India, Pakistan’s next opponents in the Champions Trophy, will almost inevitably seek to expose this frailty

Andrew Fidel Fernando21-Feb-20252:31

Mumtaz: ‘Very disappointing to watch Babar’s lack of intent’

When the masters of playing spin are at their peak, the thoughts that dominate the higher functions of the mind are not necessarily about the next ball, the pitch, how fast it is turning, how much flight is being given, and how fast or slow it comes, but where the fielders are, how they manipulate them and by extension the opposition captain.Here’s Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a very good player of spin, talking about Brian Lara, who was arguably the best spin player ever (no one dominated Shane Warne Muttiah Muralidaran, quite like Lara):”I know Brian, when he bats, he hits the ball behind point, very hard. Sometimes he got spin on the ball, and sometimes he doesn’t put spin on the ball. And he does it deliberately. It depends on where the guy on the point boundary is fielding. If the guy on the boundary is out square, then he puts spin on the ball so it keep running away further behind and the guy can’t catch it. And sometimes they put him behind, and Brian hit it with no spin so it go in front for four. He still the ball, but he does not put spin on the ball. He’s an amazing batter. Serious.”Babar Azam had been an amazing batter – serious – too. Until the end of 2021, Babar averaged 89.94 against spin in ODIs with a strike rate of 89. These are, from a bowling team’s perspective, “get him off strike and try and bowl as many as you can at the other guy” numbers. Babar was weaker against pace bowling, by which I mean he averaged only 57.22 against seam bowling.Related

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But spin? Uff. He’s never swept his way to hundreds, as others often do on Asian surfaces. But there were jaunts down the crease to clip balls through wide long-on, sinkings deep into the crease to play that whip shot through midwicket, cuts either side of point, and the regular array of Babar cover drives. When he slog-swept, the ball tended to travel over wide long-on, rather than square leg. No one much cared at the time, where it was going. Because it was going somewhere pretty often.That a wall has been hit and a decline has been entered since then is public knowledge by now. The Babar of February 2025, has demons to overcome. Oppositions know this well. New Zealand, the kings of finding little gaps in the armour of opposition and wriggling through them to the semi-finals of major tournaments, landed on a big one in the tournament opener. Babar, by his high standards, doesn’t love the ball that turns into him. Since 2022, he’s loved it even less.Until the end of 2021, he’d averaged 51.72 against balls that turned in (offspinners and left-arm wristspinners combined). From 2022 onwards, he’s averaged 31.80 against balls turning in. The killer stat is the strike rate – where before the end of 2021 it had been 88.49 against bowlers whose stock delivery turned the ball into him, since then it has dipped to 67.65.And where Babar was once a batter who would dictate fields to bowling teams, sides such as New Zealand, who play the percentages beautifully, have begun to dictate terms to him. In the Champions Trophy opener, Babar scored 22 off 35 balls off bowlers whose stock delivery came in. These were not offpsinners of the highest quality. With apologies to the index finger of Michael Bracewell, the man is clearly a better batter. For Glenn Phillips, offspin is clearly his third-best cricketing discipline, to follow his spectacular fielding and manic batting.Babar Azam played a scratchy innings against New Zealand•ICC/Getty ImagesThat the two were so adept at keeping Babar quiet is down to their field placements too. For much of that innings, there was a short midwicket in place, which would have made Babar think twice about that whip to the legside that is a favoured middle-overs shot. A more confident Babar would have hit over the top, smoked boundaries either side of that fielder, and wormed his way in the brain of the opposing captain. He made 64 off 90, when to be up with the required rate he would have had to make better than a run-a-ball. It was, if we are being brutally honest, a match-losing innings.In ODIs at least, the batting against spin has been Babar’s primary problem. In fact, his batting against pace has improved – he averages 57.52 against pace since 2022, when he’d averaged 47.35, both strike rates hovering around the 90 mark. Oppositions know this now. Babar opened the innings Wednesday, but he faced 57 balls of spin, to the 33 deliveries of seam bowling.India have such a surfeit of spin options, that they will almost inevitably seek to expose this frailty. They have Kuldeep Yadav as one bowler who can turn the ball into Babar. In the squad, also is Washington Sundar.Spinners turning the ball into a great right-hand batter tend to fare poorly, generally speaking. But we are not in a great phase of Babar’s batting right now. India will also come armed with the knowledge that this particular great player of spin is scratching his way to fifties, rather than dictating fields to oppositions. And in Dubai, they will likely play on a track that will envenom the kinds of bowlers Babar does not love facing right now.

