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In spite of tough 2021-22 tour, allrounder still hopeful he can play a part in upcoming Ashes

Vithushan Ehantharajah26-Apr-2023″It’s similar to 2019, isn’t it?” Chris Woakes noted, as he looked at the 2023 schedule with its home Ashes series and a 50-over World Cup in the next six months. To say his eyes widened would be an understatement.Woakes, now 34, was a prominent part of both big-ticket events four years ago. He was one of eight players to appear in all 11 matches in England’s successful World Cup, then played four of the five Tests against Australia, which ended in a 2-2 draw.Four years on, he remains a factor for both, but his standing in white and red-ball are very different. Having missed the entire 2022 summer with a cartilage issue in his left knee – eventually rectified through an operation at the end of July – Woakes’ Test and limited-overs careers were set on divergent paths.He was able to return in the winter, helping England secure the T20 World Cup, before low-profile international duties in South Africa and Bangladesh, with a stint with Sharjah Warriors in the ILT20 sandwiched in between. However, his appearance for Warwickshire in their County Championship fixture against Kent two weeks ago was his first first-class match in a year.”It was a bit of a shock to the system,” Woakes said of Warwickshire’s victory of an innings and 14 runs, in which he took 2 for 28 and 3 for 59, sending down 32 overs in total. There was stiffness from the grind, but it was the good kind of hurt.”I had a pretty good winter with the World Cup win and a couple of tours away with England and stuff. But it’s always nice to get back with what’s to come in the summer. It’s a big summer for English cricket, it’s nice to get a red ball back in hand and play red-ball cricket and feel relatively fresh.”All being well, Woakes will be on that plane to India to defend England’s ODI crown. As for his involvement with the Test side, a bit more needs to go his way.Woakes played a key role in England’s T20 World Cup win, including the ten-wicket victory over India•ICC via Getty Images

The last of his 45 caps came on a dire tour of the Caribbean on docile pitches and – most importantly – before the Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes regime took over and rejuvenated the Test side. Off the back of 10 wins out of 12, Woakes appreciates it’ll take a lot for him to get back into the set-up.It is why, prior to the start of the summer, he called up Stokes to see what he should work on and get a full scope of the current ethos.”It’s good to just touch base,” Woakes said. “I did give him a call and spoke to him to see whether there was anything I needed to change. But he was happy for me to just go about my business, do what I usually do and he was just like, ‘get yourself back into it, play some county cricket’. Obviously he couldn’t give me any guarantees on playing in the first Ashes Test, but he said if you’re playing well and being around red-ball cricket, of course you’re likely to be there or thereabouts.”Having not been in the environment with the lads and the way it’s changed since Brendon and him had taken over, it seemed like a wise move to just touch base before I started my season. Just to see if there was anything I need to change. Anything that is being mentioned. Obviously, you hear all the noise from outside but I’m sure there are still messages from within the dressing-room which don’t get leaked or whatever.”Woakes admitted there was an element of jealousy looking at how much fun the Test side are having, even if he’s been privy to just as much fun and far more global success with the limited-overs side, under Eoin Morgan and now Jos Buttler.Related

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• Ghosts of 2019: Warner's Ashes fate remains uncertain

