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By the time the next Border-Gavaskar Trophy happens, both of them will be 37 or nearing it

Karthik Krishnaswamy02-Mar-20231:55

Jaffer: Pujara knows how to buy time and absorb pressure

“Mid-on is up, for heaven’s sake. Stop blocking everything and go over the top.”Rohit Sharma didn’t say any of this, but his gestures and facial expression, caught by a camera trained on India’s dressing-room balcony, were unambiguous. It’s likely that a stronger word than “heaven” ran through his head.India were 144 for 7 – effectively 56 for 7 – on day two of the third Border-Gavaskar Test match. Cheteshwar Pujara, who alone among all of India’s batters had looked capable of surviving Nathan Lyon and scoring runs against him on a spiteful Indore track, was batting on 52. Rohit’s moment of annoyance coincided with Pujara playing five successive dots against Lyon.Now there were two ways of looking at it. You could say Rohit had no business telling Pujara how to bat given he was compiling something of a minor masterpiece and doing more than anyone else to keep India in the Test match, just about. Or you could say Rohit was justified, and that India, in the position they were in, needed quick runs if they were to set Australia anything like a reasonable target.Related

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Pujara didn’t have to look up at the dressing room or the replay screen to know how Rohit was feeling. At the end of the Lyon over, Ishan Kishan ran out in his glow-in-the-dark substitute’s bib and passed on a message.Third ball of Lyon’s next over, Pujara stepped out of his crease and launched him for a clean, sweet six over mid-on.This was partly a response to Rohit’s call for urgency, perhaps, and partly to Lyon changing the angle at the start of the over and going over the wicket. From that angle, Lyon’s outside-off-stump line gave Pujara a little more room to free his arms, and a little more leeway to leave his crease, confident that he could use his trademark bat-behind-pad thrust to kick the ball away if he didn’t get to the pitch of it.This was partly the new-age Pujara who doesn’t mind hitting the odd ball in the air, and partly the age-old Pujara who plays the percentages like no one else. Together, the two Pujaras had combined rivetingly through India’s innings as fortunes fluctuated this way and that.At the start of his innings, Pujara had been endlessly busy: stepping out, stepping back, working the spinners into leg-side gaps as often as he could. India’s batters had been able to employ the flick far more often than their Australian counterparts in the first two Tests; in this innings, Pujara was using the flick to attack, rotate strike and defend. If you judge the length well, move your feet accordingly and roll your wrists over at the right moment, it can be a safer option against offspin than defending with the full face of the bat.Cheteshwar Pujara was the best of India’s batters in the second innings in Indore•Getty ImagesThere was positive intent even when wickets fell at the other end. Virat Kohli was lbw to Matt Kuhnemann when he tried pulling one that scooted low and snuck under his bat. In Kuhnemann’s next over, Pujara rocked back to one pitched a touch short, and pulled him between midwicket and mid-on. It wasn’t the conventional horizontal-bat pull, but something like a straight-bat back-foot punch with an extended follow-through.Aggressive cricket, percentage cricket. Pujara was walking that thin line.”You need to do that on such pitches,” he told at the end of the day’s play. “If you just keep defending then there’s one ball which will bounce and hit your glove. So yeah, you need to find the right balance of attacking and in between, yes, you still need to trust your defence, but my aim was to be a little more positive, try and rotate the strike, try and score as many runs as possible.”Whenever I get a loose delivery I try and make sure that I punish those ones, because you have to work really hard to score those runs, so as a batsman you need to ensure, whenever you get a loose delivery, you just try and put it away.”Sometimes, he manufactured loose deliveries, like he did by stepping out to Kuhnemann: he drilled one back past the bowler, and met another on the full to whip it between mid-on and midwicket.Right through his innings, Pujara showed more obvious urgency against Kuhnemann than against the two offspinners. Perhaps this was because the flick was less of a percentage shot against the turn, which meant he’d have to play the forward defensive far more often against Kuhnemann.Pujara scored quicker against Kuhnemann (22 off 44 balls) than either Lyon (29 off 60) or Todd Murphy (7 off 34). While this had something to do with getting a small handful of balls from Kuhnemann to cut and pull, it also felt like a consequence of feeling slightly less at ease against him. While he achieved control percentages of 88 against both offspinners, he went at 81 against Kuhnemann.It’s a nerdy and vaguely unsatisfying way of describing things, but it said everything about Pujara’s innings that he achieved a control percentage of 88 against Lyon, over 60 balls, when he was running through the rest of India’s line-up in utterly treacherous conditions.Nathan Lyon on Cheteshwar Pujara: He’s an unbelievable cricketer•BCCILyon had only admiration for Pujara after the day’s play was done.”I wouldn’t describe him as flashy or anything like that, but he’s an unbelievable cricketer and I’ve got a lot of respect for the way he goes about it,” he said. “Nothing seems to faze him, when it’s bouncing at the Gabba or spinning here in Indore, he seems to find a way and a method.”I think as I said last week at his 100th Test, a lot of boys and girls can really watch the way he goes about batting and learn from it. He doesn’t have all the big reverse-sweeps and everything like that, but one thing he does have is an unbelievable defence. In my eyes, Test cricket is built around defence – not if you are England at the moment – but it’s all built around defence. Hats off to Pujara and we saw the class of him on a pretty challenging wicket yet again.”In his pomp, Pujara regularly showed his class on challenging Indian pitches – the fourth-innings 72 on debut in Bengaluru, the twin fifties in Delhi in 2013, the 135 in Mumbai, and the 92 in Bengaluru are a handful of examples – but that hasn’t quite happened in the recent past. Since the start of 2021, he’s averaged 23.28 at home, and that’s including this Indore innings.At times during this stretch it’s felt like the old certainty against spin had disappeared. But it was fully in evidence on Thursday, even against Australia’s most dangerous bowler.Along the way, Indore was treated to another gripping chapter of Lyon vs Pujara, and its final pages were a tribute to both.Through the bulk of his spells to Pujara, Lyon had bowled from round the wicket with a 6-3 leg-side field. As Pujara neared and passed his fifty, it became 7-2 as Lyon took his slip out to strengthen an already packed leg side.There were now two catchers close to the bat – two short legs sometimes, short leg and leg gully at other times – and two fielders to deny Pujara the flicked single – either two short midwickets or a short midwicket and a short square leg.Lyon’s explanation for this field change was simple.”There was a period there where we thought if we could just try and build some pressure on Pujara – we understand he’s got a really good defence and he’s able to rotate the strike really well – so if we can just build some dots, hopefully we may be able to create a chance or build some pressure on the other batsman as well. There’s no rocket science, its just about building pressure and shifting pressure on the other team.”Cheteshwar Pujara was caught by Steven Smith at leg slip•Getty ImagesFrom 43 off 83 balls, Pujara went to 52 off 134 – that’s nine runs in 51 balls – before he hit that six. During this time, India lost the wickets of Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat and R Ashwin, and a potential push towards setting a tricky target seemed set to spiral out of control.On a pitch where so much was happening for him, Lyon gave up trying to get Pujara caught off the outside edge, and tried to play on his patience. Utterly pragmatic, but in its own way a measure of how well Pujara was batting.Even at seven down, Pujara felt India had a chance if he could stitch a partnership with Axar Patel, so he was in no hurry to take risks. He’s done this before – delaying outright risk-taking until he only has genuine tailenders for company – and he’s done it to telling effect; his hundreds in Southampton and Adelaide followed just this template.On this day, however, Pujara didn’t get that far, and an attempted flick, at 59, ended up as a miraculous Steven Smith one-hander at leg gully. A most fitting end.Lyon vs Pujara has now spanned 1265 balls – the most of any bowler-batter combination in Test cricket since the start of 2010 – bringing Pujara 561 runs and Lyon 13 wickets. No batter has scored more runs against any one bowler in this period, and only one bowler has dismissed any batter more often – Stuart Broad has taken David Warner’s wicket 14 times.It’s possible we’re seeing the last of Lyon vs Pujara. There’s one more Test to go in Ahmedabad and potentially a World Test Championship final in June. After that? The Border-Gavaskar Trophy’s next iteration will be in Australia in 2024-25. There’ll be five Tests, but both Lyon and Pujara will be 37 or nearing it.They may still be at it then, or they may not. In either case, we can feel blessed to have watched their grand battle unfold over all these series and all these years. Lyon has been ascendant sometimes, and Pujara at others. Indore may well have been their closest-fought battle of wits.

