Dealing with the language barrier one of the main tasks as Silverwood, Sri Lanka focus on redemption

Madushka Balasuriya12-Apr-2022It’s not often that a team appoints a head coach to as little fanfare among supporters as Sri Lanka have just done, but such is the precarious state of the nation at the moment that Chris Silverwood’s appointment has flown almost entirely under the radar.But, in many ways, that’s probably to Silverwood’s advantage; both he and the team are coming off some poor results. Sri Lanka suffered heavy back-to-back defeats in the Test and T20I series against Australia and India, while Silverwood was sacked as the England men’s team’s head coach after England’s 4-0 Ashes series defeat.Related

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Therefore, focusing on the future without much media glare is probably a good thing.Silverwood’s first chance at putting his mark on the side will be a two-Test tour of Bangladesh in May, but with a month until then and, more importantly, roughly six months till Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup campaign begins in Australia, here are five things he will need to address.Solving the Rajapaksa problem
In most circumstances, a player on the fringes of the national side hitting form would be fairly ideal for a new coach. But in the case of Bhanuka Rajapaksa, who has just seen his stock rise considerably following a couple of blistering knocks in the IPL, it’s seemingly another obstacle for the new man in charge to navigate.Rajapaksa is a talented batter, one who could be an invaluable asset to Sri Lanka’s limited-overs outfit, but his fitness levels have always been found wanting – leading to more than a few tussles with the team management.Rajapaksa has admitted that he wouldn’t be near the fitness levels of some of his more athletic peers, but his argument was that sudden weight loss causes him to lose balance while batting, and that might hold some merit. As things stand, he falls short purely on skinfold testing.While this may seem easy enough to overlook, the flipside is that the minimum fitness mandate implemented rigorously by SLC has seen Sri Lanka’s fielding improve markedly – even if results as a whole have been less encouraging. So the question for Silverwood would be: is the inclusion of Rajapaksa worth it if it gives his team-mates an excuse to slack off? Or, perhaps, the solution may lay in devising more equitable fitness metrics. Whatever he decides, it will likely set the tone for the rest of his tenure.Communication will be key
Even during Sri Lanka’s best periods in the last two decades, there has been the sense that overseas coaches, for all their goodwill and willingness to embrace Sri Lanka culture, were never truly in control of the team’s tactical and strategic planning.Now, this is not to suggest the players didn’t listen, rather that tactical presentations communicated in English might not have always been fully grasped by all involved. Anecdotal evidence is indeed rife of players discussing and changing various team strategies in their native tongue, only for the coach to be made abreast of all the new changes later.Of course, it’s not unusual for senior members of a squad to play the role of translator to a foreign coach, but it’s obvious that this might impact the coach’s plans.This will be Silverwood’s first job coaching a team where the first language isn’t English, and while he has obvious pedigree, ensuring clear two-way communication will be key.Bailing out the batters
Sri Lanka’s T20 captain Dasun Shanaka has recently found his range, while the likes of Chamika Karunaratne and Wanindu Hasaranga also offer great lower-order hitting prowess. But it’s about finding consistency in the top order that will determine how far this team can go.In players like Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka, Danushka Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis, Sri Lanka have the talent. However, ensuring regular output from them has been elusive.Rotating strike has been a problem in recent times – Sri Lanka’s dot-ball percentage is unenviable – while there is also a tendency to get starts and then falter. While England’s red-ball batters came undone under Silverwood’s watch in the Ashes, their white-ball counterparts have been among the best in the world. If he’s able to coax consistency out of Sri Lanka’s batters, he’ll already be ahead of his predecessors.The likes of Dushmantha Chameera would benefit a lot from Silverwood’s appointment•ICC/Getty ImagesBoon for the bowlers?
Silverwood, a fast bowler himself during his playing days, was originally drafted into the England set-up as a bowling coach and has had first-hand experience working with two of the finest fast bowlers in their history: James Anderson and Stuart Broad. It wouldn’t be surprising if the likes of Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Kumara are most excited by Silverwood’s appointment.The two quicks are now Sri Lanka’s frontline seamers in all formats, following the retirement of Suranga Lakmal. While Chameera was the leading ODI wicket-taker in 2021, Kumara has been less consistent, struggling to hit his lengths when called upon to bowl at the death in the shortest format. However, he did have impressive tours of Australia and India, picking up nine wickets across five T20Is.Kumara’s improved performance was brought on by a change in tactics, where he was used primarily through the middle overs and asked to bowl more back of a length – something that allowed him to extract extra bounce to go with his rapid pace. If Silverwood can add more strings to Kumara’s bow, Sri Lanka could possibly pose a real threat in world cricket through him and Chameera.And with Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana also in Sri Lanka’s ranks, Silverwood definitely has a lot to work with.Going beyond Karunaratne
While Silverwood’s immediate priority would be preparing the side for the T20 World Cup later this year, he would also want to focus on the Test team. The recent away series against India, in which Sri Lanka lost 2-0, showed how far behind the team was in the long format, especially against the top teams.Last year, they won back-to-back home series against Bangladesh and West Indies, while the team also drew a series in the Caribbean. Indeed, the only blemishes in 2021 were defeats away to South Africa and at home to England.That, incidentally, coincided with an injury to Dimuth Karunaratne, whose four centuries in 2021, including a maiden double – 244 against Bangladesh – saw him rise to fifth in the Test batting rankings by March. There is no other Sri Lankan batter in the top 20.If Sri Lanka are to put up an improved showing in the current World Test Championship cycle, Silverwood would want to address the team’s over-reliance on Karunaratne.

