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Dramatic, unpredictable, controversial – for over two decades now, the Border-Gavaskar trophy has been one of cricket’s great rivalries

Andrew McGlashan03-Feb-2023

India vs Australia 2000-01

India won 2-1
Though the two sides have had history before, this series took the rivalry up several notches and featured one of the greatest comebacks. Australia had built a formidable side – perhaps their best ever – under Steve Waugh, and their victory in the opening Test made it a record 16 wins in a row.Despite a hat-trick by Harbhajan Singh – the first ever by an Indian bowler in the format – Test No. 17 looked all but won in Kolkata when India were made to follow on. Then came VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid. The pair batted throughout the fourth day, building a fifth-wicket stand of 376 and setting Australia 384 to get. At times the draw looked odds on, but Sachin Tendulkar blew the game open and Harbhajan secured a historic win.What followed in Chennai was scarcely less dramatic. Matthew Hayden scored a double-century to cap a remarkable series for him, and Harbhajan took 15 wickets. India needed 155 and edged over the line by two wickets.

Australia vs India, 2003-04

series drawn 1-1
This series featured a truly epic encounter in Adelaide. Ricky Ponting’s 242 had led Australia to a seemingly impregnable 556, but once again Dravid and Laxman had other ideas. This time they added 303 for the fifth wicket, Dravid going on to post 233, as India almost drew level, to make it a one-innings contest. Then Ajit Agarkar had his finest hour, taking 6 for 41 to leave a tantalising target of 230. Again it was Dravid who led the chase, an unbeaten 72 securing another place in the game’s folklore.Australia hit back in the Boxing Day Test despite Virender Sehwag’s stunning 195, with another Ponting double setting up the series-levelling victory. The decider at the SCG saw India fill their boots to the tune of 705 for 7, with Tendulkar forging an unbeaten 241 and Laxman a majestic 178. Anil Kumble almost single-handedly bowled Australia out, but Justin Langer and Simon Katich hit centuries. After a second-innings dash (and another 91 not out from Dravid), Australia were set 443. They gave it a crack, led by Katich and Waugh in his final Test, before everyone ultimately shook hands and drew breath.Stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist shepherded Australia to their first series win in India in 35 years in 2004-05; injured captain Ricky Ponting sat out the first three Tests•Hamish Blair/Getty Images

India vs Australia, 2004-05

Australia won 2-1
Captained by Adam Gilchrist in the absence of an injured Ponting, Australia secured one of their finest overseas series wins. Gilchrist himself was key in the opening Test, in Bangalore, with a rapid century, alongside a majestic 151 on debut by Michael Clarke. A three-pronged pace attack, supplemented by Shane Warne, then worked through India’s batting with efficiency and precision.The second Test, in Chennai was a ding-dong battle until a final-day washout denied a gripping finish. Australia had folded from 136 for 0 to 235 all out in the first innings before Sehwag cracked 155. However, Damien Martyn’s century kept the visitors in the contest. At the end, everyone was left wondering about what could have been if it hadn’t rained with India in pursuit of a target of 229.There was no tight tussle in the match that decided the series: Australia steamrolled India in a 342-run win in Nagpur. Martyn had one of his finest Tests, with 114 and 97, while Clarke made 91. Jason Gillespie led the way with the ball, taking nine in the match. A fit-again Ponting returned for the final Test in Mumbai, on a hugely challenging surface, where India nicked a thrilling win, defending just 107 after Clarke had taken an extraordinary 6 for 9.

Australia vs India, 2007-08

Australia won 2-1
A series that began with a comfortable Australia win at the MCG took a controversial, ill-tempered twist in Sydney, where a racism controversy involving Harbhajan and Andrew Symonds overshadowed the match. Harbhajan was initially banned for three Tests before the ban was overturned on appeal. Symonds dominated the early stages of that game with a career-best 162 not out, having survived an edge behind on 30 that umpire Steve Bucknor did not spot. There was more umpiring controversy on the final day when Dravid was given caught behind and Clarke secured a victory in the dying moments – equalling Australia’s previous 16-match winning run. The post-match conversation was fractious, with Kumble channelling talk from the days of Bodyline: “Only one team was playing in the spirit of the game.” Briefly, India threatened to quit the tour.Tempers had calmed by Perth, where Ishant Sharma rattled Ponting with a thrilling spell, and India produced a brilliant victory. Unfortunately, the series came to an underwhelming finish in Adelaide, where a flat pitch was the only winner, besides some batting averages.The pall of the racism scandal involving Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds hung heavy over the fractious 2007-08 Test series•Getty Images

India vs Australia, 2008-09

India won 2-0
Australia failed to repeat their triumph of four years earlier, the weakness of their spin attack proving telling. They showed promising signs in the opening Test, with Ponting and Mike Hussey’s centuries dominating a drawn game, but India were far too good in Mohali, where the differences started to show.Delhi was a match for the batters. Laxman enhanced his brilliant record against Australia while Gautam Gambhir also made a double century. In a bid to try and level the series, Australia gave a debut to offspinner Jason Krejza in the final Test and he collected 12 wickets, although at the eye-watering cost of 358 runs. The visitors were made to pay for a first-innings slide from 229 for 2 to 355 all out, and eventually a target of 382 proved well out of reach.

India vs Australia, 2010-11

India won 2-0
This short two-match series began with a classic in Mohali. Australia were given a strong base: Shane Watson’s century and Tim Paine’s 92 carried them over 400. No one passed three figures for India – Tendulkar fell lbw to Marcus North on 98 – with Mitchell Johnson taking five wickets to leave things almost all square. From 87 for 0, Australia then lost all ten wickets for 105 runs to leave a target of 216. At 124 for 8, the visitors were comfortable favourites but their arch nemesis, Laxman, found an ally in Ishant to get within 11 runs of the target. Amid late drama, Pragyan Ojha helped India scramble over the line.The second Test, in Bengaluru saw two big first innings. Tendulkar’s double-century was the dominant display as Australia fought hard to stay in touch. However, ultimately a target of 207 set early on the final day was well short of being competitive, and Cheteshwar Pujara broke the back of India’s chase.Run, mate: a sore VVS Laxman’s mad dash to the finish in the company of Pragyan Ojha sealed the two-Test series in India’s favour in 2010•AFP

Australia vs India, 2011-12

Australia won 4-0
After a hard-fought opening game in Melbourne, it became a one-sided series with the home side far too strong, although Australia did get their first glimpse in Test cricket of a certain Virat Kohli. At the MCG, India let a strong position slip when they were 214 for 2 in reply to 333, but they then had Australia rocking at 27 for 4. A stand of 115 between Ponting and Clarke – former and current captains – got the home side back on track and in the end 292 proved well out of reach for India.India were also overwhelmed in Sydney and Perth. At the SCG, Clarke hit an unbeaten 329 in huge stands with Ponting (134) and Hussey (150 not out) while at the WACA, David Warner made a scintillating 180 off 159 balls, including a century in a session on the first evening. Australia’s four-pronged pace attack was too much for India to handle. Ponting (221), with what was his last Test century, and Clarke (210) filled their boots again in Adelaide in another comfortable win, but India’s first innings included 116 from Kohli at a ground where he would continue to shine.

