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Pujara’s philosophy is to spend more time in the middle to create more chances of scoring runs

Sidharth Monga09-Jan-20212:11

Chopra: Pujara’s back leg movement a ‘flaw’ causing dismissals against Cummins

“I don’t think it was the right approach, I think he needed to be a bit more proactive with his scoring rate because I felt it was putting too much pressure on his batting partners.”That was Ricky Ponting’s assessment, posted on Twitter in response to a question posed to him about Cheteshwar Pujara’s approach in India’s first innings of the Sydney Test. Pujara had scored his slowest half-century, facing 176 balls, but despite facing only five overs fewer than Australia, India ended 94 runs behind. There was a run-out and a played-on dismissal while Pujara was at the wicket, which were indirectly linked to his rate of scoring.This is not opportunistic criticism in hindsight. The questioning of Pujara’s approach began well before his, or Ajinkya Rahane’s or Hanuma Vihari’s, dismissal. The import of it is that if you bat with that approach, you put others around you under pressure and, thus, don’t leave yourself and your team an option but to score a big one yourself. And on difficult pitches against good attacks, you are bound to get a good ball before you score a hundred going at that pace.There is merit to this criticism, but “approach” can soon start to give way to “intent” and it can begin to sound like the batsman is not even thinking of runs. In reality, the approach is not decided by a batsman based on which side of the bed he wakes up. It is a reaction to the quality of the bowling, the nature of the pitch, the match situation, the strength of his own batting line-up, and, perhaps most importantly, his own ability.It isn’t as though Pujara doesn’t know the pitfalls of not scoring at a certain rate. This is a method – let’s not call it approach because it leads to the awful word intent, which suggests the player doesn’t intend to do what is best for the team – that has worked the best for Pujara and India. This was the method that worked on the last tour of Australia when he won India the series by facing more balls than any visiting batsman in a series in Australia in which he played four Tests or fewer. This was the method that worked in Johannesburg where he took 50 balls to get off the mark. This is a method that works for him at home.This method relies on the philosophy that the more time you spend at the wicket, the better your reactions get and the less accurate and intense the bowling gets. Pujara has shown more than enough times that he can make up for these starts once he has bowlers where he wants them. And it is not always accurate that if he gets out for 20 off 80, he has done his side no favours. The last Test was a good example of Shubman Gill and Pujara tiring Pat Cummins out, forcing him to bowl an eight-over spell in the morning session. The centurion Rahane was well into his 20s, having faced 70-plus balls when he first faced a proper spell from Cummins. It is not always apparent, and it is not always extremely significant, but it has some benefit for those who follow him.Of course, Pujara can show more “intent” and try to play quicker, but his judgement tells him that involves an undue amount of risk. He was up against stronger, quicker, taller and more accurate fast bowlers than Australia’s batsmen were on a pitch that called for accurate banging of the ball into the pitch. The bounce available meant Nathan Lyon was in the game too.There was no release available for Pujara unlike for Australia’s batsmen who had Navdeep Saini, Ravindra Jadeja – his four wickets perhaps flatter his effort – and even R Ashwin, who was now getting hit off the back foot into the off side. All told, Pujara faced 20 full balls and duly scored 14 runs off them. It was the good balls that he didn’t go after.Look at how Rahane got out: that late-cut over the cordon would perhaps work on another pitch, but the uneven bounce meant he played on. Look at how Rishabh Pant got hurt: trying to pull. Pujara knew this wasn’t a pitch for the horizontal-bat shots.Cheteshwar Pujara drops his hands and sways out of the way of a snorter•Getty ImagesThe combination of the pitch and the quality of the Australian bowling meant that the slight closing of the face or opening of it for even those singles was deemed to be too risky by the batsmen in the middle. Pujara has faced more than 31,000 balls in first-class cricket in varied conditions and match situations, close to 13,000 of them in Tests. Perhaps it is wise to trust his judgement of what is risky.Of course, you can try to play the shots regardless, and they can come off on your day, but elite batsmen don’t like to take that much risk. Not leaving things to chance is what makes them elite. Especially when they are playing just five pure batsmen.The risk involved here is of another nature. Pujara concentrated hard for 176 balls, helped take India to 195 for 4, but then an injured Rishabh Pant and he fell on the same score and the tail stood no chance of getting India close to Australia’s score. The ball Pujara got was, according to him, the ball of the series, a ball that he said would have got him had he been batting even on 100 or 200. While Pujara can take solace in that he made Australia throw the best punch they possibly could, Cummins, the bowler of the monster ball that kicked off just short of a length, rubbed it in that Pujara’s scoring rate helped him and the other bowlers.”At one stage he had been out there for 200 balls or 150 balls and I looked up there thinking they are still 200 away from our first-innings total,” Cummins said after the day’s play. “So if things go that way and we can keep bowling well, you’re not overly bothered. He is someone you know you are going have to bowl a lot at. I think we got our head around that this series, for him to score runs we are going to make it as hard as possible. Whether he bats 200 or 300 balls, just try and bowl good ball after good ball, and challenge both sides of his bat.”Related

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In what can be a bit of a mind game lies an admission too. That Pujara makes you bowl at your best for longer periods of time than other batsmen. Against the same attack, it worked on the last tour. It came close to working on this tour too. At least it gave Pujara a chance.On this pitch, against this bowling, to force the pace and drive on the up, while not taking an undue amount of risk, you have to be as good as Virat Kohli at that kind of batting. Pujara probably knows he isn’t. That is not his skill. His skill is to absorb the blows before taking down tired bowlers. Since about late 2018, even Kohli has started buying into the Pujara philosophy. The best innings of this series in terms of method, Kohli’s 74 in Adelaide, took 180 balls. For the first 80 balls of that innings, he went at a strike rate under 30. It was exactly like a Pujara innings, except that Kohli’s higher skill at shot-making meant he opened up sooner than Pujara could have.There is another, more nuanced criticism of Pujara’s batting, something he probably needs to work harder on. You don’t see too many driveable balls when he is at the wicket because he gets stuck on the crease. So what might be a half-volley for other batsmen is a length ball that Pujara is forced to show respect to. It gives the bowlers a wider margin of error, which means they feel no pressure and thus make less errors.There is merit to that but Pujara will turn around and tell you that this is what allows him to keep out balls that take other batsmen’s edges. Instead of pushing at the ball, he either lets them seam past his edge or play them late and under his eye if they are straight. That by facing more balls the way he does, he actually makes some unplayable balls look negotiable. That by facing more balls, he gives himself a better chance at scoring runs.With bowlers getting fitter and stronger, with bowling attacks now carrying fewer weak links, it is true that Pujara’s method will become less and less prevalent with the future batsmen. This is why probably India made a reasonable call when they dropped him for lack of intent in the past, but Pujara came back and showed with his immense powers of concentration that his method can work. That the criticism of method is not necessarily on the mark. That he shouldn’t be praised for the same method in 2018-19 and be criticised for it in 2020-21.The biggest problem with the criticism perhaps is that Pujara’s method was not a significant difference between the two sides. Or any batsman’s method for that matter. Australia’s bowling in the absence of Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami is far superior to India’s. It is high credit to the visitors that they pulled off the Melbourne miracle but the longer a series goes in Australia, an attack with stronger, quicker, more accurate fast bowlers will prevail over one whose seam attack has a combined experience of 17 Tests, one of them a debutant who has shown the tendency to not be accurate. That is exactly what has happened in Sydney so far.

