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All you need to know about the newest face at the top of the order for India in Test cricket

Nagraj Gollapudi25-Dec-2020India Test Cap No. 297. That will be Shubman Gill, who will make his Test debut at the MCG in India’s second Test on the four-Test tour of Australia. Here’s the lowdown on Gill, who was recently picked by experts in as one of the youngsters to watch out for in the next decade.The first headline
Gill, 21, hails from the northern Indian state of Punjab. In 2018, he announced himself to the cricket world, playing a major role in India’s win at the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, where he also finished as the Player of the Tournament, batting at No. 3.He is good at
“Straight bat. High Elbow. Head still. Getting on top of the bounce.” Recently, former India opener Wasim Jaffer ticked all those skillsets in praise of Gill on Twitter. With his classical technique and fluent strokeplay, Gill has attracted attention from many greats including Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.Coaches who have worked with Gill have pointed out he has that one quality great batsman possess: the extra time to play a shot. That allows him to improvise late and better. His solid forward and backward defence also mean his basics are strong. Scoring at a fast clip is among his strengths, but Gill likes to play mostly along the ground, something he quickly inculcated into his game under Dravid, who was the India A and Under-19 coach.The quick rise
In the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy, Gill scored 728 runs in just nine innings at an average of 104. Dravid had drafted Gill into the India A set-up to fast-track his progression. Former India allrounder and his senior Punjab team-mate Yuvraj Singh had then said: “He (Gill) is a special talent. After a long time there is a young guy whose batting I like to watch. He is very exciting.” Singh had also said Gill should be drafted into the Indian team after the 2019 World Cup.Shubman Gill was part of Kolkata Knight Riders’ leadership group during IPL 2020•BCCIThe maiden national call-up
Gill did not have to wait as long as Singh had imagined. In January 2019, less then a year after the Under-19 World Cup, Gill was about to head to bed when he got the national call-up as one of the two replacements for the New Zealand limited-overs series after Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul had been suspended by the BCCI. Gill played two ODIs but did not cross single digits in either game.Later that year, he would go on to take the Player of the Series award in the ODIs for India A on the tour of the Caribbean. However, he admitted to being disappointed when the selectors did not name him in the India squads for the tour of the Caribbean.He would erase the disappointment by blasting an unbeaten 204 off 248 balls – rescuing India A from 14 for 3 – in the four-day match against West Indies A. On his return to India, he would once again help India A, this time as captain, with a match-winning 90 against South Africa A. A week from then, Gill earned his maiden call-up to the Indian Test squad for the home series against South Africa.The strengths
The coaches who have worked with him have said they’ve been impressed by the youngster’s understanding of his game. That is what prompted Brendon McCullum, currently the coach at the Kolkata Knight Riders, to include Gill as part of the team’s leadership group. Gill’s responsibility was to help newcomers settle down while acting as a channel between them and the management.What they said…
“Gee, I was impressed with Gill. I really think he’s got something about him, his technique.”

Knight Riders have not been their usual selves in 2021, but it’s not too late to fix things

Sreshth Shah03-May-20215:04

What’s ailing KKR’s batting this season?

