to the notice of a young Gideon Haigh. Thus began a 40-year fascination with Trumper that has culminated in , which in the author’s words is “an iconography, a study of Trumper’s valence in cricket’s mythology and imagery”.It could be argued that Haigh has sold himself a little short there. For his latest book is more than a study in polysemy and its related fields, invaluable though that is. includes passages on the early history of photography, the development of cricket in Australia and the changing ways in which Australian writers like Jack Fingleton viewed the game. And it is perhaps appropriate that a cricketer whose method was exclusively his own is the chief subject of a book that defies easy classification.But if the librarians at Lord’s or the MCG are uncertain as to which section properly belongs, there need be no doubt about its quality. This may be the book Haigh was destined to write, and he has not been overawed by the occasion. While one might quibble at the absence of an index, one enjoys everything else.It is not only Haigh’s familiarity with his material that makes this book a triumph. He has three qualities rarely found in conjunction: he is a very good scholar, a very fine writer, and he also understands that what he describes is often best understood in its wider non-cricketing context.The sections in the book where these skills were most interestingly in evidence, at least to this reviewer, were those on photography. Again this is only fitting given that the centrepiece of the book is that wonderful moment of incipience captured by Beldam 111 years ago. Haigh begins the relevant chapter with a quotate from Emile Zola that could serve as an epigraph to the whole book.

“I don’t think you can really say you have seen something until you have taken a photograph of it, which reveals all the details you would not otherwise have noticed – and which in most case cannot even be seen.”

Soon afterwards the reader is learning about gelatine emulsions, focal-plane shutters and the other innovations by which Beldam sought to refine photographic technique, and that would lead to the production of , which was published with text by CB Fry in 1905 and which included the famous image of the best batsman in the world at that time. Thus an English photographer, who like Trumper followed his own method, helped preserve the powerful image that was used as Australia sought to free itself from colonial associations and establish its independence.”Trumper lifted [cricket] to a level of art beyond the reach of all but himself,” wrote Bede Nairn in the . “And, in achieving this, he reworked the charter of cricket from a Victorian artefact into an Edwardian palimpsest, with spacious Australian flourishes all but replacing the English script.”Getty ImagesThe nature and variety of further Australian “flourishes” inspired by Trumper, a few of them rather eccentric, are carefully chronicled by Haigh in this rich and rewarding book. So rewarding, indeed, that one wonders whether another edition might be published, rather following the example of Edmund de Waal’s wonderful , in which all the photographs, some of which seem a trifle cramped in the current version, could be reproduced in full clarity.That, though, is another cavil at excellence. For the moment, anyone remotely interested in why players like Steve Waugh were so interested in the style of cap worn by Trumper can do no better than buy Haigh’s book. It will take them back to that glorious image of an Australian cricketer who took the art of batting and reinvented it after his own fashion.”You that photograph. It just sits in your mind and your memory”, said former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd on dedicating the SCG’s Trumper Stand in December, 2008. Yes, that’s right, it really does. Get the modest acceptance speeches ready, Gideon. This is the cricket book of the year.Stroke of Genius
by Gideon Haigh
Penguin Australia, 2016
A$39.99

That Chris Rogers’ batting and leadership will be missed to the game is beyond dispute. But it is equally easy to conclude that the lessons learned over the past 18 years will be rare gold for Rogers in coaching ranks

Daniel Brettig23-Sep-2016Perhaps it was the need to push on for runs and a fourth-innings target, perhaps it was something deeper. Either way, some uncharacteristic flourishes in Chris Rogers’ final innings for Somerset this season tended to indicate these were the parting shots of a prolific and valuable career.

Most first-class hundreds by Australians

117 – Don Bradman
86 – Justin Langer
82 – Darren Lehmann
82 – Ricky Ponting
81 – Mark Waugh
79 – Matthew Hayden
79 – Steve Waugh
79 – Stuart Law
76 – Chris Rogers

For many a year, Rogers had been crease-bound against spin, leaning heavily on advice conveyed by Lance Klusener in their time together at Northamptonshire: build a solid defence against spinners and wait for the bad ball. But here he was, dancing down to Samit Patel and lofting over long-on.More recently, Rogers had been haunted by the threat of the short ball, his fears exacerbated by the death of Phillip Hughes then maintained by numerous head knocks over the course of his last few Test assignments for Australia. Yet the last scoring stroke with which he moved to a 76th first-class hundred – only eight Australians have more – was a hook shot.Proof, then, that Rogers always had these shots in his locker, and perhaps a flightier personality would have used them more frequently. Instead, these moments in innings No. 554 were the exceptions that prove the rule: by knowing his limitations and working within them, Rogers carved out a batting method that stood up to more examinations than most. He also earned the belated validation of a memorable stint in the Australian Test side, years after he had given up hope of getting there for longer than his earlier solitary appearance.To finish in England was fitting, for it was largely on those northern shores that Rogers sculpted his way of batting. When he first travelled to play there his technique was more or less classically Australian: back and across to cover bounce and be in position to play cross bat strokes on the hard and true expanses of the WACA Ground.But the means by which Rogers would become a consistent and heavy run scorer were to come later, via help from the likes of Paul Nixon and Klusener. A double hundred against the touring Australian Ashes team of 2005 was significant not only as the innings that put Rogers on the map back home, but also as the first sign his English lessons were starting to take root. In the simplest terms, he worked on playing in straight lines down the pitch, and covering off stump without letting the bat get outside his eyeline to adjust for lateral movement.Combined with a flinty determination at the batting crease and an agile mind eager to make adjustments for the challenges posed by different bowlers, teams and circumstances, those fundamentals led Rogers to major run-making feats. Over the past decade only twice – once through injury and once through international commitments – did Rogers fail to top 1000 runs for the English season, sharing his runs and expertise with Northants, Derbyshire, Middlesex and Somerset.These sides, plus Australia, benefited too from Rogers the thoughtful leader, and Rogers the sociable after-hours organiser. At both Derbyshire and Middlesex he did not arrive as captain but was effectively promoted to the rank in the field. By the time he signed on to play at Taunton this year there was expectation of the battling club being given the “Rogers touch”, characterised by example with the bat, sound ideas in the field, dedication in training and yarn-spinning in the dressing room.An attentive brand of leadership has found its greatest 2016 exemplar in the growth of the left-arm spinner Jack Leach, proficient in his craft but also shy and reticent in a way Rogers doubtless recognised in his younger self. The following words were spoken after Leach had bowled Somerset to victory over Yorkshire at Headingley, as blunt as they were empathetic:”I am still a big believer that you need more than one good season to play for England. With Jack, I think his game’s in order, I think emotionally he still has a bit of a way to go and I don’t think he’d be upset with me saying that. He is still a young guy, he has only ever been in Somerset and the challenges in international cricket are a lot more difficult. If they pick him then good luck to him but they’d better look after him.”Protective of his men but honest with them also, Rogers’ parting gift to Somerset was to drive them to within a day’s good fortune of the club’s first ever County Championship. That his batting and leadership will be missed to the game is beyond dispute. But it is equally easy to conclude that the lessons learned over the past 18 years will be rare gold for Rogers in coaching ranks.

