How Stokes, McCullum have breathed a new energy into English cricket

Vithushan Ehantharajah06-Jul-2022On the penultimate evenings of the Tests at Lord’s, Headingley and Edgbaston, Stuart Broad was padded up. He was not due in next in any of those situations: England were 216 for 5 and 183 for 2 against New Zealand, then 259 for 3 against India. But he was primed and ready to go for what you might term an “inverted night-watchman cameo”.Ben Stokes and the England dressing room came up with a much snappier term for it: “We called it ‘Nighthawk’,” revealed the England captain after the fifth Test against India, won emphatically by seven wickets following a record chase of 378.”He [Broad] was going out with half an hour left to play to try to literally slog. That’s where we are at the moment, it’s awesome.” The question was asked – what would constitute mission-accomplished for the Nighthawk? “Thirty off 10. Or zero off one,” Stokes replied.Perhaps that is the only shame of the last few weeks, that Broad has been unused in his new role, and the man himself is certainly relishing the new moniker, changing his Instagram bio to “Official Nighthawk”. While the Nighthawk remains in his nest for now, the rest are flying.It’s now four wins through chasing in a row for a team off the back of a run of one win in 17. A switch achieved with many of the same faces in many of the same roles, some of whom were thought to be on their last legs as Test cricketers.Stokes, along with Brendon McCullum, have breathed a new energy into the dressing room and the rest of English cricket. And for all the technical and analytical changes required going into this summer, they have mainly focused on keeping things as simple as possible. Something which has been spoken of by previous regimes, but never pulled off in this manner.”At the end of the day cricket is about taking 20 wickets and outscoring the other team,” said Stokes. “When you get real clarity about how you want to do things, it makes playing the game a hell of a lot easier.”It’s amusing to regard such a basic explanation of Test cricket as some kind of epiphany. But it has evidently liberated a group of cricketers who for the longest time played like every ball, every singular moment in a Test match could end them.That’s why Stokes and McCullum have made tweaks around the performance side to alleviate the stress. Meet times are no longer set in stone, training workloads depend on the individual and what they want to get out of net sessions. Stokes in particularly has been the main driver of a more casual approach, and it speaks of thoughts he has had on the formality around the English game for the decade he has been an active international.”I have been thinking stuff like that,” he said on the move away from rigidity. “But the first chat with Baz was – yeah we can do it this way – why not. As long as everyone goes out there at 11am (10.30am against India) and is comfortable in knowing that their preparation is good. They go out there and know everything has been done in the way they want to do it as individuals to go out and perform – then why wouldn’t you do it like that?”Related

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One element that has bugged him for some time is running and fielding drills on Test match mornings, even when you’re batting: “The warm-up thing was me saying, ‘why are we going to warm-up when we’re batting?!’ What is the point of doing a few run throughs to go up and sit in my training kit again.”It has taken away all the external pressures that playing international sport gives you – there’s enough on individuals and as a team as it is but taking all the other stuff away is why everything is so relaxed and calm and enjoyable at the moment.”The key pillars at the moment are something old and something blue. Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, who took England over the line at Edgbaston with an unbeaten stand of 269, are in the form of their lives. Both recorded centuries – their fifth and sixth of the year, respectively – and have seen their global stock rise further. Root has extended his lead at the top of the ICC batting rankings, while Bairstow has moved into the top 10.Bairstow’s dominance this summer, with an aggregate of 614 runs at an average of 102 and a strike rate of 100.16, has been a realisation of what many saw in him. Incredible hand-eye coordination, the hardest hitter in the set-up and a fierce competitive streak. Root on the other hand, while continuing his remarkable 2021 form, has added a few extra strings to his bow, with charges to the seamers and reverse lap-sweeps over the fence.Root revealed the Yorkshireman inside him still has a voice, asking him to get behind the ball and play with a straight bat. But he also ceded the voice of his captain is interrupting every now and again. Stokes, however, played down his impact.”I didn’t have any influence on that at all – that is Joe Root doing Joe Root things. When he played that reverse (against Shardul Thakur) we just said, ‘you’re a freak Joe, to be able to do that’. I’ve not said ‘oh make sure you get a reverse sweep in today mate’.”You’re going to see stuff like that from Jonny Bairstow over the last five weeks. Rooty – I am bored of talking how good he is – to see him add another bit to his game, which I thought was impossible because of how good he already was, it is awesome to see that.”Joe Root took out the reverse scoop•PA Photos/Getty ImagesTypically, as part of Stokes’ mantra for selflessness, he went on to further dampen talk of captaincy being as easy as he has made it look. Not just the on-field tactics which have been attacking and a key factor in England taking 20 wickets in all four Tests this summer, but the manner in which players are reaching new heights under his watch.”The captain is not defined by himself but by his players and the players he has around him,” he said. “And I’ve got an unbelievable group of players around me at the moment who are really committed to the cause of what we want to try and do. The backroom staff are absolutely phenomenal, I can’t take all the credit for this. I have been a part of something unbelievable over the last five weeks and hopefully something that will continue to work.”But not once I am ever going to 100 percent take credit for this because it isn’t that. Everyone has bought into this way of playing cricket and that is where success lies, that everyone is on the same wavelength. I am just the one ramming it home about how we want to do it.”

