Ed Smith, former England selector, on the logic of promoting the format’s game-changing players

Matt Roller20-Oct-2022Jos Buttler will open the batting for England against Afghanistan in Perth on Saturday, as he has in his last 36 T20 internationals dating back to 2018. The debate about his best role in the side, which once provided the backdrop to every T20I series England played, ended a long time ago.But the fundamental question underpinning that discussion is one that captains, coaches, analysts and strategists consider every time they pick a T20 team or squad: should your best player bat in the most difficult position, or the one that allows them to face the most balls?Ed Smith, England’s selector between 2018 and 2021, has a clear view. “T20 cricket is a game of restrictions,” he writes in his new book, . “This is fundamental to understanding T20. Your best bowler is capped at using one-fifth of your resources. Your best batter is free to dominate the whole innings.”Smith was instrumental in England’s decision to promote Buttler to open the batting in T20 internationals in June 2018, two months after his appointment and a matter of weeks after recalling him to the Test team. He had done so once before, against Sri Lanka in 2016, and had spent the previous two IPL seasons opening: first for Mumbai Indians, then for Rajasthan Royals.He had been hugely successful in that role, making five half-centuries in six innings at the top of the order in the 2018 season, but it was not an obvious call. England had an established T20 opening pair in Alex Hales and Jason Roy, and promoting Buttler meant Hales was pushed down into the middle order. That forced Joe Root down the order in turn, and eventually out of the side altogether.Smith tells ESPNcricinfo: “I always used to think that if you took England’s 50-over team and the match was shortened to a T20 for whatever reason, that surely England would become more likely to win because of the destructive batsmanship in that side. And yet, we were ranked much higher in ODIs than in T20s. Therefore, I thought that potentially, we could set up in a more attacking way.”The danger,” he adds, “is that if you have remarkable batters down the order, they don’t get a chance to shape the game. It seems to me a shame when a player is limited to a very small proportion of the match that they can influence, if you believe that player is an outlier or exceptional.”Ed Smith describes T20 cricket as a ‘game of restrictions’ in his new book•PA Images/GettySmith put Buttler in that category. “The batting order in T20 is probably of the same level of significance [as selection] itself,” he argues. “Because you are effectively selecting which player has the potential to face which proportion of the total allocation of balls.”It’s effectively the size of the bet you’re making: if you’re asking someone to open the batting, you’re obviously making a larger bet on their potential to influence the game.” England went all-in on Buttler and doubled their money: since 2018, he averages 46.71 and strikes at 153.53 as a T20I opener.”It’s important to stress,” Smith adds, “that I always believe the captain should decide the batting order. Technically, that decision resided with Eoin [Morgan], as it should do. But if you want to know what I argued then – and would argue now – then yes, I think Jos Buttler should open the batting for England.”The other facet of Smith’s argument was technical, not tactical. “At the beginning of T20 in 2003, there was a school of thought that a T20 team would be ten bowling allrounders, who slog it a long way and a wicketkeeper. Well, we all know that isn’t the way it worked out: actually, brilliant batsmanship has been elevated by T20.”When I look at the very, very best white-ball opening batsmen, I see a pattern in their play: low-risk off-side touch play, combined with selective, on-side power-hitting. It’s like Damien Martyn through the off side and then Andre Russell over long-on. Of course, what we’re describing looks quite a lot like Jos Buttler and Rohit Sharma.”They have that ability to hit good balls through the off-side field, playing relatively low-risk shots – and the fielding restrictions mean there are always gaps on the off side in the first six overs – and then when there’s a mismatch, they have the potential to hit 22 or 24 runs off an over, playing higher-risk shots, often to the on side.”Smith notes a number of counter-arguments, which he describes as “recurring memes”, in : “‘Yes, he’s the best player across the whole innings, but the gap between him and the next-best player is wider in the context of the end of the innings than at the beginning of the innings…’ ‘Yes, he’s a great batter, but we don’t want to use him high up in the order because we need him at the end to finish the match off…'”Related

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But he is firm in his view that the best players should have access to as much of the innings as possible. “The case for superior players having access to maximum opportunity is rationally irresistible,” he writes. “It’s not much use having a brilliant batter finish off the match if it’s already too late for him to finish it as a win.”How does Smith square his view with the fact that AB de Villiers – whom he observed first-hand when consulting for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2016 – prefers batting in the middle order? “Players touched by genius have their own way of looking at the game,” he says with a smile.”It may be that he’s so good that, in his head, he thinks ‘if I’m not out, we’re always going to win’. My own view is that I would want de Villiers to face as many balls as possible. If he went to No. 3, that’s fine, but I wouldn’t want him going much lower than that, personally.”His view shifts in the case of Andre Russell, who has opened in only two of his 367 T20 innings, and is best described as a hitter, rather than a batter. “I’m less sure there,” he concedes. “My feeling is that he’s uniquely well-suited to the latter stages. Buttler is a good example of the type of player who I’d be most reluctant to end up having seven or eight balls; Russell is slightly different, with his unbelievable power.”It is clear from that Smith does not believe England’s selectors have received enough praise for their decision to double-down on ultra-aggression by promoting Buttler – one which he indirectly compares to Houston Rockets leading the NBA’s three-point revolution and the success of Spain’s footballers when playing without a recognised striker in their side from 2008-12.”Once these strategies started to work, the debate simply shifted elsewhere, with sceptics becoming converts,” Smith writes. “This trend is another injustice awaiting anyone who is in the business of generating new ideas. When the ideas don’t succeed, they stick in everyone’s memories. But when the ideas do succeed, they become self-evident.”His argument is best illustrated by the shift in stance from the man who chaired selection for England’s T20 World Cup squad while recruiting for a new full-time selector, Rob Key. While working as a pundit for Sky Sports, Key was a strong advocate of Buttler returning to the middle order; as England’s managing director, he has accepted that he is best used as an opener.There is one thing missing from Buttler’s CV as a T20 opener: victory in a final. Perhaps, if he can fire England to the World Cup in Australia over the next four weeks, Smith will belatedly get the credit he justifiably feels he deserves. by Ed Smith is out now

Stand-in Oval Invincibles captain discusses selection pressure in her team’s title defence

Matt Roller22-Aug-2022Last Sunday, Oval Invincibles dropped Dane van Niekerk. It was a seismic decision: she was not only the Hundred’s MVP in its first season, but had captained Invincibles to the title and led them to a nine-wicket win in the 2022 curtain-raiser, too.The tournament’s regulations had changed to allow an extra overseas player in each squad, but still only three in the playing XI. Invincibles had supplemented their three South Africans – van Niekerk, Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail – with New Zealand’s Suzie Bates, with Kapp forced out of their first game with illness.Her return to health meant that Jonathan Batty, their head coach, had a tough call to make – one which might have seemed familiar in the men’s IPL, but was almost unprecedented in women’s domestic cricket. One of his four world-class overseas players would have to make way; he took the call that van Niekerk would be on the bench against Southern Brave.”It’s very new for women’s cricket,” Bates told ESPNcricinfo. “Being on the sidelines as an overseas player is very foreign. You want all four to play, because those three are world-class players, but there’s only room for three of us. It has been an interesting time: we’ve never had to deal with that as overseas players in the past.”Related

