Daniel Brettig, an ESPNcricinfo assistant editor, picks his all-time Australia World Cup XI

Picked by Daniel Brettig21-Mar-2019Australia’s quintet of World Cup triumphs offers up all sorts of considerations for an all-time XI. A few of the players unfortunate to be missing include the likes of Dean Jones, Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey, Damien Fleming, Damien Martyn and Brett Lee. But those to have made the cut all played critical roles in at least one successful campaign.ESPNcricinfo LtdDavid Boon and Craig McDermott in 1987. Steve Waugh was vital to the 1987, 1996 and 1999 campaigns, and Mark Waugh to the latter two. Likewise Shane Warne, who missed 2003 through a drugs ban; Glenn McGrath, the spearhead for 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007; Ricky Ponting, a batsman and captain of class and quality in that period; Michael Bevan’s consummate finishing between 1996 and 2003; Adam Gilchrist’s top-order explosiveness and sure-footed glovework from 1999 to 2007; Andrew Symonds in 2003 and 2007; and Mitchell Starc, the destroyer at home in 2015.This is a team that bats deep, is chock full of excellent fielders, includes four batsmen who bowl, and is spoiled for leadership choice – the choice of Ponting’s vice-captain alone would take some serious thinking.

Eoin Morgan’s men have been World Cup front-runners for two years now. But their lack of adaptability on sporty pitches is a concern

George Dobell in St Lucia03-Mar-2019Just ahead of this ODI series, Eoin Morgan called on his England side to show an ability to adapt to conditions. At the time he made the comment, he foresaw a series played on slow, turning surfaces which could test England’s aggressive approach to batting. As it was, most of the series was played on very good batting tracks, with the final match played on a surface offering pretty steep bounce by modern standards.But the principle was the same: Morgan was calling on his side to show an ability to adapt and they failed to do so. While it would be simplistic to dismiss this England team as flat-track bullies, it wouldn’t be totally untrue, either. On flat wickets where the ball neither seams, spins or bounces especially high, England are world beaters.On other surfaces? Well, they were knocked out of the Champions Trophy by Pakistan on a pitch offering help to spin and reverse swing. They were bowled out for 153 by South Africa on a green surface at Lord’s (they were 20 for 6 at one stage) and 196 by Australia on a seaming surface in Adelaide (they had been 8 for 5 at one stage). If they come up against such a surface in a knock-out game at the World Cup – and they did in both the 2013 Champions Trophy final and the 2017 Champions Trophy semi-final – they look vulnerable.”We didn’t adapt,” Morgan admitted afterwards. “It was a terrible batting performance which is a disappointing way to end the series. We need to learn from the experience.”The time for learning is up, though. Well, just about, anyway. England will have named their provisional World Cup squad before they play another ODI and they are committed to the batting line-up that played in this series.They are, in many ways, an admirable bunch. They have improved vastly and expanded the bounds of what we thought possible in this format. On the sort of surfaces which are expected during the World Cup – true, flat and even-paced – they will worry any bowling attack in the world. They have, after all, thrashed the two highest scores in ODI history in the last three years and have four of the five highest totals made in the format since the last World Cup.And perhaps it is inevitable, if you progress at such pace so often, that you will occasionally fall. For, in the 39 completed first innings England have had in ODI cricket since the last World Cup, they have passed 400 four times and won on each occasion. They have passed 300 on 24 occasions and won 19 of those games. And, yes, on four occasions, they have failed to reach 200 and have been beaten on each occasion. If we praise them for their boldness on the days the shots end up in the stands, we have to be very careful about criticising when those same shots end up in hands. This was a drawn series, after all; not a defeat. They have still not lost a bilateral ODI series (so excluding the one-off game against Scotland) since they were in India in early 2017. That’s 10 series with nine victories.Losing the toss was significant here, too. Perhaps due to heavy rain overnight, the pitch started just a little tacky. With England reasoning it would ease during the day, they felt the need to attack in order to set a winning total. This is not a team that tries to limit the extent of their loss; it’s a team that tried to win. Always.Morgan, to his credit, refused to use the toss as an excuse. Reasoning that winning the toss is always, to a greater or lesser extent, an advantage, he knows that England cannot expect to have things – the pitch, the toss, the conditions – their own way all the way through a World Cup campaign.Shimron Hetmyer and Darren Bravo celebrate winning the match•Getty Images”The toss is an advantage across every game we play,” Morgan said. “I might have argued that if we’d lost by one or two wickets, but we weren’t at the races today.”One of the frustrations with this England side is that it seems, with just a little better judgment, with just a little more nous, they could improve markedly. As Morgan admitted, it was clear from the first few minutes that this pitch offered the bowlers some life and clear that England would have to bat accordingly. For reasons that are not clear, they were unable to do so.”It was evident from the first two overs [that we had to adapt],” Morgan said. “You could see it from the changing room. We did have that conversation. But we didn’t adapt. Trying to curb your natural ability, to try to go from high-risk to low-risk and still get a score in the morning that will be good enough in the afternoon, is difficult.”Whose job should that be to gauge what a winning total is on each pitch? Well, this team has been together for a long time now. Every option for the opening position has played more than 60 ODIs and should be able to show the sophistication to know when to take the foot off the accelerator. Joe Root, too, is an experienced player who has scored more ODI centuries for England than anyone else. He should be able to adapt his game as required. Morgan, with more than 200 caps to his name, should also be able to do so.Morgan disputes the suggestion that England are slow learners, however. While he accepts there is a general problem in adapting to new conditions, he felt England have shown improvement on slow, low surfaces and simply haven’t experienced a pitch with as much bounce in it as this.”When we come up in conditions for the first time it has gone wrong,” Morgan said. “When we’ve come back in conditions that are similar to where we’ve made mistakes, we’ve actually played really well. It’s easy to gloss over things like that because when we play well some of our guys make things look quite easy.”We learned from that Champions Trophy defeat. We went away from home and played on slow, low wickets and improved our game from that experience.”These was a surface that we rarely come up against. It was just the bounce. And I don’t think we dealt and adapted with that. We continued to play as if we were on the same pitch in Grenada. A low-risk shot there was high-risk today.”There are other areas of concern. And the England bowlers’ failure to learn to deal with Chris Gayle throughout the series – if anything, he became more destructive as the series progressed – is one of them.Gayle is an exceptional player, of course. But England will come up against several exceptional players during the World Cup and, if their batsmen get the run-filled pitches they want, their bowlers will have nowhere to hide. They have to find a way to at least stem the bleeding. Gayle hit a six every 8.10 balls he faced this series. It’s hard to imagine a World Cup-winning bowling attack allowing that.Where could they have bowled to him? Well, the Hawkeye pitch map for this innings suggests England attempted to bowl three yorkers at him. The two aimed at the stumps were dot balls, while the one aimed down the leg-side, as Gayle attempted to give himself room, was inside-edged to the boundary. They bowled five yorkers at him during his innings of 162 in Grenada, too. None of them went to the boundary and four of them were dot balls. And they didn’t bowl any yorkers on the line of the stumps at him during his innings of 135 in the first ODI. It seems odd that it was not a line of attack pursued more often.”Gayle is probably in the best form of his life,” Morgan argued by way of mitigation. “Our execution needs to be near on perfect and that’s a really good test because we are going to come up against similar players in the World Cup.”So, here they are, on the brink of the World Cup and with lessons to learn with bat and ball. They’ve been the front-runners for this tournament for a couple of years now. But as we get closer to the event, it feels as if the field is starting to close.

