If they had T20 in 1998 and not 2008, Jarrod Kimber wonders, what on earth could he have done?

Jarrod Kimber15-May-2022Andrew Symonds fielded differently to others. He was a ring-fielding predator. Proactive, with otherworldly athletic gifts, he was like an oppressive force at cover.One game towards the end of his career he was mic’ed up and he took people through his methods. And you saw how his mind, body and desire came together to make him one of the world’s best inside the circle.Related

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The first bit was how much he actually wanted the ball because he believed through that he could keep himself in the game. For all his technical and physical gifts, this was the most important one. He was desperate to be involved. Some players don’t want the ball; Symonds needed it.Then there was the physical prowess. He could change direction like someone far smaller. He was swift across the ground and had a rocket arm. Australia turned Mike Young, an American baseball coach, into a fielding specialist, and paired him with Symonds, which took his fielding to another level. For years when he talked about his fielding, Young’s name would often come up.And then there was his brain. That is what you saw in this on-field masterclass. He was talking about bat faces, areas batters wanted to score in, and his own intuition. You can be the fastest fielder in the world, but it doesn’t help if you are waiting for the ball to be hit. Symonds would read the bowler and batter and proactively stop runs.And in that way, and almost every other way, he was always ahead of the game.If they had T20 in ’98, not ’08, what on earth could he have done?•PA Photos/Getty ImagesOne of the big technical changes that he made as a batter was to stop trying to hit every ball as hard as he could. The reasoning was that because he hit the ball so hard naturally, a swing at three-quarters power, off the middle of his bat, could clear the boundary anyway.In the era of ODI cricket Symonds played, the average strike rate was 74, and a six was hit every 109 balls. His strike rate was 92.5 and he hit a six every 53 balls. Despite retiring before ODI cricket got a lot faster, he still has the 11th-best strike rate of all time of those with more than 5000 runs.But the interesting thing is how much Australia tried to rein all that in. We know how much faster he could have scored if they had ever let him off the leash. He averaged a very respectable 40 in ODIs. But what kind of player could Australia have had if they just let Roy be Roy? There are only three players with a career strike rate of over 100 with that amount of runs: Shahid Afridi, Virender Sehwag and AB de Villiers. Symonds held himself back to a strike rate of 92 and an average of 40 and he won twice the number of World Cups as that trio combined, as well as a Champions Trophy. Across two World Cups and two Champions Trophies, he averaged 76 at a strike rate of 95. But what could his ceiling have been had he been truly let loose?The game was different then. The free market wasn’t dictating what you did, and so Symonds had to conform to what Australia wanted. But ultimately you couldn’t really make him a normal cricketer because it wasn’t how he thought. And so with his bowling, Symonds was two bowlers depending on how he felt and what the team needed.He wasn’t the first allrounder to bowl pace and spin, but he was perhaps one of the first to do it slightly more tactically. Symonds’ offspin was very much like the canny part-timers you get in club cricket. It came from a powerful arm, and it wasn’t about spin, it was about accuracy and intelligence, and he bowled the ball where he felt it was hardest to hit boundaries from. His medium pace could wobble the ball around and, occasionally, get a bit more out of the deck than others. Neither were frontline skills on their own, but he made them work when he needed to. He was a match-ups bowler before the term existed in cricket. Without being a full-time fifth bowler for Australia in ODIs – they often split his overs between him and Darren Lehmann or Michael Clarke – he still took 133 wickets at 37.By 2016, when T20s had changed the game, quite a few coaches stopped using the term allrounder as much. Instead, they used something from baseball, referring to a player as a two- or three-tool player: bats, bowls, and fields. Symonds was so far ahead of his time he was a four-tool player: bat, bowl offspin, bowl medium, and field.Over 26 Tests, Symonds showed he had the game for red-ball cricket too•AFPAnd we did see just the smallest amount of what he could have done in the format of cricket that best suited his skills. In 2003 he played five T20 matches for Kent, scoring 170 runs off 75 balls. In fact, over his first 16 games at the back-end of his peak, he made 529 runs from 260 balls while averaging 44. Sadly, the IPL came just after his peak, but he made a hundred in his first year, and over the first two seasons averaged 45.5 while striking at 150.He got two more years, but one was his 2011 campaign, in which he struck at 97 over 11 matches. He was still playing because he still had so many useful skills. But he was gone as a batter then. Yet his career numbers still look incredible, averaging 32 with a strike rate of 147. It is a badly drawn picture of what peak Symonds could have been. If they had T20 in ’98, not ’08, what on earth could he have done? It’s just sad for him that he was a T20 player before there really was T20. He showed people how to play it and then had to watch others do it.You can see patterns among the great white-ball players linking different eras. Javed Miandad led into Dean Jones who became Ricky Ponting, and then we had Virat Kohli. Michael Bevan had MS Dhoni follow him. Viv Richards’ closest copy is AB de Villiers. Symonds was really very much like Kieron Pollard, a power player with a brain, one who broke chases and bowlers early on, with a freedom that other batters found unnerving. And he continued to bother people with bowling, whatever he could to be effective, and incredible fielding efforts.Symonds wasn’t just some white-ball wizard either; remember he played 26 Tests in a solid era of Australian cricket, often keeping Shane Watson out of the team. And in those matches he averaged 40.5 with the bat while also adding almost one wicket every game with whatever bowling he thought would work best. In a 14-year first-class career Symonds hit 40 hundreds.He was often wrongly perceived as a slogger, because he was so different. But he was more than that. He was exciting, unique and powerful. He was a player who came from the future. For crowds in the 90s, used to batters pushing the ball around in the middle overs, one-dimensional bowlers and fielders who reacted to the ball, he was thrilling. And we didn’t always know how to process that.Watching him bat was always a bittersweet experience because the thrill was in him pushing too hard, but the fear was that would get him out. And the feeling that no matter what he did on the field, it would always end too soon. Today, I feel that again, only it’s far worse.

