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In an interview to ESPNcricinfo, the 37-year-old wicketkeeper describes the communication and reasons given for dropping him from the India Test side

Sidharth Monga20-Feb-2022You seem angry, going by your recent public comments.
I never get angry. Nor am I now. I was told about this selection decision in South Africa, but I didn’t tell anyone that till now. Now that the team is out, I have only answered questions that people have asked me.How was this communicated to you?
After the South Africa series, Rahul [Dravid, the head coach] called me to the room and said, “Wriddhi, I don’t know how to say this, but for some time now the selectors and the team management have been wanting to look at a new face (as wicketkeeper). Because you are not our first-choice wicketkeeper, because you haven’t been playing for a while, we want to use this time to groom a younger wicketkeeper.” I said “okay, no issues”.Related

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And he said, “Don’t be shocked if you are not selected for the Sri Lanka Tests. In the meantime, if you want to take some other decision, you can do that.” So I told him I was not thinking about retirement; not even close to doing so. I told him, “I started playing cricket because I liked playing it, and will continue till I like doing so. If you are not looking at me for the Indian team, that is your decision.”And the selectors?
Ten-twelve days later, I got a call from Chetan Sharma [chairman of selectors]. He asked me if I was playing Ranji Trophy. I said I hadn’t decided yet. Then he went on to tell me what Rahul had said. So I asked him if this decision was for just this series or for the upcoming series against Australia and England too. Then he paused for a couple of seconds and said, “From now on, you will not be considered.”Then I asked him why, is it because of my performance and fitness or is it because of my age? He said fitness and performance were not an issue. “We want to look at new faces and if we bring in a new face, we can’t drop him without playing him.” That’s why he said “from now on”.I said, “Okay, this is your decision.”And he said, “You can play Ranji Trophy if you want to. It’s your call.”

“If they were going to consider me after this series, then why would Rahul say, you can take ‘some other’ decision if you want?”Wriddhiman Saha

You haven’t been playing the Ranji Trophy.
It has got nothing to do with the selection. Some time ago my wife fell sick with dengue, and she hasn’t recovered fully. We have two young kids too. So I have to give my family some time too. I told the Cricket Association of Bengal clearly that I was not playing for personal reasons.Do you feel you are being nudged to retire?
When the selectors and the coach say they have been thinking about this for a while, it is not an isolated call. It means other officials – president, vice-president, etc – are in the loop too.The biggest shock was that when I scored 61 against New Zealand in Kanpur despite being injured, Dadi [Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI president] texted to congratulate me and said I didn’t need to worry about anything till he is there. Naturally, I was shocked at what I was told immediately one series after.But the board president doesn’t get involved in selections.
I don’t know all that. I don’t complain about selection. If I am selected, I try to deliver. If I am dropped, I don’t say why I have not been picked. If I am not picked now, the team must not be needing me, which is why they have decided. I am not going to say anything against it.Are you satisfied by the reasons and communication?
They said performance or fitness is not an issue. “We just want to look at a new face. You are with the squad, not getting to play, so we will not consider you ‘from now on’.” So if I play Ranji or not, if I score double-centuries or triple-centuries, “from now on” means out. That means we will not consider you from now on.If you score a thousand runs in a Ranji season, your fitness will be obvious, then how can they not consider you?
If they are saying fitness and performance are not an issue, what is the issue? Age.One person indirectly asked me to consider retirement. One said, “From now on you won’t be considered.” It is clear they won’t take me whatever I do. I have been told that Chetan Sharma yesterday said you are not being considered only for these two Tests. That version is different. I have been told “from now on”. If they were going to consider me after this series, then why would Rahul say, “You can take some other decision if you want”?Have you spoken to Ganguly after that?
No. Not after that text.

All the stats highlights from the first ODI in Harare

Sampath Bandarupalli05-Aug-2022304 Target chased by Zimbabwe in the first ODI. It is their highest successful target against Bangladesh in ODIs and their joint-third highest chase. Their previous highest successful chase against Bangladesh was 258, way back in 1999 in Dhaka.3 Zimbabwe became only the third team to successfully chase down a target of 300-plus runs against Bangladesh in ODIs. Pakistan chased 327 during the 2014 Asia Cup in Mirpur, while England chased down 306 during the 2017 Champions Trophy.19 Consecutive wins for Bangladesh against Zimbabwe in ODIs, before the five-wicket defeat in Harare. Zimbabwe’s last ODI win against Bangladesh came in May 2013, when they won by seven wickets in Bulawayo.4 Instances of a team losing a men’s ODI despite batting full 50 overs at the cost of two or fewer wickets. All the previous three instances were also while batting first, with the last of them by South Africa, when they scored 266 for 2 against Pakistan in 2019.ESPNcricinfo Ltd301 Runs scored by Zimbabwe after the fall of the second wicket in the chase. It is only the fifth instance of a team scoring 300-plus runs for the third and lower wicket in a successful ODI chase. The highest is 347 runs by Australia against India in 2019, after losing two wickets for 12 runs during a 359-run target chase.2 Innocent Kaia and Sikandar Raza are only the second pair to score hundreds in the same ODI innings for Zimbabwe. Stuart Carlisle and Sean Ervine became the first such pair when they scored against India during the 2004 VB Series at the Adelaide Oval.192 Partnership runs between Kaia and Raza, the third highest stand for Zimbabwe in ODI cricket. The highest is the 224-run opening stand by Raza with Hamilton Masakadza against Afghanistan in 2014, while Carlisle and Ervine added 202 for the fourth wicket against India in 2004.135* Raza’s score against Bangladesh in Harare is the highest individual score during a successful ODI chase while batting at No.5 and lower. Michael Bracewell’s 127* against Ireland last month in Dublin while batting at No.7 was the previous highest.Raza’s 135 is also the second highest for Zimbabwe in a successful ODI chase, behind his own 141 against Afghanistan in 2014. Raza is also only the second Zimbabwe batter with multiple hundreds in successful ODI chases, after Craig Ervine.81 Balls needed for Raza to complete his century, the third fastest for Zimbabwe in ODI cricket. The fastest hundred is by Sean Williams off 77 balls against the UAE in 2019, while Brendan Taylor scored a 79-ball century against Ireland in the 2015 World Cup.