Why has KL Rahul started batting so slow initially? Why did Ashwin bowl Mujeeb at the death? We have a look in Talking Points

Srinath Sripath and Vishal Dikshit29-Apr-20193:35

Kartik: Can’t understand what role Rahul has taken

Why does KL Rahul start so slow?Unlike a number of other sides, Kings XI don’t bat deep, nor do they have big hitters like Hardik Pandya or Andre Russell to come in and go all guns blazing in the end overs. And therefore, it looks like they have given KL Rahul a role to play this season – drop the anchor and get the rest of the batting line-up to bat around him. It’s markedly different from how he went last season: rattle off the blocks in the Powerplay and put them in a position of strength early on.This time around, Rahul has started slowly numerous times, and in a steep chase of 213 on Monday, he made only 39 off his first 36 balls, letting the asking rate climb over 15 per over with five wickets falling at the other end. He started going for boundaries after 13 overs, but by then, the equation had got out of hand.ESPNcricinfo LtdIt has been a pattern through their season. Against Chennai Super Kings, Rahul scored 55 off 47 balls and Kings XI fell short by 22 runs in a chase of 161. In their next game, at home, Kings XI just about chased down 151 against Sunrisers on the penultimate ball of the match with Rahul unbeaten on 71 off 53, after being on 26 off 24 at one point.This time in Hyderabad, he started with a flurry of dot balls against Khaleel Ahmed and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, similar to what Shane Watson has done at times before teeing off against the other bowlers, but Rahul couldn’t quite get going against Rashid Khan too. By the end of his innings, he had defended as many as ten balls, for just one run. It was a weird figure in a 200-plus chase, and despite another big score from their opener, Kings XI fell short yet again.Warner v Kings XI: What else was gonna happen?ESPNcricinfo LtdWhenever Sunrisers Hyderabad play, this has turned into a David Warner appreciation page: here, look how he hares those twos, look how he dominates the spinners.Warner has been on such a hot streak – well, ever since he signed for Sunrisers back in 2014 – that he is now gone past 500 runs every single season for them. Against Kings XI Punjab, he extended a streak of consecutive 50-plus scores to eight. All taken, this was his ninth fifty of the season, in 12 innings.If, by now, you are tired of Warner’s excellent numbers, here’s just one last stat (promise). Warner has dominated spin like no other batsman in IPLs: he has wrapped up this year’s tournament averaging 173 against spin. That is just two dismissals in 12 innings, off 218 balls.ESPNcricinfo LtdSunrisers have two more league games to go after this one, and they’ll have a Warner-shaped hole to fill at the top of their order, as he leaves on international duty.Should Ashwin have bowled Mujeeb at the death?Given Kings XI were playing only five bowlers once again (they were forced to turn to part-timers Mandeep Singh and Sarfaraz Khan earlier in the season), captain R Ashwin had no choice but to bowl all of them out on Monday too, by trying to manage them in the best possible manner.One of the issues was when to give Mujeeb Ur Rahman his last over after he had leaked 40 in his first three. Would you give him his fourth in the death? In IPLs so far, Mujeeb has bowled in the middle overs with an economy rate of 6.80 and in the death at 10.80. Ashwin had one over of his own and one of Mujeeb, who had just bowled the 14th over. If one has to go by the numbers and how cleverly Ashwin bowls according to situations, he should have saved himself for the death as he has conceded at 7.80 in that phase in IPLs since 2015.Ashwin, instead, chose to bowl the 16th and made Mujeeb bowl the 18th, by when Sunrisers were marching at nearly 10 an over. It also meant Mujeeb had to bowl to his Afghanistan team-mate Mohammad Nabi, who later said he picked the mystery spinner off the hand without any trouble. Nabi smashed two sixes in the 18th over in which Mujeeb leaked 26, to end with 4-0-66-0, the most expensive figures by a spinner and an overseas player in the IPL’s 12-year history.”I know Mujeeb, we’ve played for three years for Afghanistan so that’s why it’s easy to hit him,” Nabi said in the innings break. “I pick him from the hand – straighter one or googly and I move [into my shots] better.”Earlier in the game too, Ashwin chose to come into the attack right at the end of the Powerplay, after giving Mujeeb two overs even though Ashwin is the third-best Powerplay spinner (minimum 25 overs) in the history of IPL, going by economy rates. Mujeeb also has impressive numbers in the Powerplay, but one wonders why Ashwin held himself back because Sunrisers had already powered to 66 by the time he brought himself on.

