What's gone wrong with Haris Rauf?

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Naseem’s injuries and Afridi’s ineffectiveness have forced him to do different things and it has been a struggle

Deivarayan Muthu26-Oct-202327:08

The incredible rise of Haris Rauf

Haris Rauf to Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Short, wide, four.Rauf keeps digging the ball into the Chepauk pitch and keeps offering width. Gurbaz disdainfully thrashes him for two more fours in similar fashion in his first over.Rauf had started with a short, wide loosener in his previous game as well, against Australia. David Warner made that ball disappear beyond backward point and then launched one onto the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Rauf leaked 59 runs in his first four overs that day, leaving Babar Azam scrambling for answers.At this World Cup, Rauf doesn’t have Naseem Shah to feed off from the other end. Shaheen Shah Afridi, the spearhead of the attack, is also searching for rhythm. The spinners have lacked penetration too. Rauf’s form – or the lack thereof – is part of a bigger problem for Pakistan.”Sometimes, you know, when you’re a batter or a bowler, sometimes you go through these stages, everyone goes through these stages who played this professional sport,” Shadab Khan said on the eve of Pakistan’s game against South Africa. “So they go through these stages, but the main concern is like everyone is going [for runs] at the same time. That’s a problem we are having… because if someone is in good form, then [we] might be in a better position. But we are struggling as a unit. And at the same time, that’s a problem we are having [sic]. So hopefully it’s changed tomorrow, and everyone starts on their right track. So hopefully we’re starting from tomorrow.”With Afridi not finding the kind of prodigious swing that he is famous for, Pakistan have needed Rauf to operate in the powerplay. Except, Rauf isn’t a swing bowler and hasn’t had enough control over his lines and lengths to bowl in the first ten overs, with just two men outside the circle, on his first tour of India. In this tournament, Rauf has bowled six overs in the powerplay while giving up 66 runs without taking a wicket. His economy rate of 11 is the worst among all bowlers who have bowled at least six overs during this phase.Haris Rauf and Morne Morkel spar at practice•AFP/Getty ImagesThe margin for error, especially with the new ball, is also very small on these Indian pitches, which often allow batters to hit through the line, something that Pakistan bowling coach Morne Morkel alluded to after the game against Australia.”This venue [Chinnaswamy] is famous for a boundary festival,” Morkel had said. “I think upfront we leaked a little bit of soft boundaries and we gave width. One of our key discussion points is to keep the stumps in play and keep on hitting the deck. We know in India, any bit of width you can throw your hands through the line and that’s an area we’ve sort of discussed.”If they force some good shots, we can live with that. As a bowler, you’ve got six balls, [and] the batsman can make one mistake. So, you need to hunt for that one mistake. I felt today we couldn’t string enough balls on the stumps. That’s an improvement we need to make in the World Cup because those are the small margins – they’re going to hit your good balls for four. We’ve got to eliminate our bad balls and bowl a less percentage of those, especially upfront.”Rauf is more familiar with bowling in the middle overs and had, in fact, bossed that phase in 2023. Until the start of this World Cup, he was the top wicket-taker between overs 11 and 40, with 12 strikes in 13 innings at an economy rate of 5.55. But, even that strength has deserted him in this tournament, managing just two wickets in five innings during this phase while conceding almost seven an over.At Chepauk on Monday, Afghanistan’s batters used Rauf’s pace to their advantage and peppered the square boundaries, which is somewhat shorter than the straight ones. Rauf kept banging the ball into a black-soil surface that was more conductive to spin than seam. He didn’t have a Plan B. The challenge for Rauf and Co will only get stiffer against South Africa’s explosive middle order. But the conditions could actually be in their favour on Friday.The track that was used for the Bangladesh vs New Zealand game – the quickest one in Chennai, which is a bit of a throwback to the venue’s old days – is set to be reused for this game. Can Rauf let it rip like Lockie Ferguson did the other day and revive his own flagging form as well as Pakistan’s campaign?

Adil Rashid cherishes 100th T20I cap and emergence of "younger brother" Rehan Ahmed

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First Englishman to 100 T20I wickets reflects on career, the new leggie on the block and “legend” Andrew Flintoff’s emotional presentation

Cameron Ponsonby13-Dec-2023It wasn’t the first time that Adil Rashid and Rehan Ahmed took to the field together, but it felt like the beginning.Five of England’s six wickets between them, including two in two balls for Rehan and a 100th T20I wicket for Rashid in his 100th appearance. It was a case that whilst the result didn’t go as England had planned, the start of their double wrist-spinner experiment went exactly as they’d hoped.”It was great to see them operate together,” captain Jos Buttler said after play. “That’s why we wanted to try it today, to see what it looked like and to have two X-factor bowlers like that, especially out here in conditions that might spin. I think Trinidad especially could be one of those places traditionally, so we need to find out if it’s an option here before we get to the World Cup.”Related