Three overs of hypnotic, new-ball swing was all it took for LSG to be blown away in the mountain air

Karthik Krishnaswamy04-May-20251:04

Rayudu: Skilful Arshdeep takes pitch out of the equation

It helps to swing the ball both ways, but if you are a left-arm quick in a world dominated by right-hand batters, you don’t have to. Most left-arm swing bowlers only shape the new ball into the right-hand batter, with their usual angle – across the batter from over the wicket – allowing them to test the outside edge should the odd ball refuse to swing, or swing less than expected.The away angle, the inswing, and natural variation are enough by themselves to turn the task of facing a new ball delivered by Trent Boult or Mitchell Starc into a hellish test of alignment. If you’re a right-hand batter, you’ll want to open your stance up to get a clear sighter of the left-arm bowler thundering in from over the wicket. But you can’t get too open, because you’ll just be throwing your hands at the ball slanting away from you if you don’t line it up with your front shoulder. And you can’t get too closed-off either, because here comes that inswinger, threatening your front pad and stumps.Imagine, then, the effect of a left-arm fast bowler not just angling the ball one way and swinging it in the opposite direction but also getting the odd one to bend the other way. Imagine that this left-armer is doing this while maintaining perfect length, and with enough control over his wrist that he barely ever strays down leg with his inswinger or offers width with his outswinger.Related

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Ball after ball, going one way or the other, at pace, always finishing on top of your stumps or in the corridor outside off.Arshdeep Singh bowled a spell like this on Sunday night, a spell from hell that transformed the contest between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Until his intervention, there had been nowhere for bowlers to hide in Dharamsala’s first match of IPL 2025. The pitch was benign, the boundary only a miscue away. PBKS had hit 16 sixes – the joint second-most in an innings this season – on their way to 236 for 5.Then Arshdeep, barely needing the pitch at all, took 3 for 10 in three overs of hypnotic new-ball swing. The wickets were of Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran, a top three who, coming into this game, had scored nearly 63% of LSG’s runs off the bat this season.And Arshdeep made a profound impact even before he picked up his first wicket. He forced both Markram and Marsh into hurried blocks to keep out full inswingers. He beat Marsh’s outside edge with a jaffa that started outside leg, finished outside off, and forced the keeper to collect the ball over his head. He got Marsh to swing in vain at another awayswinger.”I think his first over tonight really set the tone for our bowling innings,” PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting later said. “It was a fantastic first over. The ball bounced and moved around. So, you know, he’s a, he’s a star, no doubt about it. And we’re very lucky to have him in our team.”Where other formats allow batters to watch the bowler’s release and seam orientation and adjust to the second line and defend, this was a T20 chase of close to two runs a ball. It almost forced LSG’s batters to commit early and hope.2:39

Are PBKS primed for a top-two finish?

Marsh had fallen for a golden duck to Arshdeep’s awayswinger when these teams last met, on April 1, squaring up and sending a leading edge ballooning to short third. He fell in similar fashion on Sunday, swinging harder this time but miscuing just as badly. A duck of prolonged agony to follow a first-baller.Three balls later, Markram was gone too, with Arshdeep profiting from the ball stopping on the batter and contributing to a chop-on.LSG were two down, but their most dangerous batter was in the middle. Arshdeep, therefore, was called on to bowl a third powerplay over for the first time this season.The over began with a rare half-volley, the outswinger to the left-hand batter, and Pooran drove it handsomely past mid-off. But no ball is a bad ball if you have the right follow-up: Arshdeep went full again, but corrected his length so it wasn’t quite as full as the previous ball, and swerved this one the other way, into the stumps. Pooran swung, looking to go leg side, and missed.Arshdeep had only bowled 14 balls, and LSG had only faced 26. The match would stretch on for 94 more balls, but the contest was over.”Yeah, once again, great stuff by the captain to bowl him that third over,” Ponting said. “I think once we had the two early wickets and then I think Rishabh [Pant] and Pooran together, I think Shreyas [Iyer] understood how important it was to try and break that partnership early.Arshdeep Singh accounted for both LSG openers in an over•BCCI”So he gave Arshdeep the third over and bang, he knocks Pooran over. And at that stage, with Pooran out and them being three down inside the powerplay, it was always going to be hard work for them to get back into the game.”This was the high point of Arshdeep’s season, but a performance like this was coming. The two-way swing hasn’t always looked as dangerous as it did on Sunday – Arshdeep noted that the low night-time temperatures in Dharamsala may have contributed to more swing being available – but there’s usually been enough of it to keep batters on their toes. Of all bowlers to have delivered at least ten overs in this phase, only one – Sandeep Sharma (6.83) – has a better powerplay economy rate in IPL 2025 than Arshdeep’s 7.00.He now has the wickets to go with the economy: eight in the powerplay as of Sunday, level with Mohammed Siraj with only Khaleel Ahmed (nine) ahead. Overall, Arshdeep has now moved to 16, which puts him third on the Purple Cap leaderboard.Three more league matches remain for PBKS, two of them in the swing-enabling mountain air of Dharamsala. With Arshdeep in the rhythm he’s in, the top orders of Delhi Capitals (DC) and Mumbai Indians (MI) might have a task on their hands.