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Bates had arrived from the Commonwealth Games expecting to start the season on the bench, after she was the final pick in June’s overseas wildcard draft, but has found herself captaining the side since van Niekerk’s omission. She has started the Hundred with scores of 46, 15 and 41, and has formed a formidable opening partnership with Lauren Winfield-Hill.”I was training before the second game and the coach said we want you in the XI,” Bates recalled. “He asked if I’d like to captain and at first I was a little bit hesitant – with the rules of the Hundred, it all happens very quickly. But knowing I had Lauren Winfield-Hill for support, knowing I was one of the oldest and had captained in a lot of situations, I thought I’d give it a crack.”It’s just one game at a time at the moment: I’m waiting to be told what the team needs from me. The first game captaining against the Brave, they had a lot of left-right combinations which was a bit of a challenge, but I realised it was just going back to my instincts. It has been a bit overwhelming at times but I’ve loved every minute of it.”When you’re an overseas player, you’re here to contribute and it’s always a nice feeling when you can do that early in a tournament but it’d be nice to kick on a bit more. I’m feeling really comfortable in the middle and opening up with Lauren seems to be working nicely.”New Zealand won bronze at the Commonwealth Games•Getty ImagesIn particular, Bates has been enthused by the crowds that women’s cricket has attracted in the UK this summer: first in the Commonwealth Games at Edgbaston, now in the Hundred where all eight venues have reported record attendances for a women’s fixture this season.”I’ve got used to playing in front of sold-out crowds,” she said. “During my career, that’s not been the norm. We were really excited to be part of the Commonwealth Games experience, being part of the wider New Zealand team. That really motivated us, and to win that last game [the bronze-medal match] against an England side we’ve struggled against recently was very cool. It’s one of my highlights with the White Ferns, standing on that podium.”In the Hundred, Invincibles played in front of a crowd of around 16,000 at The Oval against Northern Superchargers in the opening game of the women’s competition, with the women’s game taking the primetime, evening slot in a double-header with the men’s fixture.During the men’s game, Bates sat on the balcony alongside two young team-mates, Ryana Macdonald-Gay and Sophia Smale. “I thought ‘how cool is this?’ They’re both 17 and this is what they’re going to experience as cricketers,” she said. “It’s taken me until my 30s to experience crowds like that.”Coming from Birmingham and the crowds there and then playing in a domestic competition where the crowds are now sold-out, it feels like this is now the norm and this is what women’s cricket attracts. It was a cool moment for me to be there with kids half my age, experiencing that and being just as excited as they were.”On Tuesday afternoon, Invincibles will look to keep their title defence alive against Birmingham Phoenix, who are hoping to extend their 100% record this season. There will be familiar faces in the opposition camp for Bates, with New Zealand’s coach and captain, Ben Sawyer and Sophie Devine, filling the same roles at Phoenix.”I know they’ll be very well-prepared,” Bates said, “and you know any team with Ellyse Perry in it is going to compete. We’ve got three games left, and three good teams to play against. The nature of this competition is that you can’t lose too many and we’ll have to play well to beat Phoenix, but we’re at our home ground for the last time this season. It’s going to be a goodie.”

Gujarat Giants head coach opens up about WPL auction strategies, transitioning into coaching, working with Mithali Raj, and more

Ashish Pant25-Feb-20235:16

Haynes: ‘Mithali has certainly given me a lot of guidance’

February 3, 2023 – Rachael Haynes joins Adani Sportsline-owned Gujarat Giants as head coach.February 13, 2023 – The inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction is held in Mumbai.Ten days! That is all the time Haynes, the former Australia captain, had to put together an 18-member squad for Gujarat Giants ahead of the inaugural WPL. At a time when IPL teams have elaborate mock auctions, scouting and round-the-year player trials, Haynes, alongside Giants mentor and advisor Mithali Raj and bowling coach Nooshin Al Khadeer, had the challenge to set up a WPL team from scratch in just over a week. All this, in her first assignment as the head coach of a professional team.It might sound a lot of pressure, but what is pressure for a player who has won six world titles and a Commonwealth Games gold medal as part of the Australian team? That might be a reason why Raj, who played against Haynes a number of times, reached out to her for a coaching role with the Giants.”Given the time that everything came together, how little time there was, we sort of just had to get rolling straight away,” Haynes told ESPNcricinfo. “We had to have open and forthright conversations with each other to make sure that we were on the same page and could move forward and make decisions when they needed to be made.Related

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“I leant on Mithali and Noosh [Nooshin] a lot for the local players. They know the game in India very well so we spoke a lot about the local talent and who they thought could really fill valuable roles for us in our side. That’s really how we went about putting our squad together; thinking about the roles that we needed to be filled in our team and then who the players were that we could target to do that.”Giants bought a good blend of Indian and overseas players. There is an obvious Australian influence in the overseas contingent, with four of the six spots going to Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney, Georgia Wareham and Annabel Sutherland. Deandra Dottin and Sophia Dunkley are the other two overseas players in the side. Among the Indian names, Giants have Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, S Meghana and Sushma Verma among others.

“There are lots of different elements that hopefully can come together through the WPL and hopefully, Indian cricket can be richer for it.”Rachael Haynes