That Gill had prepared intensely against left-arm pace leading into the game showed in his audacious powerplay display

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Sep-2023It’s not as if Shubman Gill had an obvious weakness against left-arm seam bowling. It is a small sample size, but before his innings on Sunday, Gill had hit 118 ODI runs against left-arm seam bowlers, off 108 deliveries, and been dismissed three times. An average of 39.33 against this kind of bowler pales against his otherwise spectacular average of 63.08, but it hardly represents a weakness in his technique.But if you’re an opener about to play one of the biggest matches of your career so far, and if the opposition has one of the great first-spell bowlers in the world, no one will blame you for taking the battle seriously. Gill had been intense in his preparation against left-arm seam in the approach to this match, training in repeated sessions with India’s left-arm throwdown specialist Nuwan Seneviratne.On match day (the first of two, at least), he set India on a scorching path, first picking off some poor Shaheen Shah Afridi deliveries – glancing a length ball on the legs to the fine-leg boundary, sending a half volley screaming over midwicket – before, later in that same over, stroking even one of his decent deliveries for four. This was almost a good-length ball outside off stump, but so quickly and confidently did Gill move into his checked drive, he beat mid-off.Related

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In Afridi’s next over, Gill was imperious. Such was his confidence, he took steps towards bowler and struck him sweetly back over his head. To a bowler currently ripping up the tournament, this was a shot of sparkling audacity.There were two further boundaries in this over, the second consecutive Afridi over he had bowled only to Gill and been struck for three fours. The first of these was drilled between mid-off and cover, the second flayed in front of point.These were not easy batting conditions at this stage and, at the other end, Rohit Sharma was proving it against Naseem Shah. Of his first 20 deliveries to Sharma, 19 were dots (there had also been a wide). Naseem was bowling quicker than Afridi, sure, but extracting bounce and seam movement as well. Afridi was moving the ball through the air, but perhaps did not have his usual first-spell control. Gill had prepared fiercely enough to pounce.Against Naseem, Gill had a bit of luck. He top edged a shortish delivery outside off in the eighth over, and Iftikhar Ahmed at first slip probably should have caught it above his head, but didn’t even attempt the catch. Gill would eventually fall to Afridi, who deceived him with a legcutter and had him caught at cover.But by hitting nine fours in the powerplay (he hit 41 off 30 in that period), and dominating Afridi within this phase, Gill allayed fears that Pakistan’s quicks would deck India’s top order again. In what little play was possible under heavy skies on Sunday, Gill’s innings glittered.

And was Mahika Gaur the youngest player to debut in a T20I at age 12?