After a break to recover from Lord’s, Stokes’ men have chance to close out series with game to spare

Vithushan Ehantharajah22-Jul-20252:03

Harmison: Fire in the belly makes players play better

It was during Ben Stokes’ four days in bed, while recovering from bowling 44 overs in the Lord’s Test, that he hammered the streaming platforms.After burning through the whole first series of on Amazon Prime, he ticked off both and .That now opens up the prospect of a cinema visit to see the third instalment of the zombie franchise this week. Having trained on Tuesday morning, a number of the squad had pencilled in a trip to the movies, though very few have Stokes’ appetite for horror. He will likely have to brave alone.During the 2022 one-off meeting with India at Edgbaston (the collateral of a different kind of virus), a Stokes-led group watched Baz Lurhmann’s . Among a few aspects they took to heart was the entertainer’s persona. Giving the people what they want, hips to the wind, squares be damned, we’ll do it our way.Related

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Three years on, very little of that remains among this group, barring the little-finger salute the England captain and Joe Root still occasionally share to signify the latter’s reluctant rockstar status. Their 2-1 lead over India has come without truly flexing, beyond the chase at Leeds in the first Test. Victory at Lord’s in the third was achieved with the second-slowest run rate (3.31) in 39 matches under Stokes and Brendon McCullum, and the slowest at home. Entertainment is now second to winning by any means.Perhaps Danny Boyle’s latest post-apocalyptic offering will carry more applicable jumping-off points: a society attempting to re-adapt and restart, learning the lessons of two movies’ worth of human error and grief.Come to think of it, England probably have more in common with Boyle’s latest interpretation of zombies. These semi-undead are more evolved, cannier, and still sharp out of the blocks. From McCullum’s mantra of running towards the danger, England are now keen to run *as* the danger. Less in their own world, more right up in yours.”It was a real nice moment as a team when you speak about something like that, and then everyone buys into it,” Stokes said, recalling the notion floated by McCullum that they were too nice. That intervention triggered verbals on the field that spilled over into Shubman Gill’s press conference on Tuesday.3:30

Gill questions England’s conduct at Lord’s

“It is not something we are going to purposely go out and start, that will take our focus off what we need to do out in the middle,” Stokes said. “But… we are not going to take a backward step and let any opposition try and be confrontational towards us, and not try to give a bit back.”Other teams will be amused to hear that the England sides they have faced over the last three years have been too amenable. It is, however, worth noting that some of the more aggressive players are no longer around, particularly those with clearly assumed roles when it came to on-field verbals, such as James Anderson (instigator), Stuart Broad (facilitator), Jonny Bairstow (magnet) and even Ollie Robinson (starter).At Lord’s, Ben Duckett and Harry Brook yapped like veterans. The likes of Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer and Stokes intimidated with their actions as well as their words. It has not taken much to ignite this fire, in either this England team or their opponents. No amount of rain over the next five days at Emirates Old Trafford will quell it.The danger, of course, is taking it too far, although the addition of former All Blacks mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka – and his famous “no d*ckheads” policy – should, in theory, help guard against that.The aggro between the two teams was ramped up during the Lord’s Test•Getty ImagesIndeed, Enoka’s presence this summer, even on a freelance basis, is a nod to necessary humility. McCullum and Stokes had been consulting with him across the six months between last year’s New Zealand series and the start of the English summer. Having articulated their vision around culture, behaviours on and off the field, and standards expected as best they could, Enoka went away and brought back something the rest of the group could digest. A code.”Baz and I are very big on the choices and options you take, that they should not just be involved around you, but around your team-mates,” Stokes said. “Having someone come in and speak from experience, with an unbelievable team like he worked with in the All Blacks, and almost share certain values. That was nice to hear, that we were similar in terms of our mindset of what we want to be doing as a team.”It’s a lot better from someone who has been there and done that, and been very successful in team sport like Gilbert has.”The series is fascinatingly poised, and the winter’s tour of Australia sits on the horizon like another mountain to conquer. While there may be cynicism towards England’s pursuit of a sharper edge alongside a more holistic vibe, these do feel like necessary adjustments. They offer structure to a previously boundaryless outfit.4:59

