Babar Azam’s team have been in India for a little over a week and they’ve been well looked after ahead of their World Cup opener

Shashank Kishore05-Oct-2023As the Pakistan team bus zooms into the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad, their motorcade of armed police jeeps containing a few hundred security personnel quickly swing into action. They spread themselves across the outdoor nets area within a blink of an eye, just before the team comes out to train.Behind the police jeeps, there’s a van full of trained commandos that makes a swift entry. As they disembark, their chief issues orders detailing the areas they will survey and the activities they have to carry out. A local liaison officer is then briefed by the security chief, and plans are relayed across walkie-talkies to various department heads around the venue.It’s not hard to understand why security is so elaborate. There’s body frisking at every entry point; those with a valid pass only have it slightly better than many others, and fans making a beeline outside the gates to catch a glimpse of the players, or those trying to get hold of tickets, are kept out.Even before the Pakistan team emerges from the dressing room, three armed guards station themselves besides the perimeter of the nets area, while six others are at the entrance of the main pavilion block as Babar Azam strides out with his team after a slip catching drill inside the main ground.Related

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These guards with dark glasses have their backs to the action. They’re so seasoned that they don’t flinch or move a muscle, even when someone with the ferocious ball-striking capabilities of Iftikhar Ahmed, or Ifti as the team calls him affectionately, goes about his business. As he has a hit, repeatedly swinging big to the chorus of ‘played, yaar’ from team director Mickey Arthur, the sound of ball on bat echoes around the concrete stadium.As Pakistan go about training, the intense security seems overwhelming to the bystander watching from afar. But if you’re wondering whether Pakistan feel the same way, remember that they play under heavy security when hosting international teams at home. They’ve taken the protection in their stride at the World Cup, with smiles on faces amid the warm hospitality they’ve received in Hyderabad.At the ground, organisers have gone out of their way to procure many more kilos of ice than originally requested for, and the chef has tailored local delicacies to the taste of the players. This is i, Hyderabadi style, where food is an integral part of the conversation. Generous cups of Irani chai and diet Karachi biscuits – a local delicacy – are served, apart from dishes curated by the team trainer to ensure players aren’t loading themselves up prior to a training session or match.Back at the hotel, the Pakistani players have an entire floor to themselves, cut-off from the general public, and a dedicated set of staff to cater to the team’s needs. There’s a separate dining area, a cordoned off swimming pool that’s kept open beyond usual hours to accommodate late recovery requests, and round-the-clock security that makes arrangements for the team if they want to head out.Four nights ago, the entire team visited Jewel of Nizam, near the famous Golconda Fort, for dinner. A section of the route was turned into a green channel to facilitate smooth movement. On their plate were different varieties of kebabs, biryani and lots of spicy local food. and were favourites. It was Pakistan’s first and only outing since arriving in India.Mohammad Bashir might be the only Pakistani fan at their opening game against Netherlands in Hyderabad•Mohammad BashirOnly a week ago, there was so much uncertainty around Pakistan’s journey to India. Visa delays had prompted the team to cancel a training trip to Dubai. Now, those teething troubles have been long forgotten and the team appeared at ease with their environment. The only hint of regret, from Babar at the captain’s event in Ahmedabad on the eve of the tournament opener, was the absence of Pakistani fans.Babar has been asked several times about the welcome his team received in India. How the airport came to life as news spread that Pakistan had arrived. Babar has said he’s been surprised, not just on arrival but also at their warm-up games.”To be honest, we also heard that,” he said, when asked if the team thought they’d receive a hostile reception. “But since the time we arrived in Hyderabad, the kind of hospitality we’ve received and the kind of welcome we had from the airport to the hotel … even in the last match at the ground we felt very good.”On Friday, Babar will be able to hear shouts of ‘Pakistan jeetega’ and ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ from an elderly gentleman, 66-year-old Mohammad Bashir, who is a bit of an anomaly in Hyderabad. He’s perhaps a lone ranger, the only Pakistani fan in the city.Bashir is from Karachi, but he’s been able to make it in time for their first game against Netherlands only because he’s a now a US citizen. He’s been traveling to World Cups since 2011 and has quite a rapport with several Indian players, including MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. Bashir has several photos with them and their families, and says Dhoni and Rohit regularly give him tickets for ICC events. Bashir says while he isn’t as familiar with the current Pakistan players, he’s excited to watch Babar and Mohammad Rizwan “do something special” at the World Cup.In June, much against his doctor’s wishes, he decided to travel to India to watch the tournament. All he knew then was that he would be based in Hyderabad, the hometown of his wife, Rafia. To many, Bashir has already become a familiar face around the ground. He cheers for the players, waves the Pakistan flag passionately, and belts out chants that resonate loudly around the ground.He’s mighty impressed with the ” Hyderabad has given him. It’s likely the Pakistan team will share the sentiment when they reflect on this World Cup campaign many years later.

