Kohli has made many bold – and sometimes unpopular – calls in his captaincy, but taking on the board might be the boldest

Sidharth Monga18-Dec-2021This is not an attempt to link Game of Thrones to suspected palace intrigue in Indian cricket. This is Alliser Thorne, even though he doesn’t like him, even though he will go ahead to commit treason because of his decisions, handing out an important leadership lesson to Jon Snow. This is a lesson, it seems, Virat Kohli has never needed.Related

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For Kohli has never second-guessed himself. The trickiest part of leadership is making choices on behalf of others and living with them. In his first Test as captain, Kohli dropped R Ashwin for Karn Sharma. The opposition’s experienced, accurate offspinner won them the Test with 12 wickets. India’s rookie legspinner never played cricket for India again.It is the kind of choice that can torture and scar a person, dissuade them from making bold calls in the future. “Would we have been chasing fewer if I had played my No. 1 spinner?” “Would the young spinner have had a better career if I had played him when he was ready?”Such questions can haunt you.Kohli, it would seem, is wired differently. He has always given the appearance of a man who has unquestionable faith in his ability to make decisions in the best of the team. Once he makes a call, he doesn’t appear to question himself. To him, hesitating means inviting errors on the field. There is a certain amount of self-righteousness in this. He feels the most annoyed when asked if the result might have been better had he played his “best XI”. To him it implies he picked less than the “best XI” on purpose.These things work differently with different people and different cultures, but it is a remarkable quality to have nonetheless. All through his career Kohli has made bold choices, which might seem like big risks to someone on the outside. Not least was when he refused to work with the then-coach Anil Kumble, arguably India’s biggest match-winner and someone who had the public sympathy and the past legends on his side.Kohli single-handedly took everyone on then. Everything was thrown at him. Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman in the Cricket Advisory Committee were against what he wanted. By extension, he was told he was taking on even Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid, who were originally appointed in the support staff, as Kohli’s choice as coach refused to work with them. Only a naïve person wouldn’t have known that he would be hauled over the coals if he didn’t deliver the results.Like him, hate him, you can’t deny his strength of conviction. A lot of this clarity, Kohli says, comes from being with a strong partner, Anushka Sharma, who has herself made unpopular choices as a film and TV producer in the current political climate in India.If he looks back to the Kumble episode, Kohli will see that the board did exactly what has enraged him today: half-truths, innuendo, smear campaign. Kohli himself was dignified throughout the episode. He neither said nor suggested anything derogatory against Kumble. The same goes for Kumble. It was a professional disagreement, and, as far as Kohli was concerned, nobody on the outside had any business knowing the details of it.In 2018-19 when India played four fast bowlers in Perth and lost – none of whom could bat – Kohli was asked at the end of the Test if the decision was forced on him by any injury besides the one to Ashwin. Kohli categorically said it was a judgement call made in the best interest of the team. Sure enough, with the criticism from former players mounting, within a week Ravi Shastri reported that Jadeja didn’t play because he was “60-70% fit”. That is not a response you would get from Kohli, who always wanted to own the decisions he made.Despite being a batter himself, Kohli has never hesitated to make things difficult for batters in order to win Test matches. He is not the first one to play just the five batters, but he has done that with unprecedented consistency. Even during a personal barren patch, Kohli didn’t shy away from getting pitches that turned from day one.This is not to bag former captains. They often lacked the freedom and complete support that the Committee of Administrators (CoA) gave Kohli. MS Dhoni, for example, hardly ever got pitches of his liking at home. He also had to deal with difficult seniors. The new coach Dravid is a relevant example, having quit captaincy because all the shenanigans that come with it dragged him down. Kohli had none of this to live with.Even in the post-CoA world, even with his own runs drying up, even with pressure mounting after the WTC final loss, Kohli didn’t shy away from dropping Ashwin, another one of India’s biggest match-winners, a man at the peak of his popularity and form, throughout the series in England because he believed a different combination was best for India. Just as the wins don’t necessarily vindicate Kohli, the losses don’t necessarily prove him wrong.

