All posts by h716a5.icu

James Vince did the hard work but gave his innings away in a worryingly familiar manner. He is running out of chances to prove his worth

George Dobell at Edgbaston06-Aug-2016The reaction said it all. James Vince stood frozen in horror after steering one to slip. He knew he needed a score here. He knew his career could depend upon it.Instead, after three hours of resistance, he had been drawn into a familiar error. Seduced into feeling at one angled across him against the new ball, he had edged to second slip for the second time in the match and the third time in the series. Like a former smoker who can’t resist, the habit he had tried to cut out had done for him once more. The slow trudge off the pitch, head shaking in dismay and disappointment, spoke volumes.But if this was a familiar end, it was not an entirely familiar innings. It felt like a step forward. It wasn’t just the score – 42 equalled his best Test effort so far – but the maturity he demonstrated in steering England away from trouble after the loss of Alastair Cook and Alex Hales. He had left more deliveries, he played a little straighter and he picked his aggressive strokes more selectively. Not too many batsmen are dropped after contributing 81 runs in a game. Not under this regime, anyway.There had been some nervous moments along the way, though. On 22, Vince was beaten as he attempted to drive one from Sohail Khan that left him just a touch and, on 23, he pushed at one from the same bowler and was fortunate to see the ball bounce just in front of Mohammad Hafeez at slip. On a quicker wicket – and that is just about every wicket – it would have been a chance.This wicket is unusually slow. While it is not easy to score quickly – it is, in truth, a pretty disappointing wicket which does nothing to sustain the viability of Test cricket – it is the sort of wicket on which dislodging batsmen is tough.That is when bowlers even attempt to dismiss them. But, while Vince was at the crease, Pakistan instead concentrated on damage limitation and attempted to frustrate the England batsmen into making errors as they sought to accelerate the run-rate. Vince faced just one delivery from seamers in his entire innings that would have hit the stumps. That’s one delivery out of 65. So, it’s hardly surprising he managed to survive for longer; they were hardly blowing to dismiss him. And Vince, for all the runs he has scored, is the only man in England’s top seven not to have made a half-century in the match.All of which leaves England’s selectors with a tricky decision. They have invested heavily in Vince and they may well feel they could see signs of progress here. He clearly has time to play the ball and a wide range of strokes. The raw talent is pretty obvious.But at the same time, Trevor Bayliss has said several times that batsmen will be judged not by how they make their runs but by how many runs they make. Vince has now been given six Tests and nine innings. How would other leading contenders – the likes of James Hildreth, Scott Borthwick or Ben Duckett – fare if given such a run? Is it unrealistic to expect them to have supplied at least a half-century? A generation of former players – the likes of Paul Parker, Alan Jones, Alan Wells and Paul Terry among them – could only dream of such opportunities.Comparisons with more modern players are no more enlightening. While Sam Robson and Adam Lyth were given 11 and 13 Test innings respectively before they were dropped, both men registered centuries in their second Tests. Such early success naturally extended their run.We are getting to the stage, too, where Vince’s issue may become mental as much as technical. The analysts working with the England teams over recent years have conducted research into the importance of players performing well early in their international career. Their conclusions, unsurprisingly, suggested that it becomes disproportionately more difficult to succeed if the early memories and associations of the England environment are not positive.Vince appears admirably calm at the crease and can only benefit for the backing he has received from the management. But it is only human nature that, with every setback, his self-confidence ebbs a little more. He is up against a fine attack in this series, for sure, but he will rarely play on more batsman-friendly wickets. It is probably provocative to point out that Vince’s average over his first six Tests – 23.44 – is more than 10 lower than Kevin Pietersen in his final six – 33.83 – but it might also be illustrative of the suspicion that selection is not always entirely on merit.Vince has the great advantage over the likes of Wells, Terry and, yes, Pietersen, that he is playing in a relatively successful side. For that reason, his struggles can be overlooked and the investment period can be lengthened. He hasn’t, by any means, looked completely out of his depth and the continuity of selection policy remains, even taken to an extreme, far better than the alternative extreme.But by persisting with him at this stage, the selectors are also denying themselves the opportunity to look at other players. They are denying themselves the chance to see how Adil Rashid could perform as a second spinner or to see how a left-arm spinning all-rounder could manage ahead of the seven Tests England play in Asia before Christmas. They are denying themselves the chance to see how a specialist wicketkeeper could be assimilated within the team or giving another batsman a chance to gain some experience ahead of the winter tours.But in order to experiment, the selectors first have to start coming to some conclusions. Their failure to do so with Vince is starting to look, not so much consistent, but soft.

A team from MLB Advanced Media are looking at how they can develop new statistics to analyse performance in cricket

