From being full of self doubt, the 28-year old has transitioned to being a gun batter for the Scorchers

Tristan Lavalette26-Jan-2022During the dregs of last year’s off-season, as he pondered deficiencies in his batting amid a stalled T20 career, Kurtis Patterson watched classic footage of Australia legend Matthew Hayden for inspiration.Both tall and left-handed, the similarities were obvious but Patterson was struck by Hayden’s set up before he repeatedly thrashed beleaguered bowlers.”He used to keep his hands quite low, pick up his bat as the bowler released and wouldn’t really have a trigger movement with his feet,” Patterson said to ESPNcricinfo about Hayden, who hit 30 tons in 103 Tests.He also closely observed Glenn Maxwell. “He has such a nice bat swing and bat flow, especially to the spinners,” Patterson said of the Melbourne Stars skipper. “They were a couple of guys that did things well that I wanted to bring into my game.”As he watched highlights of those master blasters, Patterson – who hadn’t cracked a half-century in 30 BBL matches before this season – could probably not have envisioned that he would soon replicate them. During his breakout BBL season, the 28-year-old has top-scored for all-conquering Perth Scorchers with 390 runs at 143.91 strike rate ahead of Friday’s final at Marvel Stadium.

“The overarching feeling was that I didn’t know whether I was good enough.”Patterson on his frame of mind 12 months ago

Such has been his destructiveness that Patterson has now been labelled as the BBL’s “most improved player” by former Australia quick Damien Fleming amongst others. “Those that have seen me bat over the years, know that when I get my eye in I hit the ball hard,” said Patterson, who has smashed 18 sixes in 12 innings this season.He had emphasised a focus on power hitting during the off-season in 2020 but then couldn’t squeeze into Scorchers’ powerful line-up and sat on the bench for all bar one match of BBL 10. It meant Patterson had played just four matches in two seasons for Scorchers after crossing over from Sydney Thunder.Kurtis Patterson has drawn inspiration from Glenn Maxwell•Getty Images”I felt ready for an opportunity,” said Patterson, who admitted to being a “frustrated T20 cricketer” 12 months ago.  “The overarching feeling was that I didn’t know whether I was good enough.”Ahead of a pivotal BBL season, the last on his three-year contract with Scorchers, Patterson needed to ignite his T20 career and he sought to improve his batting overall having been somewhat forgotten since playing two Tests for Australia in early 2019.Backed by the trusted expertise of his NSW coaches Chandika Hathurusingha and Anthony Clark – and left inspired by the destructive deeds of vintage Hayden and Maxwell – he decided to take the bold step of tinkering with his technique knowing his somewhat limited range had been exposed in the accelerated T20 format.”What I lacked was accessing and hitting boundaries in different areas of the ground,” Patterson said. “Previously I hadn’t been able to access the leg side as I would have liked. And I needed bowlers to give me width to hit through point and cover.”I wanted to try something new.”Starting pre-season training a month earlier than usual, Patterson went about changing his batting set up in a bid for his “hands to relax”.”My hands were getting stuck around my belly button and sternum,” he said. “If your hands are stuck in that position there’s not much room to move and not much power to generate with any sort of bat swing.”It was about getting into a position where I could get my hands behind my back hip to be able to flow through the ball. Keeping my hands a bit lower seemed to help.”Kurtis Patterson has been in prolific form this season for the Scorchers•Getty ImagesSo too did discarding trigger movements and reverting back to Hayden’s playbook. “I realised I was telling myself a lie so I stopped going back and across with my feet because I was uncomfortable,” he said.”I’ve always known I’m best when I keep really still at the bowler’s point of release. That has allowed me to stay balanced and pick up length better than in previous years.”Patterson’s newfound approach started slowly against underarm bowling but after a month he had a litmus test against
NSW’s bowlers returning from their off-season.”You may feel awkward and late on the ball,” advised Hathurusingha, who Patterson described as a “tactical genius for batting”. “That’s completely normal. There is no need to panic and change things.”But there was no reason to fret with everything “instantly clicking” for a relieved Patterson. “I knew from that point I did the right thing and it was about sticking with it,” he said.Patterson entered this BBL season confident having scored a century as captain for NSW against Victoria in the Sheffield Shield, but he was no certainty to be part of Scorchers’ season opener against Brisbane Heat at Optus Stadium.Even though Scorchers no longer had the services of big-hitters Liam Livingstone and Jason Roy, Patterson’s hopes rested on whether Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis would play for Australia A against England Lions.”Cam Bancroft finished last season really well and (Scorchers coach Adam) Voges said he was going to start with him,” Patterson said. But with Marsh and Inglis unavailable, Patterson made the most of his opportunity at No. 3 with a brutal 55 off 30 balls against Heat that seemed to catch everyone by surprise except himself.”I treated it as a free swing. See ball, hit ball attitude,” Patterson said of an innings he rated his “best” in a season yielding four half-centuries. “It certainly helped prove me right (about the technical changes). It was a nice feeling.”Being a key cog in Scorchers’ title push has helped Patterson re-enter the limelight for a talented batter who still holds a Test average of 144 after an unbeaten ton against Sri Lanka in Canberra.”I have desire to get back there,” Patterson said about Test cricket. “In previous years I’ve gone down rabbit holes of trying to prove people wrong. But it adds pressure and I’m now focusing on what I can control. It’s why I love captaining NSW because it forces me to focus on getting the best out of the team instead of thinking of representative needs.”Set to be a coveted BBL free agent, Patterson won’t be chasing IPL glory with the upcoming birth of his son ensuring he has a hectic schedule ahead. But, right now, he’s hoping to cap off a momentous season with Scorchers, who have been on the road for seven weeks due to Western Australia’s unmovable hard border.”Would be a remarkable achievement to win the title,” he said. “No one has whinged, everyone has been focused. It’s been nice to play a part and showcase my skills.”

Former county colleagues believe England’s new MD has had the perfect preparation

