For a few years, D’Arcy Short had lost his way. Western Australia coach Justin Langer had even told him to lose weight and take cricket seriously. His cricket looks pretty damn serious now

Jarrod Kimber10-Jan-2018The ball is short and wide, but it’s not as short and wide as you think. D’Arcy Short has arched his back, making him lower and closer to leg. He has forced the ball to be short and wide, as he has slapped an uppercut. The ball flies over backward point for six.It’s Short’s first real six on the off side this year. He’s leading the Big Bash League in sixes. He is six runs away from Shaun Marsh’s all-time BBL record of 412 runs. Marsh made his in nine games, at a strike rate of 128.This season, Short has made 406 runs from 254 balls, at a strike rate of 160, from six games. On Wednesday, he broke the BBL record score with 122 not out.In the last over of Hurricanes’ innings, Short played and missed at the first ball, he top-edged over the keeper’s head for six. Then he hit the next ball 97 metres, and the next one 86. Six, six, six.There was a fight for Short. Hurricanes thought they’d signed him, Perth believed he’d committed to them, Cricket Australia decided that Hurricanes was his team. Last year, that looked annoying for Perth as Short started with 61 from 29. In another game at Bellerive Oval, he put a ball on the roof, but it felt like it was hit out of Tasmania. He made another 60 that night. But Short’s early impact slowed, and by the end of the year, he only made 198 runs at 25, despite striking at 163.A similar thing happened with Short’s career, he was once a promising junior, still playing in Northern Territory until he was 19. After going to Western Australia in his early 20s, he played in the futures league for Western Australia. He also played Imparja cricket, as Short is an indigenous Australian. But then he lost his way for a few years. WA coach Justin Langer told him to lose weight (he lost 15 kilograms) and take cricket seriously. His cricket looks pretty damn serious now.That’s because while he was decent and exciting last year, this season he’s scored 34, 15, 97, 96 and 42 coming into the game against the Heat. Short has gone from being a forgotten journeyman to the hottest unsigned prospect, then to the most destructive force in the Big Bash in a season and a half. He’ll be bigger than Elvis by this time next year if his career keeps going like this.Wednesday night was pure showbiz.Do you want to hear about the over he hit three straight boundaries from backward point to cover? It didn’t seem to matter that the field was packed there.Two top-edged sixes over the keeper’s head, both of them seemed as powerful as any controlled shot. Short’s hands go so quickly through the ball that for an edge to find a fielder seems lucky.The one time an edge from Short stayed inside the field, it went higher than any building in Brisbane. Joe Burns got under it, but it’s re-entry into earth’s atmosphere was too much, and he dropped it. By this point Short was already 60 off 36, he would go on to more than double it.When the Powerplay ended, Hobart were 56, at 9.3 an over, both the other two batsmen were scoring at slower than a run-a-ball, Short 36 from 17. When Wade and Short’s 50-run partnership came up, Wade had 12. On the microphone Heat captain, Brendon McCullum, joked about getting him off strike.Instead, Short faced more than half the balls. And you got a real show of what kind of batsman he was. A flat bat four over mid-on – that was unnecessarily vicious – meant McCullum changed the field, bringing up the third man. So next ball, Short backed away to a full straight ball to score another boundary through backward point. He was brutal and smart. And he’d been told by Gary Kirsten to bat long into the innings, and he batted right to the end.Then he came on to bowl. Fast, reasonably accurate left-arm wristspin, which has probably been under-used this season, but it’s quite the extra bow. 
Short dismissed the Heat’s top-scorer, Sam Heazlett, with a straight ball. He took 1 for 20, and never went for a boundary, which is huge in a high-scoring game. Short thinks he could be a potential allrounder. At the rate he improves, no one would bet against him. 

He batted the entire innings, bowled all four overs, he even had to wait for a lost Tasmanian scribe for his presser, and still went off to sign autographs. He seemed to be on the field for five hours, all of it was entertaining.When he was 13, Short played baseball. To be fair, he plays baseball now, we just call it cricket. Short’s activity rate (percentage of balls he scores from) is 65%, Despite all the runs he has scored, it’s not that high. But he hits a boundary every 4.3 deliveries., fourth best in the BBL.In 75% of his first innings’, he strikes quicker than the match run-rate. In the Powerplays, worldwide over the last two years, he’s the eighth quickest. If you bowl straight, he can pick you up, whip you, or muscle you. Outside off stump he will go straight, or create more room, and fielding at point to him is like being a victim.Getty ImagesThere was a moment where he played and missed three times from Mark Steketee slower balls. It was the only time he didn’t score from three consecutive deliveries. After the third miss, Short walked away and took a breath. Maybe, just maybe, it is slower balls that bother him. CricViz has data on balls from seamers that they consider to be slower balls, Short averages 44 and strikes at 214 against these balls.Whether the next ball was slower or not, Short aimed to hit it over the fence and down a flight of stairs. Hurricanes players not called Short struck the ball at a strike rate of 94, Short went at 177.Then there’s Short against legspin.For three seasons of the BBL, legspin was practically not bowled in the Powerplay. Then Samuel Badree turned up for the Heat, and over the two previous seasons, 29 overs of legspin were bowled in the Powerplay, and Badree bowled 25 of them.This season, 21 overs of legspin have been bowled in the Powerplay, despite the fact Badree isn’t playing. Players like Adam Zampa haven’t ever bowled early, now they do. In the 2014-15 season, no overs were bowled by them in Powerplays. This season, seven different legspinners have bowled.This all matters because Short doesn’t smash legspin. Against spin, he strikes at a respectable 131, but it’s 147 against offspin, and 128 against legspin. On Wednesday, he faced 21 balls of legspin; he scored 27 runs off it. That makes it 128, again.And while he is slower versus spin, he averages 66. Spin slows him down, but doesn’t get him out. Against quicks, he strikes at 36 while averaging 179.So that means every time he hits a legspinner, you notice it.Mitchell Swepson is containing Short pretty well, he’d taken his edge once, and certainly one of the few bowlers to slow him down. Then he tries to slide one in around leg stump, it’s a pretty decent delivery.Short moved inside the line late, deciding to sweep over short fine leg. He cleared short fine leg, and put the ball into the crowd. It wasn’t a top edge, and it wasn’t just behind square on the leg side. Short managed to sweep a legspinner flat and hard for six to fine leg. How he got that kind of speed and elevation so fine from a bowler this slow is a mystery better worked out by science.It would have been one of the most remarkable shots you had seen, unless you had been watching him this season, or even last season. This was just another six; Short hits a lot of them.