Tom Moody, Anil Kumble and Stephen Fleming have their say following another trophy-less World Cup campaign for India

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-20223:56

Should India allow players to participate in overseas leagues?

The next T20 World Cup is in two years. What should be the first plan to address the top-order issue?

Moody: I think the top order needs to be more dynamic. So I’d be looking at players that fit that profile. So, identifying who are the players who play the sort of fearless game that we see, for example, Suryakumar Yadav. But he plays in the middle order. Who is the version of him that I can have at the top of the order?Ideally, in my top three, I’d want two of them and then I have my anchor player that plays around circumstances, conditions, lot of early wickets, whatever it is, just to set the ship back on the right course if things go wrong.Related

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So who are those dynamic players? Rishabh Pant is one of them. Ishan Kishan is another one that I see who is an extraordinary talent. At the end of the day, it’s not the people you are picking but the brand of cricket you want to play. The people then follow the brand.

Do you feel that as a player grows in stature in Indian cricket, he almost loses the ability to play that brand?

Kumble: I think what is crucial in a situation like this is the communication that you have with your group of players, not necessarily what we think about as experts or what the media thinks. So, yes, the communication around the players is what brand of cricket that you are going to play and how you are going to support the kind of players who come in to play that kind of cricket. Because when you are playing that kind of cricket, it involves a lot of risk. Which means that you may not have performances consistently going your way.3:43

Moody’s advice to India – Set a brand of cricket, then pick players accordingly

There may be situations where you may get blown away for 80. Because if that’s the kind of cricket you want to play, where right from ball one, you’re going to go hard, then you need proper communication around the team. And it just doesn’t require the captain and the coach to do that, it requires everyone to get a buy-in. More importantly, what I see as something that certainly needs to be done is, how we keep talking about bowlers need to bat. But I think in Indian cricket, you need batters to bowl too for the balance of the team.That’s exactly what England have. They had too many choices today. They used Liam Livingstone. Moeen Ali has hardly bowled in this tournament. So those are the choices that you need. Unfortunately even in the India A team that gets picked, it’s mostly batters who don’t bowl. It’s important to create that brand of cricket and say that this is how the Indian team is going to do it and it should follow right through the system. I think the more and more you play T20s, it’s going to be like this, where you just come and show your power. So that’s exactly how I think T20 is going to go forward.Moody: I think the important thing we need to recognise is that today’s result for England is the legacy that Eoin Morgan has left in English cricket. He was the one who was very firm in the brand that he wanted his white-ball teams to play both in T20 and 50-over cricket, and he backed them. When you play that brand, you’re going to have highs and you’re going to have lows, but you have to stick with people.So you identify who those people are that can bring that style of cricket that you feel is the future, that’s going to give you the success, and that sort of breeds another generation of people. So you breed that success and that’s the turning point for India. There’s no shortage of talent, but it’s about accepting that this is the brand and that we’ve got your back. We know there’s going to be failure playing that way but we feel that you’ve got the skillset and we are going to surround you with the support to make sure you technically, physically and mentally can survive playing that type of cricket.1:06

Kumble: Brand of cricket India want to play will determine who plays in 2024 T20 World Cup

This is perhaps easier to instill on the newer bunch of cricketers?

Moody: Not necessarily. Look at Jonny Bairstow’s story. I know he is not in this World Cup because of his injury. But Bairstow did not play that brand of cricket 10 years ago. He’s evolved and turned into a beast. You look at him in the Test arena now. He’s even taking that approach to Test cricket. He’s always been a steady impact player but now he is like a different beast, isn’t he?

So you need four or five players to bat with Suryakumar’s intent, if not execution?

Moody: Yeah and he does it as a freelancer. He does it because that’s who he is. That is his own authenticity as a cricketer. And it’s breaking away the shackles of the others and saying this is what I want you to do, we’ve got your back.Fleming: I like to concentrate on the responsibility of the player, whether it’s the current or the up and coming, that this is the way the game’s going. It’s fine for Tom or Anil or me to say you have to go and play and be free, but you have to learn how to do it. And there’s a certain skill-set, courage, resilience and confidence that is needed to do it. So you can’t just go ahead and change your game straight away.But assuming I’m a young player, I’d be thinking, ‘hey I can see the game going this way. I’m going to learn some of these skills. I haven’t got them now, but I’m going to learn and I’m going to become a member of this next side whether it’s two years or four years down the track because I’m going to play a certain way’.

“Sheer numbers has often been the way you get recognised in India, but now it’s the way you get the numbers. It might not be as high, but the strike-rates have to be higher”Stephen Fleming on the way forward for India’s top order