They went into the auction with one clear strategy: to not get overly attached to any player. Barring Gardner and Mooney – two of the three most expensive overseas buys in the auction – there was not a lot of incessant bidding from the Giants table.”We didn’t get too attached to one particular player, I think that can sometimes end in a little bit of heartbreak if you want one player and you are sort of holding off for them in the auction and then potentially you miss out on them,” Haynes said while explaining their auction strategy. “We honestly went in with the philosophy of making sure we were clear on the roles we wanted filled in the side. Who we thought could open the batting, bat through the middle order, who those allrounders could be to fill different roles in the side as well.”It was obvious that we wanted Ash Gardner given how aggressive we were in bidding for her and getting her over the line.”First-hand knowledge is another important aspect that Haynes brings to the table. As someone who retired less than six months ago, the 36-year-old shared the Australian dressing room with Sutherland, Mooney, Wareham and Gardner. She has also watched a lot of the players who had registered at the auction from close quarters.Haynes played with Mooney and Wareham for Australia•Cricket Australia via Getty ImagesGiants bought Wareham for INR 75 lakh (US$ 91,000 approx) and at the time of the auction, she had not played a T20I in over a year having undergone a knee construction surgery after rupturing her ACL in the WBBL in October 2021.”I had the benefit of having seen her first hand in Australia and just seeing how well she completed her rehab and how well she has presented since,” Haynes said on Wareham’s selection. “The tough thing being out of that international spotlight in terms of an international player, you are relying on a little bit more first-hand local knowledge in that respect. To draw people back to the player she was when she was playing before that injury, she was very much a core part of that Australian line-up, she was a fantastic player in big moments too if I think of the occasions she stood up under pressure and took key wickets for Australia.”Haynes’ transition from a player to coach is a natural one. She finished her Level 3 coaching accreditation – the highest in Australia – last year, alongside former team-mates Elyse Villani and Meg Lanning. By the time Haynes hung up her boots in September 2022, drawing the curtains on a 13-year-long international career, she was ready to enter the next phase of her professional life.She credits Matthew Mott, the former Australia women’s head coach and current white-ball coach of the England men’s side, for being the driving force behind her taking up coaching.”Matthew Mott certainly was really instrumental in making sure that particularly us senior players completed our coaching accreditation while we were still in the game,” Haynes said. “He was instrumental in really encouraging us to do that but also providing us opportunities in the Australian programme to create sessions, to run and lead different scenarios around the teams.”It [coaching role] is going to be a challenge, certainly a change of gear from playing and being a player in an environment to being a coach and trying to create a really positive space for our players to perform and also learn. I am looking forward to that challenge and, yeah, we can bring it together at the right time in the WPL.”Mithali Raj, Nooshin Al Khadeer and Rachael Haynes at the Gujarat Giants auction table•BCCIThe WPL is expected to be the next big thing for women’s cricket. The tournament has already been in the spotlight for being the most lucrative in the women’s game. In January, Viacom18 won the media rights for the WPL for a whopping INR 951 crore (US$ 116.7 million approx.) for a period of five years and a few days later the BCCI sold the five franchises for INR 4669.99 crore (US$ 572.78 million approx).Then at the auction, a number of players had massive paydays. Gardner was the most expensive overseas buy alongside Nat Sciver-Brunt (Mumbai Indians) fetching INR 3.2 crore (US$ 390,000 approx.). Mooney was bought by Giants for INR 2 crore (US$ 244,000 approx.).While the influx of money is a huge part of it, Haynes also expects the tournament to bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket for Indian players, like it has for the Australian players at the WBBL and the England players through the Hundred.”First and foremost, it [WPL] is going to draw so many different people to the game, hopefully, who will get to experience and come to know some of the female players which we’ve all known for some time,” Haynes said. “It will also create really good opportunities for the domestic players in India. We’ve seen how positive that is in terms of creating depth in international sides around the world. If I think of the Australian system in the WBBL and what’s that done for Australian cricket, the same happens in the Hundred as well, albeit in a different format.”There are lots of different elements that hopefully can come together through the WPL and hopefully, Indian cricket can be richer for it.”So, did she at any stage think of coming out of retirement to try her hand at playing in the WPL?”I got to that point where I knew I was ready to step away and experience a new challenge. I just knew that I probably got the most out of myself and I was happy with where I’d got to and had the sense of fulfilment,” Haynes said. “I certainly wasn’t sitting there in envy wishing that I was playing or anything like that. I am very happily retired.”

A round-up of the second week of the Bangladesh Premier League

Mohammad Isam21-Jan-2023

Fortunes change for Barishal, Comilla, Khulna

Sylhet Strikers remain on top of the points table but the other teams have also started to revive their respective campaigns. Fortune Barishal are in red-hot form after winning five in a row and are now in second place. Comilla Victorians, after losing their first three games, have gone on to win three in a row. Khulna Tigers too have won their last two matches to open their account after also losing their first three outings.But a spate of injuries has left Rangpur Riders in trouble. They lost their last two games, while Chattogram Challengers haven’t also taken full advantage of their home ground matches. Dhaka Dominators are reeling at the bottom of the table, having lost five of their six games.

Mohammad Rizwan, Wahab Riaz and other Pakistan players dominate

Mohammad Rizwan arrived at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram less than 24 hours after playing an ODI in Karachi, and he has made a mark in the tournament.Wahab Riaz has taken two four-wicket hauls in Khulna Tigers’ last two games, while all three centuries in the tournament have been scored by Pakistan players. Tigers’ Azam Khan scored a 58-ball 109 coming in at No. 4 in the match against Challengers. In the chase, Usman Khan responded with a century, taking his side to a win by nine wickets.Iftikhar Ahmed and Shakib Al Hasan notched up a new record for the fifth wicket in T20s – 192 runs, unbeaten•BCBIftikhar Ahmed scored a superb century against Rangpur Riders in Chattogram. He added 192 runs, the highest partnership in T20s from fifth wicket.

Batter of the week: Shakib Al Hasan

After spending the BPL’s first week being involved in on-field drama, Shakib Al Hasan took over the cricket in the second week. He is now the tournament’s highest run-getter, having reached 275 runs at 196.42 strike-rate. Although there’s half of this edition remaining, Shakib’s strike rate is the highest for minimum 200 runs in the competition’s history. His miserly spells has also fired Barishal into second place.

Bowler of the week: Wahab Riaz

You may think Wahab Riaz is past his prime, but the 37-year-old’s last two performances say otherwise. He has gone past 400 wickets in T20s, becoming the first player from Pakistan to do so. Riaz took four-wicket hauls in Khulna Tigers’ last two games, as they staged a comeback in the BPL after their first three matches.

While his slow start didn’t hurt Punjab Kings on the night, it could go very wrong at other times – as his predecessors at the franchise would attest to

Shashank Kishore06-Apr-20232:39

Was there a need for Dhawan to start slowly?

Wins matter. And when a side, especially one as inconsistent as Punjab Kings have been in the IPL, wins two in a row to begin a new season, it’s likely there will be cause for celebration, as there should be.But it’s also likely that at some stage there could be quiet introspection about whether Kings were below-par. And if Shikhar Dhawan’s 86 off 56, which looks heaps better than the run-a-ball 30 that he was on after 11 overs, could’ve become a talking point.Did Kings under-achieve by getting 197 on a surface where 220 seemed about par, considering there was “considerable dew” right from the start, as per Sanju Samson the Rajasthan Royals captain?Related

