All posts by n8rngtd.top

Natalie Sciver’s 137 from 92 balls was significantly more than Pakistan managed in nearly 30 overs. But it was in the field that they showed their naivety

Jarrod Kimber at Grace Road27-Jun-2017The first six of the 40th over came from the third ball. The ball landed next to the sightscreen. Nat Sciver had barely hit it; this was no slog, she wasn’t trying to muscle the ball, she just eased it 30 metres beyond the rope. The ball was a gentle half-volley outside off stump cordially delivered by Asmavia Iqbal.There had been a time earlier in the game where Iqbal was bowling well. The first ball of the match, she took the edge of Tammy Beaumont, but Nain Abidi didn’t hang on at slip. Even after that, Iqbal was bowling big hooping inswing and causing the English girls some worry. She almost took the wicket of Sarah Taylor as well as Beaumont, and after seven overs she had 0 for 22.It was her bowling partner, Kainat Imtiaz, who took the wickets. Imtiaz’s last four overs against South Africa cost 43 runs which, in a low-scoring chase, was 20 percent of the runs. This time, she started with huge hooping outswingers that she never controlled. Her second over began with a knee-high full toss that was hit to the vacant fine-leg boundary. Then three consecutive wides. Then another full toss that went to the fine-leg fence. And then the wicket of Taylor. Later, Imtiaz would take the wicket of Beaumont with exaggerated outswing. And at that point, Nat Sciver came in.The second six of the 40th over came from the fourth ball. The ball hit the press box after being slog-swept over long-on by Sciver. This time, Sciver wanted to hit it hard, and the ball went a very long way. She had to reach the ball from a long way outside off stump. But she hit it on the leg-side of the field, not for the first time.Sciver’s wagon-wheel showed one shot behind point on the off side (an edge). There were many reasons for that – Sciver is usually too busy bashing the ball to worry about subtle shots. The Pakistan bowlers, whether seam or spin, do not put a lot of pace on the ball. And Pakistan’s fields were about as bizarre as could be imagined by a cricketing brain. They included a constant three fielders behind point, which would have seemed like overkill if at any point Sciver looked like playing the ball there.Like many women’s teams, they also chose not to place a fine leg. Which is fine as an opening tactic, but they continued it all day, as if it was a law of cricket. The ball went down there over after over, it went down there because their bowlers could not control their lines, it went down there because the English players knew there was no fielder, and yet no matter how much it went down there, they didn’t put in a fine leg. Ten boundaries in all. But many other runs as well.The worst runs to fine leg weren’t even a boundary, but a ball from Nahida Khan. Nahida is a part-time bowler, so it’s unfair to point out that she bowls slow rank seam. However, she was bowling her rank slow seam with only three players on the leg side (another bizarre, and constant, tactic) and one of her 12 deliveries was a slow half-tracker down that under-guarded leg side that Sciver almost fell over in trying to hit. It was only two runs, but that’s because the ball itself was so embarrassed it only trickled away to hide.The third six of the 40th over came off the fifth ball. This one went over deep midwicket. It was a slog-sweep turned gentle hoick that cleared the fielder easily.By this point, it might not have mattered; the Pakistan fielders had long since given up on quality, or even mediocre fielding. Balls went through fielders in the circle, sweepers out on the rope seemed to be waiting for the ball to hit the rope before they could throw it back in. When Anya Shrubsole found deep midwicket, she found Sadia Yousaf there squatting down to take what should have been a simple catch. Instead she dropped the ball, allowing two extra runs, before then being moved to field at – you won’t believe this – short fine leg.In reply, Pakistan batted for 29.2 overs, at times they were over 100 runs behind the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern par score. In their 176 balls they made 107 runs and lost three wickets. Nat Sciver faced 92 balls and made 137.In the 40th over Sciver hit three sixes. Pakistan managed none.

Stats highlights from a dominant day of Australian batting on the third day against England at the WACA

Gaurav Sundararaman16-Dec-2017Double-centurion SmithSteven Smith continued his rich vein of form by passing his previous highest Test score of 215 to reach the close on 229 not out. He became the fifth Australia captain to score an Ashes double-hundred, joining Don Bradman, Allan Border, Bob Simpson and Billy Murdoch. Smith also became the fourth batsman to score more than one double-hundred in Ashes cricket, matching Simpson’s tally of two, with Wally Hammond (4) and Bradman (8) still ahead of him. This was also the first double-hundred in a home Ashes Test for Australia since Justin Langer made 250 in 2002-03 at Melbourne. Smith now has 416 runs from four innings in this series so far. David Malan is the next highest scorer with 248 runs.ESPNcricinfo Ltd The Smith and Marsh showMitchell Marsh and Steven Smith added an unbeaten 301 runs for the fifth wicket – the first 300-plus partnership for Australia in Ashes cricket since Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin added 307 at Brisbane in 2010-11. This was also Australia’s sixth fifth-wicket partnership of over 300 in Tests.
Incidentally it was only the third instance in Test history in which both teams have had a double-century stand for the fifth wicket. The previous two instances were between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at Galle in 2013 and West Indies and England in 2009. The aggregate runs added for the fifth wicket in the first two innings is also the highest ever in Tests. Australia lost just one wicket in the whole day’s play – the last time they achieved that feat was against England at Lord’s in 2015. Smith made a double century in that game as well. Centurion Marsh Mitchell Marsh made his first century in his 22nd Test. He remained unbeaten at the close on 181, which is his second-highest score in first-class cricket, behind his 211 against India A in 2014. The last Australian batsmen to make a Test hundred at No.6 at the WACA were Doug Walters and Ricky Ponting, and the previous batsman from Australia to get their maiden Test hundred in a WACA Ashes Test was Greg Chappell. Before today, the highest score Marsh had made was 87 against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi.Quickest to 22 hundreds Smith scored his second century of the series and his 22nd of his career. In getting there in 108 innings, Smith became the third quickest to this feat behind Bradman (58) and Sunil Gavaskar (101). Smith has scored five centuries in 2017 – the joint-most alongside Dean Elgar and Virat Kohli. Smith now has scored a minimum of four centuries in each of the last four calendar years. Since January 2014, only Kohli has more scores in excess of 150 than Smith. Joe Root and Kane Williamson have made five each. Smith also ended up scoring the highest score in an Ashes Test at the WACA.