At the halfway stage of IPL 2021, only a few teams have been able to achieve clarity about their best XIs

Gaurav Sundararaman03-May-2021 17Traditionally Mumbai don’t make too many changes. In IPL 2020, Mumbai used just 15 players – the least in the tournament. Already this season, the defending champions have fielded 17 players. Chris Lynn and Marco Jansen had to start due to the non-availability of Quinton de Kock and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Chennai, where Mumbai played their first set of matches, did not suit their batting style and hence they had to make a couple of tactical changes. Jayant Yadav played when there were a lot of left-handed batters in the opposition and if the pitches were slow and taking spin. But, in Delhi, playing against the Super Kings, Mumbai strengthened their pace attack playing Dhawal Kulkarni and Jimmy Neesham. It has meant that Ishan Kishan, who hit a staggering 30 sixes last IPL, has had to sit out after struggling for form in the intial matches this season, but also to accommodate the extra Indian bowler. Kishan’s position has gone to Krunal Pandya, who has been given the new role of batting at No.4Points Table•ESPNcricinfo Ltd Delhi Capitals 17Delhi Capitals have mainly had to make a few forced changes. Indian bowling allrounder Axar Patel was indisposed recovering from Covid-19 and missed the first five matches. Patel’s return offset the absence of R Ashwin, who was forced to leave the tournament after five matches to attend to his family that had been enveloped by Covid-19. South African fast bowling pair of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje joined the IPL late while Indian pair of Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma missed the first few matches recovering from niggles. Tactically Steven Smith for Ajinkya Rahane was one change and the Capitals have made. Nortje has been kept out thanks to the scintillating form of uncapped Indian fast man Avesh Khan, who is the second-highest wicket-taker this IPL at the halfway stage. Don’t fix what is not broken and expect the Capitals to persist with the winning combination. Punjab Kings Players used: 18Similar to the Royal Challenges, the Punjab Kings have also played at three venues. That has prompted tactical changes. Despite enduring his worst IPL with four ducks in six matches, West Indies powerhitter Nicolas Pooran was persisted with for the first seven matches. The bowling department was changed based on the opposition and venue. One curious move by the Kings has been the late introduction of Ravi Bishnoi, who sparkled in IPL 2020 with his attitude and his googlies. Expect the Kings to continue backing their core group of batters with changes in their bowling line up as they move towards Bangalore for their second half, which is very batting friendly. Sunrisers Hyderabad Players used: 21Sunrisers Hyderabad have had the worst start to the IPL since they entered the IPL in 2013. A solitary win in seven matches has meant they’re at the bottom of the points table. Desperation to win combined with injuries to key bowlers has resulted in several changes – 21, the most for a team this tournament so far. The franchise also took the bold move of dropping all-time Sunrisers and IPL great David Warner as captain and player in order to provide more balance to the team. What has also not helped is lack of swing in venues like Chennai as well as the fitness struggles of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the knee surgery that ruled out T Natarajan. The team that has made the IPL play-offs consistently since 2016 has pressed the panic button and expect that extending to the second half of the IPL.

The season may have been abruptly cut short, but there were a number of players who dazzled us with their performances

Sreshth Shah09-May-20211. Shikhar Dhawan (380 runs, ave 54.28, three fifties)Dhawan returned home with the Orange Cap for the most runs. He began the season with a match-winning 54-ball 85 against the Chennai Super Kings. Then against Punjab Kings, he wallopped 92 in 49 balls as he married precision with power in equal measure and followed it up with an unbeaten 69 to anchor a second win against the same side. In between, he notched up two more forties. Dhawan also hit the most fours (43) this season.2. Prithvi Shaw (308 runs, strike rate 166.48, three fifties)After a forgettable IPL 2020, all eyes were on Shaw this season after superb white-ball performances in domestic cricket. He mauled a 38-ball 72 against the Super Kings. Then against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he played a patient 39-ball 53 on a two-paced surface. And against Kolkata Knight Riders, his 41-ball 82 was set up by the first over against Shivam Mavi where he hit his Under-19 World Cup batch-mate for six fours in an over. Shaw pipped Faf du Plessis to the second opener’s spot after a 7-5 vote by the jury.ESPNcricinfo’s IPL 2021 team of the tournament•ESPNcricinfo Ltd3. Moeen Ali (206 runs, strike rate 157.25, 5 wickets)The Super Kings’ 2021 auction recruit took the No. 3 spot and helped his side change gears with his cameos. He also hit a fifty against the Mumbai Indians in a high-scoring contest. His aggressive shot selection helped the well-equipped Super Kings middle order to carry the momentum and helped them post scores of 220, 218, 191, 188 and 188. With the ball, he was used almost always against left-handers alone, and his best performance was a 3 for 7 against the Rajasthan Royals.4. Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper) (277 runs, strike rate 145.78, 1 hundred)Samson lit the tournament up early with a brilliant century, in a loss against the Punjab Kings. His 119 (12 fours and seven sixes) nearly took the Royals over the line as he failed to deposit a six off the final ball of the match in a chase of 222. Then came a string of low scores for the side’s captain, but his return to form with scores of 42*, 42, and 48 in his last three games was interrupted by the tournament’s postponement. He is also the wicketkeeper of our side.5. AB de Villiers (207 runs, strike rate 164.28, average 51.75, 2 fifties)Although de Villiers did not play any cricket since IPL 2020, there was no rustiness in his batting. His 27-ball 48 against Mumbai ensured the Royal Challengers Bangalore started the tournament with a win. Then came his unbeaten 34-ball 76 in an afternoon game against the Knight Riders where he hit Andre Russell to all parts in the death overs and followed it up with the 42-ball 75 against the Capitals. He helped the Royal Challengers win the game by a run, as he went after Kagiso Rabada and Marcus Stoinis in particular. It was de Villiers’ first time batting a whole season at No. 5, and he aced the challenge with flying colours.6. Kieron Pollard (captain) (168 runs, strike rate 171.42, average 56.00, 3 wickets)After hitting just 12 runs in his first two games, Pollard returned to form when he creamed three sixes in a 22-ball 35 against the Sunrisers and followed it up with a two-over spell at an economy of only five. Pollard saved his best for the blockbuster against the Super Kings. He dismissed du Plessis and Suresh Raina, going only for only 12 in two overs in a game where both teams scored over 200. With Mumbai’s backs against the wall in the chase, he masterminded a counterattack by smashing 87 at a strike-rate of 255.88 to chase down 219 off the game’s last ball. The jury also picked Pollard as the team’s captain, over the only other option Samson.Related