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There was skid off the pitch that took the spinners out of the equation because it was increasingly difficult to grip the ball, and the straight and square boundaries on one side were less than 60 metres.It can look like finger-pointing, but Dhawan’s knock had its gears and phases. Sure, the argument is when one batter is swinging for the hills and connecting with everything, as Prabhsimran Singh did in racing to his maiden IPL half-century off just 28 balls, it was a prudent call to knuckle down and play second fiddle.But the question remains: could Dhawan have shown a little more urgency early on?”I think when Prabhsimran was going so well, he knew he could take his time and play second fiddle,” batting coach Wasim Jaffer said. “That’s where experience counts. When Prabhsimran got out, he took charge and batted through the innings.”We wanted one of the top three to bat through the 20 overs, and he did exactly that. He picked up his strike rate a lot better in the second half. Somebody as experienced as him knows to pace his innings and he did exactly that.”Dhawan began to take on the attack in the 12th over; the first sign of real aggression was when he stepped out to hit Yuzvendra Chahal down the ground for six. Heaves to the short leg-side boundary off Chahal would also bring him back-to-back boundaries off Chahal’s next over, the 14th. It also brought Dhawan his 50th half-century in the IPL, which puts him third behind David Warner and Virat Kohli.Between 2018 and 2020, when Dhawan had his best years, scoring nearly 500 runs every season in the tournament, there was a tempo to his batting in the powerplay that was unmissable. But since 2021, his scoring rate in the first six, especially, has been on the decline.Shikhar Dhawan brought up his 50th IPL half-century•Associated PressIn 2021, he went at 119.48 after facing 231 deliveries. Last year, it was 116.90 across 207 deliveries. This year, he’s made 29 off 25 balls in this phase. And because he’s started cautiously, Dhawan has felt the need to innovate in the latter half. Like play scoops and switch-hits to fast bowlers, like he repeatedly attempted on Wednesday night with varying degrees of success.”If Royals had got there, you’re looking at those five overs he faced for a run-a-ball,” Tom Moody told ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time:Out. “In those conditions, you can excuse a run-a-ball if there’s swing or if the wicket is a bit slow. Then it’s fine. Because you’re building a base. But clearly it was a perfect surface to just stand and deliver, and to be brave and play those big shots.”Which we saw with Prabhsimran, who flat-batted Trent Boult twice and went over mid-off. When you’re chasing, and there’s dew, it’s a small ground and a belter, you need 220. I think it was more a case of he was feeding strike to the batter that was going, but conditions commanded that it was a case of ‘we need to go’ and just not ‘you need to go’. That was the difference.”Watching him bat, you couldn’t help but wonder if he’s putting himself under the same pressure his predecessors at the franchise did. KL Rahul cited a weak middle order as one of the reasons for his conservatism, something former head coach Anil Kumble has pointed to several times since. Mayank Agarwal too seemingly felt burdened by captaincy and was saved the embarrassment of being left out only because he was the designated captain.Kings have now put their trust in Dhawan to lead a resurrection of the team’s fortunes. They don’t have gun batter Jonny Bairstow for the season. And it’s not clear how long Liam Livingstone, who’s still making his way back to full fitness, will be unavailable for.When they find themselves challenged a lot more, Dhawan will be in the spotlight. If he can free himself of the shackles and play without worrying about batting long, it could help Kings put themselves in a position where they can aspire to finally break their playoffs drought.

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma feels Varma has “got a long way to go”, while Tom Moody called him an “absolute jet”

Karthik Krishnaswamy19-Apr-20232:35

Moody: Tilak Varma has big career ahead of him – for India too

Tilak Varma was playing for Mumbai Indians against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday, but he was also a bright young talent from Hyderabad batting in his hometown. It was inevitable, therefore, that something of the city’s cricketing traditions would find expression at some point.That point arrived in the 16th over of Mumbai’s innings, when Mayank Markande dangled up a wrong’un pitching half a foot outside the left-hander’s leg stump.Varma glided smoothly to the leg side of the ball, exposing all his stumps, his back foot going so far as to brush the return crease. His front foot remained close to the line of the ball, though, aligning him perfectly to hit with the turn. The rest was down to that most Hyderabadi ingredient: wrists. As the ball arced over extra-cover and into the vacant spaces beyond, Varma could have been a mirror image of Mohammad Azharuddin or VVS Laxman.Related

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This bit of artistry would have been perfectly at home in a Test match, but it was just as much a product of its time and place as the other, more obviously T20-ish bits of innovation that peppered Varma’s batting on the day. He had reverse-heaved Markande over short third almost as soon as he had walked in; not long after that, he had collapsed his back knee to shorten the effective length of a blockhole-seeking delivery from Marco Jansen, and shovelled it just beyond the reach of a leaping long-on fielder.When Varma came to the crease, Mumbai were going at just under eight an over in the 12th of their innings, and had just lost Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in the same over. By the time Varma departed in the 17th for 37 off 17 balls, Mumbai were humming along at just above nine an over, well on course to post a challenging total on a pitch where the slower ball was gripping and not always coming on to the bat.Cameron Green took the baton from Varma and dominated the finishing stages, ransacking 25 off the last ten balls of his innings to finish unbeaten on 64 off 40. Varma’s innings, however, had allowed Green to get to 39 off 30 without raising too many eyebrows. It wasn’t that he had lacked intent in the early stages of his innings, but simply that he had taken time coming to terms with the two-paced nature of the pitch.Varma had no such issues. While the rest of Mumbai’s batters scored 59 off 45 balls through the middle overs (seventh to 16th), Varma scored 31 off 15.Now, anyone can outshine his colleagues in a one-off occasion, but Varma has been Mumbai’s middle-overs mainstay throughout his time with them. Since the start of the 2022 season, his first in the IPL, Varma has scored more middle-overs runs than any other batter in the tournament.If 479 runs at a strike rate of 137.64 sounds impressive but not earth-shatteringly so, consider this: through IPL 2022 and the early part of IPL 2023, Mumbai have had the worst middle-overs strike rate of any team (122.71). KL Rahul has a similar middle-overs strike rate (137.35) to Varma’s, but he has been part of a Lucknow Super Giants side that has rattled along at 137.61 through that phase.Varma, in short, has carried a struggling Mumbai line-up through what is often the trickiest phase of a T20 innings. He only turned 20 last November.As you might expect, his exploits have turned some of the sagest heads in world cricket. Tom Moody, who coached Sunrisers for nine seasons and won the IPL with them in 2016, is one of them.”He’s an absolute jet, isn’t he? I love watching him bat,” Moody said on the ESPNcricinfo show T20 Time:Out. “He seems to have a head on his shoulders well above his age, he’s got a sense of maturity about how he navigates his innings, he never seems to be flustered, he’s got the shots.”If he needs to pull the trigger and play a couple of big shots, he’s got that, and does it very comfortably. It’s a bit of an understatement, but he’s got a big career ahead of him, hasn’t he? Not only for Mumbai Indians but for India.”

“For someone of his age, coming out and playing the way he is, he’s got a long way to go, and we will see him play for some different teams”Rohit Sharma on Tilak Varma

That’s some endorsement, and Moody wasn’t done just yet.”I think he’s got a solid technique,” he said. “To me, it looks like he’s got a very good game against pace bowling. So, defensively, he looks very, very much at ease. He’s got a good game both back and front foot against genuine pace, which is what you need to climb the international ladder.”He’s clearly a very, very good player of spin, which is going to be a reasonably important tool for him, playing the majority of his cricket in this country […] To me, he’s got the complete game.”Look, I don’t know him at all, I’ve never had a chance to sit down and have a chat with him, but I just sense that he’s a player that seems to have a very good head on his shoulders and understands his own limitations in his own game, and he’s been put into many pressure situations, given Mumbai’s adversity over recent times where he’s been involved, but he seems to have breezed through that with flying colours.Tilak Varma played some stunning shots during his cameo against SRH•AFP/Getty Images”That’s not the easiest thing to do for a young player, because quite often young players go missing when the leaders of the pack aren’t showing the way, but he’s the one that’s been the leader of the pack during adversity.”Moody wasn’t alone in predicting a bright future for Varma.”We watched Tilak last season, and he showed what he can do with the bat, and he’s not looked away from it this year as well,” Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma said at the post-match presentation. “What I like about his game is his approach. He’s not playing the bowler, he’s playing the ball, which is quite important.”For someone of his age, coming out and playing the way he is, he’s got a long way to go, and we will see him play for some different teams.”You can be fairly certain Rohit wasn’t talking about Varma playing for another IPL team, or for Hyderabad in domestic cricket.

