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Aaron Beard four-for seals victory after Paul Walter’s 49 helps lay foundation

ECB Reporters Network24-Jun-2022Michael Pepper continued his Vitality Blast love affair with the Cloud County Ground before Aaron Beard returned career-best figures as Essex Eagles condemned Surrey to a second straight loss.Pepper took his Chelmsford tally to 304 in six innings – and 386 in total – with a tubthumping 48 as Paul Walter continued his fine form with 49 as the Eagles soured to 198 for 7 before fast bowler Beard, making just his second appearance of the season, removed openers Will Jacks and Jason Roy to eventually pick up 4 for 29 – as Surrey fell 43 runs short.Essex boosted their hopes of securing a home quarter-final to move to seven wins out of 12, while Surrey remain top and will host a home knockout game but having been previously unbeaten in all competitions until Thursday night have lost momentum.On a fixture celebrating Essex Pride, Surrey stuck the Eagles in to bat and had Adam Rossington caught behind in the second over, with the first two overs only going for six before Pepper went ballistic.He struck 30 from the first nine balls he faced, with just a dot and a single punctuating his boundary blitz. The South African-born batter began by scooping a six, something he replicated in the following over between a bullet cut shot and followed by four consecutive boundaries off Dan Moriarty.His hitting paused after a strike to the box, which he never really recovered from as he limped to five more runs before he reversed straight to third – the second wicket in three balls for Sunil Narine.Essex’s rebuild and second 10 overs were a textbook display of accumulation – with only seven dot balls, along with four wickets coming in the second half of the innings for 110 runs.Walter was the chief architect of the scoring with his 49, which included four towering sixes, as he put on 51 with Dan Lawrence and 44 with Simon Harmer.Reece Topley made sure his former county didn’t get to 200 as he chipped away throughout and added Walter, Daniel Sams and Harmer to his earlier Rossington dismissal to end up with 4 for 37.Beard made an electrifying start as he picked up both a yorked Roy and Jacks, brilliantly caught at short fine leg by Tom Westley.Smith and Rory Burns put on 57 with a low-risk approach, while still keeping up with the rate before Dan Lawrence stuck one through Smith. Burns followed by skewing Beard to mid-on and Narine fired back at Harmer as Surrey lost their way.Laurie Evans continued the slump when sub fielder Ben Allison produced a spectacular solo relay catch at wide long-on – Harmer grabbing two wickets in the over to return two for 20. Beard had debutant Tom Lawes skying to mid-on for his fourth.Sams pilfered Chris Jordan and Sam Cook had Conor McKerr as Surrey could only reach 155 for 9.

Significant blow to club in wake of racism scandal as senior batter decides to move on

David Hopps20-Jun-2022Yorkshire are bracing themselves for a potential exodus of leading players after the announcement that Tom Kohler-Cadmore has been released from the final year of his contract and will join Somerset at the end of the season.Kohler-Cadmore’s departure comes less than a week after their England all-rounder and T20 captain, David Willey, abruptly broke off contractual negotiations to rejoin Northamptonshire, complaining that the racism furore within the club had made his “work environment unsettling”.Yorkshire will stage the Headingley Test this week after a reconstituted Board convinced the ECB that they were taking their responsibilities on diversity seriously following the furore caused by Azeem Rafiq’s racism allegations.But despite the unceasing efforts of their interim MD of cricket, Darren Gough, and head coach, Ottis Gibson, to create a positive environment, resentment still runs high within the dressing room about the manner in which the entire coaching staff were sacked en bloc when the public outcry was at its height.The need for Yorkshire to win hearts and minds – not within the ECB, nor with public opinion, but within the confines of their own dressing room – could not be starker. The need is to sell the idea of a New Yorkshire and what that culture looks like. If that proves to be impossible then there could be considerable transfer activity around the club, both in and out, over the next year or so.Kohler-Cadmore, who has joined Somerset on a three-year deal, was always one of the likeliest to depart. His father, Mick, acted as a Headingley dressing room attendant, and he walked out in protest at the mass sackings. He has missed much of the season because of delayed concussion after being struck in the nets by his team-mate Pat Brown, during the Pakistan Super League.Gough said: “Having been in discussions with Tom over the last few months, it has become clear that this opportunity for him to join Somerset is one he would very much like to take. I’d like to thank him for his significant contributions to the Club over the last six years and wish him all the best for his future.”Unlike Willey, Kohler-Cadmore did not depart with a barb at the club – as he has been released from his contract, that was never going to happen. “I’m very grateful to Darren Gough for his understanding in allowing me to pursue an opportunity elsewhere and have enjoyed my time at Headingley,” was his official remark.Kohler-Cadmore is a big loss. A former Wisden Schoolboy cricketer of the Year and England Lions batter, he has developed more successfully in the white-ball formats, where he has been in global demand, and a first-class average of 32 is respectable enough, although declining. He also keeps wicket – and Somerset’s options in this area are uncertain with Tom Banton out of contract at the end of the season and Steve Davies’ deal ending a year later. The England U-19 batter/keeper, James Rew, is also highly thought of.Somerset director of cricket, Andy Hurry, said: “We are delighted to have been able to secure the services of such a talented batter who is driven to playing at the highest level. His record speaks for itself across all formats, and he will bring a wealth of experience from his time within the English domestic game plus from the time that he’s spent in global competitions around the world.”Related