With the Australian struggling to find his touch, Chennai Super Kings could look at either Sam Billings or M Vijay to slot in and give the top order some solidity

Deivarayan Muthu in Chennai22-Apr-2019After racking up seven wins in their first eight games in IPL 2019, Chennai Super Kings have suffered back-to-back losses – one without and one with MS Dhoni in the XI. That they lost by one run against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday was down to Dhoni’s sheer brilliance.There is, however, trouble in Super Kings’ paradise, and it begins right at the top. Shane Watson, the man of the 2018 IPL final, is now walking a tightrope like WWE’s Kofi Kingston does at Royal Rumble events.Only six players have featured in each of the ten matches Super Kings have played so far, and Watson features among them. Yet, he has struggled to get starts, forget converting them. All up, he has laboured to 147 runs in ten innings at an average of 14.70 and strike rate of 112.21. Among openers that have faced at least 50 balls this season, Watson has the third-highest dot-ball percentage (54.96).Let us not forget that Watson was one of the most valuable players for the defending champions last season. Then, at 37, he became the oldest centurion in the Big Bash League. He followed it up with a bumper stint in the Pakistan Super League, where he amassed a chart-topping 430 runs in 12 innings at an average of 43 and strike rate of 143.81.The ball largely came on to the bat in Australia and then in the UAE, but then the slower-than-usual Chennai pitch has posed a difficult challenge for Watson. He set up Super Kings’ victory against Delhi Capitals at Feroz Shah Kotla with a typically punchy 44 off 26 balls, but otherwise hasn’t made a noteworthy contribution on the road since. His struggles at Chepauk have been starker: he has managed just 56 runs in four innings at an average of 14 and strike rate 100.Suresh Raina, Sam Billings and Ambati Rayudu at a Chennai Super Kings training session•PTI Having been unable to rotate the strike, he has turned to his go-to big shots – the slog-sweep and the pull – but has holed out while attempting to clear the longer leg-side boundaries. The inclusion of Faf du Plessis, who is more adept at wedging the ball into the gaps, briefly masked Super Kings’ top-order meltdowns, but both him and Watson fell to reckless strokes at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.Similar risky strokes worked for Watson in Pune (the home base) last year, where the ball slides on to the bat and the outfield is much quicker than the one in Chennai. Watson had a ball in Pune, chalking up 264 runs in five innings at an average of 52.80 and strike rate of 168.15. In Chennai, he can’t quite get the ball away. To add to Super Kings’ concerns, Watson is among the slower movers in the field, and rarely bowls these days – he hasn’t bowled at all in the IPL this season.Super Kings’ coach Stephen Fleming has admitted to the top-order wobbles ramping up the pressure on Ambati Rayudu and Dhoni in the middle order, but he continued to back Watson to come good, while batting coach Michael Hussey pointed out that Watson has been hitting the ball well in the nets.So, with the promising Sam Billings and a hungry M Vijay on the bench, should Super Kings rethink their top order? Perhaps Watson could do with a mini break too, having constantly been on the road for the past two months in the PSL closely followed by IPL.Billings can’t muscle the ball like Watson, but he has a reputation of being a busy player and he showed he can stand up to pressure last year when he sealed a tense chase for Super Kings in the homecoming at Chepauk.Meanwhile, this Vijay isn’t the Vijay of 2010, but he has recent form on his side and is keen to prove he still has it in T20 cricket. After being ignored for the initial phase of the 20-over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy that preceded the IPL, Vijay entered the Tamil Nadu side as a replacement player and hit 261 runs in four innings at a strike rate of nearly 150.Dhoni’s team are in pole position to make the playoffs, but the think tank would want the top order to be solid rather than stuttering in the knockouts. Is that going to happen with Watson or without Watson?

Stats highlights from the third day of the Visakhapatnam Test where Jadeja became the fastest left-arm bowler to the milestone

Bharath Seervi04-Oct-20190 – Number of left-arm bowlers to take 200 wickets in fewer Tests than Ravindra Jadeja, who got there in 44 Tests. He beat Rangana Herath, who had taken 47 Tests to complete the same. Among India bowlers, only R Ashwin has taken 200 wickets in fewer matches (37) than Jadeja.ESPNcricinfo Ltd5 – Five-wicket hauls for Ashwin against South Africa, the most among India bowlers. Harbhajan Singh and Javagal Srinath had taken four five-fors each. Since South Africa’s readmission, only two bowlers have picked more five-fors against them – Muttiah Muralitharan (11) and Shane Warne (7).21 – Five-wicket hauls for Ashwin at home. Only Muralitharan (45), Herath (26) and Anil Kumble (25) have more five-fors in their home countries. Ashwin has 21 five-fors in 39 home Tests, which is a rate of 1.86 Tests every five-wicket haul. Among all bowlers with ten or more five-fors at home, only Muralitharan has a better rate – 45 five-fors in 73 Tests, which is 1.62 Tests per five-for.160 – Dean Elgar’s score – the second-highest by a South Africa opener in India. Andrew Hall’s 163 in Kanpur in 2004 is the highest. Elgar’s score is the highest by a visiting opener in India since Alastair Cook’s 190 at Eden Gardens in 2012.8 – Number of overseas wicketkeepers to score centuries in India, including Quinton de Kock. Mushfiqur Rahim (in 2017) is the only other visiting wicketkeeper in this decade to score a Test ton in India. Andy Flower has three hundreds as wicketkeeper in India, the most.214 – South Africa’s highest total during their 2015 tour. Only once they crossed 200 in four Tests on that tour. They have scored almost double of that in their first innings of this tour.64.81 – De Kock’s average across all three international formats in India. He has scored 713 runs in 12 innings including three hundreds and three fifties. He has made 50-plus scores in all three innings of this tour so far – 52 and 79* in the two T20Is and 111 in the first innings of this Test.4 – Instances of three 150-plus scores by openers in a Test, and the first instance in India. The last time it happened was during the Bangladesh-Pakistan Test in Khulna in 2015.