The country’s cricket set-up requires one person who is in a position of oversight and authority, who will be answerable for the performance of the national teams

Saba Karim30-Jun-2023The biggest reason why India needs a director of cricket (DoC) is that, to use a term from the corporate world, there are many “verticals” in the national structure. We have the Under-19 team, India A and the national team. And there’s domestic cricket besides. You need one person who is in a position to understand the dynamics of all these verticals and the relations between them, who can take informed decisions and prepare a road map for the national cricket apparatus as a whole to best serve the national team.What is the idea behind having U-19 or Emerging or India A or domestic cricket set-ups and teams? They exist to make the national team strong and competitive against all oppositions and challenges in world cricket. For that to happen, it is very important that you have a director of cricket who oversees all the various components that make up Indian cricket, someone who is empowered by the BCCI leadership to take decisions and be answerable for the performances of all these teams.That unified oversight is lacking now because there are so many verticals, as we have seen, and there are different people looking after each of those. Those people do not all report to one person who is in a position to take decisions from the point of view of the good of the national team. That means there is confusion instead of accountability.Related

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For instance, whom are the senior men’s national selectors supposed to report to? They currently report to the board secretary, which is an honorary position. Instead, there ought to be someone who can be an intermediary between the BCCI top management and the different verticals of Indian cricket. Make the director of cricket accountable and answerable for the performance and progress of the teams.
Right now, as I see it, VVS Laxman, who is the head at the National Cricket Academy, talks to the national selectors and talks to Rahul Dravid, the India men’s head coach, about the progress of various players, and about who might fit in what slot in the Indian squads, but no one seems to be in charge of the project as a whole. (Coincidentally, I think both Dravid and Laxman are ideal choices for the DoC role.)If there is a director of cricket for India, he should be in a position to say that for the next two years, we need to make a plan for the World Test Championship cycle: How does succession of players take place? What is our plan for progress? What kind of set-up do we have in mind? What are the challenges we might face? These questions involve monumental decisions, and if you don’t have one person who is responsible overall, it becomes difficult.Many of the other Full Member countries have a full-time DoC, a role that might be labelled as performance director or managing director of cricket. The people in those jobs serve as catalysts in enhancing the performance of the national team and the stature of cricket in those countries. In India, the DoC is a position that has not been filled long-term. Ravi Shastri was the DoC for a short while, in 2014 and 2015, but his brief was restricted to managing the senior Indian men’s team.England is a prominent example of a set-up that has had a sustained relationship with the director-of-cricket role: former England captain Andrew Strauss transformed the England set-up during his two stints as managing director of cricket, in 2015 through 2018 and then in an interim role in 2022. He was responsible for picking the selectors, the captain, the coaching staff, and he also influenced England’s playing philosophy. His involvement played a role in the team emerging from the depths after the 2015 World Cup and winning the next tournament, and then the 2022 T20 World Cup.I am not saying the system India now has in place has not worked well, but there is often the feeling that the team is not doing as well as they should in world tournaments. Why is that so? India ought to be dominating world cricket, with the resources it has, but why are they unable to achieve that kind of success? Why do they only have sporadic success at ICC events? Why do they have to fall back on preparing spin-friendly pitches to reach the World Test Championship final? Why can’t India take a decision that, in order to prepare for a WTC final scheduled in England, they need to play on pitches that simulate English conditions?That is where a DoC can step in and say: “Listen, guys, I’ve heard all of you, but this is the way forward. I can understand winning is important, but we need to win in a way where we can eventually win the WTC final.” So in bilateral series, simulate conditions based on where the WTC final will be played. Two years ago India erred similarly: they prepared spin-friendly pitches against England at home early in the year and the WTC final was played in overcast conditions on a seamer-friendly pitch in Southampton in June. Also, India’s team selection in both WTC finals was questionable. There needs to be someone in a position of authority who can challenge that sort of decision-making.One of the most troubling issues currently facing India’s Test cricket is the depletion of the fast-bowling pool, which was overflowing only a few years ago, with about eight or nine aspirants. Less than a handful of India’s top fast bowlers are fit right now. Why is this? Rohit Sharma even made public his frustration about players always seeming to be in rehab and unavailable for long periods. Who can take a call and say, “This is how we want to monitor our pace bowlers”? If a DoC is in place, he will need to communicate to state associations and explain why a bowler’s workload and conditioning need to be a priority because they need to be available for a big final or series.India played the last two WTC finals in England, but in the series leading up, they played on turning tracks at home to make sure they made it to the title matches•Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty ImagesA key component of the set-up is domestic cricket, which we keep saying is a launch pad for international cricket. How is domestic cricket in India being played now – is it actually a conducive environment for players to learn in and graduate to international level?Over the past seven or eight years there have been huge changes in the way wickets have been prepared in India. Daljit Singh, the former head of the BCCI’s pitches and grounds committee, did some great work. Neutral curators were brought in, who would travel to domestic venues for pitch-making. Tracks with 3-4mm grass on them became more common, to make conditions more helpful for fast bowlers. The Ranji Trophy was made home-and-away, and then played at neutral venues. Why, then, is it that when the national team plays Test cricket at home, we play on turning tracks? It is illogical.If there was one person at the top who was accountable, he would ideally point out ways in which Indian domestic cricket can be made competitive, and be made a high-performance environment that produces the kind of players we want in the national set-up, who are used to playing on the kind of pitches that make for competitive cricket, and exposed in advance to the demands they are likely to face in international cricket.One of the key tasks of a director of cricket will be to ensure there is a proper review of the national team’s performance in every series it plays, regardless of whether it is won or lost. Ask hard questions of the team management and selectors in terms of decisions taken and in terms of performance.Such reviews have occasionally been carried out by the BCCI, but they have been ad hoc. Under a DoC, it will be systematic, part of his responsibilities: to prepare a road map and to regularly interact with the selectors and team management. The director of cricket should oversee the reviews and then refer the findings to the BCCI management or office-bearers and suggest steps to be taken. It is not only about passing the message on, it is also about explaining the reasons for wins and losses over a period of time. And all of this would also be done for the India A and Emerging and junior categories.Who will make for an ideal director of cricket?The DoC is not a chief selector, to be clear. It’s just that in connecting all the dots between age-group cricket and international cricket, he might appear to be one. Also, note that while I have not referred to women’s cricket in this article, the same principles apply there as in men’s cricket; there needs to be a separate director of cricket for the women’s game in India.The primary requirement for the DoC position should be that the person ought to be a cricketer with substantial experience, with in-depth knowledge of the game, both international and domestic; a good communicator; someone with a vision for the future of the game; someone who is deeply invested in creating and managing a structure that will lead to the betterment of Indian cricket. Having said that, it is not all about having played cricket at the international level for a certain number of years; it is also about having the vision and the ability to take decisions, to communicate, and to lead.The director of cricket could be appointed for a three-year term. Needless to say, given the responsibilities involved, it will need to be a handsomely compensated position.The DoC role will, I think, make a point of difference in making Indian cricket progress while building on its strengths.

