By the end of this mesmerising spell, both England’s top order and the match were broken open

Andrew McGlashan18-Jun-2023It’s shortly after lunch on the third day of the first Ashes Test. England have taken a seven-run first-innings lead. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley build on it calmly, comfortably knocking the ball into gaps against Australia’s defensive fields. It is the first time this opening pair face the opening four overs and do not hit a boundary. Then the rain comes.

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The mop-up has been swift. The players are back in the middle, but there is a massively dark cloud approaching Edgbaston. Pat Cummins sends down the final ball of his incomplete over.

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Nathan Lyon had bowled his first over before the rain delay, just the sixth of the innings. But on resumption he’s withdrawn. The ball is handed to Scott Boland. Slow pitch or not, this is a time for pace not spin.Related

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The field remains reasonably defensive. Duckett angles one out to point. Crawley is then beaten. It feels as though there’s more zip under the leaden skies, whether it’s real or perceived. Scientists have never really been able to explain why clouds in England make such a difference.Crawley defends one, then is taken high on the back pad. There’s an appeal. Australia ponder a review but decline.Next ball Crawley shoulders arms and is taken on the pads. The shout is bigger this time. Another chat about a review. This takes a bit longer. Again they don’t take it.Final ball, Crawley leaves it alone.

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Cummins is round the wicket to Duckett, who is beaten by one that nips past the edge. There has been very little movement all match. But things are starting to happen. Meanwhile, it looks like the end of the world is approaching from over the South Stand and Hollies, who remain in strong voice especially to their new friend Travis Head.Duckett defends. This is hard work. Any second now the players could go off. If ever there isn’t a time for Bazball, it’s probably now. Cummins strengthens the cordon, so it’s two slips and Cameron Green at gully. Duckett defends to mid-on.The groundstaff are almost running on as the wind whips up. Duckett looks in their direction. The umpires stay put. Darth Vader was earlier escorted out of the ground, the skies suggest he has made a return.Cameron Green and his team-mates are pumped up after his low catch at gully to send back Ben Duckett•AFP/Getty ImagesIt’s a length delivery outside off, Duckett can’t help playing at it. He doesn’t do leaving. It takes a thick edge and flies low to Green’s left. Surely not again. But Green gets down to it, fingers under the ball and keeps full control. It’s a screamer.Duckett waits and walks down to Crawley. The umpires converge. They go upstairs. Remember, no soft signal these days. This one is much easier than Richard Kettleborough’s call last week at The Oval. One replay makes it clear Green has held this. Duckett starts to walk off. Australia celebrate for a second time. “Out” comes up on the big screen.Ollie Pope skips out to the middle. Cummins’ first ball to him is full and fast, but just slips past the pads although not far from leg stump. There is tension everywhere. Pope defends the final ball of the over.

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It’s back-of-a-length from Boland, angling in at off stump then straightening. The sort of thing that has helped him average 16 in Test cricket. Crawley plays and gets a thin edge to Alex Carey. The Australians roar in celebration. Crawley stands his ground. But the edge is clear. Marias Erasmus raises his finger to confirm it. It’s dark and Crawley does not look impressed.It’s a slow walk off, Joe Root has almost made it to the middle in the same amount of time. Root always gets to the crease quickly, but if there’s ever a time to slow things down, it’s now.

It doesn’t matter what the run rate has been over the last 13 Tests, a dank afternoon in England with the ball moving around is tough for any batter.

Australia are swarming. They were happy to accept England’s aggressive approach in the first innings, even defer to it. But there’s no deep point anymore. It doesn’t matter what the run rate has been over the last 13 Tests, a dank afternoon in England with the ball moving around is tough for any batter. There’s three slips and a gully. Boland is zipping it like the MCG.His first ball to Root nips back sharply at Root, does too much for the lbw. The next one is much closer, slamming into the front pad as Root does all he can to counter the movement. There is a huge appeal. The Australians confer. Marnus Labuschagne is very excited (when isn’t he?). He may or may not have been told to not get involved. In the end, there’s no review. Erasmus then has a word with Cummins and Labuschagne.Root defends with that trademark open face to backward point. Next ball he’s shuffling out of the crease. The last delivery takes the pad into the leg side for a scampered extra. It took Australia 37 overs to bowl a maiden in the first innings. Now they have two in a row. The rain can only be minutes away.

