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From a newcomer in 2014 to a seasoned campaigner in 2021, his return to Kanpur will complete a circle of sorts in his career

Shashank Kishore25-Nov-20215:16

Pravin Amre on Shreyas Iyer: ‘He is mentally strong, and backs his instincts’

[Bugger, do something tomorrow. You’ve been sitting outside and clapping for others. Go out there and score, others will clap for you].Pravin Amre knew in his mind he was firing up Shreyas Iyer, the boy he’d known as a 12-year-old, ahead of what he believes was a make-or-break Ranji Trophy fixture in Kanpur in December 2014.Amre, Mumbai’s head coach then, had staved off opposition from certain quarters, but eventually had his way with Iyer’s selection, despite two failures in his first two matches. It didn’t help that Mumbai’s campaign was in doldrums. A first-ever loss to Jammu & Kashmir was followed by Railways grabbing first-innings points.Related

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Amre’s job, and Iyer’s position, were both under scrutiny. But four days later, Iyer, all of 19 then, not only made his mark as a red-ball batter, but perhaps ended up saving Amre’s job, too. In Kanpur, a Mumbai batting star had emerged.Seven years later, Iyer returns to this very scene of his emergence. At the same Green Park where he made a competent UP attack, comprising Praveen Kumar and Ankit Rajpoot, look pedestrian. On Thursday, Iyer will be India’s 303rd male Test cricketer. A cap that has taken its time coming. One that has come after 4592 first-class runs in 54 matches at an average of 52.18.”He deserves it,” Amre says.

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The circumstances of his breakout knock deserve a mention.On a green top, Mumbai had sunk to 53 for 5 in response to UP’s 206. As wickets kept tumbling, Iyer was making a mad dash of his own in the dressing room. He had forgotten his kit in the team hotel. A furious Amre looked on even as Iyer hurriedly put on Shardul Thakur’s gear and walked out to bat.”Pravin sir was unhappy. In my head I was being knocked,” Iyer said after that breakout knock. “I knew if I did not score runs there, I would have been bombarded from all sides.”He went out and flayed his third ball over the bowler’s head. Standing two steps out of the crease, he whipped Praveen Kumar from outside off to the midwicket fence off his fourth ball, and crashed a glorious extra cover drive off the next delivery. Before UP could react, Mumbai were on the march once again.Shreyas Iyer receives his India Test cap from Sunil Gavaskar•BCCISix boundaries flowed off Iyer’s first 10 balls. By the time Iyer walked off, he’d blasted 75 demoralising runs against UP. Mumbai built a lead, went on to win and turned their disastrous Ranji campaign in style. Iyer finished the season with 809 runs. And to banish any murmurs of second-season blues, he followed that with a blockbuster 1321 runs, ending just 95 runs short of VVS Laxman’s then record for the most runs in a Ranji Trophy season, in the 2015-16 season which Mumbai won.”It proved to be a turning point for him,” Amre recounts. “It’s amazing he’s now debuting at the very venue where he first made a mark.”

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This isn’t Iyer’s first brush with the Indian Test team. In March 2017, he was called in as Virat Kohli’s replacement for the fourth and final Test against Australia in Dharamsala. He only joined the squad on the eve of the Test but got to spend the week and soak in a series-defining victory.That call-up was a result of a dominating display a few weeks earlier in a warm-up game that was accorded first-class status. Iyer copped a mouthful from the visitors but gave back in kind.”Show us what you’ve got, I can’t see anything in your game,” David Warner sledged Iyer as he took strike. He responded by stepping out and hitting Nathan Lyon for six off the very first ball he faced. Iyer would go on to make 202*, his highest first-class score till date.The fearlessness in Iyer’s game stems from the immense self-confidence he has. And it’s unique because at the time of his emergence, Mumbai players swore by the “” mentality. Iyer was different. He not only veered away from it, but spoke refreshingly about how khadoos wasn’t his style.He wanted to take the game head on, and not get bogged down. It’s instead about instincts and without any half-measures. It perhaps explains his incredible strike rate of 82 over 54 first-class matches. At the Ranji Trophy final in 2015-16, Iyer made a match-winning 117 at a strike rate of 82.That double-ton against the Australians in 2017 came off just 210 deliveries. In the same year, against a competent New Zealand A attack, comprising Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Ish Sodhi, Iyer scored 108 and 82, both at better than a run a ball, in the two unofficial Tests in Vijayawada.On Thursday, Shreyas Iyer became India’s 303rd male Test cricketer•BCCI

