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Bryce Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies will start their postseason on Saturday with Game 1 of the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Harper has made quite a few runs through the playoffs since joining the Phillies, but is still chasing his first World Series win. If he’s going to get it this year, he and the Phillies will have to go through the reigning champions.

While taking on the Dodgers is always a tall task, Harper will have one extra, and extra special fan cheering him on through the run, as he and his wife Kayla announced the birth of their fourth child, Hayes Three Harper, just hours before first pitch on Saturday.

As some astute Phillies observers noted, Harper has had a tendency to hit homers in his first game back from the birth of a child.

Harper and his newly unlocked Level 4 Dad Strength will look to add another home run to that tally against the Dodgers.

The reasons why Bengal are a step away from realising their Ranji Trophy dream in 2020, nearly three decades after they last won the competition

Shashank Kishore in Rajkot08-Mar-2020It’s June 2014. The Cricket Association of Bengal announces its ambitious Vision 2020 project. Waqar Younis, the Pakistan legend, is roped in as fast-bowling consultant. Trials are called, and as many as 200 – shortlisted from the districts and club cricket – turn up at Eden Gardens. One bowler, with torn shoes and shabby clothes, with “nothing extraordinary about him”, according to Ranadeb Bose, manages to get the coaches interested.Waqar isn’t convinced, Bose thinks they can have another look. And he is eventually shortlisted. That bowler is Mukesh Kumar, one of the key reasons why Bengal are a step away from realising their Ranji Trophy dream in 2020, nearly three decades after they last won the competition.In the semi-final in Kolkata, Kumar and Akash Deep, four years his junior, made a power-packed Karnataka batting line-up boasting of KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair and Devdutt Padikkal look pedestrian. Kumar finished with a match haul of 8 for 107, including 6 for 46 in the second innings, to give Bengal an incredible 174-run victory in front of their home fans. Bose, who is now part of Bengal’s support staff, couldn’t be happier at the turnaround.ALSO READ: Sleepless nights and ‘madness’ in training: How Bengal made the Ranji final“I saw him in the Vision 2020 nets with no spikes, in his trainers. Just roaming around,” Bose remembers. “When I saw him bowl, I thought there was something (about him). Waqar was not 100% okay with that, but I requested him, ‘bhai, rakh lo (let’s keep him)’. He said, ‘ (You think so? Then keep him. Are you sure?)’ And I said, ‘(I like him)’. This is how Kumar came into the Vision 2020 squad.”At the fag end of a long day, maybe even I could have missed him. But I just happened to go behind the nets to have a cup of tea. So I was able to watch him from behind the batsman. From far, he looked like he was 120kph, but off the pitch, there was skid. The loss of pace seemed less after hitting the deck. So I thought, there is something. I gave him a better ball, then he started bowling better. So after going back and forth, I picked him and Waqar nodded finally. I was lucky to be at the right place at the right time.”Little did Bose know then that Kumar’s selection would be the start of a challenging ride.***‘Mukesh Kumar saved my job’When Kumar came into the Bengal set-up in 2014, doctors pronounced him anaemic. He’d bowl a few overs with intensity and then get tired. He’d play one game, and miss three. It was the story of his first season as a Bengal cricketer trying to break into the Ranji Trophy set-up. He was later diagnosed with bone edema – accumulation of fluids – in his knees.”Mukesh was suffering from malnutrition,” Bose says. “His body wasn’t ready to play 10-12 first-class games a season, and it has taken us a good three years to set him right – to get his training, food habits, sleep patterns in order. Within a year of him coming into the set-up, I thought of taking a punt on him in Lahli. I thought ‘swing bowler, gets it to dart around, he’s doing well in the nets, what can go wrong’? Again, there were voices both within CAB and outside that didn’t approve of the call.”In all fairness, they were right in their own way. Who would pick someone who keeps getting injured? He hadn’t played any competitive games in the six-months prior to coming to the nets. They all thought ‘how can you pick someone straight out of the nets that too at the start of a Ranji season?'”

“He [Mukesh Kumar] saved my job and made a career out of it. So four wickets there in Haryana in his debut game. I should thank him, he saved my job.”Ranadeb Bose

Bose remembers going to Sourav Ganguly, who was CAB secretary at the time, for a conversation. “It was a very short conversation,” he says. “He had a bone edema. He had a malnutrition issue because he came from a humble background. Ganguly was the secretary and I requested him to keep this guy in the CAB circuit. I also asked him if we could look after his food and lodging. It wasn’t easy to justify, the guy hadn’t played anything. Didn’t play much club cricket either. And Dada [Ganguly] said, ‘are you sure?’ I said ‘yes’. Dada said: (Fine, keep him)’.”He said keep him in the CAB accommodation. So Mukesh was there for about two years. We looked after his food. His MRIs were expensive, so we took care of that. Bone edema it is not easy – the physio was there to help him out. He didn’t play anything for six-eight months and then he played Under-23. He played a couple of games, did well. And then he was bowling in the Bengal nets as a net bowler. I again went back to Ganguly and said ‘can we make him play this Ranji season?’ Dada said, ‘He hasn’t even played club cricket’.”I said ‘I think he’s good’. Thankfully, [VVS] Laxman (CAB’s batting consultant) was there in that meeting and said he thought Mukesh is very good, ‘let us make him play’. With Laxman saying and with me requesting, pleading, he said ‘okay, go play’. It was not easy to convince Sairaj [Bahutule, the coach], he had his reservations. But thankfully we made him play against Haryana in Lahli. The first wicket he got was Virender Sehwag. He saved my job, and made a career out of it. So four wickets there in Haryana in his debut game. I should thank him, he saved my job.”Mukesh Kumar is chaired off the field after starring in Bengal’s win•PTI In nine games this season, Kumar has picked up 30 wickets, the joint-most along with Akash Deep and Shahbaz Ahmed. Ishan Porel, who has featured only in five games this season, has 22 wickets. It’s this combined output that has brought Bengal the rewards.****‘Heartbreaks no setback for Akash Deep’Hailing from Sasaram in Bihar, Akash Deep wanted to play cricket, but was dissuaded by his father, Ramji Singh, a schoolteacher. He left for Durgapur, a town in West Bengal, in 2010 with the pretext of finding a job, but found support from his uncle, who wanted his son to be a cricketer. So Akash Deep and his cousin went to a local academy, where he started gaining prominence for his pace. However, a family tragedy forced him out of the game for three years.”My father had a stroke and then he passed away after a brief struggle with paralysis three years ago,” Akash Deep remembers. “Two months after his death, my older brother passed away. He had common cold, fever. It hadn’t come down for a few days, and we went to a doctor, who didn’t diagnose his problem properly. We had to go to Banaras [Varanasi] for treatment, and he died on the way. I was emotionally and mentally down. There was no money in the house, I had my mother to take care of.”Ranadeb Bose and Akash Deep have a chat•Shashank Kishore/ESPNcricinfo LtdAkash Deep spent three years trying to reconstruct his life, but realised the cricket dream was too big to let go. He returned to Durgapur, and then eventually moved to Kolkata, where he rented a small room and lived with his cousin. Akash Deep was inducted into the United Club in CAB’s Second Division League.Unlike Kumar, Akash Deep was a natural athlete, “strong shoulders, good wrist,” according to Bose. However, he was erratic and lacked direction. This was when a chat with Mohammed Shami, who was in Kolkata during his time away from the Indian team, turned things around.”He spoke to me about his issues with fitness, what he did to improve, how he came back from injuries. That chat gave me a perspective,” Akash Deep says. “I used to bowl mid-130s, but after following his advice, I worked on my fitness and I realised slowly I could bowl long spells without being tired.”