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Cummins again. Root defends into the covers.It was a high-intensity short session of play from Australia between two rain breaks•Getty ImagesThe next one is fuller and outside off, it brings Root forward for a drive. It skims past the bat and there’s a big appeal, although more from behind the stumps than from Cummins. However, this time the captain is talked into a review. Root is one of big wickets. Replays show daylight between bat and ball.The sky is going to dump on the ground any moment.Root leaves alone outside off. The Australians want every ball they can get. For the first time in the match it really feels like they have control.They are off. The rain starts to fall, then starts to pelt down. The groundstaff race to get the covers on. One of them is left underneath trying to attach a drainage hose. The players scurry into the dressing rooms.

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It’s been 22 balls. England scored two runs. Australia took two wickets. The rain thunders down. The players don’t get back on. The game is on a knife-edge. The significance of those 20 minutes will be known in the next two days.

England legend bows out in glory on ground where she made her name, with succession in safe hands

Vithushan Ehantharajah27-Aug-2023Everything was geared towards the most fitting of finales. Anya Shrubsole was due to bowl the final set of this women’s Hundred final from the Pavilion End – the same end from which she completed figures of 6 for 46 against India in 2017, to win England the ODI World Cup.In the end, such a poetic ending did not come to pass. The comical run-out of Northern Superchargers No.11 Grace Ballinger at the bowler’s end confirmed Southern Brave’s maiden women’s Hundred title, after two successive final defeats, by 34 runs, with six balls to spare. Shrubsole would have to make do with figures of 1 for 18 from 15 balls in her final match as a professional cricketer. Besides, a player who has spent her time on the biggest stage trying to avoid the limelight was probably glad of the quick finish.Brave wanted to do this for Shrubsole, and her for them. As captain, she had a front-row seat to the pain those team-mates had endured after twice falling in Lord’s finals. This time, they were able to come through in emphatic fashion, and give the 31-year-old seamer the perfect swansong.”It’s right up there, to be honest with you,” Shrubsole said of the victory. “I think just because of the occasion, knowing it’s my last game, having been so close two years running – all of those things make it really, really special.”I’ve been trying to keep my emotions at arm’s length the last couple of days. I’m just unbelievably proud of the girls. Third time lucky here, been in two finals. I think Southern Brave have been the best team in the Hundred for the last three years and we just haven’t managed to get over the line.”I often say sport is not that kind. It doesn’t often give people the ending they might want. So I feel incredibly fortunate that I’ve been able to get the ending that I want.”Related