The left-field appointment of Rob Andrew as chief executive, after a decade at the RFU, gives Sussex an opportunity to remain relevant in a changing game

Andrew Miller24-Nov-2016Forty minutes into Rob Andrew’s first press conference as Sussex’s surprise new chief executive, after a bruising decade in the boardrooms of the Rugby Football Union, and it is abundantly clear (as if there had been any doubt) that he is not about to pull up a deckchair and settle for a sinecure among the seagulls and seasoned cricket fans at Hove.”I thought people came to the south coast to take it easy!” he jokes, as the questions from the floor turn from the prosaic to the political, with Sussex’s adversarial stance in the ECB’s brave new world of city-based cricket right at the forefront of the topics.Sussex, after all, were one of three counties – Surrey and Kent being the other two – who, back in September, stood firm in voting against the ECB’s move towards a solitary option for the future structure of England’s revamped T20 competition. And for that reason, and regardless of the initiatives that the club themselves might prefer to showcase – most particularly their county-wide commitment to the grassroots game – no one’s in any doubt about the issue that will dominate Andrew’s tenure.”We are not Luddites,” insists Jim May, Sussex’s chairman, waving an arm towards the pavilion window to emphasise his point. “We were the first county ground to install floodlights: fact. We were the first county ground to have a dedicated academy; this year we were the first county to have a dedicated women’s academy. We are not looking in the rear-view mirror all the time. But we do have doubts about the city competition.”Sitting alongside him, Andrew is understandably diplomatic in fielding enquiries about a role that he will not officially be taking up until January 3. But if, in the course of his RFU career, he gave off the impression of being the ultimate insider – seemingly above reproach as five England coaches passed below him through the corridors at Twickenham – he’ll be discovering soon enough how the land lies now that he’s on the slippier side of a club v country divide.”I knew, right from the start, that this was going to be full-on,” he says. “But the one thing I have been very close to in the last 20 years is politics in sport. Sport is big business now and I’ve seen how people try to manage that mix. I’ve seen it when it goes quite well, I’ve also seen it when it goes badly. Understanding those issues, and trying to pick your way through and get to a solution, is really challenging but very rewarding.”According to May, it was Andrew’s range of “transferable skills” from rugby to cricket that propelled him to the top of a list of 50 applicants for the job – and he transferred plenty of those back in his playing days as well, representing Cambridge University and Yorkshire 2nd XI in the mid-1980s before the demands of his rugby career took over from his passion for leather and willow. But it is Andrew’s status as an unequivocal household name that is surely every bit as valuable to Sussex in cricket’s uncertain current climate.In his 12-year England career, Andrew amassed 71 caps at fly-half and featured in three World Cup campaigns and as many Grand Slams. And, as a man who has been immersed in administration ever since, with seven years as director of rugby at Newcastle prior to his time at the RFU, his views can be expected to resonate beyond the sometimes cloistered walls of English domestic cricket. By extension, they will tackle at source that thorny issue of relevance that stalks the sport in general but the smaller clubs in particular.”Rugby and cricket are at similar levels in the public consciousness,” Andrew says. “The funding from the ECB into the counties is very similar to that from the RFU to the clubs. And the question of how do you get players through the system to produce a successful England team is very similar too. When Hugh Morris [former director of England Cricket] was at the ECB and I was at the RFU, we shared a lot of thoughts.”Rob Andrew is unveiled as Sussex’s new chief executive•ESPNcricinfo LtdSo, when Andrew points out – as he does – that one of the greatest strengths of English cricket is the fact that its 18 first-class counties are spread from the tip to the toe of the country, or states that there are “kids all over Sussex who are dreaming of being the next Haseeb Hameed, and it’s our job to make that possible”, his words are “music to the ears”, not only of his chairman sitting alongside him, but to the representatives of the other non-Test grounds who may at last have hit upon their spokesman for the disenfranchised.”Against a complex backcloth, and with people taking positions, it will be extraordinarily helpful having Rob,” May says. “He will provide a safe environment for the cricket management, but not an unchallenging one, and his profile will undoubtedly help us in the commercial world.”Much of that commerce will inevitably depend on the ECB’s vision for the future of its domestic T20 competition. As an upshot of September’s meeting, the plan as it stands is to replicate the compact schedule and structure of Australia’s Big Bash League, even if the current travails of Australia’s Test team serve as a timely reminder of the dangers of becoming over-reliant on short-form gains.Though the details differ, the somewhat shrill tone of the T20 debate is one to which Andrew believes he can relate, given that his focus for the past two years has been the new long-term agreement between the RFU and England’s leading clubs over the release and funding of the elite player squad. The original deal, which he was instrumental in brokering back in 2008, had been a similarly watershed moment for English rugby, given the bad blood and suspicion that had coloured so much of the landscape since the dawn of the professional era.”In rugby we found an English solution to an English problem,” says Andrew. “I think the same has to apply to cricket. I don’t want to point fingers elsewhere but has Australian cricket gone too far in one direction and impacted the long-form side of the game?”May, for his part, isn’t so concerned about holding back, warning (with perhaps more mental imagery than he had intended) of a Hinkley Point-style meltdown if the ECB insists on driving through changes to the domestic structure when, in his opinion, there is insufficient evidence that they are either necessary or suitable.”There are at least three big differences between here and Australia,” he says. “Number one, nearly all the population of Australia is in a few cities by the coast. Number two is that the weather’s guaranteed, which it isn’t here. And the third thing is, it’s a very different media landscape in Australia. All their major sports are on free-to-view TV.”Our anxiety is that if we go down that route, would non-host counties like Sussex be marginalised in the long-run? It’s a really difficult trade-off, because we’re trading off what’s best for English cricket, whatever that is, against what’s best for us.”And to Sussex’s credit, notwithstanding their relegation in 2015, the club has been one of the genuine powerhouses of the two-division era precisely because it has known how to make the best of its relatively straitened circumstances. Last year’s departure of coach Mark Robinson may have severed the final link to the side that won three County Championships in five seasons, including their maiden triumph in 2003, but in May’s opinion, the seeds of regeneration have already been sown.It is with justifiable pride that May points out that the club has no external debt, unlike several of the Test-match grounds – most notoriously Durham, but the likes of Yorkshire and Warwickshire too. Much of that is a legacy of the work put in place by Andrew’s predecessor, Zac Toumazi, who announced his intention to step down last month after four years in charge, but equally it stems from a trenchant recognition that top-down business models lack sustainability in a crowded market.Looking around Hove, with its rows of well-appointed flats peering over the boundary from the neighbouring streets, it is clear that England’s oldest county never had an option but to cut its cloth accordingly. Not for them the notion of “build it and they will come”, as advocated by the old ECB hierarchy. Besides, as May freely admits, there’s a degree of wealth in the ever-expanding conurbation of Brighton and Hove that makes looking after existing markets more relevant than might be the case the further north you travel of London.But if there is one tenet of the board’s new regime with which the Sussex hierarchy wholeheartedly concur, then it is their new “Cricket Unleashed” strategy, launched this summer with a view to driving participation in the recreational game. On Toumazi’s watch last November, Sussex’s professional club and its cricket board, which represents 245 clubs throughout the county, were merged to create a new centralised body. It is a change that Andrew plans on embracing.”Sussex is probably the first county to put whole of their cricket under one umbrella, and that is really important to me,” he says. “All sports have to build from the bottom up, because eventually that’s how you get the right group together for long enough with the right talent. I first saw Jonny Wilkinson when he was 11 years old. George Ford and Owen Farrell were once seven-year-olds dreaming of playing for England. That’s what sport is about for me.”Teams take time to build, it will take a bit of time for this new Sussex team, after a successful period, to grow. But there’s nothing better than watching young players grow and fulfil their potential.”