“It’s the way it’s been, hasn’t it? Because the white-ball team had done so well over the last however many years, and then we had a bit of a tough run as a Test side. Now it’s kind of almost roles reversed with the Test boys having a great time and winning games of cricket and doing it in such a fashion.”Naturally you want to be a part of that. I don’t regret anything that’s gone before. Every opportunity you get to play for England is a privilege and an honour. Albeit the last time I played for England in the whites, it didn’t go overly great away from home.”It’s important to dwell on those last appearances “in the whites” because the three-match series against West Indies is a peculiar anomaly. England were coming off the back of a humiliating 4-0 loss in the Ashes, without a coach or a director of cricket following the sackings of Chris Silverwood and Ashley Giles. Joe Root was on the verge of giving up the captaincy – something he would eventually do upon returning from this tour – and James Anderson and Stuart Broad had been dropped.The onus was on Woakes to assume a more senior role on the trip, but an injury to Mark Wood in the first Test and Ollie Robinson’s fitness issues throughout meant he also had to take on a far greater workload. He managed just five wickets across a mammoth 93.5 overs. Only in hindsight can he see it for what it is – one tour too many at the end of a gruelling winter programme that began with the 2021 World Cup and a tour of Australia. Both with strict Covid-restrictions that had a debilitating effect on his physical and mental wellbeing.”I was pretty cooked by that West Indies series,” Woakes said. “The surfaces we played on were horrendous, to be brutally honest. That whole winter, not just physically but mentally by that point, it was quite tiring. We had the World Cup prior to that in a bubble in Dubai which was draining in itself, then quarantine in Australia, then the Ashes which we all know what happened there. And then onto the West Indies.Woakes’ record in home Tests is exceptional and gives him a chance of being in the Ashes frame•AFP

“We were trying to build something new in the West Indies, Joe was keen to carry on as captain but Ben was having a heavy input as well. We were trying to move the team forward and make the changes we felt were needed. That was draining as well”You look back and think we were almost trying too hard to get it right. At the end there probably wasn’t too much left to give and my left knee was struggling at the time. But you get the opportunity to play for England and you snatch their hand off, don’t you?”Perhaps that puts this summer into perspective. Woakes is reticent to regard any Test appearance as a shot at redemption, or unfinished business. As far as his work in English conditions goes, there is little to prove given his 94 dismissals and average of 22.63, along with a batting average of 35.25. But even given the competition for places in a bowling group that has taken ten wickets in each of its 23 innings since the start of last summer, Woakes is desperate for a piece of the action.Starting with Surrey’s visit to Edgbaston on Thursday, he has three more Championship matches before the one-off Ireland Test. Even if he regards four-day game-time as a way of tuning up his skills for the white-ball challenges ahead, the primary focus is ensuring he states a loud enough case to be part of something special – such as England’s first Ashes win since 2015.”I don’t look at it like I’m desperate to have another crack and prove anything, because I feel over my career I have proved what I’m capable of,” he said. “But absolutely, I’d love to be part of an England team playing against Australia in a home Ashes series. It’s an incredible series, home or away. In this current team there is a huge chance, if we get it right over a five-match series, that we could win a home Ashes series. So you want to give yourself the best opportunity to be part of that team.”I by no means expect to walk back into the team, but I feel like with my experience, my record in England, if I can put in some performances early-season for Warwickshire in the next few games, then hopefully that gives me a chance of being in and around the squad.”

ESPNcricinfo has learned that Chetan Sharma and his panel had not received any communication from the board on the development

Nagraj Gollapudi18-Nov-20227:03

Newsroom: ‘Selectors alone are not to blame for India’s T20 World Cup exit’

In an unprecedented development, the BCCI has sacked the entire senior men’s selection committee led by former India fast bowler Chetan Sharma. The board sent out a media release on Friday evening stating it was inviting fresh applications for the positions of the five national selectors, setting November 28 as the deadline for applications.This is the first major decision taken by the BCCI administration headed by the former India allrounder Roger Binny, who was elected unopposed as board president in October.Related

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• Mongia, Maninder, Ratra, Das apply for India selector post

• Selecting the selectors: a key job in Indian cricket, but who'd want to take it up?

