Dwayne Bravo reveals Pollard's entry to Mumbai Indians on his 34th birthday

Laxman Sivaramakrisnan disappointed with Kulcha's dramatic fall

Former India leg spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan came hard at the wrist spinning duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal for their dramatic fall in international cricket after a sensational start to their respective careers. Sivaramakrishnan stressed the fact that not many were aware of what they were doing at the early parts of their careers but now they have been found out. “Nothing really pained me more than witnessing the fall of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. The duo was very successful in the early part of their career. Batsmen were not aware of what they were bowling but now they have been found out,” Laxman Sivaramakrishnan wrote in a column for cricket.com. Back in 2018, the pair of Kuldeep and Chahal took the world by storm with their exceptional display in the Rainbow Nation. While spinners had ruled the roost earlier but hunting in pairs, especially wrists spinners is not something that has been prevalent among modern-day bowlers. They finished with 33 wickets in the 6 match series and played a significant part in India’s first ODI series win in South Africa. Sivaramakrishnan feels that the spin duo is not adding variety to their repertoire which hasn’t helped them in the long run. A generation where the wrist spinners have hogged the limelight, both Kuldeep and Chahal has fallen off the radar and it remains to be seen whether they are picked in the T20 World Cup slated to be played later that year. “There are computer analysts with every team to help batsmen study bowlers. They’re studying the spinners mainly because a lot of foreign players struggle against the spinners. To be successful consistently like an Anil Kumble or a Muttiah Muralitharan or a Shane Warne, you have to keep developing different deliveries (variations) as you progress every year in your career. I found Kuldeep has become inconsistent with this line and length and Chahal is not adding more variations to his bowling and has become predictable,” Sivaramkrisnan added. With Rahul Chahar slowly gaining into prominence with his consistent performances for the Mumbai Indians, both Chahal and Kuldeep might feel the heat if the team management decides to go with a solitary wrist spinner. Sivaramakrishnan feels Chahar could be picked ahead of Chahal and Kuldeep. “If the T20 World Cup takes place in India or the UAE, the spinners will have an integral part to play in the middle overs. I think Rahul Chahar has been more impressive than Chahal in the IPL 2021 so far,” Sivaramakrishnan concluded.

Sri Lanka appoint Kusal Perera as new skipper; drop ODI big players for Bangladesh ODI series

Sri Lanka have dropped the heavyweights Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal from the ODI squad for the upcoming home series against Bangladesh and appointed Kusal Perera as the new captain of the One-Day format. The major shakeup has been done by the new selection committee headed by Pramodya Wickramasinghe in collaboration with coach Mickey Arthur. Kusal Mendis, who was dropped from the side due to poor run of form has also found a place in the ODI team selected with an emphasis on young players. Karunaratne was appointed captain of the side in a surprise move before the ICC World Cup 2019 while Mathews has been in and out of the side. Notably, coach Mickey Arthur had announced that the team will be rejigge din order to find players for the future keeping in mind the ODI world cup scheduled for 2023. Promotion of Kusal Mendis to the leadership position of the team is an aspect of the team management putting its weight behind the aggressive left-handed opener. Sri Lanka squad for Bangladesh series Squad: Kusal Perera (capt), Kusal Mendis (vice-capt), Danushka Gunathilaka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Pathum Nissanka, Dasun Shanaka, Ashen Bandara, Wanindu Hasaranga, Isuru Udana, Akila Dananjaya, Niroshan Dickwella, Dushmantha Chameera, Ramesh Mendis, Asitha Fernando, Lakshan Sandakan, Chamika Karunaratne, Binura Fernando, Shiran Fernando

