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“The team management has told me to calm myself and keep improving the game and fitness, basically in all aspects”

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Dec-20191:37

I’ve learnt that there is nothing called a ‘natural game’ – Pant

A 69-ball 71 in the first ODI against West Indies signaled a welcome return to run-scoring form for Rishabh Pant, and he said afterwards that playing “according to the situation” was his takeaway from his time in international cricket and that “there is nothing called natural game”.The natural-game aspect has been a constant around Pant, the 22-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman, who has been blamed for throwing his wicket away with seemingly irresponsible shots. On Sunday, Pant batted with some degree of restraint but still scored at a rate of over a run-a-ball, lifting India from 80 for 3 to 194 in collaboration with Shreyas Iyer, who scored 70 in 88 balls.

West Indies fined for slow over-rate

West Indies have been found to be four overs short of their over rate in the first ODI against India in Chennai, resulting in the team being fined 80% of their match fee.
Captain Pollard pleaded guilty to the offence after the match and accepted the sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing.
“In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20 per cent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time. As such, the team have each been fined 80 per cent of their match fee,” the ICC said in a statement.

“When me and Iyer got together, we wanted to get a partnership going,” Pant said at the press conference after West Indies won by eight wickets to go 1-0 up in the three-match series. “We wanted to be together till the 40th over as we had lost three early wickets, and the 50-overs game is a long one. We thought if we are able to do that, we and the rest of the team would be able to capitalise on that.”When we were kids, we would hear that ‘play the natural game’, but since I have played the international game, I have realised that there is nothing called natural game. You have to play according to the situation and what the team needs. A good player is one who can mould his game according the situation and the team’s demand.”Pant, through his lean run over the past few months, has often been taunted by fans who have chanted “Dhoni, Dhoni” while he has been out in the middle, but in Chennai, Dhoni’s “home” in the IPL, there was a pleasant change for the youngster as the spectators shouted “Ree-shabh Pant, Ree-shabh Pant”.ALSO READ: When Thala Dhoni’s Chennai chanted ‘Pant! Pant! Pant!’“It is very important,” Pant said of the crowd support. “I was looking to improve every day but not getting there. I am not saying that I got there [today], but I am just trying to improve. It’s my learning curve, and I am thinking that I want to do whatever I can to get a good score on the board and in the end I got some runs.”Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, among others, have voiced their support for Pant in recent weeks, while Ravi Shastri, speaking to recently urged fans and critics to be patient with the young man.”See, the guy is 20-22. He came in and in Test match cricket, he has got two or three hundreds already overseas,” Shastri said. “It’s a learning curve as far as Pant goes. He is destructive with the way he bats, he is a match-winner on a given day. But there are times when you come in to the game like the way he has and done what he’s done, you suddenly become a known quantity from unknown. That’s when the pressure starts building on you as a young player. Living up to expectations becomes a thing.”Rishabh Pant goes leg side during the first ODI against West Indies•BCCI

Shastri also suggested that a return to the domestic circuit, where the Ranji Trophy is currently on, might be good for Pant. Speaking about his shot selection, one of the aspects of his batting under the most scrutiny, Shastri said, “But there’s time. He doesn’t have to do it all the time on the cricket field when he is playing for India. Sometimes, domestic cricket is good. There is less pressure in domestic cricket and playing domestic cricket and rediscovering themselves.”He’s lucky that he has age on his side. India is lucky that they have got multi-taskers. You have got [KL] Rahul who can keep, Sanju Samson, MS in the background. [Wriddhiman] Saha in the Test match. There is talent there.”He will come back tougher and stronger, if there is a need for that to happen. He doesn’t need to be spoken about as much as he is spoken about now. No! He is young, give him time. In five years, if he doesn’t set the world on fire, then talk about it.”Responding to a question on the criticism he has had to deal with, Pant said, “As a player, I only want to follow my processes. I am aware of the talks – some are good and others not so good, but the more I concentrate on my job the better it is. You have to believe in yourself. It doesn’t matter what people say about you. At times, you will get runs, while that might not happen on other days. But the process is always important.”The team management has told me to calm myself and keep improving the game and fitness. Basically improve in all aspects.”