ESPNcricinfo has learned that the four national selectors – Sunil Joshi, Harvinder Singh, Debasis Mohanty and Sharma – who are currently watching the ongoing the Vijay Hazare Trophy games at various venues around India – had not received any communication from BCCI on the development.Although no specific details were provided in the media statement – there was no mention of the selection panel being reconstituted – the BCCI probably took the step as part of its early review of India’s performances at successive T20 World Cups – exiting at the group stage in 2021 and losing in the semi-finals in 2022.Since late 2021, the Sharma-led selection panel was reduced to four members after Abey Kuruvilla, the former Mumbai and India fast bowler, completed the maximum tenure of five years. While Kuruvilla moved on to the role of BCCI general manager (cricket development), the board did not appoint his replacement on the selection panel.It was in October, mid-way into the 2022 T20 World Cup, that the selectors announced India squads for the limited-overs series in New Zealand, which is now ongoing, and also the Bangladesh tour in December. It raised eyebrows since it was an unusual move for selectors to announce squads for two separate tours at the same time.Barring Mohanty, who is on the verge of finishing his term (he was also a national junior selector), the remaining three selectors had only served half – two years – of their four-year tenures.Technically, Sharma and the other selectors can reapply for the posts. The qualification criteria for applicants is that they must have played at least seven Tests or 30 first-class matches, or 10 ODI and 20 first-class matches; they should have retired from the game at least five years ago; and they cannot have already served for five years as a member of any of the BCCI’s cricket committees.The BCCI also listed the major job duties and responsibilities for the selection panel as follows:

• Select the best possible team in a fair and transparent manner.
• Plan and prepare a strong bench strength for the senior men’s national team.
• Attend team meetings as and when required.
• Travel to watch domestic and international matches.
• Prepare and provide evaluation reports of the respective team performances to the apex council of BCCI on a quarterly basis.
• Address the media on team selection as and when instructed by BCCI.
• Appoint captain for the team in each format.
• Adhere to the rules and regulation of BCCI.

Surrey have now lost three Blast matches in four and are flagging at the wrong time

David Hopps03-Jul-2022Will Smeed is still awaiting his first T20 hundred, but he is wasting no time in ticking off the 90s one by one. After treating a capacity Taunton crowd to another typically bullish innings, he now has a 98 to his name to add to a 99 and 97 for Quetta Gladiators and a 94 earlier this season in the Vitality Blast against Glamorgan. All of them made since the turn of the year.Smeed and his captain Tom Abell, in delightfully contrasting styles, ensured that Somerset joined Surrey in securing a home quarter-final in the Blast next week with a 48-run defeat of the Brown Caps at Taunton. Surrey, unbeaten in all formats for the first stage of the season, have now lost three Blast matches in four and are flagging at the wrong time.It took 73 from 35 balls from their captain, Chris Jordan, to keep up appearances. Somerset, by contrast, are in form. But both will take some beating and Derbyshire and Yorkshire will head south with trepidation. Surrey play Yorkshire on Wednesday whilst Somerset must wait until Saturday before facing Derbyshire.Somerset’s third-wicket stand of 165 in 70 balls between Smeed and Abell was a delight for any West Country loyalist on a perfect night when the sun flooded onto the Quantocks and the crowd was awash with smiles. On nights like this, with the ball flying to all parts, there is no happier place in T20, perhaps no happier place in cricket, perhaps (for cricket fans of a certain disposition) no happier place in the world.In the hands of Smeed and Abell, joy was unconfined. Smeed, at 20 is already a hulking presence. He sits on the back foot with an uncomplicated intention to wreak havoc, and included 10 fours and five sixes in his 51-ball assault. But his game is broadening, as it should, and there were a couple of rasping square cuts in his repertoire to keep bowlers thinking.There may be better batters in the Blast – more dynamic, more destructive – than Abell. He has never played for England so that suggests as much. If England are looking at anybody, especially in their current mood, it is likely to be Smeed. But for the sheer delight of an educated batter at the height of a 360-degree game, choosing the best option and executing it brilliantly, there are few better sights in the domestic T20 game. Smeed is a potential colossus, and doubtless lifts sales of teenage-friendly dumb bells, but Abell is fast becoming one of the most respected players in Somerset history.At 194 for 3 with 21 balls remaining, they should have made 230. They had to settle for 218 for 8 as Surrey summoned a response once Abell’s slog sweep against Reece Topley had been brilliantly caught over his head by Gus Atkinson, running back towards long leg. Abell injured himself batting and did not field. Smeed was undone by a slower ball from Topley which he hauled to deep square. The thought of a couple of quiet singles for his maiden hundred does not seem to enter his mind and, in a format where no ball should be wasted, he is all the more impressive for that.Related

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• Leicestershire close season with bitter-sweet victory over Yorkshire