India vs Australia, 2012-13

India won 4-0
As the previous series had been one-sided in favour of the hosts, so was this. For Australia it would forever be known for the “Homeworkgate” saga that led to four players – Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja – being dropped for the third Test, having failed to follow team orders.In the opening Test, Clarke’s 130 had given Australia a solid base, but Kohli’s century and MS Dhoni’s 224 showed they were well short; R Ashwin took 12 in the match. A thrashing by an innings and 135 runs followed in Hyderabad (in which Clarke funkily declared nine down late on the first day), where Pujara made a double-century and Ashwin bagged another five.The wheels then came off the tour, although Australia did not initially capitulate in Mohali. Warner and Ed Cowan opened with 139, a recalled Steven Smith made 92 in a sign of things to come, and Mitchell Starc flayed 99. However, M Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan added 289 for the first wicket in reply, and although the bowlers did fight back, Australia could only set 133.In a bizarre twist, the dropped Watson then returned as captain when Clarke was injured for the final Test. A bowler-dominated contest was decided by the spin of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, with Pujara bringing the runs.Australia played the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the shadow of Phil Hughes’ death•Getty Images

Australia vs India, 2014-15

Australia won 2-0
This series was overshadowed by the death of Phil Hughes just days before the start. It was a remarkable effort from the players, particularly the Australians, to play such exhilarating cricket in Adelaide as they did to secure victory late on the final day to honour Hughes.There were emotionally charged hundreds for Warner (twice in the game), Clarke and Smith, alongside a magnificent captain’s performance from Kohli who also scored two centuries in the match. His final-day 141 put India in with a chance of chasing 364, but the visitors slipped from 242 for 2 to 315 all out after Murali Vijay fell for 99, with Nathan Lyon claiming seven wickets.In Brisbane, India were again competitive, although late wickets made the result appear tighter than it was. There was another hundred for Smith, but it was the runs Australia’s lower order made, led by Johnson, that were vital: the last four wickets added 258 after they had been in danger of handing over a big lead.Smith and Kohli again traded hundreds in Melbourne, where India were able to hang on for a draw thanks to their middle order, while similar scenes played out in Sydney. The series returns for Smith (769 runs at 128.16) and Kohli (692 runs at 86.50) were remarkable.

India vs Australia, 2016-17

India won 2-1
The most recent meeting in India, and one that Australia probably look back on as a missed opportunity after they took the opening Test in Pune on a surface that became increasingly challenging against spin. Steve O’Keefe had a remarkable match with figures of 12 for 70; India managed just 105 and 107. Smith (109) made one of his finest hundreds in the second innings, while Starc’s first-innings 61 proved vital.It was the second Test, in Bengaluru, that Australia missed their chance. Lyon’s 8 for 50 bowled India out for 189, but a lead of 87 wasn’t enough to kill the game. India battled to build a target of 188, then Ashwin got to work, picking up 6 for 41 as Australia crumbled for 112.Ranchi produced a high-scoring draw, with centuries for Smith, Pujara, Glenn Maxwell and Wriddhiman Saha, leaving a decider in Dharamsala. Smith again scored a hundred, but a first-innings total of 300 from 144 for 1 was a disappointment. India scraped ahead with a small lead, but Australia’s 137 proved no obstacle to the home side and that was the series.The taming of the crew: India clinched back-to-back victories in Australia in 2018-19 – their first-ever series win in the country – and 2021-22•David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

Australia vs India, 2018-19

India won 2-1
A landmark moment for India. It started with a gripping victory for them in Adelaide and would likely have finished with a 3-1 scoreline if not for rain in Sydney. The opening match, where the bowlers held sway, was an outstanding contest, decided by the brilliance of Pujara. Australia’s batting line-up was a patchwork affair – Warner and Smith were away serving out their bans after the Newlands ball-tampering scandal – but the lower order got them within range of a challenging target.The home side fought back in Perth at the new Optus Stadium, on what became a devilish surface that produced edge-of-the-seat action. Australia’s opening stand of 112 gave them a head start, but Kohli responded with a great century. Khawaja’s gusty 72 kept India at bay despite Mohammed Shami’s best efforts, and in the end India fell well short.Crucially, though, India believed they were the better side and showed it in Melbourne. Led by Pujara, they ground their way to a strong total and Australia wilted against the skill of Jasprit Bumrah. In Sydney they batted Tim Paine’s side into the ground – Pujara 193, Rishabh Pant 159 not out – and were able to enforce the follow-on when Kuldeep Yadav took five before the rain came.

Australia vs India, 2020-21

India won 2-1
This series in the middle of the Covid pandemic became an instant classic that ended with India’s greatest ever victory, with which they ended Australia’s formidable run at the Gabba.In what would be Kohli’s only match of the series, India were bundled out for just 36 in the opening Test, in Adelaide. In an astonishing session, India nicked everything from Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood less than 24 hours after looking in control, having earned a useful lead.Bumrah shone at the MCG and Ajinkya Rahane, standing in as captain for Kohli, produced the defining innings with a brilliant 112. Australia should have won in Sydney but dropped vital catches on the final day as the injured duo of Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari put on an extraordinary display of resilience, aided by Pant’s almost hundred and the obduracy of Pujara.So to Brisbane for the decider. India’s injury list had mounted and their bowling attack was threadbare, to put it mildly. Australia seemed in control, until they weren’t. They failed to build on Marnus Labuschagne’s hundred, and Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar took the opportunity to revive India’s innings. Still, Australia were able to leave 328 for the final day, but when Shubman Gill and Pujara added 114 for the second wicket, it dawned on Australia that India had a chance.Then came Pant with an audacious display in what had effectively become a one-day run chase. A thumping drive down the ground as the shadows lengthened secured a place in history. “What I’ve seen is unimaginable, the resolve and character the boys have shown is simply superb,” coach Ravi Shastri said.What will this rivalry provide us next?

No-balls remain an issue, and he has been expensive at the death, but the CSK quick is also picking up lots of wickets at IPL 2023

S Sudarshanan05-May-20231:24

Tushar Deshpande: ‘Bowling a no-ball is a crime in T20 cricket’

Tushar Deshpande was unlikely to be at the top of too many lists of top wicket-takers in the IPL before the season started.That’s not a comment on Deshpande’s abilities, but before 2023, he had featured in only seven IPL matches across two seasons. He is right up there, though, nearabouts the top with 17 wickets – the same as Mohammed Shami – and that’s because he has used his pace as well as the variations in his repertoire – the offcutter and the knuckle ball, especially – to good effect to fix one of the gaps in the Chennai Super Kings line-up.”I am not going there to learn, firstly,” Deshpande had said of his expectations from the IPL on ahead of the 2020 edition, when he found an IPL team – Delhi Capitals – for the first time. He was 24 then. He had played all domestic formats for Mumbai already.Related

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“If I want to play for India in the future, I cannot look at IPL as a place to learn. I will look to grasp from whatever inputs I will get. But I will go there to deliver. I will be looking to execute whatever I have prepared.”Deshpande speaks very little. But those words revealed a lot about the person that he was – is – and how he thinks about himself and his game.And for CSK this year, Deshpande has exhibited his preparedness for the big moments early in the competition. First, when he got rid of Rohit Sharma with a nip-backer after being hit for a four and a six in the space of four balls. Then, again, in the same game when he dismissed Tim David with change of pace after he was pumped for 6, 4, 6 in the three previous deliveries. Later, against against Lucknow Super Giants, he kept his calm in the face of an onslaught from Nicholas Pooran to have the batter caught at long-off when the game was in the balance.Deshpande has carried his confidence from Mumbai’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy win, where he regularly bowled in the powerplay as well as at the death and returned 17 wickets at an economy of 6.72 – his best in a T20 tournament.

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As an eight-year-old, Deshpande played at Subhash Maidan in Kalyan, a distant suburb of Mumbai. Seeing his interest in the game, his father Uday sent him for the Under-12 trails for Shivaji Park Gymkhana in Dadar, 48 kilometres away from home. Deshpande, who travelled there in a local train with his kit bag in tow, saw that the queue for bowlers was shorter than that for batters, and joined that. There was no looking back thereon.Tushar Deshpande had played five games for Delhi Capitals in 2020•BCCIThat day, it was Deshpande’s ability to be nippy that had caught the eye of former Mumbai left-arm spinner and renowned coach Padmakar Shivalkar, Capitals’ current assistant coach Pravin Amre, and Sandesh Kawle, head coach of the Mumbai women’s side in the last two seasons.It was the first batch of the academy that also had the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Shardul Thakur, who have since gone on to play for the national side, and also Aakarshit Gomel, Siddhesh Lad and Harmeet Singh. And it didn’t start too well for Deshpande.”He had the spark, and we felt he could do well as a pace bowler. But he came crying once his Under-19 coach told him that he can never be a fast bowler,” Amre told ESPNcricinfo. “I told him, ‘we believe in you, but do believe that you can bowl fast?’ He said yes. I told him to write it on his bag, take it seriously, work towards it and not get demoralised. That was an important moment in his career.”Kawle worked on Deshpande’s basics – the run-up, the action, the fitness – and taught him never to compromise on his pace.”He is a soft-spoken and polite man, but he has the anger and the fire in his body language that is in-built in a fast bowler,” Kawle said. “He has the aggression. If someone hits him for a boundary, (he gets very angry). But we used to tell him not to compromise on his pace. If you do that, you can never become a fast bowler. Now he has the variations which are needed to be unpredictable in T20s.”In 2015, just a month short of 20, Deshpande first represented the senior Mumbai side – after having played for their Under-16 and Under-19 teams – in a T20 against Odisha.