So the responsibility will still lie with the player to pick up that skill, and that’s the exciting part. You’ve got one of the greatest stages you can have in the IPL to show your talent, so from now until then, get going. Where it gets interesting is he [Moody] talked about buy-ins, Morgan getting buy-ins from players and a number of coaches. In India it’s a bit harder, because you have to get buy-ins all the way down to the high-end domestic level. And there’s a lot of coaches and a lot of people you have to convince that this is the right way to go. Because sheer numbers has often been the way you get recognised in India, but now it’s the way you get the numbers. It might not be as high, but the strike-rates have to be higher. It has to be higher risk, it has to have an element of confidence to get down on the knee and start sweeping and doing these shots that are now becoming commonplace among the best of the world.The onus goes on the cricket landscape to pick these players up and teach them what’s the next way to play in the top order. It’s not a massive change, but you’re going to have to shift the mentality of a number of batters. Some of these top batters, they’re beautiful players to watch, but they might have to add a little bit of the unorthodox and just take the game on a little bit more, if India are to compete with England going forward in the next few years.Kumble: One is of course having that brand of cricket and then choosing the players to do that but I think it’s also important that these players play their specific roles wherever they play. Because it’s not about just playing that role for India and then going back to your domestic cricket and franchise cricket and then changing the way you’re going to go about it. Because, for example, Pant today batted for India at No. 6, he walked in in the 19th over. He never does that in domestic cricket. So you need some kind of role definition as well there and that’s something I think is very critical if you’re going to build a potent team where you need a back-up for those roles and not necessarily your six best players whatever role they can. It’s very difficult to do that in a World Cup.Moody: Just to build on that a little bit, the example you have there of Pant coming in the 19th over. That’s everything that went wrong with India’s pursuit of a total. Because how could you have a resource like that left and have the total they’ve got? If he’s coming in the 19th over, you’d expect the score to be 180 or 190. But having that as a wasted resource is purely because of the brand that was demonstrated for 70% of the innings. In my opinion, 60 or 70% of that innings was not the modern brand that is going to be good enough to win the T20 World Cup.2:00

Fleming on Rohit’s struggle: There’s pressure in being out of comfort zone

So Kohli and Rohit got it wrong today?

Kumble: I’m not saying they got it wrong. They are players that are capable of playing at a higher strike-rate. But obviously, Rohit has not been in the best of form. He was trying hard. It was not for a lack of trying, it was just that it didn’t work out. Maybe recognising on the surface, that since KL Rahul got out early, he should have known that in the first six overs, someone had to take the initiative. Virat hit that six over extra cover, but I think in the next few overs, the momentum was again taken away from India and given back to England. Especially after the sixth over, when the two spinners came on, I don’t think there was any intent to put the pressure back on England. Like Tom had mentioned, there was no identifying which bowler to take down today. Irrespective, he may end up getting three wickets, but you need to decide that okay, he’s the person I’m going to take down.Moody: In the powerplay, there was a simple difference with the approach and intent that we’ve been talking about. Five boundaries by India, 10 by England. Anil makes a really good point, he’s bowled enough overs to understand this. You can only bowl as well as you’re allowed to. And at times, you can bowl an over or two and you get away with it thinking, oh they haven’t really taken me down yet. Because suddenly the margin of your error when someone is taking you on shrinks dramatically. So that’s what happened today with India’s bowlers. The way that Jos Buttler and Alex Hales batted, they didn’t have a margin of error purely because they put so much pressure on them.

Indian players just play the IPL, but they come up against a number of players who have a great deal of T20 experience from around the world. Are Indian players short-changed that they play only one premier T20 tournament in the year?Fleming: It may be something to consider when you listen to the commentators talk about Hales and his experience at the ground [Adelaide Oval] and Phil Salt has played at the ground. It seems like a number of these players who are playing around the world are getting really important experience from playing these domestic tournaments that they can then tap into and feel a lot more comfortable.You look at the CPL which becomes more important with the next World Cup being there in the Caribbean, and how many players can you get put into that tournament to get an idea of conditions. It is an advantage. Young players maybe more so than the guys who have been a bit longer in the tooth. Bairstow is a great example. They can still keep getting better because you keep learning from these environments. Things are done in a different way in different parts of the world. So if you keep bolting, it’s like upgrading your phone. Every time you plug it in and get an upgrade you get another new tool. And these guys are just going around adding these new tools to their repertoire. So they become quite complete and then they just sync in to a certain way of playing. Playing with a different group of people outside of the people you know and usually play with, that can also be a good challenge and good for the maturity and pressure-wise, responding to it and again just adding something to your game.3:38

India’s top order – risk-averse or simply misfits?

Would you welcome a change at least for young players, if not the centrally contracted ones, to go and play in other leagues?

Kumble: I think exposure certainly helps. It certainly helps any cricketer. We have seen that with the kind of development that it has had on Indian cricket. For example, the IPL, where overseas players come in and the kind of changes we’ve had in Indian cricket has certainly helped. And likewise, if you identify the brand of cricket that we are looking at and then identify these key young players who you believe need those exposures, then why not? I think that’s important. The other thing that I also feel that needs to come into this team is the flexible approach to batting or the batting order. Because in T20s, I certainly believe there is no fixed batting order. You have to be flexible in the way you are going to go about using your resources. And yeah, in terms of giving an opportunity to a young player to go overseas and have a crack, then why not? I think it’s important that you need to have everything that you need to do that come 2024, you are well prepared to take on a World Cup event.Moody: What we’ve seen over recent years is that more and more Indian players get that exposure in county cricket and the benefit that they get with that exposure. Zaheer Khan is one of the greatest examples of all. Ishant Sharma is also another great example. That exposure of learning about their game, learning about other professionals around them and the volume of cricket that you play there. You talked about the lack of depth of Indian batsmen that can bowl; take tournaments like the CPL for example, if you’re using that as a platform, you couldn’t get a better platform to send six or 12 and have two batting allrounders per team in that tournament. And I know that tournament would say with open arms, please bring all of your development players, it doesn’t have to be your contracted players, and use this as a platform. Because it’s a win-win. The CPL will welcome it thinking gosh, we’ve got some top notch Indian players, and it gets a little bit of interest in a country where cricket is as big as we know. I think everyone’s a winner.Kumble: Yeah, I think it will only benefit the younger players if they get more opportunities. And I think one thing that certainly needs to be addressed is batters coming on to bowl. Otherwise, you’ll end up having this conundrum whether to go with five bowlers, six bowlers. I think if you have enough ability in the top 6 to give you two options, then I think it certainly opens up… you can pick and choose who you want at No. 7.Will Kohli and Rohit be a part of the squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup?•AFP/Getty Images

Have we likely seen the last of Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli in T20Is for India?

