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Talk of Kolpak signings and whether Lancashire can avoid another relegation battle hover over Glen Chapple’s first season as head coach

Paul Edwards01-Apr-2017Lancashire’s media days have changed. Time was when they used to consist of a team photo, the players’ mugshots, a few interviews and a hotpot. On Friday morning, though, the Old Trafford outfield was bedecked with three sets of chairs for the team, their placement dependent on the sponsors being promoted; and Steven Croft’s players dutifully sported Lancashire’s three kits, white for the Championship, red for the T20 Blast and a curious shade of green for the Royal London Cup.It all took a while, especially given the spreadsheet of sponsors to be accommodated and the team’s need to scoot back to the dressing room and don another strip. Each clothes change seemed to require a fresh application of hair gel and sweet-smelling unguents. The whole thing had the air of a fashion parade. “And here we have Liam, and Liam is wearing a daring guacamole number by Kukri of Preston…”Before long, probably to the relief of everyone, substance replaced style – well, talk about substance anyway – and discussion of what has been an eventful winter at Emirates Old Trafford. Ashley Giles has gone back to Warwickshire, Tom Smith has retired and Alviro Petersen has been released. The club have signed Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dane Vilas and Ryan McLaren. Inevitably, Glen Chapple, the new head coach, had to field questions about recruiting the 42-year-old Chanderpaul and what this said about the county’s wish to develop its own players and give chances to them.”When you’re making signings, you’ve got one eye on what you think your squad needs but you’ve also got one eye on opportunities,” he said. “I didn’t set out thinking I was going to sign Shiv but when I found out how well he was playing and how keen he was to play, it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. He will add another dimension to our squad and he will be a great help to our batters.””We know Shiv,” Chapple added, referring to Chanderpaul’s previous spell with Lancashire in 2010. “He loves playing cricket and he lives to bat. The modern day game needs people who know how to bat in a four-day match. I think Has [Haseeb Hameed] will speak to him a lot about batting. Has already has that mentality but I’m sure they’ll have loads of conversations.”Maintaining a balance in Lancashire’s squad is clearly important to Chapple. The loss of Petersen – who has been banned for two years for breaching Cricket South Africa’s anti-corruption code – left a large gap in the top-order batting, one best filled by an experienced cricketer. However, he also understands and shares the deep desire of the county’s supporters that the club should bring on its own.”Long term the priority is to have as many homegrown players in the squad as possible and if you watch this season, we’ll always have seven of those who will be homegrown and not signed from other counties,” he said. “In our defence we are still producing first-class cricketers and over time we’d like that number to be more, but our supporters want us to achieve success as well. They want us to win trophies. They don’t want periods when we say we’re developing.

“With one team fewer in the division there is less scope for any poor performances. If you’re not competing at the top, you’ll be looking over your shoulder”Glen Chapple

“It is a balance but our priority is on producing players from within and for me that means the north-west. We are careful to sign the right players who want to perform for the club and are hungry to achieve more. They’re not just coming because they can. I’ve not heard people spoken of more highly than Dane Vilas and Ryan McLaren in the reports I received about them. That’s a really good sign for us.”Nevertheless, for all that he has a great deal of coaching skill and acquired more during his two years working under Giles, Chapple has had to adjust to leading Lancashire’s coaching team and helping to establish an atmosphere, perhaps a more relaxed one than his predecessor’s, in which the players can perform at their best. He does not demur at the suggestion that he is putting his own stamp on things.”There were a few things that changed given a slightly different approach,” he said. “You might share some values but when it’s up to you, you make slightly different decisions. I work closely with Mark Chilton [his assistant], Chris Benbow [the analyst] and the rest of the management staff to do what I think is right. I want the players to be themselves in training and to have the freedom to express how they want to play their cricket. It’s a career that needs to be enjoyed but you need to enjoy getting better. I want us to be a tough team to play against.”My previous role was all-encompassing but it was more as an aid to the captain and head coach whereas now ultimately some decisions rest with me. The captain will have the final say on who he takes onto the field. I and the coaches just want to help the players achieve success. I don’t think you have to become a different person as a head coach but it’s nearly ten years since I’ve been simply a player, so I’m probably distanced a bit in that respect. I’ve enjoyed the job so far and I can’t wait to get into the competitive stuff.”That competitive stuff begins at Essex next Friday and some attention will be taken by the duel between Alastair Cook and James Anderson. “Alastair’s good friends with Jimmy but he’ll be wishing Jimmy wasn’t the bowler he was facing first up,” observes Chapple, who is fully aware how intense the cricket will be in a division in which two of the eight teams will be relegated in September.”The teams that were a bit weaker last season have strengthened, the one team that came up, Essex, have strengthened quite a lot and with one team fewer in the division there is less scope for any poor performances,” he said. “If you’re not competing at the top, you’ll be looking over your shoulder.”So Chapple is understandably loath to set his team the target of winning a trophy in 2017.”I’d rather judge the season on how we play our cricket,” he said. “If we play really good cricket and finish mid-table, then great. I’d much rather we won the division but until it kicks off you don’t know how difficult that is going to be. Last season was the strangest I’ve seen. We were 20 points clear after four games and then suddenly everyone started winning and we couldn’t find a result. The key thing for me is that you can’t have a game off, you have to be right at it this year. Whenever we’ve been successful in the past, it’s the players who have set their own targets and we have to find a day this week to talk about that. I’m pretty sure what we’ll hear.”

An account of the time the Pakistan captain spent out of the team on account of being considered too old

Hassan Cheema13-May-2017″How is it possible that somebody like Misbah, who will go down as one of Pakistan’s best batsmen, starts playing Test cricket when he’s 34? That’s the age at which batsmen in Australia retire!”There’s a trope now in Imran Khan interviews (there’s one “exclusive” interview every month, it seems like) where they end with the interviewer talking about something on a “lighter note” – invariably cricket, and so invariably Imran turns to his greatest bugbear: the state of domestic cricket in the country. For all that one could disagree with Imran’s political viewpoints, he was pretty much a prophet as far as concerns over domestic cricket are concerned. Even if he didn’t play any domestic first-class matches after 1981, he did realise, and was vociferous about, the faults in the domestic game. In the three decades since, domestic cricket in Pakistan has only declined further, to the point that the era when Imran preferred to play in England and Australia instead of at home is now considered a golden era of domestic cricket.The failure of the domestic game to identify Misbah in due time is representative of how the first-class circuit fails to provide a pipeline to the national team. With quantity superseding quality, it becomes difficult to ascertain what is easy and what is worthy in terms of performance. And yet at the same time Misbah’s career also represents how a failure to understand or appreciate the domestic game leads to a state where high achievers never get their just dues.The truth lies somewhere in the middle – Misbah’s career is a summation of Imran’s warnings, and yet a rejection of those who believed Imran’s words without ever considering the nuances they contained. Not the career that everyone is familiar with, but all that came before: when Misbah was a domestic dominator, the captain of the A team, forgotten on the international stage, and content to waste away his peak in front of empty stands.

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“This was around 2000,” Misbah said to me in an interview recently. “I had already played a season or two of first-class, and I had decided that I was going to go all in. I played that season like it was my last. And that approach turned out to be right.”In the summer before the 2000-01 domestic season, he had decided that he wanted to be more than just the guy who was known for hitting big against spin. Time was already running out for a player who had taken a unique path to the domestic game in a country where, if you didn’t make your international debut by your mid-20s, international cricket was never going to be a possibility for you. Here was a man who had made his first-class debut at the age of 24! He had his MBA, but what was the point of that in a young man’s sport?The season before, in 1999-00, he had finished with 803 runs at an average of 38. Atop the scoring charts that year was another man fighting against the norms – Younis Khan had scored 1102 runs at an average in excess of 100. Younis’ form would allow him to finish the season with a Test debut, and a hundred to boot. Here was proof that domestic numbers still mattered. So Misbah was going to buckle down.