• Martyn Moxon, Andrew Gale removed as Yorkshire replace entire coaching staff

• Harry Brook stars again for Yorkshire but Lancashire snatch tie amid final-ball drama

• Tim David makes the difference as Lancashire pip Roses rivals in thriller

• David Willey to return to Northamptonshire at the end of 2022 season

Yorkshire have adopted a softly-softly approach with their playing staff, hoping that wounds will heal and that they will begin to appreciate the broader perspective: that the club had to change its approach to protect its reputation, respond to the errors of the past and ensure a supportive environment and fair development pathways for players of all races.But personal relationships, especially for young players, are often more powerful. The sackings of some lesser-known figures not centrally involved in the debate, such as Kunwar Bansil, a highly-popular physio, who is now at Nottinghamshire, and Peter Sim, a former strength and conditioning coach, are thought to have left Willey and Kohler-Cadmore particularly aggrieved.Yorkshire will take comfort from the fact that the first two players to leave are imported players, not developed within the county pathways, and they will hope to build a more powerful sense of loyalty elsewhere. They are also primarily white-ball orientated, by accident or design, so have had limited value in the Championship.That said, it remains an enormous challenge for Yorkshire, and their chairman Lord Patel, to plot a route out of the biggest crisis in Yorkshire’s history and the danger is that a newly-constituted independent Board, whilst offering an impressive array of talent across a variety of fields, will not be close enough to the day-to-day tensions to find a remedy.There is also no certainty about how long Gough will remain at Yorkshire. He suspended a lucrative career as a talkSPORT pundit to come to Yorkshire’s rescue and has thrown himself into the role with huge enthusiasm, but his appointment was initially presented as a temporary solution.With at least two other influential players uncertain where their future lies, and rival counties jostling to make offers, Yorkshire’s attempts to build something better, and more enlightened, from the wreckage, remains a colossal undertaking.While they set their mind to that, Yorkshire, along with seven past players and coaches, also face ECB charges of bringing the game into disrepute. They are likely to plead guilty, at least largely so, to what a new regime regards as historical failures, but the affair could hang over them all winter.

The two teams will hope to give their T20 World Cup plans a little more shape in the deciding game in Hyderabad

Alex Malcolm24-Sep-20222:55

What changes should India and Australia make for the third T20I?

Big picture

An eight-overs-a-side sprint in Nagpur ended with India levelling the T20I series 1-1 thanks to some outstanding bowling from Axar Patel and a supreme display of ball-striking from Rohit Sharma. But it’s difficult for the two sides to gain a lot from the experience on Friday, other than gleaning some insight into how to set up tactically for a rain-shortened game in the World Cup.India selected the extra batter, but Rishabh Pant was not even required, and they only needed four specialist bowlers and Hardik Pandya in an eight-over game, a luxury they can’t afford in a normal 20-overs-a-side contest. The death-overs bowling remains a question mark, although Jasprit Bumrah’s return was a welcome one, and he bowled superbly.Australia are truly experimenting on this tour with so many of their first-choice players missing. They went even further than usual in Nagpur, opting for an extra bowler for the first time since 2021, just to trial something in case the pitch played differently than expected. It did leave them a touch light on batting, though, when Axar ripped through Glenn Maxwell and Tim David.But Matthew Wade’s incredible form and Aaron Finch finding some runs are positive signs. Adam Zampa also bowled an outstanding spell to once again prove himself as one of the best legspinners in T20 cricket.However, like India, Australia have a death-overs problem. Nathan Ellis was injured and missed last night’s game, while Kane Richardson has a minor side niggle and won’t play in the final T20I in Hyderabad. In the absence of Mitchell Starc, Australia haven’t been able to trust their big guns in Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins at the death as often as they would like. They would like to find a solution to that issue ahead of the World Cup.”He’s really grown into that finishing role” – Aaron Finch on Matthew Wade•BCCI

