All posts by h716a5.icu

The year 2026 is a big one for the United States, which turns 250 on July 4—and Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber seems set to celebrate America's semiquincentennial in style.

Schwarber will play for the United States in the World Baseball Classic, USA Baseball announced Tuesday morning—shortly before news broke that he had re-upped with Philadelphia for five years and $150 million.

The 32-year-old also competed in the 2023 event, slashing .214/.450/.643 with two home runs and four RBIs for the American silver medalists. In 2025, Schwarber led the National League with 56 home runs—the second time in four years he's led the Senior Circuit in the category.

Joining Schwarber on the team are Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson, Dodgers catcher Will Smith (a '23 alum), and Brewers second baseman Brice Turang (an accomplished player on the United States's under-15 team).

The Americans are scheduled to open WBC play on March 6 against Brazil.

The fragility beyond Mandhana, Verma, Rodrigues and Harmanpreet is a worry

Annesha Ghosh20-Feb-2020Within hours of announcing her retirement from T20Is in September last year, Mithali Raj picked India’s 2016 T20I series win away against Australia as “the point when things started to roll for the Indian team”. That 2-1 win marked India’s first bilateral series victory over Australia across formats.The enormity of that result, also India’s first win in a T20I series outside the subcontinent, cannot be overstated. Australia had won three T20 World Cups in the lead-in to that season, and were eyeing a “four-peat” in India in two months’ time. India, meanwhile, were touring Australia after seven years, and had only five players – Jhulan Goswami, Punam Raut, Harmanpreet Kaur, Thirush Kamini and Raj – in their 15-member T20I squad with any prior experience of playing in Australia.ALSO READ: Chance of historic leap depends on which India show upTo many followers of the game, India’s win against Australia in the 2017 ODI World Cup semi-final is the highest point in Indian women’s cricket. To Raj, as with many others who featured in the 2017 win as well as the tour of Australia the previous year, T20I series victory remains the barometer by which India judge their ability to marry potential with fearlessness.In the four years since, India haven’t been to the MCG, and both Goswami and Raj, two of India’s most experienced players, have bowed out of T20Is. Now, at the 2020 T20 World Cup, the MCG will host the final of the tournament, meaning India have an opportunity to play there for the first time since that watershed 2016 tour – in their first 20-over world tournament with both Goswami and Raj absent.The first, and potentially stiffest, challenge in India’s road to the MCG, and their pursuit of a maiden world title, comes in the form of a rival that has given them two of their sweetest victories ever. Much of how their league-stage campaign goes will be determined by the outcome of the tournament opener against Australia, and also give us an idea of whether captain Harmanpreet’s hopes of playing Australia in the final on March 8 – “if we play Australia, that [the record of 90,000 spectators] will be easily possible” – could come true or not.

We have to look at the main departments we need to focus in, not the expectations. I don’t think anyone is nervous about itSmriti Mandhana

India may take heart from the fact that seven players from the 2016 T20I series win are part of their World Cup squad and that they are the only side to have beaten Australia once in both the two latest world tournaments (in the 2017 World Cup semi-final and in the league stage of the 2018 T20 World Cup). However, overcoming them on Friday will require resilience that appears to be lacking among most of their batters.In their most recent meeting, in the final of the tri-series, India squandered a strong start from opener Smriti Mandhana because of yet another middle-order collapse, a long-standing issue that the team hasn’t been able to solve despite the appointment of head coach WV Raman in December 2018.It’s not just the fragility of their line-up beyond the top four – Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet – that might hurt India against Australia. A failure from Mandhana, such as the one in India’s only warm-up game – against West Indies – might coincide with duds down the order. In that case, to expect their bowling attack to replicate the successful defence of an under-110 score, like in that practice match, against the strong Australian line-up might be far-fetched.The form of the returning left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who finished atop the wicket-takers’ chart in the tri-series, and fit-against wristspinner Poonam Yadav augurs well. Three frontline spinners, and Harmanpreet doubling up as the fourth spinner, will leave them room to accommodate pace spearhead Shikha Pandey and a second quick – Arundhati Reddu or Pooja Vastrakar. But the efficacy of their spin attack might also make a five-pronged spin attack and a sole medium-pacer in Pandey a viable option.The cracks in India’s batting run far too deep to inspire confidence that they won’t stutter even when there’s seemingly no chance of stuffing up. The most chastening of their recent epic chokes came in the third T20I in Guwahati last year: India, chasing 120 against England, needed three off the last over, but ended losing by one run.Harmanpreet Kaur leads her team out•BCCIThat said, India have personnel whose personal bests (Harmanpreet’s 171 not out in the 2017 World Cup semi-final and Mandhana’s 83 in the 2018 World Cup league game) can be good enough to set up match-winning totals or make record chases moderately easy. In the recent tri-series, India completed their highest successful chase of 174 thanks to Mandhana’s 55 and Verma’s quick 49. Back in the opening game of the 2016 series, in Adelaide, it was Harmanpreet’s 31-ball 46. Alyssa Healy later said that India had “showed us how to play T20 cricket today”. Five months on, Harmanpreet earned a maiden contract for an Indian player at the WBBL, with offers from various franchises subsequently coming in for Mandhana and Veda Krishnamurthy and even the teenaged Rodrigues last season.Since then, Harmanpreet and Mandhana have gone on to play three and two WBBL seasons respectively, to varying degrees of success. Harmanpreet’s maiden WBBL season, where she was adjudged her side Sydney Thunder’s Player of the Tournament, built on the epochal 171 not out and her 103 against New Zealand in the 2018 T20 World Cup opener, an innings of similar degree of belligerence. In the 19 T20I innings since, though, she hasn’t made a half-century.”Each and every member of the squad has a part to play and we need to give our all to win any game [at the World Cup],” wrote Harmanpreet in her column for the ICC two weeks ago. “I’m just hoping I can step up and win some games for my team when they need me.”Mandhana, meanwhile, between sustaining an injury in her first season (for Brisbane Heat in 2016-17) and an up-and-down campaign one year later in her second dig (for Hobart Hurricanes in 2018-19), has gone on to establish herself as one of the most imposing, consistent batters across formats.”This is my third T20I World Cup… and yes, every World Cup has been bigger than the previous one,” Mandhana said of the hype around the build-up to tournament, especially to Friday’s opener. “Expectations work both ways. For me as a player, if people expect something from me, I feel good about it and I take it as a responsibility. We have to look at the main departments we need to focus in, not the expectations. I don’t think anyone is nervous about it.”Those two, and Verma and Rodrigues, could well make the difference between victory and defeat for India, not just against Australia but through the World Cup. There is a potent, spin-heavy bowling attack too, but it might come down to those four batters when the going gets tough, and even otherwise. If they fire, India are a better team. If they don’t, well, fans of the team would hope it doesn’t come to that.

