Their build-up has not been great on and off the field, but Bangladesh have the talent to surprise some of the favourites

Mohammad Isam29-Sep-20231:56

Bowlers and allrounders give Bangladesh hope

World Cup pedigree
Bangladesh have won three matches in each of their last four World Cup campaigns, only once entering the knockout stage, which is an underwhelming record for the cricket-mad nation. In the 2019 World Cup, they beat South Africa, West Indies and Afghanistan and lost five matches.Recent form

Bangladesh bowed out of the Asia Cup in the Super Four stage but they finished well by beating India in their final game. Their experimental teams faltered against New Zealand at home soon after, capping off a build-up period that had more lows than highs. Tamim Iqbal (back) and Ebadot Hossain (knee) are out of squad while Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s hamstring is a concern.Related

• Shanto and Young: Two rising stars add solidity at the top of their sides

• Tamim: 'After the last two months, I had nerves going out to bat'

• Tamim left out of Bangladesh's World Cup squad

Selection

Tamim’s omission was the biggest talking point when the team was announced on September 26. They have the experienced Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah in their squad, and the 2020 Under-19 World Cup-winning quartet of Towhid Hridoy, Tanzid Hasan, Tanzim Hasan and Shoriful Islam.Squad

Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mushfiqur Rahim, Najmul Hossain Shanto (vc), Litton Das, Towhid Hridoy, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan, Tanzid Hasan, Tanzim Hasan, MahmudullahTaskin Ahmed will spearhead the pace attack•Associated PressKey player(s)
Shakib Al Hasan remains the biggest name. He was outstanding in the 2019 tournament, scoring 606 runs in eight games at an average of 86.57, but didn’t receive much support from the rest of the team. He returned recently as ODI captain after Tamim resigned in August. His batting at No. 4, in addition to his ten overs in Indian conditions, will be key. Mushfiqur, another senior figure in the Bangladesh team in the twilight of his career, has been in great touch this year, especially after moving to No. 6.In the bowling department, Taskin Ahmed has been the leader in the last few years and will spearhead the pace attack.Rising star(s)
Hridoy, Shoriful Tanzid and Tanzim are playing their first ODI World Cup. Left-arm quick Shoriful and middle-order batter Hridoy have impressed the most in white-ball cricket lately, with Hridoy becoming the first Bangladesh player to score 500 runs in his first year of ODI cricket.World Cup farewells
It could be the last World Cup for the likes of Shakib, Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah, though the latter two have not outlined their plans yet like Shakib has. Among the three, Shakib is the only one playing all three formats.

Such a heavy workload after two years out of red-ball cricket was always likely to have consequences

Vithushan Ehantharajah18-Jun-2023Moeen Ali can’t have had many worse birthdays than this one.Turning 36 is bad enough, what with officially being in your “late thirties”. It began pleasantly enough as the England team presented him with a card before the start of day three of this first Ashes Test. Unfortunately, he was also presented with a 25% fine of his match fee by the ICC for spraying a drying agent on his bowling hand.The incident took just before Moeen bowled a two-over spell through to stumps on day two. He crouches by the boundary, picks up the canister and sprays away, oblivious that he is doing anything wrong. Sky Sports’ cameras picked up the whole thing.On Sunday, the need for the drying agent was crystal clear. Moeen’s right hand was in the lens once more, with photographs showing the tip of his spinning index finger blistered red-raw.Related