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Amre, a man with a sharp eye for talent, remembers giving Iyer a million instructions as head coach, only to see his ward attempt the complete opposite. The fearless look in Iyer’s eyes and a calm assurance while explaining his methods convinced him of the need to let him hone his own style.”He’s got his own style, I was criticised so many times [about the need to change his style],” Amre says. “Most of the time as Mumbai batters, we’re not just , but also copy book. He was the guy who used to go and whack the first ball to the on side, and some experts never liked that. Mumbai cricket was based on taking your time in the middle, getting settled, but from ball one he wanted to dominate. I also promoted him because this was his own style, and I didn’t want to lose his style.”He started off at No. 6-7, I challenged him he has to be batting at 3. And then I was looking for options [as coach], he came up and said he’ll do the job at three. It was his self-confidence that spoke volumes of his ability.”Four years ago, after he missed his India debut by a whisker, Amre remembers a disappointed Iyer expressing hurt.”He’s a good student of the game, knows the competition he faces,” he says. “Four-five years back he said, if I’d been playing for any other country, I would’ve played Tests. I told him, it doesn’t come easy, it’s worth waiting to get your Test cap. He’s generally outspoken but respects his seniors but knows his game and backs his instincts. He won’t show-off, he’s a confident guy who likes taking up challenges.

Mumbai cricket was based on taking your time in the middle, getting settled, but from ball one he wanted to dominate. I also promoted him because this was his own style, and I didn’t want to lose his style.Pravin Amre on coaching Shreyas Iyer back in 2014

“When you’re playing T20s, one-day and four-day, the challenge for Iyer was to adapt quickly. And he was very open and receptive. He had complete trust in me, open to listen to the changes I had the authority to tell him. This season it was key for him to emerge from the shoulder surgery, those months were key for him to refresh.”Any cricketer is anxious, given the middle order we have with India,” Amre says. “As a coach, the challenge was to return to the benchmark we had set before his injury, and we had to build our way towards it. Sitting at home, it was really frustrating for him, he hates sitting indoors. So those two months were critical. He was spot on with his rehabilitation, we built gradually towards his resumption.”What are the aspects of his red-ball game that has tremendously improved since he first saw him in the Mumbai set up?”His knack to hit boundaries, his ability to get the game moving, get hundred runs in a session can take the game away from opponents,” he says. “He focuses on driving the game forward, not just occupy the crease.”When Iyer walks out to bat at Green Park, it’s safe to assume he’ll have thousands clapping for him. From a newcomer in 2014 to a seasoned campaigner in 2021, his return to Kanpur will also complete a circle of sorts in his career.

Their invincibility seemed to be wearing off in 2017, but in just five years, they have managed to scale unimaginable heights

Annesha Ghosh04-Apr-2022What does it say about a team that fielded the same XI in only two successive matches and still romped to their seventh 50-over world title without losing a single game? Or that this side had chosen a World Cup final of all occasions to rejig their batting order to a first-of-its-kind make-up and yet ended up being in control through all the chopping and changing?What Australia achieved throughout their title-winning 2022 ODI World Cup bull-run, rounding it off with a 71-run win against holders England, is well beyond the imagination of most teams. In a tournament that will go down as one of the most closely contested world events, Australia showed they are beyond the reach of any other team.”That’s the style of play that we wanted to go out there and play,” Meg Lanning, the captain, said after Australia piled on 356, the highest total in the final of any women’s world event, and defended it comprehensively. “Like, it’s taking the game on, it’s being brave. I think Motty [head coach Matthew Mott] said in the message earlier today to the group to be brave and go out there and get the game.Related

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“The game is not going to come to us; it owes us nothing. We have to go out there and play it and win it. And that’s what happened today. A really, really impressive thing for our team is to not get scared or fear the big stage, in big moments. We want to be part of it. And that’s what really drives us.”Where Australia found themselves at on a heady Sunday night in Christchurch, kissing the silverware amid showers of champagne and confetti, was a long way off the chastening failures of 2016 and 2017, which unseated them from the limited-overs throne. West Indies beat them in the 2016 T20 World Cup final, India knocked them out in the 2017 ODI World Cup semi-final, and in the space of 15 months, their aura of invincibility had gone.Australia embarked on a meticulous soul-searching process, most notably after the “kick up the butt” that was the 2017 World Cup exit. The process brought about a much-needed reset of team culture and set them on a five-year period of out-and-out world domination that saw them win two T20 world titles [in 2018 and 2020] and a second Women’s ODI Championship [2017-21], chart a world-record 26-ODI winning run from January 2018 to October 2021, retain the Ashes, and crown their historic course-correction with the 2022 world title.