Veteran quick reveals pace plan for final South Africa Test with one eye already on Australia in 2021

George Dobell in Johannesburg23-Jan-2020Stuart Broad insists he is “perfectly fine” with missing out on selection for the Test squad to tour Sri Lanka but “is still living” for the chance to play one more Ashes series.While England’s spinners claimed 49 wickets in the three-match series that took place in Sri Lanka at the end of 2018, England’s seamers claimed just seven wickets between them.So Broad is realistic about the anticipated role for seamers in the two-Test series which begins in mid-March and says he would be “very happy” not to be involved if that gave England “the best chance of winning”.”The pitches last time made it a waste of time bowling seam,” Broad said. “I think 85 percent of wickets fell to spin. You’re definitely going to take three or four spinners in that tour party, so I don’t know if I’m going to be in it.”I do understand that varying the selection will help us in the long term. Winning in Sri Lanka last time we changed the mindset and it worked beautifully. The tough thing going this time is it could be different: you could pick four spinners, turn up and it nips all over the place.”If my next Test match is in June I’m perfectly fine with that because we’re about getting to the Test Championship final and you play your teams to suit the conditions. If the conditions in Sri Lanka don’t suit seam bowling I’m very happy not to be in the squad because you want to give England the best chance of winning the game. Not happy. But I’d accept it.”Jack Leach missed out in Hamilton because spin’s record there is appalling. Seam’s record can’t be that pretty in Colombo, so if I miss out I miss out.”ALSO READ: England’s quicks primed to hijack Philander’s farewellBut after an excellent year which has seen Broad claim 50 wickets at an average of 23.98 since the start of 2019, he is adamant there is a lot of international cricket left in him. And that, he hopes, includes the Ashes series that starts in November 2021.”Would I like to be part of another Ashes series in Australia? Absolutely,” he says. “I’m not someone who looks that far ahead. But I feel confident at the minute. I feel great. I feel physically good. All my fitness tests have gone in the right way which at 33 can be something that can fall away. I feel in a really good place.”I know I can still deliver when the heat is on and the pressure is burning. That excitement of bowling the first ball in Ashes series, I’m still living for that. I’ve still got a lot of fire in the belly and as soon as that fire goes I know my bowling boots will go. It’s still there.”Broad’s confidence can only have been boosted by a return to Johannesburg. He claimed 6-17 the last time England played here, four years ago, which included a spell of 5-1 in 36 balls. It was a spell which sealed the series for England and took Broad to the No. 1 spot in the Test bowling rankings.”It’s a brilliant place to play and a brilliant place to bowl as a tall bowler,” Broad says. “You get natural bounce. So I’m looking forward to this week.”I’ve just watched the 2016 spell back on social media this morning. It was probably less impressive than it felt. It wasn’t as if I was swinging it round corners and bowling jaffas. I suppose I made the batsmen play, but looking back this morning it wasn’t a particularly impressive spell of bowling.”It was the bounce that made it effective. In the bowlers’ meeting today I’m going to talk about width being your enemy here. It’s about making the batsmen play with a straight bat. You don’t want to be getting cut too often because it means you’re bowling too short.”It’s a bit like Perth: bowlers can bowl back of a length, the keeper takes it head height and it looks great but it’s actually not very effective. You want to bring batsmen forward here. Not necessarily bring the stumps into play, because of the bounce, but bring batsmen forward and get them edging off the front foot and not getting cut. It’s a good place to bowl but if you get it wrong you can disappear.”

“As of now, I’ve not been informed [of] anything… if the team requires me to bat wherever, I am ready to bat,” he says

