All posts by h716a5.icu

Nine special moments from an enthralling Test match between India and England

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-2024India and England played out four days of riveting Test cricket as the hosts levelled the series in Visakhapatnam. We’ve picked out the best moments and this is your chance to pick your favourites. Over to you to rank them.

Last year, he failed to defend 28 in the last over. This time, he denied Dhoni a fairytale finish

Ashish Pant19-May-20243:23

Moody on Dayal: He’s now remembered for one significant over

Cast your mind to April 9, 2023. Yash Dayal is bowling the final over of Gujarat Titans’ league game against Kolkata Knight Riders. He has 28 runs to defend but is carted for five sixes in a row by Rinku Singh as GT lose the game by three wickets. Dayal is heartbroken. The image of him on his haunches, covering his eyes with a towel is splashed around the internet for the next few days. Dayal does not get a game for more than a month and is then released into the auction pool where he is picked by Royal Challengers Bengaluru.Fast forward to May 18, 2024. Dayal, who has had a good run in IPL 2024, is tasked with perhaps the most important over of his short IPL career. His team’s playoff hopes hinge on these six balls. He has 16 runs to defend for RCB to advance and is bowling to one of the greatest finishers in IPL history in MS Dhoni. The first ball he bowls is a full toss on Dhoni’s pads which he duly clatters out of the stadium for a 110m six.Dayal’s subconscious mind immediately takes him one year back to that difficult evening in Ahmedabad. The nerves start to jangle. Is history repeating itself? With CSK requiring 11 off five to qualify, Dayal takes a moment for himself. This is his shot at redemption, a way to show that he belongs. He runs in and delivers a back-of-the-hand slower ball on a length around off stump. Dhoni swings across the line but is deceived by the lack of pace and the big top edge carries to deep-backward square leg.Related

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Pandemonium sets in the Bengaluru stands. The RCB fans are ecstatic, the CSK fans stunned.But Dayal knows the job isn’t done. Shardul Thakur and Ravindra Jadeja are more than capable of getting 11 off four. Dayal, though, remains unflappable. He lands four slower balls on the spot for 0, 1, 0, 0 as RCB complete the most stunning turnarounds to qualify for the playoffs. Virat Kohli is nearly in tears, Faf du Plessis doesn’t know what to do, and the RCB fielders are haring around the Chinnaswamy Stadium. And amid all that, Dayal stands tall with a beaming smile and a final-over redemption story for the ages.”After what happened to me last time [against KKR in 2023], there was nervousness,” Dayal said after the game. “When I got hit off that first ball, I subconsciously went back to that place. But I have done well in the past, I have done well after that, so all that was running through my mind was to deliver a good ball. I didn’t want to look at the scoreboard or the result. I just wanted to bowl well. I was confident with my execution.”But Dayal wasn’t even supposed to bowl the last over. “I was supposed to bowl the second last over,” he said. “Suddenly DK [Dinesh Karthik] and Faf talked to each other, and it was decided that Lockie [Ferguson] bowls the 19th and me the last. I was fine with anything.”Perhaps it was meant to be for Dayal.Yash Dayal bowled a superb final over, conceding only seven•AFP/Getty ImagesIt was a performance worthy of a match that had so much at stake. RCB-CSK clashes, in general, have that extra bit of spice to them and the air of anticipation around this one was palpable hours before the start of the game. The games at the Chinnaswamy generally have a sea of red dominating the stands, with the aar-cee-bee chants taking the decibel level through the roof. But not when CSK are in town. There were as many yellow shirts in the stands as red. At any point that the RCB-RCB chants went up, they were quickly drowned by the CSK-CSK shouts. If Kohli was welcomed with wild frenzy, there was bedlam in Bengaluru when Dhoni walked out.Sent into bat, RCB started like a train, then saw their momentum stymied by rain before a middle-order revival and a strong finish took them to 218. The equation was simple. To qualify for the playoffs, RCB needed to restrict CSK under 201. Glenn Maxwell prised out Ruturaj Gaikwad for a first-ball duck, Daryl Mitchell fell cheaply to Dayal, and when Rachin Ravindra and Shivam Dube fell in quick succession, it seemed like RCB were destined to make it to the playoffs.Jadeja and Dhoni, though, had other plans.They got together with CSK needing 72 off 30 to qualify. By the end of the 18th over, they needed 35 off 12. Then Ferguson went for 18, and with 17 required in the final over, the game once again was in balance.As Dayal stood at the top of his mark, all he wished for was to “deliver two balls well”. He hadn’t had the best of days up to that point, going for 35 off his first three overs. The execution with the first ball of the 20th went awry too, but he came back splendidly bowling the next five on the spot to take RCB into the playoffs. The redemption arc was complete.But after the game, Dayal had to face the banter for conceding a six off the first ball.”The best thing that happened today was Dhoni hitting a six outside the ground… we got a new ball which was much better to bowl with,” Karthik said in a video tweeted by RCB. “Yash, that was good bowling. If you have a doubt, always bowl a hip-high full toss on leg stump. It is a good mantra to follow when the ball is wet.”For the longest time, Dayal’s name has been associated with the bowler who failed to defend 28 in the final over. From Saturday, perhaps, he might be known as the one who denied Dhoni a fairytale finish.