Moody: With two years to play out, I’d be surprised if they play a lot of T20 cricket for India between now and that World Cup. And I think that decision will be something that they’ll need to sit down with the cricket board and work out six months prior to that World Cup. Because I don’t see any point in them playing any T20 cricket for India, apart from franchise cricket of course, to that point, because it’s a great platform to look to develop the players that we’ve been talking about.Kumble: I think you’ll sort of not decide now, but it’s the decision of the player. And it’s about what brand of cricket you want to play and what is the buy-in of everyone else. I think that will determine who is a part of 2024 and who’s not.Fleming: I know there are big decisions made after big tournaments and some can be rash. I don’t like discarding players after a big tournament. I think there’s a process in which both the boys have identified there that you work through. You’re looking at talent, you are looking at the tournaments coming up and you put a bit of a plan in place that is in conjunction with the player, and with selectors and the board. You by no means shut the door, you work towards that door and see what sort of time frame you’re thinking and then come up with a plan.I’m not trying to sit on the fence but I just think it’s crude when you just put a line in the sand after a tough tournament when I think they have still something to give. Is there enough time for it? That’s a question a couple of years on. What’s the motivation level of the player? What’s the energy level? Often the decision is made before the selectors have to intervene. So it will be an interesting watch not just for India but for a number of teams when you reshuffle the deck and you see who’s still standing.

India’s takeaways from their home T20I series wins against Sri Lanka and New Zealand

Deivarayan Muthu02-Feb-20233:27

Jaffer: Shubman Gill is going to be the next big batter after Virat Kohli

Shubman Gill shows off his T20 skills

T20 was considered to be Shubman Gill’s weakest format, and there were questions about his place as an opener, considering the explosive Prithvi Shaw was waiting on the bench. In his first five T20Is of 2023, Gill had scored only 76 runs, but in the series decider against New Zealand in Ahmedabad , he showed the world he could excel in the shortest format as well.Related

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Gill launched seven sixes, the highlight being a one-handed loft over long-off off Blair Tickner. Against Mitchell Santner, he dashed out of the crease and pumped him into the sightscreen. With an unbeaten 126 off 63 balls – India’s highest score in T20Is – Gill has arrived as an all-format batter and increased the competition for places among India’s T20I openers.

Hardik Pandya’s new (ball) role

Captain. Anchor. MS Dhoni-like finisher. Middle-overs enforcer with the ball. Hardik has juggled and aced different roles in T20 cricket of late. Now, in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, he took the new ball in all six T20Is against Sri Lanka and New Zealand.In the third game against New Zealand, Hardik smartly stayed away from fuller lengths on a pitch that, according to him, became “spicier” in the evening. He ended up dismissing Finn Allen and Glenn Phillips with hard lengths. Even in the Indore ODI, when had India rested their frontline quicks, Hardik had done the job with the new ball. At the moment, Hardik is officially only a stand-in captain for Rohit Sharma, but he’s won two T20I series this year and was Player of the Series against New Zealand too.Rahul Tripathi has batted fearlessly and selflessly in whatever opportunities he has got•Associated Press

Rahul Tripathi tees off

In the third T20I against New Zealand, Rahul Tripathi, like Gill, also scored at two runs a ball, smashing 44 off 22 balls. But it was Tripathi’s early aggression that gave Gill the freedom to pace his innings. He fearlessly and selflessly hit the ball over the top – both in front of the wicket and behind it in the powerplay – like he usually does in the IPL. Tripathi’s attacking intent and innovative strokeplay was also on show during his 16-ball 35 against Sri Lanka in Rajkot last month. Head coach Rahul Dravid recently suggested that India haven’t moved on yet from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in T20Is, and that the two are just taking a break. But with a little more consistency, Tripathi will present a strong case to be a T20I regular – with or without the seniors.

Kuldeep ahead of Chahal?

Here we go again. Kuldeep Yadav didn’t play the T20Is against Sri Lanka, but he grabbed his chance against New Zealand: taking two wickets in nine overs at an economy rate of 5.44. If India’s recent white-ball games are an indicator, then Kuldeep seems to have edged ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal as India’s first-choice wristspinner.Kuldeep Yadav’s confidence has been sky-high ever since he made his comeback•Associated PressFormer India spinner and chief selector Sunil Joshi had told ESPNcricinfo earlier this week that he would pick Kuldeep over Chahal in India’s squad for the upcoming ODI World Cup in October-November. The T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and USA is still 16 months away, but the early signs are that Kuldeep is ahead of Chahal in the T20I pecking order too.

Washington Sundar’s white-ball potential

In the absence of Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, Washington Sundar took his chance – both with ball and bat – against New Zealand. He was benched for the T20Is against Sri Lanka and only had a peripheral role to play in the following ODI series against New Zealand, but he played a crucial hand in India winning the T20I series. According to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats, Washington with 168 points was the MVP of the series, ahead of even Gill (162.8).In the first T20I in Ranchi, he bowled un-hittable lengths in the powerplay before scoring a 28-ball 50 from No. 6. His captain Hardik was so impressed with his all-round show that he said the narrative of the match quickly turned into Washington vs New Zealand.When Washington was growing up in Chennai, he was tipped to become the next big opening batter from the city, like M Vijay or Abhinav Mukund. But he has now gone the Dinesh Karthik way and is working towards becoming a specialist finisher in T20 cricket.

Ishan Kishan’s form fizzles out

In the absence of KL Rahul, Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan had a golden opportunity to enhance his claim to be India’s first-choice T20I wicketkeeper. It was only in December that he had smashed the fastest double-century in ODI cricket, but since then his returns have plummeted. In the T20I series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, Kishan’s struggles against spin were evident: he managed just 29 runs off 43 balls against spinners while getting out three times. In all, he tallied 64 runs across six innings at a strike rate of 84.21. With India searching for an opener who can give them blazing starts, Kishan’s performance may force them to look elsewhere.

The Pathan brothers, Ravi Shastri and Sachin Tendulkar were among the many cricketers to tweet their tributes to Salim Durani on his passing

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Apr-2023.