“Subroto Banerjee [Bihar’s coach] called me up and said he saw a bowler who dismantled their batters with just pace”Pravin Amre on Tushar Deshpande’s performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2018-19

Come the 2016-17 season, his was a last-minute selection in Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy squad as a replacement for Thakur, who had been called up to India’s Test side, and Deshpande immediately left a mark with a four-wicket haul – including dismissing Dinesh Karthik – on the opening day against Tamil Nadu in Rohtak, and took 21 wickets in the competition in 14 bowling innings.In the quarter-final, though, he suffered a stress fracture of the ankle, which he aggravated when he tried to rush back to action. The result was that he was out for about six months. It was around the same time his mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, a battle she would lose two years later.In October 2018, a month after Deshpande had made his List A debut for Mumbai in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Amre got a phone call. It was from former India cricketer Subroto Banerjee, who was then coaching Bihar.”He called me up and said he saw a bowler who dismantled their batters with just pace,” Amre recalled. “He picked up five wickets [in the Vijay Hazare quarter-final in 2018-19]. Mumbai were winning the Ranji Trophy [comparatively more] but had won the one-dayers after a long time, and Deshpande’s contribution was a big one.”Despite injury setbacks in 2018-19 – he suffered a hamstring injury in the Ranji match against Gujarat – Deshpande had a productive season. He had picked up 15 wickets in Mumbai’s first Vijay Hazare win since 2006-07, 17 wickets in four Ranji matches and 19 in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy that season, which led to a call-up for the India A series against Sri Lanka and South Africa at home.Thakur and Deshpande are seen as similar bowlers in Mumbai cricket. In Amre’s words, “Shardul used to swing it a lot while Deshpande was more of a hit-the-deck bowler.” But Deshpande has had an issue with bowling front-foot no-balls.Deshpande’s first red-ball game for Mumbai was as Thakur’s replacement, and it so happened that CSK acquired Deshpande after Thakur became too expensive for them in the IPL 2022 auction – they had to opt out after going up to INR 7 crore.Amre on Deshpande’s IPL success this season: “Good to see him do well, and I am sure MS Dhoni has a big role to play in that”•BCCIBut before that, Deshpande was selected at his base price in the IPL auction in 2020 and only played five games for Capitals that season, picking up three wickets. Ben Stokes, now his CSK team-mate, was Deshpande’s first IPL wicket. And while he went unsold in the auction in 2021, he was still part of CSK as a net bowler.Come 2023, there was a bunch of injuries in the CSK camp: they had Kyle Jamieson and Mukesh Choudhary ruled out before the season started, while Stokes, Simarjeet Singh and Deepak Chahar picked up injuries during the tournament. That has given Deshpande regular games, and the opportunity to bowl in the death overs as well as have short bursts at the start, and he has capitalised.He has played ten matches for CSK so far this season, and his 17 wickets includes seven in the last four overs, again the joint-most for anyone to have bowled at least four overs at the death. Deshpande’s economy rate of 12.70 during that period has been on the higher side, but Amre is still pleased with the efforts.”He was with DC where he didn’t have a good year but got the experience,” Amre said. “He is a learning boy, a good student of the game and he took it in his stride. Good to see him do well this season, and I am sure MS Dhoni has a big role to play in that.”For an Indian fast bowler, pace is important, and he has that. To come from a simple household from Kalyan and do this well, I am sure his father, who supported him throughout, must be very proud.”Deshpande might have been a tad late to enter the glitzy world of the IPL, but in his first season as a regular in the XI, he sure is leaving an impression. In the process, he has perhaps ensured that his is not the last name you would imagine topping the bowling charts going forward.

Unprecedented scoring rates have been the calling card of the Stokes-McCullum regime

Alan Gardner31-May-2023We don’t know exactly the moment Bazball was born. Was England’s approach to Test cricket discussed in the first meeting between the team’s new coach and captain, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes? Perhaps we can trace it to the run chase at Trent Bridge, a dizzying 50-over romp to 299 in the second Test of last summer. Or maybe it was a twinkle in McCullum’s eye back when he was still an all-format player.We do know that Friday will mark exactly a year since the pair came together to revive England’s Test fortunes, starting with the home series against New Zealand in June 2022. Never mind the philosophical debates – and the fact that England, and McCullum in particular, don’t like the zeitgeist-surfing nickname for their style of play – it seems a good time to check in on the revolution, with England having won 10 out of 12 Tests and preparing for six more across the next two months, including an eagerly anticipated Ashes series.

Stokes the fire

Whatever the effect of Stokes’ captaincy, things couldn’t really have got much worse. England had won one Test in 17 under Joe Root, going back to the winter of 2020-21, and after the failed “red-ball reset” in the Caribbean were ready for a complete reboot.The beauty of Test cricket is that is always more than one way to win – and there is still a place for old-fashioned, copper-bottomed batting, as New Zealand showed when turning the Basin Reserve Test on its head in February, thereby handing Stokes only his second defeat. Australia have already made noises to suggest they won’t be lining up to accept a pasting. Whether Bazball can maintain trajectory into its second year will not be in England’s hands alone.

With both Kohli and Rohit rested and India suffering a collapse, either batter could have chaperoned the batting line-up

Deivarayan Muthu30-Jul-2023Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav: two batters with limitless white-ball potential. But they have had only limited opportunities in ODIs so far. Both Suryakumar and Samson had made their ODI debuts on a tour of Sri Lanka in 2021, when a number of seniors were in the UK for the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) final and the following Test series against England. That white-ball series was a dry run for the 2021 T20 World Cup in Dubai.Two years later, Suryakumar is a T20 phenom and Samson is the face of Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. But opportunities continue to be limited for them in ODIs. Since their debuts in Sri Lanka, they have played just six ODIs together over two years.In the absence of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who were both rested for the second ODI against West Indies, and with the series – and perhaps World Cup spots – at stake on Saturday, this was probably the best chance for both Samson and Suryakumar to push their cases. But both batters were part of a collapse that saw India being rolled over for 181 in 40.5 overs.Related

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Sure, the Barbados pitch was a challenging one with the quicks causing some balls to burst from a length and the spinners finding grip and turn. But it wasn’t Barbados of old where Joel Garner and Andy Robers had razed oppositions.Jayden Seales is just working his way back from a knee surgery while Romario Shepherd might not have even played had Jason Holder been available for selection. And not too long ago, Gudakesh Motie was Akeal Hosein’s understudy in ODIs. This West Indies side will not even be part of the upcoming World Cup. In such a scenario, India’s team management would have expected Samson and Suryakumar – or at least one of them – to shepherd the batting line-up after Shubman Gill had holed out for 34 in the 17th over.1:23

Jaffer: Suryakumar will probably get one last chance in the third ODI

Samson walked out at the fall of Gill’s wicket and watched Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya tumble at the other end. This brought Samson and Suryakumar, who funnily enough was wearing Samson’s jersey, together in the middle. It could have been a potential World Cup selection shootout, but neither could repair India’s innings. Their partnership lasted just one ball, with Samson nicking legspinner Yannic Cariah to Brandon King at slip for 9 off 19 balls.Suryakumar then started in more promising fashion, driving Cariah behind point with the turn for four off the second ball he faced. With both Cariah and Motie extracting sharp turn and uneven bounce, Suryakumar shelved the sweep and tried to pick off runs on the off side. But he couldn’t control a cut off Motie and lobbed it to backward point for 24 off 25 balls.After West Indies chased down the target with six wickets to spare, India’s stand-in captain Hardik Pandya expressed his displeasure at the overall batting performance. “We didn’t bat the way we were supposed to,” he said at the post-match presentation. “I think the wicket played pretty well and I don’t think it was like the first game. I think barring Shubman, everyone played their shots, got out, and hit the fielders. Disappointing but at the same point of time many things to learn.”With West Indies forcing the series into a decider in Trinidad on Tuesday, India might not be able to create further room for experimentation. It is also hard to see India fiddling too much with their combination in the Asia Cup and the home ODIs against Australia, where the oppositions will be stiffer, in the lead-up to the World Cup.Sizeable contributions from Suryakumar and Samson on a tricky track on Saturday could have earned them a bit more game-time over the coming weeks, but with Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul on the road to recovery, they could soon return to the bench once again. And if India do need them at some point during the World Cup, they might have to rock up cold.