Peter Della Penna in Florida28-Aug-2016The arrival of the India squad in Florida this weekend brought in huge throng of supporters hoping to spur a new age for neutral-venue cricket possibilities in the USA. But their presence also drew attention from an unlikely source, with a series of Major League Baseball data miners camping out in Lauderhill for the weekend to see how to bring their analytics to another sport.Eleven members of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), who help curate data for the online services known as MLB Statcast and MLB At Bat, set up a trailer at the Central Broward Regional Park to collect as much player and ball-tracking data as possible in an effort to bring their new-age stats approach to cricket from baseball.”We’re doing some research on how can we apply our Statcast data acquisition technologies to other sports, i.e. cricket, because baseball and cricket are very similar to each other,” says Kevin Prince, a broadcast analyst with MLBAM who is originally from Kent, England, but has been working in the USA for more than 30 years. “We’re here to gather all the player-tracking and ball-tracking data, hopefully to provide a system that can provide the Statcast type of analysis that we’ve perfected for baseball, and hopefully provide that for cricket.”As part of their technical set-up at the stadium in Lauderhill, the crew set up six cameras mounted to the floodlight towers on the west side of the ground, as well as a radar above the sightscreen on the north side. The cameras track player movement while the radar tracks ball movement. The crew visited Lauderhill last month for the Caribbean Premier League and their interest was sufficiently piqued for them to make a return for the India-West Indies T20s to see what they could apply from baseball principles.”It’s the fourth-generation stats, more performance-driven on the field,” says Per Von Rosen, a technical manager with Statcast, originally from Stockholm, Sweden, who came to the USA last year but has previously done cricket analysis in England. “So, how hard did you pitch, how hard did you hit, exit velocity of the ball coming off the bat. In fielding, the route efficiency taken to catch the ball.”We know where a fielder was when the play started, we know where he caught the ball, and therefore we can know which path he took. Was it a straight line, did he deviate from that straight path, and how fast did he react to the ball off the bat – all of these things. It’s basically putting together his athletic capabilities. Some guys always happen to be in the right place to make the catch, and now we’re putting numbers on that.”One of the most popular data points in terms of fan traffic for Statcast online is exit velocity. Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins, the 2016 All-Star Game home-run derby champion, has nine of the 15 highest exit velocity measurements of the season, with a highest of 123.9mph speed of the ball coming off the bat. However, six of the nine connections only went for singles and none for home runs.”The hardest you can hit a ball has to be a trajectory that’s a little more flat,” says Rob Engel, a senior software engineer with MLBAM. “Any time you hit a home run, you have to put a little more launch angle on the ball, and you’re not actually hitting it as square as you would hit a line drive. So the farthest home runs are technically hit a little softer than a hard line drive straight back to the pitcher, because the bat maintains contact with the ball longer, so you hit it harder.”In cricket, the use of these metrics could demonstrate that players who hit sixes aren’t necessarily swinging or connecting harder, especially compared to a drive straight back down the pitch or a cut straight to point. Little nuggets like this are what Engel says draw fans in. “Big numbers are sexy.”How quickly does Virat Kohli get to the ball once it leaves the bat?•AFPWhere the Statcast appears to be having a significant impact in terms of media scrutiny for players is in terms of the fielding aspects, which have long been neglected. Engel, who is originally from San Francisco, was at his first ever cricket match on Saturday, but says he has immediately identified areas where cricket data could be improved for fielders based on what he has done with baseball.”Things are really registering well with fans, as well as smaller things like arm strength, route efficiency and distance covered, they’re easy to comprehend,” says Engel. Arm strength measures the speed of the ball out of the arm from an outfield throw, route efficiency tracks the distance and time it takes to field a ball from the moment it leaves the bat and is cross-analysed against raw distance covered.Another area is base-running speed, including acceleration time it takes to reach top speed as well as top overall speed from home to first, first to third base and so on. But even subtler things are tracked, such as how big a lead a base runner gets off the base before attempting to steal. They are learning the slim margins that allow for a slower runner to gain a bigger advantage and get to the next base quicker than a runner with a higher speed rating.For cricket, it can be taken to measure fastest runners between the wickets and the impact of acceleration and deceleration while converting one run into two or two into three. Not only are the measures of interest to fans, but teams are able to utilise them for scouting purposes to gauge whose arm they can’t or can take on for a second run from the boundary.”There’s an outfielder for the Yankees who threw a ball 105mph with a crow hop earlier this year – Aaron Hicks,” Engel says. “That sparked a Twitter controversy – how can an outfielder throw harder than Aroldis Chapman? But if you look at the physics of the throw, with a running start and a crow hop, it makes sense you can throw the ball harder than from a [pitcher’s] mound without a running start. So those things are really registering well with fans, as well as smaller things like route efficiency and distance covered, they’re easy to comprehend.”Traditional fielding stats only credit you negatively, and it’s basically who screwed up the least rather than who gave us the best performance. So now we have a forward-thinking model on what fielders can give us the most out of their physicality as opposed to who screws up the least.”Prince says they are currently in discussions with the ECB, IPL teams, and Big Bash franchises. who are all keen to gain access to the Statcast capabilities. “Baseball has the leading digital asset creation and development tools out there,” says Prince. “The whole Statcast aspect has been recognised by all the other sports as being a groundbreaking structure, so there’s a lot of people interested in these aspects of the game. A lot of people are interested in seeing how we’re going to go here.”Von Rosen says in his time watching cricket in England, he noticed how fielders were underappreciated, with only catches and run-outs marked in traditional stats. The Statcast technology can track fielders at point, for example, who may be cutting off singles with their speed to the ball off the bat, but have not got the recognition they deserve. In that way, MLBAM’s data could transform how cricket analyses player performance.”You go online and you start reading your cricket news or baseball news, what we want to do is put material on there that you’ll never stop looking for news,” says Von Rosen. “You’ll be watching video after video, play after play with all of this information you can see, so you never really want to stop.”

Rajasthan captain Pankaj Singh, the ongoing season’s highest wicket-taker after round seven, reflects on his journey to 400 first-class wickets

Nagraj Gollapudi24-Nov-2016The most memorable domestic wicketMy 200th wicket, when I got Piyush Chawla against Uttar Pradesh in the 2011-12 Ranji Trophy. I value this wicket because I had to work really hard to get to that milestone. I had to bowl nearly 60-plus overs to get there. In the previous match, against Railways, I went wicketless having bowled 38 overs. Against UP I was frustrated as catches were dropped off my bowling. Eventually when Piyush was nearing the 90s, I got him caught and bowled. But I had to bowl almost 30 overs to break the barren spell.The toughest domestic batsmanRohit Sharma. I have played at least four to five matches in domestic cricket against Rohit and have got him a couple of times. He plays all the shots. You don’t have the room to just bowl at a certain pace and restrict him. You just have to keep bowling outswing, outswing and then hope to surprise him by pitching an in-cutter. But once he settles he is very difficult to get out and he scores very quickly.The best spellIn the quarter-finals, against Mumbai, in Jaipur in the 2010-11 Ranji season when we won the title for the first time. Mumbai elected to bat. I got three top-order batsmen in my first spell: Sahil Kukreja, Omkar Gurav and Rohit. We had never even taken first-innings lead against Mumbai, at least in my career till then. Mumbai were firm favourites and had fielded their best eleven which also included Ajit Agarkar, Wasim Jaffer, Jinks (Ajinkya Rahane) and Ramesh Powar. So I took the challenge upon me that we had to win somehow.The favourite mode of dismissal?Pitching on middle and hitting the top of the off stump. It does not happen too many times, but I love to do that.The toughest spell in domestic cricket Against Maharashtra last year in Pune. I rate this toughest because I did not succeed. We made 250-odd (270) after being asked to bat. I bowled 27 overs on the second day. That was the maximum I had bowled in any Ranji match in a day. We had Maharashtra in trouble at 124 for 6, but [Shrikant] Mundhe and [Chirag] Khurana rescued them. Usually I back myself in such situations to take a wicket. It was the first time I was unable to do anything. Khurana even hit me for a six in the last over of the day. I was exhausted in the end. Maharashtra won with a bonus point.The best domestic fast bowler in your timeVinay Kumar. I like the way he bowls aggressively, how he uses all his skills and works out his wickets. I bowl quite similar to him. You can feel his presence at all time. I also like his attitude and he is the best in the present era in domestic cricket.The most favourite pitch in IndiaSMS [Sawai Madhopur Stadium, Jaipur] and MohaliThe best compliment you’ve received in domestic cricketRecently after I got him out in Duleep Trophy, Yuvraj Singh told me I was the best bowler in domestic cricket.The one skill needed for a fast bowler to survive in domestic cricketAccuracy.The goal you are after nowTo play once again for India.