Saddened by the passing of the Great Salim Durrani. His skill, swag and his stories are folklore. Always had a kind word about every cricketer. Will cherish our interactions.

— Anil Kumble (@anilkumble1074) April 2, 2023

Players and coaches talk about how increasing numbers of female batters are learning to confidently clear the ropes

Firdose Moonda22-Mar-2023In their opening game of the 2020 T20 World Cup, South Africa restricted England, a team they had beaten only twice in their last 18 T20Is, to a modest 123 for 8, and were well set on 90 in the 16th over. But when they lost two batters in five deliveries without scoring, the required run rate climbed and at the start of the final over, they needed nine to win. Two singles later, Mignon du Preez met a length delivery from Katherine Sciver-Brunt with the full force of her bat and sent it over backward square for six. South Africa won with two balls to spare and went on to top their group.”If you would have asked anybody who would have been the person to hit Katherine Sciver-Brunt for a six that day, I can promise you 99% of people would not have said it would be me,” du Preez says. “To be that person, at the back end and to be able to say, ‘Listen, I have worked on this part of my game and I have added power to my game,’ that was a highlight.”That was du Preez’s 41st T20 six, and came two years before the end of her decade-and-a-half long international career. In 115 matches before that day, du Preez had struck sixes at an average of one every three matches. Since that match, she has hit 31 sixes in 73 matches, around one every two games.She says that clearing the boundary became a focus later in her career, thanks in part to a conversation she had with Trent Woodhill, then the Melbourne Stars coach at the WBBL. “He used to say: power over placement. That doesn’t mean being reckless, but it helped me take indecision away. For someone like me, who is not a big hitter, it gave me a way to clear the boundary and the confidence to go for it.”Between 2004 and 2014, in 160 T20Is played by England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand and India, the average strike rate of women batters was 94.61 and they hit a total of 291 sixes – almost two per match. Since 2015, the collective strike rate for those teams has improved to 107.55, and in 195 T20Is there have been 626 sixes or more than a three a match.Related

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• 'More and more girls are hitting the ball hard from ball one' (2017)

The confidence to clear the ropes is one aspect of power-hitting but there are other ingredients that make a big hitter, like anatomy and positioning.”A few years ago we got a lot of our players marked up and told them they had to hit the ball as far as they can, against seam and spin from a bowling machine,” says Lisa Keightley, the former England women’s coach, who spoke to this writer during her time as tactical performance coach with Paarl Royals in the men’s SA20. “We didn’t tell them what to do. We just said, ‘Hit it as far as you can.'”One of the things that came out was how players hit sixes in different ways. Nat Sciver-Brunt does it with strength. Heather Knight generates momentum when she gets into the ball, so she will take a couple of steps to go big. Sophia Dunkley is hand speed and bat speed. Tammy Beaumont really whips her bat to get bat speed.”But the general thing is the launch angle. If you want to hit a six, the launch angle of your bat helps you get it over the rope. If you have a good launch angle, you’ve got a really good chance of hitting it over the rope.”Launch angle refers to the angle of the bat face relative to the ground when it makes contact with the ball. It determines how much power a batter can get into their stroke. The optimal launch angle is dependent on the positioning of the batter’s whole body.”Boundary-hitting is all about an open blade, getting the bat flow going to the optimal height at the right time and then hitting with your back hip,” says Neil McKenzie, the South Africa men’s batting coach. “You see it in golfers and tennis players – when that back hip comes through, that’s power-hitting.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”It’s all about loading that back hip up. You’ve got players that drag the front leg back to the back leg and guys that get the back leg to the front leg and then keep that position. The key in power-hitting is an open bat face, which keeps the blade going through the ball for longer, and it’s about hitting with your whole body.”If you get too wide, you only hit with your arms. In the past, a lot of players used a closed bat face, which limits the swing. At the point of contact, the back hip and the blade come through the ball and that’s called keeping your shape.”Working on power-hitting has been a part of men’s cricket for some time now. In 2021, West Indies allrounder Fabian Allen talked about learning to “keep my shape and keep my base” as part of his training routine, but it was not a part of the conversation in women’s cricket when Keightley was playing for Australia between 1995 and 2005. Cricket back then was not set up to accommodate a female power game.”We definitely had longer boundaries,” Keightley says. “The ICC have [now] made the boundaries certain sizes. You’ve got a minimum of 55 metres and a maximum of 65, so boundary sizes are fairly standard across the board and that’s made a big impact. The other thing is international venues where the outfields are quick and you have pitches where the ball is coming on pretty well. And then the bats – the distance they can hit has really evolved over time.”Female athletes are now getting to be full-time professionals, so they can get stronger. I wouldn’t say fitter – the Australia team I played on were pretty fit – but I think the strength factor has increased significantly in the top teams. And there is also the explosion of the T20 format. In T20 if you’ve got some power-hitters, they can really change the game. Most females can generally hit fours, but in T20s it’s about players that can clear the rope.”Mignon du Preez was not a natural six-hitter but built the ability into her game after a conversation with batting coach Trent Woodhill that helped her “take indecision away”•Getty ImagesKeightley played only one T20I – the last international of her career – in September 2005. There was only one six in that match. That number has increased steadily over time. Forty-three sixes were hit in the 2016 women’s T20 World Cup in India, and 75 in the next edition, in the Caribbean. In between, a record was set for the most sixes hit in a single women’s T20 – 19, in a WBBL game in Sydney in December 2017.Increasingly there is an understanding that a team that hits more sixes has an obvious advantage. “If someone can come in and hit three or four sixes in their innings, they are changing the game,” England allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt says. “I’ve typically tried to be someone to play through the innings and not really think too big too soon, but if I can change the game in my first ten balls or my first 20 balls or whatever it is, then that will almost put the team in a better position. In the best T20 innings, people are facing 40, 50 balls and scoring a hundred.”To date, there have been 40 centuries scored in women’s T20Is, all of them after 2010, and 37 after 2017. The turning point was, as Keightley suggested, the result of professionalisation.In 2013 the Australia women’s team, who had part-time deals since 1997, were given a major raise, and tour payments and marketing bonuses were included in their packages. In 2014, England, New Zealand and South Africa announced their first women’s contracts. It’s no surprise that the increased focus on power-hitting has come from these countries, followed closely by India (who have quickly kept pace) and West Indies.