Steven Lynch22-Aug-2023Has any wicketkeeper done the “match double” of 100 runs and ten dismissals in a Test? asked Andrew Taylor from Australia
This is a very rare feat: for a start, as this list shows, only seven wicketkeepers have so far taken ten or more dismissals in a single Test. And only one of them allied that to 100 runs: AB de Villiers scored 31 and 103 not out, and also took a record-equalling 11 catches, for South Africa against Pakistan in Johannesburg in 2012-13.There are only 12 further instances of this wicketkeeping double in all first-class cricket, two of them by Rod Marsh. Perhaps the most eye-popping performance by a keeper in any first-class match came from the Zimbabwean Test player Wayne James in 1995-96: captaining Matabeleland in the Logan Cup final against Mashonaland Country Districts in Bulawayo, he hoovered up 13 dismissals to add to scores of 99 and 99 not out.A wicket fell to the first ball of both innings in the UAE’s recent T20I against New Zealand. Had this happened before, in T20s or ODIs? asked Elamaran Perumal from the United States
In last week’s match in Dubai, Chad Bowes was out to the first ball of New Zealand’s innings, then the UAE’s captain Muhammad Waseem was dismissed by the first ball of the reply.It seems this is the first such instance in men’s T20Is, but there is one additional case in an ODI: in Cape Town in February 1993, Pakistan’s Ramiz Raja was dismissed by the first ball of the match, and Desmond Haynes fell to the opening delivery of West Indies’ chase.During the women’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies in November 2018, Yasoda Mendis (Sri Lanka) and Sanjida Islam (Bangladesh) fell to the respective opening deliveries of their matchin St Lucia. Less than a year later came the only such instance in women’s ODIs: Australia’s Rachael Haynes was out to the opening delivery of the match, and West Indies’ Natasha McLean went first ball in the chase, in Coolidge (Antigua) in September 2019.Has anyone who only has one Test wicket taken a better single scalp based on the batsman’s career average than David Gower, who dismissed Kapil Dev (average 31.05)? asked Matt Barrett from England
It’s true that David Gower’s only wicket, in 117 Tests, was that of Kapil Dev, caught for 116 in the closing stages of a draw in Kanpur in 1981-82 – but 31.05 currently only makes it to 116th place on this particular list.The man whose solitary wicket accounted for the man with the highest Test batting average was the old Essex player Jack O’Connor, whose one and only victim in Tests was the great West Indian George Headley, who finished with an average of 60.83: he was bowled by O’Connor in Bridgetown in 1929-30. According to Wisden, O’Connor “bowled slow legbreaks and offbreaks mixed, and had the advantage of looking a good deal simpler than he was”.Just behind O’Connor comes the New Zealander Doug Freeman, whose only Test wicket was that of England’s Herbert Sutcliffe, who ended up with a Test average of 60.73. Freeman was 18, and still at school, when he played two Tests against England in 1932-33; in the second, in Auckland, he had Sutcliffe caught by Lindsay Weir for 33, but had no further success as Wally Hammond purred to 336 not out. A tall legspinner, Freeman did not play again: his Test career was over before his 19th birthday.There are currently 20 other bowlers whose only victim in Tests was someone with an average of more than 50. The list includes Andy McKay (New Zealand) and Ujesh Ranchod (Zimbabwe), who both dismissed Sachin Tendulkar (53.79), and – for the time being at least – England’s Harry Brook, whose only wicket to date is Kane Williamson (54.89).Playing her first T20I at age 12 for UAE, Mahika Gaur is currently the 16th youngest T20I debutant in women’s cricket•Asian Cricket CouncilI noticed that Mahika Gaur, who has just been called up by England, played for the UAE in 2019 when she was only 12. Was she the youngest person to appear in a T20I? asked Mohit Karve from the United States
You’re right that left-arm seamer Mahika Gaur, who was added to England’s T20i squad after some impressive displays for Manchester Originals in the Hundred, had previously played for United Arab Emirates. She was born in Reading in March 2006, but her family was living in the Gulf when she played the first of her 19 T20Is for the UAE, against Indonesia in Bangkok in January 2019, when she was still two months short of her 13th birthday.The proliferation of T20Is since all matches between ICC members were declared official means that no fewer than 15 women younger than Gaur have now appeared in such matches. Six of them come from Jersey, including the youngest of all – Nia Greig, who was just 11 years 40 days old when she played against France in Nantes in July 2019.The youngest in a women’s ODI remains Sajjida Shah, of Pakistan, who was 12 years 171 days old when she made her debut against Ireland in Dublin in July 2000.The youngest to feature in a men’s T20I is Marian Gherasim, who was 16 days past his 14th birthday when he played for Romania against Bulgaria in a Balkan Cup match in Ilfov County in October 2020.The youngest in a men’s ODI is Hasan Raza, 14 years 233 days when he played for Pakistan against Zimbabwe in Quetta in 1996-97. The previous week, Hasan had become the youngest male Test player, in Faisalabad, although it should be noted that there are those who dispute the accuracy of his date of birth.Saud Shakeel has now played seven Tests, and scored at least a fifty in all of them. Has anyone had a more successful start in this regard? asked Zahid Ahmed from Pakistan
The Pakistan left-hand batter Saud Shakeel is unique in kicking off his Test career with a score of 50 or more in all of his first seven matches. Four men started with half-centuries (or better) in each of their first six Tests: Bert Sutcliffe (New Zealand), Saeed Ahmed (Pakistan), Basil Butcher (West Indies) and Sunil Gavaskar (India). Three men managed five: David Steele (England), Roy Dias (Sri Lanka) and Devon Conway (New Zealand).Saud Shakeel has 875 runs after his first seven Tests, a number surpassed at that stage of a career only by Everton Weekes (878), Gavaskar (918) and, almost inevitably, Don Bradman (1196)Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Wickets in hand and six-hitting at the death have been the two pillars of their exhilarating successes, with Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen at the heart of it all

Firdose Moonda24-Oct-20231:44

The secret to South Africa scoring huge totals

Too much of a good thing, they say, has the opposite effect of just the right amount but try telling that to South Africa. With victory margins of 102, 134, 229 and 149 runs, it may read like they’ve scored far more runs than is required to beat opposition including defending champions England, but too many? What’s that? This is the era of gluttony with more matches, more choices and more everything else but a team that has historically had batting as their weaker suit at World Cups was never going to go for less is more.The top three totals at this World Cup belong to South Africa, including the only one over 400, which is also the highest tournament total ever. Six of the 19 hundreds scored so far come from South Africans. The leading run-scorer so far – Quinton de Kock – is South African and he also has the best individual score to date.In his 150th ODI, de Kock slammed 174 – 14 short of the South African record still held by Gary Kirsten – and 26 shy of a double-ton, which batting coach JP Duminy confirmed is on de Kock’s wishlist as something to achieve before he quits the format after this World Cup. That de Kock appears to have saved his best for last has been obvious since the Sri Lanka game in Delhi but to suggest he is simply throwing his bat in his last few innings and hoping for the best would be doing a disservice to a player in scintillating touch.Related