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It is said to be sore to touch, which is exactly as it looks. One can only imagine how painful it is gripping a proud Dukes seam and giving it a rip, in every sense. It was clearly a problem as Saturday wore on, with a few small spells off the field. You could track the decline in effect and confidence as the ball moved further into his hand as the Australian innings wore on.There were two full tosses to Pat Cummins in his final nine deliveries on day three. The only reason both were not carted into the stands was the Australia captain’s suspicion when presented with the first. Such were Ben Stokes’ tactics at the time – packing the leg side, packing the off side, then going with an umbrella field, often in the same over – Cummins had every right to think such an amateurish delivery might have been deliberate. It wasn’t.Moeen’s 33 overs across these two days are the joint-sixth-most he has bowled in an innings. Only once have there been more in a home Test; 36 in the first innings against Australia at Lord’s in 2015.It is worth noting that was Moeen’s 13th of what is now 57 caps. Early enough in his career for the spinning digit to be in sound health, and no doubt primed by the regular first-class cricket he was playing at the time. The issue with the finger emerged two years later, tearing open in the opening match of the 2017-18 Ashes. He played through, eventually leaving the tour with five wickets in as many games, a series average of 115 and an issue to manage for the rest of his career.There was a flare-up in the 2019 Ashes opener too, at this ground, which ultimately led to him being axed for the rest of the series. And the unfortunate symmetry here may be that he has to miss the Lord’s Test – beginning June 28 – to give it time to heal over. And thus England, having brought Moeen out of retirement to cover for losing Jack Leach to a stress fracture, will return to square one.Even Moeen could see this coming. While he was typically phlegmatic about his finger’s readiness for the grind during media duties on Monday, the fact his last red-ball work of any note was a Test in September 2021 meant its robustness was unknown.Moeen suffered a blister on the index finger of his right hand•Visionhaus/Getty ImagesThe white-ball overs, the practice sessions in the IPL, these were posited as reasons it might be okay. In answer to the queries, he rounded off with a prophetic: “We’ll see after I’ve bowled about 15 overs.” Well, now we know, and we can all see.It’s hard to blame Moeen in all this. He was happy with his white-ball lot, and who could begrudge anyone for accepting a golden ticket to such a high-profile series, under new management that perfectly suits their qualities and personality? You’d shake someone if they said no to that. There are, however, questions to be asked of the management.The pros to his selection were understandable to a point, and the prodigious turn shown – particularly the delivery that bowled Cameron Green, proved some of them were not out of date. But was the state of the finger discussed? And moreover – was it then wise to give him 29 overs on his first day in the field for two years?The figures, all told, are not dreadful, particularly when viewed through Brendon McCullum’s thick black lenses. Runs conceded – 147 – are way down on a list of priorities, and with the dismissals of Green and Travis Head, England will argue Moeen has done exactly what has been asked of him. Had Green or Alex Carey gone earlier, with Jonny Bairstow missing both chances – a different conversation we simply do not have time for right now – Australia would have been dismissed sooner and Moeen wouldn’t have had to bowl as much as he did.The full-tosses will be explained as “one of those things”. The eight sixes conceded (the most by a bowler in a single Ashes innings) simply the accepted by-product of giving the ball flight to entice attacking shots. Even Ollie Robinson seemed unperturbed by the finger at stumps: “As far as I’m aware, it’s fine.” It’s not, obviously.The selection of Moeen, like the Test itself, is fascinatingly poised. He has a chance to offer crucial runs to get England a big enough lead on Monday before getting the ball back in his hands for what needs to be a vital contribution in the fourth innings.Over the last year, this Test group have had a knack for getting marginal calls right. And while the selection of Moeen has not backfired just yet given the current state of play, we are not far away from being able to say so one way or another.

Cummins’ bids across all IPL auctions crossed the INR 50-crore mark surpassing Yuvraj Singh’s INR 48.1 crore