“We don’t hunt in pairs, we hunt in packs. We’re like wolves. Nobody can be dropped from this team, they can only be rested.”Ranadeb Bose

Last year, Akash Deep was picked in Bengal’s Under-23 team. A Ranji Trophy debut seemed far off at the start of 2019-20, but circumstances proved lucky. “A couple of years ago, Manoj Tiwary told me about him: ‘There’s this guy called Akash Deep, bowls quick but is very erratic’. So I rang up Sourasish Lahiri (Bengal’s Under-23 coach) to ask about him,” Bose remembers. “Lahiri and I have a great equation, so there’s trust.”I went over to the Under-23 nets to have a look at him and felt he was good, but we needed to work on him. I think we were in Vizianagaram for a match, and I requested the selectors to leave him out. Lahiri agreed, so we worked with him and played him next game against Mumbai and he took a five-for and scored a half-century. That is how he came into the senior set up.” Akash Deep made his T20 debut last season, but was handed a first-class debut in December 2019 against Andhra in Kolkata.***Wolves under umbrellas and the Paddy Upton philosophyAt the start of the 2019-20 season, Bengal lost three bowlers to Railways: Kanishk Seth, Amit Kuila and Anant Saha, players they had earmarked for the future. The security of a government job was hard to forego. There were disciplinary issues that resulted in Ashok Dinda being left out of the squad altogether. Porel, at 21, became the leader of the attack, but he was to miss a good portion of games initially after being picked in the India A squad for New Zealand.Kumar was the only bowler available, and an injury to him would have left the fast bowling cupboard bare until Porel returned. This is when Bengal decided to unleash Akash Deep, while also recalling Nilkantha Das, 12 years after he first came into the system. As a 31-year-old, he was handed a debut against Delhi in January 2020.All along, Das played club cricket for Mohun Bagan. The presence of Bose, Shib Shankar Paul, Sourav Sarkar, Dinda and later Shami left him in the cold. He wasn’t lost to cricket, though, and found a route back through Kolkata’s club cricket scene. In only his second game, he picked up a four-for in the second innings against Rajasthan to trigger a collapse. Bengal held on for a narrow two-wicket win. Then in the quarter-final, he picked up three crucial wickets in the first innings, broke a threatening century stand and set Bengal up for a lead, which eventually helped them progress.ALSO READ: ‘Boss, even Lord Krishna can’t save you now’“We don’t hunt in pairs, we hunt in packs. We’re like wolves,” Bose says. “Nobody can be dropped from this team, they can only be rested. If you see Neelkantha Das, he has done remarkably well the three games he has played. He has got crucial wickets against Rajasthan, crucial wickets against Odisha in a quarter-final. It’s unfortunate that we had to rest him to fit in Akash. And what does he do? He walks in with three wickets and 44 crucial runs in the first innings [in semi-final against Karnataka].”You just can’t drop anyone in this side, you can only rest them and say ‘sorry boss, don’t mind’. And they’re taking it positively, they’re absolutely fine with that. I think we missed Ishan for a couple of games, but we didn’t miss him because Neelu did the job. This is what the bench strength we’ve got and that is what is making this team good.”Bose believes until now all their bowlers were under an umbrella, waiting for guidance. Now, they have been given a free license to run wild. “We always had this umbrella, of a good bowler in front of us,” he says, hinting at Dinda. “So guys like Mukesh, Porel and Akash were under an umbrella. So they think that is my world. When that umbrella goes, you see the sky, then you feel that you belong. Sometimes it is important to push them outside and under the sunlight, they realise this is my world. I think they have realised their worth now.Ishan Porel celebrates a wicket•PTI “My job is to make sure I open up their outlook; tell them the mistakes I’ve made and ensure they learn from that. These boys, Mukesh and Akash Deep especially, have surrendered completely to us, so it adds on to the responsibility. When they say ‘I’ll do whatever you tell me to’, you feel extra responsibility as coach. But I’ve learnt from Paddy Upton, who I spent time with at Pune Warriors.”He used to say ‘when someone comes with a problem, just let them talk. Channelise that in the right direction, ask them questions.’ Ask them why instead of giving him an answer. And invariably you’d find them coming up with answers, whether that is the solution is a different thing, but at least you get them thinking. Their thought process should be guided, and I’ve tried to follow that from Upton. I keep my eyes and ears open and learn stuff from these personalities.”Bose also spent considerable time with them just to make them consistent. “When I started working with Mukesh and Akash, I never thought of making them outstanding. My job was to ensure they did their basics: line and length. It took me three years for Mukesh, 18 months for Akash to make them understand the importance of bowling ordinary balls – which aren’t bad balls. Just pitching on off, same spot, again and again and again. I told them ‘forget swing, seam nothing. If you keep doing it, something good will happen.’ Maybe that special ball will come after 30 balls, but if you’re giving away runs, captain will rethink and you’ll lose out on opportunities to bowl that good ball. Green top or (flat) wicket, their mentality now is ‘I’m going to bowl 20 overs, give away 40 runs.'”If you keep up with the consistency, on a good day you will take five, on an ordinary day, you’ll take one or two wickets. But you will never go wicketless. We are Indians, it’s important to have , so have it. On a good day, you will have mutton biryani, on an average day, you will still have , you won’t go hungry at least. That is the way I try to pass on the message to the boys. Doing that, initially success doesn’t come, but when they realise eventually this is how it is sometimes, they learn.They also meet some good players, some good bowlers. I encourage them to go and speak to good batsmen and bowlers from the opposition. After the last game, they had a nice chat with KL Rahul. I would encourage them to go and speak to Jaydev Unadkat, he’s got 65 wickets. He must be doing something very good. I pushed them to initially, but now they go on their own.”Stories of Kumar and Deep merely reflect the work done by a tireless backroom. Their sudden surge may merely coincide with that ambitious ‘Vision 2020’ programme, but such careful nurturing and empowering of a young group can only mean plenty of promise for Bengal’s immediate future.