Stokes: We won’t back out of confrontations

The scoreline does not lie, although England will be the first to admit they are ahead because they have won more of the big moments rather than outright bossed their opponents. They also feel they have more levels to hit.They are still searching for that sweet spot of clinical yet engaging play. Might we see that in Manchester?It was here in 2022 that they demolished South Africa by an innings, a retaliation to their first, humbling defeat under Stokes. A year later, they dogwalked Australia, seemingly on their way to their most complete performance, before rain washed away hopes of a first Ashes series win since 2015.Here in 2025, a first series victory over India since 2018 is on the table, in a Test that will be more febrile than the previous three. England have deliberately set a dramatic scene for a statement win. Now they must go and seize it.

Hosts bowling looks in need of a refresh after being blunted for 143 overs in India’s second innings

Vithushan Ehantharajah27-Jul-20251:19

Harmison: ‘A little bit farcical towards the end’

Ben Duckett asked sarcastically how much of the last hour Ravindra Jadeja, 89 not out, and Washington Sundar, on 80, would need for their centuries. Zak Crawley, cutting right to the chase, called it “embarrassing”.It turns out all they needed was about 15 minutes. Ben Stokes, eventually, had his offer to shake hands on his first non-rain-affected draw accepted. And, though those 15 minutes made this formality much colder, neither Jadeja nor Washington cared. Likewise, the crowd, now predominantly Indian, who had stuck around for the cherry on top of this impressively composed rearguard from their heroes.Another time, England will have seen such joyous scenes from their opponents as a reflection of their superiority. It was on this ground 20 years ago that a great Australia team lauded it up on the away balcony after escaping nine down to keep the Ashes series at 1-1. “Look, the mighty Aussies are celebrating a draw with England – we’ve got them now…” Michael Vaughan had told his players then.Related

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India cannot win this series now, but Shubman Gill could offer a similar view of the sour attitude displayed by England in the dregs of day five. They fought hard and ended up rattling an opponent that had hitherto dominated this Test match. As understandably frustrated the hosts were at being kept on the field for – eventually – 143 overs, India may well view the frayed tempers, which exacerbate the tired bodies, as an extra advantage going into the final Test. Getting out of the series with a 2-2 scoreline would make this a successful tour.If England were irked by Jadeja’s milestone-hunting, they could have just dismissed him first ball. Jofra Archer got one to lift and take the left-hand batter’s edge, but Joe Root missed two attempts to claim it at first slip.Archer was flying, having removed Gill for 103, though even that took three attempts. Saturday’s drop by Liam Dawson at gully (with Gill on 46) was followed on Sunday by Ollie Pope (with Gill on 81) at cover.It is pretty obvious England’s anger at how the match concluded was not squarely on two players bagging deserved hundreds. Though they arrived on Sunday morning still with eight wickets to get after two wicketless sessions the day before, and just 137 of their 311 first-innings lead intact, confidence was high.Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar kept England waiting, and waiting, and waiting…•AFP/Getty ImagesThe rough outside the off stump of the left-hand batters – India with three to come when Gill and KL Rahul resumed – and the uncertain bounce, particularly for those bowling from the James Anderson End, filled them with hope. And yet, even with the two drops, they only created five chances in the final 80 overs, 63 of which came with the second new ball.For once, the Dukes balls played ball. Neither side had it changed over the course of the five days. That Crawley was warned by the umpires for throwing the ball short of wicketkeeper Jamie Smith to scuff a surface for some reverse swing showed the ball remained hard throughout.”It’s been a series so far of hard toil, in particular the bowling units from both sides,” Stokes said at the end, himself having been afflicted with calf, left hamstring and right bicep tendon issues in this match alone, even if they have been compounded by the 140 overs in his body since the start of the series.”You’ve really had to work really, really hard for your rewards. We’re not going to hide away from the fact that it’s been a very tough four games so far for the guys who have played, in particular the bowling unit.”