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7. Ravindra Jadeja (131 runs, strike rate 161.72. six wickets, economy 6.70)In his six outings, Jadeja was out only once, and played the role of the finisher so well that he came out to bat ahead of MS Dhoni and Sam Curran on most occasions. Although his unbeaten knocks of 26 and 22 against the Capitals and Mumbai came in the Super Kings’ only two losses, he produced one of the best all-round performances in IPL history against the Royal Challengers. He first destroyed the 20th over from Harshal Patel to extract 37 runs from it to finish on a 28-ball 64. He then followed it up with a three-for that included the wickets of Glenn Maxwell and de Villiers. And to top it off, he also effected a direct-hit run out in the same game.8. Rashid Khan (10 wickets, average 17.20, economy 6.14)One of the few bright spots in a disappointing season for the Sunrisers, Rashid was the second-highest wicket-taker among spinners and had the best economy of all those who delivered 12 or more overs. The quality of his wickets are even more remarkable: Shubman Gill and Russell against the Knight Riders. Gayle against Punjab, de Villiers against the Royal Challengers, Dhawan against Capitals and Ruturaj Gaikwad, du Plessis and Moeen against the Super Kings. He also bowled a Super Over against the Capitals, and nearly defended a target of 8.9. Rahul Chahar (11 wickets, average 18.36, strike rate 15.2)Chahar was the best spinner in the tournament. Whenever Mumbai needed a breakthrough, they turned to Chahar, and he almost always delivered. His four-for against the Knight Riders helped set up an unlikely win. His 3 for 19 against the Sunrisers bowled them out for 137. And his 2 for 33 put the brakes on the rampaging Royals opening stand, as he dismissed Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal in quick succession. With other Indian wristspinners struggling in the tournament, Chahar’s IPL performances have made him a frontrunner for a starting spot in India’s T20I team.10. Avesh Khan (14 wickets, average 16.50, strike rate 12.8)Avesh Khan 2.0, a leaner, fitter version of his past self was so successful for the Capitals that he was preferred ahead of Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. He bowled the difficult transitionary overs between the powerplays and also at the death. He took a wicket in all eight games with two three-fors. His ability to get seam movement with the hard ball and execute yorkers with the older ball made him the player with the most impact points per match average in the whole season, according to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats. Khan’s consistent performances also helped him get a call up as a standby for India’s red-ball tour of England next month.11. Jasprit Bumrah (6 wickets, economy 7.11)The wickets may have dried up for Bumrah, but the impact has not. And that’s because he is now usually reserved for the back end of the innings where the economy is more impact than wickets. Bumrah’s performance this season gave batsmen a big dilemma. Because if they tried to attack him, they would get out. And if they did not, they would allow the required run-rate to balloon. Either way, Bumrah was king when he had the ball with his wide yorkers and back-of-length balls that awkwardly angle into the batter, or the yorker around leg stump. The way Boult and Bumrah hunted in pairs was a sight to behold.

Her 127 is the second Test hundred for India against Australia, and the first in Australia

Sampath Bandarupalli01-Oct-2021127 Smriti Mandhana ‘s score at the Carrara Oval, the highest for a visiting player in women’s Tests in Australia. The previous highest score was Molly Hide’s unbeaten 124, for England, in Sydney in 1949.1 Mandhana’s 127 is the first Test hundred for India in Australia and only their second against Australia. Sandhya Agarwal’s 134 in 1984 was the first Test hundred for India versus Australia. Rajani Venugopal’s 58 in 1991 was the previous highest Test score for India in Australia.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4 Women to score a century in both Tests and ODIs against Australia, including Mandhana. She joins the elite list of Enid Bakewell, Debbie Hockley and Claire Taylor . Mandhana, however, is the only woman with Test and ODI hundreds against Australia in Australia, having scored her maiden ODI century in Hobart in 2016.3 First-innings individual scores in women’s Tests that are higher than Mandhana’s 127 after being put in to bat by the opposition. Kiran Baluch ‘s 242 in 2004, the highest individual score in women’s Tests, came after the West Indies elected to bowl first.Related

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51 Number of balls Mandhana needed to complete her fifty, the second fastest recorded half-century in women’s Tests. The fastest is by India’s Sangita Dabir who scored an unbeaten 50 off 42 balls against England in 1995. Dabir’s fifty came in only 40 balls as per the official scoresheet of that Test match. Mandhana’s hundred off 170 balls is also the fastest recorded Test ton for India.74 Percentage of Mandhana’s runs that came in boundaries. From the information available with ESPNcricinfo, Mandhana’s is the second-highest percentage of runs to have come in boundaries in a century innings in women’s Tests. Charlotte Edwards hit 80% of her runs in fours in her score of 105 against India at Taunton in 2006, which is the highest.195 for 2 India’s total at the fall of Mandhana’s wicket, the second-most runs conceded by Australia in a Test innings before the fall of the second wicket. The highest is 228 runs during England’s first innings of the Sydney Test in 1935.