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Shrubsole’s dismissal of Alice Davidson-Richards all but ended Superchargers’ hopes of chasing down a target of 140, reducing them to 66 for 5. But it was the work of her successor, Lauren Bell, that gave Brave an immediate stranglehold on the second innings.Much like Shrubsole throughout her career, Bell’s late-booming inswingers did most of the damage across her 19 deliveries, as she finished with 3 for 21. Marie Kelly was bowled off her pads second ball of the innings, having successfully reviewed an lbw decision off the first, before the dangerous Phoebe Litchfield was snared at deep cover after driving aerially off the outside half of her bat. Lucy Higham – scooping the 91st ball straight to fine leg up in the circle – was the third.Speaking afterwards as the Match Hero, Bell went out of her way to praise Shrubsole for her mentoring over these last few years. “I do often feel I’m making her proud, which is really, really nice. As soon as it was over, I was straight to Anya and so happy for her.”As it happens, the pair met for the first time on a New Zealand tour in 2021, with Bell perhaps not as aware of Shrubsole as she might have been, because of how little women’s cricket was broadcast even that recently. And it was fitting that on a free-to-air broadcast, in a competition looking to spread the game beyond its usual circles, Bell was front and centre for future generations to gaze upon. Not only does Shrubsole credit the competition for continuing the shift in women’s cricket, she reckons Bell will beat her tally of 227 wickets across 173 international caps.”Lauren was exceptional today, she really set the tone. She’ll probably be way better than I ever was, and that’s really exciting.”This competition has just grown year on year on year. I know it has its critics, but purely from a women’s game point of view, this competition is incredible. And I think it’s done amazing things for the women’s game in this country, for domestic cricket in this country, and I really hope that it continues for many years to come.”The state of women’s cricket is really healthy. What’s important is we grab that momentum and keep going.”By Shrubsole’s own admission, the acceleration of the women’s game had finally become too much for her to keep up with, something she acknowledged when stepping away from international cricket at the start of the 2022 summer. To go out in front of a crowd of 21,636, a domestic record for a women’s game and the highest attendance for any women’s game in the country this summer, felt deserved, and fitting.A cricketer whose guile and drive took her from being a 12-year-old debutant for her native county Somerset to becoming one of England’s all-time seamers, now signs off with one final trophy in a tournament that embodies a bold new future for the women’s game.”I am immensely proud,” Shrubsole said. “I could only have dreamed of having this career. I’m a competitive person, I just want to win whatever I’m playing. Ask my parents, when we’re playing a game of cards, I want to win.”I played lots of sports as a kid and I just wanted to do the best that I can and be as successful as I can. And cricket ended up being the one I was best at.”

Their coach Rob Walter wants them to “enjoy the experience of being in a semi-final”

