With Pant, Rahul and Iyer back in the auction pool, IPL 2025 will witness a leadership shake-up

Dustin Silgardo31-Oct-20241:19

Moody: Pant will break the IPL auction record

Teams focus on Indian players

Retention split: Indians: 36, Overseas: 10As might have been expected, the majority of players retained (78.26%) are Indians. Just two teams have retained more than one overseas player: Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have retained three, and Kolkata Knight Riders, who have retained two. Several teams have retained just one overseas player, while Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings have retained only Indian players.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Batters still dominate retentions

Retention split: Batters: 28, Allrounders: 7, Bowlers: 11
As has historically been the case, teams have focused on retaining batters over bowlers. Notably, Rajasthan Royals have just one bowler, Sandeep Sharma, among their six retentions. Similarly, SRH have just Pat Cummins as a frontline bowler. MI and Chennai Super Kings have slightly better balance since they each have a death bowler (Jasprit Bumrah and Matheesha Pathirana) and an allrounder (Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja). The two teams that have invested heavily in bowlers are Lucknow Super Giants, who have retained Mayank Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi and Mohsin Khan, and KKR, who have kept Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy in addition to allrounders Sunil Narine and Andre Russell.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Eight teams go for uncapped players

In 2022, just four teams had used the option of retaining an uncapped Indian player for INR 4 crore. This time around, eight of the ten teams have done so. Only MI and SRH have not retained an uncapped player. KKR, PBKS, GT and LSG have each retained two uncapped players, the maximum allowed. DC and RCB have retained one each, while CSK and RR have made use of the new rule of players who have not played international cricket for five years being classified as uncapped. CSK have retained MS Dhoni for INR 4 crore while RR have retained Sandeep Sharma for the same amount. A total of 12 uncapped Indian players have been retained.

Just three specialist spinners retained

In recent years, teams have been reluctant to spend big on spinners who don’t also add value with the bat, and that trend continues. Among the 46 retentions, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi and Varun Chakravarthy are the only three retained purely for their spin bowling. Ravindra Jadeja, Rashid Khan, Axar Patel and Sunil Narine are four spin-bowling allrounders among the retentions. Among the experienced spinners going into the auction are Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Maheesh Theekshana and Rahul Chahar.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Five teams release their captains

LSG, DC, RCB, PBKS and defending champions KKR have all released their captains. While LSG might look at Nicholas Pooran as a leadership option and RCB may go back to Virat Kohli as captain, it is likely KKR, DC and PBKS will be looking for captains during the auction. This could increase the value of players with captaincy experience. Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Faf du Plessis, Aiden Markram, Steven Smith and Nitish Rana are among the auction-bound players with prior captaincy experience. Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, who have captained England, may also be in demand.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Captains sacrifice pay

In addition to the five captains released, three others have agreed to stay at their franchise as second retentions. Hardik Pandya will be paid INR 16.35 crore (less than Jasprit Bumrah), Shubman Gill INR 16.50 crore (less than Rashid Khan), and Pat Cummins INR 18 crore (less than Heinrich Klaasen). The only two captains who are their team’s joint-top retentions are Ruturaj Gaikwad (INR 18 crore) and Sanju Samson (INR 18 crore).Other marquee players have also agreed to lower price slabs to help their teams balance their purses. MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma are notable among them, but Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Axar Patel and Suryakumar Yadav have also agreed to amounts less than what they might have earned in the auction.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