Tony Opatha led a rebel side to South Africa in 1982 – a tour on which a certain ill-suppressed madness lurked around the edges

Luke Alfred01-Feb-2017Late one weeknight in September 1982, a South African lawyer called Colin Rushmere flew into Colombo. He had flown from his home town of Port Elizabeth up to Johannesburg, then on to Hong Kong and Sri Lanka. The timing of his arrival in Colombo was no accident: the hour was sleepy, and as expected, customs officials were bleary-eyed.His most important item of luggage was a briefcase, a constant companion. In the bottom of it, disguised by other things, were stacked 14 contracts. He was in Sri Lanka to have them signed. Rushmere was not only armed with his trusty briefcase – he had a story primed, just in case. If asked, he was to mumble his way through a passable Dutch accent and busk for all he was worth. “Tony [Opatha], who picked me up and arranged the [‘rebel’ Sri Lankan] tour from their side, told me that he was so well known that he’d have to drop me a couple of streets away from my hotel,” remembers Rushmere. “He didn’t want to be seen because at that stage the tour was very hush-hush. If anyone asked or we got into any difficulties, I was a ‘Dutch businessman’.”Flying home a couple of days later I had my bags thoroughly searched, including my briefcase. As the official was digging deeper and deeper and I was getting more and more concerned, I had a brainwave. I noticed an exchange bureau close by and asked if I could change my remaining money. As I did, she seemed to lose interest. She never got to the signed contracts.”All the clandestine manoeuvring started a couple of months before Rushmere’s Colombo nip and tuck. In July, Ali Bacher and Geoff Dakin, the chief executive and president respectively of the South African Cricket Union (SACU) made the hop from London, where they were schmoozing around the edges of the ICC’s annual meeting at Lord’s, to Rotterdam. They spent the night and were back in Birmingham the following morning to watch Allan Lamb score his debut ODI century for England against Pakistan, in their eyes a timely reminder of what South Africans could do if allowed to strut on the international stage.”I remember Bacher spotting Opatha in the airport waiting area,” says Dakin. ‘There he is,’ says Ali, to which I replied, ‘Very good Ali, well spotted, he’s the only black man in this sea of white faces.’ We got negotiating and Opatha asks for $30,000 per player. Ali says, ‘You think we have that sort of cash, you must be in cuckoo land.’ So Opatha comes back, quick as anything: ‘So tell me, Ali, how many cuckoos are there to the dollar?'”Bacher and Dakin’s detour to Rotterdam was to gauge the seriousness of Opatha’s scheme to bring an unofficial Sri Lankan team to South Africa later that year. They left satisfied, and returning home, sold the idea to their board. Sponsored by South African Breweries (SAB), an English rebel side had toured South Africa the previous season, and while there was political fallout both at home and abroad, the tour was successful enough for something similar to be attempted again.Although Sri Lanka had only played their first official Test (losing by seven wickets to England in Colombo) that February, that debut didn’t appear to be overly significant to either Opatha or the South Africans. Carrying more heft, by far, was the fact that the Sri Lankans were a non-white team. This would help convince a largely unimpressed world of SACU’s reform credentials, a sort of cricketing equivalent of both having your game and playing in it. A token handful of black and “coloured” players, like Edward Habane, Omar Henry and Joe Rubidge played in the provincial games, but essentially Opatha’s men were playing against apartheid-era white opposition. “By their standards they were going to be handsomely paid,” recalled Dakin, “and we needed regular foreign opposition to keep the game healthy. National Panasonic [the electronics manufacturer] were an enthusiastic sponsor. We went ahead and kept it as quiet as we could.”

“The lepers who are surreptitiously worming their way to South Africa must understand that they are not playing fair by the coloured world”Sri Lankan minister Gamini Dissanayake on the rebels

Opatha hadn’t played cricket in or for Sri Lanka since the 1979 World Cup, and at the time of the negotiations was playing club cricket in the Netherlands. With his customary larger-than-life flair, he set about assembling a side, the financial temptations of the tour proving too generous to ignore.Rushmere flew back from Colombo with 14 signed contracts in his briefcase, but literally on the eve of the Sri Lankans’ arrival in South Africa he needed to dash up to Harare, where they were in the closing stages of a tour against Zimbabwe. “It was very important for us that we get confirmation from [Roy] Dias and [Duleep] Mendis that they were prepared to make it, because we’d heard that they were vacillating,” said Rushmere. “Joe [Pamensky, then the treasurer of SACU] promised that if we could get the signatures of those two, they could come back for another tour the following year.”In the event, the parties got bogged down in financial negotiations. Despite not being available for the entire South African tour, Dias and Mendis demanded the full fee. Rushmere was unable to reach agreement with them, and after a heady few weeks in which there were press rumours of the Sri Lankans’ passports being withdrawn, a group of sundry tourists from Colombo arrived at Jan Smuts airport in late October.Unlike the fanfare that preceded the arrival of the SAB England side the previous summer, there was no media fandango. “They were expressly told to pack a small suitcase with a change of clothes and a toothbrush,” says Dakin. “They were ‘tourists’, dressed in civvies. Kitting out took place here in South Africa. We wanted to draw as little attention as possible to their arrival.”If there were any quibbles from the hosts about the quality of the tourists without Dias and Mendis, who had batted at three and four respectively in Sri Lanka’s official debut Test in February, Opatha did his best to keep them in check. With characteristic swagger he dubbed the team the AROSA Sri Lankan XI – the “ARO” in AROSA standing for the Antony Ralph in Antony Ralph Marinon Opatha – the “SA” being a self-explanatory doffing of the cap at his hosts.The tourists were in all likelihood kitted out by Adidas (the photos are indistinct) and they were shadowed at all times by Piet Kellermann, a South African government representative, who saw to it that there were no official incidents. The tourists were described as “charming ambassadors” but were required to toe the petty apartheid line. There was to be little venturing outside of their hotels, or “see-for-themselves” furloughs into the townships for a little . The unusual use of the verb “worming” tells us all we need to know.As worms in cuckoo land, history has judged neither SACU nor the Sri Lankan rebels well. The verdict is unlikely to change anytime soon.