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Through the years, disregard for optics and the refusal to second-guess himself has remained. So has self-righteousness. For good or for bad, the BCCI is a wheel with different spokes that are variously on top at different times as the wheel moves. Kohli now found himself facing the wrath of the BCCI leaks that are not necessarily baseless but are shared either not in their entirety or without context. Kumble faced it too, but didn’t retaliate.Even Sachin Tendulkar didn’t resist this wheel when he came to know through the media that he had been removed as the captain. He enjoyed many years of soft power, and revealed the hurt only after retirement. Lesser players don’t say anything at all because their post-retirement careers depend on the whims and fancies of unaccountable office bearers. In that regard, Kohli has been more Sunil Gavaskar than Tendulkar.Getty ImagesAt one level, this captaincy change was a routine affair. Kohli resigned from one format, the board said fine. The board felt both the limited-overs sides should have the same captain, and Kohli said fine.Under the still waters, there was resistance. Kohli threw them a curve ball with his surprise announcement before the World Cup, forcing them to come up with a hurried release. He also essentially dared them to remove him from ODI captaincy by announcing to the world he still wished to take the team into the 2023 World Cup.They went ahead and sacked him, which was a perfectly reasonable call as Kohli himself conceded, but the manner in which it was done lacked grace. The communication to Kohli was fine – being told 90 minutes before a selection meeting is not the luxury captains in India usually get – but the communication to the public was shoddy: a line in the postscript of the announcement of another team’s selection, and a half-hearted acknowledgement of his achievements a whole day later.Ganguly gave Kohli the biggest opening by divulging the unofficial details of the meeting where Kohli informed them he was leaving T20I captaincy. It doesn’t matter whether it was true, false or half-true. Kohli once again, with calm and calculated righteousness, threw the flame back at the board, leaving them to choose between accepting that their president was lying or saying that the captain is lying. In one measured stroke, Kohli has snatched away the board’s most effective weapon: unattributed half-truths and innuendo. Now everything has to be on the record or on an official document.Sourav Ganguly chats with Virat Kohli at an event in Kolkata in 2018•Getty ImagesThis is not about who is right or who is wrong, or if it will affect India’s performance on the field. Their first Test win in South Africa, remember, came at a terribly tumultuous time when Ganguly himself contributed crucial runs to a team in which he was not welcome. Other stories of fractious dressing rooms winning big Tests are yet to be told. Indian cricket has too much talent and too much depth for this to affect them on the field. Once they cross the line, they all play to win, for personal pride, and also, during such a competitive phase in Indian cricket, their own places. There is simply too much to lose.This is more about a captain openly taking on the board, which hasn’t happened since the days of Gavaskar. Like Gavaskar, Kohli is the most equipped to do so: he is articulate, wildly popular and not shy of a scrap, which makes it difficult to isolate him. Yet an angry board is the last thing you want on your back in the final quarter of your career. The board is not used to getting rattled this way. Its reprisal is known to be cold.At a time when Kohli is walking into a world he is unaccustomed to – shortage of runs, his power no longer absolute, no longer indispensable since the win in Australia – this might just be his biggest gambit yet.

Reiterates his desire to be part of India’s plans once again after expertly executing another big-hitting job for RCB

Sidharth Monga16-Apr-20223:31

Wasim Jaffer: 360-degree masterclass from Dinesh Karthik

After the IPL was postponed mid-way last year, Dinesh Karthik spent the summer preparing for his commentary stint in the English summer. His was a fresh voice that brought candour, humour, contemporary insights and a lot of preparation to commentary. Through all that, Karthik maintained what he really wanted was to represent India in the World Cups till 2023.It was a seriously difficult task Karthik had assigned himself. Especially in India, where cricket commentary tends to be seen more as a retirement benefit than a profession. So it is not easy to be taken seriously when you are interviewing India players for TV, doing commentary, being complimented on your colourful shirts rather than your shots, and then saying you want to play for India.Related

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So Karthik would have had to really stand out if he were to entertain any thoughts of a comeback. Six matches into his IPL, a strike rate of 210, an average of 197, two Player-of-the-Match awards to his name, Karthik has reiterated his ambition.”I must admit I have a bigger goal,” Karthik told host broadcaster Star Sports when receiving his Player-of-the-Match award, having rescued Royal Challengers Bangalore from 92 for 5 with a 34-ball 66. “I have been working really, really hard. Sometimes people don’t believe it. But my aim is to do something special for the country. This is part of the journey. I have been doing everything I can to be part of that Indian team. This is one step in that direction.”It is this exact role that Karthik thought he could perform in international cricket when he spoke to ESPNcricinfo when in England. It is something Royal Challengers Bangalore have allowed him to do this season. It is a highly impactful role that involves playing only a certain number of deliveries.In the three IPL seasons before this, for example, Karthik had averaged 37 and struck at 157.4 when he came in to the bat in the last six overs, but when he came in earlier his strike rate fell to 126 and his average to 17.6. In both his match-winning efforts this IPL – today, and against Rajasthan Royals – Karthik has found himself in sooner than the 14th over, but he has shown the willingness to bide his time and not panic even if it means a slow start before he does get to his ideal number of deliveries to face.

“I have been working really, really hard. Sometimes people don’t believe it. But my aim is to do something special for the country.”Dinesh Karthik

“The way DK is playing at the moment, I sound like a broken record but he is in the form of his life,” Karthik’s captain Faf du Plessis said at the post-match presentation. “What makes him even more (special) is he is so clear in his game plans. He is so calm and composed right through. Obviously very lucky to have him in our team at the moment.””It’s good to know people associate calmness with me,” Karthik said when pointed to the calm he exudes in these chaotic situations. “Generally they say I am a little restless. I must admit positions and calmness come from preparation. When you know how you are going to go about an innings, it gives you a chance to be calm. Apart from that, trying to stay in the moment even though it sounds a little cliched. It is very important for my batting.”Part of preparation is also to repeatedly keep doing the job so that you have the experience of a variety of situations before you go into a marquee event, which is something India’s young middle order didn’t have in the last two World Cups. Karthik has given up red-ball cricket, got into specific fitness plans, and has been trying to repeat being in these situations again and again. He did so in domestic cricket and also went and played in the middle order in a club-level tournament 500 kilometres from Chennai.Karthik was a prodigy when he burst onto the scene, and always a top-order batter. When he jumped from the pond into the river, he had to perform a variety of roles just to be able to represent India: from opening in difficult away Tests in England and South Africa to having to bat pretty much everywhere in the line-up in limited-overs cricket. Now, at the age of 36, Karthik offers India a highly specific role. And he is accumulating a serious body of work to seduce the decision-makers with.

Royals’ thrilling three-run win may perhaps have been less significant than the tactical battle that played out at Wankhede

Karthik Krishnaswamy11-Apr-20225:05

Should Stoinis have come in earlier?