What an extraordinary, abject spectacle this series is turning out to be

Andrew Miller18-Dec-2021At 5.10pm local time, Joe Root and Dawid Malan strode back out to the middle of the Adelaide Oval with a three-hour century stand in the bank, a Test match (theoretically) in the balance and an Ashes campaign to be rescued, right there and then.Within a further three hours, the Ashes had turned to dust, and James Anderson’s and Stuart Broad’s emotional reunion under the floodlights had instead become a rabbit-hunt in the headlights.Despite the delicious prospect of a quick kill and the enforcing of the follow-on almost on the stroke of sunset, Australia’s seamers instead put their search for wickets on hold to indulge in a spell of bunny-bashing. When you’ve claimed four prime wickets for 19 runs in some of the most pristine batting conditions of the series, a team is entitled to trade 16 tail-end runs (England’s joint-third-highest stand of the innings) for the chance to leave a lasting impression on their opponent’s battered carcass.A diet of bouncers, right into the ribs and on one occasion, Broad’s jaw, was then followed by the inevitable sight of David Warner and Marcus Harris sprinting off the pitch after England’s tenth-wicket tenderising had finally come to an end. Where’s the need to go again when you are so far ahead of the game?And as night follows day, not long after 9.30pm, Australia’s openers had posted their highest first-wicket Ashes partnership in four years and 15 innings, at which point England abandoned the zip-around-in-the-gloom policy that had dictated their selection for this match, and turned instead to their Test-match everyman, Root – for whom it is not enough simply to carry the entire team’s batting all year. All of a sudden he is considered the only spinner worth his salt in the entire country.Related

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By 9.45pm, however, Root had shamefully failed to emulate his previous pink-ball bowling figures of 5 for 8, and England had been reduced to bowling for run-outs, to set the seal on a day of rock-bottom ignominy.Is it possible that we are in the midst of witnessing England’s worst-ever Ashes challenge? With two days to come, two more sessions of Aussie run-harvesting, and two more trials by twilight up the sleeve for Mitchell Starc and Co., it’s eminently plausible. What an extraordinary, abject spectacle this series is turning out to be.Of course there’s mitigation, there always is. The build-up to this particular series has been indescribably tough – the lab-rat lifestyle of cricket in Covid times could hardly be less conducive to a cheery team environment. Four years ago, the squad was at least able to pop down to a local dive and indulge in a spot of beer-fuelled headbutting to loosen a few intra-squad tensions.But the cricket itself… even allowing for the rain that wrecked the series build-up, and six years of white-ball priorities that wrecked the County Championship schedule, and the glut of fast-bowling injuries that wrecked England’s best-laid plans, and a post-pandemic financial imperative that has sucked the joy from the act of playing sport for a living … there’s still no excuse for the spineless surrender that England served up in an afternoon session, a passage of play that could not have been more critical to the team’s ambitions in the series they claim to hold most dear.And it all began, dare one say it, with England’s golden child himself. Criticising Root for a lack of application in this year of all years is rather like accusing the Pope of fallibility (no, not Ollie Pope … we’ll come to him later too). And yet, as Root himself telegraphed as he threw back his head and bent his bat over his brain in self-admonishment after nibbling an edge from the lanky seam of Cameron Green, he knew all too well that he’d given it away once again. He had reached his seventh fifty in his last seven Tests in Australia, and his eighth in 11 all told, but it needed to be converted to that elusive hundred – instead that missing statistic looks set to condemn him to the tenth defeat of his career Down Under, and his sixth out of seven as captain.Joe Root looks on before walking out to the middle•Getty Images”It’s pretty frustrating and disappointing to get back within touching distance of them,” Malan, England’s top scorer with 80, said afterwards. “We can talk about the guys that failed, but ultimately one of Rooty or myself should have gone on and got a big hundred there. We’ve been found short as a batting unit, compared to the Australian unit, and that’s something we need to do better from this next innings onwards.”Most worryingly for England’s hopes of staging a fightback, however – at Melbourne, Sydney or Hobart, let alone in the next two days – the ball that derailed their innings wasn’t even the one that prised Root from the crease. Rather, it was the one that Green served up four balls earlier, a bona fide snorter that hit the seam and climbed past the edge, as a bowler of Green’s height is wont to achieve on occasions. His next ball, at the start of a new over, also climbed dramatically, and suddenly Root was playing a different game, rushing his hands to meet the anticipated point of impact rather than playing each on its own merits, under the eyes, down through the cordon, as he had done with such sangfroid all morning long.What happened next was a credit to Green’s ability to make things happen, of course, and further proof that Australia have found themselves a truly tantalising talent, but tall bowlers extracting bounce is hardly a mystery weapon in Australian conditions – that tactic, over and above outright speed, was the making (and the subsequent breaking) of England’s victorious tour in 2010-11, as well as their last most forgettable visit three years later.But Root needed to know that the moment would pass, that hanging tough through a torrid passage of play was a fair trade-off for the serenity that beckoned on the other side of Green’s spell – he’s spent long enough watching David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne live on their wits to know that. Instead Root jabbed with hard hands at a ball he had no reason to engage with, and as he dragged his year’s tally of 1606 runs back to the pavilion, his replacement at the crease was pure wide-eyed panic.Suddenly, there were demons everywhere. Malan had been intermittently skittish during his 138-run stand with Root, including a brace of inside-edged drives off the seamers and more than a few wild cuts against Nathan Lyon’s spin. But at least his captain’s controlled presence at the other end had emboldened him to go for his strokes, and make his own decisions about the risk-reward they entailed.Now, suddenly, everything was on his shoulders. With Ben Stokes devoutly runless for his first 24 deliveries, priming himself for his Headingley-lite finale, Malan too was crammed back into his shell. His second ball of this new partnership was a low edge to slip, and as Lyon began to hound his technique from round the wicket, his only two scoring shots for three overs were another snick past the slips and a madcap single to cover … which brought him back into the firing line of the returning Mitchell Starc…”Out here, you have to have the intent to score, to put the pressure back on the bowlers,” Malan reflected afterwards. “It’s also identifying certain periods of the game where the Aussies are going to attack you and trying to counter that. Looking back, I probably should have left that ball and hopefully could have still been batting but that’s a learning curve for myself.”But Malan didn’t leave that ball – a not-so-juicy half-tracker that was too tight for the cut shot that he had played so effectively one ball earlier. And nor did Pope (the fallible version) learn from a reprieve at short leg off Lyon, as he cantered down the track two balls later in a desperate bid to smother the spin before it engulfed him, and picked out the same fielder.It was his second extraction by Lyon in as many innings, and having been similarly tormented by R Ashwin last winter, Pope’s average against offspin has now plummeted to 15.57, compared to a serviceable 36.20 against the quicks. It’s a blindspot that England’s most exciting Test prospect seems no closer to resolving, as his career progression remains in stasis, almost two years on from his breakthrough hundred in Port ElizabethNathan Lyon claims the wicket of Ollie Pope•Getty ImagesChris Woakes at least showed proactivity until he too was spooked by the one that didn’t quite behave – another big turner from Lyon inducing a flat-footed poke two balls later – which is more than can be said for the haunted Jos Buttler, whose first-day drops meant that he began his innings in serious arrears – and at no stage did he ever look like clearing his debt.Another hard-handed jab sent Buttler on his way for a 15-ball duck, which is the fourth time he has batted so long for no runs – more than any other Test cricketer since 1991. Far from being liberated by his proven white-ball derring-do, Buttler seems paralysed by the expanse of Test cricket’s possibilities, like a stoned astrology student contemplating the limitless reach of the stars in the night sky.At least, on that note, it was another pretty sunset for England to contemplate as they sat on the balcony and watched their old stagers get duffed up. The optics of England’s actual cricket, however, are looking pretty hideous.