• Hampshire warm up for quarter-finals with ninth win in ten matches

• Tom Hartley applies the long handle as Lancashire leap into home quarter-final

As an enticing sub-plot, attention also focused upon on Overton v Overton 2. Jamie returned to Taunton last month following his move to Somerset and felled Craig Overton and Josh Davey in successive overs with wicked bouncers.This time, he introduced himself with a 60-metre throw from deep square after Tom Banton risked a second. Banton spent a lot of time calculating the odds as he assessed Overton’s progress towards the ball while he ran the first, but did not quite compute one of the strongest arms in the game pulling off a direct hit.Craig demanded even more attention when it came to his turn as he had three Surrey wickets to his name in his first seven deliveries. Will Jacks attempted a pull on the charge and was caught second ball; Tom Curran, again trying the pull, this time without the charge, added a second-ball duck of his own; by way of contrast, Jamie Smith pushed at one and was caught at first slip.Jordan and Laurie Evans then rescued that in an untroubled stand of 82 in 46 balls. Evans had fluffed a couple of chances in the field, including Smeed on 76 at deep square, to the derision of a section of the crowd, and was bent upon revenge, but his 39 ended with an excellent diving catch by Ben Green at long off. Jordan struck 23 off an over from Lewis Gregory, who was standing in as captain for Abell in the field, and he was to carry his resistance into the 17th over, particularly impressive over long off and extra cover, until Peter Siddle shrewdly plugged extra especially for him and the sub, George Bartlett, held a good catch.But the crowd wanted to see: COverton vs JOverton, sibling rivalry write large, and they were not disappointed. With his penultimate delivery, Craig had Jamie caught at the wicket, cross-batting, and set off on a sprint of celebration. “I owed him after being hit on the head a couple of weeks back so it was nice to get one back,” he said.Perhaps only Surrey among the 18 professional counties can potentially act as if money is no option and Aaron Hardie, the Australia A and Western Australia allrounder, has been called for the end of the group stages (with qualification already assured) as well as the last-eight tie.Hardie has just finished the Australia A tour of Sri Lanka where he scored 226 runs at an average of 75, was part of the Perth Scorchers’ Big Bash-winning squad and starred in this year’s Sheffield Shield final, guiding Western Australia to victory with an unbeaten 174 as well as taking three wickets opening the bowling. He has yet to fire for Surrey – one wicket and 26 runs in two knocks, Roelof van der Merwe bowling him on this occasion – but he is acclimatised for the quarter-finals and is dangerous.

Some of the players from these two countries will arrive in the UAE after playing a limited-overs bilateral series

Nagraj Gollapudi13-Aug-20200:53

‘Learn the guitar’ – Brett Lee’s tip on how to maintain biosecure bubble during IPL

Key players from England and Australia including Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Steven Smith, David Warner and Pat Cummins could be in danger of missing their teams’ respective first matches in the IPL, with the BCCI unlikely to relax the mandatory seven-day quarantine period, which involves team members clearing three tests before they can start training.England are scheduled to host a limited-overs series against Australia comprising three T20Is and three ODIs. The series will end by September 16, which is four days before the IPL takes off in the UAE.A total of 29 players from England and Australia are part of the eight IPL squads, some of whom, like the Australian pair of Cummins and Glenn Maxwell, were signed at the 2020 IPL auction for record sums of money.Other players who are likely to be part of the series, and could be among the first picks in the IPL, will be Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch, his England counterpart Eoin Morgan, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Marcus Stoinis.A total of 29 Australian and English players are set to feature in IPL 2020•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Keeping in mind the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, the IPL has laid down strict guidelines in its draft standard operating procedures (SOPs), which were shared with the teams recently. The SOPs include a rigorous testing process that mandates multiple tests within the first week upon landing in the UAE.Once the squads land in the UAE, all members will undergo a test at the airport before heading to the team hotel. From this point, the IPL testing protocol will kick in.As per the protocol, every squad will undergo a mandatory seven-day quarantine in the team hotel. During this week every squad member will be tested three times – on days 1, 3 and 6. Once all three results come back negative, the squad can start training. After that, all squad members will be tested on the fifth day of every week throughout the tournament.Although franchises have agreed with the SOPs, it is understood that several asked the IPL if the week-long quarantine could be relaxed for the group of players that will feature in the England-Australia series. In a call with the IPL, franchises reasoned that, considering the players would be exiting one bubble to enter another in IPL while likely traveling on a charter flight, the testing and quarantine process for this group should be different in order for them to be ready to play matches quickly.The franchises have said that as long as this group fulfills the rules laid out by the UAE government, they should be allowed to play in the tournament straightway. Currently, anyone travelling into the UAE needs to carry a negative result from a test carried out in the previous 96 hours. They would then need to undergo another test at the airport.However, ESPNcricinfo understands the IPL has remained stoic in its stance as it prepares a final set of SOPs which also need to be approved by the UAE government.Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler are among the high-profile English players in the IPL•PTI