Who will make the 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup? The deadline for selection is May 1

Sidharth Monga29-Apr-2024Don’t expect IPL form to play too much of a role when India’s selectors pick the 15-man squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup, the deadline for which is May 1.The selectors are unlikely to go for players who are unproven at international level even though a few of them have made heads turn with their hitting in IPL 2024. The one bolter that might have been picked got injured. Much like consumers of the sport and pundits, the team management and selectors are believed to have been excited about Mayank Yadav’s pace and accuracy. They would have likely punted on him, but his injury-prone body might have prevented that now.The IPL, though, has served to prove the fitness of Rishabh Pant, who had been out of cricket since his horrific car accident in December 2022. Sanju Samson, however, is likely to be the first-choice wicketkeeper as India need a spin-hitter to pair with their top three who tend to get stuck against spin. Also, Jitesh Sharma’s form hasn’t been great and KL Rahul has been batting at the top of the order, which is crowded already. The top four of captain Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav was more or less decided even before the IPL began.Hardik Pandya’s bowling fitness could be a cause for concern for the selectors. When fully fit and in form, Hardik does what nobody else can in the country: bowl medium-pace and hit in the middle order. As such, he should be a certain starter, but he has been bowling only about two overs a match in the IPL and his pace has been down too. He still has a month to get into proper bowling rhythm and justify keeping Shivam Dube or Rinku Singh out of the XI.If India are to take both Dube and Rinku to the T20 World Cup, they will have to leave out either a back-up wicketkeeper or a back-up bowler. It will likely come down to a shootout between Rinku and a back-up fast bowler. It would have helped if one of the top four could bowl or keep wicket, but India are stuck with a top order that is one-dimensional.The only way to accommodate the power-hitters is to drop one or two of the top four, but Rohit had already been confirmed as the captain by BCCI secretary Jay Shah earlier this year. Rohit, in turn, is believed to have asked for Kohli because of his temperament. Not that it would be an easy call for the selectors to take one and leave out the other: as we have maintained in these pages, it’s either both or none. Jaiswal is the only left-hand option in the top order, and Suryakumar is among the best T20 batters in the world.The IPL’s Impact Player rule will add to the frustration of the selectors as prospective allrounders have not been called upon to bowl at all. For Dube to edge out Hardik, he ideally should have bowled a little, but CSK have not needed him to because of the Impact Player. The same goes for Riyan Parag at Rajasthan Royals. The IPL teams have no incentive to develop allrounders. So even if the selectors wanted to take Dube as a seam-bowling allrounder, they have nothing to assess his bowling.Hardik Pandya hasn’t been impactful as a bowler in the IPL•BCCIAs of now, Ravindra Jadeja might edge out Axar Patel as the spin allrounder in the first XI, but Axar could make the squad as the back-up spinner, leaving Kuldeep Yadav as the only wristspinner in the squad of 15.Jasprit Bumrah’s fast-bowling partners remain difficult to identify in the absence of the injured Mohammed Shami. Arshdeep Singh is likely to be the left-arm quick because of his ability to move the new ball, but his form at the death hasn’t been great in the IPL. Avesh Khan is in the fray because of his height and ability to hit the surface and Mohammed Siraj is also in the mix even though his form has not been great for RCB.The fast bowlers other than Bumrah are not yet in stone. Mohsin Khan and Harshit Rana have impressed the decision-makers, but their fitness is not believed to be at its peak, which can be a risk in a World Cup.India’s likely T20 World Cup squadTop order: Rohit Sharma (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar YadavMiddle and lower-middle order: Sanju Samson (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Rinku SinghSpinners: Kuldeep YadavFast bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan/Mohammed SirajOther contenders: KL Rahul, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Sandeep Sharma