They don’t have the fanfare that some of their peers do, but they are among the best in the game

Dustin Silgardo05-Oct-2019Associated Press Dean Elgar
Dean Elgar has 23,000 Twitter followers. Yes, sure, your Twitter following doesn’t define how popular you are, but 23,000? The Chennai Super Kings team manager, @russcsk, has six times as many.Elgar’s record since the beginning of 2017 is remarkable. He averages 43.53, more than Joe Root, David Warner, and even his captain Faf du Plessis – compare Google search results for Elgar with any of those three and his average score returns as either 1 or 0. Despite being South Africa’s highest run-getter in the period, with 2046 runs, seven hundreds and nine fifties in 50 innings. Not to forget that 1281 of the runs have come opening in South Africa, arguably the hardest batting assignment in cricket today.There were rumblings Elgar might take a Kolpak deal at the beginning of 2017. He ended the year in the ICC and ESPNcricinfo Test teams of the year. But, despite the feel-good story, Elgar’s rise hasn’t got the attention it might have – heck, we haven’t even updated his player profile since 2012. Part of this is because he entered the South Africa team at a time when greats such as Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers were still around partly because he doesn’t excel in the white-ball formats, partly because his batting style is kind-of-but-not-quite Shiv Chanderpaul, and then just sheer bad luck. It’s almost funny how many of Elgar’s hundreds have ended up being overshadowed by other events. He got a century against Sri Lanka in January 2017 only for Kagiso Rabada to announce himself with a ten-wicket haul. Then he got a 140 in Dunedin, but it was a few days after Steven Smith had his DRS brain fade in Bengaluru, and that’s what Elgar’s captain ended up being asked about in the press conference. He carried his bat against Australia in Cape Town, and two days later Sandpapergate exploded. You get the picture.Getty ImagesBJ Watling
Search ‘BJ Watling + Cricinfo’ on Google and the first two stories that pop up are about how under-rated he is. As Andrew Fidel Fernando writes in one: “If New Zealand are the team that do great things that barely get noticed in the wider cricket world, BJ Watling is the New Zealand of New Zealand.”Watling has made a career out of getting tough, important, unflashy runs for his team in Test cricket, either supporting one of the bigger-name top-order stars – he’s been a part of two triple-century stands for the sixth wicket, one with Brendon McCullum, the other with Kane Williamson – or digging his team out of trouble. He’s played more matches, 55, scored more runs, 2887 at an average of 40.66, and effected more dismissals, 214, than any wicketkeeper since his debut in December 2009. Not enough to be in your team of the decade, is he?It was always going to be hard for Watling. Firstly, he’s from New Zealand. Secondly, he took the gloves from McCullum, the most blockbuster cricketer the country has ever produced. And he’s the type of guy who, when asked a question earlier this year, said, “I don’t even think I’m one of the best, to be honest. I think there’s some quality keepers going around who are also fantastic batsmen. So I don’t look at that too deeply… Winning a Test match and having a beer at the end of it and knowing you’ve put in five days of hard work to try and achieve that – that’s why you play the game. I’m happy with that.”AFPJason Holder
Jason Holder is the No. 1 Test allrounder in the world according to the ICC rankings. That’s right, not Ben Stokes, not Shakib Al Hasan, but Holder, medium pacer and No. 8 batsman. Before you dismiss the rankings, have a look at the extraordinary improvement in his bowling stats in the past three years. At the end of West Indies’ first Test in the UAE in October 2016, his bowling average had risen to 49.69. Since then, he has averaged 20.65, bringing his overall average down to 27.26. And consider this: he has two five-fors against India, one five-for against Pakistan, and two four-fors against England in the past three years. Just as a bowler, he is now No. 4 in the rankings. Add in his batting average of 33.10, his match-winning double-century in the series win over England last year, and you have a player who at least belongs in the conversation about the best allrounder in the game.The problem for Holder is that he has never quite fully shaken off the reputation he gained early in his career of a bits-and-pieces player whose main role is to maintain order in a team in disarray. He was considered not quick enough to be picked as a bowler and came in too low to be considered a batsman. But Holder has swung the ball more consistently, making him a threat despite the lack of pace, and many people now feel he should bat higher.Getty ImagesNeil Wagner
Trent Boult is sexy. His hair gets prettier the more he sweats, he fires the ball along the pitch, getting it right up so it swings miles, he goes for big money at the IPL auction and takes photos with Ed Sheeran that he posts on Instagram for his 270K followers. Neil Wagner has a slightly receding hairline. Sweat sits heavily on him, settling in and accentuating the crinkles on his face over a day’s work. He thuds the ball into the pitch. He doesn’t get to play in the IPL; he has, in fact, never played an ODI or T20I for New Zealand. The only time he gets more than ten comments on an Instagram post is when it’s a photo of him with Boult. Yet, since the start of 2016, Wagner has a better average, strike rate and economy rate than Boult.Boult’s role is to create havoc with the new ball, Wagner’s is to be the enforcer and keep batsmen honest with long spells of tight lines and tough lengths. Boult is always going to be the one in the limelight, but Wagner is now finding his unsexy hard work pay dividends. He has six five-fors in the past four years, including two six-fors and a seven-for, and is fast closing in on 200 Test wickets.AFPAzhar Ali and Asad Shafiq