Sampath Bandarupalli20-Dec-2023

Starc, Cummins lead overseas dominance

New benchmarks were scaled in the history of the IPL auction on Tuesday, as the INR 20-crore mark was breached for the first time. Sunrisers Hyderabad spent INR 20.5 crore (USD 2.47 million approx.) for Pat Cummins, as he broke the record set by Punjab Kings last year in buying Sam Curran for INR 18.5 crore (USD 2.2 million approx.) to become the IPL’s most expensive player.However, Cummins’ selling price itself soon lost significance as Mitchell Starc surpassed his national team captain, with Kolkata Knight Riders splurging INR 24.75 crores (USD 2.98 million approx.) on the left-arm pacer. The two Australians now have a higher pay than the prize money of INR 20 crore received by Chennai Super Kings for winning the previous season.The total of INR 45.25 crore (USD 5.4 million approx.) spent on the Australian duo was 19.64% of total spending by the ten franchises on Tuesday. Harshal Patel was the Indian with the highest bid at this auction, as Kings bought him for INR 11.75 crore (USD 1.41 million approx.). He was the only Indian among the six players with INR 10-plus crore bids at Tuesday’s auction.

How the cricketing world and beyond reacted to Virat Kohli’s record-breaking 50th ODI century

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Nov-2023Virat Kohli scored a record-breaking 50th ODI century, going past Sachin Tendulkar, during the semi-final of the 2023 ODI World Cup against New Zealand in Mumbai. Kohli brought up his ton off 105 balls, with a flick for two off Lockie Ferguson in the 42nd over of India’s innings. Here’s how the cricketing world reacted to the feat:

The first time I met you in the Indian dressing room, you were pranked by other teammates into touching my feet. I couldn’t stop laughing that day. But soon, you touched my heart with your passion and skill. I am so happy that that young boy has grown into a ‘Virat’ player.

I… pic.twitter.com/KcdoPwgzkX

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) November 15, 2023

The Lucknow Super Giants fast bowler had to wait two years for his chance in the IPL, and he made sure it was worth it

Nagraj Gollapudi01-Apr-2024In 2021, the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi teams were practicing next to each other at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali during the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Former India wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya was the UP coach, and a fast bowler in the Delhi nets caught his eye, making him want to move to a position from where he could observe him.After watching the Delhi bowler deliver a couple of balls, Dahiya was convinced he had found an exciting and explosive talent for Lucknow Super Giants, with whom he was an assistant coach and talent scout.”The moment our nets finished, I got in touch with the fast bowler,” Dahiya told ESPNcricinfo. “And immediately after that, I spoke to Gautam [Gambhir, LSG’s director of cricket at the time] and told him, ‘here’s a boy, we have to pick him at the auction, straightaway’. I had no doubts whatsoever.”That fast bowler was Mayank Yadav, now 21, who on Saturday broke the back of the Punjab Kings chase with a four-over spell of extreme fast bowling that will be remembered for a long time by those who watched it. Hitting speeds north of 150kph repeatedly, Mayank had batters with international experience hopping, and his 155.8kph thunderbolt to Shikhar Dhawan has been recorded as the fastest ball of this IPL season.Related

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After Punjab had powered to 102 for no loss in the 12th over in a chase of 200, Mayank took the crucial wickets of Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma, all of them hurried by his express pace and caught trying to pull. Mayank was the Player of the Match on his IPL debut and became an instant sensation.”He came in and broke the back of our batting,” former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar, now Kings’ director of cricket, said. “He bowled really fast and the lengths that he bowled made it difficult. He used the big side of the boundary. He put us back big time in the game and we couldn’t force the issue.”Dahiya’s pick, who LSG had bought at the IPL 2022 auction at his base price of INR 20 lakh, had made a head-turning start to his IPL career.

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Speaking to the media in Lucknow, Mayank relived how he felt when LSG coach Justin Langer told him that he would be making his debut against Kings the following evening.”There was a lot of excitement,” he said. “For the past two years, I was only visualising one thing: how will I deliver that first ball in IPL and how it would feel in front of the audience. People told [me] there could be some nervousness, some pressure. But I did not feel that at all. When the captain [Nicholas Pooran] told me to bowl my first over, I felt inside me that I belong to this place. And my confidence was high.”Dale Steyn, the one fast bowler Mayank “idolises”, couldn’t believe what he was watching at home in South Africa, and said on X: “Mayank Yadav, where have you been hiding!”Brett Lee also expressed a similar sentiment.Mayank Yadav clocked 155.8kph against Punjab Kings, the fastest ball of this IPL season•AFP/Getty Images