What will the future of T20 look like? Well, it might look something like Sunday night’s game between Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants. Royals eventually won a thrilling contest by three runs, but for the neutral, the result may perhaps have been less significant than the tactical battle that played itself out at the Wankhede Stadium.LSG unleash their allrounders
International commitments left LSG without Jason Holder for their first two matches of the season, and without Marcus Stoinis for their first four.Related

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On Sunday, both were finally available, and Stoinis came straight into the side, even if it meant leaving out Evin Lewis, who has already won LSG one match off his own bat.It was clear from LSG’s auction strategy that they wanted to build a side with multiple allrounders, which would give them depth and flexibility with both bat and ball. Against Royals, Super Giants had five allrounders in their XI: Holder, Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Hooda and K Gowtham.Despite that, LSG only used five bowlers on the day, with Krunal, Stoinis and Hooda not required. KL Rahul, their captain, explained in his post-match press conference that he felt Krunal’s left-arm spin might have been a risk given that Royals had an explosive left-hander in the middle in Shimron Hetmyer from overs nine to 20.The point of having so many all-round options isn’t necessarily to use all of them all the time, but to have favourable options in most situations. The offspinner Gowtham, for instance, has come into the XI for LSG’s matches against Delhi Capitals and Royals, two teams with a significant presence of left-handers in their top orders.Gowtham played a key role on Sunday, taking two wickets and only conceding 14 off 14 balls to Hetmyer, who scored 45 off the other 22 balls he faced.Royals push Ashwin up the order
Even before the season began, it was evident that Royals had one big weakness to cover up. They had a strong top five on paper, and a strong bowling attack (barring end-overs options) but not a lot of proven muscle at Nos. 6 and 7. In this game, R Ashwin – who has five Test hundreds but who’s a touch player rather than a biffer of the ball – was slotted at No. 7.He eventually ended up at No. 6, walking in to join Hetmyer in the tenth over of Royals’ innings. This pushed Riyan Parag, who is perhaps better suited to end-overs hitting than to rebuilding an innings, down to No. 7.It was a clear example of the growing realisation within T20 that batters’ point of entry matters far more than their slot in the batting order.2:15

Retired out – yay or nay?

Ashwin retires out
In a game full of tactical intrigue, this was the biggest moment – a moment fans had been waiting years and years for. Two balls into the 19th over of Royals’ innings, Ashwin ran off the field, becoming the first batter in the IPL to retire out. The idea, it turned out, had been discussed within the Royals think tank, and Ashwin had bought into it fully.It was just what you might expect from a man who has added multiple variations to his bowling repertoire – and has even tried to master an entirely different style of bowling – to stay one step ahead of batters in T20, and a man who has zero qualms about running non-strikers out when they back up too far. Ashwin has always been at the forefront of innovation in all formats of cricket, and he’ll probably be proud of his involvement in this moment too.The reason for the decision, of course, was to have a more accomplished six-hitter at the crease at this point in the game. ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster bumped up Royals’ projected score by seven runs when Ashwin retired out, from 152 to 159. With Hetmyer going berserk and Parag hitting a last-over six, they ended up with 165.Boult goes around the wicket
Trent Boult’s modus operandi with the new ball is simple and time-tested. Slant the ball away from the right-hand batter from left-arm over, get it to swing back in, and target bowled and lbw.On Sunday, however, he began from around the wicket. He’s only done it once before in the IPL, in 2018, and that was also against the same batter, Rahul. Perhaps he’s seen something in Rahul’s technique to believe he has a greater chance from that angle? Perhaps, but at the post-match presentation, Boult revealed the idea was suggested to him on the morning of the match by his Royals and New Zealand team-mate James Neesham.Wherever the idea came from, the execution was brilliant: full, swinging in late, and stumps splattered as Rahul played all around the ball.LSG show off their flexible batting order
Ashwin’s promotion came out of necessity, thanks to Royals’ lack of batting depth. LSG have no such issues, blessed as they are with so many allrounders.Just as with the ball, it gives them flexibility with the bat. At the fall of Rahul’s wicket, they sent in Gowtham – who has a strike rate of nearly 168 in the IPL – as a pinch-hitter.It didn’t work, as Boult had him lbw off the first legal ball he faced. Who would come in next? You might have expected it to be Stoinis, who often bats in the top three in the Big Bash League and for Australia. Or Hooda or Ayush Badoni, both proper middle-order batters.Instead, it was Holder, who can strike a long ball, but also has a technique that’s brought him three Test hundreds. In the circumstances, it was possibly the latter quality that earned this promotion. It didn’t quite come off, with Holder scoring 8 off 17, but again, the move showed off the flexibility of LSG’s line-up.What’s not to love? Yuzvendra Chahal picks up wickets – two, three, even four – when he bowls•BCCITwo left-handers at the crease
LSG lost their fifth wicket at the end of the 12th over. They now needed 92 off 48 balls. At this point, Krunal walked in to join Quinton de Kock. It was the first time in LSG’s innings that two batters of the same kind – two left-handers in this case – were at the crease at the same time.Like all teams, LSG value left-right partnerships, but they may have broken the rule here for a specific reason. At that point, the offspinner Ashwin had one over left to bowl – which he immediately delivered – and the legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal two overs.LSG’s attack includes Ravi Bishnoi, an unusual legspinner who prefers bowling to left-handers. Chahal is a more traditional legspinner, delivering the ball with a low-ish arm and bowling legbreaks far more frequently than wrong’uns.Chahal’s record against left-handers is excellent – since the 2019 season, his economy rate against them (7.30) is only slightly worse than it is against right-handers (7.19) – but LSG were trying, perhaps, to maximise whatever marginal gains they could get.They may also have wanted to delay Stoinis’ entry, and backed his six-hitting ability in the closing stages of the match.As it turned out, Krunal’s promotion delayed Chahal’s re-introduction slightly – his third over was the 16th of LSG’s innings – but he dismissed both left-handers in that over.Holding Stoinis back, however, nearly allowed LSG to pull off an improbable win. His hitting – and useful contributions from Dushmantha Chameera and Avesh Khan – brought the equation down to 15 off the last over. The match, eventually, was won by Kuldeep Sen – who was making his debut for Royals – who conceded only one run off the first four balls of the final over, using the wide line outside off stump expertly to keep the ball away from Stoinis’ hitting arc.