Zimbabwe have home support, USA want to create a legacy, Sri Lanka and West Indies can’t afford slips – buckle up for the climax to a hard slog to the 2023 World Cup

Firdose Moonda17-Jun-2023They say the more things change, the more they stay the same, and they could have been talking about Zimbabwe.Five years and a life-altering pandemic after they hosted the last ODI World Cup qualifying tournament, they will stage the event again. Of all the things that have changed since, what hasn’t are seven of the ten participating nations in this year’s World Cup Qualifier. That suggests world cricket’s second tier is, at the very least, consistent. That’s not a word to throw around lightly because the journey to a World Cup is often more arduous than the tournament itself and the pathway to this year’s has asked demanding questions of any would-be participants.Thirteen of them had to play in an ODI Super League, with the top eight automatically going through to the World Cup. The bottom five, including former World Cup champions West Indies and Sri Lanka, have spent the better part of the last four years trying to avoid being here. The other five teams at this qualifier have had the opposite experience and spent the same period doing everything in their power to get here. And some had to try harder than others.Related

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The three who topped World Cricket League Division Two – Scotland, Oman and Nepal – were automatic entrants, but two others – UAE and USA – had to compete in a World Cup Qualifier playoff to get here. Along the way, teams have had to show as much ambition as desperation, and the meeting of these two states of mind means the competition will be fierce as expectations run high.Already, West Indies’ new assistant coach Carl Hooper has wondered whether his team “can go any lower” because he never dreamed he’d “see the day where West Indies are struggling to qualify for major tournaments”. Their first opponents are USA, who see this generation of cricketers as laying the foundation for the future. “It is very important for us to have a legacy,” USA batter Aaron Jones said.And the team for whom it’s most important to do that is the hosts.In the last few months, they have become national darlings, more so as the suspension of their football team has extended for over a year. Zimbabwe have never qualified for a football World Cup, but it is undoubtedly the most popular sport in the country. And, without any live action, those who crave emotions only sport can conjure have probably found themselves at Castle Corner.Though it is an actual place – at Harare Sports Club (HSC) it’s the space between the sightscreen and the open stand on the opposite end to the pavillion – it’s also a movement. The Zimbabwe Cricket Supporters’ Union set themselves up in this enclave and take their duty as player No.12 seriously. They sing and dance, cheer and (sometimes) moan and provide the energy a team needs when the overs grow long and the memories of past failures become sharper.Zimbabwe will have a strong backing of the home crowd•Associated PressCaptain Craig Ervine accepted that the “scars of 2018 are always going to be there”, but he recognised the hope that has permeated over the last year. “We are playing an exciting brand of cricket and we’re winning games, and a lot of people want to get involved with that,” he said.With tickets on sale for as little as US$2 and Zimbabwe due to play all their first round matches at HSC, the first week is guaranteed to be what the kids call “a vibe”, and there’s no better team to kick off against than Nepal. Accustomed to overflowing and passionate crowds in Kathmandu, Nepal’s captain Rohit Paudel now wants to see what it’s like when the shoe is on the other foot. “We want to know how it feels when [the crowd] comes against you. We want to take that challenge,” he said.Nepal have every reason to be confident. They won 11 out of 12 games to get to the qualifiers and have also secured participation in the 2023 Asia Cup. It doesn’t get bigger than that, except maybe playing at a World Cup. “But it’s not that easy to beat Test nations,” Paudel said. “Everybody has to give their best.”Ultimately, that dividing line could still underline some of the conversations around this tournament. On Monday, in Bulawayo, UAE play Sri Lanka and Oman take on Ireland and both Sri Lanka and Ireland will be wary of taking less experienced opposition lightly because the format of the tournament can become unforgiving quite quickly.Net run rate will be important – see Afghanistan in 2018, where they made it to the Super Sixes, and ultimately qualified for the World Cup and won the competition outright, despite losing three matches in the group stages. With the Ashes “Bazball” conversation lurking strongly in the background, there’s bound to be an emphasis on aggression and the conditions should suit that.Scores in the warm-up matches were high. Zimbabwe posted 367 against Oman and West Indies racked up 374 against UAE at Takashinga Cricket Club, where the pitch is flat and the boundaries are short. Meanwhile, Ireland successfully chased 313 against USA and Sri Lanka scored 392, also against USA, at Bulawayo Athletic Club, another surface that seems laden with runs.West Indies come into the tournament in excellent form•Emirates Cricket BoardOn strips that will bake under the warm afternoon sun, some deterioration is to be expected and spin will come into play, but the overall sense is that the game has become urgent, and you need to look no further than the windows at the HSC press box for proof. Two of them are cracked, and recently so.Though Mitchell Johnson (2014) and Rovman Powell (2018) both left their marks at this venue, in suspiciously similar places, the current damage was not caused by them. Nobody can quite remember who or how these new spiderwebs have been permanently imprinted on the glass and while it would make a good pub quiz factoid, it doesn’t really matter. It’s the mark of the modern game and, given the attention Nepal gave to part of their fielding practice, which involved reaching back to parry a ball destined for six back infield to complete a catch, it’s probably permanent.As is the inevitable growth of the global game, which this competition signals the start of. As it rolls on, there will be grumbles about a ten-team World Cup, but the good news is that this will be the last of those.Next year’s T20 World Cup will feature 20 teams and, being the hosts, neither West Indies nor USA will need to concern themselves with qualification. The next 50-over World Cup, in 2027, will be a 14-team affair, co-hosted by South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Though it is four years away, Ervine said even the senior-most members of his squad plan to be around. The World Cup will move from a ten-team event to a 14-team tournament, and they want to experience the thrills of hosting a big event at home.By then, significant changes are certain to happen in the country and in cricket, too. For example, there was talk of the floodlights at HSC being put up in time for this tournament but those proved too optimistic. Instead, the steel pylons still stand balding, and the deadline has been pushed back a few weeks and word is that they will be up and running for the start of the Zim Afro T10 tournament that kicks off on July 20. This tournament ends on July 9, so there will only be ten days to get the job done. Given that the wait has already been more than ten years, it seems unlikely it will happen. Things don’t change that often or that quickly here but, if we’re honest, that’s kind of how we like it.