When does it start? What’s the format? We’ve got all your questions covered

Hemant Brar20-Aug-2022 • Updated on 26-Aug-2022The Asia Cup – what’s that?
Outside the ICC events, the Asia Cup is basically the biggest international tournament in terms of the number of participants, though you may not immediately think of it that way. It contains exactly what it says on the tin, i.e it is played between the top teams in Asia. The first edition was played 38 years ago in Sharjah and featured India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. After three round-robin games, India emerged as champions under the captaincy of Sunil Gavaskar. The Asia Cup hasn’t been the most consistently scheduled tournament, but since 2008, it has been played every alternate year until the Covid-19 pandemic broke the sequence in 2020.Which makes it how many now?
Fourteen Asia Cups: the last one was in 2018 in the UAE (a theme developing here), when a Rohit Sharma-led India beat Bangladesh in the final to lift the trophy.Related

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India again? They seem to have won it…
The most times, yes. India have won the Asia Cup seven times, while Sri Lanka have won it five times. Pakistan, perhaps surprisingly, have only won it twice.Trying to recall memorable Asia Cup moments but none are coming to mind. Can you jog my memory?
Sure, there’s been more than you think. Surinder Khanna’s quickfire knocks in 1984; Ajantha Mendis bamboozling India in the 2008 final; Harbhajan Singh’s penultimate-ball six off Mohammad Amir to seal the win in 2010; Virat Kohli smashing his career-best 183 against Pakistan to help India chase down 330, and Pakistan beating Bangladesh by two runs to clinch the title – both in 2012; Shahid Afridi hitting R Ashwin for back-to-back sixes in the final over to win the game in 2014; Amir’s new-ball spell against Kohli and Co in 2016; the India-Afghanistan tie in 2018… This could go on but you get the point.Great. So, when is this year’s edition starting?
The tournament starts on August 27 with Sri Lanka taking on Afghanistan in Dubai, and the final is on September 11, also in Dubai. It’s being played in the T20 format because it’s good prep for the T20 World Cup later this year.The 2022 Asia Cup starts and ends in Dubai•Arjun Singh/BCCIUmm, you’re missing something?
Yes, sorry, it actually started with a qualifier tournament, which ran from August 20 to 24 in Oman. UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuwait competed in a round-robin format, with Hong Kong qualifying with three wins in three games.Hong Kong, really?
Really. They are at 23 in the ICC’s T20I rankings and are led by allrounder Nizakat Khan at the Asia Cup. In the qualifying round, Yasim Murtaza was their top-scorer with 130 runs in three innings, while offspinner Ehsan Khan took nine wickets. You might not remember this, but Hong Kong gave India a bit of a scare in the 2018 Asia Cup.And now back to the main event?
Simple: six teams, divided into two groups:Group A: India, Pakistan, Hong Kong
Group B: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan
Each team plays the other two in their group once and the top two qualify for the next round, the Super 4. There, each team plays every other team once, and the top two teams make it to the final.Has the Asia Cup done a T20 version before?
Yes, the 2016 edition in Bangladesh was also played in the T20 format and it was done keeping in mind that year’s T20 World Cup, which was scheduled to begin two days after the Asia Cup final. The tournament changes format depending on which year it is played: next year’s edition in Pakistan, for example, will be an ODI Asia Cup as preparation for the 2023 World Cup in India.That’s handy. And did I hear it’s being played in the UAE?
You did and it is. Again. It’s actually the spiritual home of sorts given the Asia Cup began there (as a way to have India and Pakistan play regularly at a neutral venue). All games are being held in Sharjah and Dubai.My weather app tells me it’s not the best time of year to play anything in the UAE.
It’s not, but needs must. The tournament was supposed to be held in Sri Lanka this year, but the economic and political crisis in that country meant it had to move: bilateral cricket has been held in Sri Lanka, but the logistics of a multi-team tournament would’ve been difficult to manage.India and Pakistan were ruled out as options for various reasons, so it had to be the UAE.India and Pakistan will face each other for the first time since the T20 World Cup last year•AFP/Getty ImagesAnd the heat?
It will be very hot. And very, very humid. International cricket has only been scheduled once in the UAE in August, when Australia played Pakistan in a white-ball series in 2012. It was physically draining but they just about managed, with later than usual starts. The Asia Cup games will start at 6pm UAE time. Other than that the UAE is more than adept, having held the 2018 Asia Cup, the IPL, the PSL regularly (and in June last year), as well as the T20 World Cup last year.How many times will I see India play Pakistan?
Most likely twice, three times if we’re lucky. They face each other first on August 28 in Dubai, their first meeting since the 2021 T20 World Cup, when Pakistan beat India by ten wickets at the same venue.If both finish as the top two teams in their group, they will meet again in the Super 4 round. And then there could be an India-Pakistan final as well. India and Pakistan have never faced each other in the final of the Asia Cup.And what’s the head-to-head record between India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup?
The two teams have faced each other 14 times, with India winning on eight occasions and Pakistan on five. One game ended in a no-result.