To have to succeed a hero is about the most unrewarding task, especially when the demand comes from the kind of passionate mob that believes in heroes and, consequently, villains. Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq were heroes of such stature that Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq had lost this one even before they had started. How were they supposed to match men who took Pakistan out of the darkness of spot fixing and no home cricket and tuk-tuked them right up to the No. 1 spot?Azhar and Shafiq have not quite stepped into the shoes of MisYou either. You could even argue that their form, in particular Shafiq’s, have been on the wane. But the two are now among Pakistan’s top ten run-getters ever in Test cricket. Both of them have more runs than Saeed Anwar and Hanif Mohammad. Between them, they have 27 centuries and 54 half-centuries. It’s likely that they will always be seen as pale imitations of MisYou. It’s equally likely that once they’re done, people will look at Azhar and Shafiq and say they’re going to be a hard act to follow for the next set of Pakistan middle-order batsmen. They may even bag themselves a hashtag.Associated PressDimuth Karunaratne
Sri Lankan cricket is in a bit of a crisis. Yet, somehow, they have still sort of kept it together as a Test side, losing just two of six home series since the start of 2017, and winning series away in the UAE and, to the cricket world’s amazement, in South Africa. A big part of that is Dimuth Karunaratne, the current captain.When Kumar Sangakkara retired, in 2015, all eyes were on Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal to steer the ship forward. Karunaratne, who was also in the team, was a bit of a side note, a sturdy opener from the Alastair Cook school. It wasn’t till 2017 that Karunaratne began to hit his stride, and he has more runs than any other opener since, 2180, at an average of 41.13. His 196 in Dubai, in 2017, sealed an improbable away series win for Sri Lanka against Pakistan, and he was a fortress among glasshouses on the turners prepared for South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka next year, scoring more than double the number of runs as the series’ next highest run-getter.And as captain, Karunaratne is doing his job well by all accounts and, though he did not get many runs there, got a lot of credit for the miracle in South Africa earlier this year. Despite all this, Karunaratne still doesn’t get talked about much in conversations about the best batsmen or leaders going around.Associated PressKemar Roach
Since the retirements of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, the narrative around West Indian fast bowling has been that of an edifice disintegrating. Somewhere in the rubble has been lost Kemar Roach’s 193 wickets and nine five-wicket hauls. Like several of the players on this list, Roach’s career has been up and down, with poor form and injury keeping him out of the Test team at times. But since August 2017, Roach has been on a tear, with a remodelled action and a more disciplined approach helping him take 71 wickets at an average of 21.28, better than that of Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Boult, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the same period.A quick check of Google Trends and social media will let you know Roach doesn’t get nearly as many plaudits as those players, and he’s not as much of a celebrity as other West Indies players such as Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard are, perhaps for obvious reasons. Still, a career spanning ten years and a more than decent bowling average of 26.94 – the same as Anderson and better than Mitchell Johnson, Broad, Starc, Boult and Morne Morkel – deserves more attention than it gets.Associated Press Dilruwan Perera
“As a cricketer, over the past five years, it is difficult to think of anyone, anywhere who has been more incognito.” Andrew Fidel Fernando wrote that in a 2018 piece about Dilruwan Perera, during a Sri Lanka-England Test series in which he was the top wicket-taker. The plea was for people to take notice of this quiet grinder, who was making a decent fist of taking over from Rangana Herath as Sri Lanka’s friendly neighbourhood fingerspinner. It’s been a year since, and not much has changed.Dilruwan’s numbers don’t make for pretty reading – he is a Sri Lanka spinner with a bowling average of 34.03 after Muttiah Muralitharan (22.72) and Herath (28.07). It doesn’t help that the man is an orthodox spinner who relies on accuracy and control and not the doosra or the carrom ball.Yet, take a look at any of the major victories Sri Lanka have had since Dilruwan’s debut and you’ll find that in most cases, he has contributed in some form. Sometimes, it’s just three important top-order wickets, like he got in Abu Dhabi in 2017, or a lower-order contribution with the bat, such as his fifty in Dubai, 2017. You know a guy is underrated when he’s topping series charts and is not even in the top two of most popular Pereras going around.AFPKeshav Maharaj
When you’re a tidy but unspectacular left-arm spinner who relies on drift and changes of pace playing in a team with Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander, Lungi Ngidi, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, you are probably just worried about keeping your place in the XI. Despite having to sit out at times when South Africa field all-pace attacks at home, Keshav Maharaj is South Africa’s second-highest wicket-taker since his debut, in November 2016, with 97 wickets at 29.51. Only Rabada is ahead of him. He’s also the fourth-highest wicket-taker among spinners in the same period, behind Nathan Lyon, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, and ahead of Yasir Shah, Shakib and Moeen Ali. What makes Maharaj’s efforts more impressive is that he has played just four Tests in Asia and has managed to take five-wicket hauls in South Africa and New Zealand. Yet the only time Maharaj has gone anything close to viral was when he got hit in the backside by a throw from his own keeper in the Vitality Blast.