The fab four all fell pulling short balls from spinners, and the bowlers didn’t find the right line in the death

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Apr-20181:24

Coach’s Diary: Short needs longer time at the crease

Strangling Short with spin Royal Challengers Bangalore did not bowl a single over of spin in the Powerplay in their last match, against Kings XI Punjab. This time, they bowled three, two from Washington Sundar and one from Yuzvendra Chahal. The reason may have been D’Arcy Short’s weakness against spin bowling. Short’s strike rate against spinners in T20s is 126.17, while against pace, it is 163.5 The plan worked, as Short managed just 7 off 11 balls against spin and fell to Chahal in the seventh over.Rahane ups the anteBefore this match, Rahane had been costing Royals around five runs per innings thanks to his slow batting in the Powerplay – his strike rate in T20s since 2016 is 120.44. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he scored 12 off 11 in the Powerplay, and against Delhi Daredevils, 19 off 19. In this game, however, he attacked and scored 36 off 20 balls (strike rate of 180.00) in the first six, his best return from a Powerplay in the IPL.RCB suffer in the deathRoyal Challengers’ spinners kept the runs down early, but in the last five overs, the seamers went for 88 runs, the joint second-most expensive death period in IPL history. This happened for a couple of reasons. First, Royal Challengers do not have strong death bowlers. Both Umesh Yadav and Chris Woakes go at more than nine an over in the death, and Kulwant Khejroliya is playing his first IPL. Second, they bowled in the wrong areas. Twelve deliveries arrived on the stumps, and they went for 48 runs, 36 of those in sixes. There were 10 balls delivered outside off and just two bowled wide of off stump.The length from the RCB bowlers was equally poor. They gave Rajasthan Royals seven length balls and eight half-volleys, which went, collectively, for 49 runs. Of the five short balls bowled, three were hit for six. Only six yorkers landed, which went for just seven runs. Even full tosses, of which there were four, went for fewer runs than length balls and half-volleys.Royals spinners strike with short ballsRoyal Challengers lost each of their dangerous top four to long hops from the Royals spinners. Brendon McCullum pulled K Gowtham to deep micwicket, and Virat Kohli did the same off Shreyas Gopal. Quinton de Kock and AB de Villiers both found square leg off half-trackers, de Kock falling to the part-timer Short.ESPNcricinfo LtdSo was it just multiple brain fades from Royal Challengers? Partly, but also the short ball is actually not such a bad option for spinners in T20 games. As R Ashwin pointed out in a 2016 interview, the straight boundaries are often short in T20 matches, so a spinner is better off dragging it down than pitching it up. Ashwin even said that “a short, wide and shit ball could be the best ball to bowl from now on.” This IPL, there have been 194 short-of-a-good-length balls bowled by spinners, and they have claimed 12 wickets. Batsmen have averaged 19.33 against these deliveries, less than against length balls (25.00) and full balls (30.69). To contain runs, length balls are the best option, but it is still better to pitch short than over. Batsmen have scored off short-of-good-length balls at 7.17 an over and off full balls at 8.03.It should be noted, though, that balls that landed really short have gone at 16.66 an over. So you can drag it down, but not too far.

You’ve seen his “Champyan” dance, seen him hit sixes because running is tiring, celebrate even before completing stumpings. What you’ve not seen is his struggle to keep doing what he has done all his life: play cricket

Sidharth Monga11-Jun-20184:53

‘You need heart to hit sixes’ – Shahzad

Everything stopped at the Afghanistan Cricket Board offices in Kabul. On a pleasant winter afternoon in November 2014, everybody, from peon to auditor to IT man to cook to physio to CEO, had only two questions every five minutes: “Is he still batting?” and “How much is he on?” Outside, in the Kabul International Stadium, in a four-day match between Amo Region and Boost Region, on a pitch damp from overnight rain, batted Mohammad Shahzad.In the same complex, a conditioning camp was on, featuring the 30 probables for Afghanistan’s first World Cup, who were about to depart for a training camp in Dubai. The World Cup 30 were to leave the following day. Shahzad was not one of the 30. The Australian grounds were big, he was told. It wouldn’t be easy to hit fours and sixes there. The portly wicketkeeper-batsman was told he was not fit enough to play the game required in Australia.Still they all loved Shahzad. He appealed to Afghanistan the country more than anybody else; Mohammad Nabi was the best, but he was more solid than flamboyant, and Rashid Khan was yet to arrive. He hits the ball so hard he sometimes sweeps himself off his feet doing so. He hits the ball far. He celebrates hard. He doesn’t hold back. Shahzad was and is the quintessential Afghan even though he learnt all his cricket in Pakistan, which is not Afghanistan’s favourite neighbour right now.On that November afternoon, as the others got their weights and skin folds checked, Shahzad batted out in the open. On a pitch where the opposition folded for 162, on a pitch where no other team-mate went past 29, Shahzad scored a typically aggressive 145.

“I spent the World Cup sleep-deprived, angry; I would get into fights with my wife, disturb my kids. Thankfully, it is over now, but I can never forget those days.”Mohammad Shahzad on not being a part of Afghanistan’s first World Cup

As the innings swelled, everyone hoped against hope. Even the officials who knew visas can’t be arranged at such short notice. Officials who had bought into the vision of captain Nabi and coach Andy Moles. They somehow hoped this innings, something, would get him in, but without expressing that hope to those who were travelling. Like a parent silently hoping against the tough love of the other parent.A forlorn Shahzad saw the probables leave with subdued fanfare – on the night before their departure, the seamer Mirwais Ashraf had lost his father.Three-and-a-half years later, I remind him of that day. I tell him how everybody was watching, and even those not watching wanted to know just one thing: “How much is Shahzad on?””Yeah, they were watching, but nobody was selecting me,” Shahzad shoots back. “Yeah, they wanted to know my score. Nobody wanted to select me.”Shahzad still hurts from the snub. He had been an important part of setting up cricket in Afghanistan, of qualifying for the World T20s and the World Cup. In the two-and-a-half year World Cricket League, out of which two teams qualified, Shahzad was Afghanistan’s third-highest run-getter. He kept wicket throughout. Their home matches were played in Sharjah in March and October, the first and last of the eight extremely hot months there.”It was like inside a (clay oven),” Shahzad says. “In that (extreme) heat I would keep and bat. It would feel like the whole body is on fire. This is what I fought for five-six years. Took balls on the chest, broke my wrist, broke my fingers, hurt my feet. We fought for this for six years, and six months before the World Cup I was dropped.”1:47

The six commandments of Shahzad’s cricket

The desperation was extreme. He played for the A team and trial matches, he scored everywhere, but just couldn’t convince the coach. “I scored 115-120 for the A team against the national team,” Shahzad says. “Selector and coach were all there. They were going for a camp in Australia in two days. I scored the hundred. The coach was right there, umpiring in the match.”I can’t even begin to describe those days. That was the worst period of my career. For somebody to come directly into the team [previously], and then to play trial matches… as it is if you tell somebody this is a trial match, your limbs stop working. Our local bowlers were getting me bowled and lbw. Because I was under pressure. I was desperate to somehow be part of this. I still scored a hundred but…”If this was a bad period, what followed was worse. Shahzad couldn’t take himself away from cricket. He would wake up early in the morning and watch Afghanistan’s matches and agonise. “I spent the World Cup sleep-deprived, angry; I would get into fights with my wife, disturb my kids,” Shahzad says. “Thankfully, it is over now, but I can never forget those days.”

