Usman Khawaja, Shane Watson, Peter Siddle and Adam Voges on Steven Smith’s genius

Interviews by Alex Malcolm and Andrew McGlashan05-Jul-20232:51

Steven Smith joins an elite club

What is Smith like to bat with?

Usman Khawaja (10 century stands with Smith, partnership average 60.51): He doesn’t really say much and I know what he’s like. I don’t really speak to him much. ‘How are you going?’ ‘Good’, ‘Anything?’ That’s as deep as our conversations get unless something really sticks out. Smithy really locks in, he zones in, I know he does so I just let it be. We’ve batted pretty well together, had a lot of partnerships since I’ve been playing for Australia. I understand when Smithy is batting you just let him be.Shane Watson (Two century stands, partnership average 62.37): Steve is just so assured of his game that whatever anyone threw at him, he knew he had the skill to combat it. He was always very, very assured of what he needed to do, what the conditions were, and how they were trying to bowl to him. That confidence was always there. A quiet confidence.You just knew that the bowlers are going to have to do something pretty special to get him out. It wasn’t an over-the-top energy, or arrogance, or anything like that. You can tell he had it and was ready to just go out and take them on.Related

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Adam Voges (Three century stands, partnership average 60.33): The main thing that stood out was just his ability to understand what the opposition were trying to do to him and be able to combat it. You always felt that he had things under control when you were batting with him. That was the general sense that I got with him. And when you feel like your partner is in that space it probably helps you as well.Peter Siddle (Three half-century stands, partnership average 37.25): Batting with him at Edgbaston [in 2019] and just seeing first hand the frame of mind that he gets into and the space that he’s in when he’s out in the middle, it’s different. It just becomes all about batting.He just gets so focused that even the chats between overs were very limited. It was usually me doing the chatting and I think he just gets into a different place. Obviously, he feels comfortable in the way that he knows how to make runs, and it does feel like he’s in a different place than all of us when he’s out there batting. It just felt like he was at a different level in terms of his ability to understand how the game was being played and how he could go about it, and the rest of us just went on for the ride.Adam Voges on Steven Smith: ‘You always felt that he had things under control when you were batting with him’•Getty Images

What makes Smith so special?

Watson: The thing that probably stands out to me the most is just his ability to be able to adapt his game to how bowlers are bowling to him.For example, if a bowler starts bowling a little bit more to middle and leg stump then he’ll just shuffle across to the offside a bit more and just keep working into the legside. If they start to bowl a bit shorter then he’ll just make his adjustment to be able to either get inside of the line or just make little adjustments in his setup, so he’s got access to the ball.Most other batters will just continue to bat the same way, react and trust their instincts and trust that that will be good enough to be able to get through different plans of attack from the opposition bowlers. So that’s the thing that has always stood out to me, is just how adaptable his game is depending on the conditions or how the bowlers are trying to bowl to him … it’s a freakish skill and it’s a reason why he has been able to find ways to get through different situations of games and come out on top a lot of the time.Voges: Contact points. He is able to hit the ball under his eyes from a technical point of view. He gets himself into a position where he is able to then manipulate the ball where he wants it to go. And that’s the art of scoring. Being able to hit the ball where the fielders aren’t, and that’s his great strength, his ability with his movement patterns, with his hands, with where he hits the ball, that just gives him that unbelievable ability to hit good balls and be able to score off them.Khawaja: Consistency, averaging 60 after 100 games. And his average hasn’t dropped, other than the start where he was batting lower. He’s been unbelievably consistent. For me that’s why, in my personal opinion, he’s the best Test batter in my era. It’s hunger, work ethic, understanding the game, understanding your skills. He’s got a very good cricket brain, especially when it comes to batting, understanding bowlers and what they are trying to do. He’s also got a skillset to back that up. He’s just got that something extra which a lot of players don’t have, hence why players don’t average 60 throughout their careers.Usman Khawaja says Steven Smith doesn’t talk very much when batting•CA/Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesWatson: He just hits a lot of balls. He has an insatiable appetite for hitting balls. I didn’t play the Test match, but he got 215 at Lord’s in 2015 and before the second innings of the Test match, he still had an hour’s net of throw-downs, which blew me away considering he had batted for a long period of time and batted incredibly well to get 215. He wasn’t saying ‘I’m going to freshen up’ or ‘I’m good, I’m hitting the ball nicely.’ He still wanted to do what he needed to do in the lead-up to that second innings in the morning. It’s obviously one of the reasons why he’s able to bat for long periods of time. And he’s unrelenting with it.

What’s it like watching opposition bowlers try to get him out?