They have scripted a remarkable turnaround after having finished bottom last season. Here is how they’ve done it

Deivarayan Muthu27-Sep-20221:53

Miller: Getting the right players and structure worked for us

two games so far – one being an inconsequential match against Guyana Amazon Warriors, and the other a rain-hit one against Jamaica Tallawahs when Rovman Powell hit a timely six to put them ahead of the DLS. ESPNcricinfo decodes Royals’ dominant run in CPL 2022.Role clarity
One of the key ingredients for success in a T20 tournament is giving players clarity about their roles. Despite the absence of their regular captain David Miller and wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock – who were both part of the overseas core – for the last leg of the tournament in Guyana, Royals’ management ensured everyone stayed true to their roles.Before CPL 2022, Kyle Mayers had never captained in senior T20 cricket, but Royals prepped for Miller’s departure for South Africa duty in India by easing Mayers into the leadership role in the inaugural 6ixty that preceded the CPL. And Jason Holder, who had led the Barbados franchise – Tridents at the time – to the title in 2019, was around to help smoothen the transition.According to Holder, the Royals have done an “outstanding job” in ensuring there was transparency in the group, and every player understood his role.Related

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“We know more or less how we want to operate as a franchise,” Holder had told ESPNcricinfo. “I think it has been really easy on David [Miller] as captain and now Kyle [Mayers] coming in to replace him.”You see today (in the match against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots on September 21) it was just like a smooth transition, and I think that’s because of how the structure is in the group. I always believe if you’ve got a strong management in terms of how you operate, how certain things are supposed to be done, everybody knows who they’re meant to be and what they’re meant to be doing, everything pretty much falls into place. I think you can have any leader once you get that clarity amongst the group – and also good direction – everything else falls into the place.”Mayers himself dashed out of the blocks at the top – his 9 off 20 against Amazon Warriors being an aberration – as did Rahkeem Cornwall. De Kock showed that he has the game and gears to bat at the top as well as in the middle.Obed McCoy and Holder, who were both tasked with bowling the tough overs, have taken 15 wickets each so far. Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Azam Khan, who is particularly strong against spin, got an NOC from the PCB to skip the National T20 Cup – the domestic T20 tournament at home – to turn out for Royals once again. In Royals’ first game at Providence, which is arguably the most spin-friendly venue in the Caribbean, Azam hit 64 off 42 balls to blindside CPL 2021 champions St Kitts & Nevis Patriots.ESPNcricinfo LtdSquad depth
Amid the pandemic, CPL 2020 was entirely played in Trinidad, while CPL 2021 was entirely held in St Kitts. With CPL 2022 being hosted by three venues – Guyana being the new addition – squad depth was another important box to tick. Although Miller and de Kock left the tournament early, Mujeeb Ur Rahman joined the squad late after the Asia Cup, and Oshane Thomas, who has had to deal with fitness issues in the recent past, played just three games, Royals constructed a squad that had the depth to win games across conditions.In IPL 2022, Rajasthan Royals often struggled with the absence of a sixth-bowling option after Nathan Coulter-Nile suffered an injury. In CPL 2022, Royals remedied that by recruiting and backing allrounders Corbin Bosch and Cornwall, who can not just hit sixes, but also contribute with the ball.And when the ball swung in the early exchanges of the tournament in St Kitts, Mayers himself took the new ball and made inroads for Royals, providing a throwback to the times when he was more of a frontline seamer.On the spin front, Royals followed their usual template of pairing up an aggressive wristspinner or a mystery spinner with a defensive fingerspinner. In the IPL, it was Yuzvendra Chahal with R Ashwin. In the SA20, it will be Tabraiz Shamsi with Bjorn Fortuin. At the CPL, Royals had two aggressive options in Hayden Walsh Jr and Mujeeb, and two tidy fingerspinners in Joshua Bishop and Cornwall.Barbados Royals at the death•ESPNcricinfo LtdStart strongly with bat, finish strongly with ball