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Watch carefully, and you will see a more discerning de Kock, who takes a little more time to settle in and then dictates the pace. At the Wankhede tonight, he manipulated the spinners’ length early on, then eased down to 31 off 37 balls and then dominated partnerships with Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen. In terms of shot-selection, with de Kock, we’ve seen it all but his takedown of spinners in this game was special, specifically of Bangladesh’s returning captain Shakib Al Hasan. De Kock faced 33 balls from Shakib, and scored 46 runs. In some books that’s called cutting off the snake at the head, a metaphor that may be particularly relevant to Bangladesh given their relationship with the dance. That reading of the situation and opposition is what South Africa are benefitting so well from, and what makes de Kock’s contributions stand out.”We all know Quinny to be a free-spirited guy he is but he has a really good cricket brain,” Aiden Markram, South Africa’s stand-in captain, said afterwards. “He assesses conditions well and communicates that to us even before we get out onto the field. You never want to clip his wings, you just want to let him fly.”In this innings, de Kock flew for all but 4.5 overs of South Africa’s 50. In the games against Sri Lanka and Australia, he was dismissed in the 31st and 35th over respectively, but helped set South Africa up for the final 10 overs – the phase where they have been at their most dangerous.ESPNcricinfo LtdTheir batting at the death is a major contributor to why they are being considered among the best line-ups at this event and a quick glance at the numbers reveals why. South Africa scored 137 runs in the last 10 overs against Sri Lanka, 143 against England and 144 runs today. Against Australia, they scored 79 which doesn’t sound as impressive but on a slow pitch was more than enough. All told, from the 40th over – and bear in mind South Africa’s defeat to the Dutch was reduced to 43 overs a side – South Africa have a run rate of 12.28, which is more than one-and-a-half times their closest rivals, New Zealand at 8.16.There’s two reasons that they have been able to set off these kinds of fireworks: wickets in hand and six-hitting.To the first point, and in consultation with ESPNcricinfo statistician Shiva Jayaraman: on average South Africa have found themselves with around 250 runs on the board and between three and four wickets down at the start of the 41st over – thanks largely to de Kock – while other teams have been in an average position of 216 for 5.To the second: South Africa have hit 32 sixes in the last 10 overs of their five innings, while New Zealand and India have totalled only 10 more and three more than that overall, across their entire five innings. That’s thanks mostly to Heinrich Klaasen, who followed up his 67-ball 109 against England with a 49-ball 90 against Bangladesh. Klaasen hit all four of his sixes in the last 10 overs against England and five of his eight in the last 10 against Bangladesh, and is the second-leading six-hitter of the tournament. As long as South Africa are able to give him a launchpad, he has shown he can almost guarantee he will take off.Quinton de Kock’s purple patch has him pleased•Associated PressAll that becomes even more important when you consider that Klaasen is the fifth of just six specialist batters and that if things start going wrong before he comes in, South Africa will be in trouble. That remains an area yet to be fully exploited by opposition but on one of the occasions where it threatened to be an issue – against England – Marco Jansen played an innings which suggests he will make a solid No. 7.So, all that said, have South Africa found their magic formula when it comes to batting first at big tournaments? They won’t be quite so certain yet. “We haven’t spoken about a blueprint as a unit. We’ve had no definitive roles given, but everyone knows what they need to do to help this batting unit peak at their best,” Markram said. “There isn’t necessarily a blueprint, but guys understand how to approach it. We have a big focus on playing conditions and not necessarily situations too much. As a unit, we keep saying to look down at the surface and not up at the scoreboard and play exactly what’s in front of us on the pitch.”Duminy described it as “taking the positive option wherever possible”, and in previous interactions with members of the South African camp they’ve spoken about a balance between smart and brave cricket. But those are all platitudes. The proof is on the scorecard and four out of South Africa’s five at the World Cup are in their favour. The fifth was the game they lost to the Netherlands, in the only match in which they’ve chased at this tournament, and the jury is still out on how they will perform under pressure in a crunch encounter again.There is also another caveat to be added to this analysis, which may otherwise read as though South Africa’s line-up is untouchable. India, who have the second and third leading run-scorers in the tournament, have chased in all their games to date and so we don’t know what they would and could do if given the opportunity to put runs on the board first.Apologies if the ifs and what-ifs dampened the mood somewhat. That was not the intention of this story or, indeed, of South Africa’s performance against Bangladesh. Both were a celebration of what too much of a good thing can do for this tournament and, in the absence of any close games, perhaps it’s as much excitement as we’re going to get for now.

The Mitchell Starc-led pace attack is otherwise short on experience but there’s a strong Indian middle order in place

Sreshth Shah18-Mar-2024Where Kolkata Knight Riders finished last seasonWith six wins and eight losses, KKR finished seventh. They were four points away from being in the fray for the playoffs.Knight Riders squad for IPL 2024Shreyas Iyer (capt), Andre Russell*, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk)*, Sherfane Rutherford*, Phil Salt (wk)*, KS Bharat (wk), Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Sunil Narine*, Suyash Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman*, Dushmantha Chameera*, Sakib Hussain, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Mitchell Starc*, Chetan Sakariya*Overseas playersPlayer availability – Shreyas Iyer’s fitness a concernJason Roy (personal reasons) and his compatriot Gus Atkinson (workload management) have both pulled out. They have been replaced by Phil Salt, currently the world’s No. 2 T20I batter, and Dushmantha Chameera, respectively. However, Chameera recently suffered a quadriceps injury and is racing to get fit.There are also some concerns over Shreyas Iyer’s fitness. He did not field on the last two days of the Ranji Trophy final because of back spasms.What’s new with KKR this year?Between seasons, KKR announced Gautam Gambhir’s return to the franchise, this time as team mentor. He captained KKR to their only two IPL titles, in 2012 and 2014. He will work closely with head coach Chandrakant Pandit.At the auction table, there was another reunion as former KKR batter Manish Pandey returned to the franchise for INR 50 lakh. Other notable additions were Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Sherfane Rutherford, Chetan Sakariya and Ramandeep Singh. But the most eye-catching pick was Mitchell Starc – for an all-time auction high of INR 24.75 crore – who will significantly bolster a relatively inexperienced fast-bowling group.Mitchell Starc will lead an otherwise inexperienced pace attack•Getty ImagesThe good – Indian core and spin attackShreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh make up a strong Indian core in batting, even if they lack the cumulative experience compared to some other teams. Hard-hitting wicketkeeper-batters Salt and Rahmanullah Gurbaz together at the top is an explosive prospect, and both are also in red-hot form.Rinku and Andre Russell also pose an intimidating challenge for bowlers in the death overs. Rinku struck at 148.71 and 149.52 in IPL 2022 and 2023, respectively, and enters this season with the fresh experience of being a capped Indian player.The spin trio of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma will aim to add to their solid 2023 as a group, and with Mujeeb’s addition, that department is even stronger. With Gambhir’s preference for spin at home, the pitches could also turn more than usual, which also works well for their Indian batters, especially Shreyas and Nitish.The not-so-good – over-reliance on StarcKKR’s Indian fast-bowling group of Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana and Sakariya is exciting but inexperienced compared to other teams. That could have been one major reason why KKR have invested so heavily in Starc.They will also need to carefully manage the workloads of Russell and Starc, for whom the franchise have no like-for-like replacements. Both matchwinners have been a bit fragile over the years when it comes to injuries.Schedule insightsThey play only three games in the first leg of the season with long breaks between games. At the start, they play at home against Sunrisers Hyderabad on March 23 before flying to Bengaluru to face Royal Challengers Bangalore (March 29) and Visakhapatnam to take on Delhi Capitals (April 3).The big question