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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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.

How Cummins uses it could significantly affect Australia’s fortunes against Pakistan on the pitch that offers true bounce

Karthik Krishnaswamy19-Oct-20232:10

Cummins: Pakistan’s bowlers could do serious damage

There are good short balls and bad short balls, but sometimes their goodness or badness is an entirely post-facto construct. Take two balls Pat Cummins bowled, back-to-back, to Pathum Nissanka in Lucknow. Both were banged into roughly the same area of the pitch, and both climbed to just over shoulder height and finished outside off stump.Nissanka pulled the first one for four, picking the length in a flash and dispatching the ball well in front of square.The line of the second short ball may have been ever so slightly closer to Nissanka’s body, cramping him ever so slightly for room, or Nissanka may have taken ever so slightly longer to get into position for the pull. In any case, he failed to get on top of the bounce, and hit the ball in the air, within range of David Warner haring to his left from deep square-leg.Related

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Similar balls, different outcomes, and in each case there was only so much the bowler was in control of. Bowling fast is an intensely physical act, bowling fast and short even more so, and how quickly the ball reaches the batter and at what height and line are hugely dependent on the vagaries of the pitch and how the ball reacts off it.Bowling short is, in essence, an act of faith.The variance of outcome between those two short balls from Cummins is also typical of that length. It’s a length that’s likely to go for runs, but it’s also likelier than most other lengths to bring wickets.As first change, Cummins does a job that he isn’t exactly a natural at. He isn’t Lockie Ferguson, a white-ball specialist who trains year-round to bowl middle-overs lengths in white-ball cricket. But it’s a role Cummins has to perform out of necessity, and a role that’s vital for Australia at this World Cup, where they only have one frontline spinner with whom he can share the middle-overs wicket-taking burden.It’s also a role that’s heavily dependent on what has come before. Cummins hasn’t had a great World Cup, so far, in terms of the situations he’s begun bowling in. There were no new-ball wickets against either South Africa or Sri Lanka, and while Australia picked up three in their opening game against India, they had only posted 199 batting first.Pakistan and Bengaluru are likely to present Cummins with another stern middle-overs test. The Chinnaswamy Stadium is traditionally one of the fastest-scoring grounds in India, with pitches that offer true bounce and an outfield that’s among the smallest in the country. The straight boundaries are particularly short, so teams often tend to try and make batters hit square.The short ball, then, is likely to be a key component of the middle-overs battle. How Cummins uses it could significantly affect Australia’s fortunes.

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.

There were few feats the late great South African allrounder could not achieve on a cricket field. He was an action-hero come to life