Arguably the powerplay and death are the make-or-break phases in a T20 game. Powerplays, in particular, can be challenging for players who are not familiar with the Caribbean conditions where the wind often dictates proceedings. The wet weather was also a factor in the tournament, but Royals found ways to pull ahead even when they lost crucial tosses in day games.With the bat, Royals were the second-fastest scoring team in the powerplay at a run rate of 7.24. Only St Lucia Kings (8.39) bettered them during this phase, thanks to the vast experience of Faf du Plessis and Johnson Charles.However, Royals were by far the most economical side with the ball between overs 17 and 20, conceding at just 6.97 an over. During this phase, they also picked up 18 wickets – only Amazon Warriors (20) and Trinbago Knight Riders (20) got more wickets than Royals.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe emergence of Simmonds and Bosch
In their first CPL seasons, uncapped South African allrounder Bosch and local left-arm seamer Ramon Simmonds have contributed handsomely to Royals’ success. Simmonds, Royals’ emerging pick at the CPL draft, impressed the management so much with his variations and courage to bowl the difficult overs that they added him to their Paarl Royals side for the forthcoming SA20.”Someone like Ramon Simmonds has really impressed me, particularly because this is the first time I’ve played with him,” Holder told ESPNcricinfo. “To just see his composure under pressure and then him having the confidence to execute slower balls and yorkers to big players at big stages of the game is quite impressive to me.Corbin Bosch is also part of the Royals’ squads in SA20 and IPL•CPL T20 via Getty Images”I think he has talent that not many people can boast of at such a young age. Once he continues to develop, the sky’s the limit for him.”Bosch is also part of the Royals’ squads in SA20 and IPL. After having trialled Bosch at No.3 in the 6ixty, Royals gave him an opportunity to bat at that position at the CPL. Bosch seized that with back-to-back half-centuries against Kings and Tallawahs.Having added an extra yard of pace to his bowling, Bosch pitched in with the ball too. He also adds value in the field by patrolling the hotspots. Against Patriots, he snagged five catches, which is a CPL record.

The South African allrounder, who impressed with the bat in the CPL last year, is looking to unleash his inner Avenger for the Paarl Royals franchise

Deivarayan Muthu09-Jan-2023South African allrounder Corbin Bosch is such a big fan of Thor from the Marvel Universe that he often celebrates with an imaginary hammer. He has added more power to his batting in the past year and smacks bowlers away like the Marvel superhero does villains with Mjolnir. So it’s only inevitable that Bosch has earned the nickname Thor.”I love all their [Marvel] movies and I’m a big fan of their Avengers series,” Bosch said during the CPL, “and growing up, Thor has been my favourite character. So when I came to the CPL, my initial plan was to try and do a celebration [with] every single Marvel character. I started with Thor and it kind of just stuck. It’s a celebration I enjoy, and I play to enjoy my cricket and this is one of those that stuck with me.”Related

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Corbin, son of Tertius (2014)