The numbers may look similar, but his knock at the Wankhede was more valuable than the one he scored at the Brabourne

S Rajesh25-Apr-2022Two matches against Mumbai Indians, two unbeaten innings of 103 (off 60 and 62 balls) after losing the toss and being put in to bat, two victories after successfully defending their totals, two Player-of-the-Match awards.Looks pretty similar, right? Why, then, did ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats give one innings an impact value of 115.59 points, and the other 167.97? Here’s why.In the first match, at the Brabourne Stadium, KL Rahul’s unbeaten 103 came out of a total of 199; his team-mates collectively scored 88 off the remaining 60 balls, at a healthy strike rate of 146.7 compared to Rahul’s 171.7. Mumbai Indians made a decent fist of the chase too, scoring 181 and eventually falling 18 runs short. Over the entire match, the batters other than Rahul scored 254 runs off 180 balls, at a strike rate of 141.1. That means Rahul’s strike rate was about 1.2 times that of his team-mates and all the other batters in the match.Compare those numbers with what happened in the more recent game at the Wankhede Stadium, and you will know why there is such a huge difference in impact runs and impact points. In this game, Rahul actually took two more balls to score 103 than he had at the Wankhede, but the other batters contributed nowhere near what they had in that game.Collectively, the other batters from Lucknow Super Giants scored a mere 57 from 58 balls (excluding extras), at a strike rate of 98.3. That is exactly the strike rate that the Mumbai batters managed too, which means Rahul was by far the outlier in a game where the others didn’t even collectively manage to score at a run a ball. In fact, the only other batter whose strike rate exceeded 130 was Tilak Varma, who scored 38 off 27, a strike rate of 140.7.KL Rahul Smart Stats•ESPNcricinfo LtdThese numbers clearly show just how exceptional Rahul was at the Wankhede, and how much superior this innings was compared to the one he played at the Brabourne, though that was a match-winning effort too and deservedly won him the Player-of-the-Match award.The conventional numbers, with no room for context, will not make this distinction. In fact, his strike rate in his first century was marginally higher than the one at the Wankhede. However, the complex algorithm which drives Smart Stats looks specifically at context and pressure on the batters and bowlers at each ball, thus differentiating between two performances which might look very similar at first glance.That is why Rahul’s 103 off 62 at the Wankhede is currently the top-ranked individual performance in a match this season. His 103 off 60 at the Brabourne, on the other hand, only ranks 15th.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

In 2012, he was busy topping bowling charts for West Indies at a World Cup in Australia. Could he do the same with the bat later this year?

