As a team renowned for its batting, Mumbai are yet to impose themselves

Nagraj Gollapudi09-Apr-20224:07

Wasim Jaffer: Plenty of holes for Mumbai Indians to plug

Hunger and desperation. That was what Rohit Sharma had asked of Mumbai Indians immediately after their defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders earlier this week. It was their third straight loss, but Rohit did well in his dressing-room speech to not act desperate. More than once, he told his players there was no need to panic.So, on Saturday, did Mumbai show that hunger, that desperation, to snatch those “little moments” that Rohit pointed out could reverse their woeful start to this IPL campaign?Related

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How do you describe Rohit’s premeditated charge against Harshal Patel, second ball after the powerplay where Mumbai had collected a healthy 49 runs, only to be deceived by a slow offcutter? What about his opening partner Ishan Kishan who, shackled by the wide off-stump line that Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers maintained, eventually went for an upper cut despite knowing that third man was just moved for a simple catch? What about Tilak Varma’s brain fade where he called for a non-existent single while attempting to take on one of the best throwing arms in cricket, in Glenn Maxwell? What about Kieron Pollard failing to read the googly, a delivery that Wanindu Hasaranga bowls for a living?From 50 for no loss, Mumbai lost six wickets for just 29 runs in the following seven overs. On such evidence it is only fair to conclude Mumbai were desperate. Mumbai panicked.Their frazzled state of mind became evident when Rohit said at the toss that the team had decided to field just two overseas players in the XI for the first time in the IPL. Both Tymal Mills and Daniel Sams, the two overseas fast bowlers who had played in the first three matches, were out. That probably was owing to the two-paced nature of the Pune surface. But were their two replacements – debutant Ramandeep Singh and Jaydev Unadkat – good enough to bolster the lower-order batting?If you want to single out an area where Mumbai have malfunctioned badly, it is their batting in the middle overs (7-16). In this phase, Mumbai’s run rate is 6.75, the lowest among all teams this season. Even in terms of average, Mumbai have the worst in this segment of play where the more successful teams this season, like Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals, have been landing the knockout punch on the opposition bowling attacks.Rohit admitted as much in the post-match chat with host broadcaster Star Sports on Saturday, saying there were a “lot of areas” Mumbai needed to improve on, especially in their batting and he would want the batters to play deeper into the innings. Mumbai lack the batting depth of rival teams and that strategy of a key batter or two dropping anchor is not a bad one. However, Mumbai will want to have a rethink and redraw their batting order.Suryakumar Yadav, who missed the team’s opening two matches but returned to score two half-centuries in their last two matches, both in Pune, has been Mumbai’s best batter. But he walked in at No. 4. Wouldn’t it have been better to have Suryakumar at one-down followed by Varma, who has shown the character and the skills needed to succeed at this level?Both Rohit and Kishan have had two 50-plus stands already but those have still not served Mumbai well. But with Suryakumar’s ability to accelerate at all points in the game, both openers could play with a bit more freedom instead of being in two minds about whether to attack or be circumspect – a scenario that was on display against Royal Challengers.As a team renowned for its batting, Mumbai are yet to impose themselves. And Suryakumar needs the support. In the past, the Pandya brothers and Pollard have manned the lower order. But following the big auction in February, only Pollard remains and he has not yet made a statement with either bat or ball. Tim David’s absence from the last two matches is intriguing. Mumbai bought the hard-hitting freelancer for $1.1 million because they believe he can clear the ropes with ease with his massive reach. David failed in his first two matches, both times getting out to spin. Yet, he has been among the top players of spin since April 2019 in all T20 cricket with a strike rate of nearly 152.Mumbai have used 15 players already in four matches, the joint second-most so far this tournament. They need to figure out their best XI soon to reverse this woeful beginning to the new season. Luckily, Mumbai have waded through such rough starts on more than one occasion in the past. In 2014, they had a run of five successive defeats before sealing a spot in the playoffs. In 2015, they began with four straight losses, but ended up winning the tournament.So what will Rohit tell the Mumbai dressing room now? Don’t panic.

The hopes of Sunrisers, Kings and KKR hinge on these two teams slipping up

S Rajesh17-May-2022Sunrisers Hyderabad: Mat 13, Pts 12, NRR -0.230
Sunrisers Hyderabad finally broke their run of five successive defeats, but the margin of their victory against Mumbai Indians was only three runs. That means their qualification chances are still extremely slim due to their poor net run rate of -0.230.Even if they win their last game, and if Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore lose theirs, the margins of two of those results will have to be huge for Sunrisers to have any chance. If, for example, Capitals lose by 50 runs chasing 200 in their last game against Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers will have win by 73 (if they score 200) against Punjab Kings to surpass Capitals’ NRR.Also, they will have to hope that Kolkata Knight Riders lose their last game against Lucknow Super Giants and remain on 12 points; otherwise, Sunrisers will have to exceed the NRR of Knight Riders too.Delhi Capitals: Mat 13, Pts 14, NRR 0.255
Delhi Capitals’ comfortable 17-run win against Punjab Kings on Monday was good news for them, but not so encouraging for all the other teams trying to sneak into the playoffs. Their net run rate, which was already a healthy 0.210, went up to 0.255, but the runs that Punjab Kings scored towards the end ensured there is still a chance for other teams to catch up, should there be an NRR scramble for the last spot.From Capitals’ point of view, the equation is simple: win the last game against Mumbai Indians on Saturday, and they qualify for sure. Even if they lose and stay on 14, they will have a fair chance to qualify if Royal Challengers Bangalore lose to Gujarat Titans. However, if it comes down to NRR, they aren’t yet safe.If Capitals lose their last game by 30 runs (chasing 171), their NRR will fall to 0.123. Currently Kolkata Knight Riders are at 0.160, so a win by any margin in their last game will keep them above 0.123. If Capitals lose by 15, their NRR will be 0.179. Thus, Capitals could still be on a sticky wicket if they lose to Mumbai Indians. They play their last game after Knight Riders, though, so they will know the equation before they get into that game on Saturday.Punjab Kings: Mat 13, Pts 12, NRR -0.043
Kings’ qualification chances have taken a severe beating with their loss to Capitals. Their NRR has slid into negative space, and even a 40-run win against Sunrisers in their last game (after scoring 170) will only improve it to 0.112. However, big victory margins have been common in the last few games – in seven of the last 13, the winning margin has been greater than 50 runs, while another win came with 31 balls to spare – which should give Kings some hope.They also play the last game of the league stage, which means they’ll know if they have a chance at all, and exactly what they need to do. Obviously, if Capitals or Royal Challengers win their last match and move to 16 points, Kings will be knocked out.Royal Challengers Bangalore: Mat 13, Pts 14, NRR -0.323
Royal Challengers will need Capitals to lose their last game to stand a chance of qualifying. Even if Royal Challengers score 200 and win their last game by 100 runs, their NRR will only improve to 0.071. Capitals will be well ahead of that if they win by any margin.And if both these teams lose and stay on 14, Capitals will have to lose by an absurdly high margin for their NRR to slip below that of Royal Challengers. For instance, if Royals Challengers lose by one run, Capitals will have to lose by around 150 (depending on the exact scores).In other words, Royal Challengers will have to win their last game, against table-toppers Titans, and hope that Capitals lose theirs against bottom-of-the-table Mumbai Indians.Royals and Super Giants are locked in a tight tussle for a second-place league finish behind Gujarat Titans•BCCIKolkata Knight Riders: Mat 13, Pts 12, NRR 0.160
Knight Riders still have a chance of qualifying if they win their last game, and if Capitals and Royal Challengers lose theirs. As mentioned earlier, their relatively healthy NRR means they are best placed to capitalise if those two teams slip up.Lucknow Super Giants: Mat 13, Pts 16, NRR 0.262
Lucknow Super Giants are already on 16, a tally that only four other teams can reach. Among them is Royal Challengers, with an NRR of -0.323. For Super Giants to lose out on a playoffs spot, they will have to suffer a big defeat against Knight Riders while Royal Challengers pull off a huge win against Titans.If Super Giants lose by 60 runs (chasing 201), Royal Challengers will have win by 89 (after scoring 200) to sneak ahead on NRR. That means Super Giants should consider their qualification chances pretty safe. They will be aiming higher than that, and will want to finish among the top two. That will depend entirely on the results of the last games of Super Giants and Rajasthan Royals, who are also on 16 points, but with a slightly better NRR.Rajasthan Royals: Mat 13, Pts 16, NRR 0.304
Like Super Giants, Royals are quite safe in terms of securing a place in the last four. For them to lose out, they will have to lose by 80 runs, while Royal Challengers will have to win their last game by the same margin (or the sum of the margins of these results will have to be roughly 160, depending on the actual scores).If both Royals and Super Giants win their last game, NRR will decide who finishes second and plays the first qualifier. If Super Giants score 180 and beat Knight Riders by 20 runs, Royals will need a 10-run win with the same total to stay ahead on NRR.

