Stats highlights from the ODI between Scotland and England as batsmen ran amok

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jun-2018371 – Scotland’s total, the highest by any Associate team in ODIs. The previous highest was Kenya’s 347 for 3 against Bangladesh in 1997. Scotland’s previous best was 341, against Canada in 2014. In matches between an Associate and a Full Member team, the next highest is Ireland’s 331 for 8 against Zimbabwe in the 2015 World Cup. (Afghanistan made 333 for 3 against Zimbabwe in Sharjah, but that was after they gained official Test status.)3 – Wins for Scotland against Full-Member nations in ODIs. All three have come in last year. They beat Zimbabwe in June 2017 and Afghanistan earlier this year. For England, this is the second defeat against an Associate nation. They were beaten by Ireland in 2011 World Cup. Incidentally, England are currently the No. 1 ranked side in ODIs.2 – Number of ODIs that have ended by a closer margin than this one after a team batting first scored more than 350 runs.4 – Scores of 140 or more for Calum McLeod in ODIs. Among his seven hundreds are scores of 175, 154 and 157 not out. His last three hundreds have all touched 140.ESPNcricinfo Ltd7 – Batsmen who have more than four 140-plus scores in ODIs. Sachin Tendulkar leads with 12, Rohit Sharma has seven, while five batsmen have five each. Among the batsmen with four 140-plus scores are ODI legends like Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting and AB de Villiers.54 – Number of balls taken by Jonny Bairstow to complete his century – the third fastest by an England batsman in ODIs. Jos Buttler in 46 balls and Moeen Ali in 53 balls are the players to score quicker hundreds for England.3 – Consecutive centuries for Bairstow in ODIs. He became the first England batsman and ninth overall to score three or more hundreds in a row. He had hit tons in the last two matches of the last series against New Zealand in March. Since opening the innings, he has hit five centuries in 17 games and averages 64.92.3 – The number of ODI totals higher than 371 scored in against England. New Zealand’s 398 at The Oval in 2015 is the highest, followed by India’s 387 and 381.4 – England bowlers who conceded 70 or more runs in the innings, the first time this has ever happened for England in an ODI. They have had four previous instances of three bowlers leaking 70-plus.

He is going through a bit of a rough patch, but the men opening with him have done far worse

Jarrod Kimber31-May-2018Alastair Cook is one of the best opening batsmen in the history of the game. In terms of runs, no one has made more opening the batting in Tests. He has made superhuman insane crazy mad runs opening the batting, in foreign conditions, that have won series. And he has lasted in English cricket’s most punishing schedule. Cook is a sweatless god at the top of the innings, one of the best ten openers in Test cricket history.He has not been in great form himself over the last two years: he has scored the most runs by an opener in that time, but he has played way more Tests than most. He’s averaging just short of 41, but of the 18 players with over 500 runs opening the batting in this period, he’s middle of the road, and also down five from his normal career average.It’s unfair to compare Cook to his opening partners, who sweat and fail more than him. But if Cook has been out of form, then his opening partners haven’t even been a gelatinous mass. They are without form of any kind.Mark Stoneman is the latest to lose his spot; he’s had 11 friends do the same.ESPNcricinfo LtdSince Andrew Strauss, England have found no one who can open with Cook. This has meant that Cook has made 60% of the runs made by English opening batsmen in that time.ESPNcricinfo LtdAlex Hales is second on the list with 6.3% of the runs.It gets worse when you check milestones. Cook leads England openers in fifties, doubles them in hundreds, and – in Graham-Gooch speak – he’s got six times the number of daddy hundreds.ESPNcricinfo LtdEven if you look at the number of runs Cook makes per Test compared to the others, there’s him, Joe Root’s bizarre early career as an opener, and tumbleweeds.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe average opening partnership in world cricket since Strauss retired is 34.7; of Cook’s 12 partnerships, only four are over that, despite having Cook at one end.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe partnership with Stoneman is the lowest average for an opening stand in England’s history (minimum ten innings). In all these partnerships, there have been only ten 100-run stands, three of which came with Nick Compton. No one else has more than one.In the six years that Cook and Strauss played together, England only had six openers (seven if you count the one innings Kevin Pietersen opened in) – the fewest among the top-eight-ranked teams. In the six years since, they have had 14, the second most behind Pakistan.ESPNcricinfo LtdEngland are 8.5 runs down on their overall opening partnership since Strauss went. And that was with Strauss averaging 32 in his last 20 Tests.Of the 12 partnerships, Cook has been the first dismissed the most with three of them: Carberry, Root and Stoneman.It gets worse for the partners; they also score slower than Cook.ESPNcricinfo LtdHales was brought into the side to be another David Warner. He never made a hundred, and he scored slower than Cook.And you might think England need to try another opener. Over the last three years, the No.1-averaging opener in county cricket is, well, you probably already know.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe No. 2 player is a now-retired Irish player, No. 3 is Ben Duckett, who has already been dropped, and his runs are from Division Two. As the first man on the call sheet, Duckett averages over 20 fewer than Cook.It’s incredible that England continue to have such poor opening partnerships with one of the greatest openers in Test history.By the next Test, Cook will hold the record for the most consective Tests played. By the end of this summer he will probably have scored 2000 more runs than any opener. One of the few records Cook doesn’t yet hold is the most opening partners: he has merely 15; Sunil Gavaskar holds the record with 19. There seems to be time enough in his career to break that record.Good luck, Keaton Jennings. Again.Jos Buttler was kept out of this analysis due to only opening in one innings, where he replaced Cook in a run chaseAdditional statistical inputs by S Rajesh and Shiva Jayaraman