The two teams have the most potent batting units at this World Cup and their fantastic bowlers just make them even better

Sidharth Monga04-Nov-2023″They are a little old-fashioned when opening the innings, aren’t they?””Too conservative in the middle overs. The world is leaving them behind.”If these lines were said about a strong World Cup contender four years ago, you would immediately think India were being spoken of. During this World Cup, India are not close to looking like that side (they are even stronger contenders, by the way), but there is another strong contender that is playing that sort of cricket: South Africa. In fact, if a team could be an enlarged print of the Rohit Sharma template that brought him double-hundreds, it is South Africa of the 2023 World Cup.Rohit himself, though, has burnt down that template of starting slow, getting himself a base, and consistently accelerating through the innings. He is lofting his left-arm nemeses over the infield, he is dancing down to the quickest of bowlers, and he is the quickest batter in the powerplay at the World Cup* bar Travis Head, who has played just one innings, and Jos Buttler who has faced just 12 balls in the first ten overs. Rohit also happens to be the most prolific run-getter during the powerplay.Related

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• Marco Jansen, South Africa's Magnificent No. 7

South Africa are even slower than Pakistan in the powerplay; only Australia are quicker than India. South Africa want that solid base and keep turning the heat on. India want to start red hot, and then just adjust to whatever is required. By the time the death overs come, South Africa become beasts and have been scoring 24 more runs than the next best team in those overs. By the time the death overs come, India have already won the match, so their numbers at the death are not up for any comparison.India’s bowling numbers at the death matter, though, because they have been the best finishing side with the ball: just 5.4 an over and a wicket every 12.72 runs. As a team, India have reversed the ball more than any other side, which makes Mohammed Shami lethal in the end. They anyway have a bowling god in Jasprit Bumrah at the end. Their spinners – bowling in the 40-45 band because teams have started to target 35-40 to cash in on the field restrictions – have bowled 13 death overs for 2.88 an over.In this bizarro world, two of the five quickest batters against spin in this World Cup are South Africans: the fair dinkum spin assassin Heinrich Klaasen and the vastly improved David Miller. They also have this hitter of hard lengths, Aiden Markram, in the middle.Kuldeep Yadav might want to tell them they haven’t yet faced a spinner who looks like he has been assembled in a mad scientist’s laboratory. He bowls the rarest of skills, left-arm wristspin, but still never leaves the stumps and also bowls at a pace that doesn’t let you recover.Marco Jansen has been dangerous with the new ball•Associated PressTabraiz Shamsi, whom the South Africa batters face a lot in the nets, will be the first one to tell South Africa batters this is not how left-arm wristspinners are supposed to bowl. They are meant to be error-prone eccentrics who range from awesome to awful. They are not meant to be stock bowlers who keep sprinkling their bit of magic every now and then. Kuldeep averages 16.16 at 4.72 an over in ten matches against South Africa, and that includes only three matches with this streamlined straighter run-up and increased pace.Then again, despite having steamrolled most big opposition, have India yet faced an attack collectively bowling such pace and with such good form? Marco Jansen, in this form the closest thing to a lab-assembled pace-bowling counterpart of Kuldeep, has taken a wicket every 16 balls in the powerplay, almost always getting South Africa off to a good start. He is taller than 6’9″, swings the new ball, bowls high pace, doesn’t fall into the trap of using his height but still gets disconcerting bounce, making his hard length harder than most.Lungi Ngidi is putting his India and CSK experience to good use, and Kagiso Rabada’s class is shining through in a format longer than just 20 overs. They are averaging a maiden each per game. With Keshav Maharaj being the banker he has been, Gerald Coetzee has genuine freedom to be the wild thing.That’s a pretty lethal bowling attack at any stage of an ODI game•ESPNcricinfo LtdIf India can claim that the real test of South Africa’s impersonation of a Rohit innings arrives on Sunday, there is a genuine case to consider this the sternest test for India’s batting. This is where perhaps India’s batting scores over South Africa’s: their overall body of work suggests they are the most versatile batting unit in this World Cup, capable of adjusting their games to the widest array of conditions, whether it be batting first or chasing.It is fitting that this contest will have a significant say on which team tops the table and thus earns the right to face the fourth-placed team in the semi-final. Tactically the teams won’t approach this too differently to the rest of their campaign. The data for match-ups is not even recent enough. Just expect the added element of reverse swing. Expect Mohammed Siraj to come back into the attack before Bumrah as it has happened in matches that India expect reverse in. These teams are Nos. 1 and 3 on the balls-per-six count, but in this strange world, expect Eden Gardens, one of the quick-scoring grounds, to make it more about the bowlers as it has been here so far.In an ideal world, you would want South Africa to bat first and not be more than two down in 35 overs just to see what really happens when the best death batters face the best death bowlers. And then see how the best chasers react against a hostile bowling unit. In these conditions, though, chances are the bowlers of either side might upset that pattern.

The Fortune Barishal team director talks about seeing cricket evolve in his three decades of coaching, young talent coming through the ranks in the BPL, and more

Interview by Mohammad Isam16-Feb-2024In 1996, Dav Whatmore coached Sri Lanka to the World Cup. Then he changed the way Bangladesh played cricket forever in his stint with the side from 2002 to 2007. He coached in Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Nepal and Singapore. Now he is back in Bangladesh as Fortune Barishal’s team director in this season’s BPL. We spoke to Whatmore about coaching and changes in the game in his time in it.You have come to Bangladesh after many years. Do you have good memories? How is it to come back?
When I knew that I was coming, I was looking forward to it, obviously. It didn’t disappoint. There are so many familiar faces – but I forgot most of their names! I am smiling, saying hello, but trying to remember their names. The outpouring of love and affection in this country is overwhelming. It is very humbling.I am just so happy to be here. I am here for the franchise, as a team director. I have tried to pass on my experience to anyone who is interested.What have you seen that has impressed you here?
I have seen a lot of young players. Before we played our first game against Khulna, I asked what they were like. They are saying a lot of the high-performance boys are there. Bloody hell, they were really impressive. They beat us twice.I also do understand that the totals have been a little bit low in this [BPL] edition. The surfaces that they are playing on contributed to it, but that’s okay. I may be guilty of looking through rose-coloured glasses, but I see good potential there. There are a number of good local Bangladeshi players, more of them than when I was here [last].Someone like Mehidy Hasan Miraz?
He has already been identified and won games for Bangladesh. I have had the privilege of working with him. He is a very coachable young man. He is open to listening, and that’s great. Him and Shakib [Al Hasan] are two very good batters in the top six, and will bowl a lot of overs. They are world-class players. Not many teams can boast of that.You have been on a journey for the better part of the last 20 years. You have even worked in Nepal.
It was just at the end of Covid. There was no other work and I was keen to do something. I went to Nepal. But then the ICC kept cancelling games. There was a lot of training. A little bit of domestic cricket. It was a bit of a disappointment.Nepal is one of the few Associate countries where you have to be indigenous to play for the team. You have to be a Nepali. They have a lot of talent. They have more allrounders than most countries. It was pleasantly surprising. It was good to work with them. They work hard. They were competitive in their own level of competition. They are still developing their pool of talent.