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Where Rehan showed his quality in parts, Rashid proved it in whole. Rehan’s opening over went for 19, including being struck for two sixes from Kyle Mayers. But it was no bother, as Rashid came on at the other end and dismissed Mayers first ball. This was not the day that the apprentice became the master, as much as the master reminded everyone why he held the title in the first place.”I definitely look at Rehan as a younger brother,” Rashid said. “He’s 19. He’s got his own journey…We’re always talking; just keep it simple, enjoy yourself and let nature take its course. The more he plays and the more experience he gets, things will get better for him.”It was a day of statistical symmetry for Rashid, who became the third man to play a century of T20Is for England and the first to take 100 wickets.Making his debut in 2009, it has been a career of pre- and post-Eoin Morgan for Rashid. His debut came in England’s infamous World Cup defeat to the Netherlands from which point Rashid would play nine further matches for England that year, before disappearing completely until Morgan’s appointment in 2015. From then, he has been ever-present, racking up more than 200 white-ball appearances and, at the time of writing, 299 wickets across ODIs and T20s.”He’s 19. He’s got his own journey…” Rashid on protégé Rehan Ahmed•Getty Images”It’s definitely changed from 2006 to 2009,” Rashid reflected on how English cricket’s viewpoint of the mysterious art of leg-spin has changed across his career. “It’s definitely got a lot better since Morgs took over in 2015. He changed English cricket with his mentality and how he went about myself and how he really put it in my head about how to bowl and the mindset we’re looking for. As time’s gone on, it’s definitely got a lot better in that sense and people understanding more about leg-spin which is a great thing.”The change of mindset is clear with an England team bending over backwards to fit two, let alone one, of the untrustworthy spin options in their team. Leggie’s are cricket’s 101, high-risk, high-reward selection. In years gone by, that risk was considered too high for the potential reward. Now that attitude has flipped.”It’s always nice to get a young leggie up and coming. We’re two completely different bowlers as well – he bowls it a bit quicker. I try and get a bit more flight, few more variations but it’s always nice to see that in tandem, two leggies bowling.”That Rashid and Rehan are so different is an added bonus for England, with Rehan’s preference for bowling to left-handers making him unusual for a leg-spinner. According to , across all formats of cricket, Rehan averages 17 against left-handers, compared to 24 against righties. Furthermore, his economy rate is the best part of a whole run cheaper against southpaws than right-handers.With every team desiring two spinners who turn the ball in opposite directions, in Rehan and Rashid England have two who both turn the ball in opposite directions.”He’s got the tricks,” Rashid said of Rehan. “He’s got the ability as well, he’s got the confidence so hopefully he can carry on developing and building his game.”In a game of generational six degrees of separation, the focus of Rashid’s post-match comments were split between two players who have played differing roles in his career. On the one hand, talk was almost exclusively about the teenage Rehan, with all of England unanimously appointing Rashid as “dad” in the hope one generational leg-spinner produces another. Whilst on the other, it was Andrew Flintoff.Flintoff has returned to the England backroom staff for a fourth stint after assisting in a mentorship capacity for the home series against Ireland and New Zealand and then in Abu Dhabi for the England Lions red-ball camp. But after arriving in the Caribbean a matter of days ago, one of his first tasks was to present Rashid with his 100th T20I cap.”It’s always nice to get a milestone like that for myself,” Rashid said, before adding the obligatory, “but it would have been better if I’d got the milestone and we’d won.”Me and Freddie go a very long way back and he talked a bit about the first time in 2009 when we first met and the journey from there to now. It was very well spoken, and coming from a legend like Freddie, I really do feel that as well.”

Smart Stats – Gill, Shami lead ESPNcricinfo's Impact Ratings for IPL

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Du Plessis, Jaiswal and Kohli are among the top 10 batters, and Siraj, Rashid and Chahal among the top 10 bowlers

S Rajesh22-Mar-2024Shubman Gill is the top-rated player currently in the IPL, according to ESPNcricinfo’s Impact Ratings. Gill also tops the batting charts, while Mohammed Shami takes first place among bowlers.The ratings are based on ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats, which gives rating points to each batting and bowling performance by a player in each game. The rating points factor in not just the runs scored, strike rate, wickets taken, and economy rate, but also the context of those performances. A 40-ball 75 will fetch more points in a low-scoring game where the other batters have struggled, compared to a high-scoring game where the other batters have also flourished. The same applies to bowlers.ESPNcricinfo LtdSimilarly, a four-wicket haul will get more impact points when the victims are four high-quality batters in a high-pressure situation, compared to four lower-order wickets when the match is already decided. The player ratings are an aggregation of these impact points for the last two years, with a decay factor applied to ensure that recent performances carry more weight than earlier ones. The overall ratings take into account both batting and bowling impact points, while there are also separate ratings for each of those skillsets.Gill’s top position is a reward for a fantastic 2023 season, where he scored 890 runs – including three hundreds – at a strike rate of 157.80. Almost 58% of those runs came in the last seven innings of the season, which included the three hundreds and an unbeaten 94. In those seven innings, he scored 515 runs at a strike rate of 178.81.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn second place in the overall list, as well as the batting rankings, is Faf du Plessis, who also had an outstanding 2023 season, scoring 730 runs from 14 innings at a strike rate of 153.68. Rashid Khan’s third place in the overall list is primarily due to his bowling – he was the second-highest wicket-taker with 27 last season – but also because of his contributions with the bat; he scored 130 runs at a strike rate of 216.66, including an unbeaten 79 off 32 versus Mumbai Indians.In the batters’ list, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav and CSK’s new captain, Ruturaj Gaikwad, round off the top five. Glenn Maxwell and David Warner ensure Australian representation in the top 10, while Virat Kohli makes the cut too, at No. 9.ESPNcricinfo LtdAmong the bowlers, Shami is the leader, thanks to a rich haul of 28 wickets at an economy rate of 8.03 last season. Twenty-one of his 28 wickets were of batters in the top five, which further enhanced his rating points. Mohammed Siraj had a poor IPL in 2022, but he roared back to form last year, taking 19 wickets at an economy rate of just 7.50. Siraj was outstanding in the powerplays, taking ten wickets at an economy rate of 5.93. Among the 57 bowlers who bowled at least five powerplay overs, he was the only one to concede less than a run a ball.Spinners occupy the next four spots, and overall they fill six of the top 10 slots. Rashid is at No. 3, while Yuzvendra Chahal’s fourth place is also a nod to his excellence in the death overs – nine wickets at an excellent economy rate of 7.75. R Ashwin just missed out on the top 10, and is in 11th position with a rating of 338.5 points.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

England's first outing is oh, so Stokes

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Shrug after being bowled by Jasprit Bumrah’s offcutter was of a man who felt he’d done everything right

Vithushan Ehantharajah25-Jan-2024As part of England’s preparations during their pre-tour training camp, ground staff at Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed training complex were given creative instructions.The grass on the pitches was to be shaved as close as Ben Stokes’ fade, raked, then covered in sawdust. The aim was to recreate the most extreme surfaces they might encounter in India – then go even further.The results? Well, as intended. Batters were challenged to the nth degree, wearing deliveries on the shins or helmets. Personal wins were small, humiliation in abundance. Complaints, however, were zero.Related