Cameron Ponsonby27-Apr-2022You’d have to try hard to hear a bad word said about Rob Key in his home county of Kent and his legend around the area exists for good reason. A player for almost 20 years, and captain for almost a decade, he was the focal point of the county and steered the club through difficult times both on the pitch and off.”For however many years it was, he was absolutely the cricket leader at Kent,” Paul Downton, Kent’s director of Cricket, says, “in a time when captains probably had more power than possibly they do now with the amount of support staff you now have.”He would have run Kent in so many ways, so you could say he was managing director of Kent in that sense.”Downton knows better than most what lies in store for Key as he prepares to be unveiled in his new role as England men’s managing director, having held a version of the job himself for a turbulent 14-month period between 2014 and 2015, until his sacking in the wake of that year’s disastrous World Cup.”I loved every moment of being in that role,” Downton adds. “It came to me at a time that was right for me and there were lots of challenges all the time. Obviously it didn’t last as long as I’d have liked it to and there are lots of reasons for that and it’s never that simple.”[Key] will bring his skillset which is, he’s obviously a deep thinker on cricket and been around the game so he’s very up to date. From a commentary point of view you’re in touch with modern players and watching the sport all around the world, and I’m sure his contact book is extremely thick. So he’ll be really well positioned from that point of view.”Geraint Jones, Key’s former Kent and England team-mate, shares the belief that his years in charge at the club will have set him up well for the challenges ahead.”Oh, yeah, absolutely,” Jones says. “We went through a tough financial period and Keysey then took on a role of being the general director who was heavily involved in overseas recruitment, the squad, the strength of that and the direction [of the club].”Daniel Bell-Drummond, Kent’s current vice-captain, played alongside Key for five seasons in his formative years at the club, and recalls how his team-mate “took on about four roles” as the county struggled with its debts.”It was a very tough period and the way he held it together… we didn’t win trophies but the fact that we were able to weather that storm [and that] we were able to get through that was a testament to him.”It is a ringing endorsement of a man who, for most of the nation, is known as the joker from the telly, rather than someone who is able to set a culture and navigate a crisis, abilities that could hardly be more in demand from an England MD than right now.For that reason, their initial element of surprise quickly faded after Key accepted the role, as their memories of his leadership credentials returned to the fore.Rob Key takes a catch during the Edgbaston Test in 2004 as his Kent team-mate Geraint Jones celebrates•Getty Images”I never thought he’d go for this job in a way,” Bell-Drummond explains, “But actually, the more I think about it, and the sort of knowledge he has… he has so much going for him that the country can benefit from.”Key’s biggest strength, Bell-Drummond believes, is his ability to relate to any and all – there wouldn’t have been a single person at Kent, he says, who “didn’t think they had a relationship with him”.”Playing under him at Kent, he was a brilliant leader [and] a very strong leader as well in the sense that the opposition would know that that’s Rob Key’s team,” Bell-Drummond adds. “And he definitely has a side where you can’t overstep the mark.”

“He wanted the player to have ownership and the coach to be there to help. Not for the coach to come in and drastically change the player and make them play the way the coach wanted.”Geraint Jones on Key’s attitude towards coaching

Part of that came from Key having a very clear identity on the style of player he liked and the type of cricket he wished to play, which in turn bred a culture of player ownership and prioritisation of talent.”Keysey loves talent,” Jones explains. “And he’ll 100% know what sort of leader he wants. He’ll want a strong leader and I can see why [Ben] Stokes has been the one everyone has said he’ll go to [as England’s Test captain], because Stokesy is Keysey’s sort of player. He’s up for it, he’s in your face, but he’s also incredibly, hugely talented. And that’s the sort of team I can see him wanting to get, is these hugely talented players that can turn matches at the drop of the hat and win Test matches.”It is an assessment that correlates with Key’s steadfast belief in Zak Crawley as a Test cricketer, a player whose ceiling is widely considered to be higher than most of his contemporaries, despite his current struggles to find consistency in the England set-up. In his own playing days too, Key was famously close (too close, in the opinion of England’s then-coach Duncan Fletcher) to both Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison – two of the most talented players of their generation.”Having Stokesy at the top, you know Key was a big mate of Freddie Flintoff who was an inspirational character and he loved Warnie for his skill but also how he approached it,” Jones adds. “So that sort of influence we’ll definitely see for sure.”Downton, meanwhile, is keen to emphasise that Key deserves credit for having the ambition to walk away from the Sky commentary box – a role he had previously described as “the best job going” – and get involved in “something that really can make a difference”.Paul Downton (right) had a shortlived stint as the ECB’s managing director•Getty ImagesBut equally, Key is no stranger to making personal sacrifices in order to take on positions of leadership, having spent his playing career doing just that. In a 2020 interview with The Cricketer, he described his nine years as Kent captain as taking “15 years off my life, 10 runs off my average and 5,000 runs off my total first-class runs. I couldn’t give it away in the end…. I ended up captaining for everyone but myself.”He couldn’t give the Kent captaincy away, and now, in light of reports that there were few applicants for one of the top jobs in cricket, he’s taken on one that it seems no-one else wanted.Such is the state of English cricket that the scope, role and power that Key will have over the game, both internationally and domestically, is really yet to be known.As the ECB have now made clear, his first job will be to appoint two new head coaches. After that he needs to appoint a new Test captain to replace Joe Root, then sort out the ECB’s central contracts, which no longer appear to be fit for purpose, and also manage the budget – all of this while playing a major role in England’s game-wide high-performance review. You could hardly get much more of a blank page than if you opened your laptop and started a new game of Cricket Captain 2022.A boy of one era, but a man of another, much of the intrigue surrounding Key’s appointment lies in the fact that, as a person, he has a rare skill of being able to “tell it like it is” while making people smile in the process rather than wince. He is the people’s cynic.Whether that comes through describing fielding as the closest a human gets to being a dog, bemoaning being shown a picture of a lion from someone’s safari holiday since he could have “googled one myself”, or describing coaches as something “you get to the ground in”, Key has never been short of an opinion or an idea. Only now he has the power to go with it.”That’s a typical Keysey sort of comment,” Jones laughs of Key’s quip about coaches. “That’s a bit of a throwback to the eras that he’s been involved with. You know I can remember first joining Kent and it was still that time when fitness wasn’t hugely important, you know – ‘well why do I need to be fit to hit my cover drive?’ It was that type of tongue-in-cheek comment.”But Keysey’s mindset and what he was big on was player ownership. So you get your game right. You perform your skills to the best you can and that will influence the team. And how do you use the coach for that? Well, you facilitate that: the coach works with you.Related

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“So, trying to read between the lines – and I could be horribly wrong – he wanted the player to have ownership and the coach to be there to help. Not for the coach to come in and drastically change the player and make them play the way the coach wanted.”We went from a period of mass practice to more individual practice and more individual time with coaches, so that shift changed and was something that he recognised and put in place.”And in that role now, he will not be shy of making changes. This summer is set in stone in terms of fixtures, but going forward, however the set-up is shaped, he has a massive part to play.”Talent, player ownership and far more experienced for the role than those of us who have only seen him on TV would have been led to believe, Key’s time at Kent means he could be well prepared for his new role at the ECB.”Of course, the county will take a huge amount of pride in that,” Downton says. “We see Rob quite a bit. He’s obviously been a mentor to Zak Crawley, he lives a few miles from the ground and he drops in from time to time. From the club’s point of view, we’re absolutely delighted.”