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Hamilton14-Feb-2020With Rohit Sharma out of the New Zealand tour with a calf injury, a place has opened up at the top of India’s Test-match batting line-up. The warm-up game in Hamilton was supposed to help them resolve the question of who would open alongside Mayank Agarwal in the first Test in Wellington, but their first innings only complicated the issue. Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill were both out for ducks, to balls that bounced disconcertingly from short of a length, and Agarwal extended a run of lean form by edging behind for 1.It’s still unlikely, but a different, left-field option may have presented itself to India’s team management. Hanuma Vihari has opened before, at the MCG, and while he only made 8 and 13, he spent 80 minutes at the crease in the first innings, and nearly an hour in the second, helping see off the new ball and earning the praise of his captain Virat Kohli.Batting at No. 6, Vihari made 101 at Seddon Park on Friday, and while he didn’t face the new ball, there was still seam and extra bounce for the fast bowlers when he came in, and his unhurried, close-to-the-body technique was just what the Indians needed at 38 for 4.It would be harsh to judge the three regular openers for their failures in one innings, in difficult conditions, but with Agarwal struggling for form and with Shaw (two Tests) and the uncapped Gill low on experience, Vihari could be an option for India to consider. This, of course, leaves the question of who bats at No. 6.ALSO READ: Shubman Gill wary of Neil Wagner’s short-ball threatAll this is speculation, of course, and India might not even pause to consider the idea of Vihari opening. He certainly hasn’t heard any such talk just yet.”As a player, I am prepared to bat anywhere,” Vihari said at the end of the day’s play. “As of now, I’ve not been informed [of] anything. As I’ve said before as well, if the team requires me to bat wherever, I am ready to bat.”Whenever he bats, there’s a sense of calmness about Vihari, a sense that he has a plan and won’t be swayed from it too easily. Here, he found the extra bounce surprising, but along with Cheteshwar Pujara – with whom he would eventually put on 195 – formulated a plan to deal with it.”The talk was to bat time and to see off the new ball,” he said. “Obviously they were bowling in great areas and the wicket had good bounce, extra bounce, more than what I’ve experienced in New Zealand before. So I took some time to adjust and once I knew what shots I had to avoid early on this wicket, maybe horizontal [-bat] shots, I tried to avoid that.”Vihari said he was pleased to have worked out a way to adjust to testing conditions.”At the international level, you have to be thinking on your feet,” he said. “And I was quick enough to adjust my game according to the conditions, so whenever I bat next, New Zealand or Australia, wherever it is, it is up to me what I want to do with my game and how quickly I adjust and I’m happy that I could do it.”Once Pujara and Vihari settled in, the New Zealand XI briefly attempted to bounce both batsmen out, with Scott Kuggeleijn, who took the first three wickets, going around the wicket and peppering them with short balls. Neither batsman was unduly troubled with this tactic, but Vihari knows he might have to face more of it in the upcoming Test series, particularly from Neil Wagner.”We experienced that [in India A’s unofficial Test series] against New Zealand A as well,” Vihari said. “When the wicket flattens out, they try to experiment with the short balls and I’m sure even Neil Wagner will come up with the same ploy.”We’ve seen it before in the Australian series and the home series for them. We are prepared for it. We’ve got that good experience in India A as well. They did come up with short balls when we played against New Zealand A. Today as well they bowled quite a number of short balls. It’s good exposure for us.”The bounce at Seddon Park may have been a surprise, but the grass cover was fairly typical of New Zealand pitches in red-ball cricket. Vihari expects more of the same in the Test series.”Maybe we’ll get pitches like these,” he said. “Because their [New Zealand’s] strength is fast bowling, so maybe they’ll give this much grass or a little less. They have a very experienced bowling attack but it’s good that we got some time in the middle and we experienced these conditions. They were tough and it’s good to experience tough conditions before the series and we’re happy with the way the day went.”

Wright is widely regarded as one of the county’s greatest-ever batsmen

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Apr-2020Derbyshire have appointed former India coach and New Zealand batsman John Wright as their new club president.Wright scored almost 15,000 runs for Derbyshire in all formats between 1977 and 1988, and is widely regarded as one of the club’s finest batsmen.He returned to the club as a specialist T20 coach in 2017, and led an unfancied side to their first quarter-final in the format since 2005 before being replaced by Dominic Cork for the 2019 season.Ian Morgan, Derbyshire’s chairman, said: “John is one of the greatest batsmen to ever play for Derbyshire. Even when his playing days ended, John kept a close relationship with the club and enjoyed success in his return as a coach.ALSO READ: Coronavirus – county cricket latest“His contribution and commitment to the Club over many years has been immense and I am delighted that he has accepted the role of Club President in this our 150th year.”After retiring from the game in 1993, Wright spent five years as India coach before he was replaced by Greg Chappell in 2005. During Wright’s tenure, India beat Australia at home and drew with them away, while reaching the final of the 2003 World Cup.He went on to coach New Zealand briefly, before taking on the Mumbai Indians job, where he won the IPL at the first time of asking. He was replaced by Ricky Ponting, but continues to hold a role as a talent scout.”I hold Derbyshire very close to my heart and I am honoured to serve as Club President,” Wright said.”I enjoyed so many great times here as a player and as a coach, and I wish the current squad the very best as they continue to make great progress on the field.”

