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The India head coach was also effusive in his praise for Rinku Singh: “just the maturity he’s shown, the calmness is terrific”

Shashank Kishore18-Jan-2024India head coach Rahul Dravid has strongly endorsed Rohit Sharma’s leadership and presence within the T20I setup after the side sealed a 3-0 sweep of Afghanistan on Thursday. Having begun the series with two ducks, Rohit struck his fifth T20I century in India’s twin-Super-Over win in Bengaluru.The series marked the return of Rohit and Virat Kohli to T20Is for the first time since the T20 World Cup in 2022. Both had been rested from the format in the interim, with India’s focus in 2023 moving to Tests and ODIs with the year including the World Test Championship final and the ODI World Cup. With India now preparing for the T20 World Cup in June 2024, both Rohit and Kohli are back in the frame.Related

• The Rohit hundred that brought more relief than elation

• India win epic contest after two Super Overs against Afghanistan

• Dravid on Rohit retiring in Super Over: 'Ashwin-level thinking'

• Bedlam in Bengaluru: The drama of two Super Overs

“Honestly, I think he was brilliant today,” Dravid said of Rohit, while speaking to the host broadcaster. “He has just shown what a class player he can be. We were 22 for 4 at one stage and even when I went in [at drinks] in the 10th over, the talk was always about being positive.”Obviously, you had to protect the game a little bit [at 22 for 4]. You always have the mindset of going out and set the pace of the game, but in games like this, sometimes you have to hold back a little bit. You can’t hold back too much at this ground because you know you need a big score, towards the end, and I thought that level of hitting was incredible.”Dravid was particularly impressed with the carnage Rohit was able to inflict towards the end. Starting the 16th over on 55 off 47 balls, he finished unbeaten on 121 off 69. India posted 212 for 4 – 103 of their runs came in the last five overs, and a record 58 in the last two.”The thing with Rohit is the kind of range that he has, it’s hard to bowl at him when he’s set at the back end,” Dravid said. “You can’t bowl short because he’s really good with the pull, [can’t] bowl up and he’s got a great range as well. It’s really good to have him back, just his presence in the dressing room has been very helpful. Both Virat [Kohli] and him add a lot to this group.”All through India’s run to the 50-over World Cup final in October-November, Dravid was full of praise for Rohit setting the early tempo with the bat. On Thursday, he lauded Rohit for pushing boundaries and bringing in new innovations into his game, like the reverse-sweeps, a shot he isn’t known for but unveiled frequently on Wednesday.”We’ve been chatting about it,” Dravid said of India’s willingness to play some unconventional shots. “We’ve been talking to a lot of our players about opening up square parts of the wicket, looking to use the sweeps and reverse sweeps, and practicing them.Rinku Singh has scored 356 runs in 11 T20I innings at an average of 89.00 and a strike rate of 176.23•Associated Press

“It was nice to see that Rohit is again leading from the front in that department as well. Sometimes you play good spin, and Qais Ahmad is one spinner who spun it early on. To counter him, to recognise that going straight [down the ground] to him would have been difficult and using the square part of the boundary was really clever thinking.”Dravid was equally effusive in his praise for Rinku Singh’s ability to adjust to different situations. Having played mostly as a finisher in his short T20I career, Rinku walked in to bat in the sixth over and remained unbeaten on 69 off 39 balls, and finished the innings with sixes off the last three deliveries.Rinku now has 356 runs in 11 T20I innings at an average of 89.00 and a strike rate of 176.23.”For someone who is just starting out in international cricket, just the maturity he’s shown, the calmness is terrific,” Dravid said. “We’ve seen him come in at the back end of an innings and finish games off, but today [Wednesday] to see him come in at 22 for 4 in the sixth over and to just build that partnership and show what he can do at the back end, it was very good for us to see that.”When we have these conversations with him, he’s very clear about his skills, what he knows what his strengths are, what he needs to work on and how he’s going to go about constructing his innings.”Rohit shared similar views on Rinku. He was particularly impressed with the batter’s “mindset” and said he had the potential to be the finisher India were looking for going into the T20 World Cup in June.”In the last couple of series he’s played, he’s shown what he can do with the bat. He’s very fearless, keeps himself calm, he’s clear about his game plan and knows his strength petty well,” Rohit said. “He’s coming of age and is doing the job that is expected of him. Every time he gets an opportunity he creates an impression.”Last 10 innings for India, he has done really well and that augurs well for the team going forward. We wanted somebody who could finish off games at the back end and bat with a very clear mindset and Rinku has shown that. The confidence is there in the guy. You saw how he played in the IPL and he’s carrying that through here as well.”