Mark Nicholas19-Feb-2024Late afternoon on Saturday, I was on a train. Rain spat angrily at the windows. Apple lit up and the WhatsApp message read, “We wanted to share the sad news with you. Mike passed away peacefully at 16.34 surrounded by his family.” The English countryside raced by, an indistinct picture of grey landscape and flooded fields. The news was a shock but not unexpected. After a complication during relatively routine surgery little more than a week ago, Mike Procter went into cardiac arrest. From unconsciousness, he never woke up. A bright and powerful flame had been snuffed out. Just like that. Proc, gone.I had four cricketing heroes as a kid – first Ted Dexter and John Snow, then Barry Richards and Proc. At Lord’s in the 1973 Gillette Cup final I heard the public announcer say, “From the pavilion end… Mike Procter”, and I shivered. In he sprinted, the winds blowing back his hair as he exploded into that unique action and dramatic result. In all things cricket, Proc was the runaway dream. Gifted, good-looking and great fun, he knew no enemies. In the cricketing homes he loved most – Natal, Rhodesia and Gloucestershire – it was a love that did not go unrequited. In fact, the adoration knew no boundary and it came from spectators, team-mates and opponents alike.He bowled those fast inswingers, and later, he lobbed up big-spinning offbreaks; he caught most things at slip and he batted as if in a hurry, smiting the ball through and over the off side with extraordinary timing and power. He is one of only three men to have made first-class hundreds in six consecutive innings, the others being Sir Donald Bradman and CB Fry.He partied hard, married young (to the glamorous and no-nonsense Springbok tennis player Maryna Goodwin, just four months after they met), travelled widely with bat and ball, won trophies, signed for Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, and almost never failed to honour a commitment. What a franchise cricketer he would have been!Upon retirement he tried commentary before turning his hand to coaching, international match-refereeing, and the role of South African chief selector. He was a cricketing man in its best sense, a liver and lover of life – charming, thoughtful, kind. He had his flaws, his kryptonite if you like – a drink, a fag and a punt among them, but was never judged. I imagine the Australian allrounder Keith Miller to have been the forebear of the Procter way: few thoughts of strategic plans and due process, more of sparkling performance and the shindigs that followed.The Proccie Rocket in full cry, in a 1971 game against Northampton•Ken Kelly/The Cricketer InternationalThe first time I stood next to him was in the old pavilion bar at the County Ground, Southampton, after he had taken four wickets in five balls to blow away the Hampshire top order in the 1977 Benson and Hedges Cup semi-final. He actually took five in six but the umpire, dear old Tommy Spencer, simply couldn’t bring himself to lift the finger yet again. Nigel Cowley, the batter who followed Gordon Greenidge, Barry Richards, Trevor Jesty and John Rice to the guillotine, said he stood gripped by fear at the bellowing appeal by all of Gloucestershire, but the execution never came.As ground-staff kids, we helped run the scoreboard on big-match occasions and this was as big as it got. We couldn’t find the numbers in time to get them up – remember, those old metal plates that hung by small hooks and were changed by hand at every run and wicket? We missed “Last Man” every time and instead settled for getting the wickets right and the new batter’s name.Anyway, the quid pro quo was a drink with the coach in the bar after the game. And there was Michael John Procter, man of the moment, of the match and of the decade for me. I swear I brushed by to touch an arm and felt the magic rub off in the warm glow of a flushed face and fast-beating heart.Writing a piece for the a few years back, called “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Like the Mighty Mike Procter” I told stories of great deeds done by this man of many talents. The greatest allrounders of existing lifetimes have been Miller, Garry Sobers, Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Jacques Kallis and Procter. Truly he was that good, and dare I say it, perhaps better than a couple. His cover-drive was likened by Gloucestershire folk to the one revered in those parts years before and played by Wally Hammond. His devastating fast bowling brought myriad hat-tricks and launched a miracle or two. The place to be after the umpires removed the bails for the night was the dressing room, where Cane and coke – aka spook and diesel – was knocked back in gung-ho spirit, whether good day or bad.Straight outta Durban: with friend and long-time team mate Barry Richards at a friendly in Brisbane in 1993•Getty ImagesThere are some facts worth knowing. In the seven Test matches allowed to him, all against Australia, he took 41 wickets at 15 apiece. He scored a thousand runs in a county season nine times and took more than a hundred wickets twice. He was the first cricketer to score a hundred and take a hat-trick in the same match twice. His career-best figures of 9 for 71 came in Bulawayo with offbreaks, in a famous Currie Cup win over Natal. (See the David Lewis story in the piece linked earlier.)But figures don’t do it. His close pal and partner in numerous campaigns, Vintcent Van der Bijl, said simply, “I would have followed him over the top of the First World War trenches had he demanded it. A remarkable all-round cricketer, captain and man. I just loved who Proc was.”Barry Richards says he was “gutted” by the news. “After 65 years where our paths have so often crossed, it’s hard to imagine not being with him again. A giant has fallen.”Most recently Proc founded a project that coached sport- and life skills to thousands of underprivileged children in the areas around Durban, his home town. The Mike Procter Foundation needs money and the trustees are committed to driving it on, in honour of his name.Charismatic, colourful and swashbuckling, Proc was an inspiration wherever he went. Occasionally there was sadness around him as, oddly and unkindly, there has been around other great South African cricketers of the day – Richards, Graeme Pollock and Lee Irvine – but they brightened so many lives with the cricket they played that the memories remain gilded by their genius. It is impossible to pick a favourite but what we can say about Proccie is that few men to have played the game have been so widely respected and admired. His gifts were many, his legacy is forever.