Failing to set the tempo
Since the middle of last season, the Knight Riders have gone with a top-three which has plenty of potential but is the most inexperienced among all the teams. Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi are both uncapped and Shubman Gill is far from being a regular in India’s white-ball squads.Very few IPL teams in the tournament’s history have had a combined top three with only three games of international cricket between them, and the optimistic punt from the management has failed more than it has worked. Inconsistent scores from Rana, who has five innings of 22 and under, and Gill’s average of 18.85 at a strike rate of 117.85 have been the two biggest concerns.The alternatives – Karun Nair, Gurkeerat Singh, Venkatesh Iyer and Sheldon Jackson – are not too compelling either. Apart from Iyer, none of the others are regular openers in T20s, however, they may have the fire in their belly to show their worth. Perhaps, the Knight Riders could harness that.The other option is to bring in Tim Seifert, the New Zealand batter, but that would mean axing an overseas player. Although the issue of inexperience doesn’t get solved, at least a new thought process could bring in different results. After seven games for each side in IPL 2021, the Knight Riders have lost 12 powerplay wickets, the joint-most in the tournament. That along with a powerplay run-rate of 7.35 has hampered the side from setting the tempo early with the bat.Brendon McCullum, the coach, said in a press conference recently that he wants his top order to be aggressive, which they have failed to do. He said: “if you can’t , you change ” Expect a new top order for the rest of the season – the only question is what the personnel will be.Kolkata Knight Riders’ problems have started with the top this season•ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Morgan question
The ideal scenario for the Knight Riders was for their top three to set the base for eight to ten overs, following which a strong middle order of Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik could change gears to set a big total or complete a win.But with the top order eating nearly half the overs with very little on the board in most games, Morgan’s been forced to look for the big shots from the get-go. However, he has struggled with timing and when he hasn’t, he has fallen just before he could transition into his power-hitting mode. The lack of good scores from the top four has added more pressure on Russell and Karthik, who have also not been able to replicate their peak batting performances from 2019.On numbers alone, no one would bat an eyelid if Morgan was dropped after scoring only 92 runs in seven games, but when he is also wearing the captain’s armband, things get complicated, more so after the Knight Riders changed captains midway through last season. And with Karthik saying last year that captaincy hampers his own batting, the management will have to look beyond the obvious choice for a new leader. In any case – barring Rohit Sharma’s 2013 run with Mumbai Indians – changes in captaincy do not rescue teams from dire situations.McCullum has often stressed on role definition among the Knight Riders, so it’s unlikely Morgan will bat anywhere else either. The side likes Russell to come in at the 12-over mark and Karthik preferred at the death, and with both struggling against spinners who operate in the middle overs, the captain Morgan is set to stay at No. 4.4:01

McCullum: ‘I’ve asked time and again for us to be more aggressive’

The Narine conundrumWith a new bowling action that no longer has the sting of the Narine that lit up the IPL in his early days, does he merit a place in the XI when he no longer opens? Runs off the bat, as a floater, have been few and far in between. And with only three wickets in four games, there are others who can potentially have a greater impact.Although Narine isn’t a shabby opener option given the current struggles in the top order, the Knight Riders may still move to replace him with Shakib Al Hasan. Although Shakib may not replicate Narine’s batting strike rate, he is more consistent and there’s little to separate in the bowling.The other option is dropping Narine for Lockie Ferguson, who has the ability to be the enforcer in the bowling line-up by simply using his pace to trouble batters at any stage of the innings. That would also give the Knight Riders two express overseas quicks to torment oppositions, alongside Pat Cummins, and bring in one of Harbhajan Singh or Kuldeep Yadav as the second spinner. The third option is Seifert at the top for Narine, and add someone like Pawan Negi (or one of the two spinners) lower down.Sunil Narine’s new bowling action no longer has the sting of the old one•BCCIRethinking powerplay bowling plans
The original Moneyball team in the IPL, the Knight Riders have focused on match-ups. But that hasn’t worked out well with the ball.Take the example of Varun Chakravarthy against Royal Challenger Bangalore. With two wickets in the game’s second over, he had given the Knight Riders an early upper hand. Yet, next over, against the new batter Glen Maxwell, it was not Chakravarthy, but left-arm spinner Shakib bowling, who could potentially get the ball to turn away from the batter. Maxwell ended up hitting 78.Against the Delhi Capitals while defending a smaller total, it was Shivam Mavi opening the bowling – against the in-form pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw – and not Cummins, who arrived later to pick three wickets, an effort that came too late to have any impact on the match result.Against Chennai Super Kings, on a pitch where Deepak Chahar ended up taking four wickets in the Powerplay, the Knight Riders bowled three overs of spin. The Super Kings openers quietly compiled 54 for 0 to set a strong platform. They finished on 220 for 3.There is merit in their most experienced bowler Cummins taking the new ball in the hunt for early wickets, with Prasidh Krishna and/or Ferguson from the other end. Then bring in Shakib or Narine, leave Chakravarthy to control the middle overs, and once again use the Ferguson-Cummins combo alongside Russell at the death to close out the innings. It’s conventional, and yet propitious. But the Knight Riders – more often than not – prefer taking the path less travelled.