If Jonny Bairstow plays purely as a batsman in the fourth Test it may pave the way for England to restructure their batting line-up

George Dobell22-Aug-2018It seems hard to imagine now but, not so long ago, England used to be chastised if they won Tests too slowly.During the summer of 2013, in particular, they attracted criticism for the manner in which they won the Ashes – a 3-0 victory, no less – and a 247-run win over New Zealand at Headingley. Their game, it was said, lacked aggression, style and entertainment value.Well, it sure has all those now. You can barely take your eye off England when batting – they have lost 10 wickets in a session three times in two years – as they react to almost every challenge by trying to hit their way to safety. Ollie Pope, inexperienced and batting out of position, can probably be forgiven his second innings dismissal – ugly though it was – but Joe Root’s back foot force was unworthy of such an experienced player.So, as the team management use Thursday morning to pick a squad for the fourth Test, you wonder what they would give for a Geoff Boycott or Chris Tavare now. Players who would happily bat all day for 90. Players who could leave well, defend well and relished batting time.Instead, as they look around the counties, they find a surplus of middle-order strokemakers. There’s James Vince, who scored (another) century in the latest round of Championship matches, Moeen Ali, who did the same, and Joe Clarke, who is sixth in the Division One run table and has scored those runs at a strike-rate of 66.76. Not so long ago, that was considered respectable in ODI cricket.But England don’t need another middle-order strokemaker. They need a blocker. They need someone to dare to be dull. They need the batsman Alastair Cook used to be.County cricket doesn’t produce many blockers any more. There simply isn’t any money in it. So a batsman like Jaik Mickleburgh, who scores centuries for fun in Minor Counties cricket, can’t win a second chance in the first-class game because he is seen as a one-format player. Andrew Umeed, who made the second-slowest century (in terms of minutes) in Championship history last summer against an attack including James Anderson, hasn’t been picked for a first-class game this year. Nick Compton has fallen out of favour to such an extent that it appears his career is over.It is an absurd situation that sees Pope, who bats at No. 6 for Surrey, asked to bat No. 4 for England. Especially with such a fragile top-order above him. Pope had never come into bat before the 23rd over of a first-class innings before he made his Test debut. Now, in the three Test innings he has had, he has come to the crease in the nine over, the 12th over and the 13th over. It is unfair to expect a 20-year-old to cover for the flaws of those above him. Unfair and potentially damaging.It could be that England have stumbled upon a partial solution. If, as expected, Jonny Bairstow is unable to keep wicket in Southampton due to his fractured finger, it is likely he will relinquish the gloves (not literally; they can afford a pair each) to Jos Buttler but retain his place in the side as a specialist batsman. He could then be pushed up to No. 4 and told to curb his natural aggression just a little. Pope would be able to slip down at least one place as a consequence and if Ben Stokes – who looked as if he had the best technique in the side at Trent Bridge – was also pushed up a place, Pope could revert to No. 6.Moeen Ali’s all-round show•ESPNcricinfo LtdIt’s not a perfect solution. Bairstow has spent most of his career at Yorkshire batting at No. 5 and, with a propensity to push at the ball, remains better suited to a middle-order position. If anyone doubts how much easier batting can become, it’s worth noting that, in the first, third and fourth innings of the Trent Bridge Test combined, only one wicket fell between the 31st and 70th overs for a combined total