The 17-year-old legspinner is one of the players to watch out for as England try to match their title-winning feat from the 1998 Under-19 World Cup

Andrew Miller04-Feb-2022The kids are all right, you know.Amid the existential gloom of England’s Ashes misadventure, and the potshots at a county system that no longer seems capable of coaching a functioning technique into a generation of Test wannabes, there is an alternative narrative taking shape in Antigua this week.One in which a batch of fearless teenagers, raised on the derring-do of the greatest white-ball team in England’s history, and decked out in the same sky-blue shirts in which their heroes won the most thrilling World Cup final of all time, have surged into their own global final with a series of captivating performances.On Saturday, England’s Young Lions take on India in the country’s first appearance in the Under-19 World Cup final since their victory over New Zealand in 1998. And win or lose, if this latest contest comes close to living up to the epic semi-final against Afghanistan on Tuesday, it is safe to assume that more than a few of the combatants will be ready to follow in the footsteps of Graeme Swann, Owais Shah and Rob Key, the three most notable members of that trophy-lifting team from the previous millennium.One or two, however, would already appear to be on the fast track, not least the precocious Leicestershire legspinner Rehan Ahmed, who can loosely claim to have taken his first Test wicket at the age of 11, and whose extraordinary three-wicket over against Afghanistan – in the crunchiest match situation that he can yet have encountered in his young career – became the moment that his team-mates could finally dare to believe.Rehan Ahmed’s three wickets at the death turned the semi-final against Afghanistan around in England’s favour•ICC/Getty Images”Those are the games you live for,” Rehan tells ESPNcricinfo. “I’d much rather have a game like that and win, than an easy win. It was fun to be part of it.”England’s 15-run winning margin does little justice to the raw jeopardy of the contest’s closing overs – pound for pound, it was arguably the most compelling 50-over contest since World Cup final. With four overs remaining, England seemed finally to have settled it with room to spare. Afghanistan needed 43 more runs with four wickets standing, and Rehan for once looked to have played a bit-part role, after an uncharacteristically loose first spell and a solitary wicket in his second.But then, all hell broke loose, and all bets were off. The first ball of James Sales’ next over was skied to point for what seemed like the match-settling wicket, only for the batter to be reprieved by a front-foot no-ball. The resulting free hit skidded away for five no-balls as well, and when a nervous Sales was cracked over long-on for six, 20 runs had been skelped from the over to transform the match situation.Related

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What happened next was a credit to the players’ composure and burgeoning professionalism – but also, you sense, to the never-say-die attributes of the senior team on whom they have modelled their approach to the game. The notion, for instance, of an England captain tossing the ball to his legspinner with 19 runs needed from 12 balls might never have crossed the mind of a previous generation. But that is what Eoin Morgan memorably did in an ODI in Grenada in 2019, when Adil Rashid responded to his captain’s faith with four wickets in five balls, and as Tom Prest had hinted in the build-up to the Under-19 final, this was a tactic he had no qualms about emulating.”At the start, I didn’t bowl as well as I wanted to, but I knew I had an over in there somewhere,” Rehan recalls. “We have so many bowling options but I told Presty, ‘look, I want to bowl at the death; even if they need three runs in the last over, give it to me and I’ll still bowl it’. I told him I’m ready whenever he needs me.”

“I know I’ve got some kind of natural cricket skills, but if I don’t work as hard as I should, then there’s no point in being talented. Even if I’m not the most talented, if I work the hardest, I’ll still be in a good position”

His first ball alone justified the faith. The dangerous Noor Ahmad failed to connect properly with a high-bouncing googly, and James Rew sprinted in from long-on to hold on to a magnificent catch. Three balls later, Izharulhaq Naveed also went for broke, and Sales on the midwicket boundary atoned for his jitters with another hugely composed take. One ball later, it was all but over – another wicket-taking googly, Rehan’s fourth of the innings – ripped into middle stump to dispatch Bilal Sami for a duck. Though Josh Boyden still had to close the match out, Rehan’s three wickets for a single run had put the game way before Afghanistan’s last pair.”If I was to bowl a ball that could save my life, I would just bowl my googly,” he says. “I just love bowling it. I’m trying to bowl it quicker, so that even if they do pick it, they have less time to react to it. It’s a wicket-taking ball. In practice, I’ll focus my legspin against the batters, and then afterwards I just bowl four overs of googlies, top of middle, top of off… I’m very confident in my googly.”