Firdose Moonda11-Nov-20231:57

Harmison: Gerald Coetzee’s character and attitude key for winning semi-final

And so it begins.The matches we’ve all been waiting for, and in South Africa’s case the matches they’re pretty sure “no-one,” in the words of their coach Rob Walter, gave them a chance of being involved in. And it’s not out of disrespect that people held that view.South Africa were the last team to confirm automatic qualification for the 2023 ODI World Cup, went through administrative upheaval between the last World Cup and this one, and missed out on the semi-finals of both T20 World Cups played in that time. With their recent history and the might of England (joke’s on us), the pedigree of Australia, the consistency of New Zealand, the form of India, and the unpredictability of Pakistan, South Africa were only given an outside chance of making the final four.As their campaign progressed, however, they began to be spoken of as champion material. Never mind that finishing in the top four could well be enough of an achievement, now that they are in the semi-finals, and especially now that they are in the semi-finals against arguably their greatest rivals, Australia, all the old tropes are coming back.Will they choke again, is the most obvious (and most overplayed) one. Can they chase again, is the more pressing one, given how they didn’t against the Dutch or India, snuck over the line against Pakistan, and made hard work of it against Afghanistan. What effect will the Springbok victory at the Rugby World Cup two weeks ago have on their cricketing counterparts? How many times will Springboks be mentioned at a cricket competition? (Answer: as many times as it can be because come on, no other team has won the rugby world cup as many times as the Springboks). And are they starting to internalise the pressure that comes with push-to-shove situations?Walter, who rarely talks in anything other than an even-tone, offered this up in response. “The semi-final becomes what you allow it to become. I don’t ever want the guys to downplay a semi-final, because they have played bloody good cricket to get there,” he said in Ahmedabad, where South Africa played their last league game. “I would much rather tell them to enjoy the fact that we are here, enjoy the fact that we have played good cricket to be here, and enjoy the experience of being in a semi-final, against a team that we know very well, are highly competitive and probably have just started playing their best cricket.”Did you think that South Africa would qualify for the semi-finals?•AFP/Getty ImagesIn just a few lines, Walter summed up the narratives that will take hold in the build-up to the big game in Kolkata on November 16. For starters South Africa, especially when batting first, have looked among the best teams at this World Cup. Five of their top six (the exception being captain Temba Bavuma, who is also nursing a hamstring injury) have contributed significant runs and four of them have scored centuries. One of them, Quinton de Kock, has scored four centuries. When batting first, their template is to start conservatively and build a platform for the power-hitters to take off from. While they have not worked out how to replicate that when batting second, they have scrapped their way to two wins, which demonstrates another route to success. There’s a lot to enjoy about all that, and some work to do. They have six days to do it.Secondly, South Africa have a recent record over Australia that is surprisingly dominant. In the last 20 completed matches between these two sides, dating back to mid-2016, South Africa have won 16 including 5-0 and 3-0 whitewashes and league matches at the 2019 and 2023 World Cups. South Africa have beaten Australia everywhere from Providence, to Perth, to Potchefstroom, which tells them that they can do it anywhere. “It’s the same team we are playing against,” Walter said. “But it’s a different pitch. “The team hasn’t changed much. What keeps changing is the conditions.”He’s right and he’s not. The bilateral record, as impressive as it is, includes matches where both teams were resting first-choice players. So although it’s the same team, Australia are fundamentally the same in approach no matter who plays, it’s not the same people all the time. For example, in the most recent series which South Africa won 3-2, Pat Cummins was not involved. And then it’s also not the same team in the sense that the Australia that started this competition with successive losses is not the same Australia that have reeled off seven wins in a row. Walter recognises that.South Africa have been red hot when batting first, but not so much in chases•ICC via Getty Images”They are playing better than they were at the start of the campaign,” he said. “There was probably some fatigue that kicked in from the (English) summer but once you get momentum in a World Cup campaign, you start to think less about fatigue and you start trusting your cricket. I think that’s where they are.”South Africa have not enjoyed the same unbeaten run, but also did not have fixtures in the same sequence. Unlike Australia, who had two of their toughest games first, followed by relatively easier fixtures later, South Africa’s challenges were dotted through the campaign. Though they lost two matches, they ended the league stage with an overall sense of satisfaction that they are ready for what really matters.”The exciting part is the way we’ve played. In the general sense, we weren’t even thought of [as semi-finalists] but then we played really high quality cricket to get there and when that happens, expectation rises and people think, “Oooh, maybe they have actually got a chance,” Walter said.Now it’s up to them to see what they can make of that chance.

He stood in five games in the men’s ODI World Cup last year, and last month became only the second umpire from his country to officiate in a neutral Test