If England pull this off, they will owe a huge amount to their captain

George Dobell07-Aug-2021There were a couple of moments, ahead of this Test, when you sensed the burden of carrying this England batting line-up was starting to get to Joe Root.For one thing, he requested that the pre-match captain’s press conference – which has, for many years, taken place the day before the game – be moved to two days ahead of the match to allow him time to focus before the game. And then, while talking about Ben Stokes, his voice caught for just a moment as he discussed the phone call in which his friend had told him he needed a break.Root was, no doubt, aware of how much Stokes would be missed as a player. But the sense was much more of someone who simply felt for a colleague who was going through a tough time. You wondered whether Root might not be experiencing some of the same emotions. We really do ask quite a lot of our cricketers.But whatever the pressure he was feeling ahead of the match, Root has shouldered his burden magnificently. Here he produced one of his finest Test centuries – there are now 21 from which to select; none of them have, to date, come in a losing cause – to keep his side in with a fighting chance in this match. Without him, England would have been blown away.Related

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There was a period, not so long ago, when there were a few whispers about Root’s batting. It wasn’t that the runs had dried up exactly; it was more that the bigger scores had tended to come in relatively low intensity situations. In 2019, for example, there was a century in St Lucia, by which time the series had already been lost, and there was a double-hundred in Hamilton on a pitch so horrendously flat that only 22 wickets fell across five days.There are no such caveats about this innings. It came against an outstanding attack, on a surface upon which other batters have struggled and when his side – still 49 behind and two wickets down when he strode out to bat – were in some trouble. Not only that, but it came at the start of a series with everything still to be defined. It was his first Test century in England since 2018 but his best at home since at least 2017 when he made 190 in the first Test of a series against South Africa.To put his predominance in perspective, while he has made 109 and 64 in this game, the next highest score of his teammates across both innings has been Sam Curran’s 32. It is, according to BBC statistician Andy Zaltzman, only the fourth time in Test history that a player has made a century and half-century in a match where nobody else in the team has made even 35. Increasingly, Root is looking a giant among them. Take him out of this side and you wonder where they would drop in the rankings. Outside the top six, you suspect.His skills were put into greatest context during his partnership (worth 89 in 28.5 overs) with Dom Sibley. While Sibley’s crease occupation was valuable, you couldn’t help but admire how much easier the business of batting looked for Root. So vast is his range of stroke, so adaptable his feet and the angle of his bat, that he is rarely kept scoreless. He faced only two maidens in his entire innings – one of them during a nervous passage of play when he had 97 – and has a late cut which allows him to score from deliveries other players would look to leave well alone. Sibley made just 12 of their partnership.But it was surely the drives, played off both front and back foot, that will linger longest in the memory. Certainly they had a packed Trent Bridge purring in delight. The on-drive that brought the century was just a little reminiscent of the shot with which Sir Geoffrey Boycott reached his 100th first-class hundred. The celebration – by Root’s standards sustained and expressive – showed how important this innings was. He knew his team needed this.Joe Root has stood tall for his team•AFP/Getty ImagesMore than that, though, he had made a conscious effort to try and enjoy these pressures. This is what he had dreamed of as a kid, after all. So instead of focusing on those negative thoughts – the sense that his side would collapse if he failed – instead of allowing himself to become careworn, he tried to remember he was playing the game he loves, for a team he loves and on the grandest of stages. Put simply, he tried to remember it was meant to be “fun”.”There’s been a lot to handle,” he admitted afterwards. “But it’s important you find ways to handle that. You can let it weigh you down but you have to find solutions. It’s about trying to deal with what’s in front of you and not letting anything overwhelm you.”This morning I said to myself and to the group: just remember what is fun about cricket. It might be tough sometimes, it might be hard, but it’s fun. And it’s really important we all embrace that. Whatever the situation, whatever the conditions and wherever you are in your own game, it’s important you go out there, enjoy the moment and make the most of it.”It felt pretty good to get a big score and get us into position to give us a chance of winning this Test.”He reckoned that batting in the ODI series against Sri Lanka had helped him regain his batting rhythm. He made 68 and 79 – both innings unbeaten – in that series and reasoned that the required tempo – positive, but without the urgency of T20 – was helpful to his game.”I’ve actually felt a real benefit from playing some white-ball cricket,” he said. “I know it would be nice to have some red-ball cricket coming into this game but, from my point of view, playing 50-over cricket gave me some rhythm back in my batting.”I felt I got forward and back better. I was standing a lot taller a lot earlier, picking my bat up a lot earlier, I feel like I’ve got rhythm back in my hands. I find 50-over cricket can be a massive help to my red-ball game.”Maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised. Root has risen in stature in recent months, producing a string of huge scores in Sri Lanka and India (228 and 186 in Galle and 218 in Chennai) that led his side to memorable victories. And while Root at times made those surfaces look pretty flat, it’s worth remembering that no-one else in his side made centuries. Indeed, the next-highest score when he made that 186 was just 55.He’s already made 1,064 Test runs this year. So, with up to seven further Tests available to him this year (there are only three Ashes Tests scheduled before the end of the year this time and it’s entirely possible none of them will take place), he has given himself a chance of breaking Mohammad Yousuf’s record of 1,788 runs in a calendar year. More revealingly, however, the next-highest contributor for England in 2021 is Dan Lawrence with 354. In all, Root has scored 29.19 percent of England’s Test runs in 2021.Whether all this is sustainable in the long-term is debatable. At some stage, there is a danger the burden will break even Root. It is really is imperative England find a way to coax more runs out of the rest of their batting line-up. Right now, though, Root has given his side a chance to win a game they could easily have lost already without his intervention. If they pull this off, they will owe a huge amount to their captain.