Deivarayan Muthu03-Aug-2022Kyle Mayers began his career as a bowler who could hit some sixes lower down the order. At the 2012 Under-19 World Cup in Australia, he emerged as the highest wicket-taker for West Indies – and the fourth highest overall – with 12 strikes in six matches at an average of 11.83 and economy rate of 3.78. Three years later, on his first-class debut for Windward Islands, he took the new ball and bagged a duck from No. 8 in his first innings.Mayers to open the batting for West Indies at a T20 World Cup? Who’d have thunk it? A series of unexpected events now means he could well be returning to Australia as an opening bowler batter.Related

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Chris Gayle hasn’t officially retired yet, but his West Indies future is uncertain. Gayle, 42, has not played for West Indies since the previous T20 World Cup in the UAE. He will not be in action in CPL 2022 either and has instead turned his focus to 6IXTY, a T10 tournament.Evin Lewis’ immediate future with West Indies seems uncertain as well after he failed to complete a fitness test that had been arranged for him by the CWI during his recent IPL stint with Lucknow Super Giants, according to chief selector Desmond Haynes. Much like Gayle, Lewis has not played for West Indies since they bowed out of the 2021 T20 World Cup.So, let’s talk about Mayers now. An ankle injury sustained in 2018 forced him to reduce his bowling workload and remodel himself into a batting allrounder. In 2018, Mayers didn’t have a CPL contract and, after he recovered, he worked his way back into action, with high returns in a low-profile setting in Oslo.When his side Eagles didn’t have an opening batter at the Norway T20 Premier League, Mayers stepped in and cracked 528 runs in six matches at an average of over 100. Once he returned home, Mayers told his father Shirley Clarke, the former Barbados allrounder and now Level-3 coach, that he preferred to continue at the top for his local club as well.

“He is one of the West Indies’ most important players at the moment and, [in] every game, he continues to grow and improve and that’s something wonderful.”Pooran on Mayers