“You have discussions with all your bowlers around what we can look at doing differently. ‘What do you think is the most threatening? Can we look at doing this?’ We tried quite a few different plans, set a few different fields to make the Indian batters feel a bit uncomfortable”Ben Stokes on his conversations with Liam Dawson

Pitches like these, even if they have been tailored to England’s needs to an extent, are why they have assembled a battery of quicks who are either tall enough to hit the deck hard enough to extract what life there is, or fast enough to cause discomfort.Injuries have dwindled those resources, meaning rotation across the four Tests has been non-existent. Archer replacing Josh Tongue from the third Test onwards has been the only change to a pace attack running on fumes.Gus Atkinson would have likely come in for Chris Woakes in Manchester had he been deemed fit enough. Though he was unable to get into Surrey’s first team this week, he will come into contention for the fifth Test. Jamie Overton, who did play for Surrey against Yorkshire (albeit only bowling in the first innings, with 0 for 81 from 14 overs) will join him when the squad meets up in London.Mark Wood had initially earmarked the final match for a return from knee surgery, but has been held back. And though Stokes says he will give the current attack – including himself – as much time as possible to recover ahead of Thursday’s start at the Kia Oval, a refresh of the pack is overdue.3:12

‘Would they have walked off?’ – Gambhir on Stokes’ draw offer

Meanwhile, Dawson’s return to Test cricket put a new slant on England’s spin position. An eight-year hiatus brought just one wicket in the first innings but all the control you would expect from a 35-year-old left-arm spinner who has been the cream of the domestic crop.His economy rate of 2.02 across a mammoth 47 overs in India’s second innings was double-edged. Reliable but for no reward.On the one hand, his metronomic bustle was integral to how Stokes managed his tired quicks; able to shuffle through them to utilise the up-and-down on offer while Dawson had the Brian Statham End locked down.A switch of ends allowed Archer to prise out Gill, and the pair shared nine overs after lunch that brought little other than a few nicks for Dawson. Had Root held Jadeja, it could have been a more fruitful union.Dawson seemed particularly forthright with Stokes, the pair discussing tactics at great length on either side of the tea interval. They departed having analysed the rough, leading to Dawson operating around the wicket to the left-hand batters after the break with a 7-2 leg-side field. That was abandoned after two swiped Jadeja boundaries in five deliveries.2:15

Why was Liam Dawson ineffective?

“You have discussions with all your bowlers around what we can look at doing differently,” Stokes said of their animated conversation. “What do you think is the most threatening? Can we look at doing this differently?”We tried quite a few different plans, set a few different fields to make the Indian batters feel a bit uncomfortable.”Stokes does enjoy that back and forth with his bowlers. And the pair shared a nice moment when Dawson’s competitive edge meant he wanted to keep going at Jadeja and Washington in the hope of ending their century quests. Stokes offered a consolatory hug to let him know his work was done. There will be more to do this week.Could Dawson have done more here? Perhaps he should have varied his position on the crease and, say, gone wider to the left-hand batters to offer more of a pronounced challenge of either edges. Maybe more variations of pace?England do believe Dawson has been unlucky, eliciting 31 false shots in the second innings without reward. And yet, a solid but unspectacular return has you wondering how Shoaib Bashir might have gone here.Ben Stokes ponders his options as India frustrate England in the field•PA Images/GettyIndia would have probably knocked off the deficit sooner had the offspinner been playing. But the raw Bashir, with his unpredictability – and higher release point – might have sparked something.There is a reason England did not go back to Jack Leach when Bashir broke his finger at Lord’s. It is the same reason they plumped for Bashir at the start of the 2024 summer over the man who is forcing him to leave Somerset. In Dawson, they see the variety of a banker who is a talented allrounder. But here, they would have liked Bashir’s big-revs, big rip, big dip from a great height.Sunday, for all the ill-feeling, did at least vindicate the decisions the England management have made to grow and fine-tune their approach. But it is a vindication that, right now, will not nourish them all that much.As the team sipped beers in the home dressing room on Sunday evening, they would have toasted their hard work. Another cheers to Root ascending to second on the Test run charts. A further one to Stokes marrying a first five-wicket haul in eight years with a first century in two.But for all the history and glory achieved, they will want to forget about this day as quickly as possible.