The 22nd day of Ashes combat in this series stretched the mental reserves of both teams, but some players coped better than others

Daniel Brettig at Sydney05-Jan-2018Late on the second day, as another bounteous SCG crowd lazed in the January sunshine, Tom Curran tried one of his (even) slower back-of-the-hand balls to Steve Smith. It was what can colloquially be called a “pie”, over-pitched, wide and begging to be gobbled up. Smith, who has pared down his once expansive game in order to achieve maximum efficiency, had acres of free space to hit it into, but managed only to slice it straight to backward point. Bowler and batsmen alike were united in their embarrassment.In many ways, this vignette summed up proceedings, which were of the kind that sap meaning from the term “absolute village” because it can be used so often. There was Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood competing for the simplest dropped catch of the series, James Anderson and Mason Crane conspiring for a run out to end England’s innings, then Crane offering a steady diet of half-trackers, full tosses and false starts at the bowling crease for all cricketers of modest skills to relate to.Little reasoning for all these passages of play could be found in an excellent pitch, which offered something for everyone, nor in the environs of the SCG, which under an azure sky offered up conditions that might have been termed Mary Poppins: practically perfect in every way. Instead it seemed that the aforementioned instances of indiscipline, inattention or plain old ordinariness had more to do with representing the 22nd day of an Ashes duel that in the 21st century is the longest such battle in Test cricket – Australia and England are now the only country who play a fifth Test with any level of regularity.”I don’t know whether it is because the end’s in sight, it’s been a long series, or because we’re up 3-0 or maybe we’ve just got to know each other more, played more cricket together, but here it just feels like we’ve got a job to do but enjoy it along the way,” Cummins said. “When the series is on the line and there’s so many unknowns with two or three matches left it was certainly pretty fiery and every over, every session you’re fighting. Here we know each team so well now and you know your role in the team after five Tests, those uncertainties are taken out of it, I think.”Ashes fatigue, then, provided a test of its own, as distinct from those posed by individual batsmen and bowlers to each other, most either weighed down or bolstered by the experience of crossing paths with the same opponents on multiple occasions now.No-one on either side has fallen into the former category quite like Cameron Bancroft, the West Australian opener who entered this series with a considerable head of steam. Innings of 76 not out and 86 against the Australian Test attack, followed by 228 not out against the Adelaide 12th man in Chadd Sayers, seemed to have put him in the best possible technical and temperamental frame for Ashes combat. A firm, undefeated 82 to help David Warner reel in a fourth-innings target in Brisbane only enhanced that sense.But from a point where Bancroft seemed capable of taking off, he has instead trailed off, afflicted with increasing acuteness by technical flaws that Stuart Broad and James Anderson have exploited with no little efficiency. Put simply, Bancroft has struggled to avoid edging or being bowled by the sorts of deliveries that an international standard batsman must be able to cope with. Balls of a length and line demanding coverage on the front foot, either to defend or attack.Numerous theories have been thrown around the press and commentary boxes of Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney about why this is so, ranging from the angle at which Bancroft’s bat comes down (roughly third man to mid on) to the fact that his pre-ball routine has the bat being tapped at the moment of release so there is precious little time to complete a backlift and stroke before the ball arrives at the other end.Whatever the specifics, Bancroft was left horribly exposed by the first ball he received from Broad, aiming a drive at a well-pitched delivery that also seamed. It was, in fairness, a very useful ball, very much of the kind Broad has made a habit of taking wickets with – 399 in all as of the end of day two – but one that Bancroft’s method turned into the nigh-on-unplayable. Perhaps, given the seam movement, Bancroft might have fallen lbw to it had he covered up in defence, but as it was his optimistic drive left open a gate of the dimensions that the SCG will supposedly need to have installed if it is ever to acquire a drop-in pitch.Where his debut press conference about the Jonny Bairstow “headbutt” had left Smith in stitches, here Bancroft has sounded and looked like he is in need of a mental break, followed by a technical rethink. Before this match, Bancroft had expressed hope that he would demonstrate to watching teammates, coaches and selectors that he had progressed, but instead his dismissal confirmed the impression given earlier in the week when he spoke in ways that suggested a muddled mind.The phrase “every day I wake up” was repeated, as was “life is too short”, and then it all came together with the following bit of life-coachspeak: “Life rewards action and every day I wake up and come to training, come to Test matches to play, I’m learning more about Cameron Bancroft.” He may well be, but so are the world’s bowlers. Undoubtedly, Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel have been given plentiful evidence as to how they should attack him in the event that the selectors choose to persist with him. On the evidence of day two, they will be questioning the wisdom of doing so.Lights, out: Cameron Bancroft was bowled for a duck•Getty ImagesBancroft’s exit brought Usman Khawaja to the middle. With a top score of 53 for the series and numerous starts wasted, he has been unable to maintain the sort of substantial contribution to an Australian Test summer that he made in both 2015-16 and last season. After Moeen Ali defeated Khawaja early on in Brisbane, he has faced concerted challenges from the same bowlers who have so confounded Bancroft, with the moving ball – both conventional and reverse – proving fiendish.Khawaja’s languid manner at the crease and at the microphone has not always endeared him to everyone, suggesting plenty of self-belief but also a touch of inflexibility in his methods. He has shown indignation this summer about the way he was shuffled out, then back in, then back out of, the Test team during two Asian tours, and then expressed mystification about why his comments to that effect were reported as such. At the same time Khawaja has tried not to fuss too much over the fact that the big scores have not come, instead reassuring himself that he is not out of form, merely out of runs.As he told ABC Radio in Melbourne: “Definitely less than what I hoped for, I think the difference is probably I got a couple of starts in the last couple of Test matches, 50s, and probably haven’t gone on to make a big score and got out pretty much right when I got to 50. The first time I played a bad shot, the second time was an umpire’s call 50/50 and they can go either way. If I score a hundred in one of those games then you set the game up for your team. So it’s probably disappointing in that respect, but I still feel good. I feel like I’ve contributed to the first three wins in some respect, so for me it’s just about going out there to do as well as I can to hopefully set up games. I haven’t done it this Test match, but hopefully next Test match.”That equanimity was evident in how he took his time at the SCG, strolling safely and unhurriedly to 10 from 31 deliveries before striking his first boundary. With the exception of a couple of plays and misses, Khawaja negotiated England’s pacemen with aplomb, and if he still looked somewhat uncomfortable against Moeen and the fledgling wrist spin of Crane, it was not to the extent that he worried himself into a hasty shot or a loose dismissal. At the other end Warner looked assured until the moment of his dismissal, then Smith used edge as much as middle to play in Khawaja’s slipstream.Neither Khawaja nor Smith, then, looked at their best, but in a series of this duration, the ability to overcome Ashes fatigue and simply keep going is meritorious in itself. Certainly the older pair have dealt better with the mental and technical wages of five Test matches than Bancroft. They should in turn be much the fresher and more effective in South Africa, where they will be required to play to a higher standard than the one that defined this particular day’s cricket.

As the scouting for a new full-time coach takes its natural course, the opportunity for greater re-evaluation presented by the current shake-up shouldn’t be lost on the board