Four months after the board called off the visit to the country, a number of English players will now be part of the league

Matt Roller27-Jan-2022The Pakistan Super League is a finishing school for England’s best T20 cricketers. Since the league’s inception in 2016, England players have become increasingly popular to the extent that they now dominate the overseas player pool at the PSL, with nearly two-dozen due to appear in the 2022 edition which starts on Thursday.Ten of the playing XI for their first T20 international against West Indies on Saturday have PSL experience and the only exception, Adil Rashid, has expressed his desire to play in it in future. Eight members of the squad for that tour will fly from Barbados to Pakistan straight after this series to join up with their respective teams, and all six teams have English representation in their squads.A number of players have furthered their international cases through their involvement, including Phil Salt, Saqib Mahmood and Tymal Mills. “Playing for Peshawar Zalmi was a massive stepping stone for me to play for England,” Dawid Malan said back in 2019. “The pressure you get as an overseas player is like no other – it sets you up for when you get back to international cricket,” added Liam Livingstone.The involvement of leading overseas players in the PSL has been a contributing factor in bringing international cricket back to Pakistan on a regular basis. Chris Jordan and Malan both played in – and won – the 2017 final, the first PSL game staged in Pakistan rather than the UAE; five years later, 23 English players will travel to Karachi and Lahore with full confidence in security arrangements.Related

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The 2022 edition clashes with several international series and the Bangladesh Premier League, but falls during a rare break in England’s schedule. There is a wide range of players involved: leading internationals, T20 circuit regulars, young players cutting their teeth and senior county pros looking for franchise experience. There are even two English coaches leading franchises in Peter Moores (Karachi Kings) and James Foster (Peshawar Zalmi).But if the English influx is mutually beneficial, it also serves as a reminder that only four months ago, the ECB decided to call off men’s and women’s tours to Pakistan on the flimsiest grounds imaginable through a statement laced with hypocrisy and innuendo.”We know there are increasing concerns about travelling to the region and believe that going ahead will add further pressure to a playing group who have already coped with a long period of operating in restricted Covid environments,” the statement said.The Team England Player Partnership later clarified that the players had not been consulted over the decision; Ramiz Raja, the PCB’s chairman, said that Pakistan felt as though they had been “used and binned”.Phil Salt will turn out for Lahore Qalandars in PSL 2022•PA Images/GettyThe statement also made reference to the T20 World Cup, casting doubt on whether “touring under these conditions” would represent “ideal preparation”, as though there was no choice but to send a first-choice, full-strength squad. In doing so, it ignored that the fixtures’ very purpose.The men’s series – which would have comprised two T20Is and been England’s first tour since 2005 – was effectively an acknowledgement of the sacrifice made in Pakistan’s tour to England in 2020, during which their players quarantined in a three-star hotel and spent seven weeks in a country where Covid-19 was spreading fast. As a result, the ECB could fulfill its commitments to broadcasters and avoid an even heavier financial hit than the one it suffered.Pakistan toured again in 2021 for three ODIs and three T20Is, and fulfilled the series even after England’s first-choice squad was ruled out of the 50-over leg after a Covid outbreak. If England had been overseas in similar circumstances, would they really have seen the tour through?Tom Harrison, the ECB’s chief executive, said at the time that England wanted to “play our part in ensuring the safe return of international cricket to this wonderful nation of passionate cricket fans” but by withdrawing in such vague circumstances, soon after New Zealand had pulled out of their own series, they immediately cast doubt on Australia’s upcoming tour – which, thankfully, looks set to go ahead.Perhaps this is water under the bridge. Ian Watmore resigned as the ECB’s chairman shortly after England’s withdrawal from the tours, and Harrison flew to Pakistan in November for discussions with Ramiz which concluded with an extension of England’s planned tour this winter from five T20Is to seven.But cricket’s insistence on postponing rather than cancelling fixtures means there is no guarantee that the reasons, which supposedly underpinned this winter’s withdrawal, will not apply in October. England’s leading white-ball players have almost no wiggle-room in their schedule, and next winter are also due to play bilateral series in Australia, South Africa and Bangladesh on top of a T20 World Cup: can the ECB guarantee they will all be available?The obvious solution would have been to go ahead with the men’s tour as scheduled and, in the event that players declared themselves unavailable due to their IPL commitments, a desire for family time ahead of a busy winter overseas or any other concerns, to find replacements accordingly.The contrast between English players’ clear desire to play in Pakistan and the ECB’s insistence that it could not fulfil a four-day, two-match tour should stick in the craw. The ill-judged, short-sighted decision to postpone is not one that will be forgotten quickly.

A display of the like rarely seen in Test cricket reinforced the new era of the England team

Alan Gardner15-Jun-20226:35

#PoliteEnquiries: CARNAGE!

Sometimes seeing is believing. England have not so much talked about positive cricket over the last fortnight, as preached it. And sure, they played some enterprising stuff in victory last week at Lord’s, followed up by scoring 500-plus at a run rate of more than four per over in Nottingham. But to witness Jonny Bairstow embark on what felt like an almost evangelical mission during the evening session of the fifth day, provided palpable, almost visceral proof of the extent to which Ben Stokes and his team have bought into the Brendon McCullum credo.There is no zealot like a convert, and in the dressing room at tea they could see that Bairstow was ‘on’. The “Jonny eyes” were focused, initially on a cheese and ham toastie and then on the job at hand. Bairstow is not so much a fiery character as pile of kindling looking for a match, but what he was about to do was marked by a level of control. With the cool, calm intensity of Jules Winfield wearing a Shrey lid, he walked out to visit great vengeance and furious anger on New Zealand’s depleted attack.Trent Bridge was abuzz with anticipation at tea. The queue for ice cream was lengthy, the smell of chips and sunscreen wafting across the ground. A broad mix of folk had come through the gates, thrown open on Tuesday with no charge by Nottinghamshire, from the couple posing for a picture with their baby – memorable first day at the cricket, this – to the students with hipster moustaches, groups of young women, those in sunhats and replica shirts.Related