Siddle: It’s quite phenomenal to see how the game changes when he’s out there. The confidence in the opposition definitely drops a lot when he’s in, especially once he’s been in probably for 20 balls. Initially, they probably think they’re a chance but once he’s locked in and that first little period is done the confidence in the whole group drops.They go to plan B, plan C and they just kept changing. He just goes about his business and I think that’s probably the thing that makes him so great, is when the opposition change plans and try different things it does tend to draw out different shots and make you play in a different way. But Steve has that ability to continually play his way and it sort of draws teams into bowling in the end how he wants them to bowl, which I guess is why he’s been so successful.Peter Siddle on Steven Smith: ‘The confidence in the opposition definitely drops a lot when he’s in, especially once he’s been in probably for 20 balls’•Associated PressKhawaja: I’ve only been on the opposition a few times. He scored a hundred in one of them. It’s funny, Smithy just makes the game look very easy at times. Even watching him at the World Test Championship, he scored a hundred first innings and he batted beautifully. In the second innings I batted for an hour and thought it was a bit of a grind, but he just made that wicket look so easy and it wasn’t. It was going up and down a bit. India have good fast bowlers but he made them look like club cricketers for about an hour and a half. We looked up and he was 30 off 30 balls. That’s Steve Smith, when fast bowlers are bowling he makes them look so slow. It’s a skill to have.Siddle: He is weird to play against. It’s hard to keep your consistency as a bowler. He’s just so patient. And he waits for you to make mistakes. The way he bats tends to make you make more mistakes as well. He’s getting into positions where you think you can search a little bit more and get him out a certain way. And then next minute he’s hit a couple of boundaries off you, you’ve leaked and he’s away and the partnership is away. It’s very frustrating.Voges: You can understand why [bowlers try and bowl straight to him] because if he does miss it, he’s out. But he just never misses. So the temptation is always there. And it’s clever from a tactical point of view. Bowl there if you dare to, knowing that it was a genuine strength. He always puts the temptation there in front of the bowler to go straight and he doesn’t miss.

With India beginning a new cycle in the World Test Championship, we look at some crucial questions that could arise in the next few years

Nagraj Gollapudi19-Jun-20232:17

What’s India’s roadmap for their Test future?

India’s first assignment in the new World Test Championship is a series in the West Indies this July. By the time the two-year cycle culminates in the final at Lord’s in 2025, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin will be 38; Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane 37; Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja 36; and Mohammed Shami 34. That’s more than half of India’s first XI in Tests.Beyond how India manage the next two years with or without some of these players, there is a more pertinent question to be asked: do they have a succession plan to manage the transition that will inevitably come?Related

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ESPNcricinfo looks at the big questions that whoever is in charge after this year’s ODI World Cup – the coach, the captain, the selectors, the BCCI top brass and the senior players themselves – will have to face with regard to the Test team.

How long do Rohit and Kohli plan to play Test cricket?

At some point this year, Kohli (8479 runs) is likely to become India’s fourth-highest run-scorer in Test cricket, overtaking VVS Laxman (8781) and behind only Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar. Kohli needs 1521 runs to join the top three as the only Indians with 10,000 Test runs, and he could achieve that during the new WTC cycle, but do the decision-makers in Indian cricket know whether Kohli plans to play beyond 2025?He had succeeded Tendulkar as India’s No. 4 in 2013, having already shown the talent and temperament for the responsibility while making runs at No. 5. The situation is different now, though. Kohli doesn’t have the No. 5 that Tendulkar had 10 years ago, with Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill tipped as the best options.India need time to groom Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s successors•Getty ImagesShreyas, however, doesn’t have the body of work in Test cricket yet, and he recently underwent back surgery, which will delay his Test return until India tour South Africa in December. There are whispers that some people in the team management are keen to move Gill to No. 4, but it remains to be seen whether they trial him in the middle order during the series in the West Indies. But first, it is pertinent to begin a conversation with Kohli to see if he intends to prolong his Test career by limiting his white-ball workloads.That same question needs to be asked of Rohit, whose Test career has been stop-start because of selection and form in the early years and, more recently, fitness issues. As an all-format captain who opens the batting, Rohit’s position is unique and all-important. Can he continue playing all formats or do the selectors believe he should focus on Tests and ODIs, which could prolong his career and give him time to groom his successors – both as captain and opener.

Future India Test captain – who are the options?

Hardik Pandya’s success at Gujarat Titans has made him the frontrunner to replace Rohit as India’s T20I captain, and possibly in ODIs too, if his body can handle the workloads of the 50-over format. The identity of India’s next Test captain isn’t as clear.Before he suffered the car crash last December, Rishabh Pant would have been an option. Gill is a contender but he hasn’t been stress-tested yet on overseas tours. There is also Jasprit Bumrah, who led India in the one-off Test at Edgbaston in 2022 and is understood to have strong captaincy ambitions. But he recently had a back surgery and it remains to be seen if he can cope with the workload of playing all three formats.India need to identify a deputy who is young and can grow into becoming a long-term captain. Rohit needs to know what the BCCI and selectors think so he can plan the final phase of his career in a way that benefits the team.Will Jasprit Bumrah play all three formats? Will India look at Mohammed Shami as a Test specialist?•AFP

How to keep Bumrah and Shami fresh and fit for as long as possible?

At 29, Bumrah has a lot of good years ahead of him. Since missing the 2022 T20 World Cup, he has been eager to resume playing, but recurring problems with his back meant he had to undergo surgery in March.Bumrah will be eased back into action so that he can play the ODI World Cup in October, as well as the T20 World Cup next summer, but what of Bumrah the Test bowler? Is it viable for him to shoulder workloads of all three formats? A 50-over Asia Cup precedes the ODI World Cup, which is immediately followed by a tour of South Africa for two Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is, after which India host England for five Tests before IPL 2024 and the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA.The uncertainty is that even Bumrah doesn’t know how his back will cope with the increasing workload. As a unique fast bowler with an unconventional action, Bumrah is crucial for India. It is important to know what he wants so that India can plan to get the best out of him.Shami, in contrast, has been relatively injury-free but, at 32, the challenge for him is similar. He will be a key part of India’s bowling line-up for the ODI and T20 World Cups, but if he is looked at as a Test specialist after that, it will allow him to stay fresh for that format for longer. James Anderson and Stuart Broad have shown they can be match-winners despite their age, but both were told clearly by the ECB they were going to be Test specialists.