Philosophy of Mott’s record-breaking Australian sides aligns with England’s attacking mindset

Matt Roller18-May-2022Pushing boundaries, hitting boundariesEngland’s white-ball revolution has been defined by aggressive batting and Mott has encouraged positivity throughout his coaching career. In the 50-over World Cup earlier this year, his Australia side made three of the four 300-plus totals, including a tournament-high 356 for 5 in the final against England. Before Mott’s appointment, they had never made 200 in a T20I; between March 2018 and October 2019, they did so four times.”I thrived under him,” Mark Wallace, who captained Glamorgan during two of Mott’s three seasons as coach, tells ESPNcricinfo. “I was a very standard county keeper who would bat at No. 7 but Motty came over and saw my strength was to play in a certain way: basically, to try and whack anything wide through the off side.Related

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“He told me to keep doing that and that if you get out a few times, that’s fine, but don’t put your strength aside because you might nick a few to the keeper or slash a few to gully. I ended up having some of my best seasons under Motty. He was brilliant for me as a cricketer.”Mott took a similar approach when working as Ireland’s assistant coach at the 2015 World Cup. “We had myself, [Ed] Joyce, [William] Porterfield, [Paul] Stirling, Kev [O’Brien], [Gary] Wilson – experienced players who knew what we were capable of,” recalls Niall O’Brien. “But he instilled confidence in that line-up to go out and play shots.”He challenged us to think big. We knew that playing in Australia, getting 260 wasn’t going to be good enough so he challenged us to get 300; we were definitely more aggressive as a batting unit in that tournament.”Against West Indies in Nelson, Ireland chased down 305 with 4.1 overs to spare, with O’Brien scoring 79 not out at nearly double his ODI career strike rate. “It was very evident that the boys were trusting their ability because we’d been backed to take teams down,” he adds.Mott will lead England’s transition away from the Morgan era•ICC via Getty ImagesManaging transitionMott has signed a four-year contract with England and his biggest long-term task will be breaking up the core of players who have spearheaded the white-ball sides’ transformation since 2015 – not least captain Eoin Morgan, who turns 36 before the T20 World Cup in Australia this winter.”The decision-making process was about finding someone who wasn’t going to come in and disrupt that environment – they have a very strong leader in Eoin Morgan – but also [someone who can] subtly enhance it along the way,” Key said. “And then whenever there is a transition in leadership, they are the right person to take it into the next era and Matthew Mott came out on top of the list for that.Australia’s women were reigning world champions in both 50-over and 20-over cricket when Mott was appointed and Key drew a comparison between their situation in 2015 and England’s men now. “What he has been able to do with them, I don’t think should be underestimated. He has made the gap greater between the rest of the pack in the women’s game and there’s a lot to be said for that.”He added that Morgan’s “philosophy” had filtered into the English system to such an extent that they were blessed with “a whole production line – of batsmen in particular – that play in that style”. Key said: “The coach is the one that has to be smart to work out who to invest in in the future. I think we’ve got the right person in Matthew.”Mott (left) spent three years at Glamorgan working with Wallace (centre)•PA Images/GettyRole clarityWorking closely with Meg Lanning, Mott has made a point of giving players clear roles in the Australia side and has been willing to change a winning side when conditions or circumstances dictate: against New Zealand in the World Cup, the experienced Jess Jonassen was left out to fit two legspinners and an out-and-out quick into the side.At Glamorgan, Mott used Simon Jones – the former England seamer – as a middle-overs enforcer in what proved to be his final season; he was not at his destructive best but chipped in with 10 wickets as they reached the YB40 final in 2013, their first one-day final for nine years.”He wanted to fit his players into a style and give them clarity to play in those roles,” Wallace explains. “[Jones] was given a role of bowling in the middle of the innings and trying to take wickets; nowadays, that seems like something that every team does but back then it was slightly different. It gave the batting side something to think about, especially being Simon Jones and with the name behind him and created a little bit more jeopardy in the middle of the innings.”Mott has been particularly analytical in his approach to T20 cricket, with the decision to omit Ellyse Perry for the Ashes T20Is against England informed by her sluggish strike rate. “Now we have this depth in Australian women’s cricket, we are able to make some more specific decisions,” Mott said.Perry was not considered to be part of Australia’s full-strength top three, and her scoring rate made her a poor fit for the middle order. “It’s not necessarily about picking the best batters in those No. 5, 6 and 7 spots… it’s the players with the ability to score 15 runs off 10 balls,” Mott explained. The parallel with Ben Stokes, whose T20I career has never really taken off, is clear.Mott was “very keen for team morale and camaraderie” at the 2015 World Cup, Niall O’Brien says•Getty ImagesTeam cultureNick Hockley, Cricket Australia’s CEO, immediately highlighted the culture that Mott had created around the side when paying him tribute. “[Mott] has played an instrumental role in the success of our incredible women’s team,” he said, “driving a team-first mentality and creating an environment that’s allowed the players to blossom into some of the world’s leading cricketers.”Shortly before the 2015 World Cup, Phil Simmons handed an Ireland training session over to Mott. “We didn’t do any cricket: he took us on a walk from Coogee down to Bondi,” O’ Brien recalls. “I remember thinking, ‘this is an absolute joke – we’ve got a World Cup game in five days’ time’ but it was actually a beautiful walk and we sat down as a squad and had some brunch.”Everyone sat around and thought, ‘you know what, we’re lucky to be here. This is a pretty good life.’ That took a little bit of the pressure off heading into a major tournament and it shows that he was flexible in how he wanted to do things. Motty was very keen for team morale and camaraderie, sitting around and having a drink at the end of a game.”That attitude was apparent in the early days of his coaching career. In the build-up to the inaugural IPL season, as Kolkata Knight Riders’ assistant coach, Mott was concerned about the form of Brendon McCullum – his new Test counterpart – and spent some one-on-one time with him in the nets.After an hour, “Mott decided to abandon the session and instead took McCullum to the hotel bar for a beer,” Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde write in . “That seemed to relax him: he scored 40 and 50 in consecutive warm-up matches… suddenly he felt like he belonged at the crease again.” Days later, he blitzed 158 not out off 73 balls.Lanning and Mott pose with the World Cup trophy•ICC/Getty ImagesLiving up to expectationsThe days of England going into major tournaments as no-hopers are long gone and there is a minimum expectation that they should reach at least the semi-finals of every World Cup they enter; despite the absences of several key players through injury, losing to New Zealand in the T20 World Cup semi-finals last year seemed like a major opportunity missed.Expectations were high throughout Mott’s tenure with Australia and he has experienced both sides, with shock defeats in the 2016 World T20 final and 2017 World Cup semi-final preceding victory in the 2018 and 2020 T20 World Cups and the 2022 ODI World Cup.Mott has admitted feeling “embarrassment” after the semi-final defeat against India in 2017 and used that game as an opportunity for a reset in the team’s culture and style of play, encouraging players to embrace their favourites tag. “Expectation is a good thing because it means you’re going pretty well as a team,” he said.In 2020, the prospect of selling out the T20 World Cup final at the MCG added another layer of scrutiny. “It was relentless,” Mott told . “Everywhere we went, everyone felt a duty to promote the final, even though we weren’t comfortable saying we’d be there.”In practice, they made the third-highest total of the tournament (184 for 4) against India – the first of consecutive dominant performances when batting first in World Cup finals. Australia’s ability to cope under pressure with Mott at the helm bodes well for England.Rob Key talks to the press•Adam Davy/PA Photos/Getty ImagesPlaying second fiddleKey made clear in a press conference on Wednesday that Mott will have to accept that there are occasions when England’s white-ball teams will be a lower priority compared to their Test side.”We made it very clear how it was going to work: at times, you may not get your best side – especially in the white-ball at the start,” Key said. “I’ll be very clear to the selectors and the coaches which series have precedence over the others at that point… we’ll try to be flexible with it but it will start from the top and head down.”Mott will face that challenge straightaway in his tenure: his first series, visa-permitting, will be England’s three ODIs in Amstelveen against the Netherlands which are jammed into the schedule between the second and third Tests against New Zealand, meaning no multi-format players will feature.That said, Mott himself was quick to recognise the divergence between formats in the modern era. When asked about the prospects of split coaches back in 2010, while working as an assistant coach for Australia at the men’s World T20, he was quoted by the as saying: “My personal opinion is that it’s going to go that way… the games are moving further and further apart.”