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As Bairstow and Stokes walked back out to the middle, England’s requirement was 160 in 38 overs. “We needed four an over and that has been the rate throughout the game,” Bairstow said afterwards, but in the moment that equation does not seem so simple. One more wicket falling brings in Ben Foakes, who helped shepherd a fourth-innings chase a week ago at Lord’s, but is not known as a dasher. Below him a tail that may not delay New Zealand long.Even considering the run-glut, this is a fourth-innings chase on the final day. If the pitch won’t offer much assistance (and it doesn’t), then surely New Zealand can push the field back, hide the ball out wide, make scoring difficult? In the event, they chose to attack, too – the reigning World Test Champions need the points if they are going to get close to defending their title. Matt Henry was the bowler tasked with finding the breakthrough. With men back on the rope, the plan is pretty clear.As Bairstow twice swats pulls in to the fence in the first over back, bringing up his fifty from 51 balls, a girl waiting to take her seat in the William Clarke Stand gets out her phone and starts to do the calculation for her friends. Stokes guides another boundary to third, and 13 have come off the over. Already the rate has dropped below four. Over on the opposite side of the ground, a chorus has begun: “Shoes off if you love Ben Stokes!” Finding disciples at a Test in England is the easiest thing in the world at this point in the late afternoon.People are hurrying to get take their places as Trent Boult resumes from the other end. Boult has arguably been the performer of the match to this point, with seven wickets (including Joe Root twice) on a surface that yielded only to the best of bowlers, not to mention 33 impudently pickpocketed runs from No. 11.Boult hares in and pitches the ball up outside off. Bairstow’s weight shifts slightly back and then on to the front foot, arms swinging with ultraviolent intent. Six dumped into the members at long-off.Jonny Bairstow drives through the covers•Getty ImagesIn the next over, Henry is fetched twice more into the stands. Suddenly this contest has become bar-room brawl – or rather, it has become a one-day blitz, such as England fans are used to seeing from Bairstow. The short boundary on the Bridgeford Road side is being peppered, just as it was when he made 139 off 92 during England’s world-record 481 for 6 against Australia in 2018.Here, Bairstow and Stokes have added 43 from the first three overs after tea. Boult now goes short only to be ransacked high into the Fox Road Stand, and again two balls later. It is now 59 runs in four overs, the target plummeting towards double-figures. Bairstow, meanwhile, is closing in on an England record that has stood for 120 years. A brace of fours takes him to within sight of an extraordinary hundred; but, having got to 99, Bairstow defends his 75th ball and then finds backward point with his 76th, to leave Gilbert Jessop’s 1902 mark untouched.No matter. With Tim Southee’s next delivery squeezed past the dive of point, Bairstow can raise his arms aloft for the first time in a home Test since 2016. His century is the second-fastest by an Englishman in Tests, relegating the 85-ball effort by Stokes against New Zealand – McCullum’s New Zealand – at Lord’s in 2015. Already there is a sense that the Trent Bridge Test could be as epochal as that match, seen as lifting the mood of the English game after yet another World Cup debacle.Stokes is limping by now, having aggravated an old cartilage issue in his knee, and England’s requirement is still 80 runs. But the game is basically up. Bairstow mauls the offspin of Michael Bracewell into the leg side for 6-6-4; Stokes rallies to drill Southee straight back towards the pavilion, bringing up a 55-ball fifty almost in passing. Another Stokes six off Bracewell almost lands in the top tier at the Radcliffe Road End, the ball pinging back off the brickwork and on to the outfield. “Don’t take me home!” roars the crowd, and you can understand why.England need 35 – make that 31 – actually, 27 – before Bairstow finally falls to Boult, getting a fist bump from the bowler as he makes for the dressing room. The fires have banked, the “Jonny eyes” have done the business. Bairstow and Stokes belted an eye-popping 133 off 68 balls as the final passage of this rollicking Test, which had promised a potentially fraught tussle for supremacy, but became a gallop in the evening sunshine.There are 22 overs left to be bowled when Stokes cracks the winning runs. In England’s Test history, they have only chased a target of 277 or more on 12 occasions – two have come in the last week. Fittingly, given the McCullum influences on England’s limited-overs teams, this one took exactly 50 overs. Maybe Test cricket didn’t need a saviour, but that won’t stop people signing up for the cause.

His international prowess hasn’t yet come close to matching his domestic T20 and league exploits, but he has the chance to change it now

Danyal Rasool09-Jun-2022The cynical might call it showy, the converted would insist it was true leadership. But either way, at the post-match presentation, Babar Azam was making a point.Called up to receive yet another Player-of-the-Match award after his 17th ODI hundred had helped Pakistan to a nervy five-wicket win over West Indies in the opening ODI, he turned it down on live TV, insisting he wanted it presented to Khushdil Shah. Khushdil then shuffled up to the stage, a little uncertainly, as if a little unsure whether he was actually about to be presented with an award earmarked for his captain. But Babar, whose comfort in this role as Pakistan leader grows by the game, meant what he said, and moments later, the man who had smashed an unbeaten 23-ball 41 at the death was picking up the award.It made perfect sense. Narrating the story of a Pakistan win through the lens of a Babar ODI hundred almost doesn’t tell you anything anymore, so frequently does it happen. His place atop the ODI format is currently so undisputed it’s become an accepted feature of a game involving Pakistan rather than an intriguing plot point in any particular match. He has scored four hundreds in his last five ODIs, six in his last 11, eight in the last 18. It can be the curse of a reliably brilliant sporting feat; like Rafael Nadal’s victories at Roland Garros, Babar’s ODI masterclasses can sometimes all mesh into one, unable to tell the unique story of a particular, individual performance. Babar scores a hundred, Babar wins Player of the Match doesn’t exactly narrow anything down, does it?But while Babar’s batting has verged on perfection for a while now, few people have failed to notice that explicitly cannot be said about most other batters in this Pakistan side. In the handful of ODIs Pakistan have played since the 2019 World Cup, the dominance of the top three of Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq and Babar has been such it has papered over the cracks of a brittle middle order that has tended to go putty when the slightest pressure has been applied.In Rawalpindi against Zimbabwe in 2020, Fakhar and Imam fell early, forcing Babar into trying to produce a one-man epic in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to stave off defeat; numbers 4-7 managed just 74 runs between them. In Centurion in the first ODI against South Africa last April, Pakistan stumbled from 186 for 1 to 203 for 5, only winning off the last ball in a game they had been cruising to victory in. In Cardiff against England, Imam and Babar fell for ducks, Pakistan folded for 141. The following game, the top three put on 30, Pakistan managed 195. Against Australia in March, Pakistan went from 120 for 1 to being skittled for 225; the bottom eight managed 43 between them.In this World Cup cycle (since the 2019 final), 66.1% of Pakistan’s runs have been scored by the top three, far and away the highest among all 20 teams to have played ODs in this period. New Zealand are a distant second, needing their top three for 52.7% of their runs.Khushdil Shah is known for his power hitting in the domestic and T20 circuit•AFP via Getty ImagesSo when Babar miscued a pull shot with Pakistan needing 69 off 51 with seven wickets in hand, it appeared a routine white-ball chase most sides would have backed their middle order to coast through. In Multan, however, the angst rippling through the crowd felt more than justified. Mohammad Rizwan, still searching for the best version of himself in this format, awaited the arrival of Khushdil at the crease, whose international prowess hasn’t yet come close to matching his domestic T20 and league exploits.”When I was going in to bat, Rizwan was out there with me. We saw we still needed about 70 runs. We decided we wanted to take it deep,” Khushdil said later.Rizwan fell soon after, and Khushdil decided he needed to take the game even deeper. The asking run rate continued to drift until it was almost touching 12, and, with few signs Pakistan had the ability to take it to a West Indies bowling unit who were executing the basics with impressive reliability, the questions around the middle order, and particularly Khushdil, abounded.In a country not blessed with reservoirs of patience, Khushdil as a T20I prospect has already begun to wear thin on many; aside from one pressure-free game against Zimbabwe, the batter has never once looked like the domestic powerhouse Pakistan thought they were getting. In ODIs, Pakistan are less dependent on his all-round skills; his bowling is unlikely to be major consideration when his involvement is debated. And so, on this repressively hot night in Multan, Khushdil simply needed to find a way to drag his domestic form, kicking and screaming if necessary, to the international stage.He targeted the 47th over. “At that time we needed almost 12 an over. I decided that I would wait for the balls that were in my zone, and I found a few in that over so I went for it,” he said.A first six was muscled over midwicket, but the following two really went on to demonstrate the devastating impact of a power hitter. The next ball wasn’t even in the slot, it was one of those low full tosses 99% of batters squeeze out to long-on for a single. Khushdil found the timing and the strength, however, to send it straight into the sightscreen. After that outrage, the third six, low off the bottom of the bat, almost appeared a routine shot. For Khushdil in the zone, perhaps it was.Khushdil has been around long enough to know questions around Pakistan’s middle order will continue to linger. But through a few swishes of the blade he wields like a hammer in moments like these, it can sometimes feel like he has most of the answers.