Strict quarantine protocols also in place for CPL 2020
Similar questions have been raised by franchises in the 2020 Caribbean Premier League, which will be played in Trinidad & Tobago from August 18.Some of the West Indies players who had participated in a Test series in England, where they had been in a biosecure bubble, questioned why it was necessary for them to undergo the 14-day CPL-mandated quarantine in their hotel room.In a letter to franchises last week, Dr Akshay Mansingh, the CPL’s chief medical officer, explained why moving between bubbles was not enough and how any person coming into the country was a “potential threat”.”For those of you coming from the English tour, I just want to point out the difference between the two bubbles,” Mansingh said in an e-mail sent on August 8. “When we went to England, we were coming from countries with few cases of Covid-19 into a country where it was rampant. As a result, all that was done was to keep us safe from what was happening outside, and hence people were allowed to move in clusters and meet in rooms etc.”In Trinidad there remain relatively low number of cases and they see anyone coming in from outside as a potential threat. Hence the bubble here is to keep their citizens safe from people coming from outside; even if you are corning from a country with low numbers of Covid-19 cases. Irrespective of where you are coming from (including Trinidadian citizens coming from overseas) the law of the land is that all have to quarantine for two weeks, either in a Government facility or in designated hotels. They have not restricted movements of their citizens as they have not had large community spread.”The IPL testing process and quarantine protocol would also apply to the players and coaching staff travelling to the UAE from the CPL, which is scheduled to end on November 10. Prominent West Indian players in the CPL who are first picks for IPL teams include Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo. There is also a healthy set of coaching and support staff including Brendon McCullum, who will make his debut as an IPL head coach at Kolkata Knight Riders, and Andy Flower, who is the assistant coach with Kings XI Punjab.

Jess Jonassen’s 63 not-out off 29 balls extended Brisbane Heat’s lead at the top of the WBBL table