Epic final over against Surrey epitomises contribution of team’s pivotal personality

David Hopps14-Jul-2022Jordan Thompson’s rescue act in the last over of Yorkshire’s Vitality Blast quarter-final against Surrey not only secured a place in Finals Day, it also underlined what many people already knew: he is now the heartbeat of the Yorkshire side.What’s more, he has given his strongest indication yet that, like his team-mate Harry Brook, who has already committed his long-term future to the county, he wants to stay with Yorkshire as they try to negotiate the most turbulent period in the club’s history.”Like Brooky says, we are building a decent squad of players here and, as a Yorkshire lad, it would be great to play all my career at Headingley and hopefully win some silverware as well,” he said.Thompson has had quite a week or so. He defended five off the last over at the Kia Oval last Wednesday and when the county caravan moved on to Scarborough, he was awarded his county cap. “Number 189,” he says, still as proud as punch. “It will stick with me forever. It’s an absolute privilege.Beset by racism allegations for the past year, for Yorkshire the emphasis is on cricket again. Thompson, who plays that cricket in combative fashion with bat and ball, welcomes the chance to create a new narrative.”Last Wednesday night, the quarter-final was massive. It’s up there as the greatest day of my career, along with being capped, so everything is coming at once,” he says. “Now, playing the Roses game in the semi-final, hopefully we can turn them over and win the whole thing, but to get to Finals Day itself was the aim as a squad.That final over is worth a recap. “We probably thought it was out of our hands,” he says. “I don’t think there were many nerves. There was no pressure on me til the last ball. That last ball was the worst ball of the lot. It probably should have gone for six. I feel like I’m one of the senior players now, so it’s now on me to stand up in big situations.”He was faced by two powerful Surrey hitters, Laurie Evans and Jamie Overton, both in the 30s and on the verge of completing victory. A bouncer to Overton to pep things up a bit; two yorkers, allowing singles to each batter; a back-of-the-hand slower ball which ended with Overton being sent back and run out at the striker’s end, another full ball which saw Sunil Narine brilliantly caught at deep square by Will Fraine; and – the coup de grace – a wide half-volley with three to win, a swing and a miss by Gus Atkinson, and a futile bye taken with Yorkshire already celebrating.Thompson broke into the Yorkshire side as a first-change bowler batting at No. 7 or 8. This year, partly through necessity, he has been utilised as a new-ball bowler batting at nine. Ask him what his perfect role is and, emotionally, he wants both. He has a great appetite for the fray.”It’s hard to say. I’ll just do what I’m told. Batting 7 or 8 and opening the bowling for me is a perfect role. I feel like I’m growing year on year in different roles. Obviously, it’s about doing the job that suits the team best. Staying fit in the main thing.”Fitness, so far has rarely been a problem. It is that robustness that explains a lot of his appeal. He appears to be a bit of a throwback. He has attracted enough attention in the past year to get late deals at the Big Bash and the PSL, although he caught Covid soon after arriving in Pakistan which disrupted his tournament.Related