That's one way to open your account!#AUSvPAK pic.twitter.com/Io7ED4fkNv

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 24, 2023

While other American players have struggled to get into the MLC’s starting XIs, this left-arm quick has made a stunning impact

Peter Della Penna23-Jul-2023When the team sheets were submitted on Saturday night at Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina, there was only one player out of the 22 who had actually played for USA. In a first-year T20 franchise league launching in the USA, American players have been noticeably absent in the playing XIs.Saurabh Netravalkar may have been the American lone ranger for Washington Freedom in the Major League Cricket (MLC), but the left-arm pacer made the league-wide USA contingent hold their heads a little bit higher after a tournament best haul of 6 for 9 in Freedom’s 30-run win over San Francisco Unicorns. Church Street Park has become a de facto USA team home base since the men’s national side’s first visit in September 2018, when Netravalkar made his captaincy debut for the team. His familiarity with the nuances of the venue contributed to his ability to step up with a performance where he rocked Unicorns with three wickets in the powerplay before coming back with three wickets in the final over to wipe out the tail.”The ground, it was a known thing for me,” Netravalkar said in the post-match press conference. “But the kind of players that are there are world class, and you need to upskill your game. I think playing over these years, the three-year ODI cycle, that really helped us. Especially the World Cup Qualifiers was a huge step up as well, to play against teams like West Indies, Sri Lanka and Ireland. We’ve been working really hard as a unit, and I was really happy that I could execute today.”Related

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Netravalkar was USA’s best pacer at the recent 50-over World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, but a neutral observer would hardly know it just looking at the wickets column. The 31-year-old finished with six wickets in five matches, including 3 for 53 against West Indies. However, he was denied at least a few more by the fielders behind him – USA were one of the most woeful catching units in Harare.Netravalkar himself was not exactly blameless on that front. And that much showed during his performances in the first week of MLC in Texas, where he had a crucial drop down the stretch against Seattle Orcas in Freedom’s first match, spilling a chance off Shimron Hetmyer on 9 when Anrich Nortje induced a false drive, before Hetmyer cranked a six later in the over and finished with 23 in a narrow win with two balls to spare. But thankfully for Netravalkar, Glenn Phillips provided the fielding standard – which is sorely lacking in the USA lineups – with some sensational fielding.Defending a total of 133, Phillips made his mark in the third over, running from backward point for a gymnastic twisting catch off Nortje to get Finn Allen. Netravalkar was clocking between 127 and 130 kph for most of his opening spell, which is hardly the type of pace to blow away top-class batters on the franchise scene. But true to his reputation as the most cerebral of USA’s bowlers – his day job is being a senior programmer for Oracle in Silicon Valley – Netravalkar used his favored left-arm around the wicket angle to the right-handers to enhance his natural inward shape, bowling Marcus Stoinis and Shadab Khan in the space of three balls in the fourth over. This was before he came back to team up with Phillips in the sixth as another acrobatic catch was taken running from backward point to remove Matthew Wade.”I think the pitch wasn’t that easy to hit [on] if you hit the good-length areas,” Netravalkar said. “We observed that it was a little two-paced in the wicket, so we knew that if we had a good powerplay, we always had a chance. We wanted to fight till the end. That was our motto, we never give up, and we try to fight until the last ball. T20 is a funny game. One over can change the game from here to there. So, we just wanted to believe in ourselves and keep trying, and I’m glad it worked out today.”

“I’m really clear about my role. That’s my strength. I look to swing the ball up front so I back myself to do that.”Saurabh Netravalkar

Coming back in the final over, Netravalkar continued where he left off in the sixth, getting Chaitanya Bishnoi edging behind while attempting an innovative flick after a shuffle across his stumps. It was fitting though that Phillips took the catch in the deep that completed Netravalkar’s five-wicket haul one ball later off a Haris Rauf slog. Liam Plunkett then edged behind in more orthodox fashion to give Netravalkar his sixth.In a bowling unit featuring Nortje and Marco Jansen, few people would have put money on Netravalkar being Freedom’s leading wicket-taker after four matches. But Netravalkar is not only topping the bowling charts for Freedom but sits in first place in the MLC wickets column alongside legspinner Mohammad Mohsin of Texas Super Kings with eight. Netravalkar is quick to give credit, though, to the more heralded South Africans he’s been able to rub shoulders with in the dressing room, who have helped give him strategic tips to achieve the success he’s had so far in the tournament.”I’m blessed to have a team atmosphere like this,” Netravalkar said. “It’s really positive and the staff and captain, they give us so much clarity in the roles. Even the senior bowlers, we have good productive meetings where we brainstorm ideas and that’s really helping me learn a lot in bowling in different situations. I’m really clear about my role. That’s my strength. I look to swing the ball up front so I back myself to do that, and I’m glad I’m executing it.”