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Nov-2019Adelaide Strikers‘ Sophie Devine continued her scintillating form in the WBBL with an unbeaten 63, her third straight unbeaten half-century, fifth in a row and sixth this season, to make short work of the modest 113 chase against Sydney Thunder in Wollongong. With 475 runs, Devine is second on the run-scorers’ list, behind Brisbane Heat’s Beth Mooney. After opting to bat, Thunder saw only one of their batters strike at over 100 – captain Rachael Haynes struck 33 off 27 – as their top order could only take them to 2 for 72 after 15 overs. They managed only two more fours after that but relied on singles, doubles and a few extras to score 40 in the last five overs and post 4 for 112. Megan Schutt finished with an economical 4-0-15-0 and Devine struck once to end with 4-0-21-1. Devine then opened the batting with Suzie Bates for a stand of 53 in under 10 overs to set the tone for the chase. Thunder took three quick wickets – two of those by Nida Dar – but Devine’s blows and the modest total meant the Strikers were home with five balls to spare.Nicola Carey’s unbeaten 55 and Belinda Vakarewa’s four-for helped Hobart Hurricanes to their first win in eight games, and their third win this season, as Sydney Sixers lost by five wickets with 10 balls to spare at the North Sydney Oval. Having elected to bat first, Sixers had their top four batters dismissed cheaply within the first six overs by Vakarewa. Tayla Vlaeminck then dismissed Maddy Darke for a duck to leave Sixers reeling at 5 for 30. Marizanne Kapp fought back with an unbeaten 40-ball 55, helping the hosts past 100, making a 56-run stand with Lauren Smith (23 off 31 balls) and a 35-run stand with Dane Van Niekerk (17 off 9 balls). In the 134-run chase, Hurricanes’ top three batters fell early to Kapp and Stella Campbell. But Carey then took charge, playing cautiously as she brought up her half-century off 45 balls. Chloe Tryon joined Carey for a 48-run sixth-wicket stand, and with the requirement reduced to eight runs off 12 balls, Tryon hit two sixes in the 19th over to seal the chase for Hurricanes.Half-centuries from openers Amy Jones (70) and Meg Lanning (68*) headlined Perth Scorchers‘ 150 chase and helped them seal victory with nine wickets and five balls in hand against the Melbourne Stars at the Junction Oval. Scorchers are now placed fourth with 12 points, ahead of Melbourne Renegades who lost to Brisbane Heat in the first match of the day. Jones and Lanning nearly earned a 10-wicket win but their stand of 147 came to an end when Jones edged one to wicketkeeper Elyse Villani for her 70 off 55 balls with nine fours. Natalie Sciver hit the winning runs on the next ball, with Lanning unbeaten on 68 off 59. Earlier, the Stars saw a half-century opening partnership between Villani (59) and Lizelle Lee (24). No. 3 Mignon du Preez also chipped in with 38 off 22 to take them past 100 but their middle order couldn’t capitalise on the start to help them past 150. Medium-pacer Samantha Betts dismissed Lee, du Preez and Annabel Sutherland to finish with 3 for 21.Getty Images

Jess Jonassen’s sparkling 63 not-out off 29 balls extended Brisbane Heat‘s lead at the top of the WBBL table with a six-run win against the Melbourne Renegades at the Junction Oval. Renegades gave the visitors a scare as they needed 21 from 12 balls, and later 15 off the last over, but they lost three wickets in the last four balls, including two run-outs, and fell short to remain on ten points. Heat got a stable start courtesy of opener Maddy Green’s 32 off 31 before Jonassen walked out at the halfway mark, at 57 for 2. Wickets fell around her but Jonassen propelled the run rate from under six to over 7.5 per over by smashing six fours and three sixes. Heat collected 42 off the last three overs, with five fours and two sixes from Jonassen alone to post a strong 5 for 153. Renegades got a promising start with Danni Wyatt’s 40 off 18, but once she holed out to deep midwicket off Amelia Kerr in the eighth over, the hosts found it tough to stay on top of the chase, with only two more batters able to score at more than run a ball. Jonassen finished with 1 for 27 from her four overs to be named the Player of the Match.

The organisers have said that they are in the process of establishing and operating a new franchise that will be based in St Lucia for CPL 2019

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Aug-2019St Lucia Stars have been axed from the Caribbean Premier League, and the franchise will not be participating in CPL 2019 as the Stars. On August 7, CPL Limited terminated the participation agreement between it and the Royal Sports Club, LLC, the entity that operated the St Lucia franchise.While announcing the decision via a media release, the CPL didn’t elaborate on the reasons behind the termination. The release did say that CPL were “in the process of establishing and operating a new franchise to be based in St Lucia that will participate in the 2019 Caribbean Premier League.”Jay Pandya, the chief executive and owner of Royal Sports Club LLC and Global Sports Ventures based out of Pennsylvania, expressed his disappointment with the CPL’s decision in a statement to ESPNcricinfo.”We completely disagree with the CPL press release and will be working to address any issues the CPL may have in an appropriate manner and forum,” Pandya said.ESPNcricinfo understands the franchise had several outstanding payments, which was one of the reasons behind its axing.The 2019 season is scheduled to begin on September 4.The Stars had never won CPL, with their best finish coming in 2016, when they finished third on the table, but lost in the Eliminator to Trinbago Knight Riders. In 2018, they finished fifth among the six teams, with seven points from ten matches. They had several star players on their roster in 2018, with Darren Sammy, Kieron Pollard and Rahkeem Cornwall among the local stars, and David Warner, Niroshan Dickwella and Mitchell McClenaghan among their overseas players.This year, they bagged Lasith Malinga and Fawad Alam in the draft as their main overseas players.