Who knows when his next Test will come, but he will always have today

Andrew McGlashan06-Jan-2022There have been times in the last few days when a roof at the SCG would have been handy. It would have been lifted by the ovation given when Usman Khawaja ran through to bring up his ninth Test century. For obvious reasons there hasn’t been a full house, but for a few moments it sounded like one.It didn’t quite match the Steve Waugh century in the 2002-03 Ashes with the last ball of the day, but it wasn’t too far away, and there was something similar to that occasion when Pat Cummins was cheered for taking a single as Adam Gilchrist had been after previously stealing the strike. There has been a groundswell of goodwill towards Khawaja heading into this match, a return to the side only achieved because of Travis Head’s positive Covid-19 result.On his former home ground, the venue of his Test debut in 2010-11 and his one previous Ashes hundred (brought up on the same day in 2018), Khawaja tucked Jack Leach backward of square in the final over before tea followed by a celebration inspired by LeBron James. There can have been few more popular hundreds made for Australia in recent times.”It was probably the most touching, humbling, amazing feeling out there getting that hundred,” Khawaja said. “The roar that went up, the chanting of Uzzie, stuff you sort of dream of but never expect it to happen. I was excited, so pumped. Hundreds don’t come very often, a lot of hard work goes into them. Got taken away by the moment, I’ve had so much support, the crowd has been excellent. It’s been unbelievable.Related

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“I joke around with the boys about my past and where I’ve come from…but I’m quite serious. I am living the Australian dream. My parents came over here from Pakistan to give my family a better life. I’m representing Australia in our national sport and it’s something that I absolutely love doing. I’ve gone through a lot of hard times, broken down a lot of barriers to get to where I am, and think at some level people can relate to that and I love them for it. The love I got out here today is something special, something I’ll never forget.”In the stands, Khawaja’s wife Rachael celebrated with their baby daughter. “It means so much. I just wanted him to play one more Test at home so she could be there,” she told Fox Cricket. “I just wanted to tick that off the list.”It was his first Test innings since he was dropped midway through the 2019 Ashes when the selectors had to find room for Marnus Labuschagne following his super sub performance for Steven Smith at Lord’s. Australia haven’t played much Test cricket since, but at times it’s been difficult to reconcile him not being in the top order particularly with a home average of over 50. In fact, it was his second hundred in consecutive Test innings in Australia having made a century against Sri Lanka in early 2019.”I’ve put a lot of hard work in behind the scenes that people don’t see,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of support from my family, my parents, in particular my wife Rachael. A lot has gone on in that time; Covid, I’ve had a daughter, Rachael is pregnant with another child so a lot has gone on since I’ve been dropped. Never take anything for granted. I wasn’t really sure if I was going to represent Australia again, let alone score a hundred, so it’s amazing how life can work out both ways.”Usman Khawaja celebrates his comeback hundred•AFP/Getty ImagesAnd yet, this might be a one-off return. Head has been assured of getting his place back in Hobart so Khawaja may need an opening to come elsewhere. His versatility has made him an ideal player to have in the squad in the current climate. With Covid a major issue, that may well happen over the coming months but beyond that it’s tricky to see how the selectors fit him in unless they dispense with Marcus Harris and ask him open. Still, those issues can be for another day.This was a brilliant innings in far from easy conditions. A number of deliveries from England’s quicks popped at him on a surface which looks like it will be very challenging come day four. Speaking during a drinks break, Khawaja said he was happy not to be batting last on it.He had a dose of luck on 28 when he edged Leach and Joe Root spilled the chance at slip as it glanced off Jos Buttler’s gloves. But it was his only misstep and the innings became increasingly fluent, driving Leach through the off side and pulling Mark Wood.It had been slow going during the morning session punctuated by infuriating stoppages for drizzle and he did not add to his overnight boundary count until reverse sweeping Leach in the 59th over. His half-century took 134 balls, but the next fifty came off 67 deliveries.Though it was Leach who created the chance, Khawaja largely toyed with him. It wasn’t brutal in the same way as Labuschagne and David Warner at the Gabba, but deep-set fields allowed the milking of easy singles and he latched onto boundary offerings when available. In total he took 55 runs off the 80 balls he faced from Leach.Khawaja has struck a noticeably relaxed figure in the last couple of seasons. The summer after his Test axing was a poor one, averaging just 19.92, but last year he averaged 59.12 and this season it was 52.88 heading into his comeback. His popular refrain whenever asked about a Test return is that he wasn’t thinking about it, he’d been around the game too long to worry about such things. His leadership has shone through both at state level and with advocacy of important issues. And with bat in hand he has not dimmed.Being dismissed by Stuart Broad for 137 also provided the opportunity for another ovation and the crowd did not let him down as he saluted the stadium. It’s hard to say when Khawaja’s next Test will come but it would be a wonderful story if he played a part in Pakistan in a couple of months’ time. Whatever happens from now, however, he’ll always have today.