What about Pujara and Rahane?

Two good friends who are constantly under scrutiny despite being match-winners and match-savers. Both were dropped during the previous WTC cycle but fought their way back into the team by making lots of runs. They will most likely be on the flight to the Caribbean in July, but there are several young batters in domestic cricket waiting for their shot at Tests.Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have fought their way back into the team after being dropped•AFP/Getty ImagesAbhimanyu Easwaran has been making top-order runs for India A, Bengal and in the Duleep Trophy for several years now. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan have scored heavily for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. Rajat Patidar’s performance for Madhya Pradesh earned him a place in India A’s middle order. Tilak Varma, who has played three red-ball matches for India A, and Ruturaj Gaikwad have shown enough promise for the longer format.Two days prior to the WTC final against Australia, India head coach Rahul Dravid’s advice for Rahane was to play as long as he keeps performing, something Pujara has been doing in county cricket. But young batters will need time and space and chances to fail, before India hit upon their middle order for the future.

Spin succession: who after Jadeja and Ashwin?

Ashwin said recently he had feared that the home series against Australia earlier this year could be his last because of the knee pain he suffered on the tour of Bangladesh in December. He changed his action to give his knee some relief, and ended up being the joint Player of the Border-Gavaskar Series. The man who shared that award with him, Jadeja, had knee surgery last September and was unsure at one point whether he could handle bowling long spells in a Test match.How much more do their bodies have in them? And what if India are suddenly without either of them in Test cricket? Other than Axar Patel, India have not played another spinner consistently. Kuldeep Yadav, Saurabh Kumar and Rahul Chahar have been part of the bench and India A tours in recent years, but are they the right bowlers to take India’s rich spin legacy forward in Test cricket?

Amrit Mathur’s book offers rare behind-the-scenes glimpses at the highs and lows of three decades of the game through his time as journalist, administrator and team manager

Debayan Sen01-Sep-2023If you’ve ever wondered what pre-match routines Sachin Tendulkar or Sourav Ganguly typically went through, or how chaotic the initial years of the IPL were, or how cannily the best cricket administrators work out the arithmetic during BCCI elections, you will get a lot of insights in Amrit Mathur’s Pitchside: My Life in Indian Cricket. Mathur is the ultimate Indian cricket insider, having spent time in the system as administrator, journalist, manager on several historic tours, as a member of organising committees in World Cups, and advisor to IPL teams. He has also held several posts in the BCCI.By his own admission, he was fortunate to be handpicked – “I think of myself as a concussion sub, someone not supposed to play but unexpectedly pushed into the middle” – first by erstwhile BCCI president Madhavrao Scindia, and then several others, as a young bureaucrat with Indian Railways.The good thing about Pitchside is that Mathur stays true to the title and presents us with an objective view of what he saw and heard. There are great anecdotes from some historic India campaigns that fans will lap up – the tour of South Africa in 1992, the 2003 World Cup, the 2004 tour to Pakistan (including the political ambivalence right up until Sourav Ganguly’s team set off, with then board president Jagmohan Dalmiya standing up to an unnamed senior minister and refusing to pull the plug on the tour on the government’s behalf), and also from his time with Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) in the IPL.In Mathur’s telling of his early days in the game, of his all-star St Stephen’s College team-mates (Arun Lal, Piyush Pandey, Rajinder Amarnath, Ramchandra Guha) and Delhi University colleagues (Kirti Azad, Sunil Valson, Randhir Singh), I found parallels in my own life. When I went to the same college two decades later, any inter-departmental cricket game pitted you against Ranji Trophy players from Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab. Hindu College, rivals from across the road, acquired the services of Gautam Gambhir during my final year there.This star cast also makes routine appearances in his stories. The writing style is informal, with the private thoughts of titans of the sport, gleaned in conversation, appearing as bullet points at the end of several sections. The descriptions of the 2002 tour of England, capped by the NatWest Trophy win, and a stirring fightback in the Test series, give a fine picture of how the meticulous John Wright and the erratic Ganguly forged a coach-captain combination that had its share of highs and lows.Westland BooksI did, however, have two minor quibbles with the book. First, Mathur had a ringside view of two of Indian cricket’s greatest match-fixing scandals. He steers clear of the whole subject, which feels a bit like shortchanging the reader. Given his deep roots within Indian cricket, he may not have felt comfortable revealing ugly secrets about players and officials he has admired. There is also the possibility that he may not have known enough to talk with any authority.He also provides detailed pen sketches of various characters in Indian cricket right at the end. Interestingly, second mentions of characters are first names for various players and functionaries – see Sachin, Sourav/Dada, Gavaskar, Lalit, Jaggu-da – but for others, he uses Mr Scindia and Mr Jaitley. This might be out of reverence for the deceased, but it confirms that in Indian cricket the politician has an unjustified pride of place that the best players cannot quite aspire to yet, even in the words of one of the most honest and upright servants of the sport.

His numbers against top sides are not those you’d expect from such a skilful bowler, and holding him back till the 15th over of a middling chase – as was the case against India – hardly helps

Matt Roller13-Oct-20232:49

Why Rashid isn’t at his best against the big teams in ODIs?