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To appreciate the Champyan-dancing, helicopter-shot-hitting, celebrate-before-completing-stumping, fun-loving, hell-raising Shahzad of today, it is important to know of the odds he beat to first become a cricketer and then make this comeback. Shahzad was born in Kacha Garhi, a refugee camp in Peshawar in Pakistan, one of six brothers and three sisters. He doesn’t quite know of the , but his story begins similarly.International Cricket Council”As far back as I can remember,” Shahzad says, “I have been playing and watching cricket.”Shahzad was only one year old when Sachin Tendulkar humbled Abdul Qadir in Peshawar, but it was during the 1996 World Cup that the popularity of the sport in Pakistan, and Tendulkar’s batting elsewhere, took a hold on Shahzad. Opposite Shahzad’s house was a small confectionery shop. “Those (toffees) used to come in polythene bags with Sachin Tendulkar’s photo on it. I used to tell the shopkeeper to not throw the bag. I would retrieve them and neatly cut out Tendulkar’s photo and stick it on my bat.”Before those bats, Shahzad played with sticks and stones. Literally. He would go around the streets collecting round stones – “70-80 of them” – and make his younger brother sit down and throw those to him on the full. A bit like you see coaches doing to prepare batsmen for short balls rising from close to them. A bit like the old Afghan sport . Then, with a stick that resembled a baseball bat, he would cut, pull, drive them away. Then he would go get the stones back and hand them over to his brother. This would go on until one of them was about to collapse.A friend of Shahzad’s father ran a club where Shahzad impressed everybody. The gym owner at the club, Azeem Malik, who is now Afghanistan’s physio, told the club owner to let Shahzad play the way he did. “One day you will see him playing on TV,” Malik said.At that time nobody else could think of that in the wildest of their dreams. Did Malik think Shahzad would play for Pakistan? Or did he actually believe the situation in Afghanistan – reeling after the Soviet invasion and the Taliban regime – would improve and these refugees would be able to take the sport back with them and establish it in their country? All in time for Shahzad to be able to play on TV before becoming too old for it?To Shahzad, all these things didn’t matter. “What did I tell you? I just wanted to play cricket,” he says. “In clubs, in streets, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, and when the time came, for the Afghanistan national team. Had there been no Afghanistan team, it wouldn’t have mattered. Even now if I am not in the national team, I play club cricket in Jalalabad, for my region in the domestic championship. I am only concerned with cricket.”

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Shahzad is obsessed with cricket. He is also detached. He hits the ball hard but doesn’t look up to see where it is gone. “My job is to hit,” he says, “others’ to watch where it is gone. I know where it is going from the way I have hit it.” One moment he is in the face of an opposition player. Next minute he is dancing with them. He is friends with the whole West Indies team. “They are very good people,” he says. “Outside cricket too, they enjoy life. I also do the same: play cricket, leave it all on the field, and then enjoy your life. (you can’t be sure what happens in the next two minutes).”It is all pure Afghan, or at least Pathan: strong bodies; big hearts; warm, loud behaviour; aware of the tough, fickle life in those parts of the world. People identify with that. They come to watch him play. “I am aware they come to watch me,” he says. “And I try to bat and play in a way that they enjoy. It is not an easy life. They leave their work, travel far, come to watch. I also try to make it worth their effort.”Shahzad is the pulse of the team. You look at him and you instantly know how the team is doing. If he is throwing his hands around, openly arguing with his team-mates and looking desperate, you know they need to rally. When he is doing the Dwayne Bravo dance, or any other that he comes up with, Afghanistan are cruising. A proper showman, he celebrates before removing the bails when the batsman is too far gone. “I don’t pre-plan any celebrations,” he says. “Whatever strikes me at that moment. But when you field for so long, work so hard for a wicket, you have to make sure you enjoy it to the fullest.”One of Shahzad’s celebrations that can seem out of place for a society struggling with violence is the bat used as a machine gun, but his explanation for it speaks a lot about Shahzad’s cricket. “MS Dhoni also did it once,” he says.Dhoni was a hero; now he is a friend and a hero. Ever since Shahzad saw Dhoni he wanted to be like the India captain. He likes to be called MS, his initials. His team-mates oblige. The helicopter shot that he copied is understandable, but his wicketkeeping is the real story. Just by watching Dhoni, Shahzad has mastered the stumping with no give when collecting the ball. He hardly misses those. He even gets his right leg up as a line of defence, Dhoni style, should the batsman decide to play a late cut. He even collects throws as if his hands were alligator jaws. He just watched and watched and watched. He never even practised it.”No, I never practise keeping,” he says. “Maybe once in a while when the mood is good or the weather is pleasant, otherwise…”BCCIShahzad can’t explain what he did differently technically to become a keeper like Dhoni. He doesn’t even remember when he started doing those things. He acknowledges he used to collect the ball, take his hands back and then remove the bails. He used to be correct. Now, he just does what Dhoni does. It is a sufi-level devotion, both to Dhoni and to cricket.”Stumping, the way to catch the ball, I have learnt it all from his videos,” Shahzad says. “There is no style. Like all these other wicketkeepers who get into weird shapes and positions after collecting the ball. No. ball (just catch the ball). Don’t do other extra things with it. No style. Just catch the ball.”When Shahzad is out of form, he watches videos of the current best batsman. This current slump he ended by watching Virat Kohli over and over again. “He has been timing the ball very well,” Shahzad says. “He is right on top of the ball. Keeps the eye on the ball. Gives himself time. I tried the same. It is not about the technique, it is just reinforcing certain things when you are not in form.”Like Virender Sehwag, Shahzad scoffs at traditional risk assessment. “One man takes six singles in six balls,” he says. “He tires himself out, he tires his partner out. I try to score those six runs in one ball. Neither do I get tired, nor my partner. Why run for it when you can get those six runs easily?”What about the risk? “There is risk, yes, but life is incomplete without risk.”What if you get out? “I can get out defending too. This is cricket, [it can get over in one ball], anything can happen.”