With a 48-point deficit against their name, Durham have their work cut out in Division Two this year. Their captain knows it’s going to be a slog

Jon Culley11-Apr-2017It was the smell of the grass that made up his mind, Paul Collingwood said, looking out over the expanse of it that he knows best.We are taking in the lush spring green of Emirates Riverside, as Durham prepare for the start of their season and reflect on the price they have been forced to pay for overstretching themselves in their lofty ambitions to become a major international centre.It is the same expanse that Collingwood contemplated six years ago, in the wake of being told that his own international status had effectively been terminated, and wondered if he had the will to carry on. He had already retired from Test cricket, but having led England to their first global silverware in the World T20 title the year before, the decision by the selectors to hand the T20 captaincy to Stuart Broad hit him “like a juggernaut.”He thought seriously about quitting altogether. “But then I thought about things and realised there was so much I would miss massively, even the negative things like having to pick yourself up mentally when you are making low scores,” he said.”I played my first competitive cricket match when I was seven. It’s in my blood. And I know it sounds ridiculous but I thought about the smell of the grass and how much I’d miss that and I realised that I didn’t want to stop.” He still hasn’t, even on the eve, virtually, of his 41st birthday, as he prepares for his sixth season as Durham captain.”I think I’ve probably surprised a few people that I’m still here, but I still believe I have something to give. I’m still learning new things, and honestly, I’ve worked hard in the gym and I don’t think I’ve ever felt fitter.”There is the matter of motivation, too, which, despite the high probability of being marooned in Division Two of the Championship for at least two seasons, thanks to the draconian penalties imposed by the ECB in return for keeping the club alive, is still strong, if not stronger. If anything, he says, the pain of forced relegation and the challenge of starting 48 points behind everyone else, has fuelled it.

“I know it sounds ridiculous but I thought about the smell of the grass and how much I’d miss that and I realised that I didn’t want to stop”

“You can sense a real determination among everyone to get the most out of the season,” he said. “There is a real motivation. You know what it’s like when you have adversity, it brings everyone together. The response from the players has been fantastic.”Like the chairman and chief executive and everybody else grateful that the club still has a future, Collingwood has been obliged to take the punishment on the chin. He admits that the dressing room has not found it easy.”There was a lot of anger when we learned what was happening,” he said. “The thing that hurts more than anything is that we go out there year in year out and perform as well as we can and we have carried on doing that despite all the cutbacks.”From the players’ point of view, we felt like we are the ones being penalised when we didn’t really have anything to do with it. That doesn’t seem fair.”Is it too harsh? It depends which way you look at it.”From the club’s point of view, they have done everything they were asked to do [in terms of developing an international venue]. From the ECB’s point of view, they might say that a county should never get into such a financial position where they are unable to pay the players for two months, and that’s got to stop.”But it has happened. It is not the end of the world, we are still playing first-class cricket. At some point you have got to put it on the back-burner and get on with the job.”That job begins with the visit of Nottinghamshire to Chester-le-Street on Good Friday, bringing an immediate chance to measure Durham against a side expected to be among the front runners in Division Two, and already with a win under their belt.”A good start would be very useful, especially against a good team like Notts,” Collingwood said. “On paper you are looking at pretty much an international side, so to get off to a good start against them would give us some momentum and be great for confidence.”But if we are being honest we are going to need everything to go our way if we are to overcome the 48 points.”I heard what the chairman [Ian Botham] said about us being the best side and I love Beefy’s optimism, but I know county cricket and we’re not going to roll teams over. There is a lot of talent in Division Two and we have to respect that.Graham Onions and Chris Rushworth spearhead Durham’s attack•PA Photos”And losing Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick – that’s pretty much 3000 runs out of the dressing room.”We’ve got the addition of an overseas player this year, which we haven’t had too many times in the past. Hopefully he will bring a lot of runs at the top of the order.”I am confident that we will take 20 wickets. Our bowling attack is very strong. We have a great blend, seasoned professionals such as Graham Onions and Chris Rushworth and some fantastic up-and-coming bowlers as well. In addition, we will have Woody [Mark Wood] at the start.”Although 48 points is a lot of points you can’t write us off completely. It will need two or three players to have the season of their lives but something special could happen.”It could be an 18-year-old having that exceptional season, it could be a 40-year-old like me.”Which brings the conversation back to Collingwood’s future. The body remains willing, the appetite sharp. But for how much longer? Will the grass still smell sweet this time next year?”I’m just taking it year by year, and at the end of each season we review where we are. I’ve got things to consider. I don’t want to be a player who outstays his welcome. I have to look at the fact that I’m on a decent wage and as the wages bill comes under pressure I will have to look at whether I’m blocking the way for a couple of younger players joining the squad.”I’d like to think I have something to give in international cricket in terms of coaching, and I’m ridiculously lucky in that I have been able to spend 55 days last year and 60 days this winter with England, while still playing county cricket in the summer.”I think I’ll know when it’s time to go and I’ll be honest about it.”But if I still feel I am pushing this team forward, still contributing in the dressing room, still scoring runs, taking wickets and taking catches – if I’m doing all those things, I want to continue.”

This week’s round-up of the most interesting social media posts about the IPL centres on a couple of early finishes

ESPNcricinfo staff09-May-2017Dan Christian was lucky to spend his birthday in someone else’s shirt. The face, unfortunately, was all his.

One of the pitfalls of your birthday falling during the IPL… Another great win tonight, Tripathi is a superstar in the making!! Also, put my shirt out to dry with @stokesy after the bowling innings, and grabbed the wrong one before I went out to bat, much to the ire of the match referee

A post shared by Dan Christian (@danchristian54) on May 3, 2017 at 12:44pm PDT

Rohit Sharma had his birthday recently too and was surprised Ravi Shastri wished him over Twitter.

Thanks Ravi Bhai! You didn't need to tweet me Ravi Bhai if you screamed I'd hear you from wherever you are @RaviShastriOfc https://t.co/zRhy6YOgwN

— Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) April 30, 2017

Mumbai Indians finished their match against Delhi Daredevils six overs early, possibly because they wanted to get away from the Delhi smog as soon as possible. If anyone is preparing a presentation on signs that the earth is in danger, this photo of Harbhajan Singh’s bright Mumbai Indians jersey shining amid a haze may make a good opening slide.

Top win @mumbaiindians last night..Delhi Pollution,smog it was almost impossible to breath last night in the ground…all players were suffering with bad throat after the game #almost choked

A post shared by Harbhajan Turbanator Singh (@harbhajan3) on May 6, 2017 at 10:11pm PDT

Another game that finished inside 36 overs was Kolkata Knight Riders’ match in Bengaluru, in which, with Knight Riders chasing 159, Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine smashed 105 in the Powerplay. David Warner was keen to let everyone know he has been studying to be a travel agent in India.

I think @KKRiders want the 22:45pm flight out of Bangalore tonight

— David Warner (@davidwarner31) May 7, 2017

The last commercial flight from Bengaluru to Kolkata is indeed at 22:45 every day. And Kolkata, who finished the game before 19:30 despite a rain delay, may well have made it. Team owner Shah Rukh Khan was chuffed. Lynn and Narine’s partnership reminded him of a film he was in that had characters named Chris and Sunil who fall out because they are both in love with the same girl but then reconcile.

After Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa in '94, Sunil n Chris come together to make 105… well played boys! Ami KKR… pic.twitter.com/30JSbFaqVE

— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) May 7, 2017

Speaking of early departures, we were under the impression Eoin Morgan had left Kings XI Punjab to play an England-Ireland series, but apparently he was training to become a pirate.

@Eoin16 Look who's on board… #CaptainCaptain pic.twitter.com/YU4GcUA2g1

— Captain Morgan (@CaptainMorganEU) May 8, 2017

Finally, we have some disappointing news. That Sourav Ganguly fantasy team we’ve all been beating comfortably is not actually his.

Hi all ..just saw an ipl fantasy team on my name ..it's not my twitter account nor my team ..it's fake ..I dnt participate in fantsy leagues

— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) April 27, 2017

It was not always easy, but a worthy role model and the belated discovery of a cricket club helped keep a childhood passion alive and kicking

Amod Sugiyama01-Jul-2017I never thought a day would come when I would shed a tear while reading a cricket book. Especially when the book was a gloriously funny memoir, Emma John’s .Was it because the protagonist of the memoir was Mike Atherton, her idol growing up, and my favourite person in the cricket world? But while I admire Atherton and eagerly wait for his column every Thursday, I don’t love him the way many Indian fans love Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli.I cried because the book reminded me of my childhood.I was ten years old in August 2005, visiting my relatives in India, when I caught a glimpse of the most memorable Test series ever played. I don’t know if it was Andrew Flintoff’s heroic performances or Kevin Pietersen’s ridiculous hairstyle that made me fall in love with the game, but I became interested right away. Disney villains like Jafar and Maleficent were quickly replaced by Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden in my head. It took almost ten more years for me to learn to respect these two modern cricketing greats.I do not remember much about my previous visits to India before 2005 but my dad tells me now that during a train journey, I was struck by the sight of kids playing cricket everywhere – even on the railway tracks. All I remember from that journey is seeing people throw used paper cups from the train windows. Had I joined them, I might have been a better ball thrower now.My friends say cricket is in my blood. Sure, having an Indian father made it easier to get into the game, but the same didn’t happen to my younger brother. I wanted to know why a blond, slightly overweight Australian man who was apparently bowling much slower than his team-mates was troubling the English batsmen. My brother did not. No, cricket didn’t choose me, I chose cricket.The author learning the game in India as a kid•Sarang UrdhwaresheMy dad bought me a DVD boxset of the 2005 Ashes for my birthday that year and I watched it again and again. Browsing through old cricket scorecards on Cricinfo became a daily activity. I learnt that Test cricket could be both wonderfully exciting (Edgbaston 2005) and incredibly boring (Colombo 1997). I loved listening to my dad’s old cricket anecdotes too, stories of the West Indian greats and Sunil Gavaskar, who was his idol.The epic series of 2005 had made me an England fan and I spent many Saturday afternoons revisiting their previous tours in the last two decades on Cricinfo. It turned out they were not exactly world-beaters in the ’90s. Going through all the scorecards, one man caught my attention. He was the captain of the team for five years in that period and it seemed like he was anchoring many innings, only to find out he lacked partners who could stick it out with him. “Dad, why did Atherton only average 38? Tendulkar averages 57, right?” I asked him one day. “Well, he was an opener. And it was a bloody tough job in the ’90s,” was his answer.I came across the scorecard of the 1995 Johannesburg Test, which Atherton saved by batting for more than ten hours. “How can a man bat for that long knowing his team cannot win,” I wondered. Atherton had been part of the commentary team for the Ashes that year. I could not believe the man with a kind, gentle voice was capable of such a heroic performance. I was also obsessed with Tolkien and at that time and my favourite character was Faramir. Thinking back now, maybe I found some similarities between the young captain of Gondor and Atherton: both were students of history and loved literature. And both could be incredibly brave when they needed to be.Next gen: Kosuke (left) and Naoki Okamoto•Alan MargerisonBut even though I was growing up a cricket fan, my engagement with the game was limited to following professional games on the internet and playing the occasional game in the park while visiting relatives in India until I turned 18. Born and raised in the small town of Takamatsu in Kagawa, Japan, I had no access to playing the game. (This is the excuse I use when I have to explain why I am such a bad cricketer!)Luckily my college prefecture had a club, so I was finally able to play the sport. Shiga Cricket Club (we rebranded the club as Shiga Kyoto Cricket Club this year) was a beacon for cricket-loving expats living in Japan for work or education. When I joined the club five years ago, I was the only Japanese in the team, and all we did was get together on Sundays and have a hit among ourselves in various parks in the area.Now we are playing matches regularly with other teams in this area. There are four university cricket teams and one high school team in our area, though we are still the only adult team around here. Despite all the difficulties – there is no cricket ground in Kyoto, so we play most of the games on a rock-hard baseball ground with matting wicket – cricket is growing here.Our club boasts the best wicketkeeper in the region in Ashley Canning. I owe him for all the stumpings he has got me with my rubbish left-arm spin. But it’s best to leave him alone when he gets out since he will be looking for ways to smash his bat or gloves on something. He’ll be okay five minutes later.Alan Margerison, a Yorkshireman who pretends to be an Aussie, has a good defensive technique, so it’s a shame that we only play 20-over games. He bowls handy offspin too.Indranil Mukherjee (Indi) is not only a good batsman and a true team player but also our team’s fashion guru. Unfortunately, he is pretty busy with his postdoc these days and cannot join us every time. We need you more, Indi!A Shiga match on a baseball pitch•Ashley CanningRemesh Palakkad joined us at the end of the last season and is quickly becoming a central figure in the team. He is a genuine allrounder and our quickest bowler at the moment. I ask him every time whether he wants to take the new ball and he always says no and bowls the second over. We cricketers are superstitious people, aren’t we?Our newest Japanese player, Ikuo Ogita, watched a little cricket footage on CNN years ago and that was how he got interested in the game. He finally started playing this year after finding us on Facebook.However, the two biggest shining lights of our club are a pair of Japanese brothers, Naoki (11) and Kosuke (14) Okamoto, Alan’s family friends. The first time they watched cricket was a Big Bash game on TV during a holiday in Australia. The game looked familiar to them. What form of baseball was this? After a few games in the park while on holiday, they started to practise with a rubber ball. Soon, the temptation of hitting the hard ball became too strong for them and they started to come with Alan to our games. A Japanese version of the Chappell brothers in the making!Emma’s book is a coming-of-age story of a slightly awkward teenager. In chapters three and four, she writes how she tried to be an “evangelist” and introduce cricket to her friends only to find out they “tolerated [her love for cricket] and gently ignored” it. I know how you felt, Emma! I tried too, here in the land ruled by baseball. Some friends and teachers were nice enough to ask me the latest India scores. “How did India go last night, Amod?” “Not good. Lost to Australia again,” was my usual reply while I thought, “Bloody hell, I don’t even support India.”It was tough being the only cricket fan in school. I tried to explain cricket to my school friends many times but to no avail. I now think that the only similarity between cricket and baseball is that you use a bat to hit the ball. They are completely different sports. My friends all thought cricket is a much easier sport to play because there is no foul ball and you can hit the ball to 360 degrees. That is probably true but in cricket, you are judged by your whole innings rather than “one hit”.I sometimes wonder if I’ll get the chance to meet Atherton. “Hi, Athers! Pleasure meeting you. I know you have no idea but you had a big influence on one Japanese teenager growing up. By the way, why on earth did you declare when Graeme Hick was 98 not out in Sydney?”Want to be featured on Inbox? Send your articles to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line.