“I read and see a lot of the big international cricketers saying that they will protect the sanctity of Test cricket, but then they leave the format. They go in search of good money in the leagues”

What is it like to work around the world?
I really enjoy it. Any job you take is a challenge. It differs from one environment and one country to another. I always look forward to testing myself. I love working in this industry. I love working with people.You left a legacy in Bangladesh, and there has always been a certain positivity about you in other places like Pakistan and Zimbabwe.
I don’t necessarily accept these assignments to leave a legacy. I work the way I normally work, to try to build a healthy and happy environment. When you have some success along the way, you are remembered. I am me, whatever “me” is. Others will have an opinion. I am who I am.You’ve seen cricket evolve. You now have serious cricket in America. You have a competition like the Hundred. How do you view all these changes?
I do understand that the future is going to be more of franchise cricket. Test cricket will survive, but only in a handful of countries. I read and see a lot of the big international cricketers saying that they will protect the sanctity of Test cricket, but then they leave the format. They go in search of good money in the leagues.The lure of T20 cricket is very big. It draws players to finish their cricket with their respective boards prematurely. Some boards are managing their players to ensure that they stay longer. The other negative knock-on effect is that it is reducing the available time for bilaterals in the Future Tours Programme. The ICC tournaments are also taking a chunk of time from the calendar.This is the fast pace that’s ahead of us. A lot of good things are coming out of it. A lot of people are benefiting, like umpires, scorers and referees. They are earning a good living.Maybe every four years everyone will be interested in a World Cup or every two years in a T20 [World Cup]. They are also trying really hard to have some sort of context for the five-day game with the World Test Championship. But it is going more and more on the franchise route.You developed the style of going hard in the first 15 overs with Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana. Mark Greatbatch had done it before you but you reshaped the Sri Lanka batting line-up to be more aggressive. It’s now become the norm across cricket today.
It is all reflective of changing to a fast-paced life. Cricket is also part of it. It is attracting a whole new audience that comes to watch at the ground. Television is drifting away. Live streaming is the way to go. Digital platforms are the future. There is unbelievable money in the IPL and the English Premier League.Whatmore at the home of the late Manzarul Islam. In his time as Bangladesh coach, Whatmore oversaw their first Test victory, against Zimbabwe in 2005•Raton GomesFortune Barishal have the likes of Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, and younger players like Mehidy and Mohammad Saifuddin. The changing of the guard from the big five to the younger players is the biggest talking point in Bangladesh. You also oversaw a transition when you were Bangladesh head coach.
The challenge is to do it correctly and effectively. You have to manage the transition as well as you can. Historically it is difficult to manage it successfully. You want happiness from the old guard that’s leaving, and happiness from the new guys coming in.There are now some really good servants of the game in the country who are coming to the end of their careers. There are some good youngsters coming along who are, quite rightly, looking for more opportunities to showcase at the highest level.You had veterans like Khaled Mahmud, Khaled Mashud and Habibul Bashar coming to an end of their careers during your time as Bangladesh coach. What would your advice be in this present context?
You need to have the incumbents ready. Keep them in the A team a little longer. Any hint of an injury, they come in. Maybe a senior player, from the goodness of their heart, will say, for the betterment of Bangladesh cricket, ‘Let’s bring in this guy for a game or two. Let’s have a look at how he goes.’ If it can be communicated correctly, you may have more of a chance to integrate. It would be better than historically what’s been the case. Not just here in Bangladesh. Everywhere.It is not an easy thing, though. The boys still need to have good competition. The A team will provide the opportunity to do that. Also to be around the senior men’s team as often as possible to get an idea of the level of pressure and how things work. There was a legspinner that was taken to New Zealand. If he was identified as a potential [future player], little things like that can bridge the gap. But, it is a difficult thing to manage. Do these transitions become harder to manage in a country where emotions often get the better of practicality?
I can understand the emotions in this country. It is great to see the passion. I am no different than everybody else. I am emotional as well. Because I am not a Bangladeshi, sometimes I am not as upset when we lose to a particular opponent. When I coached Pakistan, we were playing against India. I knew about the rivalry.During the Champions Trophy, we lost to them in Birmingham. It pissed everyone off that I wasn’t as emotional in the post-match interview. I am angry at the loss, but I didn’t show it emotionally. They thought I didn’t care. I do care. But sometimes if you are not part of the country, you can be falsely judged as not being emotional.

“When I bumped into older coaches, they told me I changed coaching forever. They said we used to go to the nets wearing black trousers and shoes, white shirt. You came in shorts, took your shirt off. I made sure the cameras weren’t there when I took the shirt off “

What was Dav Whatmore like as a coach 30 years ago, compared to how he is now?
I think I was lucky to have blinkers on. I was doing what I was trained to do at the Institute of Sports. I just focused on the job that I was doing. I had the good sense not to come to the Aravindas, Arjunas, Gurusinghas and Mahanamas, who had played a lot of Tests. I’ve played seven [Tests]. I am not going to tell them how to play. I can maybe give a bit of feedback. Having an Australian accent helped – it was something different, even though I was Sri Lankan.I focused a lot on the youngsters. I organised training. The proper reason to come [and coach] – to get something out of it. It was really good with the support staff. Everything was written down and planned. Years later when I bumped into older coaches, they told me I changed coaching forever. They said we used to go to the nets wearing black trousers and shoes, white shirt. You came in shorts, took your shirt off. You involved yourself with all that. I had no idea it was an effect I had. I was just being me. I made sure the cameras weren’t there when I took the shirt off ().How would you advise a coach who is starting off?
I shake my head looking at advertisements for coaching these days. The list of duties goes on for four pages. It really is ridiculous. You have to be a Rhodes scholar to read these requirements. I am thinking, how can a coach do all that stuff?I think the modern coach has to be good on the laptop. He has to be organised. But at the end of the day, you are working with humans. People.You have to know technique and tactics. You have to be extremely organised. You have to communicate effectively in team meetings. You have to work with individuals on their personal performance.Communication is so important. You have to know about nutrition and mental skills. It would help if you played the game, but it is not compulsory. You know about the levels of pressure. End of the day, it is about communication and management skills.You gotta have the balls to say, ‘No more practice. You are going to rest. We are not training.’ A lot of coaches do all sorts of things to justify their job. Sometimes the best thing to do is to shut up.

Legspin has long been treated with suspicion in Bangladeshi cricket, but so far Rishad has shown the courage – with ball and bat – to break the mould

Mohammad Isam28-May-2024Legspin is treated like high-brow art in Bangladesh – far too complicated, far too sophisticated, far too expensive.Let’s take an average Dhaka club official. He runs a team in the Dhaka leagues, where all games are played in the 50-over format. He doesn’t want a bowler who will go for six runs an over. He would rather play a left-arm orthodox spinner. Or four.Dhaka leagues are the lifeblood of Bangladesh cricket, the professional structure where cricketers compete and earn. It also has a majority say in the BCB, with twelve directors on the board. Whatever happens in the Dhaka league is reflected across Bangladesh cricket.Among the (many) things that have held back Bangladesh cricket is this backward mindset about legspin. Big and small decision-makers are suspicious of it. As a result, only two genuine legspinners had played for Bangladesh between 1988 and the start of 2023. (Alok Kapali, a batting allrounder, took Bangladesh’s first Test hat-trick with his legspin – the most significant feat by someone bowling legspin in the country.)Related

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The two genuine legspinners were Wahidul Gani, who played a single ODI in 1988, and Jubair Hossain, who played ten international matches between 2014 and 2015. The former became a well-known coach. Jubair’s career is a snapshot of how Bangladesh have viewed legspin.In a time when legspin is so vital, especially in white-ball cricket, Bangladesh have been oblivious to what they have been missing out on. So last year, when Rishad Hossain made his T20I debut in a dead rubber against Ireland, no one thought much of it. Those who saw that game likely assumed that Chandika Hathurusinghe’s love for legspinners had prompted him to hand Rishad a debut. End of story.In the 12 months since, though, Rishad has made himself an automatic choice for Bangladesh in T20Is – a 6’3″ legspinner who can hit sixes with the bat from the lower order too. Plus, he is a gun fielder.He was one of the better performers in Bangladesh’s T20I series loss against USA last week. He may have taken only four wickets but finished the three games with an economy of 4.40, the best by a Bangladesh bowler in a bilateral series away from home.