“One man takes six singles in six balls. He tires himself out, he tires his partner out. I try to score those six runs in one ball. Neither do I get tired, nor my partner.”Mohammad Shahzad

The batting philosophy is simple. Watch the ball closely, middle one or two, then go after what is within your reach and defend or leave what isn’t. Sometimes, it takes 10 overs to feel that one ball in the middle, but he is prepared to wait nowadays, knowing that once he starts hitting, he can make it up in no time. Sometimes, he feels good first ball and goes after the second.Like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shahzad’s game is about conserving energy. He somehow struggles his way through the warm-ups, bats, and does nothing else in the nets. In between, in trying to be “fit”, Shahzad lost it all. He even, inadvertently he says, took a performance-enhancing drug via a weight-reducing supplement he was on. “I was 86 kilos,” he remembers. “They asked me to come down to 82. I did it to stay in the team, but I couldn’t bat properly after that. My hands would start hurting. And feet. I just couldn’t bat. Even in the nets, I would bat for short periods. Hands would wobble when I batted. Then I quickly gained the weight back because otherwise I just couldn’t bat for more than five-six minutes.”You look at Shahzad and you wonder what business he has still playing three-and-a-half years after his career had been pronounced over. He could have ended with fulfilling feats, such as helping Afghanistan attain ODI status, setting up a win against Ireland in the 2010 World T20 Qualifier final, followed 11 days later by an unbeaten, fourth-innings 214 to chase down 494 against Canada. Yet, he refused to give up on what seems like a death wish: to be playing today’s top-flight cricket in that shape.Not only has Shahzad survived, he has thrived, and now holds the record for most Man-of-the-Match awards, most fifty-plus scores, most runs and the second-highest score in Associate T20I cricket. He also scored half-centuries in the last two matches of the World Cup qualifiers this year, taking his country to England 2019, a nice little full circle. The man whose hands wobbled when he lost four kilos now goes through T20 internationals while fasting.There is an inner strength, a , an obsession, that is hard to explain. How can you, for instance, learn that Dhoni stumping by just watching and not trying it at practice? Where does he find the energy to perform a gruelling double role in international matches after huffing and puffing through warm-up drills? There is something that keeps him going. Perhaps it is Afghanistan’s historic maiden Test starting this week. Perhaps it is the World Cup next year. In all likelihood, it is that cricket is all he has done since as far back as he can remember.

The allrounder hopes to build on the confidence he derived from the IPL and the experience he gained by interacting with international players

Shashank Kishore in Vijayawada18-Aug-2018On April 1 this year, the first day of Rajasthan Royals’ pre-IPL camp, K Gowtham was tingling with nervous excitement. The prospect of meeting Shane Warne for the first time had him imagine many times how the first conversation would go. When Warne eventually arrived, Gowtham expected nothing more than a few pleasantries. Instead, he was welcomed with “KG, you’re my project for IPL 2018.” This was no April fool’s joke.”Can you imagine, a legend who has 1000 international wickets coming to me and saying that?” Gowtham asks, as he jogs back to the day. “I was glad he had seen what I’d done previously. Initially, I was like ‘okay, what does he expect from me?’ But I realised how easy it was to connect with him at a human level. It was just like two individuals having an easy-going discussion where there is communication from both sides. There couldn’t have been a better welcome than that.”It’s easy to get swayed by his bare IPL 2018 numbers – 126 runs and 11 wickets at an economy rate of 7.80 – and term Warne’s project as unsuccessful. However, Gowtham’s was clearly a case of numbers not revealing the full story. His unravelling of Jasprit Bumah in just his fifth IPL innings with the side needing 43 off 17, was among his highlights. Gowtham took him for 18 and finished with an 11-ball 33 to help the side pull off a heist. With the new ball he was the skiddy, wicket-to-wicket bowler whose role was to restrict runs.The change in role with the bat, however, was a deviation from the one he performs in Karnataka’s limited-overs set-up, where he is an accumulator of runs, but it was one he embraced. “Shane didn’t tell me to change anything with my batting or bowling,” Gowtham explains. “It was more on mental strength and how you come back from tough situations. How your mindset has to always remain as if nothing is wrong – whether you take 4 for 20 or 0 for 48.”He kept saying ‘pause, think over, what best can be done.’ Things like how you observe subtly a batsman’s feet movements to see what he’s trying to do next, and what you can do to ensure he doesn’t do that, either through your variations or by changing the field. How you can enjoy the game on the field, how intensity matters the most, these are things which gives you a lot of confidence to get into the game. Basically he’s a big influencer who carries a lot of positive energy.”ESPNcricinfo LtdIt’s this stint and the learning that he has derived from the IPL stint that he hopes to carry forward, now in the Quadrangular series, where he’s part of 30 fringe players who will feature for two India sides along with the A teams of Australia and South Africa. In the ‘A’ tri-series in England this summer, Gowtham’s numbers were unimpressive: two wickets and four runs in three matches. But that minor blip isn’t something that he’s worried about.”Royals gave me the freedom to be myself, express myself. That has helped,” he says. “As a franchise, they backed each and every player to come good in their role. I wouldn’t say just in batting, bowling or fielding. As a professional, you are anyway supposed to do all these things, but when you get the liberty and when you get the chance to explore facets of your game on your own, it makes a huge difference.”That he isn’t an introvert helped him form bonds with his team-mates, which he says helped massively. “I interacted a lot with Ish Sodhi, who had a lot of ideas. He hasn’t played much here, so he used to ask me about varying pace, getting the best out of these surfaces. With Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, it was about preparation and match awareness.”Bowling, I always used to trust Jos, because he used to give me inputs. In fact you can see in a couple of videos where he stops me and then comes up and gives suggestion about fields, and how to bowl. All these things are just the cricketing side of it. For me, it’s the human side of them that I enjoyed the most. How simple they are as people and how they’re receptive to your thoughts.”Their work ethic, understanding their culture, their values – these are things I try and derive. Yes, cricket is important but these are also things I try and pick up. The ethics what an international cricketer carries, I wanted to get into their mindset. I’m a spinner, Jofra Archer is a fast bowler, so skillsets are different, but mindset can remain the same. Mental strengths, how do they think about the game, those things I envy and helped me to up my game.”BCCIIn this transformation period, he has also benefited from the expertise of Rahul Dravid, the India A coach. “The best thing about him is, he won’t unnecessarily say things. He says something only when it is necessary, but he used to challenge you,” Gowtham says. “One day he came into the nets and said try and get me out, I was like ‘okay’. It was an optional training. I said I’ll bowl you six balls and get you out, and I did. That was fun.”With the anecdote out of the way, Gowtham comes back to his serious self. “You can’t call him a coach-coach kind of person, he’s someone who can talk to you about any situation on the field; he’s faced so many. It may be nets, but getting ‘The Wall’ out gave me a lot of satisfaction.”Unlike many of his peers, Gowtham isn’t a cricket nerd. But he isn’t the one to miss out on picking up quirks if he sees them, like R Ashwin’s away-drifters and swingers for example. “I don’t watch much of cricket, I love playing,” he says. “Everyone has their own way. Watching, I would do only when I would do when there’s something like the Eden Test (2001), or important games. These kinds of games, I watch.”When the Edgbaston Test was happening, I had to balance out training, practice, so you don’t get opportunities to watch. I keep track though. On those surfaces, the Duke always does a bit more than a Kookaburra. He [Ashwin] was using seam, shine to aid him, these are the things red-ball cricket allows you.”These are skills, you can pick up watching videos, but you have to work on your confidence. It needs years of practice, you cannot completely copy it, but I try and execute it. In a Deodhar Trophy [match] six months back, in Himachal, I did try out something in the nets and then replicated it in a match, in the last over. It’s not about muscle memory, but about your confidence levels. At the end of the day, cricket is a confidence game.”The confidence, as he talks, defies the image of a man who was at the crossroads four years ago, not knowing if professional cricket would give him another chance. Four years in the wilderness taught him “life lessons” he’s glad for as he looks to make his late bloom count. Like many, the upcoming season could chart his course.