Mohammad Isam01-Feb-2024Be honest and admit that Shakib Al Hasan kung-fu-kicking stumps comes to mind every time you hear the phrase “Bangladeshi umpire”.Shakib has often screamed at them. Charged at them with the bat held high over his head like an axe. Charged at them wearing flip-flops. The former Bangladesh captain has made the country’s umpires part of cricket’s pop-culture lexicon – giving weight to the notion of them as a hapless, bumbling breed, somewhat like WWE referees.Enter Sharfuddoula Ibn Shahid. When the slim, genial umpire stood in last week’s blockbuster Brisbane Test match, it was just the second time a Bangladeshi had officiated as a neutral umpire in a Test.Sharfuddoula had a good match in Brisbane. He was also an on-field umpire in five World Cup matches in India last year, the first from Bangladesh in the tournament’s history. He was also the first from the country to officiate in both formats of the women’s World Cups.But set his recent high-profile assignments aside and Bangladesh’s umpiring record on the international stage is quite thin. Masudur Rahman stood in the Asia Cup final couple of years ago. Former international player Enamul Haque was the first Bangladeshi to officiate as a neutral umpire in a Test match, in 2012. The late Nadir Shah stood in an India-Pakistan final in a 2008 tri-series.Bangladesh’s umpires, however, have been in the news off and on for various scandals and controversies, and for making glaring errors. A few years ago when there were allegations of umpires being used to manipulate domestic limited-overs matches. Things came to a head in ugly fashion with Shakib kicking down the stumps in a Dhaka Premier League game in 2021 after being refused an lbw decision.Bangladesh hasn’t exactly been a country that has produced top-shelf umpires and match referees. The ICC has never been confident enough in their quality to hand them neutral umpiring assignments, and so they have usually only got home ODIs. The BCB for its part has never taken umpiring seriously enough to develop a pathway for umpires to come up through.Sharfuddoula (right) with Indian colleague Nitin Menon at a 2023 ODI World Cup warm-up game•Matt Roberts/ICC/GettyIf you consider the extreme, in-your-face pressure the average Bangladeshi umpire has to endure in domestic leagues, particularly the DPL, you would think they would be well equipped to handle top-level pressure too. Given the right training and international experience, they could well have done far better than they have. But as things stand, Sharfuddoula remains the lone flag-bearer for Bangladeshi umpiring on the world stage.A former left-arm spinner who played for Bangladesh in the ICC Trophy in 1994, where he took six wickets in three matches, Sharfuddoula spent a brief time working as a coach, and then joined the BCB in an administrative role. He umpired his first domestic game in 2007, and his international debut came soon after, when he stood alongside Simon Taufel in a Bangladesh-Sri Lanka ODI in 2010He had to wait 11 years to stand in a Test match – that opportunity came due to Covid 19, which forced the ICC to appoint Bangladeshi umpires for home Tests for a while. Sharfuddoula spent the intervening years on a diet of domestic first-class, List-A and T20 matches. He also umpired Associate ODIs and stood in the men’s World Cup Qualifiers (ODIs and T20Is) in 2018 and 2019.He officiated in the women’s ODI World Cups in 2017 and 2022, and the women’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies in 2018, apart from several women’s T20I World Cup qualifiers, starting in 2013. He also stood in the men’s Under-19 World Cups in 2016 and 2020. Still, though he had a fair amount of white-ball experience, before his 2023 World Cup appearance he had made only a handful of appearances as a neutral umpire in ODIs or T20Is where both teams were from Full Member nations. And before his umpiring Test debut in 2021, his only times standing in first-class cricket overseas were from some matches in West Indies’ regional competition in 2016, and in a handful of Associate first-class games.

Mitchell hasn’t got himself a big score yet, but his approach has aligned with that of CSK’s, like when he took Sunil Narine down in the KKR game

Deivarayan Muthu13-Apr-2024Bat up the order? Yes, sir.Demolish spin in the middle? No problem.Turn up at the death and smash sixes? Sure.Floating in the batting line-up is one of the most difficult jobs in T20 cricket, and Ambati Rayudu did it for two of the most successful franchises in the IPL – Mumbai Indians and CSK. He is now retired, but Daryl Mitchell is easing himself into that role for CSK.Mitchell himself has been New Zealand’s do-it-all man for a while. He opened the batting for them in his first ICC tournament – the T20 World Cup in the UAE in 2021 – and in the ODI World Cup last year he was the most prolific middle-order batter. His versatility tempted CSK to bid up to INR 14 crore for him at the last IPL auction.Related

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There has been a bit of outside noise around Mitchell not getting a big score yet this IPL. The directive, though, from coach Stephen Fleming to the middle-order batters is clear: make small but quick contributions across the board to reach a big total. Mitchell has produced some cameos so far, helping CSK to three wins in five matches. The approach makes sense because CSK have batting depth all the way down to No. 10 or No. 11. Why not make full use of it?”I am six foot three, I am 100 kgs. So, it’s making sure I use my size and my base and finding ways to put pressure back on the spinners in my own way,” Mitchell told reporters in Chennai before CSK’s third home game, against KKR. “And also learning off other players around the world. We have obviously got a guy called Kane Williamson in our team back home.”He is a pretty good player of spin and I have learned a lot off him, but also watching other players all around the world to see how they go about different conditions, and you’re trying to adapt that to your game.”On Monday against KKR, Mitchell was bumped up to No. 3 instead of Ajinkya Rahane, who had spent a substantial amount of time off the field with a niggle. CSK were 27 for 1 in the fourth over, chasing 138 on a sluggish, grippy Chepauk pitch. The new ball was still doing a bit and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad had decided to anchor the chase in the absence of Rahane.