of 387 runs.But the suspicion remains that Bairstow has not quite maximised his potential with the bat. He currently has a Test career average of 38.55, after all, and in the 25 innings he has played in the last year, he has reached 50 only four times. This summer he averages 31.75. The requirement to tighten his game and take more responsibility with the bat might just be the making of him.It would help England’s middle-order, too, if their top-order performed better. It seems there is little chance of Cook being jettisoned at this stage, but Keaton Jennings is at risk. Jennings is only four Tests into his recall but, having appeared unreliable in the field – he dropped two relatively straightforward chances at Trent Bridge – his frailties outside off stump have also been exposed by an India attack that is brilliant against left-handers.His return of 123 runs in six innings gives him an average, since his return to the side, of just 20.50 and suggests he has been unable to improve the technical deficiencies that resulted in him being dropped a year ago. His career average – 23.16 from 10 Tests – is bolstered by that century on debut which saw him dropped before he was scored. Had it been taken, he would be averaging 16.94 in his Test career.His recall looked hasty at the time. Following the decision to drop him last August, he went 20 first-class innings without reaching a half-century. He then made two centuries in successive innings – one of them a fine effort against a decent Nottinghamshire attack; the other on a very flat pitch against Somerset – and was immediately recalled. In retrospect, that looks premature.But it’s his catching that’s the real worry. It hints at a scrambled mind and brittle confidence. And with Rory Burns continuing to score heavily – he has 104 more runs than the second-highest scorer in Division One this season – there is a viable alternative in decent form.There are other options. Daryl Mitchell, the Worcestershire opener, is the third-highest run-scorer in Division One and a more than decent slip fielder. He is experienced, phlegmatic and right-handed. He would let nobody down. But it seems unlikely the selectors will look much beyond those involved in the Lions set-up. They might be reluctant to look to a 34-year-old, too.Rory Burns plays the cut•Getty ImagesCould Ian Bell be an option at No. 3? He could. He is 36 now but batting beautifully. It might be remembered, though, that Bell averaged 38.00 at No. 3 and 48.25 at No. 5 in Test cricket. He doesn’t really answer the question England are asking right now.It’s not impossible there could be a new look to the spin attack, though. Jack Leach might have been considered the man in possession at the start of the summer but was unavailable for the Pakistan series due to injury and the start of this India series as it was believed he required more bowling to recover his rhythm. Having claimed 8 for 85 in Somerset’s victory over Essex it seems safe to assume he has now done so.Moeen is pushing hard, too. As well as the runs he is scoring – in the last week, he has followed a 51-ball century in the Blast with a Championship double-hundred against Yorkshire – he has also taken five-fors in his last two Championship matches. He was already in the squad and might be considered either as a replacement for Bairstow, if required, or a second spinner. It seems most unlikely the experiment of using him as an opener will be revisited.But Adil Rashid – with seven wickets in the series at 26.71 – has done little wrong. So unless England feel they require cover for Cook (who may need to depart on paternity leave at some stage) or Bairstow (finger) the only tough decision may centre on whether Jennings should make way for Burns.

In deciding to sack Angela Williamson, CA has shown itself more concerned about preserving its space in a tight battle for government funding than an individual’s right to express an opinion