Jos Buttler vs SRH: A classic case of match-ups

Once Joe Root, England’s Test skipper compared Jos Butter to South Africa’s AB de Villiers. He was not the first one to do so, and would neither remain the last one, in a world of cricket that is being ruled by the South African maestro and the English swashbuckler, especially when it comes to the shortest format of the game. However, Root’s comparison of ‘demoralising’ the bowling attack, not wrong in one sense, could be interpreted as the fact that Buttler attacks all the bowlers. But this is exactly where he differs from de Villiers and many others. He doesn’t take the attack to each bowler, rather works on the prophecy of ‘match-ups’, which, if not devised, is most utilised by his skipper of the Men’s ODI team, Eoin Morgan. Buttler’s innings in the match between Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the recently postponed Indian Premier League was one in which the 31-year-old wicket-keeper batsman proved that ‘match-ups’ are ruling, and will continue to rule the roost in the limited-overs cricket. The Englishman, after playing, probably the best T20 innings of his life, joked, “I finally will have Alastair Cook stop telling me that he has got one T20 hundred more than me.” But the knock was more than just another hundred, it was a lesson for anyone trying to learn how you build T20 innings. What exactly is a match-up in cricket? As cricket progressed from Test to 50 overs and then to T20s, the importance of ‘How’ you plan to execute a move got narrowed down to ‘What’ move do you plan and ‘When’ do you execute it. The defining change in this transformation is obviously Time or the lack of it. It is with the what and when that the word ‘match-ups’ came into existence. To get a certain player out in T20s or for that matter ODIs, you don’t wait for him to commit mistakes, you make the batter commit those mistakes, by making a bowling change (what) and that too promptly with a particular fieldset or at a particular phase in play (when). Similarly, batters try to work out their matchups as well, and exactly the same way. They either wait for a particular bowler’s spell to end (what) and then another’s to start (when) to play their cards. The masterclass that was Buttler's innings Buttler, in the match against Sunrisers, did exactly that. He waited for a bowler’s (Rashid Khan) spell to end and then lashed on to the rest. But it wasn’t just about lashing on. The most important part was the timing of that lashing on. The Somerset batsman had been struggling in IPL up until that game. He had just two scores of above 40 in six innings and in them too, he struggled to time the ball as well as he is known to. In this innings too, the start was a struggle for the Royals’ vice-captain. At one stage he was eight from 13 balls and then at another stage, he was 35 from 33. Having played 33 balls, England’s limited-overs vice-captain finally started to tee off little by little. His shots started connecting and he was naturally finding the gaps. In the next 31 balls, the Royals’ batsman hit 89 runs, including his second fifty coming off just 17 balls. In his knock of 124 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, the Taunton born hit 11 fours and eight humongous sixes. It was Buttler who made all the difference, making sure that the fifth bowler, who was actually a combination of two bowlers, goes for 63 runs. Negotiating Rashid Khan But how was he able to do that in that particular match? This takes the story back to its theme of matchups. When Butter came to bat, he had an average of 9.13 against the whole of SRH, while his average against Rashid Khan, the wily leg spinner, was even worse at 2.5, but somewhat better than was his average (1.0) against the Afghan spinner at the end of 2019. Moreover, Buttler has been struggling against leg-spin more often than not. In an ESPNCricinfo piece, when the record of batters was compared while playing against spin in the period of three IPL seasons between 2018 and 2020, Buttler’s didn’t feature in the list for best batsmen against leg spinners, because to get into the list, the batter had to at least face 60 deliveries of leg-spin and the gloveman failed that criteria. Yes, he had been that bad against leg-spin. But Buttler wanted to improve and he was improving day by day. From getting out to Rashid Khan four times in less than 10 deliveries prior to IPL 2020, the right-hand batter did not give away his wicket to the Afghan dynamite in the last IPL edition. Although at the start of even this IPL, he considered Rashid to be the biggest threat. The problem with Buttler is not the usual leg-spin, rather the googly. Since IPL 2020, Morgan’s deputy has had the worst strike rate on googlies among all types of spin deliveries (more than 10 in number) he faced. Rashid, as everybody knows is a maestro of googlies and the variation in pace with which he bowls them. Thus to negotiate that, much like last year, he chose to remain silent. In the match, the 22-year-old was brought into the attack as early as the third over by captain Kane Williamson, another case of matchups as he wanted to get rid of the dangerman Buttler as quickly as possible. However, as it turned out, the entire first over of Rashid was played by Buttler’s partner at the other end, Yashashvi Jaiswal. In the Nangarhar born’s next over, the English batsman played cautiously, taking just two runs from the four balls that he faced. Negotiating the danger is another case of matchups. While he was taking rearguard action against Rashid, Buttler was detrimental to bring Sanju Samson, who was hitting the ball nicely, on strike against the rest of the bowlers, while he maintained a low profile, trying to work his way through to form. Khan was once again back into the attack in the ninth over and although Buttler did play the majority of the deliveries (5) in this over, he scored only three runs, seeing of the danger once again. With three overs of Rashid already taken care of, when he came on for his final over, which was just the 11th of the innings, the Englishman had won the battle, getting his biggest hurdle out of the game with nine overs to spare. In Rashid’s last over, once again, Buttler faced only two balls. Unleashing the beast After Rahid’s spell was done with, there was no holding back the beast that is Buttler. He was unstoppable, teaching all the younger batsmen how to play the match-up card right. When Mohammad Nabi came into the attack, it was a favourable condition for the right-hander as he is one of the better players off-spin and he showed exactly why. Hitting 20 off Nabi over, the Englishman indicated his intentions. Buttler is more than capable enough of clearing any boundary against pace bowlers, especially against the likes of Sandeep Sharma and Vijay Shankar who hardly offer pace. Since IPL 2020, Buttler’s strike rate has only been lower than run a ball on nip backers and outswingers against the pace bowlers and it was guaranteed that none of it would trouble him past the 12 overs in an innings. That’s exactly what happened as Buttler not only reached his maiden hundred but also played one of the best, most calculated and risk eversive knocks of this year’s IPL.