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Saurabh Somani12-Nov-2018

The 18-year old legspinner picked up five wickets in only two overs to ensure Afghanistan beat Ireland by 17 runs in a rain-shortened match and furthered their record-breaking winning streak

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Mar-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: Ireland’s middle order could not handle Rashid Khan’s clever changes of pace•Peter Della Penna

Twelve little balls of legspin. How much damage could it really do? Well, it could change the fate of a T20I, vault the practitioner to the greatest of heights and protect a proud winning streak that seemed all but dead. Before Rashid Khan, no one had ever taken a five-wicket haul in as little time as two overs in Twenty20 international cricket. The record, though, was merely a byproduct of his ability to vary pace, prey on the pressure the Ireland batsmen felt and then toss up the hit-me ball, which invariably turned out to be a googly that bamboozled everyone. The slogs came, the stumps were broken, the rest became history.Afghanistan came into the match with nine straight wins in the shortest format. It was already a world record, but their hopes of pushing it to 10 took a major hit when heavy rain lashed across the Greater Noida Sports Complex. With only the pitch and the bowler’s run-ups under covers, the majority of the outfield took on a lot of water and it was testament to the ground staff that the match even restarted. Ireland had been 65 for 2 in 6.1 overs when the weather intervened, which put them 12 runs ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis par score considering the target was 185. Then the rain stopped.And Rashid went to work. He hoodwinked Kevin O’Brien and Gary Wilson with wrong ‘uns in his first over. His next one was a triple-wicket maiden and it simply trampled upon all the hope Ireland had of levelling the three-match series. Their target was revised to 111 in 11 overs – or 46 runs to win off the remaining 29 balls. It was a tough ask but perhaps some of the senior batsmen should have taken a little time to get themselves set again. Instead, they chose to hit out as wildly as the tailenders who would follow and 65 for 2 became 93 for 9 in what could well have been the blink of an eye.All of that made for excellent viewing for opener Najeeb Tarakai. He had hammered 90 off 58 balls to become the only man not named Mohammad Shahzad among in the list of top six scores by an Afghanistan batsman in T20Is. Spending two hours on the sidelines watching the showers lash across the ground wouldn’t have been pleasant for him after driving his team from the doldrums of 12 for 2 in the third over to 175 for 6 by the time he was dismissed in the 20th. It was his first half-century in the format, including seven fours and five sixes, and most importantly, it turned out to be match-winning effort.

Bangladesh have dropped Taijul Islam and brought in pace bowler Al-Amin Hossain in their 14-man squad for the first two ODIs against England, which will be held in Mirpur on October 7 and 9

Mohammad Isam02-Oct-2016Bangladesh have dropped Taijul Islam and brought in pace bowler Al-Amin Hossain in their 14-man squad for the first two ODIs against England, which will be held in Mirpur on October 7 and 9.Left-arm spinner Taijul bowled decently in the first two ODIs against Afghanistan last week, but he took only one wicket in his 20 overs. He brought control to the Bangladesh attack but was not as penetrating. He was replaced by left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain, in the third ODI, who took three wickets.Al-Amin’s return was slightly predictable after he was not included against Afghanistan despite doing well for Bangladesh earlier this year. Chief selector Minhajul Abedin had said at the time that his fielding was an issue.But with Rubel Hossain being dropped before the third ODI against Afghanistan, there was always the need for a pace bowler who had variation to partner Mashrafe Mortaza and Taskin Ahmed.Squad for first two ODIs: Mashrafe Mortaza (capt)., Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Mosaddek Hossain, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Sabbir Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Mosharraf Hossain, Al-Amin Hossain, Taskin Ahmed