Rahul has not been among the luckiest batters in recent years, but when he got a life on Monday at Headingley, he cashed in and made it count

Sidharth Monga23-Jun-20251:18

The curious case of KL Rahul

A total of 335 batters have had reprieves in Test cricket since 2020, which is when ESPNcricinfo started maintaining a log for such things. Ben Stokes has been missed 31 times, Marnus Labuschagne 26, and Rishabh Pant 24. This is catches and stumpings put together, of all kinds: regulation, tough, half-chances.When Harry Brook dropped KL Rahul on 59 in the second innings at Headingley – a return gift of sorts after having been missed twice himself, though not by Rahul – it was only the seventh time in 23 Tests since 2020 that Rahul had been given a life. Arguably, nobody deserved a chance more than Rahul.Bear with this repetition for a second. In terms of skill, Rahul has been the second-best India batter of the Virat Kohli era, but it is inexplicable that he had averaged 33.57 coming into this Test, his 59th. Even allowing for the notably bowler-friendly conditions that have prevailed in recent years, particularly since the WTC came into being in 2019, it is a bit underwhelming. The overall batting average for the top six in the Tests he had played was 33.88. A player of great innings, yes – seven of his eight hundreds came away from home – but a pretty average player overall.Related

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Rahul has indeed failed to fill his boots at times – including in the first innings here – but he is not the luckiest batter going around either. And that is not insignificant. Forty-seven batters have offered 30 or more catches since 2020, and 24 of them have had a lower percentage of catches held than Rahul. The luckiest batters happen to be Pant, Labuschagne and Stokes. Rahul was being dismissed every 11.67 mistakes, leaving 22 luckier batters than him out of 57 that have been dismissed by a bowler 30 or more times.Of course, you’ll never hear players complaining about a lack of luck, even though they know the role that it plays, especially in Test batting. They won’t say it because they don’t want to stop improving, they don’t want to stop repeating their processes.Rahul, filthy with himself for throwing it away on 42 in the first innings, pulled himself up and repeated his processes all right. Actually, what Rahul did in the first innings also was part of a process. Through that breezy first-innings knock, he played more cover drives than he usually does outside Asia and the Caribbean. It seemed to be a plan: being slightly proactive denied England the freedom to keep bowling a good length. The ball that got him was full enough for the drive. What hurt him more was that he had done the hard work, then failed to convert the start into a big one.In the second innings, when the bounce became a bit more uneven, he went to stumps on day three unbeaten with 95% control and 47 off 75. He had put out all the best hits in that evening session. A back-foot punch off Chris Woakes in front of point, three gorgeous cover drives, one square drive on one knee, an on-drive and a pull off Shoaib Bashir.On the fourth morning, the uneven bounce and nip off the surface increased. India lost Shubman Gill in the first full over. Pant tried to counter the movement and the new ball in his own idiosyncratic manner. Rahul, at the other end, was a proper, classic Test batter. In the first hour he scored just 7 off 44 balls, with a control rate of 89%.3:12

Rahul: ‘I’ve forgotten what my batting position actually is’

When it got difficult, Rahul trusted his method and processes to take him past the new ball. Or, in the event he didn’t succeed, at least his efforts would give the incoming batters an older, softer ball. He also just about managed to nudge Pant when he tried one slog too many. Not everyone has the tact to speak to Pant. He famously got upset with Cheteshwar Pujara for asking him to be watchful in Sydney 2020-21 in the last over before the new ball. He still tried to hit a six to get to his hundred before the new ball, but maintained that the doubt planted in his mind caused the mis-hit for him to be caught on 97.Rahul managed to get through to Pant. He spoke three languages: Tamil with B Sai Sudharsan, Hindi with Pant, Kannada with friend and fellow Bangalorean Karun Nair. The real language he spoke was that of proper Test batting, playing the ball on its merit because he has the ability to do so. He shifted gears seamlessly as the ball got older. When he was scoring the first 47 off 75 or the next 7 off 44 or the next 46 off 83 or 37 off the 44 after reaching his hundred, you couldn’t look and tell he was doing anything out of character. Every tempo seemed natural to him, in his own bubble, almost a meditative state.In the last five tours outside Asia and the Caribbean, Rahul now has had superb starts: 84 and 129 in the first two Tests in England in 2021, 123 in the first Test in South Africa later that year, 101 in Centurion in the same fixture in South Africa two years later, 26 and 77 late last year in Perth, and now this century in the most difficult conditions in this Test so far. However, incredibly, he doesn’t have a single blockbuster series. The highest he has ever aggregated in a series is 393.Rahul acknowledged how disappointed he was that, despite batting well in Australia on the last tour, he didn’t have that defining series. He also said he knows that effort, preparation, skill and application don’t always translate into results in this game. That, if you let the outcomes play on your mind, you will be paralysed playing this game. How sweet it will be, though, if he can use this rare stroke of luck and finally go on to chalk up that big 500-run series.