After a campaign that never really took off, they have some reflecting to do: on batting-order tactics, on individual decision-making, and on whether the time is right for a change in leadership

Shashank Kishore15-Oct-20242:19

Muzumdar: ‘Couldn’t have asked for more from players’

Watching another game nervously with your fate reliant on its result is probably among the least enviable things in sport. Which is why, bags packed, several India players chose not to invest three-plus hours of their emotional energy into the New Zealand-Pakistan game, instead only glancing at the score from time to time.Their hopes rose when New Zealand were kept to 110, but they came crashing down when Pakistan tumbled to 56 all out. It’s the first time since 2016 that India haven’t made the semi-finals of a Women’s T20 World Cup. Their packed bags were ready to head straight to check-in as Harmanpreet Kaur’s team will head to their respective cities, before reconvening in Ahmedabad next week for three ODIs against New Zealand.Between now and then, they’ll have time to reflect on a campaign that never really took off. And that’s perhaps why this will sting more than the one in 2023, when they were contenders through much of the tournament before being stopped in the semi-final by eventual champions Australia.Related

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When they do stop to reflect, here are some of the things they will have to consider.The batting-order muddleIt’s great to have flexibility and India tried out six different players at No. 3 since Amol Muzumdar took over as head coach in December last year. But when these experiments didn’t yield the desired results, the team management backed the experienced Harmanpreet Kaur to be the impact batter there.In T20s since the start of 2022, Harmanpreet has been striking at 94.07 across 84 innings. The plan here was to free her up to play the role of an aggressor, allowing Jemimah Rodrigues, originally a No. 3, to be a spin enforcer in the middle.Jemimah Rodrigues: No. 3 or not No. 3?•ICC/Getty ImagesBut one loss to New Zealand led to a reshuffle with Rodrigues coming out at No. 3 against Pakistan, a game where the openers failed to hit a single boundary in the powerplay when the need of the hour was quick runs to improve their net run rate if it came down to that.Rodrigues herself had spoken of how batting in a new position had got her to approach batting differently. Yet, in a decisive game against Australia, with spinners Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham and Ash Gardner applying the brakes on India’s scoring rate, they missed Rodrigues in the middle, because she was sent in at No. 3 again, above Harmanpreet. The revolving door at No. 3 may have not been the only reason for their exit, but it certainly forced India to deviate from the template they had wanted to set.Mandhana, Ghosh off-colourIt also didn’t help that Smriti Mandhana had a forgettable tournament. Barring the half-century against Sri Lanka, she managed just 12, 7 and 6. Mandhana’s powerplay salvo has over the years allowed India’s middle order some cushion. It did so in 2023; not this time though, and it hurt the team. Muddled batting plans down the order didn’t help either, like the decision to send in Deepti Sharma ahead of S Sajana against Pakistan when India were looking to close out the chase quickly.Smriti Mandhana has a forgettable World Cup to reflect on•ICC/Getty ImagesDeepti was unbeaten on 7 off eight balls and by the time Sajana, playing primarily as a finisher, came in to hit her first (and only) ball of the tournament to the boundary to bring up the winning runs, India had eaten up 18.5 overs in a modest chase.Batting-order tactics aside, India also let themselves down with their individual, in-the-moment decision-making. Like Richa Ghosh, India’s biggest six-hitter, chancing a non-existent single to extra cover when big hits, and not quick singles, was the need of the hour.Or Harmanpreet’s decision to take a single with India needing 14 to win off six balls against Australia. It was clear, beyond doubt, that Harmanpreet was India’s last hope. India went on to lose two wickets in two balls. Even when there was still a chance, however unlikely, with India needing 13 off 3, Harmanpreet opted to take another single, leaving No. 9 Shreyanka Patil to hit two sixes.Why camps over A-tour exposure in Australia?Patil is a competent batter in domestic cricket but has hardly had opportunities to showcase her credentials at the top level. Okay, she was injured in the run-up to the tournament and needed the National Cricket Academy’s attention, but in simply focusing on skills and fitness camps did India deny themselves a valuable opportunity of sending some of the others, like Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav and Arundhati Reddy, on the India A tour to Australia?All through the South Africa and Bangladesh series, India’s lower order was hardly tested on the batting front. Even when they went 3-0 up in Bangladesh, they stuck to the tried-and-tested. At the time, this might have seemed fair because they were preparing for a World Cup that was expected to be in those same conditions. But hardly any batting time for a lower order for months leading into the World Cup didn’t help.