Having ridden the roller-coaster of Test cricket for 11 years, he is repaying Australia more than they perhaps deserve

Alex Malcolm06-Mar-2022It was almost written in the stars for Usman Khawaja. Born just a short drive up the road in Islamabad and playing Test cricket in Pakistan for the first time in his 11-year career with Australia, he was one boundary away from a magical, sentimental century.But alas, the reverse sweep, a shot that had yielded two boundaries in his classy 97 and has been a great weapon for him throughout his career, brought about his downfall.”It’s disappointing,” Khawaja said after the third day’s play. “Cricket is a funny game. Three runs – you bat so well for 97 and then you get out. You don’t get a hundred, you come back in the changeroom and it probably feels worse than getting a 20 in some respects. It’s a bizarre feeling. Yeah, I would love to get a hundred out here. Rawalpindi, Islamabad – where I grew up.Related

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“I think it would have brought a lot of joy. But at the same time, I think mum, dad, [and] Rachel, my wife, would have loved me being out there. I was having a lot of fun. I was enjoying playing. To put it in perspective, I wasn’t even in an Australian team a few months ago. So I’m very grateful to be here. I’m happy that I contributed to the team.”Therein lies the secret to Khawaja’s renaissance as a Test cricketer.It doesn’t matter that he perhaps picked the wrong length to reverse sweep Nauman Ali, as it wasn’t quite full enough. It doesn’t matter that he was through the shot too soon and it popped up off the glove to short leg. He won’t put the shot away. It has brought him 88 Test runs in his career for just two dismissals, 22 of them coming during his twin centuries on return to the Test arena against England in Sydney earlier this year.It doesn’t matter that Khawaja had some luck. He was dropped by Fawad Alam at gully on 22. He gloved another reverse sweep on 66 but wasn’t held by Mohammad Rizwan, and he edged another between the wicketkeeper and first slip on 73 to eventually pick up four.Fortune favours the brave; and Khawaja is daring to be brave and daring to be himself, something which is paying handsome dividends.Having ridden the roller-coaster of Test cricket for 11 years, having been sent to selection purgatory more times than can be counted, Khawaja is riding a wave of form that is repaying Australia more than they perhaps deserve.There was a freedom and a joy from 35-year-olds Khawaja and David Warner that has not always been in recent years•AFP/Getty ImagesHis 97, luck aside, ensured Australia stayed in the Test match. His positive mindset, his intent to score and his calm demeanour was the driver for a rollicking 156-run opening stand with long-time friend David Warner.They become just the ninth foreign pair to share a 150-run opening stand against Pakistan in either Pakistan or the UAE, and the first Australians since Mark Taylor and Michael Slater in 1994. The pace at which they scored – nearly four runs an over – kept the faint flicker of a result for Australia alive, albeit it might have been snuffed out by bad light cutting off the last session.It was Khawaja who dragged Warner with him. While Warner was a rabbit in the headlights for a period against a barrage of short stuff from Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi, Khawaja handled them with aplomb, pulling, driving and upper cutting with trademark elegance. He scored 40 of Australia’s first 56 runs, and 62 of the first 100.Khawaja forced Pakistan to turn to their three spinners, as Warner thrived attacking the trio off both the front and the back foot. They batted like they did more than 20 years ago when playing junior cricket in Sydney together.There was a freedom and a joy from the two 35-year-olds that has not always been in their batting in recent years. They even spoke together in the middle about the warm reception they were getting from the Pakistani crowd. That is what Khawaja has brought to Australia’s team since his return. He has been a breath of fresh air, and has dragged players with him in some tremendous partnerships.He shepherded Steven Smith and Cameron Green to century stands in the first and second innings respectively in Sydney when both were battling form, and elicited the best from Warner here in Rawalpindi after his early struggles. Khawaja is playing with the type of mental freedom that few cricketers at Test level have ever enjoyed.