KKR and DC spend less than deductions

KKR and DC are the only teams who have chosen to pay their players less than the total amount they will have deducted from their purse. KKR have spent just INR 57 crore on their six retentions but will have INR 69 crore deducted from their purse since they have retained four capped players, which means a deduction of INR 61 crore, and two uncapped players, which means a deduction of INR 8 crore. Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell have all agreed to amounts less than the retention slabs set by the IPL. Delhi Capitals are also paying their capped players less than what they will be deducted for them. Axar Patel will be paid INR 16.50 crore instead of INR 18 crore, Kuldeep Yadav INR 13.25 crore instead of INR 14 crore, and Tristan Stubbs INR 10 crore instead of INR 11 crore.All the other teams have balanced the amounts paid to their retained players so that none, except Punjab Kings, have gone over the minimum deduction. While SRH have paid Heinrich Klaasen INR 5 crore more than the maximum slab, they have saved that amount by paying Nitish Kumar Reddy INR 6 crore instead of INR 11 crore. Similarly, RCB and LSG have saved the extra INR 3 crores they are paying Nicholas Pooran and Virat Kohli by paying their other capped retentions less. Shubman Gill has agreed to be Gujarat Titans’ second retention, at INR 16.50 crore, and the extra INR 2.50 crore spent there has been balanced by paying Sai Sudharsan INR 8.50 crore instead of INR 11 crore. CSK and MI have split their purse too, with Rohit Sharma being paid less than Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav.

Previous away wins in Test cricket have only led to false dawns but perhaps this one could lead to solid gains

Mohammad Isam29-Aug-2024Sport lends itself to miracles, it’s part of why people love it. Bangladesh beating a higher-ranked Test team away from home grabs headlines, but because of their overall inconsistency, they never seem to justify those victories. Their rare wins abroad have always felt like false dawns. Even when they beat New Zealand in 2022, Bangladesh couldn’t follow it up. Not later in the series. Not even later in the year. So when they beat Pakistan by ten wickets in Rawalpindi last weekend, it was déjà vu all over again, as American baseball player and coach Yogi Berra liked to say.Only Bangladesh can stop this cycle from repeating, and in Rawalpindi, as they were outclassing the hosts, there were plenty of signs that it is possible. Their tactics stood out. They had a better understanding of the conditions. They still stuck to their usual way of playing Test cricket – for better or worse – especially against better teams. Start by avoiding defeat. Then look for a draw. Finally once that safety net is secure, push for the win.Rawalpindi followed this method to a tee, but it also included moments where Bangladesh put the opposition on the mat, like in the first session itself. They had Pakistan at 16 for 3, before the home side recovered. There was also a spell of play in their batting innings when Litton Das went after Naseem Shah. That seemed to deflate Pakistan, who, by then, had been on the field for ages and ages.Related

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Pakistan are under pressure as they confront the possibility of perhaps even losing the series now. Heavy rain could see off the first two days in the second Test, also in Rawalpindi. The forecast improves from there on, but not by much. Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusinghe knows he is in the box seat, but took the high road when asked about it.”We don’t get satisfied or joyful at their [Pakistan’s] misery,” he said. “It is about us, how we want to perform. We get a lot of confidence in the way we stuck to our game plan.”Bangladesh don’t experiment too much with their Test XI. They have two of the best spinners in the world – Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, with the former a genuine allrounder, and the latter being someone who can bat quite well. It allows Bangladesh to have batting till No. 8, and still play with five frontline bowlers.Test teams are always looking for such wealth. Hathurusinghe said they knew that the spinners would come into play in the first Test despite the pitch looking very green at the start of the game, if they could get into the fifth day.”We always wanted to go with that line-up,” he said. “We knew with the heat around, this wicket wasn’t going to be favourable for fast bowlers for all five days. We knew that our spinners are coming into the game, but for that we needed to drag it into the fifth day.”There could, however, be one change in the Bangladesh line-up for the second Test. The pitch, when it came out from under the covers briefly, looked like it had a lot of grass on it. “[Taskin Ahmed] has a very good chance of playing,” Hathurusinghe said, “because of the type of pitch and weather conditions. It is little more favourable for fast bowlers.”While Bangladesh stick to their templated line-up, Pakistan have had to change personnel. There’s a feeling around the Test match that Shaheen Afridi’s demotion to the bench is a result of Bangladesh playing him out quite comfortably.Without gloating, Bangladesh understand that they have the upper hand here. They are not going into Friday’s game with an underdog mentality. They will look for ways to attack Pakistan, but will always be aware that losing is not an option.