Form guide

India WLWLL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)

Australia LWLWW

In the spotlight

Harshal Patel has found the going tough in this series so far after being preferred to bowl some of the tough overs as India search for a solution to their dearth of death specialists. Wade, in particular, has proved a nemesis for Harshal. The dew factor in both games has not helped him execute his slower balls and yorkers under pressure either. That won’t be an issue when he gets to Australia, and slower-ball bouncers and short cutters are usually very effective on the true and dry surfaces there, especially with the large square boundaries at most venues barring Adelaide. But he and India’s management would love a good outing just to elevate the confidence levels and bed down the structure of India’s bowling unit.Whisper it quietly, but is Pat Cummins still a lock-in in Australia’s best T20I bowling unit? Notionally, it seems blasphemous to say it out loud. But his form since the start of the last IPL does pose the question. It is a small sample size of seven games but his economy rate in that time is 10.91 and he has only had one game where he has conceded less than ten runs per over. Australia’s management are confident he can find his groove given he rarely gets an extended run at T20 cricket because of his Test duties. Part of the problem is that his Test-match lengths don’t translate well in T20s, and it takes a while for him to adjust. Opposition batters feel his natural length is the perfect hitting length in T20 cricket. He executed some excellent slower-ball bouncers last night in Nagpur. He will need to sharpen his execution of those and his yorkers ahead of the World Cup.Pat Cummins showed some good slower-ball varations in the second game•BCCI

Team news

The teams should revert to a more normal setup in Hyderabad. Pant will likely make way given he wasn’t required with the bat, and India will need an extra bowler for a full game. Bhuvneshwar Kumar seems the logical choice to return. India could also consider bringing in R Ashwin for Yuzvendra Chahal.India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Axar Patel, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal/R AshwinAustralia will go back to a seven-batter strategy with Josh Inglis slotting straight back into the middle order. One of Sean Abbott and Daniel Sams will make way. If Ellis is fit, he will come straight back in for the other. Australia may also be very cautious with Cummins and Hazlewood. Three games in six days, albeit one shortened by rain, and several long-haul flights is a recipe for injury. Any hint of soreness in their thoroughbreds and they will be rested. But with Richardson unavailable, they can’t rest both.Australia (probable): 1 Aaron Finch (capt), 2 Cameron Green, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Josh Inglis, 6 Tim David, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Nathan Ellis/Daniel Sams/Sean Abbott, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood

Pitch and conditions

It’s been three years since a T20 match was held in Hyderabad. There have been no IPL matches there since 2019 and the last match was a run feast between India and West Indies. Our man at the ground says that the pitch has a nice beige tinge to it, with little or no grass in sight. It looks full of runs, so it could be another tough night for the bowlers. Virat Kohli will have fond memories walking through the gates. He averages 53.62 and strikes at 139.73 in ten matches there, including 94 not out off 50 against West Indies.The weather, warm and dry in the build-up to the weekend, has changed a bit, with dark clouds hovering on the eve of the match.3:21

Karthik on his 10 off two: I do a lot of scenario practices

Stats and trivia

• The toss may not be as important in Hyderabad. In the last 16 T20s dating back to the start of the 2018 IPL, it is eight wins each to the teams batting first and second.
• In his last four T20Is, Axar has taken eight wickets at an average of 8.62, with a strike rate of 9.7 and an economy rate of 5.3.
• In his last eight T20I innings dating back to his World Cup semi-final heroics against Pakistan in 2021, Wade has scored 228 runs (only dismissed once) with a strike rate of 178.12.
• Hazlewood is two short of 50 T20I wickets. If he gets there on Friday, in what will be his 33rd T20I, he will better Starc’s Australian record of 40 matches.