The beauty of James Vince’s batting masks a consistent failure to convert starts into finishes, a flaw that would not be tolerated in a less attractive player

Jarrod Kimber at Sydney04-Jan-2018’He looks so good’, ‘look how much time he has’, “he’s pretty’, ‘he looks the part’, “he has the game for this level’, ‘that shot is gorgeous’, ‘just sublime”. They don’t just say this about James Vince; they coo orgasmically. Nothing makes cricket fans happier than a pretty batsman with time. Vince has all the time in the world and is more beautiful than a summer field.What Vince doesn’t have is Test Match runs. Not many of them anyway, he’s produced more middle-aged groans than runs. It took Vince 12 Test innings to pass fifty. In 19 innings, he’s only passed that mark twice. He’s never reached 100.He’s averaging 22 in his career and 28 in this Ashes, despite scoring his two fifties. Dan Weston, owner of Sports Analytics Advantage, had him down for a predicted average of 24. Weston also said on Twitter: “Is there a better example of biased ‘eye tests’ from selectors -> horror selection decision in any sport around the world than James Vince?”The reason for Weston’s tweet is that there is almost nothing in Vince’s numbers that suggest he deserves another go in Tests, especially on a tour, especially on a hard tour, especially on a hard tour batting at No.3.Last season, playing for Hampshire, he averaged 35 with the bat. The only two seasons in his career in which he averaged over 40 (2013 & 2014) were in Division Two. He’s also never made more than two hundreds in a Championship season in Division One. Vince averages 31 in the top flight, where he makes a hundred once every 16 innings, and 50 in the second tier.If he crabbed across the crease like Simon Katich or had a homespun technique like James Taylor, he wouldn’t have been picked for his country on these numbers. He’d be a grizzled pro hiking out a few runs before moving into another career. But factor in Vince’s grace, and you somehow end up with a Test player.Vince is in his ninth year as a professional; he’s 26, this is his second spell in the Test team, he’s played ODIs and T20Is for his country, and also been an overseas pro in the BBL and PSL. He’s not some ingenue who’s drifted into Tests too soon. He’s a professional athlete who is still picked on aesthetics not statistics.This morning he was discussed on almost every commentary service available. At first, it was his poor record this series, then it was how good he had looked. As Mike Selvey said on Twitter: “Truly, I’ve heard enough about Vince’s pretty cover drive. It’s a Test match not effing Canterbury week.”James Vince walks off after edging Pat Cummins behind•Getty Images***A few years back David Gower gave an interview to ESPNcricinfo. Few batsmen have ever looked better when they were in than he, and yet that meant he was cursed every time he got out. “When people came to me and said, “You are not trying”, I said, “Honestly, I am”.” He also went on to point out, “The first man who is disappointed when you get out for none is you. The man just after that, who is equally disappointed, is the bloke who has paid to come and watch.”There’s no doubt that batsmen who look pretty and get out receive a higher level of criticism than a battling batsman. We believe that a batsman who looks like he is struggling must be, and one who isn’t rushed, isn’t. But VVS Laxman didn’t average more than Steve Waugh.When judging batsmen, we often go to how pretty they are. Victor Trumper wouldn’t be remembered if he batted like Andrew Jones – his skill for changing the game and batting on sticky wickets was important, but the thing that really stood for people with his grace. We are human; we like pretty things.The job of a batsman is not to be pretty; it’s to score runs. While having the ability to have more time (which has been scientifically tested) and the skill to play pretty shots is important, it’s not all about batting. They are just the two most obvious traits. Concentration, hand-eye co-ordination, reflexes, footwork, patience, bravery, fitness, technique, composure, training habits, desire, discipline and game awareness. No one batsmen is great at all of them, they all rely on different skills to get their job done. Some play ugly like they aren’t in, and end up with high averages. Others walk in like they own the pitch, ground and everyone in it, and never make a run.It would be irresponsible to judge a player purely on numbers; those numbers need context, history and research to ensure you get to the right answer. But you win Tests with runs, so to pick a player almost entirely on appearances, while choosing to ignore years of evidence that he doesn’t make many runs, is an incredible gamble. And England have made it twice with Vince.None of this is Vince’s fault; he’s trying hard, figuring it out, trying to survive. When he nicks off to second slip over and over again, it is Vince who first feels frustrated. The game isn’t as easy for him as he makes it look. If it were, he’d make more runs.***He’s upright, stylish, loves to drive, seems to enjoy faster bowling more than dibbly dobbers, and doesn’t at all look out of place in Test Cricket. That’s how Michael Vaughan was described at the start of his career. And when he was picked to play for England he was averaging 33.91 in first-class cricket.When people talk about James Vince, they often compare him to Vaughan.In US sports this is known as anchoring, it’s a behavioural heuristic that allows our brains to make a quick comparison. In cricket, you see it all the time, the tall skinny white bowlers who are compared to Glenn McGrath even when their skill set is entirely different. Our brain makes all those shortcuts, and that makes it easier for us to explain them. The problem comes from how often we are wrong, because as with most short cuts, they tend to end up in a hedge. There are no new McGraths.James Vince is not the new Michael Vaughan.Vaughan was picked with a dire record because England were trying to find batsmen to help them while they were in arguably their worst ever period. In the end, for all his success in Tests, Vaughan only averaged five more in that format than in all first-class cricket. Like many players, Vaughan’s best period with the bat came between the ages of 27 and 33, a period of time in which his overall first-class average was 44.7. When he was older and younger it was 33.To think that because Vince is also upright, graceful and has a bad first-class average, he will also come good in Tests is optimistic. Batsmen don’t usually make more runs in Tests than in first-class cricket; some young batsmen do, as they are picked on potential, some older players do, as they are picked when they are in career-best form. But on average, your first-class career gives a pretty good indication of what you will do in Tests.Vince’s career consists of him not making a lot of runs and struggling when he steps up in class. Seeing as he has not yet hit the golden part of his batting age just yet, it is possible that he will come good. Instead of elegant failures, we’ll see a pro run-scorer come to the fore. It’s also possible that, if he keeps getting chances, he’ll make a breathless hundred. But based on what he has done in his career so far, the chances of him being a consistent run-scorer in Tests is kinda low. For now there will be more pretty starts and brainfarts.James Vince plays one of his trademark drives•Getty Images***Wherever you stand on the Mitchell Starc “ball of the century” debate, it’s an unplayable ball, and Vince’s role was never going to be more than slain victim. But that is not the kind of ball that Vince has struggled with at Test level. The kind of ball that gets Vince out is the kind of ball that most players smash for four.”Vince was right to attack the ball which dismissed him. Against seamer deliveries within 10cm of the one which got Vince, batsmen in our database average 72.40, scoring at 5.43rpo.” This is what CricViz tweeted about the ball that dismissed Vince today. It was short and wide, a Test player would expect to smash it away for four. Many other times, Vince has been dismissed from full and wide balls; again, the kind Test players feast on.Perhaps Vince chases the four balls more viciously than other players, since his debut no one has scored more than 350 runs in Tests with a higher percentage of boundaries. In all, a third of his runs are from boundaries. Vince isn’t even a quick scorer, so he’s either not scoring, or trying to hit a boundary. That gives Test bowlers a long time to look at you. And makes it a riskier shot when you do go for broke.There is also a thought that Vince gets himself out. Perhaps today he did, perhaps he did in the first Test at the Gabba, when he looked set for his first Test ton only to run himself out for 83. But mostly, it seems teams have good plans for him.Vince is only in his third series, but to judge by the data available so far, it is clear that bowling attacks during his debut home summer in 2016 hung the ball out wide and waited for him to nick off. Here in Australia, the bowlers have kept the ball just outside off stump, back of a length, and waited for him to nick off. The real problem for Vince is the conscience; teams work him out, then they get him out. Teams have worked out he doesn’t have patience or concentration, and over time they can work on those flaws, knowing that he’ll eventually make a mistake.All of this makes him pretty, but dull, if you’re an English fan. An unfortunate pretty hate machine.***At The Oval this year, Vince made his way out to the middle when Hampshire lost their first two wickets for 71. It was a flat wicket, and Surrey had both Currans and Mark Footitt bowling. From the start, Vince looked as if he was batting on rails. As if each boundary was part of a movie script, with a storyboard, special effects, choreographer, and make-up team to make it look perfect.Vince had time, he looked pretty, and runs gushed from his bat all day. The Oval crowd made all the sorts of noises you hear when Vince is making runs. As he does in this mood, he had the illusion of permanence, like watching a Jaguar at 100 miles an hour and forgetting about all the times you’ve seen it broken down. He cruised towards a century in a shade over two hours.Just after his hundred, Tom Curran bowled one outside off stump and Vince nicked off*. It was only Vince’s seventh hundred in Division One cricket, it should have been a moment of success, but instead it looked like a continuation of his habitual flaw; he doesn’t fail to start, he fails to go on. Three other players would score more runs in the match, and you could argue he was more naturally talented than all of them.But that would be a useless argument, based on perception and subjective theories. The aim of the game is not to be the most naturally talented, to be the most effortless, or have the most time; the aim of the game is to make the most runs. Vince hasn’t done that in first-class cricket. He isn’t doing it in Tests.***Today James Vince hit, even for him, one of the most beautiful cover drives you’ll see in cricket. The shot made everyone who saw it make weird uncomfortable sounds; it stayed with you for overs, like a kiss from a lover, you automatically sigh when it enters your memory, which it does a lot. It was one of those shots you want tattooed on your arm, to play just once, one that you can’t even master in that surreal over-the-top dream. Oh, it was quite a shot.Today James Vince made 25.*2300 GMT – This paragraph was updated to correct Vince’s mode of dismissal