Thorpe’s untimely death has unleashed a wave of tributes from those who discovered a love for the game through his defiant batting

Andrew Miller05-Aug-2024Graham Thorpe’s England career was the promise of better times, melded with the reality that they sometimes seemed unobtainable. His emotions lived and breathed through the combativeness of his strokeplay. When he was up, he was a force to rival any of the mighty protagonists in perhaps the last truly global era of Test batsmanship. When he was down, his returns were so subterranean they almost reeked of despair. Above and beyond his 100 Tests, 16 centuries and a batting average of 44.66 that was higher than, inter alia, Gower, Gooch, Cowdrey and Vaughan, his raw humanity was his defining trait, and a generation loved him for the honesty with which he projected it.Thorpe’s tragic death at the age of 55 has, quite rightly, unleashed a wave of heartfelt tributes from across the sport, spanning his former team-mates and rivals, as well as a host of the modern-day stars whose careers were moulded during his long second innings as a coach with Surrey and England. However, it’s the unseen echelons of appreciation that perhaps speak most eloquently of the adoration his career engendered. All morning long, WhatsApp groups have been bursting with reminiscence at the hope he instilled in so many lost England causes of the 1990s, and by extension the central role he played in causing so many people to fall in love with the game in the first place. But then, underpinning it all, is this shuddering jolt at the sheer fragility of existence. More than one acquaintance of mine has stated that they have never felt more affected by a non-family death. It doesn’t feel overblown to concur.What, then, was the reason for this peculiar and deep-rooted affection? The events of Thorpe’s debut at Trent Bridge in 1993 played a part, of course – after being bounced out by Merv Hughes for single figures in his maiden innings, he seemed to knuckle down and toughen up almost overnight. With inevitable defeat looming at the fall of England’s fifth second-innings wicket, he responded with a combative, indomitable 114 – making him England’s first debut centurion since Frank Hayes against West Indies a full 20 years earlier – that slowly but inexorably ground out a position from which to push for victory. Auspiciously for his narrative purposes, this was done, first, in partnership with the mighty Graham Gooch – Thorpe’s most-legitimate predecessor as England’s truly world-class batter – and then with Nasser Hussain, then another young prospect whose defiance and tenacity would come to prove so crucial to England’s steady rise in standards across the span of their careers.Related