The Lionesses did England proud again when winning Euro 2025, but the UK government is not expected to sanction a celebratory bank holiday.

• England prevailed in penalty shootout
• Made history with second Euros victory
• Wild celebrations enjoyed across country

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Sarina Wiegman’s side made history when going back-to-back on the European Championship front. They successfully defended a continental crown on Swiss soil that was first secured at Wembley Stadium in 2022.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Chloe Kelly was the ultimate hero once again, with the Arsenal forward converting the decisive penalty in a nerve-shredding shootout with World Cup winners Spain. Wild celebrations were sparked in Basel and back home, which stretched long into the night.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  An open-top bus parade will take place in London on Tuesday, culminating in a ceremony outside Buckingham Palace, but the reports that there are no plans for a bank holiday to mark the occasion.

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  WHAT STARMER SAID

  Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the team had “once again captured the hearts of the nation", while Deputy Prime Minister Rayner said it would be a “privilege to celebrate” with the triumphant Lionesses.

  Starmer had said ahead on the back of Euros glory in 2022 that success should be “marked with a proper day of celebration” and reiterated that stance when saying ahead of the 2023 World Cup final that “there should be a celebratory bank holiday if the Lionesses bring it home”.

SK Sham pays tribute to Eknath Solkar

SK Sham26-Jun-2005

As in the very hub of life, so in cricket, they also serve who only stand and wait. The game is not all about just the star performers at the batting or the bowling crease. The men who stand in positions in the field where few would dare, rarely catch the headlines, even as they make the difference between victory and defeat.Eknath Solkar, who passed away on Sunday in Mumbai, will ever be remembered as one who had turned the high-risk job of close-catching into a fine art. He was one player who could indeed command a place in the team only on his fielding. That he was a fair bat, tenacious at times, and more than an useful bowler, made him an allrounder in the truest sense of the term.Sydney Barnes, a member of the fabulous Australian team of the forties, led by Don Bradman, had his team-mates worried, as he posted himself fearlessly at forward short-leg and, when he was taken to hospital a couple of times, hit in the groin, the critics described the perilous field placing as a “suicide” position.Many years later, “Ekki,” as Solkar was fondly called by his chums, had revisited the suicide position and made a great success of it. It was his sharp-reflexes and daredevilry at forward short-leg that actually contributed to the success of Indian spinning quartet of Bishen Singh Bedi, Bhagawat Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivasan Venkatraghavan.Much of the credit for India’s first-ever Test-series triumph over the West Indies in 1971 was laid at the feet of the tremendous batting feats of debutant Sunil Gavaskar and the experienced Dilip Sardesai. Solkar, who barely made the playing XI then, was not exactly heralded a hero. Useful stands with Sardesai, in the face a impending defeat, helped the team turn the tide on more than one occasion. On that Caribbean tour, Solkar showed glimpses of what stern stuff he was made of when he stood barely a couple of yards from the bat, at forward short-leg. Although not much came to Solkar’s hand, the leading West Indies batsmen had been psyched into curbing their natural strokeplay.A couple of months later, Solkar was to come full bloom as world’s greatest a close-in fielder. He did not take, but made, catches at forward short-leg. He had opener Brian Luckhurst on no less than three occasions in the first two Tests. Caught by Solkar, Luckhurst said while walking, “Wait you blighter, the series isn’t over yet.” The same remark came from Luckhurst, the third time that he was picked by Solkar. It was the turn of the Indian to speak, “Mr. Luckhurst, is the series over now?.” Though he went on to play the next game, Luckhurst suffered further embarrassment, off Solkar’s bowling, when he was dismissed for 1 (c Gavaskar) in the first innings.Solkar’s close-catching in England was, on occasions, “out of this world.” I am not saying this, the English critics did that. “He created catches out of thin air, like some Indian magician,” said John Arlott, the doyen among the commentators.In India, Eknath Solkar was called “the poor man’s Garry Sobers,” which was just a manner of speaking. But indeed, he was a poor man’s son who made it big by sheer hard work and dedication. The Hindu Gymkhana at the posh Marine Drive area had a small hut attached to it. That was the abode of the humble groundsman who tended the pitch where the then leading players of the country came for practice. Amongst those who bowled at them was a little boy in shorts and a torn vest. Bombay and India stumper, Madhav Mantri, impressed by his enthusiasm, arranged to send him to school. An average student, Solkar was however an outstanding cricketer and it was not too long before he captained the Indian schools against the visiting English schools.A two-in-one bowler, left-arm seam and orthodox left-arm spin, and a reliable batsman in any position, Solkar saw his dream turn into reality when he was picked for a Test debut against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1969.He may not have had any outstanding performances, but he was undoubtedly the greatest utility player who the selectors found difficult to leave out. A loveable guy, he was a knowledgeable critic of the game. He spoke out as fearlessly as he stood at the dreaded forward short-leg position, sleeves rolled down and a grin on his dark, sweat-covered face. Many a batsman who have fallen to him, will surely remember that face.