And who took more than 2000 wickets in his first-class career, but scored fewer than 2000 runs?

Steven Lynch08-Sep-2020I heard that a woman took four wickets in four balls in a T20I the other day. Who was this, and have any men done it? asked Manek Divecha from India

The lady in question was Anuradha Doddaballapur, the Indian-born captain of the German national team, who took four wickets in four balls against Austria in Seebarn last month. The previous day, her team-mate Anne Bierwisch took a hat-trick against the same opponents, also in Seebarn.Two bowlers have taken four wickets in four balls in men’s T20I, both of them in 2019. First to do it was Rashid Khan, for Afghanistan against Ireland in Dehradun in February last year, and he was followed in September by Lasith Malinga, for Sri Lanka against New Zealand in Pallekele. Malinga has also achieved this feat in one-day internationals – against South Africa in Providence (Guyana) during the 2007 World Cup.Who has top-scored in the most Test innings for England? I imagine Sachin Tendulkar is the overall leader? asked Michael Banks from England

The overall leader for England is, not entirely surprisingly, Alastair Cook, who made the highest score in 58 of his 291 Test innings. The previous England record belonged to Cook’s fellow Essex man Graham Gooch, with 51; Geoff Boycott, David Gower and Alec Stewart all did it 46 times.Top overall is indeed Sachin Tendulkar, who made the highest score in 78 of his 329 Test innings for India. Next comes Brian Lara, with 65, then Sunil Gavaskar and Shivnarine Chanderpaul with 60. Kumar Sangakkara is alongside Cook with 58, while Rahul Dravid (53), Mahela Jayawardene and Jacques Kallis (both 51) also managed the feat more than 50 times. (This includes all innings, not just when a team was all out.)The leader on average is, almost inevitably, Don Bradman, who top-scored in 29 of his 80 Test innings (36.25%). Next, among those who top-scored at least 25 times, is England’s Herbert Sutcliffe, with 25 out of 84 (29.76%).Who took more than 2000 wickets in his first-class career, but scored fewer than 2000 runs? asked Ricky Dooley from Scotland

This batting rabbit is the Warwickshire and England legspinner Eric Hollies, whose 2323 first-class wickets – which cost just below 21 apiece – famously included Don Bradman for a duck in his final Test innings, at The Oval in 1948.Hollies the batsman was no stranger to ducks: he collected 133 of them in all, and managed only 1673 runs in 616 visits to the crease, at an average of 5.00, which was higher than it might have been thanks to 282 not-outs. Only seven batsmen suffered more ducks in first-class cricket: the Worcestershire seamer Reg Perks leads the way with 156.Eric Hollies (extreme left) took 2323 first-class wickets, but he scored only 1673 runs in his career, including 133 ducks•Getty ImagesI know that Shane Warne holds the record for the most Test runs without a century – but who holds this record overall in first-class cricket? asked Ben Cobbing from South Africa

The only man who finished his first-class career with more than 10,000 runs but not a single century was the much-travelled left-arm spinner Tony Lock. He finished with 10,342 runs at 15.88 – and a highest score of 89, in the last of his 49 Tests for England, against West Indies in Georgetown in 1967-68. In all, Lock reached 50 on 27 occasions in first-class cricket, but never made it to 90.You’re right that Shane Warne holds this record in Tests – he amassed 3154 runs, with a highest score of 99 against New Zealand in Perth in 2001-02 – when he was dismissed from what appeared to be an uncalled no-ball. He did score two first-class hundreds late in his career, though.Who was once no-balled for throwing in a Test for impersonating a bowler he thought should have been no-balled for throwing? asked Mick O’Brien from England

The protagonist in this unusual tale was the Indian seamer Abid Ali, who was called for throwing in the second Test against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1967-68. The New Zealand fast bowler Gary Bartlett had put his side on top by taking 6 for 38, but the tourists felt his bowling action was suspect. Chandu Borde, India’s vice-captain, was in no doubt: “Bartlett was a pronounced chucker, and it stood out a mile,” he wrote. “When we were making a fight of it in our second innings, Bartlett flattened the stumps of me and Pataudi in a single over to swing the Test in his team’s favour.”New Zealand were left needing 88 to win, and got there for the loss of four wickets – and a little help from the bowlers, as Borde recalled: “Abid Ali expressed his protest in a novel way. He deliberately threw a ball instead of bowling it and was promptly no-balled.”Bartlett’s figures remained the best of his career, which ran to ten Tests. Despite the whispers about his action, he was never called for throwing. Richard Collinge, a team-mate in that Christchurch victory, recalled: “It was sour grapes… I never doubted his action at all.”Use our
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Not “stuck” with what happened in the past, he is eyeing the IPL to return to the national team