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Perhaps fittingly, Australia’s refusal to yield (this time through Steve Waugh and Brendon Julian) would deny Thorpe and England the fairytale finish to this most uplifting of beginnings. Because, even if it only became truly apparent in hindsight, there would be something exquisitely noble about England’s struggles through the rest of the 1990s – an era blessed, lest we forget, with perhaps the most relentless churn of world-class attacking bowlers ever assembled. If it wasn’t McGrath and Warne lined up against England, it was Ambrose and Walsh. Or Wasim and Waqar. Or Donald and Pollock. Or Murali and Vaas. Tennis fans who have spent the last week coming to terms with the retirement of Andy Murray will recognise the magnificence required simply to compete in such a rarified era, let alone to deliver a clutch of the greatest victories ever compiled against the odds.For a time after his debut, Thorpe’s brilliance was visible only in snatched opportunities. The epithet “selfless” soon attached itself to his methods, most particularly on England’s subsequent tour of the Caribbean, where his twin scores of 86 and 84 were instrumental in setting up two further victory shots, in Trinidad and Barbados. And yet, the defining image of Thorpe’s personal campaign would come right in between those two efforts: his hauntingly bleak stare into the middle distance at Port-of-Spain, with his stumps shattered and the scoreboard reading 40 for 8 after Ambrose’s thrilling fourth-evening rampage. It was a look that questioned his very life choices, that telegraphed – albeit fleetingly – the futility of resistance. Magnificently he was unbowed by the time of his next second innings, a fortnight later in Bridgetown, with a pitch-perfect declaration push that ensured his team would leave a brutal tour with at least one all-timer of an upset to look back on.And yet, with England about to entrust their management to the hard-bitten “supremo”, Ray Illingworth, Thorpe’s integral importance to the team that Mike Atherton was trying to create would be under-valued for a while yet. Where his colleagues saw a man gunning only for what was best for the collective, Illingworth’s binary attitude to run-scoring saw instead a talented rookie who was too flighty to knuckle down and make the most of his promise. As an aside, if Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick are commonly cited as the two players of the 1990s who would have benefited most from the introduction of ECB central contracts, Thorpe would surely have been the foremost apostle of Bazball.Thorpe pulls during his 124 against South Africa in 2003•PA PhotosIt’s ironic, therefore, that having been dropped for the first four Tests of the 1994 summer, Thorpe marked his return to the team with a trio of 70s that turned the tide in another thrilling series against South Africa. In keeping with the methods that were already his calling card, each of his innings came at a strike rate significantly higher than a run every two balls, and while it may seem glib to make a big deal of such relatively dour scoring, Thorpe’s genius was not unlike that of Joe Root in the current England line-up. His tracer-like cover-driving and his all-enveloping pull shots would catch the eye when his blood was up, but the bread-and-butter of his matchcraft were the dinks and nudges – often deep in the crease, square-on to the bowler- that kept the strike rotating and the scoreboard ticking. In an age of grim survival, best exemplified by Atherton’s broad blade presented straight back down the line, Thorpe’s proactivity epitomised a willingness to keep striving for something more. His was a defiant optimism that chimed with the times, and kept his fans rapt throughout these years of adversity.Clearly, any professional sportsman needs to offer substance to back up the style, but the occasion of Thorpe’s second Test century was pitch-perfect in England’s straitened circumstances. On a typical Perth flyer, at the tail-end of a desperate tour, he arrived at the crease with Atherton and Mike Gatting dispatched in McGrath’s opening over, but surged onto the offensive in a 158-run stand with Ramprakash that felt like nothing less than the dawning of a brand-new era. In the shimmering white heat of the WACA, a vista that always seemed to be projected more viscerally into the cold of an English winter living room, out came Thorpe’s idiosyncratic wallop of his bat as he sprinted through for the landmark single, arms outstretched, before the removal of his helmet and a glimpse of his lesser-spotted white headband – a treat that always signified the attainment of a rare peak. Not even a predictable reversion to England’s mean in the second innings could taint the sense of a page turned. On the contrary, as McGrath ripped through the top-order to deliver an inglorious end to both Gooch and Gatting’s Test careers, amid a wrecked scoreline of 27 for 6, it became ever more apparent around whom England were obliged to rebuild their fortunes.And so it would come to pass. Notwithstanding the summer of 1999, when the accumulation of a decade of beatings would result in England’s slumping to the foot of the unofficial world rankings, it was possible to detect an incremental uptick in Test standards across the back end of the decade; from England’s hard-fought series win in New Zealand in 1996-97 (featuring two Thorpe hundreds) to their staggering Ashes victory at Edgbaston the following summer (featuring Thorpe’s 138 alongside Hussain’s career-best 207). When a back injury restricted his involvement in the home series win over South Africa in 1998 (England’s first in a five-Test series since 1986-87) it was partly as a consequence of him having become the first England player to feature in ten consecutive winter tours (Test and A-team) – in an age, remember, before central contracts offered any such assurances of continuity.

“Rarely in England’s history has there been an ovation to match that which greeted Thorpe’s comeback century against South Africa at The Oval in 2003, while his final winters as an England cricketer were similarly triumphant, with central roles in series wins in the Caribbean and South Africa”