The West Indians didn’t blow India away with devastating pace, nor did they deceive them with guile and swing. Instead, they kept plugging away in the channel outside off stump and India kept edging at regular intervals

George Binoy02-Jun-2006After picking six batsmen – seven if you include Mahendra Singh Dhoni – Rahul Dravid won a good toss, considering the run-fests Antigua has produced over the years. However, Brian Lara said that he would have bowled first anyway and his bowlers backed his words with a disciplined performance, bowling a nagging line just outside off stump and getting the ball to swing and cut off the pitch. Apart from a brief passage of play when Virender Sehwag raced along, West Indies successfully dried up the runs and induced easy edges to the wicketkeeper and slip cordon. The first ten overs produced 50 runs but Sehwag’s wicket clipped a soaring run-rate. The following graphic shows the line bowled by the West Indian fast bowlers and the % of dot balls played out by the Indian batsmen.The West Indians didn’t blow India away with devastating pace, nor did they deceive them with guile and swing. Instead, they kept plugging away in the channel outside off stump and India kept edging at regular intervals.The Indian batsmen played out a staggering 435 dot balls in 88 overs. That’s almost five an over. The fast bowlers bowled 399 balls – that’s also almost five an over – wide outside off stump or on a good line, making the batsmen go after the ball to keep the score moving. Dwayne Bravo and Corey Collymore, who took 4 for 37 and 3 for 37 respectively, bowled 197 balls out of 223 (88%) on or outside off stump. For a while the batsmen resisted, sometimes even succeeded in getting it away for runs, but eventually low confidence and a lack of footwork induced the edge. Six of the top seven batsmen were caught behind the wicket. Sehwag, VVS Laxman and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were done in because of poor footwork, and Dravid, who got bogged down after scoring just one run from his last 21 balls reached for one he would have normally left alone.

Sanath Jayasuriya is known more for his batting exploits, but he has become only the ninth bowler to take 300 ODI wickets

Cricinfo staff23-Jul-2007Sanath Jayasuriya became the ninth bowler to take 300 ODI wickets after his haul of 4 for 31 in the second ODI against Bangladesh. Jayasuriya – more known for his powerful shot-making ability than his left-arm slingers – is only the third Sri Lankan bowler to do so, after Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas.

To add to his 300 wickets, Jayasuriya has also scored over 12,000 runs in ODIs, a feat matched by no other player. He’s no slouch in the field either, having taken 114 catches in 397 matches. Other than Sachin Tendulkar, Jayasuriya is the only player to have completed the unique treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches. The fact that he is currently the highest-capped player in ODIs does come to Jayasuriya’s aid, though.At 38, Jayasuriya is the grand old man playing in the international circuit, with only Tendulkar having played longer. His crucial role for Sri Lanka with the ball is reflected in the fact that the team has won 22 of 30 matches when he has taken three wickets or more. His matchwinning ability with the bat is well known, with 22 of his 25 hundreds resulting in victory for his team.Not only has Jayasuriya bowled his left-arm spin effectively in the middle overs, he has often done the job at the death too, where he has used all his experience to curb the runs and pick up crucial wickets.