If you’re a Sri Lanka fan, there isn’t much to cheer about in this World Cup. And the root problems do not lie with the coaching staff or the on-field leadership

Andrew Fidel Fernando08-Jun-2024To the people in charge of Sri Lankan cricket,We hope this email finds you in a well.We are writing this after observing another embarrassing start to a World Cup campaign. We regret to take this tone, but honestly, this has gone on long enough, and something needs to be said.Over the past week, we have stayed up late into the night, and woken up early in the morning, to watch the men’s team play in the ongoing T20 World Cup.While we were excited about the state of the bowling resources in this squad (our fast-bowling battery has never been faster), we were always worried about the lack of dynamism in the batting, which never seemed up to modern T20I standards. As if to prove our point, Sri Lanka collapsed to 77 against South Africa, then 124 for 9 against Bangladesh. Unless there are some serious upsets in Group D, Sri Lanka are out of the T20 World Cup for exactly the reasons expected.It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this World Cup campaign could have just been an email.We also take no pleasure in noting that it is now exactly ten years since Sri Lanka last won a global cricket tournament, a victory we remember celebrating in truly euphoric fashion, by the way. In the seven years leading up to that 2014 T20 win, Sri Lanka had been in major finals four times, and were more or less a fixture in the semi-finals.Related

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Rishad Hossain, a package Bangladesh don't understand but can't ignore

Mustafizur, Rishad, Hridoy dazzle in Bangladesh's tight two-wicket win over Sri Lanka

Since 2014, however, Sri Lanka have not made a semi-final once. There have been many captains of the Sri Lankan team (too many to count), and almost as many coaches. We have observed a pattern, where after every World Cup failure, coaches and captains are blamed, only to be replaced by the next set of scapegoats coaches and captains.As we have observed this pattern over ten years now, it is becoming clear that the root problems do not lie with the coaching staff or the on-field leadership. Dare we ask how long the decision makers, at the board and CEO level, have been in their jobs?In the past year, the board president has frequently been in the news, and was engaged in a war of words with the former sports minister. The only tangible outcome for us, and for Sri Lankan cricket in general, is that the Under-19 Men’s World Cup, which was supposed to be played in Sri Lanka in January, was moved to South Africa.We will still wake up to watch the matches, of course. If the last ten years have proved anything, it is that Sri Lankan fans’ love for the game is basically unconditional. The moment there is a good spell, or a great innings, or a fun win, we tend to yank our knockoff jerseys out of the closet, and turn up, faces painted, throats full of song. It doesn’t matter if it’s only an Associate team that Sri Lanka is beating. What matters is the chance to dance in the stands to .Perhaps the greatest thing about being a Sri Lanka cricket fan is what we often say: – even if the ship sinks the party still bangs.But it feels the ships SLC sends out to World Cups get worse and worse. And that they are not worthy of the parties we keep throwing at them.Best regards,Sri Lanka fans

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.

Afghanistan could pose the toughest challenge yet in spin-friendly St Vincent, although there will be memories of Mumbai for both sides

Andrew McGlashan22-Jun-20242:40

Moody: Warner showed why Australia picked him in World Cup

Pat Cummins took a hat trick, Mitchell Starc set a new record, Adam Zampa was again outstanding and David Warner’s farewell lap continued with more runs. At nearly every turn against Bangladesh, Australia’s World Cup credentials oozed from their performance.The fact the opposition sat back and barely landed a blow in return aided a comfortable outing for Australia, but on the flip side their well-oiled game barely gave Bangladesh the opportunity to do so. The one blip so far has been an indifferent fielding display against Scotland – in a game that had no consequence for Australia – and that was alleviated when Travis Head and Marcus Stoinis put on a show.The problems, or concerns, also do not seem insurmountable. Captain Mitchell Marsh remains low on runs – although he was a little unfortunate with a stump-grazing lbw against Bangladesh – but is leading the side impressively in his first major assignment. Glenn Maxwell’s form remains in the spotlight, stemming back to the IPL where he averaged 5.77, but even in a very small sample size of six balls in Antigua, there was a glimpse that perhaps he is finding his groove.Related