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“The lads will take the mickey out of me because I am probably one of the unfittest in the team in terms of running stats and things like that,” he says. “Touch wood, I’m probably born with a body that can take high-impact force. I am built pretty strong, I’m not sure if I have strong bones or whatever. Maybe because I bowl a lot, I just get used to it.”That resilience makes him an excellent ambassador for Diabetes UK. He has Type 1 diabetes, and needs to take insulin injections to control his glucose levels, but energetic performances seem to define him.”I have to take care to control my glucose levels when I’m playing because running around and exercise actually makes your blood sugar levels drop. That’s why the lads will see me with a lot of Lucozades and Red Bulls and making sure I have the sugar to keep me going through the day. I test myself regularly. I often come off after a bowling spell if I feel a bit iffy. The umpires will know, and I’ll make sure that everything’s alright and then get myself back on again.”There was a lot of laughter in the Yorkshire dressing room when his T20 captain, David Willey, said in his post-match interview that Thompson “likes to call himself ‘The Big Show'” – a moniker adopted by the American professional wrestler, Paul Wight.”I’ve been thrown under the bus with that,” Thompson smiles. “I was actually named that three or four years ago by Jared Warner who is at Gloucestershire now. The lads think I have a bit of a swagger. I think I’m quite down to earth. I haven’t got a big ego but they do it to wind me up. I’d just say I’m a bit of a personality in the dressing room, but nothing too bad.”Is there another T20 big show left for Thompson in the Blast this season? We are about to find out.

Having been poor in T20Is for the past several years, they were not expected to make the final

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Sep-20225:52

Asia Cup final: are Sri Lanka the favourites?

Pathum Nissanka – the engine room
Like a go-kart gaining momentum as it comes down the hill, Pathum Nissanka has played better and better innings as the Asia Cup has gone on. He scored 3 in the bad loss to Afghanistan, but then made 20 off 19, in the victory against Bangladesh, before truly hitting his straps in the Super Fours.Related

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Against Afghanistan, he hit 35 off 28, and was part of a 62-run opening stand that set the platform for their chasing down 176 – a Sharjah ground record. Then came the fifties – the 52 off 37 against India, in which he and Mendis again put on an excellent opening stand. On Friday’s match against Pakistan, Mendis fell second ball, and Sri Lanka lost three wickets inside five overs, but Nissanka held the innings together, eventually finishing with 55 off 48, as Sri Lanka cruised home.His tournament strike rate of 118.70 isn’t particularly impressive, but he is Sri Lanka’s top scorer, with 165 runs.Dasun Shanaka’s six-hitting has strengthened Sri Lanka’s middle order•AFP/Getty ImagesMendis, Rajapaksa, and Shanaka – the power-hitters
While Nissanka has worked on giving the Sri Lankan innings substance, these are the batters who have provided firepower. Kusal Mendis has been the most prolific, rolling through a year in which he has been outstanding across formats, in both domestic and international cricket. He’s hit two fifties (against Bangladesh, and India), and struck at 158.16 through the tournament.Dasun Shanaka and Bhanuka Rajapaksa – the best six-hitters in the side – have struck in the 140s, but have taken chases deep. Rajapaksa’s best performance came against Afghanistan (in the Super Fours), whom he cracked 31 off 14 against, to put Sri Lanka on the brink of victory. Shanaka had a good outing against Bangladesh, when he hit 45 off 33.But they combined nicely against India – Rajapaksa making 25 off 17, and Shanaka 33 off 18, as they put on 64 together off 34 deliveries, to see Sri Lanka home.Maheesh Theekshana has fronted up to bowl the tough overs for Sri Lanka•AFP/Getty ImagesTheekshana’s economy, and Madushanka’s wickets
All through his T20I career, Maheesh Theekshana has been almost unfailingly miserly – his career economy rate of 6.53 a testament to how much discipline he brings to his unorthodox craft. In this tournament, he’s been no different. After 20 overs bowled, some of those in the powerplay, and others at the death, Theekshana has gone at just 6.85 an over, and claimed five wickets besides.On the seam-bowling front, no one has been more impressive than Dilshan Madushanka, and is in fact their highest wicket-taker alongside Wanindu Hasaranga, with six dismissals. In the absence of Dushmantha Chameera, his inswing (to the right-hander) with the new ball, has been frequently menacing. And he’s been good at the death, which had been a problem for Sri Lanka. He’s conceded just 44 from 30 deliveries he has sent down from the 16th over onwards. His inswinger to flatten Virat Kohli’s off and middle stumps is perhaps Sri Lanka’s most memorable moment of the tournament.