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He is very confident in general – infectiously so – and with ample justification too, given the strides he is already making. But even at the age of 17, Rehan’s game is underpinned by a work ethic that players a decade older would kill to have recognised at such a tender age.”I know I’ve got some kind of natural cricket skills, but if I don’t work as hard as I should, then there’s no point in being talented,” he says. “Even if I’m not the most talented, if I work the hardest, I’ll still be in a good position.”To say he has been on England’s radar for a while would be understating it. In July 2016, Rehan hadn’t even celebrated his 12th birthday when he was spirited down to Lord’s by the MCC head coach Steve Kirby, whose job it was to round up net bowlers to assist preparations ahead of England’s Test series against Pakistan.Rehan Ahmed, just 13 then, in action against Test-class batters at Lord’s•Getty ImagesFinding himself short of adequate legspinners to replicate the methods of Pakistan’s star bowler Yasir Shah, Kirby put out feelers with his scouts on the league scene, including with Gemaal Hussain, his former Gloucestershire team-mate, and one of Rehan’s team-mates at his club in Nottinghamshire, Thoresby Colliery CC.”Gemaal was like, ‘are you ready’?” Rehan recalls. “And I was like, ‘I’m always ready’!”I wasn’t initially meant to bowl to the England boys [but only to the Pakistan players], but I bowled a couple of legspinners to Kirby, then I bowled the googly. He didn’t pick it. And he was like, ‘you can come bowl to the senior guys’.”As much as I tried to stay calm and bowl to them like normal people, I just couldn’t, because I was bowling to Ben Stokes and Alastair Cook and people with Ashes hundreds, and bowling in the same nets as people with five-fors and Test-match wickets. It was crazy.”But you nicked them off, didn’t you?Rehan grins: “Well, yeah, that did happen… yeah.””I bowled Ben Stokes a couple of legspinners and a googly and he snicked off; he wasn’t the happiest so I didn’t celebrate… I just took the ball and walked back to my mark. But when I snicked off Alastair Cook, that was a bit more like it. He wasn’t as bothered. But I didn’t celebrate because he’s probably the best player in Test cricket. So I was just lucky to do that.”The impact that Rehan made was so telling that MCC politely declined any media coverage, rightly suggesting that too much attention at such a young age would be detrimental. But when Rehan was brought back to Lord’s in 2017 for the visit of West Indies, he sensed a new-found respect from the players in his sights.”When I bowled to Pakistan, they didn’t take me seriously and I got a few more wickets against them,” he says. “But West Indies played me like an actual bowler, which was a big difference, and I learnt so much more. They just showed a different standard. When I bowled to Jason Holder, it was just a different class. He was the No. 1 Test allrounder at the time, and it was just crazy.”

“I never had much coaching when I was younger. It was mainly YouTube and a few tips from my dad. But you can take everything as a learning, whether it’s watching someone bowl badly or watching someone bowl well”

Word was spreading beyond the confines of the nets too. “Steve Kirby just dropped it on me during one of the sessions, saying I’m gonna meet Shane Warne,” Rehan recalls. “I thought I was just going to sit down with him and have a chat – that was already amazing – but when he said ‘come on, let’s go have a bowl’, I couldn’t feel my toes!”It is shocking to think that Rehan hadn’t yet turned three when Warne played his last Test in January 2007. But thanks to YouTube, his legend lives on, and in fact, it was Rehan’s hours spent studying Warne’s variations that helped to inspire a diminutive young seamer to first give it a rip.”I never had much coaching when I was younger,” he says. “It was mainly YouTube and a few tips from my dad. But you can take everything as a learning, whether it’s watching someone bowl badly or watching someone bowl well. Even the other day [against Afghanistan], I took my first spell as another learning curve. You never look down on yourself after a couple of bad balls or a bad spell. It’s always about having belief till the end.”But as his game continues to progress, the coaching support around Rehan becomes increasingly valuable. He speaks particularly highly of Richard Dawson, the Young Lions head coach whose name has entered the frame for the interim Test role, and whose methods are sufficiently hands-off to allow him to develop at his own pace.”He’s been a massive help,” Rehan says. “He’s not a big technical coach; he’s more of a feel coach, which I don’t mind. I much prefer it when people tell me how to do stuff, rather than telling me what to do and what not to do… like front leg, front arm, this and that. With Daws, he says if the outcome’s good, you don’t need to worry about anything else. Focus on the outcome – if you’re landing in a good area, your action must be good enough.”Sometimes I’ll force myself to bowl full tosses, just to see if I have control of the ball,” he adds. “In nets, I’ll see if I can hit the top of middle on the full, or bowl a half-tracker. Because if someone’s going well, you want to get them off strike, if he’s whacking the good balls, you need to learn how to give them one, so it’s not just about bowling in one area for every batter.”

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It has been a remarkable journey for Rehan already, and he doesn’t even turn 18 until August. But if the World Cup final marks his first major foray into the limelight, then the events of the past 12 months – including his first season of List A cricket for Leicestershire, and even a call-up to the squad for India’s tour match at Durham last summer – have all added to the sense that he is ready for whatever is coming next.Rehan Ahmed has four-fors in each of his three outings at the Under-19 World Cup so far•ICC via Getty”Joining Leicestershire was probably one of the best decisions that I could have made at the time,” he says, having initially been part of Nottinghamshire’s youth system. “Notts is a massive county – and obviously you never close doors – but I felt at Leicestershire there were more coaches available at more times. When you see Paul Nixon coaching the Under-10s, you’re like, yeah, this is the county for me.”Though he didn’t play in the County Select XI fixture against India, he did more than just gawp at the superstars in his midst. “Just being around the whole Indian team, you see [Virat] Kohli walking up there and Rishabh Pant hitting it, and Rohit Sharma playing – it was just crazy. But then I came on a substitute and I took a catch of [Cheteshwar] Pujara. He just guided it to me at leg slip, and I took the catch, and he’s walking off giving me a death stare, and I’m just smiling because I’ve caught Pujara out.”And it will be India in his sights once more on Saturday, albeit a generation of players that he may yet get a chance to mix with on a more regular basis as their careers progress.”They’re a very good batting side,” he says, after watching Yash Dhull’s century, and 94 from Shaik Rasheed put their semi-final against Australia out of reach. “If they bat first and we try and restrict them to a low score, it could happen… but it doesn’t really matter. They have bowled teams out for 50 before, so they have a decent attack as well.”Either way, Rehan is convinced that the events of England’s semi-final, and the fact that they were forced to dig so deep – first with the bat, as George Bell and Alex Horton transformed their target with an unbeaten 95-run stand, and then with the ball – can only serve as a huge confidence boost to the whole squad.”Belly is one of the best players I’ve seen in pressure situations,” Rehan says. “Even though he’s quite a nervous guy, he always finds a way. When I was batting with Belly, I was like, ‘he’s going to do it again’. If Belly’s there, you never lose hope.”That last game, Horts came out and he still smashed a fifty from No. 8. It just shows that we’ve got batting to the bottom. [Jacob] Bethell is in unbelievable form, Prest is in unbelievable form, [Will] Luxton is batting so well. [James] Rew is doing his own thing. Everyone’s contributing.”It’s just about doing our own skills the best we can, because it’s the biggest game of all our lives right now.”