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Therein lay the true aim of this exercise from a batting point of view. Shake off the errors, snap out of the pearl-clutching previous English sides have taken to India when surfaces turn square and embrace the doubt. And if you get a good one, move on. Ultimately – commit to the bit that has served this group so well.Naturally, it was Stokes, the captain, who encompassed this. His shrug after being bowled by a Jasprit Bumrah offcutter was of a man who felt he had done everything right. Which, in this instance, was to give himself room on the leg side, expose his stumps and shape to hammer through the off side.Stokes was the last wicket to fall, walking off having struck 70 off 88 in England’s total of 246 after calling correctly at the toss. This was the team’s highest score in seven innings away to India since their 578 in the first Test of the last tour in 2021. The run rate of 3.81 per over just a 1.01 dip from their usual Bazball rate, which can be put down to how much tougher it is to rotate the strike against a peerless spin trio.”I think we were over the par, to be honest,” said Ben Duckett, who struck a breezy 35 in an opening stand of 55 with Zak Crawley. “I think it was a tricky day-one pitch. Consistent spin from earlier. Stokesy’s knock there, to get us to where we were, was fantastic. Come day three, day four – that could be a match-winning knock if that pitch gets harder to bat on.”It certainly could be match-winning. By the end of day one of this first Test, it had decidedly face-saving qualities, too, given India are only 127 behind with nine first-innings wickets to spare.Ben Stokes scatters the field with a sweep•Getty ImagesStokes arrived at 121 for 4, as England were in the midst of a spin cycle threatening to shrink their ambitions. Once Rohit Sharma abandoned seam from the eighth over, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel combined to take six for 83 from the next 38 overs.Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root pushed back in a partnership of 61 before both fell either side of Stokes’s entrance. And while the dismissals within the top six at that point were far from reckless – Crawley not committing enough after coming down the track; Root top-edging to short fine leg playing the sweep shot that has served him very well; Ollie Pope simply out of touch – England were in trouble.It was the shirt-and-tie Stokes who arrived on the scene first – presentable for 17 off 52 deliveries before contorting his hands to reverse Jadeja through cover for his boundary. He repeated that shot twice more, without the grimaces that used to accompany it before his knee surgery in November.That third and final one came as the exclamation point in a 14-run over against Jadeja. The next time their paths crossed after tea, Stokes heaved back-to-back sixes down the ground to take 13, which led to Jadeja being taken out of the attack.If Stokes’ patience at the start was to cover for the mistakes of his teammates, the aggression was a reinforcement of the message to retain their aggression, even if it was a necessity given the dwindling partners to come. It probably went some way to humanising the likes of Jadeja, who subsequently returned an economy rate of more than four for the first time in a home innings. Even Mark Wood felt bold enough to cart Ashwin through the covers twice.Alas, England’s efforts were put into harsher context as Yashasvi Jaiswal’s blitz took India to 119 for 1. At one point, it looked like India’s next superstar might get the deficit down to double digits.Tom Hartley bore the brunt of that assault. A first day in Test cricket started well enough when he struck England’s first six, off Ashwin no less. It derailed quickly once his first delivery was sent into the stands at midwicket by Jaiswal.An English spinner being tasked with opening the bowling is hard enough, let alone one more au fait with the white ball playing in just his 21st first-class match. And there were times – three overs, 0 for 34; six overs, 0 for 51 – when you feared you were witnessing the end of a career before it had even begun.Yashasvi Jaiswal came out of the gates firing•Getty ImagesOn the field, however, there was an inordinate sense of calm. Beyond fielders fetching the odd long-hop or over-pitched delivery from the boundary, there was no sign of alarm from Stokes. Hartley had even got into a rhythm of handing his cap over to the umpire for the start of the next over when others might not have bothered to take it off, believing they would surely be dragged out of the attack.That rhythm eventually transferred to his bowling, sending it down a little slower, in turn finding some necessary dip. His two best deliveries – one spinning sharply past Rohit’s outside edge, the other pinning Shubman Gill on the front pad – were both rewarded with DRS reviews by his captain, and subsequently lost. The first was nowhere near but was pretty enough to watch again. The second, showing a projected path taking the ball over the stumps, was a cruel irony – the first time this high release point England banked on when picking him was clear for all to see.By the time his nine-over stint was done, all of Mark Wood, Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed had been cycled through at the Pavilion End. Even while “Simon Kerrigan” trended on Twitter – another Lancashire left-arm orthodox spinner, who endured a torrid debut against Australia in 2013 and never recovered – Stokes kept faith.”On another day, captains might take you off after two overs and then you’re hiding away for the rest of the game,” said Duckett on Hartley’s spell. “But that’s Stokesy. He keeps bowling him and he nearly gets Shubman out right at the end. I’m not sure how that’s going over the stumps but I thought he came back really well.”Stokes’ methodology with the bat, selection and persisting with Hartley, and his own efforts to fix the errors, necessary and pragmatic. Finding a way to post something worthwhile on a challenging first-day pitch, ensuring the rangy spinner you took a punt on gets through this living nightmare, and even those practice pitches in Abu Dhabi are all examples of the underlying point of the McCullum-Stokes era – making the most out of what you’ve got.And what England have at this juncture, with the surface likely to get even tougher to negotiate over days two and three, is one foot in an already compelling contest.

Socks, snacks and sixes – Harris shares recipe for success

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Aussie allrounder on the serious subject of not taking cricket too seriously

Valkerie Baynes17-Apr-2024Hold your catches, sprint every run and win the key moments – it’s an ethos which has led the Australian Women’s cricket team to two ODI world titles and four T20I World Cups in the past decade. Not some mystical aura and certainly not a pair of lucky socks.The concept of executing every little detail better than the opposition to gain a competitive edge might at first sound slightly at odds with the relaxed, cheeky persona of Grace Harris. But is it really?As someone who used to dip into an “Esky” (cool box) for snacks while fielding at fine leg or leave a sweet hanging from her mouth while she flung out the hand that put it there to take a slips catch and who more recently said “stuff it, I’ll hit it anyway” before smashing a six with a broken bat in a jaw-dropping WBBL innings, Harris doesn’t immediately scream ‘attention to detail’. But she does keep things logical.”A lot of people talk about the gap that the Australian Women’s cricket team has,” Harris tells ESPNcricinfo’s Powerplay podcast. “But to be honest, England, Australia, India, they all come now with franchise cricket, they all have a very high performance program, every country that I can think of has at least contracts now for the women’s game, so if you’re going to have all the same resources, of course cricket’s going to be competitive because that’s generally what happens.”Then it comes down to your talent and your ability to handle the mental stress, I guess, in a game, or the competitiveness in the moment. What Australia has done very well over the past five, six years is they’ve won those moments, the key moments.”As an example, Harris points to Harmanpreet Kaur’s run-out during India’s T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to Australia last year when Harmanpreet’s bat sticks in the pitch short of the crease as she “jogs” a second run and she finds herself out of her ground as Alyssa Healy whips off the bails.”An Australian player probably doesn’t do that in that moment, they’re probably running through,” Harris says. “I haven’t really seen Beth Mooney jog two in a game.”If you look at little key moments in games and how the Australian women’s cricket team, some of the players, have approached the moment, I think that’s the difference, not some gap that’s made up or just, I dunno, an imaginary line.”I can’t fault our domestic setup. It’s very competitive and it’s well run and I think we get the most opportunity to try and be placed in those pressure situations so that way then if you are selected for Australia, it is just the same as you in Big Bash and it’s just simply about performing again in the moment. So yeah, we’ve had the programs in place, but now that everybody’s got programs in place, surely you can’t keep saying that that’s the reason that we’re the best.”