Before Mohali, Green’s highest T20 score was only 36. After Mohali, he may just be the ideal understudy to Australia’s T20I openers

Andrew McGlashan21-Sep-20223:12

Hardik Pandya – ‘Green played some really good shots’

In his most recent YouTube round-up of the world of cricket, India offspinner R Ashwin picked out his players to watch. The third of them was Cameron Green, in itself hardly a left-field choice – given his recent form – but Ashwin added this comment: “I am sure some team will break the bank for him in this year’s [IPL] auctions.”He couched it by saying if Green was available and there are a whole load of factors which mean he might not be – everything about his career has been very carefully managed so far – but it was a mark of his standing in the global game after barely two years of his international career. Even more so because, when Ashwin made his remark, Green had played 14 T20s and had a top score of 36.However, it was only a matter of when, not if, he would make an impact in the format, and it came on Tuesday in Mohali. Having never opened in his professional career – “I’m assuming that won’t be the batting order,” Matthew Hayden said on commentary when the team list was put up – Green strode out with a record chase in front of Australia and promptly dispatched his first four deliveries against Umesh Yadav to the boundary. His brute force was later on display when he peppered the crowd on the leg side.Related

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It has been quite the few weeks for Green with the white ball: he claimed a maiden ODI five-wicket haul against Zimbabwe, then secured a backs-to-the-wall chase against New Zealand in Cairns, at the end of which he was barely able to move due to cramp. If you go back a little further to the tour of Sri Lanka, he calmly saw Australia across the line in a low-scoring scrap in Colombo.”[I was] kind of got thrown in the deep end a little bit,” Green said at the post-match presentation where he was named Player of the Match for his 61 off 30 balls. If the aquatic theme is continued, he’s taking to each new challenge like a duck to water.Green is a certainty in the Test side at No. 6 and the ODI spot is now looking increasingly secure, but even as recently as a couple of weeks ago, he was uncertain about the route his T20 career would take, at least in the short term. “Everyone aspires to be [a three-format player] but will just have to wait and see how heavy the schedule is, how much time you get to actually improve your T20 game,” he said during the series against New Zealand.Cameron Green started off with four consecutive fours•Getty ImagesHe had not been named in the World Cup squad and was on this tour because David Warner was rested. If Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis had both been fit, he may still not have got this chance. He signed a deal with Perth Scorchers which means he will play in the BBL for the first time since 2020 after the Test series against South Africa, but it still felt as though it could be the format that played third fiddle for a while. Things might have changed now.The move to open the batting was not a last-minute call. It’s an option that has been discussed by both Australia and Scorchers for quite some time as way of giving the teams more flexibility. A hallmark of Green’s early white-ball career is proving to be his adaptability. He has gone from being an ODI No. 8 to being a T20I opener in the space of a few weeks.”He impresses every time I see him,” Matthew Wade said. “I saw him a couple of years ago for WA and he was a bowler who batted nine, to see where he is now is quite remarkable. The plan was always for Greeny to open, the coach and captain feel like that’s the best spot for him to really find his feet at T20 level and he showed tonight that will be the spot for him going forward for a while.”Warner will return for the World Cup (and the final string of warm-up matches in Australia) while there is confidence that Marsh and Stoinis will be fit, but Green is now clearly the first-reserve should batting reinforcements be needed. Wade said he is viewed as the ideal understudy should anything happen to the incumbent top three.”[It’s] really impressive to see a young player go out in front of a packed stadium chasing [209] – and he copped a bit of tap in his last over bowling – to seem to be able to just turn it around and go and put a performance forward like, that is good signs,” Wade said.This was one innings, in belting batting conditions and it’s easy to get carried away, but evidence is only mounting that Green will be a generational player. And these days that invariably means a player in great demand. Whether it’s next year or not, Ashwin is unlikely to have been far off the mark.