With their win in Lahore, Australia are free in the knowledge that they can stick to what they know if they get the basics right

Alex Malcolm25-Mar-2022The ghosts were there. The ghosts of Headingley, Sydney (twice), Brisbane, and Karachi. They were there sitting on the shoulders of the Australians as they tried to close out victory in Lahore.They were there when Australia dropped key catches in the fourth innings, again. When they fluffed a gifted run-out chance, again. When they burnt three reviews frivolously again, which forced them to second-guess the one when it would have yielded a key wicket.But lady luck finally shone on Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, and Australia, and they slayed their demons and scared off the ghosts to deliver a thoroughly deserved series victory.Related

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There’s no denying Australia were the better side across the three matches and there’s an argument that they should have won 2-0, having made all the running in both Karachi and Lahore. There is no doubt they were aided by the toss in both matches, but their batting delivered in the first innings in all three games, and they bowled superbly in the first innings in Karachi and Lahore to give themselves time to take 10 fourth innings wickets, with runs to play with on both occasions.Four dropped catches and three magnificent innings from Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Abdullah Shafique denied Pakistan in Karachi, with the hosts surviving the second-most overs in the fourth innings in history.Babar threatened to do it again in Lahore. Lyon had to get him out three times, but the last was the most satisfying for both him and Steven Smith. The latter had either dropped or missed no fewer than seven chances across the series, but Smith pouched the one that mattered most, a really sharp catch low to his left after Lyon had got the second new ball to skid on and catch Babar’s outside edge.Smith and Lyon roared as Lahore fell deathly silent. You could see the weight of the world lift from both men’s shoulders.Lyon has been carrying it for some time. Since Headingley 2019 no less. Australia’s inability to close out games since that famous day has fallen on his shoulders. But his overall form since Covid-19 stopped global cricket in March 2020 has been a curiosity. Over his previous 11 Tests prior to Lahore, he had averaged 39.80 and struck at 95.20 without a five-wicket haul.It wasn’t that he was bowling badly. But there was a certain sameness and rigidity to his pace, his lines, and his lengths at times across the period that had caused some consternation both inside the camp and out.The big knock was that he wasn’t creating fourth innings chances. But in all fairness, he had had very little luck in the supposed fourth innings failures that were thrown at his feet. He had Ben Stokes missed at slip and plumb lbw at Headingley. He had Rishabh Pant dropped twice by the wicketkeeper in Sydney 2021.Steven Smith held a sharp catch to remove the key figure of Babar Azam•AFP/Getty ImagesThose ghosts threatened to consume Lyon in Lahore. Babar should have been run out early in his innings. Travis Head made a poor throw to Lyon but his fumble, although not his fault, did bring back memories of Headingley.He had Babar caught brilliantly at slip by Smith off the glove and pad but it was given not out. Australia had torched two reviews on earlier lbw shouts where the inside edges could be seen and heard in Sydney, so Cummins was reluctant to burn their last, given they weren’t 100 per cent sure it brushed Babar’s glove. The ghosts of Stokes’ lbw haunted Lyon again.Babar then tried to launch Lyon over long-on in the last over prior to tea and miscued to deep midwicket. Head misjudged the flight and failed to get hands to a catch that should have been taken. The ghosts of Stokes again would have flashed through Lyon’s mind as he slumped to his haunches.But luck evened things out for Lyon and Australia today. He was perhaps fortunate to dismal Azhar Ali with a 50-50 DRS call going Australia’s way despite the original decision being not out.Lyon also bowled Hasan Ali via his helmet and the back of the bat as he attempted to sweep out of the rough. And fellow spinner Mitchell Swepson held a spectacular catch in the deep to hand Lyon his five-for.It was a rich reward for Lyon who has bowled better than the numbers have suggested at times in this series, and deserved more luck than he has got. He was rewarded for a different line to Imam-ul-Haq, attacking the left-hander with a rare venture from over the wicket to get him caught brilliantly at silly mid-off by Marnus Labuschagne.Changes in pace, dropping below 80kph at times, was also part of what undid Babar, with some of his slower deliveries ripping out of the footmarks and eventually, causing Babar to play for more turn than was there on the one he eventually nicked.That Swepson, Lyon’s understudy for so long was unable to take a wicket in this Test and was only entrusted with five overs on the final day proves Lyon is still invaluable to Australia’s attack despite his detractors.However, it is clear that Australia’s path to 20 wickets in Asia relies heavily on Cummins, Mitchell Starc and their bevy of reserve quicks than on Lyon or any spinner he’s paired with. Cummins, Starc and Cameron Green combined for 23 of Australia’s 41 wickets for the series while the spinners took just 15. Green took the key wicket of Abdullah Shafique while Cummins was monumental again as a strike-force blowing away Fawad Alam and Rizwan with two superb deliveries to expose the tail. Although Pakistan were equally guilty of DRS blunders, as Rizwan would have been reprieved if they had used the review they were reluctant to use, having burned two of their three already.Lyon’s role as a holder in Australia’s attack even when it is spinning big, and more liberal use of Labuschagne, while the quicks attack when the moment suits, may well be the method going forward in Asia for Australia.They have been freed from the ghosts of the past. They are free in the knowledge that they can stick to what they know if they get the basics right.