It was an incongruous sight. As Rohit Sharma raced to 76 off 43, making light of Afghanistan’s 272 for 8, Rashid Khan prowled around the outfield under the Bishan Singh Bedi Stand at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium. India were cruising to an eight-wicket win, yet the opposition’s best bowler was at deep midwicket.By the time Rashid finally came into the attack to bowl the 15th over, India were 125 for 0. He dismissed both openers, having Ishan Kishan caught at cover and bowling Rohit after being taken for three consecutive boundaries, but those wickets served only to underline the peculiarity: why did Afghanistan use five other bowlers before Rashid?Jonathan Trott, their coach, could only suggest it owed to Hashmatullah Shahidi’s “gut feel”, saying: “That’s a captain’s prerogative. There is a case, when the ball gets a little bit older, for Rash to bowl with it, and it gets a little bit more turn; it doesn’t skid on as much.”And yet, Trott could not help but make his own view clear: “Certainly, you want a guy like Rash in the attack as soon as possible,” he said, conceding that the game was effectively over as a contest by the time Rashid had bowled his first over. “It’s always something we’ll look at.”Related

• Trott hopes Rashid & Co bring 'joy and happiness' to post-earthquake Afghanistan

It was the latest installment in Rashid’s unusual and underwhelming World Cup career, which is now 11 matches old. At 25, he already holds elite status as a white-ball bowler: at some stage next year, he will overtake Dwayne Bravo as the leading wicket-taker in T20 history. And yet, that success has generally eluded him in 50-over cricket.In aggregate, his ODI record is superb: he has 174 wickets at 19.91 in 96 matches. But over 100 of those wickets have come against Ireland and Zimbabwe; in his dozen appearances against nations in the top six of ICC’s rankings, he has taken only 13 at 44.30 each.In T20, nobody has played Rashid better than Shane Watson. Watson faced 73 balls from Rashid across 11 matches, scored 108 runs and was never dismissed by him, most memorably scoring a match-winning century for Chennai Super Kings against Rashid’s Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2018 IPL final.Watson believes that Rashid’s struggle to convert his T20 form into 50-over cricket owes to the specifics of the format: with only four fielders permitted outside the 30-yard circle in the middle overs of an ODI, he has less protection in the deep. “When batters feel like they need to take Rashid Khan on, that really does bring him into the game,” Watson told ESPNcricinfo.Rashid Khan dismissed Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma after coming on in the 16th over of the chase•ICC/Getty Images”With four people out, batters do not have to take a risk: they find it easy to be able to find the boundary or rotate the strike. Everyone knows that Rashid Khan is the major weapon for Afghanistan, so the game plan will always be around making sure they negate him. And if he gets it slightly wrong, there are low-risk boundary opportunities available with four men out.”When facing Rashid, Watson shifted his stance across so that he covered his off stump. “It was a bit like facing Shahid Afridi,” he recalled, “because they’re a lot faster through the air [than most wristspinners] and more direct… they’re not really trying to get you out through flight, more from the ball skipping off the wicket.”The ball where he gets most of his wickets is his wrong ‘un… so I would set up to be able to hit the ball dead straight or into the leg side, with the ball mainly coming in. He’s not a big turner of his legspinner. I thought, if I was on off stump, I was comfortable knowing that he wasn’t really going to spin the ball past me on the outside of the bat.”Throughout their T20 encounters, Watson noticed that when Rashid went wicketless early in his spell, he would “start chasing wickets” by bowling fuller than his natural length. “He’s going to try and bowl more miracle balls… try to bowl a bit slower, or a bit fuller, which means there are more scoring opportunities for the set batters.”That pattern played out on Wednesday night. After Rashid was cut for four by Rohit, his next ball was a fraction fuller and straighter, and was dispatched over the leg side for four more. His follow-up was a googly, targeting the stumps; Rohit swung it away over the leg side for six.

“The ball where he gets most of his wickets is his wrong ‘un. So I would set up to be able to hit the ball dead straight or into the leg side, with the ball mainly coming in.”Shane Watson spills out his secret of tackling Rashid Khan

On Sunday, Rashid will come up against an England side who will look to put him under pressure. All of their batters have played with or against Rashid in international or franchise cricket; four years ago, they plundered 110 runs off his nine overs in Manchester, including 11 sixes.It seems implausible that Shahidi will hold him back as long as he did against India – even if that decision fitted the general pattern of Rashid’s ODI career, which has seen him bowl only two powerplay overs this year. “Once the ball has stopped swinging, I’d be getting him on,” Watson said.”Afghanistan has to take early wickets to try and get into the middle order, and he’s absolutely their best wicket-taking opportunity. Even if it’s just one or two overs in the powerplay, get him into the game early. You’d prefer to ask a few questions, compared to getting him into the game when it’s nearly too far gone.”Rashid’s schedule has been relentless this year – he has featured in six different franchise leagues – and he has been carrying a back niggle for several months. His status as Afghanistan’s most prominent cricketer means that he cannot simply switch off when he is not playing.This week, he announced that he would donate his match fees for this tournament to the relief effort following the devastating earthquake in Afghanistan, and his foundation has launched a fundraising campaign for its victims. Cricket can never be his sole focus – even during a World Cup.And yet there are few sights in the sport that can bring more joy than Rashid at his best, grinning after beating a batter or wheeling away with his arms outstretched in celebration. Afghanistan will hope they prove to be the defining images of his 2023 World Cup.