Kohli’s sideways shuffle a sign of India’s batters buying into their new approach

Karthik Krishnaswamy03-Oct-20222:05

Rahul: ‘When batting first, we always try to be aggressive and take a lot of risks’

In an innings containing 25 fours and 13 sixes, this was perhaps not the most eye-catching boundary. But it was significant in two ways.One, it moved India’s score past 190. This was the 10th time in 21 innings this year that India had ticked off that milestone while batting first in T20Is. Across 2020 and 2021, India had only reached 190 three times while batting first, in 16 attempts.Scoring bigger totals more often has significantly improved India’s record while batting first. Duh, you might say, but this transformation has come from a recognition that par is simply not enough, given the advantage chasing teams enjoy in T20 cricket. On Sunday, India made 237 for 3 – their fourth-highest T20I total – and South Africa still gave them a scare.”It is something that all of us came together and we said, you know, this is what we want to do as a team,” Rohit said during the post-match presentation, when asked about India’s batting approach. “Sometimes it has come off; there will be times where it doesn’t come off, but we want to stick to it. We felt that this is the method of moving forward, it has given us results, and we will continue to take that approach.”You need special players to pull off this sort of approach, of course, and India have more than one in their ranks. Rahul is one of them, and while his shot-making ability can sometimes lie puzzlingly dormant in the early parts of his T20 innings, it was in evidence right from the first ball of the match, when he punched Kagiso Rabada past point off the back foot, silkily and with time to spare.He’s taken a bit of time finding his rhythm since coming back from injury in August, and on Wednesday he had battled his way to a slower-than-run-a-ball fifty on a hugely challenging pitch in Thiruvananthapuram. But that back-foot punch off Rabada seemed to flick a switch in him. You know Rahul is in rare and almost unearthly touch when he plays that shot, and when he whips sixes effortlessly off his pads, as he did twice in this innings.It was a standout innings in every way other than the fact that Suryakumar Yadav found a way to upstage it. Suryakumar is in the sort of form where he can seemingly decide to hit any line and any length from any bowler to any part of the ground, and all that’s been written about in ample detail already.His 22-ball 61 in Guwahati, however, brought another facet of his game to light.During his half-century in Thiruvananthapuram, Suryakumar had adopted a scissor-like trigger movement, segueing from an open stance into a side-on position at release, with front foot moving across to the off side and back foot jumping towards the leg side. On Sunday, he used an entirely different trigger movement, starting from the same open position and ending up even more open, with his back foot moving back and across and his front foot remaining stationary.It would be hugely illuminating to hear Suryakumar talk about these technical adjustments. What we do know is that he looked just as comfortable with both set-ups, and just as capable of accessing every part of the field.Dinesh Karthik: India’s most futuristic T20 cricketer?•BCCIAnd to cap it all off, Dinesh Karthik came in with less than two overs remaining and scored an unbeaten 17 off 7. Karthik is 37, and he first played international cricket in 2004, but he’s perhaps India’s most futuristic cricketer, the sort of hyper-specialist that could one day define the way T20 is played. He came in with only 11 balls remaining, but he greatly prefers that to having time to play himself in.Rabada bowled the last over to Karthik with deep backward point, deep cover, long-off, long-on and deep midwicket on the boundary. The plan was to go wide of off stump and short, to try and take away Karthik’s leg-side options. Twice, Karthik stepped across and found himself still having to drag the ball from well outside the line of his body, but he still managed to use his bottom hand and wrists to swat the ball over square leg.Rabada had done little wrong, but it didn’t matter.All through this year, all through the lead-up to the T20 World Cup that begins later this month, India have tried to push themselves to bat in a certain way. It’s not always been smooth; individual batters have struggled for rhythm at times, and there have been flurries of top-order wickets at other times. But in the longer term, good processes beget good outcomes, such as India’s improved bat-first record.On some days, good processes beget immediate outcomes. Sunday was such a day: a day of vindication, a day when almost everything fell into place.