Bosch was the Player of the Match in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup final in the UAE, when South Africa clinched the title. His senior career didn’t quite take off like it was expected to after the U-19 success, but he is finally in the spotlight now after having broken into the big leagues in 2022.Bosch was a replacement player for Rajasthan Royals last year in the IPL and he was signed up by the Barbados side in the CPL. His flexibility with the bat was among the highlights of Royals’ run to the CPL final, though they eventually lost to Jamaica Tallawahs. Bosch is now ready to do it all over again for Royals, this time at home in the SA20.”This SA20 is going to be huge,” he said. “I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for guys to put their names on the map and say: ‘Hey, maybe South Africa has a lot more talented cricketers than those that might just be seen in the IPL and [playing] for South Africa.’ It’s a recognised platform for guys, including myself, to just display their skills and show what they’re about and how they can dominate – whether with bat or ball. Players a lot of guys haven’t heard about are all of a sudden front and centre of one of the biggest stages in the world. Who knows who is going to be the next big thing from South Africa?”Bosch could potentially be that very thing. He has bulked up to improve his six-hitting and to pound the pitch with the ball – traits that are in demand in T20 cricket. He usually bats lower down the order for Titans in domestic cricket, but Royals’ management saw some spark in his batting and used him as a pinch-hitting No. 3 in the CPL.Bosch made 191 runs in the 2022 CPL, including back-to-back fifties against St Lucia Kings and Jamaica Tallawahs•CPL T20 via Getty Images”For me, my batting is a work in progress,” Bosch said. “Me batting at No. 3 in the CPL was a new role that a couple of coaches mentioned to me even before I came here [to the Caribbean]. So, I wrapped my head around it while I was training back home with the Titans to hone my skills. I still feel I’m only in the infancy of my batting and I’ve got so much to learn – trying to take in as much information as I can and learning what works for me and what doesn’t.”I’ve done a lot of range-hitting and just trying to figure out the areas where I can be dominating – if the ball is in my area, I know I can take any bowler on in any situation – and at the same time, working on the areas I’m weaker at. My goal is to become one of the best allrounders in the world, if not the best – that is how I mentally train every single day.”With the ball, Bosch can now crank it up around the 135kph range, and step in as a change bowler, thanks largely to his club cricket stint in Australia with Northern Districts Suburbs in 2016. Andy Bichel, who worked with Bosch back then, was particularly impressed with Bosch’s progress when the pair caught up during last year’s IPL; Bosch was with Rajasthan Royals and Bichel with Lucknow Super Giants as their bowling coach.”After high school, I only bowled around 130kph. I left for Australia for a year to play a season there and made a mental switch there that I really want to bowl fast. It wasn’t easy getting my body stronger. I put in a lot of hours in the gym, and still do, to keep my body fit and healthy.”Bowling fast is no joke – you need to be physically prepared for what you will put your body through. I’m still looking to bowl even faster in the next couple of years. I feel I’m only starting to touch the untapped potential of the pace I can generate.”Bosch comes from a cricketing family. His father Tertius Bosch, who played three international matches for South Africa, was ranked alongside Allan Donald as one of the fastest bowlers of his era. His younger brother Eathan is currently contracted to Dolphins and Pretoria Capitals. Corbin is looking forward to the prospect of playing against his brother in the SA20.”Growing up, I was lucky to be part of such a fantastic household,” Bosch said. “My mother has been an inspiration – she allowed me and my brother to really express ourselves and do what we always dreamt of doing. I don’t think I can tell you the amount of hours and days we spent in our backyard playing garden cricket with one another, ruining my mum’s grass. I’ll be the first one to say that we destroyed the garden, but it was us enjoying each other’s company. Throughout our childhood we just played a lot of garden cricket and we’ve always pushed one another.”Bosch is hoping to get one over his brother Eathan (in picture) who will play for Pretoria Capitals in the SA20•Cricket South AfricaEathan often cops a fair bit about not being the best cricketer in his family because Corbin has won an Under-19 World Cup, but he claimed bragging rights ahead of the SA20, having dismissed his older brother before.”I think I’ve played against Eathan twice before [in competitive cricket]. I played for Pretoria and he played for Durban and he managed to get me out in the last over [of one of those games]. He definitely is one up on me (). For the MSL, I was with Tshwane Spartans and he was with Paarl Rocks in 2019, and all of a sudden we’ve done a switch. Hopefully, that switch means I get the trophy with Paarl and he becomes a sore loser in the [SA20] final.””Our competitiveness started in our garden-cricket days,” Eathan said in a CSA release. “I’m a bit taller [at 1.90m] but he’s a little bigger. “We haven’t played against each other too much, I just know that I’ve got him out once and he hasn’t. It can be tough playing against your brother, wanting him to do well but also wanting your team to win.”Bosch is particularly enthused about teaming up once again with Tabraiz Shamsi – they have played together at Titans – and hopes to trump the left-arm wristspinner’s snazzy celebrations with his own ones.”I love playing with Shamsi and I’m fortunate enough to get to play with him at the Titans,” Bosch said. “He’s so bubbly and gives the team so much energy, which I love, and his celebrations are going to be tough to beat. But I have a few exciting things at the back of my mind that I’m going to try to make sure that his wicket celebrations aren’t going to be able to outdo mine.”Like I said, I play cricket because I enjoy it and this is just one aspect of cricket that adds fun to some stressful situations and pressure situations. The celebrations are [about] just letting go and showing the world who I actually am. The Thor is definitely coming out in Paarl.”Bosch found no takers at the recent IPL 2023 auction, but the SA20 offers him another chance to remind franchise owners – and South Africa’s selectors – of his worth.