“I’ve been dropped. It doesn’t matter. I just play the way I want to play”Khawaja after he fell reverse sweeping on 97

“I felt really good today,” Khawaja said. “I felt mentally in a really good spot coming into it, I guess. Probably because I’ve been out of the system. I’ve been out of cricket Australia for two years. And now it’s not the be-all and end-all anymore.”I’ve been in and out of the team so much. I’ve been dropped. It doesn’t matter. I just play the way I want to play. I just think of it as if I’m playing club cricket or Shield cricket back home. And that’s how I take it for Australia now.”In the end, it was Warner who perhaps let him down the most. Just as Warner was thriving, having cut Sajid Khan to ribbons off the stumps, he picked the wrong length and was bowled trying to cut something he could have driven.Khawaja was on 80 at the time and looked destined for a massive score. But he faced just 27 of the next 77 deliveries as Marnus Labuschagne took his time to get set.However, he looked to have broken the shackles with a powerful lofted drive down the ground and a slog sweep off Sajid. Perhaps impatience got the better of him as he fell for his third Test score of 97, and his second against Pakistan. But to Khawaja, it doesn’t matter why.”Obviously, I’m a Muslim. I believe in God,” he said. “I trust what happens. Good or bad, you have to take it equally. A lot of good things have happened in my life. Sometimes you want certain things to go a certain way and they don’t happen. I think you just have to accept that and move on, and take the good with the bad. I’m very grateful.”

Two months on from being in an induced coma, the former Australia batter is focused on “relaxing with the family”