Satisfied after successful tours, Misbah-Ul-Haq says not worried about my future as head coach

Pakistan head coach Misbah-Ul-Haq has lashed out at his critics for questioning the state Pakistan cricket team after a successful tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Misbah said that he does not care about criticism based on results as that is beyond his hands. He also said that the question over the future does not bother him one bit. ”I don’t care about them and their criticism. We can only work and try hard. The bottom line is that results are not in our hands. As the head coach, I have not thought about my future and will not start doing that now either,” Misbah said in a virtual press conference. Speaking of the tours to the African nations, Misbah expressed satisfaction over consistent performances from players and series wins one after another. He commended the trio of Fawad Alam, Azhar Ali and Hasan Ali for putting their hands up and capitalizing on opportunities with hundreds and five-wicket hauls. “We had great results in both series. Winning in different and tough conditions was important for the team. The openers performed well during the Test series against Zimbabwe. Fawad and Azhar Ali also made centuries. We performed better in the field as well. Hasan Ali performed extraordinarily. We would like to continue this momentum in England,” he said. However, he pointed out that the middle order in the ODIs and T20Is have appeared to be a concerning factor for which the team needs to find a solution immediately. “We are just concerned about our middle-order in white-ball cricket. We have to do something in that regard,” Misbah added. Misbah set his goal on the twin series against England after a successful tour of Africa for which he said the focus will be just about getting the preparation right for the ICC World T20. Hence, only players who stand a chance in playing the World T20 will be taken on the tour of England unlike the tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe where they carried a jumbo squad due to Covid-19. “Due to the exceptional conditions because of Covid-19 we have been able to take extended squads and have a close look at the available talent. But on the coming tour to England we will only pick those players who have a chance of playing in the World T20 Cup this year,” he said. Misbah was holding two responsibilities for the Pakistan team— of a chief selector and the head coach. He walked away from the selection table and carried on with coaching the men in green from the close quarters.