Head coach Jon Lewis talks about Sophie Ecclestone, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley and more

Sruthi Ravindranath16-Dec-2023Some of the best bowlers in the world – specifically spinners – not only stick to their strengths but are also constantly upgrading their skillsets to stay relevant. Left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, the top-ranked bowler in ODIs and T20Is is no different. As someone who bowls a lot quicker than most spinners, she has been working on dropping her pace, England Women’s head coach Jon Lewis has revealed.Since her debut in 2016, Ecclestone has been on top of the wicket-takers list in T20Is and is the second-best spinner in the list in ODIs. She capped off an incredible year in T20Is as the top wicket-taker among players from Full Member teams in 2023.She’s also worked on bowling against left-handers, her much-improved average of 10.80 since 2022 as compared to 31.50 until 2021 in T20Is a testament to it. In the one-off Test against India, she got the opposition’s two left-handers out in back-to-back overs, first having Smriti Mandhana caught at short leg with a short ball turning in from outside off and then getting a length ball to turn in sharply to make Yastika Bhatia chip it to short leg again.Related

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“I know that over the last couple of years she’s worked incredibly hard at bowling at left-handers,” Lewis told ESPNcricinfo. “She can bowl faster than most girls and spin the ball at a higher pace than most girls. So that’s one of the unique things she does better than other people.”We’ve talked a lot to her about how to use her drop-down in pace rather than change up in pace. So those are probably the two things that we’ve worked on with Sophie. She’s worked out some really good stuff about bowling to left-handers. She understands what makes her a good bowler to left-handers and I thought during the summer in the [Women’s] Ashes series she bowled very well to Beth Mooney and also to Jess Jonassen.”While match figures of five wickets for 167 runs in a thumping 347-run defeat at the hands of India might suggest that the work is still in progress, her seven wickets at an average of 10.14 and economy rate of 6.26 made her the leading wicket-taker in the three-match T20I series preceding the Test and included 3 for 15 in her first match back after a three-month injury layoff.Her accuracy, pace, subtle changes of trajectory and seam positions have troubled batters for years, but she keeps working.Sophie Ecclestone picked up wickets of three Indian left-handed batters in the one-off Test•BCCI”Sophie doesn’t really enjoy training much – she loves playing games. She loves going out on the pitch and competing, so we have to try and find ways to stimulate her in training. She’s worked for a long time with Gareth Breese, her spin bowling coach. They have a really strong relationship.”England have also been boosted by the presence of offspinner Charlie Dean, who has risen quickly through the ranks since her debut in 2022 to become one of their go-to wicket-taking options.England captain Heather Knight also trusts her with the new ball. A consistent performer, Dean reaps the benefits of bowling classic offspin and also relies on drift and attacking lines. She was instrumental in bowling India out for 80 in the second T20I and provided a much-needed highlight for England during India’s second innings of the Test in Mumbai, claiming four crucial wickets as the hosts built a mammoth lead, her accuracy on display as she had Deepti Sharma lbw and Sneh Rana bowled off consecutive deliveries.Lewis praised Dean for her consistency, calling her the best “on the planet”, and wants her to continue sticking to her strengths.”We keep challenging her around the consistency of her best ball and bowling her best ball as often as possible,” Lewis said. “Her best ball is the best. There’s no offspinner that matches her on the planet. No one gets the drift she gets, no one gets the turn she gets. Her best ball is absolutely fantastic. She’s a young spinner and there are lots of young spinners that don’t bowl consistently.”One thing I would say is during the T20 series, in terms of her output and her numbers and where she was landing the ball, it’s gone through the roof in comparison to what she was through the summer and previously. We’ve got an excellent spin bowling coach in Gareth Breese, who works closely with those girls and helps them hone their skills. She’s going to be an excellent bowler.”Among one of the most prolific performers for England for a long period has been Nat Sciver-Brunt, who played an important role with the bat in helping England seal the T20I series in India and was their only batter to pass 21 in the Test with a first-innings 59.She’s England’s top run-getter in T20Is and ODIs this year, her best coming in the Ashes ODI series where she scored 271 runs at an average of 135.50 to go to No. 1 on the batting charts in the format.Jon Lewis on Charlie Dean: “No one gets the drift she gets, no one gets the turn she gets”•BCCIIn T20s this year, she has scored 1315 runs in 40 games at an average of 45.34, making the most runs for champions Mumbai Indians in the inaugural WPL. Lewis is “very fortunate” to have her in the England side, revealing how she plays a key role in the leadership group.”When she was playing for Mumbai [Indians, in WPL] I was a bit jealous,” said Lewis, who coaches UP Warriorz in the competition. “She’s a great cricketer. She’s incredibly calm and clear about what she wants to do and how she goes about her game.”She’s still learning and she still wants growth in her game. She wants to improve but the understanding she has of what she does when she plays well is the thing that stands out to me. And the other thing that she brings to our side is the way that she’s able to communicate with all our players on the field. She’s a real asset. She helps Heather [Knight, captain] a tremendous amount. She’s incredibly calm and communicates clearly, especially with our young players. They work as a team.”[Knight] and Nat and Amy Jones and Sophie Ecclestone work as a senior player group that takes responsibility to make sure the team is running well on the field and off the field. But Nat in particular is a good person who cares a lot about English cricket and playing cricket for England. She cares a lot about the team-mates around her and is a great support for all of them.”Team-mate Sophia Dunkley, however, has been going through a lean patch. She’s made just one half-century across formats since the beginning of the year for England, averaging just 17.00 in 11 T20Is. She took a break for the latter part of the home international summer and found some late form in the WBBL in November, but she couldn’t keep the momentum going in India. After scores of 1, 9 and 11 in the three T20Is respectively, she departed for 11 and 15 in the Test.But one of Lewis’s key takeaways from his time working in the England Men’s Test set-up early in the Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes era was removing fear of failure and backing players.This was clear when England picked Dunkley to open alongside Tammy Beaumont in the Test after Emma Lamb, who opened in the Ashes Test in June, returned home from India with a back injury.Sophia Dunkley has had a tough run with the bat in 2023•BCCI”She is frustrated that she’s not getting the runs that she would like,” Lewis said of Dunkley. “She’s made some little technical changes to how she approaches her batting, which has given her access to different parts of the ground. If you saw her wagon wheel for a couple of games in the Big Bash, she accessed areas of the ground that she hasn’t previously been able to do.”The difficulty for these girls is they’re trying to bring all these changes into their games whilst playing international cricket and being the player that everyone looks to in their franchise to score the runs. It’s very different to men’s cricket where other people are brought in to give [regular] players a break.”I’ve got a real strong belief around Sophia’s talent, she’s got an amazing ability to strike a cricket ball. She’s talismanic in the way she approaches the start of the game. It wasn’t long ago that she had a pretty good World Cup and was really good against West Indies [in 2022].”You mustn’t get lost in the fact that she hasn’t scored runs for a short period of time. If you compared her to some of our older players at the same age, I think she’d be well ahead of the curve. We’re building a team for the future, and we’re building a team that has a style of play we’re confident can help us win games. Right now, Sophia is a big part of that.”England suffered a shock 2-1 loss to Sri Lanka at home which exposed their weaknesses against slower bowlers. With the T20 World Cup set to be played in Bangladesh next year and the ODI World Cup in 2025 in India to follow, Lewis organised a camp with select players in Mumbai following the series to help them improve their game against spin.”[It was] just to expose them to different conditions, what shots they can play and how they need to adapt their game in different conditions,” he said. “We’ve got two subcontinental World Cups coming up in the next two years. It’s important to understand the conditions and how to play them smartly.”What does aggression or high strike-rate look like in India compared to what it would look like in the UK? Or what would that look like in Bangladesh? We are a developing side and all we were try and develop some skills.”The girls took lots of takeaways from it. Do I expect those things to become straight into their game after a five-day camp? Absolutely not. But do I expect them to think about how to improve, one hundred percent I do.”