Annesha Ghosh17-Jul-2018In recent times, July has seen heroes emerge among women in Indian sport. Dipa Karmakar clinched India’s maiden World Challenge Cup gold in gymnastics on July 8. Five days later, teenager Hima Das sprinted her way into national recognition with India’s first international gold in a track event.Between the jubilation surrounding these two individual feats, though, there emerged a narrative of a team grappling with the fickleness of fame and the burden of expectation in a cricket-dominated culture that accepted them ideologically as one of their own, only last July.The breakout run of India women’s cricket team at the 2017 World Cup in England had promised to be more than a performance that culminated in just a silver medal at the podium. It was a collective expression of individual brilliance that turned a group of female athletes into the “brand it is [now]” as Mithali Raj, one of their foremost exponents – and herself “a product of the brand” – said recently.A year on from the World Cup, the shock resignation of their head coach Tushar Arothe has now shoved the team into a void of uncertainty. This, at a time that the “brand” had only just started gaining traction. That the fallout coincided with a row involving one of their star performers – T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur – and her alleged fake college certificates, has only added to the disarray.The World T20 is less than four months away, so the timing isn’t favourable. And questions about the players’ temperaments haven’t helped either. Arothe saying he demanded “more honesty and more intent from the players” to come out of their “comfort zone to achieve bigger things” is perhaps not the best endorsement for any team. Especially from a former coach whose contract was extended after the team shot past expectations at their previous world tournament.While it is no secret in Indian cricket that the influence of the coach pales in significance when compared to the clout of the captain, questions remain if relations between Arothe and the two captains – Raj and Harmanpreet, who had both met with senior BCCI officials and the Committee of Administrators last month – had become untenable. Or, worse still, if disagreements intensified to the point that the BCCI and the CoA saw no room for convening a meeting with all players and support staff involved.The roots of the rot perhaps lay in the precedent set by the shocking ouster of Arothe’s predecessor, Purnima Rau, who was sacked in April 2017 despite back-to-back title-winning campaigns ahead of the World Cup. Word has it that the request for a male head coach from the senior players last year didn’t perhaps necessitate the removal of Rau, contrary to how it eventually panned out. Therefore, in light of Arothe’s premature resignation, do the board, the CoA and the players as a collective not send out the message that accountability on the part of players themselves is not to be expected for their lean returns on a tour?ESPNcricinfo understands that within days of Arothe vacating the post, the BCCI offered the job to Chandrakant Pandit, coach of reigning Ranji Trophy champions Vidarbha. Even though he declined it “on the grounds of his commitment to Vidarbha”, the BCCI’s choice appears at once logical and unreasoned. Pandit’s emphasis on clarity of thought and instilling a sense of purpose among his players has been a trademark of his success as a coach, as has his no-nonsense approach as a disciplinarian. But how would these traits have gone down with players who were unwilling to “step out of the comfort zone” during Arothe’s tenure?Mithali Raj takes a few throwdowns during Railways’ warm-up session•ESPNcricinfo/Annesha GhoshAs a short-term fix ahead of the first national camp – starting July 25 – after failure in the Asia Cup, the board named Ramesh Powar as the interim head coach.As the scouting for a new full-time coach takes its natural course, the opportunity for a greater re-evaluation presented by the current shake-up shouldn’t be lost on the board. While there is every need for scrutinising existing cultures where players appear to have some license to put an expiry date on the coach’s shelf life, the time is right, perhaps, for the BCCI and the think tank to look beyond.Truth be told, T20I cricket is not India’s strongest suit. Their last-place finish against England and Australia in the tri-series at home, or their losses to Bangladesh in the Asia Cup, only exposed their inadequacies in the format. However, that is not to say that India don’t stand a chance at the World T20; not many had backed them to even qualify for the semi-finals in the World Cup last year, let alone win it. But if myopia be cast off, isn’t there a case for the board and the management to look beyond their outing in the world tournament this November and instead devise a long-term plan for the 2020 World T20 and the 2021 World Cup? Nineteen months is adequate time to build a T20 team for the next world tournament, but does the current side have enough clarity to adapt to the rapid nature of the game?Not necessarily. India have employed the slow-starting Raj as Smriti Mandhana’s opening partner. They don’t have a second legspin option besides Poonam Yadav. There has been a lack of sustained exposure for teenagers Jemimah Rodrigues and Pooja Vastrakar. And finally, Harmanpreet’s own role as a part-time offspinner (as exposed in the Asia Cup final) and India’s poor T20I form under her captaincy since October 2016 are some of the inadequacies in the shortest format.What these patterns establish is the tendency of India to base their T20I tactics on a relatively successful ODI template, but that hasn’t worked out. The efficacy of their ODI formula too is slowly getting exposed, as witnessed earlier this year at home during their 0-3 hammering against Australia, and the jailbreak of a victory that the subsequent 2-1 series win against England proved to be.India’s current limitations in the field also mean – in Harmanpreet’s own words – that not everyone “can run all over the ground; we don’t need players [in T20Is] who can just stand in the 30-yard [circle].” Does that merit a consideration that more youngsters, or fitter players, including promising, uncapped ones from the India A squads, be given a go in T20Is?What good are the sporadic ‘A’ series going to serve anyway – there’s one in the pipeline ahead of the World T20 against a visiting Australia A side, too – if the rookies are not backed to mature through the rigours of international cricket? The Asia Cup was to be one such testing ground, but conservative selection decisions shut that opportunity down.As the administration and the team confront these questions and come to grips with the evolving profile of women’s cricket, much of the onus to salvage “brand” India women will now depend on two of its most marketable “products”. The return of Mandhana and Harmanpreet to the UK for their Kia Super League debuts later this week, and the nature of their performance in England, will add further significance to events of this month as had their knocks of 90 and 171 not-out this time last year. Those performances bookended India’s victorious run at a World Cup that made a “brand” of the team, even though they finished second.

An astonishing performance from Andre Russell in his first game as captain earned him praise on Twitter

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Aug-2018T20 performances don’t get better than Andre Russell’s in Port-of-Spain. He became only the second player to take a hat-trick and a hundred in the same T20 match, and the first to score a hundred batting at No. 7, to help Jamaica Tallawahs complete an astounding win. All this, in his first game as captain.

Thought I’d seen it all… @Russell12A batting this evening nothing short of remarkable. 5/41 when he comes in 121no off 49 balls. #CPL #biggestpartyinsport

— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket) August 11, 2018

What an innings @Russell12A … just brilliant!! #MVP pic.twitter.com/FS2ojNcXrk

— Chris Gayle (@henrygayle) August 11, 2018

This is why I love the @CPL what @Russell12A did last night was nothing short of breathtaking pure exhilaration and it’s only the first week #biggestpartyinsport #caribbeanflair

— Robin John Peterson (@robbie13flair) August 11, 2018

WOW

One of if not the best T20 innings I’ve ever seen

Take a bow @Russell12A

— Carlos Brathwaite (@TridentSportsX) August 11, 2018

@Russell12A well played Champion !!
100 and a Hat trick in the one game!
@CPL @JAMTallawahs

— Dean Jones (@ProfDeano) August 11, 2018

This is the most destructive player in the world @Russell12A haven’t seen a better innings than this yet

— Rayad Emrit (@rayad51) August 11, 2018

Did that just happen? Debut captain, hatrick, in at 5/41, a to lead the @JAMTallawahs to a win for the ages. Take a bow @Russell12A https://t.co/Px1NAqpOaH

— Mel 'MJ' Jones (@meljones_33) August 11, 2018

From not getting places to train to losing key players, it has been a difficult tour for West Indies but their captain has stood up to the challenges on and off the field