Also, why did K Gowtham bowl the final over? Key questions from the Kings XI vs Mumbai match answered

Saurabh Somani01-Oct-20202:59

How do Kings XI solve their death-bowling woes?

Why did offspinnerK Gowtham bowl the last over? Simply put, because the Kings XI Punjab have a lack of death-bowling options. The player with the most experience and credentials for bowling at the death is Chris Jordan, but they’ve found it difficult to fit him into the XI. Mujeeb Ur Rahman has also had some success at the death, but he has not been in the XI either.Moreover, the Kings XI opted to bowl out Sheldon Cottrell by the 13th over. While Cottrell had a good day with 1 for 20 in four overs, it meant the last seven overs would have to be shared between Mohammed Shami, James Neesham, Ravi Bishnoi and Gowtham. None of those options have been very good at the death. There was a case for slipping in the Gowtham over early on, but KL Rahul perhaps did not want to bowl the offspinner with Rohit Sharma set at the crease. He didn’t go to Glenn Maxwell either.That miscalculation would go on to hurt the Kings XI. In the history of the IPL, only 18 times has a right arm offspinner bowled the final over in the first innings. And the last time it happened before this game was in 2014. Gowtham ended up delivering the second-most expensive final over by a spinner, with Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya smashing 25 runs off it.How do Kings XI solve their death-bowling woes? It looks increasingly likely that they’ll have to bring in at least one of Mujeeb or Jordan, most likely in place of Neesham. How much that fixes their issue remains to be seen.ESPNcricinfo LtdDoes the ICC need to rethink the DRS rule on runs taken? At the end of the 17th over when Mumbai were batting, Mohammed Shami appealed successfully for an lbw against Pollard. Pollard reviewed it and replays showed the batsman had got an inside edge on it, so the decision was overturned. However, in accordance with the ICC’s rules, the ball was deemed dead and so the single the batsmen had completed did not count. It was a legitimate run for Pollard and Mumbai, and on another day, it could have significantly impacted the result.

Pollard and #MI denied a single. LBW given. Reviewed. Inside edge confirmed. But the easy run they took won’t count. Dear @ICC, this might cost someone the World Cup someday. Need a rethink. Umpires will have to reserve their decision till the ball is dead. #MIvKXIP