“I would pray after Namaz, after Tahajjud, that God give him everything he had wished for. All I prayed for was for him to get back in the team”Uzma Khan, Misbah’s wife

The 2000-01 season was the start of one of the finest statistical runs in modern Pakistani domestic history. Misbah led the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy batting charts with 947 runs at 63, and averaged 50 in List A. And yet, as he is open to admit, that didn’t mean he was a particularly good batsman at the time.By the end of that season, he made his Pakistan debut, thrown into the deep end, sent in at No. 3 in the second innings in Auckland. He failed to score enough runs there, but what he gained became the basis for all that was to come.”I had never even thought about it, that I would reach this stage, that I will share the dressing room with such greats,” Misbah said in an interview to the in 2015. “There were so many greats at the time, Inzamam, Wasim, Waqar, Saqlain, Mushtaq, Moin and Mohammad Yousuf. They were such big stars, and they kept their distance from the juniors. But even observing them from so close was good fortune for guys like me. The professionalism they had, the spirit they had for the game was exemplary. Guys like Wasim or Waqar went into the field thinking, ” [We have to blow them away, we have to beat them]. That conviction they had was what I carried from there on in. Whether it was a domestic game or a club game, I learnt from them that when you play, you leave everything out on the field.”Their professionalism wasn’t the only thing that Misbah would gain from his international debut.”At that time, unless you had played international cricket, you didn’t know what you looked like when you played. So the season after my debut Test I totally changed the way I batted. I changed my technique. Before that I had no idea how your feet were supposed to move, how your balance shifts.”That summer, I spent three months in the NCA, played for the Pakistan A team, and completely changed the way I play. The likes of Mudassar Nazar, Ali Zia and Julien Fountain really helped me get my foundations right in batting and fielding. It was only after I debuted in international cricket that I found out what cricket really is. Before that, all I knew was how to score runs, and nothing else.”The result of all this was another extraordinary domestic season in 2001-02: 846 runs at 94, finishing as the second highest scorer in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. The following season he was back at the top of the charts, with 963 runs at 107. No one else even went past 650 runs. At that stage he had a three-year Quaid-e-Azam record of 2756 runs at 83.5. But the numbers don’t reveal the work he put in.Saeed Ajmal, friend and foe for the best part of 20 years, describes how Misbah changed during those three seasons.”One thing he always had is, he never gives up, he always finds a solution to whatever problem he has,” Ajmal says. “And his commitment, even right now, is unquestionable. How many other cricketers would use the time between captaining a PSL team and captaining the national team to try getting their region promoted back to first-class cricket? He plays every game with that commitment, and he has done so since 2001. Before that he used to score hundreds but would take 350 balls to make them!”No higher than the A team: Misbah celebrates a hundred for Pakistan A in the Top End Series in Darwin, 2006•Getty ImagesThis is no exaggeration. In November 1999, Misbah scored 129 off 451 balls against Ajmal’s Faisalabad in his attempt to save a four-day game.”When Faisalabad used to play Sargodha, we knew he was the marriage.”Finances were never a problem for us,” says Uzma. “At the start he would give me Rs 10,000 to run the house and that used to be enough for us back then. And he got me a car so that I could travel to university, where I was doing my Masters, so I always had freedom too. But I did keep hearing – though not from his friends and family – that he was never picked for the national team after our marriage, and it was my kismet that was bringing him down.”In some subcontinental cultures, there is this idea that a bride brings her luck to her new home. “So I would blame myself for it,” she says. “I would pray after Namaz, after Tahajjud, that God give him everything he had wished for. All I prayed for was for him to get back in the team.”And so Misbah ploughed on, becoming a casualty of the best middle order Pakistan have ever had. Three greats were complemented by either an allrounder or a young star – Misbah was neither of those things.”I think after myself and Younis bhai, this thinking is starting to change. We are finally focusing on form and fitness and not on someone’s date of birth”•Getty ImagesHere he was, a man with an MBA degree, with friends who were now bureaucrats or climbing up the corporate ladder, who was earning just enough to get by.”I never thought I was missing out on something by not going to the corporate world,” Misbah says. “They were doing jobs, I was doing something I love. Money was never a priority for me. That’s why while so many other cricketers used to go to play league cricket in England, I rarely did. I would rather be in Pakistan, play four or five club matches a week, still have time for training and nets, and have great weather than be somewhere where you have one match a week, and that might be rained off.”When I did go to play in England, it was so depressing. You would sit indoors all day, and when it was time to play, it would rain. How could I possibly improve there? All I wanted to do was play cricket, get better, and that’s it. So I would play every club match, regional match, department match, whatever it was.”In 2006, with Inzamam banned from the Champions Trophy due to the Oval fiasco, Younis was appointed captain for the tournament. He fought for the selection of Misbah, and was instead given Faisal. Unable to get the team he wanted, Younis did what Younis does – he refused to compromise, and resigned. It was obvious that Misbah’s time was running out.A poor Patron’s Trophy followed, to end 2006, and it seemed as if Misbah was on the decline. Thus, as he did in 2000, he decided he was going to go all in again.”At the start of 2007 he asked me to just give him six months or so,” says Uzma. “He told me he didn’t want to go to any functions or weddings or birthdays. Just wanted to focus on his cricket.”He had bought me a Sony video camera for our anniversary the previous year. He would take that camera to nets every day, record his batting, then come home and just go through that day’s video during the night. That’s all he did every night.”In the subsequent Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Misbah finished as the third highest scorer with 577 runs at 64.11.”At that same time he had put in our savings to buy a car from someone, and that guy ran off with the money. That year Misbah was playing in England, and I couldn’t go and meet him because we just had Rs 17,000 in our account, and I didn’t know what to do. Thankfully he had to come back earlier than scheduled from England. Because he had been selected for the 2007 World T20 camp.”The rest, as they say, is history.

Stats highlights from the third day of the Pallekele Test between Sri Lanka and India

Bharath Seervi14-Aug-20171 – This is the first time India have whitewashed an away series of three or more Tests. Overall, this is the fifth time India have whitewashed a Test series of three or more matches.2 – Number of times Sri Lanka have been whitewashed at home in a series of three or more matches: by Australia in 2003-04 and by India in this series. Overall, this is the sixth time they have been whitewashed in a series of three or more Tests.35.98 – The difference between India’s batting and bowling averages in this series, which is their second-biggest in any series of three or more Tests. The biggest difference also came against Sri Lanka, 44.43, in 1986. India’s batting average in this series was 60.90 and bowling average 24.92.3 – Bigger innings victories for India than this one, by an innings and 171 runs. In away Tests, this is their second-largest innings win. For Sri Lanka, this is their fifth-biggest innings defeat and second-biggest at home.26 – Average of India’s spin bowlers in this series, compared to Sri Lanka’s 67.38. India’s spinners struck roughly once every 49 balls whereas Sri Lanka spinners required around 102 balls per wicket. India’s fast bowlers averaged 24.35 whereas the home side’s quicks averaged 53.84.

3 – Number of first-innings leads of over 300 runs for India in this series – their most in any series. They had got two such leads against Sri Lanka at home in 2009-10 and in the West Indies last year. India’s first-innings leads in this series: 309, 439 and 352.487 – India’s lowest score in a completed innings in this series – the highest lowest innings total for India in any series of three or more Tests. Sri Lanka’s highest total of the series was 386.5 – Number of India players to scored centuries in this series – Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Hardik Pandya – the joint-most in an away Test series of any number of matches for India. In all ten players made 50-plus scores, which is the joint second-most in any Test series.

For Steven Smith and Darren Lehmann, the challenge has been to find a less risky and more sustainable way of running up totals in Test cricket. And they found what they were looking for this Ashes

Daniel Brettig09-Jan-2018In cricket, as in music, the right tempo can be hard to find. Martin Hannett, the iconoclastic Manchester record producer, is depicted in the film telling the Joy Division drummer, Steven Morris, to play “faster, but slower”. In assessing the way the 2017-18 Ashes series was played, many have noted that it was the slowest in terms of scoring rate since 1994-95.For Australia, that is a seriously promising statistical sign that the team led by Steven Smith and coached by Darren Lehmann is finding the correct tempo for sustained success as a Test team.

Shaun Marsh suffers quad strain

Australia’s middle-order batsman Shaun Marsh is out of the Perth Scorchers’ next Big Bash League match against Sydney Thunder on Wednesday due to a quad strain he carried through the fifth Ashes Test.
Marsh, who was second behind Steven Smith in the series’ leading run-makers, is believed to have suffered the injury during the Melbourne Test but was successfully able to manage it while making his second century in five Tests at the SCG.
Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann has lauded Marsh’s role in providing dependable support for Smith in particular.