“The game is not going to come to us; it owes us nothing. We have to go out there and play it and win it. And that’s what happened today”Meg Lanning

“Just the shift in attitude and mindset to really take the game on all the time,” Australia’s premier allrounder Ellyse Perry, who played the final as a specialist batter after missing the previous two matches through back injury, explained. “Something that’s really stood out for me this time is just the way that the group has dealt with pressure along the way.”It hasn’t all gone our way at different points in time. We’ve certainly been challenged, but we’ve always found our way through that. And I think that’s a huge shift from back in 2017. And just that mentality and the poise under pressure from across the board, it’s just been great.”The fact that Australia won the 2020 T20 world title at home despite Perry missing the knockouts owing to a hamstring injury, and that they had “plans Bs and Cs”, as Mott put it, through this World Cup, spoke of the team’s robust feeder line of talent and the big-match nous of their established campaigners. That Perry batted at No. 7 in Sunday’s final, after not having slotted in below No. 6 in ODIs since 2013, or that Lanning herself came in at No. 5 for the first time in her 50-over international career, was also testament to the flexibility in their recalibrating, well-oiled line-up.”I’m so proud of this group to be able to – I use the word reinvent, but whatever word you want to use – the way we came together as a squad and said, ‘this is how we want to play cricket from now on and this is how we’re going to be the best team in the world’,” Alyssa Healy, whose record-breaking 170 trumped Nat Sciver’s resolute 148 not out, said. “For all 15 people in our squad, and the girls outside the squad that have come in and contributed… to be able to buy into [the plan], it’s been unbelievable, and I think that’s a culture created by the lady sitting next to me [Lanning] and Rach [Rachael Haynes, the vice-captain] and Motty.”She stressed that “pride”, and not “relief”, was the best way to describe the culmination of what they had set out to achieve. “I’m just really proud of this group to have done what we’ve done over the last five years. And I think the trophy in our hands is sort of just the final little piece of the puzzle that needed to happen.”Celebrating a champagne performance – Alyssa Healy gets drenched by Beth Mooney•Getty ImagesA big part of Australia reaffirming their stature as world leaders in the women’s game is also down to Cricket Australia’s unwavering commitment to investing in raising the profile of the game across the food chain in the country.”The base and platform that we’ve got at domestic cricket is really strong,” Lanning said. “The WBBL has played a massive role in setting players up, to come into international cricket and perform straightaway. They’re under the pump in that competition, they’re put in big-game situations, and that’s what’s required at a World Cup.”Some of the best examples of the advantages of professionalising the women’s game are Haynes, wristspinner Alana King, and allrounder Tahlia McGrath.Haynes, 35, finished the World Cup as the second-highest run-getter, with two fifties in two match-winning century stands with Healy in the knockouts. But she would have quit the sport altogether in 2016 had Cricket New South Wales not pulled her back from the brink of retirement.Similarly, despite not playing any international cricket between November 2017 and October 2020, McGrath, now 27, had been handed a Cricket Australia contract for 2020. That move, aimed at keeping her in the frame, ended with McGrath and Perry stitching together a rapid, unbroken 25-run stand in the World Cup final; she scored 100 lower-order runs and taking five wickets overall.It’s not over- the Australia squad get together after the final to chalk out a plan for the future•Getty ImagesKing, for her part, showed how timely her international debut in January on the back of a breakout WBBL 2021-22 season had been. King, 26, followed up a memorable Ashes campaign in January-February with 12 wickets in the World Cup – the fourth-highest in this edition – and a vital three-for in the title contest.”Alana King’s been exceptional,” Lanning said. “She’s got a real buzz about her. She’s got lots of energy and she’s just come into a World Cup and performed really well. Alongside, all the other younger players as well. Darcie Brown has been great. Tahlia McGrath, who has really cemented a spot in this side over the past sort of three months, has been amazing as well.”I’ve really enjoyed watching the young kids come in and play so well and make an impact straightaway. That’s what I love, is they’re not coming in and just being part of the team. They’re coming in and making their mark and really having a positive impact on the team. That’s really, really important for our team, to keep evolving and moving forward. Hopefully we can continue to see that.”In a little over three months, the women’s game makes its debut at the Commonwealth Games, in what will be the second major women’s cricket event in the space of 12 months, with the inaugural Under-19 World Cup and the 2023 T20 World Cup to follow in January-February.”We certainly won’t let up,” Lanning said about Australia’s shot at a podium finish at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. “We want to keep getting better and we’ve got some really good young players within our squad as well who will keep pushing us older players along and make sure that we get better as well. That’s the great thing about this group: we’re hungry for success. We want to keep getting better.”That sounds ominous. And unless other boards ramp up their investment in the women’s cricket set-ups in their countries, there might be no stopping this Australian side’s ascendancy to unimagined heights.