Alagappan Muthu In Hyderabad14-Oct-20181:32

‘Our top order has really let us down in recent past’ – Holder

He’s Big Jase. And he’s everywhere. In the slips for the quicks. At short cover for the spinners. Behind the glare of the cameras at the press conference. In front of the stumps, scoring fifties. And charging in at them, taking a truckload of wickets. His 5 for 56 in Hyderabad meant his name will forever be mentioned in the same sentence as Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding. They are the only West Indians with three successive five-wicket hauls in Test cricket.But the batting…The top five finish the series with a collective average of 17. And that’s the second-worst among all teams visiting India, behind the performance by Afghanistan, who were playing their first ever Test match.At 70 for 6 in the second innings on Sunday, Jason Holder was back in the middle again, with his team facing another three-day defeat. It looks like his destiny to always be stuck doing the dirty work. Back in the early years of his captaincy, that seemed like a strength. The only justification for West Indies opting for a 23-year old who had played eight Tests and 21 ODIs to lead them in international cricket. Now, it’s like he has no other choice. He’s the best in a team that has more holes than a golf course.”I think our top order has really let us down in the recent past,” Holder said. “They haven’t been getting the runs that we’ve been looking for. Anybody knows that. In any cricket, you’re asking your top five-six batters to get the bulk of the runs. It hasn’t been that way for us. We’ve been heavily reliant on our middle to lower half, which is not ideal in any circumstances. So it’s just a matter for the guys in the top five to put their hands up and come to the party.”It’s not a matter of guys having technical deficiencies, per se, it’s just the processes at the particular time may be the best one, and especially our younger players really need to understand that patience is the name of the game in Test cricket. You’ve got to build an innings; the greatest of players will always tell you that. It’s not an arena where you can just come and just beat the ball around and blast.”This entire tour of India has been a difficult experience for West Indies. They couldn’t get places to train on site. They lost key players in Rajkot. They weren’t given net bowlers in Hyderabad. Cricket pundits questioned their place in top-flight cricket. But the thing that would grate them the most is realising how they just couldn’t compete against India. West Indies’ bowlers picked up 19 wickets across two Tests, at an average of 55.73. India’s claimed 39 at an average of 19.97. West Indies’ batsmen averaged 19.45, with only four fifty-plus scores. India averaged 55.21 with eight fifty-plus scores. This was always going to be a mismatch, but those numbers show West Indies were barely even half as good as India.As a result, Holder’s bowling form was pushed to a footnote. His average of 11.87 in 2018 is the best for any seamer with a minimum of 30 wickets in a calendar year in the last 100 years.”I feel pretty good at the moment. Hard work does pay off. At the start of my Test career, it was pretty difficult. The wickets were a litter drier at that present time. I always had faith and I always had belief. I understood a lot more [about] what the game requires, and as I said before, I’ve got to build blocks and I’ve got to build pressure, and that’s my role in the team. To be a workhorse and keep my RPO at under 3 runs an over and just nibble around, and I was able to use that to my advantage.””And I’ve been watching lots of clips and stuff. People like Glenn McGrath and even James Anderson. These guys have got a lot of skill in terms of moving the ball both ways. But the one thing that’s common with both of them is the amount of pressure that they build. Whether they are bowling a particular outswinger for a length of time, or they’re challenging the stumps more often than not.”You’ve just got to understand the conditions. You’ve got to build pressure. I think field placing comes into it a lot. It’s something that I have to work on personally as a player. I think once I know my strengths and weaknesses, then obviously I can set fields, and understand my bowling and put the ball in the area that I want to put the ball. For example, a guy like Prithvi Shaw, it was a situation where he stayed leg side and tried to carve the ball over the off side, so I just made up in my mind that I was not going to give him room. If anything, I’d be nipping the ball back at his pads all the time. If he has to hit me on the leg side, so be it. My aim is not to let him score freely through the off side. It’s just an example of my thought process, and I try to be just as patient and consistent as I possibly can.”There is good in this team. With Holder, Shai Hope, Roston Chase and Shannon Gabriel, they have an outstanding core of talent that can last them for the next five to ten years. They need to find the parts that fit alongside. Solid openers. Kraigg Brathwaite seems to be a shadow of his usual self. A good No. 4. Shimron Hetmyer is an exciting strokemaker but plays one too many. An accurate spinner. Devendra Bishoo does tease with the odd magic ball, but he averages over 60 this year. Only three of his peers – having bowled at least 25 overs – have done worse. And most of all, the ability to withstand pressure. India apply a whole load of it at home. Their spinners threaten both the inside and the outside edges. The fast bowlers constantly attack the stumps. The crowd always gets behind Virat Kohli. All of this makes life hard, but as Holder himself instagramed two days before the Hyderabad Test, he won’t be giving up any time soon.

Marcus Harris took guard first up in Perth, for the first time in first-class cricket. Selflessness and teamwork on display, and it did the trick for his side

Daniel Brettig in Perth14-Dec-20181:51

‘Harris looks like a long-term player for Australia’ – Martyn

Amid all the unknowns awaiting both sides in the inaugural Test match at the cavernous Perth Stadium, Marcus Harris stared down one of a most personal batting nature when he took guard to face the opening over of the first morning.In a first-class career as an opening batsman that has spanned 70 matches, Harris had never faced the first ball of a match, habitually taking up his post at the non-striker’s end until a run was scored or the second over began. But with Aaron Finch – a relative top-order novice – as his partner and Ishant Sharma having twice created early troubles for the right-hander, Harris chose to part with seven years of habit to place himself as the primary bulwark against the new ball.As a decision and a gesture it spoke of selflessness and teamwork, reflecting that in the strange new world of Australian cricket after Newlands, it was possible to have a 26-year-old in Harris taking a leadership role in relation to a 32-year-old in Finch, while also facing a challenge he had never met before himself. Whether to do with Harris’ left-handedness, Ishant’s residual soreness from his Adelaide exertions, or the combination of a glaring sun and a fresh pitch, the move worked grandly: the over passed without batting incident, and both Harris and Finch went on from there to form a 112-run stand that should only grow in importance as the match goes on.Unquestionably, India’s pacemen did not start well, varying lines and lengths far too much despite the assistance available in the pitch, and allowing Harris and Finch to cruise to 45 without loss in the first hour. By the time they improved their radars after drinks, Harris and Finch were established, and even while finding batting increasingly difficult, they were able to survive well into the second session. As the Australian bowling coach David Saker put it:”You’re wanting to hit the top of the stumps as many times as you can, so you’ve just got to try to find a fuller length,” he told Seven. “If you’re bringing batsmen forward on any wicket you’re always a chance and that’s the one thing India haven’t done this morning is bring us forward as much as they did in Adelaide and probably haven’t been as consistent.”You could also say the batting has been better so it’s put a bit of pressure on the opposition, but you’re just trying to bring the batsman forward as much as you can. If they’re playing off the back foot they’ve got time to leave the ball, the ball’s generally going over the stumps so it needs a batsman error to get out. If we’re to get the wickets then you need to bring them forward probably everywhere in the world.”And even though the balance of the Australian batting order squandered starts – four of them, Harris included, were out playing variations of the cut shot – their strong start and collective contributions allowed Tim Paine and Pat Cummins to contemplate taking the hosts to 350 and beyond on the second morning. It had all started with Harris and Finch resolving to switch around their opening formula in the first Test, as Finch dropped down from No. 1 to No. 2. Harris’ sure-footed start, blooming into an innings speckled with 10 elegant boundaries warmly received by a crowd of 20,641, provided ample evidence the right call had been made.ALSO READ: Marcus Harris in Perth: the return of the prodigal son“Sometimes you’ve got to change it up, don’t you! I asked him if he wanted to take it in his first Test and he said no, I said ‘well now you’ve played one Test you can have it’,” Finch joked. “There was none of that chat, with Ishant first up he was happy to take the first ball.”I think what everyone’s seen from him so far, not a lot fazes him, he’s a pretty chilled out character, who just goes with the flow and that’s the way he’s always been. He’s a great guy, but I think the tightness of his technique, covers his off stump, looks to hit down the ground and for such a short guy that can be quite unique at times. He’s definitely got all the shots, but I think the way he adapts his game and his game plan depending on the wicket, depending on the attack, I think that’ll hold him in great stead.”As team-mates for state as well as country, Finch and Harris have been able to establish a rapport even though, prior to Adelaide, they had never opened together. “When you have a good relationship with somebody that stuff takes care of itself,” Finch said. “Whether it’s been over the last few years with Victoria, whether you’re having a beer at the bar and you’re chatting about cricket or whether you’re out training and talking technique or strategy or different movement patterns – it’s all just building up a relationship and we have got along really well for a few years now.”Batting out in the middle is always good fun with him, he keeps it pretty simple pretty relaxed, we just keep reminding each other to focus on what our game plan is and what our strengths are.”How valuable the Harris-Finch union will be shall become clearer as the game evolves, with so little known about a venue that has hosted only one previous first-class match, between Western Australia and New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield earlier this summer. But that small sample size alone provided reason for Australian optimism: their stumps tally of 6 for 277 is already the highest innings tally at the venue, besting the Blues’ ultimately match-winning 261.And as Harris himself recalled in the lead-up to this match, the evenness of an undermanned Australia and a seasoned India, cancelling out the conditional advantages usually able to help the hosts win comfortably, means that every player must find ways to contribute as much as possible. “I think it got down to 30 runs,” he had said of the Adelaide loss. “I know when I looked at it as a batter I thought ‘I wish I could’ve got 60 or 70’, so we got pretty close.”In taking the first ball and then going on to the score he had wished for himself in Adelaide, Harris possibly took a giant leap towards a long and fruitful Test career.