Twenty-three years ago, Mark Taylor started his Australian captaincy with a goal to score more rapidly and play more proactively, the better to utilise the burgeoning talents of his team to win Test matches after the relative conservatism of the Allan Border/Bob Simpson years. Taylor wanted his teams to accelerate so as to make around 300 runs a day against quality bowling attacks and, in subsequently becoming the best Test side in the world, they largely did so.For Smith and Lehmann, the challenge has been to do the opposite, throttling back from the frenetic speeds at which Australia have become used to scoring runs in Tests, to find a less risky and more sustainable way of running up the totals that an excellent and now versatile bowling attack can defend. In summing up the way Australia had approached this Ashes series, won 4-0 after a final innings victory in Sydney, Lehmann said it had been critical to bat for long periods, even if not at the optimum rate. Similar maxims will apply for future, overseas assignments in South Africa, the UAE and England again in 2019: boom and bust is out, steady accumulation is in.”Long periods of time with their two senior bowlers in [Stuart] Broad and [James] Anderson we wanted them to bowl a lot of overs,” Lehmann said. “That was certainly a plan in the first innings of every game to make sure we’re batting big in the first innings, and achieved that in all bar Melbourne basically. So for us making sure those older guys were coming back day in, day out to bowl, was important, if we did that we gave our bowlers enough rest and away we go from there.”We’re planning that far ahead, it’s not funny. For us, it’s making sure you’re changing the way you play wherever you play. South Africa you would think very similar to Australian conditions so it’s not so bad. Pakistan is totally different, we’ll have to prepare differently as we did for India. I thought that Test series in India was unbelievable and if we got over the line there it would’ve been an amazing achievement, but you’ve got to chop and change between where you play and who you play.”That’s planning, Under-19s already underway, planning where we’re going to play, how we’re going to prepare, so they’re the things you do well ahead of the game.”

“We’re planning that far ahead, it’s not funny. For us, it’s making sure you’re changing the way you play wherever you play.”

Nothing epitomised the Australian tempo more than the fact Smith scored his runs at 48.51 runs per hundred balls, Shaun Marsh at 45.97, Usman Khawaja at 43.35 and even the hyper-aggressive David Warner at 52.37. Mitchell Marsh, while scoring at a more slippery 57.04, was notably more patient, and only the technical travails of Cameron Bancroft gave cause for concern. The principle underpinning all this crease-occupation was patience, and Lehmann spoke happily of watching Warner happily knock singles into the gaps offered to him by Joe Root as a way of restricting the usual flow of boundaries.”Certainly a bit different for the way they planned, they had deep cover, deep point and two back the whole time,” Lehmann said. “Normally those balls from Davey would go for four, so that was a plan from them to restrict his scoring, but I thought he handled it really well, showed a bit of maturity from Davey, which was great. For him to bat a long period of time is good for him, he knows he can go both ways.”It will be imperative to show defensive and attacking skills at the right times in South Africa, particularly given the way South Africa’s pacemen dismantled India in the opening Test of their current series in Cape Town. Lehmann admitted that the schedule of limited-overs matches between now and March would make the process of adaptation challenging, albeit in conditions not totally dissimilar to those on which Australian batsmen are raised.”We don’t have as much time, that’s the problem with the changeover. We have a [Sheffield] Shield round and a [practice] game in Benoni,” Lehmann said. “They’ll leave early, the Test squad, depending on the T20 squad which is playing at the same time, so we’ll have to work that as best we possibly can. Scheduling we can’t do anything about, but we’ll try and give them the best preparation we can in that regard. They’ve got some quality bowlers South Africa, no doubt about that, they’ll swing it around. It’s been quite dry there so it’ll be interesting to see what sort of wickets we get there, only time will tell.”Preparation is the key for whatever series. You’ve got to get there as early as we can. Broad and Anderson have got 900 Test wickets. And South Africa have got a really good attack. Shaun Marsh made a great hundred last time we were there at Centurion. I expect those guys to be a challenge, as it always is. South Africa are a tough opponent. We’ll have to play well, there’s no doubt about that. We’ll have to bat really well.”Much as Taylor knew that the right tempo for run-making would complement the fact that he had Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and initially Craig McDermott in harness to bowl opponents out, Lehmann and Smith have realised that, provided they stay fit, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon will be able to confound most opponents so long as there are no batting catastrophes to rob them of adequate runs to defend. Lehmann will not yet put the current quartet above Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Lyon from 2013-14, but they are getting close.”They certainly have the potential to be. Harris, Siddle, Johnson and Lyon were pretty good four years ago, but these guys are younger, they’ve got the appetite to be great,” Lehmann said. “Twenty-five days of cricket as well, every day they fronted up for us at crunch times. From a bowling point of view, very pleased we were able to get 80 wickets to win 4-0 and the way they’ve done it.”The last two wickets were a little bit slow and low as such, but Sydney took turn. The first three had some pace and bounce in them, but they adapted to those conditions really well, so, pleased you’ve got those guys playing together all at once.”Lehmann, of course, has flagged for some time that the 2019 Ashes tour will be the end of his time as Australian coach. The 2017-18 Ashes may yet be seen as the pivot point from Australian cavalier to Test-match roundhead, with Cromwellian consequences for the rest of world cricket.

An ageing group of core players leaves them rich on experience, but questions remain about their ability to cope with modern-day T20 cricket

Deivarayan Muthu06-Apr-20181:47

The fallen kings rise again

Big Picture

One of the untold stories in MS Dhoni’s authorised biopic is his stint with Chennai Super Kings and the controversies that culminated in a two-year suspension for the franchise. CSK are back now and enter IPL 2018 with Dhoni, who led them to back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011, still at the helm. He may no longer be the India captain, but he’s still CSK’s (leader).While Dhoni did not attend the 2018 player auction, lots about the squad has his stamp: several tried-and-tested IPL performers who have played with and against Dhoni, many of whom haven’t been in their national sides for a while.Have CSK been too conservative though? They have 11 players over 30, and by the time this cycle of three-year contracts ends Imran Tahir and Harbhajan Singh will be over 40. They had an average age of 33 after the first day of the auction in January, and then they bought eight uncapped players to complete their quota of 25 on the second. That CSK had INR 6.5 crore left in their purse at the end of the auction indicated that they chose not to go aggressively after a sought after power-hitter or allrounder.M Vijay, in his current avatar, and Faf du Plessis are accumulators at best, and though Shane Watson hit form in the BBL and PSL, a sluggish start could increase pressure on Suresh Raina and Dhoni. They have lots of spin options but the seam attack looks thin. Can Dhoni recreate the old magic with this Jekyll-Hyde side?

The good

If an IPL Hall of Fame was to be instituted, Raina would be among the first entrants. He comes into this season on the back of an India recall. Both in South Africa and Sri Lanka, he showed glimpses of his fierce ball-striking abilities. However, the consensus among many was that he was trying to manufacture too many strokes.That Raina made an India comeback after more than a year was down to his form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: 314 runs in nine T20 innings at a strike rate of nearly 150. In his most recent IPL stint with Gujarat Lions, Raina struck 311 runs off 219 balls at a strike-rate of 142 in the Powerplay. So if the openers fail, CSK still have an attacking No. 3.The clock may be ticking on Dhoni the T20I finisher, but he still continues to be effective in the end overs. In the past two IPL seasons, Dhoni scored 358 runs off 220 balls for Rising Pune Supergiant at a strike-rate of 163 between overs 16 and 20. It remains to be seen whether he still has those skills this season.Dwayne Bravo: the first man to take 400 T20 wickets. What’s more special is that nearly half of Bravo’s T20 wickets – 203 out of 413 – have come during the last four overs of an innings, a record.These three limited-overs stalwarts will once again have to be CSK’s driving force.PTI

The bad

The absence of an experienced new-ball bowler could prove crucial. Shardul Thakur has become an India international and is skilful, but can he deliver under pressure consistently? The same question can be asked of Rajasthan’s Deepak Chahar too. Then, there is the next layer of uncapped pacers in KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Kshitiz Sharma, and Monu Kumar Singh, none of whom have played an IPL yet. Mark Wood and Lungi Ngidi have pace, but are untested in Indian conditions.To add to their worries, Chahar and Wood are injury-prone, and Mitchell Santner, who was in sparkling form in New Zealand’s ODI series against England, has been ruled out of the entire tournament because of a knee surgery.

Squad

Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, M Vijay, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Sam Billings, Dhruv Shorey, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), N Jagadeesan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Monu Kumar Singh, Kshitiz Sharma, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Mark Wood, Lungi Ngidi

The overseas question

With Bravo and Tahir likely to be certainties, CSK might have to choose between Watson and du Plessis to partner Vijay at the top. This could also mean a toss-up between Ngidi and Wood for one seam-bowling slot. They won’t have to worry about Wood’s availability until much later in the competition. There is a possibility of him returning to England during the playoffs should he be picked for the Test series against Pakistan.

The plan

Simple: Prepare turners and let their spinners loose. They have two wristspinners in Tahir and Karn Sharma, two fingerspinners in Ravindra Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh. In addition, Bravo thrives on slower offcutters and legcutters, while Raina and Kedar Jadhav can also pitch in with their offbreaks.Possible starting XI: 1 Shane Watson/Faf du Plessis, 2 M Vijay, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Kedar Jadhav, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Harbhajan Singh/Karn Sharma, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Imran Tahir, 11 Lungi Ngidi/Mark Wood

The brains

Stephen Fleming (head coach), Michael Hussey (batting coach), L Balaji (bowling coach), Eric Simmons (bowling consultant), Tommy Simsek (physiotherapist).