Sruthi Ravindranath17-Sep-2020Bowling as fast as possible and plotting an India comeback – Varun Aaron has never wavered from two of his primary goals all these years. This despite having last played for India in 2015 and having to deal with injuries and fitness issues through most of his career. Somewhere between his debut as a 21-year old who relentlessly bowled in the range of 150kph to a 30-year old unwilling to compromise on his pace despite injury setbacks, Aaron feels he has learnt how to be “mentally strong” and “keep things simple” on the field.”Being in and out [of the Indian team] helps you,” Aaron told ESPNcricinfo. “More than the game it helps you value so many different things in life. The game’s always there but when you’re in and out, you see so many different sides of people, you see so many situations. When you’re getting injured when you’re young, you are always going to come from behind which helps you get mentally strong. I’ve had injuries in the past and have learnt a lot from it and I don’t find myself stuck with what’s happened previously.”My biggest learning is to keep things simple. Because when you are younger [there is] a whole different gamut of things – you want to do this and that – but I think knowing your strengths and keeping things simple is the most important thing.”With India making a big leap in the fast bowling department in the last few years, including boasting an impressive bench strength in all three formats, Aaron still believes a comeback – by making his IPL performances speak – is possible. He made his Test debut nine years ago but never broke into India’s T20I side, despite regularly featuring in the IPL and for Jharkhand in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the last couple of years. Aaron had quite an impressive 2019-20 season, when he picked ten wickets in eight matches. He was part of three different sides in the IPL before the Royals pouched him last season, when he played five out of their 14 matches and picked four wickets.”Having a good IPL and winning matches for Rajasthan Royals and helping us win the trophy is the simplest way to make a India comeback,” Aaron said. “I’ve said and I always say that the only reason I play the game is to play for the country, and there’s nothing else that keeps me as motivated.”Aaron has managed to stay injury-free in the last couple of years and he attributes a large part of maintaining his fitness levels to Steffan Jones, the Royals’ fast bowling development coach. Jones, who has trained the likes of Stuart Broad, Shaun Tait and Dan Christian during the 2017 Big Bash League, has been part of the Royals set up since 2018. Aaron was also part of a preparatory camp hosted by the Royals under Jones earlier this year, and he explained what makes Jones stand out.Varun Aaron in his delivery stride•PTI “I really enjoyed working with Steffan last year and then consequently after the IPL I went and spent some more time with him in England. He’s a fast bowling coach who really bridges the gap between fast bowling and strength and conditioning, which is rare. But Steffan brings those aspects together really well. It’s really important for a fast bowling coach to have a really good knowledge of strength and conditioning. He’s like a catalyst which joins both. I had a decent knowledge of my body and what I needed to do. But meeting Steffan has given me a different sight to it and how I can always be powerful throughout a long season. It’s just more of a different side of training rather than conventional training or gym work.”I train myself actually. I consult Steffan and Rajnikanth (his fitness trainer at the MRF Pace Foundation) whenever I have doubts and stuff but just training over the years and training a lot, I have a decent grasp of what I need to do myself. During the lockdown I was focusing on getting into a good routine instead of just pushing myself too much and burning out and not being regular. I think lot of guys struggled to be regular during lockdown and my goal was to be regular. First of all, I worked through stuff which I felt I need to work on which was things like stability. Towards the end, I got in touch with Steffan and Rajnikanth to help me out with more specific stuff I needed.”I used to be injury prone and most of it used to be related to my back which wasn’t in my control. I’ve reached a space where I’ve got a grip on my body and what my body needs to last through a tournament. I don’t see any issues or me having to do anything to stay fit because I’ve been fit for almost two to three years without injury.”Conditions in the UAE are expected to help the slower bowlers, especially as the tournament progresses, but Aaron sees this as an opportunity for fast bowlers to bring out their variations. While saying that the biggest misconception about him during his younger days was that he lacked variations, Aaron believes that in the end it all comes down to the execution of those variations.

“The biggest plus is that they really want to bowl fast all the time which I enjoy, because I understand where they are in their head – because I was there when I was 19 and I’m still there.”Varun Aaron on Rajasthan Royals’ young quicks

“Bowling fast is definitely what I love doing but at the same time being adaptable is really important,” he said. “I don’t mind the wickets being slow at all because that bring in an opportunity to bowl so many variations which I’ve been working on. I have been bowling the knuckle ball for a while now and it has been coming out really well. If you’re playing at this level you more or less know how to bowl every single variation but the point is how well you can bowl it, how consistently you can bowl it and how deceptive it can be.”I don’t think the wickets are going to be that slow to start with; they might be a bit quick to start off with. It’s going to be a long tournament if the wickets are slow from day one, then at the end we’re just going to have dust bowls. So I think the curators will make sure there are good wickets to start off with and just because of the nature of how many games you’re going to play in a certain venue, the wickets are going to deteriorate.”The Royals have a well-stocked pace department, and watching some of the younger quicks reminds Aaron of his younger days.”They [the young quicks] are just full of energy and the biggest plus is that they really want to bowl fast all the time which I enjoy, because I understand where they are in their head – because I was there when I was 19 and I’m still there. Even today I want to bowl faster and increase my pace and I try to do everything I can. Ankit [Rajpoot] and Akash [Singh] are really keen to learn and they’re hungry to play and that’s what you want from youngsters.”You really don’t want to keep teaching them stuff. I’ve spoken to them and I’ve told them if they ever want anything, call me up I’m always open. But I believe giving space to youngsters to experience and learn things themselves is equally important because sometimes we can go overboard with bombarding them with information.”

Mustafa and UAE captain Ahmed Raza both think the local talent is ready to kick on

Barny Read29-Jan-2021With arms outstretched and wearing a knowing grin, Abdul Shakoor lapped up the applause of his team-mates having launched Rayad Emrit for six over square leg to bring up a 14-ball half-century that got the T10 League off to a flier.Shakoor became the first UAE player to hit a T10 fifty in the process, with his eventual 73 from 28 balls sealing Man-of-the-Match honours as Maratha Arabians began their defence with victory.For a man who hasn’t represented his country since 2018, it was the perfect way to announce himself – especially against a Northern Warriors side that is led by UAE coach Robin Singh – and for the tournament it highlighted the benefit of its one local player rule as the Sharjah-born wicketkeeper stole the show in some style.”It’s a big achievement for me and the UAE guys,” Shakoor said in his post-match interview, with a delight etched across his face that unfortunately didn’t return on day two when he got a second-ball duck.In the opposite ranks on Thursday, however, sat Junaid Siddique – the 28-year-old seamer with six ODI caps and 13 T20I appearances under his belt, who left the field with no overs to his name. It was hardly a ringing endorsement given his national team coach was sitting in his own dugout.Siddique last year picked up two wickets for the Warriors in just three overs spread across three games, having shared duties with UAE youngster Ansh Tandon for the local player slot. A left-handed middle-order batsman, Tandon made 1* in his sole three-ball visit to the crease.Shakoor and Siddique represent both the opportunity and challenge that UAE players have in their mandatory inclusion in T10 team sheets.Former UAE captain Rohan Mustafa knows both intimately, having been one of many bystanders in the first two editions before coming to the fore as the ace up Team Abu Dhabi’s sleeve, taking the new ball in 2019 and being named vice-captain ahead of the 2021 edition. Now, he wants more of his countrymen to be given the same chances he was and he is adamant it will lead to similar performances as Shakoor’s.”If you don’t get opportunities, then how will you show the world what you can do?,” Mustafa told ESPNcricinfo. “The only thing is trust; if they trust us, I believe we have the kind of players that can play extraordinary innings.’It’s not about just getting picked, it’s about getting picked and then performing so people all around the world are taking notice of you’ – UAE captain Ahmed Raza•Getty Images”I don’t know why [Siddique] didn’t bowl but the captain has to trust him. I was very shocked to see he wasn’t bowling. You have to trust him and you have to give him confidence. If you don’t give a bowl to Junaid Siddique in the first match, automatically he will be under pressure in the second match, thinking: ‘If I don’t bowl well, they will remove me from the team.'”UAE captain Ahmed Raza also believes it was an oversight that when Shakoor was going all guns blazing, the Warriors didn’t throw the ball to the one man on the pitch who would have bowled to him previously and so would have known his game better than the rest.”There’s so much talk about match-ups in shorter forms like T20 and T10 and that’s a great match-up there,” said Raza. “Someone who is going very hard and is from the UAE when you have an opening bowler from the UAE in your ranks – I think they missed a trick there. Junaid has probably bowled at Shakoor a million times.”I think we will start seeing these match-ups more. Teams will start thinking outside of the box more and maybe changing their order slightly or giving the ball to someone else as teams are still getting to know the UAE players.”A major surprise in the draft saw Raza among the players to initially go unsold before later being brought in by Pune Devils after dropouts among their imported stars. Muhammad Usman – who hit an unbeaten, match-winning ODI century against Ireland at Zayed Cricket Stadium as recently as January 8 – was another to miss out. He is one of the UAE players now in a kind of quarantine purgatory, waiting in the wings should any players pick up injury or coronavirus.Raza went through the same process before being picked up by Pune and although he admitted his own surprise at not being initially selected, he is now delighted to be involved. He has also noticed a change among his fellow UAE players, who are no longer satisfied to simply take part but instead want to leave their mark on the tournament with contributions such as Shakoor’s.”Players were happy in the first year to be part of the team, but we started to get opportunities in the following years and now the mindset is totally different,” Raza said. “It’s not about just getting picked, it’s about getting picked and then performing so people all around the world are taking notice of you and next year teams are taking you or you’re being retained. I think it’s good, it’s about getting the opportunity and taking it with both hands.”