“Norway was where I opened the batting for the first time,” Mayers told last year. “Then, when I came [back] from Norway, I went home and my dad asked me where I wanted to bat at the club. So we had T20s and I was saying: ‘you know what? At the top (laughs).'”I broke a record in Norway, then I broke a record for Carlton [club] as well in the domestic T20. So, I thought it [opening in Norway] was a stepping stone and it gave me another option. It showed me what I’m capable of doing.”At the CPL for Barbados Royals, Mayers had shown what he is capable of at the top. On Tuesday, against India’s IPL superstars, on a used pitch in St Kitts, Mayers once again showed everyone that he could be explosive as an opening batter.When Avesh Khan dug in a hip-high delivery at 140kph, Mayers jumped into position quickly and short-arm jabbed it over midwicket for four. Most quicks in modern T20 cricket rely on heavy lengths to stop batters from driving and pulling, but Mayers has developed this short-arm jab to counter them and manufacture scoring opportunities. The next ball was even shorter from Avesh, but Mayers was one step ahead of him. He sat back for this exact length and pulled him with the strong wind over square leg for six.The ball didn’t swing for Bhuvneshwar Kumar but he still kept things tight by targeting the stumps, with protection on the leg side. Mayers, however, found a way to score once again by backing away and belting a leg-stump ball through extra cover. Mayers was responsible for 29 of the 45 runs West Indies had scored in the first six overs.Since the start of 2022, Mayers has struck at 147.44 in the powerplay – the highest among openers who have played at least 10 innings in T20I cricket during this period. Rohit Sharma (140.16), Regis Chakabva (137.60), Andy Balbirnie (136.36) and Paul Stirling (123.21) are the others in the top five on this list.Kyle Mayers took on the fast bowlers in the powerplay•AFP/Getty ImagesImmediately after the powerplay in the third T20I, Rohit matched up R Ashwin with Mayers, but the left-hander kept up the intent high by stretching out and pumping the offspinner to the left of long-off. Mayers then briefly appeared clueless when Hardik Pandya hid the ball away from his swinging arc with a mixture of slower cutters and on-pace back-of-a-length deliveries.But, after slogging and missing three times in a row against Hardik, Mayers adjusted and played late, deliberately opening the face of the bat and dinking a four between backward point and short third man. When Avesh, one of India’s most inexperienced seamers on tour, returned to the attack in the 14th over, Mayers went after him once again.He then launched Bhuvneshwar with the wind for another six, but when tried to repeat the shot, the bowler took pace off and took him out for 73 off 50 balls.Of course, Mayers is no Gayle or Lewis but he can give it a good whack and with Brandon King also showing some improvement against spin, West Indies could have a promising left-right opening combination at the World Cup.”It’s about communication,” Mayers said of his partnership with King. “Whoever gets off to the flier, you continue to give him the strike. Once the person is hot, you continue to feed him to get him going and give the other person that’s not going the time to get in and click at the end.”Batting aside, Mayers can also play on the egos of batters with his floaty legcutters and legrollers. In the second ODI against India in Port of Spain, he tricked both Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav with lack of pace in successive overs. In the same game, he had pulled off a spectacular sliding catch at deep third to dismiss Shikhar Dhawan.Mayers is only into his second year in international cricket but has already established himself as an “important” all-format player for West Indies, as captain Nicholas Pooran suggested in his glowing appraisal of Mayers’ all-round abilities during the ODI series.”Kyle has been impressive so far in all formats,” Pooran had said. “He is one of the West Indies’ most important players at the moment and [in] every game, he continues to grow and improve and that’s something wonderful.”Going forward, we do hope he can continue going from strength to strength and, you know, he is working really hard as well. He is now getting rewarded and we are really happy for that.” Australia calling, then?

Bumrah chooses to stay “stable,” and when he doesn’t have the results to show for his work, he doesn’t get too down on himself

Sidharth Monga12-Jul-20224:32

Is Jasprit Bumrah the best all-format bowler in the world?

A lot of fast bowlers build themselves a character. Curtly Ambrose never did interviews while he played, almost becoming this mythical, impenetrable figure immune to human failings. Mohammad Asif almost always sounded contemptuous of batters in his interviews, once famously ruing that AB de Villiers got out too early, thus denying him the joy of a full set up and the payoff. Most often, they are the rockstars of cricket: eccentric, individualistic and definitely not pop. They make you believe nothing is beyond them.After a point, fast bowling becomes a way of living. They don’t stop being a fast bowler after six hours of play. Like the old-time professional wrestlers who never broke kayfabe. No wonder a lot of fast bowlers like pro wrestling. Big Boss Man, this big monster heel in kayfabe, once smashed the door of his car’s boot on his hand in the presence of fans. He showed no pain. When Jake “The Snake” Roberts was a kid, his father Grizzly Smith used to tell him how he was planning to take the family out of town because his wrestling adversaries were coming after him. Then of course the Internet broke down the fourth wall to usher in the Reality Era where wrestlers hardly stay in character outside the shows.Related