Peter Della Penna11-Jul-2022Easter weekend is known to Christians as the holiest week on the calendar, a time when they celebrate the salvation of Jesus rising from the dead. So there’s a bit of symbolism in the fact that a not too dissimilar miracle unfolded over that holiday weekend this past April with Netherlands coach Ryan Campbell while on a day out with his family in the Cheshire countryside in England.”I’m pretty fit and healthy and active and I didn’t feel anything was going wrong,” Campbell told ESPNcricinfo in a recent interview. “Then all of a sudden we were in a playground and for some reason I felt tired and decided to lay down. Then I woke up seven days later.”It’s been more than two months since that weekend in Cheshire, when Campbell was admitted to hospital and put in an induced coma. But the 50-year-old Dutch head coach is almost back to his usual routine. One of the few things he can’t do just yet though is get on an airplane, which means he’ll be watching his players from afar as they compete in Bulawayo this week in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier. However, Campbell is soaking up the simple pleasures in life after his near-death experience.”To just sit outside, relax and have a cold beer and just spend some time with my wife and family, that’s the priority at the moment,” Campbell said. “That’s what I’m going to try and enjoy doing. I’ll get back to work at some point in the not too distant future, but right now it’s just about relaxing and spending time with the family.”The most important thing is my wife and two kids and they’ll always come first, not that they didn’t come first anyway, but I make sure that definitely they’re getting a lot more hugs and kisses at the moment, which is kind of freaking my kids out. But they definitely come first. It does put your life in perspective. I think we’re all guilty of probably work comes first and we put everything else on the backburner but something like this makes you get your priorities right.”So what exactly happened on April 16 in Cheshire? Campbell says his doctors still haven’t quite figured it out. But it wasn’t a heart attack as was initially reported in many places, though he did go into cardiac arrest after his heart stopped beating.”I’m probably like 80% of the world where I didn’t know the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest,” Campbell said. “I think if anyone has heart trouble, they just say, ‘It’s a heart attack.’ But what they said very clearly was, ‘No, it wasn’t a heart attack.’ Because that’s generally caused by blocked arteries and that can cause major damage with a heart attack. But that wasn’t the case for me.”The cardiac arrest was sort of like the wiring got mixed up for a little bit there and pumped a bit out of sync, but my recovery has been so quick and my heart is back to 100% that my cardiologist said, ‘We’re not 100% sure what happened. We’ve got a few ideas but it should never happen again.’ But at the start, everyone was saying heart attack, which is not the case and that’s a good thing.”But the Dutch coach is able to enjoy life among the living again back home in Haarlem thanks to the quick-thinking Beci Bassett. She was enjoying her own family day out with her young daughter at BeWILDerwood on that Saturday when she stopped everything to redefine what it means to be a Good Samaritan by helping to save Campbell’s life in his moment of need.”I think she’s probably mid 40s, wife, mother of a beautiful three-and-a-half-year-old daughter who doesn’t like me very much because actually when I lied down, it was on her foot. So she thinks I’m a bit creepy, which I don’t blame her. But just a wonderful lady. There’s so many things that had gone into it for the stars to align for that day. She happened to change jobs. She wanted a change and that was a month or so before. Because of the change of job, she had to do a first aid course and with this first aid course, she obviously learned CPR.”That was so lucky that she was sitting there and basically a foot away from me. She just showed so much courage, and the responsibility to take charge is why I’m here. Basically, I was dead. And she brought me back. They’re the cold hard facts of life. Without that lady being so proactive and brave, I wouldn’t be here. I was lucky enough to meet her. My wife and I had lunch with her. She’s just a wonderful person and I’ll always be indebted to her.”Bassett’s heroic actions kept Campbell going until park staff at BeWILDerwood were able to coordinate further assistance. He was taken 25 miles away to Royal Stoke University Hospital where he was in a coma for a week. He underwent a series of procedures during that time, including surgery to install a defibrillator into his chest.”That’s just totally an insurance package,” Campbell said. “Like my cardiologist said, my heart is going so well that he didn’t think that I needed it. But to save having any worry ever again, he put it in and now I have this insurance policy that if anything ever happened, I’ve got a backup plan that’ll take over and give me a good old kick.”If Campbell doesn’t remember much about what happened during that time frame, he got a healthy reminder of how much everyone else in his life has remembered the episode when he finally woke up. Besides his wife Leontina’s constant presence, there was also Simon Millington, the former chairman of Hong Kong Cricket and Campbell’s good friend from his days working as the head coach at Kowloon Cricket Club, who had flown out from Las Vegas to England at a moment’s notice to be there for Campbell’s family throughout the ordeal.”At the end of the day, I feel great now and I’m looking forward to getting on”•Peter Della Penna”He just dropped everything basically to fly out from Nevada and give Leontina help,” Campbell said. “He was just amazing for her and obviously I eventually woke up and him being there just kind of made it feel like everything was okay.”Simon and I met in Hong Kong. We just formed a great friendship and have been great friends with his whole family. He’s got two sons that I’m quite close with as well. So we were inseparable in Hong Kong and then his business took him to Nevada and my job took me to the Netherlands. We stay in touch and we caught up in London a few times. We go to the cricket together at Lord’s. He’s just one of those people you want in your life to be honest.”If Millington’s transatlantic journey to be there for Campbell wasn’t enough of a signal to the seriousness of his situation, the deluge of text messages Campbell has had to sift through since waking up has only reinforced the level of concern for him. It has extended well beyond the cricket community and is something that Campbell says he is still trying to process.”Totally humbling is probably the word that I’d use,” Campbell said. “I had so many messages from so many people from so many places around the world. From a cricket fan, to AFL players, to obviously cricketers from around the world, from opposition players, from one of my mates who is a Hong Kong jockey. There’s been so much outpouring of love thrown my way. It’s so humbling and I can’t thank them enough. You hope to be a good person and have mates and stuff, but if something like this happens and you see the outpouring of emotion I guess from a lot of people, it’s been so humbling and I guess all I can say is thank you to everyone.”Campbell’s miraculous adventure wasn’t totally over upon leaving the hospital though. Because he was not allowed to fly or drive, there was still the matter of figuring out how to get from England back home to the Netherlands. Upon being released from the hospital in Stoke, Campbell’s family had to arrange transportation to make the 130-mile journey northeast to Hull. From there, they took an 11-hour overnight ferry to Rotterdam before a friend came to pick them up in his taxi and drive them the final hour back home to Haarlem.”He had read the articles in the Dutch papers and was looking at me strange thinking, ‘Mate, you can’t be sick.’ I’m like, ‘Yep, I don’t know mate.’ So it’s a bit like that at the moment. People just sort of say, ‘You can’t be. It’s not right.’ It just goes to show it doesn’t discriminate. It can be a 50-year-old healthy person and it can be a 55-year-old, overweight and smokes a lot. It doesn’t seem to discriminate.”Within weeks, Campbell said he was back to riding his bike around Haarlem and is doing his best to resume his active lifestyle. However, he has had to take a step back from head coaching duties, with Ryan Cook being appointed to oversee the Dutch squad in the interim, including during the T20 World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe. Always a fun personality around a cricket field, Campbell has managed to keep a sense of humor about everything that happened.”When I was out for seven days, I didn’t see any white lights or pearly gates, so I’ll just stick to my beliefs at the moment,” Campbell said. “At the end of the day, I feel great now and I’m looking forward to getting on.”