Stat highlights from the World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka in Mumbai

Sampath Bandarupalli02-Nov-202345 World Cup wickets for Mohammed Shami in 14 innings, the most for an Indian bowler, surpassing the 44 wickets by Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan.4 Five-wicket hauls by Shami in ODIs, the most for India in the format, going past Srinath and Harbhajan Singh, who have three five-fors each.3 Five-wicket hauls for Shami at the ODI World Cup, the joint-most with Mitchell Starc.7 Hauls of four or more wickets for Shami in ODI World Cups, the most by any bowler.55 Sri Lanka’s total against India in Mumbai is the fourth lowest in the men’s ODI World Cup. It is also the lowest for a Full-Member nation, with Bangladesh’s 58 against West Indies in 2011 being the previous lowest.302 The margin of India’s win is the second largest by runs in the men’s ODI World Cup, behind Australia’s 309-run win against the Netherlands last week. This is the fourth 300-plus runs win in men’s ODIs and all four matches have occurred this year.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4 Instances of Sri Lanka getting bowled out for less than 100 in 2023, the most for a team in a year in men’s ODIs. Three of those four came against India, also the most for a team in a year against an opponent.5.31 Mohammed Siraj’s bowling average in the first ten overs against Sri Lanka in ODIs. Siraj has taken 16 wickets for 85 runs in the first ten overs in six ODIs against Sri Lanka.3 Indian batters with higher scores in the match than Sri Lanka’s total of 55. It is only the third instance of three batters outscoring the opponent in a men’s ODI. Matthew Hayden (88), Andrew Symonds (59) and Darren Lehmann (50*) outscored Namibia (45 all out) in the 2003 World Cup, while Hashim Amla (112), Jacques Kallis (72) and AB de Villiers (52) scored more than Sri Lanka (43 all out) in Paarl in 2012.2 Runs by Sri Lanka’s top-five batters, the fewest in a men’s ODI innings.29 Sri Lanka’s total at the fall of the eighth wicket – the fourth-lowest total at which a team has lost the eighth wicket in men’s ODIs, and the lowest at the World Cup.

Smith’s new role as opener has created an unbalanced batting order with an uncertain top order and too much aggression in the middle

Ian Chappell24-Mar-2024Australia’s bowling, which features a settled and successful top four, is a major plus, but the batting is a concern for the current World Test champions.They are missing the ebullient David Warner’s ability to harass opponents with his aggression as an opener. There is no like-for-like opener to replace Warner and what Australia have now is an unbalanced batting line-up.By promoting Steven Smith to open so they could include two allrounders, they are now left with a query at the top and an overabundance of aggression in the middle order.The preference is to have a strong top six, but it’s ideal when that batting order is balanced.Smith is still Australia’s best batter but at No. 4, not opening. As former Australian captain Tim Paine wisely noted: “If I’m the opposition, I want him [Smith] opening.”Related

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Smith, like all players, is more vulnerable against the new ball. He’ll occasionally succeed because he’s a very good player, but he’s unlikely to produce the consistently high scores he did in his heyday in the middle. An Australian order with Smith at No. 4 has the solid look that provides confidence that things will still be okay even if they go astray at the top.The problem is if Smith bats at No. 4 where do you play Cameron Green, who is a must for Australia? Who would then open? Australia’s most perplexing selection headache is the opening situation – there are no obvious replacements for Warner.Test opener Usman Khawaja, who bats in the middle order for Queensland, is proof there is a paucity of top-order candidates at state level. However if you pick a new opener and play Green while batting Smith at four, then the likelihood is you have to omit Travis Head. Head has had success in the Test side but Green is a better proposition both for the present and the future.The pairing of Head and Mitchell Marsh means Australia’s middle order is heavily reliant on attacking batting. The fall-back position that Smith provided – an ability to rebuild methodically – is missing.

Australia’s most perplexing selection headache is the opening situation – there are no obvious replacements for Warner

The reason both Marsh and Head vigorously attack the opposition is because their aggression covers up their technical failings. Their aggression has worked against the lesser sides, but will it succeed against strong sides like India?If Marsh and Head have to try and dig Australia out of trouble against Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, that will be a concern. Rest assured a vulnerable Australian top order will find itself in trouble if that Indian trio is fit and firing.This is a situation with which the modern bowlers have to cope. They are going to face more aggressive batting from the opposition and that is a part of a modern Test bowler’s life. At the moment the best bowlers are most likely to cope, but teams need to focus on unearthing lesser performers who have found a method that deals with the aggressive approach.Relentlessly attacking the new ball and succeeding against good bowlers is an extremely rare skill and this was one of Warner’s strengths. That’s why Australia are desperately missing his undoubted talent.Another aspect of the Australian team that will encourage opponents was their batting failure against the West Indies pace attack, especially newcomer Shamar Joseph. Once that type of susceptibility is established, it’s very difficult to reverse the trend as it encourages opponents. This was a situation that rarely existed when Smith (at No. 4) and Warner were dominating Australia’s batting.The Test success of India, Australia and, more recently, England highlights the financial problems that torment the long form of the game. If the Big Three are able to continue rewarding their Test players handsomely but the remainder struggle financially, it does nothing for the competitiveness of an already ailing long form of the game.The World Test Championship is a grand idea. However it will quickly lose glamour status if the Big Three dominate the coveted battle for the winner’s mace.