Complementary styles and contrasting backstories could help put an end to post-Strauss blues

Vithushan Ehantharajah01-Dec-2022There’s BC, AD, and if you’re an England opening batter, AS.Since Andrew Strauss retired at the end of the 2012 English summer, 12 full-time openers tried to fill the void opposite Alastair Cook. A further six were then used to mitigate the loss of Cook, too, bringing us to 18 souls with the unenviable task of replacing two who stepped away from the game with their legacies and legends cast in stone.So – have the 18 been rubbish? Well, no. They were far from chancers. Opening the batting is hard, particularly in England, where the guys at the top have averaged 30.78 AS – lower than everywhere bar West Indies (minimum two Tests). It’s hard. Really hard. As Test coach Brendon McCullum joked during the summer: “The last two guys who nailed it at the top of the order are both called ‘Sir’ in this country.”Still, though – 18 openers, in 10 years ? 18, England? That’s insane, and evidently unworkable. The longevity and stickability of many of them meant they would eventually come again on weight of County Championship runs. The same names, vaguely the same results, broadly the same criticisms and very often the same demoralising experiences – whether dropped unceremoniously, dumped from the team WhatsApp group, hearing second-hand of team-mates lamenting their output or, as has happened in the past, shlepping to retrieve their kit from the dressing room of the venue of their final cap while the rest of the squads’ bags were transported to the next ground.Related

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But they were failing in the same system, under the same expectations of those spoiled by their knighted predecessors and with the same guidance of “go and do some opening or we’ll find someone else who will”. So when Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett combined for 232 on day one in Rawalpindi, slotting in at No. 8 in England’s all-time list of highest opening stands against any opponent, a century each by their names, and setting the perfect platform for England to get to stumps on 506 for 4, it was hard not to reflect how this new regime might have changed the English opener experience for the better.It is most obvious in the case of Crawley. Because in many ways, his 122 won’t change the conversation around him. Backed throughout the summer by McCullum, his captain Ben Stokes and Rob Key, a confidant of Crawley long before he became director of England men’s cricket, he became something of a lightning rod for accusations of nepotism. A summer average of 23 from 13 innings was helped by an unbeaten 69 in the final Test of the season against South Africa. It was 17.25 prior to those runs and that red ink.The outward talk was of a high ceiling: that when Crawley gets it right he can be one of the more destructive openers on the circuit. And yes, it’s hard to discern which was flattest: the pitch at the Pindi stadium, Pakistan’s bowling attack or their fielding. But from striking 14 off the first over – the most England have taken from the opening over of a Test – to being unbeaten on 91 at lunch, then getting to three figures for the third time, from just 86 balls, there was an element of vindication here. Not just of Crawley but the work put into him behind the scenes.Stokes and McCullum have done well to wean the 24-year-old off technique and more on feel, especially given he is an insatiable netter. Positive reinforcement has been consistent but not laid on too thick to devalue their words. Both spent large parts of the summer creating comfortable spaces for Crawley. Such as when Stokes and McCullum manufactured a three-ball group so they could accompany him for a round of golf. Once that was complete, they sat around with a few beers and Crawley opened up about his worries, leaving them contained in that time, at that clubhouse.Most runs in opening session of a Test match•ESPNcricinfo LtdTheir treatment of Crawley has polarised, especially among batters who opened before and those who think their time should have come. The idea the England squad is a closed shop is building in the domestic scene, but much of that seems rooted in the fact Crawley’s treatment is a luxury never seen before. It is, ultimately, a good thing.”I feel like it was just we weren’t playing great games of cricket,” Crawley said of the time before McCullum, in which he also struggled with just two centuries in 21 caps. “We weren’t getting the most out of our talents playing the way we were and playing it safe and Baz always backed us to play positively.”It was not easy opening the batting in the summer. I thought I played okay at times and played some decent knocks but I did not get the decent score.”Another change of tack from the management has been to focus more on the “partnership” side of opening.Ahead of this tour, the decision was made to drop Alex Lees. A summer’s worth of play had seen him average 25.15, higher than Crawley. At times they dovetailed well, with two century and two half-century stands between them in 19 innings. Their collective 536 was the second-best combination of openers since Strauss’ retirement that did not feature Cook. Coincidentally, the pair in top spot – Rory Burns and Dom Sibley – are two who shared unflattering traits with Lees.It was felt Lees, like Burns and Sibley, had trouble turning over the strike, and as such seemed to put undue pressure on the batter at the other end. Harsh, no doubt, especially given Burns and Sibley were the only openers not named “Cook”, to have played since the end of the 2012 summer and scored 1000 or more before Crawley joined them with this knock. And while that analysis reads a bit like making Crawley feel a little more comfortable, in Duckett there is an element of symbiosis.