“They don’t really trust legspinners in Bangladesh. They are more for left-arm spin, but the big man bowled beautifully today with a little bit of purchase.”Former Bangladesh coach Stuart Law after Rishad’s showing against Law’s current team, USA

“They don’t really trust legspinners in Bangladesh,” Stuart Law, the USA coach, said after the final T20I, where Rishad returned 1 for 7 from four overs. Law, importantly, was once coach of Bangladesh. “They are more for left-arm spin, but the big man bowled beautifully today with a little bit of purchase. You don’t have to turn it square. You need a little bit, enough to make it difficult.”

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Rishad had built up to the USA series with small strides in New Zealand last year. He struck a 54-ball 87 and took three wickets in the tour match, prompting Hathurusinghe to hand him an ODI debut. He came home to play four matches for Comilla Victorians in this year’s BPL and picked up a four-wicket haul. He broke through against Sri Lanka. He bowled well in the T20Is, often using his height to dip the ball into the blockhole. There was not much room to get under the ball and slog him, so when the Sri Lankan batters tried too hard, he picked up big wickets.These were baby steps, but important ones.Rishad was growing in confidence, while captain Najmul Hossain Shanto was also being confident about using him more.”You need to have a bit of courage to bowl in international cricket,” Rishad told ESPNcricinfo shortly before he left Dhaka for Houston with the Bangladesh team for the T20 World Cup. “I want to play fearless cricket however long I play for Bangladesh.Rishad Hossain has shown he has batting chops to back up his bowling•AFP/Getty Images”Last year, when I was in New Zealand, I found out just how challenging international cricket can be. They are a big team. The conditions, weather, pitches, are all different from here. There was a lot to learn on that tour.”The other thing that worked in Rishad’s favour was a 30-ball 53 against Sri Lanka, which came with seven sixes, a Bangladesh record for most sixes in a T20I innings. Bangladesh batters, especially lower down the order, are not known for big hitting.”I just feel like hitting sixes when I have the bat in hand,” he said. “I have always batted this way, since my childhood. I loved batting with Mushfiq [Mushfiqur Rahim] in the third ODI [against Sri Lanka]. He is such a big player, and I was doing my thing at the other end. It felt amazing.” In that game, Rishad made the kind of fearless, match-winning impact he speaks of, hitting an unbeaten 18-ball 48 to take Bangladesh to a series win. It was the fastest 40-plus score by a Bangladesh batter from No. 8 or lower.Rishad aced his next challenge – back in the domestic setup – as well.

Rishad is from Nilphamari, a small town 356 kilometres north of Dhaka. It is a million miles away from the cricketing mainstream in the country. Yet cricket, particularly legspin, is all Rishad has thought about since he was 12.

Being a legspinner, Rishad wasn’t certain of getting matches in this season’s Dhaka Premier League. He switched from champions Abahani Limited to Shinepukur Cricket Club, a side whose only goal was survival. He took 23 wickets at 12.73 with one five-wicket haul and a couple of four-fors. Shinepukur made it to the Super League for the first time in their history.”I think both the DPL and the Zimbabwe series [five T20Is in May] went well for me,” he said. “Any achievement is good. I am happy to have contributed to my club team’s success in this season. It definitely helped that I was playing for Shinepukur.”

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Rishad is from Nilphamari, a small town 356 kilometres north of Dhaka. It is a million miles away from the cricketing mainstream in the country. Yet cricket, particularly legspin, is all Rishad has thought about since he was 12.”The day I first held a cricket ball in Nilphamari, I held it with the legspin grip. I always bowled legspin,” he said. “I didn’t understand it much. After I did well in school cricket, our district coach liked what he saw. I started playing for the district and divisional sides. I went to the Robi Spin Hunt, which is how I came to Dhaka.”The Robi Spin Hunt is the kind of talent-spotting exercise that was common until the mid-2010s. Rubel Hossain, for example, was spotted at one of these. Sohel Islam, a senior coach, remembers Rishad standing out among the many left-arm spinners and offspinners at the talent hunt.Rishad emerged from the Robi Spin Hunt, the kind of talent-spotting exercise that had produced the likes of Rubel Hossain before him•Getty Images”We conducted a spin bowlers’ hunt in 2016-17 where I first saw him,” Sohel said. “I picked him from the Rangpur region. We brought ten or 12 of them for practice to Dhaka. He then went back to Rangpur to play Under-19 cricket. I used to see him from time to time in those days.”His height helps him get bounce on wickets that don’t spin a lot. It probably doesn’t matter much on Bangladeshi wickets, where skiddy bowlers get more help. He was quite fit, but he couldn’t spin the ball early on. Coach Wahidul Gani and I worked on increasing the revs he put on the ball.”Rishad didn’t doubt that his primary skill alone – a legspinner in SLA land – would take him places. “When I reached the Under-19s, I realised that legspin, along with batting and fielding, will get me somewhere. I always believed in myself. I always told myself that I will use every opportunity in front of me. I cannot let go of any chance.”For a while, those opportunities were rare. After making his first-class debut in 2018, Rishad only played in tour matches against visiting sides. The BCB often doesn’t play left-arm spinners in these games so that visitors don’t get an idea of what’s coming in the main games. Legspin wasn’t going to be served to them in the international fixtures.He would also bowl a lot in the Bangladesh nets. Before the 2023-24 season, Rishad had played just three Dhaka Premier League matches, where teams make cautious choices in recruitment, preferring more economical bowlers. Survival in the league is a major factor in their decision-making. Shinepukur gave Rishad ten matches this season, true, but only after he had done well for Bangladesh.

Bangladesh will always benefit from the type of the bowler that Rishad is. I think it is a big deal that we have a wristspinner in the Bangladesh team. The team has to believe in him.Former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud

Former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud, seen as one of the most influential coaches in the country, said that he regretted not playing Rishad more at Abahani. It was, in fact, Mahmud’s suggestion to Rishad that he move to Shinepukur, a lesser side but one that gave him plenty of game time, which Mahmud had anticipated.”I think Rishad is a fantastic cricketer. He was unlucky not to play many matches,” Mahmud said. “He is a brilliant fielder. He can strike the ball in the death overs. We couldn’t take care of him [at Abahani]. We have the concept here that left-arm spinners have to be picked in the XI. I was always under pressure from the club [not to play Rishad]. I told him to play for Shinepukur, and thankfully he did well this season.”Left-arm spinners are good but legspinners are wicket-takers. Bangladesh will always benefit from the type of the bowler that Rishad is. The more he plays, [the more he will be] courageous and the more he will develop. I think it is a big deal that we have a wristspinner in the Bangladesh team. The team has to believe in him.”He is not the finished product yet. Sohel feels that Rishad has some natural advantages due to his higher point of release and his physical strength, but can add more strength to his bowling.”Rishad always had a strong build. I think a wristspinner has to be as strong as a fast bowler,” Sohel said. “There’s a lot of strength needed, particularly in terms of counter-rotation. He has a high-arm action, unlike traditional legspinners. I initially tried to keep his bounce and drop on the ball. I think there’s still room for improvement in his action. His head falls off [at the point of delivery]. If he corrects this, he will have better accuracy.”Coach Chandika Hathurusinghe has shown he is a fan of legspin across both his stints with Bangladesh•AFP/Getty ImagesSeeing the support from Hathurusinghe, Rishad should be in good hands. BCB has hired Mushtaq Ahmed, the Pakistan legspin legend, as their bowling consultant for the T20 World Cup, which should help Rishad more than ever.