Virat Kohli and Jayant Yadav broke plenty of records on the fourth day in Mumbai

S Rajesh11-Dec-20165 Batsmen who have scored three or more double-hundreds in Tests in a calendar year. Virat Kohli joins Michael Clarke, Brendon McCullum, Ricky Ponting and Don Bradman in this elite list. Kohli is the third captain to score three doubles in a year, after Clarke (2012) and McCullum (2014).50.53 Kohli’s Test average after his 235, the first time his Test average has gone past 50. He also averages 52.93 in ODIs, and 57.13 in Twenty20 internationals, making him the first batsman to simultaneously average more than 50 in all three formats in international cricket.640 Kohli’s aggregate in the series, the highest for any Indian batsman in a Test series against England. He went past Rahul Dravid’s aggregate of 602 in the four-Test series in England in 2002. This is only the seventh instance of an Indian batsman scoring 600-plus runs in a series; Kohli joins Sunil Gavaskar and Dravid among Indian batsmen who have done this twice.

India batsmen to score 600+ runs in a Test series

Player Series Tests Innings Runs Average 100sSunil Gavaskar Ind in WI, 1970-71 4 8 774 154.80 4Sunil Gavaskar WI in Ind, 1978-79 6 9 732 91.50 4Virat Kohli Ind in Aus, 2014-15 4 8 692 86.50 4Dilip Sardesai Ind in WI, 1970-71 5 8 642 80.25 3Virat Kohli Eng in Ind, 2016-17 4 7 640 128.00 2Rahul Dravid Ind in Aus, 2003-04 4 8 619 123.80 1Rahul Dravid Ind in Eng, 2002 4 6 602 100.33 3241 The partnership between Kohli and Jayant Yadav, India’s highest for the eighth wicket. The previous best was 161, by Mohammad Azharuddin and Anil Kumble against South Africa 20 years ago. It is the second double-century stand for the eighth wicket in Tests against England: the previous one came almost 109 years ago, when Roger Hartigan and Clem Hill added 243 in Adelaide in January 1908. This is only the eighth 200-plus stand for the eighth wicket in Test history.0 Indian No. 9 batsmen who had scored Test hundreds before Jayant Yadav’s 104 today. India have now become the seventh team to have a centurion at No. 9 or lower. This is only the 20th hundred by a batsman at No. 9 or lower in Test history.65.50 Kohli’s Test average as captain, second only to Bradman’s 101.51 among captains with 2000-plus Test runs.Among captains with 2000-plus Test runs, only Don Bradman has a higher average than Virat Kohli•ESPNcricinfo Ltd165 Kohli’s average century, in terms of runs per innings, as captain; when not captain, his average century score was 117.1 Where Kohli’s innings ranks, in terms of most runs in an innings by an India captain in Tests, and by any India batsman against England. Kohli’s 235 is the second-highest score by any batsman in Tests at the Wankhede Stadium: the best is Clive Lloyd’s 242 not out in 1975.4 Instances of India scoring 600-plus against England; the previous three were all in England, at The Oval in 1990 and 2007, and at Headingley in 2002.118.3 Overs bowled by England’s spinners, the fifth-most for England in a Test innings in India. The last time they bowled more was also at the Wankhede Stadium, in 1993, when John Emburey, Phil Tufnell and Graeme Hick wheeled down 127.3 overs. That was also the Test in which Vinod Kambli scored 224, which was the previous highest for India against England.192 Runs conceded by Adil Rashid, the third highest by an England bowler in a Test innings, and the highest overseas. The two higher ones were both at The Oval, by Ian Botham against Pakistan in 1987, and by Ian Peebles against Australia in 1930.4 Batsmen who have scored a century and a duck on Test debut. The previous such instance before Keaton Jennings in this Test was by Mohammad Wasim, 20 years ago against New Zealand.10 Fifty-plus scores for Joe Root in ten Tests against India; in each of these Tests he has passed 50 once.362 Runs scored today, the second highest ever on the fourth day of a Test match in India. The only instance when more runs were scored was against Pakistan in Kolkata in 2005, when the fourth day fetched 369 runs, 274 by India and 95 by Pakistan.

A statistical breakdown of Nathan Lyon’s record against India’s top order

Bharath Seervi04-Mar-20178/50 Lyon’s figures – the second-best for an Australia spinner and sixth-best by any bowler for his country. Only Arthur Mailey’s 9 for 121 against England in Ashes 1920-21 are better among Australia spinners.8/64 Previous best figures by visiting bowler in India, by Lance Klusener, on his debut, at Eden Gardens in 1996-97 which Lyon has eclipsed. Lyon is the fourth foreign bowler to take an eight-wicket haul in India; Sikandar Bakht and Jason Krejza being the other two. Overall Lyon’s haul is the fourth-best against India.3 Seven-wicket hauls for Lyon against India – the most by any bowler. Alec Bedser, Ray Lindwall, Lance Gibbs and Muttiah Muralitharan had taken two such hauls. Before this eight-for, Lyon took 7 for 94 in Delhi in 2012-13 and 7 for 152 in Adelaide in 2014-15. This was Lyon’s fourth five-wicket haul in 12 Tests against India and against all other teams he has as many hauls in 53 Tests.58 Wickets for Lyon against India – the most by an Australia bowler. With Ashwin’s wicket, Lyon went past Brett Lee’s tally of 53 wickets which was the previous record. Lyon’s strike rate of 50.9 is the second-best among 24 spinners who have picked up 25 or more wickets against India.1977 Last time India were dismissed for less than 200 in three or more successive innings at home – by England in four consecutive innings. In this series, India were all out for 105 and 107 in the first Test and 189 in the first innings of this match.5 Times Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have got out to Nathan Lyon in Tests, including the first innings of the Bangalore Test. It is the most Pujara and Rahane have fallen to any bowler in their career, and joint most for Kohli. James Anderson has also got Kohli five times.15 Combined number of dismissals for Pujara, Kohli and Rahane – against Lyon. Anderson has got them 11 times, Stuart Broad 10 times.

Indian top-order batsmen dismissed most often by Nathan Lyon

Batsman	Inns	Runs	Balls	Wkts	Ave
AM Rahane	12	136	254	5	27.2
CA Pujara	15	143	281	5	28.6
V Kohli	17	309	537	5	61.8
SR Tendulkar	11	115	196	4	28.75

131.50 Murali Vijay’s average against Lyon – 263 runs in 11 innings with just two dismissals – the best among the current Indian batsmen. Among the non-active Indian batsmen, Lyon dismissed Sachin Tendulkar four times, and Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman twice each. MS Dhoni (7 innings), Rahul Dravid (3) and Gautam Gambhir (2) are the only Indian top-order batsmen not to have lost a wicket to Lyon.30 Wickets for Lyon against India’s top-five batsmen in 10 Tests – the third most among all spinners. Only Muttiah Muralitharan (47 wickets) and Derek Underwood (40) have dismissed India’s top five most often among spinners.