Daniel Brettig30-Jul-2018A couple of weeks ago Pat Cummins spoke about the tangible effect of the Ashes on how he viewed playing for Australia, a feeling he has gone back to a lot since the Newlands ball tampering scandal. Put simply, how wide an effect it can have:”It’s not until you get on a bus to the ground and you see all the Australian flags and people dressed up, walking to the game, that it really hits you, because you know it on tour as well, it’s such a bubble you’re in, hotel to ground, hotel to ground, and you just do that for so long, sometimes you do lose sight of how much it means to so many different people.”The “bubble” is a common term in sport, generally referring to the space in which the players are cocooned while trying to find their best performance. But it has also been evident in the story broken by Fairfax Media about the sacking of a Cricket Australia (CA) government-relations staffer, Angela Williamson, for what a spokesman called “offensive comments” that “contravene the organisation’s social media policy”.Some background. Williamson had referred on Twitter to the Tasmanian government rejecting a motion to re-establish abortion services in the state’s public hospitals on June 13, describing the health minister Michael Ferguson as “most irresponsible … gutless and reckless”. In January she had criticised the government’s position on abortions, calling it “disgraceful”, and was subsequently the target of a government staffer sending this critique to CA.But it was only the more recent online criticism that attracted the attention of Cricket Tasmania and by extension CA, leading to correspondence on June 29 from the governing body’s head of government relations, Grant Poulter. The state association’s Board had lost confidence in her and her position was “untenable”. Williamson’s lawyer, Kamal Faroque, outlined their concerns about being dismissed for publicly airing her opinion.”Those views, and her raising them, have nothing to do with Cricket Australia or Cricket Tasmania, they have nothing to do with the work that she was performing and the question needs to be asked about why she has lost her job for this.””Why” is the key question, and one that is currently being asked across Australia. As with most things in the world of sport, or politics, or in this case both, the “why” relates to money. Specifically, the battle for a finite amount of government funding among the nation’s major sports. Over the past few years, CA’s government-relations department has grown exponentially, from being the responsibility of one staffer to that of a whole department with at least one manager based in each of the six states – Williamson being Tasmania’s since late 2016.Last year, about the same time as the ill-tempered pay dispute between CA and the Australian Cricketers’ Association, the governing body completed its first comprehensive infrastructure review, with findings that painted a dim picture of cricket facilities around the country. In particular, it raised the glaring lack of provisions for women. These findings were used as a weapon in the pay war arguing for the breakup of the existing pay model, as well as an entreaty to state and federal governments to pitch in further to fund the required development.Added to this was the fact that among all the state associations, Cricket Tasmania has been in less than glowing shape recently. Most spinally, this has been related to living with a vast reduction in CA funding relative to the other, bigger states. When CA’s financial model was reviewed and changed in 2011-12, Tasmania lost out most because it had previously enjoyed a 1/6th share of broadcast rights revenue despite having only 1/48th of Australia’s population. While in dollar terms all states were promised a “none worse off” clause, logic always followed that the smallest state would lose out in terms of the strategic funding decided upon by the CA Board, which has chosen to invest most urgently in the vast expanses of regional Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.Meanwhile, Cricket Tasmania’s annual grant from the state government has remained unchanged at AUD 560,000 for the past 15 years, a point outlined by their chief executive Nick Cummins when he unveiled an annual financial loss of AUD 768,000 for 2016-17. “I would observe the funding we’ve got from the government has been static for the past 15 years and we’ve gone from one men’s team to two men’s teams in the Tigers (first-class and List A team) and the Hurricanes (in the BBL) and an entire women’s program,” he told the last September. “I think we need to fall in line. It is not about cutting the funding to any other sport, but certainly the funding needs to be reflective of the level of exposure that we give to Tasmania and across the board in terms of participation as well.”Better news arrived at the end of April, when it was confirmed that the state government had heard the pleas for better infrastructure for women, and chosen to commit no less than AUD 10 million to projects over the next two years. “Audits conducted by AFL Tasmania and Cricket Australia found approximately 80 per cent of their facilities failed to be female friendly, despite more than 20,700 females taking part in their sports,” the sports minister Jacquie Petrusma said.”The Levelling the Playing Field Grant Program will provide more appropriate change rooms, lockers, toilets, shower facilities and amenities for female coaches, officials, volunteers and players. Priority will be given to facilities used for football and cricket but all sports and their organisations are welcome to apply.”This was a major win for cricket, particularly that one word, “priority”. Williamson, of course, played a key role in helping to secure it. Another win was in securing an extra AUD 240,000 for the coming season to help fund the women’s program, raising the association’s annual grant to AUD 800,000.But the circumstances around her departure spoke strongly of a state association and a governing body concerned about ensuring the preservation of that funding, and the securing of more in future years, above anything else. Certainly above defending the right of an individual to express an opinion unpopular with those she was employed to help extract funding from.If any further reminder about the funding wars were required, the substance of a July 27 media release on CA’s corporate website provided it: the Queensland Cricket chief executive Max Walters imploring that state government’s stadium task force to spend more money urgently on upgrade work at the ageing Gabba. “While we are absolutely committed to supporting this process,” he said, “we believe that more direct and immediate relief for cricket is required than is outlined in the interim report, particularly as involves the Gabba.”That, then, is the bubble in which it was deemed necessary to sack Angela Williamson, full as it is with competitive instincts about funding and high-minded intentions about growing the game for all who wish to play it. But outside the bubble, all that could be readily seen was this: a woman publicly expressing frustration about the inaccessibility of abortions in Tasmania being sacked for “offensive comments”. To paraphrase Pat Cummins, somewhere along the way Cricket Australia lost sight of that.