India want a bowler who can bat at No. 8 at the World Cup, so Mohali didn’t really change anything

Karthik Krishnaswamy22-Sep-20231:23

Chawla: Shami’s seam position ideal for these kind of pitches

If you’re the sort of cricket fan who believes in picking your best bowlers from Nos. 8 to 11, never mind their batting ability, Friday’s India-Australia ODI in Mohali was made for you.Mohammed Shami, who’s definitely one of India’s four best ODI bowlers, picked up 5 for 51, his best figures in the format. Along the way he got Mitchell Marsh caught at slip with a gorgeous first-over outswinger and cleaned up a set Steven Smith with a big inducker out of nowhere. On a pitch that offered grip when the sun was out, he stayed in tune with the conditions in textbook manner, hitting the full side of a good length with the swinging new ball and the shorter side of a good length later on, with the vertical seam gradually giving way to the scrambled-seam offcutter as his stock option.Shardul Thakur, who isn’t one of India’s four best bowlers, went at seven an over or above for the 14th time in 42 ODI innings – that’s once every three innings. His first over, the ninth of Australia’s innings, could have been his career, or the popular narrative of it, in miniature. David Warner dispatched a half-volley and a long-hop for fours, and survived a dropped chance when he snatched too eagerly at a drive and spooned the ball to mid-off.This was an uncharacteristic moment of misfortune for Thakur, but you could also see it as an entirely characteristic slice of fortune: his detractors would suggest he has made a career out of taking flukey wickets with non-threatening deliveries.On a day when India picked only five bowlers, Thakur went for 78 in 10 wicketless overs. None of his colleagues went at over a run a ball.Australia were bowled out for 276. India chased it down with five wickets and eight balls remaining. Australia put them under pressure at times, but the top seven did the job by themselves. Nos. 8, 9, 10 and 11 weren’t required to bat.If you belong in the camp that’s against the idea of the Thakur-style utility player, this match wrote your arguments for you.Shami got his chance on Friday because India rested Mohammed Siraj, who had picked up a five-for in their last game, the Asia Cup final. It ended up being the perfect like-for-like swap.If you’re in the just-pick-your-best-bowlers camp, the idea that India have to choose between Siraj and Shami is a travesty. Why not play Siraj Shami Jasprit Bumrah? Kuldeep Yadav?India, however, have been clear in the lead-up to the World Cup that they won’t pick all four of their best bowlers at the same time. When they’ve been at or near full strength, they’ve almost always picked only three of them, plus two genuine allrounders in Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, and one other allrounder at No. 8. Depending on conditions, this third allrounder is either Thakur or a third spinner.1:11

Can India do without Shardul Thakur in World Cup XI?

Thakur has been integral to India’s World Cup plans. He has played as many ODIs (28) as Siraj since the start of 2022; no India bowler has featured in more games.Mohali may have convinced you that Shami had won the argument with Thakur, but the reality is that there’s no such argument. They aren’t fighting for the same spot.This might seem like a frustrating reality after games like Mohali, but not all ODIs are like Mohali. Some ODIs, instead, are like Birmingham 2019, the match that convinced India that batting depth is non-negotiable.India picked their four best bowlers in that game: Bumrah, Shami, Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal. The Kul-Cha era was in full swing when India began that World Cup, and Kul-Cha had contributed handsomely to India starting the tournament with five successive wins and a washout.India’s best four bowlers, though, couldn’t prevent England from running away to 337 on a flat Edgbaston surface. And they became a liability when the chase commenced. Nos. 8, 9, 10 and 11 didn’t bat at all, but they had an outsize influence on India’s approach. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli put on 138, but went at less than a run a ball. With India lacking depth, they put all their eggs in one basket: preserving wickets to turn this into something like a T20 chase.India got to the last 20 overs needing 186 with eight wickets in hand. Cameos from Rishabh Pant and Hardik kept them in it, but India effectively shut shop after they were dismissed. You probably remember feeling puzzled and frustrated when MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav pushed the ball around for singles during an unbroken stand of 39 with no intention of going for the target. You might not remember that there was virtually no batting to come, and India were resigned to playing for net run rate.India jettisoned Kul-Cha after that game, and went back to one wristspinner plus Jadeja. What can a No. 8 do if your top seven doesn’t score runs? Jadeja answered that question more than adequately nine days later, almost winning India a semi-final they’d all but lost.If anything, India have strengthened their bowling since that World Cup. Jadhav, a part-timer, was their sixth bowler in that tournament. Hardik and Jadeja have both moved up a place in the batting order since then, allowing India to play a genuine sixth bowler in either Thakur or a spinner such as Axar Patel, R Ashwin or Washington Sundar.Jasprit Bumrah are Mohammed Shami offer a lot with the ball but not with the bat•BCCIAnd while Thakur is no one’s idea of the perfect fast bowler, he’s built a weirdly compelling body of work. Only 27 bowlers in ODI history have picked up 50 wickets at a strike rate of below 30 (that’s effectively more than two wickets per 10-over quota): Shami, Siraj and Thakur are among them, though it won’t surprise you that Thakur has the worst economy rate of all 27.This speaks to his very method. Thakur may take a lot of wickets with seemingly innocuous deliveries, but there’s definitely skill involved if you keep doing it over 42 innings. He’s capable of swinging even the semi-new white ball, and he finds ways to get the ball to behave in odd ways by bowling cutters or cross-seam deliveries into the surface. And over time, it’s also become fairly clear that India have given him license to gamble with attacking lines and lengths. The dropped chance of Warner on Friday, for instance, came off a classic Thakur delivery, a full ball that wasn’t quite full enough to drive safely. Similarly, he may have overdone the short ball and taken stick for it on the day, but on another day, he may have had a couple of wickets from miscued hooks.It’s not how you’re supposed to bowl in ODIs, if such a rulebook exists, but it’s probably how India think they can get the best out of a player with unusual gifts.Thakur isn’t the ideal No. 8 either, but India aren’t blessed with the likes of Sam Curran or Wanindu Hasaranga, who average in the 20s and strike at close to or above a run a ball. While batting at No. 8 or below, Thakur averages 15.50 and strikes at 114.28 – of the India players to have occupied those slots at least 10 times since his debut, only Bhuvneshwar Kumar (18.13) has a better average, but his runs have come at a strike rate of below 80. Kuldeep, Bumrah, Chahal, Siraj and Shami have the batting records of No. 10s at best.Thakur might not have played the number of games he has for India, across formats, if even one of their other regular fast bowlers had his ability with the bat. None of them do, however, and India have found in Thakur an imperfect solution to a thorny problem.It’s something India fans might just have to get used to as the World Cup looms into view. Love him or hate him, Shardul Thakur isn’t going anywhere.