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If he ever were to be a pro wrestler, Jasprit Bumrah would belong to the Reality Era. When he does well – sorry, when the result on the day is good, as Bumrah would, and others should, describe it – and when the accolades are flowing, Bumrah doesn’t add to any myth-building. Instead, he chooses to stay real – stable, in his words. When Bumrah doesn’t have the results to show for his work, he doesn’t get too down on himself.Only last Monday and Tuesday, Bumrah was part of an attack that failed to defend 377 in the fourth innings of a Test. They didn’t even come close to threatening England. He himself went at 4.35 runs an over. A week later, against the same batters, Bumrah has six wickets in a little over seven overs in an ODI. Of course, Bumrah bowled beautifully at The Oval, swinging the ball mesmerizingly and also getting seam movement from the pitch, but what he tried wasn’t much different to what he does on his worst days.”This is the beauty of cricket, isn’t it?” Bumrah said when asked how he reconciles with such wildly swinging fortunes when it comes to the results. “One day you will see everything is going in your favour. Another day you can try whatever you want, but it doesn’t work for you. That is exactly why you need to keep a stable head.”Every day is a new day. There will be days when you will get the edge first ball, there will be days you will bowl similarly all day but not get a single edge. You don’t want to get desperate in these scenarios. That is why I rate stability a lot. Because at the end of the day there is very little in your hand. Once a bowler has let the ball go, there is nothing in his control.”Sometimes you will bowl well, get the edge, but the catch will be dropped. Sometimes the ball will pass over the stumps. Sometimes a full toss will get you a wicket. That doesn’t mean you bowl more full tosses. So I only try to prepare what I can. And not think of what is not in my hand. After that whatever is the result, I accept and move on.”Jasprit Bumrah picked up career-best figures of 6 for 19•Associated PressThen it is probably not a good idea to ask Bumrah if this was as well as he has bowled. “I don’t look at end results and judge my bowling,” Bumrah said. “There have been instances when I have bowled so much better than this and not gotten wickets. But I always looked at following the same routine. Yes, today was a day where the white ball swung and there was some seam movement. So yeah, I wanted to exploit that.”When we started the innings, we saw there was some seam and swing. So [Mohammed] Shami and I had a conversation and decided we should bowl a little fuller and try and bowl the Test-match length. It was a good day that we got the wickets. And there was some help in the beginning, and the wicket was also on the softer side.”

“Today was a good day. It will bring a lot of praise. But neither do I get too happy with praise nor do I get too down with criticism.”Jasprit Bumrah

Fast bowling is a tough job but it is also an optimist’s job. You are, after all, cheating your body into performing acts it was not built to do. Accordingly, many fast bowlers internalise that they are the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be. Bumrah? He doesn’t even take it seriously when a respected pundit such as Nasser Hussain calls him the best bowler across formats today.”I don’t focus on these things,” Bumrah said. “Today was a good day. It will bring a lot of praise. But neither do I get too happy with praise nor do I get too down with criticism. I don’t look at it this way: I am here, I am very good in all formats. I enjoy every format. I try to do what I can. I respect what people say but I don’t take it seriously. Very grateful for the applause you get but I always try to keep a stable head. That’s how I will always be.”This is how cricket is, and will be. Most cricketers and fans don’t like talking about luck and conditions because of the popular perception that luck or reliance on conditions is the opposite of skill. It couldn’t be farther from the truth.This has been a weird year in England in which the Dukes Test balls have moved less and gone soft sooner than usual, but the white Kookaburra has been swinging more than it does and for longer. On top of that Bumrah got a green pitch on a muggy afternoon. That he said made his job easier: he just had to bowl line and length and let the ball do the rest as opposed to making things happen on flat ODI decks. The edges came readily, none fell short, and half chances stuck.This is a real description of the events at The Oval. And also, by extension, at Edgbaston. This is Bumrah’s description. A Reality Era description.

With two weeks to go before Australia’s tournament begins, it’s hard to see how Smith fits in the best XI

Alex Malcolm07-Oct-2022Steven Smith knows he needs to show intent now that he’s been shed of the ‘Mr Fix it’ role.”Just having that more attacking mindset rather than when I was playing that kind of role,” Smith said on Thursday. “I was probably in a more defensive frame of mind and almost just trying to get through without taking the game on as much.”The problem is, he’s not showing it. And he’s running out of time ahead of the World Cup as Tim David once again showed why he simply cannot be left out of Australia’s best side with a brilliant 42 off 20 in Australia’s victory over West Indies at the Gabba that sealed the series 2-0.Friday was the perfect chance for Smith. Back in the team in the absence of the rested Mitchell Marsh, he walked out at No. 4 as Australia continued to tinker with their line-up.Related