The true significance of this win might lie with those who orchestrated it, not the opponents who were defeated

Alex Malcolm26-Oct-20221:22

Fleming draws parallels between NZ cricket and Ireland

Most Irishmen come to Australia to escape the rain.

But the rain falling from the leaden Melbourne skies brought overwhelming joy to Ireland’s men’s cricket team as it confirmed their greatest-ever T20 triumph, beating England in a T20 World Cup.”I’ve seen a lot of rain in my time playing cricket, and I’ve never been happier to see that rain come down when it did,” Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie said in the post-match press conference.To suggest that rain was the key factor in the result is to diminish an outstanding achievement in Irish sport. England captain Jos Buttler said his side were thoroughly outplayed.Ireland richly deserved their victory. As their players got soaked while celebrating with the small pockets of Irish fans who were singing in the rain in the MCG stands, the achievement was not lost on Balbirnie.Ireland had completed yet another great World Cup triumph to sit alongside Kingston 2007 and Bengaluru 2011. This is the third time they have beaten England in international cricket, including Southampton 2020.But this might be the greatest triumph of all, on one of the world’s great cricket stages. Ireland had never played at the MCG before. Such is the magic and mystique of the place; the Irish players toured the Australian Sports Museum that is housed in the Members stand on Tuesday night and took special note of a particular Irish MCG sporting triumph before adding another just 24 hours later.George Dockrell and Lorcan Tucker get big hugs from the crowd•ICC via Getty Images”It will always be a special place because of tonight,” Balbirnie said. “Ronnie Delany [1500m, 1956] won a gold medal here in the Melbourne Olympics, and you see his name etched in the history of Irish sport forever.”I hope we’ve done something similar. I’ve always said cricket isn’t a big game in Ireland. We’re the flag bearers, and we want to make it as big as possible. But it’s certainly an absolute pleasure to play here, to lead the first Irish team to ever play here.”The true significance of this win might not be in who they beat, or the stage they won on. It might lie with those who orchestrated it.In Melbourne, there were just two members present from the side that won in Bengaluru and neither Paul Stirling nor George Dockrell were significant contributors.There were also four significant changes from the Ireland side that did not progress to the second phase of last year’s T20 World Cup, with two of the new faces, Lorcan Tucker and Fionn Hand playing a major part in the win. Tucker’s 34 off 27 was vital alongside Balbirnie’s half-century, as the pair put together a rollicking 82-run stand in the face of a blistering spell from Mark Wood.Fionn Hand and Josh Little celebrate after the former bowls Ben Stokes•Getty ImagesHand later delivered one of the balls of the tournament, hooping back through the gate of Ben Stokes, to leave England reeling at 29 for 3 in the powerplay. In combination with Josh Little, Mark Adair and Barry McCarthy, Ireland’s attack was the key reason for their success against England as they had been against West Indies.Balbirnie believed his young group is stepping out of the shadows of Ireland’s golden generation that had been led by Kevin O’Brien.”He’s one of the best cricketers we’ve ever produced, but we knew we needed to kind of move on from players like that,” Balbirnie said. “What he contributed was amazing, and I probably didn’t get the opportunity to say that at the time when he retired.”The guys who have come in have shown it’s not just that generation that are a golden generation. This generation, with Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Josh Little, they’re a special group of cricketers, Mark Adair, there’s so many of them. Fionn Hand showed today: he came in for his third T20 and showed that he can have an impact on the game with the ball.”That generation laid the platform for us to be professional cricketers. We wouldn’t be here without them, and we have to acknowledge that. But we also have a duty to take the game as far forward as we can with a group of players.”There is an acknowledgment that this current generation has had to do it slightly differently. For all the positivity around Ireland’s promotion to becoming a full member of the ICC, there was a negative flow on effect. The price of being able to play Test cricket was that Ireland’s best players could no longer cut their teeth in England’s county system as locals before progressing to international level. They’ve had to do it a different way.Related

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“I did genuinely believe that not playing county cricket would tarnish the way that our youngsters progressed,” Balbirnie said. “I think my opinion’s changed a bit, the way that I’ve seen our youngsters play. It’s always been a bit of a sink-or-swim situation for a lot of our young guys. You have to see how they go at the highest level, and you have the names I mentioned earlier that have stood out and been key members of this squad.”That’s the hand we were dealt. We got the Test status, and we have to produce our own cricketers, and we’re starting to do that.”Tucker believes the different path to Ireland’s golden generation has its own benefits. “We don’t have the opportunities that those lads had,” Tucker said. “But we’ve got so much more international cricket. I think that’s our finishing school now. I’ve played quite a few international games and I think most of it was learning.”The proof is in the results. A more aggressive, fearless mindset under Balbirnie and coach Heinrich Malan has yielded wins over West Indies and England in the space of a week.”The knock-on effect is wins like tonight will hopefully trigger a bit of an interest back home,” Balbirnie said. “Well, I hope so. If it doesn’t, then I give up. We want to see those kids playing the game. It’s a great game, and it’s given me a lot of pleasure. Hopefully, nights like tonight can ignite a future generation of Irish cricketers.”Ireland are no longer troublemakers raining on the big boys’ parade. There’s a belief and a sense of belonging building after a famous day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

We take at look at all eight women’s squads ahead of the second edition of the competition