Likewise, when you see Harris wearing her trademark loud socks bearing images of burgers and fries or the like, that’s “freedom of expression” which started at a charity event rather than luck.”No, I don’t have that part of my brain working, there’s no superstition for me,” Harris says. “I know that there’s a lot of girls, they sit in the same seat on the bus, they change their bat grip every game, you’ve got to put your left pad on first. No, I kind of am very logical and I think that if I haven’t prepared then I haven’t prepared and that’s my own fault.”If I get beaten by a good ball, I get beaten by a good ball, but my socks were just always freedom of expression. I guess it’s the only part I can control and if I get to have a bit of fun with it or enhance my sock game, then so be it.”Grace Harris gives Australia a boost•Getty ImagesFood is a popular theme in Harris’s sock collection and, as it happens, life. And while she says she’s “blessed” with a metabolism that allows her to get away with more than some would, it’s “all about moderation and you got to be able to live as a human being”. As long as she gets the job done, who’s to argue?”I was kind of cheeky as a younger player and I’d stuff lollies in my pockets if I ever had to feel at slip,” she says. “In between balls I would whip a snake (sweet) out of my pocket, chuck it in my mouth. If they nicked off, one day I just went from mouth to ball and just caught it one-handed.”The captain wasn’t very happy with me. I was like: ‘What can you do? At least I caught it still.’ I think if I dropped it I probably would’ve been in more trouble. That’s how I’ve rolled a lot throughout my career. If I do it then it’s done, and if I don’t do it then you can say something about it.”Grace Harris laughs after clearing the fence with a broken bat•Getty ImagesThat’s not to say Harris doesn’t take her sport seriously. What started as fun, friendship and camaraderie amid “some horrendous fitness sessions” at club level became much more when a coach told her she was too talented not to test her ability to become the best cricketer she could be. But she also worked out how to do it her way. And in this Australian side that is embraced.After she took a screamer sprinting in from mid-on and launching herself into the air to dismiss a dangerous-looking Chamari Athapaththu at the T20 World Cup a year ago followed by two wickets in an over, all the talk was about Harris and Healy, the Australia captain, was happy to oblige.”I’m actually pretty sure it was Tahlia McGrath’s catch and Grace called her out of it and wanted to take a hanger, but full credit to her for hanging on to it,” Healy said at the time. “That’s sort of a key moment to get a key batter in that instance. She was loving herself sick out there in the field watching the replay, but it’s nice to have a character like that on the field… She’s a great person to have around our side not just for her personality, but for her skills.”On Australia’s recent tour of Bangladesh, where they swept both ODI and T20I series ahead of a return later this year to defend their T20 World Cup crown, Harris scored 47 opening with Phoebe Litchfield in the second T20 as Healy dropped right down the order and didn’t end up batting at all while Mooney came in at No. 9 in an impressive test of the side’s depth. No doubt Harris’s contribution with the bat was welcome as much as her personality on a tour she says “felt a little bit like a Covid trip” with limited ventures outside of the team hotel or cricket venues.”You have to prepare for who you’re going to play against, which is what I think this team do very well,” Harris says. “I think they also get the most out of the ability within the squad. We’ve tried a couple of things recently just to test our adaptability and our resilience and I must say it’s definitely a team that has one of the higher resilience levels that I’ve ever been a part of this season.”For instance, we’ve missed Christmas, we had Christmas and New Year’s in India, Easter in Bangladesh, so if you think about how you live as a human being and you take away the key holidays of your year where you’d spend a lot of time around your family, it can be challenging-ish.”Not that cricket’s too challenging, but I think with that mentality the girls all really get along and they just make the most of every opportunity that they get. It’s been quite fun to be around and the coaching staff are very relaxed and they allow you to still be a human being as long as you take cricket semi-seriously.”

Nahid Rana: A new express finds his fame in Rawalpindi

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Bangladesh have never had someone like Nahid Rana before, and must do everything they can to make sure he stays the course

Mohammad Isam02-Sep-2024Nahid Rana runs in like the wind from the Pavilion End at the Rawalpindi Stadium. He releases the ball like a catapult, from high up – he is 6’2″ after all. The 140kph deliveries thud into Litton Das’ gloves behind the stumps.It’s still scorching hot in Rawalpindi. There are barely 100 people in the stands. Rana, like so many other fast bowlers from the subcontinent, is used to bowling in empty stadiums. Rawalpindi, home of perhaps the most famous “express” in cricket, is no different. On this dull Monday morning, it’s possibly worse.But as Rana bowls, a sense of expectation seems to spread through the Bangladesh fielders. They are enjoying this. Taskin Ahmed, standing at fine leg, sports a broad smile. The batters are being hurried ball after ball. By a Bangladeshi fast bowler. If one ball tests the outside edge, the next is at the throat. It is thrilling. It’s not like anyone who has ever bowled for Bangladesh. It’s like the end of a long wait. The stands should have had more people.

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Rana touches 150kph on a few occasions. He had crossed 150 on his Test debut against Sri Lanka. He is not entirely an unknown for Pakistan – they have seen him a fair bit in the last two weeks. But – you might have heard this before – “pace is pace, yaar”.Related

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He strikes with his third ball. Shan Masood’s enterprise outside the off stump from earlier in the morning costs him – Rana’s extra pace rushes him into the stroke.Babar Azam had faced Rana just before Masood’s dismissal, but first ball of his next over, Babar’s forward press takes the outside edge. It’s a poor choice of shot. The edge goes to Shadman Islam at first slip.The same fielder, though, drops Mohammad Rizwan next ball. It would have been a golden duck for the in-form batter, a regulation chance. Rana has his hands on his head. There’s more reward waiting for him, though. First in the form of Saud Shakeel, who is caught behind for two in Rana’s next over.Pakistan’s captain. Their most celebrated batter. A batter averaging 61.55 before this Test. Bangladesh had plans for all three, and they all centred on Rana rattling them with pace. On the day, Rana sent them all back in his first three overs.He doesn’t celebrate much after any of the wickets. He walks to the fielders with a smile on his face, a very retro feel. It also feels a bit out of place – this is Rawalpindi, of all places.Pakistan are languishing, and Raza continues to bowl fast and testing lines against Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha. He steams in at Rizwan, who pulls out at the last moment due to movement behind the sight screen. Rana rushes back with a bouncer next ball. It hits Rizwan on the side of the helmet. Taskin has a word or two from fine leg. Hasan Mahmud mimics Litton’s stance when he is keeping to Rana. The other slip fielders muffle a laughter. Litton throws a laugh at Mahmud. The Bangladeshis are loving it. At 86 for 6, lunch couldn’t have come quicker for the home side.