Jayasuriya is also part of a unique allrounders club, and is one of three players having scored 5000 runs and taken 200 wickets in ODIs.

Stats highlights from the third ODI between India and Pakistan in Kanpur

S Rajesh and HR Gopalakrishna11-Nov-2007

In what’s been a fascinating trend in the IPL, some batsmen are creating their own room by staying either beside the line or creating their own line by shuffling to off

Sriram Veera13-May-2008

Perhaps the purest, the most classical square drive of the IPL came from Misbah-ul-Haq’s bat in Bangalore Royal Challenger’s disastrous match against the King’s XI Punjab. The ball from Sreesanth was on the fuller side of good-length, and Misbah went on his knees to send the ball crashing past point with the bat describing the loveliest of arcs.However, there was only one vital deviation from the classical. The ball was on the middle stump, and Misbah was a good foot away from the leg-stump while executing the stroke. Elsewhere, Shane Watson takes an off and middle stump guard before shuffling a touch towards off to nonchalantly muscle a length delivery over midwicket. Swapnil Asnodkar stays on the leg stump beside the line of the ball and slashes one on the off stump over point.These are some of the fascinating batting vignettes emerging out of the IPL. The batsmen are either creating their own room by staying beside the line or creating their own line by shuffling to off.”I think you have to forget your stumps in Twenty20.” Martin Crowe’s insight just about summarises the batting approach in this briefest form of the game. “You just got to bat down the line the bowler will bowl. To me, my strength is the on side and so if I were batting in Twenty20, I would create an angle to hit on-side. So there is no point in taking a middle stump guard if a bowler like Glenn McGrath is going to bowl a foot outside off stump. So I would stand on off stump, even outside off. If he wants to hit my leg stump then good luck. He has probably only got three people on the on side and I am strong there.” Misbah, perhaps, took forgetting the stumps to the other extreme when he went back and stepped on his stumps in the match against Kings XI Punjab.Sehwag has teased the bowlers in this tournament by his approach. Many a time, as he would do usually, he would stay beside the line and flash deliveries on the off stump through the off side field. The bowler, as Manpreet Gony of Chennai Super Kings did in a game, would then try to bowl closer to the body when, suddenly, Sehwag would walk to the off stump, get outside the line almost and unfurl a swivel-pull over square leg.All this hasn’t come overnight. The teams have been practicing differently for this tournament. One batsman, not known for his big hitting, revealed the special practice drills. The coach made him hit everything across the line for thirty minutes and it was a huge mental challenge given that he’d spent his entire cricketing life trying to play within the V. “I had to forget everything I had learnt. It was a huge mental adjustment and a nice little challenge. The aim was to unlearn stuff.”The young Mumbai batsman Abhishek Nayar says his practice involved hitting shots to his areas of strength and he picked length as the key to determine which shot to pull off. “If it’s short it usually goes over midwicket unless it’s well outside off, in which case I would hit it over the off side.” The line is not that important to the likes of Nayar. By moving around and at times across, he can either drill through the line or swing across it.Rohit Sharma, who is currently third on the run-charts, believes Twenty20 batting is not about slogging or playing those risky paddles and reverse-sweeps. “Perhaps, the change is that you don’t get too much behind the line but stay just outside it. Then you can hit it over extra cover or straight over the field. So I stay on the leg stump or move outside leg a little, give myself room but am trying to maintain a good head position and hit the balls in front of wicket. Playing late has come naturally to me and so I have just concentrated to stay outside the line in this tournament.”