The lowdown on the two stand-by players in the India contingent picked to tour England

Shamya Dasgupta and Hemant Brar09-May-2021‘I want to come back to India a better player’
Until a couple of seasons ago, Abhimanyu was thought of as a contender for the India Test team. But after a 2018-19 Ranji Trophy season in which he totalled 861 runs at an average of 95.66, there came a big dip in 2019-20 – 258 runs from 17 innings, an average of just 17.20, and a best of 62.But, clearly, the opener who leads Bengal hasn’t fallen off the radar of the national selectors.”I was in the squad, in the reserves, for the [2020-21] England Tests too, and that was a great learning experience for me, just being there, spending time in the dressing room, watching everyone…” he says. “I enjoyed my time there – how they prepare, just watching Virat Kohli’s intensity at training was an education.”There were things I hadn’t seen before – for example, Rohit Sharma saw the pitch and focused on his sweep shot, [R] Ashwin did the same… they were so clear about their plans.”And though he isn’t in the main squad of 20 for the tour of England – plus the World Test Championship final against New Zealand – he wants to be as prepared as possible, because “you never know, just in case an opportunity comes up”.It’s not just words. Abhimanyu has shifted to Dehradun, where his father runs a cricket academy, and is training in conditions “somewhat simulated to what we will expect in England”. He was expecting the call for England, he said, so the training plan was in place well before the formal announcement came.Related

• Abhimanyu Easwaran: 'Very few people are this close to being picked for India. That gives me confidence'

• Rahul Dravid predicts 3-2 scoreline in India's 'best chance' to win in England

• Panchal and Easwaran: Working together, fighting for the same spot

• Gujarat's Arzan Nagwaswalla proves he is made for live TV

• No Hardik, Kuldeep in India's squad of 20 for WTC final and England Tests

“We have seven bowlers, some from the Uttarakhand team – including offspinner Gaurav Chaudhary – who have all come in after Covid-19 tests, and we have a grassy pitch here, which I am batting on. Plus, we are using some cheap balls along with the SG balls, because those swing more,” Abhimanyu says. “I was playing a bit in Kolkata, but it was difficult to train there [because of Covid-19], so I shifted here, where I can train.”We are trying whatever we can. Batting early in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, at all times, five-six hours every day, and other drills too. So that I am ready. And even if I don’t get chances there, I want to come back to India a better player.”He is acutely aware that he has had a poor season – not to mention a season of little cricket because of the pandemic – and that it came at a time when he might have been pushing for higher honours. “It wasn’t ideal, but it happens to everyone,” he says. “Right now, I am batting really well. I am getting into good positions now.”Importantly, I am feeling good. I feel happier about my body and my fitness, so I think I am in a good place.”Arzan Nagwaswalla: ‘I like to bowl to a plan and set a batsman up’•Arzan Nagwaswalla‘Surprising and exciting’
Nagwaswalla’s stint as a net bowler with the Mumbai Indians at IPL 2021 ended prematurely when Covid-19 halted the tournament. On Friday, he was on his way back home when his phone rang.”It was a call from the BCCI secretary [Jay Shah], saying my name could be on the list of stand-bys for India’s tour of England,” Nagwaswalla, 23, tells ESPNcricinfo. “I hadn’t expected something like that could happen so early in my career. So it was surprising and exciting.”Gujarat’s Nagwaswalla is three seasons old in domestic cricket. He is not express but “can go up to 135kph”. In his short first-class career so far, the left-arm seamer has picked up 62 wickets at an average of 22.53 and a strike rate of 44.6. Those numbers become even more impressive when one considers he mostly bowls first change.Nagwaswalla isn’t fussed about bowling with the new ball. While he can swing it, bowling with the older ball has, perhaps, contributed to “patience” becoming a key strength. “I like to bowl to a plan and set a batsman up,” he says.The Ranji Trophy couldn’t be held last season because of the pandemic, so Nagwaswalla focused his energies on white-ball cricket, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20s and the 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy. In the latter tournament, he was given the new ball and finished as the second-highest wicket-taker overall with 19 wickets from seven games at a hugely impressive average of 13.94.After the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, during which he picked up a career-best 6 for 19 against Maharashtra, Nagwaswalla was called for trials by the Mumbai Indians and the Rajasthan Royals. He didn’t find any takers at the IPL auction but the Mumbai Indians recruited him as a net bowler, and he not only got the exposure of bowling to the likes of Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard but also had a chance to catch up with his idol Zaheer Khan.”I interacted a lot with him [Khan] at the Mumbai Indians. He told me that most things with my bowling were fine and asked me to focus more on my training, saying that would also help me in my bowling.”At the start of the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy season, Nagwaswalla told Star Sports that he loved playing matches that were broadcast live on TV. Does it still excite him? “That’s natural,” he says with a laugh. “More people watch those games. My family also watches. Even my record is pretty good in those games.”Whenever Nagwaswalla’s name appears in the news, his Parsi identity generally gets more attention than his bowling exploits. “Yeah, that happens but I don’t really mind it. It has been quite a few years since a Parsi cricketer represented India. So, in a way, it has given me sort of a recognition in the community.”