How to stay No. 1 is a new challenge facing the game’s think tank in Australia

Andrew McGlashan09-Oct-2022The WBBL has been the undisputed leader in domestic leagues for the women’s game, but it has been warned it can’t take that position for granted with the increasing opportunities around the world.As the tournament, which begins on Thursday, prepares for its first normal edition in two seasons following the impact of the pandemic, there are already signs that the competition won’t always have the first call on the leading overseas players.Related

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India’s Smriti Mandhana has opted out having flagged recently that she would monitor her workload – it’s understood she had agreed on a deal with Sydney Thunder – while fast bowler Issy Wong has effectively been withdrawn by the ECB. Fellow England player Danni Wyatt, who has signed for Brisbane Heat, will have a delayed arrival as her workload is managed.”This is a very real challenge,” Rachael Haynes, the Sydney Thunder captain who will play her final season before retirement, told ESPNcricinfo. “People have often looked at it in the men’s space, but it is happening in the women’s game as well. It’s already started.”Some of the best players in the world are choosing not to come out and play and take a break during this time. I think the competition needs to be really proactive around it and not just assume the WBBL will always be the best competition and people will always want to come out and play it.”While the WBBL remains the most well-established and star-studded women’s league in the world – the leading spinner in the world, Sophie Ecclestone, will play for the first time this year and the best allrounder, Sophie Devine, returns for Perth Scorchers – the next 12 months will start to give a clearer picture of what the future may look like. The Hundred in England now has two years under its belt and, while debate rages around its impact on the men’s game, it has widely been considered a success for the women.The future of women’s leagues

March: WPSL/WIPL

April: Fairbreak

August: Hundred

September: WCPL

October/November: WBBL

The WIPL is expected to launch next March and the PCB have announced their own league to run along the men’s PSL. The CPL added a women’s competition for the first time this year while the invitational Fairbreak competition, which started this year in the UAE, has ambitions to be a regular offering. Currently, the WBBL, Hundred and WIPL have unofficial windows in the first edition of the women’s Future Tours Programme.Australia allrounder Ashleigh Gardner has suggested the WBBL may need to consider reducing the length of the tournament so that it is a shorter commitment for those coming from overseas. To balance that out, she offered the solution of a state-based T20 competition to ensure domestic players do not lose out on their volume of cricket in a season.”I think [the WBBL] is the best tournament in the world, we have the best domestic players in the world, and that’s where the Big Bash needs to think about how we are going to keep the best internationals coming over,” she told ESPNcricinfo. “Whether that’s potentially reducing games, it’s something that us Aussie players have spoken about. But, on the flip side, our state girls only get 12 WNCL games then the Big Bash so they don’t actually get a lot of cricket.Rachael Haynes: “I think the competition needs to be really proactive around it and not just assume the WBBL will always be the best competition and people will always want to come out and play it.”•Getty Images”So if it is actually [about] pulling games back in the Big Bash to get those internationals, then potentially having a T20 tournament that’s state-based to change it up. That’s what they do over in England with the Hundred and their own T20 tournament. If we did replicate something like that, think around the 10-game mark [for WBBL] would be perfect. It’s a long commitment to come here for 14 games and potentially finals. We need to have some good things to lure the best players in.”Currently, each team is allowed up to five marquee players, which are classified as those with CA central contracts or overseas internationals, and there can be a maximum of three from each. For example, Sydney Sixers’ roster is made up of three Australian players (Gardner, Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry) and two overseas (Suzie Bates and Ecclestone). Whereas Thunder only have four marquees made up of Haynes, Tammy Beaumont, Chloe Tryon and Amy Jones.”It might be about having a bit more flexibility in the contracts and the number of internationals you are able to have as part of your squad so if someone wants to play only a portion of the season it’s not at the disadvantage of the club who might want to get them,” Haynes said. “This competition needs to continue to aspire and really lead the way like it has done in the past, but can’t assume it will also be the case.”However, Haynes and Gardner are of no doubt that it is good for the women’s game that these conversations now need to be had.”It’s a really good space to be in, absolutely, and probably the silver lining is it’s not just more playing opportunities for internationals, it’s more opportunities for everyone,” Haynes said. “So our domestic players, too, we’ve seen over the last couple of years players like Sammy-Jo Johnson, Georgia Redmayne, played the Hundred where a couple of years ago those opportunities just didn’t exist. So it’s a really positive thing, not just from the playing side but financially, they are getting better compensation, so it’s a more viable career.””It just shows where the game’s gone and globally where it’s going,” Gardner said. “There’s been a lot of chat about the WIPL starting. So potentially to be involved in that, and the Hundred has been good for cricket in England and the global game. There’s certainly plenty of tournaments which are really good and we want to keep the WBBL as the best one, so how can we do that and keep those players coming back.”

This is the closest thing to a sporting pitch in the country and it was clear to see on the first day of the India Test

Mohammad Isam14-Dec-2022India’s 400-plus total in the third ODI, four days ago, in Chattogram made everyone think we’d get a featherbed for the Test match too. Nope. There was actually a contest between bat and ball.With both variable pace and bounce on offer, playing through the line needed close attention. Cheteshwar Pujara, who made 90 off 203, said that batters never feel set on this kind of pitch while Taijul Islam, the highest wicket-taker at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, said that they can’t really predict how the surface will transform in in the coming days.Taijul’s observation is based on how sometimes conditions in Chattogram have an uncommon tendency to get better for batting as a Test rolls along. Sure, there have been matches where, like most subcontinent venues, the pitch wears and tears and becomes really tough to score runs on. But also times when it stops spinning after playing like a raging turner for the first four days. With Chattogram, you can never tell, really.When talking about pitches in Bangladesh, the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka dominates the conversation. Then there’s this one. Over the last five years, teams have scored anywhere between 242 and 374 runs on the first day of a Test match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. India’s 278 sits somewhere in the middle of that list. But the six wickets they lost represent Bangladesh’s best return after one day’s play. Conclusion: this is the closest thing to a sporting pitch in Bangladesh (a few demerit points notwithstanding).Taijul, whose three wickets on Wednesday included two superb deliveries to remove Virat Kohli and Pujara, said it best. “There’s definitely a difference between the two wickets between the third ODI and this Test. If you look at the pitches from the last two or three years, the pitch actually gets better day by day. We can’t really predict much about this pitch. It is difficult to tell; there aren’t any big turning deliveries nor is the ball only going straight.Taijul bowled Pujara late in the day even though he was well set and that’s the kind of pitch Chattogram is•AFP/Getty Images”And despite being the first day, the wicket’s behaviour did go through changes. There was different behaviour with the new ball. There were fewer runs even when fewer wickets fell in some of the previous first days. But today they made more runs, but we would have been in a better position had we taken a couple of more wickets.”At the start of the day, TV commentator Sanjay Manjrekar observed that the pitch had a decent covering of grass but not enough to be considered a green top. He reckoned the grass was there just to bind the pitch together; to prevent it from cracking too much too soon. He expected India to play three seamers, but both teams went for the same combination – two seamers and three spinners – and the game was all the more compelling for it.”There was variable bounce from the first or second over onwards,” Pujara said. “The odd ball kept low. The same happened with the second new ball also. The odd ball kept low. I hope that we try to make the most of it.”Once the ball gets old, it is slightly easier. Bowlers are also getting tired. They can’t bowl in the same area all the time. We know as batters that the first 20-30 overs are always important with the Kookaburra ball. Things are slightly easier when you get through that phase.”But you are never set on this kind of pitch; you have to concentrate hard for longer periods of time. One ball an over is turning [big] consistently. You can’t relax as a batsman. It is still a challenging pitch for batters. I think it will keep getting worse to bat on.”Chattogram hasn’t always been this way. In fact, to a team that either plays on green mambas when they go abroad, or dust bowls when they go to Dhaka, this ground was the one place where they could come and score bucket loads of runs. Of all the places that has hosted at least 50 first-class matches in Bangladesh, this venue has the highest batting average (33.06). For context, that figure for the Shere Bangla is just 29.34.It’s been good to opposition teams too. England enjoyed how it offered them pace and bounce in 2016 and Afghanistan were only too happy to push Bangladesh into their own spin-loaded trap in 2019.Bangladesh’s captains and coaches have started to discourage one-sided pitches. They often suggest, directly in the case of Russell Domingo, that the team should play on better pitches at home so that all skills are involved, and they aren’t only considered a one-dimensional, spin-based side when they play abroad. Chattogram seems to have answered the call. At least for now.