She’s arguably the best bowler in the world at the moment, but Sophie Ecclestone says she has a lot of unfinished business to take care of

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Under their long-time head coach, Ireland women have been more successful than at any time in their history, but he’d rather the side focus on the process than the results

Nathan Johns06-Sep-2024Three years ago, a request to interview Ed Joyce for the first time was met with a friendly warning from Cricket Ireland’s media staff: Joyce, now head coach of Ireland women, was happy to talk, but was reluctant to speak extensively on his own playing career.For plenty among the Irish cricket fraternity, Joyce will always be primarily regarded as perhaps the best pure, technical batter the country has produced. For those outside that bubble, he represents one of English cricket’s great unknowns. In a three-year period from 2012-14, playing for Sussex, he never dropped outside the top ten run scorers in the County Championship. In 2013, he was the fourth-most prolific run-getter in Division One, Gary Ballance and Sam Robson among those above him. In 2014 he finished second, behind only Adam Lyth. All three featured in England’s Test side, on the conveyor belt of top-order batters trialled after Andrew Strauss’ retirement in 2012.His Sussex team-mate, Matt Prior, asked Joyce if he would be open to playing for England again. The only problem was, prior to the 2011 World Cup, he had already recommitted to Ireland, when his England career petered out after just 17 ODIs following the original switch from green to blue.Related

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Ed Joyce named permanent head coach of Ireland women

Ed Joyce retires and turns his mind to Ireland's future

Upon retiring in 2018, Joyce became a batting consultant. Predominantly working with male players in Ireland’s development pathway, he started working with the women’s side just as their previous head coach left the job. Already on Cricket Ireland’s payroll, Joyce took over in June 2019.Now, five years into his coaching role with the women’s side, their new successes, most recently their ODI series win over Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka, means a new generation of cricket fans primarily associates him with the women’s game.For the first time since Joyce took over as head coach, Ireland will host England for an ODI and T20I series. “I’ve played so much cricket, I didn’t love playing the game [anymore],” says Joyce, on the eve of England’s visit. “I couldn’t go into county coaching or franchise cricket at that stage, but I really cared about Irish cricket. It’s given me a lot; you want to give back. I happened to be there at the time and Cricket Ireland thought it would be a good fit. Sliding doors…”

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This current Joycean arc of Ireland’s development truly got underway in 2022. That summer, devoid of pandemic disruption, professional contracts were introduced. Given the age profile of the young squad, a fair few took part-time deals as they completed their education. As the years roll on and more players graduate, the list of full-time pros grows.Gaby Lewis (left) and Orla Predergast have emerged as linchpins in Ireland’s women’s side under Joyce’s tenure•Getty ImagesSince that contractual turning point, spearheaded by the likes of Orla Prendergast, Gaby Lewis and Amy Hunter, with more regular vital contributions from elsewhere in the squad, Ireland have beaten South Africa, Pakistan, Australia and now Sri Lanka. “The contact time has made a massive difference, that consistency with training,” says Joyce. “You can see progression from session to session, you can map things out and say ‘this is what we’re working on, this is what we’re doing today.’ You can really only do that with full-time players.”It’s the same thing in the gym with strength and conditioning. I’m touching a lot of wood at the moment, but it’s no coincidence Orla [Prendergast] is fit to bowl for the longest period she’s ever had just after she’s become a full-time professional. She’s become a lot stronger, more robust and able to get the loads in training, which actually allow her to play. Hopefully that stays the same way.”