India have had some famous names occupying that spot in Test cricket and their latest – albeit stopgap – option looked the part too.

Alagappan Muthu26-Jan-20241:26

Manjrekar: ‘Rahul’s knock a model for how to bat on these pitches’

KL Rahul keeps kicking at his batting crease. It’s littered with dust. Once he has appeased his inner neat freak, he begins his pre-ball routine. There’s a pull of the right pad. An adjustment of the helmet. Couple twirls of his bat. And then he gets into his stance like he’s slipping into some flip-flops. One foot after the other. Right in front of middle stump.Now that is a sign of a batter who wants to be on top of the ball at all times, and so he was. For 41.5 overs on the second day of the Test match in Hyderabad, there was no better spectacle than the man who walked out at No. 4 for India. Talk about keeping up traditions.Related

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Rahul made 86 runs on a turning pitch at a strike rate of 70. There were few signs of overt aggression. He was simply making the very best decisions and profiting off them more often than not. Certainly a fair bit more than his team-mates. Another storied No. 4 tradition.It all began with where he positioned himself. On Thursday, Jonny Bairstow had stood on leg stump to India’s left-arm spinners. Batters do that to manipulate the line of the bowler, and Bairstow managed to cut balls that were coming in with the angle from around the wicket. Standing on leg stump also helps the batter avoid lbw – a constant risk against the ball going with the arm.Rahul predominantly stood on middle stump, probably because he has a lot of trust in his defence. From there it was all about reacting to the ball coming at him; all about his training and muscle memory and an incredible gift for judging length.Rahul used the depth of the crease superbly against England’s spinners•Getty ImagesIn the 55th over, which was around the time the pitch was throwing up some uneven bounce, Rehan Ahmed got one to skid through low. Rahul was on the back foot and if his response had been anything less than absolutely perfect, he would have been bowled. Initially, he was going for the cut, because he does that, he loves to cut balls that are meant to hit the top of off stump. Then he realised he couldn’t afford a horizontal bat shot and played an almost straight-bat slice through point and it went for four.Rahul would have had less than a split second to make all of those calls and he almost always made the right one. First, his footwork. The moment a ball pitched even on the shorter side of the good-length area, he was ready to use the depth of the crease in whatever way he needed to to open up scoring options. Some of his team-mates – and more than a few England batters – were dismissed by balls like this because they’d simply pushed forward even though there was no hope of their getting to the pitch of the delivery.Then the hand-eye coordination. It isn’t easy to shift from one shot to another in the time between the ball pitching and arriving at the crease. In scientific terms, that’s less than diddly-squat. This was a stroke of genius. Another India No. 4 did something similar to another England legspinner seven years ago.In all, Rahul went back to 43 balls as per ESPNcricinfo’s data, and nailed 38 runs at a strike rate of 88 with four fours and a massive six.Unlike Shubman Gill, Rahul was able to rotate the strike with ease•Associated PressThese included his back-foot returns against Mark Wood, who did his best to try and break his air of invulnerability with a four-over spell during which the speed gun seemed stuck at 150kph. Once again Rahul’s decision-making blunted the threat. Short balls aimed at the back shoulder were left alone, because going after them might have brought in the fly slip, or the gully or the man about three-fourths of the way to the backward square leg boundary. Short balls ending up down leg, on the other hand, were karate-chopped – not pulled, karate chopped, with the bat going up in the backlift and then coming down on top of the ball. Hi-yah!England put pressure on Shubman Gill because his only release seemed to be the big shot. He was going block, block, boom. Rahul, meanwhile, was ever so adept at shifting his body either inside or outside the line of the ball to bring his wrists into play and find the gaps through all the funky fields that Ben Stokes set. He respected England’s bowling when the length was good – 15 off 50 balls – but went at nearly a run a ball – 71 off 73 – when they pitched either side of that band. None of their plans worked against him. Until that long hop.India were rarely in any trouble because they had a batter trusting his instincts and backing his strengths. There was a time in his Test career, not too long ago, when all he seemed capable of doing was second-guess himself. That KL Rahul looks a distant, fast-fading memory.In an interaction during the 2023 World Cup, he asked the singer Dua Lipa what number she’d wear on her jersey and explained his choice. “I wear No. 1 because it’s a mindset thing.” He’s one of the few – perhaps the only – international players with that number on their back. Because it’s such an easy target for critics and he’s had a lot of them over the years. Some of his century celebrations in limited-overs matches – the forefinger of each hand stuck in his ears – were aimed at them. However, he marked his most recent three-figure score – an intense innings in South Africa on comeback after a 10-month hiatus – with a mostly calm raise of the bat. It’s a sign that he’s at peace. With himself and his cricket.