Will they make the playoffs?

Expect CSK to make a familiar late dash to the playoffs.

India’s best all-format bowler talks about the knuckleball, and why Sunrisers Hyderabad has the best bowling attack in the IPL

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi19-May-20182:11

Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman talks about Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s workload, investing in good Indian talent, and the benefits of showing faith in youngsters

Would you say this current Sunrisers attack is the most complete T20 bowling unit you’ve been part of?
 
It is a very good bowling attack. What is good about this unit is, whenever anybody has been asked to deliver he has done it – Basil Thampi played a couple of matches and he did whatever the captain asked of him or the team needed.It is an attack that has defended small targets. Like in the away match against Mumbai Indians, where you defended 118. When you defend such a small total, what does the bowler need to focus on?
Everyone knows that when you defend a small target there is not much room to make any mistake. The good thing is, whenever we have defended a low total, we have always taken wickets.I was not in Mumbai, but when I spoke to the guys who played in that match, they said that everyone wanted to focus on bowling the dot ball at the beginning. The batsmen made mistakes or went after the bowlers as the dot balls increased, and that is how we kept taking wickets at regular intervals. So the bowlers were not going after the wickets, they just wanted to bowl dot balls.How difficult is it to defend small targets like those?
It is difficult to defend a low total because there is no pressure on the batting side. One or two good overs and they know then they’ll only need [about] a run a ball. When you are defending a low total, the key is, all bowlers need to be on the same page: either you go for wickets or you contain the run rate. Either option could work. If you go for wickets, you could contain the run rate, or you could get wickets by containing the run rate.Is it good to be attacking while defending a small target?
It totally depends on the bowlers, the team. Like, in the Mumbai match, our bowlers were just defensive. They wanted the batsmen to make mistakes, because sometimes batsmen can relax while chasing a low total, since they know one over can change the whole game. But when you keep bowling dot balls, they come under pressure and commit mistakes, and that is what happened in the Mumbai match.

While chasing a big target, batsmen usually try and hit the first ball of the over for a boundary, to put pressure on the bowler. As a strike bowler what is your mantra for the first ball?
For a bowler it doesn’t matter whether it is a first ball or a last ball. We always want to take a wicket or bowl a dot ball. Yes, when you get hit on the first ball, you are always under pressure because you still have to bowl five more balls and the batsman has got the upper hand. For a bowler all six balls matter. You might bowl five dot balls and then get hit for a boundary off the last delivery.Yesterday, against Daredevils, you were taken for 17 runs off the last over of the innings. You rarely leak so many runs at the death.
Exactly. I have not given so many, but whatever bad balls I bowled, the batsmen converted. When you are going through a good patch, even if you bowl bad balls, batsmen might only convert 50% of those deliveries.You are the only Indian bowler to have a five-for in each of the three international formats. The last time you picked up a five-for was in the T20 series in South Africa. Three of the wickets in that match came off the slower ball. How important is that variation for you?
It is very important, especially in the T20 format, because everyone goes after the bowler straightaway, but when you have a variation, the batsman thinks twice before hitting you. Overseas, most times the ball comes nicely on to the bat and batsmen always want to hit you square of the wicket if they are good at the cut and pull. So if you can take the pace off the delivery, you can contain the strengths of the batsman.Say about five years ago, what percentage of your deliveries were the slower variation?
I do not remember what percentage, but it depends on the situation, ground conditions, and the batsman. A few batsmen are very good against the slower ball, a few are very good against the yorker, so you don’t want to bowl those variations against them. But a slower ball is a necessary variation because when the batsman is in his flow, all he wants is pace on the delivery. So when you bowl the slower ball, it becomes effective.Is the slower ball reactive?
In the T20 format you have to be proactive instead of reacting to things. Yes, it can be a reaction if you get hit for a boundary or a six, then you can bowl a slower one, depending on the conditions. But even if you go for runs, it is better to be proactive.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar in recent IPL seasons

• In the last four IPL seasons (from 2015), Bhuvneshwar is the leading wicket-taker in the last five overs, with 49 wickets at 15.46, and an economy rate of 9.11. The next-highest wicket-taker is Dwayne Bravo with 40

• Only Bravo, with 503 balls, has bowled more deliveries at the death in this period than Bhuvneshwar, who has bowled 499 balls.

• Among the 14 bowlers who have bowled over 35 overs at the death in the last four IPL seasons, Bhuvneshwar’s average is the best, and his ER is fourth best.

• In the current IPL and the 2017 edition, Bhuvneshwar has taken eight (23.5%) of his wickets with knuckle balls and seven (20.6%) with slower balls, which makes it a total of 44.1% from these two variations.

How many types of slower ball do you have?
Offcutter, legcutter and knuckleball.And you bowl them all with same grip?
The grip remains mostly the same – just a slight change for the knuckleball. I bowl the cutters with the upright seam; the only difference is how you roll the fingers. It is not a mystery. The batsmen can see whether it is a legspin or offspin.When it comes to the knuckleball what is different about the grip?
I just try to hold the ball by the tips of my fingers. A few bowlers grip it with the knuckles, but I am not comfortable doing that. The seam is always upright and not scrambled. That is how I started, learned, and have practised since then.Do you remember how it was the first few times the knuckleball left your hand?
I was not comfortable because you are used to holding the ball with both fingers [and thumb] with a good grip, whereas when you are bowling the knuckleball you are gripping with the fingertips. It would slip. In fact, I remember, the first few times I tried the knuckleball, it would pitch near my legs or lob over to the wicketkeeper. It took nearly a week to start pitching it properly.I think it was two years ago when I tried it for the first time on the big stage. It was during the IPL.How do you practise it in the nets?
I do not bowl too many knuckleballs in the nets. I usually bowl that delivery against a single stump in the centre – that is how I get more ideas about the delivery.Former South Africa fast bowler Charl Langveldt was amazed at how easily and how soon you learned to master the knuckleball. He himself took several years.
I think he was the first guy I noticed bowling the knuckleball. He used it bowl it very well. Unfortunately no one picked it up till Zaheer Khan tried it, and now many bowlers  use the knuckleball.Langveldt also thinks your knuckleball almost floats.
I don’t know about that, but the good thing is it goes with the seam and swings.How is the delivery different for you from how others bowl it?
It is difficult to read it because there is no change in my action, no change in my wrist position.”A slower ball can only be deceptive if it is different, if it is floating, swinging”•AFPThe knuckleball is a wicket-taking ball. When you bowl offcutters and legcutters, batsmen can pick them from the wrist, but the knuckleball they have not been able to read. They might pick it in the air or after pitching. That is why a knuckleball is very effective, because it looks like the ball is coming at the same [good] pace, and the batsman gets beaten. So they cannot see anything different in my loading, in my run-up. Only once I release it, they notice the change.In terms of putting doubt in a batsman’s mind, the bowler has to think. It’s not possible to teach that, is it?
You cannot teach that. That is what experience teaches you. You have been in those situations many times before, so you know the possible outcomes if you try something. Also, it is about doing the process right and not thinking what is going to happen. If you do that, then sometimes your body can get tense and you will not be able to deliverA slower ball of any kind basically is deception. How did you teach yourself that?
Anything that a batsman cannot pick from the wrist is deception. Almost every bowler bowls a slower ball, but not many can be deceptive. A slower ball can only be deceptive if it is different, if it is floating, swinging. If you look at [Dwayne] Bravo’s slower ball, it is deceptive because it floats and dips.Ben Laughlin floats his knuckleball and it swings. If you ask me whether I can bowl the way these guys deliver, I cannot, because their actions are different. I might want to bowl the slower ball like Bravo but I can’t.Does the pitch matter?
Of course, it does. If you bowl a slower ball and the pitch is slow, then it will be difficult for the batsman to hit. If it is a flat wicket and nothing is happening, it is easier for the batsman to pick to the slower ball.Any particularly memorable wickets that you’ve taken with the knuckleball?
Upul Tharanga in Sri Lanka. It was a normal outswinger and Tharanga attempted to flick and was beaten by the pace.What do you need in order to be brave as a fast bowler in T20 cricket?
You need wickets to be brave. When you get wickets, you can try anything. But when you don’t, you always hesitate to try a few things because it is not always about giving runs and getting wickets.Azhar Mahmood, the current Pakistan bowling coach, said bowlers win you tournaments. Do you agree?
I agree. You see teams buy a lot of batsmen for a lot of money because they are good batsmen. But you also need good bowlers to get them out or contain the runs. If you bowl first and you can get the opposition out for 130-140 then it is a good total to chase. If your team has made 160, a par score in T20, you can help win the match. In T20 cricket, bowlers win you matches.