Quotes

“He can bowl in any phase of the game. That gives me an advantage to use him, especially if I have four overs of his, to use him in the powerplay. That frees up some of our fast bowlers in the middle if I want to use it. So he brings a lot to the table. This guy has been playing cricket for such a long time doing well for his franchise, India, about time he grabs these kinds of opportunity. And in the last two games, what we saw is what Axar Patel is really all about. We are just waiting to see some of his batting skills as well. “
“He’s such a calm customer at the back end of the innings there. He’s really grown into that finishing role. He’s been either at the top of the order or the bottom and I think he’s starting to do a wonderful job down there.”

The third day saw 24 wickets fall in little more than two sessions but Nathan Lyon expects the Test strip to be very different

Andrew McGlashan01-Dec-2023Former Australia captain Tim Paine has slammed the SCG pitch produced for the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Tasmania as an “absolute disgrace”, after 24 wickets tumbled on the third day with the visitors bowled out for 68, but there remains confidence in the quality of surfaces for upcoming matches including the New Year’s Test against Pakistan.The clatter of wickets came across just 63 overs on Thursday, as batters were confronted with extreme seam movement and uneven bounce. Tasmania fell well short of chasing 143 after the home side had themselves lost 9 for 55 in the second innings.”That wicket was absolute disgrace,” Paine told SEN Tassie. “This a Test venue in the strongest state in the country, and they rolled that up. That’s embarrassing. The ball was seaming sideways, it was going up and down, it wasn’t fit for first-class cricket. That was a disgraceful wicket.”I haven’t spoken to people, but you could see it on the screen it had those cracks where it’s like got grass over it. You don’t even see that in club cricket.”Related

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Paine questioned how such a surface could be produced at a major Test venue, and said that it undermined the Sheffield Shield competition.”What’s going on at Cricket New South Wales or the SCG? That was such a bad wicket to play cricket on,” he said. “Whether we won or lost, whatever, I could have bowled on that and taken wickets. It’s not good enough.”How that can happen at one of the premier Test venues around the world is a disgrace. That was below standard for grade cricket and this is meant to be the premier first-class cricket competition in the world, and that is meant to be one of the iconic Test match venues… and that’s what we are getting served up.”New types of grass are being used at the SCG this season, with the Shield surfaces comprising a different variety than will form the Test pitch against Pakistan in early January. ESPNcricinfo understands that there are no concerns about the quality of pitch that will be brought up for that Test, which is shaping as David Warner’s farewell from the format, and will be played on one of the centre wickets used for TV games.Nathan Lyon, who played in the Tasmania match, was sure the pitch for the Test match would bear little resemblance. “I expect totally different,” he said.The ground will also host three BBL matches before the Test, with Sydney Sixers facing Melbourne Renegades (December 8), Adelaide Strikers (December 22) and Melbourne Stars (December 26).However, it also understood that elements of the pitch preparation will be reviewed with the proximity of the WBBL double-header matches on November 26 a potential factor as well as some poor weather.Chris Tremain, the New South Wales quick who claimed 6 for 31 in Tasmania’s second innings, defended the groundsmen by saying they had been hampered in the build-up by the weather and that the surface had started soft which caused divots to form that then hardened to create the uneven bounce.”Don’t think that wicket was poorly prepared,” Tremain told ESPNcricinfo. “In the balance of bat versus ball obviously ball was the winner, but I wouldn’t be too quick to hang the groundsman out to dry.”Tasmania captain Jordan Silk, while more measured than Paine in his views, said conditions had been skewed too far towards the ball.”I’ve played quite a lot Shield cricket, and can’t say I’ve played on a wicket quite like that where the ball was nipping around a lot. There were cracks on lines, and it was snaky,” he said. “You had not just the sideways movement but you also had a few balls climbing up then some climbing down.”Think you can cop a bit of wear and tear over the course of a game; but when there’s been 40 wickets in 160 overs of cricket, you probably think it’s a bit too heavily weighted towards the bowlers. And that’s coming from someone who is really keen on having some sporting wickets, but it was slightly too far towards the bowling side.”