Batting coach Graeme Hick hopes Australia’s Dubai rearguard can spark Sheffield Shield batsmen to score more hundreds

Daniel Brettig in Abu Dhabi13-Oct-2018If the arrival of Justin Langer as Australia’s coach heralded a change in the national team’s philosophy, his batting assistant Graeme Hick is hopeful that Usman Khawaja’s remarkable Dubai hundred will lead to a desperately-needed, wider change at domestic level – the return of a higher rate of Sheffield Shield centuries.

Sheffield Shield hundreds by season

2017-18 – 44
2016-17 – 51
2015-16 – 55
2014-15 – 58
2013-14 – 45
2012-13 – 32
2011-12 – 46
2010-11 – 48
2009-10 – 58
2008-09 – 57
2007-08 – 54
2006-07 – 51
2005-06 – 55
2004-05 – 61
2003-04 – 76
2002-03 – 49
2001-02 – 57
2000-01 – 57
1999-00 – 57
1998-99 – 58
1997-98 – 70
1996-97 – 54
1995-96 – 56
1994-95 – 55
1993-94 – 72
1992-93 – 60

Hick, who scored 136 first-class centuries, pointed to the fact that a mere 41 hundreds had been scored in last summer’s Shield competition, and wider ESPNcricinfo analysis has revealed a telling trend that has made innings like Khawaja’s the exception rather than the rule. Over the past 25 years, there have been only seven seasons with fewer than 50 Shield hundreds, and six of those have come in the past eight summers.Seasons such as 1993-94, 1997-98 and 2003-04, in each of which domestic batsmen churned out 70 or more hundreds between them, are a distant memory. There have been numerous complicating factors, from the advent of the Big Bash League and scheduling changes, to the still hotly-debated introduction of the Futures League in 2009, which imposed age restrictions on state second XI teams, and thereby stripped out a host of senior players from the system, before it was wound back two years later.”The message JL has been saying is get runs or get wickets to get picked. You’re wanting to see that hunger in state land, see players starting to convert hundreds now,” Hick said. “Over the next year or so, we may be able to look at the Shield stats and see. Last season, I think there was only [44] hundreds scored; this next season, it might be 50 or 55, as it has been in the past.”Whatever cricket you’re playing, as a batter you deal in hundreds, in any form of the game, especially in Test cricket. You want to be able to bat for five or six hours, and it takes a lot of different ingredients. So do that and then you put your name in the hat.”The advent of T20 has undoubtedly had some effect. The last season in which the Shield hundreds tally reached 60, in 2004-05, was also the final summer before the introduction of the state-based Big Bash, forerunner to the city-based Big Bash League that started in 2011. After the tally dropped as low as 30 in 2012-13, curators were instructed to prepare flatter surfaces, while another variable has been the use of the Dukes ball in the second half of recent seasons to try to replicate English conditions.One of the drivers of the Futures League, as well as the more recent inclusion of a Cricket Australia XI in the domestic limited-overs tournament, was to offer greater opportunities to younger players. However, Hick noted that opportunities seem to be more commonly wasted in the current era, as players know that another innings in one of the three formats is never too far away.”There’s definitely been a big shift in the way batters are going about their first-class cricket now,” he said. “If you’re averaging 35 rather than 45, it means you’re spending a lot less time in the middle, which is the best place to learn. So don’t waste those opportunities, because as you come up into Test cricket, having to bat for four, five or six hours, it takes a hell of a lot. If you don’t learn to do that in the earlier cricket you’re playing, then don’t expect to do it when you suddenly pitch up in Test cricket.”Try and learn how your length of innings ebbs and flows through the day. If you don’t do that there, try to do it in Test cricket for the first time under that pressure, and in that environment like Uzzie did, it’s just not going to happen. There is a difference, and maybe opportunities are wasted at times, with the way players are playing a far more attacking, aggressive game these days, that’s different to maybe 10 years ago.”Reflecting on Australia’s great escape in Dubai, Hick said the key to the turnaround in the second innings was reassurance that the preparatory work had been done, and only needed to be applied under pressure. “We were a little bit flat, and I think that was because we’d worked so hard beforehand,” he said.”There was a mixture of some good bowling and some poor decision-making, so that was the main thing. It certainly put us behind, which was another disappointing thing. There were a lot of things that were bad about it, but in terms of what I did, not a lot; I just knew the boys know they didn’t perform as well as they’d like, and quite often they’re good enough to pick themselves up.”They have a lot of pride in the way they go about their business. There was a certain element that they didn’t want to get out there and not put on a good performance in the second innings. Whether we managed to hang on or not, we were always going to make sure there was a better performance. So it was just reassuring they’d done a lot of work, their preparation’s been great, trusting their defence and still bat with intent.”Hick also made mention of Travis Head, the debutant, who built a critical stand with Khawaja in the second innings, after the rapid losses of Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh and Mitchell Marsh. “Everyone knows that coming to the subcontinent, starting your innings is often the hardest part,” Hick said. “I’m not saying we’ve only had collapses in the subcontinent; it’s been pretty rife, so Heady coming in and getting through that, and making sure we didn’t have that collapse again was a great effort.”The fact that he had a duck in the first innings and was on debut, to come and play as he did in the second innings was an amazing test of character. It’s getting through that first part, staying calm, not feeling the pressure: there’s a lot of things that go into collapses; sometimes you can’t explain them. Other times it could be good bowling. The more you’re comfortable in this environment and trust your game, you just get used to dealing with it. Some deal with it better than others.”