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 1, 2020

Essentially, according to the rules, “the batting side, while benefiting from the reversal of the dismissal, shall not benefit from any runs that may subsequently have accrued from the delivery had the on-field umpire originally made a Not-out decision, other than any No-ball penalty”. Also, “if an original decision of Not out is changed to Out, the ball shall retrospectively be deemed to have become dead from the moment of the dismissal event. All subsequent events, including any runs scored, shall be ignored.”Think back to the IPL 2019 final. Lasith Malinga got Shardul Thakur lbw with the final ball. Chennai Super Kings reviewed. Even if the decision was over-turned, Super Kings would have been denied the runs. Thakur and non-striker Ravindra Jadeja could have run two but their team would have lost by one run still because the runs wouldn’t have counted.Did KL Rahul start too slowly? In their last game against the Rajasthan Royals, Rahul seemed to consciously opt for the anchoring role while opening partner Mayank Agarwal went at the bowling. The merits of whether that should be the approach adopted or not are a debate for another day. But in a chase on a big ground against a quality bowling side like Mumbai, the Kings XI might have been better served by Rahul going harder at the start than he did, instead of slipping into strike-rotation mode.He eventually finished with just 17 off 19, which is always the danger in a T20 when you play an anchoring role: you can end up dismissed before you have “caught up” so to speak, which leaves your side in deeper trouble.The approach seemed more inexplicable given how the Kings XI had structured their side: lots of batting depth and fewer bowling options. They had Gowtham – T20 strike rate of 162.24 – batting at No. 8. In theory, that much depth should free up the openers to go harder.How did Mumbai tie down Glenn Maxwell? He came into IPL 2020 on the back of some great form for Australia against England, but so far in the tournament, Maxwell hasn’t really taken off. He had a good opportunity to correct that today, having walked in in the ninth over and with a free-striking Nicholas Pooran for company.However, Maxwell couldn’t get any sort of timing, power, or balance in his shot-making. He was particularly tied down by Rahul Chahar’s legspin. It isn’t a mode of bowling that has particularly troubled Maxwell overall – he averages 21.26 at a strike rate of 167.01 against leggies overall – but Chahar’s execution was spot on. He bowled 10 balls to Maxwell, giving him nothing straight or straying on the pads, and slowing it up. If Maxwell wanted to hit him, he had to manufacture his own pace while going against the turn and reaching for the ball: nine balls were outside off, only one was on the stumps. The ploy worked, and Maxwell eventually fell to Chahar, slogging to deep midwicket.Glenn Maxwell hasn’t had the best IPL so far•ESPNcricinfo LtdWhy did Karun Nair bat at No. 3? Nair’s game is suited to batting in the top order. He has not really played as a finisher in any IPL team or for his state side Karnataka, so if he’s in the XI, he fits in better at the top of the order. In some ways, once they decided that Nair is part of their starting side, Kings XI were a little hamstrung in terms of batting order flexibility.There is also the argument to be made that the likes of Pooran and Maxwell should get the maximum number of balls to face, which is best served by having them at three and four. If Kings XI want to split them to add greater heft to their batting, they would still make a better fit at three and five.Nair hadn’t come out to bat against the Rajasthan Royals, when the opening partnership went deep, so his role seems to be a floating one, where he comes in if an early wicket falls. What the Kings XI need to decide is whether they need a floater if they bat so deep.

Malan, Jordan among players with point to prove as Eoin Morgan thins out his options

Matt Roller18-Mar-2021Loyalty and faith are two of Eoin Morgan’s most obvious qualities – right up until the point when he reasons that he no longer needs someone in his England team.In the four years leading into the 2019 World Cup, David Willey was an ever-present member of England’s squads, offering new-ball swing, left-arm variation and useful lower-order hitting. But when Jofra Archer became available, Willey was swiftly removed, and Sam Curran’s emergence as a younger like-for-like alternative has seen him slide down the pecking order at alarming speed.Then take Liam Plunkett. Morgan backed him as his middle-overs enforcer throughout the four-year cycle, sticking by him even through patches of lean form. But after Plunkett’s vital three-wicket contribution in the World Cup final, he was discarded without ceremony. Morgan’s ruthless streak has been a feature of his captaincy – and that’s before even considering the case of Alex Hales.So as England build towards the T20 World Cup, the handful of players who are yet to ink their names into his starting XI for the first game of the tournament will be desperate not to test his loyalty. Based on their performances in this series, eight players are locks in that side: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid, Archer and Mark Wood – as well as Morgan himself. That leaves the four others who have appeared in this series – Sam and Tom Curran, Chris Jordan and Dawid Malan – feeling the heat.Jordan has missed only one of England’s last 52 T20Is, but has struggled in the past three games, conceding 114 runs in his 10.5 overs. He has been much less effective in his specialist role at the death of late: since the start of the series in South Africa in November 2020, he has leaked an eye-watering 13.22 runs per over for England when bowling in the final four overs of an innings.In particular, Jordan has struggled to land his yorkers with anything like the precision he once did. Across his last seven T20Is, he has bowled eight yorkers at the death, according to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, conceding only 12 runs; but he has bowled 19 ‘full’ balls and eight full tosses, which have cost 59 between them. While he has clearly been backed by Morgan, the pressure on his spot is greater than ever.Tom Curran is in a similar boat. Trusted ahead of Wood in the South Africa series, Curran’s 10 overs in that series cost 116 runs, and when Wood’s heel injury gave him a chance in India, his two overs went for 26. The shelf life of slower-ball specialists is often short, and with Saqib Mahmood leading the charge for a spot in the squad during the Pakistan Super League before its postponement, Curran may be looking nervously over his shoulder.Chris Jordan has struggled to land his yorkers with the accuracy of previous seasons•BCCIFor Malan, this has been a difficult series. His penchant for starting slowly before exploding when set has been scrutinised at length, and has clearly worked well for him over the last 18 months, as demonstrated by his remarkable T20I record. But his last three innings – 24 off 23 balls, 18 off 17 and 14 off 17 – have exposed the problems with that method, not least given the number of balls he has chewed up during the powerplay.Malan will have plenty more opportunities to prove his worth, and may well benefit from spending the next two months preparing in Indian conditions regardless of whether or not he is a regular for Punjab Kings, but there is a nagging feeling that, for all his individual success, he may not be a perfect fit for England in a crucial spot.Working as a pundit for Sky Sports, Dinesh Karthik suggested England should move Stokes up to No. 3, with Sam Billings replacing Malan in the middle order to break up their run of left-handers, while in Hales, Tom Banton, Liam Livingstone and Joe Root, England have several players who will put pressure on Malan’s place over the next six months.Related