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Inevitably, making progress with the women meant that when the men’s job became vacant at the end of 2021 Joyce was linked with a move across. He took to social media to deny reports that he was a contender. No outlet said as much, but there was an undertone to some of the public speculation that the men’s job was seen as a better gig.”It is offensive to say that’s a step up, they’re both international teams,” says Joyce. “The men’s team undoubtedly has more eyes on it, but not that many more.”It was a running joke with the girls and the support staff: ‘Are you going to go and do that?’ Even if I’d been asked, I wouldn’t have done it. No job is ever finished but I wasn’t even halfway there. It was a non-runner.”The speculation was undoubtedly linked to how Joyce’s playing career influenced his coaching – there is a nostalgic narrative to the old pro returning to coach the current holders of the jersey he once donned. Such curiosity extends to how Joyce, an international and county veteran, adapted to coaching literal children – the likes of 16-year-old Alice Tector – in Ireland’s young squad.With regular captain Laura Delany out injured, the average age of the women’s squad is only 22. Joyce jokingly takes umbrage at being labelled an old pro, but there is an awareness that, compared to the Ireland dressing rooms he once frequented, often filled with grizzled part-time players battered by the challenges of Associate cricket in the noughties, he is now operating in a different stratosphere.Ireland women beat Sri Lanka this year for the first time in an ODI series•Cricket Ireland”You have to be very understanding of the level of experience the players have,” he acknowledges. “If you look at a 21-year-old boy who’s been in a pathway system, and how many games they have played at the top level… the girls just don’t have that [experience]. You see something that seems pretty obvious is out of place [in technique or game play] and you ask the player, there isn’t that knowledge you’d expect from someone in an international team but that’s just the way it is. There’s a lot of teaching, rather than coaching, that goes on.”Maybe at the start or up until the last few years, if you look at video analysis, the girls wouldn’t have known the stuff we were asking them to look for. That’s improved out of sight as well, to the point where we have really detailed conversations with the bowling, batting, leadership group about what’s coming up in a series, who we’re about to face, being able to adjust as the game goes along.”One of the best things we’ve done is try to get the team to coach and communicate with each other. They’re absolutely brilliant at that.”When scoring 1000 runs in a season for Sussex, Joyce probably didn’t have as strong an awareness of the developmental deficiencies in Irish women’s cricket. When asked about his learning curves, he points towards the crucial skill of player management.”I’m still going to sessions and learning from players and other coaches. Selection, that’s evolved a bit. I would always speak to players who are left out of squads or gameday XIs, I think that’s the right thing for the head coach to do. But you can speak too much.”You want to give the player something to hang their hat on: ‘How am I going to get back into the team?’ Sometimes you don’t know how they’re going to get back into the team. Or, the only way is by doing really well, and they say, ‘Well if I’m not playing how am I going to do really well?’ You can tie yourself in knots if you go into too much detail. Sometimes you’re better off saying it how it is.”It’s the same with contracts. I’m heavily involved with those, giving good and bad news to players. Some really bad news, in terms of losing jobs. Sometimes you can speak too much. You just have to get it done. Say it and move on.”Two years ago, Ireland lost a T20 series at home to South Africa 2-1. Given injuries and exam-enforced absences – again highlighting the youth of this side – any victory was almost inconceivable, but Ireland upset the odds in the series opener. Joyce didn’t speak to the press until the end of the series, after the pair of defeats that followed that historic win. Despite back-to-back losses, the overall tenor of the conversation was positive.In 2022, Gaby Lewis (right) at age 21 led an inexperienced side to victory against South Africa in a T20I – only Ireland’s second win against them•Oisin Keniry/Getty ImagesMinutes after the conversation concluded, the head coach returned. Feeling he had been overly critical of his players, a request was made to redo the interview over the phone the following morning.”I’m very protective of the team, I’ve no problem saying that,” says Joyce, looking back. “It’s that awareness that you’re often coaching very young people. It would be the same if it’s on the men’s side – there’s just more experience on the men’s side.”Trying to make sure your understanding is clear, [that the] girls know what’s expected of them, that’s a big one. A good example would be Alice Tector. Alice is hugely talented, she’s done really well, which is why we’ve picked her, but she’s hugely nervous, she’s 16.”How can we expect someone who’s 16 to do well? It’s bonkers. She did great, but it’s that knowledge – that all you can do is expect the players to do their best. I think that’s what I got wrong in that interview, I was probably a bit critical and then I realised when I went back: ‘Were the girls doing their best? Yes. Did we play that well? Not really, but maybe we played to our potential, we’ve just got to get to a higher skill level.'”Listening back to the tape, Joyce needn’t have worried. The closest he came to genuine criticism was a call for his side to play without the fear that was on display during the final game in that T20 series. South Africa spent much of their fielding innings with mid-off and mid-on inside the ring, so lacking was Ireland’s power game.Any lack of bravery appears to have disappeared two years on. Amidst all the positivity though, one significant blot on Joyce and Ireland’s record is the qualifying defeat to Scotland earlier this year, one which cost them a place at the upcoming T20 World Cup. Ireland’s newfound batting aggression saw them collapse to 21-4 in the powerplay, with their hopes of back-to-back World Cup appearances left in ruin.As with all practitioners of modern batting philosophies, overall trends, rather than individual defeats, no matter how crushing, convince Joyce and co to stay their aggressive course. Since the introduction of the contracts, Ireland’s overall batting strike rate has gone up compared to previous years, balls per boundary has decreased while balls per dismissals has increased. Batting average has also gone up.Joyce has reinforced the importance of aggressive batting and more dynamic fielding in the women’s game, given the shorter boundaries•Ramsey Cardy/Getty Images”Scoring ball percentage is a big one for us,” Joyce adds. “Sri Lanka outscored us quite considerably in terms of boundaries but we beat them considerably in terms of ones and twos. When we beat Pakistan (a T20I series victory in 2022), it was more boundaries than ones or twos, whereas I feel like we can do both things now. All the players as well. That’s really pleasing.”Ireland’s increased power is a key pillar of Joyce’s philosophy. Since starting to coach in 2019, he has identified three areas of emphasis in the women’s game, which differ slightly to his own playing days: the heightened importance of fielding, batting power and, perhaps most intriguingly, how targeting the stumps more was a better bowling ploy than in the men’s game.”The game is definitely changing. Franchises, the skill level of the players, the power, the difference of strength and conditioning, the depth. I always think that fielding will be slightly more… it’s very important in men’s cricket, but if you can field well, be dynamic, powerful in the field… [it’s] more important in the women’s game because the ball just doesn’t go as far. It spends a bit more time on the ground.”In the women’s game, with the smaller boundaries, more powerful players are going to take advantage of that. The strength and conditioning stuff is so important. The bowling straight bit, that’s becoming more nuanced. You see more teams bowl cleverly wide of off stump with an offside field and ask less powerful athletes to hit the ball through there.”England have picked Lauren Filer for this series. I’m interested to see how we go about facing her. In terms of being able to play the short ball, can we deal with that and deal with making sure we’re able to play the balls afterwards, if she does go fuller? The short ball is coming into things a bit more even for us, [even though] we don’t have the quickest attack in the world. It’s definitely more nuanced. The stumps are in play but it’s definitely not the be all and end all it possibly was a few years ago.”Talk of Filer brings us back to England’s upcoming visit for the Women’s Championship and then a T20 series. While protective of his players, Joyce is not afraid to let them know when aspirations have not been met. Does a series win over a side like Sri Lanka, as opposed to the one-off victories of the past, allow changing-room chatter to venture towards beating England?”Performance, that’s what we’re looking for. You cannot go into any game thinking we have to win. I’m just looking for performances.””The team is so young that you can influence things so much. There’s so much growth there. As a coach it’s just a dream”•Seb Daly/Sportsfile/Getty ImagesFor once, Joyce’s answer disappoints. Most of the discussion went without clichés. The modern sports psychology approach of being process-driven may have its merits, but it can take the joy out of sporting ambition, of Ireland longing to beat their nearest neighbour. There must be more to this series than that.”If you’re England coming to Ireland I don’t think you’re talking about performance, you’re talking about winning the series,” explains Joyce. “That’s absolutely fair enough. If we were going to the Netherlands – who are not a bad team, they’re competitive against us – I have said to the team ‘I want to beat them 3-0. I’m putting you under pressure here to do the things we want and win the series 3-0. I want us to be dominant against teams I think we can be dominant against.'”If you look at the Sussex team I joined, it was a brilliant, brilliant one-day team. In 2009-11, we went out going ‘We’re going to win every game’. We knew how to do that, we had probably 14 match-winners there and it was just the XI who went out and played. Maybe at a different point with Middlesex, or later on with Sussex, we just didn’t have those weapons, so you’re going out and talking about getting the performance right to have the best chance of winning.”Despite an understandable reluctance to make things about him, Joyce himself cannot help but see the intrigue in how his own playing exploits inform today’s work. How long that lasts, though, remains undecided. His current contract expires early next year. There will be a 2025 World Cup qualifying event thereafter. At this stage, with just two Women’s Championship series left for Ireland this winter, it seems inconceivable he will not be kept on for the qualifiers. For now, Joyce’s expressed motivation remains focused away from results.”It’s clear the team is growing. They’re so young that you can influence things so much. There’s so much growth there, an opportunity. As a coach it’s just a dream.”That Sri Lanka series…I loved how the players spoke. Whoever was player of the match, there was a normality, it wasn’t [a case of being] absolutely overjoyed, it was ‘job well done.’ I loved that.”Acclimating to success to is a new phenomenon for Ireland. Perhaps it foreshadows that development of a process-driven team into a results-driven force, experienced by their head coach during his county days. Maybe Ireland won’t ever be truly dominant, but in Joyce’s tenure so far, they have grown enough that thoughts of one day looking to beat England, rather than just playing well against them, are no longer absurd.