The 21-year-old quick has been fast-tracked into the national set-up, vindicating his decision to let go of AFL ambitions and pursue his cricketing dreams instead

Shashank Kishore in Bengaluru24-Aug-2018In 2012, a 15-year old Jhye Richardson fancied a career in the Australian Football League (AFL). Growing up in Perth, he wanted to play for the Fremantle Dockers. He took steps towards his first goal when he was picked for East Fremantle, a development squad of the Dockers that plays in the Western Australia competition, below the national level. But cricket caught his attention before he could take the next step.He didn’t live too far from the WACA, and the generous dose of cricket stories he listened to helped him make his mind up to trade football boots for cricket spikes. It wasn’t surprising that he chose to become a fast bowler. Six years on, it’s a decision he’s thankful for, having already played four ODIs and seven T20Is for the national team. Now, he’s on Australia A’s tour of India, trying to strengthen his case for becoming an all-format regular.”I didn’t watch a lot of cricket when I was younger, but the things that stood out were stories of Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee bowling bouncers at WACA,” Richardson says. “As a fast bowler, when you hear stories of how those guys hit sightscreens one-bounce, that’s just ridiculous. It’s awesome; I wish I could have been there to see that.”The one bowler he did see from close quarters was Mitchell Johnson, whose ‘Summer of 2013’ was as close as it got to what Richardson missed watching. Johnson, who was with the Perth Scorchers, took a special interest in Richardson after watching him bowl in a couple of net sessions. He took time out to chat with the rookie and even had good words to write in a newspaper column.”He played so much international cricket and had such a good name behind himself, so to hear good things from someone like him automatically gives you the confidence,” Richardson says. “I’d like to think I have a relatively good relationship with him now, just being able to learn off him at Scorchers, he’s been amazing. Just having him around the group, he’s a jokester, always good to have. He’s an awesome guy. Reading his thoughts on me then did make me feel good inside.”Johnson’s praise was particularly encouraging because all Richardson kept hearing when he switched to cricket was why he wasn’t cut out to be a fast bowler. At 178 cm and 72 kg, many said he didn’t have a typical “fast bowler’s frame”. Richardson didn’t let the naysayers dissuade him, but is honest enough to admit he is “a little surprised” at his fast-tracking.