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“I think tonight I just went in with a really clear mindset to sort of be a little bit more proactive and a bit more trusting I suppose in my foundations and what I do really well,” Maxwell said of his brief innings against Bangladesh. “I know I reverse well; I know I play spin well when I’m busy on my feet and moving forward and back and when I’m just looking at gaps in the field and adapting to what comes in front of me, I can get into my innings relatively comfortably.Pat Cummins became the seventh man and second Australian to take a hat-trick in men’s T20 World Cup•ICC/Getty Images”Even just thinking back, I feel like I might have even got sucked into a little bit of the pace of play during the IPL where you’re sort of set up as a power-hitter. And that’s [where] all your sort of focus goes towards and you’re thinking more about hitting boundaries every ball instead of still playing your strengths and tonight sort of went back to I suppose what I do really well is start my innings with good cricketing shots, back my ability to manipulate fields and try and stick to that.”Australia’s next outing, however, has the potential to be the trickiest yet. Even though Afghanistan were turned over by India, conditions in St Vincent should suit them if the pitch turns anything like it has done so far. Not that Australia are without options in that area – Exhibit One: Zampa – but in Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed and Mohammad Nabi, Afghanistan have a spin attack to cause problems. If there is uneven bounce, don’t ignore the quicks either, with Fazalhaq Farooqi leading the tournament wicket-taking.”It feels like every ground has its different little idiosyncrasies,” Maxwell said. “This [Antigua] is a slow outfield with a howling breeze to a short boundary. Barbados can be fifty-fifty on the wicket, can be slow. As we’ve seen, St. Vincent is going to be spinny and might be a slightly quicker outfield. So, there’s so many different changes.”It feels like you’re going to a completely different part of the world every ground that you go to, and you’ve got to adapt and change. I think that’s just the way our team’s gone. It feels like we’ve been the quickest ones to adapt to the conditions throughout the tournament. I’m sure that’s going to probably hold true for the last few games. The team that adapts the quickest will come out victorious.”Will the events of Mumbai have an effect on either side?•AFP/Getty Images”We’ve kind of ticked off everything we have we could possibly do so far,” Cummins succinctly put it after the Bangladesh outing, adding it felt like Warner is “always up there” in the run charts at World Cups and that Starc, who is now the leading wicket-taker across both the 50- and 20-over events, has “stood up when we needed [him] to in big moments.”Speaking before the Bangladesh game, Ricky Ponting touched on Australia’s tournament mentality. “I think other teams feel that Australia are going to lift for the bigger games, so they try harder and do things differently,” he said. “I think India in the [ODI] World Cup final is a great example of that – they got away from what they’d done right the way through, tried too hard and it cost them. Australia know what they need to do – they stay in control of things and turn up ready to play every game.”Australia know how to win World Cups. Afghanistan pose a significant threat, but memories of what happened in Mumbai last year won’t be far away for either side. Even in the high-jeopardy world of T20, it will take a very good performance to stop them doing it again.

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.

Abhimanyu Easwaran, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna all made compelling cases for selection

Vishal Dikshit26-Oct-202411:45

‘Bold move to pick two youngsters in Reddy and Harshit’

Abhimanyu EaswaranThe 29-year-old opening bat from Bengal has been part of India’s Test squads in the recent past after grinding it out in domestic cricket for over a decade. Abhimanyu Easwaran has the body of work to instil confidence in the team management – and himself – if he needs to open in the absence of Rohit Sharma in Perth or Adelaide early on in the five-match series. An old-school batter, Abhimanyu is already in Australia for two India A games and would have played 100 first-class games by the time the Test series starts.Abhimanyu Easwaran has scored a century in each of his last four first-class games•Hindustan Times via Getty ImagesHe has over 7600 first-class runs while averaging nearly 50, and his recent form probably helped him pip the likes of B Sai Sudharsan, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devdutt Padikkal for the reserve opener’s slot. Abhimanyu has scored a century in each of his last four first-class games, against a variety of bowling attacks at that, starting with 157* and 116 in the Duleep Trophy followed by 191 against Mumbai in the Irani Cup before starting the Ranji Trophy season with a second-innings 127* against Uttar Pradesh. India will hope he can continue this streak into the ‘A’ series while facing the likes of Scott Boland, Michael Neser and Todd Murphy, Test cricketers all of them.Washington SundarBack in the Test circuit after over three years, Washington Sundar proved in Pune that he deserved to brought into the Test XI from the Ranji Trophy.His stifling offbreaks, delivered from close to the stumps, fetched him seven wickets – of which six were bowled or lbw – in the first innings before he picked up another four in similar fashion in the second. It’ll be a surprise if he plays a Test in Australia ahead of Ravindra Jadeja or R Ashwin, but if either of them is unavailable, Washington will fit right in – and his batting will help him push his case.2:32

Will India play a spin-bowling allrounder at No. 8 in Australia?