Thakor’s two-wicket burst and Deepti’s all-round game proved to be the difference between the two sides on the day

Firdose Moonda08-Mar-2024If looks were deliveries, Saima Thakor would have had a wicket with her eighth ball. It was on the back of a length; Shafali Verma came down the track to try and smash it away but was too hasty and ended up pushing it straight back to the bowler. Thakor collected, mock threw at the stumps and gave Shafali a stare-down that said, “I’ve got it in for you.”And she did. Two balls later, Shafali tried to advance on Thakor again, the ball kept low and snuck past the bat to find offstump. Shafali looked up at Thakor in disappointment and was met with the same stare, only more triumphant. As Thakor gave Shafali a small send-off (and Shafali responded with some words of her own), the contest between these two teams, which on form and history is a no-contest in favour of Delhi Capitals, ignited.It was Meg Lanning who tried to put it out. She took three boundaries off Thakor’s next over to make it clear who was in charge of this game, and Capitals did not need to look back until Deepti Sharma forced them to.Related

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It wasn’t just that Lanning struck four after four; it was the ease with which she did it. The first was a tickle fine off a shorter ball, the second was a silken cover drive off a fuller delivery and the last was a vicious cut through backward point. The message to Thakor was clear: you can’t bowl too short, too full or too wide, you can’t miss your length or your lines, not even a tiny bit, or you will be punished.Still, Capitals were behind after the powerplay – 35 for 1 compared to UP Warriorz’s 44 for 1 – but Lanning was there. Gouher Sultana, Deepti and Rajeshwari Gayakwad all erred by going too short and Lanning dispatched them all. By the halfway stage, Capitals had caught up to where Warriorz were and had the advantage of wickets in hand. They were 63 for 1, with only Lanning’s opening partner dismissed; Warriorz were 63 for 3 with all of Kiran Navgire, Alyssa Healy and Tahlia McGrath out.Crucially they still had Deepti at the crease and the move to promote her to No.3 could prove a masterstroke. Deepti has only batted at No.3 four times before in her 160-match T20 career and only once in the last six years. With Vrinda Dinesh injured and Chamari Athapaththu out of the XI, she got the opportunity to play in that position today and showed she can pace an innings from that position. She took Warriorz to a competitive total with a second successive fifty and though it remains to be seen how they will manage her if they choose to bring Athapaththu back, they would have seen the value of having a player like her there. In this match, it brought the kind of stability Warriorz have envied a team like Capitals for having, and they even had glimpses of it today.Thanks to Lanning the chase was set up and she seemed set to get them there and rack up some accolades along the way. When she raised her bat to fifty, Lanning became the first batter in WPL’s short history to hit three successive half-centuries and two of them have come in winning causes.Meg Lanning’s 60 was in vain for Delhi Capitals•BCCIIn the last week, Lanning struck 55 off 41 when Capitals scored 163 for 8 and then 53 off 38 when they posted 192 for 4 against Mumbai Indians. Capitals defended both totals. Then, in the first time they’ve been asked to chase in Delhi, she finished with 60 off 46 on Friday. It’s an impressive run which speaks to what she said earlier about the pleasures of being freed from the expectation of the international game. If runs were words, her performances are doing the talking. But they’re not the only ones she has.In the immediate aftermath of the game, Lanning admitted to the host broadcaster that she was “frustrated,” that the innings that took her to the top of the batting charts did not come in a winning cause and took the responsibility of the defeat on her shoulders. “My wicket played a part in it,” she said. “I was the set batter and I put pressure on the other batters coming in.”She may have been unnecessarily harsh on herself because players of the quality and International experience of Jemimah Rodrigues and Annabel Sutherland are also used to handling tense situations. In the end, it came down to who could hold their nerve and it was Thakor who did.She was brought back to bowl the 18th over, took pace off to Rodrigues and denied her the ability to generate any power. Rodrigues hit the ball to Sophie Ecclestone at long-off and a team that has dropped 13 catches through the tournament so far, held their breath. Ecclestone held on.That wicket opened Capitals up and even though it was Deepti’s hat-trick and eventual four-for and Grace Harris’ defence of nine runs off the last over that won the game, Harris herself paid tribute to the work Thakor did, in her opening spell and later on. “It was Saima, really – when she got up and about against Shafali,” Harris said to the broadcasters when asked what she thought the difference between the two sides was. “She bowled exceptionally well today and kept the stumps in play. It was just us jumping on the back of that energy.”