While India’s T20 World Cup preparation – exclusive fitness, fielding and skill camps across six weeks – may have seemed comprehensive on the face of it, they may have missed a trick by not scheduling a single fielding or training session under lights

Which is perhaps why exposure in a multi-format series against a quality opponent, which featured the likes of Tahlia McGrath, who played an important role in India’s defeat on Sunday, could have provided them exposure and experience that no skill or fitness camp would have compensated for.Also, while India’s preparation – exclusive fitness, fielding and skill camps across six weeks – may have seemed comprehensive on the face of it, they may have missed a trick by not scheduling a single fielding or training session under lights. While three dropped catches against Australia in a crunch game may not have directly contributed to their defeat, it all added up in the end.So, what next?Inevitably, the end of every World Cup cycle will prompt questions of a transition. Harmanpreet has been captain for seven years now, and has been a key driver for change amid a revolving door of coaches (Tushar Arothe to Ramesh Powar to WV Raman to Ramesh Powar to Hrishikesh Kanitkar to Amol Muzumdar) since she took over in 2017.Is it time for Harmanpreet Kaur to pass the captaincy baton on?•ICC via Getty ImagesMandhana has been the captain-in-waiting, much like Rohit Sharma until he replaced Virat Kohli, co-incidentally after a group-stage exit at a T20 World Cup in the UAE – in 2021. Mandhana has risen to be a top batter who commands the respect of the players and has built an impressive body of work.Earlier this year, she masterminded Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s maiden WPL win. At 28, with over a decade’s experience, it may not necessarily be a bad idea for the team to go to her, for an influx of new ideas from a player who has come of age under Harmanpreet and can build on her good work.That could possibly unshackle Harmanpreet the batter as well, adding possibly yet another chapter to her illustrious career, especially with a 50-over World Cup to look forward to at home next year.

He showed he has the speed and the spark on a flat Cape Town pitch, and he’s continuing his quest for more consistency to truly make his skills count

Firdose Moonda07-Jan-2025With express pace, good control and a calm, mature demeanour, it can be easy to forget Kwena Maphaka is just a teenager. But when he took his first Test wicket, he provided a reminder of his youth.Maphaka was into his second spell as a Test cricketer, bowling to one of the world’s best, Babar Azam who was on 58. While Maphaka had been getting his speeds up past 140kph, he was still trying to work out his lines and delivered one down the leg side which Babar followed in an attempt to flick away. Babar didn’t get hold of it as well as he should have and sent a fine edge into Kyle Verreynne’s gloves.Maphaka ran all the way down the pitch towards Verryenne and then straight past him, almost to the boundary. He spread his arms wide as his team-mates chased him and showed no signs of stopping. “And running through my mind was literally nothing other than, ‘I’ve got my first test wicket, let me run around and parade,” Maphaka said at Newlands after South Africa’s 10-wicket win. “It was really crazy, I was just trying to hit a good area. That ball did not go where it was supposed to. But things like that happen for a reason, I’m really happy to have got that wicket.”Related

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He finished the match with two more and an appetite for international cricket. Though he has yet to receive his final school results, has already passed the first Test of his career with flying colours and he sounds like he knows it. “I was really just trying to stay calm, and trying to be as focused as possible on bowling the same ball, or similar balls consistently, rather than trying too many things at once,” he said. “Test cricket from what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen, is a game of simplicity, so I was just trying to keep it as simple as possible.”Maphaka had the good fortune of debuting in an attack with three other frontline quicks in a match that was consequential in ensuring South Africa won a series but not in whether they got to the World Test Championship final. That meant there was slightly less pressure on them than there might have been if this was a must-win. They could take their time in stages, and they did on a flat deck filled with runs, which also meant Maphaka had the challenge of playing in conditions that did not really suit him – or any of the bowlers – and so he had to stay patient and work for his wickets. But he had a captain, Temba Bavuma, who made it clear before the match that Maphaka was not on trial, used him well and allowed his skill to shine through.As South Africa’s least experienced seamer, in matches and years, Maphaka was carefully managed. He bowled 8.2 out of 54.2 overs in the first innings and only 13 of the 122.1 overs in the second for a match total of 128 balls. He has only sent down more deliveries once previously, in his second first-class match in November 2023, where he bowled 24.5 overs – 149 balls. Remember that this is just his fourth red-ball game and building up his loads judiciously will be key to his long-term future. Using him sparsely not only allowed Maphaka to find his feet in the format but was also tactical as it allowed him to keep his speeds up. Pakistan captain Shan Masood singled him out as the bowler who “cranked it up” and made things uncomfortable.