Sunrisers made 277, the highest ever total in IPL history, and Mumbai, just as incredibly, fell only 31 short

S Sudarshanan27-Mar-20241:43

Moody: Head set the tone, and Sunrisers just didn’t look back

Sixes were being hit for fun. Runs were flowing at a breakneck pace. You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking you were watching a video game. The carnage in Hyderabad resulted in an 11-year-old IPL record falling, RCB’s seemingly insurmountable total of 263 from 2013 falling by the wayside thanks to a breathtaking, collective show from the Sunrisers Hyderabad batters. They notched up the highest total in the 16-year history of the IPL – 277 for 3 – but then, just as incredibly, Mumbai Indians almost paid them back with the same coin, their batters coming out with a nothing-to-lose attitude. Eventually, they ran out of steam and finished on 246 for 5, the highest IPL total in a losing cause.Travis Head set the pace on the night, striking an 18-ball half-century, the fastest for SRH in the IPL. His record lasted roughly four overs, Abhishek Sharma slamming a 16-ball fifty to relegate him to No. 2. An hour after that, Heinrich Klaasen cut loose to seemingly bat MI out of the contest. But the sixes kept rolling off the Mumbai bats too, helping them keep up with the asking rate for most of the chase, eventually falling only 31 short.Related

• Swashbuckling. Radiant. High-octane. We have a brand-new SRH

• 'They missed a trick up front' – Moody (and Klaasen) on Mumbai holding back Bumrah

• IPL and Hawk-Eye join hands to end debate over above-waist no-balls

• Stats – Sunrisers break record for highest ever IPL total

Never were more runs scored in a men’s T20 match (523). Never were most sixes hit in a men’s T20 (38). At the end of the close to four-hour six-fest, only two bowlers returned with an economy rate of under ten an over.

The perfect Head-start

Head, in for Marco Jansen, continued from where he had left off on his previous tour of India. He was off the mark with a four off IPL debutant Kwena Maphaka, the 17-year-old who played for South Africa at the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year. Head was given a life when Tim David dropped him at mid-off off Hardik Pandya’s first ball. But there was no looking back from there.Head smacked two fours and two sixes in a 22-run Maphaka over before hitting two fours and a six off Gerald Coetzee in an over that went for 23 to end the powerplay. Head had scored 59 of the 81 SRH made in the first six overs. In his next over, though, Coetzee bowled a short and wide one, which the batter could only carve to deep backward point.

Abhishek shows his mettle

Head’s inclusion in the XI meant Abhishek had to move down the order, and he walked in at No. 3 after Mayank Agarwal fell in the fifth over. Abhishek got going with a pull off Coetzee and then meted out a special treatment to the legspin Piyush Chawla, hitting him for three sixes in an over. That helped SRH notch up their 100 in just seven overs, their second-fastest in the IPL.Abhishek also tore into Maphaka’s third over, hitting him for a sequence of 4, 6, 6, 4 to complete his fifty and snatch the record from Head. The key was how early he picked the length of the bowlers. He hit seven sixes in his 23-ball stay for 63 runs, before heaving a half-tracker that Chawla fired in seam-up at 112.8kph straight to deep midwicket.Heinrich Klaasen hit another rampaging half-century•AP Photo / Mahesh Kumar

Klaasen, Markram add finishing touches

With nine overs to go and two right-hand batters in the middle, Hardik Pandya sensed an opportunity to get left-arm spinner Shams Mulani in the game. That played into the hands of Klaasen, though, who is a spin-basher. In T20s since January 2022, no batter who has faced at least 500 balls had a higher strike rate against spin than Klaasen’s 174.38 before the start of the game.True to form, he smacked Mulani over long-off to get his rhythm going. Klaasen then hit a six each off Hardik and Jasprit Bumrah as SRH crossed 200 in the 15th over. Aiden Markram, at the other end, hit a six and a four but was happy to give the strike to his South Africa team-mate. Klaasen brought up his fifty off 22 balls, which was only the third quickest on the night.Klaasen hit two successive sixes in the last over bowled by Mulani to take Sunrisers past RCB’s record score. SRH added 63 in the last four overs to post the fourth-highest total in all men’s T20s.