Most wickets by spinners vs India’s top-five batsmen in batting order

Bowler	Mats	Wkts
Muttiah Muralitharan	19	47
Derek Underwood	16	40
Nathan Lyon	10	31
Richie Benaud	7	27
Graeme Swann	8	27

8 Pujara’s average in the five innings in which he got out to Lyon – scores of 10, 5, 7, 14 and 4 (40 runs). His average is the lowest among the India’s top-five batsmen in the innings’ where they fell to Lyon. Rahane has an average of 14 and Kohli 27.80 in their respective five dismissals.21.50 Kohli’s average against Lyon in India, compared to 223 in Australia. Kohli has got out four times in seven innings to Lyon at home and only once in 10 innings in Australia. Rahane fell to Lyon three times in seven innings in Australia with an average of 37.66, and twice in five innings at home, an average of 11.50.

The country’s first Test was a dream made possible by a lot of hard work and shrewd cricket diplomacy

Interviews by Mohammad Isam13-Mar-2017Saber Hossain Chowdhury, BCB president (1996-2001): In my first board meeting as BCB president, I said we should have a vision for our five-year tenure. I planted the idea that we should do something extraordinary. We were an Associate nation at the time, but I wanted to reach the highest level. At the time the ICC didn’t have objective criteria for a country to become a Test-playing nation. When Zimbabwe were applying for their Test status, they said that, having won the ICC Trophy thrice, if they didn’t get Test status, cricket in Zimbabwe would be dead.Ahmed Sajjadul Alam Bobby, BCB director: [The veteran journalist] Zaman had written an article once, titled “Waiting for the ninth Test” which was basically about us playing Tests. We would think about playing Tests but didn’t know when it might happen. Saber’s idea wasn’t really seen as realistic, as one former Bangladesh cricketer let him know at the time.Saber: Just after we applied for Test status, a former cricketer asked me, “Saber, is this a joke? You will never get it.” But we had the audacity to believe that it was possible.

“We had to do a lot of cricket diplomacy. I think the most important visits were to South Africa and Australia”Saber on mobilising support for Bangladesh

Saber: Moments after we had won the ICC Trophy in Kuala Lumpur in 1997, I told David Richards that we were going for Test status. He said, “I hear you.”Saber: We held the first ICC Knockout, because I knew that our on-field performances alone wouldn’t get us Test status. I told Ali Bacher and Jagmohan Dalmiya that Bangladesh is the most logical choice in terms of globalising the game.Ashraful: Saber wanted us to take a vote in the ICC meeting in 1999, but Jaggu [Jagmohan Dalmiya] thought it wasn’t a good idea. He said that Bangladesh would get only three votes – India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. But Saber wanted to have a look, and we ended up getting five votes, with West Indies and Zimbabwe voting in our favour.What had happened was that Ian Bishop was leading a West Indies side to Bangladesh in 1999. During that series Enamul Haque Moni had taken a five-wicket haul and a few other things happened. Bishop told me that he felt we were ready for Test status. I told him, ‘Please go and tell this to Pat Rousseau [head of the WICB].’ We also had a friend in Zimbabwe’s Peter Chingoka.Bangladesh’s win in the 1997 ICC Trophy helped convince others of their rising standards•Associated PressSaber: We had to do a lot of cricket diplomacy. I think the most important visits were to South Africa and Australia. We knew that we would get help from the Asian countries and West Indies and Zimbabwe, but I needed seven votes out of the nine Full Members. I wasn’t too sure about England, so a lot of our focus went to Australia and South Africa. I did development deals between them and the BCB. Our off-field diplomacy compensated for our lack of playing standards.Ashraful: The whole board supported us. [Ahmed Sajjadul Alam] Bobby and Dr Nizamuddin Ahmed helped me put together the bid document. Soon the ICC sent inspectors – Graham Dowling, Nasim-ul-Ghani and Andy Pycroft – and they gave a good report.Cally Barlow, wife of Eddie Barlow: Eddie was contacted by the United Cricket Board of South Africa. They had heard from Saber that [Bangladesh] needed a director of cricket or coach. I can honestly say that it was one of the happiest times for Eddie and me. The Bangladeshis were so welcoming to us and so eager to learn from Eddie. It was a learning curve for Eddie, players and administrators. As with all things new, there were hiccups. Because of the monsoon, indoor facilities had to be found and we spent time in quite a few of the bigger cities looking at the old gymnasia with the idea of refurbishing them for nets.

“Just after we applied for Test status, a former cricketer said to me, ‘Saber, is this a joke? You will never get it'”

Saber: I made the 45-minute presentation, which was about all the potential and possibilities that would support our case for Test status. We were asked some questions at the end. Then it went out to a vote. We had targeted a minimum of seven votes, but we ended up getting all nine. It was a tremendous vote of confidence in the future of Bangladesh cricket. The Associates were also really happy that one of them had made it to the highest level. The mindset that cricket was a closed club could slowly go away.The whole plan worked like clockwork, despite all the obstacles in our roadmap. We needed funds to buy air tickets to attend ICC meetings in those days. But there was great teamwork within the board, so it was a privilege.It was a defining moment for Bangladesh. Cricket is more than a sport in Bangladesh: it is a platform for national unity. Cricket is a perfect uniting factor. After independence in 1971, the 1997 ICC Trophy triumph was the first time the country came together.I had a quick call with the PM, and then I called my parents. Syed Ashraful Haque was with me, while Aminul Islam was waiting outside. Then we held a press conference with the ICC president, Malcolm Gray. Trying to express history in words is impossible. I think it was the greatest moment of my life.Jagmohan Dalmiya (left), the ICC president at the time, was a key supporter of Bangladesh’s case•Getty ImagesBobby: After we got the Test status, our focus was on hosting the inaugural Test. We wanted there to be no gaps in our organisation. Only when the umpires, David Shepherd and Steve Bucknor, arrived, did we really start believing that, yes, it is going to happen in Dhaka. There is no looking back now.Sarwar Imran, Bangladesh coach: I became coach in May 2000, before the Asia Cup, when we didn’t have Test status. Eddie Barlow had become ill, so I was given the job. Then I also took the team to Kenya for the ICC Knockout tournament but still I wasn’t sure who would be the coach for the Test match.I think it was a toss-up between myself and Dipu Roy Chowdhury, but when it was decided I would be the coach, I only had the South African physio Gavin Benjafield with me, during the training camp. I was doing the work for batting, bowling and fielding, not like these days when you have specialists.