No shortage of allrounders in the final XI and perhaps a controversial call or two

Andrew McGlashan26-Oct-2024Ahead of the tenth season of the WBBL we thought it would be fun to select an all-time XI. The aim was to try and pick a balanced side with players as close to their usual positions as possible, or a role that they could fill. There are a few particularly notable omissions, with the top-order and spin options especially stacked.Beth MooneyThe leading run-scorer in the competition’s history heading into the tenth season, Mooney’s consistency has been remarkable. Only twice has she averaged under 42 for a season; one of those was the first year of WBBL in 2015-16 and the other was 2018-19 when she was still able to score a hundred and then play the defining innings in the final for Brisbane Heat. Her most prolific campaign was 2019-20 with 743 runs at 74.30 – she has followed that with four more seasons of over 500 runs following her move to Perth Scorchers.Related

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Alyssa HealyIn this XI, Healy forms her international opening combination with Mooney. It won’t always be about volume of runs for Healy – the way she plays means low scores are part of the risk – but when things click she can be unstoppable. She has the most centuries (five) in WBBL history and the second-highest strike rate of those with at least 1000 runs. In 2019, during which she added a tournament-record stand of 199 with Ellyse Perry, and then 2020, Healy had the eye-watering strike-rates of 155.69 and 161.44. The following two seasons were less productive (albeit including 107 off 64 balls against Perth Scorchers) and the dog-bite incident meant she missed all but one game last summer.Grace HarrisOne of the WBBL’s most iconic figures. Harris’ three centuries all come with great stories: she struck the first in the competition’s history, then made the fastest off 42 balls and last season surged to 136 off 59 balls with one of her sixes coming with a broken bat. “Stuff hit, I’ll hit it anyway,” was the viral quote. As with a number of players in this side, there is a high level of risk vs reward and there will be lows amid the highs. But Harris can win a match on her own.Sophie Devine has regularly made an impact with bet and ball•Getty Images Sophie DevineThe most formidable allrounder in WBBL – and there’s good competition for that title. An ever-present across the nine seasons, split between Adelaide Strikers and Perth Scorchers, things started a little slowly for Devine in the first year but then she found lift-off with 103 not out off 48 balls against Hobart Hurricanes. Barring a tough 2022 season, she has remained ultra consistent. The 2019 edition was a stunning one where she averaged 76.90 with the bat and claimed 19 wickets. She remains the only player in the tournament with a half-century and a five-wicket haul in the same game.Ashleigh GardnerIt’s possible to argue that Gardner has underperformed overall with the bat in the WBBL. But her strike rate remains in the top 10 for those with at least 1000 runs, and in the middle order it’s about the impact a player can have over a shorter period. Initially it was Gardner’s batting that led the way – including the magnificent 114 off 52 balls against in 2017 – but the last two seasons has seen her offspin excel. In the 2022 edition she managed to bring both aspects together with a player of the tournament return where she averaged 28.25 with the bat, alongside a strike rate of 150.66, and claimed 23 wickets.Marizanne KappKapp gets into the side for her bowling, which includes the stand-out economy rate of 5.59 – the second best in WBBL history with a minimum of 200 overs – while providing a middle-order safety net with the bat. Until last season, where she admitted she had a torrid time at Sydney Thunder, Kapp had been the epitome of consistency. Her peak all-round seasons came in 2019 and 2020 when she averaged 32.61 with the bat and 19.82 with the ball across the two editions for Sydney Sixers. Then, having moved to Perth Scorchers for the 2021 season, she was player of the match in the final against Adelaide Strikers.Amanda-Jade Wellington has produced some remarkable figures•Getty ImagesJess JonassenThe leading wicket-taker in the competition, Jonassen has been an ever-present for Brisbane Heat. She has never had a poor season and peaked with a brilliant all-round double of 419 runs at 38.09 (strike rate 133.01) and 21 wickets at 19.19 in the second of their back-to-back titles in 2019. In the last two seasons she has taken a combined tally of 70 wickets across 46 games.Sammy-Jo JohnsonThe pace-bowling allrounder has been a key figure in two tournament deciders for two teams: in 2019 she broke open Heat’s run chase with 27 off 11 balls against Adelaide Strikers, then in 2020, having moved home to Sydney Thunder, took 2 for 11 off her four overs to set-up victory over Melbourne Stars to take the title. That capped a season where she was the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. In the 2018-19 edition, the first of Heat’s back-to-back titles, she produced a memorable all-round display with 260 runs and 20 wickets, becoming the first player to complete a 250 run/20 wicket double for a season. Last summer she joined the century of wickets club.Amanda-Jade WellingtonIt’s a tough race to be the legspinner in this team. In another era, Wellington would have played a lot more for Australia. Few bowl a harder-spun leg-break. Instead, she has been an integral figure for Adelaide Strikers with the last few seasons seeing her game go to another level. Across Strikers’ back-to-back titles she has taken 46 wickets. For 12 months she held the best figures in the tournament’s history with 5 for 8 against Heat in the 2021 Eliminator final, a return she matched against Renegades a year later, and she was player of the match in the 2023 final. Across all nine seasons only once (2016-17) has she not taken at least 10 wickets.Molly StranoLike Wellington, Strano is unfortunate not to have played more international cricket. She led the way from the WBBL’s launch, initially for Melbourne Renegades, and was the first bowler to reach 100 wickets. In 2019-2020 she was the leading wicket-taker in the season with 24 and only once has taken fewer than 13 in a campaign. Her best figures of 5 for 15 came in the first season of WBBL against Melbourne StarsMegan SchuttAs one of the leading pace bowlers in the world for a number of years, it’s little surprise that Schutt is the most successful quick in the WBBL although it is over the last two seasons where her wicket-taking numbers have really exploded including the 6 for 19 which are the best figures in the competition. While she wasn’t always a prolific wicket-taker, her economy rate has often been a standout: as low as 5.06 during the 2016-17 season never higher than 6.46 in any edition.