Mumbai lose their fizz

Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan kicked off Mumbai’s reply in fine fashion. Rohit muscled Bhuvneshwar Kumar down the ground before hitting Jaydev Unadkat – brought in for T Natarajan, who had a niggle – for back-to-back sixes. Kishan meanwhile took 23 off Bhuvneshwar’s second over, hitting him for a four and three sixes. Kishan then slogged Shahbaz Ahmed to deep midwicket, but Rohit kept going.He whipped Pat Cummins’ second ball over midwicket before miscuing a pull to fall for 26 off just 12. Only twice in the IPL has Rohit scored more – 37 in April 2015 vs RCB, and 27 in May 2015 vs Chennai Super Kings – off the first 12 balls he faced.Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma also kept Mumbai abreast with the required rate. They found boundaries regularly, with Tilak leading the charge, and added 84 off 37 for the third wicket. But once they fell within 21 balls of each other, MI lost momentum. David managed to hit a few into the stands, but by then it was too late.

Harmanpreet admits that the short turnaround between the ODIs in Australia and the T20Is at home against West Indies is “very difficult” to deal with

Sruthi Ravindranath14-Dec-20242:52

Harmanpreet: Australia series was learning experience for young bowlers

Harmanpreet Kaur has put India’s failure to win crunch games in big tournaments – specifically at this year’s Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup – down to the “mindset” of individual players.”I think it’s only the mindset because, if you see, our team has very good players,” Harmanpreet said ahead of the T20I series against West Indies, which starts on Sunday. “All of them have done really well whenever they got the opportunity. I think in the big games it’s only about the mindset and what you’re feeling individually. Because, as a player, as a team, you can only talk about the things you have done well. At the end of the day, it’s only you who is dealing [with the situation and pressure] in the middle and it’s only about you, how you are going to take these things forward.”We discuss whatever is required to win but, at the end of the day, it’s the individual performer’s mindset, about how you are going to win the game for the team.”Related

• India, West Indies meet with T20I records to set straight

• India drop Reddy; Kashyap, Bist, Rawal get maiden call-ups

• Australia rebound after T20 World Cup disappointment

While India have won 13 out of the 20 T20Is they have played this year, they have lost all-important games. They had an unbeaten run in the Asia Cup in July till they lost big to Sri Lanka in the final. Then they missed out on making the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup after losing a must-win match against Australia in the group stage. In the Asia Cup final, Smriti Mandhana top scored for India when the rest of the batters failed. Harmanpreet’s solo effort with the bat went in vain against Australia.India are now coming into the T20Is against West Indies on the back of a 3-0 loss in the ODI series in Australia.”It’s really tough when you’re going through this patch,” she said. “At the same time, we can only talk about the good things we have done in the past. I think having team-bonding sessions are very important. So, when we were coming back from Australia, we had good talks on the flight because that was only time we could talk and think about how we can start this series. Yesterday was a good off-day and today we had a good meeting where we discussed how we have to go about in this particular series.”The scheduling hasn’t helped. These T20Is in Navi Mumbai take place right after the ODIs in Perth and Brisbane – the last was on December 11 – and while Harmanpreet said it was part of playing at the highest level, she admitted it wasn’t easy.The Indians have a very short turnaround between the ODI series in Australia and the T20Is at home against West Indies•PTI

“To be honest, it is difficult because you know we’re coming from Australia. After the game, only within four-five hours we left the country and came back to India,” she said. “But as professionals, these things happen and we just want to stay motivated. Yesterday was an off-day so we tried to rest well and we are looking forward to the game tomorrow.”Think when you have very less time, it’s very difficult to come back and reflect on the things which you have done in the past. At the same time, we just have to keep talking about the positives. The young girls who have come into the team have done really well in domestic and they are also positive. I think staying together is something which is very important, which we have been doing.”Harmanpreet was tight-lipped when asked about the omissions from the squad for the series.India have rung in several changes to the T20I side, but the exclusion of Arundhati Reddy and Shafali Verma have been major talking points, particularly considering Reddy was India’s joint-highest wicket-taker at the T20 World Cup and Shafali has the second-most runs in T20Is for India this year.”I would say to ask the right person, because I can only talk about the team that’s here, and what things we can do to win this series,” Harmanpreet said. “I think regarding Shafali or any other player, [it’s] better to ask the right persons.”