New Zealand quick has had extraordinary start to his career … because he is extraordinary

Jarrod Kimber20-Jun-20214:15

Match Day Masterclass: Swing vs seam – Dale Steyn explains

Batters wait patiently for tall bowlers to deliver full balls. They talk about the floatiness of these deliveries. When the ball is over-pitched, they go into attack mode.Because of this, tall bowlers rarely pitch the ball up. Instead, they stay on their best length and keep the batter stuck on the crease. The problem is that to get a lot of swing, you need to bowl fuller. So throughout the history of cricket, you don’t see a lot of tall bowlers in Test cricket over 80 miles per hour consistently swinging the ball.Today, Kyle Jamieson bowled very full, swung the ball massively, touched 87mph/140kph, while delivering it from 2.3 metres which is 30cm higher than a standard seam bowler. His Test bowling average is 14.13. This is a scary collection of skills in one person. If you were designing a creature in a lab to be a perfect seamer, this is pretty close to what you’d choose.

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There have been many changes to bowling styles over the years. After the war, the most common form of delivery was the outswinger. It dominated cricket until the West Indies method of seam bowling took over.And while West Indies had quite varied bowlers, their fundamental skill was pretty simple: fast bowlers, who were tall, and who got something off the surface, not through the air. The thought process was that swing is fickle and can disappear. Fast and tall will last you through the day.Kyle Jamieson pinned Virat Kohli lbw with a near-unplayable full-length seamer•Getty ImagesThe need for speed has changed what we look for in bowlers. Speed and seam can go together, as Jasprit Bumrah, Pat Cummins and Kagiso Rabada, among others, have shown us. But few bowlers have swung the ball at speed. And those who do tend to be left-armed, which is an advantage already, as it generally allows them to over-pitch more. Or short and fast guys with a full natural length.It’s not that the tallest bowlers can’t swing the ball. Rather, it’s because their fuller balls are the easiest to handle, and they have so many other advantages naturally, so they rarely develop the skills. Joel Garner, Glenn McGrath, Curtly Ambrose, Steven Finn, and Morne Morkel could occasionally swing the ball, but their strength is hitting the track on a length.

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When you have tall bowlers swinging the ball, it’s either only for short periods or from bowling more slowly. Jason Holder is an example of that in modern cricket. His speeds are significantly less than the traditional six-foot-plus quick, and so he gets consistent swing.But Kyle Jamieson is quicker than Holder, and he’s certainly more than a bowler who can just swing it occasionally. He’s a proper tall fast-medium consistent swing bowler. Test cricket really hasn’t seen many of those ever. And he can move it both ways, and also perform his craft from around the wicket. He’s got a magic toolbox. For someone who came late into bowling, either Jamieson is an excellent mimic, or a natural for seam positions.And facing someone like Jamieson is already an extra challenge. He is a faster bowler than most players his height, but any bowler of his size is tougher to pick up. Australia used to call Morkel a monster because of his release point.After just seven appearances, Jamieson is an automatic pick in New Zealand’s world-beating Test team•ICC via GettyTest match batting is something you get good at by consistently practising the same skills until you can filter information quickly enough to face someone at 80 miles per hour. Jamieson’s so tall that his release point is way higher than average. There is an adjustment that needs to be made for that which isn’t easy to make at his speed.But that’s only the first problem with his height; the second is the bounce. Bowlers have, at that height, a near-permanent tennis-ball bounce. If you’ve ever played cricket with both a tennis ball and a proper ball, you’ll understand the difference in facing both. Those kinds of balls need different shots. So this means that, in a way, shots played to a tall bowler have to be different to others. His height makes the game different.Now, add swing.

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Kyle Jamieson has the third-best Test bowling average of any player with 40 wickets. If you discount the bowlers before 1900 who had no assistance from the days before liquid manure was used in pitch preparation, he’s No.1.Now we know he won’t keep this average up. Quite apart from the very helpful people on social media who keep pointing out that he hasn’t played in Asia yet, Jamieson is not seven runs a wicket better than Malcolm Marshall, the bowler with the lowest average of anyone with 200 wickets. For fun, the next two bowlers on this list are Garner and Ambrose, two other tall men.Jason Holder lacks the extreme speed of many tall bowlers, so relies more on swing than seam•RANDY BROOKS/AFP/Getty ImagesJamieson’s first-class bowling average when not playing Tests is 24.21 from 28 matches. There will be a regression to the mean. People will get more used to him; he’s not bowled that much in his career to date, so with IPL and Test duties, he’s about to get a workload that will chip away at him.But this is an incredible start; and that’s before you even glance at his batting, in which he currently averages 47, towering over his first-class record of 21.This has been a remarkable run of eight Tests. If it happened in the middle of someone’s career, it would be a highlight, the fact it’s occurred at the start is even more amazing.

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So what does all this make when you combine it? Jamieson’s only obvious weakness is that he’s not a 90mph bowler. He’s accurate, swings it both ways, and delivers it from a comical height. If he was regularly over 90mph/145kph, he’d have achieved seam bowling’s singularity.So far in this Test, he’s averaged more swing than everyone except Tim Southee, at height. This is such a weird thing to play against.Look at his wickets in this match. Rohit Sharma’s was a simple outswinger that swung early and then travelled a long away, taking the edge. Rishabh Pant’s was a rare poor ball, and an even more poorly executed shot – but one that was also induced by the extra bounce. Ishant Sharma faced a ball angling into the stumps that swung before landing, and then hit a trampoline when it pitched. To follow that up, Jamieson started a yorker to Bumrah that tailed in from well outside off stump, as if it had a homing beacon on it.And then there was Virat Kohli’s delivery. This pitched outside off stump, went very straight, and then seamed back sharply. It was essentially an offspinner bowled from 230 centimetres at 85mph / 138kph. I am not sure how you play that. And apparently, neither is Kohli.