Gautam Gambhir, one of the highest scorers, uses a similar approach and has been very successful in staying alongside the line and hitting length deliveries through off side. He has taken care not to press either his back or front leg across so that his body doesn’t come in the way of the bat swing. He has maintained a still head that allows him to maintain balance while driving on the up.The other approach that has stood out is that of S Badrinath. Often, he has retreated well inside the crease. So what could be a yorker-length ball had he stood at his usual position has become a full-pitched delivery. It allows him to get under the ball and swing it over the infield.However, there is the risk of the batsman trying to fit everything within his predetermined framework. Ross Taylor, the New Zealand batsman who played a few games for Bangalore, employed smooth swings across the line to his favourite on side. But, on occasions, he was dismissed going for these swipes. “It’s a risk but that’s my strength [on side] and I was confident of getting the bat in line.” Perhaps, for a batsman who has a lovely off drive in his repertoire, he could have deployed that shot to the deliveries outside off stump more often but again, it’s the case of the batsmen trying to forget the stumps and trying to hit to their favourite areas.The interesting thing to watch out for is when these batsmen, who are avoiding getting behind the line, play Test cricket. It won’t matter for a Sehwag who tries to stay beside the line in most forms of the game but will the others revert to the conventional form or will they continue with the new approach since they have tasted success. And if they do, will they be as successful?

Andrew Symonds’ ill-discipline gave Watson the chance to show he could be a fully-fledged international batsman. In his fifth Test, he took it

Ali Cook19-Oct-2008

Mark Twain said three weeks were required to prepare a good impromptu speech, but for Shane Watson it took eight years of first-class studying to become a Test batsman in a day. Watson, 27, achieved the upgraded reputation on Sunday with a classy innings in the most examining conditions.It was not because the 78 almost doubled his previous best in Tests, but because of the poise and sense he showed in a crisis. Australia were in a disastrous position and with each hard-earned run, forward push or back-foot pull, he dragged them closer to India’s distant total. Australia have Watson to thank for giving them a chance to save the game over the next two days.Seeing Watson relaxed yet committed for so long was strange. For most of his international career he has been the one-day man trying to blast late or early runs in a muscular style. In first-class matches in Australia and England he has scored 12 centuries, including two doubles. He knows how to bat. This was his chance to prove it in Tests.Watson walked out to start the day with Australia 102 for 4 and shortly before lunch the situation was a dire 167 for 7. Mostly because of his fragile body, Watson has also had to put up with regular murmurs of mental weakness. This innings showed he is a cricketer with fight.”I’m learning a lot, I learnt a lot from the last innings in Bangalore and was able to take that into this innings today,” he said. “It’s not as tough as it’s going to get, but it’s one of the tougher innings I’ll play.”When the ball wasn’t swinging, it was spinning from the hands of Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra. With every over, Watson was scrutinised and for more than four hours and 155 deliveries he succeeded. Only when he went back to Mishra and the ball stayed low could India remove him. A century was out of reach – there were only two tailenders for company – but he deserved to remain unbeaten.Showing surprisingly soft hands for a player brought up in pace-friendly Queensland, Watson countered the spinners in comfort. Once settled, he was happy to go down the pitch, but he was quick to step a long way back when given the opportunity, like Damien Martyn four years ago. Sometimes he was so sharp it was like watching the footwork of Michael Clarke.To Harbhajan – and, at times, to some of the fast men – he took guard on off stump for extra protection. “I find it gets me in line with the ball a lot more, especially with the ball turning into me,” he said. “It’s just something I’ve been working on the last couple of years.”In his stance Watson is so regimented, like an amateur golfer trying to remember four coaching tips at once. Then the downswing starts and everything becomes natural. He was pleased his technique held up so well under such heavy testing.”My batting has evolved a lot over the past three or four years,” he said. “I’ve had a couple of really good batting coaches, working on a few things to the quicks and spin. It’s great when the things you’ve been working on come off and I can bat for long periods of time. It was such an enjoyable, challenging day.”Over the past couple of off-seasons Watson has spent thousands of hours in the nets working on a method that will gain him this success. Andrew Symonds’ ill-discipline gave Watson the chance to show he could be a fully-fledged international batsman. In his fifth Test, he took it.