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Bangladesh’s history with legspin is the downer in this story. It’s so discouraging that Hathurusinghe and Shanto have built a protective shield around Rishad, something they don’t usually do. They don’t talk him up too much. They don’t expose him in the death overs. They don’t want him in the media too often.Hathurusinghe will be acutely aware of the perils, given how hard he fought, largely unsuccessfully, for a legspinner in his last stint as Bangladesh coach. In his first few months in the job in 2014, he saw Jubair in the nets. He handed him a first-class debut for Bangladesh A against Zimbabwe A. A month later, Jubair made his Test debut against Zimbabwe. He took seven wickets in his third Test, prompting Hathurusinghe to push for his inclusion in Bangladesh’s squad for the 2015 ODI World Cup.Chief selector Faruque Ahmed rejected him, kicking off a long-running feud with Hathurusinghe. Domestic teams were also reluctant to pick Jubair.

Hathurusinghe and Shanto have built a protective shield around Rishad, something they don’t usually do. They don’t talk him up too much. They don’t expose him in the death overs. They don’t want him in the media too often.

When Jubair dismissed Virat Kohli with a googly in the Fatullah Test in 2015, it should have been the turning point in his career. Instead, a poor T20I debut against Zimbabwe later that year became his last international game. Jubair lost his mojo as opportunities dried up. He played a few seasons of the BPL but was reduced mostly to being a net bowler at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.Now that Rishad has reached a certain level, his first coach Sohel wants him to play freely, and not think too much about what’s going on around him. “I want him to bowl according to his ability. I want him to bat with his normal approach. This is how he should be playing. He doesn’t have to take a lot of responsibility of the team.”Rishad himself doesn’t want to think too far ahead either. “I don’t expect too much from the World Cup. I want to play to the best of my ability. The rest is up to Allah’s wishes. My personal goal is to play the second round [Super Eights], and then take stock of the situation.”In a crowded field of legspinners at this year’s T20 World Cup, it might be hard to stand out. Rishad, though, is already standing out, and has a chance to do more than just help Bangladesh at the World Cup – a good show, and who knows, a decent BPL and/or DPL team may even ask him for a trial.

The first man from St Kitts to play Test cricket for West Indies talks about his quick rise to the West Indies team and his first series