The Ireland keeper and umpire talks about how she came to cricket after nearly making it in football

S Sudarshanan11-Feb-2023Cricket was nowhere on Mary Waldron’s radar.”My only recollection of it growing up was watching my dad watching a cricket match on Channel 4 during my school holidays,” she chuckles. “And I was mad because I was like, ‘What is this on TV? This is ridiculous!'”About 25 years on, Waldron has played not just as a wicketkeeper for Ireland Women, she has also represented Ireland in football. She also tried her hand at basketball and hockey in school.She was among the first players to benefit from Cricket Ireland’s part-time contracts for women in 2019 and also among the 20 first fully professional women cricketers for Ireland, when the board invested £1.5 million in the game last year. She has also been on the ICC’s International Panel of Development Umpires for over three years.Related

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Waldron is now in South Africa for the T20 World Cup – her fourth, after Ireland narrowly missed out in 2020 – and at 38 is the oldest player in the competition. Her enthusiasm belies her age, though. She believes this is the best time to be playing cricket for Ireland.”We have been crying out for more support over the years and it’s finally here,” she says. “The bus is nearly full with all the support staff. To be part of that journey and to see it come to fruition and see all the other players just at the start of their journey. It’s actually really exciting.”Gutted not to play in the last World Cup, purely because you get to play against the best in the world on such a cool occasion.”Because even a couple years ago, we’d be like, ‘What’s the fixture list for the year? We might be going on one tour’ – or you just never really knew. But now we have a Future Tours Programme. We know what we’re doing. And it’s very exciting.”Growing up in hill country south of Dublin, Waldron only got into organised sport at 12, in secondary school, when she joined a football club. She was picked for the Ireland Under-16s when she was 13. She also played basketball, volleyball, and a bit of hockey at school but football was her focus. Transport was limited in the mountains, so her parents – whom she calls “very good sports parents” – drove her around. There was only one occasion, she recalls, when her father said no to her on a matter to do with sport.Waldron prudently wears protective gear standing up to the stumps in a 2022 T20I. “In hindsight now, looking at some of the fielding I did – like standing far too close to the batter and that sort of stupid stuff – I didn’t know what I was doing!” she says•Ramsey Cards/Sportsfile/Getty Images”I asked my dad if I could join a basketball club as well and he said no,” she says. “And that was just purely because there was not enough hours in the day. I was already going to hockey training at that stage, going to soccer, going into school games and stuff. It was just not logistically possible.”Her first brush with cricket came when she was at University College, Dublin. By then she had represented Ireland in football and had played all the age groups in the sport. One of her friends was “obsessed with cricket” and asked her to come watch her play. Waldron went along and liked what she saw, and ended up joining Pembroke Cricket Club in Sandymount, which her cricket-mad friend played for. While football was important to her – she was training hard and playing at a high level – playing cricket allowed her to socialise and network outside of her primary sport, which she liked.Once, when Pembroke’s wicketkeeper was unavailable, they picked Waldron to keep because of her ability to be unflinching. “I wasn’t scared of the ball, and actually in hindsight now, looking at some of the fielding I did – like standing far too close to the batter and that sort of stupid stuff – I didn’t know what I was doing!” she says. “I kept for a few games even though football was still priority.”The following pre-season I was keeping in a game and the Ireland A coach saw me and said I should come to training the following Friday. So it was very random, very organic, how that came about, but I just loved it from there.”She made her ODI debut in July 2010 and played her first T20I three months later. Her rise was too rapid for it all to sink in – in her mind, football, which she played for Raheny United and Shelbourne FC, who played the Premier Division in the Irish league, was still her real game.Waldron stands in a game in the men’s T20 World Cup Europe Region Qualifiers in 2019•Martin Gray/ICC”It was all a bit of a whirlwind. And I don’t think I thought too much about it at the time. And looking back, it was kind of mad. I remember playing in the European championships in cricket, and we’re in