While still as quick as when he first emerged, he has learned the value of dialling back his pace to use only at the times of need, adding greater consistency in the process

Daniel Brettig10-Nov-2019Ahead of the match that may define how quickly Jhye Richardson returns to the Australian Test side after an eye-catching first two matches against Sri Lanka last summer, he will have plenty of fond memories of Perth Stadium to help him when he takes the field for Australia A against the touring Pakistanis.The multipurpose venue on the east bank of the Swan River was the scene of a startling return of 8 for 47 by Richardson for Western Australia against New South Wales in a Sheffield Shield match a little less than a year ago, the display that pushed him to the front of the queue of fast bowlers vying to supplement Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.But as important as that performance came to be, Richardson will also carry recollections of how he got into the headspace to pluck all those wickets in the first place. It was via a private chat with the Western Australia coach Adam Voges following the first Shield game of that season, against Queensland at Allan Border Field, where Voges sensed that 23-year-old Richardson was straining for effort in a bid to return to Australia’s ODI team. The reward was 18 wickets in his next two matches, and saw him not only resuming ODI duty but adding a Test cap, too.”The first Shield game back I was trying way too hard,” Richardson told ESPNcricinfo. “I was trying to bowl way too fast, I was trying to get a wicket every ball, because I had had a little bit of a taste of ODI cricket for Australia and then went back to Western Australia and was trying everything possible to keep my selection.”It was a lap around the oval with Adam Voges that kicked me in the right direction. He was like ‘mate I can see that you’re really passionate, I can see you really want to play for Australia again, just be assured that I’ve been in the same situation and it’s not going to happen by trying everything you possibly can, it’s going to happen by having fun, it’s going to happen by enjoying playing for WA, being proud to play for WA and doing a job for the team and doing what they need from you at that moment’.

“If you’re getting frustrated and emotionally attached to your bowling, the guys around the field are going to be like ‘what’s he doing here, he’s letting the opposition know they’re on top.'”Jhye Richardson

“It was that conversation that reminded me that there’s bigger things than just trying hard to play for Australia. It reminded me the way I got there in the first place was putting performances on the board for WA and having fun doing that. The next week after that conversation I had the best game I’m going to have in a long time at the Stadium there. So it was definitely a good conversation to have, and that was a moment where I just needed someone to remind me of where I wanted to get to and how I was going to do that.”For a while it seemed as though Richardson would carry that attitude and subsequent performances all the way through England, only for him to suffer another moment’s learning when he dived awkwardly in an ODI against Pakistan in the UAE and dislocated his shoulder badly enough to miss the World Cup and the Ashes. As an interruption to his plans and Australia’s it was decidedly inconvenient, but Richardson consoled himself that he had been struck down in trying to give his all.”I always said to myself that was always the way I wanted to play for Australia, I wanted to be able to put my body on the line and try and be something special in the field,” he said. “Unfortunately I took a bit of a bad dive, but that was the way I wanted to play, I wanted to put my body on the line, wanted to do everything I possibly could for my country. While it is frustrating that it happened, looking back, that was the way I was telling myself I wanted to play.”I made a decision to go for a ball that I probably in hindsight could have let go, but if I had stopped that and potentially got a run-out from it, then we’re having different conversations. But it was just an unfortunate thing that happened, one thing I could have changed would be to dive a little bit better, but the decision definitely wouldn’t have been to not dive at all.”Intelligent and articulate, although not beyond the occasional burst of anger as seen in his September limited-overs duel with Glenn Maxwell in Perth following his return from the shoulder injury, Richardson has shown the capacity to learn quickly. “There’s days when you’re going to have to bowl 25-30 overs in a day, and if you’re thinking about trying to take a wicket every ball rather than staying patient and trying to beat the batsman by skill, you’re going to have a long day and you’re going to be mentally exhausted, because you’re exhausting your capacity to stay patient and calm,” he said.”It is really important for the team as well, if you can stay calm out there for the team, then everyone’s got a better chance of thriving off you. If you’re getting frustrated and emotionally attached to your bowling, the guys around the field are going to be like ‘well what’s he doing here, he’s getting frustrated, he’s letting the opposition know they’re on top’. So the longer you can stay calm for, the better definitely.”While still as quick as when he first emerged, Richardson has learned the value of dialling back his pace to use only at the times of most need by his captain and team, adding greater consistency in the process. His displays against Sri Lanka were reminiscent of a young Pat Cummins in terms of their maturity. “When I was a lot younger I used to think fast bowling was about being fast and that was it,” Richardson said. “It quickly evolved when batsmen got on top of me very easily because I wasn’t doing anything through the air, it was just pace and the better batsmen at the higher levels of cricket I played, the easier it was for them to score runs.”It quickly evolved from just trying to bowl fast to being able to do something else, whether it’s swinging it, get it to nip off the wicket, a few change-ups, slower balls, that sort of thing. And also it was about being comfortable not bowling 145kph every ball. in Shield cricket we’ve had radar guns that are mid 130s and that sort of thing and it’s about me being comfortable bowling at that speed, doing something through the air, rather than trying to run in and bowl as fast as I can.”There’s been a couple of times this year already when the captain has come to me and said ‘mate we need you to run in and bowl fast’ and I’m okay with that, doing what the team needs, and there are times when it changes from swinging the new ball, trying to get the edge of the batsman’s bat to coming around the wicket and bowling bouncers as fast as I can, it definitely does shift. I’ve just got to make sure I’m okay with that, because I know that I’m doing a job for the team.”Mitchell Starc and Jhye Richardson have a laugh•Getty ImagesSimilarly, Richardson will likely join Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood, James Patinson and company in a growing appreciation that they will all enjoy far longer careers if they do not play every available Test match. “We’ve seen already a few guys being rested, it’s definitely a long summer and nowadays we’re playing 12 months of the year, so it is very important to give guys a break where you can, and it’s good for guys like me coming through to hopefully get an opportunity at some point during the summer,” he said.”But the focus is not on relying on other people to get picked, I’m working really hard to try and get in there of my own accord. Having said that, guys can definitely get caught up in trying too hard. I am trying to get back into the squad, but it’s going to be about more having fun, enjoying cricket and then letting the performances come after that as a bonus, because you can definitely get caught up in trying too hard, trying too many things and shifting your focus from playing for who you’re playing at that very moment to trying to get back in the Australian team.”If you’re thinking about that, then you’re probably not going to perform as well.”And when he looks down at his feet before tearing in at the Pakistani tourists this week, Richardson will find another set of simple messages that have aided him almost as much as the calming words of Voges a year ago. At the suggestion of Justin Langer when he was still WA coach, Richardson wrote the words “stand tall” and also “KISS” for “keep it simple, stupid” on his bowling boots. The recent discovery that Mitchell Starc had written “F*** it! Just bowl fast!” on tape on his wrist, has demonstrated that the trend is growing.”I’ve written them on every pair of boots I’ve ever had. It’s just about reiterating the fact we need to keep things simple and not trying too hard,” Richardson said. “In light of keeping things simple, I haven’t changed the messages on my shoes, they’re still very simple.”It’s a good way to remind myself while I’m out there, the way I want to go about it, the way to keep calm, the way to perform at my best. It’s just a reminder, and if you’re getting in the heat of the battle, getting a little bit worked up or emotional, it’s a good reminder to take a deep breath and bring it down to where you need to be.”