“I can honestly say that it was one of the happiest times for Eddie and me. The Bangladeshis were so welcoming to us and so eager to learn from Eddie”Cally Barlow, wife of Eddie Barlow, who coached Bangladesh

Bobby: There was so much enthusiasm among the public. Around midnight on the eve of the game, the security found 10-11 people locked inside a toilet. It was just so that they could get seats at the ground on the first day of the Test.Aminul Islam: I was stuck in the 90s for a long time. Pilot [Khaled Mashud] was at the other end. I kept thinking of recent debut-Test centurions.I was lucky to get to the milestone with one of my favourite shots – the paddle sweep. It was an unorthodox shot. The target was to keep batting as long as possible, and not [sink into] that feeling of accomplishment. It was just a great feeling.We went through several levels to our cricket – Associate level, playing ODIs and winning, and then we got to Test cricket. It was a journey from Associate status to becoming a Test team.Habibul Bashar’s batting encapsulated Bangladesh’s cricket philosophy, according to board secretary Syed Ashraful Haque•Associated PressCally Barlow: As you can imagine, it was a hothouse in the dressing room. Everyone was so excited to be playing their first Test. I was in the press box, and one of the men asked me how many runs Bangladesh would make. I said I hoped for 300 but 400 was on the cards. He looked at me in amazement but imagine his face when they did indeed get 400 on the dot. Then, somehow, the wheels fell off.Imran: I was confident, since we had nothing to lose against India. But by the third day, people were planning to win the game after India lost seven wickets and were 34 runs behind us. I always thought that we should have aimed to bat out for a draw, but then we were bowled out for 91 in the second innings. But I still thought we batted well in the first innings.Ashraful: In a mid-game interview, Tony Greig asked me about the philosophy of Bangladesh cricket. I told him Habibul Bashar is our philosophy. He had smashed a half-century [44 not out] by lunch. So I said, this is our philosophy, to entertain the crowd.See, I never thought Bangladesh would have ODI or Test status in my lifetime. But now we are going to play our 100th Test. It shows that anything can be achieved if you have the right intention.

To start with, stop thinking of players as batsmen, bowlers and allrounders; it’s far more nuanced than that

Jarrod Kimber26-Apr-2017This is my T20 dream team.Caveats abound. Firstly, it’s not a dream team; it’s a squad to reflect best how T20 matches can be won, using modern trends and cashing in on inefficiencies within the system. The pretend league it will compete in will be played on different wickets in different conditions from around the world, and, luckily for me, this is a league in which all players count as local ones.Instead of picking one player per position, I’ll name types of players for each role in my squad of 16. It won’t be six batsmen, two allrounders, two wicketkeepers and six bowlers. Positions in modern T20 are far more specialist than this.Let’s start with batsmen, because, you know, it’s T20, and that’s most of the conversation.The crusher
Let’s call opener number one the crusher. His job is not to find himself 50 off 35 balls; his job is to get 25 runs as quickly as possible. According to Cricket Ratings, even the world’s best players struggle to score quicker than a 120 strike rate in the first over. On average, over the last five years, the first over goes for 5.9 runs. It’s understandable but it is low: think of it as six Powerplay balls going for less than a run a ball.We can’t be having that. So I am sending out one batsman with the job of putting the power back in Powerplay. I don’t want him to try to hit 20 off the first over every time. But if there are just three boundaries in the first two overs, I’m looking at a minimum of 12 runs, with nine other balls still to pick up some extra runs. If the crusher wants to be hitting in a batting cage until the moment he goes out, I’ll try to make that happen.Jason Roy, Johnson Charles, Aaron Finch, Alex Hales or Evin Lewis – these are the players I would look for in the crushing role. Counterintuitively, Chris Gayle isn’t one. For the first seven balls of his innings he goes at a strike rate of 100. He can catch up, so when he stays in, it doesn’t matter, but when he doesn’t, he wastes a good percentage of balls.Some quick and clever runs via Kohli•BCCIThe delacquerer
My other opener is the delacquerer. He is a new-ball specialist because the pitch may swing or seam early, and if it does, I need someone to take the lacquer off the ball. That doesn’t mean defend. T20 currently is far too dependent on the top three; over the last five years, they have made 50% of all T20 runs. Well, that’s obviously not efficient: 27% of your batsmen making 50% of your runs. No, something has gone a bit wrong here. We will push hard, my crusher taking risks and my delacquerer punishing poor balls and taking sensible risks. Martin Guptill, Virat Kohli and Usman Khawaja are perfect for this, and Michael Klinger and Reeza Hendricks are good lower-profile options.

Contribution of top-three batsmen to T20 team totals since 2011-12 season

LeagueRuns by top threeTeam runs% of runs by top threeEngland T208340916559250.37IPL5724810809452.96Caribbean T20224204482350.02BBL320346194351.72New Zealand T20258815407647.86South Africa T20279795465151.20Overall24897148917950.90Chances are, both my openers won’t be expert players of pace spin. So I need to ensure I have at least one who can score against spin at a healthy rate, and the other likewise against pace. Both will need to be shown their strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of their partners. If you are batting against a kind of bowler (or even a specific bowler who regularly stops you scoring or gets you out), it is the role of both to know this and look out for each other. This is the only batting partnership where you can adequately prepare knowing who you will bat with. That advantage should be exploited.Ultimately I don’t want the delacquer guy to bat as deep as he can either, which seems to be common now. Once the ball has stopped misbehaving, it’s his time to push on. If he is still in (and the crusher isn’t) for the seventh over, when the Powerplay hangover starts, it’s his job to attack that over. There will be no knocking it around.Boundary baron Andre Russell will be one of the hitters•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesThe hitters
Numbers three to seven are the batting backbone. In a perfect world I’d have five batsmen, all averaging 30 at a strike rate of 200. In reality they are virtually non-existent, in part because players like this haven’t been encouraged enough to free themselves from other forms of cricket. There is far too much wastage in the first 12 overs of a T20. And 200 is a tremendous strike rate for someone who makes 30 runs per innings. But that is what I want them to think of themselves as: someone who scores two runs per ball when it is needed. And since sometimes conditions don’t favour batsmen, sometimes bowlers will bowl well, and sometimes shit just happens, we are going to need three at the moment. These are my hitters.They don’t need to be Test- or even first-class quality batsmen. In fact, I don’t care if they don’t bat top six in one-dayers either. I am looking for T20 smarts, not someone who knows how to construct a traditional innings. They need to be able to score a boundary about every six balls, and hopefully better than that. They won’t be able to do that against all kinds of bowlers, but if they are just good against right-arm seam bowlers and slow down against everyone else, they aren’t much use to me.This can’t be done on reputation but on cold hard data. James Faulkner is known as a big hitter, but he hits a boundary only every nine balls. My three hitters would be players like AB de Villiers (boundary every 5.4 balls), then Corey Anderson (5.6) and Andre Russell (4.3). That would get me the world’s best T20 batsman, best allrounder, and one of the best hitters (who also bowls left-arm seam for variety). There are other picks out there, such as Chris Lynn (5.3), Krunal Pandya (4.7), Ross Whiteley (5.6) and Sam Northeast (6). One hitter will need to bat in the first six overs, another will be held back until the 12th over, and the last one will go in wherever needed.MS Dhoni’s street smarts and calm head will complement the big hitters•AFPThe slow-starting quick-scorer
So now that I have a massively aggressive and occasionally combustible, middle order, I need to be smart. I need to find a batsman who probably takes longer to start, but once in, can score at a high rate. Adelaide Strikers last year had three slow starters in their middle order: Brad Hodge, Travis Head and Kieron Pollard. Unlike them, I don’t have a problem, as I have prioritised quick starters elsewhere in the line-up. I know once the slower starter is in, it will be huge. Yuvraj Singh is perfect for this – he reads the game, can score quickly on pitches where sluggers struggle, and when he gets going, the run rate flies. But this is probably the place in the innings where I could use a closer like MS Dhoni, Eoin Morgan or Pollard.