Holland, and I remember saying that I can’t stay because I had to go back – this was after about a year after my debut – because we had a training camp for the soccer team. It did take me a few years to transition my mindset that cricket was actually more important.”With Ireland rising as a cricketing team, it was increasingly tough for Waldron to juggle her two sports. Ireland qualified for the Women’s T20 World Cup 2014 and with cricket activities – gym, conditioning, skills work – taking up the better part of the week, she had to let go of football.”I just knew that I wouldn’t be able to commit to the soccer training,” Waldron says. “Playing in a World Cup has always been a goal, though I never wrote it down as a goal. I knew that I’d always love to play in a World Cup, and I assumed that would have been with soccer. But it just turned out that it was in cricket.”An invitation from 1990s Australia wicketkeeper Julia Price, who coached Tasmania and wanted to expand the club structure there, took Waldron to Hobart in 2015. While playing and training in Australia, she completed the Level 1 umpiring course. Back home she was a cricket development officer in a club in Malahide, where she coached the Under-15 boys’ side and also scored for and umpired in those games.That kicked off a period where, unless Ireland had a winter tour, she would travel to Australia to play and umpire. Ahead of the qualifiers for the Women’s World Cup in 2017, she moved from Hobart to Adelaide to be able to play more 50-over matches. There she took more umpiring courses and got more games under her belt as an umpire.Waldron (right) with Eloise Sheridan. The two became the first women to umpire in a men’s first-grade game in Australia in 2019•Ramsey CardsIn 2018, Waldron was appointed to the first-class panel of Umpires in Ireland and became the first woman to umpire in a men’s List A match, between Ireland Wolves and Bangladesh A. She and Eloise Sheridan of Australia became the first pair of women to umpire in a men’s first grade game in Australia in 2019. That year she stood as one of the umpires in the men’s T20 World Cup Europe Region Qualifiers. She also has officiated in the men’s and women’s Big Bash League and in the Women’s National Cricket League in Australia.When the pandemic struck in 2020, cricket in Ireland was thrown into uncertainty. They had missed out on making it to the Women’s T20 World Cup and the next tournament was at least two years away. The 50-overs World Cup, originally to be played in 2021, was postponed.Waldron was clear – cricket was her priority and umpiring had to wait. “The potential progression for Irish women’s cricket at that stage was still huge, so even though I love umpiring, I wasn’t ready to finish playing,” she says. “There was a lot of unfinished business. Many people told me that I should retire and umpire.”I enjoyed the opportunity to train even when it was a two-day-week contract. To be fair, Cricket Ireland still gave me the opportunity to go away whenever we didn’t have a winter tour. Between time at home and being able to travel in the winter, it still was a great lifestyle. I wasn’t planning on giving that up anytime soon.”I have to be based in Ireland now for full-time contracts. But that’s not hard. Having the opportunity to play full-time and train full-time is brilliant. I wasn’t able to go to Australia for the winter but I’ll be playing [the T20 World Cup]. I don’t mind missing out on a few umpiring opportunities because I’m sure there will be chances down the line. And even if they are not, I still wouldn’t miss a chance to play in the World Cup for anything.”

A statistical look at the impact India’s Test No. 3 has had since his debut in October 2010

S Rajesh15-Feb-2023Since Cheteshwar Pujara made his Test debut in October 2010, only four batters have faced more deliveries than his 15,797 in this format: Joe Root, Alastair Cook, Azhar Ali and Steven Smith. That, in a nutshell, illustrates Pujara’s value to the Indian team for more than a decade. In terms of batting averages, Pujara sits at a modest 15th position among the 65 players who’ve played at least 50 Tests since his debut, but with him, just the runs scored doesn’t paint the complete picture.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn his 13-year Test career, Pujara has been dismissed once every 99.4 deliveries. That puts him in eighth position among those 65 players mentioned above, which is significantly better than his rank based on averages. In an age when aggression and taking the attack to the bowlers is increasingly seen as the best approach, Pujara still belongs to a dwindling tribe that believes in grinding down an attack. It is an approach that has attracted a fair share of detractors, but it has also fetched him over 7000 Test runs and 19 hundreds.