Over rates are a massive problem in the game, even after all these years. And so are issues with the DRS

Ian Chappell17-Jul-2022Australia endured a monumental setback when Sri Lanka won the second Test in Galle this week, but it was the players’ indifference to on-field protocol that causes most concern.The match confirmed Australia still have a problem against good fingerspin bowling. However, they also suffered from the being at the receiving end of the DRS, which bedevils Test teams.While England have recently done much to improve the image of Test batting, the worrisome DRS, and over rates that continue to be glacial, need urgent attention.Related

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• Fabulous series, but can we deal with the DRS and on-field chatter? (2017)

• It's time the DRS got an overhaul (2020)

A few years ago the DRS was extended to include the full path of the delivery. The ICC indicated around that time that the change was intended to rid the game of the howler and to ensure the correct decision. The DRS rarely achieves those aims.During the Galle Test, Dinesh Chandimal was batting on 30, with Australia having used up all their reviews. The Australians thought Chandimal got an edge to an attempted ramp shot but the not-out decision prevailed and he produced a game-changing 206 not out.Australia definitely misused their reviews on some fifty-fifty decisions. However, it was proved once more that the DRS doesn’t always result in the correct decision, because the fielding side has a finite number of reviews.If the ICC wants to employ the DRS, it should achieve the results for which it was meant. The DRS is technologically flawed and also inadequate because there are lbw and caught decisions that can be complicated.Many countries can’t afford the top technology, so they effectively play under a different set of DRS protocols than those who can pay for the best system. The best DRS technology should be provided to all teams by a cricket body that operates the system, rather than it being left to television.

The often senseless spreading of the field hasn’t helped teams either dismiss batters or improve over rates

The system was introduced to supposedly help umpires rather than protect DRS itself. Currently it achieves the latter aim.Over rates have been declining for decades and yet they are virtually ignored as the focus is on the money-making capabilities of T20. The reason 90 overs in a day were originally recommended is because it’s very much possible for a team to bowl that many in that time.Under Clive Lloyd, West Indies promoted the notion that over rates don’t matter when matches are being won in less than the allotted time. That argument is flawed. The batting team should receive a reasonable number of deliveries in a six-hour day, while front-line bowlers tire at an acceptable rate. These days, overs are rarely completed even with extra time allowed – and those extensions are a blight on the game.Umpires don’t enforce on-field protocol in this regard, probably because they lack the backing of the administrators. This is unfair on patrons, who are short-changed.The administrators could make some compromises and demand that players bowl 90 overs in six hours with no deductions accepted. A captain should be suspended without question if this aim isn’t achieved.There are many areas for compromise. The administrators could abolish advertising on sightboards, the replaying of possible boundaries, reduce the constant ferrying of drinks and gloves, and eradicate needless mid-pitch chats during overs. They could also return to a back foot no-ball rule (without a drag problem), thereby virtually eradicating a boring facet of the game as well as improving over rates.There is no doubt the better bats of the modern day create field-placement headaches for captains. Still, the often senseless spreading of the field hasn’t helped teams either dismiss batters or improve over rates.The balance between bat and ball needs to be constantly monitored but these days it instead appears to be religiously overlooked.The skills of the game are evolving but the laws often don’t keep pace with the need to improve the spectacle. Some senior players have expressed a desire to improve Test cricket’s image but to do so they require a working partnership with the administrators. If that much-needed partnership to improve the game is not forthcoming, it’s time for the senior players to set the ball rolling.