“I was really just trying to stay calm, and trying to be as focused as possible on bowling the same ball, or similar balls consistently, rather than trying too many things at once. Test cricket from what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen, is a game of simplicity, so I was just trying to keep it as simple as possible.”Kwena Maphaka

His standout spell came on the fourth day, when he was given the old ball with less than 10 minutes to go before the lunch break. Pakistan were 307 for 3, Masood had bedded in on 134 and South Africa seemed to be biding time before the second new ball. Maphaka’s second ball was fast, full and fired into the pads. It squared Saud Shakeel up and though South Africa went up for the appeal, they decided not to review. Replays showed they should have because the ball was going on to hit leg stump and Shakeel would have been out on 14. Did Maphaka wish he or someone else had tried to convince Bavuma a little harder to send it upstairs? It doesn’t sound like it.”It’s really one of those things where you make the right decision or you make the wrong decision and it doesn’t really matter, you’ve got to get on with the game,” he said. “We made the wrong decision but it wasn’t really helpful to look back. It was actually just better to look forward and say, you know what, we’re going to get him out anyway. Let’s see how we’re going to get him out.”It was Kagiso Rabada who got Shakeel with the second new ball but Maphaka, who shared it, also had success. He removed Masood, on review, with what the Pakistan captain believed was an error of technology but one South African won’t complain about. Maphaka found swing with the second new ball, moved it away from Masood and struck him on the knee roll. Masood and on-field umpire Nitin Menon thought would have missed his off stump but Hawkeye did not. Maphaka got two more overs after that and impressed with his pace, bounce and movement.Kwena Maphaka asked the right questions on Test debut•AFP/Getty ImagesHe was easily the most threatening of the quicks in that period. The analysis of that spell read: 7-1-16-1, and could be remembered as a sign of things to come for the young man. “All the nerves were really gone, so it was really just focusing on hitting an area, and trying to be as consistent as possible,” he said.This is something Maphaka has said for the last year, since topping the wicket-takers’ list at last year’s Under-19 World Cup. While pace comes naturally to him, he also wants to make sure he delivers it with discipline so that he challenges batters across formats and particularly in the longest one.His introduction to Test cricket has come early and he could wait as long as 10 months to play another game, and 22 to do it at home. South Africa’s next scheduled fixture is the WTC final at Lord’s in June before an October trip to Pakistan. They are not due to play Tests at home until October 2026. In between that, Maphaka will play in the SA20, the IPL, perhaps a few other leagues and in South Africa’s white-ball set-up, and the road ahead is overflowing with possibility.At least one person always knew it would be this way. Test coach Shukri Conrad picked Maphaka in the national Under-19 team when he was just 15 years old and the two have had a strong bond ever since. The only other time Maphaka serves up a reminder of how young he is when he talks about Rabada, whom he described as being “like a big brother”, and Conrad. “As a cricketer my coach backs me 100%, so I can back myself and I know that there’s no real pressure on me,” he said of Conrad. “Obviously, cricket is a game of pressure, but there’s no pressure from the change room in terms of my performances and how I go about my business.”As he gets older that may change, but for now he is basking in the youthful joy of his early success.

Edgbaston six-for just reward for Mohammed Siraj, who assumed seniority in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence

Sidharth Monga04-Jul-2025

Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj have a chat before the third day’s play•AFP via Getty Images

A quirky, curious statistic kept assuming bigger proportion through the third day’s play at Edgbaston. Especially when Mohammed Siraj began taking wickets with the second new ball to go with his double-strike in his first over of the day.Here are the numbers. Mohammed Siraj has played 23 Tests with Jasprit Bumrah, and averages 33.82 in them. His average in 15 matches without Bumrah now reads 25.20. Siraj has played nine Tests with Mohammed Shami; he averages 34.96 in them. He has played six Tests with both Bumrah and Shami, and he averages 33.05 in them. In the 12 matches that Siraj has played with neither Bumrah nor Shami in them, Siraj averages 22.27.When put that way to Siraj in a spot interview with no time to reflect on it, Siraj said he loves the responsibility. But it is what it is: an oddity. Unless Siraj himself tells you when he plays with Bumrah he bowls for Bumrah. Until then it’s all pop psychology.Related