His temperament is his greatest gift, and both Sam Konstas and his friends expect him to profit from it if he makes his Test debut come Boxing Day

Alex Malcolm23-Dec-2024Sam Konstas stood in front of a huge media throng on the outfield at the MCG on Monday and looked not a day older than the 19 years and 82 days that he is.It was his third visit to the MCG this summer, having been there for a Sheffield Shield game in late October, and an Australia A game in early November.There was arguably more media peppering him with questions on Monday than patrons in the crowd for those two MCG first-class games combined.Related

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If he were to make his Test debut on Boxing Day against India, he would become the fourth-youngest Australian to do so behind Ian Craig, current captain Pat Cummins, and Tom Garrett.And he would do so in front of 90,000 or more fans.You could have heard a pin drop in the MCC Members’ when he faced his first ball from Scott Boland in the Shield game back in October. On Boxing Day, if the crowd is anything like that India-Pakistan 2022 T20 World Cup game at the MCG, the first ball he could face from Jasprit Bumrah might sound like a sonic boom.”I think it’s just another day for me,” Konstas said while acknowledging his debut is yet to be confirmed. “Obviously, it’s a bit more special. Got my parents coming. Pretty simple, just back myself and see-ball-hit-ball really.”That clarity of mind is part of the reason he stands on the precipice of debuting for Australia at such a young age. The naivety and brashness of youth are seen as a strength, not a weakness.”The way he approaches the game, it does not bother him who he’s coming up against,” New South Wales and Australia team-mate Sean Abbott said of Konstas. “He’s pretty unfazed. And I’d imagine, should he get the opportunity, it’d be pretty similar. From what I’ve seen so far, I’d probably say it’s his most admirable attribute.”Sam Konstas is the third-youngest player in Sheffield Shield history to score twin hundreds in a match•AFPPart of it also comes from his relationship with former Australia allrounder Shane Watson. Konstas counts Watson as an idol and a mentor. The entire Watson family is set to fly down to Melbourne should he make his debut.Konstas is a disciple of Watson’s mental skills teachings. The former Australia allrounder has written a book called and has turned it into an online course to help young cricketers hone their mental skills. It is the story of his own mental journey from being paralysed by an intense focus on results during his Test career to discovering and implementing a simple process-driven mindset in his successful late-career renaissance in T20 franchise cricket. He has worked with New South Wales as a mental skills consultant, having already been a mentor to Konstas since he was 16.In that sense, Konstas might be the best mentally prepared 19-year-old to have ever been thrust into such a scenario given what he understands.Konstas was asked if he had been studying videos of Bumrah in preparation for a possible face-off. “Nah, not really,” he said. “I’ve watched him quite a bit, but [I am] just trying to be in the moment. Hopefully, I get the opportunity on Boxing Day.”How he got here is even more remarkable. As late as October 7, barely anyone in Australian cricket had given a thought to Konstas playing Test cricket this summer. By October 11, after becoming the third-youngest player in Sheffield Shield history to score twin hundreds in a match, he was being compared to Ricky Ponting and there were demands for him to be picked immediately.

“The way he approaches the game, it does not bother him who he’s coming up against. He’s pretty unfazed”Sean Abbott on Sam Konstas

Nine days later he was at the MCG under the microscope. Not one, but two Australian selectors – coach Andrew McDonald and Tony Dodemaide – watched him face Boland and Victoria at the MCG after chairman of selectors George Bailey had been in Sydney for his twin centuries.He made 2 and 43, sawn off by a dubious lbw in the first innings and undone by some immaturity in the second. There were glimpses that he was a player for the future, but it looked like he wasn’t quite ready for the here and now.Scores of 0 and 16 against India A in Mackay served to further consolidate that view. On his return to the MCG on November 7, he did not open the batting in the second A game, a further sign he was not likely to be chosen for the first Test. But his second innings of 73 not out batting at No. 4 showed a different set of gears. He struck seven fours and a six and played some outrageous shots in a tricky, pressurized chase.Nathan McSweeney’s temperament, his consistency of method, and his early-season form saw him get the Test nod over Konstas. But ironically the consistency of method across a brutal series so far has now gone against McSweeney and for Konstas.McSweeney’s struggles have been clear. He is 4 for 15 from 66 balls against Bumrah in the series. He is not alone there, with Usman Khawaja (4 for 17 in 71 balls), Marnus Labuschange (2 for 6 in 72 balls), and Steven Smith (3 for 20 in 54 balls) also having problems against Bumrah.But McSweeney is 57 off 146 against the rest of India’s attack, striking at just 39.04. It is the lowest strike rate of all of Australia’s top nine against Indian bowlers not named Bumrah. McSweeney has paid a price for being too similar to Khawaja and Labuschagne in method, and they have survived because they are doing more damage at the other end.Sam Konstas scored 107 off 97 balls against the Indians late last month•AFP/Getty ImagesKonstas over the last month has proved he can be the “different look” that Bailey and the selectors want to throw at India. His 107 off 97 in Canberra against all of India’s bowlers bar Bumrah backed up his last innings in the A series. He added 88 off 146 against a good Western Australia attack that featured Australia ODI quick Lance Morris and A spinner Corey Rocchiccioli, with his first 55 coming off just 64 deliveries. He then smashed a 20-ball half-century on debut for Sydney Thunder in the BBL, albeit against an Adelaide Strikers attack that McSweeney himself made 78 not out off 49 on Sunday night.It is understood a decision had been made to add Konstas regardless of the BBL scores, as they are no indicator of anything in relation to facing Bumrah on Boxing Day.There’s no guarantee Konstas will play either, as a decision is still to be made. But even at his first Australia training session on Monday, he looked completely unfazed. He kept his net session short, not trying to impress or over-exert facing deliveries that he didn’t need to face. It was eye-opening compared to the hour-plus nets that Khawaja, Smith and Labuschagne had. He was one of the few Australian players to help his team-mates out by flinging balls to Labuschagne before leaving the optional net early, joking with a couple of team-mates on the way out with the air of a 30-year-old veteran.He was asked about being compared to his mentor Watson on social media. “I don’t look through too much on social media, but I’ll take it as a compliment,” Konstas said. “I like to take the game on and put pressure on the bowlers. I think he’s [Watson] a legend of the game, and hopefully I can do that this week if I debut.”