****

Rana isn’t done yet. He returns for a short second spell after lunch, drawing Salman’s edge once. Najmul Hossain Shanto brings him back for a third spell as soon as Abrar Ahmed is on strike in the 42nd over. Rana removes the No. 10 quickly, but can’t get his fifth wicket. Mahmud, who has bowled superbly since the third evening, completes his five-for instead.Hasan has been Bangladesh’s best fast bowler across the two Tests. Shoriful Islam was disciplined in the first Test (before missing the second with an injury), and Taskin has been the leader of the attack in the second Test. But Rana is at the centre of the story. And not just for this performance. His pace has been significantly higher than anyone else’s.In general, the Bangladesh bowling attack has been better than Pakistan’s throughout the series. In this Test, Khurram Shahzad and Amir Hamza reduced Bangladesh to 26 for 6 in the first innings, but couldn’t complete the job. Like Mahmud and Rana did on the fourth day. They showed that they either have better skills or better execution. What Rana, playing just his third Test, did well was to marry his pace with great lines and lengths.Nahid Rana – head and shoulders above the rest•AFP/Getty ImagesAnd all of this from a fast bowler who first picked up the red ball just four years ago.Rana took up cricket seriously when his brother put him in a cricket academy in 2020, shortly after his college was done. He made his first-class debut in October 2021, following it up with a 32 wickets in the following season. Rana and Sumon Khan had both taken 30-plus wickets in the 2022-23 National Cricket League, a first for fast bowlers in the domestic first-class tournament in more than 11 years.

****

Rana, 21, is a new phenomenon in Bangladesh cricket. An out-and-out fast bowler who can bowl fast consistently, for long periods. Rana’s BPL debut was erratic, but he showed off his pace in every appearance. Not since Taskin had a Bangladeshi fast bowler rocked up at the BPL with this type of pace.Pace bowling has never quite been Bangladesh’s . Going back in history, Daulat Uz Zaman represented East Pakistan in the Pakistan domestic first-class competitions in the 1960s and 1970s and was known to be fast. Jahangir Shah Badsha was a well-known pace bowler but by the time he made his ODI debut, he was in his mid-30s. Mashrafe Mortaza had good pace in the early part of his career but injuries took their toll. Shahadat Hossain took four of the first six five-wicket hauls in Tests for Bangladesh fast bowlers, but his career went off the rails soon. Rubel Hossain at times bowled quick, but he was better with the white ball. Rana, so far, has looked like the real deal.But there are reasons to be cautious too. Robiul Islam took 15 wickets in two Tests against Zimbabwe in 2013, but faded away quickly. Ebadot Hossain took a stunning six-wicket haul in that famous win in Mount Maunganui, and showed general improvement after that, but hasn’t played since December 2022 because of a long-term injury.Rana will have plenty of advice coming his way but he should know he is special. He is Bangladesh’s fastest bowler ever. Fitness and health are key. The most crucial thing for a Bangladeshi star-in-the-making is to stay in the straight and narrow. Rana can’t be spoilt. And for the new dispensation in charge at the BCB, it will be their responsibility to keep him fresh, and let him bowl fast.

Big-innings accumulator to powerplay aggressor: Rohit finds ways to be extraordinary

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Of late, Rohit has picked the corner of ODI cricket he wants to shake up and has gone rogue

Andrew Fidel Fernando and Shiva Jayaraman06-Aug-2024On Wednesday, Rohit Sharma will play his 265th ODI. Ordinarily, this is not a major milestone. But then this is Rohit, who even among the extraordinary players, has found ways to be extraordinary.Eighteen years into his ODI career, though, our guy is set to cross into uncharted territory. Ever since he played his first ODI his stats sheet has always shown a higher number under “high score” than “matches played”. Ten years since setting the kind of record that people credibly contend may never be broken, Rohit is about to go past 264.It is worth remembering and dwelling on the big-scoring Rohit right now. Worth recalling a time when Rohit stans would tell Virat Kohli stans that Rohit held his own at the tippy top of modern India batting.Related

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Though Kohli was the mass-producer of hundreds, “once Rohit gets past 70, there’s almost no stopping him,” was one theory. In ODIs, it was difficult to deny. The man has three double-hundreds, which is three times as many as any other batter, and a quarter of all the 200-plus scores ever made in the format. Of the 31 hundreds he has scored, 16 have produced 130 runs or more.Other batters merely “get in” on a track. Rohit embeds himself inside an opposition attack like the alien from and feeds until he is half the size of the spaceship and they are withering husks.Not lately, though. The more recent Rohit, in ODIs at least, is a highly-skilled DGAF figure – somebody who has seen it all, fought battles in all kinds of games there are to fight battles in, and picked the corner of ODI cricket he wants to shake up. Rohit has become predominantly a powerplay aggressor.The numbers lay this out. Since the start of the 2023 ODI World Cup, Rohit has batted in 13 ODIs and failed to get a start only in two of them. If you jump in at the 20-ball mark of the other 11, he’s striking at 150-plus (i.e. has more than 30 runs already) in seven of those innings, and at 100-plus in 10, the only exception being in an exceptionally difficult Lucknow pitch in the match against England, at the World Cup.In the ongoing series in Sri Lanka, he has hit 58 off 47, and 64 off 44, on hugely spin-favouring tracks. These are pitches on which strike rates of as low as 80 are acceptable, so long as you make a half-century, as Rohit did on both occasions. But here, Rohit’s starts on both occasions gave the middle order room to breathe while they attempted to hunt down modest scores.India have been bailed out by Rohit Sharma twice against Sri Lanka•AFP/Getty ImagesIn a previous age, Sri Lanka tightened their spin vices so effectively, that the pressure to score at a decent clip itself would produce wickets. In matches in which Rohit has peacocked his way through the early overs so spectacularly, Sri Lanka only had one route to victory – to dismiss the opposition. That they have done so twice is credit to their spinners on extremely dry surfaces.While he is batting this way, it might be more appropriate to think of Rohit Sharma, a producer of some of the most epic ODI innings, as a player who might “come off” for a significant number of deliveries. Since the start of the 2023 World Cup, he has never really tried to play himself in – his control percentage at 79.79 in his first 25 balls in that period, but then improving to only 82.32 in the next 25 balls.According to ESPNcricinfo’s data, Rohit plays more “aggressive false shots” now than ever before, which effectively means the man is happy to play attacking strokes that feel poorly conceived when they don’t come off. There are expansive drives against spinners early on, in which Rohit covers the line of the stumps and swings his bat at. There are safe mis-hits, where the bowler fooled Rohit, but he is still able hit to an area in which there is no protection. And there are shots like his attempted switch-sweep against Jeffrey Vandersay on Sunday, which saw him caught at backward point, and set in motion India’s collapse.And yet, though he has only occasionally middled the ball as emphatically as childhood coaches would love him to, Rohit has discovered the fun of hitting balls just okay. He has understood that hitting them well enough to clear the field means there are runs there too. It feels as if Rohit is in his most pragmatic era.There is little doubt that he wants to continue, wants to contest big tournaments, and wants more silverware in his arms. But Rohit has also stepped into a phase of his career in which he is only one star in the galaxy. And right now, that star wants to reap as many early-overs runs as possible.