With the format changing, and the threat of dew calling for even bigger totals, India’s captain has begun to charge out of the blocks

Deivarayan Muthu23-Jan-2023Rohit Sharma became an ODI phenom by batting a certain way. He would start watchfully, set himself up to bat through the 50 overs, and explode in the end overs. This approach brought him three ODI double-centuries.Three double-hundreds. No one else has even made two.The last two double-tons in ODIs, scored in the space of two months, were made by Indian openers not named Rohit. It fell to him instead to interview the two double-centurions, Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill, on after the latter scored his against New Zealand in Hyderabad.Rohit, though, has had a definite hand in the recent successes of his opening partner(s).He has torn up his old template and has gone much harder and faster in the early exchanges. He is pumping the ball over the top, taking regular trips down the pitch, and he’s even been open to playing reverse-sweeps, as he did against Mitchell Santner during India’s slim chase in the second ODI in Raipur.Related

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Rohit’s new approach has allowed his partners to ease themselves in and play their own game. The new approach has also opened up Rohit to dismissals. Case in point, in Hyderabad, Rohit jumped out of the crease to Blair Tickner, but the ball stuck in the surface, causing the batter to skew his shot to mid-on. It has opened him up to some criticism as well. Rohit has now gone 16 ODI innings without a hundred – his last triple-figure score was 119 against Australia in Bengaluru back in January 2020.At one point, Dinesh Lad, a Mumbai cricket tragic who has also coached Rohit, expressed his surprise over Rohit’s high-risk white-ball approach.”Yes, he is playing a high-risk game for quite some time now, which he should not,” Lad told . “I have no idea why he is doing that. I think he is making a mistake in playing an overly aggressive game.”Okay, so why is even Rohit doing this in ODI cricket? Because the ODI landscape has changed. Because you can’t afford to sit back and preserve wickets in the powerplay on flat pitches. Because you need to rack up dew-proof totals while batting first, especially in India, where the ODI World Cup will be held later this year.

“You look at a lot of kids who look different at 19 but not all of them go onto actually achieve their potential. What Rohit has done over the last 15 years I think now has actually changed his potential and he’s been a great servant for Indian cricket and has done really well”Rahul Dravid

Rohit’s high intent came to the fore recently during his 67-ball 83, which propelled India to 373 for 7 against Sri Lanka in Guwahati. Dasun Shanaka then gave India a scare with his unbeaten 108 off 88 balls as the ball slid onto the bat nicely in dewy conditions later in the evening. India’s attack eventually defended the total, thanks in no small part to that high intent at the top.In the build-up to the 2022 T20 World Cup, Rohit had been at the forefront of India’s transformed approach in the shortest format. He struggled for form during that tournament, and India’s execution of the approach fell apart in tricky Australian conditions, but it wasn’t always for a lack of trying.Now, in the lead up to the 2023 ODI World Cup, Rohit is bringing the high-intent approach to a different format.Since the end of the 2019 ODI World Cup, Rohit has had a powerplay strike rate of 92.55. That puts him in sixth place among openers who have batted in at least 15 innings in that period, but while Jonny Bairstow (106.35) is clearly ahead of the pack, Quinton de Kock (95.93), Jason Roy (95.89), Gill (94.88) and Finn Allen (93.19) aren’t that far ahead of Rohit.Rohit’s aggressive starts have allowed Shubman Gill to ease himself in early on•Associated PressThe recent numbers starkly contrast with those from the start of 2013 – when Rohit became a regular ODI opener – and the end of the 2019 World Cup. His powerplay strike rate was just 70.47 then.Rahul Dravid, India’s current head coach, who has tracked Rohit’s career from his Under-19 days, spoke about Rohit’s evolution as an ODI batter in glowing terms on the eve of the third ODI against New Zealand in Indore.”He has been a phenomenal cricketer and I think he obviously started off as this really precocious talent and I remember seeing him for the first time when he was 17 or 18 – [he] just came out of Under-19s – and you could see that you know you’re looking at something slightly different here,” Dravid said. “And he has gone on to prove that. You look at a lot of kids who look different at 19 but not all of them go onto actually achieve their potential. What Rohit has done over the last 15 years I think now has actually changed his potential and he’s been a great servant for Indian cricket and has done really well.”Maybe like you said the turning point was when ten years ago he got the opportunity to finally open and really his hallmark has obviously been his performances in ICC tournaments, like we said in 2019, but also his ability to score big runs when he gets going. Someone who has got three double-hundreds in this format is an absolutely phenomenal achievement.”So, yeah he has been pretty successful and yeah he’s someone who has got that game right – an all-round game and you can’t really think of a kind of bowling you can bowl to him. If you bowl fast and short, he will take you down and he will take down spinners. He plays swing well. So, he’s got a really good, complete game. So, yeah he has been a fantastic player for India and he has been batting well for us even in the last few games; he has been terrific to watch – the way he has been playing. So, it’s great to have him play the way he is.”Indore has already witnessed an ODI double-century from someone not named Rohit. The tiny boundaries, fast outfield and bash-through-the-line pitch here could potentially be just the right ingredients for another double-ton, or at least a big hundred, on Tuesday. Rohit may or may not score it, but his gung-ho approach at the top might have an impact on whoever reaches that landmark.