Afghanistan are nowhere near experiencing the reward of going through it, but they need to keep wanting to do that

Sidharth Monga in Bengaluru15-Jun-2018Test cricket is many wonderful things, but it is also a harsh reality check. If you are not ready for it, it exposes you in the most brutal manner. There could have been arranged a softer landing than playing the best Test team in their own backyard, one of the toughest challenges in all sport today; there could have been better preparation with a warm-up match against a first-class side; but the message is clear: there is a long way to go for Afghanistan.Test wickets are like felling trees. You have to keep striking at the same point before the final fatal blow. Afghanistan kept striking in different places when they bowled, and were nowhere near as resilient as a tree when India began striking. They know all this surely, but unfortunately Test cricket doesn’t come with an elaborate manual.Afghanistan were not ready. There should be no shame in admitting it. Yet it is what happens from here that is important because not many of the 12 Test teams were ready for this beast when they first encountered it. Conceding a a century in the first session of a Test, getting bowled out twice in one day, losing a match in two days – it is all embarrassing, but it has happened to established Test teams too in the past, let alone one making a debut with limited first-class experience in their ranks.Afghanistan have come here because their current generation and the one before it wanted to get here so badly that they overcame obstacles no other cricket team has had to tackle. “Here” is not necessarily Test cricket but just cricket, whichever format the sport has thrown at them. They are Test cricketers now. One of only 12 countries to have played it. While nothing that happens now can take it away from them, it can also become a cross to bear. Ask Bangladesh, who have had their Test status questioned every step of the way.It is important that Afghanistan still want to be Test cricketers. It can be easy to fall into the trap of caring only for limited-overs formats because that is what they have done till now and done so with phenomenal results. It can be easy to give up on Test cricket because it is so difficult, because a tenth of the T20 crowd turns up and still chants for a T20 franchise, because a bad day in T20 ends in that finite period… the reasons are endless.Afghanistan are nowhere near experiencing the reward of going through it. They need to keep wanting to do that. As badly as they wanted to play the World Cup. As badly as they wanted to learn when they watched the Pakistan stars on their TVs.That applies to players, leaders in the team, leaders outside the team and leaders in world cricket. This is going to be the steepest learning curve for a team that has taught themselves so much about cricket in such little time. Ten years ago, they were in World Cricket League Division Five, playing Bahamas and Japan. Now they are here. Cricket shouldn’t lose them. Coach Phil Simmons has been telling them for weeks how tough it is, now they know it for themselves. Now it is up to them to start doing what they need to do to belong here.Afghanistan’s players turned up to the ground in traditional attire on the occasion of Eid•BCCIGood signs are there. As Afghanistan players stood crestfallen after the match, waiting for the presentations to begin, on , a day of celebration after almost a month of fasting, India captain Ajinkya Rahane walked up to talk to them. Rahane later reported that even during that chat he could see they wanted to learn already. That they wanted to talk about how they could get better.Ireland were more ready than Afghanistan. They had more first-class experience, but they also had a generation of players who have been desperate to play Test cricket, who have grown up wanting to play Test cricket. Afghanistan, much like West Indies, have gone for what is most popular at that time. The learning curve is going to be steeper for them, but even for Ireland it is going to be difficult because this generation is coming towards its end, and Simmons, who has coached Ireland, acknowledged they haven’t been producing the talent to fill the breach.Had Ireland been given this status eight years ago, they might possibly have inspired the next generation to take up cricket much more than they reportedly have now. We now have a side arguably brought to Tests too late and another possibly too early. As much as it will call for their desperation to stay here, they could do with less selfish member boards. Twelve is a good number to start two divisions if boards like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can give up on the fear of missing out on India tours. It will reduce mismatches and will promote to the top group teams that are better prepared to face the best sides.At the end of it all, as India posed with the huge winners placard for a customary photograph, they invited Afghanistan to pose with them too. Cricket world needs to be as welcoming as Rahane’s team.

He didn’t keep wicket till he was almost out of his teens, but KS Bharat could soon find himself in the running for the national squad

Varun Shetty10-Sep-2018Until he was 19, the only reason KS Bharat wore the wicketkeeping gloves was because he got bored during his cricket summer camps. For about a month every year as a teenager, Bharat would pick up the gloves to keep himself entertained, before going back to being a “batsman and fielder”.”I used to do it in practice, but never kept in any state team till I was 19. Not even one over. I played for the state team for nearly ten years, but my last year, in the [Under] 19s, is when I started. I kept in two games – one full match and one in the second innings. That is when I came into Ranji cricket. There was a need for a keeper who could bat, so my association supported me,” Bharat says during a chat in Bengaluru, where he is playing for India A in the unofficial Test series against Australia A.It has been five years since his first-class debut for Andhra, a season during which he only kept in one full Ranji Trophy match for them. But, since then, Bharat has become their frontline wicketkeeper, and on two occasions has been the wicketkeeper with the most dismissals in the Ranji Trophy season.The most recent instance of that was during the 2017-18 season, when he effected 24 dismissals in six matches (23 catches and a stumping), ahead of CM Gautam, who also had 24 dismissals but in eight matches. It is why Bharat has been India A’s designated wicketkeeper during their last three series, only missing games when Rishabh Pant was being readied for the England series. Given India A’s penchant for rotation, this is a feat in itself.It also suggests Bharat could well be India’s second wicketkeeper when they tour Australia for the Test series in December this year.

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The poor handling of Wriddhiman Saha’s various injuries this season has put Indian cricket in a crisis it thought it was prepared for, but one that, at the end of their second away series of the year, they have barely been able to address with conviction.Such was the confusion that, even now, it is hard to tell how long India’s best wicketkeeper will be on the sidelines, with all recovery timelines still coming in measures of minimum time frames. According to most estimates, Saha isn’t likely to make the Australia tour. If he does, it will be with no match practice in the only format he plays at the international level.The consequence is a series of swaps that began on the tour of South Africa in January when Saha last played.The first back-up man was Parthiv Patel, whose sudden push back into overseas international cricket featured struggles against the moving ball both in front of and behind the stumps. It set the tone early in the season for India: their best-ever seam bowling attack is still finding unreliable support from the men who are supposed to grab the edges they produce.Dinesh Karthik’s return to Tests was highly anticipated, but his struggles mirrored those of Parthiv, as he too looked out of sorts with both bat and gloves.

“He would field with the older boys. That’s when we saw his movements – he catches the ball very softly, but strongly. He had good reflexes, hand-eye coordination, a lot of ball-sense. So why not wicketkeeping?”Krishna Rao, Bharat’s childhood coach

At the moment, Pant has the job, and, if for nothing else than the fact that he’s 20 years old and has a big learning curve ahead, he has inspired more confidence than those that came before him. But the grim truth is that he is India’s fourth wicketkeeper over nine Tests and with only 25 first-class games in his career, clearly not someone who was groomed to be in the Test team this quickly.Bharat’s regular appearances for India A and in various other representational squads suggest that had things not unravelled this quickly on the wicketkeeping front, he may have been ahead of Pant in the pecking order for red-ball cricket. What may have gone Pant’s way is his relative experience under pressure and his exciting batting potential, which has been tested against quality bowling thanks to the IPL.Otherwise, if the words of men who know him and a few days of observing him are anything to go by, Bharat is the better equipped keeper for the longest format.

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Bharat’s first-class career consists of two extraordinary moments.The first one was when he brought up his triple-century against Goa in 2015, which at the time was the first instance of an Andhra batsman making a 300-plus score. He was also the only wicketkeeper to make a triple-hundred in Ranji cricket.Later in 2015 came the second moment, a backhanded no-look stumping of Punjab’s Jiwanjot Singh, who had jumped down the track and managed to deflect the ball towards slip off his pad, but could escape neither Bharat’s quick hands nor his nonchalant strut afterwards.