From failing to defend 16 against Titans to taking 3 for 22 against RCB, Prasidh has seen both the highs and lows this past week

Karthik Krishnaswamy28-May-2022We cannot know what Prasidh Krishna thought and felt between May 24 in Kolkata and May 27 in Ahmedabad, but we can guess that those thoughts and feelings weren’t always pleasant. And we can guess that he played back in his mind, more than once, the events of the final over of Qualifier 1, which he bowled with Gujarat Titans needing 16 to win, and David Miller finished the game in the first three balls.6, 6, 6.

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Three days later, Prasidh is bowling to Virat Kohli in the second over of Qualifier 2. He’s bowled three balls already, all of them quick – 140, 141 and 147kph – and with varying degrees of inswing.He sends down the fourth ball, and the effort he makes to hit the pitch as hard as he possibly can causes him to spring off his feet upon releasing the ball. Like his height, his build, and his pace, this quirk in his action is redolent of Ishant Sharma, the man he’s been tipped to take over from in India’s Test-match attack.And the effort causes the ball, landing just short of a length in the fifth-stump channel, to rear off the pitch. Kohli fences at it and nicks off.This sort of bounce, from this sort of length, is Prasidh’s biggest strength. This pitch in Ahmedabad is designed to maximise the threat of this sort of ball. And this sort of ball, behaving in this manner, is among Kohli’s least favourite to face, particularly early in his innings.The perfect plan, executed by the perfect man for the job.

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When Prasidh begins the 19th over of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s innings, they are 146 for 6. Rajasthan Royals’ bowlers have had an excellent match so far, but Dinesh Karthik is at the crease, looking to spoil their good work in the next 12 balls.Prasidh begins the over with a death-overs economy rate of 11.37 for the season. Of all the bowlers to have gone at above 11 in this phase, he’s the only one to have bowled more than 100 balls. The others have either not played often enough, or have bowled more of their overs in phases they are better suited to. Prasidh, playing for a team without out-and-out end-overs options, has little choice but to bowl at this time.And it’s only three days since he ran into Miller.His first ball is wide of off stump, and on the fuller side of a good length. It’s wide enough to make Karthik reach for the ball even though he’s taken a big, early step across his stumps, and it’s full enough to make him look to hit it down the ground, but it isn’t so full that it’s a straightforward task. And the ball behaves unusually. It clocks 144kph, but it comes out with the seam scrambled, and it bites into the pitch and stops on Karthik. He’s through his shot early, and catches it with the toe-end of his bat. Instead of clearing long-on, the ball plops gently into the fielder’s hands.Did this wicket come about by accident or design? Prasidh probably didn’t intend for the ball to stop on Karthik, but the wide line seemed like a sound idea for two reasons. He was making it harder for Karthik to access the smaller square boundary, which was on the leg side, and Royals may have made it a point to try and deny Karthik leg-side access anyway – soon after the wicket fell, Shiva Jayaraman from ESPNcricinfo’s stats team noted that Karthik’s leg-side strike rate of 291.52 in IPL 2022 was the highest of any batter in any season.It’s possible, of course, that the wicket was just the sort of chance event that’s always swimming about in the bouillabaisse of randomness that is T20, but sometimes, a bowler deserves a bit of luck.Sometimes, a bowler deserves to have a new batter to bowl to – hello, Wanindu Hasaranga – so he can spear a yorker at his feet and leave his middle and leg stumps splattered on the ground. Goodbye, Wanindu Hasaranga.

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How do you react to going through something like that last over against Titans? How do you step back from the emotional swirl of the moment and examine it in a manner approaching objectivity? How do you find space for learning and growth in the middle ground between beating yourself up for losing your team a winnable game and dismissing what you’ve gone through as something that could happen to any bowler in this fickle and unforgiving format?According to Kumar Sangakkara, Royals’ head coach, the process begins with the player being honest – with himself and his team.”Special mention to Prasidh,” he told after Royals wrapped up a seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers and sealed their place in Sunday’s final. “Sixteen to defend in the last game, three sixes by Miller, and that’s a huge dent in your confidence with just a couple of days to turn it around, and the way he responded at training, the way he was honest with me and the rest of the group about what he could do better, was really impressive to see. He’s a very special talent.”Sangakkara elaborated on that point in his post-match press conference. He suggested that where Prasidh had gone wrong in the game against Titans was in a lack of clarity about his plans to Miller. Watch those three balls again, and this certainly seems to be the case – a wide yorker executed imperfectly, not slanted far enough across the left-hander; a slower ball offering easy (in relative terms) leg-side access; then a switch to round the wicket and a full ball angled into Miller’s arc.”The only thing you’ve got to understand is whether it was an executional error, or just a lack of general clarity and awareness,” Sangakkara said. “If it’s just an executional error it’s very simple to rectify. It’s skill versus skill, bowler versus batter, you try and execute the best ball, to the field that you’ve set, the batter gets on top of you, that’s fine. If you miss your mark you immediately know, well, I bowled the right delivery, I just didn’t get it right, you walk back to your mark and then you go again.”The real key is to have clarity at the top of the mark: number one, the fields that you’ve set; number two, the strengths of the batter as discussed and the plans that you’ve set beforehand. If nothing has changed in terms of the match that is being played, you try and simply go back to those plans that you’re in control of.”Prasidh is exceptionally skilled. He thinks very deeply and quite a lot about how he plays, and the game, which is a very good thing, but at the same time, to arrange your bowling and the execution in a manageable form where you try and just concentrate on the things that you can control, and not worry too much about, you know, anything else that can distract you.”The other thing is, you’ve just got to be honest and own your skill, and how you apply that skill. And there’s of course trust, where he knows that if there’s anything that myself or the rest of the coaches will contribute to him, it’s always with the idea of getting him better and making him even more special than he already is.”It all works together as a combination, but the character he’s shown, a day to turn around a very tough performance in the last game, and he just showed that he’s got what it takes to succeed at any level.”