A look at how this unglamorous shot made all the difference for India, and why Australia could not employ it effectively themselves

Karthik Krishnaswamy19-Feb-2023Cheteshwar Pujara faced five of the last six balls of the Delhi Test match. First, he levelled the scores with a flicked single to deep square leg after skipping out to Travis Head. Then, getting the strike back at the start of the next over, he played two more flicks off Todd Murphy, one to square leg, one to short midwicket.After another dot ball not involving a flick, Pujara hit the winning runs: down the track again, and a firm whip over midwicket for four.Five balls, four variants of the leg-side flick. And in that lay a story, perhaps even story of the 2022-23 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.The flick can be a delightful stroke to watch, but it isn’t always a glamorous one. ESPNcricinfo, for instance, runs a video series titled , where current or former players pick their favourite exponents of eight shots that circle the dial: straight drive, cover drive, cut, reverse-sweep, scoop, sweep, pull and the lofted hit down the ground. The flick, as you may have noticed, isn’t one of them.The flick, however, is the Test batter’s run-scoring lifeblood. Since the start of 2021, according to ESPNcricinfo’s data, the flick has brought batters more Test runs than any other shot – 17,697, to be precise – with the cover drive way behind in second place at 12,979.Related

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In that time, batters have played the flick a whopping 22,373 times. It’s in third place behind defended (62,637) and left alone (25,277), of course, but those aren’t scoring shots.The reason why the flick is such a key part of Test cricket is simple. Bowlers target the top of off stump constantly, and when they miss their lines and lengths at Test level, they usually only miss it by small margins. So while the rank long-hop and the wide half-volley are rare occurrences, the ball that’s a touch straighter than ideal, or a touch fuller or shorter, is more frequent. Test batters can flick balls from all sorts of lines and lengths – if the angle is just right, a back-of-a-length ball can be worked to deep backward square leg from a fourth-stump line.Spinners are particularly prone to getting flicked, and not just with the turn. Top batters can use their feet to get to the pitch of the ball, or go deep in their crease to give themselves time, and twirl their wrists to play the shot against the turn too. Because of the pace spinners bowl at, their margin for error is smaller, and the more turn there is, the smaller that margin becomes – the ball turning into the batter is likelier to end up on the pads, and the ball turning away is likelier to start from a line closer to leg stump.The first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy have been played on pitches with plenty of help for the spinners, and the margins for error have consequently been fairly small.Over these two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi, India’s batters have been able to play the flick far more frequently against the spinners than Australia’s batters. They’ve also had to defend significantly fewer balls.There are many ways of looking at these numbers. You could say Indian batters are naturally wristy and fond of playing the flick. You could say they use their feet better to get down the pitch or go deep in the crease, to create opportunities to play the flick. You could say that the two teams have employed different batting gameplans, India’s revolving around positive footwork and shots down the ground or through the on side, and Australia’s around the sweep.This last argument is particularly compelling if you watched the closing stages of the Delhi Test, and watched and read the post-mortems. Australia lost a lot of wickets to sweeps and reverse-sweeps, and India barely ever played those shots. The experts shook their heads and told you how unwise these shots were on this third-day surface, where the ball was frequently shooting through low.But here’s the thing. Australia’s players and team management know this. They know how dangerous cross-bat shots can be on pitches like this. But R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have bowled with the sort of control that has left them with few other scoring options. They’re certainly not getting drive balls and cut balls, and they’re not getting a whole lot of flick balls either.They’ve chosen two different responses to this challenge in the two Tests of this series. In the second innings in Nagpur, Australia defended for their lives and were bowled out in 32.3 overs. In the second innings in Delhi, they swept at everything and were bowled out in 31.1 overs. Their captain Pat Cummins said their batters had underplayed their hand in Nagpur and overplayed it in Delhi.Against spinners with the control of Ashwin and Jadeja and on pitches with both turn and natural variation, those can be the only options for visiting batters. Neither is the right answer, but there’s no real middle way either, unless the bowlers have an off day.In the given conditions, the sweep shot was fraught with danger, but Australia were left with little choice•Getty ImagesAnd in Delhi, the sweep helped Australia compete on a level footing with India over the first two days. It was a defining feature of Usman Khawaja’s 81 on day one, and of Marnus Labuschagne’s batting when Australia raced away to a quick start in the third session of day two.The sweep, therefore, was a symptom of Australia’s problems and not its cause.And the problem hasn’t been that they’re a bad team. The problem is that they’re just not as good as India in Indian conditions. You would only back a handful of teams over the game’s history to beat this Indian team in Indian conditions.Australia’s spin attack on this tour is among the best that has visited this country in a decade – Nathan Lyon is a world-class offspinner with more than 450 Test wickets, while Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann have bowled with terrific control for visiting spinners who’ve made their Test debuts on this tour. They’ve bowled with better control than a lot of overseas spinners who’ve come to India with a lot more Test experience, and they’ve barely bowled any long-hops or genuine half-volleys.But it’s only natural that Australia’s spinners don’t have the inch-perfect control of Jadeja and Ashwin on Indian pitches. The margins for error are tiny. Minute errors in line and length don’t leap at you in real time, but they all add up over the course of a series, one flick at a time.

“Even if I motivated or inspired a few youngsters, then I would be happy. I feel it was worth it: worth the pain”

Nagraj Gollapudi03-Feb-20231:37

Vihari: I’ve never batted left-handed before

Pain, sweat, and at times, glory. Those are things that make the spectacle of sport a joy to watch. Hanuma Vihari had at least one tale to tell before this week through his heroics in the Sydney Test against Australia in 2020-21, when he – along with R Ashwin – battled through pain to take India to a nerve-tangling draw.This week the normally right-handed Vihari made headlines by batting as a left-hander in innings of Andhra’s Ranji Trophy quarter-final match against Madhya Pradesh in Indore after being hit on his left hand by fast bowler Avesh Khan. On Friday, Andhra bowed out of Ranji this season, but Vihari, their captain, spoke to ESPNcricinfo, after the game to talk about why he did what he did.How is your left forearm?
On the first day [of the match], we were batting first, [and] Avesh bowled a short-of-a-length delivery. I fended it off with my left arm, [but] when I got hit, immediately I knew that something was wrong because I had never felt that [kind of] pain before whenever I had got hit [in the past]. I wanted to continue, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t grip the bat.Related