Atapattu’s questions to Harmanpreet, a crash course on ‘culture’ for Ecclestone, and more from the high-voltage four-match series

Annesha Ghosh in Jaipur12-May-2019Atapattu’s got her eye on Harman’s willowHalfway through the tournament, Sri Lanka’s Chamari Atapattu had a long-cherished dream fulfilled. Soon after Supernovas’ nets session ended on Wednesday evening, Atapattu, who played under Harmanpreet Kaur, joined her captain near the pavilion. As the Indian batsman started removing her gear, Atapattu drew Harmanpreet’s attention to the latter’s bat, and we witnessed an animated chat between two of the hardest hitters in women’s cricket.”I play against Harman very often [in internationals, at the Kia Super League and the Women’s Big Bash League], but never quite got an opportunity to touch her bat,” Atapattu told ESPNcricinfo later that evening. “I have often wondered, ‘how someone so wiry can hit such long sixes just like that?’ When I learnt last month I would be playing for Harman’s side, I made up my mind I’d get a feel of her bat no matter what.”So what was the feel like, what did Atapattu make of one of the most feared weapons of destruction in the women’s game?”The weight [of Harmanpreet’s bat, around 1170-1180 grams] seemed more or less the same [as mine], but Harman says she particularly likes this bat because of the ease of pick-up [for her high back-lift] it offers,”Atapattu explained. “When a great batsman like Harman holds a good bat, the wood works wonders beyond ways imagined. I’m just happy I was able to touch it.”Suzie Bates cleaves one through the off side•BCCI‘Smriti sleeps’, Ecclestone is caked, Bates soaks it all inAmong the many things Suzie Bates found out about her 22-year-old Trailblazers captain Smriti Mandhana was how she “absolutely loves to sleep”.Bates’ curiosity about cultural differences gave her a peek into Mandhana’s, and the other Indians’, habit of getting a little shut-eye as often as they can.”We are just so different how we go about our day sometimes,” Bates said. “I’d ask them if they’d like to go for lunch, go do dinner, but they would be sleeping most of the time (laughs).”I am like, ‘Smriti, what have you done today?’ ‘I slept till 12,’ she’d say. And, yes, Smriti absolutely loves to sleep. And then, ‘Harleen [Deol], how about you?’ ‘I was sleeping, too.’ So, I had to give them a time in late afternoon so they could be up.”Bates was also involved in rescuing young England spinner Sophie Ecclestone from a cake attack on her 20th birthday, the same day as the Trailblazers v Supernovas tournament opener.”Sophie is young, she is not quite as [clued into the culture in India] as some other players,” Bates said. “On her birthday, they brought a cake, which was a lovely gesture, and when the Indians started rubbing it on her face, she just didn’t know what to do (laughs). I told her, ‘You just embrace it as part of the culture.’ It was one of my favourite change-room memories.”Sushma Verma and Amelia Kerr in conversation•BCCITake it easy, like Hayley MatthewsSushma Verma was part of the Indian side that, to this day, struggles to come to terms with their epic meltdown at the 2017 World Cup final. During the Women’s T20 Challenge, when Verma watched a world champion from West Indies up close, the difference between how the two camps approach adversity struck her.”Two days ago [in Velcoity’s second game], I was padded up from the seventh over, and I was waiting for my turn,” Verma recounted. “[Hayley] Matthews (the 2016 World T20 Player of the Match in the final), who just got out and walked back into the dugout, [was so calm]. An Indian player would have probably been upset, but Matthews kept talking to me, and I didn’t even realise that I am up for batting next. When the last ball of the match was sent down, it struck me again that I was next.”It was so chilled out, and I liked the fact that they have such a positive approach. Their plans don’t change because of quick wickets. At the end of the day, you’re targeting 150-160, and you cannot change your approach if you lose a wicket or two. That’s the main learning I would like to carry forward. Personally I have learnt how to stay tension-free and chilled-out in all situations.”Jemimah Rodrigues raises her bat after getting to fifty•BCCIYoung Harleen Deol and Rodrigues play mentors to the seniorsIndian youngsters Harleen Deol and Jemimah Rodrigues, all of 20 and 18 respectively, impressed with not only their batting but their mentorship skills, underscored West Indies and Sri Lanka captains Stafanie Taylor and Atapattu.”She’d say initially: ‘Take your time, play yourself in, and then switch it up’,” Taylor, the 2016 World T20-winning captain, said about Deol taking up the aggressor’s role in the second game. “And then when we decided we need to up the ante and go for runs, she was like, ‘I’ll go, you stay’. And I went, ‘Okay’. It’s reverse (laughs). As the senior pro, I liked how she asked me to take a step back and took responsibility.”Atapattu, meanwhile, took note of Rodrigues’ support during the third game. “Jemi was discussing how we should aim for small targets from the fifth over to the eighth over,” she said. “When I was struggling with the timing, she advised I try and just time it instead of hitting the ball hard. She is confident, multi-talented, and a very helpful girl.”