India have produced fast bowlers who are good and those who are great, but never before have they produced an entire line-up that has the makings of being fearsome

Nagraj Gollapudi in Southampton30-Aug-2018The soul of fast bowling is pace. Yet the backbone of fast bowling has always been control. Accuracy. Consistency. These three are intangibles, which a fast bowler learns as he runs in at different venues, in both hostile and hospitable conditions. During the course of this improvisation the fast bowler becomes a good seamer, moving up to very good in some cases, and dominant in others. And when a team is blessed with more than one dominant fast bowler, the pace battery – as was portrayed richly by Clive Lloyd’s quartet during the dominance of West Indies in the 1970s and ’80s – becomes fearsome.Never before could you describe Indian fast bowling as fearsome. Kapil Dev was an outstanding talent who ploughed a lonely furrow. Zaheer Khan, too, was exceptional, especially with the old ball during the latter part of his career. But not fearsome. As far as quartets went, India never went beyond the spinners – Bishan Bedi, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and S Venkataraghavan.But India are the No. 1 Test team in the world at present and, increasingly so, the fast bowlers are playing a dominant role as Virat Kohli’s team aims to win more overseas. The current Indian pace attack, comprising Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has just recovered from injury, is steadily becoming a fearsome unit. They are not yet as fearsome as the Australian and South African contingents but as the ongoing England series has shown, this Indian unit can sting.India’s fast bowlers have clocked better and better speeds throughout this series against England. They have managed to swing the ball more than at any other time in their careers. Importantly, during the course of the series, all the main fast bowlers have fine-tuned their strengths, as Ishant and Bumrah did in the first session on Thursday to throttle England’s top order.You need to just check some of the responses of England’s batsmen to understand the pressure they were put under. Keaton Jennings played an explosive inswinger from Bumrah as if he was trying to avoid stepping over a landmine; Joe Root lost his balance and nearly fell over attempting to counter late swing from Ishant; Alastair Cook said “ooh” more than once as he was constantly being squared up by Ishant; Jonny Bairstow appeared to be batting blindfolded as Ishant beat his defence effortlessly with deliveries that curved through the wide gap between bat and pad and had Rishabh Pant throw himself about. Stokes widened his eyes in disbelief at the pronounced and acute movement Shami was getting to beat his outside edge, pitching full, at 89mph.Ishant Sharma loads up at the top of his pre-delivery jump•Getty ImagesAlthough Ishant, who took his 250th wicket today, remains the head boy of the bowling group, it was Bumrah, whose incisive breakthroughs early had hurt England at Trent Bridge, who hurt them again in the first session today. Since his Test debut in South Africa, Bumrah has continued to be the X-factor. Yes, his bowling action has played a significant role, but an equally crucial element of his success is his fast-bowling nous.Ten minutes into the morning and he had sent back his first victim with a mental gash that Jennings might need to visit a psychologist to sort out. It was a proper set-up. The first three deliveries of his second over, Bumrah pitched all three on good length, moved all three away, which Jennings left alone. The fourth delivery, Bumrah pushed the length fuller. The line remained the same. The ball, upon pitching, swerved in sharply. Jennings had no idea it was an incoming delivery. He had already decided to leave it. He was stunned by the movement. It was a stunning delivery. As a post-mortem of the wicket later showed, Bumrah had directed the seam towards leg slip.Watching from the balcony, knees up, one man might have applauded the set-up – James Anderson. Never a bad thing to learn from the masters. The thing that Indians have learnt from Anderson is discipline. With every match they have probed the batsmen. They have become more assured. Gone are the days when MS Dhoni would direct traffic. Kohli might micro-manage the field, but the fast bowlers take care of the bowling plans. The numbers are proving them right. The strike rate of the Indian pacers this series – 44.2 – is the best by any overseas team in England since the one-off Centenary Test of 1980.How has this Indian pace attack shown such sharp progress? The biggest factor is their fitness. That is the biggest change in culture from the past. Being fit has allowed the bowlers to hit optimum speeds and allowed them to bowl long spells, as Bumrah showed this morning with eight good overs in his first stint. Being fit has helped bowlers to come back with fresh energy in each spell.Every bowler has shown the patience and understanding to bowl to a situation. The bad habits that accompanied them in the past, especially of erring in line and length, have been reduced. Take Ishant. In this series, while bowling during the first 15 overs of an innings, he has bowled more full deliveries than back of a length, a weakness that till recently seemed incurable.India now possess a group of fast bowlers that can hurt the opposition in different ways. But by no means are they complete. As the expectations grow with every series, the challenges will grow. Can they maintain their good form in Australia later this year? A weak England batting line-up, both vulnerable and fragile, has added to the character and weight of the Indian fast bowling unit. Can they maintain the stranglehold in the face of big partnerships? Can they attack and defend and show controlled aggression, a hallmark of good fast-bowling attacks?On evidence so far this series, they have the skills and the temperament. Despite Sam Curran’s impressive rearguard – for the second time this series – India might end day one thinking they have the edge in the match. And that is courtesy India’s pace line-up, which has been both crude and shrewd.