The KKR fast bowler has been up and down in this IPL but when it really counted, he made the biggest impact

Alagappan Muthu22-May-20241:33

‘That’s why you pay big money for big game players’ – Moody on Starc bowling Head

The white ball wants to fly and, lately, it looks to the batters to satisfy this craving. Travis Head, in particular, has been very kind to it. They’ve seemed quite taken with each other recently; had a very successful date right here in Ahmedabad a few months ago. Then he showed up. The old flame.Oh they ran so hot when they were together. Early 2015 was filled with some totally NSFW scenes. Ninety-three thousand people saw them frolicking in broad daylight out on the MCG. Brendon McCullum had to avert his eyes.Related

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Mitchell Starc and the white ball. This romance is not for the faint of heart. And it was rekindled on Tuesday night. Right from practice, it looked like they were back together. The left-arm quick in his training gear was going full tilt and the guy with the baseball glove, standing behind a set of target stumps – those fluorescent ones made of pliant material – had trouble trying to keep up. So much pace. So much bounce. Something was brewing.Soon it was game time and destiny itself weighed in favour of uniting Starc with his one true love straightaway (sorry Alyssa Healy). Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and chose to bat. Head took strike. Starc ran in. The ball beat the bat and crashed into his stumps. He’d just been dumped in front of over 75,000 people.Mitchell Starc took three wickets inside the powerplay to derail the SRH top order•BCCIWe should’ve known this was coming. It was a big game. He’s Australian. And this is a World Cup year, which is partly why he’s even playing this IPL, after skipping the last nine. Starc couldn’t have known about the INR 24.75 crore (USD 2.99 million/ AU$ 4.4 million approx) that would come his way at the auction when he put his name back in the hat. Back then, all he cared about was the match practice, against the best of the best, leading into an ICC event.At first, it didn’t really go according to plan. He gave up 100 runs in eight overs. Then just 82 in 10 while picking up five wickets. Then it went bad again. 148 in 10 overs. Through it all Starc kept working. He trained as hard as he always does. He switched off when he needed to. He trusted in his skill.Sometimes in T20 cricket, no matter how good you are, you will get hit. And the place where Starc kept getting hit (economy rate 11.61) was the place where all fast bowlers were getting hit (10.51). Eden Gardens. That will have helped him keep perspective, which is why he didn’t see the need to change anything in the playoffs. He bowled a good length. He looked for swing. He found it. And he never let up. KKR spent 3/4th of their purse on him at the auction. It must feel so worth it right now.

Mitch Starc, tomaye menegelam!pic.twitter.com/Etq4is5Cgw

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 21, 2024

Starc’s two great strengths are his air speed and his accuracy. One makes him a threat even if there’s no help available. The other makes him deadly if there’s even the slightest bit of help. Ahmedabad fell into the second category, with one very important caveat. As the ball got older, it lost its shine and became easier to hit. That was on show with Sunrisers scoring 53 runs in the back half of the first 10 overs even though by then they’d lost four wickets. So the trick was to make the most of the early exchange and there are few better than Starc at this.According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, 67.5% of the deliveries in his first over across his T20 career either threaten the stumps or the outside edge. There’s a good chance of false shots under this kind of examination. Thirty-three percent as it turns out. In other words, two of the six balls he’ll be starting the game with have significant wicket-taking potential.Starc has 498 wickets in both formats of white-ball cricket. Three of those are Head’s. One from now. Two from the Australian domestic one-day tournament in 2015. All of them were bowled, in the first over, for scores of 0, 1 and 0, with the exact same delivery. Angled in. Swinging away. At speeds that cause nosebleeds.Seeing those stumps in disarray, Starc thrust his right hand up and peeled away to one side, creating another snapshot that was first seen nine years ago when he won a whole World Cup in the space of six balls. That was his best night, and this one, based on what happens in Chennai in a few days time, could still make the top 10. Imagine waking up an ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup, Test Championship, Ashes and IPL winner.

Accurate and near unplayable, the England spinner played hard on the field but always had room for a beer after a well-fought game

Ian Chappell21-Apr-2024There are some humorous and often applicable nicknames in cricket but none more suitable than “Deadly” for Derek Underwood.Derek was a deadly accurate bowler and a fierce competitor who sadly died recently from dementia complications. Despite being a feared competitor, he was a respected opponent.Always – and I mean every night – Underwood was available for an after-play drink in the dressing room. When it came to cricket, two of his main loves were bowling and beer.He employed an extraordinarily long run-up for a spinner and operated nearer medium pace than the typical speed of a slow bowler, but boy, he was accurate. Too speedy to use your feet to, and difficult to drive, he was the hardest spinner to score off who I played against.Related

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Right-hand batters had to scrounge for every run. The highly skilled West Indian Viv Richards was one of the few right-handers who had the courage and the skill to loft him over cover.Nevertheless batters had one thing in their favour. Underwood wore his heart on his sleeve: you knew when he was pissed off. And he was most aggrieved by the sweep shot.Having retired from first-class cricket, I shared a London cab with him in 1977, when only the players knew about the existence of the highly secretive World Series Cricket (WSC). Without divulging much, I said to him, “It’s on again, mate.”Underwood knew exactly what I meant and replied, “That bloody broom – I thought I’d seen the last of it.”The broom was a reference to my penchant for sweeping Underwood. I discovered that was one of the few ways to score off him and, as I said, it annoyed Deadly.He was deservedly pissed off at the Oval in 1972 but for an entirely different reason. A West Indies supporter of Australia in that game constantly called out when Underwood was operating: “Bad-wicket bowler. Don’t let him get you out.”