For example, why do Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq not make the top category in a list that is meant to prioritise Tests

Danyal Rasool08-Aug-2019Much of what the PCB does, and what it took to get to that stage, is full of mystery, and guaranteed to remain that way until someone writes a tell-all book, or Younis Khan finds out and hastily summons a press conference to explain what happened and why it was a personal affront to him. The same mystery applies to the way the PCB determines who is awarded central contracts for the upcoming year, and in which of the five categories they fit. There is a method that’s supposed to look at performance over the past year, and the player’s prospects of excelling in the future, but as the method itself has never been disclosed, all we can do is analyse the conclusions it throws up.If these words sound familiar, it’s because there’s a chance you may have read them before. This is, verbatim, the introductory paragraph to last year’s piece discussing the questions the PCB’s list of centrally contracted players for the year ending June 2019 raised. But if last year was a head-scratcher, the central contracts for the upcoming 12 months are bathed in more mystery than Shahid Afridi’s actual age.For starters, they’ve been selected by non-selectors, since Pakistan’s chief selector’s contract ran out last week. You might wonder whether pegging selectors’ contracts to end just when they’re required to take the most important decision of the year might be the best move. We all are.Why has the list of centrally contracted players been “trimmed” from 33 to 19 players?
The PCB’s press release announced they were “trimming” the list of centrally contracted players, which might make you wonder if they’d dropped one or two. But cutting the list to half its size last year is as much a trimming as your barber giving you a bald patch right down the middle of your skull.There have been casualties everywhere. Last year, there were five categories of centrally contracted players. The fifth category – Category E – a PCB media release had proudly announced, was introduced to “recognise performers on the domestic circuit as well as to encourage the continuing development of emerging cricketers from the junior cricket level”.It turns out that that lofty ambition was a 12-month project, or just another example of a change of regime spelling a shift in approach. Let alone domestic or junior cricketers, even some senior ones may count themselves lucky to have made the 19 at all. Because it isn’t just Category E that’s been killed off; Category D has fallen by the wayside as well, with Faheem Ashraf, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, and the outgoing Shoaib Malik and Mohamad Hafeez dropping out altogether.Mind you, the PCB have said once a selection committee is in place, additions to this pool of 19 can be made. This, then, may just be a first draft.Why are there just three players in Category A, and why is Yasir Shah among them?
All right, we get it. Pakistan are not playing too much cricket in the upcoming year. There are six Tests, nine T20I and just three ODIs. But pegging a central contract to the amount of cricket players have scheduled – emphatically not in their control – appears a slightly dubious way of determining the size of the centrally contracted list. Category A now just comprises three players: Sarfaraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah and Babar Azam.Sarfaraz’s inclusion may well be based on his status as captain in all three formats, though how long that remains the case is very much unknown. Yasir in Category A does raise some eyebrows, though. He may be a Test specialist, and Pakistan do have six Tests in the upcoming year. Two of those are against Australia, where, you might remember last time around, he took eight wickets in three Tests and averaged 84.Yasir Shah has an unimpressive record in Tests in South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia (SENA)•ESPNcricinfo LtdIt’s not just a one-off; earlier this year in South Africa, he bowled just four overs in the first Test and sat out the third, taking two wickets at 123. His record in the southern hemisphere reads nine wickets at over 95, so he might not be nailed on for the Brisbane and Adelaide Tests. Category A for at best four Test matches – particularly when he’s only one of three players in it – does seem somewhat generous.Tests are the priority. So why are Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq in Category B?
The PCB, ESPNcricinfo understands, put Test cricket front and centre of these new contracts. That makes sense, since 30 of the 42 days the players are due to play international cricket will be with the red ball. It explains, if very loosely, why Yasir Shah sits in the top bracket. But then, why does Asad Shafiq, who has played every one of Pakistan’s last 64 Test matches, not make the top category too? Or Azhar Ali, tipped as potentially the next Test captain – and a Test-match specialist for the past three years – sit in Category B? That, mind you, is the same category as Wahab Riaz, who hasn’t played Test cricket in nearly a year, T20Is for over two years, and only just returned to ODI cricket at the World Cup.Is Mohammad Amir being punished for retiring from Test cricket?
The PCB would point to the fact Amir’s demotion to Category C is a reflection of the priority they hold Test cricket in. But Amir was the leading wickettaker for Pakistan at the World Cup with 17, and, according to the outgoing coach Mickey Arthur, would be a fresher, more dangerous limited-overs bowler now he had shed his red-ball workload. Besides, Pakistan do play nine T20Is in the upcoming year, which isn’t exactly a tiny number. Placing him in the same category as Abid Ali and Mohammad Rizwan – who have one Test match between them – does make you wonder if there was more than just analytical algorithms going on in the decision room.

Used to bowling his overs at the start of his innings, Chahar knows he has to keep adding to his skills, and he is mentally ready to take on more in the death overs

Sidharth Monga in Mohali19-Sep-20191:58

I treat every match as my last – Chahar

“I only select the ball”

****

Fast bowlers are generally slightly eccentric, highly bullish and often outspoken. India’s have been plain and highly strung, with notable exceptions such as Sreesanth. Deepak Chahar is not plain. He can’t be accused of being low on confidence even though “medium-fast” describes him better than fast. In fact MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming recognised his speed as optimum swing pace – a euphemism for lack of express pace – and turned his career around by giving him a super specialist role of bowling out at the top of an innings.Chahar is now a serious contender for India’s T20 World Cup side as auditions began in earnest in Mohali with a bilateral T20 international against South Africa, one of about 25 India are expected to play before going into the big event. This is a new India in which only Jasprit Bumrah can take his place for certain in the bowling department. Even the two wristspinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, talk of the town until recently, find themselves on the outside because they can’t bat.India are not going to make any compromises, and if it is a super-specialist auditioning for the role he had better be excellent at what he is doing. Chahar is asked what if they get a ball that is refusing to swing. It happens to the best of them. Swing is mysterious. Not to Chahar. This is when he reveals that he selects the ball, which means that it is sure to swing for one over at least. After that if a batsman hits the ball out of shape, there are no guarantees.It says a lot about Dhoni’s contribution to Chahar’s development. Selecting a ball is often a role given to your best fast bowler; Chahar enjoys that confidence from Dhoni. He pays off by swinging more balls than anybody in the IPL, and by a comfortable margin. Bowlers such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Trent Boult and Tim Southee swing about half as many balls as Chahar, that too in Chennai, where he believes swing goes to die. Over the last three IPL seasons, he has taken more Powerplay wickets than anyone.