Pick between three Tests, with each of them having thrilling moments to offer

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jun-2025Update: This poll has ended. The ENG-AUS 2019 Leeds Test moves into the final.Dravid conquers Australia and Adelaide, 2003It was Kolkata 2001 all over again, except the support act took over the lead role this time.Instead of 445, Australia scored 556 batting first here, with Ricky Ponting hitting 242 at a strike rate of 68.75. But unlike their 171 in Kolkata, India scored 523, keeping the match on an even keel, more or less, and it was the Rahul Dravid-VVS Laxman partnership for the fifth wicket, worth 303 runs, that made it possible. Here, Dravid scored 233 from No. 3, and Laxman 148 from No. 6.Like in Kolkata, Australia’s second innings was a letdown; all they got was 196, setting India 230 to win, and the star of the show, which gave India the upper hand, was Ajit Agarkar, whose 6 for 41 thwarted Australia as they were looking to put the game beyond India.Dravid had scored that many in the first innings alone, but this time he only had to make 72, hitting the winning runs when he cut Stuart MacGill through the off side. It remains one of India’s great victories in Australia, achieved at a time when they didn’t come as thick and fast as they do now.Kusal Perera’s one-man show in Durban, 2019
Sri Lanka were coming off a 2-0 pummeling in Australia, their captain had just been sacked, and an inexperienced team, led by Dimuth Karunaratne, landed in South Africa.Then, in what was one of the most dramatic Tests in history, Sri Lanka emerged victorious, chasing down 304 with one wicket to spare. They had lost their ninth wicket while still 78 runs off their target. Kusal Perera then scored 67 of the the remaining 78 runs in an incredible finale on the fourth afternoon, along with the No. 11 Vishwa Fernando, as they saw their team home. Towards the end, you knew where this was going, even if it was just a matter of one good delivery.At lunch on the day, Sri Lanka were 166 for 5, still 138 runs away, after which Keshav Maharaj ripped through the lower-middle order, leaving them at 226 for 9. That brought Fernando to the middle, and he was entirely focused on survival. He faced 22 balls before he got off the mark.As Fernando clung on at one end, Perera defended with unreal calm, and even took several blows to his body on his way to the target. Batting for 309 minutes, he farmed the strike, and picked his opportunities to attack and push the score forward. Along the way, he also made his career-best Test score of 153*.The Stokes show at Headingley, 2019A Test that might not have otherwise stayed for too long in the memory, it was the unbroken 76-run stand for the last wicket between Ben Stokes and Jack Leach that lifted it to where the greatest Test matches in history are clubbed together.And, of course, the fact that in those 76 runs, one batter scored 74 (in 45 balls) and the other 1 (in 17 balls)! Not to forget that the winners had scored 67 in their first innings and then hit 362 for 9 in a Test where 246 was the next-best total.Australia won the first Test, and the second was drawn, so England wanted to win this one at Headingley to stay in the Ashes contest. But after Australia were bowled out for 179 in the first innings, all England could put up was 67, with Joe Denly top-scoring with 12. Back to Australia, and this time they put up 246.Was the pitch getting better for batting? It didn’t seem so when England were 15 for 2 in their chase of 359, and then 159 for 4 with Joe Root gone, and then 286 for 9. Stokes, the No. 5, was on 61 at the time. Off 174 balls.But with last-man Leach for company, Stokes switched something on. He hit four fours and seven sixes from that point, keeping Leach away from the strike as much as possible, before finishing it off with a flay through the covers off Pat Cummins. Done and dusted!

Australia’s dominance with the bat masked a surprisingly sloppy day in the field as they dropped six chances

Vishal Dikshit16-Oct-20253:44

Review – Watch out, Healy is back!

The edges were flying off Bangladesh left-hand opener Rubya Haider’s bat against the new ball, off both Megan Schutt’s swing as well as Darcie Brown’s pace. One landed short of first slip, one flew wide, another just managed to get out of a diving Phoebe Litchfield’s hands in the slips, and one leading edge fell safe not far from the pitch.At the start of the tenth over, Brown drew another edge off Haider’s bat and this time the ball was headed straight into Alyssa Healy’s mitts. Healy barely had to take a step to her left for the catch around waist height, her gloves right behind the ball, but when she clasped her hands around it, the ball just popped out. Healy wore a rueful look while stealing a glance at her team-mates. She couldn’t seem to believe she had put down a sitter.Healy wouldn’t have blamed herself as much when she sprinted to the stumps to try and get her gloves under a Shorna Akter leading edge in the 28th over – she couldn’t make it, but this was the toughest of the lot. The list, however, kept getting longer for Australia. Three overs later, the safe hands of Beth Mooney couldn’t hold on to one at first slip, and by the time the Bangladesh innings ended, Australia had put down six chances in all, four of them requiring diving efforts.Related