Jamie Smith stays in the moment to give England a glimpse into the future

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Wicketkeeper puts rare first-day blemish behind him to score his third fifty in five Test innings

Matt Roller22-Aug-2024It can pay to have a short memory, not least for a Test match wicketkeeper. The ability to compartmentalise – or, better still, forget altogether – a missed opportunity behind the stumps is a priceless trait in any format; it is further heightened when a mistake on the first day of a match can have repercussions that stretch long into the fifth.It was not until the fourth match of Jamie Smith’s Test career that he faced that challenge. Smith was faultless with the gloves throughout England’s 3-0 whitewash against West Indies last month but missed his first chance on the opening day against Sri Lanka in Manchester: a fluffed stumping on the first afternoon.The miss did not prove especially costly, and was a difficult chance. On 65, Dhananjaya de Silva skipped down the pitch and yorked himself as Shoaib Bashir saw him coming, darting the ball in fast and flat. Smith couldn’t quite gather the ball cleanly, the ball bouncing out of his hands; Dhananjaya only added nine more runs before he was caught at leg slip.Even still, it represented the first setback of Smith’s Test career. He admitted last week that he had found the West Indies series both mentally and physically “draining” despite all three Tests ending inside four days. He cited the “added pressure” that comes with international cricket: however small it was, nobody would have been more aware of his mistake than him.That backdrop made his innings on this gloomy Thursday in Manchester even more impressive. Promoted to No. 6 in Ben Stokes’ absence, Smith walked out to bat in the 26th over with the ball reverse-swinging, which had just accounted for Joe Root. With a longer tail than usual behind him and England still 111 behind, this represented real jeopardy.But as Smith has already demonstrated, he has the temperament to deal with most challenges. He calmly flicked his first ball off his pads for four, skipped down the pitch to his 22nd to launch Prabath Jayasuriya over long-on, and swung his 95th through midwicket to move into the 70s in what proved to be the final over of the day.Smith went up and down the gears in his innings, going through occasional lulls against Jayasuriya in particular when his only focus seemed to be survival. But he picked his moments to attack, freeing his arms when Kamindu Mendis tossed up some offbreaks and slugging Asitha Fernando through the leg side when he dropped short.Related

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“We talk about being positive and aggressive, and putting teams under pressure,” Marcus Trescothick, England’s assistant coach, said. “But the skill is to identify the moments when it’s the right time. We’re trying to gather times when we can really put the foot down and drive home what we’re trying to do, but there are also times when we have to sit in.”On Friday, he will resume with the chance to underline his ability to bat with the lower order, one of the reasons which underpinned his call-up in the first place. This was already the third time out of four that he has added 50 or more in a partnership with Chris Woakes, but he now has the opportunity to prove he can marshal the tail.He has already showcased his six-hitting ability in Test cricket, clearing both the Tavern Stand at Lord’s and the Hollies Stand at Edgbaston. The temporary stand at deep midwicket at Emirates Old Trafford would be the biggest challenge of the lot, but his first task is simply to extend England’s first-innings lead, which is only 23 overnight.Smith turned 24 last month and every innings that he plays in an England shirt has felt like a tantalising look into the future, not least during his 62-run partnership with Harry Brook in Manchester on Thursday. He bats at No. 4 for Surrey and could yet find himself playing as a specialist batter: “I don’t think we’ve really discussed where he’ll end up batting,” Trescothick admitted.Therein lies the other reason why it might pay for Smith to have as short a memory as possible. His predecessor as England’s Test wicketkeeper, Ben Foakes, spent six years in and out of the side. As well as Foakes, Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler have found themselves playing with and without the gloves, while regularly shuffling up and down the order.Rare is the England wicketkeeper who has an extended run in a single role, as Smith has already found with this promotion to No. 6 in only his fourth Test. But crucially, his performances across his first three-and-a-half Tests – 17 catches, three half-centuries in five innings – have silenced any debate over whether he deserves the gloves – for the time being, at least.For now, his challenge is simply to stay in the moment. England’s challenges get progressively harder over the next 18 months, with series against Pakistan, New Zealand, India and Australia, but Smith has made a serene start to life as a Test cricketer.

Indore to Hobart: Kuhnemann's journey to revive his red-ball career

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

The left-arm spinner took 5 for 16 against India last year but has had precious little first-class cricket since then

Alex Malcolm01-Oct-2024There was a moment eighteen months ago when the world appeared to be Matt Kuhnemann’s oyster.It was March 2023. The Queenslander had made his ODI and Test debuts within the span of eight months. His first Test wicket was Virat Kohli. He took 5 for 16 in his second Test match in Indore to help Australia to a rare victory on Indian soil.However, following the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, Kuhnemann’s third, his first-class career has completely stalled through no fault of his own. He has played just four first-class matches since that India tour. Three came for Durham at the start of the 2023 County Championship season, but after bowling 94 overs in the first two matches, while bagging 12 wickets, symptoms of a stress fracture appeared during the third and a confirming scan ended his campaign in April.Related

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He returned to play for Australia A against New Zealand A in a four-day game in Mackay in September of 2023 but he has not featured in a single first-class game since despite being fully fit and available.His home state of Queensland opted to play just one spinner in their Sheffield Shield XI last summer, which was understandable given the pitch conditions at all Shield venues. It meant legspinner Mitchell Swepson was preferred ahead of Kuhnemann despite Australia choosing the left-arm orthodox ahead of the legspinner in India.So when Tasmania reached out during the off-season about moving south to be the No. 1 spinner in a side that had just finished runner-up in the Shield, the 28-year-old Gold Coast native had no qualms about braving the cold.”The move was quite an easy decision.” Kuhnemann told ESPNcricinfo. “I love cricket, and I want to try and play as many games as I can and I want to win a Shield. That was probably the main factor. I’ve had some international experience, had a taste of it. I’d love to get back in that arena. But to be honest, probably winning a Shield would be a massive highlight for me. To be part of that, it would be a dream come true. The opportunity arose and I jumped at it straight away.”