“I know one thing that Justin Langer has brought in already is ensuring that you need to do what the team needs for this ball, this situation. He often says, ‘Your next ball is the most important thing in your life.’ That’s what me and the other guys are concentrating on.”Jhye Richardson

Richardson is a product of the Fremantle Club in Perth, which has produced a number of Australia players, most recently the Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell. It’s a club he is emotionally attached to.”That’s a great club, I mean we have so many Australian representatives go through that club,” he says. “We’ve got the Marsh brothers, guys like Ashton Turner, and every time I get to play club cricket, it’s awesome. Often those guys have played there. The environment is obviously a little more relaxed than national cricket, so you can take a step back, take a breath and have casual conversations that you may not normally get to do in the national squad.”I think that’s probably the main factor, of why I guess why I’ve probably exceeded people’s expectations and my expectations coming up, because I think it has been so fast-tracked. So just being able to learn off those guys from such an early age has helped.”Richardson’s maiden international tour to South Africa earlier this year was overshadowed by the ball-tampering fiasco. Then, in England, Australia were whitewashed in the ODIs – experiences that could scar even seasoned cricketers. For Richardson, though, these were life lessons he accepted and dealt with calmly.”I played football when I was much younger and before cricket,” he says. “The thing I learnt from football from an early age is being around the team environment, learning not to be selfish around the team, learning to put the team first, and what the team needs. Learning that from a young age has definitely helped me to really engage within the team.”This is Richardson’s first tour of India, and in the first one-dayer that his team got to play in, he singed India A’s top order with three wickets in a searing new-ball burst. He says it was all down to the lessons he’s picked up by chatting with senior players and watching his own team-mates prepare.”For me, it’s about being adaptable,” he says. “I know I’ve fallen into the trap in the last few years of trying to blow the batsmen into the water. You can’t just bowl fast and get away with it, you’ve to be really on the spot. For me moving forward, especially over the last few years, especially after getting the national call-up, that has been a major learning experience for me. If the wickets are going to be slow and low, that’s the way to get the pressure on.”A lot of the other guys I speak to to often say patience is the key in India. Wickets aren’t probably good for pace bowlers, so I think it’s about just not getting over-greedy and then staying patient with the bowling, hitting the top of off as much as you can and putting pressure on the batsmen.”Richardson knows how important this tour is if he wants to earn a national call-up for the tour of the UAE against Pakistan in October, but he’s determined to not get ahead of himself. “There’s a lot of hype on this tour about how important it is. If guys get carried away thinking about the future, then we’re not going to perform in the present,” he says.”For now in this group, we’ve talked about trying to stay as level-headed as possible and not thinking to the future. I know one thing that Justin Langer has brought in already [as the Australia coach] is ensuring that you need to do what the team needs for this ball, this situation. He often says, ‘Your next ball is the most important thing in your life.’ That’s what me and the other guys are concentrating on.”

‘To be honest, I believe in [the yo-yo test]. I was disappointed in a way as to why I could not clear the test, so I worked towards it and cleared it’

Shashank Kishore in Bengaluru23-Aug-2018In July, when India were playing an ODI series in England, Ambati Rayudu was enjoying his time in the Yorkshire sun. Only a month prior to that, he had been withdrawn from the ODI squad because of “fitness concerns”, which he later confirmed was a failed yo-yo test.Rayudu, though, wasn’t sulking at the axe, even if an international comeback after two years had just been put on hold. He enjoyed a week-long trip to England, mentoring a bunch of age-group cricketers, handpicked by his IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, on an exchange programme. Incidentally, it was in England that Rayudu had first stormed his way into the national reckoning in 2002, with a 177 in a one-dayer against England’s Under-19s.Now he finds himself back in the fray again, after passing the yo-yo test. Less than 24 hours after being drafted into the India A side, Rayudu weathered a probing burst of fast bowling from Billy Stanlake and Jhye Richardson to make a fighting unbeaten half-century. In the bigger scheme of things, it gives the national selectors another option as they search for a consistent middle order batsman with the 2019 World Cup just 10 months away.”I was disappointed with myself that I could not clear the test [before the England tour],” he said on Thursday. “[I have] nothing against the test at all as everybody has to be there at a certain fitness level, to play for India. To be honest, I believe in it. I was disappointed in a way as to why I could not clear the test, so I worked towards it and cleared it.”After he returned from the coaching stint in the UK, it was business as usual at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. At a time when many of the fringe players were locked up in a tussle against South Africa A, Rayudu was immersed in his own routines.Every morning, barring the one weekly day off, he was at the gym for cardio, followed by strength and conditioning sessions. Those were followed by two hour-long batting stints with a small lunch break in between. The evenings were spent in recovery. This routine helped him regain “lost fitness” and set himself up for the yo-yo test again.When the teams for the quadrangular series were announced, Rayudu wasn’t included among the 30 players across the two Indian squads, because he hadn’t yet taken the yo-yo test. Earlier this week, Rayudu completed his test, met the parameters prescribed by the team management, and made the India A squad.The IPL, where he was the highest run-getter in a victorious campaign for CSK (602 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 149.75), seemed a distant memory, but Rayudu showed no traces of rust or a dip in form when he returned to action on Thursday.He was his calm self, absorbing pressure, trying to play on the patience of the bowling unit, before cashing in once the spinners were introduced. The end result – a carefully crafted half-century in a winning chase – pleased him, even though he showed no outward elation afterwards.Rayudu has been unlucky in the past too with fitness issues. In 2015 he had to return from Zimbabwe, where he was part of a second-string India ODI side, because of a quadriceps injury. In the two innings on the tour, he had made 42 not out and an unbeaten century. He lost a year after that in recovery, and when he was eventually declared match-fit he couldn’t quite regain his place.These episodes, Rayudu said, taught him valuable lessons in channeling his frustration. He also underlined how important it was to be in a good headspace and accept injuries to deal with them better. Asked about the frustration of not being termed “yo-yo fit” despite being “match fit in the IPL”, Rayudu was forthright.”Fitness is definitely important for cricket. Obviously one has to be absolutely fit to play,” he said. I am happy that there is a certain kind of a benchmark and a bar. It is just that everybody has to respect it and move forward. For me, it is just keeping things simple. I missed a year due to an injury. This year, I could not clear the test for the last series, so I am actually happy to be back to play for India A.”Rayudu is a man of few words. The anger he can sometimes show on the field can, at times, come as a shock if you’re used to his polite off-field persona. He smiles more than he talks.From being touted as one for the future in 2002 to playing in an Under-19 World Cup in 2004 to disappearing into the rebel ICL and then returning to the mainstream, Rayudu’s career has been one of promise not entirely fulfilled. He has seen many of his Under-19 contemporaries – Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik to name a few – bypass him for the India cap. After his return from the ICL, he switched from Hyderabad to Baroda and Vidarbha before returning home again.As he readies himself for another audition ahead of next year’s World Cup, there are bound to be sterner tests. But Rayudu isn’t perturbed. “In a country of billion people, if you are able to represent your country, you will be happy, it is always a matter of pride. I am happy that I am now in the scheme of things. I am just waiting for another opportunity.”