No top team has more bilateral T20Is scheduled than New Zealand before next year’s World Cup

Matt Roller10-Nov-2019A 3-2 defeat at home to an England side missing at least seven first-choice squad members, a legspinner completely off the boil, and a batting line-up plagued by inconsistency: there are plenty of factors that might be expected to cause a New Zealand panic regarding the state of their T20 side.Less than a year out from the World Cup in Australia, New Zealand’s results in the three-and-a-half years since the last global T20 tournament suggest a team in transition, without a clear identity: they have won 15 and lost 16, using 33 different players only nine of whom have played as many as half of those games.The series against England was an effective demonstration of their flaws, and more crucially, their lack of a clear identity. New Zealand were a team without an obvious gameplan, whose balance changed game by game. After the first T20I, a batting allrounder (Jimmy Neesham) came in for a bowler who can bat (Scott Kuggeleijn); for the third, a fast bowler and No. 11 (Blair Tickner) replaced a batting allrounder (Daryl Mitchell). After a comeback win in the third game, they settled on that balance of six bowling options, but lost the final two as the weaker links in their bowling attack were taken apart.In , a recent book which chronicles the history of T20 cricket, authors Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde explain that while batting is “strong-link dependent”, meaning “a team’s best player [can] single-handedly shape matches”, bowling is “weak-link dependent” – “more like football, where weak players could leave entire teams and systems exposed”. The fourth game of the series provided clear evidence of that, as two of England’s strong links – Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan – targeted the weak links in New Zealand’s attack: the raw Tickner, the allrounder Mitchell and the out-of-form Ish Sodhi.Ish Sodhi struggled with the ball throughout New Zealand’s series against England•Getty ImagesAs an aside, Sodhi’s form is another reason for concern: he is ranked in the top ten T20I bowlers by the ICC, and had taken 76 wickets in 61 T20 games in the two years before the start of this series, conceding 7.81 runs per over; in these five games, he leaked 11.73 an over. If New Zealand are to compete in next year’s World Cup, they need him to draw a line under this nightmare series.The challenge for New Zealand, then, is to marry their lack of depth – their player pool is not massive, and the drop-off in quality is reasonably fast – with a clear strategy.Against England, New Zealand lined up mainly as a batting team, with a top four packed with attacking players in Colin Munro, Martin Guptill, Tim Seifert and Colin de Grandhomme. That left Ross Taylor in an unclear role, neither anchoring nor finishing, and meant the allrounders were generally left to finish the innings off.Instead, it might be more prudent to pick a bowling-heavy side. One of the top three – most likely Munro, given Seifert will take the gloves – will drop out to accommodate Kane Williamson at No. 3 when he returns to fitness, and switching Ross Taylor and Colin de Grandhomme’s positions should allow Taylor to play in a style that suits him more than power-hitting at the death (he strikes at a relatively conservative 150.83 in the final five overs since January 2017).ALSO READ: New Zealand’s biggest hits, featuring Neesham and MitchellThat would then allow them to pick Neesham, or another specialist finisher, like Corey Anderson in the event he is fully fit. Santner’s late-order hitting is good enough for him to bat at No. 7. That then allows for a five-pronged attack comprising bowlers who can be relied upon for four overs each: Santner, Sodhi, Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Lockie Ferguson.Boult and Southee’s recent T20 records are mixed, but it is hard to draw too many conclusions from them given they have only rarely focused on the format. If they prove too expensive, then Adam Milne, Tickner, Kuggeleijn and Seth Rance are the alternative seam options.Given the conditions that New Zealand will likely face in Australia, a bowling-heavy team in the mould of Justin Langer’s Perth Scorchers could work well: a batting line-up featuring Powerplay-optimising openers, high-quality middle-over rotators, a spin-hitter in de Grandhomme and some pace specialists for the death overs, plus five quality bowlers with no clear weak link.The good news for New Zealand is that they have more than enough time to rotate and try out different options in each of those roles. Out of the eight teams that have qualified automatically for the Super 12 stage of the World Cup, none is scheduled to play more bilateral T20Is than New Zealand’s 20 before the start of the tournament.So long as they use those fixtures sensibly, trying to find a formula that will work in Australia rather than focusing on the immediate-term goal of winning series which are realistically friendlies, New Zealand have reason to be positive.