England have sent the back-up plus Joe Root to take on an Ireland side who missed the boat for India

Andrew Miller19-Sep-2023

Big picture: Back to the margins

It’s no slight on the visitors, honest. But here we are again, all the same. Just as Ireland opened England’s international season at Lord’s back in June, with a contest so translucent that both teams found themselves peering straight through it towards more pressing matters beyond, so they have returned at this fag-end of the English summer, with the narrative once again marching off into the middle distance.Back in June, the focus for the two squads was England’s Ashes bid on the one hand, and Ireland’s 50-over World Cup qualification campaign on the other (and we’ll come back to that sorry saga in a moment). Now? It’s just cricket for the sake of cricket.Three ODIs that, when they were first added to the schedule last year – before the BCCI had got round to finalising any dates for the World Cup – had been intended to form part of both teams’ final preparation for the main event in India next month.Instead, Ireland dropped the ball with calamitous finality in Zimbabwe, losing each of their first three qualifying games to crash out at the group stages. Then England torched any pretence of remaining relevance by extracting each of their World Cup-bound players from the reckoning – with the honourable exception of Monday’s late addition, Joe Root, whose form across 50 overs has gone from non-existent to troubling in the space of four ropey displays against New Zealand.All things considered, therefore, this contest could – at a pinch – have more relevance four years down the line. That’s already the distant target that Heinrich Malan, Ireland’s coach, has urged his players to build towards, notwithstanding the more immediate target of the T20 World Cup in the USA next summer, at which Ireland will be present after a significantly better showing in this year’s other qualifying event in Edinburgh.But for England too, with a backlog of outstanding white-ball cricketers itching for an opportunity on the international stage, there’s relevance to be found on an individual basis this week, even if the three matches are destined to be forgotten amid a deluge of main event action in October.We’ve been here before (sort of) in England’s recent history. Two summers ago, at the height of the Covid crisis, Ben Stokes – himself in recovery from a broken finger – led a scratch team of county stars in three matches against Pakistan, after the entire frontline squad had been sent into isolation following an outbreak.They won the series handsomely, three emphatic wins to nil, with one especially familiar name seizing his chance for white-ball honours. Zak Crawley, England’s Ashes Bazballer extraordinaire, is now captain of this rejigged squad, having played his only three ODIs in that Pakistan series (including an unbeaten half-century on debut).Ben Duckett, Crawley’s Test opening partner and now vice-captain, was named in that squad too but didn’t play. Now, he’s unquestionably one of the players with designs on a reserve role at the World Cup, as are Brydon Carse and Will Jacks – two other players with the proven pedigree to thrive given half a chance. All things considered, therefore, there will be plenty to play for this week… just not, at this juncture, anything of immediate consequence.

Form guide

England WWWLL
Ireland WWWLL

In the spotlight: Joe Root and Curtis Campher

“A nice addition” is how Ireland’s coach described Joe Root’s late call-up to England’s squad, for a one-off appearance on his home ground of Headingley, before getting his head back down in preparation for the main squad’s departure for India next Wednesday. He’s into the reckoning in place of Harry Brook, whose own response to a low-key performance against New Zealand has been to hunker down and visualise the better times that came before it (and hopefully afterwards too), now that he’s been preferred to Jason Roy in those World Cup plans. Root, however, is a more mechanical beast than his colleagues, and still has some last-minute tinkering to be done as he readjusts to the rhythms of the 50-over game after a year on the sidelines. In particular, he seemed bothered by his inability to rotate the strike against New Zealand, and lacked faith in the Root-scoop that had served him so well in Bazball. Surely nothing he can’t surmount, but it’s indicative of England’s overall lack of preparation for their title defence.Leaving aside his mighty exploits with the ball – four wickets in four balls at the 2021 T20 World Cup will take some beating – most of Curtis Campher’s finest moments in international cricket have come from the middle-order. He made a brace of half-centuries in his maiden ODI appearances on Ireland’s last white-ball visit in 2020, and after making a first Test hundred from No. 7 in Galle, he saved his best yet for Ireland’s moment of crisis in Bulawayo this summer, a superb 120 from 108 after coming in at 33 for 4 against Scotland. In the end it wasn’t quite enough in an agonising one-wicket defeat, but at the age of 24, the time has come from him to stop being the “rescue act”, as coach Malan put it, and start setting the team’s agenda from No. 3.