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So I went off and went for an X-ray. It showed that I had a fracture [in the forearm]. I was devastated because maybe after 113 matches, I’m playing my first quarter-final in the Ranji Trophy. I had waited for so long to play that quarter-final, but that is what it is. The doctor assessed, and [advised] six weeks of rest. Thankfully, I don’t require surgery as of now. I got a plaster done.When did you decide you were going to bat again in the first innings?
When we were 262 for 2, our physio Deep Tomar called me to his room. He told me, “I wouldn’t advise you to bat because if you get hit again, you might need a surgery”. I said, “We are in a good position, so I don’t think I would need to bat”. But next day (day 2), we collapsed to 324 for 4, and then 350 for 7 or 8 [353 for 9]. Then I went and gripped my bat with my left hand, and I couldn’t do it.I looked at my other hand, and then I thought why not try to bat left-handed; just a thought came into my mind. Then I told the coach that I want to try to bat left-handed with one hand. The coach said, “Whatever you feel right, go ahead and do it”. My team-mates helped me actually put on the pads and every protection I needed: chest pad and arm guard. I tried to have a knock in the dressing room itself. I played a few balls [left-handed], then said, “Let me go ahead, and just try and add few runs for the team”.R Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari had battled through injuries to draw the Sydney Test in 2020-21•AFP via Getty ImagesHave you batted left-handed ever before at this level?
I’ve not even batted left-handed when we played tennis-ball cricket or in the street when I was young. I had never imagined that in a first-class game – that too in a quarter-final – I would be batting left-handed with a single hand.What compelled you to do it then?
I just wanted to go out in [on] the field and show that I don’t want to just be retired out and not be able to contribute. Even if I got out first ball, it wouldn’t matter, but I just wanted to be there on the ground, show our team that I’m there to fight for the team, [and] if I do that, then the rest ten of us will definitely give their best to win the game for the side. So that was the main intention.And it was an important game for Andhra: we qualified through a tough group, and we came into the quarters, so I wanted to lead by example, showing the right way forward for my team. Actually, we fought hard after that. Unfortunately, the result didn’t go our way.How light is your bat? It seemed like you were wielding a sweep.
Funnily enough, I didn’t take my bat because my bat is a bit heavier. I took the lightest bat possible in the dressing room.It was Avesh again who you would face first ball. You nicely timed it for a four past the square boundary. Can you talk about the sequence of events around that delivery?
Avesh was running in and bowling quick. He tried to bowl a yorker [first ball], which ended up being a low full toss. So I used the pace, and angled the bat. Luckily, it went to the boundary. But one thing in my mind was to just try and play the stump-line ball. And if he bowls a bouncer, then try to duck it, which is difficult batting left-handed. It was difficult batting right-handed itself, which I couldn’t do in the initial stages [after getting hit on day one]; but doing it with the left hand, [and] with a single hand [was more difficult].”We collapsed quite badly in the second innings. So I had to go in”, Hanuma Vihari on batting despite the injury•AFP/Getty ImagesBut one thing was in my mind that even if I get hit on my body, that doesn’t matter: I’ll play the stump-line ball, and try to play at least 10-15 balls, [and] as much as I could. The fear wasn’t there. Because I knew the basics of batting – whether it’s the right hand or the left hand – I know I can defend the stump-line ball. So I was quite sure about facing fast bowling, and I got out to a spinner later on with the ball turning, which I couldn’t handle with a single hand.In the first innings, at one point it seemed you were able to kind of lightly grip with your bottom hand (left hand)?
I was trying to, but when a bowler was running in, then I removed my left hand because I couldn’t exert any pressure on it. I thought there was no point.Was the opposition surprised watching you bat left-handed?
When I came in at No. 11 [in the first innings], they thought may be I would bat right-handed. But when I took the left-hander’s guard, most of them were surprised. “Is he really doing it?”, that was the kind of expression on their faces. But all the players and even the umpires were appreciative. At the same time they were quite competitive, and didn’t show any sympathy. I wouldn’t expect any sympathy [either], as we were playing a quarter-final.When you came back to bat the second time – as the last man in the second innings – what made you do that? Why did you risk going in?
We didn’t have enough [runs in the second innings] for a start. We collapsed quite badly in the second innings. So I had to go in to bat. I got the plaster [on the left arm] just after lunch. But after the drinks break post-lunch, we collapsed, losing three or four wickets quickly. So after tea, I knew I had to bat; I had to contribute some runs because we were in a tight situation. I thought going in was a right idea. I tried to put the glove in. I just managed to put the glove in, then I just went in and tried to play some shots.Did you need to take an injection as a painkiller?
I took some tablets, but not an injection. I couldn’t really sleep. It was hurting. I slept in patches, but when I have pain I had to get up; it was disturbing.

“The basics of batting helped: how to defend the ball, just watching the ball, and trying to meet the ball, which [though] was a challenge”Vihari on how he managed to bat left-handed despite naturally being a right-hander

You stepped out against spin few times in the second innings. Which was your favorite shot as a left-hander?
I was just trying to play the field (). I was just backing myself to connect a few balls. Actually, I missed quite a few, but luckily enough I connected three balls which went to the boundary. I made up my mind because the offspinner was bowling, and playing right handed is my strength. So I tried to switch [to sweep like a right hander], and play that shot, which went through the gap. The basics of batting helped: how to defend the ball, just watching the ball, and trying to meet the ball, which [though] was a challenge.You had summed up the experience of batting with a strapped right hamstring against Australia in Sydney in 2020-21 as “sweet pain”. How do you describe this one?
If we had ended up winning, I would have still said it was sweet. Although every one of us – the whole Andhra team – gave their best, we collapsed in a session, which is very hurting. But we are proud of the fact that we gave everything for the side. So I wouldn’t be disappointed. Even if I motivated or inspired a few youngsters, then I would be happy. I feel it was worth it: worth the pain.You are bound to be disappointed that Andhra did not make it to the semi-final. But Andhra were not going to make the quarter-final at one point, and you had to erase a tweet which read: “4 wins in 7, but not to be this year. We will come back stronger next year”. So at least you came forward a step?
I am definitely proud of the team for making it to the quarters, but I wouldn’t say I’m satisfied because we have a goal of winning the Ranji Trophy. So we don’t want to restrict or limit ourselves just to the quarter-finals. But next year, we have to make sure we are well prepared, and going all the way and winning the trophy.You have not been part of the Indian Test squad since the one-off Test in England last July. By your standards, you had a lean Ranji season without a century. But still playing this match through pain must give you the satisfaction that you play sport for the joy it brings?
I play sport to win – whether I score a century or whether I’m just contributing to the side. Obviously, any batter will want to get those hundreds and get those big runs in the season. But whether I play for India or whether I play for Andhra, I play to win, even if it’s just batting with one hand or batting with one leg.It is just about going out there, and playing to win and looking at how you have to contribute to the side. That is my main goal when I go into the field. I don’t really look at personal milestones or think about a comeback. I just go out there to win a game for the side.

Andy Balbirnie will captain Ireland at Lord’s this week and opens up on the challenges of his role

Matt Roller30-May-2023The magnitude of leading Ireland out in a Test match at Lord’s hit home for Andy Balbirnie when his dad picked his captain’s blazer up from the dry cleaner’s. “I was going away and asked him to leave it at the dry cleaner’s, because it was a bit dirty from Sri Lanka,” Balbirnie explains.”When he gave it back to me, he was like, ‘It’s kind of hard to believe you’re going to be leading Ireland out at Lord’s.’ I hadn’t really thought about it – it hasn’t sunk in really. It’s something which I’ll look back at and think, ‘Wow, that was a pretty special moment.'”When Balbirnie was appointed captain in November 2019, Ireland had a sporadic red-ball fixture list confirmed for the following four years. But the pandemic meant it took until April 2023 for him to lead them in a Test match. “I was genuinely concerned that I wouldn’t get the chance to,” he reflects. “Covid put it on the back-burner and it went on for so long.”The opportunity finally came in Bangladesh last month, with two further Tests following soon after in Sri Lanka. “I’m a well-hardened Test cricketer now,” Balbirnie jokes, when I bring up the fact he is the only man to have featured in each of their six Tests to date. “It’s not a lot – but they are six Test caps that I didn’t think I’d get at the start of my career.”

“If we get bowled out for 30 in both innings against England but qualify for both World Cups, that’s a win; that’s our most successful summer ever.”