Fittingly, therefore, Thorpe’s zenith would arrive at the very moment when his value to England was finally and officially recognised. The introduction of ECB central contracts in 2000 came after he had unilaterally opted out of the tour of South Africa the previous winter, amid the first stirrings of the marital problems that would gnaw away at his equilibrium in the final years of his career. But, given the chance to be fully valued by the team to whom he had given so much, he repaid the faith with the single greatest winter of his career, and one of the greatest in England’s touring history.Other wins carry more resonance: England in Australia in 2010-11, or India in 2012-13. But given where England had come from, and the distance they still had to travel, their twin victories in Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2000-01 remain extraordinary monuments to the resilience of an underappreciated generation. Thorpe himself bookended the triumphs; first in Lahore where he epitomised his captain’s call to fight with every sinew of his being in producing a stalemate-sealing century that featured just a solitary boundary. Then, after picking off the winning runs in England’s miraculous victory in the dark in Karachi, he capped his endeavours in Kandy and Colombo in the new year, willing himself to endure through Sri Lanka’s sticky, sapping heat to overcome an innings loss in Galle and land a sensational 2-1 win.The enduring image of that campaign was of a deathly pale Thorpe, eyes so hollow they might as well have been caked in mascara, willing himself back out to the middle having already won the match once with his stamina-draining 113 not out in the first innings at the SSC. When Sri Lanka collapsed to 81 all out in reply his work should have been done. Instead, England themselves tumbled to 71 for 6, chasing 74. But for his follow-up 32 not out, the day would have been lost. He was so shattered afterwards, he was unable to take any part in the team’s raucous celebrations.Thorpe with Joe Root, one of the many England batters to benefit from his wisdom as coach•Getty ImagesThorpe had another faraway look in his eyes two summers later, against India at Lord’s in 2002, when the torment of his personal life was etched into every one of his all-too-public actions. He made 4 and 1 in that contest, which was five more runs than his spirit seemed willing to offer to the occasion, and when it was announced soon after the contest that he would be taking an indefinite break from cricket, it was merely the rubber-stamping of a fact that his misery had already made clear.Not that it mattered remotely in his personal circumstances, but Thorpe’s decision meant that he would miss the 2002-03 tour of Australia, thereby leaving an incredible dent in his Ashes record; just two Tests out of a possible 15 since the end of 1997, with injury having ruled him out of both the 1998-99 and 2001 campaigns.It was not the end of his story by any stretch of the imagination. Rarely in England’s history has there been an ovation to match that which greeted Thorpe’s comeback century, inevitably in a winning cause, against South Africa at The Oval in 2003, while his final winters as an England cricketer were similarly triumphant, with central roles in series wins in the Caribbean (still unreplicated to this day) and South Africa, for the first time in the post-Apartheid era.By the time of the 2005 Ashes, however, the emergence of Kevin Pietersen – coupled with England’s determination, not unlike that which led to Thorpe’s own breakthrough ten years previously, to proceed with a new generation unencumbered by the scars of the past – meant that he dipped quietly out of international cricket with the occasion of his 100th Test, against Bangladesh in Chester-le-StreetIt was an oddly fitting ending for a man who had been destined to carry his side through adversity, and earn along the way the undying love and gratitude of those true aficionados who recognised the exquisite glory of the struggle.

India broke their own record to put up the fastest 100 in men’s Test cricket in Kanpur against Bangladesh