“It doesn’t worry me where I bat in the order. I am a competitor at heart, that’s what drives me. So, whatever role I’ve got to do for the team to help us try and win games of cricket, I’ll do that”Daryl Mitchell

It was over to Mitchell to take risks and disrupt KKR’s bowling. Sunil Narine, with 538 (!) T20 wickets, was up against him, with a wide long-on in place. Mitchell didn’t care. He charged at Narine, used his reach to meet an into-the-pitch offbreak early and launched him into the stands beyond long-on.That shot forced Narine to dart a slider at middle stump, but Mitchell reverse-swept from the stumps and picked it away to the right of short third and left of deep point. He took 13 off Narine’s first over.When Mitchell stepped out to Narine once again in his next over, he did not meet the pitch of the ball and was bowled for 25 off 19 balls. But the damage had been done. Mitchell had scored 17 of those against Narine off just eight balls at a strike rate of 212.50. It wasn’t quite Rayudu vs Rashid Khan, but Mitchell’s attacking intent aligned with CSK’s approach.”It’s just, again, trying to be as present as you can in that moment,” Mitchell said of his game plan against spin. “And working out what their threats are to you as a batsman and trying to find ways to put pressure back on them. That’s the nature of the game that we play. Sometimes it can look ugly, but you get the runs and get the job done and other times it looks beautiful. So, it’s just working out what’s the surface doing, what are the bowlers trying to do to get me out, and I will keep trying to find ways to put pressure back on them as well.”Daryl Mitchell has chipped in with the ball too, and manned the hotspots in the outfield•AFP/Getty ImagesMitchell has batted in four different positions in five innings so far for CSK. But if Rahane is fit to play in Mumbai, where the pitch is usually quicker and bouncier than Chennai’s, or if Shivam Dube is to be pushed up to counter spin, Mitchell might have to slide down the order on Sunday.”It doesn’t worry me where I bat in the order,” Mitchell said. “I am a competitor at heart, that’s what drives me. So, whatever role I’ve got to do for the team to help us try and win games of cricket, I’ll do that. Whether it’s opening, batting at No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 or No. 6.”Mitchell has also pitched in with the ball and has manned the hotspots in the outfield. CSK’s team management believes that Mitchell has the game to succeed across conditions, which is why they also picked him for their affiliate, Texas Super Kings, in the MLC, even before he had made his IPL debut for them.The last time Mitchell and the Wankhede came together, he cracked 134 and gave India a scare in the ODI World Cup semi-finals last year. His role at CSK in the IPL is different, and another rapid cameo with a risk-taking appetite would do for them against an MI side that also drips with batting depth and power.Life after Rayudu isn’t looking too bad after all for CSK.

He has taken tough, unpopular calls, and used his bowlers brilliantly, but Bangladesh need their young leader to get out of a prolonged batting slump

Mohammad Isam15-Jun-20242:23

Najmul Hossain Shanto on his rise and Bangladesh’s strengths

As Bangladesh stand one win away from a Super Eight place in the T20 World Cup 2024, their captain Najmul Hossain Shanto is a subject of mixed feelings.He has led Bangladesh superbly. He has been proactive in his on-field leadership. His handling of bowling changes has been spot-on, which is hard to do in three consecutive games at a T20 World Cup, and he has not shied away from taking tough but unpopular decisions on and off the field.Shanto’s decision to give Shakib Al Hasan just the one over against South Africa was akin to heresy in Bangladesh cricket. It was a little like Rahul Dravid declaring the India innings with Sachin Tendulkar unbeaten on 194. It was called the “declaration of independence” at the time, a loud proclamation of a team-first attitude. Shanto giving Shakib just one over was a widely debated call, and a major one for a Bangladesh captain about to turn 26. His captaincy has been a key component of Bangladesh’s comeback from a nightmare start to their tour of North America.Related