Top ten not-out batsmen since the 2014-15 season

PlayerInnsNot-outsRunsAveStrike rateKieron Pollard401386331.96149.05Chris Gayle4210179556.09170.46Craig Cachopa18850450.4144.82Brad Hodge27868235.89136.67Michael Klinger298120057.14132.74Ryan ten Doeschate25858234.23131.67Ian Cockbain18754349.36128.97Virat Kohli17765865.8141.5Chris Lynn267107956.78152.83David Miller25752929.38123.88Overall26783843545.84144.34The finisher
Using data to find someone who can finish an innings is not so simple. In the last three years only two players have been not out in a chase more than ten times. One is Pollard, the other is Gayle. There aren’t many players on the top-ten list who aren’t old or massive stars: Lynn, David Miller, Hodge, Ryan ten Doeschate, Klinger and Kohli. But there are others not as sought after after or well known, like Craig Cachopa and Ian Cockbain. The problem is, there is no pattern. Lynn ends chases by breaking teams in half, Klinger bats to the end in smallish totals, Miller is known as a big hitter, but he bats far slower in his successful chases, and Kohli is Kohli.So while I might want a closer, the statistics tell me they don’t exist in reality as much as they do in my mind. Perhaps trying to crush chases, as data suggests, is the best way. But I don’t want another hitter; I want a batsman who gets set and then explodes, because I have bought extra time by batting faster earlier in the innings, and because my team is light on batting smarts, I might need him as a late-innings insurance policy.When things go wrong, the Test class of Kane Williamson will shine through even in a T20•AFPBut I also need an early-innings insurance policy. What if the pitch is mad-crazy, or Kagiso Rabada or Ravi Ashwin are running wild? I will need a particular kind of player to combat that and then attack when I need them to. They will be the team’s best batsman, probably a top Test player like Steve Smith, Kane Williamson or Joe Root, who can play spin and quicks, runs hard, and is very smart. They will also need to understand that, as they don’t hit a boundary every over, lesser-talented batsmen will often bat ahead of them. And on magnificent batting pitches, their role will be to go out and hit a single every ball, steal twos when at the non-striker’s end, and try to hit a boundary off the last ball of an over – whatever they can do to make sure the quicker scorer is facing more.In a perfect world, one where there are plenty of hitters who can destroy attacks for 15 balls against many kinds of bowlers, this role, and the slower-starter role would probably be combined. Or only one would be picked. Right now there are more proper batsmen and slow-starting hitters around than 15-ball dynamos, so one of each for the time being may work best. On good days their batting will be the glue, and on bad days, it will be the sprinkles on the cupcake.The entire batting order needs to be educated on the biggest sin in T20: wasting resources. The top six in T20 face 85% of the balls. No. 7s around the world only face 8.5 balls a match. Teams are not going hard enough early enough, just so they can keep resources they barely use. Over the last five years, the first over where teams average over eight an over is the 15th. If you just add half a run an over to your overall tally, it’s ten runs a game. That’s massive. You target the inefficient overs – the first two overs, the four overs after the Powerplay. In each, you aim for one extra run and already you’re six runs up.T20 scoring rates by over•ESPNcricinfo LtdOther than the openers, the order will change based on conditions, match-ups, and the flow of the innings. We’re beyond numbered batting positions. You have a batting role and you will be used when needed. But the batting slots will be filled by the crusher, the delacquerer, three hitters, one slow starter and one proper batsman.Within all this, there will need to be at least four overs from one bowler locked in for each game, with probably one or two more overs from the remaining batsmen, just for extra flexibility. Many people like as many bowling options as they can find, but realistically the sixth bowler goes at a higher rate than the fifth does (8.6 an over in the IPL, compared to 8.3). So while I will need a sixth bowler on those hellish days when nothing goes right, I’m better off turning to a guy who occasionally bowls in the nets than weakening my batting to fit a sixth in.Nicholas Pooran gets glove duty and lower-order hitting•CPL/SportsfileThe wicketkeeper
One of the batsmen will have to be a wicketkeeper. I would prefer a specialist, but until we have data I can’t justify my punt. If I were able to get two batsmen who also filled in my specialist bowling positions, I would make a play for the wicketkeeper who I believed was the best purely for glovework. In general, I worry about fielding, and if two players are very similar, I would always opt for the better fielder. But I don’t have fielding metrics I trust yet, so I’m not prepared to make too many calls on that.My back-up batsmen would need to be one delacquerer, one hitter, and one who could cover for the finisher or the slow-starting batsman. Ideally I would have back-ups who could cover more than one role: like Nicholas Pooran as a hitter, reserve keeper and spare crusher.I’m not going to pick any actual allrounders, because all my players need to fit a more specific role than what that implies. When Dwayne Bravo’s hamstring popped during the Big Bash, the original rumour was that his replacement was Carlos Brathwaite. That would have been a silly move for Renegades, because other than both being West Indian allrounders, Brathwaite and Bravo don’t do the same things in T20 cricket.Bravo is a death-bowling specialist. Over the last three years, his T20 death-bowling economy is 9.7 – just over the average of 9.5 – but he takes a wicket every 11 balls. Brathwaite’s bowling is probably slightly better than it looks, although he doesn’t have brilliant variety. But his career economy of 7.5 is good and better than Bravo’s. Almost all of that is down to the fact that Brathwaite doesn’t bowl at the death much; only 89 balls in the last three years (Bravo has delivered 941 in that time), and in his nine IPL games, he has only bowled in the last four overs twice.Brathwaite has a great reputation as a big hitter, thanks to a few decent Test knocks and his final-over smashing of Ben Stokes. And Bravo is known to be very decent, with three Test centuries. But they are very different batsmen. On average in the IPL, Brathwaite has faced fewer than five balls a match; in his entire career it is only 6.2. Even overlooking the fact that Brathwaite has been a late bloomer, there is nothing about him now that suggests he can be a batsman, even under my definition of a hitter. His strike rate is 144, but he doesn’t stay in long enough. Bravo’s average is 25, he averages over 12 balls an innings, hits a boundary every seven balls, and he can comfortably bat at seven or six in all forms.Eventually Renegades went with Thisara Perera, a genuine death bowler, and, like Bravo, a slower-ball specialist. And he can hit too. Not all allrounders are the same, so I’d rather pick players for individual skills that my team can bank on.Open with a spinner and you won’t regret it – mostly•BCCIThe opening spinner