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As for Sam Curran, his role in the side as a floating No. 7 has left him as something of a bit-part player, epitomised by his efforts in Thursday night’s game. His solitary over cost 16 runs – though he did, controversially, account for Suryakumar Yadav – and with the bat, he was cleaned up by Hardik Pandya for 3 off 5 when England needed fireworks from their lower order.Curran has performed creditably with the ball in this series, varying his pace well and using his skill with the new ball to bowl a wicket maiden to KL Rahul, and has conceded only 7.44 runs per over. But that he has bowled only nine overs across four games – and faced just 10 balls with bat in hand – reflects his limited involvement.Another strong showing for Chennai Super Kings would serve as a reminder of his all-round skill, but as things stand, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Sam Curran’s contributions have been sporadic. If England opted to replace him, they might change their balance with a spin-bowling allrounder in Livingstone, Moeen Ali or Liam Dawson, or even open the door to Willey, whose performances in last summer’s ODI series against Ireland suggested he has plenty more to offer; Moeen’s own struggle to get back into this side demonstrates how cruel selection can be.Trusting out-of-form players to come good has been a motif of Morgan’s leadership since he took over as England’s limited-overs captain, evidenced by Roy’s return to run-scoring form in this series following a barren run against the ball spinning away from the bat in particular. Morgan’s faith in Roy has been unwavering for the simple reason that he has stuck so closely to his ultra-attacking role; while some players would go into their shell during a lean spell, Roy has tried to swing his way back into form.It sends a clear message to those who are battling for spots: if you put your own success ahead of England’s, you won’t last long. Once you are outside of what Morgan perceives to be his strongest XI, it is a formidable task to get back in it.

Need 195 off 87 balls? Get yourself a beefy New Zealander who can do the job

Hemant Brar05-Apr-20213:35

Mike Hussey, James Faulkner and Aditya Tare on Anderson’s innings

We polled our staff for their picks of the top ten best batting, bowling and all-round performances in the IPL through its history. Here’s No. 9Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals, 2014″It was basically an impossible feat to do.”That’s Corey Anderson recounting what the Mumbai Indians were faced with against the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2014. With a playoff spot at stake, they needed to chase down 190 in 14.3 overs for their net run rate to get where it needed to be. It was an asking rate of more than 13 an over. No wonder it felt impossible.The abiding memory from this game will always remain that of Aditya Tare – his face covered with his shirt – going berserk after hitting the winning six, and the Royals’ mentor, Rahul Dravid, flinging his cap down in the dugout in disgust. But the man who did the impossible was Anderson.Before this match, he had scored only 150 runs in nine innings that season in the tournament. An average of 18.75 and a strike rate of 118.11 meant he had lost his place in the playing XI. But this was the last league game of the season and knowing they needed more batting firepower if they were to get to the required net run rate, they replaced fast bowler Marchant de Lange with Anderson.One thing with impossible-looking tasks is that they are also liberating in a way. When failure is almost certain, there is no pressure to succeed. Anderson benefited from being in that sort of situation. Vindicating Mumbai’s decision to bring him back, he smashed an unbeaten 95 off 44 balls to help them pull off arguably the biggest heist in IPL history.Neo is that you? Mr Anderson goes ballistic•BCCIEarlier, the Royals had ransacked 130 in the last ten overs of their innings, with Sanju Samson and Karun Nair scoring half-centuries, and Brad Hodge and James Faulkner applying the finishing touches. Watching them would have given Anderson some ideas about how to bat on that pitch.The Royals didn’t have an enviable bowling attack but the equation for Mumbai was bizarre. How bizarre? Lendl Simmons struck three fours in the first over of the chase, and they were still below the asking rate.Coming in at 19 for 1, Anderson struck the first ball he faced for four and the next for six. Soon after, Kevon Cooper dismissed Mike Hussey and Kieron Pollard in the fifth over but Anderson was unstoppable. With a six off Dhawal Kulkarni, he raced to 52 in just 25 balls; 42 of those runs came in boundaries.What followed was an even more extraordinary phase of hitting as Ambati Rayudu and Anderson added 81 in just 31 balls for the fifth wicket. Anderson’s contribution was 49 off 21 balls, Rayudu’s 30 off ten.In all, Anderson struck nine fours and six sixes. His method was simple: clear the front leg and swing through. Anything pitched fuller than short of a length fell right into his hitting arc. And when he swung, the Wankhede looked the size of a matchbox.The numbers

75.79 Percentage of Anderson’s runs that came in boundaries (72 out of 95)

11 Number of Anderson’s runs that came behind the wicket

13.29 The Mumbai Indians’ scoring rate; still the highest for a 20-over game in the IPL

Two fours off Faulkner and Pravin Tambe in the 11th and 14th overs exemplified Anderson’s power. Faulkner bowled a slower ball on leg stump; Anderson backed away and belted it past the bowler. Tambe bowled a faster one and was thumped over his head. Both bowlers tried to stop the ball but must have considered themselves lucky not to have come in the way of it.Apart from the clean hitting, Anderson picked his spots well. Against Pravin Tambe, he mainly targeted the midwicket region, while the seamers were largely pummelled down the ground.When you’re looking to hit each ball to the boundary, mishits are almost inevitable: Anderson wasn’t in control of 16 of the 44 balls he faced. But he scored 87 off the 28 balls in which he was in control – which means there were hardly any lucky runs.Despite Anderson’s onslaught, Mumbai had only brought themselves level in 14.3 overs. There was a sigh of relief in the Royals camp; some in the dugout began to celebrate too. But there was a twist left.It turned out Mumbai could still qualify if they hit a boundary off the next three balls, and Tare launched the very next one, a leg-stump full toss from Faulkner, over deep-backward square leg, resulting in frenzied scenes.Suddenly, Mumbai had a shot at the title.The Greatest IPL performances 2008-2020