“I’m pretty small and ‘Creepy’ is pretty tall so I think where they bowl is very different to both of us. The areas we hit are very different as well”Ben Duckett

They hit the similar lines and lengths to different areas: Crawley favouring drives on the up and short-arm pulls, while Duckett focuses square, particularly against the Pakistan seamers when he would regularly square drive wide deliveries behind point. The left-right combination is one thing, but if would mean nothing if they weren’t getting the other on strike, with regular tucks to favoured areas – Crawley into the covers, Duckett around the corners.By lunch – 174 for 0, the most by England in the opening session of a Test – the hosts’ attack was shot of confidence, with both notching half-centuries at a run-a-ball or better. Another first for English openers, by the way. It took until the 39th over for Pakistan to register their first maiden of the innings. By then, both Duckett and Crawley had been back in the dressing room for 15 minutes.”I’m pretty small and ‘Creepy’ is pretty tall so I think where they bowl is very different to both of us,” said Duckett on how he and Crawley complement each other. “The areas we hit are very different as well. Bowlers have to come round the wicket to me and change the line. It is pretty fresh but it is a good start and we are really happy.”At a time when the general ethos around the Test side is riddled with white ball-isms, from the selfless play preached to the presence of Liam Livingstone in this XI, Duckett might be the first rough diamond to need little polishing.Under previous regimes, notably on a chastening 2016-17 winter in Bangladesh and India for Duckett, his manner was derided. The aerial options and the regulation- and reverse-sweeps saw him unfairly regarded as a player who would eventually be found out. The attacking options he would resort to when under pressure chastised as the futile slapping of the waves by a drowning man.Thankfully, those barbs, a broken hand and years of losing his authentic grip did not rob him of his natural instincts. There was plenty of crossover between 1012 runs at 72.28 in the Championship for Nottinghamshire and 223 at a strike rate of 159.58 in the seven-match T20I series in Pakistan earlier this year.The latter proved useful for his maiden hundred, from 105 deliveries: “I think especially facing Naseem [Shah] and Haris [Rauf] and performing against them in the T20 series it gave me confidence coming into this series, albeit in a different format, because I knew what the pitches were going to be like.” It is a milestone that could be the start of a fruitful emergence as an all-format player at the highest level.Fastest Test hundreds for England•ESPNcricinfo LtdJust to reinforce the bond with Crawley, he convinced his taller partner to review a dismissal that otherwise would have cost him three figures. On 99, Crawley was subject to an lbw appeal off Naseem that was given out on the field.”I thought I was out,” revealed Crawley in his press conference while sat next to Duckett. “But ‘Ducky’ knew it was missing and has a good eye. I felt I had missed an opportunity so it was an unbelievable feeling and made the hundred more special.”Duckett interjected: “It looked like it was missing. I think if it was hitting middle halfway up I would have told him to review it anyway.”While the pair were going back and forth fielding questions on their work, two other centurions, Ollie Pope and Harry Brook, were on the outfield singing both their praises.”It started from the get-go, really,” mused Pope when asked to cast an eye over 75 overs of destruction. “Fourteen off the first over?” Yep, 14. “It just put them under pressure straight away. It looked like there wasn’t really anywhere they could bowl to those two the way they were going. It was the perfect way for those boys to set us up and start the series in that fashion.”Having set such high standards, the only way is down for England’s newest dynamic opening pair. What is for certain is their stand of 233 will now be regarded as a marker to beat rather than a limit. We are just one Test into the winter, and in conditions where opening batters tend to do well. But already Crawley and Duckett have the feel of a reliable partnership to facilitate more of the chaos England inflicted on Pakistan onto the rest of the world.