The first bowler I would choose is an opening spin bowler. There is so much data to show not only that spinners should open the bowling in T20 but that they should bowl through the Powerplay, as they are just harder to hit then. Michael Beer is an opening spin bowling GOAT in T20, and he has never played outside Australia. Samuel Badree is one of the best T20 players there has ever been, and before this year, he had only played five IPL games. There are others out there, and far more who haven’t even been given their shot yet, because coaches simply aren’t getting how hard it is to hit a spinner in the Powerplay. Spinners should always bowl three overs in the first six (unless they are getting slaughtered), and in a well-balanced side, the fourth over is an option. They also take wickets, although fewer than quicks.David Willey brings variety with his left-arm pace•Getty ImagesThe swing-bowling wicket-taker
At the other end you bring on your swing-bowling wicket-taker: David Willey, Jason Behrendorff or Nuwan Kulasekara. By wicket-taker, I mean they need to be able to take a wicket at better than every 18 balls. Willey takes one every 15.7, Behrendorff 16 and Kulasekara 18.6.You might only get a few balls that swing, but you want them to count. Lock up one end with hard-to-hit spin, and then force batsmen to hit out against the swinging ball. This bowler will also need a decent slower ball, a fairly accurate yorker, and enough pace for the odd surprise bouncer. The central part of their bowling will be done before the tenth over. They will usually have to bowl a key over at the death, and if you pick well, they might be the sort of player, like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who can also double as a death bowler.Pat Cummins: the express pace bowler who will go for runs but shake up the opposition•BCCIThe quick bowler
You need a quick, a real quick, like Tymal Mills, Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Liam Plunkett or Kagiso Rabada. They need to, if required, bowl with the new ball, and also deliver quick yorkers at the death – against, potentially, middle-order players who can’t handle their pace.Wickets at the death are only worth a fraction of wickets in the Powerplay. Each wicket in the 17th over saves you, on average, 3.6 runs. So you want your quick on for the 17th or 18th (3.1 runs saved), as opposed to the last two overs, when wickets save you, on average, 2.6 and 1.9 runs.But the crucial thing for a quick is the time between the sixth and 12th over, when teams have slowed down and haven’t relaunched for the death. This is the bit where your attack needs to attack. The second-lowest scoring over in T20s is the seventh (6.59 runs), as teams slow down when the field goes back. And they don’t start to fire up again until the 13th, so you can set slightly more attacking fields and try to take a few wickets at a time when each wicket saves you between five and six runs.Teams now coast in chases during this period, often on flat pitches, where they will let the required rate rise and keep wickets in hand. The best kind of bowler to rock that comfortable boat is fast as hell, who can make anything happen. This is also the bowler who will have the highest economy rate – you are paying a premium in runs per over, hoping that their wickets will save you further runs, and at times, entire games.Adam Zampa can turn the ball both ways, which is better than turning it just one way•AFPThe middle-overs spinner
The other important bowler is your middle-overs spinner. The best kind is one who can spin it both ways – Adam Zampa, Imran Tahir, Adil Rashid, Sunil Narine, Mason Crane, Liam Bowe, Kuldeep Yadav, Rangana Herath.There is a trend that favours bowlers who spin it away from batsmen. I’m not sure the data completely backs this up, but there is no doubt that spinners who go both ways are better. This bowler will be miserly and take wickets, but most importantly, will let you dictate terms through the middle. A spinner who only spins in one direction is usually easier to line up, and easier to milk. And it is far harder to slog a bowler at the death when you have no idea which way the ball is turning.Slower-ball experts can make batsmen look silly when they get out•Getty ImagesThe slower-ball bowler
Cricket doesn’t have a name for the slower-ball bowler, which is weird, because since Simon O’Donnell and Steve Waugh made it popular, this has been a major part of limited-overs cricket. I asked on Twitter and got amblers, dibblers, checkers, brakers, budget, anglers, snatchers, dupers, grifters, sod (after O’Donnell), fakers, hoaxers, tricksters, slothers, wobblers, deceivers, holders, slowlers, stallers and slow bros. The best was from @pierre_taco, who called them changers, which has a near equivalent in baseball in change-up pitchers.No one gets excited about this bowler. He isn’t fast. He doesn’t swing it much, and his job is to be hard to hit. He’s like a spinner with less sexy skills. Quite often they are late bloomers who have a bit of pace, but not enough, so they start to experiment and change their game. No one likes unsexy late bloomers. Despite cricket not thinking about this as a specialist bowling role, as T20 evolves this is the kind of player who has become more important. Like the opening spinner, there aren’t that many around. It’s a tricky role because when a bowler’s slower balls aren’t being picked, he’s a superstar, yet when they are, he’s Bantha fodder.Dwayne Bravo, Perera, Clint McKay, and Rajat Bhatia bowl more slower balls than they do regular-paced balls. And the revolutions they put on the ball, along with the fundamental deception of how the ball is delivered, makes this one of the most important bowlers in the game. At the death you can’t not have this kind available to you, and at any stage during the innings when batsmen are attacking, they are wicket-takers. They are kings of the soft dismissal.You probably also want one of your quicks, and one of your spinners, to be left-armers, but now we’re praying for perfection. There is no perfect T20 attack, unless you take Narine (with his old action), Lasith Malinga, pre-injury Mustafizur Rahman, 1991 Waqar Younis and 1999 Shane Warne. But for the way T20 is played now, this is close to the best kind of attack: one to take wickets when needed and slow the scoring. You will need a back-up spinner who spins it both ways, and a back-up quick who can bowl with the new ball a bit but also bowl slower balls at the death.With this kind of side, I also need two bowlers to be able to hit. Guys like Cummins, John Hastings, Tim Southee, Narine or Ben Hilfenhaus, who can hit sixes on demand. Cummins and Hilfenhaus have started hitting big recently, completely changing their worth and, in Hilfenhaus’ case, probably lengthening his career. Narine has been improving his batting for even longer, and now pinch-hits as an opener against spinners. With two bowlers who can hit boundaries down the order, that extends the batting to No. 9.You could bat deeper, but then again, a perfect side is probably three ABs, five Andres, a Ravi, an Imran and a Sunil. Instead, what I have is a delacquerer, a crusher, three hitters, a slow-starting batsman, a proper batsman, a changer, a both-ways spinner, a quickie and a swinger. They should be able to play on all surfaces, take wickets, hit sixes, slow the opposition down, handle the odd crisis, and cash in on some of T20’s inefficiencies. They are not a super team, but they should have most eventualities covered. They ought to win enough matches to make them finalists in most leagues.And then they might be destroyed when they run into Gayle or Mitchell Johnson in one of their moods. That is because although I have a team without any real clear weakness, unlike some other sports, where the weakest player is the most important, T20 is a strong-link sport, where the best player can make the difference. My dream team could be stopped by an hour of Brendon McCullum or Malinga magic.But you can’t judge my team by imaginary wins or losses; this is all about imaginary processes, not imaginary results.