Discussions ongoing between ECB and Cricket Ireland over series

Matt Roller27-May-2020Paul Stirling, the Ireland batsman, has said that he is “itching” to get back to playing cricket and is hopeful that his team’s ODI series in England will be able to go ahead behind closed doors.Ireland’s three-match series in England was initially scheduled for September, but now looks set to be played in a short window from the end of July, with players and support staff from both sides staying in the on-site hotel at Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl and with strict health protocols in place.And Stirling, Ireland’s all-time leading run-scorer in full internationals, is hoping to get a start date as soon as possible in order to give him something to aim towards after more than 10 weeks locked down in Belfast.ALSO READ: 2020 T20 World Cup prospects fade, as alternatives sought“I’d love it to go ahead,” Stirling told ESPNcricinfo. “I think there’s obviously still going to be risks involved no matter what, but it’s [about] limiting those risks.”Having a set date for a return to matches is helpful to the lads over here. If that’s, say, the end of July, it gives us something to look forward to and train towards, whereas at the minute you’re getting cancellations all the time… so there’s nothing on the horizon.”You’re getting up each morning with nothing much to train for apart from your own personal satisfaction. It would be nice to get something actually pencilled in there. If there was a date where we had three games lined up against England, it would ease a lot of that mental pressure.”The two boards have been involved in virtual meetings over the last few weeks to discuss the details of the series. “We’ve had ongoing discussions with the ECB over possible options, as well as discussing the potential to travel to England with governments and sporting bodies in the Republic and Northern Ireland,” Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland’s CEO, said in a statement to ESPNcricinfo.”Certainly nothing has been agreed to date, but we will remain as flexible as we can in order to accommodate these three important World Cup qualification fixtures.”And Stirling said that while he expects players to have an opt-out, he is hopeful that it will be possible to get onto the pitch “without having to worry” about the public health situation.”As long as the safety precautions are there, I can’t see why [the series wouldn’t happen],” he said. “Hopefully by the time the two boards get together and make a decision, everything will have been taken into account.”Everyone is in a different scenario. I think it’s going to be an individual choice: I’d love to get back out there, but I think you can understand anyone else’s point of view if they’re a bit more sceptical. I think it’s just that clarity from Cricket Ireland for us.”England are expected to name a red-ball training squad later this week, and are set to name an entirely separate group for one-day cricket meaning that some first-choice players could be missing if the Ireland series does go ahead.But Stirling is not necessarily targeting the series as a chance for an upset, suggesting that results may take a back seat in the first few games after the resumption. Ireland’s entire home summer has already been wiped out, so the chance to get any cricket at all played is the most pressing issue for him.Paul Stirling is “itching” to return to international cricket•Getty Images

“Whatever team they put out, we know it’ll be a strong one,” he said. “They’ve probably got as good a second XI [as anyone], and some serious young talent coming through that haven’t even been capped because of the World Cup cycle.”I think cricket might be slightly secondary from that point of view – once we get out there, it’ll be almost trying to put on a show. We’re just trying to build up and get back out there. They’re going to be the first few games of the next World Cup qualification process too [via the ODI Super League] so I suppose that will add a little bit more onto it.”ALSO READ: Ireland’s home summer scrapped as Pakistan, NZ cancel toursLater in the summer, Stirling could be one of the only overseas players to appear in the T20 Blast if the tournament goes ahead, having signed a contract with Northamptonshire earlier in the year. The club cancelled Kieron Pollard and Faheem Ashraf’s deals last week, but are hopeful that with no need to self-isolate upon arrival in England under government guidelines, Stirling might still make it over.Following Ireland’s elevation to Test status and a short grace period, Stirling found himself in an unusual position at the end of last season, choosing between declaring as a local player for Middlesex and giving up international cricket, or continuing to represent Ireland but having to play with overseas status in county cricket.He opted for the latter, and moved back to Belfast permanently after many years in London just before the Covid-19 lockdown began. He has spent the period doing his best to keep fit, reading, and watching “every Louis Theroux documentary there is”, but is hoping to get the green light to return to individual training soon after feeling “a bit jealous” of England’s bowlers who resumed last week.”It was certainly one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make,” he said. “I loved my time in London, and there were some great people involved at Middlesex so it’s always difficult leaving that. Deep down, you don’t think it’ll ever be your choice, so that made it a little bit tougher.”But it feels like a new challenge. I know the lads well at Northants, so I think it would be a pretty smooth transition into their changing room. Until the Blast is officially cancelled, I think there’s a chance for that [move] to go ahead: just being so close and still in the UK is helpful.”