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But he started with four singles in nine balls. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t score. He scarcely played a shot in anger as he tried to find some feel on a tacky surface. In the meantime, David Warner fell for a scintillating 75 off 41 having watched four consecutive dot balls at the other end in the 11th over.Eight balls later Glenn Maxwell was run out trying to pinch a single that arguably wasn’t there to try and get back on strike as Smith continued to battle for timing.Smith wasn’t the only one to struggle. Aaron Finch made a torturous 15 off 19 with one boundary having shifted to No.3 after batting at No. 4 on Wednesday.But Finch is the captain and looks likely to open in the World Cup unless an injury sees Cameron Green come into the squad.For all of Finch’s struggles over the last 12 months, his strike-rate of 121.17 in that period looks electric compared to Smith’s 112.77. Finch has reached 20 in more than half his innings in that time. Smith has done it in just a third of his.Even in Smith’s best innings, he has struggled to make up for sluggish starts. In Pallekele, against Sri Lanka, he was 15 off 17 before he hit his first boundary and finished with 37 not out from 27. In Mohali last month against India, Smith was 9 off 8 while Green was striking at 200 at the other end. Smith finished with 35 off 24, striking at 145.83 when the combined strike-rate of the two teams was well above 170.Tim David smoked 42 off 20 balls•Getty ImagesUnlike David, Smith can’t make up the gap with raw power and he freely admits it.”I’m obviously not as strong and powerful as some of the other guys but some wickets entail just being smart and punching the ball and timing the ball really well as well,” Smith said the day before the Gabba match.But he hasn’t been able to do that. Warner’s innings was full of quality stroke play rather than raw power. He mixed crisp timing with superb running between the wickets. Smith at his best can do that. But he hasn’t been able to strike fear in the opposition’s bowlers in T20 cricket in the way he does in Test and 50-over cricket.David’s breathtaking hitting would have struck fear in Australia’s World Cup opponents as it has done in franchise cricket the world over. Yannic Cariah and Obed McCoy felt the full force as David swatted three sixes with a combination of easy swings and brute strength. Warner was in awe of David’s capabilities.”Now he’s in our team and our set-up, it’s a godsend,” Warner said post-match. “He’s an incredible player. Has some serious power so it boosts our middle order, and to come out and play like that and with his height as well and strength it suits us, that’s for sure.”Now where does he fit in the line-up as well and what’s his role? I think coming out and playing that role there perfectly, when it was a hard wicket to start on, really opens our eyes to okay, now how do we utilise that?”You don’t get these types of players every day. So it’s going to be good for us moving forward and hopefully there’s a spot there as well because the selectors have got a headache now I think.”While conventional thinking might see David’s emergence as a threat to Marcus Stoinis, given David has occupied the No.6 spot in the order and shown exceptional skill and adaptability in playing that role, the reality is David and Stoinis are not like for like given David does not bowl. Australia can’t carry four batters in their top six who don’t bowl when Marsh’s bowling fitness is still not guaranteed. Stoinis is set to return against England on Sunday in Perth and will be fit and needed to bowl.Smith has now become vulnerable to David the Goliath. Australia’s hierarchy had been confident Smith would come good in T20 cricket this year. Confident that the team’s best problem-solver would solve his strike-rate problem with more repetitions in the middle order.He now looks surplus to requirements in a team intent on defending their title.