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The challenge Prasidh came through in Ahmedabad on May 27 wasn’t the same one he suffered through in Kolkata on May 24. His early success came during a phase he has excelled in right through the season – he had a powerplay economy rate of 6.64 coming into the game – on a pitch made for his style of bowling, and by the time he had to bowl at the death, Royals were already largely in control.But life doesn’t follow neatly symmetric narrative arcs, and that’s okay. Some day in the not-too-distant future, Prasidh may successfully defend a small number of runs in the final over of a high-stakes game. For now, you have the pleasure of watching a thrillingly talented cricketer grow to his full potential.

After a turbulent 12 months, can he produce the magic that once made him so instrumental in Pakistan’s Test domination?

Danyal Rasool15-Jul-2022There was a time when it felt like Pakistan Test cricket subsisted largely on series against Sri Lanka.Between 2009 and 2015, there were no fewer than seven Test series between the two sides, with Pakistan visiting Sri Lanka four times in six years to play 11 Tests. Only one player from each side is still part of the squad that began that cycle in 2009. For Sri Lanka, it’s the relatively ever-present Angelo Mathews, and for Pakistan, whatever the opposite of that is in Fawad Alam. While Fawad’s redemptive narrative arc has already been exhausted, it is another Pakistan player who might be looking to script his own over the next fortnight. He played just the final of those quickfire series in Sri Lanka, but the impact he would make provided Pakistan with a template for short-term Test domination.Yasir Shah had only made his Test debut following Saeed Ajmal’s bowling-action issues, and this excitable, gregarious legspinner was only seven months into his international career. Sure, the run-up needed sorting, an aspect none other than Shane Warne helped him fine-tune, and he needed to bowl slower to allow natural drift and spin to have its maximum impact, but there was something here to work with. Even so, having him shoulder the responsibility of matching Sri Lanka on their own turf in a spin-bowling shoot-out seemed excessive. For all of Ajmal’s brilliance, there was a reason Pakistan had ended up on the wrong side of the previous three Test series results in the island nation.Related

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What Yasir achieved was nothing short of historic. With seven, six and five-wicket innings hauls in each Test respectively, he would top the wickets charts with 24. Dhammika Prasad was a distant second with 14, and no other spinner managed double digits. Of the 52 Sri Lankan wickets to fall, nearly half came off Yasir’s bowling. Pakistan would go on to seal a first series win in Sri Lanka since 2006, and in the sub-continent at least, Misbah-ul-Haq’s Pakistan had the player to build the Test side around.It wasn’t just Asia either. In London the following year, Yasir would take apart England with impressive hauls at Lord’s and The Oval, deploying the one that went straight on with just as much venom as the one that spun prodigiously. Pakistan rose to the top of the Test rankings off the back of that; a year later it would be West Indies in their own backyard who bore the brunt of this cricketer at the top of his game, cleaning up Shannon Gabriel with his last ball of the series to give Pakistan their only Test series win in the Caribbean. How indeed did he do that?Part of the answer lies in faith and timing. Yasir was at his best when Pakistan had worked out how to go about making the UAE, their adopted home, a fortress, and his game style was perfect for it. In Misbah as captain, he was blessed with a leader who could perhaps watch his beard grow in real-time without losing patience. As a man who only became captain when he was on the verge of quitting the game at 36, he was an ardent believer in good things coming to those who waited. And so Yasir, a rhythm bowler par excellence, operated from one end to devastating effect, handing out the UAE drubbings like they were going out of style. He became the quickest man to 200 Test wickets in another epic series against New Zealand, when, for a surreal week or so, a Dunedin-born Australian legspinner who played in the years between the two World Wars called Clarrie Grimmett became something of a household name in Pakistan.All this, remember, had happened over the span of barely four years, and just as quickly as it occurred, the unravelling began. Misbah, Yasir’s strongest backer, had stepped away from the game, and Pakistan now had a no-nonsense fitness enthusiast in Mickey Arthur as coach. Yasir was the first man he cited as an example of laxity in this department in the Pakistan side. Besides, consecutive series in South Africa and Australia followed. He was especially ordinary, and missed games in both series. In fact, in the Southern Hemisphere, Yasir’s 20 wickets have come at 87 apiece at an economy rate of 4.37.Yasir Shah’s numbers haven’t been particularly impressive since Pakistan moved back home from the UAE•Associated PressMost of all, however – and this must be a particularly bittersweet one to acknowledge – Pakistan finally moved back home from the UAE, both his kingdom and his comfort blanket. In Pakistan, pace bowlers are at the top of the food chain, with wickets tailored to their desires. Azhar Ali, then Pakistan’s captain, euphemistically referred to his “changing role” in the side, but few were in any doubt as to what that meant.The fast bowlers did indeed take over, and Yasir dropped off. His average in Pakistan was 36.50; in the UAE, he had taken wickets at 24.56 apiece. The fitness issues began to pile up, as well as a criminal probe in Pakistan that at the time saw him become a person of interest for the police. The charges against Yasir were later dropped, though.Pakistan thought they had spin talent coming through the Quaid-e-Azam trophy, with Sajid Khan and Nauman Ali topping the domestic bowling charts last year, and gently, Yasir was phased out. But despite an encouraging spin-dominated series win in Bangladesh, Pakistan were reminded of what they missed in an insipid, uninspiring series for its spinners against Australia. Seven years after that Sri Lanka series, the challenge ahead of Pakistan loomed large, and in punting for Yasir, the visitors have gone to the well once more, praying it hasn’t completely run dry.Seven years on, age isn’t on his side, and neither, tragically, is Warne, one of Yasir’s most generous supporters. Sri Lanka have younger, hungrier spinners, who are also in better form, having cleaned up Australia last week. But this is, therapeutically, what Yasir perhaps needs most. It was the place where he proved his doubters wrong, his answer so resoundingly emphatic they wouldn’t utter a peep for years to come. Now, they swarm once more in Sri Lanka, a country that has, over the past few weeks, shown limitless generosity in their love of this game. It might have one last gift for Yasir in store.