After nearly giving up playing cricket in 2017, Paine will be at the forefront of Australia’s rebuild operation, of performance and public trust, among other things

Daniel Brettig in Dubai06-Oct-2018When Tim Paine last led Australia onto the field for a Test, in Johannesburg, they weren’t so much a team as a crater where one had once stood.Shocked and then divided by the Newlands ball tampering scandal, they were mortified to find out a tearful Darren Lehmann was resigning as coach amid the mess. Some players, like Matt Renshaw, were running on Red Bull fumes, having been flown in at the last moment. They were exhausted, mentally and physically after an Ashes winning summer had unravelled in South Africa, against an opponent showing greater expertise not only in how to bat against a reverse swinging ball but also how to bowl it.Prior to that Test, Paine’s first official fixture as full-time captain, the Wanderers had reverberated with a playlist of songs at high volume – Australian staples like by Paul Kelly, by Nick Cave, by Australian Crawl, by Crowded House and by The Triffids. If the songs were familiar, the experience of them at training was foreign, and what transpired over the next few days demonstrated that classic tunes were of minimal help to a team swimming in confusion, grief and anger.”That was a unique set of circumstances, that was something that no-one was prepared for or ready for,” Paine said when asked how far removed Johannesburg felt from Dubai. “So it’s exciting we’re back concentrating on just cricket.”Ahead of the first Test against Pakistan, the only sounds at Australia’s training were very familiar: the cracks of bat on ball, the plop of catches into soft hands and the hum of expectant conversation amongst a team that features three debutants: Aaron Finch, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head. They have a new coach in Justin Langer, and a new approach forged out of the Newlands fallout, the requirements of Asian conditions and leadership blueprints provided as much out of the AFL as anything in cricket.This is true of Langer’s restless and ever-searching approach, picking and choosing ideas from the minds of many, as if a bower bird rather than the Kookaburra that once emblazoned his bats. It is also true of the leadership model signed off by the Cricket Australia Board, with Paine supported by dual vice-captains in Mitchell Marsh and Josh Hazlewood (absent) on the premise that neither will seek to tunnel under their leader to make their own claim to the captaincy.Getty ImagesAnd it is true of Paine’s primary influences as a football-loving Tasmanian, who views the captain less as the all-powerful figure than as the man tasked with building unity behind a shared plan. It is notable, too, that on a recent study tour of the United States, Paine and Langer visited several sporting organisations, including the Dallas Cowboys and the Chicago Cubs, where there is no single on-field captain. All players are expected to lead when needed.”My leadership style is, I suppose I’m more inclusive than other cricket captains have been in the past,” Paine said. “I’ve come from a footy background, so I’m a big believer in the power of the team and certainly take the value and opinions of my teammates really seriously. We’re all involved to some point in the decisions that are made and I think that’s really important when you’re trying to get buy-in and trying to get guys to play for you, I think they’ve got to be part of that process. That’s the way I go about it.”Particularly going back over a longer period of time, the cricket team was seen as the captain’s team. I’m not a huge believer in that, I think the team is everyone’s team and I’m the fortunate one who gets to lead it from the front. Yes, a lot of the decisions, most of the decisions fall back on me, which is fine, and I’m happy to do that, but I also believe when you want people to follow you, you’ve got to get their input and make them feel a part of the decision-making.”As an eloquent spokesman for the team in crisis, Paine has in many ways met his moment after nearly eight years on the fringe, beset by multiple finger fractures and then the crisis of batting confidence