His powerplay strike rate of 148.31 is the highest among all batters (min 25 innings) in the CPL, and he looks good for more

Deivarayan Muthu30-Sep-20221:15

Rahkeem Cornwall: “My six-hitting is natural”

An ideal T20 opening batter is one who dashes out of the blocks, takes risks selflessly, and doesn’t mind losing his wicket in the process. Rahkeem Cornwall is the perfect fit for this role. His powerplay strike rate of 148.31 is the highest among all batters who have batted in a minimum of 25 innings in the CPL; Faf du Plessis, Sunil Narine, Brendon McCullum and Evin Lewis round off the top five in this list.That Cornwall is in such an elite company despite no exposure to the other big T20 leagues makes his record even more remarkable. Batting in T20 cricket has become increasingly specialised, but Cornwall’s approach is a simple one: “I think I just stick to my game plan and once the ball is in my area, I tend to make sure I capitalise and put it away,” Cornwall told ESPNcricinfo ahead of the CPL 2022 final.Related

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Role clarity, strong powerplay – why Royals are ruling CPL 2022

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In the first qualifier against Guyana Amazon Warriors on a Providence pitch that wasn’t too conducive to run-scoring, Cornwall cracked 11 sixes during his 54-ball 91. Only Andre Russell has hit more sixes in a CPL innings. Cornwall is particularly strong down the ground but his stable base, still head and strong forearms allow him to even tug balls from well outside off into the leg side. He revealed that he doesn’t spend much time on range-hitting, attributing his six-hitting to his natural skills.”Not really – I haven’t done any range-hitting and I think that [six-hitting] is natural,” Cornwall said. “I think I’m strong enough down the ground or any area – [I’m] a 360[-degree] player. So, I just have to focus on shot selection and wait till the ball is in my area to put it away.”T20 is a fickle, chaotic game, but Cornwall has learnt to embrace failures and stay true to his role of maximising the powerplay.”As a player, once you back yourself, failure is going to come and there’s no doubt at it. It’s just how you bounce back from that failure,” Cornwall said. “Yes, I may hit 11 sixes one day, but on another day, I may get holed out off the first one. So you have to just back yourself as a player and trust your skills and go for what you believe in.”Cornwall had suffered an ankle injury midway through CPL 2022, but he hasn’t let that disrupt his rhythm – with bat and ball. Cornwall was actually underutilised with the ball at St Lucia Kings last season – he bowled all of two overs in CPL 2021 – but at Barbados Royals, he seized his opportunity, enjoying his most productive season with seven wickets at an economy rate of 5.53.Rahkeem Cornwall – leading the charge in the powerplay in the CPL•ESPNcricinfo LtdRoyals are quite big on pairing up a thrifty fingerspinner with a more aggressive wristspinner. At the IPL now, they have R Ashwin with Yuzvendra Chahal. At the SA20, Bjorn Fortuin will work with Tabraiz Shamsi. At this CPL, Cornwall complemented Mujeeb Ur Rahman (a mystery fingerspinner) and Hayden Walsh (a legspinner).”The communication has been very good [with the wristspinners],” Cornwall said. “Me and Hayden grew up [together] from childhood and we always share information between us on how the pitch is playing, what sort of length you need to bowl. And [I am] just getting to know Mujeeb. The conversations are going good with him too, and just trying to pick his brain to see what I can take from his game into my game.”Cornwall’s confidence is so high this season that he finally decided to flick out his carrom ball – a variation he has been working for a while – in the first qualifier against Guyana Amazon Warriors. The ball veered away from Romario Shepherd, who could only skew a catch to cover. Having done his job with both ball and bat this season, Cornwall believes that he is close to unlocking his full potential as an allrounder.”I’ve been working on it [carrom ball] for a long period of time at the nets but didn’t really have the confidence [earlier] to bowl in the match itself,” Cornwall said. “I gave it a try this time around and it worked out well for me.”Yeah, this year I’ve really shown what I can do with the ball and over the years I’ve been performing with the bat. So, I’m happy that my bowling is coming along this year and getting the opportunity to bowl. I grabbed it with both hands.””I’ve been working on it [carrom ball] for a long period of time at the nets”•CPL T20/Getty ImagesAt 6’5″ and 140kg, Cornwall is among the heaviest cricketers ever and that has often distracted people. Jason Holder was one among those people, but having now seen Cornwall from close quarters at Royals, he believes that Cornwall has the tools to succeed in international cricket.”I look at somebody like Jimbo [Cornwall] and despite his size – yes, he has got his restrictions – I think there is a role for him in international cricket,” Holder said. “I was probably one of those persons who were probably blindsided by his size and probably his mobility. But seeing year on year, what he does and seeing how dynamic this version of the game [T20 cricket] has become and how specific you got to be in terms of particular points of the game, I strongly believe that Jimbo can play international cricket at this level.”People underrate his bowling and to me he has shone leaps and bounds over lot of different legspinners and lot of other spinners in the competition. And his power at the beginning of the innings speaks volumes. So, he is one I think I would love to see at the international level.”Cornwall has never played a white-ball international, but if he keeps firing like this, West Indies – and bigger T20 leagues – should come calling for him.