Watch Andhra keeper @KonaBharat effect an amazing stumping of Punjab's Jiwanjot Singh. @ranjiscores @BCCIdomestic pic.twitter.com/PypDP1kAg9

— Circle of Cricket (@circleofcricket) November 21, 2015

In that stumping, Bharat made use of all the skills that Krishna Rao, head coach at the Centre of Excellence in Visakhapatnam, had spotted during his days in junior state cricket. It was Rao who saw the potential wicketkeeper in a restless teenager.”In Vishakapatnam, we had nets every evening. First-class cricketers, U-23s, U-22s, U-19s – everybody used to come. He would field with the older boys. That’s when we saw his movements – that he catches the ball very softly, but strongly. I thought he had good reflexes and good hand-eye coordination, and a lot of ball-sense. So why not put him in wicketkeeping? That’s how we pushed towards that job,” Rao says.It was restlessness that had led Bharat to cricket in the first place. As a boisterous child running about the neighbourhood in his hometown of Vishakapatnam, playing cricket on the terraces and just about anywhere else, Bharat admits he was a handful.”It took a lot of effort for my parents to stop my mischief at home,” says Bharat. “I had the passion for cricket from when I was 4-5 years old as far as I can remember. They found that I like this game and my dad supported my playing it. He started taking me to the right places.”One of those places was an academy at the naval grounds, not far away from the naval dockyards where his father worked, which was at the other end of the city from his school. After school, Bharat would hop onto a bus, wave out to his mother who would wait with his kit at a bus stop along the way, and the two would get to the nets everyday.

From that modest routine, Bharat started making his way up in the system quite quickly, breaking into the U-13 state team at the age of ten and never looking back. He was part of junior teams constantly, barring one year in the middle when he nearly quit the game after being dropped from the U-16 side. He was a “good student”, he says, and there was a choice. But like at many points during his career, Rao stepped in.”There was one phase, during the transformation into U-19s, he didn’t look very confident and he wasn’t getting many runs. One match, Bharat had failed and on the way home with his father, they got to discussing his performances and had some kind of an argument,” Rao recalls. “I don’t know what happened, but his father told him to get off and drove away angrily. My younger brother used to watch these matches when I couldn’t make it. On his way back, he spotted Bharat and drove him home.”Rao called Bharat’s father, and told him to go easy on the youngster and let him make mistakes. It took a couple of years for Bharat to discover the details of what was spoken.”They had a talk for a few hours, and my dad didn’t exactly tell me what they’d discussed. A few years later I made my first-class debut. That’s when my dad told me about what Krishna sir had said: he had assured him that I’ll be playing Ranji in a couple of years,” Bharat says.This relationship with Rao has been one of the most crucial elements of Bharat’s cricket, and he doesn’t understate it. At many points, he says, he had either no faith in himself or in Rao’s prescient words about him being part of the Ranji Trophy – that too as a wicketkeeper.”He told me that there’ll be a time when India will hunt for wicketkeepers, and I’ll be in that race. I’ve never believed my coach, to be honest. But it was nice to hear and I agreed reluctantly and continued, I could get on with the game and skip some college in the process! [Then] I started taking the game seriously, I started respecting the [wicketkeeping] gloves. I never believed that with wicketkeeping, I can come so far. Whatever he has told me is actually coming true. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be having this chat.”

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Whatever the contribution was in terms of mental strength and foresight, the biggest task was still making sure that someone could pick up wicketkeeping effectively at that age. Few jobs are harder in cricket, and by the age of 18 or 19 the body has already approached what will more or less be its peak in terms of height – a major factor in flexibility and mobility – making the transformation from fielder to keeper all the more difficult. Throw batting into it, and the challenge intensifies.Rao knew Bharat had what he called the “X-factor”, in that he had good lateral movement and agility from years of being the best close-in fielder in the state. But there were still some doubts.”I once asked [former India keeper] Saba Karim, if it is better if a keeper is shorter. Saba said that it’s just a myth,” Rao says. “If you look at modern cricket, he said back then, all wicketkeepers are tall guys. Modern cricket is a tall man’s game. Adam Gilchrist, Ridley Jacobs – he gave me a couple of examples. In my mind, tall wicketkeepers couldn’t last long, but that was a myth. Saba told me it’s not that way.KS Bharat has been selected for India A•Andhra Cricket Association”If you look at it like that, Bharat is quite tall, but he is a very quick mover. His arms are very quick, the way he picks the bails off the stumps. [He removes the bails very gently].”It’s a good way to describe it. During the first day of the second match against Australia A in Alur, Bharat was provided the opportunity to display this ability. Travis Head was beaten in flight by Kuldeep Yadav after stepping down, but Bharat was still in his crouch as the ball landed. There was still a long way for it to travel after pitching, and he did the basic tenet right – getting up with the ball – and this kept him in good shape despite the batsman being well outside the crease, something that can make keepers eager and their hands harder. Once the ball got to Bharat, Head could barely turn around before the bails were off.In a lot of ways, Bharat appears the more natural successor to Saha. He is more fluid on his feet than Pant, whose keeping in England so far has been heavily reliant on his hand-eye coordination and who has often been caught heavy-footed by committing to the angle too early.In England for India A in July, Bharat conceded six byes in the one game he played, whereas Pant conceded 42 in two games. Even with a conservative lens, given that none of these games were telecast and it was a different bowling attack all together, those numbers are striking. Pant’s strengths are his athleticism and his ability to move on from mistakes, but there is a lack of experience. After all, he is about five years younger than Bharat and only into his third first-class season.In the Alur game, Bharat did drop two catches against spin in back-to-back overs. With a lack of replays, it was hard to tell what went wrong in those cases. But they were the only aberrations in an innings of 109 overs where he didn’t concede a single bye.As someone who didn’t have specialist wicketkeeping training for most of his career, Bharat’s immediate priority when he started taking the gloves was to let nothing go past him. It’s a lesson that he picked up from watching MSK Prasad, an Andhra cricketing legend who served as director of the association, and is now the chairman of selectors for the national team.”MSK is someone who spoke to me regarding how things work. To my luck, Krishna Rao worked with him, so whatever MSK told him [about keeping], he used to tell me. How he would work, how he would take catches, that sort of thing. He told me he was a gem of a keeper and wouldn’t allow even a single ball to pass. And told me of how he used to adjust to the pitch.”Bharat’s keeping has been helped by regular stints in league cricket in Tamil Nadu, where invariably all work is against spinners on turning pitches. With the contrast that the bouncy wickets at home provide, he has gone through diverse tests.”I’ve made my lower body strong and I can hold my shape while getting up with the ball, which is very important for a keeper. I rate a keeper on how well he does against spin,” he says. “Only if you can hold your weight, only if you hold your position, you can be good against spinners.”So I’ve worked a lot on the Katchet board, one-bounce, holding the shape, getting a feel of it. It’s in my subconscious – with the ball pitching, I know how and when to get up and what position to be in. I’ve done a lot of work on my basic getting up. Lots of keepers tend to get up early.”

“I’ve made my lower body strong and I can hold my shape while getting up with the ball, which is very important for a keeper. I rate a keeper on how well he does against spin”KS Bharat

Starting off as a ball-stopper at the Under-19s, he has come through keeping in 50-overs, then 90, and has slowly progressed into a full-time wicketkeeper who opens the batting. When he made his triple-hundred, he had opened the innings, batted 504 minutes, and returned to take eight catches. It was a truly extraordinary moment when he reached that milestone because till about the time he took the keeping gloves, he wasn’t even an opening batsman. That match against Goa was the coming together of two of his most newly-acquired skills, both at domestic level.Should he break into the Indian team, Bharat will almost definitely bat in the lower-middle order and a successful past with shape-shifting will hold him in good stead. But there has been a slip-up as far as batting goes – and the Indian team is big on batting – in that Bharat hadn’t made a first-class hundred in nearly three years until his hundred on the third day in Alur. Having been among the top run-getters in his early seasons, his average now sits in the region of 35.In the first unofficial Test against Australia A, Bharat came in on a crumbling pitch in the fourth innings and was out third ball, looking to pull as India A were in the middle of a collapse. As an attacking batsman who is jumping about in the order, his batting needs to get tighter if that international cap is to come. His hundred in Alur, the innings that followed the Bengaluru failure, was considerably tighter; he survived an anxious early period before opening up and making India A’s first hundred of the series, almost entirely in the company of the bowlers.”Do I believe [I can play for India]? Yes. I’m capable of playing for India. Whether the selectors think of me or what others think of me, about how long I haven’t scored a hundred – those things don’t matter,” Bharat says on being asked about his batting. He believes he has made important contributions, and they needn’t all be hundreds.”I started trying too hard. Instead of enjoying the game, I became a little performance-oriented. I was always looking for a hundred. Anything less than hundred was a failure for me. I’ve scored around 17 fifties, so [I’ve contributed with the bat but] my conversion rate has come down.”I’m blessed to be a two-dimensional player. There’ll be 6-7 batters, and not all can have a good day. But there’s only one keeper. If you’ve failed to have a good day with the bat and you keep thinking about it, then you’re letting your team down. So I don’t want that to happen. I allow myself to have a bad day. It’s okay.”It’s this self-awareness and honesty that Rao will later tell me are Bharat’s best traits. But they’re also the words of someone who knows he is on the brink.”I would love for Rishabh to perform, DK to perform. I want to perform more and break in. I don’t want them to fail and then fit into their shoes. If they get a hundred, I’d like to get 150. That’s how I want it to be. I’m not waiting for someone to fail there and get my chance.”That is the healthiest way to approach the situation. But if we go by how his career has proceeded so far, then one man’s words are vital.”When I was younger,” Rao says, “[though] I didn’t see a lot of him but I remember [Syed] Kirmani was rated for his glove work. The way he collected the balls. We saw Kiran More, Nayan Mongia, we rate both of them as people with very good glove work. After that, MSK. After that, some of the best glove work I’ve seen is by this guy, Bharat. I am sure he will make his India debut soon.”Now we wait.