Sampath Bandarupalli30-Sep-20241 – India’s hundred came in just 10.1 overs, making it the fastest team hundred in men’s Tests (where data is available).India broke their own record by 2.1 overs – they had taken only 12.2 overs against West Indies in last year’s Port of Spain Test.24.2 Overs needed for India to reach the 200-run mark. It is the fastest-recorded team 200 in men’s Tests, bettering Australia’s record, who got there in 28.1 overs in their second-innings against Pakistan in 2017 in Sydney.India also broke the record for fastest team 150 and 250. The previous fastest team 150 was also by India off 21.1 overs against West Indies in 2023, while the previous quickest 250 came in 34 overs by England in their 2nd innings vs Pakistan in 2022 in Rawalpindi.3.0 – Overs that India needed to get to fifty. It is also the fastest recorded team fifty in men’s Tests, bettering England’s record – 4.2 overs against West Indies in Nottingham and in Birmingham earlier this year.0 – Instances of India completing their fifty inside the first 20 balls of the innings in men’s internationals (all formats) before Monday. Their previous fastest fifty was in 3.4 overs, also against Bangladesh, in last year’s Asian Games (T20I).ESPNcricinfo Ltd8.22 India’s run rate during their 285 for 9 in Kanpur is the highest in men’s Test innings (minimum 200 balls). The previous highest was 7.36 by England against Pakistan when they made 264 for seven in 35.5 overs in the 2022 Rawalpindi Test.No team had a run rate of eight in a Test innings where they scored 100-plus runs, before India on Monday.14.34 – The scoring rate during the 55-run opening partnership between Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma, which came in only 23 balls.It is the fastest fifty partnership in men’s Tests in terms of run rate (where data is available – complete FOW data is available only since 1998).The previous highest run rate for a partnership of 50-plus runs was 11.86 by Ben Duckett and Ben Stokes, who added 87 off 44 balls against West Indies in Birmingham, earlier this year.5 Number of Indian batters to have scored 20-plus runs while striking at 100 and more in the first-innings in Kanpur, the joint-most in a men’s Test innings. England also had five batters scoring 20-plus runs at a strike rate of 100 and more in their first innings against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in 2022.96 – Sixes hit by India batters across the eight Test matches they have played in 2024. These are the most sixes hit by a team in a calendar year in Test cricket, bettering England’s tally of 89 in 2022.Rohit Sharma came out all guns blazing•BCCI4 – Recorded instances of a player hitting the first two balls they faced in a Test innings for sixes, including Rohit off Khaled Ahmed in Kanpur.Foffie Williams against Jim Laker in the 1948 Barbados Test was the first.Two other India batters have also done it – Sachin Tendulkar off Nathan Lyon in the 2013 Chepauk Test and Umesh Yadav off George Linde in the 2019 Ranchi Test.4.5 Overs in which Hasan Mahmud conceded 50 runs in India’s first innings. Only two bowlers had conceded 50 runs in fewer overs in a men’s Test innings since 2002 – 4.2 by Graeme Cremer against South Africa in 2005 and 4.4 by Murali Kartik against Australia in 2004.34.4 Overs batted by India before declaring, the fifth shortest declared first-innings in men’s Tests. The total of 285 for nine is also the lowest-ever declaration total for India in the first innings.

The wicketkeeper-batter is capable of unbelievable things when he’s at the crease but hasn’t stayed there for long enough on this tour

Alagappan Muthu25-Dec-20244:16

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the ones with Rishabh Pant in them would start with “what the…” There is one depicting his reverse scoop to Scott Boland in the second innings of the Adelaide Test. He’s leaning back, away from the ball. His bat is flipped, and the maker’s name is facing the wrong way. A short-of-a-length delivery that would otherwise have cramped a left-hand batter gets tossed out to the boundary and there is disbelief all around.Pant, by now, is on the floor. He had premeditated the shot. There was a touch of extra bounce. The pink ball was up where his chest would have been had he stayed still. But since he hadn’t, he had a bit of distance to make up. So he increased his bat speed, went down to up and swung so hard and so fast that along with making contact with the ball, he knocked himself clean off his feet. Sprawled on his hands and knees, he watched his score tick over from 7 off 8 to 11 off 9.The principles that used to govern batting have but a tenuous grasp of it right now. With every innings he plays, Pant is making it harder for them to hold on. He wasn’t set. His team was trailing. He targeted the bowler who had picked up two of the three Indian wickets to fall, including Virat Kohli. His instinctive, imaginative strokeplay exists outside of match situations and its pull can be so powerful that sometimes what he does ends up deciding the match result.Related