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Think about this New Zealand attack. They have three of their best bowlers ever, 827 wickets between them. Three completely different styles of bowling that complement each other well. They’ve travelled the world, carried New Zealand to No.1 in the rankings, and into the World Test Championship final. And coming into this match, had New Zealand chosen a spinner, most probably one of Trent Boult or Neil Wagner would have missed out.Related

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• WTC final rages against the dying light as regulations come under scrutiny again

And while the others are more experienced and tested, given the combination of all Jamieson’s skills and his recent record, his spot was clearly safe.This is a great era for seam bowlers. Guys like Suranga Lakmal and Sharma have pulled in ridiculous numbers after years of huge bowling averages. Since the start of 2018, there isn’t a Test seamer with 50 wickets who has taken them at more than 30. Yet there are two, Ishant and Holder, under 20. All these things have to be taken into consideration, as do Jamieson’s eight Tests being split between New Zealand and England.But he’s averaging under 15 and taking a wicket every 36 balls. This isn’t normal, no matter what the conditions are.And, this isn’t just about natural talent and an incredibly handy combination of skills. There are plenty of bowlers who arrive with a natural talent that their opponents work out over time. That process slows them down, after which it’s about how they adapt. Jamieson’s end-of-play chat with the ICC crew showed that he recognised what he done wrong (relatively speaking) on Saturday and corrected it on Sunday by bowling fuller.This is someone in his 36th first-class match, who began bowling only a few years back, adjusting his length to bowl unnaturally full. This adjustment lead to him taking his fifth five-wicket haul in seven and a half Tests.Kyle Jamieson has height, some speed, swing, seam, control and the ability to change his plans. He’s not perfect, but if you’re standing at the other end when the ball is swinging, it may just feel as though he is.

Australia emulate West Indies in lifting trophy despite not winning a single game batting first

Matt Roller14-Nov-20212:47

Moody: Can’t underestimate Australia as they don’t often play T20Is at full-strength

After Australia became the second team in a row to lift the men’s T20 World Cup without winning a game batting first, Aaron Finch admitted that his success at the coin toss throughout the tournament was “a big factor” in their success.Finch had suggested in the build-up to the final against New Zealand that he would not have minded losing the toss in Thursday’s semi-final win over Pakistan in order to “put a big score on the board and really squeeze” the opposition, despite the fact that every night game played at Dubai across the World Cup was won by the chasing team.But after his sixth toss win out of seven in the World Cup – and his 18th out of his last 22 in all T20Is – Finch said that the opportunity to chase had been vital, as Australia repeated West Indies’ record in the 2016 edition by winning the tournament without successfully defending a score.

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“It did play a big factor, to be honest,” Finch said. “I tried to play it down as much as I could because I thought, ‘at some point in the tournament, I’m going to lose a toss and we’ll have to bat first’. But it did play a big part. You saw out there at the end there the dew factor: the slower balls weren’t holding in the wicket as much. I don’t know how I did it – maybe it was just fate.”I thought the way that we bowled with the new ball in that powerplay was obviously really important. That first ten overs, to restrict New Zealand to 57. We knew they were one down but it was always going to be tough because the dew started to come down quite heavy, which we hadn’t seen at all in the tournament so far.”In T20 cricket, you need a bit of luck, don’t get me wrong. Of course you need a bit of luck. We won six out of seven tosses, which goes a long way. But we’ve played some really good cricket. We played cricket where we put teams on the back foot because we were aggressive.”

“Without a word of a lie, I promise you, I called Justin Langer a few months ago and I said ‘don’t worry about Davey, he’ll be man of the tournament’. I thought Adam Zampa should have been man of the tournament personally, but [Warner]’s a great player, he’s one of the all-time great batters and he’s a fighter”Aaron Finch

Finch also hailed David Warner’s impact after his third important contribution in a row, with his innings of 53 off 38 balls in the final following scores of 49 off 30 in the semi-final against Pakistan and 89 not out off 56 against West Indies to seal Australia’s qualification from the Super 12s.While he suggested that Warner’s Player-of-the-Tournament award should have gone to Adam Zampa, the leading wicket-taker since the start of the Super 12s, Finch said that Warner’s batting had epitomised Australia’s attacking philosophy.”You didn’t expect that?” he asked a reporter rhetorically. “I certainly did. Without a word of a lie, I promise you, I called Justin Langer a few months ago and I said ‘don’t worry about Davey, he’ll be man of the tournament’. I thought Adam Zampa should have been man of the tournament personally, but [Warner]’s a great player, he’s one of the all-time great batters and he’s a fighter. He’s someone who when his back’s against the wall, that’s when you get the very, very best of David Warner. It was a special finish to the tournament for him, the last couple of knocks.”We are really, really committed to staying positive and aggressive against spin, and that showed tonight. I thought the way Mitch [Marsh] and Davey played against New Zealand – Shadab [Khan] got four-for in the semi-final but we kept attacking.”We were so committed to that throughout the tournament. We were comfortable to be able to fail being aggressive because we know that that’s when we play our best. I think if you go home and you don’t make the semis or you don’t make the final, you’re kicking yourself if you’re an Australian team and you play in your shell. So that was a real positive for us.”

Opener puts early struggles behind him to help continue Pakistan’s flawless World Cup

Danyal Rasool02-Nov-2021A blond, strapping giant of a figure gazes across the distance of his run-up and 22 yards of a barren, glassy cricket pitch. He’s staring at a diminutive figure in green at the other end; from that distance and height, Mohammad Rizwan must have looked positively Lilliputian to Ruben Trumpelmann. At any level of cricket, this looks like a mismatch, and for a short while, an international World Cup is no different.Rizwan fends off a couple of hostile deliveries, but Trumpelmann is only just getting started. Namibia’s left-arm fast bowler, born in Durban, watched South Africa quicks Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje torment Bangladesh on the same surface earlier in the day; he was surely encouraged by that. He sends one on a length that Rizwan fidgets clumsily at; it beats the outside edge, nipping away at the last. The movement encourages him, and he goes fuller, coaxing Rizwan into a drive he can never hope to execute. It’s angling across too much, while Rizwan’s feet are rooted in place. The listless Rizwan takes a tentative stab at the fifth delivery, but has no control on what is currently transpiring. He respectfully defends the last ball; the first maiden over Rizwan has ever faced in T20I cricket. The giant left-arm fast bowler has roughed up the little opener.It is nine balls before Rizwan manages a single against the nagging Trumpelmann, much happier to watch the action from the other end. This is as unlike Rizwan as we’ve ever seen him, uncertain, underconfident, streaky and fortunate. A couple of overs later, he survives an lbw shout by the skin of his teeth; some observers facetiously remark his presence at the crease is an advantage for Namibia, others call for him to be retired out.