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The wait for Mayank, however, had been frustrating.Once he had left the stadium after winning the game for LSG, Mayank sent messages to his mother and the head coach of the much-celebrated Sonnet Cricket Club in Delhi, Devendra Sharma. The gist was that he had made his debut and that he was happy.Sharma explained the context. In the first half of IPL 2023, Mayank had messaged Sharma on two occasions, saying he was going to make his debut. It did not happen and he was eventually ruled out of the season because of an injury.”He called me twice last season saying ‘today is my debut, so please watch’,” Sharma said. “But when I opened the [TV], he was nowhere on the team sheet.”After this match [Mayank’s IPL debut], he checked [in with me] whether he bowled well. After he got hit for two fours, he came back really well.”The coaches at Sonnet had realised that Mayank could blossom into a good fast bowler if he followed a development plan. He played club cricket across different levels before making his debut for Delhi in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2021, where he took three wickets in a ten-run victory against Haryana.While Dahiya was excited by Mayank’s potential, he had told Gambhir he did not see him playing in IPL 2022 because Mayank “did not have bowling miles in his legs”.”I remember he was bowling a few no-balls early on in training in the 2022 season,” Dahiya said. “We told him to mark his run-up. He said, ‘I don’t have a run-up – from wherever I feel comfortable, I turn and run in’.” Dahiya and LSG’s coaches were gobsmacked. How could a bowler who had already played for his state not have a proper run-up? He was taught the importance of having one, and why it was necessary to take a breather before steaming in.

“When I was a child, [my father] would show me when Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Mitchell Johnson were bowling. The one thing I liked very much was when the batter was hit on the body or helmet – that inspired me to take up fast bowling”Mayank Yadav

Unfortunately for Mayank, during a practice match early in IPL 2023, he lost his footing because the landing area was a “bit wet”, as Dahiya put it. He continued bowling but had to pull out on the fifth delivery and the pull he felt in his quadriceps turned out to be a Grade 2 tear. Dahiya, Gambhir and Andy Flower, LSG’s head coach at the time, agreed Mayank should do his rehab with the squad.In the 2023 Deodhar Trophy, the domestic 50-over tournament played less than two months after the IPL, Mayank took 12 wickets for North Zone. It was there that Mayank hit 155kph – possibly the turning point of his career. You can watch YouTube clips of Mayank sending stumps flying.Dahiya was commentating on that tournament. “He was not going crazy just for the pace,” Dahiya said. “His bouncers were thought out. A lot of people are quick when they deliver their short-pitch deliveries. His pitched-up deliveries are also quick. That makes him a bit more dangerous.”

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As a youngster, Mayank loved anything fast. “Let it be a rocket, plane or superbikes – I like speed. As a child, I like watching jets and was fascinated,” he said with a grin at a media conference. But one thing excited him more than anything else.”My father liked fast bowlers a lot. When I was a child, he would show me when Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Mitchell Johnson were bowling. The one thing I liked very much was when the batter was hit on the body or helmet – that inspired me to take up fast bowling.”Mayank is 6’1″ in his socks and is lean and muscular. According to former India fast bowler Varun Aaron, Mayank gets his pace from a smooth bowling action including a perfect head and arm position during the load-up, as well as a braced front leg that lands facing the batter. Sharma believes Mayank’s wrist position allows him to deliver a bouncer with a three-quarter seam, something fast bowlers like Lee did effortlessly.Mayank, fondly called Minty by his family, lives with his parents and older sister in Motinagar in Delhi. Even before he had reached his teens, his father Prabhu was convinced that Mayank should play cricket, and he spent nearly a year trying to find a way for his son to audition in front of the iconic, late Sonnet Club coach Tarak Sinha.3:05