Shivam Dube’s big hits, and wins for Vidarbha, Services, Saurashtra and Himachal Pradesh headline Round 6 of the Ranji Trophy

Saurabh Somani17-Dec-2018
Tight race in groups A and B; leaders pull away in C, D
Five teams will qualify from groups A and B combined, and the jostling for positions in a particularly packed space is going to be fascinating. Saurashtra have pulled ahead of the pack to be on 25 points after their win against Maharashtra. Kerala are second with 20 points, courtesy their bonus-point win against Delhi. Below them, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha are all on 18 points. Himachal Pradesh have made a surprise surge and are on 16 points, and although Tamil Nadu are on the 12th place, they have 12 points – one win away from vaulting into the top three. That’s how close the top group is. Expect equations and places to change further, as the other rounds progress. The identities of the teams near the bottom is also interesting: Mumbai are 13th, Delhi are 15th, and Karnataka are only marginally better, on the eighth spot.Group C has Rajasthan as the runaway toppers with 34 points. Uttar Pradesh have 25 points, while Jharkhand have 24. Every team in Group C has three matches left, so in theory, lots of permutations are still possible. But these three have been a cut above the rest all through the season, and to remove them from their top perches – Services are fourth with 16 points – would require a fairly extraordinary upending of the form book.In the Plate Group, Uttarakhand are sitting pretty on 36 points, a whole 12 points clear of Puducherry, who have played one game less. The next round will pit the two against each other, and if it has a result, it could well determine which team finishes on top. Bihar are the dark horse with 21 points.Dube serves notice; Karnataka, Hyderabad do the opposite
Shivam Dube smashed five sixes in five balls to go from 45 to 75 in an over. It was an opportune time to do it, on the eve of the IPL auctions – not that Dube isn’t already on the radar of teams.On the other hand, there was some distinctly un-IPL like play, too. Karnataka had been set 173 to win in a session. They began cautiously, had a brief period where they seemed to challenge the target thanks to Mayank Agarwal’s big-hitting, but then shut shop when Agarwal was out. They ended up on 107 for 4 in 27 overs, with the teams shaking hands early.Elsewhere, Hyderabad were turgid in their approach and made Bengal’s first-innings run-rate of 2.78 look like a Powerplay. Bengal’s slowness was partly due to their innings being a one-man show, Abhimanyu Easwaran scoring more than half of their runs with 186. Hyderabad, on the other hand, seemed intent to play only for the first-innings lead. On the third day, they scored 184 runs in 77 overs with their top-order batting losing only three wickets. The last of those came in the penultimate over of the day. Eventually, they fell short of Bengal’s 336, being bowled out for 312 despite their go-slow approach.Abhimanyu Easwaran celebrates a century•Abhimanyu EaswaranTripura create history
In all their first-class history, Tripura had won only eight matches before this round. None of those wins were by 10 wickets or an innings – so Tripura had never won with a bonus point. That changed against Goa in this round. Pratyush Singh’s 110 had taken them to 358. A collective bowling effort across two innings – Goa were made to follow on – resulted in a fourth-innings target of just eight runs. Tripura’s openers took just five balls to get there, giving the team seven points and lifting them above Goa in Group C to be second-last.Services, too, won with a bonus point, as Diwesh Pathania sent Assam to 256 all out. Services had a target of 72, but with Rajat Paliwal there, they achieved that comfortably. Paliwal had made 180 batting at No. 4 in the first innings. This time, he came out to open, a statement of intent perhaps and an attempt to get the bonus point. The move worked, with Paliwal unbeaten on 39 off 48 balls.Left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate ran through Railways with 6 for 43 – taking career-best match figures of 9 for 109 – to give Vidarbha a 118-run win. Railways were bowled out in just 24.2 overs in the morning, having resumed at their overnight dig on 19 for 1.In other results, Himachal Pradesh notched up a significant win, beating Andhra by an innings and three runs to pocket a bonus point. Andhra had resumed on 175 for 1, but losing centurion CR Gnaneshwar precipitated a collapse from 194 for 1 to 284 all out. Meanwhile, Saurashtra were made to work towards a target of 117, but got there with five wickets in the bag. Maharashtra were 157 for 3 overnight, but couldn’t carry on, with Dharmendrasinh Jadeja taking career-best figures of 7 for 55. It included Kedar Jadhav stumped for a first-ball duck.Mayank Agarwal jumps in jubilation•PTI Brief scoresGroups A and B:
Mumbai 465 (Iyer 178, Lad 130, Hardik Pandya 5-81, Bhatt 4-76) & 307/7 (Ranjane 64, Kerkar 56, Dube 76, Hardik Pandya 2-21) drew with Baroda 436 (Waghmode 114, Solanki 133, Hardik Pandya 73, Dias 4-99 in Mumbai
Saurashtra 398 (Vishvaraj Jadeja 97, Snell Patel 84, Vasavada 62, Sanklecha 6-103) & 120/5 (Desai 44) beat Maharashtra 247 (Jadhav 99, Sakariya 6-63) & 267 (Motwani 120*, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 7-55) by 5 wickets in Nasik
Kerala 320 (Rahul 77, Manoharan 77, Saxena 68, Shivam 6-98) beat Delhi 139 (Saxena 6-39) & 154 (Warrier 3-39, Saxena 3-49) by an innings and 27 runs in Thumba
Tamil Nadu 215 (Vijay Shankar 71, Gony 5-55) & 383/6 (Abhinav 74, Indrajith 93, Karthik 74) drew with Punjab 479 (Gill 268, Mandeep 50, Sai Kishore 6-107) in Mohali
Group C
Jharkhand 354 (Jaggi 95, Kishan 54, Nadeem 109, Dhruv 6-105) & 213/5 (Deobrat 78, Kishan 53, Yash Dayal 3-49) drew with Uttar Pradesh 243 (Garg 54, Raina 75, Rinku 53, Rahul Shukla 5-65, Varun Aaron 4-59) & 174/1 (Saif 64*, Garg 80*) in Lucknow
Services 396 (Navneet 79, Paliwal 180, Kalita 3-99) & 75/0 (Paliwal 39*) beat Assam 211 (Sinha 56, Pandey 5-74) & 256 (Gokul 56, Purkayastha 74, Pathania 5-56) by 10 wickets in New Delhi
Jammu & Kashmir 161 (Ajit Chahal 3-31, Yuzvendra Chahal 3-50) & 205 (Owais 71, Ajit Chahal 3-55, Yuzvendra Chahal 4-37) beat Haryana 145 (Rohit 41, Mudhasir 4-50, Umar Nazir 5-55) & 91 (Irfan Pathan 5-18, Umar Nazir 3-29) by 130 runs in Lahli
Rajasthan 135 (Lomror 85, Basant Mohanty 6-20) & 148 (Gautam 51, Basant Mohanty 5-29) beat Odisha 111 (Choudhary 5-49, Tanvir 5-14) & 137 (Suryakant Pradhan 56, Choudhary 5-35, Tanvir 3-39) by 35 runs in Bhubaneswar
Tripura 358 (Pratyush 110, Rajib Saha 68*, Amit Verma 3-87) & 9/0 beat Goa 192 (Kauthankar 79, Abhijit Sarkar 4-29, Ajoy Sarkar 3-42) & 173 (Prabhudessai 65, Harmeet 3-46, Murasingh 3-55) by 10 wickets in Agartala
Plate Group
Bihar 242 (Babul 43, Lakhan 3-30) beat Meghalaya 125 (Biswa 56, Aman 8-51) & 46 (Aman 6-17, Quadri 4-24) by an innings and 71 runs in Shillong
Mizoram 161 (Taruwar 74, Chaudhary 5-57) & 162/8 (Taruwar Kohli 105*, Chaudhary 4-74) trail Sikkim 332 (Milind 139, Sinan 3-74) & 170 (Thapa 44, Bipul 65, Taruwar Kohli 5-39) by 179 runs in Jorhat
Puducherry 136 (Fabid 41*, Deendyal 4-36, Neri 3-28) & 351 (Dogra 139, Fabid 88, Deendyal 4-63, Neri 3-76) beat Arunachal 82 (Fabid 6-29) & 71 (Pankaj 5-25, Rohit 4-7) by 334 runs in Goalpara
Nagaland 207 (Jonathan 69, Dhapola 5-49) & 182/4 (Rupero 85) trail Uttarakhand 557 (Vineet 185, Panwar 101, Kazi 3-124) lead by 168 runs in Dehradun