Alan Gardner and Matt Roller10-Aug-2022Phoenix produced a group effort to reach the eliminator•Getty ImagesBirmingham PhoenixLast season: Eliminator
Coach: Ben Sawyer
Captain: Sophie Devine
Overseas players: Devine, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Molineux, Deepti SharmaKey player: Sophie Devine takes the reins from Amy Jones after missing the first season and is one of the competition’s biggest drawcards. She was the second-highest run-scorer at the Commonwealth Games, marshalling New Zealand to a surprise bronze medal, and should have the licence to attack from the start in a Phoenix side with a long batting line-up and no shortage of all-round ability.One to watch: Phoenix’s signing of 15-year-old batter Davina Perrin was significant, and not just because she will be the youngest player involved in the tournament. Perrin has been involved with the African Caribbean Engagement programme in the west midlands and is already highly rated, featuring for Central Sparks in this year’s T20 and 50-over competitions.Verdict: Phoenix scraped into the knockouts last year with a late charge but should finish in the top three more comfortably this year, with a strong domestic core now supplemented by some of the biggest stars in the global game. Ellyse Perry will have a point to prove after losing her place in Australia’s best side. Matt RollerPossible XI: 1 Sophie Devine (capt), 2 Eve Jones, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Amy Jones (wk), 5 Deepti Sharma/Sophie Molineux, 6 Gwen Davies, 7 Georgia Elwiss, 8 Issy Wong, 9 Emily Arlott, 10 Kirstie Gordon, 11 Abtaha MaqsoodLondon Spirit will need their domestic players to stand up•Getty ImagesLondon SpiritLast season: 4th
Coach: Trevor Griffin
Captain: Charlie Dean
Overseas players: Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr, Beth Mooney, Megan SchuttKey player: Beth Mooney has been a constant source of runs at the top of the Australia order in T20 internationals for a number of years and her 61 off 41 balls in the Commonwealth Games final proved to be a match-winning innings. Spirit have lost their three highest run-scorers from last year in Heather Knight (injured), Tammy Beaumont (Welsh Fire) and Deandra Dottin (Manchester Originals) so will need their big new signing to fire.One to watch: Allrounder Grace Scrivens did not bat or bowl in her two appearances last season but has had an impressive domestic season for Sunrisers and should play a bigger role in 2022. She is only 18 but has already been involved with the England A set-up, and the fact she bats left-handed marks her out as a player with an unusual skillset in the domestic women’s game.Verdict: Knight’s withdrawal due to injury is a significant blow and Spirit will have to rely heavily on their overseas players if they are to stand a chance of qualifying for the knockout stages. Charlie Dean, her replacement as captain, and Freya Davies will use the tournament as an opportunity to show England they deserve more regular T20 opportunities. MRPossible XI: 1 Beth Mooney (wk), 2 Naomi Dattani, 3 Sophie Luff, 4 Amelia Kerr, 5 Grace Scrivens, 6 Dani Gibson, 7 Charlie Dean (capt), 8 Amara Carr, 9 Megan Schutt, 10 Freya Davies, 11 Grace BallingerLizelle Lee is back in black with Originals•Getty ImagesManchester OriginalsLast season: 5th
Coach: Paul Shaw
Captain: Kate Cross
Overseas players: Deandra Dottin, Lizelle Lee, Amy Satterthwaite, Lea TahuhuKey player: Lizelle Lee retired from international cricket in controversial circumstances last month, alleging that she feared CSA would deny her a No-Objection Certificate for the Hundred unless she lost weight. As a result, she has a point to prove and will hope for more support from the middle order, after carrying Originals’ batting line-up last summer.One to watch: Emma Lamb struggled to make an impact last year, making 135 runs across her seven innings, but has flourished in an England shirt this year in 50-over cricket. She was surplus to requirements for the T20 squad at the Commonwealth Games and can stake a case for inclusion through the Hundred – while her offbreaks will come in useful on spinning pitches at Emirates Old Trafford.Verdict: Originals should be in contention for the play-off spots but their batting line-up looks top-heavy and they will be hugely reliant on their top three for runs. They struggled to adapt to conditions at home last year and will need to use Old Trafford’s slow pitches and huge boundaries to their advantage. MRPossible XI: 1 Lizelle Lee, 2 Emma Lamb, 3 Deandra Dottin, 4 Cordelia Griffith, 5 Georgie Boyce, 6 Sophie Ecclestone, 7 Kate Cross (capt), 8 Lea Tahuhu, 9 Ellie Threlkeld (wk), 10 Phoebe Graham, 11 Hannah JonesJemimah Rodrigues returns for Northern Superchargers•Getty ImagesNorthern SuperchargersLast season: 6th
Coach: Dani Hazell
Captain: Hollie Armitage
Overseas players: Alyssa Healy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Laura WolvaardtKey player: Alyssa Healy has had a horror run in T20Is over the last 18 months, making 100 runs with an average of 9.09 and a strike rate of 72.99 since the start of 2021. But she remains one of the most destructive white-ball openers in the world on her day, and will be looking to hit her way back into form in the Hundred – not least at Headingley, one of the fastest-scoring grounds in the country.One to watch: Katie Levick was the leading wicket-taker in the Charlotte Edwards Cup this year and had a solid first season in the competition as part of a spin-heavy Superchargers bowling attack. At 31, she is a veteran of English domestic cricket and will look to play a leadership role in support of new captain Hollie Armitage after Lauren Winfield-Hill’s departure to Oval Invincibles.Verdict: Superchargers started the Hundred with three wins and a no-result last year but tailed off badly to miss out on the knockout stages. Their all-overseas top three is among the best in the competition but they will need their domestic players to step up if they are to be in contention by the end of the group stages. MRPossible XI: 1 Alyssa Healy (wk), 2 Laura Wolvaardt, 3 Jemimah Rodrigues, 4 Hollie Armitage (capt), 5 Alice Davidson-Richards, 6 Bess Heath, 7 Jenny Gunn, 8 Beth Langston, 9 Linsey Smith, 10 Kalea Moore, 11 Katie LevickMarizanne Kapp was Invincibles’ match-winner in the 2021 final•Getty ImagesOval InvinciblesLast season: Winners
Coach: Jonathan Batty
Captain: Dane van Niekerk
Overseas players: Suzie Bates, Shabnim Ismael, Marizanne Kapp, van NiekerkKey player: Dane van Niekerk was the tournament MVP in its opening season, leading the run-scoring charts and bowling plenty of sets, too. She has not played competitively since November, missing South Africa’s tour of England and the Commonwealth Games as she recovered from a fractured ankle, and Invincibles’ defence may hinge on her fitness.One to watch: If you somehow missed her last year, Alice Capsey is still the teen sensation to keep an eye on in the women’s game. Capsey will turn 18 on the first day of the tournament – when Invincibles take on Northern Superchargers – and has already been capped by England, as well as scored her first international fifty. Will get stuck in with bat and ball.Verdict: Invincibles have lost five players who were virtually ever-present last season – two to rivals Southern Brave – and will once again lean heavily on their South African contingent. The absence of Tash Farrant, due to a back stress fracture, could be most significant. Alan GardnerPossible XI: 1 Lauren Winfield-Hill (wk), 2 Dane van Niekerk (capt), 3 Alice Capsey, 4 Marizanne Kapp, 5 Aylish Cranstone, 6 Grace Gibbs, 7 Mady Villiers, 8 Danielle Gregory, 9 Sophia Smale, 10 Eva Gray/Ryana McDonald-Gay, 11 Shabnim IsmailCharlotte Edwards will be aiming for Southern Brave to go one better this year•Getty ImagesSouthern BraveLast season: Runners-up
Coach: Charlotte Edwards
Captain: Anya Shrubsole
Overseas players: Smriti Mandhana, Tahlia McGrath, Molly Strano, Amanda-Jade WellingtonKey player: Australia allrounder Tahlia McGrath has been on the scene for several years, but has recently taken her game to another level – particularly in the shortest format. She made her T20I debut in October and currently averages 93.75 with the bat and 13.66 with the ball. So good has McGrath been that Ellyse Perry has barely had a look in.One to watch: One of two 17-year-olds to make a positive impression on England’s Commonwealth Games (the other being Capsey), left-arm seamer Freya Kemp has the skill – and variations – to thrive on the Hundred stage. Claimed nine wickets at 17.66 for champions Southern Vipers in this year’s Charlotte Edwards Cup.Verdict: The standout side during the group stage last year, Brave fell at the final hurdle – but they will again be the team to beat after coming back with what looks like an even stronger squad. McGrath more than covers for the loss of Stafanie Taylor, while Kemp is a bright talent and the likes of Georgia Adams, Jo Gardner and Paige Scholfield add to their considerable depth. AGPossible XI: 1 Danni Wyatt, 2 Smriti Mandhana, 3 Sophia Dunkley, 4 Tahlia McGrath, 5 Maia Bouchier, 6 Amanda-Jade Wellington, 7 Anya Shrubsole (capt), 8 Carla Rudd (wk), 9 Tara Norris, 10 Lauren Bell, 11 Freya KempKatherine Brunt will look to fire up Rockets again•Getty ImagesTrent RocketsLast season: 7th
Coach: Salliann Beams
Captain: Nat Sciver
Overseas players: Mignon du Preez, Alana King, Elyse Villani, Kim GarthKey player: The loss of Meg Lanning, who has opted to take a break from cricket on the eve of the tournament, will only increase the demands on Nat Sciver. England’s star allrounder led the Rockets’ run-scoring in 2021 and helps balance a slightly lop-sided XI, while Rockets have also added Kim Garth, the Australia-based former Ireland allrounder, to their squad.One to watch: Alana King was an uncapped legspinner at the start of the year, but has enjoyed a meteoric rise: Australia debuts in all three formats, a 50-over World Cup winner’s medal, gold at the Commonwealths – where she claimed 4 for 8 against Barbados but was denied a hat-trick by Lanning’s drop at slip.Verdict: Rockets were among the sides worst hit by withdrawals in the inaugural campaign and have been hit again by Lanning’s late withdrawal. They still look strong in paper, and should be a good bet for the knockouts – particularly if Katherine Brunt continues to rage against the dying of the light. AGPossible XI: 1 Bryony Smith, 2 Elyse Villani, 3 Nat Sciver (capt), 4 Mignon du Preez, 5 Katherine Brunt, 6 Sarah Glenn, 7 Abbey Freeborn, 8 Kathryn Bryce, 9 Alana King, 10 Georgia Davis, 11 Sophie Munro/Alex StonehouseHayley Matthews was Fire’s leading run-scorer and wicket-taker in 2021•PA Images/GettyWelsh FireLast season: 8th
Coach: Gareth Breese
Captain: Tammy Beaumont
Overseas players: Nicola Carey, Rachael Haynes, Hayley Matthews, Annabel SutherlandKey player: Welsh Fire sometimes seemed a one-woman team in 2021, which might account for why they ended up bottom. But Hayley Matthews, the West Indies allrounder, could not be faulted for her efforts after scoring 221 runs and taking 11 wickets – well above her team-mates in both disciplines.One to watch: Katie George was capped by England at 18 but, four years on, has not added to a handful of limited-overs appearances. Injuries have played a part, and the left-arm seamer did not bowl a ball in last year’s Hundred despite playing all eight games; an innings of 74 off 43 balls in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy last month hints at allrounder potential.Verdict: Fire appear to have recruited well, despite losing Bryony Smith and Sarah Taylor (who took up a coaching role in the men’s Hundred). New captain Tammy Beaumont has a point to prove after being left out of England’s Commonwealth Games squad, while Fran Wilson was a title-winner with Invincibles. Expectations will be low but they could spring a few surprises. AGPossible XI: 1 Tammy Beaumont (capt), 2 Hayley Matthews, 3 Fran Wilson, 4 Rachael Haynes, 5 Fi Morris, 6 Nicola Carey, 7 Georgia Hennessy, 8 Katie George, 9 Sarah Bryce (wk), 10 Alex Hartley, 11 Nicole Harvey