Brathwaite’s performance beat Yuvraj’s 70 in the 2007 World Cup semi-final against Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Oct-2022Carlos Brathwaite’s stunning effort in the 2016 final has been voted the greatest men’s T20 World Cup performance in a fan vote conducted by ESPNcricinfo. Brathwaite emerged as the winner from a set of 16 shortlisted performances. The 16 were paired in match-ups of two, with the winning performance progressing to the next round. Brathwaite’s performance beat Yuvraj Singh’s 70 in the 2007 World Cup semi-final against Australia, getting 58% of the votes polled in the final match-up. Brathwaite’s performance also emerged on top in an internal ESPNcricinfo staff poll, with Yuvraj in joint-second alongside Marlon Samuels’ 78 & 1-15 in the 2012 final against Sri Lanka.ESPNcricinfo LtdWinner: 3-23 & 34*(10) vs ENG | Carlos Brathwaite | Kolkata, 2016
Nineteen to win in the final over. Four balls, four sixes. “Carlos Brathwaite, remember the name!” Those hits at Eden Gardens will forever remain part of cricketing folklore. What gets forgotten is that Brathwaite was effective with the ball too: he picked up the key wickets of Jos Buttler and Joe Root to finish with figures of 4-0-23-3. He then came in at No. 8 with West Indies 107 for 6 in 15.3 chasing 156, and took them to their second title in the company of Marlon Samuels.Runner-up: 70 (30) vs AUS | Yuvraj Singh | Durban, 2007
India’s young side had made a slow start in the T20 World Cup semi-final and were 41 for 2 at the end of the eighth over. Yuvraj began with a swivel-pull against Stuart Clark – one of the best bowlers of the tournament – for six off the second ball he faced, and smashed a 119-metre pick-up shot off Brett Lee in the next over. His entire innings was like a highlights reel: the 70 off 30 balls included five sixes and as many fours, and he almost single-handedly took India to a match-winning 188.

Jos Buttler’s side retain faith in their fundamentals despite fifth ODI defeat in a row

Andrew Miller31-Jan-2023Anyone who has ever worked to a deadline knows how exquisitely zen the onset of panic can be. It doesn’t work every time, or for everyone, but sometimes – particularly for those who know they have the aptitude but find the application harder to come by – there’s nothing quite like a ticking clock to focus the mind and force the issue at hand.So wakey wakey, England’s world-beating 50-over team. We see you there at the back of the class, feet up on the table, yawning your way through your mocks in Australia and South Africa. But, with eight months to go until the defence of the title so thrillingly won at Lord’s back in 2019, and with just four more ODIs to come this side of the summer, perhaps now’s the moment to allow some urgency to drive the agenda?Or perhaps, on second thoughts, now really isn’t the time. Life moves pretty fast, as another famous slacker, Ferris Bueller, once put it. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.Related

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After all, England spent most of 2022 proving – to one extreme or another – that a positive mental attitude can overcome all obstacles, be it a record of one win in 17 prior to Brendon McCullum’s appointment as Test coach, or the seizing of the T20 World Cup in spite of a litany of injuries that would have derailed a less composed squad.And so, even though Jos Buttler’s men have just flunked their way to five consecutive ODI defeats – a run of failure unmatched by England since the summer of 2014 – there is still plenty justification for taking it easy right now, and trusting that the team’s proven knowledge of their subject matter will more than compensate for a lack of exhaustive cramming between now and the big day.After all, what’s the point of scaling endless peaks if you’re not permitted to climb back down to base camp occasionally, to take stock of your latest achievement and gird your loins to go again? Barely two months have elapsed since England won the World Cup! But don’t you dare rest on your laurels… there’s a World Cup to win!It’s little wonder that, in response to a recent Twitter enquiry about the cause of the team’s apparent downturn in white-ball fortunes, Ben Stokes – the main man of 2019 and current Bazballer-in-chief, who announced his ODI retirement last summer due to the insane workload he was facing across formats – responded: “Begins with S ends with E and has chedul in there as well”.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhatever the nuance of their current situation, there’s certainly no sense that England are right back to square one in their preparations for their World Cup defence. There’s been a lack of finesse to their efforts from 2020 to date, with 15 wins and 14 losses since that momentous day at Lord’s, but the team remains – by a whisker – the most attacking batting line-up in the world in that period, rattling along at 6.14 runs per over, compared to India’s next-best figure of 6.13.And as Moeen Ali, who featured in that 2014 downturn, put it in the wake of England’s series-sealing loss in Bloemfontein on Sunday, the current squad is not “in a position like before [the 2015 World Cup], where we were terrible and building a team”.”We’re more experienced, used to different conditions, and going to India where we’ve played a lot of IPL, I feel we’ll be ready to go,” Moeen added. “Results don’t show it yet, but I think we will be better than we were.”And yet, do England even have a chance of being as good as they were not so long ago? Regardless of the stars who may or may not bring their A games for the main event, the bald stats of their ODI performances between the last two World Cups are extraordinary, and point to the extent to which the ECB has given up on the format that, for four years up until 2019, it seemed to care for more than any other.Defeat in Bloemfontein was England’s fifth in a row•Getty ImagesBetween their elimination from the 2015 World Cup and their victory at Lord’s in 2019, England played 98 ODIs, winning a hefty 65 of them – or two in every three. They used 32 players in that period, but the core remained extraordinarily stable. Excluding Jofra Archer, who only qualified on the eve of the tournament (but including Alex Hales, whom England weren’t afraid to banish in the same timeframe in spite of his experience) each of the 12 men who formed the core of that World Cup 15 played at least half of the available games, with Eoin Morgan himself missing just six.Compare that to the current febrile situation. Since the World Cup win, England have played 32 ODIs, with just 11 more scheduled before their defence gets underway. Already, however, they’ve churned through 37 players, of whom just four have featured in more than 20 games. And if those stats are skewed by the Covid outbreak in July 2021 that forced England to field, in effect, their third XI for three matches against Pakistan, then equally the squad has lacked the volume of contests to mitigate for such holes in their preparation.In the three full years between the last two World Cups, England played nothing less than 18 ODIs annually, with a high of 24 in 2018, with which Morgan’s men perfected the front-running attitude that allowed them to embrace the mantra of favourites. In three complete years since 2019, however, they’ve played 9, 9 and 12 – their lowest workload in the format since 1995, offering barely even an opportunity to keep their muscle memory attuned.Stokes, incidentally, was the 22nd player to feature in the format in this post-2019 period. He made his ODI comeback against India in March 2021, 20 months after his heroics against New Zealand, but then binned off the format ten sporadic matches later, protesting with some justification that he could not give “100% to the shirt” while also giving his all to the rebooting of England’s Test fortunes.

Begins with S ends with E and has chedul in there as well https://t.co/U2aF9FOSDw

— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) January 27, 2023