After another absurd Ben Stokes performance, England could do it for him

Vithushan Ehantharajah07-Jul-20231:14

Ehantharajah: Moeen Ali’s vital wickets keep England alive

Crazy things do happen at Headingley. But crazy things happened at Edgbaston a few weeks ago, and Lord’s a few days ago. Crazy things are pretty much what this England team are about. And sometimes, like today, crazy can be good.All the cricket has been good. Each of the previous 11 days compelling, giving everyone take-home bags full of incident and narrative, angst and, if you happen to support Australia, two wins in the first two Tests.From an English perspective, the front-running of Edgbaston, followed by the clumsiness and controversy of Lord’s meant it was only a matter of time before minds and bodies gave out. And for the first third of the second day of this third Test, that almost happened.An England team who thrilled for a year have flunked for a fortnight. And whether you still believe wholeheartedly in Bazball, accept the process still works but malign literal and figurative drops in the fundamentals, or feel compelled to protest it all by running on and scattering the pitch with strike rates of 2.5 an over, there is a familiar exhaustion coursing through all three groups. “Oh England – look at what they make you give?”Related

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And then, they gave. Enough to win the Test? Hard to say. But plenty to get them back into it as a contest. Australia go into the weekend leading by 142 with six second-innings remaining, but England are in a comfortable sweet spot between control and chaos, where the very best of what we saw of them last year happens.Analytically, viscerally – this felt like the craziest day of the series so far. So maybe it was little surprise the two players who contributed most to England’s part in it were those who perennially exist in their own half-spaces.Ben Stokes took the game back to the absurd realm for the second time this week. A devastating 80 bludgeoned Australia’s first-innings lead down to 26, just 10.2 overs after the afternoon session had begun with it reading 121, with England seven down.Then, much like his presence in this Ashes series altogether, Moeen Ali came from nowhere. Not only did he prise out both Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, he stitched together 17 overs on the bounce for just 34 runs. All the more impressive given he missed Lord’s to rest a spinning finger that went from a tear to a wound across that first Test at Edgbaston.Moeen Ali celebrates his 200th Test wicket•Getty ImagesBoth individuals encapsulate the allrounder complex, particularly on a day they ticked over significant career milestones. Stokes, the allrounder whose numbers don’t reflect his worth, passed 6000 runs, moving to 6008 at a pretty okay average of 36.63. Moeen, the one whose numbers tell the absolute truth, moved to 200 dismissals with an overnight average of 37.13 which currently ranks as the worst average for a bowler to reach that mark.By all accounts, the first session was the most normal the series, in line with Australia’s domination as the mooted fightback led by locals Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow came to nothing. Stokes was in after the second ball when Root was done by Cummins, before Bairstow scuffed an unbalanced drive to second slip.That brought Moeen and Stokes together, and for 15.1 overs, there was a recalibration to the old days. Rightly so, too: 44 runs and the sting taken out of the situation. Alas, Moeen’s hook two balls after getting away with one made that graft seem obsolete. And when Woakes stepped away and feathered a slash over the keeper straight into Alex Carey’s gloves, lunch was called with England 142 for 7 and the urn being wrapped up to take back to the other side of the world.It had the hallmarks of a grim day. One you could point to as the day the series died. The mood at Headingley was flat for the 40-minute break. Just before the ground entertainment tried (and failed) to get the Western Terrace going, Mark Wood walked across to the nets to work on how he would play the bouncer. Something he thought was a good idea before he had it confirmed with Moeen, who had taken more or less the same route moments earlier for Friday prayers.”He actually said to me, ‘do you reckon I should go and do some pull shots in the nets?'” Moeen revealed at the end of play. Why not, thought Moeen. What’s the worst that can happen?What Moeen did not think would happen – nor the rest of us – was Wood stepping away to the leg side and launching Mitchell Starc over midwicket for six. Then a four over backward point and another six over backward square. Then a top edge off Cummins over fine leg before a skied hack to end a brief eight-ball stay for 24. These all were the starter pistols of the madness, partly because it seemed to give Stokes a bit of respite. Not much in terms of time, but it was a period where someone took on the burden and, for a moment, dipped into the spectacular.The England captain had worn blows to the arm, knee and groin all morning. His left hip began playing up, leading to a break in play where the physio came out and looked like he was trying to force it back into position.”There’s a lot more than he’s showing,” said Moeen. Even what he was showing was enough for a normal man to take the day off at least. But it wouldn’t be Stokes and it would not be here of all places without an innings that grabbed the game, turned it upside down and shook it for change.Ben Stokes gets some treatment on his hip•Getty ImagesFollowing the Lord’s blitz that came to nothing, he spoke of the experience he can fall back on in those do-or-die situations that, as he put it, “I seem to find myself in”. Well would you believe it, here he was again in a tough situation, like an out-of-town cowboy walking into a local bar full of familiar enemies. And so, he began shooting everything in sight right between the eyes. As Australia’s head coach, Andrew McDonald, said: “When Stokes is there, you are never in total control.”Four consecutive fours spanned the 45th and 46th overs, the first three of those against Starc. When Todd Murphy was brought on, Stokes hit him straight down the ground, over long on, beyond fine leg, again over long on then square leg before he was eventually snared to close the innings. A personal score of 27 off 67 now read 80 off 108. A team circling the drain were now in charge of the taps. And a man who never knows he’s beaten now has more wonder knocks in the last week (two) than functioning knees.Stokes took the field throughout the 47 overs of Australia’s second innings so far, even though it looked like he could do with Bairstow treating him like a Just Stop Oil protester and carrying him from one side to the other. He did not try to hide himself in the field, or do anything at less than 100 percent of what his body would allow.As you looked around, you could see the responsibility he had imbued in others, all boosted by this second chance at a day they had thought was gone. Wood, no more than 24 hours after his break-neck spells of day one, pushed himself to the brink once more. Fielders fought for every inch, and even Ollie Robinson spent as much time as he could out there to ensure he won’t have to wait to bowl tomorrow morning once he has banked another night’s rest following day one’s back spasm.Without Moeen, however, Australia could well have re-asserted their dominance. The lack of Robinson and Stokes meant overs had to be found from somewhere. The offspinner’s 17 overs at an economy rate of two was not as spectacular as Stokes’ earlier on. But every double act needs a straight man, and here was, by his own admission, the least reliable control bowler going, keeping it all together.That Labuschagne (sweeping to the leg-side fielder) and Smith (hacking to midwicket) showed such generosity by removing themselves was appreciated. “Yeah 100%,” he answered instantly when asked if he was grateful. “I didn’t think I was going to get any wickets on this.”England live to fight another day. The hows and whys are clear for those lucky to witness but hard to articulate to others. The hope is they have a target to chase they are happy with, which could be anywhere between 250 and 450. And as Moeen contemplated a finale with all cards on the table, he made an important point.”We’ve got guys who want to stand up and not just rely on Ben to score the runs. We do have the very good players, dangerous players who we just need to come to the party as well as Ben. Ben’s playing brilliantly but there are runs out there for other players.”Whatever you think of Bazball, there is no doubt you believe in Stokes just as much as the players do. And while getting the match situation to about evens at this juncture has relied squarely on one man’s work with the bat with cameos from those with the ball, the next bit is very simple. Do it for him.