Batters had one thing in their favour. Underwood wore his heart on his sleeve: you knew when he was pissed off. And he was most aggrieved by the sweep shot

In his self-deprecating manner, Underwood described spin bowling as “a low-mentality profession: plug away, line and length, until there’s a mistake”.As a batter he was not the most gifted but he was determined. He and England’s Tony Greig had a useful partnership at the Gabba in the first Test of 1974-75 before I turned to our golden arm, Doug Walters.Walters dismissed Underwood with his first ball, and when we gleefully congratulated the bowler, he produced a typically smart-aleck retort: “A lesser batsman wouldn’t have got a bat on it.”However it was Underwood’s bowling that deservedly gained him a glowing reputation. On dampish pitches he was nigh unplayable, and his ally Alan Knott was a master wicketkeeper, especially on treacherous pitches. Underwood specialised in the superman ball – up, up and away – but Knott, in typically expert fashion, handled the difficult task of gathering those deliveries easily.It was on such a pitch at Adelaide Oval in 1975 that he took the first seven Australian wickets. Gritty opener Ian Redpath battled his backside off but eventually was incorrectly given out in the final over before lunch. Sitting in the dressing room an exasperated Redpath spat on his bat. The mirth of that moment did not detract from the fact that it had been an engaging sight to watch two highly competitive players involved in such a herculean struggle.In 1975-76 a mixed team of Australians and cricketers from other countries played in an International Wanderers tour to South Africa captained by my brother Greg Chappell and managed by the revered Richie Benaud. A dignitary at a cocktail function in Soweto welcomed the “Australian” team to the city, so I went to Underwood and said, “Congratulations on finally representing a good team.” His answer was unprintable but it definitely included “piss off”.Underwood later signed for WSC and also represented England on the 1981-82 rebel tour of South Africa. His defiant decisions were a mark of his single-mindedness but also of his belief that a professional cricketer should be paid his worth.In a distinctive life after retiring from cricket, the universally popular Underwood was appointed president of the MCC in 2008.It was a privilege to compete against such a tough but exemplary opponent.

Inspired by India’s historic triumph down under in 2021, Rana is looking forward to making an impact in Australia after his maiden Test call-up

Daya Sagar27-Oct-2024Harshit Rana rarely watches cricket on TV ever since he turned professional. However, when India last visited Australia for a Test series in 2020-21, he followed the matches closely and was very motivated by the team’s win against the odds. He also told himself that if he ever got a chance to play in Australia, he would pull off something similar.Three years later, Rana is set to be on an Australia-bound plane.Related

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He is the third uncapped player in the 18-member Indian squad along with Abhimanyu Easwaran and Nitish Kumar Reddy. However, he has traveled with the India squad continuously since IPL 2024 and he hopes this experience will be handy for him on the tour.After taking a five-wicket haul in the ongoing Ranji Trophy match between Delhi and Assam in Delhi, Rana said, “I have been with the Indian team continuously since the IPL and I have learnt a lot of things there. This lesson is not only about cricket, but also about life, how a sportsperson advances in his career and life. Even as a cricketer, I have grown a lot by being with the Indian team.”After taking 19 wickets in 13 matches of IPL 2024 at an impressive average of 20.15, Rana was called up by the Indian team for the first time for the T20Is on the Zimbabwe tour. Although he didn’t get a game there, he has remained with the Indian team since then. After Zimbabwe, he was also part of the ODI team that toured Sri Lanka and then got a place in the T20I squad against Bangladesh as well.Rana was among the reserves for the first two Tests of India’s ongoing home series against New Zealand, but received his maiden Test call-up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.”Only when the team was announced did I know I was going to Australia,” Rana said. “But I had indications that I might be selected for the Australia tour because they had me with the team to prepare. Being selected for Australia tour is a big deal for me.”The kind of competitive attitude I like to play cricket with on the field is very similar to Australia’s. It was my father’s dream that I play a Test against England sometime at Lord’s, but I personally like Australia more. I am proud of myself, that my name came up for this tour.”Rana has already started preparing for the five-Test series. When he was released from the Indian team before the Pune Test, he returned to the domestic circuit registered his second first-class five-wicket haul in his 10th game in the format.Harshit Rana has picked the brains of Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah on what lengths to bowl down under•PTI When he got the new ball on Saturday, he had the first three wickets with the batters caught behind or in the slips with his swing. Once the ball got old, he targeted the lower-order batters with short balls from around the wicket.However, Rana knows that the challenges of catching the right length in Australia will be different, and he has also received tips from his senior bowlers for this.”Recently when I was with the Indian team, I used to keep talking to Jassi [Jasprit Bumrah] and [Mohammed] Siraj that if someday I get a chance to play there [in Australia], what should I do and what should I not do, which length will be right there and which is not. I have got an idea of all these things from both the bowlers and talking to them has helped me a lot.”However, the biggest advantage of being in the Indian camp for Rana was bowling to experienced batters like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the nets.”I love bowling to both of them in the nets because they also bat with the same intent in the nets like they do in a match. So there is no scope for you to make a mistake or bowl ordinary to them. I also spoke to Virat and Rohit , so they just told me to focus on my length and I am trying the same thing here.”Advice from Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel has also come in handy for Rana, who has been told that every bowling session should have a single aspect the bowler can work on during the nets.”Morne takes a lot of care about our bowling. He is completely involved with the bowlers and keeps watching who is doing what in the nets,” Rana said. “He keeps telling us what we have to do next ball. It’s a very good thing and then you also have an idea of what you should do on the next ball.”The only thing he tells me is that every bowler should know what he wants to achieve with every practice session.”Rana, under head coach Gautam Gambhir, wants to taste the same success in international cricket that he achieved with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 2024 IPL.”Gambhir has always backed me and if I have to ask anything, I always go to him and talk to him and he always gives me the right guidance. Under him, I have grown a lot in the IPL and he has taught me a lot of things.”