Managing his own workload, a team in transition, and finding a refreshed ODI strategy are on the list

Alex Malcolm13-Apr-2022Maintain the Test rage on the road
Australia waltzed through the Ashes 4-0 under Justin Langer but their patchy Test form prior to that was part of what made Langer vulnerable to the internal and external criticism that ultimately contributed to his exit. Australia have started brightly under McDonald with a 1-0 away win in Pakistan. It was Australia’s first Test series win in Asia since 2011 and their first away series victory anywhere since 2016. McDonald is keen for this current Test team to be known as Pat Cummins’ team and one that he will simply support. But the strategy that he helped implement paid off in Pakistan, and Australia now have the challenge of replicating it in Sri Lanka in July and India next year if they want to play in the World Test Championship final.Related

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Defend the T20 title
The only thing harder than winning a T20 World Cup is defending it and Australia face the unique challenge of needing to do it just 12 months after last year’s triumph in the UAE. The advantage is that it comes in home conditions. The challenge is that Australia will need to improve again. There are questions surrounding the form of captain Aaron Finch, but McDonald is in no doubt he is the man to lead Australia at the World Cup. The emergence of Josh Inglis in the middle order, while the form of Nathan Ellis and Sean Abbott in Pakistan, as well as the possibility of using Tim David as a lower-order hitter, creates both options and headaches in terms of what is the best team structure and strategy for Australia to win the title in Australia. Preparation may also be an issue given their best side might not play much together ahead of the tournament. But that wasn’t an issue last year.Finding a 50-over formula
ODI cricket was the least prioritised format during Langer’s tenure. Australia struggled in the lead-up to the 2019 ODI World Cup but found a way to be very competitive in the tournament only to be blown away by a far superior England side in the semi-final. From then on it was an afterthought. The ODI team has played well during the pandemic but has largely used second-choice players as Australia’s stars rested for key Test and T20I assignments. But Australia now only have 18 months to prepare for an ODI World Cup in India. They did have an extraordinary ODI series win in India in 2019 courtesy of a magical chase in Mohali. But they have lost four of their last five ODI series there and were bounced out of the 2011 World Cup in the quarter-final. The brand of cricket Australia played in 2019 was behind the times. McDonald and Australia need a refreshed strategy ahead of the 2023 tournament.McDonald has to manage a Test team in transition•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesA team in transition
At the end of the 2023 World Cup, even before that, there could be a big turnover of players in all three forms. Finch and David Warner are unlikely to continue after the 2023 World Cup. Nathan Lyon and Usman Khawaja will be 35 and 36 respectively at the end of the 2023 Ashes. Matthew Wade could also finish his international career at the end of the 2022 T20 World Cup while a host of other players will be heading towards their mid-30s. McDonald and the selectors will need to manage all of the exits carefully while getting younger players up to international level quickly in order to keep producing results heading into the second half of his four-year contract.Managing the coaching workload
Langer did rest for three series during his four-year tenure, although one, the 2021 T20I tour of New Zealand, only came about because the simultaneous Test tour to South Africa was cancelled. Australia have a relentless schedule coming up over the next 18 months and it will be impossible for McDonald to coach every assignment. He has already put in place a strategy with CA to rest for certain white-ball series in that period and wants to elevate assistants and consultants during that time to increase the depth in Australian coaching. The idea is a good one, the execution is the challenge.Relinquishing the reins and empowering an assistant to take full control is never an easy thing for any coach to do. McDonald has stressed it is possible provided the right personalities work together towards a common goal of making the team better across all forms. In the age of working remotely, it is also possible for coaches to still be of value to the team environment while working from home for short periods, provided the communication lines are open and the leadership structures are clear.