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While Dhoni had given him a role where he could best use his skills, Chahar needed to develop a big heart for it because having only two fielders outside the circle can be tough. More so during your third over of the Powerplay when, if you haven’t taken wickets in the first two overs, the batsmen are looking to take advantage. But two fielders outside the circle has become a way of life for Chahar now.”When I sit down to plan now, I plan thinking I have only two fielders,” Chahar said after his analysis of 4-0-22-2 set up an easy chase for India. “My thinking has become such that when I am planning against a batsman, I automatically assume I have only two fielders outside. It has become a habit.”Deepak Chahar talks to MS Dhoni•BCCIBut in a tournament such as the World Cup, you can’t afford to be that one-dimensional. Teams have a year to figure Chahar out, and he will need to keep adding to his bowling, specially at the death. He showed some of that evolution in his last over.”Earlier I used to bowl out with the new ball, and people used to ask me why I don’t bowl at the death,” Chahar said. “I used to say death is easier to bowl. My brain had become so used to bowling with two fielders outside the circle that five seemed a luxury. If you have variations, you can use them at the death.”Chahar feels he is mentally ready to take on more at the death. He has developed the knuckle ball, and also bowls the slower bouncer.”I believe you can’t afford to be predictable at the death,” Chahar said. “If the batsman knows you will bowl only the yorker or normal slower one, then he can line you up. You have to have a slower bouncer, a knuckle ball, a slower ball, a yorker… If you have all that, the batsman is a little watchful. If you miss the length by a lot, then there is a chance you will get hit for a four or a six, but if you keep executing or miss it by a little bit, you can escape punishment.”This Mohali game was a good display of his range of skills. He swung it in the first over he bowled, but the swing soon disappeared. Still he got the wicket of Reeza Hendricks in his first spell of three overs. When he came back to bowl the 18th over, he had already planned what he was going to do. He said he spends the time fielding planning for his last over. He spends it studying the batsmen, jogging his memory to previous contests.Here Chahar had a set Temba Bavuma to bowl to, against whom he had recently played in the A series. He knew Bavuma is good at using the pace, and pulling and cutting, but not very good at hitting sixes down the ground. He also knew Bavuma had been frustrated by an excellent Navdeep Saini over. He knew the big shot was coming, and he slipped in the knuckle ball first up. It not only brought him his second wicket, but also showed captain Virat Kohli his range.Chahar has so far made all the right moves, but he says he plays every match as if it is his last because he knows of the stiff competition for spots. The World Cup is too distant a thought. Right now he is plotting how to bowl to the next batsman. And he has only two fielders outside the circle.

With Europa League action looming, there is still time left for Rangers to save their season, with the Old Firm side hoping to emulate – and better – their European heroics in 2022 by reaching the competition’s showpiece in May.

In essence, the upcoming tie against Athletic Bilbao represents all that is left to play for at Ibrox for the remainder of the campaign, with the Light Blues having tumbled out of title contention in the Premiership.

Frustratingly for interim boss Barry Ferguson, his side have failed to build on the recent dramatic derby triumph, with Saturday seeing the Glasgow giants slip to a fifth successive defeat on home soil Hibernian.

That 2-0 loss – which was followed by a shock 1-0 defeat for Celtic away at bottom side St Johnstone – has only served to epitomise what has been a miserable domestic campaign at Ibrox, with the gap now at 13 points between the division’s top two.

Such woes have perhaps not been helped by the uncertainty surrounding the permanent manager role and the impending 49ers takeover, with it set to represent a real summer of change for the Gers in all departments.

Indeed, Saturday’s setback showcased once again why the playing squad is also in need of major surgery…

Rangers' worst performers vs Hibs

First and foremost, it proved to be another frustrating day for the polarising Cyriel Dessers in attack, with the experienced striker looking back to his former self with a profligate display against the Edinburgh side.

The Nigerian striker – who notably scored in the first-leg win over Fenerbahce – had scored four across his last four league games heading into the weekend clash, although went on to squander two big chances as the hosts failed to make the breakthrough.

The £27k-per-week striker notably saw his effort denied from the angle after being teed up by skipper, James Tavernier, before then lashing over the bar following a clever, threaded pass from Hamza Igamane.

Aside from that moment of quality, meanwhile, it proved to be a ‘completely anonymous performance’ from young Igamane – as per The Scotsman’s Mark Atkinson, with the Old Firm hero notably squandering possession on 20 occasions from just 54 touches, as per Sofascore.

Elsewhere, it was also a grim outing for the members of Ferguson’s backline, with promising full-back, Jefte, having looked off the boil down the left, having failed to complete any of his five attempted crosses, while also losing the ball 18 times in a desperate bid to create for his side.

The Brazilian – and his defensive colleagues – were almost comically undone for the game’s clincher as Martin Boyle was afforded acres of space to run into, with the Australian star duly converting through the legs of Jack Butland, epitomising what was another rough afternoon for the Gers’ number one.

The Rangers star who now needs to be sold

With Dessers failing to fire at one end, Ferguson and co weren’t helped by the woes of the Englishman at the other end, with Butland failing to keep out Dylan Levitt’s deflected strike as the Easter Road side surged into the lead.

First Impressions

What did pundits and fans alike think about their new star signing when they arrived? Football FanCast’s ‘First Impressions’ series has everything you need.

In isolation, that mistake from the £25k-per-week stopper could be accepted, although the ex-Crystal Palace man has now produced a string of gaffes that have proved costly for his side in recent months.

The 32-year-old had initially looked like a real coup following his free transfer arrival back in the summer of 2023, having ended that debut season as something of a shining light for the Gers, after keeping 18 clean sheets and conceding just 32 goals in the league.

Such inspired form even led to calls for Butland to be selected in England’s Euro 2024 squad, with Rangers icon Graeme Souness among those tipping the experienced ‘keeper to be on the plane to Germany:

Unfortunately for Butland, that call never came, with it now looking increasingly unlikely that international recognition will come his way any time soon, with Saturday’s mistake just the latest in a catalogue of errors in 2025.

Journalist Josh Bunting notably stated back in late December, following the 2-2 draw with Motherwell, that Butland was in a “real rut of form”, having begun to look “so shaky with each passing game”.

Indeed, the one-time Manchester United loanee proceeded to punch the ball into his own net against his former side in the 2-1 loss at Old Trafford, while more recently, he could only spill the ball straight into the path of Dundee striker, Simon Murray, in that 4-3 thriller.

Of course, Butland did enjoy the highs of his penalty shoot-out heroics against Fenerbahce, although considering his status among the club’s highest earner – and the fact that he was signed on a free – the 49ers regime may deem it wise to try and cash in on the 2023 arrival this summer in order to secure a profit.

Yes, perhaps he is merely a victim of the wider issues that are currently impacting Rangers, although at a time when no one should be safe from the axe, Butland may find himself nudged toward the exit door.

Ferguson must finally drop Rangers flop who was worse than Diomande

Rangers must finally drop the flop who was even worse than Mohamed Diomande.

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By
Dan Emery

Apr 6, 2025