The Karnataka allrounder on dealing with setbacks, conversations with Brian Lara, and much more

Shashank Kishore01-Feb-2023For most of his career, Shreyas Gopal has occupied a precarious place in the Karnataka side, the allrounder who makes way should the team decide to strengthen its bowling or lengthen its batting. But on Wednesday, that feeling wasn’t there, because Shreyas batted like a dream and brought up a superb century, his first in the Ranji Trophy since the 2017-18 season.It was his fifth overall in first-class cricket, and it helped Karnataka swell their lead to a mammoth 358 at stumps on the second day of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Uttarakhand in Bengaluru. Victory, and a berth in the semi-finals, seem a formality now.Related

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“It was good. Felt good,” Shreyas said with a big smile after the day’s play ended. “The nerves were there, I would be lying if I say it wasn’t there. Because I got out on 95 [against Rajasthan] and very weirdly I started panicking a little bit in the 40s because I got out on 48 in the Kerala game. Those nerves were there. I went back and when I was practising, some [age-group cricketers] were there, when I met them, they just told me – [brother], when you’re close to 90, try and push a little bit, [and hit out] (laughs).”For Shreyas, the knock couldn’t have come at a better time, especially because he’s hardly had a role to play with the ball this season. It can get to you as a player, perhaps more so if you’re a veteran of 74 first-class matches. To Shreyas’s credit, he’s kept his chin up and has delivered when called upon.Now 29, Shreyas has encountered every challenge a professional cricketer can face. He’s battled injuries, losses of form and crises of confidence. He has experienced the highs of winning the Ranji Trophy back-to-back, and picking up an IPL hat-trick including the wickets of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. He’s also endured the lows of missing out on Karnataka’s first XI and, earlier this year, rejection at the IPL auction.All said, it’s not like this season was going to be make or break, but he needed to compile the strong body of work the team management expects from senior players, especially because they’ve spoken about promoting young players and not being swayed by reputations – their decision to drop Karun Nair from the squad altogether this season being a case in point.Shreyas came in to bat on Wednesday with Karnataka 307 for 4, already ahead by 191. And he took the attack to the bowlers right from the outset. Particularly impressive was his use of feet against spin, alternating between imperious drives through the covers and forays out of his crease to hit against the turn through midwicket. His fluency made Manish Pandey, flamboyant at the best of times, look a tad mellow.Shreyas says he spent ‘hours together’ with Brian Lara at Sunrisers Hyderabad last season, trying to pick up insights into building big innings•BCCIAfter he brought up the hundred, it was as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Arms aloft, with a smile big enough to hurt his jaw, he walked off a satisfied man. Later, Shreyas didn’t mince words when asked about having to prove himself constantly as an allrounder. He spoke candidly about dealing with rejection and fighting through the low phases.”Sometimes you do feel a little bad when things don’t go your way or you’re not picked or anything on those lines,” he said. ‘You do feel bad, and it is very natural and it’s a human tendency to feel bad, to feel disappointed or to probably burst out. Everyone has their own way of dealing with it. It was hard but I am someone who has always tried to mask it to the best of my ability. I don’t try and show it. I have very selected two-three people who probably see that side a little bit. Other than that, I really try and mask it. That’s how I deal with it.”But when you come to the ground, when you’re with your team-mates and when you’re fighting for a trophy and for victories, that somewhere down the line fades a little bit. It does keep pinching you every now and then, but when you’re really in the moment, it fades away temporarily at least. So you’re really trying to win as many games as possible.”When I come out with the bat, I really want to make a difference. I want to make some hundreds, I want to make 150s, I want to probably score my first double-hundred. I get the ball; I want to take 10 wickets in a game. Why not? You’ve got to keep challenging yourself. You can’t really sulk about those things for too long. Because that’s only going to eat you up a lot more. My thought is, ‘you have to come up, pull your socks up, take it on the chin. Maybe you’re not just good enough at the moment, you need to double those performances, triple those performances, keep coming harder and harder and one day that door will open.’ That’s how I’ve looked at it.”Last year, Shreyas had the opportunity to learn some tricks of the trade from Brian Lara, who was mentor at Sunrisers Hyderabad. He gushes about those memories, but he’s also quick to point out the others who have helped him along the way as a batter.”There are a lot of coaches, to be honest, I’ll be doing a lot of wrong if I miss out on someone’s name,” he said. “I think in the last 7-8 months, I’ve been in touch with Brian Lara a lot. His inputs when I was in SRH were quite different to what some others told me. Obviously because I was in the same team and spent hours together, [I was] trying to eat his 400- and 500-run brain. Just trying to ask him, how he ever did that.”At 100, I am half-cooked and at 400 he still wanted to score a hundred more runs. So small things on how he batted and how he addressed situations. I am trying to add a couple of points here. I have come and discussed with a lot of other coaches on what their views are to that and try to adapt and see if that kind of paves another path in my batting, if I can make some more runs or be more effective as a batsman.”And then with my bowling, coming in and getting a few wickets would help the team and help my cause personally. There are a lot of conversations I’ve been having and there are a lot of batsmen whom I’ve been literally worshipping growing up and I go back to watch their videos. To understand what situation they were batting [in] and how they were handling them. I’ve played a lot of those situations in first-class and not international cricket. But the situation is very similar. So I try to adapt what they did and what these coaches told me.”