With Phil Salt in the wings, Roy’s vulnerability upfront could threaten his place

Matt Roller29-Jul-2022Five innings, 80 balls, 59 runs. Jason Roy has had a grim summer for England in T20Is and his form is becoming difficult for them to ignore.On Thursday night in Cardiff, he made a torturous 20 off 22 balls while chasing 208 – an innings that damaged England’s chances more than a first-ball duck – before lofting Tabraiz Shamsi to long-off, then beginning a slow trudge back to the dressing room that has become an all-too-familiar sight in the month since his unbeaten hundred in the final Netherlands ODI.Roy has not lacked attacking intent this summer but has struggled badly against the swinging new ball. ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data gives him a ‘control percentage’ of just 58.8, meaning he has played a false shot every 2.4 balls. His job is to play ultra-attacking shots and get England off to a fast start but it is a volatile role: when batters rely heavily on boundaries, their returns diminish alarmingly if the boundaries dry up.Related

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He has endured some difficult moments over the last two-and-a-half years. He did not enjoy the demands of touring life during the pandemic: even more so than most, Roy’s personality does not lend itself to spending days on end confined to a hotel room. Earlier this year, he pulled out of his Gujarat Titans contract ahead of the IPL to spend two months with his family after struggling off the pitch at the PSL.”Things mentally weren’t right with me at the PSL,” he said last month. “I was in a weird place because I was playing good cricket but I wasn’t enjoying myself. I wasn’t happy and it was just a dark time.” Details of a mysterious fine and suspended ban for undisclosed misconduct have still not emerged publicly, though he stressed that it has “not been spoken about” in the dressing room.Jos Buttler, his captain and opening partner, was quick to leap to Roy’s defence in Cardiff. “Every batter in the world goes through periods where you don’t hit the ball as sweetly as you would like to,” he said. “T20 cricket is a bit brutal in that way: it demands that you keep continuing to take risks and keep being brave.”That’s the job for Jason: he’s such an imposing figure and teams are scared to bowl at him. [We’ll] remind him of all the good things he’s done and tell him to trust himself even more.” Chris Jordan, his Surrey captain, went even further. “We back him 250%,” he said. “Don’t be surprised if he comes good on Sunday.”That level of support for Roy is no surprise and England will continue to back him for the foreseeable future. Since 2015, England have been hugely reluctant to drop batters from their first-choice side, reasoning that asking them to play in an ultra-attacking manner lends itself to quiet runs of form and that leaving players out, as a result, risks undermining the overriding message to be positive above anything else.Jason Roy’s strength against the back-of-length pace bowling can thrive in Australian conditions during the T20 World Cup•ICC via GettyRoy will have a number of opportunities to prove his form ahead of the World Cup. He will almost certainly keep his place on Sunday and then play eight games for Oval Invincibles in the Hundred leading into a seven-match T20I series in Pakistan and a further three matches in Australia before the main event starts on October 22.But counterintuitively, his resounding success as an attacking opener has created a position where he is no longer indispensable in the way he once was. A generation of opening batters have emulated his style in county cricket and on the franchise circuit, epitomised by Phil Salt who has run the drinks in this series after having been used out of position in his four T20I caps to date.Salt will spend August opening the batting alongisde Buttler for Manchester Originals, an ideal opportunity for him to show England’s captain that he is ready to make the step up. There are other options, too: Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes would all jump at the chance to open the batting; James Vince’s consistency in the BBL suggests he is an ideal fit for Australian conditions; any number of young players could mount a case with a standout season in the Hundred.And yet Roy still has plenty in his favour. While his record in Australia does not show it, he remains one of England’s best players against the sort of back-of-a-length pace bowling that can be expected to thrive in the World Cup. He has always been a selfless player, evidenced by his attempts to swing himself back into form rather than play within himself and prioritise his own runs ahead of the team’s cause.He has been around for a long time but only turned 32 last week: unless he peaked unusually early, there is every chance that he could be part of England’s squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup and beyond. Even if this proves to be the beginning of the end, his legacy is secure after his contribution to their 50-over transformation between 2015 and 2019.Roy has come back from poor form before, most notably after he was left out for the semi-final of the 2017 Champions Trophy, but there is a fine line between trust and blind faith. Now, he needs to show England that they have stayed on the right side of it.

Sri Lankan legends were among those to shower Dasun Shanaka’s team with praise

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Sep-2022

Congratulations for a fantastic win and most importantly bring back the Sri Lankan brand of cricket that we were renowned for. You brought the cup back home as planned! Enjoy this moment. Next target the World Cup !

— Sanath Jayasuriya (@Sanath07) September 11, 2022