Promising signs for the future after first glimpse of England’s new quicks

Cameron Ponsonby17-Mar-2022England’s new generation of Saqib Mahmood and Matt Fisher have known each other for years. Playing their junior cricket for rival counties Lancashire and Yorkshire, they encountered each other regularly, with one scorecard from an Under-14 game in 2011 reading Fisher 31 (64) b Mahmood.Eleven years later, they made their debuts together as England players – and almost before they had had time to sample the nerves of their first stint in the field, Fisher was in the thick of the action, with the eventful figures of 0.2-0-4-1.A Test debut at 24 would be a fast rise to the top for most. But Fisher made his professional debut as a 15-year-old in 2013. He’s been playing professional cricket for the last nine years of his life. In that context, his debut switches from being one of a youngster breezing through to the top and instead becomes a long-awaited one.What’s more, that doesn’t speak of the pressure that accompanies a debut at 15. Whether you like it or not, from that moment on you’re anointed as a future England player. And failure to reach that level will result in murmurs of wasted potential and a place in the pub-quiz annals of the Yorkshire Dales. Alongside the joy, pride, nerves and excitement that Fisher must have felt when he was told of his impending Test debut, you can only imagine a fair element of relief was involved as well. “I’ve done it.”When Fisher took his wicket – luring John Campbell in the channel outside off, one ball after being steered through third man for four – he did so with an explosion of joy before a sustained release of emotion as he pointed to the sky in memory of his dad, who died shortly before he made his professional debut nine years ago.Speaking on TalkSPORT 2, Darren Gough mentioned how impressed he’d been with Fisher’s maturity, having spent time together at Yorkshire through Gough’s role as Interim Managing Director. He spoke of Fisher’s clear abilities with the ball but mostly of his abilities as a leader who is able to mix confidence with empathy. Fisher may only be 24, but he’s already a seasoned professional who has been through more than most.”Everyone has something which means something to them,” Ben Stokes said at the close, after making his own gesture to his father following his second-day hundred. “It’s great to see someone like Fish – he’s had a difficult lot of years since his debut at 15 with injuries. To watching a young lad make his debut, bowl well and get his first Test wicket is quite special.”Matt Fisher and Saqib Mahmood made their England Test debuts•Getty ImagesA penny, however, for Mahmood’s thoughts when that wicket fell. Joy mixed with a tinge of envy, perhaps? After all, his debut was the one that had been trumpeted in advance, following the decisions to leave out both Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood. Fisher’s opportunity only arose on the morning of the match, when Craig Overton also pulled out with illness.Mahmood’s debut has hardly been diluted because of starting alongside Fisher but he does lose the intangible benefit of being the newest kid on the block. The two are different bowlers, one new-ball and one old-, but nevertheless, they’ve been dragged into a shootout whereas previously Mahmood’s rival bowler was unarmed and out of the team.Mahmood, however, proved with the excitement that he generated in the ODI series against Pakistan last summer that he’s unlikely to stay in the shadows for long. His action is 50% Brett Lee and 50% Shoaib Akthar, but his beard is 100% Brad Pitt. To watch Mahmood bowl is exciting. A bowler like Glenn McGrath would impress you over time with relentless accuracy, and a steady realisation that this is what elite performance looks like. But with Mahmood it takes just one ball. What is this? And where can I get more?Related

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His first wicket failed to arrive on Thursday evening but it’s surely only a matter of when and not if. Four overs of good pace were delivered in which he conceded just three runs. Mahmood is the fastest bowler in the team, now that Wood is out of action, and though he failed to breach 140kph in his opening gambit, there was at least one occasion when the ball seemed to gather pace through to Ben Foakes behind the stumps, in a way that has not often been seen over the past two days.”He came in and hit the wicket really hard,” Stokes said of Mahmood. “He got a few balls to go off the deck and going through a bit, considering what it was like on day one. I don’t want to eat my words here but I can’t see [the pitch] getting any better. I think the spinner is in the game and the seamers felt in the game the whole way, so it’ll be an exciting day tomorrow.””Seeing two lads get presented their caps, and being lucky enough to present one of them – I gave Saqqy his cap – there’s a lot of great things that can happen and memories that you can create playing international cricket,” Stokes added.”Seeing the excitement on Fisher’s face even when he got his cap, his smile was ear to ear for 15 minutes – and then obviously you could see how excited he was when he got his wicket today. It means a lot for him and a lot of other people – family and friends, everyone that has supported him.”After a somewhat false dawn for England’s new era in Antigua, circumstances have conspired to unleash the “good young bowling talent” that Andrew Strauss, the interim managing director, had referred to before the series began. And to judge by this most fleeting of first glimpses, it looks likely to be a fun one.