that followed it.His life experience at the very edge of a playing career – so much so he nearly quit the game in 2017 to take another job – has helped to inform the approach he took to the crisis of South Africa. He’ll now carry the start of a rebuild operation, of performance and public trust, that will take in this series, home assignments against India and Sri Lanka and then, beyond next year’s 50-over World Cup, an Ashes tour of England.”There’s no doubt this Test series is about winning. We’re playing international sport, so it’s the highest level and I think players will be judged on how many games we’ve won,” Paine said. “That’s certainly really important, but on the flipside of that, the image of Australian cricket is also really important to me and Justin and the rest of our team, so we’re going to be going about things in a really professional, really respectful manner and we’ll continue to do that for the foreseeable future.”There’s been a lot of talk over the last four or five months and it’s great now that we’re on a new tour, we’ve got a new group, so it hasn’t been something that’s come up a hell of a lot, the guys are really excited by the challenge that’s been presented over here. Australian teams haven’t had a heap of success over here, so it’s a really exciting challenge for this group, it’s a group that a lot of people haven’t given a huge chance to and that’s something that’s driving us and something that excites us.”There was a reassuring quality to a lot of Paine’s match eve questions. Sample this: Why did Peter Siddle get the nod ahead of Michael Neser? “We just think Sidds has been playing quite a bit of cricket, he’s in good form, and we knew he was bowling really well in the lead up.”Did Matt Renshaw miss out for Labuschagne because he had not played enough cricket due to a recent hamstring strain then last week’s concussion? “He hasn’t had enough cricket, so the decision was made there to go with Marnus. He’s had a bit of an unlucky run, Renners, with injury, he missed a game in India and then got hit on the head, couldn’t bat in the last game.”We’re certainly picking a team that we think can win over here in these conditions and there was obviously a lot of discussion about it. But we think Marnus brings a lot to the group, he’s a really good player of spin and we think as well his leg spin will be something we can throw at the Pakistanis, they might not expect him, and they’ve really improved in the last 12 months.”Can opening bring the best out of Usman Khawaja? “Ussy has opened a little bit through his career, he opened last week for us in the tour game and right at the moment he’s in a really good spot, he’s batting really well so I don’t think it would matter to Usman where he’s batting at the moment, he’s in really good touch and I think he’ll have a great tour.”As for the difference made by Langer’s arrival, Paine spoke in terms of a partnership that would unsettle some traditionalists, but that is now vital to Australia returning to a higher standing in the game as well as the ICC’s Test match rankings.”JL and I have known each other and had a good relationship for a long time, so a lot of our thoughts are very similar,” Paine said. “We’re certainly not exactly the same, no two people are, but we’re happy to challenge each other when we need to and we have a really open and honest relationship, so it’s been fantastic to be working with him so far and we’ve gelled together really well and so has this whole squad.”One part of the effort to rehabilitate has the Australian team being documented by filmmakers on the journey from Langer’s appointment, through the home summer and into the World Cup and the Ashes next year. Those songs that rang in Paine’s ears at the Wanderers, in the midst of unprecedented chaos for the national team, would play best on the soundtrack to the Test team’s redemption tale. Dubai and Pakistan, all hot days and dry decks, is where that begins.And for all the improvement in the team’s mindset relative to the Wanderers, a fundamental question remains – how good can Paine’s side really be?

The 24-year old is no longer just a white-ball cricketer and aims to prove that against Dale Steyn and company