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When Siraj is the third bowler, you can probably look for some causation, in that you don’t get the new ball, you bowl more with a softer ball, and possibly have to play a containing role. When you are the second quick, you probably don’t get an end of your choice, you are just as attacking as when you are the first.A non-quirky fact is that Siraj is a fine fast bowler with good control, an outswinger that can at times go missing, a wobble-seam ball, and a big heart. He has been bowling well since the start of the Australia tour, but hasn’t really had the luck to get him wickets.Cricket is a messy sport. At Headingley, outside that first spell when he struggled running uphill for three overs, Siraj bowled roughly as many good balls as Bumrah, roughly at the same pace, drew roughly a similar percentage of false shots, but had nothing to show for it.Mohammed Siraj leads India off the field•Getty ImagesOf course Siraj is no Bumrah. That’s why he said he only believes in Jassi , resulting in memes where Bumrah was shown saying “I only believe on Miyan .” Still he was far from ordinary in Australia, but took 20 wickets at an average of 31.15 in a seam-dominated series. If this keeps happening for long, even the most empathetic of observers start pointing at your career average: 31.83 at the start of this series.The beauty of this messy sport is that when everybody has been worried about Bumrah’s absence, on comes Siraj, starts as the second bowler behind Akash Deep with both the new balls, makes no causal change to the way he bowls and ends with a six-for. His lengths didn’t become more attacking or shorter, he extracted much less seam, and he swung the ball as much as he did in Leeds.The one change he made, though, was move his lines straighter, which you can afford to do when the pitch is slower and lower. From 47.5% balls in the channel in Leeds, his channel deliveries came down to 42.9%. His straight lines went up from 22.5% to 33.8%. These, though, are fine changes that bowlers regularly make to adjust to different pitches and match situations.1:53

What worked for Siraj and Akash Deep?

Siraj himself is no stranger to the quirks of fate in cricket. “I have been waiting for a year for a five-for,” he told Jio Hotstar. “I was getting stuck at four. I was bowling well but not getting wickets. This is a very special moment. Especially because I had only four-fors in England.”It is just that bit extra special because of the kind of lifeless pitch it has come on. The pitch has only got slower during the Test with no seam movement. There have been long periods, especially after the ball ages past 30 overs, when it is hard to see where the next wicket will come from. In such conditions, Siraj was just fire with the new ball. As was Akash Deep.Despite bowling the fewest overs among fast bowlers – not counting Prasidh Krishna because he bowled a spell full of bouncers – Siraj attacked the stumps most often, projected to hit the stumps 28 times. He got three wickets in those balls. In just 26 false shots, he got six wickets. At Headingley, he got two in 69. Control data might not be gospel, but this is stark.Siraj knows it. He lives with these quirks of the game. That’s why he can keep running in with the same spirit after a run of barren Tests. He will do the same in the second innings. Have some patience if he doesn’t get same results.

The current WTC system is weighed in favour of bowler-friendly pitches. Here’s one that aims to incentivise longer Test matches that end in an outright result