If it’s early in the game, or if it’s in the back end, trying to try to win the game for the boys, and trying to bowl into some foot marks, I think there’s definitely some overs to be bowled by a spinner Bellerive.Matt Kuhnemann on his new home ground

Far from being bitter about his lack of red-ball opportunities over the last 12 months, Kuhnemann feels like he still got plenty out of last summer and does not feel underdone coming into what will be his first full season as the No. 1 spinner in a Shield side.”I love training, so I bowled a lot in the nets,” Kuhnemann said. “Last year, I found myself bowling a fair bit to Marnus [Labuschagne] in the nets. And I was just working on probably more how I bowl in the subcontinent or Australia. So sort of just learning the art of spin bowling a bit more in the nets, and experimenting with a few more things.”

He doesn’t want to look too far ahead. But Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka looms on the horizon. Despite his limited first-class cricket in recent times, he could be a key figure for Australia who are desperate for a left-arm orthodox spinner in those conditions. They did not pick a left-arm orthodox in the two Tests in Sri Lanka on their last tour in 2022, instead opting for the legspin of Swepson to partner Nathan Lyon, only for Sri Lanka’s left-arm orthodox spinner Prabath Jayasuriya to take 12 wickets on debut in the second Test to square the series.Kuhnemann played in the ODI portion of the tour ahead of the Tests and also played for Australia A against Sri Lanka A on the same trip, which proved a valuable experience for him.He’s got backers in his corner. He recently went on a trip to the MRF Academy in Chennai with a group of Australian domestic players and remains in touch Australia’s bowling coach, and former New Zealand left-arm orthodox, Daniel Vettori.”He’s only a short message away,” Kuhnemann said. “I sent him some videos, and he gives me his feedback. He’s a guru. He’s someone I lean on a fair bit now.”Another trusted advisor and supporter has been former Australia spinner Steve O’Keefe. Kuhnemann sought out O’Keefe for advice when playing against each other in the BBL, even taking the extraordinary step of asking to have a bowl with him before a game between Brisbane Heat and Sydney Sixers.A season with Durham was cut short by injury in 2023•Getty ImagesThe pair have stayed in touch. Kuhnemann travelled to Sydney and had a bowl with him prior to the 2022 tour of Sri Lanka. O’Keefe is pleased Kuhnemann has made the move to Tasmania and thinks he can play a big part in Sri Lanka if selected.”I was watching him bowl, and I’m like, geez I wish I had half the talent that you’ve got, particularly at your age,” O’Keefe told ESPNcricinfo. “Because he’s obviously got the nice attributes, being a nice height, he gets good spin on the ball. He can change his pace really well. And then I think outside of all that, and having good control, he had the brains, which was what I was more interested in.”We just had a bowl and a yarn about different shapes and seam positions that we thought might work in different conditions.”Kuhnemann has made a change to the speed of his run-up. Seeing the success Western Australia’s Corey Rocchiccioli and Victoria’s Todd Murphy have had at Shield level – two other strong spin candidates to be on the Sri Lanka tour – has given him some ideas as to how to add to his potency in Australia.”[Trying to put a] bit more energy on the ball, sort of similar to how Todd and Corey run in a fair bit and get some nice energy the ball,” Kuhnemann said. “Also just keeping that nice shape. It’s important to have that nice overspin shape in Australia, but also at the same time being able to go with square [spin] and a bit faster if the game gets to day four, when the wickets start to spin. Also sort of working on that square stuff for subcontinent tours as well. I try and work on most aspects of spin bowling, because you never know when your next tour is going to be.”Therein lies the problem for Australia’s domestic spinners. Getting a game at home in the Shield has been hard enough for Kuhnemann, but getting enough bowling in helpful spinning conditions is a major issue in preparing for Test assignments overseas as the second option to Lyon.Domestic pitches in Australia in recent years have been especially unkind to spinners. Five-wicket hauls have been scarce and hardly any regulars average under 30. Kuhnemann, Lyon and Swepson are the only bowlers with 10-wicket match hauls in the last four seasons. There was a time where some teams were playing without a specialist spinner, so seam-friendly were some of the surfaces.Tasmania have committed to playing a specialist spinner, with Jarrod Freeman being a regular in their line-up in all conditions over the past couple of seasons. Coach Jeff Vaughan is delighted to have recruited Kuhnemann and hopes to use him as an attacking weapon, even on a seam-friendly day one pitch at Bellerive Oval.Matt Kuhnemann is set to be Tasmania’s No. 1 spinner this season•Getty Images”He’s quality young man,” Vaughan told ESPNcricinfo. “He’s come in and really invested in Tasmania and into our program. We’ve been very proactive in picking spin, and we’ll continue to do so. We think that Matt has a wonderful skill set and can be utilized, be it early on in the Shield game, or later on, offensively or defensively.”We’re just hoping to add to his career and help him become the best version of himself and an even bigger and stronger performer in both red and white-ball formats.”But it will be a tough assignment playing five games this season in Hobart to prepare for a tour of Sri Lanka. Shield spinners have averaged 43.72 at Bellerive in the last four seasons and struck at 82.6.O’Keefe hopes Australia’s selectors judge him fairly based on the conditions he bowls in when assessing him for Sri Lanka, and that Kuhnemann is lenient on himself with his own expectations.”It’s a tough assignment,” O’Keefe said. “I think you’ve got to be judging him a little bit differently. It’s an opportunity for him to get more overs under his belt. But if he doesn’t necessarily have a lot of success or take the five-fors and the big-wicket hauls that you might get bowling elsewhere, I don’t think we can judge him on that.”I think it’s the right move for him in regards to being able to play a lot more first-class cricket and be the frontline spinner, which comes with a lot of responsibility.”Kuhnemann is up for the challenge. He opened the bowling for Australia in his first Test match having been plying away in 2nd XI cricket for his state not long before that. He’s proven responsibility doesn’t faze him.”Jeff sees spin as an attacking option at Bellerive, which really excites me,” Kuhnemann said. “So if it’s early in the game, or if it’s in the back end, trying to try to win the game for the boys, and trying to bowl into some foot marks, I think there’s definitely some overs to be bowled by a spinner Bellerive.”I’m ready for any opportunity.”