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Rizwan acknowledged the unusual nature of what occurred at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. “In the first six overs, to be honest, I didn’t understand what was happening,” he said at the post-match press conference. “I was struggling. Some balls were skidding, others were sliding, some inswinging, others outswinging. But instead of throwing my wicket away, I dug in.”It almost flies in the face of modern T20 wisdom, which would conclude he was having a net negative impact on his side’s chances by being out there, and advise he was better served taking on much higher risk and almost accept an early dismissal as a to allow the next batter in. By the halfway stage, Rizwan’s fortunes hadn’t improved much; he had scored 16 off 25, managing just one boundary all that time. The innings it seemed to bear greatest resemblance to at this World Cup was the one Lendl Simmons played against South Africa, limping to 16 off 35 as West Indies stumbled to a below-par total, and subsequently a convincing defeat. Unlike West Indies on that occasion, Pakistan had all ten wickets in the bank, so Rizwan’s go-slow felt even more criminal.Related

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For Rizwan, though, the only crime seems to be the audacity of the idea that a wicket was ever worth throwing away, defiantly backing Pakistan’s ostensibly conservative, anchor-heavy approach at the top. “What’s important for us is to assess both the conditions and the bowling,” he said. “You’re right to say that we’re not power hitters. But thankfully, we’re cracking the code here whereas the rest of the world is still struggling with these conditions. That’s because Babar and I complement each other well and plan how to approach the innings as a partnership.”Babar Azam and I learn from each other. Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi are conditions where even if you play very well, you end up around 150 or 160. If you look at other teams in the Powerplay, teams are finishing around 35 for three or four. But our Powerplay ends around 40-42 without losing any wicket. Today, the conditions were tough, and their bowlers deserved credit because they used the pitch and bowled the right lengths. They gave us a tough time but everyone knows what a world-class player Babar is. We’d planned to take the game deep and tough out that period.”With Pakistan finding themselves in the unusually happy position of effectively having qualified for the semi-final with games against Namibia and Scotland to spare, there was even room for quirky experimentation. Having fielded first each of their first three games, Pakistan opted to bat after winning the toss, aware they might not have the choice in a crunch semi-final. When, with just over four overs to spare, and eight wickets still in hand, Pakistan sent in Mohammad Hafeez ahead of the more natural, in-form power hitter Asif Ali, it felt like they had again taken a conservative approach. Rizwan, however, insisted it was just a ploy to ensure Pakistan were firing on all cylinders.”We sent Hafeez in ahead of Asif because we want to tick all our boxes. Asif has already performed in this tournament, and so have all the bowlers – Hasan Ali bowled beautifully today, so that box was ticked today too. The one player who hadn’t yet performed much [with the bat] was Hafeez, so we wanted to give him a chance. But he found form today as well. We’re in a rhythm, and we hope to maintain that rhythm when we go to the semi-final and win it.”By the time Trumpelmann returned for his third over about 45 minutes later, Rizwan’s digging in and toughing out was done. He hoicked at his first ball, and while not quite in control, made enough of a connection to send it over the rope for six. He rounded the over out with a four, and when Trumpelmann was brought in for his final over, Rizwan ensured he signed off that personal battle by sweeping the fast bowler for another boundary. Having managed one run off his first nine balls, he plundered 14 off the four balls the 23-year old bowled to him in his return spells.In his last 18 T20Is, Rizwan has batted through the Pakistan innings eight times. When the world’s leading T20I runscorer this year finds himself in a pinch, he doesn’t bail out. He simply goes on batting.

In the absence of Rohit, Hardik and Jadeja, India’s long-standing problems were amplified in South Africa

Hemant Brar24-Jan-20224:15

What went wrong for India against South Africa?

India went into the ODI series against South Africa with the mindset of starting to build the team for the 2023 World Cup. But not only did they lose the series 3-0, they are also probably no closer to finding solutions for what ails them in the format.Over the last couple of years, India haven’t had a wicket-taking threat in their bowling, their middle order hasn’t come to the fore when needed, and they haven’t had a regular sixth bowling option. All these issues haunted them in South Africa as well.The wicket-taking threat issue is worth looking into a little deeper since it’s an aspect that helped their ODI game between 2017-2019. Since the 2019 World Cup, though, they have the worst average and the worst economy in the powerplay.One possible reason for that is Bhuvneshwar Kumar blowing hot and blowing cold in his appearances between injuries. The teams, meanwhile, have also found ways to negotiate Jasprit Bumrah without giving him wickets upfront.Related

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The knock-on effect of not striking in the powerplay is that when the spinners come into the attack, there are usually two set batters in the middle. With Kuldeep Yadav losing his form and place, and Yuzvendra Chahal losing his novelty, India have struggled to pick up wickets in the middle overs as well.R Ashwin made an ODI comeback in South Africa, after more than four years, but he didn’t present the point of difference India might have been after.India, however, did seem to show some awareness of the need to hit the wicket harder – something England and Australia tend to do for wickets in the middle overs – and went for the tallest bowler in Prasidh Krishna when it came to experimenting. They fared slightly better in the third ODI with change of personnel and strategy.Deepak Chahar came in for Bhuvneshwar and struck early with the new ball. In the middle overs, the Indian seamers bowled much shorter lengths as compared to the first two ODIs. With the ball holding into the pitch, they picked two wickets with the short ball. It will be interesting to see in the coming ODIs if India are going to implement this strategy more consistently.In the batting department, KL Rahul opened the innings in the absence of Rohit Sharma despite having achieved great success at No. 4 and 5 in the last two years. The move, though, opened up a middle-order slot and India tried Shreyas Iyer there.Shreyas Iyer made scores of 17, 11 and 26 in the three ODIs•AFP/Getty ImagesShreyas batted at No. 5 in all three ODIs and on each occasion had the time to build his innings. India would have hoped for better than the scores of 17, 11 and 26, especially in the first and the third match when they needed him to steer the chase. Dravid said after the series that if the players were being given an extended run, he expected “really big performances” from them. Shreyas failed in that aspect.As far as Rishabh Pant is concerned, his 85 off 71 balls in the second ODI was arguably the best knock by an Indian in the series. With India having lost Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli in quick succession, Pant presented a rare case of rebuilding an innings at a strike rate of almost 120.Once Rohit returns, Rahul can move down the order, lending the middle order a bit more experience and stability. Once he and Pant get together there, they promise a solution.Another long-standing issue is that India’s batters don’t bowl, and their bowlers cannot be relied on for runs. During this series, Shardul Thakur and Chahar showed promise with the bat, but is Thakur a first-choice bowler or does he get in because he bats? Also, the first problem remains unsolved, and Hardik Pandya’s lack of bowling fitness has a part to play in that.In Pandya’s absence, India tried Venkatesh Iyer as their sixth bowing option but didn’t give him a single over in the first ODI. He bowled five in the second before being left out for the third.India tried Shreyas as their sixth bowling option in the final ODI. He bowled legspin to right-handers and offspin to left-handers but lacked control. Still, it’s an option that hasn’t been explored so far and if Shreyas can work on his bowling, it could provide India some relief. But India will also be hoping for Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja to regain their fitness and form by the time the World Cup arrives.So while you wouldn’t want to read too much into one series where the team went in with the intention of trying out a few things and also had a couple of key players missing, Rohit and Dravid will know there is still quite a bit of work to do.