Craig McDermott has moved to clarify assumptions about James Pattinson’s action, including the contention that Pattinson abandoned two years of adjustments to claim five wickets in the Hobart Test

Daniel Brettig16-Dec-2015James Pattinson’s mentor Craig McDermott has moved to clarify assumptions about his pupil’s bowling action, including the contention that the 25-year-old abandoned two years of adjustments in order to claim five wickets in the second innings of the Hobart Test against the West Indies.While Pattinson did struggle for rhythm in the first innings and found himself delivering the ball from an arm position that reduced his chances of gaining any movement through the air or off the wicket, McDermott said there was still plenty of evidence of the adjustments they had made together during his 5 for 27 on the third and final day.Changes to Pattinson’s action had been devised to ease pressure on his back, which has been the subject of multiple stress fractures over his five years around the Australian team, and were as much about foot position as arm and wrist. McDermott noted that Pattinson’s back foot is now much more side on at the point of delivery and thus in sync with his waist, back and shoulders. The adjustments to his arm path made for a much more rhythmic performance on day three.”In a transition from an old action to a new action, sometimes in competition your body will want to go back a little bit to the way it was,” McDermott told ESPNcricinfo. “That happened in the second innings a little bit, but it was more about Patto jumping in a straight line through the crease and going towards the target with his body and getting his arm path down a little bit below the perpendicular and his wrist behind the ball all the time.”The bottom half is still different. Sometimes his back foot gets a bit more front on down the wicket, but generally he’s travelling pretty well. We tried to get his back foot as far towards 90 degrees as we possibly could to start with, knowing that when you get back into competition mode it’s always going to creep back the other way. He’s anywhere between 30 and 45 degrees at any one stage so it’s not too bad.”Pattinson had stated that he hoped to find a middle ground between his old ways and new ones, with the added benefit of now having an older, more mature body to cope. However, McDermott counselled that given a history of multiple stress injuries, Pattinson needed to be aware of the risks inherent in his former methods – the pair will continue their work together when McDermott travels to Melbourne ahead of the rest of the team on Monday.”Every bowler is different, but Patto’s had a number of stress fractures and even at the age of 25 he’s probably had more than someone like Mitchell Starc who’s had one,” McDermott said. “He’s got to be careful, old stress fractures sometimes don’t heal 100%, a bit like with Pat Cummins at the moment, after about a month his were still not healing that well, so he’s put in a brace just to make sure that does restrict his movement.”Patto’s still got to be careful even at his age, just because of the amount of stress fractures he has had in the past that he may not get a new one but you can always open an old one, which may not have healed as strong as some of the other bone matter has. I don’t think it’s right to compare Patto’s body with Mitchell Johnson’s body or with Mitchell Starc’s body, everybody’s differently made up.”Nevertheless, McDermott agreed that once a player is in the Test team, the last thing they should be doing is thinking too intricately about their bowling action. For this reason, he kept his advice simple and to the point between innings, much as the captain Steven Smith also did.”There were a couple of things I spoke to Patto about the night after the first innings,” McDermott said. “One was ‘don’t think too much about it, just really bowl the ball’, and the other thing was ‘try to get your arm path down a little bit, because if it’s up too high it is very hard to get your wrist behind the ball’. They were the only two things I spoke to him about the night before.”His first wicket in the second innings if you look at the slo-mo, it’s very good as far as the seam position and all of that sort of stuff goes. There’s still some variation in that with him, but everything’s coming along pretty well. There’s still a lot of room for improvement, as we’ve discussed since then. But some wickets will give him confidence.”In the absence of Starc, who underwent his ankle surgery on Tuesday night, McDermott said that Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile were both well equipped to be Australia’s impact bowlers over the next four Tests against the West Indies and New Zealand, with Josh Hazlewood and Peter Siddle providing the steady counterpoint.”I think Patto’s one of those and Nathan Coulter-Nile’s got the ability to do that as well,” he said. “Josh is really starting to hone his skills with his lengths, Sidds does what Sidds does, nothing changing there. Certainly leading into the next two Test matches and New Zealand, those guys stand us in pretty good stead.”