Four years after a pummeling at the hands of Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, the offspinner returns to the UAE as a smarter bowler who has learned to tailor his style to Asian pitches

Daniel Brettig24-Sep-2018Nathan Lyon’s previous visit to the UAE for Test matches was a horror show. In two Tests in late 2014 he was outright bullied by Pakistan – swept with impunity by Younis Khan in Dubai, thumped out of sight by Misbah-ul-Haq in Abu Dhabi – and finished the series with the following set of numbers: three wickets at 140.66, at a cost of 3.83 runs per over.While Lyon would go home to be the match-winner of the memorable Adelaide Test against India, the ugliness of his domination by Pakistan would be an early step on his long road to learning how to bowl fruitfully in Asian conditions. The term he coined in concert with his mentor John Davison was “bowl ugly”, a conscious abandonment of the topspinning, flight-and-drop method he favoured in Australia to embrace the flatter, tighter, “trap them on the crease and hit the stumps” ways of spinners raised in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh.Four years later, Lyon has returned to the UAE as Australia’s undisputed No. 1 spin bowler, and also the most experienced member of a touring team shorn of Steven Smith and David Warner by the Newlands ball-tampering scandal. While the coach Justin Langer, captain Tim Paine and selection chairman Trevor Hohns must find a way to cope without the two men who topped Australia’s Test aggregates and averages in 2014, Lyon at least knows what he must do, in concert with Jon Holland and the pacemen.”I think I’m a better cricketer and a better person to be honest,” Lyon said in Dubai. “The amount of cricket we play, you keep learning, and if you’re not learning that’s where you start getting in a little bit of trouble. But I’ve definitely learned a lot from past experiences in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, even going back to Dubai here. So I feel like I’m in such a better place, very happy with the way I bowled today, very confident the way they’re coming out, and that’s in my terms the ugly style.”For me, this is my term, it’s about bowling ugly over here, going away from what I’ve fallen in love with, the offspinning ball, spinning up the back of the ball with that nice shape. We have to find a way to hit the stumps, and that may be bowling square or round-arm or whatever it may be. It’s having those conversations and we’ve got a brilliant lead-up here before the first Test match. The four-day game here in a few days is going to be a great time for us to experiment, and also to see the way they’re going to play us.”I know four years ago they really tried to attack me last time they were here, so I’m expecting pretty much the same type of batting. They’ve got different guys rather than Younis and Misbah, but they’ve still got a very talented batting line-up, some superstars in there already, so it’s going to be a great challenge. They’re going to bring the game to us, and that’s going to be an exciting part.”

“It’s about bowling ugly over here, going away from what I’ve fallen in love with, the offspinning ball, spinning up the back of the ball with that nice shape. We have to find a way to hit the stumps, and that may be bowling square or round-arm or whatever it may be.”Nathan Lyon

Recognition of the callowness of the squad, save for Lyon, Mitchell Starc and the recalled Peter Siddle, arrived in the first few days of acclimatisation after the Australians landed in Dubai. Lyon and Starc sat together and pondered their roles as bowling leaders, before broadening the commission to help ensure every bowler – whether Holland, Michael Neser or even the youthful Brendan Doggett – is up to the task, whether it is to attack, defend or somewhere in between.”I know Starcy and I spoke a bit about that sitting in I think it was his room the other night, but it’s just about providing good examples and leading the way as we try to do each and every game,” Lyon said. “The big thing over here is we’re going to have to bowl well in partnerships. The fast bowlers are not just here to make up the overs, they’re here to attack and defend in whatever the roles may be at the right times.”There’s not just one certain person who has to stand up here, it’s the whole bowling unit. It’s going to be a great challenge, and if we can bowl well in partnerships and really put the Pakistan batting lineup under pressure and make sure they’re being asked questions of their defence, that’s going to be the biggest thing.”I’m a big fan of Jon Holland. He’s done extremely well in the Shield back home over the last few years, he’s a very talented bowler, he spins up the back of the ball, which I love. It’s my absolute mantra, especially bowling spin, so to see him doing that out here, we’re good mates as well, so our communication and bowling out in the middle today was brilliant. Hopefully we can really build that relationship here and really take that out into the middle. That’ll be a massive key for us.”While Lyon spoke of being open to playing three spin bowlers, the selectors have rather shown their hand by leaving Ashton Agar at home to play extra domestic limited-overs matches before he joins the Test squad this week. Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne and the seam-bowling allrounder Mitchell Marsh will be the extra balance components for the touring team. Additionally, Lyon noted the fact that in 2014, it was not so much the breadth of spin as the flatness of the pitches that helped Pakistan wear the Australians down.”If it’s going to be a Pune [in India in 2017] wicket, why wouldn’t you play three spinners,” Lyon said. “But going off the last tour here, they were pretty flat, they were hard work, and with the two guys in my eyes vying for batting five or six, Marnus and Travis Head, and they both offer us a spin component as well, I think we’re going to have a minimum of three spinners in the side no matter what anyway, and whether they want to go with three frontline spinners is totally up to Cracker [Trevor Hohns], JL and Tim Paine, what type of way they play their cricket.”Out here it was pretty flat, Abu Dhabi was pretty flat last time and looked to spin later in the game, but if you look four years ago we got beaten on the inside of the bat, so we actually got out when the ball was going straight on, so good luck to the selectors…”