A familiar tale played itself out as defensive frailties and poor shot selection hastened the visitors’ slide to defeat

Mohammad Isam in Indore16-Nov-2019Big gaps between bat and pad, bats coming down at odd angles against seaming deliveries, indecision outside the off stump, and the general lack of long-format temperament. Saturday was the same old story for the Bangladesh batting line-up in an overseas Test match, and the flaws were further exposed by arguably the best bowling attack in the world.It was only thanks to Mushfiqur Rahim, who faced one-third of all the balls faced by Bangladesh’s batsmen in the entire Test, that the game went on until 3.30pm on the third day. He hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary, but among a group of batsmen who hardly showed any patience, his 43 and 64 stood out like a beacon.Openers Shadman Islam and Imrul Kayes looked susceptible against both the incoming and outgoing deliveries. Both got out to balls leaving them on the first day, and on the third day both were bowled by balls that came back in, and not terribly sharply. They were undone by subtle movement.Mahmudullah was undone by his lack of patience in both innings, exposing all three stumps and missing a sweep in the first and poking at numerous deliveries from the quicks in the second. Mohammad Mithun survived 36 and 26 balls, and could be considered unlucky to get out to a brilliant delivery in the first innings, but in the second dig, his bat coming down at an angle got him into trouble against a Mohammed Shami bouncer.Liton Das may have fewer technical issues to sort out, but his impatience is eating into his international career. In the second innings, he put on 63 with Mushfiqur before giving it away by playing one shot too many.Mushfiqur Rahim flicks one on the leg side•BCCIThrough this Test match, Bangladesh’s batsmen were not in control of 20% of the balls they faced, as against India’s 5%. While this was reflective of the disparity in quality between the two attacks the respective teams faced, it was also indicative of the issues of technique and shot selection that continue to bog down Bangladesh in Test cricket.Even Mushfiqur isn’t without flaws. Teams have been trying to target him with the big inswinger homing in on his off and middle stumps, in the hope that he’ll leave a gap between bat and pad. West Indies have tasted notable success with this tactic recently, and Shami did so too in the first innings, finding the gap between bat and pad. There were a couple of close calls of this nature on day three too.Mushfiqur will no doubt busy himself practising against the incoming ball over the next five days, trying his best to iron out his weakness. At least he knows exactly what his issue is. And at least it’s just one issue. The problems are a lot more complicated when it comes to his colleagues. In overseas conditions in the last two years, they have been exposed in multiple ways, technically and mentally.It calls into question Bangladesh’s preparation for these challenges.Apart from the lead-up to the 2015 World Cup – when their then coach Chandika Hathurusingha installed a granite slab at the Shere Bangla National Stadium to simulate the bounce of Australian pitches – there haven’t been too many recent instances of Bangladesh coming up with specific training methods to combat specific challenges. That kind of preparation is essential for batsmen to develop the habits that will serve them well when their techniques are examined relentlessly for long periods.Bangladesh’s recent struggles against New Zealand, West Indies and India have suggested that this isn’t happening.It isn’t that Bangladesh’s batsmen lack the pedigree to play at the top level. The current lot is much better against pace and bounce, for instance, than previous generations were. But when it comes to dealing with a full arsenal of bowlers asking them questions ball after ball, they are still quite some way behind most batting line-ups.

Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk has been vital to their success over the last few years, cementing himself as one of the best defenders in world football.

The Dutchman, who’s out of contract at the end of the season, has won five major honours during his time at Anfield, including a Premier League and Champions League triumph.

The 33-year-old will go down in club history for his showings in Merseyside, making over 300 appearances for the first team, with many hoping he can add to his tally next season – but the hierarchy will need to sort his contract scenario out as soon as possible.

Whilst the £75m forked out for his signature back in January 2018 may have appeared to be a mammoth sum, he’s been worth every penny, catapulting the Reds to their various levels of success.

His big-money move is one of the biggest deals in the club’s history, but they could be about to land a move just as impressive in the summer, massively strengthening Arne Slot’s first-team squad in the process.

Liverpool preparing £115m bid for Premier League star

According to one Spanish outlet, Liverpool are preparing a £115m bid to land Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak this summer, but face huge interest from elsewhere.

Arsenal and Chelsea have also been credited with an interest in recent times, with the Magpies massively reluctant to offload their key man this summer.

The Swede has thrived this campaign, notching 24 goals in 34 appearances across all competitions, including in the Carabao Cup final against Slot’s side – denying him his first trophy since taking the reins.

The report states that Eddie Howe’s side do not want to sell their star man this window, but understand the Reds’ interest is serious, with the 25-year-old potentially able to leave should they fail to achieve Champions League qualification.

Whilst it would be a club-record transfer, matching the English record in the process, a move for Isak would massively improve the current attacking department, making Slot’s side an even bigger threat in 2025/26.

How Isak compares to Liverpool’s current striker options

Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota have often shared the responsibility of leading the line for Liverpool in 2024/25, but have often struggled during key moments.

The Portuguese striker may have notched the winning goal in the Merseyside derby last week, but has failed to deliver on a consistent basis, only scoring nine goals across his 31 appearances in all competitions.

As for Nunez, he’s also been a disappointment this campaign, evidently not being the man to take the Reds to the next level under the guidance of the Dutchman.

His tally of seven goals in his 42 appearances throughout this season, works out to just one in every 4.5 outings – a record simply not good enough if the club are to continue their dominance in the Premier League.

Such form could see Slot turn to Isak in the summer window, with the 25-year-old massively outperforming the aforementioned pair this year – highlighting the elite-level talent he possesses.

The Swede, who’s been labelled “the best striker in the world” by one analyst, has massively outscored the pair, offering another dimension to the club’s forward line.

He’s also managed to complete more take-ons and also completed more passes he’s attempted, offering an all-round number nine, something which the Reds have desperately lacked in recent years.

How Isak compares to Jota & Nunez in the PL (2024/25)

Statistics (per 90)

Isak

Jota

Nunez

Games played

26

20

25

Goals & assists

25

9

7

Shot-on-target accuracy

46%

30%

39%

Pass accuracy

74%

70%

71%

Shot-creating actions

3.3

3

2.2

Take-on success

49%

39%

38%

Progressive passes

2.8

2.6

2

Stats via FBref

Whilst the touted fee would be a mammoth investment from the hierarchy, it would be a deal that would be worth every penny – taking the side to new heights under Slot.

Although competition will be high for his signature this summer, the club’s current league standing and European qualification could give them the edge in the race – making him the biggest deal since Van Dijk and arguably the most important for their ambitions of reaching the next level.

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Posts ByAngus Sinclair Apr 5, 2025