The main virtue of this collection of Harsha Bhogle’s newspaper columns is its immediacy and enthusiasm

Suresh Menon29-Aug-2009

When Harsha Bhogle first came into the commentary box, he brought with him a rare sense of excitement, a deep regard for the game’s traditions and a profound empathy for its players. There was, too, the boy-next-door image, which, once he had found his feet in television, made him the first superstar of the game in India who was not actually a player. Amazingly, after two decades Bhogle retains the enthusiasm and a child-like wonder that communicates itself to the listener. There are no fans like 12-year-old fans, Ian Peebles once said, and Bhogle is a 12-year-old fan bringing the game into our drawing rooms without the cynicism or world-weariness common to journalists. This is remarkable.Nor is there word-weariness, if this book, the short pieces in which were written first for the is any indication. The first of the pieces was written some five years ago. For a traditionalist, it is surprising that he begins with the Twenty20 – he was associated with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL – before moving on to Test cricket and assessment of the great players.Bhogle writes well, and conveys to the reader a sense of immediacy, even urgency, as he comments on India’s matches, looks forward or throws a backward glance, and occasionally gets personal (some of the best pieces, incidentally, like his column on the 1983 World Cup triumph). This is both the strength and the weakness of the book. The immediacy captures a moment, but occasionally suggests that the tyranny of the looming deadline has triumphed over the need for what Bhogle himself calls calls “weightiness”. In a crisp summing up in the preface, he says, “While television rewards spontaneity, the written word demands weightiness. It is a completely different genre but one that is crippled by insensitivity to words.”Yet, there are enough gentle strokes of the brush, especially in the player portraits, that make up for this. Rahul Dravid, he says, “is like the musician plucking each note carefully, a scientist doing a titration where each drop matters. Sehwag might wonder at the need for it.” The metaphors come thick and fast, and the comparisons are bang on target.I have two grouses, however. One is the felt need to occasionally cater to the lowest common denominator by dragging in Bollywood to make a point, and the other is the lack of insider stories from a man who has seen Indian cricket, indeed world cricket, from inside out. It would also have been good to have some of his early writings, from the days when he was less rushed and wrote with an innocence that was charming.But that isn’t his fault. This is a collection of columns from a specific newspaper over a certain period, and such columns have their limitations.It would have been lovely, too, to have had anecdotes about his colleagues in the commentary box, and stories of the people he has interviewed with such a wonderful combination of “weightiness” and fun. Bhogle’s best work is yet to be anthologised, and for fans everywhere that is something to look forward to.Out of the Box: Watching the Game We Love
by Harsha Bhogle
Penguin/Viking, 275pp, Rs 495

Sri Lanka’s slinger collects tennis balls, cooks curry, and loves his mobile phone to bits

Nagraj Gollapudi16-Jun-2009Why did you cut your hair?
I was out of cricket for more than a year as I was injured, so I cut it. But I’m growing back my hair. I miss it. I’m getting it back.Anything we don’t know about you?
Before coming into the Sri Lankan team I had never been to a cricket ground to watch an international match.Your knee injury was supposedly miraculously cured in five days by a mystic healer. Will that give you supernatural powers on the cricket field as well?!
It was unbelievable how he healed me in five days. I think it helps me and I feel I have magic powers now!What’s that tattoo on your arm?
The date of my debut [July 1, 2004], the date of the world record [March 27, 2007] – four wickets in four balls in the 2007 World Cup against South Africa, my Test number (99), and the line “Believe in my myself. I got speed.”Have you ever bowled a 100mph delivery?
Not yet, but I’m hoping to.Are you a collector of anything?
I love playing tennis-ball cricket, so I collect a lot of tennis balls.What’s your favorite music?
Sinhalese. I really enjoy listening to Chamara Weerasinghe.Are you good at dancing?
No, not at all.Who is the best singer in the dressing room?
Chaminda Vaas, and Malinga Bandara now.Tell us about something unusual you recently did that you enjoyed?
When I was playing county cricket last time in England, I drove from London to Kent at 240kph – definitely better than bowling a 100mph fast one!Can you cook? If yes, what’s your best dish?

Yes, very much. My favourite dish is Sri Lankan curry and rice.What’s the most unusual food you’ve ever tasted?
Teppanyaki – it was really nice. I had it when I went with Sanath [Jayasuriya] to a Japanese restaurant during the IPL in South Africa.If your house were on fire what would be the first thing you grab?
My mobile phone.If you were to design your own t-shirt, what words would you put on it?
“I’ve got speed.”If you wanted to be any other fast bowler in history who would it be (and why)?
No one but myself.