England’s bowling was competitive but Joe Root only produced in the final innings of the tour and too many other players underperformed

George Dobell13-Feb-20198Mark Wood (six wickets at 15.50)
Only called into the squad after Olly Stone suffered injury, Wood showed what England had been missing with a blistering spell of fast bowling in St Lucia. Reaching speeds of 94.6mph, he made good batsmen look uncomfortable on a pretty easy-paced surface. Unable to repeat such dramatic returns in the second innings, Wood has nevertheless re-established himself among England’s first-choice squad and provided a telling reminder of the values of pace.7.5James Anderson (10 wickets at 24.50)
A series that started and ended well, but contained some tough moments in between. Anderson claimed a five-wicket haul in the first innings in Barbados but, having delivered 30 overs in that innings, then found himself in the field again a couple of hours later and was obliged to bowl another 18. It was a typically whole-hearted performance from Anderson when a couple of colleagues went missing. He produced another incisive spell with the new ball in the second innings in St Lucia but was unable to exploit the uneven surface in Antigua.7Stuart Broad (four wickets at 30.75)
Bowled rather better than the figures suggest. Left out for the Barbados Test, on a surface that would probably have suited him perfectly, Broad bowled well without much fortune when recalled in Antigua. While he may have been just a fraction short, he beat the bat often and suffered a couple of dropped chances while sporting a shorter run-up that appeared not to have robbed him of any pace. Took an outstanding catch in St Lucia.6Ben Stokes (186 runs at 37.20, 10 wickets at 22.80)
England’s highest run-scorer in the series and, at times, best seamer. This was certainly not a vintage series for Stokes – he failed to reach 35 when the series was alive – but his bowling stamina and commitment with the ball were admirable in Barbados and, in St Lucia, he made his highest score since his 2017 arrest in Bristol.Moeen Ali (77 runs at 15.40, 14 wickets at 23.85)
Finished as England’s top wicket-taker for the second series in succession and top-scored in Antigua. But this was not a happy series for Moeen with the bat, in particular. Apart from that 60 in the second Test, he failed to reach 15 in the rest of the series and suffered a pair in Barbados. Largely went missing with the ball in Barbados, but came back strongly as a spinner as the series progressed. Took an outstanding catch in the second innings in St Lucia.Mark Wood celebrates in idiosyncratic style•Associated Press4.5Rory Burns (145 runs at 24.16)
Apart from one good innings in Barbados, this was a series of missed opportunities for Burns. He looked relatively solid against a fine new-ball attack but, having looked set, failed to capitalise. He never again reached 30 and several times, such as when late-cutting to slip in Antigua or clipping to square leg in St Lucia, suffered soft dismissals. He did, however, take some excellent catches in the field.Jos Buttler (178 runs at 29.66)
Twin half-centuries in the final Test came too late to change the result of the series. Until that point, Buttler had made just 55 from four innings. He endured a grim series in the field, too, and has now dropped 10 out of 24 chances since returning to the Test team. By some calculations he dropped six in this series, though a couple were fiendishly tough.Joe Denly (112 runs at 28.00
But for an umpiring error and a dropped chance, Denly would have suffered a duck on debut. But, having been thrown in as opener, he batted at No. 3 in St Lucia and took advantage of an early reprieve to make an increasingly pleasing 69. Not necessarily the end of the line.Ben Foakes (55 runs at 13.75, two catches)
There were moments, such as when he made 35 in the first innings in Antigua, when Foakes looked as if he had as good a batting technique as anyone in the England side. But, having failed to reach 15 in his three other innings, Foakes was the fall guy for England’s series defeat and was left out in St Lucia.4Jonny Bairstow (110 runs at 22.20, three catches)
A series that started with Bairstow as a specialist batsman coming in at No. 3 ended with him reclaiming the gloves and batting at No. 7. It didn’t seem to make too much difference: he was bowled three times in the series and leg-before on another occasion, a state of affairs that hints at a looseness of technique and temperament.Joe Root (177 runs at 29.50)
The series may have finished well, with a century in St Lucia and act of leadership that transcended the game, but this was a disappointing tour for Root. As a captain, he overbowled Stokes and Anderson in Barbados and he was party to the confused selection that hampered his team throughout. He was also responsible for the simplistic “you don’t win games by batting time” message that may have contributed to England’s loose play in Antigua and Barbados. Most of all, when the series was alive, he failed to score the runs his side required.Keaton Jennings reacts after being caught off the bowling Keemo Paul•Getty Images2Sam Curran (50 runs at 16.66, one wicket at 161.00)
A reputation-puncturing series. Having been selected ahead of Broad in Barbados, Curran largely squandered the new ball and was then exposed for a lack of pace. On this occasion, he was unable to compensate with the bat and was dropped for the final Test. Aged 20, he is young enough to come again, but it may have to be as a batting allrounder.Keaton Jennings (62 runs at 15.50)
Dropped after Barbados and recalled after Antigua, this was a series in which Jennings’ weakness outside off stump was brutally exposed. For an opening batsman, it is a fatal flaw. Bearing in mind his average of 1.33 against straight seam bowling in the series against India, it remains almost incredible he was selected.Adil Rashid (13 runs at 6.50, no wickets)
Picked for a Barbados Test in which he should probably not have played, Rashid failed to maintain much control and failed twice with the bat. He was dropped as a consequence and may find it tough to win a recall.

Armed with an unorthodox action and a sharp bowling brain, Jasprit Bumrah has staked legit claims to being the best bowler in the world across formats

Sidharth Monga01-Jan-20194:03

The Cricket Tragic’s Review of Boxing Day Test

“…”Shoaib Akhtar explains many things bowling beautifully, but possibly nothing quite like his own bowling. He was born with flat feet and super flexible joints. His shoulder, elbow and wrist all hyper-extended. He once said a normal person’s joints move 20%, his moved 42%. Doctors who were testing his action in Perth apparently told him he was “pathetically abnormal”.Translated from Punjabi, what Shoaib meant to say with the lash is that his noodle arm – and he has displayed it by placing his hand on a table with the palm facing down and the weight on the wrist twisting his arm freakishly – creates an illusion, when swung hard, not dissimilar to the whip on a golf club, when the straight golf club looks like it is bent.Freeze the frame – from square-on – on the point where Jasprit Bumrah is about to release the ball. It is a sight to behold just for the contorted shape the body has to get into to bowl fast. Then you look at his arm. It is the same noodle arm as Shoaib. It is like the whip on the golf club. Bumrah has never spoken about it, but he is clearly born with hyper-extension in joints.This is actually unhealthy, make no mistake about it. It is a “condition”. It leads to injuries. Injuries take time to heal. But if a bowler can harness it – Shoaib, RP Singh, Lasith Malinga, Mustafizur Rahman, Muttiah Muralitharan among spinners – oh he has a gift. This is what gives Bumrah pace despite a run-up that is little longer than Nathan Lyon’s. This is what gives him that deceptive slower ball. “The way he bowls is so much more different to anyone,” says Bumrah’s captain, Virat Kohli, “And I think he realises that more than the batsmen, and that’s why he is so confident about his skills.”Jasprit Bumrah in his pre-delivery leap•Getty Images

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Great gifts come at great cost. Shoaib kept getting injured because of his malleable joints, the same malleable joints that gave him pace and deception. Bumrah was always an injury risk. B Arun, the current India bowling coach, worked with Bumrah at the NCA when he was not even 19. “I felt that Bumrah was able to generate a lot of pace with his action, which is unique,” Arun says, “but puts a lot of strain on his body. So, it was a challenge and we had discussions with the physios and trainers and we came to the conclusion that we needed to work on him to become extremely strong to be able to sustain his bowling.”ALSO READ: Kohli says he doesn’t want to be a batsman facing BumrahKohli knows obsession and fitness when he sees it. He rarely says it about another athlete, but in Bumrah he has seen the obsession. He and the selectors saw it in ODI cricket. Bumrah had reserves even in his last spell. Kohli must have seen it in the gym. “He was training like he wanted to play Test cricket,” Kohli says. “He was that obsessed about his fitness levels, and his work ethics.”Before coming to Australia, Bumrah knew it was going to be the most exacting tour he has been to. The pitches are hard, the outfields soft. He came to Australia leaner but with a stronger core; in the lead-up, he stuck to a strict diet. This is a bowler who knows how to preserve his gift and make the most of it.