The ICC board is keeping tabs on the encouraging progress that Australia and NZ have made against the Covid-19 pandemic

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jun-2020The ICC has bought further time before making a decision on the fate of the men’s T20 World Cup, as it keeps tabs on the encouraging progress Australia and New Zealand are making against the Covid-19 pandemic.The tournament is scheduled to be played this October-November in Australia, but the chances of it going ahead have not looked especially promising in recent weeks. Less than a fortnight ago, Cricket Australia (CA)’s chief executive Kevin Roberts said the tournament was at “very high risk.”ALSO READ: T20 World Cup fate under ‘very high risk’- Cricket Australia chief executive But this week Richard Colbeck, the Australian Sports Minister, told that the country had flattened the pandemic curve and consequently was a “fitting host for an international sporting spectacle” and could even allow spectators based on the ground situation at the time.Earlier in May Colbeck had pointed out that it was the crowds – and not the 16 participating teams – that was the main hurdle for hosting the marquee event. New Zealand, where the women’s World Cup is scheduled to be held in February-March next year, has recently declared itself pandemic-free, leading the ICC to believe it can afford to wait a bit more while different alternatives are worked out in case the T20 World Cup is deferred to 2021.On Wednesday, the ICC board agreed to continue discussing a number of options, as part of the contingency planning, “whilst planning for delivery of the events in the scheduled window is ongoing.””The situation surrounding the global pandemic is evolving rapidly and we want to give ourselves the best possible opportunity to make the right decision for the whole sport,” the ICC’s chief executive Manu Sawhney said. “The health and well-being of everyone involved is our priority and other considerations fall out from that.”We will only get one chance to make this decision and it needs to be the right one and as such we will continue to consult with our members, broadcasters, partners, governments and players and to ensure that we make a well informed decision.”The meeting on Wednesday picked up from the last session, which was adjourned after the international scheduling agenda was overtaken by concerns within the board over confidentiality. An independent investigation into that issue continues but one upshot from today was the decision to extend the deadline to the BCCI to come up a solution to the tax issue around ICC events in India.The matter has been the source of some tension between the ICC and BCCI, as communication between the two revealed, and has raised the prospect of the hosting rights of ICC events being taken away from India. The ICC wants its events hosted in India to be exempt from an Indian government tax, which, the board has said, cost it a considerable sum in earnings in 2016, when the last T20 World Cup was held in the country.”The board discussed the ongoing issue of tax exemptions required for ICC events and agreed to extend the deadline given to the BCCI to provide a tax solution to December 2020.”

Craig Howard has urged a move towards providing more help for spinners in the domestic game

Daniel Brettig07-Jul-2020Australia’s leading spin bowling mentor, Craig Howard, has argued that the exit of the Dukes ball from Sheffield Shield matches cannot be the only fix if the game’s decision makers are serious about encouraging the use and development of spin bowlers in domestic ranks.Rather than focusing on the type of ball, as was the case with Cricket Australia’s announcement last week that the Kookaburra ball would be used in all domestic matches next summer after numerous seasons of the Dukes being used in the back half of the Shield competition, Howard told ESPNcricinfo that preparation of more spin-friendly pitches had to be considered in order to allow the likes of Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa, Lloyd Pope and new Victorian recruit Wil Parker to grow.While the durability of Nathan Lyon is not in question, there is a dearth of strongly performing spin bowlers behind him, particularly after the retirement of Steve O’Keefe from New South Wales. Howard said that CA should look to some of the more “creative” measures used elsewhere, notably by some counties in England, to encourage the use of spin in first-class matches. He echoed O’Keefe’s call for the practice of “scarifying” or raking surfaces on a good length for spin bowlers to make pitches more likely to turn early in games and break up later on.ALSO READ: The kings of the Dukes ball and how it wasn’t all bad for spin“I think the ball played its role in being able to develop other areas of the game, the batting component and also being able to bowl with it, but it’s more so that the wickets are playing a slightly larger role,” Howard said. “A lot of them probably don’t resemble too much of the Test wickets at the same venue, which I think is probably the thing that ideally would be looked at.”If you use Adelaide Oval as an example, from a frontline spin point of view, so that’s not including your guys picked to bat in the top six or seven to bowl a few handy part-time overs, we had just three overs out of every 100 were frontline spin. If you put that into context from a Test match point of view at Adelaide Oval, the last day Test match played there [against India in 2018] it was 41% of the overs bowled in that game were from spinners. There’s certainly some concerns there.”I know a few people have got some different ideas on how we go about it, and obviously it’s got to fit in line with the motivations of everyone. I don’t think they can go in and say ‘it’s all about spin so let’s just make spinning wickets’ because we want to have the ability to play against the swinging and seaming ball as well.”In England, the Taunton home of Somerset has become known as “Ciderabad” due to the preparation of pitches devised to aid the bowling of Jack Leach and Dom Bess, among others. While at times Somerset’s pitches have attracted criticism from opponents and disciplinary action from the ECB, it has undoubtedly aided the development of spin bowlers in terms of granting them a greater opportunity to be involved in matches – something seen far more often at Test level than in Shield fixtures in Australia.