There’s no doubt he will have had more than one difficult conversation by the time Boxing Day dawns

Karthik Krishnaswamy25-Dec-20214:59

Dravid: We’ll have to bat very well to give our bowlers a chance

This was Rahul Dravid on the eve of his first overseas Test match as India’s head coach. At no point during his press conference did he go into detail regarding who would play or not play at Centurion, but there’s no doubt he will have had more than one difficult conversation by the time Boxing Day dawns.Related

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It’s the nature of the job, especially when you coach a team with India’s player resources. And Dravid has come into the job at a time when these conversations could become more difficult than they have been for a while. Run your eye over India’s squad in South Africa: seven of the 18 players are 33 or older, and it would have been eight had Rohit Sharma made the trip. Five others are in their 30s. Some of the over-30s and over-33s are in the middle of prolonged slumps in form. This when Indian cricket is brimming with youthful talent in all departments.Even if a transition is not imminent, it’s not far away.But even before it comes to that, Dravid will have to sign off on tricky individual calls that will be judged – by the wider world, at least – largely through the prism of results. It’s blatantly unfair, because a reasonable decision doesn’t become a bad one because it didn’t yield the desired results, and because captains and coaches usually have to choose between two or more equally reasonable paths, each of which involves someone’s career.It’s blatantly unfair, but it is what it is.Dravid knows this well. Depending on which side of the fence you occupied, his captaincy tenure was characterised either by senior players swimming in needless insecurity, confused tactical meddling, and a shockingly early World Cup exit; or about young players getting the opportunities they deserved, brave strategic decisions, and two overseas Test series wins.When things went wrong, much of the blame went to Greg Chappell. Dravid’s self-effacing public persona often shielded him from the worst of the flak the coach copped, and it may well continue doing so as he assumes the Chappell role, but don’t be fooled – there’s no way anyone can be captain or coach of a high-profile team and not want and have a major say in decision-making. Chappell, remember, was a full year away from taking over as coach when Dravid made arguably the most contentious call of his leadership career, of declaring with Sachin Tendulkar on 194* – this when he was only standing in as captain.If Dravid the coach is anything like Dravid the captain, expect the Dravid-Kohli era to be as full of unexpected and unpopular calls as the Shastri-Kohli era was. Boxing Day 2021 could well bring one or more of them.

Drift from Test cricket mirrored England’s as a whole, but batter has found his focus again

Andrew Miller08-Mar-2022What might have been, six long years ago, had Jonny Bairstow not taken a long, envious look at England’s white-ball reset (as nobody was calling it back in the day), and decided, “you know what, I want a piece of that”.In January 2016, Bairstow made his maiden Test century at Cape Town, riding a wave of emotion in the anniversary week of his father’s death to add a remarkable 399-run stand with Ben Stokes on the flattest Newlands deck of the decade. For the rest of that calendar year, he was England’s premier Test batter, embracing his wicketkeeping duties like a security blanket as he racked up 1470 runs at 58.80 – a total that no Englishman other than Joe Root could surpass.Related