Team news: Root’s cameo takes precedence

All change from the New Zealand series, with the exception of the No. 3, as a host of England players with genuine aspirations jostle for the chance to star in the absence of the big guns. Phil Salt – a T20 World Cup winner in November – seems likely to start with the gloves, despite the close attentions of Surrey’s rising star Jamie Smith, whose chance may come when Root has had his net, and will probably open alongside Jacks, whose versatility as an opener, auxiliary spinner and general purpose power-hitter makes him a very tempting option as a World Cup reserve. Crawley and Duckett will slot into the middle-order, having opened in the Test against Ireland in June. On the bowling front, Carse has another chance to enhance his deck-hitting attributes, while Rehan Ahmed is self-evidently Adil Rashid’s legspinning heir apparent. Three more outings at the age of 19 can only bed him in further. Sam Hain is the likeliest of England’s four potential debutants to get a go, but at least two will feature.England: 1 Will Jacks, 2 Phil Salt (wk), 3 Joe Root, 4 Zak Crawley (capt), 5 Ben Duckett, 6 Sam Hain, 7 Rehan Ahmed, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Tom Hartley/George Scrimshaw, 10 Luke Wood, 11 Matthew PottsStirling is Ireland’s stand-in captain, having taken over from Balbirnie after the World Cup debacle. How long he remains in the role is for Cricket Ireland to decide, but the two senior men will be leading their team in every sense, in their new partnership at the top of the order. Seeing as each made a hundred in a memorable 329-run chase at the Ageas Bowl three years ago, it feels like a safe pair of hands. Campher slots in at three, ahead of the rising star Harry Tector and the keeper Lorcan Tucker, while George Dockrell showcased his powerful ball-striking during Ireland’s series against Bangladesh at Chelmsford in May. On the bowling front, Josh Little’s left-arm pace offers a genuine point of difference.Ireland: 1 Paul Stirling (capt), 2 Andy Balbirnie, 3 Curtis Campher, 4 Harry Tector, 5 Lorcan Tucker (wk), 6 George Dockrell, 7 Andy McBrine, 8 Mark Adair, 9 Barry McCarthy, 10 Craig Young, 11 Josh Little

Pitch and conditions

It’s late September in Yorkshire, so let’s not get our hopes up… there’s a weather warning in place for Wednesday and the omens are not entirely promising. The outfield has been drenched with rain over the last few days and Yorkshire are desperately hoping that it dries out in the next 24 hours. It’s been under covers non-stop, so you’d imagine some assistance for the seamers will be in the offing. The club reckon 14,000 tickets have been sold, but there will doubtless be a few gaps in the stands.

Stats and trivia

• Ireland have won each of their last two white-ball fixtures against England. At the T20 World Cup in Melbourne last October, they prevailed by five runs on DLS after England misjudged the pace of their chase with rain looming at the MCG.
• However, at the Ageas Bowl in August 2020, it was a far more emphatic display. Stirling led the line with 142 from 128 balls, as his 214-run stand with Balbirnie powered Ireland to a seven-wicket win.
• Overall, England have won ten and lost two of their 12 completed ODIs against Ireland, dating back to their first meeting at Belfast in 2006. Aside from Southampton, the one that got away was a whopper – Ireland’s incredible World Cup win in Bengaluru in 2011, powered by Kevin O’Brien’s 50-ball hundred.

Quotes

“Obviously having Joe in the team makes it stronger – no matter what team you’re in. It’s great having him, especially for me as captain. I can lean on him with that kind of stuff as well, so that’s awesome. Hopefully he gets what he wants out of it.”
Stand-in England captain Zak Crawley is looking forward to leading a side which features his old Test skipper, Root“What are we crying out for is just more consistent cricket. Everyone’s playing at the World Cup, and we won’t be part of that this time around, so that makes us more hungry when we get these opportunities to play quality opposition at quality grounds..”
Heinrich Malan, Ireland’s coach, wants his players to focus on the international opportunity, irrespective of England’s distractions