The RCB allrounder has been setting the pace with both bat and ball this season

Hemant Brar08-May-2022Algebra and calculus have troubled Bengal and Royal Challengers Bangalore allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed more than any opposition bowler or batter has.In 2011, Shahbaz’s father enrolled him in a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, but until last year he couldn’t get past Mathematics 101, a subject from the first semester. It was only last season, when he was playing in the IPL for RCB, as it happened, that he took the exam for it online and passed. “So you can say I have completed my engineering,” Shahbaz says.Apart from that, he has also been working hard to upgrade his cricketing skills. Here, too, the results have gone largely in his favour.Related

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Bought back by Royal Challengers at the auction in February, Shahbaz made over 25 in each of his first five innings in this year’s IPL. That’s some consistency for a player who bats mainly at No. 5 and 6. He hasn’t been as successful with his left-arm fingerspin but has bowled a couple of handy spells.Shahbaz’s stronger suit is batting but in 2020, his first season with Royal Challengers, he played only two games and faced just one ball. The next year he got a longer run but could score only 59 runs in seven innings at an average of 8.42 and a strike rate of 111.32.While his returns with the bat were not stellar, he gained valuable insights about his craft. “I realised I was struggling to hit against fast bowlers,” Shahbaz says. “Whenever I tried big shots, I was ending up in an open-stance position. Simon Katich [then Royal Challengers head coach] and Mike Hesson [director of cricket at the franchise] sir told me if I can maintain my shape, I can score in any situation. That’s something I have tried to address this time.”At RCB, he has also had the opportunity to pick the brains of two of the best hitters in T20 cricket. “Big players such as AB de Villiers sir and Glenn Maxwell sir don’t talk much about technique,” Shahbaz says. “Whenever I spoke to them, it was about planning, conditions, and how to plan for different conditions. What the good boundary options are against fast bowlers and spinners. Or how to keep the scoreboard moving irrespective of the situation and build a platform from where we can win the match.”Shahbaz enjoys batting with Dinesh Karthik: “With him you don’t feel any pressure as he can change the momentum of the game in one over”•BCCIAll that culminated in one crucial knock after another this season. And his strike rate against pace zoomed from 125.00 last season to 143.01 this time.In the match against Kolkata Knight Riders, he went in at 62 for 4 and scored 27 off 20 balls to put his team ahead in a chase of 129. Against Rajasthan Royals he entered at the same scoreline. This time RCB were chasing 170. He smashed 45 off 26 balls and along with Dinesh Karthik (44 not out off 23), took the side to a win.Batting first against Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers were 75 for 4, which soon became 92 for 5. Shahbaz and Karthik then added 97 in an unbroken sixth-wicket stand, lifting Royal Challengers to a winning total.”I enjoy batting with DK [Karthik] . He is so cool and calm even in those pressure situations,” Shahbaz says. “He just says we have to take the game deep. If I play a rash shot, he would tell me that this is not needed at this stage. Only if I get a loose ball I should try for the boundary. Else, I should take a single, or even if it’s a dot ball, it’s okay. With him, you don’t feel any pressure as he can change the momentum of the game in one over.”Shahbaz mentions the Rajasthan Royals match, where Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin had stifled the batters on a pitch that was taking spin. “I wasn’t able to figure out how to take the game deep. Ashwin had an over left, and I was thinking of playing him out as it was easier to score against fast bowlers. Then DK came and attacked Ashwin. In that one over, the game completely changed.”RCB spin-bowling coach S Sriram suggested Shahbaz work on a faster run-up, which helped him find his rhythm and increase his bowling speed•Royal Challengers BangaloreWith 82 needed off 42 balls, Karthik hit Ashwin for three fours and a six in a 21-run over. It was another lesson for Shahbaz in his cricketing education.