The vice-captaincy has been taken away and Rahul might well be dropped for the Indore Test, but it won’t be because India have lost faith in him

Karthik Krishnaswamy20-Feb-20230:55

Jaffer: If Rahul wasn’t vice-captain, Gill would have replaced him

Sometimes it can feel like the world is against you. KL Rahul may have felt like this on Sunday – a festive Sunday for his team, who retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after going 2-0 up in the series, but perhaps one tinged with melancholy for him.When India began their chase of 115, Rahul may have felt under a bit of pressure, having managed a top score of just 23 in his last nine Test innings. Then, facing the third ball of his innings, Rahul went on the back foot against a marginally short delivery from Nathan Lyon, the kind of fractional error in length that India’s batters have been able to flick away all series. Rahul flicked and flicked sweetly, off the middle of his bat.A tortured moment later, he was dragging himself back to the dressing room. The ball had hit Peter Handscomb, the short-leg fielder, flush on the shinpad and rebounded into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.Related

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8, 12, 10, 22, 23, 10, 2, 20, 17, 1.In his post-match press conference, India captain Rohit Sharma said the team management remained convinced about Rahul’s ability as a Test-match opener. He referenced the hundreds Rahul had scored before his lean run, at Lord’s and Centurion in 2021.”Of late there has been a lot of talk about his batting, but for us as team management, we always look at the potential of any individual, not just KL,” Rohit said. “I was asked in the past about lot of players, and if the guy has potential, guys will get that extended run. It’s not just about KL, but anyone.”If you look at the couple of hundreds he got outside India, [two] of the best I’ve seen from KL, especially at Lord’s – batting on a damp pitch, losing the toss, put in [to bat], and playing in England is never easy, and he put [in] a great performance there, and Centurion was another one. Both came in India wins, so again, that’s the potential he has.”Obviously, of late,` there has been a lot of talk, but it was clear from our side that we want him to go out and just play his game and do what he can do best, that we have seen [from] him over the years.”KL Rahul has a top score of just 23 in his last nine Test innings•Getty ImagesThis may well be the team management’s view. Later in the evening, though, the BCCI sent out a press release announcing the squad for the third and fourth Tests of the series. The squad was unchanged apart from one small detail. There was no vice-captain.Rahul had been vice-captain in the first two Tests. He had captained India in their last two Tests before this series, in Bangladesh, where Rohit had been out injured.Sunday’s demotion seemed like another throw of the dice in the snakes-and-ladders story of Rahul’s Test career. It wasn’t so long ago that he had gone from two-year absentee to middle-order aspirant to replacement opener to first-choice opener to vice-captain to stand-in captain in the space of less than a year.The ladders seem to have been whisked away now, and snakes seem to lie in wait at every corner.There is intense scrutiny of Rahul’s place in the side in the media, particularly of the social kind, and among his fiercest critics is a former India player from his own state – an uncommon occurrence in Indian cricket.

And the torrid run continues. More to do with rigidity of the management to persist with a player who just hasn’t looked the part. No top order batsman in atleast last 20 years of Indian cricket has played these many tests with such a low average. His inclusion is …. https://t.co/WLe720nYNJ

— Venkatesh Prasad (@venkateshprasad) February 18, 2023