A summer that began with much gloom and doom has ended with South Africa on the brink of automatic World Cup qualification

Firdose Moonda02-Apr-2023It ended so much better than it began.On the heels of an embarrassing T20 World Cup exit and a chastening Test tour of Australia, without a national men’s head coach, South Africa tiptoed into the home summer wondering how much worse things could get. Now, as the sunshine starts to become diluted with autumn’s first air, and with three months of cricket that has been heart-stopping and heartwarming in equal measure, South Africans are struggling to remember a summer this good.A brass band played the 10,000 strong pink-clad Wanderers supporters home after South Africa did their bit to make automatic qualification for this year’s 50-over World Cup a reality. The rest is in Bangladesh’s hands. As long as they win a game in Ireland in May, South Africa will be on their way to India. But no one was thinking that far this evening.As the sun set in Johannesburg, it was about celebrating the first feel-good summer since 2017-18, when South Africa beat India and Australia in home Tests series, and forgetting about the seasons that have gone by since. The defeat to Sri Lanka in 2018-19. The administrative implosion of 2019-20, the effects of which were felt into this year. The pandemic, and the keeping apart of people who, at their core, are designed to congregate. Now, these are more of South Africa’s people than ever before.Have a glance at the crowds that packed out the SA20, showed up to support the women at the T20 World Cup and attended the series against West Indies and Netherlands and you’d have to agree that it’s the most diverse going group around. And then you have to feel it. South Africa is only place where Afrikaans pop-tracks and kwaito beats both get fans on their feet, it’s a place where a mix of races, genders and ages combine in what can very seldom be described accurately as unity, but this was one of those times and the team knows it.”We’ve spoken about how we’re in a privileged position to inspire our country and unite our country through sport. To see that happening on the banks has been awesome from someone who’s been out of the game in South Africa for seven years,” Rob Walter, South Africa’s white-ball coach who spent seven years coaching in New Zealand’s domestic system, said. “To see the difference in the people who are watching the game has been awesome as well.”Aiden Markram raises his fifty•AFP/Getty ImagesIn Walter’s time away, South African cricket has been through some uncomfortable things, most especially a raw reckoning with race. At the centre of the storm has been Temba Bavuma, the country’s first black African Test batter who was elevated to white-ball captain and struggled in T20Is. Bavuma suffered his worst scrutiny when he was snubbed at the SA20 auction in the lead up and at the World Cup, and under Walter, he has been relieved of that format. In return, he has scored three centuries in three months, two in ODI cricket, and has symbolised South Africa’s revival. “He’s a wonderful human being. He’s a great advocate for our country, So it’s wonderful just to be part of sharing a change room with him. And the fact that he can play the cricket that he’s played, which has been exceptional, is just a sort of cherry on top for a guy who is not given enough credit after what he has gone through,” Walter said.But Bavuma is not the only one. Aiden Markram started 2023 after he was dropped from the Test team, but picked to captain Sunrisers Eastern Cape. He then returned to score a century at SuperSport Park and was named T20I captain. In him, South Africans can see the aggressive, smart style of cricket they are trying to play. “We are on this new journey that everyone speaks about and that brand of cricket everyone wants to play is starting to take some shape,” Markam said. “It’s exciting to be a part of and exciting to watch.”And then there is Sisanda Magala. A player who could not make the squad for fitness reasons is now an integral part of the white-ball sides, has an IPL deal and took a first international five-for to win a series. The Wanderers is where he plays his domestic cricket and the crowd got behind him in a big way as he bowled at the death. Cries of ‘Sisanda, Sisanda,” reverberated around the Bullring and when he took the fifth wicket, the joy in the ground was palpable. Every player celebrated with him, even those in the dugout, where Wayne Parnell did his Cristiano Ronaldo celebration from his seat. Markram, who is Magala’s captain in the SA20, acknowledged that Magala’s success is shared by everyone.”With Sisi, if he’s got backing then he’s going to break his back for you,” Markram said. “Through a few performances, a player feels that now they belong at this level. And they can compete and win games at this level. It’s great for him to have these achievements that he’s getting. The guys love him. He has great value in the changeroom and when he does well, everyone is over the moon.”Sisanda Magala enjoyed success in the ODI series against England•Getty ImagesWhat the SA20 did for Markram and Magala and later even for Bavuma, who got a deal, is what it did for South African cricket in general: it showed it was still alive. When Walter was asked to track the revival, he traced it back to that tournament. “We can’t underestimate the impact of the SA20 on cricket in South Africa. There was some momentum coming out of that and we were able to jump on that,” he said. “We’ve played some nice cricket but by no means our best cricket and that’s the exciting part.”With so much promise, someone like Bavuma said it’s a “pity the summer has to end now” but it’s been far better than anyone expected. Ordinarily, series wins against West Indies and Netherlands – neither of them blockbuster opponents – would not be celebrated with such gusto. But this time it’s been about South Africa. They’ve played entertaining, engaging cricket to sign off a champagne summer with more fizz than anyone could have asked for.

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.”