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Shanto’s batting form, however, is a cause for concern. His three innings at this World Cup so far have brought him scores of 7, 14 and 1, and he has not scored a half-century in his last 16 innings across international formats, averaging 13.43 in this period. His form has worsened since his arrival in North America in mid-May: he has passed 14 just once in five T20I innings over the course of Bangladesh’s 2-1 defeat to USA last month and this World Cup.Shanto’s North America tour began with his getting stumped off the USA part-timer Steven Taylor as he looked to hit his way out of trouble with Bangladesh stuck at 51 for 2 in the eighth over. He looked in better shape in the next innings, scoring 36 off 34 balls before a mix-up with Towhid Hridoy got him run out.In Bangladesh’s first match at the T20 World Cup, Shanto scratched around for 12 balls before hitting a drive straight to cover. It was a similar story against South Africa: he scratched around for 22 balls before he got rushed by Anrich Nortje, caught at short square-leg trying to pull a 146kph delivery. Shanto had been dismissed in similar manner against India in the warm-up game in New York.Against Netherlands, Shanto reverse-swept offspinner Aryan Dutt straight to slip. He was facing just his third ball.Three innings at the T20 World Cup so far have brought Najmul Hossain Shanto scores of 7, 14 and 1•Getty ImagesThe shot brought to mind a comment in a recent interview from Shanto’s club coach, the former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud.”He [Shanto] is a confident guy, but consistency is becoming a hurdle for him,” Mahmud had said. “I spoke to him recently. I told him that it looks like you are in a lot of hurry in the middle. It is not written anywhere that you have to hit a six every ball in T20s.”Away from the batting crease, however, Shanto is a completely different character. He keeps his calm in public, and smiles a lot in the field. He enjoys his teammates’ success. It takes a strong character to survive the high-pressure and lonely world of Bangladesh captaincy, and Shanto has shown character off the field too, sticking to his guns even when taking unpopular decisions.He is, for instance, part of the decision-making group that has kept picking Tanzim Hasan Sakib over Shoriful Islam, who has been fit since June 8, and Tanzim has vindicated this with his new-ball displays.The highlight of Shanto’s captaincy, though, has been his handling of legspinner Rishad Hossain. After the South Africa match, coach Chandika Hathurusinghe praised Shanto for risking Rishad in the 19th over against a hungry David Miller. Rishad got the left-hander out first ball. Hathurusinghe said the credit for the wicket should go not just to the bowler but the captain too.He used Rishad smartly against the Netherlands too, keeping faith in him even after he went for 14 in his first over. Rishad rewarded Bangladesh with three wickets in two overs when Shanto gave him the 15th and 18th overs. A Bangladeshi legspinner getting important wickets is a sight for sore eyes, and so is a Bangladeshi captain trusting the legspinner to bowl the big overs.1:34

Shakib: Shanto has a great head on his shoulders

Shanto is also Bangladesh’s best all-round fielder. He makes innumerable stops in the covers and midwicket when he is in the circle, and he doesn’t shy away from fielding in the deep in the death overs. Shanto communicates well with the bowlers even when he is in the deep, sometimes relying on his throat, and at other times running all the way to the bowler before heading back to his fielding position.Shanto has also shown he can get out of his own comfort zone to help his team-mates. When Soumya Sarkar failed in the first game against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh replaced him with the middle-order batter Jaker Ali. Someone had to move up the order to open in Soumya’s place, and with Litton Das having scored runs at No. 3 against Sri Lanka, Shanto stepped up, allowing Litton to stay in his position.Fans, however, remain skeptical about Shanto’s batting form. He hasn’t yet adjusted to the new batting position, and his shot against Netherlands has drawn heavy flak. Yet, it seems like Shanto is equipped to handle the frustration at not scoring runs and the criticism he gets for it. At least that’s what his strong captaincy and brilliant fielding suggest. That’s all the public needs to see.Shanto isn’t the first Bangladesh captain to go through a lean run at a World Cup. Two of their better campaigns, in fact, were helmed by struggling captains: Habibul Bashar averaged 13.12 across eight innings at the 2007 ODI World Cup, when Bangladesh made the Super Eight stage, and Mashrafe Mortaza took one wicket for 361 runs in 2019, when they pulled off memorable wins over South Africa and West Indies.The BCB has previously taken rash decisions based on a captain’s performance at a World Cup, so it will be in Shanto’s best interests – as well as that of Bangladesh’s struggling top order – for him to get back among the runs as soon as possible.It’s important that he does this, because he’s ticked every other box. In him, Bangladesh may have found a captain ready to move the team into the future while shedding the baggage of the past, and do so with a smile on his face.