Kartikeya Date01-Dec-2025The World Test Championship points system awards 12 points for a Test win, four points for a draw, and none for a Test defeat. This makes a Test win significantly more valuable compared to a draw.Consider two hypothetical three-match series, where in the first, the winning side wins 2-1, earning 24 points to the losing team’s 12. In the other, the winning side wins 1-0, earning 20 points (12 for the win, four each for the draws), while the losing side earns eight. In terms of raw points, the side winning 2-1 earns more points than the side winning 1-0. It also earns a higher percentage of the available points (24 out of a possible 36, or 66.7%) compared to the 1-0 winning side (20 points out of a possible 36, or 55.6%). This is significant because a team’s position on the WTC table is decided based on the percentage of available points that they collect.It is fair to say that the WTC points system disincentives draws in Test cricket. Only 26 of the 216 Test matches (one in eight) in the WTC era have been drawn. It would not be fair to say, however, that the WTC system singularly has caused teams to chase results. That tendency precedes the championship.In the 214 Tests just before the WTC era, 32 were drawn. It is also not the case that the more successful teams in the WTC era play fewer draws. In the last two editions of the championship (2021-23 and 2023-25), the top four teams in the final table played at least as many, if not more, draws than the bottom four teams.Nevertheless, Test matches have been getting shorter. This is partly because scoring rates have been rising, and consequently, dismissals are occurring more frequently than they used to. This is also due to the DRS. Other interesting causes are evident in the record, but those are best left for a separate discussion. For now, let’s focus on the cause that keeps attracting much discussion every time a short Test match is played – the pitch.Home teams have the privilege of producing pitches of their choice in Test cricket. Different parts of the world have different types of soil, weather and traditions, and produce a variety of pitches, all of which are not equally well suited to the same styles of bowling. The ICC’s pitch and outfield monitoring process acknowledges this reality. In the WTC era, all home teams have produced bowler-friendly, result-oriented, pitches.Home teams cannot produce pitches that make only their own victory more likely, especially when the visiting team has sufficient quality and variety in bowling, as New Zealand, South Africa, England, India, Australia and Pakistan invariably have had for all conditions in recent times. The best home teams can hope for is that even against a fairly complete opponent, their own quality and depth in bowling on their pitches will outgun that of the visitors in the long run. The Australians, for instance, successfully made this bet when India toured in 2024-25. They lost the first Test, in Perth, on a very quick, seaming pitch, but in the end, their superior fast-bowling depth and quality told on five fast-bowler-friendly surfaces. In a short series, there isn’t always time for this type of benefit to play out. But even there, as we have seen above, 1-1 is a better result than 0-0 under the WTC points system.In the 865 non-WTC Test matches since the start of 2000 that were not played at neutral venues, the median game lasted 1982 balls. Of the 432 Tests that were completed in 1982 balls or fewer, the home team won 255 and lost 129 (or 59 wins and 30 defeats per 100 Tests). Of the 432 Tests that lasted more than 1982 balls, the home team won 170 and lost 122 (or 39 wins and 28 defeats per 100 Tests). Longer Tests make winning less likely but don’t reduce the frequency of defeat; they increase the probability of draws.Under the current points system, matches less than about 300 overs long fetch the home team 60% of available points, while longer ones produce 56%. Which makes home teams interested in risking defeat chasing victory with bowler-friendly pitches•Gallo ImagesIn the WTC era the median Test has lasted 1765 balls. Of the 109 matches that lasted 1765 balls or fewer during this period, the home team won 61 and lost 40 (or 56 wins, 37 defeats per 100 Tests). Of the 106 matches that lasted more than 1765 balls, the home team won 53 and lost 34 (50 wins and 32 defeats per 100 Tests). Matches have become shorter in the WTC era; longer WTC matches (those longer than the median) produce 18 draws per 100 Tests, compared to nine draws per 100 Tests in shorter matches. But under the WTC points system shorter matches produce 59% of available points for the home team (56 wins, nine draws), while longer matches produce 56% of available points for the home team (50 wins, 18 draws). So it is in the interests of the home team to risk defeat chasing victory in the WTC era by preparing more bowler-friendly pitches.The general understanding that better batting pitches increase the probability of the draw by reducing the likelihood of winning more than they reduce the likelihood of losing, precedes the WTC era. It is no surprise that England sought old-fashioned English pitches after losing by 405 runs to Australia in the Lord’s Test of the 2015 Ashes. The cost of an English fast bowler’s wicket in England dropped from 29.1 runs in the 2011-2015 period (including that Lord’s Ashes Test), to 23.9 runs from the end of that 2015 Test to the start of the Bazball era in June 2022. The 2011-15 period was already a strong era for England, with Stuart Broad and James Anderson forming a great seam-bowling new-ball pair.India’s desire for turning pitches at home has a much longer history in