The coaching and captaincy duties have changed hands for Punjab, but the core group that remains intact will have to find ways to overcome scars of the last two seasons

Shashank Kishore04-Apr-20174:09

Agarkar: Captaincy could make Maxwell consistent

Likely first-choice XI

Manan Vohra, Glenn Maxwell (capt), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Eoin Morgan, David Miller, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, KC Cariappa, Sandeep Sharma, Mohit Sharma, T Natarajan

Reserves

Batsmen – Shaun Marsh, Hashim Amla, Martin Guptill, Armaan Jaffer, Rinku Singh
Bowlers – Swapnil Singh, Pardeep Sahu, Rahul Tewatia, Varun Aaron, Anureet Singh, Matt Henry, Ishant Sharma
Wicketkeeper – Nikhil Naik
Allrounders – Gurkeerat Singh, Darren Sammy

Strengths

Two consecutive poor seasons might have forced most sides to make changes. Kings XI Punjab, though, have retained faith in the core group of players, who were part of both, the highs of 2014 – when they finished runners-up – and the disappointments that have followed.They have a strong batting – three of the world’s best limited-overs players aren’t guaranteed a spot in the starting XI – which is helpful considering M Vijay’s participation in the tournament appears to be doubtful.The team also arguably has the best Indian bowling line-up. Sandeep Sharma’s swing, Mohit Sharma’s back-of-the-hand slower deliveries, Ishant Sharma’s experience and Axar Patel’s control make them a potent force. Add to it their latest recruit T Natarajan, the left-arm pacer on whom they splurged INR 3 crore, and the attack looks well-rounded. Natarajan, the franchise believes, is the Indian version of Mustafizur Rahman, who brings to the fore an element of surprise with his cutters and subtle variations in pace.This isn’t a side that looks intimidating, but it has the smarts to upset the opponent’s designs.

Weaknesses

A lack of experienced spinners could leave them vulnerable on potentially tired surfaces as the season progresses. Glenn Maxwell and Gurkeerat are part-timers at best while the legspinning duo of Pardeep Sahu and Rahul Tewatia have hardly played in 2016-17. There is a chance that the team has to rely solely on their pacers to deliver wins.The franchise has defied conventional wisdom by naming Maxwell as captain despite him not having prior experience leading a side at any level. Only time will tell if it was a risk worth taking, given they had two seasoned T20 leaders in Eoin Morgan and Darren Sammy in their ranks.

Where they finished in 2016, and what’s different this year?

With just four wins in 14 matches, Kings XI were the bottom-placed team for a second successive season. In the aftermath, there were a few changes, to the coaching line-up. Sanjay Bangar resigned as head coach, while Virender Sehwag, chief mentor until last season, was promoted as director of cricket operations. He will be assisted by J Arun Kumar, the new head coach, who shepherded Karnataka to win titles in all formats for two successive seasons.

What have their players been up to?

• Hashim Amla: After a poor Test series in Australia where he was repeatedly snuffed out in the slips, the opener returned home to become the eighth South African to score a century in his 100th Test. He’s been through an inconsistent patch since. While he was part of an ODI and Test series win in New Zealand, he has scored only one fifty-plus score in his last 11 international outings.
• Eoin Morgan and Darren Sammy were team-mates not too long ago in the Pakistan Super League. Morgan left midway to lead England to a ODI and T20 series win in West Indies, where he rode a top-order wobble to make an ODI century in the series opener in Antigua. Prior to that, he was one of England’s most productive batsmen during the limited-overs leg of their Indian tour. Sammy, in the meantime, led Zalmi to the title, often providing the flourish in the end-overs. His leadership and spectacular slip-catching made him a crowd-favourite both in the UAE and in Lahore, which staged the final.
• Axar Patel injured his thumb while fielding as a substitute during the fifth and final India-England Test in Chennai and was subsequently ruled out of the limited-overs leg of the series. He watched from the sidelines as his state side Gujarat clinched their maiden Ranji Trophy title. He returned to action in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the domestic 50-over competition, and took seven wickets in four matches.

Overseas-player availability

Shaun Marsh injured his back during the final India-Australia Test in Dharamsala and may not be in the starting XI immediately. Martin Guptill is also on a comeback trail since injuring his hamstring during the ODI series against South Africa last month, and could be in contention only from the third week of the competition. He will leave on May 10 for a tri-series involving New Zealand, Bangladesh and Ireland, though. Matt Henry will join him too. Eoin Morgan will be unavailable from May 1, when he’ll take off to lead England on their tour of Ireland.

Home and away record in 2016

They won two games at home and away, in a campaign where they were all but out of the reckoning halfway through the season.

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Karun Nair’s appointment as Delhi Daredevils captain is the latest in the tournament’s history of franchises appointing captains with limited experience

ESPNcricinfo staff02-May-2017James Hopes, Delhi Daredevils, 2011In 2011, Delhi Daredevils lost Virender Sehwag to a shoulder injury that ruled him out of the tournament. With Gautam Gambhir moving to Kolkata Knight Riders before that season and Ajit Agarkar not in the best form, Daredevils were short of senior players to lead them. Hopes had put together a string of valuable all-round performances in what was a woeful season for Daredevils and had experience captaining Queensland in domestic cricket. He was asked to lead them for the last three league games of the season. Daredevils did not fare any better under Hopes, losing two of the three game, eventually finishing last in the league table.Parthiv Patel, Kochi Tuskers Kerala, 2011Parthiv Patel has represented six IPL franchises over the years, but his sole game as captain came for Kochi Tuskers Kerala, after they were out of contention for the playoffs. In a side featuring Brendon McCullum, Brad Hodge and Muttiah Muralitharan, Parthiv was a surprising choice. Kochi lost the game to a rampant Chennai Super Kings line-up, who successfully defended 152 on their home turf.Aaron Finch, Pune Warriors, 2013Finch was not even part of the Pune Warriors squad at the beginning of the 2013 season and only joined them after Michael Clarke was ruled out of the season with an injury. While he had captained Melbourne Renegades in the BBL, he had not cemented his place in an IPL franchise yet, leaving him unsold ahead of the 2013 season. He played under Angelo Mathews and Ross Taylor during the first six games, before each of them lost their places due to poor form. Finch had already led Warriors in four games when Mathews formally tendered his resignation as captain. It was a forgettable season for the franchise, who finished second-last in the points table.M Vijay was handed Kings XI’s captaincy after David Miller stepped down due to poor form in 2016•BCCIDinesh Karthik, Delhi Daredevils, 2010Long before he was bought for a whopping INR 12 crore by Daredevils in 2013, and formally announced as their vice-captain, Dinesh Karthik led a side featuring AB de Villiers and Virender Sehwag in 2010, after their regular captain, Gautam Gambhir, was injured early in the season. While Karthik had led Tamil Nadu and South Zone before that, he was a surprising choice ahead of the more experienced Sehwag and de Villiers at that point. He won one out of his three games as captain, before Gambhir was back in the saddle.David Miller, Kings XI Punjab, 2016Miller was a surprising choice to lead Kings XI, given that he had no significant captaincy experience. An established member of the side since he was signed in 2011, Miller’s form dropped during a disastrous run of five losses in their first six games of the season. He was immediately replaced as the captain midway into the season, while being declared as an “integral part of the team” by his franchise owners.M Vijay, Kings XI Punjab, 2016Vijay was Miller’s replacement and was short on prior captaincy experience himself. He had led his state side, Tamil Nadu, in just 13 games across formats. His form wasn’t much better than Miller’s – he had scored 143 runs in six innings till then. Kings XI fared only marginally better under him, winning three of their remaining eight fixtures, before bowing out.