He’s a superhero out of an animator’s fever dream. Is it too soon to say he’s perhaps the greatest T20 player of all time?

Osman Samiuddin23-Jun-2024It is entirely plausible, depending on how you consume your cricket (let’s say, intermittently, in longer form and international), that the career of Andre Russell has played itself out near the periphery of your consumption. Occasionally, no doubt, he’s burst through, when winning World Cups for example, or dominating IPLs, or pulling off feats of cricket so unimaginable you suspect they’re AI-generated.Equally as likely, you’ve seen him referenced in some lament about the decline of West Indian cricket, as he turns down a central contract and chooses $$ over duty for country. Viv and company would never have done that (though, two words: Packer, Kerry). Or you can vaguely recall a doping ban from a few years ago, probably also as a lament about the lack of integrity in what used to be a gentleman’s sport.If that is the case, then while he has your attention at this World Cup, consider the proposition that Russell is among the greatest cricketers to have played the game. If that is too much to swallow and you feel putting him in the same cross-format list as, say, Jacques Kallis, is sacrilege, then sure, add the caveat of his format. With that qualification, there’s even less competition: he isn’t simply among the greatest T20 cricketers to have lived, he’s one of the greatest two, alongside Kieron Pollard.Related

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No? If West Indies win this T20 World Cup, Russell will have won more world titles than Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge, Alvin Kallicharran and Andy Roberts. He already has more than Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Desmond Haynes. If you say, so has Johnson Charles, well, yes, touché. Well played. Except, if Russell wins this tournament, it will be his 14th T20 title (league titles in seven different countries), a winningness that puts him out on his own with Pollard (18 titles) and Dwayne Bravo (17).It’s slightly urgent to drive all this home because he’s 36 and these might be the last few days we see Russell in a world event representing the West Indies. Maybe. Last December, when he returned to the West Indies side after two years, he said he’d told the coach, Daren Sammy, he’d walk away from international cricket after the World Cup. Except if they needed him after it. In which case, he’d come out of retirement.That, of course, is one of the marks of the T20 age, that nobody really retires anymore. Chris Gayle still hasn’t called it quits officially. One player’s goodbye is another’s franchise hello. Given that less than a sixth of Russell’s T20 matches have been played for West Indies, and that he’s played one and a half times as many games for Kolkata Knight Riders as he has for West Indies, leaving KKR might be the more significant exit.Some part of Russell’s greatness is in this late bloom, in which he is 36 but performing as if he’s a decade younger. He’s five years on from looking like he was done during the 2019 World Cup when his knee had given way; from major knee surgery; nearly three years on from what was supposed to be the end of his era; a year on from the 2023 IPL, where he had a senior moment, sacrificing his wicket off the penultimate ball by getting run-out so he could get the new finisher, Rinku Singh, on strike; and old enough now to have proteges.Thirty-six, in his 15th year as a T20 cricketer and having, by some measures, his best year yet. He has never averaged more with the bat in a year (43.4) or had a higher strike rate (brace yourselves: 203.2, across 28 innings). It is the highest strike rate for any batter this year with 500-plus runs (no batter has had more such years).