Nagraj Gollapudi08-Aug-2024Becoming the first player from the island of St Kitts to play for West Indies, meeting King Charles, making a Test debut at Lord’s, getting his first Test cap from Viv Richards, facing his first ball in international cricket from James Anderson. Mikyle Louis has quite the story to tell.When the West Indies contingent were told they were going to be meeting the King of Britain, the talk quickly turned to how one greets a monarch. Louis says his team-mates joked about whether go with a handshake or bow. He himself had other ideas.”In my head I always was planning to give him a fist bump. But the thing is, I don’t know if in the UK that’s a common greeting, like in the Caribbean. So I wasn’t sure if he would be able to respond. So I did ask a question [to the royal staff] if this is something that would be possible. They told me it would be funny, so I just went through with it.”Louis was the second player, after West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite, to greet the king. As Charles spoke about a visit in the past to St Kitts and asked if Louis “specialised” as a batter or bowler, the player raised his clenched left fist, which the King bumped with his right. “My pleasure, my pleasure,” Louis, with his hair braided and tied into a knot resembling a hook, was heard saying, crossing his right hand over his heart.Soon after, Louis’ older brother Jeremiah, taught the king how to execute an elaborate handshake (), which triggered a happy chuckle from the monarch.When Natalia Meish Louis watched the video clip above of her two sons exchanging pleasantries, fist bumps and handshakes with the King of Britain, she burst out laughing. We meet at the West Indies team hotel, the day before the third Test of the England series in Edgbaston. It showed the king in a new light to Natalia. “We realised how the King had stepped out of his comfort zone for a moment and looked like a happy man, and jovial,” she says.The King and I: Louis says hello to King Charles, in bespoke style•Yui Mok/AFP/Getty ImagesHer younger son’s life has taken a dramatic upswing since February this year, when he made his first-class debut for Leeward Islands and finished as the leading run-maker in the West Indies Championship, the Caribbean domestic first-class tournament. He scored three centuries including two in a match against Guyana. The next best batter on the run-scorers’ list, Brathwaite, was 117 runs behind. That form prompted the selectors to pick Louis for the England tour.During our chat two days before the Edgbaston Test, Louis listens attentively, occasionally flashing a smile that reveals his braces. He is happy about the quick upswing in his career, but remembers well that not long ago, things were quite different and he was brooding.”For a long period of my life, I felt like I have been working hard but I have just been stagnant. There were many times when I was laying down on the bed, looking at the roof, wondering like if [I am] doing enough.”Alick Athinaze is one year older than me. Kirk McKenzie, we are the same age. Jayden Seales is one year younger than me. And this is just a few examples. You would look at their progress and they would’ve been performing in regional, international cricket, and you are wondering to yourself: am I working hard enough? Am I training hard enough? Am I giving it my all? And these are the questions that would keep me up at night.”The self-doubt, Natalia says, made Louis want to give up playing. This was around the time he was allowed to train with the Leeward Islands squad before the 2023-24 season but found it hard to summon the motivation to turn up. When she saw him miss practice a couple of days, she confronted him.Louis says his brother Jeremiah (right) has been more like a mentor to him. “He believed in me more than I believed in myself at some points”•Nick Potts/PA Photos/Getty Images”I said, ‘What you doing home?’ He won’t answer. Next day I asked again. He said he felt like he wasn’t wanted here [Leewards Islands]. I said, ‘No, no, no. Failure is not an option. You have to get up. You can’t stay here. You have to go.'” Her voice rises on the last few lines.Eventually Louis did get into the Leewards squad and had the excellent debut season that would catapult him into the West Indies side. “We have to leave that door open and always make sure we continue pushing our children in the right direction,” Natalia says, looking back. “Some people mature later. It is very important.”Louis also credits his success to his brother Jeremiah, the oldest of the four siblings. “He influenced me in many ways,” he says. “While I was in my stagnant phase, he was playing for Leeward Islands or West Indies A or President’s XI games. He would come back and have a conversation, saying, ‘Yo, I bowled to this batsman in the nets. You are not far off, you continue working. Trust me, bro, based on skill you have time to grow.’ Those conversations would give me hope and the self-belief that, okay, I’m good enough.”Louis says Jeremiah, who hurt his hamstring on the eve of the Edgbaston Test, is not just a brother but also a mentor and a good friend. “He believed in me more than I believed in myself during certain periods of my life.”When he was selected finally to play for Leewards in February, Louis says he had four sleepless nights, during which he kept telling himself he wanted to make the opportunity count and not go back to being “stagnant” again.A successful start to his maiden domestic season made him train like he was already selected for West Indies, he says, because he wanted to be prepared if the call came. Unaware that the selectors were looking to pick him for the England trip, he had started preparing for the 2024-25 Super 50, the domestic 50-overs competition, soon after the completion of the four-day tournament. Then, when he was picked for the England tour, things, Louis says, went “crazy” for him overnight.The King and I, Pt 2: Louis meets his role model at Lord’s•Getty ImagesTo honour the first cricketer from the island to play Test cricket, the government in St Kitts and Nevis approved naming the South Stand at Warner Park Cricket Stadium, and a road, after Louis, and allocated him a plot of land. He also received a $10,000 (East Caribbean dollars, about US$3700) grant from the government to help him prepare for the England trip.”All the politicians and the leaders of the country, they started to call me and congratulate me and ask for meetings and those kinds of stuff. A lot of people started to follow me on social media, message me, a lot of phone calls… it happened .”Three days after his fist bump with King Charles, Louis made his Test debut. Lord’s was dressed festively for Anderson’s farewell Test. Louis received his cap from one of the greatest ever to have played cricket: fellow Leeward Islander Viv Richards, who took Louis by the shoulders in fatherly fashion and said, “Big, strong young man, you are going to make your debut now. You want to be great. This is a good time to start.”Louis’ best moment didn’t come with the bat at Lord’s. On the second afternoon he spectacularly ran Shoaib Bashir out, which meant Anderson walked in to bat – for the last time in Tests, as it would turn out. West Indies had originally planned to give him a guard of honour, but most fielders had dashed towards Louis, who had himself rushed to his brother, who was under the Warner stand in his substitute vest.”I was pointing at [Jeremiah] because we generally try to raise each other’s standards,” Louis laughs. “He was the 12th man and on a few occasions [that day], he was telling me: ‘You are not looking energetic, you are not looking active, you are not looking like you are giving it your all, your standards have dropped.'”Louis has a chat with West Indies assistant coach Jimmy Adams ahead of the Edgbaston Test•PA Photos/Getty ImagesLouis patted his right shoulder with his left hand as they celebrated the run-out. “He was telling me that that my shoulder’s weak and I can’t throw the ball to the keeper, so then I was tapping my shoulder to say: ‘This a weak shoulder? I have a bullet arm.'” In the Compton Stand, at the Nursery End, Natalia jumped and danced in delight.The previous day Louis had faced the first ball of his international career. A delivery he had played out in his head, like all batters, several times mentally. “As a human, negative thoughts are going to come in your mind. So leading up to that first ball, they were: don’t let Anderson give you a one ball on debut.”What I always tell myself is: trigger early, make sure you are heading forward, try to play the ball as late as possible. I was just repeating this to myself, then I defended the first ball, the second ball. Third ball I hit for four.”When I hit that four I just relaxed after that.”In their exchanges, Anderson left Louis a little wiser about how the best fast men operate. “In the short space of time I faced him, I could see the experience and the skill that he has. He was bowling from many different areas on the crease. He had different wrist positions for the different balls, and you could just see that he was trying to work me out. This is one of the best fast bowlers ever and I have the honour of playing against him.”Louis made 27 and 14 at Lord’s. West Indies lost the match in just over two days, but in both innings he showed he had the patience to face the new ball and leave the ball alone for the first hour, as the textbook recommends.Mind them feet: “Everybody tells you, ‘Mark Wood [is] fast, don’t get hit, make sure you wear all your protective gear,'” Louis says•Stu Forster/ECB/Getty ImagesThose qualities allowed him to get a start in the second Test too, at Trent Bridge, where he Mark Wood, operating at top pace. Louis was square in the sights for Wood’s first spell, which included a 97.1 mph delivery.He was up for the challenge. “When I was facing him, it was more of me telling myself: ‘Mikyle, be brave. You are well prepared. It’s still a cricket ball. It’s still a cricket game. It’s nothing new.’ So me facing Mark Wood was just more of me being brave as opposed to with Anderson, which was more of a battle of skill, if you understand. Everybody tells you, ‘Mark Wood [is] fast, don’t get hit, make sure you wear all your protective gear.'”Louis says he came prepared for Wood and even Jofra Archer. Back home he had placed the bowling machine closer in the nets. “It was set probably three quarters of the pitch, compared to the normal length. I set it for short balls. It was a on a concrete strip. The speed was about 91mph. It felt really fast.”That allowed him to evade the short balls, get himself into good positions to duck and weave, as opposed to turning his head and getting hit. Louis claps his hands while talking about the theatre and atmosphere Wood generates in front of a full house as he charges in to bowl.What is it like, facing a delivery at 97mph?”It’s quick,” he says. “You don’t have time think about what shot you are going to play. You just have to rely on muscle memory. It was just a matter of being strong mentally and staying brave.”Barring the second innings in Edgbaston, where he batted for 140 minutes, he tended to slip up after batting the first hour in England. Most commonly he was out poking at the ball moving away outside off stump to nick behind. Was it about not being able to switch on and off successfully, which made him drop his concentration?Louis says his being picked for the England tour and playing three Tests made up for his times of self-doubt. “If I had known then that this would be at the end of the tunnel, I would’ve been training, smiling, as opposed to staying up at night”•Nick Potts/PA Photos/Getty ImagesLouis does not believe he repeated his mistakes. “My four innings, I wouldn’t put them down to one problem. I have made different mistakes on the four different occasions. There was an innings, yes, where [Ben] Stokes got me caught behind the second time [Lord’s] – we had the water break and then they changed the ball. I wasn’t switched on then. But the other times, I don’t think it is me lacking concentration.”One of his takeaways from his first Test series has been to make sure he plays the ball as late as possible while sticking to his basic trigger movements. “[Before the England tour] I practised with the intent of looking to get forward, but now I am trying to get that big stride in or play it late. I don’t think I have mastered it yet, it’s something I am working on.”One advice Kraigg shared was, you don’t change your work ethic or your workload because you are doing better. You still work as hard or even harder when you are doing good or when you are doing bad. You keep the same motivation.”On the eve of the Lord’s Test, the captain’s counsel to Louis was: “Don’t just play for West Indies, be the first [of this generation] to score 30 hundreds. You’ve got to think big; don’t think small.”Louis says Brathwaite took him to dinner the second day after West Indies landed in England. “We had a few deep conversations. There were a few times in the first few practice sessions where I was feeling a little frustrated because I was trying to… I want to use the word ‘impress’, I was trying to impress the coaches and the [support] staff so that nobody feels like I don’t deserve to be here, or that I was given a favour by being selected. That was really my focus.”He settled me and told me: just continue doing what you have been doing. You were selected because you are a good cricketer. Him and Jason Holder, there’s no praise high enough to give them – they really settled me in terms of allowing me to just focus on the cricket aspect as opposed to attempting to be what I’m not.”First Test meets final Test: Louis faces James Anderson at Lord’s•Alex Davidson/Getty ImagesLouis came home with 162 runs across six Test innings but not short on learnings.”I just feel proud,” he says. “I feel proud that when I knew it was dark and nothing was happening for me in terms of progress or opportunities, I didn’t give up. If I had known then that this would be at the end of the tunnel, I would’ve been training, smiling, as opposed to staying up at night [thinking] ‘One day if I ever make it…’ and so forth. It’s a proud moment.”West Indies are now playing South Africa in Trinidad in the first of a two-match Test series. Natalia will be back home, managing the family business, but Jerry, Louis’ father, is expected to be at both venues to watch their son.Natalia can’t wait for his maiden Test hundred. “I’m praying, I’m praying,” she says, eyes welling up. “That will be like… heavens for me.”On that first morning at Lord’s when the national anthem was being played, it was like so many different emotions started to flood through. Seeing the camera come across Jeremiah and Mikyle’s faces as being players of West Indies, it was one the best, one of the warmest, feelings that any mother could experience or feel. It was just one of the proudest moments. Tears just started to run down my eyes.”As for Louis himself, he has his goals but he’s not quite willing to reveal them. As we say our goodbyes, he bursts into a chuckle when asked about his ultimate dream, which he says he is “editing”. I push him a a little: give us a hint.”I want to be like Viv Richards,” he says.

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210 – The highest target that Delhi Capitals (DC) have successfully chased down in all these years of playing in the IPL. They have chased a 200-plus target down only once before – 209 against Gujarat Lions in IPL 2017.This is also the highest chase for any team against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), with 197 by Rajasthan Royals (RR) last year the previous highest.1.56 – Win probability for DC at the end of the 13th over, according to ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster. DC were six down at that point and needed 94 runs off the last seven overs. The programme had given them a 30.68 % chance at the beginning of the chase.ESPNcricinfo Ltd5 – Number of wins by a margin of one wicket in the IPL, including DC’s victory against LSG on Monday. DC needed 18 runs at the fall of the ninth wicket, the most in those five instances.2 – DC’s 210-run chase is the second-highest successful chase having lost nine wickets in T20 cricket. The highest is 213 by LSG against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in IPL 2023.7 for 3 – DC’s total at the fall of their third wicket on Monday. Only three teams have recovered from a poorer start to win a match in the IPL. The lowest is 3 for 3 by RR against Deccan Chargers in 2009.Only one team had successfully chased a 200-plus target in all T20s from a poorer start – 5 for 3 by Papua New Guinea when they chased down 204 against Singapore in 2022.