McClenaghan: Mayank really rattled Punjab’s cages

When the opportunity finally arrived, Mayank, then 15 and slender, bowled in the nets and impressed Sinha instantly. Prabhu, however, was a bit reluctant to enrol his son immediately because of a “business crisis”. Back then, he made digital timers for cars. Now he makes sirens for police vehicles.Sharma insisted that Mayank start the day after the audition and Sonnet quickly “adopted” him, Prabhu said. Shoes, travel to matches, and lodging – everything was covered.”Speed comes naturally to Mayank,” Sharma said. “It’s a god-given gift. When he bowled the first time, the ball was flying off the seam. [this boy is strange], I thought.”Prabhu never even allowed his son to carry his kit bag when he was young, so that he could just focus on developing his game, but once Sonnet took charge, he trusted them. “Minty said to me that now that he is settled in Sonnet, I can focus on my work,” Prabhu said with pride.But, as teams analyse Mayank, they will find ways to counter his express pace, so his development plan at LSG will be crucial, Dahiya said. Umran Malik is an example of a fast bowler who took the IPL by storm, but hasn’t developed much since he burst onto the scene.On Sunday, the day after Mayank’s debut, father and son had a word. “I told him you are doing well,” Prabhu said. “What all skills you have, do utilise them in future matches.”Next stop, Bengaluru, where LSG take on RCB on Tuesday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, a venue that tests even the best of bowlers.

New local stars emerged, including Josh Brown, but Renegades and Thunder need to rebuild after poor campaigns

Tristan Lavalette26-Jan-2024After a rocky start, marred by a farcical abandonment in Geelong due to a dangerous pitch and the schedule being heavily impacted by bad weather, a shortened BBL season came alive in a throwback to its heyday.It built on the bounce back experienced last season following a difficult period for the BBL mired in successive Covid-19 affected seasons. The tournament appears in a good place, having eroded a negative perception that had set in, but as ever question marks remain.Shortened season fuels big crowdsThis was seen as a pivotal season for the tournament after a resurgence last year. There had long been complaints over the protracted length of the BBL and officials reacted by shortening the regular season from 56 to 40 games.Related