He came into the Pune Test against New Zealand on the back of a 152 for Tamil Nadu from No. 3 – even if on a flat deck against an inexperienced and injury-hit Delhi attack – but his classy 62 at the Gabba on India’s previous tour of Australia and his unbeaten half-centuries against England at home in early 2021 are proof that he can do it against better bowling too.His height could fetch him extra bounce on the Australian tracks and his previous experience of playing there in 2021 bodes well for him, if India need an offspin-bowling allrounder.Nitish Kumar ReddyOne of the key players for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their run to the IPL 2024 final earlier this year, the seam-bowling allrounder earned a T20I debut earlier this month against Bangladesh. Just 21, Nitish Kumar Reddy’s batting exploits in the middle order have been on show for a while now, first while rescuing SRH with blazing knocks in the IPL and then the 74 off 34 in the second T20I against Bangladesh, where he also picked up two wickets while opening the bowling.1:04

Will Nitish Kumar Reddy get into the playing XI?

His performances in the Duleep Trophy before the India debut didn’t inspire much confidence, though. Reddy bagged two ducks in five innings with a high score of 40 not out and picked up only two wickets across 48 overs.However, he has the ability to swing the ball both ways in the mid-130s, as he has shown for Andhra in the domestic circuit with a fairly new ball, being their top wicket-taker in the last Ranji Trophy season with 25 wickets at 18.76. That tally featured a five-for against Mumbai, including the wickets of Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer, and the India team management will hope he gets some overs under his belt in the ‘A’ series before the Tests.Called “awesome” by his SRH captain Pat Cummins, Reddy’s inclusion for Australia shows the faith the selectors have shown in a young allrounder over the established Shardul Thakur, who is back playing domestic cricket after an injury layoff and had contributed with seven wickets and a valuable knock of 67 in Brisbane in 2021.Prasidh KrishnaPrasidh Krishna is also returning from injury but he got himself a Test berth, unlike Thakur, after proving his fitness with four first-class games at the start of this domestic season. Even though he returned unimpressive numbers in his two Tests in South Africa in 2023-24, leaking runs at more than 4.60 an over in his 28 overs for just two wickets, it’s his height that works in his favour. He can draw extra bounce, is accurate, and bowls with the sort of pace that India are hoping will come handy in Australia, especially if they need to change the combination – because of workload or injuries – in a long series.2:13

Manjrekar: Surprised Prasidh and not Dayal was selected

Prasidh is also with the India A squad for the two first-class games to be played in Mackay and Melbourne, and India will want him to stay fit. And also find some form. Since his comeback in September, he has picked up just seven wickets in as many innings across the Duleep Trophy, the Irani Cup and the eight overs he bowled in a Ranji Trophy game for Karnataka.Harshit RanaThe least experienced of the 21 players – including the reserves – picked for the tour with just nine first-class matches, Harshit Rana is a tall and bustling fast bowler from Delhi who made his IPL debut, for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), before his senior domestic debut. Rana, too, featured in the Duleep Trophy at the start of the season and collected two four-fors while opening the bowling. He was KKR’s best fast bowler – with 19 wickets and an economy rate of 9.08 – in their victorious IPL 2024 campaign and would have been closely watched by Gautam Gambhir and Abhishek Nayar, who have both moved from the KKR dressing room to India’s.Harshit Rana is inexperienced, but has a lot of qualities that make him an exciting prospect•AFP/Getty ImagesWhile it was his variations and death-overs exploits that shone through in the IPL, Rana has also proven himself with the red ball in a fledgling career, and at times given the ball a good bash down the order. He bagged 21 wickets in five Ranji Trophy games in 2022-23, smashed an unbeaten 122 off 86 balls in the Duleep Trophy next year, and then toured South Africa with the India A side in 2023-24.Despite the lack of experience, it’s his promise that got 22-year-old a Test spot ahead of Mukesh Kumar and Navdeep Saini, who are in the reserves. He was called up for the T20Is against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh but is yet to make his international debut.Rana was part of the India Test squad for the New Zealand series initially as a reserve, before turning out for Delhi in the third round of the Ranji Trophy where he started with three early wickets against Assam on Saturday morning.