It takes dedication and hardwork to consistently improve yourself.#stayfit #RaiseTheBar pic.twitter.com/kHmOcwLut2

— Jasprit bumrah (@Jaspritbumrah93) November 17, 2017

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In 2018, Bumrah went to South Africa as part of the Test side without having played any first-class cricket in the year before that. There was natural skepticism attached to the move. Then India went one step ahead, and played him in the first Test, possibly because Ishant Sharma was unwell on the morning of the game.

Dennis Lillee has recently been reminded of his mate Jeff Thomson when he watches Bumrah’s unconventional bowling

Brought on as first change, Bumrah went for 31 runs in his first spell of seven overs. This was Kohli’s first Test as a full-time captain in a country that is considered to be challenging for India. It smacked of the same magic-wand complex that characterised his selection of Karn Sharma in Adelaide 2014-15, a selection that possibly cost India the Test. In a low-scoring game such as Cape Town, such a spell – he went for 73 in 19 overs – might just have been the difference between a win and a loss. You felt Bumrah was bowling ODI lengths: too full when full, too short when looking to hit that hard length.ALSO READ: Ashwin trains in SCG nets in race for final-Test fitnessAnd yet there Bumrah was, learning from his mistakes, correcting his lengths, faster than any India seamer in recent times has. He was their best bowler in the second innings, taking out AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock. In Centurion, he was a little better, one time threatening to run through South Africa in the third innings.

By the time he arrived in Johannesburg, Bumrah was a proper beast, a veteran in only his third Test. He has taken five-fors on his first trips to South Africa, England and Australia. While five-fors are not the purest metric – they also depend on how well others are bowling and who is fresh when a collapse is beginning – 48 wickets at an average of 21 and a strike-rate of 47 do not lie. And he has taken important wickets.

Bumrah has not just taken 42 wickets this calendar year, he has taken important ones. How do I know? He has broken FIVE half-century stands and THREE century stands in the year away from home in Tests. No other Indian bowler has over five in total. #Bumrah #AUSvsIND pic.twitter.com/2Fu2lQzqzz

— Rohit Sankar (@imRohit_SN) December 28, 2018

ESPNcricinfo’s control percentage numbers go deeper, in terms of judging the amount of uncertainty a bowler creates. It is perhaps not perfect in isolation but over a series it is a good general comparison outside the actual result, which is not always representative of how well someone has bowled or batted.

In South Africa, among bowlers who bowled in all three matches of the series, batsmen were in least control against Bumrah. He drew uncertainly on 27.49% of the balls he bowled, pipping Kagiso Rabada’s 27.48%. Lungi Ngidi and Dale Steyn had a better percentage, but they didn’t play the entire series. In the three Tests he played in England – he missed two, not because of lack of fitness but a broken thumb – Bumrah drew 27% non-in-control response from the batsmen, behind only Mohammed Shami’s 28.53%. In Australia, Bumrah is the leader again, drawing 25% uncertainty.

Nowadays Bumrah just rocks up and knows what lengths he needs to bowl on which pitch. If India have batted first – which has happened four times in Bumrah’s nine Tests – he starts on the money. If India are bowling first, on a surface whose nature is not known, he always corrects his lengths in his second spell. There is a clear pattern of improvement over subsequent spells for Bumrah; no other India bowler since Bumrah’s debut has any such pattern over spells. And Bumrah bowls long spells.

Bumrah’s problem with no-balls is well documented. There was the one in the Champions Trophy final in 2017. Then in the Test series last year, Bumrah bowled five no-balls in England; two of them were wickets. And yet, on the Australia tour he has not come close to bowling one in 134 overs. It’s gone. Done.Bumrah is a freak who does regular things just as well. Dennis Lillee has recently been reminded of his mate Jeff Thomson when he watches Bumrah’s unconventional bowling, but just think of a slightly slower but much more accurate Thomson when you think Bumrah.

He is never angry. He never sledges. He never goes over the top. Send-off? What for? His relaxed celebrations are like he is saying “Yeah, there is no big deal getting you out.” “No wicket is big enough for me.”

I asked him at a press conference in Adelaide how he figures out what areas to bowl on what pitch and in what condition so quickly, how he keeps correcting himself so swiftly; it is something some veterans of Test cricket still struggle at. “There is no secret,” Bumrah said. “I try to ask questions to players who have played here before, or wherever they have played. In England, when I was not playing, I was bowling in the nets, I was keeping an eye on what was happening. So try to copy that in the nets. In South Africa, I was consistently playing one-day cricket. I was bowling, there was a lot of overs under my belt. I always try to learn, I always try to ask questions. I try and keep an eye on the opposition as well, what is working for them, maybe try and learn from them. All these things always help you. Do your research, do your homework, keep an eye on the lengths of the different grounds and different players, what they do.I asked if he talks to anyone about this. “I didn’t talk to anyone in particular but watching old footages, what works over here, how they have taken wickets. Watching good spells of old bowlers, what they have done over here, how to get wickets. Asking the bowling coach questions, asking the senior players who have come here before who know what to do over here.”Jasprit Bumrah’s lengths at the MCG•ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the mornings, during the warm-ups, you can see Bumrah talk to Mitchell Johnson, his former Mumbai Indians team-mate, and also the likes of Glenn McGrath. Those in the know call Bumrah an “autonomous” cricketer. You don’t have to look after him, you don’t have to spoon-feed him. He thinks, he asks his questions himself, he finds out what is good for him instead of being told the same.

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That autonomy is almost as unique for today’s cricketers as Bumrah’s action and even his celebrations. He is never angry. He never sledges. He never goes over the top. Send-off? What for? He is not even dismissive of you as Mohammad Asif used to be. Asif was once disappointed de Villiers got out even before he could finish the set-up.When Bumrah set Keaton Jennings up in Southampton, revealing his inswinger to the left-hand batsmen with just a changed seam position, he made Jennings look like an utter fool, but he didn’t go around running. The set-up of Shaun Marsh with a lethal slower ball last before lunch in Melbourne did the batsman just as much discredit. Bumrah never showed it. And yet there is a slight bit of that Asif disdain in Bumrah’s relaxed celebrations. “Like, yeah, there is no big deal getting you out.” “No wicket is big enough for me.”All this comes from confidence that comes with knowledge you have all the tools, all the freakishness, all the wisdom – or the willingness to attain wisdom – all the fitness, and all the autonomy. Some day he will tell you – probably not as evocatively as Shoaib – where he gets all this from.