By speaking without filters, Pandya has shown us a glimpse, if we needed it, of the conversation and mindset in the wider Indian society

Jayaditya Gupta11-Jan-2019First, let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. What Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul said on the talk show was misogynistic and unacceptable, and warranted the BCCI’s intervention. They are public figures and will, and must, be held to those standards; they are role models for hundreds of millions not only in India but, thanks to live streaming, beyond the regular cricketing world. Reports suggest a two-match ban is on the way and that will be fair enough. It will, hopefully, send out a message that there is a line that cannot be crossed, however big a star you are.There is, however, a silver lining of sorts to this controversy: by speaking without filters, Pandya has shown us a glimpse, if we needed it, of the conversation and mindset in the wider Indian society. It raises questions about the “surround” – not the statements themselves but the circumstances that prompted them. What made Pandya say what he did? Where was the failure? If Pandya is a symptom, what’s the disease and what’s the cure? Perhaps taking a step back and looking beyond the comments will help explain, and hopefully in the longer run weed out, the problem.ALSO READ: We definitely don’t support inappropriate comments – KohliFirst, whoever on Pandya’s management team – and the focus here is on Pandya because the most execrable statements came from him – thought it was a good idea for him to appear on a talk show that feeds off controversial revelations? Knowing Pandya, they would (must) have been aware of his candour and willingness to open topics others shy away from. Could he not have been prepped better? Ironically, Pandya was refreshingly frank for most of the show. He’s a high school dropout, barely able to read and write by his own admission and, while candid about his lack of literacy, did say it was not the example to follow. That he has made a career for himself despite those failings in the formal structure – and in a country where the formal structure still counts for a lot – testifies to his own character. He loves high fashion, he loves money, he loves women, he loves to talk about it. There is no issue with that.The problem is with the issue of how he treats, and refers, to women. And with a host as skilled as Karan Johar, once the genie was out of the bottle there was no pushing it back in. Pandya did as he was asked, as he was expected to; lacking the guile of the usual Bollywood guests, he answered questions as candidly as possible. The problem was in the line of questioning; once Johar realised the general drift, he could have moved away from that, it could have even been edited out. There are many ways of dealing with controversial content that isn’t being broadcast live. Ultimately, though, a commercial talk show has to do what it says on the tin; no one but Pandya (and his minders) is responsible for his own fate.Pandya’s statements should also be seen in the context of his journey, from a family environment in which, as he said, everything is discussed, nothing is off the table, to the over-the-top celebrity and riches of the IPL, the ultimate goldfish bowl – or platform, depending on your personality type. It’s the same IPL that brought in the cheerleader culture to India, the most definitive example of objectification of women in sport. The IPL brought in celebrity, blurring the lines between glamour and sport; of the original franchises, two were wholly or partially owned by some of the biggest Bollywood stars of the day, and a third was owned by the most flamboyant of Indian billionaires. It was a heady world where the after-parties were as entertaining and sought-after as the matches themselves and, though the celebrity quotient has waned (the flamboyant billionaire is now a millionaire, and a fugitive from the law), it is still a world of bright lights.KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya have a chat after the game•BCCIImagine Pandya – or any young cricketer – thrown into this cocktail, with the crores of rupees now at his disposal. The IPL took his persona, bling and all, amplified it, put it on the biggest screens across the country and turned him from a player “too shy to even approach ESPNcricinfo to have his bowling style changed on his player profile page” (as one 2015 story put it) to what he is today: despite not being one of India’s top cricketers, he has 11 million friends/followers across the three main social media handles and has made it to the Forbes India 100 list for 2018 (at 27, three spots above Karan Johar). There’s a reason for that and it’s not his cricketing skills alone.This is usually the part of the comment piece where one pulls up the BCCI for its own errors of omission and commission but their relationship with top players is complicated. Yes, they are the primary paymasters and yes, the primary disciplinarians too. But the task they face here is to change individual mindsets that go back 20 years or more into one’s childhood. There’s no debating that India is a deeply patriarchal country where the average adult male has huge issues with how to treat women. And a top cricketer is the alpha male among alpha males; the BCCI’s list of contracted players has about 25 names on average. That’s 25 cricketers in a country of several hundred million active cricketers. Imagine the privilege, the entitlement.Of course there’s lots that can be done in the medium and long term, and the BCCI has the wherewithal to be as proactive on this as possible. The world has changed even in the IPL era; social media, barely around in Season 1, now dominates the landscape and there are new rules and norms of social engagement that are no longer optional. The BCCI’s only case so far on gender issues – the case of harassment against its CEO Rahul Johri – was resolved in controversial and contentious circumstances. Here is a chance for it to be more clear and unambiguous in its approach on these matters.The board also has the responsibility to ensure that the playing field – the physical space as well as the wider world of cricket – is treated like any other professional work space, with the same rules and regulations. These are boys who’ve never grown up; help them grow up. Start gender sensitisation at the age-group levels; make it part of the formal structure across the board and especially up the ladder. Train your top players in every aspect of media management – not merely the cricket-focused questions at press conferences but also the googlies they may have to negotiate on talk shows. Make sure that the next time an Indian cricketer goes on a general entertainment talk show it will not be a national embarrassment.ALSO READ: Why the Johri investigation has been a kick in the gut for womenAnd talk to them about life. Make them not merely the best players but the best ambassadors. The New Zealand Cricket Players Association, in their latest annual handbook for players, has a chapter on consent that is explicit and unambiguous on the situations that will inevitably occur in a professional sportsman’s life. The National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru should have an in-house, full-time professional working on this.The last time Pandya and Rahul made the headlines together was for their “jersey-swapping” gimmick in IPL 2018. Their latest exploit has thrown up uncomfortable questions not just about them or their exalted bubble. It questions us: those of us who watched the show, those of us who have joked in locker rooms, those of us who have kept quiet when the banter has crossed the line. Those of us who have created the likes of Pandya and fed off his exploits.It’s possible that Pandya and Rahul will emerge from this with a better understanding of how to deal with half the world. Let’s hope that applies to the rest of us too.

Halfway through IPL 2019, what are the teams’ biggest strengths, and what potential strategy changes can they employ to make up for their weaknesses?

Gaurav Sundararaman16-Apr-2019Halfway through IPL 2019, how have the eight teams fared? What are their biggest strengths, and what potential strategy changes can they employ to make up for their weaknesses? Here’s an analysis.

Chennai Super Kings: 14 points

Making the best use of home conditions, Super Kings have started the season at an all-time high, winning seven of their eight matches. Last year, their batsmen had to make up for the bowlers in batting-friendly conditions in Pune (their home games were moved out of Chennai). This season, it has been the bowlers that have made up for the batsmen’s shortcomings in spin-friendly conditions at Chepauk, on a pitch that has been criticised by many including captain MS Dhoni. What has not changed is Super Kings having multiple match-winners, which has once again made the defending champions strong favourites in the title race.Impact performers

• MS Dhoni – 230 runs at an average of 76.66 and a strike rate of 127.07
• Imran Tahir- 13 wickets at an economy rate of 5.76 and a strike rate of 13.8
• Harbhajan Singh- 7 wickets at an economy rate of 5.12 and a strike rate of 13.7
• Deepak Chahar- 10 wickets at an economy rate of 6.64 and a strike rate of 18.6

Where can they improve?
Super Kings’ batting has the highest dot-ball percentage and the poorest balls-per-boundary figure in this IPL. They also have the lowest average (18.68) and the lowest run rate (6.22) in the Powerplay. Shane Watson has been weak in the first half and the team needs good starts from him.Death bowling also remains a concern, with Super Kings having three of the top five most expensive death bowlers since IPL 2018.Potential strategy changeDhoni doesn’t like to tinker with the playing XI. Still, Sam Billings for Watson might be something to try out.Availability: All overseas players are available