modern cricket. Most Indian captains have sought such conditions, believing (correctly) that, (a) in the long run, their superior depth and quality of spin bowling will mean they will win a lot more than they lose, and (b) that a turning pitch mitigates consequences arising from the outcome of the toss.The conventional wisdom, which has found new voice following India’s defeat at Eden Gardens – that better wickets will amplify India’s spin bowling quality – is not borne out by the record. Since the start of 1993, India have played 151 Tests at home, won 90 and lost 24. Anil Kumble played his first home Test against England in January 1993, marking the start of a prolonged period of Indian spin domination at home. India’s median home Test in this period has lasted 2059 balls. Of 75 home Tests that lasted 2061 balls or fewer, India won 55 and lost 11. Of the 75 that lasted longer than 2061 balls, India won 35 and lost 12. While it is true, as Himanish Ganjoo has showed on these pages that, relative to better batting pitches, bowler-friendly pitches reduce India’s batting average more than they do the opposition’s (since the visiting team’s batting average is lower to begin with), this does not, in the long run, translate to more frequent defeats for India.If the current points system rewards bowler-friendly pitches because teams don’t want to risk draws, how might a points system that aims to produce longer Test matches without incentivising draws be devised? Such a system would, for instance, reward a win in 400 overs more than it does a win in 280 overs. The requirement is for a system that makes the choice less obvious for home teams when it comes to preferring result pitches. It will do this by finding a way to penalise shorter Tests (and consequently, pitches at the bowler-friendly end of the spectrum) without rewarding draws. Rewarding draws is likely to encourage home teams to ask for featherbeds.The current WTC points system also does not consider the balance of play; it only considers the result. A draw is a draw, and teams get the same number of points whether it is a team hanging on by one wicket in a thrilling finish or a Test in which only 21 wickets fall over 400 overs of play.A few years ago I proposed a method of measuring the dominance of a Test team. It is sensitive to the outcome of every delivery in the match. Under that system, the two teams in the Kanpur and Ahmedabad Tests above would not finish on an equal number of points. That system also avoids arbitrary thresholds (for instance, the WTC system prescribes a 3:1 ratio for wins to draws). How points are allotted using this hypothetical system is shown below with the examples of two recent Tests. (Note, the intermediate figures are rounded to three decimal places here. In the actual calculation, they are not.)1. India vs South Africa at Eden Gardens, 2025
Result: SA won by 30 runs
SA: 312 for 20 in 654 balls
IND: 282 for 18 in 584 ballsRuns per wicket for the match (312 + 282) / (20 + 18) = 15.63IND batting points: 282 / 584 = 0.483IND bowling points: 20*15.63 / 654 = 0.478
SA batting points: 312 / 654 = 0.477
SA bowling points: 18*15.63 / 584 = 0.482
IND total points: 0.959
SA total points: 0.961Since South Africa won outright, they get a win bonus – equal to the average number of points each team earned in the match – which in this case is 0.960 (0.959 + 0.961) / 2South Africa’s total points for the match: 0.961 + 0.960 = 1.919, and India’s total points for the match: 0.959. So South Africa has +0.960 points net.2. India v England at Edgbaston, 2025
Result: India won by 336 runs
IND: 1014 for 16 in 1404 balls
ENG: 678 for 20 in 946 ballsRuns per wicket for the match: 47IND total points: 3.200
ENG total points: 1.252
IND net points: 1.948In draws, each team’s final points tally is simply the sum of their bowling and batting points. For instance, in the 2023 Ahmedabad Test referenced above, India collected 1.008 points and Australia 0.934 points. In other words, India collected a net 0.069 points and Australia a net -0.069 points.This method of assessing teams in Test matches is sensitive to the outcome of each delivery, and to the margin of victory (or even the margin of the draw). For the hypothetical WTC version of this system, I propose scaling the winning team’s points by a match-length factor to arrive at the win bonus for outright wins.The average outright result in WTC Tests takes 1738 deliveries. So we divide the number of deliveries in a match by 1800 (300 overs), or the average length. If a match lasts 2000 deliveries, the match length factor is 2000 / 1800. The consequence of this method of deriving the win-bonus figure is shown in the graph below, which compares the net points teams earn in all the outright results in WTC Tests using this modified system to their net points in the original system. The net points decrease for shorter matches and increase for longer matches.Kartikeya DateThe calculation of the net points per match for each team in the 2021-23 WTC Test cycle is below. This comparison is difficult to make because pitch preparation is shaped by the points system at work. If pitches that last five days give teams a chance to earn more points than quicker victories on more precarious pitches, then pitches will become less bowler-friendly. The comparison also depends on which matches a team loses and which it wins. For instance, the average Test match won by South Africa in the 2021-23 WTC cycle lasted 1703 balls, while the average Test they lost lasted 1319 balls. Five of their six defeats in this cycle came in New Zealand, England and Australia. The sixth was a defeat to India in the 2021 Boxing Day Test in Centurion.