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But even as he was doing so, the sands were shifting beneath the feet of England’s multi-format players. Amid England’s run to the World T20 final in 2016, and their World Cup dress rehearsal in the Champions Trophy the following summer, the sense of something special taking shape was unmistakable.And Bairstow, for most of that initial period, was England’s white-ball super-sub, a man kept at arm’s length from the first XI, and almost goaded at times by Eoin Morgan to redouble his determination to break into the team – a treat-’em-mean tactic that delivered so many irresistible white-ball displays – including four centuries in six innings in early 2018 – that, come the final approach to the World Cup, he simply could not be kept on the fringes any longer. The trade-off was his place in England’s Test plans.Fast forward to Sydney in January 2022, and Bairstow was back in that same 2016 zone with England’s solitary century of an otherwise dismal Ashes tour. It was a campaign for which he hadn’t even been selected in the opening two games of the series, but once again, he channelled the spirit of his father to grimace his way through the pain of a broken thumb, and lay down the foundations of England’s only non-defeat of the tour.Now, with that same clench-fisted inevitability, he’s made it two centuries in consecutive England matches (three if you include a slightly spurious warm-up in Coolidge) and after years of drift and frustration – including the removal of those beloved gloves, and enough ducks and scapegoatings to set up a petting zoo – it seems he has relocated the defiant mindset that defined his now-distant year of Test mastery.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I’m very passionate about playing for England and very passionate about playing Test cricket,” Bairstow said. “I’m absolutely delighted, it’s been a good start to the year and hopefully that continues. Obviously I didn’t start in the Ashes but I got my opportunity and looked to take it. It’s been a good build-up and to start this way in this series is fantastic.”It wasn’t looking quite so fantastic midway through the opening session of the series, however. Arriving as he did to a grim scoreline of 48 for 4, Bairstow’s knock could not have come at a more priceless time for an England team in which he is once again being treated as a senior player. In the remaining 8.2 overs to the lunchbreak, he and Ben Stokes eked out nine runs before a calculated raising of the tempo against Jayden Seales and Alzarri Joseph upon the resumption.”It’s something that is part and parcel of the game,” Bairstow said. “You know you may come in in some tricky spots and it’s about staying out there as long as you can and grinding. That’s what we do, we’ll come tomorrow and grind again. I’ve played a fair amount of Test matches now so I’m delighted to start the year this way. Hopefully we can kick on again. Let’s have a good year and see where we are at the end of it.”If England’s much-vaunted “red-ball reset” is to have any merit beyond being a convenient soundbite to buy the ECB time while it works out exactly what it wants from Test cricket, then a resetting of attitude from the players within the existing set-up is as good a place to start as any.That’s not to say, however, that Bairstow has had an especially bad attitude to Test cricket in recent years. He’s simply had a priority – entirely endorsed by the governing body that pays most of his wages – which was to become the best white-ball batter he could possibly turn himself into.Had Bairstow spent the years from 2017-2021 twiddling his thumbs between Test engagements, then driving with flat feet and losing his poles every other innings through a lack of application, then the censure that has come his way would have been justifiable. But he did not. His technique suffered, in simplistic terms, from his commitment to launching inside-out drives in the Powerplay to become, arguably, England’s most important ODI batter of all time.For Jos Buttler is routinely spoken of as England’s white-ball GOAT – and Buttler has also been given far more leeway in Test cricket, when his attempts to bridge these increasingly polarised formats have fallen on hard times. But when England’s World Cup challenge was in danger of flatlining in the group stages, it was Bairstow’s last bout of back-to-back England hundreds, against India and New Zealand in two de facto knock-outs, that turbo-charged a campaign that simply would not have been won without him.Bairstow upped the tempo as his innings wore on•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesGratitude might have been a more fitting response to his efforts – or a degree of understanding at the very least. But that’s not quite how his career has panned out to date. Partly this comes down to his occasionally spiky demeanour. He memorably got himself into his World Cup zone by complaining that the media all wanted England to fail, and seeing as he’s seemingly never better than when he’s fighting to prove a point, perhaps there’s merit in lobbing endless brickbats in his direction.But Bairstow’s struggles to be all things to all formats does reveal how futile this alleged reset will be unless there is a commitment from above to reframe the way that England’s teams are selected, coached, managed, and flung from format to format without a pause for realignment. His return to the Test team in the summer of 2021 epitomised the chaos – a late-night drive to Loughborough after a Hundred match for Welsh Fire, then – one Covid test later – his first red-ball net for months, two days out from the Trent Bridge Test. He made 29 and 30 on that occasion – performing precisely as well as anyone could realistically have expected, no more and no less.Much has been made of the eviction of James Anderson and Stuart Broad for this series, with most of the focus falling on the bowlers who will now lead the line, most notably Chris Woakes, whose new-ball spell on Wednesday will be one of the most scrutinised of his World Cup-winning career.But Bairstow is another whose seniority is no longer hiding in plain sight. Eighty Test caps in ten years – albeit 49 of them as a wicketkeeper, seven as a specialist No. 3, and the rest as something neither quite here nor there – no longer looks quite such small beer when the bloke with 169 caps in 19 is removed from the equation.”I’ve batted everywhere, haven’t I?” Bairstow added. “Hopefully it’s a case of getting a run of games in one position. I think there was a period of batting 14 or 15 different positions in 18 or 20 knocks at one stage. It’s nice to establish yourself in one role.”The chance to do just that is precisely what Bairstow has been denied for the prime years of his career. You sense that the tenacious part of him would not have it any other way. For at the age of 32, there’s another gauntlet laid in front of him. For him, as for England, this might be his cue to resume the standards that he mislaid in the course of that wild white-ball ride.

RCB’s team director feels that the ‘pleasing aspect’ of their season was the fact that ‘so many different players stood out’

Shashank Kishore28-May-20221:54

RCB’s Mike Hesson – ‘We had the potential to get 175-180’