Pakistan need to know what they want from Test cricket

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

It has been a WTC cycle of squandered opportunities as plans swiftly and constantly moved from being centred around pace to spin to seemingly everywhere in between

Danyal Rasool07-Jan-2025There was some extremely exciting red-ball cricket being played by some Pakistanis on the third day of the Newlands Test. It’s an unusual thing to say for a day that saw some of Pakistan’s worst shot selection, and a day where they crumpled in a heap for 194, giving South Africa a 421-run lead, and effectively killing off any hopes Pakistan would break their interminable losing run in South Africa.But that aforementioned exciting cricket wasn’t being played at Newlands; it was happening in Karachi at the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (QeA) final, where a thrilling run-chase saw Sialkot beat Peshawar by one wicket.The QeA this year is an appropriate bellweather of Pakistan’s relationship with Test cricket over the last year. In a year that saw the busiest home Test season for Pakistan this century, there was little information on when QeA would start, or what format it would assume. When eventually it did start, it began on October 26, almost as late as it ever has in the last 15 years. The format, too, was somewhat clunky, an expanded tournament comprising 18 teams played across a pool and triangular stage.Related

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By that time, five of Pakistan’s seven home Test matches had already been played; the home season was almost done. September, the only window Pakistan had that hadn’t been packed with some international series or other, could have been spent in preparation for the red-ball winter; instead, Pakistan hosted, to much fanfare, a domestic 50-over tournament, to the bemusement and frustration of then red-ball coach Jason Gillespie. None of it, bar the final, was broadcast live, though the PCB was diligent with providing regular updates. The QeA final, clashing as it was with the Newlands Test, did not exactly capture public imagination.

****

This World Test Championship (WTC) cycle is gone. Yes, Pakistan have to play two Tests against West Indies later this month, but none of it really matters. This series was supposed to be held this time last year, but an overcrowded schedule squeezed it out. Pakistan are eighth on the WTC table, West Indies are ninth. This is a basement battle. The feast of the last six months will be followed by a prolonged famine; Pakistan do not play another Test until October, and just two in the next 14 months.It is something their captain Shan Masood, appointed in the early stages of this cycle, has called on to change, but, despite his brief tenure, he is already the great survivor of the last year in Pakistan. Pakistan’s approach to Test cricket has been so furiously inconsistent that even a glut of Tests – as we saw this season – is unlikely to lead to improved results. They began the 18 months of this cycle with a demolition of Sri Lanka away from home under coach Grant Bradburn and director of cricket Mickey Arthur. The PCB branded it “the Pakistan Way”, ostensibly a long-term roadmap for how they aimed to play Test cricket.

The feast of the last six months will be followed by a prolonged famine; Pakistan do not play another Test until October, and just two in the next 14 months. It is something their captain Shan Masood has called on to change, but… Pakistan’s approach to Test cricket has been so furiously inconsistent that even a glut of Tests is unlikely to lead to improved results.

By the time the next series came about, Bradburn, Arthur, the PCB chair, and captain Babar Azam had all been replaced, and references to the Pakistan Way were getting harder to find. Any encouragement they drew despite a whitewash in Australia was squandered when they were similarly swept aside at home by Bangladesh. By now, the chair as well as the coach had of course changed once more, and Pakistan had planned to prepare a pitch so juicy they played an all-pace attack in the first Test.Just two Test matches on from both Gillespie and Masood indicating pace at home was a strategy they wanted to pursue, both had had their selection powers stripped from them, and Pakistan played all-spin attacks at home against England on raging surfaces. Another month and another change of coach later, Pakistan dropped Shaheen Afridi – or allowed him to sit out the Test series in South Africa to play the Bangladesh Premier League – and played four medium-fast bowlers at Newlands, sitting Naseem Shah out as well for good measure. (The official version that he had a stiff back is somewhat undercut by him bowling on the practice pitches a few strips away from the playing surface at tea on the second day, notably quicker than any of the four Pakistan actually fielded). Masood directly compared South Africa’s pace to Pakistan’s lack of it following the series loss, less as a point of criticism than just a statement of fact.In Pakistan, there’s a leitmotif of existential crisis running through most setbacks, one which must be framed in terms of who is to blame, who can be sacked, or who the saviour can be. But a series loss in South Africa is in itself hardly a signifier of anything, because Pakistan have lost almost every series across every decade in South Africa.Shan Masood has called for more Test cricket, something Pakistan will be quite short on over the next year and a bit•AFP/Getty ImagesThey could not have played three high-pace, high-quality seamers like South Africa, because they simply don’t have them. They might have played Naseem, though he wasn’t exactly at the level of Kagiso Rabada or Marco Jansen in Centurion, and they might have played Noman Ali, though they do not have enough seam-bowling allrounders to do so without enfeebling a vulnerable batting line-up. The series result was more of an endpoint than a harbinger, of the rather boring fact that better Test teams are more likely to win Test matches than worse ones.Perhaps none of this really matters, because all indications from the PCB is it has matters of greater import to deal with. It has spent the last few months working out the finer details of how it will go about hosting the Champions Trophy. All three stadiums that will see games are undergoing significant renovation, with the chair Mohsin Naqvi stating on multiple occasions construction work needed to happen “day and night” to make sure the venues will be ready on time. The PSL has moved into a new window that clashes with the IPL; just about every day of the South Africa Tests, a new player to have signed up for the draft was excitedly announced across the PCB media channels.But Pakistan is not like a number of other cricketing nations, where people only care about it if it’s happening in a particular season, at a particular time or year, in a particular format or against a particular opposition. It is a de facto single sport country, where the official line is every game matters. As they look rather enviously over at South Africa, making plans to go Lord’s to play the WTC final, they know they are far off finding themselves in a situation where they, too, can realistically harbour such ambitions. For that, they will need to know what they want from Test cricket when it comes around again, so they do not squander it quite as profligately as they did this cycle.

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