Delhi Capitals: 10 points

A change in name has resulted in a change in their game. Capitals have made a sound start to the season, and are well-placed to claim a spot in the playoffs. A vibrant and young squad, consistency in selection and team effort are the ingredients that let them recover from a shaky first few matches. This is also a team with many match-winners, and one of their big strengths has been death bowling. It’s the best in the competition so far, with 25 wickets at the death at an economy rate of 8.43 and an average of 9.56.Impact performers

• Kagiso Rabada – 17 wickets at an economy rate of 7.70 and a strike rate of 10.9
• Shreyas Iyer – 266 runs at an average of 33.25 and a strike rate of 120.36

Where can they improve?
While batting in the Powerplay, they have lost 12 wickets with an average of 31.58 – the second lowest in the league. Shikhar Dhawan couldn’t get going at the start of the season, before hitting 97 not out against Kolkata Knight Riders, but he and Prithvi Shaw will have to provide more consistent and rapid starts at the business end of IPL 2019.Potential strategy change

Who among Axar Patel, Rahul Tewatia and Amit Mishra are likely to play the high-pressure games is something the team should look to answer in the next six games.Availability: All overseas players are available.The Pandyas pile onto Kieron Pollard after Mumbai seal a last-ball win•BCCI

Mumbai Indians: 10 points

Mumbai have won five of their first eight games, a change from their usual slow starts. And this is despite stars like Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya not making a big impact yet, and the team scoring well below par on at least three occasions.Impact performers

• Kieron Pollard – 185 runs at an average of 37.00 and a strike rate of 177.88
• Hardik Pandya- 186 runs at an average of 46.50 and a strike rate of 191.75
• Jasprit Bumrah – 8 wickets at an economy rate of 6.81 and a strike rate of 23.0

Where can they improve?
Mumbai’s batting average in the middle overs (7-16) is just 23, and they have lost 27 wickets in that period – the most for any team in the league.The bowling of the Pandya brothers has also been below par so far: Hardik has gone at 9.91 runs per over, while Krunal has taken just five wickets while conceding runs at 8.28 per over.Potential strategy change

Perhaps Hardik and Pollard could be split to ensure that there is a run-rate acceleration in the middle overs too. Krunal, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav can float according to the situation.Another possible change is getting Bumrah to bowl more in the Powerplay. Right now, the overseas options of Lasith Malinga, Jason Behrendorff and Alzarri Joseph (before he was injured) have done the bulk of the bowling in the first six overs. Mumbai could get Bumrah to bowl a couple of overs and target early wickets, while Hardik can bowl in the middle overs. Availability: Jason Behrendorff will leave after May 1.

Kolkata Knight Riders: 8 points

This has been a strange first half for Knight Riders. Having got off the blocks with four wins early on courtesy Andre Russell’s all-round brilliance, Dinesh Karthik’s team has now lost three consecutive matches. Historically, Knight Riders have dominated at home, but this year they have lost two of the three games played at Eden Gardens. Their top order has failed consistently with Robin Uthappa, Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana being patchy. Karthik, too, is yet to make an impactful score.Impact performers

• Andre Russell – 312 runs at an average of 78.00 and a strike rate of 213.69

Where can they improve?
Knight Riders have depended on three spinners for a long time, but this season they have not delivered. Has the team become a bit too predictable with plans and personnel? The spinners average 39.11 and have an economy rate of 7.93 this season, the joint second-worst on both counts.Potential strategy change
Break the Narine-Chris Lynn opening combination and let Uthappa, or even Shubman Gill, bat at the top.Availability: All overseas players are available.Chris Gayle and KL Rahul put up a big opening stand•BCCI

Kings XI Punjab: 8 points

With four wins and four losses, Kings XI have their task cut out in the remaining six games, but they remain in contention for a final-four spot. They have won one match which they should not have, and lost two that they should have won. The loss against Mumbai at Wankhede Stadium could come back to haunt them, as they would have had five wins at the halfway mark if they had pulled through.Impact performers

• R Ashwin – 9 wickets at an economy rate of 7.62 and a strike rate of 21.3
• Chris Gayle – 322 runs at an average of 53.66 and a strike rate of 157.07
• KL Rahul – 355 runs at an average of 67.00 and a strike rate of 130.85

Where can they improve?
Gayle and Rahul have contributed 50% of the team’s runs, but the middle order has failed to capitalise on the starts. In the middle overs, Kings XI have slowed down, resulting in under-par totals.Potential strategy change
Including Moises Henriques not only provides balance to the batting order, but also provides a sixth bowling option. Also, Mujeeb Ur Rahman needs to play the remaining matches because he can tie up an end as well as take wickets with his mystery spin. Availability: All overseas players are available.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 6 points

Last year’s runners-up, Sunrisers have been disappointing mainly due to the failure of their usually strong bowling attack and a near non-existent middle order. If Sunrisers are afloat, the credit goes to the overseas opening pair of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow. They have not only provided explosive starts, but also gone on to bat deep. But with both men expected to leave for their teams’ World Cup preparations, Sunrisers need to get their batting sorted if they want to advance to the playoffs.Impact performers

• David Warner – 400 runs at an average of 80.00 and a strike rate of 140.35
• Jonny Bairstow – 304 runs at an average of 43.42 and a strike rate of 156.70
• Rashid Khan – 6 wickets at an economy rate of 5.78 and a strike rate of 28.00
• Mohammad Nabi – 7 wickets at an economy rate of 5.49 and a strike rate of 13.5

Where can they improve?
If last year the team was dependent on Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson for runs, this year they have been heavily reliant on Warner and Bairstow. The two have scored 66% of their team’s runs. Meanwhile, Nos. 4 to 11 average just 12.75 and score at a run rate of 6.83, which is the lowest in this IPL.Potential strategy change
A slightly radical suggestion: Williamson could open with Bairstow while Warner drops one slot, just to ensure at least one of the three main batsmen stays till the end.Availability: Shakib Al Hasan could leave for national duty around the start of May. Bairstow and Warner likely to leave on April 25 and May 1 respectively.Shreyas Gopal goes on a celebratory run after picking up a wicket•BCCI

Rajasthan Royals: 4 points

Royals are not in the pink of health. The team, which has changed its colours to a bright pink, is precariously placed with just two wins and five losses. Mistakes from last season have not been rectified, with Royals carrying four potential openers in the top seven, and certain players in key positions performing similar roles. In a tournament where early momentum is key to a playoff spot, Royals are still figuring out their best XI, and their dependence on Jos Buttler is hurting them. Last season, Buttler single-handedly took them to the playoffs, but Royals are likely to lose his services soon this year.Impact performers

• Jos Buttler – 288 runs at an average of 41.14 and a strike rate of 153.19
• Shreyas Gopal – 8 wickets at an economy rate of 6.41 and a strike rate of 18
• Jofra Archer – 7 wickets at an economy rate of 7.22 and a strike rate of 23.1

Where can they improve?
In the last four overs, Royals’ economy rate is 12.17 – the worst this IPL. Additionally, they have taken only eight wickets in the death overs. Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat and Ben Stokes have gone at 18.50, 16.00 and 12.8 respectively in the last four.Potential strategy change
Include the likes of Ashton Turner and Oshane Thomas ahead of Steven Smith and Stokes to improve the middle-overs batting and death bowling. Look to open with Rahul Tripathi to plan for Buttler’s departure.Availability: Buttler and Stokes will be available only till April 25, as will Archer if he is selected in England’s World Cup squad (the announcement is due on Wednesday). Smith is expected to leave by May 1.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 2 points

Royal Challengers’ campaign has almost ground to a halt at the halfway stage. Just one win with six games left means a playoff spot is highly improbable. Their dependence on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers has not changed. In their only win this season, in Mohali against Kings XI, Kohli and de Villiers made fifties in the chase. The matches they came close to winning were also due to the performances of these two.Impact performers

• Virat Kohli – 278 runs at an average of 34.75 and a strike rate of 124.66
• AB de Villiers – 307 runs at an average of 51.16 and a strike rate of 154.27
• Yuzvendra Chahal – 11 wickets at an economy rate of 7.07 and a strike rate of 15.2

Where can they improve?
The bowling needs to improve in key phases of the match – in the Powerplay and at the death. In the first six overs, Royal Challengers have taken only three wickets at an average of 140.33 and an economy rate of 8.77. In the last four overs, their economy rate is 11.50.Potential strategy change
With the return of Dale Steyn, Royal Challengers would be hoping that their Powerplay and death-overs performances improve. The franchise paid big money for Mumbai’s batting allrounder Shivam Dube, who needs to be given more games to build his confidence.Availability: Moeen Ali is available till April 25 if he is picked in England’s World Cup squad, and Marcus Stoinis is expected to leave by May 1.