Another season full of hope. Another season of disappointment. Or was it? Royal Challengers Bangalore have now made it to the playoffs for three seasons in a row. In IPL 2022, they crossed the Eliminator hurdle after two back-to-back misses. On Friday, they ran into an inspired Rajasthan Royals, perhaps a little nervous and lost their way with the bat. A target of 158 was too easy for Royals, who blasted 67 in the powerplay, and eventually romped home with 11 balls to spare.Mike Hesson, their director of cricket, felt they may have made a better fist of it with 175-180 to defend, but credited Obed McCoy and Prasidh Krishna for their impressive efforts with the ball. McCoy had to cope with the news of his mother’s illness back home in the Caribbean, while Prasidh had to channel the hurt of being unable to defend 16 off the final over in Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Titans as he saw David Miller go 6,6,6 to seal the deal.Both bowlers rose to the occasion to pick up six wickets between them, denying Royal Challengers any momentum at the back end where they lost 5 for 35 in the last five overs. Where McCoy mixed his lengths and pace with subtle variations and a superb back-of-the-hand slower one, Prasidh hit hard lengths, got deliveries to rear up awkwardly, and towards the end, delivered sharp bouncers and a superb yorker.”It’s a fair reflection,” Hesson said, when asked if the batting could’ve been better. “[At] 123 for 3 with five overs to go, we were very much in a position to get potentially 175-180 with [Glenn] Maxwell set along with [Rajat] Patidar. We lost those two wickets and then in the last three overs, Obed McCoy and Krishna bowled nicely, and we struggled to get any momentum. We only got 30 odd off the last five, probably leaving us 20 short.”Hesson was, however, quick to point out how one bad evening with their death overs batting wasn’t an overall reflection of where they stood as a team.”You’re always after more power hitters,” he said. “I think between Maxwell, who was well set after 15 overs, Patidar has got power, Lomror has power, Shahbaz Ahmed has shown he’s got power. We’ve had a number of guys stand up along with Dinesh Karthik who has been outstanding.”In the last five overs of the innings, our death run-scoring through the season has been exceptional. It’s probably more at the top end where we didn’t get that momentum, but other than today, we’ve pretty much nailed the last five overs of most innings.”Honest about the team’s frailties, Hesson was hopeful of the underwhelming performers turning a corner and learning from their mistakes, while also reiterating it wasn’t a case of them being dependent on just two or three players, as has been the perception around the group for a long time now.Rajat Patidar is all smiles after hammering a hundred in the IPL 2022 Eliminator•PTI “If you rely solely on two or three players, you’re not going to make it to the playoffs,” he said. “The beauty of our side has been we didn’t necessarily rely on all of our retained players. We built a squad around our retained players, but we didn’t necessarily have to rely on them for every game. That was probably the most pleasing aspect, the fact that so many different players stood out.”Mohammed Siraj is a fine bowler; he didn’t have the best tournament, but we know that he will come back strong. He just didn’t get those new ball wickets, didn’t get the ball swinging, and lost a little bit of confidence, but as I said, he will bounce back.”Glenn Maxwell had a good all-round season with both bat and ball – very high strike rate, average close to 30, strike rate of 170 and went for seven an over with the ball. Sure, you always want more, but he’s had a pretty good tournament.”At the top of the order, Virat (Kohli) and Faf (du Plessis). Obviously, we started with Virat at three and moved him to the top and he certainly got better and better as the season went on. Look, he was in really good touch in the last four or five innings. There are always things you want to tweak, when you get knocked out of a tournament, there are always areas we need to improve, but all in all, pleased with the way the team gelled this season.”Hesson picked out the development of a strong Indian core as their biggest takeaway from the season. Rajat Patidar, for example, wasn’t even in the original squad, and only came in midway following an injury to Luvnith Sisodia. Two nights ago, he became the first uncapped player to hit an IPL playoff hundred and backed that up with a half-century against Royals on Friday.Shahbaz Ahmed, the allrounder, featured in every game, playing key roles lower down the order. Harshal Patel, who had a record-breaking 2021 season, overcame personal turmoil with the passing away of his sister. He returned to the bio-bubble despite having had a newborn son the same week and delivered consistently as a death bowler despite a split webbing towards the playoffs.Dinesh Karthik may have been commentating on the season if he hadn’t been motivated enough to make an India comeback. He emerged as one of the best death-overs batters this season, striking at 220 across the 110 deliveries he faced in this period. This earned him yet another comeback to India’s T20I squad at 36. Among the overseas players, Josh Hazlewood and Wanindu Hasaranga, the current purple cap holder, were standouts.”Probably the non-established players, in terms of the fact that they’ve now established themselves as an Indian core,” Hesson said of the positives. “Think about Patidar, Shahbaz, Lomror. From a bowling point of view, Harshal Patel was exceptional. DK came in and performed an incredibly tough role. We really struggled to get consistency and he was probably one of the most consistent players at the back end of the innings.”They were real strong points. Josh Hazlewood was impressive, Wanindu Hasaranga, at the time of us getting knocked out, has the purple cap, as he got a lot of middle over wickets. We needed a little more in the powerplay from the wickets point of view, and with the bat, we left ourselves with a little bit, but otherwise, we were pretty good.”

Veteran seamer leaning on psychology and data in bid for self-improvement as Lord’s recall awaits