Danyal Rasool in Centurion25-Dec-2018It was barely past nine in the morning, and on a day when many people reached for the snooze button on their phones, Pakistan were rolling into Supersport Park for a training session. Among them sat a 24-year old, perhaps already the crown jewel of Pakistan’s batting order, a man his side will rely on numerous times over the years to come. Babar Azam already carries himself like one aware of his importance in the Pakistan team, not least because the challenge he faces on Boxing Day is more demanding than any he will have experienced in his career.Yet, just weeks ago, the hot takes declared Babar a white-ball chancer, only barely clinging on to a spot in Tests by dint of that limited-overs reputation. The claim was set on the basis of his average; before the first Test against Australia in October it was 28, but the technical foundations for a thriving long-form career were obvious.”The innings I played in Ireland and England [back-to-back fifties in May] gave me a lot of confidence, because playing in and performing in those conditions changed my mindset to approaching Test cricket quite a bit,” Babar told ESPNcricinfo. “How to build your innings, how to survive, how to score runs etc. I took a lot from that experience and continued that in Dubai, and hopefully maintain that here too.”There were complications in keeping up that good run of scores. Unbeaten on 68 in the first Test at Lord’s, he was struck on the forearm by a Ben Stokes bouncer, ruling him out of the tour. In just his fourth innings back almost five months later, he scored 99 against Australia, and that, for him, is when everything changed.”When you continue to perform, your confidence level increases dramatically. Since then, I’ve been performing the way I wanted to perform. On the previous tour, I had aimed to score big and thankfully that’s what happened. It hurt me a lot to be dismissed on 99 against Australia but still, it gave me a huge amount of confidence. So in the next series, I just continued in that vein.”ALSO READ: ‘World-class’ Yasir gives Pakistan an advantage – SarfrazBabar confirmed he will bat at No. 6 against South Africa, though didn’t quite go so far as calling it his favourite position. “That’s the role the team’s given me and I have to prepare myself to play there.”For all the cricket that gets played these days, it is mildly surprising Babar has only ever played one international against South Africa, a rain-interrupted game at the Champions Trophy in 2017. He pointed out he had been here before on an Under-19 tour as well as a school tour, but acknowledged this was a different kettle of fish, and was eager to pick the brains of anyone who had superior experience of playing cricket in the country.”[Head coach] Mickey [Arthur] and [batting coach] Grant [Flower] told us the first 20 balls are very crucial here,” he said. “If you play those out well, you will bat well. If, early on, you survive, it gets easier to bat and improves your opportunity of making a big score.”Azhar Ali, too, advised us because there’s quite a bit of bounce on these wickets, and he told us a few ways to handle that since he’s played here before.”Mickey Arthur talks to the Pakistan squad•Getty ImagesArthur himself pointed out the challenge was a technical one, particularly for players from Asia. “I think the key is – and this is true of a lot of subcontinent batsmen – that you must stay offside of the ball. Grant’s worked a hell of a lot with him on this. A lot of the subcontinent batsmen stay legside of the ball so we’ve worked really hard on getting these guys offside of the ball because that’s how you get the most control here.”When it comes to Babar in particular, Arthur cannot help his effusiveness take over, insisting he never had any doubts the batsman would come into his own in Test cricket. “I’ve seen so many very good players knock the door down in ODI cricket, but when they come into Test cricket, they find it a different challenge. Test cricket’s called that because you get challenged physically, mentally and technically. In one-day cricket you can afford to get away with it a little bit.”I read Babar has close to the best average of any Test batsman this year. That’s incredible, given where he was, and I’ve never doubted he’d get there. His talent and ability is second to none. All he needed was a breakout innings. His challenge now is doing it in South Africa, Australia, and he did well in the UK. This is the next step in terms of his development into the player we know he can be.”Babar’s Test average this year is just a smidge under 60, second only to Kane Williamson (66.77) among players with over 500 runs in 2018. He may have taken his time adapting to the game’s longest form, but the clarion calls declaring his Test position precipitous now seem exceptionally misjudged.But that level of class is tough to reconcile with his place in the batting order. “Of course No. 6 is not his long-term position,” Arthur said. “At the minute though, that’s where we need them. It’s a natural progression. I got castigated for batting him too high when Misbah and Younis were playing so there’s no winning with that argument. Let’s just let Babar develop in his game. Once he gets confidence, he’ll move up. He will be in the top four for Pakistan for along time to come. Let’s just let him find his feet first in Test cricket.”ALSO READ: Mark Nicholas on Dale Steyn, the bogeymanTomorrow, he’ll continue the journey by facing two of the best fast bowlers in the world right now. “I’m looking forward to facing Steyn and Rabada,” Babar said. “I played Rabada in the Champions Trophy, but not Steyn. They’re great bowlers and I aim to play and do well against the best.”

Currently ranked No. 2 in the ICC ODI rankings, India have crossed the Tasman Sea on a high after creating history in Australia. But they are more likely to face a tougher challenge now in New Zealand

Vishal Dikshit22-Jan-2019Currently ranked No. 2 in the ICC ODI rankings, India have crossed the Tasman Sea on a high after creating history in Australia. But they are likelier to face a tougher challenge now in New Zealand. Ahead of the five-match ODI series which begins on Wednesday, here are five reasons why.New Zealand’s great home record