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Teams played 10 games each – down from 14 – and cut the length so it finished before the school holidays with finals having for a number of years been played in February. The finals series was reduced by a game after a rejigging of the format where only the top four qualified instead of five. It meant that games had more stakes and there were less dead rubbers.The truncated season proved a hit with crowds rising by 27 percent with five regular season matches boasting more than 40,000 fans. It recreated the type of spectacle that saw the BBL take off in the mid-2010s and helped ensure a much better television product to help banish the eyesore of empty grandstands from previous seasons.While traditional strongholds in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane enjoyed record attendances, tournament officials would have been especially delighted with crowd numbers in Melbourne where the BBL has had difficulty penetrating. Renegades had an average crowd increase of 63 pe cent despite another underwhelming season.A capacity crowd of 43,000 at the SCG for the final was a fitting end to a successful season.Laurie Evans was brilliant for Perth Scorchers, but missed the finals•Getty ImagesMass exodus still underlines availability issuesIt wasn’t all smooth sailing with a number of players leaving ahead of the finals to rival leagues, mostly the lucrative ILT20 in the UAE.The BBL had sought to ward off competitors by doubling the salary caps of teams with top overseas players around $420,000 if they were available for the whole season.But it still fell short of the salary cap of teams for the ILT20, which has a footprint from the IPL and is played in a shorter timespan than the BBL. Players unsurprisingly have found the ILT20 too hard to resist.Laurie Evans emerged as a fan favourite for Perth Scorchers after his cavalier batting through the season, but he left the day after their final regular season match to fly to the UAE.He believed the BBL season needed to be further shortened to a month, so that a clash of tournaments could be avoided. Sam Billings, who also left for the ILT20 and subsequently missed the Heat’s triumph, floated the idea of multi-year deals as a way of retaining players.But as cricket’s calendar increasingly gets saturated, the clash of rival tournaments and international fixtures means the issue over player availability might prove impossible to fix.New local stars emergeJosh Brown has suddenly become sought-after around the world•Getty ImagesThe departure of overseas players gutted teams in the finals, who had to rely on bench strength and local talent to get them through. No one grabbed their opportunity more than Brisbane Heat opener Josh Brown, who stepped up with probably the most outrageous innings seen in the BBL when he clubbed 140 off 57 balls against Adelaide Strikers in the Challenger.He made headlines worldwide and backed up his heroics with a half-century – the only one of the match – in tough batting conditions in the final. Brown was subsequently offered a contract in the Bangladesh Premier League.The breakout batter of the regular season was Renegades dynamo Jake Fraser-McGurk, who is starting to put together his big-hitting talents to devastating effect. He produced clean hitting underlined by a strike-rate of 158.64. He also scored two half-centuries having never struck one in the BBL before.Fraser-McGurk, 21, has quickly become a drawcard and looms as a player of considerable interest for the national hierarchy having smashed the fastest ever List A century earlier in the summer and he also struck a maiden first-class hundred. He should make his international debut in the ODI series against West Indies.Seamer Xavier Bartlett has also been named against West Indies after starring with the new ball and at the death to finish as the season’s leading wicket-taker. His destruction of Hurricanes’ top-order had the Gabba heaving in the spell of the tournament.Nikhil Chaudhary, of the Hurricanes, was another to make a name for himself and has reportedly had interest from other BBL clubs.Heat end Scorchers/Sixers’ strangleholdWas this season the start of something for Brisbane Heat?•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesAs top-placed Heat started wobbling late in the season, one suspected Scorchers and Sixers were on a collision course to meet in another final. But Scorchers could never quite overcome the absence of inspirational skipper Ashton Turner as they crashed to a big home loss in the Knockout to Strikers.Sixers, however, peaked at the right time to thrash Heat in the Qualifier on the Gold Coast to book a home final at their SCG fortress. But they were left stunned by Heat in a one-sided final in what might prove to be a changing of the guard.Scorchers and Sixers had won eight of 12 titles, including the last four, but Heat have replicated their blueprint of building around a local core. Queensland Cricket have reaped rewards for their local T20 Max competition which has proven an effective breeding ground for Heat.Having earned redemption after their nightmare defeat against Scorchers last season, Heat became just the third team to win multiple titles and might well be in the midst of a golden run.Renegades and Thunder struggleRenegades and Thunder have often struggled in the BBL – despite each team having won a title – to underline the difficulties of having multiple teams in a city.They combined for just three wins to finish at the foot of the table leading to uncertainty over their futures. Ricky Ponting and Aaron Finch have speculated that Thunder shift to Canberra in order to move away from the often difficult and slow Sydney Showground surface. newspapers recently reported that the ACT are pushing for a new BBL team to be based in Canberra, but expansion seems unlikely in the near future.Finch has also suggested that Renegades, who he used to captain, could move to Geelong. “I think we’re already a bit thin at the moment with the talent pool to get another side in,” he told ESPN’s .Next season: Australia’s stars set to returnThe schedule should allow more appearances from Australia’s Test players next season•Getty Images and Cricket AustraliaIn a reassuring sign of the competition’s footing, the BBL enjoyed considerable success even with most of Australia’s star players absent after the Test summer started later than usual.Having lit up the BBL late last season, Steven Smith and David Warner had limited impact in their two matches each. Although Warner did grab plenty of headlines over his arrival by helicopter to the SCG for the Sydney Smash. He will be retired from international cricket by next summer meaning he should be much more available for the BBL.Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head did not play at all, but Australia’s stars are likely to be available for the backend of next season amid a clear slate in the international fixtures in January after the India-Australia Test series wraps up at the SCG.The presence of Australia’s top players in the backend of the season and finals would undoubtedly catapult the BBL to even greater heights.