The 23-year-old has the rare gift of slowing down an ultra-quick sport

Sidharth Monga06-Feb-20232:05

The secret to Gill’s back-foot play

Cricket the sport and cricket the spectacle are two entirely different universes.The operative part of sport happens in an extremely brief moment in time. It is actually a sport of milliseconds. If we assume the average pace of a fast bowler is 135kph, it almost translates to two pitches per second. The ball does lose speed, and on average, goes at 32 metres per second off the surface, according to Nathan Leamon, England’s former analyst.The quickest recorded human reaction to a visual stimulus is 120 milliseconds, which is roughly a tenth of a second. Most of the elite batters have to be roughly there or do no worse than being half as quick. That is to say they react to the ball in 20% of a second.Related

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The spectacle, though, loves languid, a word whose dictionary definition is the exact opposite of what the sport is. The spectacle can also, at times, overlook the competitive nature of the sport to whose essence only the cold numbers on the scoresheet matter and not the aesthetics of it.Languid is, admittedly, a guilty pleasure. It can also be high praise. If someone can compete and excel in this ultra-quick sport while looking languid or effortless, it follows that such a player must be extraordinarily gifted.These gifts are spotting the ball perhaps five milliseconds sooner than others, having made half your movements before the ball is released (trigger movement, for short), and having put in millions of repetitions in your formative years to almost make the shots you play your muscle memory.All this translates into a languid Shubman Gill square-drive. Or a low slip catch taken effortlessly that put one of our readers of live ball-by-ball commentary in the mind of Mark Waugh.Waugh is not a bad comparison. Similar height, similar build, similar languid movements, both excellent slip fielders, openers in limited-overs cricket, with their spiritual home in Tests in the middle order.Shubman Gill seems to have that extra millisecond to play his shots than most other players•Associated PressPart of the reason Gill seems to have so much extra time that he can play languidly is his trigger movement. It is not the classic back and across, but along where he stands, which is, unlike many modern batters, well inside the crease. Many a batter these days prepare themselves for the movement by moving forward to cut it down rather than playing the ball after it has moved. They prepare themselves by batting for hours against the sidearm, which can simulate extreme pace. So pace for modern batters is less of a problem than movement. They want to play the ball before it has moved.Gill, though, stays inside the crease with his back foot across and the front foot slightly open. The weight is committed on neither foot. Most of his shots to good balls then are just the transfer of weight back or forward. Because he plays back, he has that extra millisecond or five.A trigger movement is not always set in stone. For bowlers of extreme pace, his back foot actually goes back. His batting against New Zealand in the ODIs in New Zealand perfectly illustrated that. Against Matt Henry, his trigger was parallel and across with the front foot slightly open. Against Lockie Ferguson, he actually went back and across in preparation to face the ball.As a result, there are no frantic movements, the flow of his bat is smooth from his high back lift, and there is no bat tap. If the ball merits a back-foot shot into the off side, he just transfers his weight back. If it merits a front-foot shot, he moves the front foot only to cover the line. To cover for a length that is not exactly a half-volley, he plays on the up. As a result, it looks like things are happening a touch slowly when Gill is batting. This has been hardwired into him from a young age and repeated millions of times.This is where the difference between spectacle and sport is: Gill doesn’t do this to look aesthetically pleasing, he does it to score runs. It is the cold numbers that matter. Ask Rohit Sharma, who will happily trade his aesthetics for runs in the initial years when he was finding his feet in international cricket.Shubman Gill’s technique was put to stern test in his debut Test series in Australia•Patrick Hamilton/AFP/Getty ImagesGill’s technique was put to test in the sternest manner possible when he made his Test debut in Australia. Day one of the Boxing Day Test after India had been bowled out for 36 in the previous Test, 40 minutes or so, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood doing all sorts of things with the ball, a wicket lost in the first over, Gill was beaten three times in his first over of Test cricket, bowled by Cummins. Gill went on to score 45, which was crucial in the low-scoring Test. His 91 in the Gabba chase often goes unnoticed.There are many perks of playing cricket in and for India, but they come with the downside of hyper scrutiny. It is not just external. The competition for slots is so intense it is tempting to look at those outside and forget the natural law of cricket that you will fail more often than succeed. Gill faced question marks too. His luck was such that every time the team management thought of giving him a middle-order slot – he played mostly in the middle order under Rahul Dravid for A teams – a Test opener would get injured.This year, things are coming together beautifully. In ODI cricket, despite a great start to his career, he would have known he was keeping out a double-centurion and a dear friend, Ishan Kishan. He went ahead and became the youngest double-centurion in men’s ODIs. He has averaged 74 and struck at 110 per 100 balls on his way to being the quickest Indian to 1000 ODI runs. There can’t be better news for India in a World Cup year.There should ideally be room for only one anchor in a T20 side, and he went on to become the youngest T20I centurion for India while playing the anchor role at a 200 strike rate.Nobody wants it, but as luck would have it, right when Gill is in the purplest of touches, Shreyas Iyer’s injury has opened up a middle-order slot for him, and for a change, both the regular openers are fit too.If he does well at No. 5 or 6, Gill will be the heir apparent for No. 4 whenever Virat Kohli is done, just like Kohli was in the final phase of Sachin Tendulkar’s career.Gill’s time has arrived. And he has the extra milliseconds to relish it.