Ireland’s record in those games makes for grim reading: played six, lost six. The most recent three have been particularly tough, with eight players winning their first caps; in the case of spinners Matthew Humphreys and Ben White, their Test debuts were also their maiden first-class appearances.Since the pandemic, Ireland have not staged any domestic first-class cricket, instead focusing their energy and funds on the white-ball formats. “My overwhelming feeling is it’s not fair on the players,” Balbirnie says. “You’re asking guys who have no first-class or red-ball experience to go out and play in the toughest pressure situation you can imagine.”I know we have our constraints back home – and hopefully in the next couple of years, first-class cricket will start to filter back – but if we’re going to start playing more Tests, we have to have something in place. We need to look after our players a bit more and make sure that we don’t just completely throw them into the hot pot of Test cricket.”Even if it’s three games a season: North against South. It doesn’t have to be seven or eight games – just so you can pick a team and know what they’re like with a red ball in their hand. We were picking teams for the Tests in Asia based on what we’d seen in the nets and how guys went in the one-dayers.”Balbirnie made 95 against Sri Lanka in Galle last month•AFP/Getty ImagesAs a result, this week’s Test at Lord’s does not represent – as the board’s performance director, Richard Holdsworth, put it – a “pinnacle event” for Ireland. Instead, their main targets for this summer are the upcoming qualifying tournaments for the 2023 ODI World Cup (in Zimbabwe in June) and the 2024 T20 World Cup (Scotland, July).”We’re going to be playing a qualifier in Scotland in front of maybe 30 people against Italy, and it’s going to be far more important than the Test match,” Balbirnie concedes. “I don’t want that to sound disrespectful to England or the ECB because we’re going to do our absolute best to try to get a result, and it’s an honour to play at Lord’s against England – but it’s a one-off Test in the middle of the summer.”The Ashes is their most important thing. I’d imagine they’ll be looking at this as a glorified warm-up. If we get bowled out for 30 in both innings against England but qualify for both World Cups, that’s a win; that’s our most successful summer ever. I hope that doesn’t happen, but World Cups are where we get our most publicity on the world stage and back home – particularly for a tournament in India and what that brings.”Related

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Despite Ireland’s rise over the last 20 years, cricket remains a relatively niche sport back home. “We’re getting there,” Balbirnie says. “There’s a lot more club teams in the country now. I still don’t think we’ll challenge rugby, football and GAA [Gaelic football and hurling] for a long time, if we ever do. But if we can be that fourth or fifth-biggest sport, that would be good.”I was away in West Cork last weekend with Kate, my wife, and I had two people come up to me and say, ‘You’re Andy Balbirnie!’ They were saying they were going to Lord’s; Kate couldn’t believe it. That’s cool – it’s a small step. I think there’s a lot of closet cricket fans in Ireland, who are too afraid to say they’re cricket fans because their mate from the GAA club will give them a slagging. But we are getting there.”The sticking point, as ever, is funding. Cricket Ireland are among the beneficiaries of the ICC’s proposed revenue distribution model for 2024-27, with their share of annual earnings projected to rise from around 2% to just over 3%; the ICC has also provided a $5 million loan to the board for 2023 “to ensure it can meet its current financial needs”.”We’re getting a fair bit more than we usually get. When the money comes through, there will be change for the better, I hope,” Balbirnie says. “The problem we have is that we don’t get a whole lot of money through sponsorship, which naturally the big countries get. They can live without the ICC money, potentially, whereas we rely on it so much; that’s our main income.”We see the numbers that India get and it’s just staggering. I do understand that they do a lot for the game; the IPL is huge and really important for the game. I get that. But take Ireland out of it: there are countries where we were 20 years ago, scrapping for their lives to keep an organisation afloat and to keep a team afloat. And they’re not even in the picture.”They get a tiny, tiny cut. I’m not sitting around the table but I think there needs to be a bit more of a share for the countries below the top teams, because it’s a world game. It’s a world sport – and I’ve been to places where it’s a small sport and they’re fighting for their lives. They need all the support they can get.””I’d love to sit in the stands one day with Stirlo and watch the young lads”•AFP/Getty ImagesChief among Ireland’s long-held ambitions is the desire to play home games at a new, purpose-built stadium in Abbotstown, on the outskirts of Dublin. Temporary infrastructure costs mean they lose money almost every time they play at Malahide, their main home venue, and the board hope that the new ground will be completed in time to stage fixtures during the 2030 men’s T20 World Cup, which they will co-host with England and Scotland. “I’m not sure it’ll happen in my career,” Balbirnie says, “but I’d love to sit in the stands one day with Stirlo [Paul Stirling] and watch the young lads go at it against some of the best teams in the world.”Those “young lads” include wicketkeeper Lorcan Tucker, an unused squad members on Ireland’s last visit to Lord’s, and Harry Tector, their brightest batting prospect who will be carded at No. 4 this week. Josh Little is a high-profile absentee, resting after playing in Monday’s IPL final, but Balbirnie believes his team can thrive on low expectations.”They potentially have a few players playing for places for the Ashes,” he says. “Their batters will be expected to get runs against us: that’s just the pressure that England cricketers are under from the media, the pressure that we don’t get. We have three or four journalists who follow cricket, and we don’t have a whole heap of players coming through the system.”It’s an amazing challenge: they’re changing the way Test cricket is being played, and we get a chance to play against them. It’s pretty cool. We know they’re going to come at us but as long as we can throw a punch back at that, that’s all we can really ask. No-one’s going to expect us to win whatsoever. We just want the guys to go out and play the game that we grew up loving.”Ireland’s last visit to Lord’s four years ago ranks as a career highlight for Balbirnie. “It was surreal,” he recalls. “I remember having lunch on that first day, putting the pads on and pinching myself: we’d just bowled England out for 80-odd – and their tail wagged.” Tim Murtagh took 5 for 13, and Balbirnie made a punchy 55 off 69 balls after lunch.”Looking back, it was probably a big opportunity spurned. It was a great time to get them because there was still that hype and buzz straight after the World Cup final, and they were playing a few shots. It was all doom and gloom for them after that first day but it’s a slightly different situation this time around.”Balbirnie made a first-innings half-century on Ireland’s last visit to Lord’s•Getty ImagesFor Balbirnie, the venue holds added significance. In his early 20s, he spent countless summer days at Lord’s, first as an MCC Young Cricketer, then as a Middlesex player: “I wasn’t necessarily playing – more running the drinks up and down from the changing rooms, and taking lads’ jumpers on and off in April and May.”I didn’t think I’d ever play a Test match at Lord’s and I’m about to play my second. I was chatting to a couple of the Bangladesh guys recently: Tamim Iqbal has played 70 Tests and has only played one of them at Lord’s, so we’re very fortunate to get the opportunity. It’s probably the best sporting arena in the world that I’ve been to.”In Galle last month, Balbirnie was dismissed five runs short of a maiden Test hundred. “Everyone has said to me, ‘Ah, just save it for Lord’s,'” he says with a smile. “I’m like, ‘OK lads, I’ll just go and get a hundred at Lord’s…'” It will be easier said than done, but Ireland and their captain are dreaming big.