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Healy was the first to admit after Australia’s ten-wicket thrashing of Bangladesh that she “was a little bit poor behind the stumps” and their overall fielding effort was something to “reflect on” as they head to Indore for their last two league matches.Player-of-the-Match Alana King, who finished with 10-4-18-2, said, “I think they were all probably tough catches. I don’t think there was an easy catch. And no doubt we’ll definitely review that. We pride ourselves on our fielding and something that we want to be putting on display. So I think just with those high balls and us probably being a bit aggressive in the field, we wanted to get the players to hit over us. So to have an attacking option and players diving for the ball, we love to see that. I think that creates great energy amongst the group and a positive mindset as well. So no doubt we’d love every catch to stick, but unfortunately the nature of cricket, that doesn’t happen too often.”Just cricket – despite your best attempts, the laurels of the past, and all the trophies in the cabinet, some off-days slip in without a major reason.Healy had gone through her intensive keeping drills each time Australia have turned out for a nets session. Yet, the ball had been evading her in strange ways. When King was turning the ball viciously from outside leg to around off, one just went straight past the batter’s pads down leg and Healy was left watching with a sheepish grin. Against India too, one went right through her. Healy had more time to collect that ball off Annabel Sutherland. The ball went on to rattle the helmet behind her for five penalty runs.Alyssa Healy hit 20 fours in her century•ICC/Getty ImagesJust like her keeping sessions, Healy had been sweating it out in the batting nets too, calling it a “frustrating experience” earlier because she had “no rhythm whatsoever”. Since the last ODI World Cup, which Australia won under Meg Lanning in 2022 with Healy hitting back-to-back hundreds in the knockouts against West Indies and England, she hadn’t scored the kind of runs she was used to.Australia didn’t play any more ODIs in 2022 after that World Cup, and when they returned to action in early 2023, Healy picked up a calf injury. When she turned out in the 2023 Ashes, she lasted all of 28 deliveries in three ODIs for scores of 8, 13 and 7. It took her another six innings to score a half-century. Though she started 2024 on a slightly better note, a foot injury at the T20 World Cup, a knee issue, and a recurrence of the foot injury kept her out of action for much of 2025.After intense rehabilitation, she made it in time for this World Cup, but scored 30, 9 and 27 in the three bilateral ODIs against India in the lead-up. The big scores were still proving elusive when she fell for 19 and 20 in the opening two games, against New Zealand and Pakistan.Sobhana Mostary was dropped by Alyssa Healy•ICC/Getty ImagesBut like she did in the 2022 edition, it was only a matter of time before she brought out her best, in a high-profile game against India in front of a sold-out crowd in Visakhapatnam while chasing a record 331. She appeared a bit watchful for the first four overs, but took off with her trademark short-arm jab for four and soon dispatched Kranti Gaud, who had dismissed Healy three times in 35 balls in the bilaterals, for 6, 4, 4 and 4 for a 19-run over. Healy went on to knock the stuffing out of the India attack for her seventh ODI century that finally made her feel “it was my day today” after over three years.She had to wait three years for that century but the next one took just three days, this time while chasing a modest 199 against Bangladesh. That she was now at ease and back in her rhythm was evident in how she let out a beaming smile from under the helmet after her 43-ball half-century. She made room with ease, shuffled across the crease for sweeps, raced from 50 to 100 in just 30 balls, and there were signs of the fear she used to make her oppositions feel. And she’s back at the top of the run chart at this World Cup, like it was 2022.”[It’s] just incredible to see what she’s done,” King said of her captain after the game. “First of all, to do it against India, it was massive and she was pretty bloody determined to do so. But then to not let the foot off the throat and do it again tonight just shows where her mindset’s at. And she’s pinged the ball beautifully and to have Phoebe [Litchfield] down the other end in tandem, hitting the ball as clean as I’ve seen her, and to chase down a pretty big total, none down, I think that’s something that’s going to ooze confidence in our whole line-up.”Who knows how much Bangladesh would have scored had Healy taken that catch early on; who knows what would have happened if Fargana Hoque had held on to one at short fine-leg when she misjudged one completely with Healy on 67. For now, even though Australia are not at their best, they wouldn’t want to take the “foot off the throat” of opponents, but hope that the catches stick – it’s not really Australia till that happens.