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When he was struggling with the bat in the 2021 IPL, it was his bowling that kept Shahbaz in the frame at RCB. He picked up seven wickets, including a game-changing 3 for 7 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, at an economy of 6.57.This year he has been assigned the role of fifth bowler, alongside Maxwell. While he has been a bit expensive at times, he also bowled a spell of 4-0-25-0 against Lucknow Super Giants. Against Gujarat Titans he took the wickets of Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya to bring his side back into the game, and in his most recent match, against Chennai Super Kings, he broke the opening stand by dismissing an in-form Ruturaj Gaikwad.Shahbaz credits S Sriram, the Royal Challengers batting and spin-bowling coach, for giving him belief. “When I first came to the IPL, I had doubts if my bowling skills were good enough for this level. But in the last two seasons, I have learnt a lot from S Sriram about how to bowl to each batsman and get them out. He knows my bowling inside out.”The biggest improvement, Shahbaz says, has been in his rhythm, which he had struggled with. Sriram suggested making his run-up faster, which helped with that aspect. It had another benefit as well.”Earlier, my bowling speed was too slow. If you bowl that slow in the IPL, batters can always attack you. So my biggest worry was how I can increase my speed by 4-5kph. As I worked on my rhythm, my speed also increased.”Now I aim for 94-95kph for my normal ball, and my slower ball is at around 88-89kph. If I can maintain 95kph, it helps a lot in these conditions. Otherwise, on these flat Mumbai wickets, it is very difficult for spinners.””There will be a time when I will have to finish games on my own. I am prepared and waiting for that time”•BCCIIn T20s, the conventional wisdom is that a left-arm fingerspinner isn’t as effective against a left-hand batter. But Shahbaz has been trying to up his game against left-hand batters as well.”Ever since I started playing, I bowled from around the wicket. It’s a good option but now I am bowling over the wicket as well, to left-hand batsmen. Because that gives you a lot of options, and the more options you have, the more you can control the game.”If you are bowling over the wicket, you can bowl wide outside off. If there is some turn available, then you can turn from outside off. Then the leftie has only one option – to hit down the ground. The leg-side option is no longer available.”From over the wicket, you can bowl the leg-stump line as well, which is effective this season because most games are being played on side wickets due to limited venues. So one square boundary is generally bigger than the other. That makes it difficult for left-handers to hit on the leg side [if that’s the bigger boundary]. This also creates more wicket-taking options.”While Shahbaz is tightening up his bowling, it’s batting he enjoys more and wants to make more of an impact with. At the top of his to-do list is to see games to the end with the bat.”In domestic cricket, I have finished a few close games, so I have that experience. Against KKR, we were chasing 127 [129], and I scored 27 in a tough situation but then I got out. Akash Deep [Bengal and Royal Challengers team-mate] said to me, ‘You could have finished this game but you lost your wicket to a bad shot. What happened?’ I told him this was my first innings in the IPL where I had batted well. The more experience I get of batting in this position, the more games I can finish for the team.”Right now, I am mostly playing a supporting role to DK , but there will be a time when I will have to finish games on my own. I am prepared and waiting for that time.”

The Punjab Kings seamer, who has been picked for India’s T20I squad, talks about his success as a death bowler this IPL season

Interview by Hemant Brar02-Jun-2022Punjab Kings were on their way to the Wankhede Stadium for the last league game of IPL 2022 when Arshdeep Singh heard he had been picked for India’s T20I squad for the South Africa series. With a match on hand, he couldn’t let the excitement overwhelm him at the time, but as the series gets closer, the feeling has been sinking in.Arshdeep was retained by Punjab ahead of the season, and he repaid that trust by becoming their go-to bowler in the death overs. Among those who bowled at least ten overs at the death, his economy of 7.58 in that phase was second only to Jasprit Bumrah’s 7.38. Overall, he picked up ten wickets in 14 games at an economy of 7.70. Arshdeep spoke about what went into the making of his breakout season.Was there any pressure of being a retained player for Punjab Kings?
There was no pressure as such. Whenever you get a chance for a team, you try to give your 100%, no matter if it’s your first year or tenth, if you have been retained or have come through the auction. If a team has shown confidence in you, you have to do well for them and give your 100%.Related

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How do you see your growth as a bowler in the last couple of years?
I feel I am a lot more consistent now. Earlier I used to bowl loose balls in between. Now I have worked on that a lot so that I don’t give the batter that release ball. All the batters who come to play in the IPL are quite experienced. They are aware and are good enough to hit you for a boundary whenever they get a bad ball. That’s one thing I have worked on a lot, that I consistently bowl in good areas with a good plan. In the coming days, the focus will be on how to improve it further.What specific drills did you do to become more consistent?
I did a lot of single-wicket practice. Lots of repetitions of length ball and yorker. After doing it so many times in practice, you start understanding where your ball will land if you run at this particular speed with this particular angle.. I guess with all those repetitions, you start getting that feeling and that makes a lot of difference.Are you working on improving your bowling speed as well?
Right now, I am trying to focus on consistency. The main thing is how consistent I am in hitting those lines and lengths, and in executing my plans.What about the fitness part?
As a sportsperson, the goal is to stay as fit as possible. Every season, every month, every day, you try to work on it so that when you wake up in the morning, you feel energetic and not fatigued. So that’s the main focus – to maintain a good fitness level and that’s what I have been working on.”I feel I am a lot more consistent now. That’s one thing I have worked on a lot, that I consistently bowl in good areas with a good plan”•BCCIHave you made any changes to your diet to achieve that?
As you know, it’s not easy to follow a diet in Punjabi households.Adrian Le Roux, our trainer at Punjab Kings, says that the best way of recovery is to sleep for at least eight hours [in a day] and keep yourself hydrated. I try to tick those boxes and it has helped my game a lot.You and Jasprit Bumrah bowled the joint-most yorkers this IPL season. Is that a delivery you worked specifically on?
As I said earlier, repetitions make a lot of difference, because your control improves tremendously and you start getting the confidence that you can bowl it in the match as well. You practise with a normal ball, or with a slightly wet ball if there’s a chance of dew in the game. Sometimes you bowl to a batsman, sometimes you do single-wicket practice. Sometimes you can place boots or some other target to aim at. You can even challenge other bowlers in the nets to see who can hit the target the most times. That adds a fun element.You were the designated death-overs bowler for your team this season. Was that something communicated to you in advance?
I guess the team’s combination was such that I was supposed to bowl one over at the start, one in the middle and two at the death. I was told before the tournament what my role would be. So in the practice games, I bowled accordingly. I thank the team management a lot for the role clarity they gave me. That helped me immensely as I knew when I have to bowl and so I could plan accordingly.When did you start feeling confident that you could bowl well at the death?
I guess the first thing is, you must have that self-belief. Only then others will show confidence in you. Whenever you step onto the field, you step on with the confidence that no matter who is up against you, you will back your skills and do well for your team. You reach this level only if you have the required skills. After that, it is about who can adapt to the situation in the middle and excel.