Alan Gardner31-May-20221:28

Broad: McCullum’s England will be a fun team to play for

There have been so many Stuart Broad reinventions that you’d be forgiven for failing to keep up. Never mind Broad 2.0, we must be on to the seventh or eighth iteration by now.In the early days he was “Golden Bowls”, before a brief, less-successful period as the “Enforcer”. There was the youthful Broad of red-hot streaks – seven times taking five wickets in a single spell – and the older, wiser version who cut down his run up, reduced his leave percentage and became the stuff of David Warner’s nightmares.Having had a brush with his mortality as a Test cricketer over the winter, unceremoniously jettisoned alongside long-time new-ball James Anderson for England’s tour to the Caribbean, it should be no surprise that Broad has resolved to throw himself wholeheartedly into the challenge once again after being recalled at the start of a new era for the side, under the coach-captaincy combo of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.Broad’s enthusiasm for the game is well known, and he was in garrulous mood two days out from the start of the Lord’s Test – not just because his football team, Nottingham Forest, had won a return to the Premier League after a 23-year absence. He said he was planning to approach the match as if it was his first (rather than his 153rd), and would pour his “heart and soul” into performing, without concern about trying to manage a pathway towards future commitments.He also spoke about the philosophy that McCullum will expect his players to adopt, based around taking positive options and looking to move the game forward at every juncture. For the bowlers, that boils down to a simple message: “Don’t focus too much on economy rates, I want wickets.” It is a gauntlet Broad is keen to pick up, despite occasionally being accused in the past of conservatism and the success that he and Anderson have had – in yet another incarnation – with the tactic of “bowling dry”.Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes share a joke•PA Images/Getty”The forefront of the mindset is wickets,” Broad said. “It is, let’s look at the opposition players and what’s our best chance of taking wickets. If we turn up and the pitch is slow and slips aren’t in the game, catching covers and midwickets. In the past it was two an over, pressure will see the batsman make a mistake.”The mindset [now] is how we get the batter to make a mistake quicker: how do we apply pressure quicker? If we can bowl a team out in 85 overs going at 3.3 an over, compared to 120 at 2.5 … that’s a better option as it speeds the game up for our batters. I suppose it’s the balance of protecting economy or risk it by going fuller. Yes, you might get driven but you’ve got more chance of taking wickets. If I go at 8 an over on Thursday, just be calm.”I’d like to think that I have quite an attacking mindset and he [McCullum] has got a very relaxed, free feel to him and the way he talks with his players. I’m sure that there’s certain things that he has a very clear direction on, but it is very much seems that, as long as you’re taking the positive option here, I’ll back you. I’m really looking forward to working with him and I think Stokes will be a fantastic leader.”Related

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In his bid to seize the moment once more, Broad has focused on two areas: psychology and data. He revealed that he has worked extensively with Chris Marshall, Nottinghamshire’s team psychologist, with a view to prioritising the next challenge rather than worrying about managing his body for commitments further down the line – an approach which chimes with the strident comments he made about England’s rotation policy during the winter’s Ashes.”I think rather than view the summer as ‘I hope I’m fit for the second Test against South Africa’ – well life doesn’t work like that,” he said. “It very much is, be very grateful for what I’ve got this week, and give my heart and soul for this week. Then if I’m a bit stiff and sore next week we’ll approach that then, and if I don’t play next week or they want to give a new bowler some experience, great. And if I’ve not set a target to play that game then everything is rosy – so give everything, train hard, if I get in the team everything is going to be left on that field.”I said to Jimmy today, whether we get 0 for 100 or 5 for 30, actually, the performance doesn’t matter right now. It’s just all about us giving everything to the England shirt and the environment and we’re good for the results to look after themselves in the long run anyway.”He was also enthusiastic about the potential for data analysis to help give him and Anderson – England’s two lions in winter – an extra cutting edge. Having benefited from the suggestion a few seasons ago, from Peter Moores and Kunal Manek at Notts, that he should be looking to make batters play more, Broad has been drilling down into his extensive Test record at different grounds in order to pick out favourable match-ups.Stuart Broad and James Anderson are back in England’s squad•Gareth Copley/Getty Images”I think every sportsperson has to prove their worth all the time, [and that’s] as much to do with my mindset and drive to keep improving,” he said. “When I was 20 coming into international cricket, my mindset was that I had to keep improving all the time: white-ball cricket, new slower ball; red-ball, what can I do differently to the past?”Two years ago I came up with the idea that the lower I could get my leave percentage, the better my spells would be. I will continue to do that, but this summer I will be even more specific. Because I’ve played so much cricket in the UK when I arrive at Lord’s, I go through the data of ends, spells, left- [and] right-handers, age of ball: when is my strike rate the lowest? Get those match-ups with batters at different times. [So I can be] saying to the captain that my record from the Pavilion End to left-handers between 10 and 20 overs is very good. Maybe I have a crack then.”The headline number around Broad’s record at Lord’s is that he needs five more wickets to become only the second bowler (after Anderson) to take 100 Test wickets on the ground. That he will likely get that chance, almost four months after being dropped from an England Test squad for the first time in his 15-year career, is testament to the drive that still exists within – ready to go “flying” into battle, this time for McCullum.”There’s no doubt when the team was in the West Indies I missed it,” he said. “I wished I was there. It just makes you realise that, yes, these careers don’t gone on forever. You’ve got to get as much out of it as you possibly can and enjoy it. The moment I stop enjoying and lose that competitive spirit then I won’t be the fast bowler I am, no doubt about that. I thrive off that competitive spirit and that’s why I feel I can change the momentum of games pretty quickly.”So yes, I loved it yesterday [in the nets], I loved charging in. It was great to see the coaches again who I’d not seen for a long time and it was just a really good, vibrant feel around the changing-room as it should be before the first Test of the summer. We should all be flying and have amazing energy.”Brendon said one basic thing for his mindset is – you chase every ball to the boundary as hard as you can until it’s at the boundary edge. That is just a mindset of positivity all the time that you are going to give everything to this game and then we’ll reflect on whatever happens.”

Sri Lankan legends were among those to shower Dasun Shanaka’s team with praise

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Sep-2022

Congratulations for a fantastic win and most importantly bring back the Sri Lankan brand of cricket that we were renowned for. You brought the cup back home as planned! Enjoy this moment. Next target the World Cup !

— Sanath Jayasuriya (@Sanath07) September 11, 2022