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Pant’s second-innings hundred in Ahmedabad three years ago had that kind of effect. India were 146 for 6 in response to England’s first-innings 205 on a pitch taking a lot of spin. He took them to 364. That innings included a reverse scoop too.India, and even Australia, were expecting something similar from Pant on this tour. It hasn’t come. He has 96 runs at an average of 19.20.There have been moments, like the second innings in Adelaide. He made 28 off 31 with 20 of those runs coming in boundaries. That night he almost seemed desperate to do what he does naturally. A packed crowd had taken great offence to Mohammed Siraj sending off the local boy Travis Head.Pant was one of several team-mates who rallied around Siraj, running down to the bowler from his spot behind the wicket to put an arm around him. The way he batted, certainly that first ball where he charged down the track and smacked Boland for four over cover, felt like he just didn’t like what was happening to India in that Test and was going to go do something about it. Pant’s rage lasted less than an hour.”Our job here is to explain things to them again and again. We talk to them about small things like match awareness and match situation,” Rohit Sharma said as he explained how he and his support staff manage their maverick wicketkeeper-batter. “We talk to them about all these things. I don’t think it’s necessary to complicate their plans and thought process. Rishabh knows what his expectations are. He has a lot of expectations from himself. He’s working hard in his game. I think he’ll do well in these two matches.”Rishabh Pant combined child’s play with mastery in a moment of scooping brilliance•Getty ImagesIn Brisbane, Pant fell five balls after resuming from a rain break, which was his first ball after that rain break and three balls before what turned out to be the next rain break. Essentially not a great time to lose a wicket. Pat Cummins was the one who took him out. There’s a little head-to-head developing there in BGT 2024: 21 runs, 41 balls, three dismissals, an average of 7. Australia’s captain, who began the series looking rusty, has got on top of India’s difference-maker. It’s helped that they’ve been able to drag him to the crease while the ball is new.Where Travis Head, a batter quite similar to Pant, has been protected by his top order, coming in when the Kookaburra has aged 35 overs, which seems to be the point where it starts to lose some of its sting but not its hardness, making it easier to play shots, Pant has had to deal with its mischief in four out of five innings. He came in during the 17th over in the first innings in Perth, the 20th and the 15th overs in Adelaide and the eighth over in Brisbane. If India could help delay Pant’s arrival to a more amenable time, they might be able to get the best out of him.”He has played only two or three Test matches here,” Rohit said. “He’s in good form recently. He has made good runs in India. He has a good record in Australia. After two or three Test matches, it’s not right to judge him. He knows what he has to do.”At the Gabba in 2021, with a squad that was being held together by bandages and loose string, Pant had the audacity to have a go at Australia, both from behind the stumps – eight of the current squad pulled his name up when they were asked by which Indian player sledges/banters the most – and in front of it.That was a miracle and by definition those are quite rare, except Ahmedabad happened in less than two months, then Cape Town in less than a year. In September 2024, his first Test since the car crash that threatened to take his life, Pant walked in and scored a century. He’s made people believe in miracles. One more in front of 90,000 on Boxing Day at the MCG would do quite nicely for India.

And how often have the highest individual scores in an innings come from Nos. 9, 10 and 11?

Steven Lynch21-Jan-2025The three highest scores in West Indies’ first innings in the first Test against Pakistan came from Nos. 9, 10 and 11. Was this unique? asked Nadeem Moghal from the United States

West Indies’ first innings in Multan over the weekend was unique in Test history: never before have the three highest scores in an innings come from the last three batters in the order. No. 9 Gudakesh Motie made 19, No. 10 Jomel Warrican 31 not out, and No. 11 Jayden Seales 22. The next highest was 11, by opener Kraigg Brathwaite and No. 8 Kevin Sinclair.There have been two previous occasions in Tests when the two highest scores in an innings came from Nos. 10 and 11. The first was in Sydney in 1885, when Australia’s top scorers against England were Tom Garrett (51 not out from No. 10) and No. 11 Edwin Evans (33). It happened again 137 years later in 2022, when Jack Leach (41 not out from No. 10) and No. 11 Saqib Mahmood (49) were England’s top scorers against West Indies in Grenada.I noticed that New Zealand’s Mark Richardson took only one wicket in his Test career – Mohammad Yousuf, who scored 203. Is this the highest score by a batter to be the only victim of a bowler in Tests? And what’s the record in ODIs and T20s? asked Ekambaram Raveendran from India

You’re right that Mark Richardson took only one wicket in Tests – Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan in Christchurch in 2001, after he’d scored 203. It turns out that Richardson lies second on this particular list, behind South Africa’s Ashwell Prince of South Africa, whose only Test wicket came in Cape Town in 2006, when he dismissed New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming for 262. They were batters having a rare trundle in a big total, but a specialist bowler lies third: the sole wicket for Kent seamer Jack Martin in his only Test, at Trent Bridge in 1947, was South Africa’s captain Alan Melville for 189.The mark in men’s ODIs is held by the Irish left-arm seamer Phil Eaglestone, whose only wicket was Brendon McCullum (another New Zealander) for 166 in Aberdeen in 2008. In the same innings, another left-armer, Reinhardt Strydom, also claimed his only ODI wicket when he had James Marshall caught behind for 161. Strydom lies joint second with the Dutchman Eric Gouka, who removed South Africa’s Andrew Hudson for 161 in Rawalpindi during the 1996 World Cup.In T20s, Tobden Singye of Bhutan dismissed Nepal’s Gyanendra Malla for 107 in Kirtipur in 2019; and Raymon Reifer of West Indies nabbed Quinton de Kock of South Africa for 100 in Centurion in March 2023.In women’s Tests, Yolani Fourie of South Africa had India’s Thirush Kamini caught behind for 192 in Mysore in 2014; in ODIs Karin Mikkelsen of Denmark dismissed England’s Jan Brittin for 104 in Banstead during the 1993 World Cup, while in T20 internationals the only wicket for Belgium’s Nicola Thrupp came when she dismissed Andrea-Mae Zepeda of Austria for 101 in Seebarn in 2021.I noticed that Amir Jangoo of West Indies scored a century in his only ODI so far. Is there anyone with a longer career who scored hundreds in their first and last ODIs? asked Thomas Masters from Barbados

Two retired players scored centuries in their first and last one-day internationals. The first was England’s Dennis Amiss, who made 103 (the first ODI century) on his debut, against Australia at Old Trafford in 1972, and 108 in his last match, against Australia at The Oval in 1977.He was followed by Desmond Haynes, who hit 148 (still the highest debut score) in his first ODI, against Australia in Antigua in 1978, and 115 in his last, against England in Port-of-Spain in 1994.Among current players, Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 127 on his debut for Afghanistan, against Ireland in Abu Dhabi in 2021, and made another century in his most recent ODI; he will presumably play again soon.Amir Jangoo hit 104 not out – at 80 balls his century was the fastest by anyone on ODI debut – against Bangladesh in St Kitts last December. There’s another man in a similar position at the moment: Scotland’s Michael English made 107 in his only ODI to date, against Namibia in Dundee in 2024. Both of them will also presumably appear again soon.Here’s the list of the men who scored a century on ODI debut and the one for hundreds in a player’s final ODI, which includes several current batters.In the Adelaide Test of the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 35 wickets fell to catches alone•Getty ImagesHas there ever been a Test innings in which all ten wickets were out caught? And what’s the highest number of lbws in a single innings? asked Vasco from the UK

There have been no fewer than 93 instances so far of all ten wickets in a Test innings falling to catches, the most recent by Australian fielders in India’s first innings in Perth in November, one of five such cases in 2024. The most catches in an entire Test is 35, in another Australia-India match, in Adelaide in 2018 .The most lbws in a Test innings is seven, which has happened twice: by Zimbabwe’s batters against England in Chester-le-Street in June 2003, and by New Zealand’s against Australia in Christchurch in 2005.The most lbws in a Test is 20 in the match between West Indies and Pakistan in Providence (Guyana) in 2011. No other Test has had more than 17 lbws. If you want to look at the other ways of getting out, the records are on this page under “Similarity of dismissal”.Further to last week’s question about the most wickets in a series by a visiting bowler in a Test series in Australia, what’s the record for a visiting bowler anywhere? asked Jordan Harrison from England

The answer to this one is someone who got a mention last week too: the great English bowler Sydney Barnes not only took 34 wickets in Australia in 1911-12, he hoovered up 49 wickets (at just under 11 runs apiece) in South Africa in 1913-14 – in only four matches, as he fell out with the management and didn’t play in the final Test!That’s the record for any Test series, whether home or away. Next for away series comes the Australian legspinner Clarrie Grimmett, with 44 in South Africa in 1935-36. That was his last Test series: he was 44 years old at the time. Australia’s Terry Alderman took 41 wickets in England in 1989, after collecting 42 in 1981 (both those were six-Test series), and Shane Warne took 40 in five matches in England in 2005.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

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S Rajesh02-May-2025At the start of the 2025 season, it seemed there would be new highs in terms of scoring rates and totals this year, as 119 sixes were struck in the first five games (compared to 87 after five matches last year), and 200 was breached six times, including three totals of over 240.